5 Quotes That Will Make You Question Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing fuels spectacular business growth, and great marketing matters today more than ever. The world of marketing has been disrupted by the transition to digital, empowering marketers with new tools, opportunities, and innovation.

Who better to discuss this topic than the author of 18 books, a keynote speaker, and marketing disruptor himself, Seth Godin. I had the pleasure of seeing Seth speak at Sales Machine back in June, and was magnetized by his words of tribes and purple cows juxtaposed with floor to ceiling visuals. The conversation went from the big, bold stage to the small and intimate studio setting in a recent Series Pass, where Tiffani Bova sat down with Seth for a live webcast.

Inspiration continued into this webcast, which addressed the topics and conversations that impact today’s marketers. Here’s a quick look at five Seth Godin quotes, explained.

1. “You can't buy mass anymore. It's not for sale, and if it is, you can't afford it.”

Back in the Mad Men days, TV ads were dramatically underpriced. If you bought a lot of TV ads, you were going to make a profit. As Seth Godin states, “All of the famous brands in our lives are not famous because they're better. They're famous because they bought a lot of TV.”

In the 90s through today, we’ve witnessed a giant splintering effect, where the number of options and offerings is endless. “The number of movies that Netflix offers, or the number of songs that iTunes offers, is more than all of the products sold in the old days by the Blockbusters and the Tower Records of the world,” says Seth.

Bonus app for marketing: Get B2B marketing attribution with Bizible, which helps you make the best marketing decisions. Bizible integrates with all online marketing channels including AdWords, social, retargeting, plus Salesforce campaigns for effective marketing attribution and measurement.

2. “Attention: Once it's gone, it's used up forever.” 

Now that companies are able to reach their audience in different ways, marketers have to be much more respectful of people’s time, and thoughtful about what’s truly the right thing to do. “When we sell a product that hurts someone, that's our responsibility. When we spam people, that’s our responsibility. When we promise one thing and give another, that’s our responsibility,” states Seth. “These are all our responsibility, our option, our choice.”

Great marketing can get attention, but just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should. There is a race for attention, but the most touchpoints don't always equal attention. It must be coupled with trust. “When you have attention and trust, then you can make connection and transaction,” shares Seth. “But if you're blowing the trust just to get attention, you're polluting the river we all drink from.” 

3. “It's not about finding people for your products. It's about finding products for your people.”

It’s human nature to organize. We find a tribe. We connect with a tribe. We listen to the tribe. We tell stories that spread, and then we repeat the cycle. As Seth states, marketing's job is a simple seven-word sentence:

People like us, do things like this.

“If you understand that people like you buy certain products, it’s easier to say yes. If you understand that teenagers like us, buy shoes like this, then it's much easier to go buy it there. The idea of getting the tribe to clap in unison is what marketers do,” says Seth.

4. “Do one thing: Overcome fear.” 

Fear comes from the unknown. If you know everything you need to know to buy, then there is no fear. If you’re wary, salespeople seek to address your fears. “Why are some things easier to sell than others? Because some customers are less afraid than other customers. Why are they less afraid? Because marketing has done its job,” says Seth.

Salespeople need to be there to teach, to inform, to a console, and to encourage people to do that thing that makes them nervous. That thing? According to Seth, “It’s to say yes. People are afraid to say yes. Yes feels riskier than no. Salespeople are in the yes business.”

Bonus app for sales: Change your team’s behavior with ThinkSmartOne, an automated motivation software for Salesforce to motivate salespeople with incentives and gamification. You can encourage your team to accelerate sales, input correct and relevant data in Salesforce, improve security awareness and training, manage your reward budget, and collaborate with other teams (including marketing) worldwide.

5. “Almost everything that happens, happens in our head. Get those big ideas out of your head and into action.”

The story we tell ourselves is the perception we have of how we want to be perceived in the world. If we stick to the status quo, if we’re the cog in the wheel, big change won’t happen. If you focus on what the company wants, then you’re not focusing on what your audience wants. Your audience wants their problem solved. “Solve my problem in a new way, a better way, an interesting way. Give me joy, give me meaning, give me the connection. That's what consumers are paying for now,” states Seth. “That's why in a survey of teenagers they found the typical American teenager would rather have a smartphone than a car.”

