Voice Marketing

The human race has used storytelling to persuade, share our history, and convey information for the entire length of our existence—since before the written word came about.

When you consider the breadth of companies whose profits depend on storytelling, you see that this hasn’t changed in 2013: movies are more popular than ever. YouTube reached the one-billion-monthly-users milestone in March of this year. (By comparison, Twitter has 200 million monthly active users) And though digital formats are eating into the profits of traditional books, the reading industry as a whole is stronger...

Is your brand on every social media platform under the sun yet mastering engagement in none?

The virtues of having a social media presence are blindingly obvious. After all, what brand wouldn’t want to connect with their customers, build brand reputation and ultimately increase sales? But all too often this desire to engage online gets side-tracked and you find yourself staring down the barrel of multiple social media profiles with no notifications. So how can you optimise your efforts on social media and increase engagement with fans and followers?

Let’s take a look at some best practice...

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

Steven is VP of Marketing at Bloomerang. He is a featured contributor to Social Media Today, and has been published in Search Engine Journal, Business2Community and the Content Marketing Institute. Steven has spoken at national and local conferences, and is frequently interviewed by traditional media outlets in Indianapolis for his expertise in social media marketing.

There's no shortage of content marketing advice out there. Now that most marketers...

One of the great things about working on the web is that the work is never done. Even after a website or landing page is launched, there is always opportunity for improvement. Additional pages will be added. Some will be revamped. New microsites and landing pages will spawn at a moment's notice.

With all this movement and additional work, it is possible that the original designer or team that worked on the initial launch won't be as heavily involved in these new projects. But how does one maintain consistency and brand integrity with projects being passed through so many hands?

Unless you spend...

(Warning: Sarcasm ahead)

Sometimes it’s just too easy. The power to communicate through email, mobile and social is all right there waiting for someone to start flooding the world with information. So you strike out into the world with your content and expect great results.

Using email for monthly news, SMS for quick bites of information and social media for event announcements might seem like a good idea, but you can easily end up with a bunch of disconnected content aimed at way too many targets. At this point, you're just sitting and back hoping for results without a specific goal in mind.

Misu...

Over the past few years, I've come to realize that my time here at Pardot has been nothing short of amazing. I love to watch our engineers take customer feedback and use it to develop new features. Just the other day, we rolled out a brand new feature that opens up a lot of doors for marketing and sales--an integration with UserVoice that will allow marketing and sales to identify both happy and unhappy consumers instantly, and apply business rules to these situations.

UserVoice is an application used by over 16,000 companies to help track suggestions and feedback from their users. At Pardot,...

Want some advice on how to deal with those complainers on Facebook and Twitter? I recently wrote an article for Marketing Profs on this very topic!

For every complaint expressed, studies indicate that more than 25 go unregistered. Rather than complain, the vast majority of those dissatisfied customers simply take their business elsewhere. And the millions (or billions) of lost revenue are rarely recovered. But for those who do complain, there is no one right way to respond because every situation is unique. Instead, it's important to look at different complainer personas and react accordingly.

So...

Savvy hoops fans are well aware of who Clark Kellogg is and his impact on the game of basketball. Clark ‘Special K’ Kellogg was a McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school in Cleveland, OH. He went on to play for The Ohio State University from 1979-82, earning All-Big Ten Conference and MVP honors. Kellogg declared for the NBA draft after his junior year of college and was drafted by the Indiana Pacers in the first round.

Despite a promising rookie season in the NBA where Kellogg averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds a game, he was forced to retire after five seasons in the NBA due to knee...

It’s safe to assume that technology, devices, and user behavior will continue to evolve over time. Whatever happens, marketers need to deliver a positive experience for every user.

With that in mind, let’s consider two solid approaches to design optimization:

• Mobile Aware
• Responsive Design

Mobile Aware: Simple Design Improvements

This approach uses design-only tactics, making simple improvements to enhance both the desktop and mobile experience. The goal is to create a single, mobile-friendly visual framework that works in all viewing environments. Here are few tips to create mobile-aware layouts:

• Fo...

With all the buzz about NFC and the mobile wallet still swirling post-SXSW 2013, I’ve been particularly interested in the consumer’s take. I know SXSW-goers and marketers are hyped about these possibilities and boldly proclaim that mobile is the future of retail, but is this a case where marketers are from Mars? Let’s take a moment to ground ourselves and learn more about the mobile shopper before going futuristic.

A poll by eMarketer shows the mobile wallet services that mobile Wi-Fi users have used to make in-store purchases. In Q4 2012, one-third of mobile Wi-Fi users had used PayPal, 20%...

