Thursday, January 31, 2019
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
How to Fix the B2B Data Meltdown
B2B marketers are in a pickle when it comes to data. Data insights are critical to boosting marketing and sales performance. Yet the marketer’s trust in data has plunged to a new low that’s putting a damper on strategic marketing initiatives, according to Dun & Bradstreet’s (D&B) recently released Sixth Annual B2B Marketing Data Report.
Just 50% of D&B survey respondents expressed confidence in the quality of their data—down from 75% in 2017. And only 11% expressed extreme confidence in 2018. “The lack of confidence B2B organizations have in their data is hindering the ability to deploy key sales and marketing initiatives,” the D&B report concludes. “Instead of creating opportunity it’s creating chaos.”
A case in point: Only 38% of marketers surveyed said account-based marketing (ABM), a leading data-driven B2B marketing tactic, is currently part of their go-to-market strategy. The report notes that ABM requires quality data to identify and zero in on key accounts and targets, reach them across channels, and deliver relevant content. Marketers are forced to rely on information that’s outdated, contradictory, misleading or otherwise flawed, and that’s costing them. They’re left with a limited or inaccurate view of customers or prospects.
Meanwhile, quality data is the key to providing personalized content, which is crucial to enhancing the customer experience and driving revenue. VisionCritical predicts the customer experience will overtake price and product as the top brand differentiator by 2020, and Forrester estimates that a mere 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $65 million additional net income for a typical Fortune 1000 company.
What’s a marketer to do? In my company’s work with data, we’ve discovered eight steps to ensure your data is working for and not against you.
The 8 Steps To Turbocharge Your Data
1. Commit to improving data quality.
It’s important to improve data quality to make sure your company’s data is accurate, up-to-date, complete and consistent, and that it produces the depth of insight required for solid decision making. Define data quality based on business objectives.
2. Assign data quality ownership.
Give one person central responsibility for ensuring data quality. This is your new chief data officer. That person should work with a team, including members with roles such as software developer, program manager, project leader, data steward, and data analyst.
3. Fine-tune your data collection process.
Don’t drown in excessive information. Determine exactly what kinds of data are relevant to answer your questions and help you make informed decisions that fulfill your business’s goal. Ensure your data comes from knowledgeable, trusted sources.
4. Check contact data as it’s collected.
Validate information systematically or manually before entering it into a database. Pay attention to email addresses and missing information. Engage customers directly through a phone call, a web form or live online chat. Once you have updates, make sure your database is complete.
5. Standardize your data.
Because information is collected from diverse sources, your database may include various spellings or formats of the same data point. For example, while you know the United States, the U.S., and the USA are the same, marketing automation platforms and CRMs view them as different—and that can impair your smart lists, scoring, and segmentation. Create standardization, or normalization, smart campaigns in Marketo or use a third-party tool such as RingLead Data Management Solutions.
6. Identify and purge duplicate records.
Multiple fields of duplicate information can impede marketing automation. Set up trigger alerts for automatic notifications. Search your database for suspicious entries to be investigated manually.
7. Integrate marketing and sales data.
Despite years of efforts to align these functions, it’s still common for marketing and sales to use different CRM and automation systems to manage data, causing confusion and mistakes. Organizing all data in one location best supports personalized marketing that delivers the right content at the right time.
8. Conduct regular data reviews.
Develop and implement a strategy for regular database checkups. Augment real-time verification with regular bulk processing to ensure contact data integrity.
These eight steps will sharpen your understanding of your data and help you measure and improve its quality for the long haul. Is it a lot of work? Yes, gathering and maintaining first-class data attuned to your company’s needs requires serious, ongoing effort. But the stakes are high, and the direction is clear.
The post How to Fix the B2B Data Meltdown appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/nsYHtHWk9wE/how-to-fix-the-b2b-data-meltdown.html
What’s the Mesh and Why It Matters for Marketers
“I read Peter’s notes, all of them, and he knew that a peer-to-peer Internet was possible in the future, but he was also basing that on, what, old desktop computers. He never, ever foresaw the ubiquity or power of all of our modern-day smartphones. He was also dealing with a completely different Weissman limit. So… uh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.”
If you’re a viewer of the HBO hit, “Silicon Valley” then you probably recognize this quote. It is from the main character and CEO of “Pied Piper,” Richard Hendrix. So what is he going on about? Is it completely fiction or is it based in fact?
The truth is that Richard isn’t crazy, and his new internet may soon be coming to a home near you in the form of Mesh Networking. So what is Mesh Networking and how does it differ from traditional networks…and how will it change marketing?
Traditional wireless networks transmit a signal from a central router, creating a radius in which devices can connect directly to the source and receive the signal. In the traditional network, devices which are farther away may experience attenuation in signal strength, and eventually at a certain distance the range of the signal is too weak for a device to connect.
Alternatively, think of a mesh network like a woven fabric in which each device is interconnected. Rather than the wireless signal being distributed in a wide range, each device connected to the mesh network acts as a node, connecting to the signal and passing it on to the next device. Nodes create network links with other nodes around them, letting signals pass from node to node in a number of paths throughout the mesh. Each device thinks that it is connected to the central router. Signal strength is not lost as it makes small jumps from device to device. Because of their decentralized nature, mesh networks can continue to scale almost endlessly, maintaining signal strength and the ability to send and receive data.
Why Mesh?
