How to build a truly integrated marketing campaign – in six simple steps

Marketers are faced with a world of conflicting information, and it’s often supplied without evidence or an agenda. So, who should industry professionals trust when it comes to knowing exactly how to deliver messaging that works?

Not every marketing department will be utilising the powers of a great email campaign, but even for those that don’t, simple principles still apply.

When defining what an integrated campaign is, it gives meaning and purpose when...

10 March 2020 | Best Practice

Making your marketing more sophisticated: Engage customers and save time with intelligent output

Many marketing departments will say there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done, however, the problem is that quite often they’re focusing on the wrong things.

For example, most marketers report that building an email takes between 30-50 minutes and landing pages up to two hours. Others simply don’t have the time to complete such tasks. Why is this still the case?

Throughout 2020, savvy professionals must be prepared to readdress the balance so...

10 January 2020 | Automation

Nurturing your customers through powerful communications: A guide

Whether targeting a consumer via an email, SMS or direct mail campaign, the underlying goal for any marketer remains the same – to encourage each person to buy their products or services.

However, in a world dictated by online noise, how can a busy professional achieve the critical cut-through it takes to keep individuals motivated enough to engage with their online channels and continuously purchase from their organisation?

On average, it takes six commercial touches...

3 October 2019 | Customer Experience

Six killer marketing metrics that really matter: Segmentation and engagement

The life of a digital marketer is rarely straightforward. Whilst other communicators may perhaps argue it’s easier for their digital peers to evidence ROI, those within the world of email marketing, for instance, may be quick to defend their position. Because yes, they have a wealth of metrics at their fingertips, but it can be difficult to know where to start. Death by data anyone?

Focusing only on open and click rates?

In his book How to Win Friends and Influence...

3 April 2019 | CRM

Five things marketers will need to stop doing in 2019

It’s the time of year when marketers start to think about what they’ll do differently over the next 12 months. But, as well as leveraging trends and trying new techniques, there are undoubtedly certain things marketers need to stop doing in 2019 too.

Here are my top five.

Stop split-testing emails

It’s been a technique that marketers have relied on for years. Instead of endlessly scratching our heads over what’s truly the best creative or the most...

20 December 2018 | Best Practice

Five ways to ensure data capture strategies don’t ruin your CX

The wave of GDPR panic that overwhelmed many digital marketers at the start of the year, has been cited as the reason why UX – and therefore the resulting customer experience (CX) – seems to have gone out of the window for many brands. For others, it is the hunger for leads that has made it almost impossible to navigate some websites without encountering a wall of data capture forms that prevent any action whatsoever.

However, irrespective of the challenges at the...

8 October 2018 | Best Practice

Can martech really influence wider business processes?

Despite the mounting pressures being placed on marketers to do – and achieve – more, budgets are still being stretched to their limits. Investment in marketing tech is no exception, which means the business case for comms platforms and apps needs to be strong.

Previous articles have covered topics such as budgeting for marketing automation software and even how to get a bigger budget signed off. But budget perhaps wouldn’t come into question if it was clear how much...

8 August 2018 | Advertising Technology

Five ways marketing automation won’t help your business

Marketing automation, as an industry, is growing phenomenally. In fact, the inaugural Marketing Automation Technology Forecast, 2017 to 2023 (Global), produced by Forrester at the end of April, predicts that annual spend on such martech will reach $25bn in five years’ time.

The reason for this is – in a large part – due to the fact that many brands are yet to adopt automation platforms. The technology is therefore in only an early stage of its product lifecycle so...

29 May 2018 | Automation

Five martech lessons from 2017 you need to take into 2018

It’s the time of year when marketers commonly reflect on the past year and gear themselves up for what’s to come in the 12 months.

As we emerge blinking and bleary-eyed from the holiday season into 2018, it’s not just a case of focusing on ‘what’s new’. Part of growing and developing as a business requires an honest analysis of your successes and failures in 2017.

You take forward with you what worked and discard what...

5 January 2018 | Best Practice

The DNA of the perfect nurture sequence

Whatever the specific objective of an email campaign, the overarching goal of any nurture sequence remains constant – to encourage an individual along a journey to the point of peak engagement. Only then will a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) stand the greatest chance of becoming a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL).

However, with so much ‘noise’ in this communication space, this process is easier said than done. So how do marketers achieve that all-important cut...

25 August 2017 | Email marketing