Marketing dances the fine line between pure numbers and human touch. No business of a subdivision of business can run without data. Similarly, marketing have been embracing big data to meet their needs as well. Now marketers can successfully judge who is a loyal customer and who is not. Using big data marketers has successfully identified potential customers, their demographics and ways to retain them. They can identify what the customers want and need which the competing company fails to deliver. Analysis of results has also become easier. Read the full article here: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/hosting-facts/how-big-data-is-transforming-marketing-for-good-71635

Agile and Waterfall, both are digital marketing processes. Agile marketing is more flexible, requires close interaction between teams (use open-ended approach) and encourages creativity. Its methods rely on real-time data in order to respond quickly. Digital marketing under it requires an updated on-line platform and also works on SCRUMS (short-term update meetings). In contrast, waterfall marketing is less flexible, favors sequential and clear work division. It requires huge data gathering. Unlike agile, waterfall works on long term approach in marketing. Waterfall logistics are slow but are very effective and finished with in stipulated time frame mainly because work is always in planned and organized way. To read more, click here:  

http://www.rokkmedia.co.uk/blog/whats-the-difference-between-agile-and-waterfall-marketing

People spend more time on the social media nowadays. So, marketers are targeting their customers on the social media platforms. As a result, organizations having a social media presence are generating greater ROI. Social Media is a new communication channel that presents the combination of communication and information. With the integration of powerful search engines, people use it as a source to search for information. Organizations can also check what people are saying about others. Marketing is about your presence at the place where your potential customers can be present. Salespeople are a source for news for their clients on these social networks. There has been a decrease in the budgets for marketing with the help of social media, without affecting the marketing strategies. Read more about this at: : https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/2016/02/16/social-media-marketing-investing-roi-imi

The goal of marketing technology is to deliver "the right message to the right customer or audience at the right time," says Jake Sorofman, research vice president at Gartner. Marketing technology has evolved into a combination of complex software and data. Tools which are used today with marketing technology also create new complexities and difficulties. It can't solve the ad- waste dilemma. This means that the marketing team wastes billions of dollars on digital ads that no one sees. Marketing tech can't tell about the impact an advertisement had about the brand to the viewer. Read the complete article here: http://www.cio.com/article/3024934/marketing/how-and-why-marketing-tech-fails-to-deliver-on-its-promise.html

The purchasing decisions taken by the customers are more often the result of online reviews and various comparisons. After buying products they themselves become reviewers and express their views on web about the product. This significantly impacts the reputation of the product and hence the company. This expands marketing horizons, thus its measure can't be only limited to ROI (Return on Investment). Work of marketers is not limited to being just creative. It is important for them to be contributing employees to the organization. Testing of the marketing strategy should be done. All the influencing factors should be kept in mind. The marketing team should be aware of when to measure. Read more at: http://bloomreach.com/2016/01/measuring-marketing-roi/

Before you approach a marketing automation vendor, there is always some necessary groundwork to do. This is not only important to prevent making fool out of yourself, but also to get best out of the vendor. A vendor can only provide what you want, if you have 100% clarity of it. It is important to highlight your needs. Add-ons are always good if they make your work better. Keep the strengths and drawbacks of your old system in mind. A clear goal must be decided before starting the automation. Read more about it in the article written by James A. Martin (tech journalist and bloggerz) at: http://www.cio.com/article/3023570/marketing/12-questions-to-ask-marketing-automation-vendors-before-you-buy.html

A research was done in 2015 where purchase decisions of 20,000 European citizens, across 30 product areas and more than 100 brands in the year 2013 and 201 were examined. They were asked how social media influenced their purchasing decisions.  It was observed that social media recommendations induced an average of 26% of sales. It was found that consumers made 10% more purchases on 2014 in comparison to 2013. Moreover, the choice of product also played a vital role. For example, 40 to 50% of consumers look for social recommendations for categories like travel, investment services, etc., whereas only 15% recommendations were looking for low end utility services. So we can see that Social media does play a vital role in brand awareness and hence end up converting to the sales. Read the full article here: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/marketing_sales/getting_a_sharper_picture_of_social_medias_influence

Nowadays, cloud technology has infiltrated into the businesses of all kinds. Marketing is one main sector that has benefited abundantly from cloud technology, as it has tremendous capacity to amplify the efficiency of marketing processes. Shraddha Tewari (Editor at AceCloudHosting.com), writes about how cloud-based services have revolutionized the marketing world. Read more at - http://www.business2community.com/cloud-computing/6-things-competitors-know-cloud-based-marketing-applications-01382632#wzCTRyALvpvQlzRr.97

The social media is actually the official platform to communicate and connect with the mass of people. The access in different social media is needed to attract more audience and promote their own organization in a grand way. The skill to master the network and devote time for the same will lead to a successful one. The posts should be at repeated intervals considering the time zone of different countries. The content should be specific so that the audience gets a track of the nature and working of the company. The idea should get circulated in a simple way so that the people get connected. The skill of digital marketing is needed in order to increase productivity and boost an organization. The uploading of pictures in the different sites helps in engaging a large audience as it's an attractive technique to pool the audience. The information circulated and the working procedure should be consistent enough to sustain the status of an organization. Read more at- http://www.business2community.com/social-media/5-social-media-tips-success-01288131

Initially social media was used for socializing but with the progress of time it has undergone an impactful makeover. It is not only about advertising to a huge section of consumers but it is also the fundamental tool to influence customers. Firms will be able to determine basic information about their customers while marketing over social media and as a result the probability of obtaining clear data rises. This enables quick and easy access to data. The data collected from social media platforms are more or less accurate. However companies should take advantage of the various social media networking sites for trading their products and thereby improving both data and content.