According to Seth, the place to start taking action is with your boss. This is the person who is going to support you. Find a boss who will let you share your ideas and try new things.

 Source : http://sforce.co/2asp1Dr

5 Social Media Marketing Rules You Should Live By

With the explosion of social media, any business owner who wants to cultivate a stronger relationship with their customers and earn more clients in the process should utilize social media marketing. With millions of people using social networking sites and apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on a daily basis, using social media can give your business more exposure.

Things to Remember with Social Media Marketing

Before you launch a social media campaign, here are some of the most important things you must know to help ensure the success of your social media strategy,

1. Post on a regular basis

When it comes to social media, how often you post is very important. After all, the more your audience hears from you, the more likely they are to trust you. Also, it helps you stay relevant. Therefore, make it a point to post regularly on your social media accounts so you won’t easily fade from your audience’s consciousness.

2. Post relevant content

While it is true that posting regularly is important, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should post just anything that catches your fancy. Remember, what you post matters, too. For better customer engagement, post content that is relevant to the products or services that you’re offering and can help solve your audience’s problems. Always consider your audience’s welfare and interest when choosing which type of content to post.

3. Share and retweet

A great way to expand your audience reach is to show that you’re a thought leader or an influencer in your market. One effective way to do that is to share and retweet relevant content produced by other people in your niche or industry.

4. Respond and engage

Social media won’t be fun if1 you’re the only one who gets to do the “talking.” To have a better and bigger social media presence, take the time to engage your audience or followers. Respond to their questions and comments. If you legitimately know a solution to one of their problems, be a darling and share it with them.

5. Learn from your mistakes

As with anything in life, learning from your mistake is one way to improve your social media presence. To determine what works and what doesn’t, take a look at your previous posts and see what makes them a success or a failure. Once you have a clear grasp of what sort of content your audience likes, make sure you refrain from posting content most of your followers don’t care about.

Source: http://bit.ly/29VcTHU

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How to Grow Your Startup Without a Budget

Here are 4 things you can do right now to grow your startup without a CMO or budget:

1. Use Free Resources to Spread the Word

There are some high-quality blogs and forums with a large and relevant audience that can be your content distributor and promote your startup. Popular blogs like ProductHunt, Betalist and startupli.st are ones that are being visited often by potential customers, tech industry members (including possible future investors or employees) and reporters. Promoting the launch of your startup in one of these blogs can generate massive traffic to your site and even spark interest in tech reporters who can, later on, cover your startup in large tech news outlets.

2. Reach Out to Bloggers and Reporters Yourself

Having a small or zero dollars marketing budget probably means you won’t be able to afford a good PR agency. Don’t be tempted to work with cheap agencies that can’t deliver (for reference, good PR agencies in the U.S charge somewhere between $5K-$10K/month), but rather do the outreach yourself. Whenever you are ready to spread the word about your company, prepare a pitch or a press release and send it to reporters who you know cover your field. Like anything in marketing, the best results are the targeted ones. Most media outlets publish their reporters’ emails, and there are some great templates you can use to draft a release. Before sending, do your homework on what a reporter is interested in. Influential reporters and bloggers receive hundreds of pitches a day, so the major part of your work is to plan and create a great pitch. To make sure it’s appealing and interesting, run it by your friends first to solicit feedback.

3. Use Your Personal Network

Not all marketing and growth has to do with SEO, conferences and buying media. Your personal network is valuable and can lead to even more valuable second and third-degree connections. Maintaining a strong personal network is important for any entrepreneur, as it can be tapped into from the brainstorming stage – advising with friends on aspects of the product, name, etc. – all the way through to the launch stage and future partnerships.

4. Use A/B Testing Methods to Increase Conversion

A/B testing is something that can really help you grow, without investing a lot of money. By using tools such as Optimizely and Unbounce, you can maximize the potential of users who are already visiting your site. A/B testing can be tricky if not done right, as you don’t want to be overwhelmed by numerous variables. Simplify the tests, and each time, check one variable or two. You will be surprised how a small change in the color of a button or the size of your header image can boost your conversion rate, sometimes by 20%-30% or even more.

