A blog about the art and science of marketing

• Mar 28, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Tracey Wallace

The social commerce marketplace has grown more than 4-fold since 2012. Then, social commerce represented some $3 billion in retail sales. In 2015, social commerce accounts for some $14 billion. That’s one heck of a growth trajectory.

Indeed, nearly all social platforms provide a commerce offering for retailers and shoppers alike. In doing so, social commerce is expected to pull in more than 5% of total retail sales for 2015. If your ecommerce brand isn’t utilizing social outlets as an extension of your sales funnel, then you’re likely missing out on new customers and failing to engage those who have already purchased.

Here are What the Top 4 Social Networks Can Do For Your Social Commerce Revenue

Read the full article at HubSpot

• Mar 28, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Pamela Vaughan

With more than 347 million users, LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals as well as one of the top social networks overall. But do you know how to use LinkedIn to its fullest potential?

With new social networks sprouting up constantly, LinkedIn is a platform that often gets underutilized or put on the back burner. But the truth is, LinkedIn can be extremely powerful — especially when you’re aware of all the platform’s hidden features that don’t get nearly enough exposure as they deserve. So to help you master LinkedIn, we’ve compiled the ultimate list of LinkedIn tips you may be overlooking … but definitely shouldn’t.

Read the full article at HubSpot

• Mar 27, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Paul Koks

Would you like to achieve more in less time and with less effort? The success of any online business depends on how quickly it can turn insights into action. This is true for data analysis as well.

The good news is that you are about to learn 15 actionable tips you can use with Google Analytics to speed up your data analysis and website optimization. Apply the tips to your business, and you will improve your chances of outperforming your competitors.

Read the full article at KISSmetrics

• Mar 26, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Ayaz Nanji

Conversion rates for forms included on Web pages vary widely by the type of form being used, according to recent research by Formstack. The report was based on data for 650,000 businesses and organizations in 11 verticals that use Formstack’s technology.

The researchers examined conversion rates—the percentage of all visitors who successfully submit information via forms—for seven types of forms: event registration, order/payment, contact, survey, donation, contest, and lead generation.

Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• Mar 26, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Ann Smarty

The blogosphere has been a major online marketing medium for years now. Bloggers are trusted voices who can bring in customers and help you build your community. They’re capable of exposing others to your message and getting the buzz started — but only if you approach the task diligently. Reaching out to potential blogger is a more intricate process nowadays than it was even five years ago. Great bloggers are constantly getting pitched by marketers, making it all the more important for you to stand out from the crowd if you want them to pay attention.

Trust me, though: It’s well worth it to invest time in building connections with high quality bloggers and turning them into a brand advocates who will be willing to help you out over and over again. Want to achieve worthwhile results from your blogger outreach efforts? In this post, I’ll go over a few tips for reaching out to bloggers effectively. Then, I’ll talk about seven great blogger outreach tools that will help you connect with bloggers in your niche.

Read the full article at HubSpot

• Mar 25, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Julia Cupman

A recent B2B marketing study by B2B International paints an interesting picture of the current marketing challenges US businesses are encountering, the strategies they are employing, and what they could be doing more of in the future.

The findings also provide comparisons with similar businesses in the UK and Germany. Here are the Key B2B Marketing Challenges and Strategies that you need to know.

Read the full article at MarketingProfs.com

• Mar 25, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Liston Witherill

Hundreds or even thousands of things that you think every day are wrong. The same is true for your prospects.

This revelation is the basis of Daniel Kahneman’s research. And he won a Nobel Prize for it. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow he uncovers the systematic ways that you make mistakes in your thinking.

When you’re writing copy and deciding on a marketing strategy, you’d better understand the most important factors that lead to these mistakes in thinking and why your prospects decide to run away from you.

Read the full article at KISSmetrics

• Mar 24, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Liga Bizune

Today’s marketers work in an environment in which they have access to thousands of tools and techniques for delivering their messages. But truly effective marketing campaigns come from first looking holistically and strategically at communication goals, then crafting narratives that best fit various delivery channels, including email.

When email marketing expert Tim Watson visited our offices to provide some expert insight into effective email design and copy, he sparked an interesting conversation about how to build a better email. And that got us thinking: What’s next in email? Her are the Top Six Email Marketing Trends You Need to Keep Pace With . . .

Read the full article at MarketingProfs.com

• Mar 24, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Laxman Papineni

I’ve always been in awe of growth hacking. Although I see a lot of different definitions surrounding this buzzword, I like growth hacker Aaron Ginn’s summation the best: A growth hacker is someone whose passion and focus is pushing a metric through use of a testable and scalable methodology.

One reason I like this definition is because it hints at the how much entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals can learn from the depth of understanding growth hackers have about how companies grow — and their ability to draw connections between how a company is performing, and the actions needed to lead to healthy, rapid growth that improve performance and set a company up for success. Here is The Essential Reading List for Growth Hackers.

Read the full article at HubSpot

• Mar 19, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Dan Hoff

As a business owner or manager, there is no longer any denying that today’s buyers, whether in the B2B or B2C space, are more sophisticated, more knowledgeable and more prepared than at any other time. This has not been by accident. This trend has coincided with the growth in the adoption, use and availability of the web and digital platforms.

