Marketing Resolutions for 2016 and Other New Year's News

Today is the last day of the calendar year 2015. I hope it has been a good one for you and yours and I wish you all nothing but the best in 2016. In honor of this auspicious occasion, I give you a special Friday Five: New Year's edition. Note: the first article is by yours truly, hence the reference to a certain NFL team.

7 Marketing Resolutions To Make As The Year Ends

Most of us are going to be making at least one or two resolutions pretty soon. Mine involve weight loss, of course and my beloved Philadelphia Eagles – it’s a long story. It’s just that time of year. Whether for business or personal improvement, making goals and resolutions is a crucial step towards improving anything.

Read the full story on Forbes. 

6 New Year’s Resolutions You Can Apply to Your Marketing Life

More than 980,000 posts about New Year’s resolutions have been published on social networks, according to social listening and analytics company Sprinklr. While most posts focused on overall happiness, other key words included “work out,” “weight,” “smoking” and “unplug.”

Many people set New Year’s resolutions to keep their lives on track or to improve their overall well-being. What if I told you some of these same personal resolutions can be applied to the professional lives of marketers, as well?

Read the full story on business2community.com.

7 Secrets Of People Who Keep Their New Year's Resolutions

Making resolutions is a popular holiday tradition, but keeping those resolutions past the first week in January is the hard part. Statistic Brain, using data from the University of Scranton, says while 45% of Americans regularly make New Year’s resolutions only 8% actually keep them. So, how do those 8% do it?

Here are some of the best tips from people who successfully keep their New Year’s resolutions:

Read the full story on Fast Company. 

Five New Year Resolutions for Marketers

As 2015 quickly wraps up, here are five resolutions for marketers to consider in 2016 in order to enhance their customer understanding and drive their brand experience.

Read the full story on Loyalty 360.

Email marketers' top New Year’s resolutions for 2016

Virtually everyone is infatuated with Instagram and Snapchat. Few of us can remember the days before Facebook and Twitter.

But email is still the best way to drive sales. In fact, a survey we conducted revealed that nearly 60 percent of Americans prefer brands contact them via email, and email marketing continues to yield higher ROI for marketers than any other channel. We can say with certainty that 2016 will be a boom year for email.

Read the full story on Venture Beat.

Now as far as predictions go, as compared to resolutions, you will want to download The Future of Modern Marketing: 2016 immediately and see what some of the brightest minds in marketing today foresee for the year ahead. 

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8 Social Media Hacks to Increase Customer Retention

8 Social Media Hacks to Increase Customer Retention written by Guest Post read more at Duct Tape Marketing

photo credit: flickr and facebook via photopin (license)

Many times when businesses talk social media, they’re only talking about social media marketing. By neglecting the other components of social media and focusing only on marketing, businesses aren’t realizing the full potential social media has to offer their business in terms of building long-term relationships with their customers. In this blog, I want to talk about 8 social media hacks to help your business increase customer retention and loyalty.

Be Easy To Find

Having a consistent username across all social platforms makes it easier for your customers to quickly find your business when and where they need you. Tools like Namech_k let you easily check your username availability across hundreds of online networks.

Create of List of Top Brand Ambassadors

Just as important as engaging with industry influencers is making a list of your top brand ambassadors. Engage with them daily about their every day lives, interests and hobbies. I’ve developed some of my most loyal customers as a result of knowing their favorite sports teams, music, food, and tv shows and proactively tweeting them about these things.

Make Use of Alerts and Listening Tools

Google Alerts, Hootsuite, and Topsy are all great examples of social media listening tools which provide immediate notifications to brand mentions and key phrases. By monitoring phrases beyond just your brand name, for example monitoring a key phrase within 5 miles of your business, you can ensure you’re always engaging in the right conversations.

Schedule (Some of) Your Posts

A fully automated social media strategy is not a social media strategy. But, scheduling some of your posts is an effective way to stay productive while consistently posting to your social networks. Consider a service like Buffer which adds an extension to your browser and automatically schedules any content you want to share at predetermined times.

Develop Platform Specific Content

With the growth of all-in-one social media posting platforms like Hootsuite, we’ve seen an increase in businesses posting the exact same content across all platforms at the same time. The psychology of a user on Twitter and the content they are hoping to discover is far different than what they expect on Facebook. Give customers a reason to follow all of your networks by providing platform exclusive content and promotions. The more places you can reach them, the more likely they are to build a long-term relationship with your business.

