Why social commerce is the next big thing
When you combine the social nature of shopping with information, cloud and mobile (aka, the nexus of forces) you have the next big thing: social commerce. In fact, I believe social commerce is what is...
View ArticleMobile Computing: The Star of 2012 Retrospectives and 2013 Predictions
This is a guest post from Jake Sorofman, our newest analyst at Gartner for Marketing Leaders. Jake’s many talents include marketing management (he was the CMO at rPath), product and market strategy,...
View ArticleStop Creating Social Media Strategies: An Open Letter to Digital Marketers...
Dear digital marketers, This letter is especially for those of you who are lined up in my inquiry queue with the question, “Why isn’t my CEO buying my social media strategy?” It’s simple. The CEO cares...
View ArticleWhat Marketers Can Learn From Jerry Seinfeld
In an old Seinfeld episode, George laments he does virtually everything wrong. Jerry has some simple advice, “Start doing the opposite.” With marketing pundits all saying, “marketing has been tipped on...
View ArticleReal Time Marketing Goes Far Beyond Twitter
Real time marketing often conjures up scenarios of customer service issues posted on Twitter or YouTube, where an unhappy customer attempts to embarrass a company into fast action. But real time...
View ArticleWhy do you get out of bed every morning?
Years ago, a man who loved music as much as anyone of his generation, began going deaf, just as he was becoming recognized as one of the world’s great composers. But he didn’t let his handicap...
View ArticleLocation, Location, Location: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Local Search
Have you ever used Google to find and book a restaurant reservation in another city; or a tour in the foreign country you’re about to visit? Ever buy a rare book from a Japanese bookseller? Though the...
View ArticleThree Investments B2B Marketers Should Consider Right Now
Marketing investments that throw a positive jolt to other areas are particularly interesting. And they often surprise even the most savvy veterans. Let’s start with retention. You’ve heard the...
View ArticleShould You Strive for Fewer Customers?
“Less is more” is a piece of advice we hear frequently. But not when we think of customers. We want as many of those as possible. Where this gets short sighted however is the long tail of sales. When I...
View ArticleWouldn’t it be silly if we got wiped out because we weren’t looking?
Edward Lu, (former NASA astronaut and leader of the effort to detect killer objects from outer space) asked this question the other day when discussing the need to detect serious threats from the sky....
View ArticleSpend Trends
One of the first things you’ll note in our Digital Marketing Spending Survey: 10.4% revenue was spent on marketing in 2012; and it’s expected to rise to 11% in 2013. The usual sectors lead the way –...
View ArticleDigital Marketers: When Do You Think Social Media Will Die?
Okay, now that I have your attention: just kidding. Social media won’t die, but If all media is social media, at what point do we drop the adjective already? I admit, I have always found the term...
View ArticleWhen Automated Marketing Needs a Shutdown Key
We were all horrified by the events in Boston today. Many of you were there, others stopped to remember the many times they’ve enjoyed one of American’s most treasured cities, or even run the Boston...
View ArticleWhat Every Digital Brand Manager Should Embrace – Right Now
Amplifying your story over digital media is what branding in the 21st century is all about – and it’s been a hugely disruptive trend. When Larry Light was CMO of McDonalds he found parallels between...
View ArticleWhy CMOs aren’t very good salespeople (when it comes to selling brand awareness)
When “awareness” is citied as the justification for a marketing investment, the room can get chilly. This is especially true in sales-driven, b2b circles. Why the chill? In the classic purchasing...
View ArticleWho Really Makes Digital Transformation Decisions?
More proof why customers rule in the digital age. If you’ve ever participated in consulting engagements with management consulting firms (either as a seller or buyer) you know that transformation...
View ArticleA Technology That Gets All Digital Marketers Excited
Gartner’s digital marketing transit map offers a tool for communicating complex information in an intuitive way. Neighborhoods represent functional regions that can be thought of as practice areas...
View ArticleKiller Advice for Giving Killer Presentations
If such advice existed, every TED talk would win an award. The fact is, there’s no killer advice about this topic, though presentation consultants could fill a library with their tips, tricks and “must...
View ArticleWhat Every Consumer Wants
Simplicity. You don’t have to go far to hear buyers complain that the path to realizing product benefits is often highly cluttered. Sometimes just buying the product is fraught with obstacles. As...
View ArticleWhy Should Consumer Marketers Have All the Fun?
Remember when AdAge asked its readers, “What viral ad made you cry?” The response was fantastic. Consumer marketers don’t apologize for the emotional threads they run through their promotional fabric;...
View Article
