Sunday 31 May 2020

Give Better Answers By Rethinking Your Customers’ Questions

We are very excited to bring you season 2 of On the Fly. On the Fly is our video series with small bites (two mins or less) of marketing and customer experience advice from experts, given to you during the current disruption. 

Jay Baer kicks off season 2 from his home office with a very important reminder to rethink your customers’ questions. All customers have questions about your company and its offerings and a large percentage of them are researching online. But how has this changed in the post COVID-19 world? Well, they are still researching online, but the questions they are looking answers for might have dramatically changed, says Jay Baer. His advice for marketers is to reach out to your customer success team, your service team, your sales team, your ops team, and rethink your top 50 customer questions.

Visit OnTheFly.Experts to see all episodes. 

                                                                                            

Customers always have questions, but great content can help shed light on their concerns. Find out by viewing “Great Content Answers Questions.”



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Saturday 30 May 2020

Weekend Favs May 30

Weekend Favs May 30 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.

  • Zoom Backgrounds: Hundreds of virtual zoom backgrounds available, change your zoom background for your next meeting.
  • GIPHY: Your top source for the best & newest GIFs & Animated Stickers online.
  • Blush: An easy way to add illustrations to your projects. With collections made by artists across the globe, there’s something for everyone—and every project.

These are my weekend favs, I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape



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Friday 29 May 2020

4 Ways Marketing Teams Are Adjusting to These Times

Just before COVID-19 hit the US, my team at Oracle CX Marketing welcomed a new SVP of CX Marketing and added a few new members. In a pre-COVID world, we would have all met in person. Instead we met virtually to get to know each other. While a virtual meeting can’t completely replace face-to-face interactions, doing our planning sessions virtually did add one big benefit—we were able to invite many more people, from a variety of teams, and get more perspectives.

Working virtually is just one example of how marketing teams are adjusting how they work right now. Here are four insights I’ve gleaned from my team and I trying to adapt to this very fluid situation:

1. Understand this is not standard working from home

Allow for more flexibility.

Many of us are in a unique work situation right now, one way or another. I have always led a virtual team, so stay-at-home orders did not change things that much for me. However, working from home is different now, since my team needs the flexibility to homeschool their children or deal with other responsibilities at home.  

Make room to chitchat.

People are feeling more isolated and craving some type of normalcy right now—especially the longer our social distancing mandates continue—so I hold a virtual Monday Morning Coffee Chat for my team to join together, have some facetime, get to know each other, and share our quirks and hobbies. The only rule is not to discuss business.

Stop wasting time with too many meetings

Meetings are essential, but you shouldn’t schedule too many of them. I don’t know about anyone else, but during the second hour of consecutive meetings, my productivity drops. Every hour of unnecessary meetings on your team’s calendars steals time away they could have used to be more productive.

2. Get back to basics

Don’t veer from one extreme to the other.

Yes, events will not happen at the same scale as before COVID-19, at least not in the near future, but we don’t have to bombard our audiences with webinars to make up for it. Before creating a virtual event, we need to know our audience and remember why people came to our events in the first place.  Everyone consumes content differently. Before creating a webinar, ask yourself if a webinar is the best way to convey information right now? Is our audience ready to receive it? Or can it wait?

Put the why before the how

I challenge my team to think of “why” before the “how.” This helps us “stay on course” and keeps us from creating (what I like to call) random acts of marketing. Each piece of content we create right now goes through multiple rounds of review, and we are constantly rethinking when to send it or when to publish it and how frequently. These series of questions help us develop a holistic overview of where our content is going and why, and it just makes us more thoughtful marketers overall. Marketers might feel an ever-present need to be seen and heard, but you can dial it down—at least a little—right now. You don’t want to add to the noise. We don’t have to send multiple emails a day or publish too many blogs a week. It might be too much, and quality always trumps quantity. 

3. Maintain the business you have

Focus on being helpful.

