What can a survey of over 2,500 global marketers tell you about the future of digital marketing? Turns out a lot.
Here are summary stats from the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud report just released yesterday:
Top three digital marketing priorities for 2014 are:
· Driving increased conversion rates (47%)
· Increasing and improving brand awareness (46%)
· Collecting, measuring, and using behavior (29%)
Top three metrics used to track success:
· Conversion Rates (67%)
· Engagement Rates (opens, clicks) (64%)
· Return on Investment (61%)
Insights on Digital Marketing spend:
· 98% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their spend for 2014
· Four key areas where marketers plan to increase spending in 2014:
· Data & analytics (61% plan to increase)
· Marketing automation (60% plan to increase)
· Email marketing (58% plan to increase)
· Social media marketing (57% plan to increase
Get your own copy of the report here.
Was #NMX BlogWorld One of the Best Social Media Conferences of the Year? – Since it happened the first week of January, it’s a given. But the TopRank team certainly made it’s mark on #NMX by giving one of the opening keynote presentations and liveblogging 18 sessions over 3 days. In this summary post, Eliza Steely presents key takeaways for this yearly new media expo, such as
- find unique ways to answer questions and represent your brand;
- spend time really learning what your audience likes, how they like to consume your content, and what questions are nagging them;
- ensuring your data is presented in a way that is friendly to all devices is extremely important and
- take data with a grain of salt. Understand where it comes from, what else there is to the story, and make sure it’s as tailored as possible. Be sure to scroll down to read all the comments from the online marketing community. TopRank Online Marketing Blog
The State of Social – [Infographic] While social media as an industry continues to grow, especially across the enterprise, just 17% of companies say their social media strategy is “mature.” Check out this research from Brian Solis and Charlene Li. Altimeter®
Google Announces Gmail “Send to Anyone on Google+” Feature. The web is abuzz with news that Google+ users can now send Gmail messages to people they’re connected to on Google+ without knowing the recipient’s email. You can opt out of course and the FAQ can be found at Marketing Land
CES 2014: Everything You Need to See – There are hundreds of thousands of products at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, so where do you start? Mashable is on the scene at the world’s biggest tech show. Visit this page often as they’ve created a virtual hub packed with photos, Vine’s and quick bites. Mashable
Predictions 2014: Data-Driven Marketing and Sales [SlideShare] – We’ve all been hearing about how marketing and sales need to become data-driven, but what does that really mean? How will that change our day to day workflows, goals and outcomes? Is data everything? How do we ensure we’re getting the biggest return for our efforts? These questions and more are addressed in this collection of predictions. Good stuff! Lattice Engines [TopRank client]
Know Your Phone’s Limits: How to Handle Your Gadget in the Cold – As arctic air continues to slam the Midwest, 
and weather advisories suggest staying inside whenever possible, that goes for your tech peripherals too. In freezing conditions, smartphones will shut off automatically, and on piping-hot days, high temperatures can cause permanent damage to the battery. Read more to discover the hot and cold thresholds for the most popular phones on the market and how to prevent temperature damage. ReadWrite
Google Shopping Expanding 360 Degree Product Images, Making New Hire – The search giant continues to tout the 360 product views and have expanded from toys to other consumer products that consumers typically like to examine closely, such as cameras. Users can move the images around to see all sides, top and bottom of a product and theoretically “feel as if they’re picking up products off the shelf.” They’ve hired or are close to hiring a new partner technology manager to join the Tech Partner Solutions Team Solutions team. Watch out Amazon! Search Engine Land
What Marketers Can Learn From Pinterest’s Top Pins – The pins remind marketers those great visual content appeals to all kinds of people with all sorts of interests not just people in the fashion, art or design industries. Bottom line: great visual content is visual content created with an understanding of its audience. MarketingProfs
Study: 42% of Marketers Never Use Responsive Design in Emails – Responsive design continues to be one of the most important trends in web design, yet a new report has found that businesses are still lagging behind consumers when it comes to mobile adoption. In addition, 41% of respondents stated that they haven’t integrated their mobile marketing, which is seen as fundamental to marketing success as mobile adoption grows and consumers spend more time using their smartphones.eConsultancy
Will YouTube, Netflix Bring Ultra HD Into Mainstream? – The 4K TV won’t likely outsell the HDTV this year, but Ultra HD may become the standard by the end of the decade if two things can happen: Content providers, especially television channels, create more content in native 4K, and Ultra HDTVs would also need to be sold in variety of sizes and price points. Until that happens, its unlikely Ultra HD will become the standard. ReadWrite
Google+ is Content Marketing on Fire – Sustainable communities are often described as ecosystems in which everyone gets what they want. This explains why Google+ is steadily gaining momentum for attracting the attention of a wider audience. Business2Community
Cloud Elements Hub Links Apps with Popular Cloud Storage Services – Cloud Elements’ specialty is creating what it calls “Elements,” which are extensions and APIs aimed at speeding integrations between different cloud services. Its customers include both corporate IT teams as well as service as a service (SaaS) developers that are seeking to tie their applications with other cloud services. Previously, this meant writing custom integrations — not to mention keeping them updated. ZDNet
