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Google Feed is a Tempting Feast for Marketers

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By Ariella Brown 

More personalization is in the cards with Google Feed

Google has always dominated search, but it has not done so well with social as evidenced by the perceived failure of Google+. So, capitalizing on its strengths, it set up a feed for users that uploads items of interest based on their own signals, rather than on what their friends shared or Twitter connections posted online.

Back in December, Google introduced an app update that promised “load your life’s interests and updates” with just “a single tap” that can bring up “useful cards.”  Seven months later, Google proclaimed “Feed Your Need to Know,” announcing that — thanks to machine learning advances — the algorithms that direct the feed can “better anticipate” the type of content that an individual would want to see.

Google promises a personalized experience that improves  with use. In addition to giving users updates on the topics they choose to follow, it will take cues from a user’s viewed videos on YouTube, their search history, and their location: “Now, your feed will not only be based on your interactions with Google, but also factor in what’s trending in your area and around the world.”

In other words, it is bringing together your own signaled interests with real-time trends that are linked to your location. That sounds like a potential big win for marketers.

The same data mining that is used to form a comprehensive profile of Google users could easily be directed to create a consumer profile. As much of the information that Google draws on in customizing a person’s feed would not constitute what it calls “sensitive personal information,” its privacy policy, would allow it to share information (at least in the US; the EU tends to be much more stringent on privacy rights).

What makes this so powerful for marketing is that it brings together the same kind of data connections Amazon and Netflix use so effectively to offer customers recommendations, along with deeper knowledge about them that comes from seeing which types of news stories and outlets they favor as well as their actual location identification. With all that information about an individual, marketing can become much more personalized and targeted.

Someone who sets their Feed to supply news on renewable energy, fashion, and organic options would likely be receptive to marketing that shows a new line of organic goods in their local supermarket, for example, or clothes from the Zara Just line.  Someone with a flight booked could be shown attractions in the destination city, ads for transportation options there, and travel accessories. People who have added articles on parenting young children to their Feeds may get directed to children’s programming, toys, college funds, and preschools in their area.

Of course, Google doesn’t say that it’s rolling out the Feed as a tool for marketers, but then again, Facebook didn’t admit that its social network was geared toward ads either. I’m sure we’ll be seeing marketers make use of this feature in the near future.

By Ariella Brown

Sourced from DMN Data. Strategy. Technology.

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How Data Is Changing The Role Of Marketers

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By  Kimberly A. Whitler

Data, in combination with technology, drives much of the revolution happening in business today. For marketers who are often at the epicenter of acquiring, understanding, translating, and leveraging data, it can have a significant impact on their jobs—what they do, how they do it, and the challenges that they face. Below, I talk with Tom Benton, the CEO of the Data & Marketing Association (formerly known as the Direct Marketing Association) about the impact that data is having on marketers.

Kimberly Whitler: How is data changing the CMO Role?

Tom Benton: Data hasn’t just changed the CMO Role. It has disrupted it. CMOs were traditionally communications and campaign-focused. Now, there are many more aspects to it. Today’s data-inspired CMOs must not only be marketing communications experts, they must also be user experience experts. They have to understand ecommerce. They have to understand the totality of the holistic customer journey.

I view data as fundamental to marketing. It has a horizontal impact across the organization, cutting across media, advertising, innovation, and everything else. Think about just one element—video. It used to be stationary and was primarily driven by TV. Now, media is ubiquitous, mobile, and interactive and so it’s generating a tremendous amount of data. Historically, we didn’t have high quality data but now we do. And so the question is: how do you take data and transform it into actionable insight? The consequence of this is that the increased amount and substantially better quality of data makes the marketer’s job more complex. This can affect what they do and the challenges that they face.

One way to think about this is that there is a mashup of roles—the CTO, CIO, CDO, CAO, CMO. But marketing is typically the front line when it comes to using data and, more importantly, generating actionable insight from it. And so what the marketer has always done – integrating disparate data and making sense of it – on one level hasn’t changed. What has changed is the amount of data they have to integrate, the number of functions they have to work with, and the complexity associated with making sense of the data. What they do—using data to make better strategic marketing decisions—hasn’t changed. But how they do it, with whom they work, and the processes through which they do it is all changing. It’s more complex.

Whitler: Can you provide an example of how data is changing what marketers do?