Source: http://bit.ly/1UoWjNg

Apps Are a Great Business Opportunity for Anyone

 

A fantastic business opportunity would have a low initial investment, huge profit potential, and minimum overhead. Apps are a great business opportunity because they meet all these requirements. All you need is an idea.

Apps do not need a large investment to start. You can get an app written for $2,000 to $5,000. Your cost to set-up a corporation or LLC would be another $1,000. Therefore, for a total investment of approximately $4,000 to $7,000, you have your new app business up and running.

If you want to have a game app, you can re-skin a game app for $200 to $800. There are many companies on the Internet that will do this for you. Two companies that sell the source code and re-skin it includes Chupamobile and Reskin Games.

Of course, you also need to market it. By using social media and networking, you could do it without spending any money on advertising. As your business grows and becomes profitable, you could start an advertising campaign. One company that specializes in social media marketing is the Frackle Media Group.

Apps have huge profit potential. Look at Angry Birds. This is an app that appeared in 2008 and made over $7 million on the downloads alone. It is now putting the characters of the game on TV, merchandise, and in movies.

Another very profitable app is Bejeweled 2, which debuted in 2004. It is a matching puzzle video game and has over $12 million in sales. Other million dollar apps include Doodle Jump ($4 million), Pocket God ($3 million), Flight Control ($3 million), Skee Ball (2.5 million), Flick Fishing($2 million), and iFitness ($4 million). Just to name a few.

A new app that was just introduced a few weeks ago and is set to be another million dollar company is the Gotta Potty app. The Gotta Potty app locates the nearest restrooms and uses the phone GPS to take you to the one you select. It rates the restrooms as very clean, clean , or needs service. It may even send you a discount offer to use when you get to the location. When introduced, it had over 100,000 locations throughout the United States.

It is a free app in both the Play Store and app store, so it will be interesting to see how many people download it. The app is easy to use and works well. It sells advertising to businesses for income. While it does have banner ads, they are inconspicuous so it is not annoying. Will it be the next million dollars app? Only time will tell.

Apps also have the advantage of low overhead. All you need is a computer, an internet connection, and an app host like Google or Apple. Of course, you will need to monitor and promote it, as well as keep records as with any business, but most businesses based on apps only require a few employees to keep it running.

Now, all you need is an idea. You can create a new app like Gotta Potty, utilize an existing app and use it for another purpose, or you can take an existing game like Angry Birds and make it angry neighbors. Just make a few simple changes and you have a new, viable game idea.

Considering the profit potential and low start-up costs involved, an app business is a wonderful opportunity for anyone who wants to go into business for themselves. You can do it part-time and still keep your current job. Then, when the profit starts building, you can quit your old job or keep it until you become the next app millionaire. Thus, apps are a great business opportunity for anyone who has a few thousand dollars to invest and wants to start their own business.

Source : http://bit.ly/1Qe9brA

What Is the Best Social Media Platform for Driving Traffic?

There almost too many social media accounts to count at this point.  Everyone that has taken at least a vague interest in putting their business out to the public has jumped onto Facebook.

Whether you do Facebook ads or just use Web or foot traffic to drive visitors to your Facebook Page, being on FB is almost a prerequisite. 

So this article is not about Facebook per say, it is really about knowing your demographic and the platforms at which are most valuable and can send targeted viral traffic to your website.

Tumblr

My choice for creating shareable GIFs and funny memes that can send a large amount of reblogs, likes etc to your post.  The traffic that you get from Tumblr may not be the highest quality as with the type of viral shares that happen, not everyone that shares your post (hopefully you linked back to your website) will visit your site, and those that do may not be your target market.  Here is an example of a tumblr post that generated 535 notes and sent 53 viewers to the website that put that post out. Now, these funny gifs have little to do with “web design” but the title of the post “can’t touch my web design” was followed up with MC Hammer doing the Can’t touch me dance. And dancing dogs etc.  So that is rather funny.  Tumblr is a great platform for driving traffic.  If you create shareable, viral content like this, you can gain lots of visits and notes and shares that will help with strengthening the power of that Do Follow Link from Tumblr.