Mesh networks are resilient, self-configuring, and efficient. You don’t need to mess with them after what is often minimal set up, and they provide arguably the best and highest coverage that you can achieve in your home.
Outside the home, mesh networks enable IoT devices to function in remote areas where a traditional network may not be able to reach, and help ensure devices are continually connected to networks without downtime. According to a Research and Markets report, the wireless mesh network market is expected to grow to $8.9 billion by 2023, growing at a rate of 9.6 percent CAGR during the forecast period (2017 to 2023).
Problems to Solve
Physical Attacks: Internet access speeds up when more users contribute to the network, but it also opens up the network to multiple points of access. As all computers in a wireless mesh function as routers, each computer represents a possible point of attack. Computer nodes also can be compromised by the loss or theft of a laptop or desktop computer. In this case, the attacker stealing the computer can use the access provided by the stolen computer to enter the network, or simply disrupt the entire system by removing crucial routing nodes.
Denial of Service: Even without physical access to the network, hackers can create “zombie” computers using virus infections. Once infected, each computer does the bidding of the attacker without direct monitoring. Meanwhile, the hacker launches a concentrated denial-of-service attack, which floods a particular computer or system with overwhelming bits of information to effectively shut down that system’s ability to communicate with other networks. If a computer in a mesh network becomes infected, it can attack other computers inside its own network, and infect them as well, causing a cascading effect.
Passive Monitoring: A zombie computer doesn’t need to attack the system to cause damage. Hidden and compromised computers can passively monitor Internet traffic moving through the network, giving the attacker the ability to intercept bank information, login credentials for any website accessed and routing information for the network itself. At this point, the attacker can choose to leave the network without anyone knowing, while possessing enough data to steal bank funds, commit identity fraud or re-enter the network at will.
Gray, Black, and Wormholes: If a computer becomes infected or malicious computer enters a mesh network, it can pretend to be a trusted member of that network and then modify sent data and disrupt how the network passes information. In a black hole attack, information passing through the infected computer will not continue through the network, blocking the flow of data. In gray hole attacks, some data may be blocked, while other data is allowed, making it seem like the computer is still a working part of the network. Wormhole attacks are harder to detect: They tunnel into a network computer from the outside and pretend to be other nodes in the network, essentially becoming invisible nodes. They can then monitor network traffic as it passes from one node to the next.
Mesh Marketing
So how is this relevant to marketers and how will it change the scope of marketing? To begin, the rise of “smart” devices is continuously increasing the capabilities of social media and digital marketing sectors. By having every device connected into an interlinking system, the possibilities of communication, cookies, and advertisements increases with every new device added. Fridges can send information about buying habits and your phones can detail everything about your travel routines. While scary at first, in a world where the consumer is put first, it opens up the doors for a truly massive addition to marketing campaigns.
Additionally, by essentially becoming our own wireless networks, we are then given the opportunity to market our own social pages as well as businesses for traveling entrepreneurs. By setting up “localized push notifications” we could have events and people be “live” broadcasting at all times for special offers. This could allow for flash sales in certain areas and during events as well as provide free promotion for traveling artists.
This leads into the final benefit, which is that mesh networking helps to expand internet connection and thus digital marketing outreach into low-populated areas. This not only is great for businesses but consumers in rural areas as well. No more going to Grandma’s and being disconnected from the world. With interconnected devices sharing bandwidth and publicly owned terminals extending into rural areas we will have most of the planet with access to internet. The best part is that it will probably (at least a small part of it) be free. What’s really revolutionary about mesh networking is the fact that it provides a means for people to self-organize into communities and share resources among themselves: Mesh networks are operated by the community, for the community. Self-organization means less groundwork for you as a marketer!
The post What’s the Mesh and Why It Matters for Marketers appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/B2w5veUJOeU/whats-the-mesh-and-why-it-matters-for-marketers.html
Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing
The term “influencer marketing” has been doing the rounds for a few years now. And it’s much more than just a buzzword. 2017 saw an explosion of influencer marketing—every company wanted to have an influencer marketing strategy, and those that didn’t, got left behind and spent all of 2018 trying to catch up.
2019 is here, and “influencer marketing” shows no signs of dying down. But there has been a major change in the way brands approach influencer marketing. Where once it was all about the getting the biggest names, now it’s about finding influencers with a smaller yet highly engaged following.
Celebrity influencers may look great in terms of numbers, with millions of followers on social media platforms like Instagram, but in terms of conversions, they miss the mark. Why? Their following may not be as engaged with the content they put out. Not to mention the huge initial investment required to partner with celebrity influencers, which generally leads to more than a few uncomfortable conversations about ROI.
Enter micro-influencers!
What are micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers are smaller influencers who have a following of 10,000 – 100,000. This means they are able to engage regularly with their small(er) but dedicated following. They are way more valuable to businesses that are interested in actually selling their products as opposed to mass visibility. In fact, according to HelloSociety, micro-influencers have a 60% higher campaign engagement rate than macro-influencers. In most cases, the engagement rate for influencers peaks at a couple of thousand and then starts to stagnate.
Where can you find micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers exist in every industry. But like every influencer campaign, you must be careful about choosing the right ones. The best place to start your search is your own social media accounts, as micro-influencers may already be following you or engaging with your posts. Additionally, there are several tools to help you find influencers who are engaged with your industry or products like yours. It’s important to find influencers who not only engage with products like yours, but who also have an audience that matches yours.