Benton: The sheer amount of data from a near-infinite combination of media, devices, platforms and channels allows marketers the opportunity to deliver 1-to-1 customer experiences at a massive scale. If these are leveraged adeptly, a business with a million customers can deliver an experience just as tailored as a business with a dozen customers. But that also means today’s marketers have a range of questions to ask themselves: What is the right technology to work with to meet our business goals? What untapped data sources should we be exploring? Are all of our datasets coming together to inform each other, or are they siloed into different departments and databases? These are versions of the questions marketers have asked themselves for decades, but they have become more complex as scale and velocity of information grows.

The exponential growth of the programmatic media industry during the past 10 years is a perfect example of how data is the currency that is underwriting 21st century marketing. No longer satisfied with one-dimensional reach and frequency scores, or hang-time on websites, marketers are looking for real, measureable performance from their investments. Data-inspired marketers are using data to make real-time decisions on marketing and media allocations that just couldn’t have been possible in the past.

Whitler: You mentioned that data is also impacting the nature of the challenges that marketers face. Can you provide an example?

Benton: There is a whole host of challenges—from attribution modeling to cross-device ID to serious public policy concerns. One of the most important is properly protecting your data and securing it from hacking as you can see from the unprecedented Equifax breach affecting more than half of the U.S. population. We understand that the best marketers and brands hold a special trust for consumers and they must follow the best standards and practices as keepers of this important trust. Data is quite powerful but it is also sensitive and it needs to be managed responsibly and ethically. We want to use data to identify the interests and needs of consumers so that we can transform their lives. But we have to be responsible. We have to protect the data and remain vigilant. Another challenge is the annoyance factor. The best marketers don’t want to annoy consumers with irrelevant messages. If we leverage data responsibly and authentically, we have the opportunity to build lasting relationships with consumers because we are creating real value for them.

Whitler: When I talk to C-level marketers, I consistently hear about how difficult the job is—the pace of change, the way in which the role is changing, and the need to acquire contemporary skills. What advice do you have for CMOs who want to improve their skills but don’t have a lot of time?

Benton: Marketing roles are exciting because new opportunities and challenges are surfacing every day due to the new data-driven economy. Things like facial recognition: 1) Is it OK to market to you if I use facial recognition data to find out that you are at a Pearl Jam concert? 2) Is it OK to sell that information to a third party that might use it to market music to you? DMA members routinely come together to tackle issues like these as they develop and enforce DMA’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practices. At DMA, we believe we should act as a filter for our members—to simplify a complex world. We do this by bringing people together to discuss these issues. We host conferences, webinars, regional roundups, training events, and even VIP cocktail sessions. Through these events, marketers can hone in on pertinent issues and find solutions most relevant to them.

We tend to focus on four pillars: advocacy, innovation, education, and connection. The most successful marketers are intellectually curious, they perpetually challenge the status quo seeking improvements. Our members strive to compound their knowledge and build on their own ideas by learning about what actually works. They recognize the power of tapping collective wisdom and they’re laser-focused on transforming data into actionable insight. Technology and techniques are changing so rapidly that no individual alone can keep pace. While we all individually contribute to the data & marketing community, successful people realize that the power of our community does not come from individuals alone, rather it comes from tapping the collective knowledge of our community, which is exactly what we facilitate at the Data & Marketing Association.

Our goal is to leverage data and technology to help marketers become more effective in a way that is responsible and relevant.

Feature Image: DMA CEO Tom Benton at DMA’s 2017 Dynamic State of Data event

By  Kimberly A. Whitler

Sourced from Forbes

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How Content Feedback Helps Marketers Reach People

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By  Jana Barrett 

People tend to see customer service as the hallmark of customer experience, but marketers play a major role in modern customer relationships. They design inroads for new business and mold customer expectations from the get-go. This goes for the content that marketers create too. Click or no click, when people consume your messaging, they form an impression of your brand.

But unlike customer-facing teams, marketers don’t always hear directly from the people they’re speaking to. Instead, they rely on metrics and intuition to understand the end consumer. Good data and marketing chops go a long way, but they don’t tell you everything. If you’re not tapping into your audience for feedback, then you’re leaving insights (and revenue) on the table.

In this post, we’ll cover the benefits of collecting content feedback and share some tips on doing it well.

Collecting content feedback with audience surveys

Unless you’re hyper-engaged with your target audience, it’s hard to nail down why some messages work and others don’t. But as marketers, it’s kind of your job to figure it out. That’s why focus groups and market research studies have long been used to gather consumer insights.