2014: The Year of ‘Buy with Google’? – Aside from convenience, the main motivation for the consumer is consolidation of loyalty programs. Rather than storing loyalty cards in your physical wallet, you can join a loyalty program on your mobile wallet app. The payment industry itself seems to be shaping up for a leap forward, with its leading conference opting for a re-brand, suggesting increasing excitement over the potential of the mobile wallet as a tool to buy on mobile websites. eConsultancy
Succeeding with Content in a Mobile World – Evan Britton, CEO of FamousBirthdays.com, gave the keynote at IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia on how to unlock the potential of the mobile web. Barbara Starr, technology writer and software developer, summarizes his talk in this long form post, including hurdles to overcome when creating mobile friendly content. Search Engine Land
Study: Facebook Still Dominates in Social Media User Engagement – Pew’s Social Media Survey 2013 reveals that more than 7 in 10 online adults had Facebook accounts in 2013, up four percent from 2012. By contrast, around 20 percent visited LinkedIn and Pinterest, respectively. ClickZ
The Global SEO & Content Marketing Landscape – The climate of global search and online usage is hot. Countries all over the world are online more and more each year, buying, selling and engaging in social activities on both desktop and mobile. Globally, Google reigns in terms of overall reach, but indigenous search engines worldwide in countries like Russia, China and South Korea claimed their stake in 2013 as leading engines in their homeland. Search Engine Land
Report: Spend On In-App Ads Will Increase Fivefold By 2018 – According to Juniper Research, in-app mobile ad spend should reach $16.9 billion by 2018 – up from $3.5 billion in 2013. The report says growth will be driven by several key factors including: improved targeting capabilities plus a trend for more effective interactive rich media ads to be deployed in preference to traditional static display advertising. Plus, tablets will close the ad spend gap on smartphones. GoMoNews
Apple Users Spent $10 Billion on Apps in 2013 – What’s striking is that this money doesn’t mean much to Apple—it’s only about 1.5 percent of annual revenue. According to its latest regulatory filings, the company made $91 billion from iPhone sales in the 12 months ending in September. The App Store’s main purpose is just to drive those sales higher. Any money the company gets from it is gravy. Business Week
From the TopRank Marketing Online Community:
On 5 Ways To Create Great Content Without Writing A Lot #NMX Harsh Wardhan Singh said, The ideas as alternative to get traffic is good and I really like it. But I do not think that we can consider it as an alternative to content as being content rich has its own importance. Infographics and Video, I think can be considered as a better way than the other three as it may take less time as well. But on the other side I would like to thank you for a helpful share.
On 12 Easy, Simple Ways to Up Your Blog-Writing Game… From a Fortune Cookie #NMX Sarah Bauer said, Blog writing tips in fortune cookies – clever idea! I especially like #1 and #6, because both require the writer to really know what he or she is talking about. To get past “brochure speak” and nail the issue within the first line, you have to understand your topic with heightened confidence. And that’s the hard part, sometimes.
On How to Get Thousands of Facebook Fans in 6 Months #NMX Rick Noel said, Great tips Nick all the way around. I bet Andrea’s session was super interesting. As an added tip — instead of using the share button on updates, post something straight on the page and tag users with their Facebook page name. Vahl argued that this generates greater reach potential.
I couldn’t agree more about getting past the fact that Facebook is no longer free and using its sponsored stories to build audience and reach. Facebook advertising provides a laser-focused mechanism to hone on an audience more specific than you can image, even using your own email lists to build custom audiences. Too many small businesses are leaving money on the table by not leveraging Facebook and its targeting capabilities.
On How to Build Your Blog Community with the Right People #NMX Craig McBreen said, I like what the folks at CMI have written about creating buyer personas. It’s an avenue I’m going down with my current blog and a new property that will be live in the coming months. It’s how you start to attract the right community to your site. I’ve gone so far as to find just the perfect stock photo that I think represents my ideal customer. Then write like the dickens to attract these people … that’s a start 😉
On How to Craft Jaw-Dropping Content & Become a Better Writer #NMX
Juanita Dailey said, Great article. I really like model your writing after a sandwich, spice up your adjectives and be engaging. Do you have an example of the sandwich format?
On Want To Be A More Productive and Effective Blogger? Here Are 15 Social Media Tools To Help #NMX John said, Some very useful tools you have listed here Ben. I knew about a lot of them but Topsy and Piktochart are new to me and I will be checking them out.
I use Canva for pretty much all my Facebook page graphics and I love it. Very easy to use and even somebody like me who is graphically challenged can produce some decent looking imagery.
On 5 Tips on Crowdsourcing Your Brand’s Influence #NMX Bill said, Great post; thanks for the tips. I think that even in 2014 people use Web 2.0 tools to blast messages out in 20th century style. For me engagement is the word of the day; engage, build community, find brand advocates, and you will have online brand reach.
And, last but not least, on 10 Marketing Lessons from 10 Years of Blogging @LeeOdden Keynote at #NMX 2014 from Carrie Morgan, I absolutely love this, Lee! Great work. One other thing I would add is to NOT be afraid of giving away knowledge. While some absorb the learning and go do it themselves, it also bolsters your credibility by proving you REALLY DO know what you are doing. That credibility and the resulting influence it builds will completely negate what you feel is risk.
What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?
Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!
Photo credit: Shutterstock