Today, no matter what you sell, whether a service, a hard-good or software, you are facing a market where the buyer, not the seller, has the advantage. Your buyers, or at least your potential buyers, are out there, somewhere. They are armed with knowledge and ready to buy. And from research, we know that they have made most of their buying decisions even before they contact you for the first time.

Read the entire article Right Here on Dan Hoff Marketing

• Mar 18, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Neil Patel

Understanding psychology is a crucial part of being a successful marketer. What I’ve discovered is that the most powerful advances in content marketing don’t come from “hacks,” “tricks,” or “techniques,” but from science-backed psychology.

One of the most powerful and interesting areas of psychology deals with excitement. How can content marketers get people more excited? How can we raise their level of emotional engagement to bring about content engagement? Is there any way that we can get more comments, more shares, more likes, and more of the content marketing KPIs that we crave?

The answer is yes, and the psychology of excitement shows us how. The Psychology of Excitement and How to Better Engage Your Audience

Read the entire article at HubSpot.com

• Mar 17, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Mike Saldi

Companies sink or swim based on their ability to retain customers. A company with $10 million in revenue with a 10% churn rate needs to acquire $1 million of new business each year, just to avoid shrinking.

The fact is that existing customers have greater lifetime value for your company: A 5% increase in customer retention can increase business profits anywhere between 25% and 125%, according to Gartner Group.

Improve retention, and other facets of the business quickly begin to improve as well. So how do you unlock such value for your business? Here are the Top 5 Keys to Customer Retention that can help you increase revenue, fill up the sales pipeline, and improve performance.

Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• Mar 17, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Drew McLellan

Email is still one of marketing’s greatest tactics but how effective is your email marketing? It’s easy to understand the allure of email marketing.

It’s cost effective (but not free), it’s easy to plan and execute in advance and very few people don’t access their email every single day, so in theory – the audience is engaged with the medium. So why do so many efforts fall flat? Find out just How effective is your email marketing . . .

Read the entire article at Drew’s Marketing Minute

• Mar 16, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Elizaveta Naumov

As a marketer, you’re often wearing many hats and simultaneously managing a variety of responsibilities and tasks—from social media to content creation. Luckily, there’s an app or service for almost every marketing activity out there, with new ones popping up every week.

As helpful as such tools are, the sheer quantity available can make it overwhelming to figure out which ones you need.

Here are 20 Must-Have Tools for Clever Marketers from the recently published e-book, 20 Tools for Clever Marketers, including some the most popular tools used by marketers from brands such as Nike and L’Oreal.

Read the full article at MarketingProfs.com

• Mar 16, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Max Altschuler

Sales can be a stressful job. Some months are good; others are tough.

When things aren’t going your way, you’re constantly feeling the weight of quota pressure. Accounts that once looked like a sure thing are getting close to the “gone dark” or “unresponsive” label, in which case they might be passed to a new rep. The same old boring follow up isn’t working. What can you do?

Here’s an idea — how about mixing some humor into your sales process? Sometimes a smile can be enough to elicit a response — and keep you sane.

Read the entire article at HubSpot.com

• Mar 14, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Ryan Scott

Social media is one of those marketing channels that can be very powerful or very boring. You’ll either have a lot of success interacting with your customers, or you’ll see little results. Few do social media really well, and those who do see great things come from it. But for everyone who does social media well, there are hundreds of others seemingly spinning their social wheels with no results.

Half-heartedly sharing your content on social media is not social media marketing. It’s spamming. Social marketing is a lot of work, and it takes time listening and responding. It’s social, and anything social takes an investment of effort and skill.

Check out these 41 resources that will help you develop the skills needed to be effective on social media at HubSpot.com.

• Mar 14, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Beth Negus Viveiros

For media and entertainment companies, coming up with social content isn’t a problem. But what is a challenge is figuring out the best ways to monetize and distribute all of that content from various channels and partners.

At the Adobe Summit in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Chad Parizman, director of convergent media, Scripps Network Interactive, noted that because Scripps’ family of sites has such as huge volume of sites, the focus is on curation.

To find out how you too can keep up on Social Media, read what exactly is The Key to Keeping Social Contented Timely and Engaging on ChiefMarter.com

• Mar 13, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Rob Murphy

At a tradeshow, booth location can be beneficial or it can be harmful. One way to be sure you’ve got the best location possible is to survey all the parameters that can go into selecting your booth space.

Here are some considerations that can help you prepare to go about selecting the best possible booth location for your company – How to Choose the Right Tradeshow Booth Location: 10 Things to Consider

Read the full article at MarketingProfs

• Mar 12, 2015
• Dan Hoff
• 0

by Deepak Advani

The brand-customer relationship has changed from a one-way conversation to a two-way street, with shoppers revealing personal details at a depth we have never seen before. The onus is now on brands to respond, but the response cannot be generic. Brands need to turn this valuable data into customized experiences and services consistent, occurring at the exact right time and place.

However, to succeed, your marketing will need all the right elements in place to get data-driven insights that are customer-centric and unique from one individual to the next. You will need 3 Ingredients to Make Your Marketing More Customer-Centric to make it all work.

Read the full article at MarketingProfs.com