However, as we head deeper into the digital age, those methods become less realistic. If you’re an agile marketing team that needs to learn and adapt quickly, then you can’t afford clunky solutions. You need quick answers and quality feedback as you go.

Audience surveys are a great way to get that. Unlike traditional market research surveys, these quick, contextual questions capture content feedback in the moment. If someone is reading your blog post (meta, right?), watching a webinar, scanning your pricing, or just staring blankly at your homepage, you can ask them for input.

Below are a few ways you can seamlessly integrate audience surveys into your digital marketing program.

Use lightbox website surveys to engage visitors and capture info.

Website surveys are simple lightbox windows that you can include on your landing pages. They function a lot like live chat windows, giving visitors the perfect way to engage without leaving the web experience. You can use website surveys to collect content feedback and visitor information, invite readers to subscribe, or even automatically create leads in Salesforce.

How to set up a website survey and start collecting responses immediately:

  1. Build your website survey. Keep it short and sweet to avoid diverting visitors’ attention too much. Stick to essential questions about their current experience or ask them what they’re looking for. Focus on questions that will help your content strategy and eliminate the fluff.
  2. Configure your survey. After you’ve built your survey, make sure to think through its placement and design. In the GetFeedback survey builder, you can choose where your website survey appears on the page, set colors and icons, determine when it’ll pop up, and more.
  3. Add the code to your website. Place the Javascript snippet onto pages of your website before the closing </body> tag. Make sure you’ve specified which pages the survey should appear on. As soon as you do, any active website surveys will begin appearing on your site.

Ask for contextual feedback on web content with embedded surveys.

Sometimes lightboxes aren’t the right experience for your web visitors. If you’d rather weave surveys into the content itself, then you can embed surveys into landing pages or articles. It’s a non-intrusive way of asking for feedback in the moment. This works especially well for blog posts, knowledge base articles, and FAQ pages. With just a couple questions, you can find out what visitors think of your content and what you could do better.

How to embed a survey into your page:

  1. Build your survey. Before you write your questions, think about where you’re placing the survey. If it’s in the middle of the page versus at the end, you’ll probably frame your questions differently. Try to include one quantitative question (like “How helpful was this article?”) so you can track performance over time.
  2. Embed your survey. Once your survey is created, you can generate an embed code to add it to your page. With GetFeedback you can simply replace the URL in the src element (in blue below) with the URL of your live survey, then adjust the dimensions based on your preferences. Read more about embedding surveys on web pages.

Collect campaign feedback by embedding survey questions into marketing emails.

Last but not least, if you want input from your current subscribers, then email is the perfect place to include an audience survey. Whether it’s a new campaign, a monthly newsletter, or a nurture series, email works seamlessly with surveys. And by embedding survey questions into emails rather than just including a hyperlink, you can drive engagement and provide an all-around better experience.

Here’s how to embed a survey question into a marketing email:

  1. Build your email survey. Start with the question you care about most. That’s the one you should include in the email. When subscribers click a response, the rest of the survey will launch in a new window. Make sure the survey design matches the email design. Consistency is important.
  2. Add the survey question to your email. When you’re ready to go, you can generate the HTML code and embed your chosen question within the email. Or, if you’d rather send your email from GetFeedback, you can do that using our built-in email functionality. This allows you to create and distribute beautiful survey emails without relying on a 3rd party.

Wrap-Up

Today, customer experiences don’t just affect one customer relationship. They can impact potential business too. People share their stories all the time, online and offline. And thanks to social media and review sites, consumer voices are amplified. BrightLocal’s Consumer Review Survey found that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

For businesses, this means online reputation management is critical to success. If you’re not tuned into customers’ needs and preferences, you risk losing their business—and the business of everyone they reach. As brand stewards, marketers can use content feedback to tune in and grow along with their audience.

By  Jana Barrett 

JView full profile ›

Sourced from Business 2 Community

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Timing is key if marketers want consumers to share their video content

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By Mike Krings

Spend any time online or browsing social media, and you’re likely to come across branded video content. Advertisers and marketers want people to not only see their content but to enjoy it so much that they share it with their friends. A new study from the University of Kansas has found that the prominence of the brand and the advertisers’ decision to disclose whether the content is branded can heavily influence how people view and share the video.

The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Interactive Marketing and was co-authored by Dongwon Choi, Bart Wojdynski and Yen-I Lee of the University of Georgia and Kate Keib of Oglethorpe University.

