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By creating customer journey maps, brands are understanding their customer better. Here are four lessons to keep in mind when rolling out your strategy.

Opportunities to build meaningful connections with your audience look drastically different now than they did last year, or even just a few short months ago. In-person events are no longer available for prospecting, more time spent at home has changed content consumption habits, and economic uncertainty has put pressure on businesses of all shapes and sizes.  With all of these … Read More

All too often we see marketing technologies become a junkyard of underutilized and disparate tools. So how do you know when it is time to check in and make sure each technology is enhancing your overall process?  Here are four research-backed signs that it is time to re-examine your MarTech stack to maximize efficiency, with insights from experts. Sign #1: … Read More

Email marketing effectiveness is eroding. Gone are the days when marketers could blanket-deliver mass emails to their list and expect a captive audience. However, open rates and other measures of effective engagement can still be optimized for this established marketing tactic and according to our research, marketers still believe email can pay off. In the year ahead, 73% of marketing … Read More

Marketing dollars have shifted from traditional media to digital channels, like email and social media, because of the economies of digital marketing level the playing field for companies of all sizes. But what will an effective digital marketing plan look like in 2020?  Ascend2, a research-based demand generation firm, recently published the 2020 Digital Marketing Plans Report. The Summary Report is available … Read More

Do I trust you? How do I build trust? What types of content do people trust? Building trust is a critical part of any marketing strategy and is especially important when creating a content marketing strategy.  The Ascend2 Content Marketing Engagement Survey asked marketing professionals what types of content are most trusted by target audiences? At the top of the list, … Read More

Marketing technology (martech) is growing at a rapid pace, just look at the 2019 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic. The Supergraphic includes 7,040 marketing solution provides. To put the growth in perspective, the Supergraphic first published in 2011 with a total of 150 marketing solution providers. As of 2020… ChiefMarTec’s Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic includes 8,000 solutions. Up over 13% from 2019. … Read More

Increasing the number of leads, sales prospects and customers acquired, and improving brand awareness, are all primary objectives for a marketing strategy according to a majority of marketing influencers. Planning and deploying a marketing strategy will benefit from an objective point of view and skills that may not be available in-house. But how will you choose the right resources to … Read More

Do you take advantage of personalization in your marketing campaigns?   Many companies have only scratched the surface of how they use personalization to target prospects, engage audiences, accelerate the sales process, and increase sales revenue.   Basic personalization, such as including a person’s first name on an email campaign, is just the first step of a new world of personalization: hyper-personalization.  … Read More

Technology implemented for content marketing purposes is considered most effective by about half (51%) of marketing influencers. Marketing analytics and email marketing are also considered most effective martech implementations by 47% and 45% respectively. The technology available to marketers is changing rapidly. The technological needs of marketers is also changing, becoming critically important to business success. But what trends will … Read More

Engaging customers online and measuring digital marketing results are challenging barriers to success for 49% and 47% of marketing influencers respectively. The sales-related goal of increasing customer acquisition is also a barrier to success for marketers. Prospects and customers are almost always online. And an effective digital marketing strategy provides the plan of action required to engage them. Sounds simple, … Read More

About one-third (34%) of marketing influencers say their organization has already developed an email-driven content marketing strategy, while another 35% are acting on it now. One-quarter (25%) are still talking about it, and the remaining 6% have done nothing yet to develop a plan. Digital marketers are combining email and content marketing strategies to optimize results. But what does a … Read More

According to 47% and 46% of marketing influencers respectively, social media marketing and email marketing are effective tactics for achieving the top lead generation priorities. Content or video marketing (39%) and SEO (38%) are the also effective tactics. Creating demand in a digital world requires a combination of effective strategies to both generate and nurture leads, with the goal of … Read More

Management and marketers want to know what impact marketing has on sales revenue. That’s why 81% of marketing influencers describe measuring marketing attribution as very important. Measuring and attributing the results of marketing efforts to revenue has become a primary goal for many companies. But what strategies and tactics are savvy companies using to measure marketing attribution? Click here to … Read More

Mapping the customer experience and utilizing personalized/dynamic content are considered effective tactics for optimizing marketing automation by 53% and 51% of marketing influencers respectively. Marketing automation is “very important” to the overall performance of marketing, according to 94% of the best-in- class marketers participating in a recent Ascend2 survey. But how do you optimize marketing automation to continually increase performance? … Read More

Failing to plan is planning to fail. That’s why “developing a more effective strategy” to integrate search and social advertising practices is a top priority for 59% of marketing influencers. “Increasing search and social ad conversions” is also a top priority for half (50%) of respondents. Integrating the “pull” of paid search with the “push” of social media ads is … Read More

Single-topic email campaigns are a most effective tactic for improving email engagement for 46% of marketing influencers. By focusing the subject line, content, etc. on a single-topic, marketers are able to capture and keep the attention of those subscribers interested in that topic. Email marketing performance is driven by subscriber engagement. The more engaged a prospect or customer is, the … Read More

Integrating data across more technologies is a most challenging barrier to success for 44% of marketing influencers. If an organization is unable to generate reliable and relevant data (a challenging barrier for 41%), integrating the unreliable data is not desirable. One of the factors most critical to marketing success is the data used to fuel your systems. The impact of … Read More

While aligning sales and marketing initiatives is a top priority for half (50%) of marketing influencers, they also want credit where credit is due. For this reason, 41% consider attributing marketing efforts to revenue another top priority for ABM. Half of marketing influencers consider aligning their initiatives with sales teams a top priority for an ABM strategy in 2018. But … Read More