Nick Barber says, “Video conveys emotion unlike text and can show features and functionality unlike any picture. That’s why retailers see nearly triple the conversion rate on product pages that have video versus those that don’t. Entering what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls “this new golden age of videos online,” companies and brands need an enterprise-class online video platform to deliver the video experiences that drive customer engagement. In The Forrester Wave™: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016 we looked at nine vendors in the space–Adobe,... [...]

Verónica Jarski says, “More than 500 million people use Facebook Events each month to connect and meet up in the real world. It might seem that most of those event are to help organize a toddler’s birthday party, an end-of-semester kegger, or a casual retirement party, but that doesn’t mean Facebook Events aren’t useful for marketers as well. A Facebook event can help broaden reach for your in-person events, which B2B marketers cite as the most effective content marketing tactic. In second place are digital events, such as webinars/webcasts, which can also get more signups... [...]

Barry Levine says, “A Danish startup is now offering a new analytics service for Snapchat’s disappearing videos and photos that it says is “the only software-as-a-service analytics [exclusively] for Snapchat.” The company, Snaplytics, employs its own proprietary system to monitor activity on public, one-to-many communications, avoiding any Snapchat APIs, which have a problematic history. Snapchat photos and videos are deleted shortly after viewing or posting. Snaplytics’ new service had been in beta for about a year, during which time it worked with about 200 brands and agencies... [...]

Paul Cheney says, “We talk a lot about a/b testing here on MarketingExperiments. What we don’t usually talk about is a/b testing for the mobile web…especially testing within mobile apps. I thought we should change that. As I was scouring the web looking for mobile a/b tests, I found this 2-year old video by Amazon. Apparently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) at one point had an a/b testing feature that is now closed . When they had testing, however, one app developer used it extensively and shared their experiences in a promotional video for the feature on Amazon. The developers were behind... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “What do you do when optimizing customer engagement means transforming the way an entire organization thinks and functions? Making a transformational shift in any company is a huge undertaking of thousands of details. In the midst of all of those details, you absolutely cannot forget to ensure that everyone, company-wide, is on the same page and focused on a unified value proposition. When I spoke with Eric Martin, Vice President of Marketing, North America, SAP, the company had just undergone a transformation to account-based marketing, specifically in North America”. How... [...]

Robert Rose says, “At Content Marketing World this year, I met the CMO of a mid-sized B2B company. During our discussion about the event (and how great it was), he said, “Robert, you know the thing that I’m missing is how we’re ever going to draw a line from content marketing to top-line revenue. If I can’t do that,” he said, “then I’m not sure we actually should do content marketing.” My response was that it’s absolutely possible to draw a line to revenue. However, if your only goal is to increase top-line revenue more efficiently with content marketing (i.e., a cheaper... [...]

Toby Nwazor says, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to retain loyal customers. This is partially due to the ever growing number of business entities that spring up like mushrooms every day. This makes it imperative for you as a business owner to retain and satisfy your customers at all costs. These five tips below will help you wow your customers, guarantee their loyalty, and keep them coming back for more. 1. Surprise them occasionally. Giving your customers occasional surprises goes a long way in ensuring that they remain loyal to you. You may decide to give them rewards occasionally... [...]

James Collins says, “Using customer segmentation and attributed reporting together allows you to gain greater insight into what drives your customers to purchase. This is crucial information in a world where paths to conversion are so complex. Ultimately, being shrewd about how you segment your marketing data gives you the opportunity to become more effective at targeting the right people at the right time. Here, I share just some of the ways you can use attribution and segmentation to unlock even more value from your marketing efforts. Understand the journeys of converting and non-converting... [...]

Britney Muller says, “Keyword research, the blueprint to any successful SEO strategy If you’ve been doing keyword research for a while, you’ve probably fallen into a routine. And that routine has likely been recently disrupted… thanks, Google. If you’re new to keyword research, getting comfortable with new keyword research tools will come more easily to you. Lucky pups. But us change-averse old dogs can still learn new tricks when we need to. Are you ready to see which tool is right for you? –Woof. My hesitations about writing this article: I’m new to Moz and don’t... [...]

Shar VanBoskirk says, “Check out our Predictions 2017: The Post-Digital CMO Appears piece that just went live this morning. We can’t help but think CMOs feel a great deal of empathy for the characters in, Game of Thrones.  Westeros is a cutthroat environment riddled with cunning strategy, but also a profound amount of character turnover, shall we say. Marketing is no less strategic, what with digital disruption, an evolving customer base, and brand strategy calculus also creating drama and departures. So in 2017,  what will smart  CMOs do to survive until  2018? CMOs must demonstrate... [...]