Engage In Real Time

More and more customers are turning to social media for customer service related questions as it’s a more immediate and public channel than calling an 800 number. Having a designated team that’s equally attentive to customer praise and frustration in a social context is key to retaining customers and addressing their needs as they happen. Response time can be the difference between a ranting customer and raving one.

Pay Attention to Your Tone

Todays consumers are in-tune to the social nuances of how businesses communicate online. Pay attention to how your target audience engages on each specific platform and adopt a tone that relates to your audience while still reflecting your overall brand positioning.

Create a List of Influencers

Make a list of the top 10 or 20 people in your industry that you want to engage with on social media – people who are strangers to you and your business. Spend at least 15 minutes per day engaging with some of this list in a non-spammy way. Contribute to the discussion they’re having and eventually they’ll start to recognize you and your business lending more social proof to your service or product.

Shifting The Perspective on Social Media

Next time your boss, co-worker, or client brings up their social media marketing strategy force them to think outside of the box. Social media marketing needs to expand beyond “marketing” and take into consideration the customer experience at all of the points where consumers are using these social platforms to experience the product, create and share their stories about that experience with others. Having a social media strategy that goes beyond just marketing helps businesses break the chains of needing high cost paid media placements by building long-term, organic relationships within their target audience.

 

Dallas McLaughlin is a Digital Marketing Specialist at The James Agency, a full-service advertising agency in Phoenix, Arizona. He blogs frequently at DallasMcLaughlin.com about Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click, and Social Media Marketing trends. If you have any questions, you can tweet him directly at @BossDJay.

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Reflecting on 2015 & Gearing Up For Digital Marketing Innovation in 2016

This year brought many opportunities for innovation, creativity and growth for the team at TopRank Marketing.

On a personal note, I was beyond excited to re-join the team and dive head first into my new role as Director of Agency Marketing. In this role, part of my responsibilities include ensuring that our team provides creative, engaging, actionable and innovative content for our blog readers each week.

In 2015, our team published nearly 300 blog posts and amassed over 1.4 million unique pageviews for our blog content alone. Keeping the content engine running is an essential part of what we do at TopRank Marketing and I’m pleased to report the numbers above. Nearly a million of the pageviews above were generated from Organic Search which means that our strategy to optimize customers and search engines has led people to our content.

As part of our online community, I’d like to use this post to give you a glimpse into some highlights of 2015 for our team, as well as some exciting changes coming in 2016.

Executive Team Member Promotions

It’s always a great day when we are able to promote one of our own to a leadership position within the organization. The two women below have both shown exceptional drive, dedication and leadership to the team long before earning these executive promotions.

Jolina Pettice has been promoted from Director of Operations to the company’s Vice President. With 10 years of experience at TopRank Marketing, Pettice has performed a number of essential duties including managing Fortune 500 search, content and social media marketing programs for large enterprise organizations.

Alexis Hall was recently promoted from Senior Account Manager to Director of Client Accounts where she leads the account management team. Alexis began her career at TopRank Marketing as an Account Coordinator and she recently celebrated 5 years at the agency and oversees client programs for large software and healthcare companies.

Welcoming New Talent to TopRank Marketing

In addition to promoting current employees to leadership positions, we also added some fresh, creative and innovative talent to our roster. While we do have quite a few new team members start this year, here are some of our most recent additions to the TopRank Marketing Family:

Kevin Cotch joined TopRank Marketing’s SEO team as a SEO Analyst earlier this year. Kevin’s experience as well as his willingness to dive in and help solve complex technical SEO issues has made him a welcome addition to the team.

Another awesome addition to the SEO team was Julia Ramos as a SEO Copywriter. I will be the first to tell you that Julia is not your average copywriter. Her attention to detail, in-depth research and analytical brain have elevated the level of service that we are able to provide to all clients across the board.  

Knute Sands is one of our newest Account Manager’s and has a killer combination of account management and content experience. This makes him uniquely qualified to work with some of our biggest clients on their content marketing strategies and initiatives.

Last, but certainly not least was the addition of Caitlin Burgess as a Content Marketing Lead. Caitlin’s roots in traditional journalism and digital marketing have made her a content marketing machine!

While TopRank Marketing has already doubled its staff since 2013, they are always on the hunt for talented digital marketers. Open positions can be found on the career page of the website.

Building New Client Relationships in Banking & Telecom

TopRank Marketing’s reputation for delivering industry leading digital marketing services and achieving results has recently attracted multiple new clients including a leading fraud protection firm and banking services company with engagements focused on online advertising services and analytics. Additionally, a well-known IT and telecom company recently engaged the agency for content marketing services.