Reddit

A very difficult platform to master.  Shares or posts are voted up or down with Karma points.  If you are deliberately trying to make self-promotional shares for the aim of driving traffic to your sight without providing value first, well then you will most likely get harassed by other Redditors or booted completely.  Here is a great getting started guide for reddit. If your post is helpful and gets upvoted a bunch, you can get loads of traffic from Reddit.  This traffic can be very niche specific and targeted if your post was in a very niche part of Reddit.

Facebook

Yeah I know boring right?  Well Facebook Ads are still one of the best ways to really drill down and get in front of those targeted potential customers.  You think all that data that you put up about yourself in college was just so your friends could know that you love Tommy Boy and that you love wakeboarding?  Well maybe back in 2004 it was, but now that data is harvested for the (almost) sole intent of marketing things to you.  I do not market via Facebook ads currently but have dabbled with the interface and it is extremely targeted and for that I think, this is the king for paid social traffic.

Source : http://bit.ly/1XsLs8G

4 Trends That Will Shape Marketing in 2016

It’s that time of year again, and I’m not just talking about the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and ringing in the New Year. I’m talking about the thrill and stress of reflecting on one year and planning for another.

For marketers, it’s crucial to spend time reviewing data from 2015 and attending strategic planning meetings to build momentum for 2016. But it’s also important to consider marketing trends and forecasts that may impact your team’s plans. Are experts predicting any major shifts in the industry over the next 12 months?

Here are four changes marketers will encounter in 2016: 

1. Digital and mobile will no longer be standalone efforts.

Heading into 2016, marketers must jump on board with the notion that digital marketing and mobile marketing do not exist. It’s all just marketing. Seventy-three percent of U.S. households own a computer with an Internet connection, and 68% of Americans own a smartphone. This means your company presence should be equal parts digital and traditional and automatically optimized for mobile.

Prospects must be exposed to your brand via as many touch points as possible. And although a digital strategy should be part of your overall marketing plan, you should still focus on the specific channels your target audience frequents. For example, if your customers are mainly males over the age of 55, emails and traditional advertising might resonate better, whereas millennials are more likely to notice a sponsored social ad.

The key is to understand that a marketing strategy must include digital and mobile components. There should be no more negotiations about additional budget dollars for digital and mobile marketing—they are now one with the marketing budget. The sooner businesses and marketing departments can unify all areas of marketing, the quicker revenue will increase.

2: Data analysis tools will become more sophisticated.

Over the past couple years, a lot of marketers have been using business intelligence (BI) tools to gather important data insights that help them make better strategic decisions, scale and improve marketing efforts, and increase their bottom line. But mining, analyzing and understanding mounds of campaign data can be tough. Many marketers use multiple data analysis tools, which means they are faced with a lot of cluttered data to sift through and organize.

In 2016, BI tools will come to maturity, and more will be developed that both aggregate and analyze the data available. This will lift a weight off many businesses and marketers who need just the essential information about their customers to make real-time decisions about their marketing strategies. These more sophisticated tools will give marketers all the details they need to quickly customize their marketing for different target audiences.

3. Marketing strategies will reflect a multi-touch, multi-stage customer journey.

Let’s face it: A prospect’s journey is no longer linear or funnel-like, but rather multi-stage. Consumers need many interactions with your brand, via a variety of mediums, to convert to paying customers. This means 2016 will be the “Year of a New Marketing Game Plan.”

Marketers will need to dig into data to evaluate the success or failure of various efforts and eliminate those that have been unsuccessful. To do this, you’ll need to figure out the best way to populate your sales funnel with more and better quality leads.

For instance, you might try centralizing your lead capture and putting metrics in place (like lead-to-sale conversion rate) that allow you to pinpoint your best strategies and scale them for more profitable lead capture.

4. Advanced CRM tools and features will emerge.

According to a 2015 Lead Nurturing Benchmark Study from DemandGen Report, 42 percent of marketers have been implementing lead nurturing tactics for more than two years. In 2016, these marketers will be looking for tools that help them better qualify leads and ramp up their nurture efforts. In particular, marketers will be looking for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools and integration that provide detailed information about where the best leads are coming from.  

In the coming year, more tools will develop functionality to address the data loss that many businesses experience. New features and integration will allow marketers to track lead sources and see that information in a sales CRM. This will help marketers better scale their highest performing campaigns, and it will bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams.