Keeping track of your interactions with influencers and managing your relationships carefully is crucial. More often than not, a spreadsheet doesn’t cut it. So, you have to pick a tool that gets the job done and helps you keep track of your interactions. Our favorite is Influencer One.
Why should you work with micro-influencers?
In one sentence: micro-influencers have followers that are actually interested in the product or service that you are selling. By comparison, macro-influencers with huge followings have followers from all domains and niches, lowering the chance of you reaching the audience that is relevant to your product. The main reason for this is that micro-influencers are simply more authentic. This is because they have genuine interactions with their followers, have a good knowledge of their niche, and are known to be less commercial.
Micro-influencers are also more accessible to brands of all sizes, not just the large ones. While big celebrities charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single post, micro-influencers usually charge a couple of hundred dollars on average. A lower budget improves ROI and allows you to work with multiple influencers at once, which expands your reach to a more targeted audience.
Lastly, it has been proven that micro-influencers considerably influence buying decisions. According to Nielsen, 82% of Americans make purchases based on recommendations from friends. Furthermore, 31% of Americans (from Socialbakers) make purchases based on recommendations from influencers. Therefore, leads which come in via micro-influencers are more qualified than leads from other promotional efforts.
Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference
1. ASOS: It’s not just small brands that are embracing micro-influencers, retail giant ASOS struck gold with its “ASOS Insiders” campaign where they enlist the help of fashionistas around the world—a group of twenty somethings—who give style tips to the audience at ASOSs, kitted out in ASOS outfits. The idea is that users and followers can directly buy their outfit of the day from the influencers. ASOS also works via a multi-channel strategy and use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, as well as their own platform for this effort, to make sure that they tap into all audiences.
2. Daniel Wellington: It’s not just influencers of the human variety that are making a difference in the micro-influencer world. Daniel Wellington has partnered with furry influencers Jasper and Louie, a pair of dogs from Canada. Daniel Wellington’s marketing team has collaborated with them to work on posts featuring the pups and their owner along with a Daniel Wellington watch. It may not seem obvious at first, but the campaign allows them to tap into newer audiences that are different from the fashion/tourist segment that they’re used to.
3. Adidas: The sportswear manufacturer partnered with micro-influencers to promote a huge range of their products. For instance, they partnered with Emily Joseph to promote their line of “Ultraboost” shoes. What followed was a candid review where the lifestyle blogger noted that she had a negative preconceived notion about the product, but that soon changed after she started working out with the shoes on. This started a more authentic and organic conversation around the product, which led to effective promotion of both the brand and the shoes.
What determines success?
Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:
- ROI: this is probably the most important KPI. It determines the return on every dollar spent. No prizes for guessing—the higher the return, the better the ROI. In order for a brand to reach its goals here, it’s important that they select the right portfolio of influencers with audiences similar to the ones which resonate with the product.
- Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.
- Audience growth: Has your social media account grown? Have you got more followers than before the campaign? Have your engagement rates grown? These are some things to factor in while evaluating your audience growth after an influencer marketing campaign.
Done correctly, working with micro-influencers can be great for your brand. They require less investment, less hand-holding, and have a more engaged audience that can be harnessed for your brand and products. What are your thoughts on influencer marketing? Do you have an influencer marketing strategy? I would love to know in the comments below.
The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/J8UukfMpWtU/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html
How to Fix the B2B Data Meltdown
B2B marketers are in a pickle when it comes to data. Data insights are critical to boosting marketing and sales performance. Yet the marketer’s trust in data has plunged to a new low that’s putting a damper on strategic marketing initiatives, according to Dun & Bradstreet’s (D&B) recently released Sixth Annual B2B Marketing Data Report.
Just 50% of D&B survey respondents expressed confidence in the quality of their data—down from 75% in 2017. And only 11% expressed extreme confidence in 2018. “The lack of confidence B2B organizations have in their data is hindering the ability to deploy key sales and marketing initiatives,” the D&B report concludes. “Instead of creating opportunity it’s creating chaos.”
A case in point: Only 38% of marketers surveyed said account-based marketing (ABM), a leading data-driven B2B marketing tactic, is currently part of their go-to-market strategy. The report notes that ABM requires quality data to identify and zero in on key accounts and targets, reach them across channels, and deliver relevant content. Marketers are forced to rely on information that’s outdated, contradictory, misleading or otherwise flawed, and that’s costing them. They’re left with a limited or inaccurate view of customers or prospects.
Meanwhile, quality data is the key to providing personalized content, which is crucial to enhancing the customer experience and driving revenue. VisionCritical predicts the customer experience will overtake price and product as the top brand differentiator by 2020, and Forrester estimates that a mere 10% increase in data accessibility will result in more than $65 million additional net income for a typical Fortune 1000 company.
What’s a marketer to do? In my company’s work with data, we’ve discovered eight steps to ensure your data is working for and not against you.
The 8 Steps To Turbocharge Your Data
1. Commit to improving data quality.
It’s important to improve data quality to make sure your company’s data is accurate, up-to-date, complete and consistent, and that it produces the depth of insight required for solid decision making. Define data quality based on business objectives.
2. Assign data quality ownership.
Give one person central responsibility for ensuring data quality. This is your new chief data officer. That person should work with a team, including members with roles such as software developer, program manager, project leader, data steward, and data analyst.
3. Fine-tune your data collection process.
Don’t drown in excessive information. Determine exactly what kinds of data are relevant to answer your questions and help you make informed decisions that fulfill your business’s goal. Ensure your data comes from knowledgeable, trusted sources.