Bang, who researches digital advertising, marketing, consumer engagement and how individual traits moderate media effects, said the study provides both information for how marketers can better reach potential audiences and how consumers can protect themselves. Native advertising, or branded content made to look like it was produced by individuals, can be deceiving. Federal Trade Commission guidelines state branded content must be labeled as such.

“When people are exposed to native advertising such as branded content, they can be influenced without even knowing they are viewing advertising,” Bang said.

There are no laws on when branded content must be labeled, or how heavily the brand can be featured. The research project measured branded content’s effects by having participants view content for Red Bull energy drinks in four different ways. Disclosure was made at the beginning of the video, but the brand’s placement during a YouTube video of extreme sports set to music was either prominent or subtle. Disclosure was also provided at the end, and placement was either prominent or subtle.

Researchers used eye-tracking software to gauge if viewers were paying attention to the videos and questioned them after viewing if they would share such content.

“When is given at the beginning, it activates consumers’ defensive mechanism against the marketing content, thus they try to intentionally avoid such content,” Bang said. “As a result, it could also reduce their intention to share. However, if it was disclosed subtly, and there was not much brand placement in the video, the activation of defense mechanism is kind of faded out, thus people are more likely to share.”

When measured alone, if disclosure was at the beginning or end, it made little difference in viewers’ intention to share. But if disclosure was made at the beginning and brand placement was prominent, they were much less likely to share. The same was true for heavy brand placement videos with disclosure at the end. Videos in which brand placement was subtle had the highest rate of attention and were more likely to be shared, the viewers reported.

“In cases of the subtle brand placement, the timing of disclosure did not make differences in terms of visual attention,” Bang said. “However, in case of highly prominent brand placement, the post-disclosure attracted way more visual attention compared to the pre-disclosure.”

The study also measured participants’ persuasion knowledge. The factor, or accumulated knowledge about marketing and awareness that content was advertising, correlates highly with viewers’ intentions to share branded content. The findings, along with sharing intentions, provide scientific evidence as to which types of disclosure and branded content can be most effective.

“The reason we chose sharing intention as our main variable is because the goal of this type of video is to make it go viral,” Bang said. “That’s why we wanted to know more about how other variables such as disclosure timing and brand placement affect sharing intention.”

But the findings can also be valuable for consumers, providing information about what type of branded content viewers are not as likely to discern as advertising. In future research, Bang plans to measure viewers’ physiological reactions to branded content and what effects they may have on favorability toward the content. In the meantime, marketers will continue to produce videos touting their brands with different levels of disclosure and brand prominence in hopes of scoring the next viral hit.

Feature Image: A fireman rescues a kitten from a burning house in a still image from a YouTube video by camera company GoPro. The video is a successful example of a branded content marketing piece in which the marketer disclosed the marketing nature early and was subtle in its company placement. It has more than 38 million views. Credit: GoPro, YouTube.

By Mike Krings, University of Kansas

Sourced from PHYS ORG

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How to Win at Marketing Using a Hashtag

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A travel company has managed to stir up a lot of viral traffic with their hashtag. Watch and learn, people.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

What do a dream wedding in New York, an adventure through the mountains of Sri Lanka and a family’s search for their roots in Scotland all have in common? All saw a hospitality professional going out of their way to make or save someone’s trip. And a holiday booking company use this mushy sequence of events with a hashtag to fire up social media views and get a great repsonse from them.

Booking.com call themselves the global leader in connecting travellers with the widest choice of incredible places to stay. Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com B.V. has grown from a small Dutch start-up to one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. Part of The Priceline Group (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com now employs more than 17,000 employees in 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide.

So, what are they doing with their social media marketing? They are riding hastags like a showjumper would a prize horse.

They have had some great success with their recent hashtag #BookingHero. They asked people to share their travel stories using the hashtag. The best story won travel prizes and big kudos online.

Following thousands of submissions via social media, Booking.com selected the three most touching and inspiring accounts of hospitality professionals going above and beyond to create unique and unforgettable travel experiences for their guests.

The customers were then flown back to say thank you to the person who saved their trips. Here are the stories.

 

 

The point isn’t the stories though. The point is that real people’s journeys made the hashtag come alive and generate traffic for booking.com. In fact, the call out for submissions via social media has been so successsful that Booking.com is now using the hashtag to extend the social media campaign with long-form video content that extends the #BookingHero message, with TV to follow.