Our legacy clients and new clients have all taught us so much about how to provide value and help them solve problems through our digital marketing consulting and services. All of our clients continue to be a valuable resource and we are so thankful for the opportunity to work with and get to know each and every one of them.

Changing Locations But Not Values

The expansion of our business led us on a quest to find a new office space to better suit our growing needs. As of January 4th, we will be leaving the shores of lake minnetonka and moving to the 55 West Financial Center.

This new space will allow us to continue to develop our team of rockstar marketers, put us closer to local clients and encourage even more collaboration between teams.

If you’re interested, here is where you can find our new office:

55 West Financial Center
10405 6th Ave. N.
Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55441

Catching Up With TopRank Marketing President, Susan Misukanis

The heart and soul of our organization has been built by those that have spent time in the trenches building this company from the ground up. One of those people is our President and Co-Founder, Susan Misukanis. I was able to catch a few minutes with her and get some very open and honest reflections about TopRank Marketing’s past, as well as a glimpse into what our office move could mean for the organization.

Q: What are some of the things that you’re most proud of about TopRank Marketing?

A: All of TopRank Marketing’s Clients, small, medium and large who have supported us as we grew, taught us valuable lessons, and have given us the privilege of serving them over the past 15 years.

I’m also extremely proud of the the talented TopRank Marketing team members whose commitment to serving our clients is unmatched.

Q: What is one of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned in the digital marketing business?

A: One lesson we keep learning is how important it is to be committed to hiring the highest achievers and marketing talent who are truly focused getting the best results for our clients!

Q: If you could pick one thing to do over, what would it be?

A: I’m anticipating that we should have moved closer to Minneapolis sooner in order to attract talent who are not up for the drive to Lake Minnetonka. Thank you to all our team members who have enjoyed the daily drive around the lake to get to us!

Q: What are some expectations you have for our new office space?

A: I think that this move will help us attract and retain even more of those talented digital marketers that we are looking for to join our team. We will also have more flexibility with a new and larger space that allows team members to work in private or a collaborate in a team environment.

Wishing You A Happy, Healthy & Innovative New Year

Beyond our move to a new office, new team members and clients, we’re incredibly excited to be part of an industry that is constantly evolving and innovating at a rapid pace. The bar is constantly being raised and we look forward to providing you creative and compelling content in the new year, and continuing to expand our service offering for our amazing clients.

What are you looking forward to most in the new year?

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Our Solar Energy Future

The transport sector of the US business community have helped make this country the strong nation is. Progress has been made in many areas that will strengthen our future of solar energy and improve our position in the world, even more than it is now. The good news comes from the reduction of petroleum use and emissions of greenhouse gases in the transport. This comes from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory and confirmed by the Ministry of Energy and its previous assessments. Transport is responsible for over seventy percent of our oil consumption thus reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, accounting for more than thirty percent of this number is very beneficial to our national well-being power.

Solar electric cars are increasing. However, prices will fall further to average consumers can find cars more affordable. Like many of the technology, there will be less expensive ways for manufacturers to produce them. The positive effect on air quality will be. Our future solar energy will become stronger as the benefits are seen by all citizens. The will of the people is behind it, because the results will be positive on the economic cost of gas and the continuous increase.

Progress not only in the US but around the world about our future of solar energy continues on many levels. Many universities are investigating solar cells that develop increasingly effective in terms of the amount of sun energy will turn into practice. Although the use of decreases fossil fuel, the need throughout the developing world to cheap energy is increasing. Once solar energy becomes cheaper to use, there will be more interest worldwide in its use for domestic and industrial use. Germany is an excellent example of what the enormous changes that have taken place in connection with the switch of the nation in solar energy. Our future solar energy will also grow if the same initiatives that Germany has used can be used in the US also. Germany provides financial incentives in the form of payments for his people to make the transition to solar energy in their homes and businesses.

Our future solar energy will have a major effect on our economy with increased employment in relation to many sectors of the labor market. As this industry grows, jobs will be added in the manufacture, marketing, construction, and research and development to the list of job opportunities.

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How to Effectively Use Remarketing (Infographic)

It seems that each year that passes brings some new forms of advertising that marketers can add as another tool in their arsenal.

These past few years have brought native advertising to the mainstream, which comedian John Oliver analyzed this past August:

Native advertising has taken hold online. Here’s an example from Buzzfeed:

This native advertising happens offline as well, as it’s seen in newspapers, magazines and radio.

