MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

This week marks the fielding of MarketingSherpa’s third annual Social Marketing Benchmark Survey. Looking back, I am fascinated at how far our practices have advanced in this channel in the past three years.

One of the most significant advances has been the materialization of the social marketing architecture.  This systematic redesign of how social media sites individually contribute to overall marketing performance, has also brought attention to the significant need to incorporate landing page optimization as an important element of a social marketing strategy. Read more…

I’ve listened to the gurus and read their blogs. I studied the MarketingSherpa ROAD Map for social media marketing. Heck, I’ve taught that ROAD Map to a hall of very gracious marketers. From experience, I have to say that pretending to be a social media marketing guru is a pretty sweet gig.

So, when I had to roll up my sleeves and walk the walk, I had no idea how much work would go into just getting started. Read more…

Here’s why I like “tweet count” as the ultimate metric for a blog post. It’s basically a resounding “yes” to the oft-asked marketing question, “would you refer this to a friend?” Sure, you can look at “visits,” but that may be a better indication of a
good headline than a good post. Even “time on site” only tells you that someone stuck around longenough to kick the tires, but it doesn’t mean they got enough value from a post to take action.

As with any analytics tool, the Topsy Retweet Button isn’t perfect. Based on our traffic through TweetDeck, it seems to undercount the retweets on many posts. I’m pretty sure one of the posts below has some serious over-counting issues. And there has been a hanging chad or two.

Nevertheless, it remains the best way for us to gauge what posts have value for you. So, without any further ado, here are the 10 posts you told us were most valuable in 2010, along with a quote from your peers about each post… Read more…

I’ve learned a lot in the past year.  I think we all have.

Due to a wealth of factors – most notably the economy – marketers were asked to grow, evolve, adapt and even take new risks to stay afloat in 2010. That being said, there’s a lot to be learned from the past year’s struggles … for all of us. If 2009 drove us down to unanticipated professional lows, 2010 taught us how to re-tune our marketing strategies and conform to a changing economic landscape.

As I prepare to cull through hundreds of submissions for the MarketingSherpa 2011 Wisdom Report, I felt it was only right to take one last look at the 2010 edition, to see where we were a year ago, and where we made strides along the way. While combing through the pages, many of last year’s submissions evoked some forward-thinking questions for 2011. I’ve highlighted a few of these below. If you have the same questions – or can provide some answers – I would love to hear your insights.

Below are some of the more commonly shared thoughts from last year’s report. Read on to see if last year’s wisdom still proves valuable as you prepare for 2011. Read more…

I read print publications pretty much the same way that I read digital media – keywords constantly pop out at me and help me decide whether an article is worth my time or not. So, I was flipping through BtoB Magazine, past the usual suspects…online ad spending, digital media, marketing automation…and then, a truly novel grouping of words stuck out to me – Chief Listening Officer.

That title was appended to Beth LaPierre of Kodak. On her Twitter profile, she describes herself as “Air traffic controller + advocate for the masses.” I’m a big fan of using social media for listening and anyone who advocates for their audience, so I just had to find out more. And Beth was kind enough to answer a few questions… Read more…

So, you have a Facebook Page for your business. Check! You even have a couple of people “liking” it already (mostly friends and family). Check! It might also have your blog posts or website updates automatically appear on its wall. Great! But what now? Why aren’t your revenue charts spiking to the ceiling?! There is an update after an update, but is there actually anyone there? No response, no interaction – what’s the point then?

Managing a Facebook Fan Page takes more than that. The good news is that you can truly build a community of loyal fans converting to loyal customers over time. The best part is that it does not have to take most of your day (or budget, if you are considering hiring a social media manager to deal with it for you).

In fact, after making yourself familiar with few basic rules and getting the feel for your Facebook audience (since every industry and offer or product you want to promote is totally different), half an hour of daily Facebook management is all you need to maintain the flow and eventually stimulate conversion. Read more…