In a world where smartphone penetration in the US has reached 55%, marketers can no longer afford to think of email messages in terms of “mobile” and “non-mobile.” The reality is that subscribers will likely view your messages on a wide variety of devices—including desktops, laptops, smart phones, and tablet computers.

Looking for more interactive design tips for email and new ways to make your brand voice distinct and effective? Read our latest whitepaper, Designing for the Mobile Inbox.

As a part of our Voice of Customer program, we're always innovating with new ways to delight clients and gather their feedback so we can continue to improve the ExactTarget experience. That's why we recently organized the first-ever company-wide Client Thank-a-Thon! 

The Thank-a-Thon worked just like it sounds: a drive to call clients and thank them for their partnership. Additionally, we targeted contacts who had not yet taken the Client Success Survey we had recently sent and asked for their time to complete it.

Over 30 non-client facing ExactTarget employees from teams across the company (HR,...

On Monday, Twitter and Compete published results of a study on Twitter’s primary mobile users. According to this study, 60% of their 200 million active users log in via mobile at least once a month. To improve engagement with mobile-age consumers, here’s what you should take away from the study:

1. Primary mobile users on Twitter are 57% less likely to use Twitter on desktop, and 15% use tablets to access the app. Hint: Optimize your content for mobile and link to sites that are mobile optimized.
2. 18 - 34 year olds are 52% more likely to access Twitter via mobile. Hint: Consider targeting mobile...

The Super Bowl was slightly different than last year for the city of Indianapolis. IN 2012, we were the host city and millions around the world watched what has become America's largest sport event. With that said, New Orleans was an excellent host city and we were excited to track the social media experience of the Super Bowl once again. 

This year we asked our partner, Visible Technologies, to help us track the social media conversation relating to the Social Super Bowl. Visible is the leader in social media monitoring, analytics, and services for enterprises globally. They are an...

If Client Experience (CX) experts are right, companies that use surveys heavily to monitor the opinions of their customers will find their effectiveness wanes over time. This “Decline of Surveys” was highlighted as the number one CX trend to watch for 2013 in a recent blog post by the Temkin Group.

As they point out, “As more companies thirst for customer feedback, the number of surveys has escalated. But there is a limit to customers’ willingness to complete surveys. As completion rates get more difficult to maintain, companies will become more efficient with the questions they ask, target...

I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Thomson, VP of business development and platform at Klout. During the interview, we talked about the future of marketing, influencer relationships, and social currency. There are many times when brands focus so much on lead generation and advertising that they forget the influencers within their community. 

The key to a successful social, mobile, and email strategy? Social engagement. Personalization. Influence. We are seeing a mobilizing base of influencers that is useful. How do brands get a better share of voice within the influencer community that...

I meet many people on my travels while representing ExactTarget at conferences and events. It is just a fact of life. However, it is rare that I enjoy meeting someone as much as Ian Greenleigh from Bazaarvoice.

"Bazaarvoice, translated literally, is the 'voice' of the 'marketplace.' We believe customers still want to share experiences and opinions, and learn from people like them when they make buying decisions. If companies listen carefully, they'll change the way they do business – focusing on what's most important to their customers."

Bazaarvoice is an excellent partner of ExactTarget and I...

ExactTarget has a larger-than-ever team focused on leading the market in our Voice of Customer efforts. A major initiative this year is to further enhance how we "close the loop" with clients after they fill out our annual Client Success Survey. 

As a company with roots in email marketing, it may not be surprising that a large part of this strategy involves triggering targeted emails to teams across our organization when survey responses come in. These emails have proven to be instrumental in not only quickly informing about what are clients are saying, but also spurring action.

Here are some of...

This week, I'm presenting a series of posts that reveal some of the top things consumers want from marketers—backed by solid, statistical data—plus real, actionable recommendations to help you improve your cross-channel marketing program.

Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series, then read on for today's tip!

TIP #4: Consumers want to interact across multiple channels

Let’s face it—email, mobile, and media social belong together! Consumers don’t limit their interactions to one channel, and neither should your marketing.

According to our 2012 Channel Preference Survey:

• 91% of consumers...

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, blogger and social media specialist Andre Bourque shares his thoughts.

Beneath the Surface: Storytelling in 2013

For years, Seth Casteel photographed dogs leisurely floating in pools and playing in water fixtures. It wasn't until one of these animals lunged for a toy and dove into a pool that he captured an entirely new and revealing perspective on an...