The web has also exploded with the growth of exit intent popups. Hover your mouse near the top of the browser to close or switch a tab and out of nowhere comes a near full page ad asking the visitor for something before they leave – typically an email address. Here’s an example, courtesy of 2xecommerce.com:

In recent years we have also seen the growth of retargeting. This purpose of this is to advertise to people who have previously visited a specific site.

For example, let’s say you visit amazon.com today, place a few items in your cart, and leave. A few days later you’re browsing nytimes.com and see an Amazon advertisement with the products you put in your cart. You can then click the ad and are directed back to Amazon, and complete your purchase.

Sound like a new channel you’d like to test? Neil Patel of Quick Sprout has created an infographic to help you out. Whether you’re just diving into retargeting or have been around the block a few times and want a refresher on some of the principles.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

Resources for Learning More

We’ve covered retargeting in the past, including a couple webinars:

• Converting the 98%: Turning Almost Customers into Actual Customers
• Speed Dating on Advertising

You’ll also find some great content around the web:

• How to Spend Your First $100 on Retargeting Ads
• Putting Retargeting To Work For Your Startup
• 5 Tips for Running a Successful Retargeting Campaign

If you’re going to dabble in retargeting, it’s important to measure the results. You can use Kissmetrics to measure and optimize all your marketing campaigns. I’ve written some articles about how to do this:

• Using Channels in Kissmetrics to Learn Where Your Most Valuable Customers Come From
• How to Track the Effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns
• How to Find out What Marketing Campaigns are the Best for Acquisition, ROI, & Retention

You can also request a personal demo of Kissmetrics to learn more.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is the Blog Manager for Kissmetrics.

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Using the “Eavesdrop Effect” to Get Ideal Clients

Using the “Eavesdrop Effect” to Get Ideal Clients written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Dov Gordon

Marketing Podcast with Dov Gordon

Getting clients can seem like the hardest work an entrepreneur can do. Getting the right clients, well that can feel like scaling a mountain.

But, working with clients that appreciate the value you bring, expect to pay a premium and see you as a trusted advisor and collaborator is the best way to build a business that serves your life.

In my experience, the idea of working solely with ideal clients takes a bit of a mind shift. First you have to believe it’s possible – then you have to believe you deserve it.

My guest for this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is Dov Gordon. Dov helps consultants, coaches and other experts build a steady, consistent, predictable flow of ideal clients. We talk about ideal clients, how to identify them, and where to find them using an approach he calls the “eavesdrop effect.”

Questions I ask Dov:

• How did you become a business consultant?
• What is the “Eavesdrop Effect?”
• How do you finally convert a potential client you may already have as a lead?

What you’ll learn if you give a listen:

• Why ideal clients are so critical to find for every business
• How self-esteem can help you in attracting new clients
• How to reach a point in your business to where you can say no to a perspective client

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Top 10 Modern Marketing Posts in 2015 Published Before This Year

We looked at the top modern marketing posts of 2015 earlier this week, and we're now looking at the top posts that were not published this year. In a content marketing environment there are really two kinds of posts: current ones that get traffic from social media and feed subscribers, and older ones that get traffic from search. The following are from the second category. I've included the year these posts were originally published to give you an idea what kind of traction some of these posts have gotten.

Since all of this traffic comes from search, we need a way to see if any readers of these posts are interested in the topics we are currently talking about. Calls-to-action give a reader the chance to raise their hand and express interest. One of the challenges with older content is to make sure that the offers are still available and are still relevant. There is some work to do on some of these posts. However, if you've never seen some of these posts, there is certainly some helpful information in them.

1. The difference between responsive and adaptive web design (2013)

2. 5 Event Planning Tips...Even If You’re Not An Event Planner (2011)

3. Content Marketing in a Blink: The Content Grid v2 (2011)

4. 13 Questions Marketing Should Ask the Sales Reps (2012)

5. 8 Surprisingly Simple B2B Sales Tips (2012)

6. Mobile marketing: 15 strategies that pay off (2014)

7. 6 Fundamental Value-Based Selling Tips (2014)

8. 19 mobile marketing stats that will blow your mind (2014) 

9. 5 B2B Brands That “Get” Storytelling (2012)

10. How brands are mastering the 10-second Snapchat (2014)

Check the top posts that were published in 2015. But before you do, download the Modern Marketing Essentials Guide to Content Marketing.

 

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TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions

This year, headlines throughout the marketing blogosphere proclaimed that influencer marketing is “the next big thing.”

At TopRank Marketing, we have been refining our influencer marketing strategy for nearly a decade. It’s our past, present, and next big thing. When done well, influencer marketing can boost brand credibility, provide valuable exposure for the brand and the influencer and create killer content your audience will love.