4. Check contact data as it’s collected.
Validate information systematically or manually before entering it into a database. Pay attention to email addresses and missing information. Engage customers directly through a phone call, a web form or live online chat. Once you have updates, make sure your database is complete.
5. Standardize your data.
Because information is collected from diverse sources, your database may include various spellings or formats of the same data point. For example, while you know the United States, the U.S., and the USA are the same, marketing automation platforms and CRMs view them as different—and that can impair your smart lists, scoring, and segmentation. Create standardization, or normalization, smart campaigns in Marketo or use a third-party tool such as RingLead Data Management Solutions.
6. Identify and purge duplicate records.
Multiple fields of duplicate information can impede marketing automation. Set up trigger alerts for automatic notifications. Search your database for suspicious entries to be investigated manually.
7. Integrate marketing and sales data.
Despite years of efforts to align these functions, it’s still common for marketing and sales to use different CRM and automation systems to manage data, causing confusion and mistakes. Organizing all data in one location best supports personalized marketing that delivers the right content at the right time.
8. Conduct regular data reviews.
Develop and implement a strategy for regular database checkups. Augment real-time verification with regular bulk processing to ensure contact data integrity.
These eight steps will sharpen your understanding of your data and help you measure and improve its quality for the long haul. Is it a lot of work? Yes, gathering and maintaining first-class data attuned to your company’s needs requires serious, ongoing effort. But the stakes are high, and the direction is clear.
The post How to Fix the B2B Data Meltdown appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/nsYHtHWk9wE/how-to-fix-the-b2b-data-meltdown.html
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
What’s the Mesh and Why It Matters for Marketers
“I read Peter’s notes, all of them, and he knew that a peer-to-peer Internet was possible in the future, but he was also basing that on, what, old desktop computers. He never, ever foresaw the ubiquity or power of all of our modern-day smartphones. He was also dealing with a completely different Weissman limit. So… uh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.”
If you’re a viewer of the HBO hit, “Silicon Valley” then you probably recognize this quote. It is from the main character and CEO of “Pied Piper,” Richard Hendrix. So what is he going on about? Is it completely fiction or is it based in fact?
The truth is that Richard isn’t crazy, and his new internet may soon be coming to a home near you in the form of Mesh Networking. So what is Mesh Networking and how does it differ from traditional networks…and how will it change marketing?
Traditional wireless networks transmit a signal from a central router, creating a radius in which devices can connect directly to the source and receive the signal. In the traditional network, devices which are farther away may experience attenuation in signal strength, and eventually at a certain distance the range of the signal is too weak for a device to connect.
Alternatively, think of a mesh network like a woven fabric in which each device is interconnected. Rather than the wireless signal being distributed in a wide range, each device connected to the mesh network acts as a node, connecting to the signal and passing it on to the next device. Nodes create network links with other nodes around them, letting signals pass from node to node in a number of paths throughout the mesh. Each device thinks that it is connected to the central router. Signal strength is not lost as it makes small jumps from device to device. Because of their decentralized nature, mesh networks can continue to scale almost endlessly, maintaining signal strength and the ability to send and receive data.
Why Mesh?
Mesh networks are resilient, self-configuring, and efficient. You don’t need to mess with them after what is often minimal set up, and they provide arguably the best and highest coverage that you can achieve in your home.
Outside the home, mesh networks enable IoT devices to function in remote areas where a traditional network may not be able to reach, and help ensure devices are continually connected to networks without downtime. According to a Research and Markets report, the wireless mesh network market is expected to grow to $8.9 billion by 2023, growing at a rate of 9.6 percent CAGR during the forecast period (2017 to 2023).
Problems to Solve
Physical Attacks: Internet access speeds up when more users contribute to the network, but it also opens up the network to multiple points of access. As all computers in a wireless mesh function as routers, each computer represents a possible point of attack. Computer nodes also can be compromised by the loss or theft of a laptop or desktop computer. In this case, the attacker stealing the computer can use the access provided by the stolen computer to enter the network, or simply disrupt the entire system by removing crucial routing nodes.
Denial of Service: Even without physical access to the network, hackers can create “zombie” computers using virus infections. Once infected, each computer does the bidding of the attacker without direct monitoring. Meanwhile, the hacker launches a concentrated denial-of-service attack, which floods a particular computer or system with overwhelming bits of information to effectively shut down that system’s ability to communicate with other networks. If a computer in a mesh network becomes infected, it can attack other computers inside its own network, and infect them as well, causing a cascading effect.
Passive Monitoring: A zombie computer doesn’t need to attack the system to cause damage. Hidden and compromised computers can passively monitor Internet traffic moving through the network, giving the attacker the ability to intercept bank information, login credentials for any website accessed and routing information for the network itself. At this point, the attacker can choose to leave the network without anyone knowing, while possessing enough data to steal bank funds, commit identity fraud or re-enter the network at will.
Gray, Black, and Wormholes: If a computer becomes infected or malicious computer enters a mesh network, it can pretend to be a trusted member of that network and then modify sent data and disrupt how the network passes information. In a black hole attack, information passing through the infected computer will not continue through the network, blocking the flow of data. In gray hole attacks, some data may be blocked, while other data is allowed, making it seem like the computer is still a working part of the network. Wormhole attacks are harder to detect: They tunnel into a network computer from the outside and pretend to be other nodes in the network, essentially becoming invisible nodes. They can then monitor network traffic as it passes from one node to the next.
