TheMarketingMojo

Again – a little out of left field, but another day of shooting from the front of the office.  Can’t wait until they blow up our building!

(as seen on The Mouth of the Funnel)

The face of marketing is changing.  Techniques and approaches that worked as recently as 18 months ago will fall by the way side within the next 18.

I’ll paraphrase Gretzky here; the goal is to not be where the ball is, but where it’s GOING TO BE.  To take advantage of the emerging opportunity you need to start preparing today.

While there will be other components to the messaging mix, the most important ones, that I call the Big 6, are going to be key.  Review the following list.

Are you ready, or do you need to get to work?

1.  Website
- Optimizing page structure and wording for SEO
- Setting up tailored landing pages for cross channel campaigns
- Hosting webinars and other rich media destination content

2. Email
- Eliminating acquired list mailings
- Growing list of 1st party opt-ins
- Using for retention campaigns

3. Search
- Building a link back network
- Optimizing all forms of content for specific keywords
- Exploring emergent search engines like Facebook

4. Display
- Incorporating as part of a broader cross channel campaign
- Utilizing highly targeted, verticalized networks
- Tracking all of your referral sources

5. Content Syndication
- Developing content specifically for off-site deployment
- Establishing outlets on YouTube, SlideShare, Scribd, etc.
- Using simple syndication through RSS, Feedburner, etc.

6. Social Engagement
- Targeting specific communities to penetrate
- Actively commenting and publicizing others content
- Growing followings and connections

If you can put a check next to all of these you are in pretty good shape.  You have a strong foundation to work from and are ready to start innovating!

Not really relevant to anything, but this was right outside the office today.  Kind of cool…

Interesting company.  Kind of a hidden gem in the marketing automation world.  Noticed them coming across while checking some stuff out on Genius.com site.  Apparently Genius has given up the ghost with their own analytic tracking capabilities?

VisiStat is pretty darn interesting.  For a long time I’ve been saying the most important aspect of the marketing automation tools is their ability to produce an integrated multi-channel profile.  VisiStat’s story is as strong as any that I’ve seen other than Knotice.

http://www.markhodes.com/my_weblog/2010/04/cross-channel-funnel-management.html#

The Gretzky quote is one of my favorite of all times.   So applicable to business.   I think Mark also speaks truth when he talks about the need for marketers to achieve integrated profiles today.  Those that don’t won’t be able to capitalize on what comes next…

LoopFuse has launched a free entry-level version of its marketing automation system. Is this a route to sales and marketing alignment?

via Free Marketing Automation System Anyone? -Courtesy of Loopfuse.

A friend recently asked what exactly does a CMO do.  A seemingly straight forward question, but when I started to think about it there is really a lot more to it.

Too often, the CMO is pigeon holed into a creative / program / communication type of role.   This may be justified in some cases, but a top notch CMO should be a whole lot more.  Arguably the CMO should be one of the most cross functional people in the organization.  Lets enumerate all the areas:

Read the rest of this entry »