Everyone agrees that marketers shouldn’t try to exploit the crisis (which Business 2 Community has as number three on its list here). Instead, we should concentrate on maintaining the business we already have. So, right now, focus on being helpful. Keep your website in order, be cognizant about the volume of emails you send out, and offer helpful information to your audience.

Self-improvement

This might be also be a great opportunity to do all the things you never have the time to do before, such as scrubbing your database and templates, training, or conducting research. It will make you a better marketer and better able to help your audience.

4. Prepare for an altered future

Lessons learned

Businesses will eventually open back up, but when that happens, the lessons we learn right now will continue. We’ll still maintain the same standards for creating and reviewing content, and we will try to put more thought into the “why” rather than the “how.” If you can do any training, you’ll put it to good use. If you cleaned up your database and templates, you’ll thank yourself for having done so.

Contingency plans

In the future, our planning meetings will likely be a hybrid of live events, in-person meetings, and virtual meetings. We’ll also move to a hybrid model for our events strategy. It’s a good idea to have a contingency plan that you can do a webinar or virtual conference if an in-person meeting or event falls through. Gartner actually recommends that CMOs put contingency plans into place.

What are some of the lessons you will carry on with after this crisis is over?

                                                                                                                                   

For more leadership insights, read “3 Leadership Takeaways from My First 30 Days at Oracle during the COVID-19 Crisis.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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B2B Marketing News: Top Enterprise Firm Challenges, What B2B Buyers Want, Mobile Ad-Buy Shift, & LinkedIn’s Content Trends

2020 May 29 MarketingCharts Chart

2020 May 29 MarketingCharts Chart What B2B Buyers Want From Tech Vendors Right Now 55 percent of B2B buyers say it's appropriate for marketing efforts to continue during these challenging times, and 53 percent are presently in the market for B2B products and services, with most of those having recent new purchasing interests, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs Programmatic Ad Spend Down 9% Since Beginning of 2020, Driven by Travel and Auto Amidst an overall fall of 9 percent in April, ad spending for the technology vertical and the education and training segment were up 70 percent and 63 percent for the year, with streaming ad spend also up by some 18 percent, according to recently-released report data. Adweek Exclusive: New York Times phasing out all 3rd-party advertising data The New York Times has begun eliminating all third-party advertising targeting information, and by July the firm will instead use a fully-proprietary platform, the company recently announced. Axios Google’s digital-ad dominance is harming marketers and publishers, says new study Digital marketers and publishers have been hurt as a result of Google's online advertising dominance, according to a new study, with display ads the primary focus of the Omidyar Network and Public Knowledge report. AdAge Reddit Launches New, 12-Week Online Advertising School Program Social news and discussion platform Reddit has launched a three-month online community-driven advertising school program, led by director-level-or-above instructors covering 12 marketing topics, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today Polls Return to Messenger From Facebook. After a year’s absence Facebook Messenger polls have been brought back Digital marketers lamenting the elimination of Facebook's Messenger polls a year ago got good news recently, as the social media giant announced that it has brought the polling option back for group chats. Adweek 2020 May 29 Statistics Image Pandemic hastens shift in ad buying to mobile, study says During an overall drop in ad spending, mobile ad spend has fared the best, as its 15 percent decrease was less than the 25 percent seen for desktop ad buying, according to recently-released study data. Mobile Marketer Facebook Launches New App Called 'CatchUp' to Facilitate Group Phone Chats Facebook recently released a tool to help bring online conversations to real-time phone communications, with the lanch of CatchUp, becomming Facebook’s sixth new app release in the past half year, the firm announced. Social Media Today Enterprise Companies Struggle with Customer Experience Tasks Real-time insights, personalization, and consistent data formatting are the top three customer experience (CX) challenges for enterprise firms, according to recently-released study data. MarketingCharts LinkedIn Publishes New Guide to Key Content Trends Amid COVID-19 LinkedIn (client) has released new information about trending content on the Microsoft-owned platform, with top trending hashtags and other information of interest to digital marketers, the firm announced. Social Media Today ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: 2020 May 29 Marketoonist Comic A lighthearted look at “the new normal” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Whoooaaa Duuuuude: Why We Stretch Words in Tweets and Texts — Wired TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
  • Lee Odden — 20 Marketing Experts on Content that Helps Sales Reps Sell - Part 3 — Modus
  • Nick Nelson — 10 Ways to Improve Your Business While Working Remotely — Small Business Trends
  • Lee Odden — Klear interviews Lee Odden — John Gaylor
  • Lee Odden — Stop the Sales Drop: Marketing Shifts For Stronger Growth — Marketing Insider Group
  • Lee Odden — PIMtalk with Lee Odden: PIM, SEO, Content Marketing and B2B influencers [Video] — PIMTalk Podcast
  • Lee Odden — 5 Smart Tips for Managing the WFH Transition in Marketing — monday.com (client)
  • Ashley Zeckman — Ashley Zeckman: 5 Essential Questions to Guide Your B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy — Content Marketing World
  • Lee Odden — “Stop the Sales Drop” Launches Sales and Marketing Peer Group — Business Wire
  • Lee Odden — How to boost SEO flow like a pro during COVID-19 — PR Daily
  • Lee Odden — Interview with Lee Odden – Breaking Free of Status Quo Marketing Tactics — Stop the Sales Drop
  • Lee Odden — Marketing Through Uncertain Times – 15 Experts Share Insights — Insight Brief
  • Lee Odden — Empathetic content marketing falls flat without authenticity [Video] — Search Engine Land
  • Lee Odden — How to measure content KPIs during COVID [Video] — Search Engine Land
  • Lee Odden — How to evaluate content marketing opportunities during COVID [Video] — Search Engine Land
  • Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Fortify the Fundamentals — LinkedIn (client)
Have you come across your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below. Thank you for joining us this week, and we hope that you will return again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.