Mesh Marketing
So how is this relevant to marketers and how will it change the scope of marketing? To begin, the rise of “smart” devices is continuously increasing the capabilities of social media and digital marketing sectors. By having every device connected into an interlinking system, the possibilities of communication, cookies, and advertisements increases with every new device added. Fridges can send information about buying habits and your phones can detail everything about your travel routines. While scary at first, in a world where the consumer is put first, it opens up the doors for a truly massive addition to marketing campaigns.
Additionally, by essentially becoming our own wireless networks, we are then given the opportunity to market our own social pages as well as businesses for traveling entrepreneurs. By setting up “localized push notifications” we could have events and people be “live” broadcasting at all times for special offers. This could allow for flash sales in certain areas and during events as well as provide free promotion for traveling artists.
This leads into the final benefit, which is that mesh networking helps to expand internet connection and thus digital marketing outreach into low-populated areas. This not only is great for businesses but consumers in rural areas as well. No more going to Grandma’s and being disconnected from the world. With interconnected devices sharing bandwidth and publicly owned terminals extending into rural areas we will have most of the planet with access to internet. The best part is that it will probably (at least a small part of it) be free. What’s really revolutionary about mesh networking is the fact that it provides a means for people to self-organize into communities and share resources among themselves: Mesh networks are operated by the community, for the community. Self-organization means less groundwork for you as a marketer!
The post What’s the Mesh and Why It Matters for Marketers appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/B2w5veUJOeU/whats-the-mesh-and-why-it-matters-for-marketers.html
Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing
The term “influencer marketing” has been doing the rounds for a few years now. And it’s much more than just a buzzword. 2017 saw an explosion of influencer marketing—every company wanted to have an influencer marketing strategy, and those that didn’t, got left behind and spent all of 2018 trying to catch up.
2019 is here, and “influencer marketing” shows no signs of dying down. But there has been a major change in the way brands approach influencer marketing. Where once it was all about the getting the biggest names, now it’s about finding influencers with a smaller yet highly engaged following.
Celebrity influencers may look great in terms of numbers, with millions of followers on social media platforms like Instagram, but in terms of conversions, they miss the mark. Why? Their following may not be as engaged with the content they put out. Not to mention the huge initial investment required to partner with celebrity influencers, which generally leads to more than a few uncomfortable conversations about ROI.
Enter micro-influencers!
What are micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers are smaller influencers who have a following of 10,000 – 100,000. This means they are able to engage regularly with their small(er) but dedicated following. They are way more valuable to businesses that are interested in actually selling their products as opposed to mass visibility. In fact, according to HelloSociety, micro-influencers have a 60% higher campaign engagement rate than macro-influencers. In most cases, the engagement rate for influencers peaks at a couple of thousand and then starts to stagnate.
Where can you find micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers exist in every industry. But like every influencer campaign, you must be careful about choosing the right ones. The best place to start your search is your own social media accounts, as micro-influencers may already be following you or engaging with your posts. Additionally, there are several tools to help you find influencers who are engaged with your industry or products like yours. It’s important to find influencers who not only engage with products like yours, but who also have an audience that matches yours.
Keeping track of your interactions with influencers and managing your relationships carefully is crucial. More often than not, a spreadsheet doesn’t cut it. So, you have to pick a tool that gets the job done and helps you keep track of your interactions. Our favorite is Influencer One.
Why should you work with micro-influencers?
In one sentence: micro-influencers have followers that are actually interested in the product or service that you are selling. By comparison, macro-influencers with huge followings have followers from all domains and niches, lowering the chance of you reaching the audience that is relevant to your product. The main reason for this is that micro-influencers are simply more authentic. This is because they have genuine interactions with their followers, have a good knowledge of their niche, and are known to be less commercial.
Micro-influencers are also more accessible to brands of all sizes, not just the large ones. While big celebrities charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single post, micro-influencers usually charge a couple of hundred dollars on average. A lower budget improves ROI and allows you to work with multiple influencers at once, which expands your reach to a more targeted audience.
Lastly, it has been proven that micro-influencers considerably influence buying decisions. According to Nielsen, 82% of Americans make purchases based on recommendations from friends. Furthermore, 31% of Americans (from Socialbakers) make purchases based on recommendations from influencers. Therefore, leads which come in via micro-influencers are more qualified than leads from other promotional efforts.
Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference
1. ASOS: It’s not just small brands that are embracing micro-influencers, retail giant ASOS struck gold with its “ASOS Insiders” campaign where they enlist the help of fashionistas around the world—a group of twenty somethings—who give style tips to the audience at ASOSs, kitted out in ASOS outfits. The idea is that users and followers can directly buy their outfit of the day from the influencers. ASOS also works via a multi-channel strategy and use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, as well as their own platform for this effort, to make sure that they tap into all audiences.
2. Daniel Wellington: It’s not just influencers of the human variety that are making a difference in the micro-influencer world. Daniel Wellington has partnered with furry influencers Jasper and Louie, a pair of dogs from Canada. Daniel Wellington’s marketing team has collaborated with them to work on posts featuring the pups and their owner along with a Daniel Wellington watch. It may not seem obvious at first, but the campaign allows them to tap into newer audiences that are different from the fashion/tourist segment that they’re used to.
