
Interactive Marketing Strategy
Social media has been described in a lot of ways--but when done properly, it can become an art.
Just a few years ago, a simple presence on Facebook meant a company was "doing social media." Without much strategy, rhyme, or reason, a company was “hip” if they were on the one social media channel. Now companies that are serious about social media have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Vine, and more. But with more and more companies entering these channels, brands have to do more than just "be there" to be successful. It takes some social creativity to break through...
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As
digital marketers, we tend to be laser-focused on generating more
business and revenue for our company. But it's also important to
have a content strategy in place, to ensure that you're providing
your customers with truly relevant content
and actively listening to what they are
saying about your brand.
Social media is one important channel for businesses to interact with customers (and potential customers) in real-time.
Every compant is unique, and each company's messaging must be relevant and engaging to their unique audience. At the same time, it's important for social marketing efforts to...
Read More »Last week I sat down with Amy Bartner, engagement and utilty manager at The Indianapolis Star and indystar.com, to talk about social media and the day-to-day tactics that make it successful.
As we all know, the changing ways that people receive and consume
news have necessitated a shift in how news media reach their
audiences. The traditional method of assembling a team of reporters
and photographers to publish a newspaper once, perhaps twice, daily
became unsustainable, as the Internet and social media began to
offer real-time updates from an infinite number of (sometimes
dubious, but always...
Digital
marketers know that it’s all about the numbers. Every quality
social media tool will have a powerful analytics platform to show CMOs (and
their teams) how effective their social media strategies are
shaping up to be. Hopefully, most CMOs also know that social media
is truly an area of marketing where the numbers can craft a
narrative. Although numbers can’t capture all the nuances of a
brand’s voice on social media, the numbers do help to show how well
the brand’s messages are being received by customers, and that’s a
direct reflection of the strategy and voice as a whole.
As a CMO,...
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Each
Thursday at 11am EST, marketers from around the world join the
ExactTarget user community on Twitter for a conversation about
trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing
industry. We call this virtual coffee chat the ExactTarget Café.
The
ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter
chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging
topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. This
virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by
@ExactTarget.
The
ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter
chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging
topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The
virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by
@ExactTarget. Have you heard
about the Social Media Domination Road Tour? It begins on
June 13 in Philadelphia and seats are filling up! Jason Falls and
Nichole Kelley from Social Media Explorer will work with you to
develop and leave with a fully executable:
- Social Media strategy
- Content marketing strategy
- Measurement strategy
If you ever had to justify a trip, this one is easy. Prices are low and after one full day of this hands-on workshop, you'll leave with a plan you can execute and meaure the very next day.
If that's not enough, here's a letter you can customize to win your manager's approval.
Read More »There’s no question that social media has become an essential part of marketing strategies for B2B and B2C companies alike. But for businesses without a dedicated social media manager, social marketing can present a bit of a challenge for overwhelmed marketers. With your attention stretched across multiple platforms, how do you maintain a consistent presence on each and respond to interactions without letting social completely take over your schedule? And at the end of the day, how do you prove that these efforts are worthwhile?
Marketing automation is sometimes criticized for being impersonal,...
Are
you a digital marketer? Do you work for a travel brand? If you
answered yes, then this blog post is for you!
ExactTarget recently released Reaching Today’s Digital Traveler, a compilation of tips and tactics that are critical for digital marketers in the travel and hospitality industry. Here’s the list of tactics, plus the questions you should ask yourself to keep your digital communication strategy on track.
1. Grow Your Subscriber list
To determine why your brand might be missing out on conversations with interested and ready-to-purchase travelers, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you...
When it comes to the marketing industry, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Not long ago, digital marketing was only a whisper within corporate marketing teams – now it’s here, it’s as competitive as ever and it’s completely changing the way we do business. Here are my predictions for what’s to come over the next year.
Smart, personalised content
It’s time to stop being oh-so-frightened of data capture and start
taking advantage of the fact that personalised content makes browsing the web an
absolute pleasure! Take Linkedin, for example – simply log in and
you’re presented with the...
If you’ve mastered marketing automation 101, and even tackled our 9 steps to go beyond the marketing automation basics, then you’re ready for a few of our expert tips. At this point, you should be delivering highly relevant and dynamic email content, sending out drip emails to nurture prospects over time, and managing your social profiles using real-time and scheduled posts.
Sound about right? If so, then read on to find out how you can continue to improve your marketing automation efforts with these 8 steps, inspired by the Mastering the Art of Marketing Automation eBook:
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The ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by @ExactTarget.
This week's chat is focused on data management. Interactive marketers are obsessed with data for good reason! Driving personalization, segmentation, and relevant campaigns are all backed by data. We're going to dive into the data that drives cross-channel campaigns. We look forward to your insights and questions!
Here's...
Read More »Currently, a stunning 43% of all email opens occur on mobile devices, quickly overshadowing desktop opens (32%) and webmail opens (25%). Data from Litmus shows us that this percentage is up 38% in the last year alone. Basically, subscribers continue to use viewing environments that include many screen sizes:
- iPhone, Android, and tablets (mobile devices)
- Installed email programs like Outlook and Apple Mail (desktop)
- Email accessed through a web browser like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail (webmail)
This means that by a growing majority, subscribers are tapping and swiping instead...
Read More »You’ve all read the stats and seen the infographics: consumers are awash with technology, and mobility is leading the charge. Many marketers already have mobile marketing strategies in place--but for those who don’t, now is the time to prioritise. It’s no longer a matter of just being mobile-friendly. You have to think mobile first.
Remember, you’re up close and personal
Consider how you use your phone. You keep it in a special case, use it to take and store personal photos and communicate with loved ones. You work with it. You play with it. Heck, most of us even sleep with it! The smartphone...
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The first thing most aspiring marketers learn is the importance of identifying and subsequently engaging those beautiful people called “the audience” no matter where they live online. This lesson gains wholehearted acceptance from everyone in the marketing world. However, the execution becomes complicated, and soon we all learn that feeding something like a blog everyday just simply isn’t enough.
We must put ourselves on the customer's online path.
Think goals first, campaigns second and tactics third.
What’s the goal? Always start there. That’s what the university lecturer taught you a long time...
Read More »There’s been a lot of debate about whether social media increases or decreases brand loyalty. While it allows a customer to gain more access and get closer to the brand, it also allows competing brands to do the exact same thing. With more brands competing for customers, it is easy for consumers to switch brands.
In the sports industry, empires are built on brand loyalty – specifically the loyalty of the organization’s fan base. As we have written several times, social media and sports seem to be a combination built for each other. Now that nearly all teams at all levels are on Twitter, it is...
Read More »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...
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The
ExactTarget team invites you to participate in our #ETCafe Twitter
chat every Thursday from 11am-12pm ET, where we discuss emerging
topics and trends from across the interactive marketing world. The
virtual coffee chat is hosted directly on Twitter, hosted by
@ExactTarget. 