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Thursday 28 May 2020

Oracle Named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs

Gartner named Oracle a Leader in their 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs for the third time since the report’s inception three years ago. For the report, Gartner analyzed 19 vendors across 15 different Evaluation criteria based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. We believe this evaluation recognized the continued strength of our marketing stack and the new capabilities we’ve been developing to help marketers meet the ever-changing needs of their customers.

"Multichannel marketing builds relationships by responding to expressed and implied customer needs through relevant, connected engagements to targeted audiences. Success requires data-driven insights into customer behaviors and interests, goals, and needs. It also requires knowing how channels operate most effectively — in isolation and in unison — to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time. To achieve organizational growth goals, marketing leaders require tools and talent to capitalize on the customer intelligence their teams gather."

Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs
  Data management stands out in multi-channel marketing

More and more, customers expect businesses to tailor their experiences to individual preferences – to meet on the right channel at the right time with the right content. Connected, actionable customer data plays an integral role in this. We recognized this early on and invested heavily in developing the right technology to help marketers manage, unify, enrich, and activate high volumes of data. These capabilities are what empowers marketers to really understand who their customers are and what their preferences are. Without that, it becomes difficult to personalize customer experiences.

But successful marketers do more than aggregate data. Meaningfully leveraging that data at scale is just as challenging. Per our view Gartner agrees and notes that standout MMH vendors are the ones developing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that surface key insights and next best steps for marketers. Vendors investing heavily in these capabilities help marketers quickly understand and optimize their reach and effectiveness. To that end, Oracle has and continues to develop best-in-class data-driven marketing capabilities, as the market drives toward increasingly personalized customer experiences. These trends ultimately drive customer-focused innovation; MMH vendors should help marketers stay ahead of the rapidly evolving curve.

Our greatest benefit is our partnership with customers

We’re honored that Gartner’s named us a Leader. Yet, we know our biggest advantage is due in large part to the footprints we have in different industries and different regions, with successful, high-growth SMBs and the largest and most sophisticated marketing organizations in the world. Tackling a wide variety of unique challenges energizes us and drives our leadership and innovation. If you’re a marketer looking for a partner to help you overcome marketing obstacles and elevate your customer experience, we’d love to hear from you!

