Digital Marketing Tools

Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing guest articles from experts in the realm of content marketing. This week, Jeb Banner writes.

Jeb is CEO of SmallBox, an Indianapolis web design and marketing company. He is also a co-founder of the Speak Easy, a local co-working space. He is happily married to his wife, Jenny, and they have three amazing daughters.

I attended a local tech panel recently and was starting to space out when ExactTarget's CMO Tim Kopp said something that caught my attention: "Serving is the new selling." It reminded me of something my buddy Kevin Bailey from Slingshot...

According to a recent survey by Accenture, US home and auto insurance customers are choosing digital sources for insurance quotes and other related information more than ever before. While 76% of consumers prefer to set up and pay for their insurance policies in person with an agent, 58% indicated a preference for doing so via the Web. (Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer.)

If consumers are seeking digital outlets and want to work directly with an agent, then why not make insurance agents’ jobs easier and give them the necessary tools?

How can insurance companies make it...

Over the next several weeks, we will be sharing guest articles from experts in the realm of content marketing. This week, Josh Miles writes.

Josh Miles is principal and founder of Miles Design, a branding firm specializing in branding and website design for professional services and software firms. Josh is the author of the new Content Marketing Institute book Bold Brand: The New Rules for Differentiating, Branding, and Marketing Your Professional Services Firm.

“It will look like you guys are on everywhere, even if you’re not.”

Our media buyer always had a way of helping our clients make the...

There’s a big difference between a first-class flight and a pedi-cab ride. Similarly, there are many differences between an ROI-optimized digital marketing strategy and a half-baked, unprofitable one. As a travel and hospitality brand, you’re tasked with creating a seamless booking process for your customers—or else you might miss that narrow window of time when they’re most likely to convert.

Our own Jeff Rohrs recently shared some tips for reaching the digital traveler in a blog post for Ataway Exchange, where he’ll be speaking next month. Here are five of the top tips from Jeff’s post and...

“Email is dead – Sign up for our email to hear more…”

Google the phrase "email is dead" and you’ll find countless news articles, blogs and opinion pieces claiming the death of our beloved email is nigh--and that by 2018, email's trendier younger cousin social media will ensure that email becomes as popular a communication device as the carrier pigeon.

ExactTarget caught up with Dominic Edmunds--founder and president of SaleCycle, the basket abandonment email specialists--to get his thoughts on the death of email.

ExactTarget: So, Dominic, let’s get straight to the point. When will you be closing...

This week I head to Knoxville to attend Social Slam and participate on a great panel discussing strategies to attract and energize an online audience. In preparation for our panel discussion, my esteemed panelists (meet them below!) and I wanted to provide attendees (and those who aren't able to attend #soslam) some actionable tips to help you better engage with your social audience.

Dino Dogan, our fearless leader and moderator. Founder of @Triberr. Lousy martial artist. Recovering engineer. Singer/songwriter. Blogger. Quiet reader. Loud speaker. Global force for badassery. Hi.

Follow Dino: http...

Twitter's 6-second video-sharing application, Vine, has spent the first two months of its existence searching for a personal identity. How will this app be received by the general public? What are video clips capable of doing in 6-seconds? And how will brands find a way to use it as a promotional tool? The film industry may have found a great answer to all of these questions in the form of short teaser trailers, now being known as "tweasers." 

Monday March 25 saw the release of a 6-second teaser trailer for the upcoming X-Men film "The Wolverine." The big hype was due to the fact that this was...

The 20^th annual SXSW interactive festival in downtown Austin, TX, brought in tens of thousands of people competing to maximize their brand’s visibility. From swag to branded pedi cabs to exclusive parties, people are doing whatever they can to create brand awareness and build lead generation. Who will break out of the mainstream and leave an impression on this year’s SXSW?

Here are a few noteworthy announcements:

1. Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot Industries (known for their 3-D printers) revealed the MakerBot Digitizer. This device uses lasers to scan the contours of physical objects. These...

The 85th Academy Awards were held this past Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. While stars from the films of the past year waltzed down the red carpet, a reported 40.3 million viewers around the world (Nielsen Ratings) tuned in to see what became the most-watched entertainment telecast in the last 3 years.

Total viewership nearly doubled the Golden Globes and quadrupled the Grammys. But in a world of increasing social connectivity, something was happening in the homes of many that may be more important than which actor was snubbed and which walked away with an award.

The Osca...

When it comes to the job search, social media has almost become self-destructive. With younger and younger generations adapting to technology and social media faster and faster, digital footprints are being created at younger and younger ages.