According to recent research conducted by Booking.com across 25 markets in 2017, a personal connection is essential for many travellers with 29% saying that an accommodation feeling like home is key and 24% sharing that a welcoming host is a make or break factor during the first 24 hours of their trip.

Said Pepijn Rijvers, Chief Marketing Officer, Booking.com. “These stories beautifully demonstrate that an amazing trip is about more than simply finding the right destination or the perfect accommodation– it’s also about the people you meet along the way which truly make for an unforgettable journey. And that’s what travel is all about.”

And for the company, it is about finding the right hashtag and getting it to go viral.

 

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A New App Can Create Facebook Ads Without the Cost

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This handy app can help you create ads with impact but with very little effort.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

An app called Plotaverse helps marketers to create great ads without the dreaded and costly content creation process. Quickly bypassing established app giants, the young startup’s iOS app made the list of Facebook’s top 10 mobile apps.

The photo app’s animation features allow businesses of any calibre to create impactful ads fast and on a budget. More or less, you can choose from many artistically appealling gifs and put your message over them. The artwork on the site is truly eye-catching.

But how did Plotaverse’s 8 months old mobile app manage to disrupt visual advertising, going up against 8 billion video views a day on Facebook alone?

Images animated with Plotaverse, formerly known as Plotagraph, are the key to its success. The app ads movement to any single still photo. This creates ads that stand out in saturated media feeds.

 

Brands like Coca Cola, Wella, Chevrolet and Red Bull were seen boosting their brand with captivating Plotagraphs. There is no need for video, multiple photos or video editing skills to turn a photograph into a Plotagraph. Users of any skill level can quickly animate and post uniquely moving images to their business and social page.

On Instagram and Facebook, Plotagraphs have proven to attract up to 5 times the amount of views and engagement than surrounding images.

Every day, 4.5 million business pages on Facebook are trying to cut through 1.32 billion daily active users according to WordStream. As expected, Adobe’s titan apps, Photoshop Express and Spark Post head Facebook’s list of Photo Enhancing apps. But the tiny startup’s photo animation app has unexpectedly spearheaded the looping content industry.

To check it out, click here

 

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Why Facebook Video Ads Should Only be Just Six Seconds Long

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Facebook is now the most popular places that advertisers are putting their video ads, even beating YouTube.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Top marketers know that digital video is one of the most powerful tools to increase consumer engagement and brand loyalty. In fact, according to a new study from Clinch, brand marketers are ramping up their production of digital videos with an emphasis on creating campaigns specifically for Facebook and YouTube.

The study found that 78 percent of marketers plan to increase their production of video ads in 2018, while only 43 percent of marketers plan to increase their production of static banner ads this year.

Social is Video

When it comes to digital video campaigns, Facebook reigns supreme, representing 46 percent of all video ads produced. When adding Facebook-owned Instagram into the mix, this number leaps to 74 percent. YouTube comes in a close second at 41 percent.

Says Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, “It’s no secret that Facebook and YouTube dominate the digital media landscape and we don’t expect this to slow down, particularly with the Facebook algorithm change which requires brands to pay in order to be seen. In 2018 brands will increase spend and leverage the rich data that these platforms provide. However, the data and platform are just two pieces of the puzzle. Creative is the critical third piece. If brands aren’t uniquely tailoring their creative specifically for each platform and by audience, opportunities will be missed and ROI will be lowered.”

Nearly three quarters of marketers are adopting online video from their TV commercials. 44 percent indicated that they don’t shorten commercials for each platform’s suggested length. While TV ads remain a critical source of video content, the user experience of each social platform is very different than traditional TV. For example, TV ads are 15 to 30 seconds long but Facebook and YouTube recommend six-second videos.

Etzioni continued, “We were really surprised to learn that marketers were taking a one size fits all approach to video. In 2018, marketers will awaken to the fact that investment in creative will increase ROI and personalisation at scale, and will become the norm for digital video as it has become for static ads.”

Defining Social Personalisation

While 50 percent of respondents say they personalise their video campaigns, brands can be doing a lot more. Those that are personalising their creatives based on data are seeing big results. Nearly 90 percent of respondents who have customised Facebook or YouTube video ads reported seeing benefits. Furthermore, 70 percent of those who customise said that they have seen improvements in their key performance indicators (KPIs).