Source : http://entm.ag/1OzLOb4

FIVE RULES FOR CONTENT MARKETERS IN 2016

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: 2016 planning. With the New Year around the corner, we know content marketers are looking for insights and trends that will shape the year ahead and help their content stand out.

This morning, we released findings from one of the industry’s largest and broadest global surveys of consumer views on digital content. We surveyed more than 12,000 consumers across six countries to get a deeper understanding of evolving consumer expectations and how they are fueling marketers’ challenge. The report, titled “State of Content: Rules of Engagement for 2016” sheds light on five rules for content marketers to follow in optimizing engagement with their target audiences.

Design for the Multiscreen Reality

Consumers report using five different devices and, on average, 83 percent use 2.23 devices at the same time. While the majority of consumers report feeling good about it (81 percent entertained, 80 percent connected, 76 percent productive), nearly half (47 percent) say they are distracted. As attention spans shrink, good design and optimization are paramount. Consumers ranked display (65 percent) as the most important aspect when it comes to content experience in their personal life, and 54 percent listed overall good design, such as appealing layout and photography as important. Content marketers can’t attempt to “get away with” a one-size-fits all approach to content distribution: content must be well-designed and optimized for each viewing device.

Don’t Fall Victim to #TLDR  

Consumers report lower patience for sub-par content experiences – with length a key factor. Nearly 9 out of 10 digital device users would switch devices or stop viewing content altogether if it fails to meet their quality, length and formatting expectations. Sixty seven percent of consumers would stop engaging if content is too long, and 79 percent would do the same if the content doesn’t display well on their device. Marketers need to deliver content in the right format, get to the point and optimize or consumers might say #unsubscribe.

Humor Makes Brands More Relatable

Seventy percent of global consumers agree that humor makes companies more relatable, but just 14 percent rate company-created content as entertaining. Globally, “making people laugh” was identified as the top personal motivator for sharing content. Content marketers should work to create authentic activations that entertain to help drive brand engagement.

In Our Relationships We Trust

In an era of high skepticism, authenticity and trust are critical. Consumers are more likely to engage with content they trust, but many are highly skeptical of most content they view online: 50 percent of consumers question whether negative comments or reviews have been removed, 49 percent wonder if an author was paid or incented to write a positive review, and 48 percent question whether a news article is biased. However, consumer trust in content increases as their relationship with the source grows stronger. Only 23 percent of consumers trust content from companies whose products they don’t buy, but if the source is a company from whom they do purchase products and have a relationship, that number nearly doubles to 43 percent. Brands need to work on building trusted relationships with their audience, which includes disclosing any endorsements, sponsorships and affiliations.

Don’t Show Up Uninvited

The majority of consumers understand the value of predictive recommendations, with 73 percent noting they are willing to share at least one piece of information about themselves and 71 percent reporting they are open to predictive recommendations from brands based on past behavior. Among consumers not willing to share their information, 40 percent believe companies could do something to ease their concern and 25 percent suggested “asking permission to access data” would make them more comfortable. This maps back to trust; consumers are most comfortable sharing information with brands they trust.

In addition to these insights shaping content marketing in 2016, the study also unveiled interesting findings about online engagement and behavior. For instance, there’s a rising fear of digital footprints. Twenty-six percent of U.S. consumers have cleared their browser history to hide content they viewed from a friend or loved one, and 17 percent have hid or embellished the truth about the content they regularly consume.

Source : http://adobe.ly/1m9EXdz

Honest and Powerful Illustration Show The Problem of Our Modern Life!

The Best Way to Win in Business

And achieve success

The Fortune 500 Insider Network is an online community where top executives from the Fortune 500 share ideas and offer leadership advice with Fortune’s global audience. Val DiFebo, CEO of Deutsch New York, has answered the question: What’s the biggest lesson you learned from your first job?

I have learned a lot of valuable lessons in my career. Some came from great mentors, others from clients or the experience that comes from managing teams of people. But from where I sit now, it is clear to me that some of the most important lessons I’ve learned came from my very first job working summers as a waitress at a country club. Most people don’t view serving as a position that has much to offer in terms of lifelong lessons, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. From interpersonal skills to client service, that early experience taught me much more than the proper way to set a table.