Read the report.

                                                                                           

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, Noah Elkin, Benjamin Bloom, Mike McGuire, Colin Reid, Joseph Enever, 12 May 2020

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from [insert client name or reprint URL].

Oracle as a Leader in Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs 2018 - 2020

 



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Oracle Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q2 2020

There is always a level of satisfaction in being identified a Leader by an unbiased industry expert.  We feel very honored to be named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Services Providers, Q2 2020. The pride associated with this leadership status as a leader is amplified because our customers were central to our success. 

According to the Forrester report, “Client references get more than what they pay for. They and their staff all seem excited by the vendor’s vision to ‘drive revenue growth by delivering a relevant, timely, and connected experience wherever and whenever a customer chooses.’”

Of the 13 email marketing service providers evaluated, Oracle Responsys was one of four vendors named a ‘Leader,’ and we received the highest possible scores in the artificial intelligence, analytics, vertical capabilities, and vision criteria.

Consistency of excellence matters to us, and it matters to marketers. Consumers continue to demand better and more consistent experiences from brands as their expectations for what rich and engaging interactions continue to rise. Oracle maintains a focus on building for these new marketing challenges, and helping marketers build the new competitive edge in delivering better experiences than their competition, supporting them, as they do more with fewer resources and staffing.

Creating a connected experience across all possible customer touchpoints is the expectation for all marketers. Organizations of all sizes are transforming their customer engagements to provide each consumer relevant information in the key moments of engagement. Failing to deliver relevance and meaning risks losing market share and revenues to those brands who focus on making this change. Oracle has a long history of leading brands through this transformation and helping them to create differentiation to grow their businesses.

Oracle’s solutions lead in the market with our unique abilities to provide marketers with:

  • Access to real-time data signals on consumer behaviors

  • The ability to connect data and insights to interactions beyond marketing

  • Scalability to address marketing and data requirements

  • Tools which are intuitive and user-friendly, allowing marketers to build the most advanced campaigns easily and efficiently

  • Integrated AI and knowledge retention capability which can build upon the work of good marketers  to create the best experiences at scale

With Oracle Responsys, marketers can evaluate every tactic and strategy, to ensure they are being efficient with their approaches, and execute to deliver the business results they are held accountable to. We are honored to be recognized as a ‘Leader’ by Forrester, which we believe highlights our long-standing commitment to helping marketers build customer loyalty and drive the best business results.

                                                                                                              

Want to learn more? Click here to download the full report. You can also contact us to learn more about how the Oracle CX suite of solutions can help you reach your marketing goals with engaging, connected, customer experiences.

 

 

 



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How to Get the Best Out of Your Virtual Meetings

How to Get the Best Out of Your Virtual Meetings written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Mike Fraidenburg

online meetings In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Mike Fraidenburg, a certified mediator, natural resource scientist, and former government executive with broad experience helping organizations and executives who are struggling to work effectively in environments with a lot of conflicts.

Mike’s specialties are assessment and implementation of community-building programs to establish and then maintain positive working relationships across the boundaries between organizations and the community that cares about what you do.

His book Mastering Online Meetings: 52 Tips to Engage Your Audience and Get the Best Out of Your Online Meeting was published in January this year.

Questions I ask Mike Fraidenburg:

  • Meetings for a lot of people have always been horrible regardless of the format because meetings, in general, are not run that well and now have this technology in the way. Do you feel as though this is going to make people up their game and redefine the meeting in general?
  • Are there some tips for getting more engagement particularly when you are trying to brainstorm or collaborate?
  • Would you say there are different rules for different size audiences?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

  • The difference between synchronous and asynchronous meetings
  • Mike’s favorite tools for different meeting types
  • How you can make sure everyone can participate even when they can’t attend the actual meeting

More about Mike Fraidenburg:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

 

.store logoThis episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by .store.

