Hi Readers,
Total Product Marketing is thrilled to have attended INBOUND, one the the most remarkable events in the world for global sales and marketing professionals. Over 19,000 participants attended INBOUND at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
We had a chance to listen to some great speakers and network with fellow marketers. Based on our observation of industry trends and research, as well as the insight gleaned from these conversations, Total Product Marketing has come up with our key Marketing trends for 2017:
- Ads: Right now, Facebook is providing marketers with better value when compared to Google Ads. It also has fantastic targeting features (e.g look-a-likes, custom audiences, ‘employees of…’ ) that are not available via Google Adwords.
- Video content: Video content is increasing, both in organic and paid search. Short, snappy videos with appropriate subtitles (as over 60% of videos are ‘watched’ with no audio) with targeted and measurable calls-to-action are on the rise.
- Written content: Blogs need to be long form (1000 words and above). Short blogs, around 350 words, will no longer be enough — they aren’t SEO friendly and are not “meaty” enough to be considered worthwhile for readers. If you’re going to write a blog, write a good blog.
- Social media: Twitter will become less and less relevant for businesses while platforms that have embraced video (Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook) will continue to gain ground.
- Social and third party validation: Since so much content is being created daily, there is no process to really vet the information being provided. People will look for more objective viewpoints gleaned from social and third party (authoritative) validation.
- Always be optimizing: CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is an entire area of constant improvement. A/B testing is the practical application of CRO, but marketers are coming to realize that you can not A/B test web pages when there is not enough of a sample size. Explore opportunities for improvement based on real data, then measure. You may or may not see an improvement in conversions, but continue the process.
- Budgets: Advertisers will increasingly move their budgets towards social media platforms as they begin to realize that people ‘live’ in these platforms — they just do not just pick it up and put it down. It’s a big shift and will continue to be in the coming years.
From the Blog: The Email Edition
How to Increase Your Conversion Rate in Email Marketing
While email is the leading medium for communication in the business world, there is no silver bullet to creating marketing emails that convert. In this blog post, we outline seven rules to help your Cloud service business drive email marketing conversion rates. Read more >>
How to Avoid Spam Filters and Deliver Your Message
Global spam email volumes hit record levels this year, and spammers are constantly finding new ways to trick the uninformed. Marketers need to be proactive in the pursuit to avoid being piled into the category of meaningless junk. Here are nine ways you can avoid spam filters to deliver the message your prospects and clients are waiting for. Read more >>
How You Can Get More Email Subscribers
With an average ROI of 122%, email continues to outperform all other digital sales channels from a conversion perspective. Building your email list isn’t rocket science but it does require solid strategies. Read more >>
Guest Post: Mastering the Social Media Value Chain
People already use social media for news, information, how to’s, and conversations. Whether your sales education strategy includes content marketing or direct one-to-one sales prospecting, social can help. In this Talkin’ Cloud guest post, we break down the social media value chain, and uncover a seven-step social media strategy to unlock the power of social. Read more >>
Industry News
Report: 6 Cloud Computing Trends to Expect in 2017 – Networks Asia
According to a new Forrester Research report, the Cloud will accelerate faster in 2017 as enterprises seek to gain efficiencies as they scale their compute resources to better serve customers.
Soon, 92% of Everything We Do Will Be in the Cloud – Forbes
Cloud computing is set to quadruple in the next few years, according to a new study by Cisco, and Big data and the Internet of Things is set to play a greater role moving forward.
What Does Scalability Mean in Cloud Computing – Tech Featured
This article in Tech Features considers what scalability means in various Cloud computing scenarios, including SaaS and gaming environments.
Cloud Computing is Moving Technology Executives Closer to the Boardroom – Forbes
A new survey by ServiceNow finds that Cloud growth will require increased dependency on technology executives in the drive towards IT transformation.
Partners Must Embark on Difficult Cloud Transition – TechTarget
While industry executives at this week’s IT Nation 2016 conference made the case for channel partners’ adoption of Cloud services, they also acknowledged that the move is easier said than done.
Cloud Market Set to Gain More Channel Supporters – Channelnomics
The Cloud’s continuing growth will lead to channel partners seeing many more new vendors over the next few years.
Growth Stories: MSPs Take Many Paths to Scale – The VAR Guy
From acquisitions and strategic pivots, to capital investors, the VAR Guy has put together the following stories of companies acting boldly in the pursuit of scale.
