Courtney Eckerle says, “Customer-centric isn’t just a buzzword to us — those marketing efforts are the stories that we love to tell at MarketingSherpa. From our case studies to our data, we want to give you everything you need to keep your customer foremost in your marketing efforts. In October 2016, we surveyed two groups of 1,200 about customer-first marketing. We asked one group 50 questions about the business, marketing and channel practices that make them highly satisfied with a company. We asked the other group similar questions about what makes them highly unsatisfied with a company. We... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “It’s one of those randomly attributed phrases that people throw around in social media: “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” We’ve all probably randomly scrolled past that phrase and ones like it a thousand times. But for some reason, reading that today on LinkedIn got me thinking — why do so many brands just follow the status quo for social media when the space is made so that the user can stand out from the crowd? There are so many different ways to reach out not only to your customers as a whole, but to maybe even excite a niche crowd. Here are... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “In a 2016 MarketingSherpa study, we split 2,400 consumers into two groups. We asked half of the respondents to name a company they were satisfied with, and we asked the other 1,200 to name a company they were unsatisfied with. The most popular response from satisfied customers — 42% of respondents — said that their chosen company’s marketing puts their needs before its business goals. For unsatisfied customers, the most popular responses — 30% of respondents in each case — were that the company they were unsatisfied with “sometimes” or “seldom” puts... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “The world is moving away from a standard view of advertising. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, advertising was fairly easy to identify. But what is it today? And what will it be tomorrow? These are the challenges that have been facing the advertising and marketing industry for at least the past decade. What should advertising be in the future? How do we get there? And, most importantly, who can answer these questions? The Wharton Future of Advertising Innovation Network So in 2008, Catharine Hays teamed up with Wharton’s SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management,... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “Hack #1. Cannibalize your content When it comes to content marketing, robbing Peter to pay Paul isn’t going to get you fired. It might even get you promoted. If robbery and cannibalism harsh metaphors for you, consider it recycling. Saving your marketing team’s environment one piece of content at a time. When your social media team creates a cool and valuable infographic, don’t just let it die after it moves down the Facebook wall. Shock some electricity into it, call it reborn, and send it out in an email send. Build a blog post around it. Heck, build a white... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “Challenged to measure ROI on every program and hit a certain number of leads per month, some marketers make potential customers fill out forms to get access to gated content. Instead of forcing form fills, Chris Keller, Vice President of Marketing, Health Catalyst, and his team set their content free in order to increase shareability and lead quality while more than doubling leads during a three-quarter period. “We’re trying to be the non-marketing marketing group,” Chris said. “We’ve taken a controversial approach to educating the market.” For Health Catalyst,... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “While the jury may be out on 2016 as a whole, marketers have had a very exciting year, and MarketingSherpa (if we may say so) has hopefully shown a spotlight on it through our content. In light of celebrating the good of 2016 as we’re all madly planning what 2017 will bring, we’re revisiting the most popular articles from the past 12 months. Looking back at top content helps us see what our readers found to be the most helpful and valuable content, and it helps you to know what your peers are looking for. Below, see where we’ve been this past year using the nine... [...]

Paul Cheney says, “The trouble with human relationships is that at the end of the day, all of us are alone — trapped in the cosmos of our selves. Add to that the problem of our own mortality, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for failed relationships. Yes, it’s a grim place to start a marketing blog post, but bear with me for a moment. If you’re smart, you’ll be thinking about what relationships have to do with marketing (if you’re really smart, you’ll know they have everything to do with it) while you wade through the next few of paragraphs. I’m stretching the definition a... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, ““Our main focus [in email marketing] is making sure we’re saying the right thing at the right time to the right person,” said Jessica Vogel, Global Marketing Consultant, Dell. Having an efficient and effective direct marketing vehicle such as email is critical for the success of Dell’s sizeable direct business. Jessica is part of a team that continuously focuses on email user experience and channel optimization through efforts like responsive design, dynamic content and engaging content integration. As the email vehicle has evolved into a complex and highly... [...]

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... [...]