3. Adidas: The sportswear manufacturer partnered with micro-influencers to promote a huge range of their products. For instance, they partnered with Emily Joseph to promote their line of “Ultraboost” shoes. What followed was a candid review where the lifestyle blogger noted that she had a negative preconceived notion about the product, but that soon changed after she started working out with the shoes on. This started a more authentic and organic conversation around the product, which led to effective promotion of both the brand and the shoes.
What determines success?
Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:
- ROI: this is probably the most important KPI. It determines the return on every dollar spent. No prizes for guessing—the higher the return, the better the ROI. In order for a brand to reach its goals here, it’s important that they select the right portfolio of influencers with audiences similar to the ones which resonate with the product.
- Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.
- Audience growth: Has your social media account grown? Have you got more followers than before the campaign? Have your engagement rates grown? These are some things to factor in while evaluating your audience growth after an influencer marketing campaign.
Done correctly, working with micro-influencers can be great for your brand. They require less investment, less hand-holding, and have a more engaged audience that can be harnessed for your brand and products. What are your thoughts on influencer marketing? Do you have an influencer marketing strategy? I would love to know in the comments below.
The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
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How Your Email Inbox Actually Prevents Database Decay In 2019
If improving the health of your database is a priority in the new year, skip the traditional means of data cleansing and take a look at your email inbox first.
That’s right, email replies (like Out-Of-Office and Left-The-Company) contain valuable sales intelligence about your leads. Think about it. Many of those auto-replies contain real-time updates to phone numbers, titles, and even emails — straight from the leads you’re actively engaging. The data doesn’t get any fresher, or the process any easier, than mining emails to maintain the health of your database.
Closing The Loop On Email Marketing
I don’t have to tell you that email marketing is an incredibly powerful B2B tool. More than half of B2B marketers consider email the most effective channel for generating revenue. Which makes sense, as 86% of professionals prefer email when communicating for business purposes.
While there was a brief moment when experts warned that social media would upset email’s reign, B2Bs have only seen email grow in popularity. Nowadays with organic reach harder and harder to achieve on social media, many marketers are realizing that 1,000 email contacts are far more valuable than 1,000 social media followers. Plus, many marketing professionals say they appreciate how email marketing allows for greater personalization and segmentation.
Mining email replies should be the final step in an effective email marketing strategy. It allows you to extract every last ounce of value from your email marketing campaigns, improving your overall ROI. Email mining takes a simple communication channel and turns it into a database cleansing solution — and a source for quality new leads and timely sales opportunities! Every reply, automated or human, contains information that can be used to update your database, continuously improving the accuracy and performance of your email marketing.
And all you have to do is look to your inbox to realize these benefits and maintain a healthy database.
Email Mining Is Easier Than You Think
The process for email mining is very simple:
- Send your email campaign business as usual. No changes are required to processes or systems.
- Review each reply that comes back. Separate human replies or those that require immediate action from auto-responses.
- Mine data from each reply. Full names, phone numbers, titles, and alternate or replacement contacts can all be found in replies.
- Update your database.
- Alert sales or account owners of trigger events, such as when a lead leaves the company or a domain change is discovered (possible M&A).
While you can certainly do this with human resources, a reply email mining service can automate the process from start to finish (and beyond, when you integrate with Marketo). This frees up human talent to take on tasks closer to revenue generation, like nurturing prospects further along in the sales funnel.
However you choose to mine replies, the intelligence you discover is pretty remarkable. Let’s see what can be learned from a standard Left-The-Company (LTC) auto-response.
For a closer look at what information you learn from a typical Out-Of-Office reply, check out this post.
Left-The-Company
From this left-the-company (LTC) auto-response, you learn that your existing contact, Pamela, is no longer with the company. The first step is to remove her from your database. This not only eliminates a bad record and improves the accuracy of your data, but it also helps you maintain a positive sender reputation because you are not continually sending to expired email addresses.
Additionally, this LTC provides you with a replacement contact, Jenni, along with her title and contact information. Add Jenni to your database and reach out to introduce yourself.
If you weren’t mining email replies, you would not know that Pamela left the company until you received a hard bounce. By this point, you will have lost any timing advantage you could have had.
Beyond Database Health
That timing advantage I mentioned is important. When you send email campaigns on a regular basis, you are continually getting OOOs and LTCs. For example, if you send to the same leads every week, any information in those replies is not more than a week old. So when you learn a lead left the company through a LTC, you are finding out very quickly. That LTC auto-response could be in place for 6-12 months before a hard bounce is generated.
Imagine the possibilities if you got in front of a replacement contact 6 months before your competitor!
Remember, new employees are eager to make their mark, especially if they have buying power or influence. If the account is already a customer, the replacement contact could be critical to securing a renewal. If you had been actively working the account, the new contact could be the key to opening the door to other influencers and winning the deal. In either case, getting in front of the new contact as quickly as possible can be a significant competitive advantage.
On the other side of this equation: your lead that left this company. What happens after you delete them from your database? Chances are, they’re somewhere else in a similar industry. If you had a good rapport with them, it makes sense to find out where they went and see if you can continue doing business together at their new company. People buy from people they know and like, so just because a lead leaves the company doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for your relationship.
Leverage Your Inbox To End Data Decay In 2019
Bad data is a real problem for business. But the solution doesn’t have to be cumbersome or expensive. It’s quite literally sitting in your inbox as we speak (Go check! We’re wrapping it up here anyways). The best part of all of this? While auto-replies almost always contain basic contact information allowing you to update and cleanse existing records, the value extends beyond data health and into real dollars and cents when you consider the new prospects and timing leverage you can gain!
