Summary: Two-thirds of PR and marketing professionals struggle to demonstrate the impact of their work, suggesting a need for better utilization of measurement tools. However, it’s hard to quantify the effect of some marketing, like brand presence at industry events. The article warns against the potential pitfalls of relying solely on measurable outcomes, advocating for…
Summary: Martha Marchesi recommends four New Year’s resolutions for B2B marketers. The first is to embrace AI, with a nod to tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Midjourney. The second suggests leveraging influencers, met with skepticism but acknowledged as potentially valuable. The third is to incorporate more human touch through short-form videos, though the writer is…
Summary: From a research study by Allegra and Ascend2 about the resurgence of print in marketing — contrary to the belief that print is obsolete, 58% of marketers plan to increase their use of printed materials. While brochures and flyers are most popular, high costs and a preference for digital channels are barriers. However, print…
Summary: The article emphasizes the importance of investigating “edge cases” in marketing. While marketers usually focus on major factors, unexpected scenarios (edge cases) can be crucial. Examples include unexpected customer behavior, actions in unplanned environments, or changes in regulations. The article highlights instances where “edge case” is used as an excuse or when it represents…
There’s this thing called “last-click attribution” where you assign a sale to the last click a person takes before the purchase. If you think about your own buying behavior, you’ll quickly realize that model probably only works for a very small percentage of your purchases, and that it gets less and less valuable as the…
Yesterday I saw a post on LinkedIn about the success of Barstool Sports, with 5 lessons for B2B marketers. It raised some good points, which I’ll mention in a minute. But before I get to that I want to mention a strange experience I had yesterday. My site runs on WordPress, and some of my…
Sorry to be philosophical for a moment here, but it fits today’s topic. Human society needs two impulses: protection and exploration. Somebody needs to explore the great unknown, try the new food, make friends with the weird tribe on the other side of the river, and somebody needs to make sure we don’t burn the…
Bob Hoffman thinks it’s a marketer’s delusion to believe that anybody wants to interact with your brand. I tend to agree with him. But my friends Lev Kaye and Leslie Laredo believe there are some situations where interaction is appropriate. How do you decide when? That’s the point of The Krehbiel Brand Involvement Matrix. It’s…
The typical sales funnel of awareness > consideration > purchase doesn’t go deep enough for publishers. There are several more steps in the journey, and different tools and methods are appropriate for each phase. The following chart can help you get started. Create goals and methods for each of these ten steps in your customer’s…
On Friday, Bo Sacks distributed Cosmin Ene’s article, “Subscription Cannibalization is here. Just not as you think.” Cannibalization is, of course, eating your own. Publishers often use that word to describe when a new, low-priced product undercuts the sales of an older, higher-priced product. As a general rule, I think fear of cannibalization is misguided….
Customer retention should start immediately after the sale. This is true for e-commerce stores and for publishers, although in the first case it means repeat purchases while in the latter it means continuing a subscription. Some retention strategies are common to stores and to publishers. For example, both should … Establish a relationship immediately after…
When the kids try to convince lo-tech grandma to get a smartphone, they focus on the benefits. “You can see what your grandkids are up to and chat with us!” Once grandma gets comfortable with a smartphone, she wants more storage and processing power. Those are features. The rule I learned back in the 1980s…
Summary: Speaking clearly goes along with thinking clearly, which is why you should avoid silly lingo and trendy words. I recently read this in a post on LinkedIn. “[M]edia organizations need to establish a relationship and give easy ways for the subscriber to stay connected.” Sorry to break it to you, but nobody in the…
Renewals are crucial to subscription publishing models, and engagement is crucial to renewals. This page lists some questions to ask about your retention efforts, and some ideas about measurement and tools. I’m sure you’re justifiably proud of the good service you provide, but here’s a hard truth: access to your content is not a benefit…
There’s no single answer to this problem because everybody’s needs are different, but here are some general guidelines. 1. Ask if technology is really the answer. Technology is great and allows us to do amazing things. But remember that when your only tool is a hammer, you want to bang on every problem, and when…