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What’s more, https://ift.tt/2yrkLQE, instantly tells people your website is a “store” and lets your brand do the marketing for you! So, go ahead
and get the perfect, memorable website URL for your online store at www.get.store​.​



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20 Marketing Jokes for Marketers Working from Home

Laughing Man at Laptop Image

Laughing Man at Laptop Image I’m not here to lie to you: Sheltering in place is getting pretty old.  I do count my blessings, of course. My family and I are healthy. My wife and I both can work from home; our kids are pretty great; we actually enjoy each others’ company.  Still. There are only so many loaves of bread you can bake, puzzles you can solve, board games you can play before the ennui sets in.  If you’re like me, you could use a laugh right now. And I need to exercise my comedy muscles before they atrophy. And in a world where people are still writing articles called, “Should You Include Humor in Your B2B Content,” we need constant reminders that people like jokes. People like to laugh. Laughter brings you closer to your audience and creates a connection. Not that any of these jokes will make you laugh, of course — but I’ve heard that a smile and a groan is almost as good for you.

20 More Jokes Only a Marketer Could Love

1:

Q: How many agile marketers does it take to change a lightbulb? A: Three: A scrum master, a product owner, and a one-man development team. After a weeklong sprint, they deliver a candle, and then iterate from there.

2:

I named my dog “Organic Reach on Facebook.” I don’t have a dog.

3:

We’re testing an influencer program where you can sponsor the cool kids in a high school to promote your product. We call it “pay per clique.”

4:

Knock, knock! Who’s there? Automated personalization! Automated personalization, who? %First_Name, we miss you! Hope things are good in %City.

5:

I hired an ex-marketer to remodel my bathroom. But he couldn’t get the shower dimensions right, because he was only interested in vanity measurements.

6:

I just consulted on a popular spice company’s website. My sage advice was that they needed to increase their thyme on page.

7:

Q: Why did the salmon make a great social media marketer? A: He had years of experience in live streams.

8:

It’s not that I don’t have that many Twitter followers… I’m just practicing social media distancing.

9:

No matter where I am, Google Maps only recommends businesses from a single town in Alabama. I don’t think this is how Mobile-first indexing is supposed to work.

10:

Apparently there’s a new marketing band called SEO Speedwagon. I couldn’t find them on Google, but I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another...

11:

Working from home is weird. I got so sick of sitting at my desk, I wrote my last blog from my kids’ trampoline. The time-on-page was pretty good, but the bounce rate was really high.

12:

I’m not saying he’s a clueless marketer, but I asked for more evergreen content and he wrote a blog about Christmas trees.

13:

Knock, knock! Who’s there? Indies! Indies, who? Indies uncertain times, our brand wants you to know that we care...

14:

Did you hear that Instagram is finally being localized for the U.S. market? It’s rebranding as “Insta .035724 Ounces.”

15:

The CEO at my old job was so clueless about social media… How clueless was he? He thought you had to be looking off to one side for your profile picture!

16:

How many clickbait content writers does it take to change a lightbulb? Only five, but number four will shock you!

17:

My kids hate hearing we’re having leftovers for dinner. So now I call it “Repurposed, snackable content.”

18:

Why did the marketer steal groceries from Whole Foods? She knows you don’t pay for anything organic.

19:

My buddy recently lost his job doing marketing for one of those serial-killer podcasts. He probably shouldn’t have suggested user-generated content.

20:

Q: Why does the social media marketer keep getting off the elevator at the wrong floor? A: He’s still trying to figure out Stories.

The Value of a Joke

Content marketers know that great content offers value to the reader. We tend to think of that value as something inspirational or educational. But let’s not overlook entertainment value. If your content provides a brief distraction from the everyday, that’s valuable. That’s something that people need...  and Indies uncertain times, we need it more than ever. And if you’re in the market for 60 more jokes about marketing, we’ve got you covered:


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Wednesday 27 May 2020

9 Tips for Creating an Effective Webinar

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, marketing organizations are having to find ways to engage with their customers and prospects without the use of in-person seminars, workshops, and conferences. 