So if 2019 is the year you are committed to getting a handle on database health, consider email mining as a continuous and effective cleansing solution.
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What’s the Mesh and Why It Matters for Marketers
“I read Peter’s notes, all of them, and he knew that a peer-to-peer Internet was possible in the future, but he was also basing that on, what, old desktop computers. He never, ever foresaw the ubiquity or power of all of our modern-day smartphones. He was also dealing with a completely different Weissman limit. So… uh, yeah. Yeah. Okay.”
If you’re a viewer of the HBO hit, “Silicon Valley” then you probably recognize this quote. It is from the main character and CEO of “Pied Piper,” Richard Hendrix. So what is he going on about? Is it completely fiction or is it based in fact?
The truth is that Richard isn’t crazy, and his new internet may soon be coming to a home near you in the form of Mesh Networking. So what is Mesh Networking and how does it differ from traditional networks…and how will it change marketing?
Traditional wireless networks transmit a signal from a central router, creating a radius in which devices can connect directly to the source and receive the signal. In the traditional network, devices which are farther away may experience attenuation in signal strength, and eventually at a certain distance the range of the signal is too weak for a device to connect.
Alternatively, think of a mesh network like a woven fabric in which each device is interconnected. Rather than the wireless signal being distributed in a wide range, each device connected to the mesh network acts as a node, connecting to the signal and passing it on to the next device. Nodes create network links with other nodes around them, letting signals pass from node to node in a number of paths throughout the mesh. Each device thinks that it is connected to the central router. Signal strength is not lost as it makes small jumps from device to device. Because of their decentralized nature, mesh networks can continue to scale almost endlessly, maintaining signal strength and the ability to send and receive data.
Why Mesh?
Mesh networks are resilient, self-configuring, and efficient. You don’t need to mess with them after what is often minimal set up, and they provide arguably the best and highest coverage that you can achieve in your home.
Outside the home, mesh networks enable IoT devices to function in remote areas where a traditional network may not be able to reach, and help ensure devices are continually connected to networks without downtime. According to a Research and Markets report, the wireless mesh network market is expected to grow to $8.9 billion by 2023, growing at a rate of 9.6 percent CAGR during the forecast period (2017 to 2023).
Problems to Solve
Physical Attacks: Internet access speeds up when more users contribute to the network, but it also opens up the network to multiple points of access. As all computers in a wireless mesh function as routers, each computer represents a possible point of attack. Computer nodes also can be compromised by the loss or theft of a laptop or desktop computer. In this case, the attacker stealing the computer can use the access provided by the stolen computer to enter the network, or simply disrupt the entire system by removing crucial routing nodes.
Denial of Service: Even without physical access to the network, hackers can create “zombie” computers using virus infections. Once infected, each computer does the bidding of the attacker without direct monitoring. Meanwhile, the hacker launches a concentrated denial-of-service attack, which floods a particular computer or system with overwhelming bits of information to effectively shut down that system’s ability to communicate with other networks. If a computer in a mesh network becomes infected, it can attack other computers inside its own network, and infect them as well, causing a cascading effect.
Passive Monitoring: A zombie computer doesn’t need to attack the system to cause damage. Hidden and compromised computers can passively monitor Internet traffic moving through the network, giving the attacker the ability to intercept bank information, login credentials for any website accessed and routing information for the network itself. At this point, the attacker can choose to leave the network without anyone knowing, while possessing enough data to steal bank funds, commit identity fraud or re-enter the network at will.
Gray, Black, and Wormholes: If a computer becomes infected or malicious computer enters a mesh network, it can pretend to be a trusted member of that network and then modify sent data and disrupt how the network passes information. In a black hole attack, information passing through the infected computer will not continue through the network, blocking the flow of data. In gray hole attacks, some data may be blocked, while other data is allowed, making it seem like the computer is still a working part of the network. Wormhole attacks are harder to detect: They tunnel into a network computer from the outside and pretend to be other nodes in the network, essentially becoming invisible nodes. They can then monitor network traffic as it passes from one node to the next.
Mesh Marketing
So how is this relevant to marketers and how will it change the scope of marketing? To begin, the rise of “smart” devices is continuously increasing the capabilities of social media and digital marketing sectors. By having every device connected into an interlinking system, the possibilities of communication, cookies, and advertisements increases with every new device added. Fridges can send information about buying habits and your phones can detail everything about your travel routines. While scary at first, in a world where the consumer is put first, it opens up the doors for a truly massive addition to marketing campaigns.
Additionally, by essentially becoming our own wireless networks, we are then given the opportunity to market our own social pages as well as businesses for traveling entrepreneurs. By setting up “localized push notifications” we could have events and people be “live” broadcasting at all times for special offers. This could allow for flash sales in certain areas and during events as well as provide free promotion for traveling artists.
This leads into the final benefit, which is that mesh networking helps to expand internet connection and thus digital marketing outreach into low-populated areas. This not only is great for businesses but consumers in rural areas as well. No more going to Grandma’s and being disconnected from the world. With interconnected devices sharing bandwidth and publicly owned terminals extending into rural areas we will have most of the planet with access to internet. The best part is that it will probably (at least a small part of it) be free. What’s really revolutionary about mesh networking is the fact that it provides a means for people to self-organize into communities and share resources among themselves: Mesh networks are operated by the community, for the community. Self-organization means less groundwork for you as a marketer!
