Join us for this live webinar on Thursday, July 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. Register here for free. Marketers used to rely on third-party market research, a few focus groups, and their best gut instincts to figure out what might appeal to customers and what might not. Fast forward 15 years and marketers’ laments about a paucity of data have turned into an avalanche. It also means that CMOs who embrace the importance of data (and they will be the ones to succeed) must make best friends with their CIO. Yet, there’s a palpable gap between the marketing and tech worlds, so establishing a productive working relationship and aligning goals can be a tough haul, especially given long-standing divisions. “The challenge is 50 percent technology and 50 percent processes in how you bring those teams together,” says Philip Sheldrake, technology analyst and managing partner for Euler Partners — and one of the expert panelists who will be sharing key insights on how these two essential departments must now work together. One way to understand this utlimate partnership is to look at the change in role from CTO to CIO — and the shift in emphasis from technology (‘T’) to information (‘I’). “The ascendance of the CIO, and the emphasis on the ‘I’ reflects what the organization actually needs,” says Sheldrake, “because the CMO, like all other C types, doesn’t want technology — they want information to inform, to inspire, to act upon.” But the two camps represent […]

So Verizon is buying AOL for $4.4 billion, or $50 per share. After news of the deal broke, a number of people also noted that in a somewhat awkward twist, analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded their outlook on AOL shares just last week. On May 5, Goldman put a “Sell” rating and $38 price target on AOL, basically telling its clients the stock was not something they should want to own right now. In fact, they might even consider selling it. Following the news of the company’s deal with Verizon, shares of AOL were up 18%. However! Goldman’s note actually has a few warnings that Verizon may want to pay attention to. In announcing the deal, Verizon said the deal to buy AOL “supports our strategy to provide a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators, and advertisers to deliver that premium customer experience.” And so while AOL owns a bunch of content, brands such as The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, and Engadget, what Verizon really wants is the ad technology and the ad platform. And this might be a challenge for Verizon. Here’s Goldman: While AOL has made progress in its ad business through acquisitions, investments, and integrations, we see an increasing competitive risk from larger platforms like Facebook growing capabilities to reach audience off its platform. With Facebook increasingly bridging its “people-based marketing” with Atlas and LiveRail to deliver the demo targeting TV buyers are accustomed to, AOL could lose programmatic share, particularly in video. In its note, Goldman says all […]

There’s a sketch in the first season of Portlandia called Did You Read It?, in which Fred and Carrie discuss articles they’ve seen – in McSweeney’s, the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal – with increasingly frenzied competitiveness. As they dash across the road to pick up yet another free newspaper, they get run over – because they didn’t read the sign. As a TV obsessive, this is shamefully familiar. Mad Men is back. Game of Thrones is almost back. In the next three months, there’s new Louie, Veep, Orphan Black, Hannibal, Orange is the New Black, and Masters of Sex. I’ve made a list, on a sticky on my desktop, to make it all seem more manageable. That list of titles is evidence enough for never going to the cinema again. But then I start to consider the commitment and it becomes overwhelming. What will happen to my summer? Will I ever see the outdoors? How will I have time to watch them and read all the thinkpieces and argue about it on my social network of choice? It’s hard to knuckle down to an earnest essay about the thematic concerns of a slow-moving meditative cable drama without wondering when TV stopped, well, being fun. I knew there was a problem when I finally got through all 13 episodes of Netflix’s amiable comedy The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, then instantly started Googling for interviews and articles around it (the brilliant New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum provided, as always, a review […]

Authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership. But a simplistic understanding of what it means can hinder your growth and limit your impact. Consider Cynthia, a general manager in a health care organization. Her promotion into that role increased her direct reports 10-fold and expanded the range of businesses she oversaw—and she felt a little shaky about making such a big leap. A strong believer in transparent, collaborative leadership, she bared her soul to her new employees: “I want to do this job,” she said, “but it’s scary, and I need your help.” Her candor backfired; she lost credibility with people who wanted and needed a confident leader to take charge. Or take George, a Malaysian executive in an auto parts company where people valued a clear chain of command and made decisions by consensus. When a Dutch multinational with a matrix structure acquired the company, George found himself working with peers who saw decision making as a freewheeling contest for the best-debated ideas. That style didn’t come easily to him, and it contradicted everything he had learned about humility growing up in his country. In a 360-degree debrief, his boss told him that he needed to sell his ideas and accomplishments more aggressively. George felt he had to choose between being a failure and being a fake. Because going against our natural inclinations can make us feel like impostors, we tend to latch on to authenticity as an excuse for sticking with what’s comfortable. But few jobs allow […]

Both email marketing and marketing automation software should ultimately save time and enhance revenues — and taking a myopic view of these technologies’ applications in a client company is a major oversight. When marketers are able to look at how these technologies are functioning through a customer lifecycle, they can identify bottlenecks, opportunities, and relationships between the two that open up massive potential to boost the bottom line — and that’s the business we’re in. As email marketers, we’re not merely in the strategic advisory business, or the software integration business, or the copywriting / optimization business — though we’re involved in all those components and more. The work of a real email marketer (the work I’m involved in every day) is the business of driving results that you can see on the bottom line. The unique process that we use with our client companies goes through four distinct phases: Collecting, Connecting, Converting, and Circulating. Though I’ve covered some of the best practices of these email marketing phases on Duct Tape Marketing blog, today I’ll dive into more depth to explore how we might improve each phase. By testing and analyzing the entire email and automation process, we’re able to find the small opportunities that create big yields, and identify which projects should be the client’s highest priority. Below, we’ll cover each phase distinctly, and look into how opportunities can be mined (and problems solved) in each of the four distinct quadrants. Email Marketing Phase 1: Collecting In analyzing this […]

In running a digital-marketing consultancy in a tech mecca like Seattle, I work with larger companies and spend time with local startups hoping to crack the big time with their ideas and energy. What’s apparent, though, is that many startup entrepreneurs struggle to market their companies through digital channels. Many of these fledgling businesses are led by people who are perhaps great developers or salespeople but they lack experience with digital marketing and public relations. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, here are three things to know about marketing and PR to give your company the best shot at being competitive within your target niche: 1. Understand the importance of web search. OK, I’m sure you know how to use a search engine, but do you understand how they work? Check out Search Engine Land’s video for a solid quick and dirty introduction to search engine optimization to understand how to position your company’s website to rank for relevant search terms. Did you also know that search engines collect a ton of related information on search trends and consumers’ use of mobile devices that entrepreneurs can mine for competitive intelligence and to understand what their target audiences are looking for? That way it’s possible to tweak marketing messaging to make it more relevant and engaging. My client U.K.-based Majestic.com offers a tool called the Site Explorer that company owners can use for understanding which websites are linking to a corporate site. Many SEO professionals use it since search engines like Google […]