Digital channels and technology have one answer: webinars. These online events only require Internet access, a device for viewing, and a video conferencing service provider. Because of this, many companies have already repurposed their physical conferences into a webinar format. 

But before you send out the invitations, here are nine best practices my team uses when we create webinars. As online and mobile digital channels grow as the preferred places to congregate, My hope is that you find these valuable as you look to further utilize webinars in your marketing efforts.

1.    Compile a webinar team

Although it’s become a key marketing tactic, not everyone in your marketing team should be involved in overseeing a given webinar. Otherwise, there are “too many chefs in the kitchen.” Only include those who have a specific role to play to ensure success. 

You will need a facilitator to develop content, find speakers, and promote the event. The webinar team should also consist of presenters or subject matter experts. Finally, the team should include “webinar assistants” who can handle the technical (audio/visual) aspects.  

2.    Pick a webinar format

There are many ways to design a webinar. The format you select should best match your content and purpose. For example, if you’re taking a conference or seminar from its physical format to a digital format, then you can try to mirror that structure in your webinar. This includes considering audience size, content scope, and number of speakers. 

There are many formats to consider, including a single speaker, moderated panel discussion, and interview style. Each format can include audience Q&A similar to how you would have designed it for an in-person event. 

3.    Develop content and visuals

Although your speakers can capture an audience’s attention with their personalities, stage presence, and thought leadership, more is needed during a webinar to hold onto an audience. That means deciding on the content and visuals to accompany the webinar presentation. 

And, by visuals, I don’t mean text-filled PowerPoint slides offered through screen sharing capability. Instead, consider vivid pictures that enhance your presentation along with relevant video clips. Consider embedding audience polling capabilities. Ask questions and share the results.

4.    Research and test available webinar service providers

Partnering with a webinar service provider can make the difference in how your viewers see and hear (and remember) your webinar. There are numerous solutions to take for a trial run to see what works for the size and scope of your webinar. Some examples include Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, and ClickMeeting.  

Factors to consider include the features offered. Do they match your format and purpose? Are they easy for you to use? Can they support the number of video participants and viewers you expect?  Of course, the cost is also a factor because any tool has to fit within your budget.  

5.    Plan for logistics and technical components

It’s important to find a suitable place to broadcast the webinar. Since you and your guests will be on camera (most likely joining from a variety of locations these days), the surroundings should be quiet and free of disruptions.

Prior to any live broadcast, you must conduct at least one trial run to make sure the audio, video, lighting, and visuals work. If you have speakers joining from different locations, do a test video conference to ensure each person can be seen and heard. 

Having technical issues during the webinar will cause viewers to disconnect. Run-throughs can help pinpoint anything that needs to be fixed prior to going live. And, if this is your team’s first webinar, do multiple trial runs to help everyone get comfortable with how it works. 

6.    Promote the webinar

To get the most out of moving these marketing tactics online, promote the webinar across all channels in a consistent way. Promotion ideas include a descriptive landing page, a banner ad on your website, social media posts and targeted social ads, leveraging your participants’ networks, and an email campaign

Your promotional content should focus on the benefits your audience will receive if they participate. The content should also contain links that lead the potential participant to the registration form and the webinar link. Making it as easy as possible can strengthen your promotion results. Reminder emails and calendar invites also come in handy to make sure participants remember when the webinar is. 

7.    Consider the audience when scheduling the event

Think about where your audience will be when you schedule the date and time. Attendees may be spread across the United States or globally. While you can’t accommodate everyone’s preferences, you can find a midway point that serves the largest segment of your audience. Use your existing data for your audience, including their location, to plan this aspect of your webinar. 

8.    Follow up with webinar attendees

One of the most neglected opportunities is the follow-up. This is an ideal time to continue engaging with attendees who might also be prospects and customers. 

My team sends out thank-you emails and solicits participants’ feedback with a link to a brief survey. This same email also contains a link to the webinar recording and additional resources. This includes subscribing to our blog, newsletter, and/or any additional related content that builds on what they learned during the webinar. We also offer the chance to join a mailing list so they can find out about upcoming webinar events or receive information that helps them with a specific pain point.    

