Mobile marketing – The Internet just got personal

Posted on December 21, 2011 by wadedesign

I have been around the block a few times with websites, email, marketing solutions and branding services. My background “started” in graphics and communications. I remember the day when I would get buzzed from my design markers and super 77 spray glue (that glue would make my hair unruly for days). I would start my day by gathering my design tools of layout bond, rulers, exacto knives, and that little orange cone-shaped can filled with solvent, that removed any blemish or mistake.

Fast forward to today….Now I am living in digital world where all of the tools I once had at my disposal are still in existence, only virtual and available to me with one click. Having remained on the cutting edge over the years and transitioning from a marker and paper artist to a digital artist specializing in website design, to more recently a digital marketing strategist, I have to say that the latest trend towards capturing an audience, which totally blows my hair back is mobile applications and smart phones. These little programs can scan a credit card, purchase merchandise from my favorite store, keep my kids busy while we are traveling on vacation, find my favorite radio station, search for my favorite recipes and much more. Now I don’t have to wait until I get home to have access to the most amazing technology of our time.

The big push now is to take all of the data that’s coming in from web, search, CRM, ecommerce, mobile and email while making sense of it all. An effective marketer in today’s business will be able to take all of the digital footprints and touchpoints and make intelligent decisions in leading a company forward. He will be worth his weight in gold and able to answer the questions of the day: How am I able to capture leads, what is the most effective way to generate those leads, and how can I nurture my leads and turn them in to customers? What about brand loyalty, what makes my company unique?

CEO’s are still grappling with the ROI on this new little diddy and I have to say that it’s time to get on board or you will remain behind the curve and miss your opportunity to stand out from the competition. The numbers don’t lie, on Tuesday, Google‘s Senior VP of mobile devices Andy Rubin revealed that the Internet search giant presently activates close to three-quarters of one-million Android mobile phones daily. iPhone activity is even higher beating Android 2-1 on app downloads. Even though more users are on Android, iPhone users seem to love the ease of use to gain access via the smart phone so they download twice as much.

Social media is transforming communities (and even toppling regimes). This story from Nashville, is a good example of how access to smart phones helped a community get information when timing was critical:

During last Sunday’s storm, 44,000 Nashvillians were without power (myself included). The only way I was able to receive critical information about the severe weather advisories and the growing flood problem was through Twitter and Facebook on my phone.

If having a smart phone makes you smarter than I would say having a smart app to promote your business and stay connected with your audience is the smartest decision to reaching a generation “on the go”. Social media integration, sharing information to those that you influence, avoiding long lines in a check out, saving money on gas, personalizing my shopping experience, these are positive signs towards mobile business in a mobile friendly world.

For more research on this topic, check out the following links:

Android apps more popular than IOS – Huffington Post

Google activates 700,000 devices everyday – Mobile Marketing Watch

The Online Customer – Daily Infographic

Tried and True but not Tired – Search Engine Land

Marketers…Do you lack “business credibility” with your CEO?

Posted on November 30, 2011 by wadedesign

73% of CEOs Think Marketers Lack Business Credibility: They Can’t Prove They Generate Business Growth

They are not effectiveness-focused enough, leading to CEO-Marketer disconnect

LONDON, 15 June 2011 – 73% of CEOs think Marketers lack business credibility and are not the business growth generators they should be: they are still too far from being able to demonstrate how the cross-channel marketing strategies and campaigns they deploy grow their organisations’ top line in terms of more customer demand, more sales, more prospects, more conversions or more market share.

That’s one of the key findings The Fournaise Marketing Group, one of the global leaders in Marketing Performance Science to Generate More Customer Demand, identified through its 2011 Global Marketing Effectiveness Program in which it interviewed more than 600 Large corporation and SMB CEOs and decision-makers in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia.

The top issues CEOs have with their Marketers are:

They keep on talking about brand, brand values, brand equity and other similar parameters that their top management has great difficulties linking back to results that really matter: revenue, sales, EBIT or even market valuation (77%)
They focus too much on the latest marketing trends such as social media, because they believe they represent the new marketing frontiers – but can rarely demonstrate how these trends will help them generate more business for the company (74%)
When asked to increase their Marketing ROI, they tend to understand it as cost cutting through better economies of scale or negotiations with their third-party partners and agencies, instead of top-line growth generation: more revenue, more sales, more prospects, more buyers (73%)
They are always asking for more money, but can rarely explain how much incremental business this money will generate (72%)
They bombard their stakeholders with marketing data that hardly relate to or mean anything for the company’s P&L (70%)
Unlike CFOs and Sales Forces, they don’t think enough like businesspeople: they focus too much on the creative, “arty” and “fluffy” side of marketing and not enough on its business science, and rely too much on their ad agencies to come up with the next big idea (67%)

The worrying part: while 73% of CEOs think Marketers lack business credibility and are not effectiveness-focused enough to generate incremental customer demand, 69% of the Marketers Fournaise talked to feel their strategies and campaigns do make an impact on the company’s business, even though they can’t precisely quantify or prove it – confirming the great CEO-Marketers disconnect.

“Until Marketers start speaking the P&L language of their CEOs and stakeholders, and until they start tracking the business effectiveness of all their strategies and campaigns to prove they generate incremental customer demand, they will continue to lack credibility in the eyes of their CEOs and will continue to be seen more as a cost centre than an asset” said Jerome Fontaine, CEO & Chief Tracker of Fournaise.

For more FournaiseTrack – Media Releases

The World of Social Media 2011

Posted on November 30, 2011 by wadedesign

Social media is changing our lives and growing in record numbers. It’s not only a communication tool between friends but the corporate world has embraced it for connecting with it’s current and potential customers. Do you want to create a great “lead nurturing” campaign? If you are not using social media to connect, then you are missing out on tremendous short and long term opportunities using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. This video/infographic will explain more…

Rise of the Marketing Technologist

Posted on November 28, 2011 by wadedesign

This presentation posted by Scott Brinker states the current state of e-business and digital marketing. The advertising industry is being reformed with all of the new media options available: web, social, analytics, ecommerce, email and traditional direct marketing services. The challenge that most advertising agencies face is finding the right people with the right expertise to handle the job of marketing to a global marketplace. I welcome your comments and thanks Scott for a great job of pulling this info together!

Rise of the Marketing Technologist (And What It Means For Agencies)

View more presentations from Scott Brinker

Links to grow business

Posted on March 27, 2011 by wadedesign

I am constantly being asked what are my top “favorite” sites for web, marketing and graphics, there are many sites out there that provide free services in helping you attain good positioning and graphic support, here’s my top site links: