Thanks to an uncertain economy — in which companies are closely evaluating all areas of their marketing budgets and demanding controllable, accountable and measurable media — search engine marketers are standing firmly on center stage. More than $12 billion was spent on search last year, and that number is expected to more than double in the next three years.
I may be at risk of upsetting the ROI lobby with this statement, but I have to tip my hat to the marketers who took the plunge into the social media world, and failed. The Wall Street Journal last week analyzed the year since Facebook opened its development doors, reporting that more than 250,000 developers have taken the bait.
While the growth and profile of mobile marketing continues apace, its progression has been marked both by caution and uncertainty on the part of advertisers, and by periodic revolutions on the technical and infrastructure side.
The talent crunch in the direct marketing world is unfortunately afflicting companies of all shapes and sizes. While the effects of operating with an incomplete staff lineup are widespread, they can have a particularly detrimental effect on how the company is perceived from the outside. And with customer service as the first frontier of a company's reputation, getting it wrong can be fatal.
As members of the catalog industry gather this week at the ACCM conference, comparisons will be made to the mood at last year's event. The industry had just been socked with a major postal increase, and there was a genuine fear that without making substantial changes, many catalogs would crumble.
What's in our mailbox this month: fitness postcards from Retro Fitness, American Woman Fitness Centers, Union's United Taekwondo Academy, and Bally Total Fitness. (We're totally pumped.)
Social data can improve a brand's bottom line and customer relationships. Just ask brands Infiniti and Diamond Nexus.
Here are three must-have data sets that every marketer should include in his or her email strategy.
