Small businesses can generate ROI if they integrate email marketing with client engagement platforms. These tools are applications that can be integrated into a business website, email campaigns, or social marketing software – enabling clients to interact with a business from anywhere at any time. Some examples of these tools are online payments, online scheduling, file sharing, electronic forms and signatures, event registration, surveys and more. If email marketing is done in a right way then it can generate ROI and increase customer engagement.  To know more, follow (Ran Oelgiesser, Chief Marketing Officer of vCita)’s article link: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/articles/boosting-email-marketing-campaigns-with-client-engagement-platforms-and-scheduling-tools/1236

Organizations are in a dilemma whether to invest in an on-premises or cloud based infrastructure solution, which solution will return a greater ROI. We have to remember that what works in one location might not work in another location. But if any organization wants to get the best value, a cloud provider can offer as much security, control, visibility and network as you would find in an on-premises solution. To know more, follow Geoff Mina (CEO, Connect First)’s article link: http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/887/Default.aspx

According to Pernille Bruun-Jensen (leader in marketing efforts for NetBase) both digital marketing and customer care have moved beyond the Web to social media. Marketers have advanced technologies at their disposal. Social data is providing the higher returns on investment that business leaders are asking for. Similarly, emergencies can be detected and prevented before it is too late. To successfully lead in social media and henceforth in digital marketing, marketers need a strategy based on accuracy and speed using real-time tools. Next-generation social analytics reveals not just who is engaging with your brand and what they are engaging with, but why they are engaging. To know more about what next-generation social analytics can do for a brand go to: http://www.adweek.com/brandshare/next-gen-social-analytics-are-transforming-digital-marketing-160064

Social media now holds a place alongside print and broadcast as a major, essential marketing channel for businesses. As such, social media now should be held to the same standard as those channels: your social media ROI needs to contribute to your bottom line. To prove that your social media investment is truly warranted, you need to track how social is influencing every interaction you have with your clients.

The first step involves setting social media goals that complement existing business and departmental goals. If you have set a specific number of leads you’re trying to attain this quarter, set the number of leads you want to specifically be driven by social media. If one of your goals is to increase landing page conversion by say 10%, ensure that you’re tracking the conversion rate of people who land on the page through social channels. Audit your existing social media performance to establish baseline targets, and then set appropriate goals for improvement.

Once you’ve established your social media goals, you’ll need to identify and implement the tools and processes required to measure the ROI on your social media. This may involve adding tracking codes to URLs, building custom landing pages, and more. There are a variety of social media analytics tools which service to track the diverse metrics you are after.

Once you’ve identified what works and what doesn’t work on social, it’s time to adjust your strategy. The point of tracking your social media ROI isn’t just to prove your social campaigns are valuable, it’s to increase their value over time.

Due to the short lifecycle of social media campaigns, a failing campaign should be changed and improved as soon as possible. Social media is never static. To meet your social media ROI goals, you’ll need to constantly update and adapt your strategy taking into account the analytics data you’re tracking. To read the full article visit:http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/02/10/social-media-roi

20-30% of the business decisions really need the use of advanced techniques like predictive analytics.   70-80% of marketing decisions can be judiciously carried with simple analytics techniques. A CMO broadly expects 3 key outcomes for his business:

• Bring more “future” customers in the most cost-effective manner.

• Convert those who come to the door into customers.

• Maintain the current customers “buying.”

Predictive Analytics need advanced skills and constant maintenance. A product manager or an operations manager equipped with the right “Data to Decisions” framework and easy access to data can optimize 80% of their daily workflow on their own, without having to depend on little and costly analytics resources. For 20% of decisions, where the potential ROI justifies the use of advanced techniques, they can work with their analytics counterpart. In summary, a smart CMO knows that a marketing team equipped with a “Data to Decisions” framework and easy access to data without the company of a data science team would emerge much better than a marketing team lacking data skills supported by a large data science team.  Read more at: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/piyankajain/2013/05/26/the-8020-rule-of-analytics-every-cmo-should-know/

In a recent research by Commodity Technology Advisor, an analytical firm covering the ETRM and CTRM markets; it was found that cloud technology will be the next big thing for Energy and Commodities Trade and Risk Management (E/CTRM) solutions. More firms are accepting this technology replacing the on premise software model once preferred by companies. Cloud technology also helps in quicker realization of ROI. Other factors which help in accepting cloud technology are: speed of implementation, ease of integration, centralized vendor support and device mobility.

To read more why more firms are switching to cloud technology, follow the link below:

http://www.commodities-now.com/reports/technology/16598-future-of-commodities-trading-secure-in-the-cloud.html

An article by Devin Redmond, Co-founder and CEO of Nexgate, talks about how social media spam can damage a brand name and how it affects social media marketing ROI. He also spoke about different steps that social media marketers can adopt to stop social spam and mitigate loss.

For more information visit http://socialmediatoday.com/1865971/state-social-media-spam-social-media-spam-rise