To know more about this study, please follow the link: http://www.business2community.com/social-selling/social-media-purchasing-feature-changing-marketing-01283019

According to Adweek, "the millennial generation and its millennial mindset understand its powers as consumers, as workers and as future leaders". Seth Chatterley in his article on business2community.com discussed about the various techniques one needs to remember in case of marketing to millennials and they are as follows:

• Giving brands credit.
• Mobile technique.
• Blogs are trusted sources.
• Moving pictures.
• Apple devices.
• Offer them value.
• Ensure honesty in content and community.

Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/7-things-remember-marketing-millennials-01267636

Data is the most important thing for marketing today and most marketers understand this pretty well. Simply collecting data won't help. It should be able to tell a story. Insights derived from data are very important. Data should be able to help marketers identify their customers and the appropriate offers for them. In an organization, every department holds some data on customers. The first task of the marketer is to get rid of data silos and gather all the marketing data at one place. Once this is done, robust analytics tools can be applied to the data to generate a singular customer view. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/marketers-big-data-worth-01263023

As more and more data pours in, marketers need to keep adjusting their strategies to be updated in this dynamic ecosystem of information. Thomas Begin, vice president of strategy in Targetbase, in his special guest feature in Inside Bigdata talks about the analysis paralysis in times when many organizations are turning to consumer centric strategies. He points out the major lags in this transformation:

• Inadequate internal collaboration

• The inability to act quickly

• More focus on reporting rather than action. 

To have a look at the recommended solution to these lags follow the link http://insidebigdata.com/2015/05/05/keeping-big-data-small-to-create-engagement/

Just like other areas of economy, marketing, too, has been impacted significantly by the growth of data analytics. Although the importance of analytics has been recognized in marketing, yet it is observed that in most cases the tools are not being used efficiently. For this, aligning data with the goals of the company needs to be done. Secondly, the smooth transition from big data to useful data and determination of the relevant metrics and adoption of those metrics are required. And last but not the least, hiring of the right people with analytical and creative minds to properly use the data is imperative. Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2015/06/21/how-can-cmos-make-sense-of-big-data/

Marketing is an important way to reach out to customers. But start-ups may find it difficult to splurge a huge amount of money for marketing. So here goes a list of 5 pocket-friendly marketing techniques: i) Social media as it is an entirely free and easy-to- learn resource. ii) Conferences are also a good platform to share knowledge about one's organization with other business people. iii) Companies can offer free trial of their services or a free sample of their product. iv) Word of mouth from influential people. v) Providing customers with the proper description of their product or service and its usefulness. Read more at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/5-tips-for-marketing-on-a-budget

“Radio, television and internet-enables computers in the 20th century created an increase in option of media channels for brands.”- Christopher Heine (Digital Editor for Adweek)
Disruption and fragmentation are causing cracks between those who make platforms and those who hold the purse strings to ad budgets. Five statements from major industry players that help them to build a good marketing strategy:
• People, let's be real here.
• More native may mean more friction.
• The pace of change nowadays can be insane for creatives.
• The good news is that progress is being made.
• Everyone’s bottom line depends on this working out.
Read more at: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/5-intriguing-takes-advertising-and-technologys-relationship-status-165409

Every organization plans to launch new a product or service, but only few of them get success. The main reason for failure is they won't able to target the right customers or they won't able to explain their product or service to customers. Jennifer Lonoff Schiff (Business and technology writer and a contributor to CIO.com) talks about steps that can help you to reduce the risk of failure:

• Make sure the product or service works – before you start selling it.
• But don’t worry if your product isn’t absolutely perfect at the get-go.
• Create a dedicated landing page with an email opt-in.
• Build and/or join a community
• Cultivate influencers in your industry or niche.
• Ask people to spread the word – and give them free product or pay them to talk about it, if necessary.
• Notify top customers and followers in advance of your release.
• Use social media to get the word out.
• Advertise on Facebook.
Read more at: http://www.cio.com/article/2937141/startups/9-tips-for-launching-a-new-product-or-service.html

Marketing has undergone transformation over years. Marketers can now measure every aspect of what customers do with a variety of metrics. Engaging with my audience to convert to sales is the key to marketing. While promoting products and services, marketers should be aware of how their brand is perceived by the audience which indicates how to communicate with them. Knowing how demographics react to different promotional strategies will help marketers formulate targeted marketing campaigns. Marketers should use social media to check what people are saying about a particular campaign and thus capture the customer sentiment. Thus the best marketing campaigns are those that are edgy and experimental. Read more about this article by Gabrielle Morse (Global Events Director) at: https://channels.theinnovationenterprise.com/articles/the-4-golden-rules-for-collecting-marketing-data

Content is king, when you try to get connected with the public. - Rachel Wolfson (Content Marketing Manager at Moogsoft). Content can help you in generating leads, increase ROI and brand awareness. One thing that distinguishes between good content marketers from exceptional one is the ability to notice their content. 5 keys takeaways as to how a content marketer can get their content noticed: • Start with a clear content marketing strategy.
• Understand your target audience.
• Practice the “3 C’s” – Create, Content, Consistently.
• Know how to correctly promote content via social media.
• Recognize the value in repurposing content.
Read more at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/5-best-practices-ensure-content-gets-noticed-01251751#WdvE0oR3cCZs4h2p.99