9.    Assess and improve

Soliciting feedback from attendees is just one of the ways we assess our webinars. We also look at engagement in terms of the number of questions, dropped views, and no-shows. 

Our assessment also includes asking participants and speakers how they felt about the experience. This information helps us plan and execute even better webinars in the future. 

                                                                                                                       

Find out more about creating webinars by learning “How to Quickly and Easily Connect Oracle Eloqua to Zoom.”

 

 

 

 



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Focus on Your Customer to Grow Your Business

Focus on Your Customer to Grow Your Business written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Simon Severino

strategy In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Simon Severino, CEO of Strategy Sprints GmbH, where their goal is to coach CEOs and their teams to ensure higher NPS (Net Promoter Score), higher sales conversion and faster execution.

Simon also teaches Growth, Strategy, and Innovation at select MBA courses across Europe. Simon is the host of a podcast The Strategy Show, a show from CEOs for CEOs, in every episode he promises you will find a new masterclass on how to grow and scale your business.

Questions I ask Simon Severino:

  • In your experience what are some of the biggest mistakes that you’ve come across that companies commonly make, especially in the strategy area?
  • Can you think of a business that you have been able to convince to simplify and that’s where growth came from rather than piling more on to get growth?
  • Would you say there is a type of business this approach works best with?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

  • What are Strategy Sprints and how they work
  • How to find the #1 bottleneck in companies
  • How to focus on customer growth

More about Simon Severino:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

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Hyperspace: 5 Surprising Marketing Lessons From ’80s Arcade Games

Video arcade filled with 1980s-era stand-up video game cabinets image.

Video arcade filled with 1980s-era stand-up video game cabinets image. What can marketers in 2020 learn from the low-resolution stand-up video arcade games of the 1980s? Here are five surprisingly-modern marketing lessons that we can learn from and implement today, with roots that come directly from vintage ‘80s arcade games. Slap that fire button and let's warp ahead and take a nostalgic look back at a simpler time in both video gaming and marketing, and then hyperspace ahead to today's vastly different landscape.

1 — Defender: Fire & Forget for a Constant Content Cadence

[caption id="attachment_28500" align="alignnone" width="600"]Williams Defender Arcade Game Photo by Author[/caption] Williams Electronics’ Defender is my all-time favorite stand-up video arcade game, an insidiously difficult side-scrolling spaceship-protecting-the-world shooting match juggernaut from 1981 programmed by early video game legend Eugene Jarvis. I played Defender so much that I eventually won a local video game competition, and can still almost feel where I had callouses on my hands from hour upon hour of game-play long ago. Defender teaches marketers the importance of keeping up a steady cadence of publishing content. In the case of Defender, the entire universe depended on firing off never-ending shots to protect humanoid figures from a variety of swiftly-moving alien invaders, while for marketers our success depends on keeping our content marketing fire buttons active to stave off audience abandonment and ghosting. Smart content marketing features a steady publication of relevant information and best-answer content, which may not save the universe, but when done right can hold your audience’s attention and gain new customers, fans and followers through engaging content.

2 — Robotron: Find Marketing Order in a Sea of Content Chaos

Officially Robotron: 2084, this 1982 Williams 2D multi-directional shooting game also primarily developed by Eugene Jarvis is my second-favorite video game, another intensely challenging dive into a strange alien world populated by a colorful array of 8-bit digital baddies. Robotron teaches marketers the importance of perseverance in what can at first seem like a stormy sea of digital content chaos. Robotron’s game-play involves protecting the last humans in the universe as an intimidating collection of serious alien killing machines try to do away with the humans and — especially — you. Marketers similarly can easily feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of social media platforms, digital asset creation apps, and the vast amount of data surrounding the content being published. Making sense of it all takes time and a concerted effort to learn what can at first seem to be an alien landscape, which can be done when you:

