Map the customer journey

There’s never been a better time for marketers for to see, understand and respond to the customer journey. Today’s “open social age” has created a “looking glass” for companies to understand the complex nature of their customers as millions of them are broadcasting their opinions on a real-time basis.[read more]

Sales pipeline

It’s common for leaders to measure their sales pipelines by the probability of the deal closing. And a common mistake. Probability of close is a subjective measurement that requires the sales rep to make a judgment about their chances of making a sale. It requires interpretation, bias and is ripe for abuse.[read more]

Marketing evolution / Tom Fishburne

Consumer trust is a critical factor in marketing. If an individual doesn’t believe your brand can deliver on its promises, or provide something better than its competition, they probably won’t ever make a purchase. Leverage the thoughts, words, and images of real human beings - with their permission, of course.[read more]

Subcultures are a big opportunity for Social Brands to generate value. During Digital Shoreditch 2013, we've discussed about how marketers need to re-think their targeting, understanding and consideration of consumers. Subcultures are a critical "life force" for brand equity as social networks rise through cultural mash-ups and phenomenons.[read more]

Hot on the heels of the micro-blogging site’s most recent marketing tool, the lead generation card, Twitter has introduced another new feature to help brands advertise online: Twitter Amplify. Twitter Amplify takes advantage of the multi-screen viewing activity of many Twitter users by showing commercials before sporting clips posted in real-time during tournaments, games and events.[read more]

Socially Stephanie to the rescue!

In the inaugural post of our new social media advice column, social media pro Stephanie Frasco has some tips for Knackered Knitter in Nashville, who wants to know how to build up a social media presence for her knitting company...AND find time to actually knit.[read more]

Jenni Maley digs around to find out why Facebook Page Insights aren't updating past May 13th, 2013. See what a Facebook Rep had to say about it.[read more]

The impeccable Mention Tool is slowly, but surely climbing the popularity ladder owing to its exceptional ability to derive results. The valued supports of two big names in the Internet Marketing industry, SEOmoz and Ahrefs, have helped tremendously.[read more]

The background chatter about teens leaving Facebook has been steadily increasing in volume practically all year. It’s well known that teens are beginning to feel crowded out on the Zuckerberg owned network by all the parents, aunts, uncles, and other undesirable adult types that have been cropping up on it.[read more]

Waze seems to be at the center of quite an interesting bidding war between Google and Facebook, according to a recent article in Computer World. Waze is "the world's fastest-growing community-based traffic and navigation app." And it's at the heart of what looks like a bidding war between Facebook and Google...[read more]

For an industry that prides itself on producting content and campaigns that are easy for people to understand, social media marketing still has its share of jargon. Here is a simple guide to paid, earned and owned media.[read more]

Real estate is one industry that seems to be dipping their toes into social media, but has yet to dive in. Some real estate companies are making an effort at social media , but it’s a bit halfhearted and nothing done halfway will be successful.[read more]

As the search engines cracked down on paid links that are considered "unnatural," webmasters came to believe that paid links are bad. The truth is, they aren’t all bad. You just need to know where to draw the line.[read more]

Image courtesy of 401(K) 2013, Flickr.

The biggest companies with the deepest marketing budgets ruled the advertising space across all mediums. Because that space — television, radio, print — was controlled by so few, Main Street just couldn't possibly compete with Wall Street. But today businesses have far more tools at their disposal. Not only do these tools give smaller businesses more access to a broader audience, but the methods are infinitely more affordable, as well.[read more]

As more businesses continue to enter the blogosphere, they run the risk of publishing clichéd, outdated articles in the hopes of attracting a wider audience. As I’ve worked to grow my own company blog, I’ve seen plenty of other business blogs that continue to publish material that is either uninteresting or unprofessional and, to stem the flow of poorly written postings, here are five topics I earnestly believe business blogs should avoid.[read more]

As much as you need to actively listen, at the end of the day you’re still the expert. Don’t be afraid to own that role when you need to. What else do you think we can do to help foster productive relationships between communicators and cause-related groups?[read more]

LinkedIn reveals key design changes aimed at streamlining the LinkedIn experience and helping us to more easily discover and discuss the content that matters most.[read more]

smarketing/shutterstock

If you’re in marketing you’ve probably encountered multiple conversations with your sales team about what a qualified lead is, or simply put, defining the handoff process. When should the sales team take over a lead? If you implement Smarketing, it can solve those issues.[read more]

Most bloggers, students, or freelancers who writes do not have their own professional editors. Any time you write content that you want people to read, it is important for you to edit your work and to also check it to see if there are any portions that were copied. Here are a few tips to help you edit your own content before you post it online.[read more]

This posts highlights what's necessary to become an exceptional marketer and gives specific examples around the role of a social media manager. The perfect age for my Social Media Manager in my opinion is 23-28. Even from a standing start, providing the attitude and desire, combined with the working environment is provided, that 23-28 year old will accomplish mastery.[read more]