Last weekend, ExactTarget had the opportunity to sponsor and attend the 2013 Doster Leadership Conference, a student-run event which connects 100 top student leaders from the Krannert School of Management (Purdue University) with corporate representatives for a weekend-long leadership conference in Indianapolis.

The event's hosts had the foresight to...

As a follow-up to the article I wrote for ClickZ the other day, I wanted to talk a bit more about the use of technology and the adoption of best practices in large B2B organizations.

My research for the ClickZ article looked at B2B companies on the Fortune 500* and their adoption of modern marketing tools. But when you look at the raw data, it becomes clear that there are three easy lessons for any B2B marketer.

Lesson 1: Technology is only the beginning

When adopting radical new technologies, the technology itself is often only part of the story. The other part is a shift in thinking or action....

It’s that time of year. Football has passed, our Sundays are free, and basketball emerges in the limelight. For the NBA, there are few times when the light shines brighter than during @NBAAllStar weekend.

It should be no surprise that the NBA is going to deliver on their social media strategy this weekend. After fans were able to vote via Facebook and Twitter this year, the NBA will continue to engage with fans throughout the weekend. For the already interactive league, the events will be much more than a couple of competitions and a game—it is a chance to reach their audience in new and...

An interesting trend has begun to take shape in the business of sports: savvy professional sports teams are tapping Silicon Valley for their top talent. Speaking as one who made the reverse move – from the team side to working for a software company – I find this shift to be quite fascinating.

Recent Super Bowl XLVII participant the San Francisco 49ers have led the way by hiring former Facebook, YouTube, and Yahoo exec Gideon Yu as their Chief Strategy Officer and later promoting him to team President. Yu has since brought on board several former colleagues from the tech world, and they are...

During a game of trivia the other night, I decided to cheat! I pulled out my phone, and was able to find out “Silent Bob’s” real name in less than 10 seconds.

This availability of information has programmed our society to have very high expectations when it comes to the question-and-answer process. If we have a hard time finding the answer to a question, we often get frustrated and build a negative connotation with brands that make it difficult to find information we seek.  This is not a new concept, so when I went to check out some of the most prolific B2B brands, I was surprised to see how...

Yesterday Facebook announced a new “Gifts” product – the Facebook gift card. An actual physical card, users will be able to send friends monetary gifts to various retailers that will automatically load onto the card. A single card will be able to hold balances for multiple retailers at once.

Right now there are four participating retailers (Target, Jamba Juice, Olive Garden, and Sephora) and money is only added by “gifting.” However, as the concept catches on and expands there could be some very interesting results to this experiment.

One problem social marketers continually bemoan is...

Do you remember every business that has a stand in your local food market? How about every conversation you had at a networking meeting? What about all of the restaurants on the last street you drove on?

The law of diminishing returns is one brands know very well. You have to work for your customers’ attention, and you have to work even harder to retain it. Retention is a key differentiator that can be built using social media.

"Most big brands are still using Twitter as a publishing channel rather than an engagement channel," says Saif Ajani, Sling Digital’s co-founder. Do you hear that? It’s...

The margin for error in Marketing has become razor thin. Here are five "MegaTrends" that underscore why marketing professionals need to be at the top of their game in 2013.    

MegaTrend #1: Customers are More Informed, More Influential, and Less Patient

Today’s customers are better connected, more informed, and more technically savvy than even 3-5 years ago. They have considerably more access to information to make smarter purchase decisions. They are much less patient with brands that do not deliver the information and offers they want. And they are much more vocal in expressing satisfaction –...

Today we're pleased to present a guest post from Morgan Stewart of Trendline Interactive, the firm behind the numbers of our SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, & FOLLOWERS series. Morgan's unique behind-the-scenes perspective on this report is sure to provide some interesting insights!

As marketers, we live, eat, breathe, and sleep marketing.  We are always on the lookout for new tools and channels to use in our efforts. 

As we started our research for Marketers from Mars, we predicted that marketers would be different from consumers in terms of both how often and why they use communication channels such as...

In this #InspiredMarketing blog series, we are sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. In today’s post, Linda Woolley from the DMA shares her thoughts.

Regulatory Threats Rise Up

The economic turmoil of the past four years has deeply affected the marketing industry. Yet, of all the changes I’ve observed, perhaps the most significant has been the evolution of marketing data as a highly effective driver for bottom-line growth.

According to “The Power of...

In this #InspiredMarketing blog series, we are sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. In today’s post, Stephanie Miller from the Direct Marketing Association shares her thoughts.

Technology Optimized to Serve Customers

Technology will not drive digital marketing innovation in the coming years. Smart marketers will. To be precise, smart marketers who use smart technology will drive the most innovation. But don’t get cocky, now. Marketers are not in...