3 — Donkey Kong: Take Your Marketing to “Triple Elevators” Success

via GIPHY An entirely different flavor of ‘80s arcade game is Nintendo’s 1981 hit Donkey Kong, a deceptively simple multi-level platform game with such staying power in our culture that it is still making news in 2020, as the game’s previous world record high-score holder Billy Mitchell — who featured prominently in the cult indie hit King of Kong documentary — has filed a defamation lawsuit. In Donkey Kong, an angry gorilla hurls barrels of death and other colorful impediments in the path of your player Mario — a character who debuted here, originally called Mr. Video and later Jumpman. Screen after screen bring newfound challenges in the game, culminating with a stage featuring intricately-timed elevators and then a diabolical conveyor belt challenge. Donkey Kong teaches marketers that successfully avoiding obstacles can take a brand from the humblest beginning to the loftiest heights, especially when it comes to social media marketing. Unlike Defender and Robotron, which each have many random and free-form movement elements and options, Donkey Kong instead can teach marketers the value of learning a particular industry’s unique facts to drive success in a known social media environment. Educate your marketing Mario by dedicating the time to learn the details of each social media platform your brand is using or plans to have a presence on. We’ve written a number of recent articles exploring the latest social media firm marketing features and platform maneuvers, including these: [bctt tweet="“Successfully avoiding obstacles can take a brand from the humblest beginning to the loftiest heights.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

4 — Crystal Castles: Gather Gems & Avoid Tone-Deaf Marketing

Atari’s 1983 arcade game Crystal Castles is another favorite filled with its own marketing lessons even all these years later. Controlled by a trackball and jump buttons, Crystal Castles sees the player maneuvering a bear around towering castles while picking up enticing gems and avoiding evil trees and dangerous bees. When released, its bright, colorful graphics and catchy sounds and music — along with level graphics that flew onto and off of the screen accompanied by a tune based on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite in a way never seen or heard before — enticed many including myself to repeatedly insert quarters and learn the peculiarities of each castle level. Crystal Castles teaches content marketers to walk that fine and arduous line between picking up a trail of brand success gems and becoming overly confident and getting ensnared by nasty trees or dancing skeletons in the form of tone deaf marketing. A while back for Content Marketing World we even published a retro game themed Ultimate Guide to Conquering Content Marketing.

5 — Black Widow: A Vector-Based Web of Influencer Marketing

Atari’s Black Widow hit the video arcade scene in 1982, and was among the first vector-graphic stand-up arcade cabinets. Players control a black widow spider on its colorful web and during the game must ward off certain insects including mosquitoes, hornets, and beetles, while attracting others using the help of other insects, all the while working to prevent foes from laying eggs. In 1982 a vector-graphics game stood out at the arcade due to the vast contrast between the darkest black pixels and the fine line-based graphics, offering a welcome escape from the standard bitmap imagery in the majority of arcade games. Black Widow teaches marketers the importance of working together with others to achieve success beyond what can be attained alone, such as when implementing an always-on influencer marketing program. Always-on influencer marketing is the practice of ongoing relationship-building, engagement and activation of a specified group of influencers to build community, content and brand advocacy. In Black Widow the spider works with other insects to rid its web of enemies, and in marketing brands can find great success working with industry influencers on the web of 2020 to gain reach and engagement that can far exceed what a single marketer or team can achieve. B2B influencer marketing is a specialty of TopRank Marketing, with several recent articles looking at this growing practice including these:

Going From Game Over To Setting Marketing High Scores

via GIPHY The challenges today’s marketers face are vastly different from those when Defender, Robotron, Donkey Kong, Crystal Castles and Black Widow came out in the early ‘80s, however despite these difficulties there’s also never been a more opportunity-filled playing field, thanks to the vast online publishing possibilities of 2020. Implementing a successful marketing program takes time, effort, and dedicated strategy, which leads many brands to use a top B2B influencer marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing, which was the only B2B marketing agency offering influencer marketing as a top capability in Forrester’s “B2B Marketing Agencies, North America” report.


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