The importance of customer experience
Anyone can ask a person what he or she would like to eat and then bring it to the table. What’s harder is creating a superior experience for customers by going above and beyond what they think they want. This is something we do in advertising all the time when we use our creativity and expertise to deliver on more than what a client has asked for in a brief. This means listening closely to what your customer is asking for, and applying what you know about the business you work in to create an even better experience than they anticipated. Is there a special dish you know they’ll love? Something unique you can offer for a birthday dinner? The ability to provide added value and pleasant surprises for clients is a skill that never stops being useful.

Relationship managementA good server will always have regulars. When customers ask to sit in a server’s section repeatedly, it’s because they know that person understands them, respects them, and will take care of them. They’re there because that server cares enough to remember how they like their steak or that they don’t drink alcohol. Learning to build those relationships with my regulars, gaining their trust, and building an understanding of what is important to each individual was hugely valuable as a server and still something I prioritize today.

Waitressing is also where I started to learn how far you should be willing to go for a client before it impacts your job or your business—a dynamic that arises frequently in all service-driven businesses. I often think back to an evening when I was serving a regular customer who had accidentally spilled red wine on his white linen suit. He asked me for an unconventional favor: to run his suit through the dishwasher. I didn’t think this would work, and worse, I felt my doing so might ruin the suit. I tried to talk him out of it, but we trusted each other enough that he successfully assured me he wouldn’t be angry if his idea backfired. I gave it shot, and to my total surprise, it worked. Managing unexpected requests, putting my expertise to work for customers, and doing special—sometimes strange—favors was key to my success as a waitress, and now in advertising.

The art of timing 
One of the most important aspects of being a server is understanding the rhythm of both the kitchen and the dining experience you’re providing. Knowing when to put in the entree order and when to drop the check as you manage the process between the back of the house and the customer is key to ensuring all runs smoothly. I still use these skills today. Timing is crucial in managing projects between the client and your team. Juggling deadlines, managing workflow, and making timely work that’s culturally relevant is an everyday part of the job.

The value of preparednessWhen you’re serving a few hundred dinners per night, there’s no time to play catch-up. Before the first customer walks in, the silverware should be polished, the tables set, and everyone ready to go. It’s a smart way to approach business, too. Being prepared, whether it’s with extra research, additional concepts, or a well-rehearsed presentation, is crucial for winning and keeping business, and helping teams expect the unexpected from clients.

The key to getting the most out of any first job is being open to learning everything you can from it. There’s no job in the world that won’t teach you something you can use down the line in your career, as long as go into it thinking the experience has value. Work hard, keep an open mind, and always remember to tip your waiter or waitress.

Source : http://for.tn/1O5rDxy

7 Marketing Trends You Need to Know for 2016

Here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

Mobile, video, and other marketing tactics that have been on the rise for years aren't really "trends" anymore. So, how many more trend articles do marketers have to read through that really just tell us what we already know?

Now, just because they're not current trends doesn't make them unimportant. Optimizing for mobile and including high-quality visual content and video in your strategy are still good practices. But to keep yourself and your company ahead of the competition, you need to analyze what's happening now, review your strategy from different perspectives, and prepare for what's to come.

To help, here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

1. Writing skills and experience will be critical.

When the industry started shifting from print to digital, there was fear among English and journalism students that their craft was dying and no one with a degree in those fields would have jobs. And now with the rise in content, these research, writing, and editing skills are becoming increasingly important, especially when high-quality content is becoming the new SEO.

However, in its 2016 B2B Content Marketing report, the Content Marketing Institute found that only 19 percent of marketers would prioritize becoming stronger writers in the coming year. To keep up with other top content creators and publishers in your industry, encourage your HR team to recruit employees with these game-changing skill sets to build a successful content team, or start investing in education to help your existing team strengthen its writing.

2. Content marketing will enhance other areas of business.

Many people view marketing as the department that works solely to promote your company to your external audience, and while this is one of its key functions, it's not the only one. Content the marketing team produces will become an increasingly necessary asset to many other departments at modern companies, because those resources the team creates for external audiences are just as helpful for internal audiences.

For example, marketing team publishes a piece of content, our entire team is alerted. Because the content is created for your audience, including clients and prospective customers, your client-facing and production team members can use it to fuel their efforts, our sales team can send it to address common objections or questions, and your HR team can use it to train new team members about your processes. 

3. Personalization will prevail.

One of my favorite keynote speakers at this year's BOLO digital marketing conference was my friend and marketing trend expert Rohit Bhargava. During his speech, he talked about the growing importance of personalization and providing opportunities for clients and customers to feel like VIPs, and he used Disney's MagicBands as an example.

Instead of every visitor receiving the same band, each Disney MagicBand is personalized to that visitor's vacation experience. These simple gestures of personalization show that your brand cares about individual customers, and they're effective. In fact, my daughter didn't want to take off her band when we left Disney because it made her feel so special. Avoid generic templates and find ways-from simply targeting your messaging to sending personalized emails and gifts-to make each individual customer feel that special.

4. Industry authority positioning will become a must.

 Companies without thought leaders who provide voices and contribute to industry conversations are taking harder hits to their credibility than ever before. Executive branding and leadership positioning are no longer just nice to execute-they're becoming increasingly necessary. People want a connection to your brand, and they want to trust your leadership. The best way to establish this connection and trust is to create content that showcases your authority.

To effectively position your company, start taking advantage of your team's unique insights and expertise, and craft your messages into thought leadership content that establishes your company as the industry leader.

5. Add value for your audience and stop selling to them all the time.

Stop focusing only on making the sale, and start focusing also on delivering true value to your customers and potential clients. Whether this value is found in the quality of your content or in the experiences you provide, it's becoming more and more important for marketers to ensure that value is delivered to those who interact with their brands.

For example, on a recent call with Mura Experience Platform, a member of its team mentioned to me that a custom Cards Against Humanity deck designed for attendees of the Content Marketing World event with the Mura Experience Platform brand was one of their most successful marketing campaigns. This campaign was successful because it was original and delivered direct value to Mura Experience Platform's target audience. To keep up with competition, it will be important for marketers to take advantage of the rise in content to create and deliver value to customers.

6. Thought leadership is a new SEO driver.

Traditional SEO-using link building and keyword optimization to increase your pages' search results-is no longer your ticket to high rankings on Google. After Google's continued algorithm updates throughout the year, the search giant has begun rewarding higher-quality content with higher search rankings. Despite efforts by some companies and content creators to cheat their ways to the top of results pages, high-quality content prevails over the old keyword-stuffing tactics of the past.

For example, in my own writing during the past year or so, I've seen a dramatic difference in traffic to my own articles because my team and I have continued to perfect our content-creation processes to align with exactly what our target audience is searching for. Now when you search terms like "thought leadership speakers," you can easily find the article I published to my Forbes column. Because Google's updated algorithm recognizes that this piece of content was created to provide specific value to my individual readership, it rewards the article with a higher ranking to make it easier for readers to find.

As a marketer moving into 2016, your priority should be to provide the best possible content to your audience, not to publish junk content in hopes that it'll land you on page one. Trust me, when you create truly engaging, valuable, and relevant content crafted to serve members of your audience and what they're looking for, you'll earn that sweet spot at the top of the results page.

7. Full-service won't solve all your problems.

The best thing you can say to make someone lose faith in your company's credibility is "My company is great at everything." No single company is great at everything, and that's why full-service firms are becoming a thing of the past.

As the industry becomes more specialized, we'll see fewer full-service, best-at-everything marketing companies in 2016. Instead, focus your efforts on the one thing your company is truly great at and what your customers need and want most from you, and become the absolute best at whatever that is. You'll need to live and breathe that area, develop technology to support your efforts, and consistently innovate your products and services, but you'll ultimately serve your team and your customers better if you focus your efforts on the one thing that separates you from your competitors.

As this year draws to a close and your marketing team starts determining what initiatives will be valuable investments in 2016, a variety of content resources,marketing speakers, and other thought leadership resources will help point you in the right direction. Take the time over the holiday season to do the research and plan where your focus should be in 2016.

Source : http://bit.ly/21olt5h