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Sunday, January 27, 2019
Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing
The term “influencer marketing” has been doing the rounds for a few years now. And it’s much more than just a buzzword. 2017 saw an explosion of influencer marketing—every company wanted to have an influencer marketing strategy, and those that didn’t, got left behind and spent all of 2018 trying to catch up.
2019 is here, and “influencer marketing” shows no signs of dying down. But there has been a major change in the way brands approach influencer marketing. Where once it was all about the getting the biggest names, now it’s about finding influencers with a smaller yet highly engaged following.
Celebrity influencers may look great in terms of numbers, with millions of followers on social media platforms like Instagram, but in terms of conversions, they miss the mark. Why? Their following may not be as engaged with the content they put out. Not to mention the huge initial investment required to partner with celebrity influencers, which generally leads to more than a few uncomfortable conversations about ROI.
Enter micro-influencers!
What are micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers are smaller influencers who have a following of 10,000 – 100,000. This means they are able to engage regularly with their small(er) but dedicated following. They are way more valuable to businesses that are interested in actually selling their products as opposed to mass visibility. In fact, according to HelloSociety, micro-influencers have a 60% higher campaign engagement rate than macro-influencers. In most cases, the engagement rate for influencers peaks at a couple of thousand and then starts to stagnate.
Where can you find micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers exist in every industry. But like every influencer campaign, you must be careful about choosing the right ones. The best place to start your search is your own social media accounts, as micro-influencers may already be following you or engaging with your posts. Additionally, there are several tools to help you find influencers who are engaged with your industry or products like yours. It’s important to find influencers who not only engage with products like yours, but who also have an audience that matches yours.
Keeping track of your interactions with influencers and managing your relationships carefully is crucial. More often than not, a spreadsheet doesn’t cut it. So, you have to pick a tool that gets the job done and helps you keep track of your interactions. Our favorite is Influencer One.
Why should you work with micro-influencers?
In one sentence: micro-influencers have followers that are actually interested in the product or service that you are selling. By comparison, macro-influencers with huge followings have followers from all domains and niches, lowering the chance of you reaching the audience that is relevant to your product. The main reason for this is that micro-influencers are simply more authentic. This is because they have genuine interactions with their followers, have a good knowledge of their niche, and are known to be less commercial.
Micro-influencers are also more accessible to brands of all sizes, not just the large ones. While big celebrities charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single post, micro-influencers usually charge a couple of hundred dollars on average. A lower budget improves ROI and allows you to work with multiple influencers at once, which expands your reach to a more targeted audience.
Lastly, it has been proven that micro-influencers considerably influence buying decisions. According to Nielsen, 82% of Americans make purchases based on recommendations from friends. Furthermore, 31% of Americans (from Socialbakers) make purchases based on recommendations from influencers. Therefore, leads which come in via micro-influencers are more qualified than leads from other promotional efforts.
Micro-influencer campaigns that made a difference
1. ASOS: It’s not just small brands that are embracing micro-influencers, retail giant ASOS struck gold with its “ASOS Insiders” campaign where they enlist the help of fashionistas around the world—a group of twenty somethings—who give style tips to the audience at ASOSs, kitted out in ASOS outfits. The idea is that users and followers can directly buy their outfit of the day from the influencers. ASOS also works via a multi-channel strategy and use Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, as well as their own platform for this effort, to make sure that they tap into all audiences.
2. Daniel Wellington: It’s not just influencers of the human variety that are making a difference in the micro-influencer world. Daniel Wellington has partnered with furry influencers Jasper and Louie, a pair of dogs from Canada. Daniel Wellington’s marketing team has collaborated with them to work on posts featuring the pups and their owner along with a Daniel Wellington watch. It may not seem obvious at first, but the campaign allows them to tap into newer audiences that are different from the fashion/tourist segment that they’re used to.
3. Adidas: The sportswear manufacturer partnered with micro-influencers to promote a huge range of their products. For instance, they partnered with Emily Joseph to promote their line of “Ultraboost” shoes. What followed was a candid review where the lifestyle blogger noted that she had a negative preconceived notion about the product, but that soon changed after she started working out with the shoes on. This started a more authentic and organic conversation around the product, which led to effective promotion of both the brand and the shoes.
What determines success?
Influencer marketing can be a tricky game. What’s even trickier is justifying the related expense to your management team. What are the measures of success? Here are a few KPIs to get you started:
- ROI: this is probably the most important KPI. It determines the return on every dollar spent. No prizes for guessing—the higher the return, the better the ROI. In order for a brand to reach its goals here, it’s important that they select the right portfolio of influencers with audiences similar to the ones which resonate with the product.
- Engagement: Influencers are nothing without engagement. Likes, comments, clicks, and sometimes even reach are major determinants for campaign success.
- Audience growth: Has your social media account grown? Have you got more followers than before the campaign? Have your engagement rates grown? These are some things to factor in while evaluating your audience growth after an influencer marketing campaign.
Done correctly, working with micro-influencers can be great for your brand. They require less investment, less hand-holding, and have a more engaged audience that can be harnessed for your brand and products. What are your thoughts on influencer marketing? Do you have an influencer marketing strategy? I would love to know in the comments below.
The post Everything You Need to Know About Micro-Influencer Marketing appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.
from
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/modernb2bmarketing/~3/J8UukfMpWtU/everything-you-need-to-know-about-micro-influencer-marketing.html