Now that influencer marketing has officially arrived, how will it evolve in 2016? We asked our in-house experts, and some of our favorite marketers outside the TopRank Marketing team, for their opinion.Here are the influencer marketing predictions for 2016.

Steve Rayson

Director, BuzzSumo
@steverayson

I think one opportunity is to build relationships with a small group of influencers (6-10) that have relatively few followers but high engagement rates. To do this find well shared content that is highly relevant to your area. Analyze who shared this content and filter those with high retweet rates (on average how many times their tweets are retweeted) but relatively few followers. Develop relationships by answering questions they ask on Twitter, sharing their content, commenting on their blogs, attending their webinars and meeting them in person if you can; and above all, ask how you can help them.

Lee Odden

CEO, TopRank Marketing
@leeodden

As consumers become increasingly numb to formal marketing messages and advertising, their trust in information from peers, social network connections and industry experts has increased.

A few interesting statistics about influencer marketing:

• 84% of B2B buyers start the purchasing process with a referral. (LinkedIn)
• 92% of consumers rely on referrals from people they know above all else (TapInfluence)
• 81% of those surveyed considered influencer engagement to be effective or very effective for meeting their objectives (Augure)
• $6.85 for every $1 spent – This is the average media value earned by brands who implemented influencer marketing. (Burst Media / RhythmOne)

In 2016 I think we’ll see more brands expand their view of how to incorporate influencers as partners in content co-creation vs. simply as another promotion and advertising channel.

We’ll also see higher expectations of influencers themselves. Popularity is not influence and brands that use influencer marketing will expect more than mentions and social shares. Those influencers capable of affecting real business outcomes will become even more in demand and valuable.

To take advantage of the growing value of influencers, sophisticated marketers will begin to better distinguish between different kinds of influencers and the characteristics that make them the best match for marketing programs.

Influencer Marketing software will lead the way towards effectively identifying, qualifying, recruiting, engaging, managing and measuring influencer marketing performance. Companies that achieve higher levels of expertise with this kind of software will achieve a distinct competitive advantage in their respective industries.

Amanda Maksymiw

Senior Content Marketing Manager, Lattice Engines
@amandamaks

Companies just getting into influencer marketing must understand that there isn’t a silver bullet or trick to overnight success. It takes time to build valuable relationships with influencers that produce results. You need to engage on social media, comment on blog posts, leave book reviews, interact in person (if possible), etc. In 2016, companies will realize that it’s the time for a less is more approach. Instead of targeting a list of influencers that is too large to manage and relying on automated tactics, marketers will focus on a smaller group so they can focus on more personalized, less automated outreach to garner big wins.

Susan Misukanis

President, TopRank Marketing
@smisukanis

In 2016, there is a prime opportunity for marketers to take their influencer marketing strategies to the next level. The competitive marketplace will require these marketers to become more strategic and creative in their approach. Instead of simply adding influencers here and there to content assets, it will be essential that they incorporate a campaign driven approach to get true value out of these programs.

Those that are truly innovative, will take a measurable campaign driven approach AND incorporate a layer of storytelling to truly connect their audience to the influencer-based content.

Smart marketers with true content chops will do some math this year:

Amy Higgins

Director of Content Marketing, Deem
@amywhiggins

Many marketers today think of influencer marketing as a campaign, or a one-off. They co-create a series of deliverables with a limited number of influencers designed to bring about a particular result. To me, this is like coloring inside the lines. I predict that beginning in 2016 marketers will learn to color outside the lines of a campaign.

As a marketer, you’d never create a single campaign that focuses on your brand’s voice. Instead, you’ll weave your brand’s  voice into any and all content that you create. By utilising influencers throughout all of your marketing efforts, you can increase your reach and engagement. So then, why do marketers still compartmentalize influencers? By not weaving influencers into all of your marketing and coloring inside the lines of a campaign, you are missing a huge opportunity for your business. In 2016, let’s color outside the lines with influencer marketing!

What Are Your Influencer Marketing Predictions for 2016?

Influencer marketing enjoyed a surge of popularity in 2015, and the best practices are sure to evolve in the coming year. At TopRank, we will continue to explore new tools, platforms and strategies to keep learning and improving.

What are your company’s influencer marketing plans for 2016? Let us know in the comments.

Want to learn more about influencer marketing? Check out our website or contact us directly and let us know how we can help.

Disclosure: Deem is a TopRank Marketing client.

Header image via Shutterstock

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