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Content marketing

19 tools to improve your content marketing strategy

As we wave goodbye to 2012 and say hello to 2013, there’s a good chance, you, like many other people, have been working to put together a content marketing strategy for the new year.

No doubt you’ll have the objectives in place, created a well thought out strategy and work plan as long as your arm.  

It’s that last element I want to help you with in this blog post, by sharing a clutch of tools and services which will save you time, improve your results and give you the freedom to work on the creative aspects of your campaign.

Your brand journey is never finished

Branding is both an art and a science and it’s a living, breathing discipline that’s always changing. We can’t take a class, get a degree, and sit back on our laurels and say we’re brand “experts”. Even those of us who have been successfully making a living for a long time in building and managing brands need to stay on our toes.

That’s because we live in a world where there are unprecedented changes in technology, social media and consumer macro trends, and all of these have an impact on the way we create strong brands that engage our consumers.

The good news is there has never been a more exciting time to be a digital marketer. The bad news is that it’s never been more challenging.

That’s why if you’re going to be in the game, you’ve got to play to win and commit to continual learning. 

How do you create a marketing function fit for the future?

This was the question a newly-appointed CMO asked me recently. It’s a tough question. Almost as tough as the “What does good look like?” question we get asked all the time in the realm of digital marketing and ecommerce where reliable benchmarks or accepted best practice are hard to come by. 

The challenges and opportunities around the future of the marketing function are well known. Dealing with ‘big’ data and analytics, figuring out how social media fits in, integrated online and offline marketing, delivering a seamless customer experience across channels, working more closely with “IT”, moving from broadcast to dialogue, globalisation, innovation, personalisation, more agility, attracting and keeping the right talent. 

But how do you create a marketing function best placed to embrace these challenges and opportunities?  As ever, the answer is “it depends”. But rather than end with that consulting cop out, I wanted to draw out some of the insights we believe we at Econsultancy have observed. 

Should CMOs aspire to be CXOs?

That’s CXO as in “Chief Experience Officer” though perhaps more often called Chief Customer Officer.

A quick check on LinkedIn shows very few CXOs outside of agencies though many more Chief Customer Officers.

But job title semantics aside, the key theme is ‘customer experience’. Is it overhyped? Or is it the future of marketing?

China: a special report on digital marketing and e-commerce

What is the state of digital marketing and e-commerce in China? 

I’m just back from a week long trip to Shanghai where I talked to a lot of people in the digital industry there. Following are some of my observations about how the digital marketing landscape in China compares to the West. 

Six tips for an effective online press room

What happens when a journalist comes to your web site and tries to find information? Can they easily find what they need or instead, do they click off, and visit one of your competitors to get the info they need?

Your online press room should be an important component of your PR, sales and marketing plans. Your press room is open and working for you 24/7. Editors and writers often work late at night, on the weekends and holidays when your PR and marketing teams are not available. Your website and its press room have to be able to provide all the info needed.

Announcing the Econsultancy Innovation Awards 2010 shortlist

Ah, December. For many media folks it is a month of fat lunches and the parties. It used to be like that for me too, until we launched our Innovation Awards a couple of years ago. 

Since then December has turned into a month of hardcore reading. Our in-house judging panel (me, CEO Ashley Friedlein and Research Director Linus Gregoriadis) spent the majority of the month poring over the 350+ entries, checking out sites and apps, and generally trying to make sense of things.

Last year was a great year for innovation, based on what we read. There are some amazing things going on in our industry. 

17 digital marketing trends for 2011, by Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein

Following are my personal views on what will be interesting and important in the world of digital marketing and e-commerce for 2011. 

I haven’t given extensive justification for any of these. It’s just what I feel to be likely from my many conversations with industry influencers.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts, or feel free to post a link to your own predictions.  

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