According to Etzioni, in the next few months, the definition of personalisation will change. “Rather than creating a handful of versions – one for men, one for women, one for the East Coast and one for the West Coast, we expect brands to be using data insights to personalise at scale. This means hundreds if not thousands of versions of videos where the message and creative is tailored to their specific needs and interests. This will create a more meaningful experience for the consumer and transform video campaigns from simply brand awareness to direct response opportunities,”

The full report, “How Leading Brand Marketers are Using Personalised Video to Drive Sales,” is available for download here.

 

 

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5 Podcasts That Marketers Should Pay Attention To

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By John Hall.

According to the IAB Podcast Advertising Revenue Study conducted by PwC, podcasting is growing. Why? Because it offers a more personal and authentic way to engage audiences and is tailor-made for the modern listener who is on the go and eager to learn.

If you’re like the average American, you probably spend just under 4 hours each day consuming audio, and there’s a 50 percent chance you’re a fan of at least one podcast already.

With this kind of growth comes plenty of opportunity to learn and enjoy content, but it doesn’t come without a little bit of chaos. It seems like people launch new podcasts every day. How can you pick the right one for you?

That depends on what you want to learn and who you want to learn from, whether it’s the podcast host who offers inspiration or the guest who shares his or her stories, lessons, and advice.

With marketing trends consistently reshaping the landscape and growing demands for marketing leaders to be both subject matter experts and experts in leadership, CMOs and other marketing professionals are in a unique position. They need the right blend of tactical marketing advice and inspirational leadership guidance to help them do their best work.

There’s a podcast for basically everything now, but it’s important to find the right ones and create a playlist that will help you develop the top skills you need to be a successful marketer. Here are five podcasts you might want to tune into:

1. For experience, listen to “CMO Moves” with Nadine Dietz.

Recently released, this podcast promises to be a good one for everyone’s playlist. With an impressive roster of CMOs from GE, Spotify, HP, Target, Walmart, Mastercard, Verizon, and more, there’s no shortage of expert advice for marketers at any stage of their career.

What makes this podcast especially unique is its format — unscripted and authentic. It’s all about the real people behind the success, who share their failures, advice, inspirations, and personal stories of how they got to lead some of the world’s biggest brands.

2. For inspiration, listen to “TED Talks Daily” by TED.

This podcast is the audio version of the world-famous TED Talks series, and it’s packed full of inspiration and stories on a wide range of topics, from AI to healthcare to the environment to animal science and literally everything in between. If you’ve ever watched a TED Talk and wanted a way to listen to the stories and ideas without having to sit in front of your screen, then add this to your playlist.

Sure, this isn’t a marketing-specific podcast. But the diversity in topics here is awesome and will help you think about new ideas and solutions that may never have occurred to you before.

3. For growth, listen to “How I Built This with Guy Raz” from NPR.

Ever wonder about the stories behind brands and organizations like BuzzFeed, Starbucks, Teach For America, or Lyft? This podcast explores the stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators on their journeys to building and growing their companies, and you get to hear it directly from the people themselves.

“How I Built This” discusses how ideas are transformed into successful companies. If you’re looking to start a new initiative or grow your current company, then this podcast is for you.

4. For media muscle, listen to “The GaryVee Audio Experience” with Gary Vaynerchuk.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one of the best-known marketing influencers out there, and he’s notoriously no-BS. If you’re looking to dive deep into media trends, tactics, and solutions to up your marketing game, then this is a good start. “GaryVee” covers a diverse mix of topics, guests, and insights to help listeners learn more about all things marketing.

5. For innovation, listen to “CIO Network” by CIO Talk Network.

Marketing leaders don’t just work within their own departments. They have to work alongside other C-suite members and experts across the company, from sales to production to IT to client service and just about every other team.

Sometimes that requires getting out of your own marketing bubble and stepping into the shoes of others in your company, and “CIO Network” is one way to do that. It includes a broad array of great innovation podcasts that are geared toward the CIO but are also helpful to marketers in understanding and engaging other decision makers.

So, if you’re a marketing leader who’s looking for a simple, engaging way to learn a little bit and tap into a growing medium that spreads thought leadership, insight, and education, you should check out these podcasts.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By John Hall

CEO and co-founder, Influence & Co.

Sourced from Inc.

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Majority of Travelers Use Review Sites Before Booking

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It’s all about the reviews, so make sure yours are good.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

More than three quarters of travellers use review sites such as Yelp and Trip Advisor to conduct research prior to booking services.

This is according to a survey conducted by The GO Group, an international ground transportation provider.

Travel GIF by Evan Hilton - Find & Share on GIPHY

The respondents were asked about site usage for accommodations, activities, events and ground transportation.

When asked about use of sites for hotels and other accommodations, 13% of respondents said they always check sites; 31% said they do so frequently, 34% said sometimes and 22% said never.

Fifteen percent said they always check sites for reviews about tours and activities; 25% and 34% said they do so frequently and sometimes, respectively. The results for checking on attractions and venues were similar were about the same.

Fewer people use review sites for ground transportation. Only 10% percent said always they did so; 23% said frequently and 40% replied sometimes.

The survey also asked how many people post on review sites. Just three percent said they always posted on the sites, nine percent do so frequently; 40% post sometimes and 26 % responded they have never posted on a review site.

“In addition to or even in lieu of obtaining information and referrals from close friends and family, more people are opting to use content generated by strangers as a guide for booking travel experiences, says John McCarthy, president, GO Group. “As reliance on online review sites continues to grow, it behooves all of us in the travel-related industries industry to regularly review and respond to posts, and monitor them for potential customer services issues.”

Angry Always Sunny GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Find & Share on GIPHY

The GO Group LLC is the nation’s largest airport transportation provider, offering shared rides, private vehicles, sedans, charters and tours, serving some 90 airports in North America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe and transporting more than 13 million passengers per year.

This study shows just how much babysitting and care you need to put into your online reviews. Like you don’t already have enough to do!

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Retail Marketers Are Bullish Moving Into 2018

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Nearly 90% of retail marketers will increase marketing spend this year.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

RetailMeNot has released result of a study showing how retail marketers will expand their content, use their marketing spend and what they are planning in 2018 to better engage and convert consumers.

This year, 9 in 10 retailers will increase marketing spend, and marketers will spread their increased budget almost evenly among marketing channels such as social, mobile, brand and display. This move reflects the need to ensure that every customer is receiving information in the channel of their choice. Interestingly, 93% of mid-sized retailers (between US$500 million and US$1 billion in annual revenue) are increasing their budget compared to 86% of large retailers (more than $1 billion in annual revenue) indicating an increase.

“Retail marketers are no longer thinking in channel silos. They are approaching commerce holistically with an understanding that consumers are channel-agnostic,” said Marissa Tarleton, CMO, RetailMeNot. “Delivering an experience that meets the consumer in the moment across the shopping journey will be the pathway to success for brands.”

Tackling New Trends and Challenges

While trends like virtual reality are still an exciting frontier, most retail marketers have their sights set on more realistic forward-looking trends. More than half of retail marketers surveyed believe improving mobile web checkout capabilities (52%) and offering exclusive promotions for mobile app users (51%) will positively affect sales growth in 2018. Additionally, voice-assisted shopping is an area that 39% of retail marketers plan to implement, with many retailers hoping to capitalise on increased use of smart home systems and smart speakers.

About 50% of retailers indicated they will use multi-touch attribution in order to better monitor the quality of traffic from their advertising investments. Further, retailers will become more bullish on advertising fraud as they look to ensure that their marketing is reaching the highest quality audience. More than 6 in 10 retail marketers (63%) will increase their direct media buying in 2018 in order to better monitor the quality of their traffic from advertising investments.

Holistic Approach to Increasing Sales

Retail marketers are wisely embracing mobile as a conduit for sales both on the phone and in physical retail stores. Based on our survey, retail marketers believe mobile is the key priority for positively affecting sales growth, and 72% will use mobile marketing to drive in-store sales. Further, 82% will rely on mobile marketing to drive in-app sales.

As marketers look to increase revenue in the coming year, their team structures and channel approaches will evolve to become more cross-functional. In fact, 50% of retail marketers say that their mobile marketing team falls under digital marketing within their organisation, up from 41% in 2016.

Finally, promotions continue to be top-of-mind for driving sales. Most retailers (76%) plan to increase the amount of promotions they are offering in 2018, and 86% will partner with websites and apps that focus on deals, cash back and loyalty programs.

“The convergence between physical and digital shopping will blend even further this year,” said Tarleton. “As retail shifts continue, delivering seamless shopping experiences—be it in-store or online—are critical to success.”

RetailMeNot is a savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of offers to save money while they shop or dine out.

 

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