fbpx
Menu Close

Category: Marketing

Marketing has undergone a transformation with the advent of online business and social media. But the fundamentals of marketing remain. Branding, reputation, databases and sales – a business cannot afford to get these things wrong. These articles pull together the latest thinking on marketing from the world's brightest business brains.

How to win the marketing battle

Terry Frost Innocent Blue

Marketers must ditch “best practice” and avoid a predictable approach in order to differentiate their brand from the competition, writes Rory Sutherland for Raconteur.

Most businesses love rules. Follow the rules and you’ll be safe. 

This might work for the accounts department, argues Sutherland, but marketing is different. Successful marketers do not follow rules.

How to spot an effective CMO with staying power

Michael Kidner Rotational Coloured Circles

Marketing is one of the most rapidly developing areas of the business world and your company needs a champion with the qualities to embrace that challenge for the long haul, writes David Clarke for Strategy+Business.

It’s not so many years since the extent of most companies’ marketing efforts was an advert in the telephone directory. Today it’s a specialised field.

Why you need to understand your products’ demand windows

Richard Smith Maryland

If you don’t know what the demand windows for your products are, not enough of your customers will be demanding them.

“The most predictable characteristic of today’s consumers may be their variability,” say Emre Sucu, Matt Egol, and Edward C. Landry writing for Strategy+Business. The predictable customer of a certain age, gender and postal code is a thing of a past.

Do marketers need to be industry experts?

Jiro Osuga

The move towards specialised marketing training is provoking a wider debate over the need for qualifications.

What skills and knowledge do you look for when hiring marketing executives? Do you favour candidates with generic, degree-level training? Can you see more benefit in them learning on the job, or would it be valuable to be versed in your industry before they even step through the door?

If you’re not using street teams, you could be missing a trick

Greenpeace

The world is choking on marketing materials, but a good street team can cut through the clutter like a breath of fresh air.

If you are looking to raise brand awareness, build loyalty and increase sales, you need to utilise the power of human engagement. Interact directly with consumers, enabling them to connect with your brand on a personal level, rather than via a computer screen.

Three ways to fix your inbound marketing strategy

Mathyas Kurmann

Converting leads into sales is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s chaotic digital landscape, writes Brian Hughes for Entrepreneur.

Even for the most seasoned marketing professionals, today’s digital landscape can seem daunting. Multiple marketing channels and constantly changing consumer behaviour and expectations can lead to confusion.

How to keep your customers

Kev Seto

In a world where consumers are continuously bombarded with choice, companies must invest in finding out why they are losing sales and how they can plug the gaps.

Advertising might persuade a customer to consider your brand, but there are several more steps they have to take before they click ‘buy’ on your website or hand over their cash to a member of your in-store sales staff.

A guide to agile marketing

vegetable market stall

Companies competing in this era of disruption must adopt agile marketing practices or risk becoming irrelevant.

On average internet users decide whether or not to leave a web page after just three seconds’ browsing; the proliferation of information brought on by rapid technological innovation means that being able to get things done quickly has become more important than ever.

How to redesign your company for service

coffee shop

If you want to build great consumer experiences, make customer service your company’s priority.

Despite the service industry’s predominance in the private sector, most service companies still use operating models designed for the manufacturing industry, where the focus is on the quantity and quality of goods produced rather than interactions with customers.

Avoid the marketing skills gap

pottery

Digital disruption and the rapid pace of change mean no marketer can be an expert in every channel.

Writing for Marketing Week, Jonathan Bacon takes a look at how the rise of personalised marketing and digital channels has left employers facing an increasingly wide skills gap, as they struggle to identify exactly which skills they should be recruiting for.