MarketingProfs Recent Posts - Content Audit

As retailers and marketing teams head into the summer months in the northern hemisphere, it's time to take a breath and ask, What have we learned about buyers and multichannel marketing in the first half of 2013? One thing is front and center: Customer relevancy remains the Holy Grail of marketing.

It may not be "hump day" today, but you'll look forward to the next one with this week's top viral video. We'll also look at how social affects-and maybe even calms-riled-up crowds. Learn how to embed Instagram photos and videos, and check out two new analytics tools: A/B testing capabilities on Google Analytics, and Awe.sm, which lets you tie social activity directly to your KPIs.

Fortune 500 companies are increasingly using corporate social media accounts, with 77% now on Twitter, 70% on Facebook, and 69% on YouTube, according to a recent report by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

For marketers, achieving a high email open rate is highly desirable, and it is often a key metric for shedding light onto the effectiveness of a campaign. Why is it important? The value of a high open rate is obvious. You need people to willingly open your email before they can perform any action.

If your brand can't retain a customer, to replace that customer's business you'll need to spend 6-7 times more than you would have to retain it, according to Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company. So how do you keep your customers coming back for more?

Baby Boomers and seniors now spend more time online than watching television, according to a report by Ipsos and Google. On average, seniors and Boomers (defined in the report as those age 45 or older) spend 19 hours a week online, but they spend 16 hours watching television.

In September 2012, Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo, wrote a great article on Marketing Profs about how the best B2B marketers think like B2C marketers. In his article, Glass says "the best B2B marketers are successful because they start with building a brand," by doing things like developing marketing that speaks to the target audience, using visuals to sell your product, and being human in your communications.

You can maximize the value of your marketing materials while maintaining fool-proof brand consistency. Your brand has a story, and it's nearly impossible to tell that story without some form of digital media. As your brand, your product and service offerings, and your organization grow, so too will your library of digital assets.

Multichannel marketing has become mainstream, with 25% of B2B and B2C marketers assessing themselves as mature practitioners. Another 39% of marketers are in transition, and only 7% have no plans tp implement mutichannel strategies, according to a recent report by Forrester Consulting commissioned by Silverpop. Behavioral marketing is a slightly less mature practice.

As Vine and Instagram Video battle for users, one thing is clear: People go crazy for online videos. In the US alone, each person consumes an average of 19 hours of video per month. (No, we're not just talking cat videos or celebrations of bacon's wonders.)

The world's greatest social media marketer has objectives and strategies. They're documented-on a spreadsheet-or on some social platform where her peers can collaborate. She understands the whole analytics and metrics thing that matters to the bean counters. Another spreadsheet? You'd better believe it.

Over 60% of marketers integrate mobile into their marketing mix, and nearly half (48%) plan to run specific campaigns directed to mobile users in 2013, according to a recent report by Chief Marketer. Mobile marketing budgets increased in the last 12 months for 31% of survey respondents, the study found.

Quick, what white-suited, stogie-smoking, joke-telling wise guy delayed the publication of his autobiography for 100 years? And how could that bio, produced by a university press at 700+ pages-with more than 200 of them devoted to scholarly footnotes-how could such a moldy thing possibly be a best-seller?

Organic search still leads as the largest channel for online e-commerce customer acquisition, and email as a channel has exploded in growth over the past four years, according to a recent report by Custora. The study, which examined data from 86 US retailers across 14 industries, found organic search to be the largest source of e-commerce customers (15.8% of all customers acquired), followed by cost-per-click (9.8%).

Why are cats and bacon so absurdly popular on the Internet? Why aren't, say, puppies and ham as popular? According the following infographic by Marketo, cats are popular for a few reasons; among them... They're funny. Cravendale Milk created a commercial called "Cat With Thumbs," which led to an 8% increase in sales, a 10% increase in brand awareness, and 7 million YouTube views.

Whether at CES or any other tech conferences across the globe, mobile technology has taken over. Samsung announced at the beginning of the year that it has sold 100 million Galaxy S devices, and mobile phone sales worldwide reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2012 alone.

Social moves so fast, you won't believe how much it's changed. Got a Dailymotion video channel? Use it to create a Smart TV app. Check out Twitter's new media blog, dedicated to innovative social promotions in real time. See why an IKEA product got lots of online love-to IKEA's great dismay.

The most popular types of email sent by marketers during the holiday season (October to December) are "percentage off" and "dollar amount off" offers, yet consumers often do not differentiate those from standard mailings, according to a recent report by Experian Marketing Services. In addition, consumer response to these tactics varies significantly by country.

Zombie takeovers are the monster event of the moment. And they hold lessons for us marketers. In addition to learning to never get bitten, and to sever heads off completely, those lessons include some worthwhile marketing tactics. So listen up, because you wouldn't want your campaign to precipitate a viral outbreak...

Can a computer really understand and interpret your customer's needs? We know computers can win in Jeopardy! and chess, but can they compete on personal interaction? Even though computers might still need some direction from humans, in business to customer communication it seems a computer might, in many instances, be better suited to take care of your customer communications than you or your staff.

Apple's newly announced iOS7 will bring Apple Maps and Siri to your vehicle next year. How does its integrated system look to change car tech? What marketers need to know... With this robust solution, Apple enables drivers to use an OS they're familiar with.

The top two local categories that consumers search for on their phones are shopping and food/beverage, and the least searched for category is construction, renovations, and repair, according to a recent study by Mediative. Overall, men use their phones more than women to search in the categories of automotive/transportation and electronics (the biggest difference by gender was in those two categories).

By day, I am a marketing manager, and I truly enjoy what I do. Marketing has always been my passion, ever since high school. There is constant challenge in my work and a real sense of achievement when our efforts are successful.

Many online marketers get too wrapped up in measuring data that, though useful, is not the most important for understanding how your website is performing as a marketing channel. I say that because each investment of your time, money, and people should have a very solid ROI expectation attached to it.

Pinterest is the social network most likely to drive spontaneous purchasing, whereas Twitter and Facebook users are more likely to make social media-related purchases of products they were already considering, according to a recent report by Vision Critical.