Rat Race Armaggeddon

Monday, July 1, 2019

Marketing salary survey 2019: A global snapshot

The salary trends below serve as a benchmark to inform the marketing ecosystem on an international scale.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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If a Recession is Coming Soon, We Have to Prepare

Narrow is the new normal: Why expertise will help agencies survive the in-house exodus

We need to adapt to today’s landscape whether collaborating with in-house teams or as part of a multi-agency effort, specialized expertise is the path forward.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Privacy issues may be hurting smart speaker market growth

Concerns that ‘smart speakers are always listening’ inhibit potential buyers.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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A Simple, Two-Month Plan to Complete a Content Project

At the end of June 2009, I was reading Copyblogger and I got a new idea: I should write an...

The post A Simple, Two-Month Plan to Complete a Content Project appeared first on Copyblogger.

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Q2 Wrap-Up: Top Changes & What’s Ahead For Marketers

Q2 Digital Marketing Recap Technical Image

We've made it through the second quarter of 2019, one filled with many important B2B marketing changes and several unexpected twists and turns that will all combine to affect how the industry moves forward as we enter Q3 and push ahead to 2020. Q2 saw several exciting shifts in entirely new directions, and a few seemingly slight directional maneuvers and adjustments that are nonetheless set to make big impacts in the coming year. We're always working to bring you the most relevant B2B marketing news, including weekly industry news videos from Tiffani Allen and Joshua Nite here on our blog and on our TopRank Marketing YouTube channel, and each quarter we reflect on what's happened and look ahead with key trends. Let's take a look at both the challenges and opportunities the quarter's top B2B marketing news has brought.

The Digital Marketing Sights and Sounds of Q2

When It Comes to Digital Marketing Spending …

Forecasts from the quarter show that global digital advertising spending is expected to continue to climb over the next four years, including a prediction from Juniper Research that spending will reach $520 billion by 2023, and that:

Spending will increase significantly from 2019's $294 billion
Amazon’s share is projected to hit 8% — up from 2018’s 3%
Google’s digital ad revenue is expected to top $230 billion by 2023

via GIPHY What Else?

- 63% of B2B companies plan to raise spending on email marketing, with top goals being increased engagement, conversion, and lead generation, according to survey data released during the beginning of the quarter. (MediaPost)
- By 2019 global digital advertising spending is expected to increase 4.7%, up from the 4% predicted in December 2018, while by 2021 spend will reach $329 billion, some of the trends of interest to digital marketers among forecast data released during Q2 by Zenith. (Marketing Dive)
- Digital video advertising spend has seen continued growth according to IAB study data, with the average survey advertiser projected to spend $18 million in 2019, up from 2018's $14.2 million, one of several items of interest to digital marketers in the Q2 report. (Adweek)
- Twitter's advertising revenue expanded by 18% year-over-year to $679 million during the first quarter of 2019, while ad engagement on the platform saw a 23% increase with cost-per-engagement decreasing by 4%, according to the social firm's earnings statement that came out in Q2. (MarTech Today)
- A Q2 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) report showed that 2018 was the first year U.S. digital advertising earnings topped the $100 billion mark, hitting $107.5 billion, up from 2017's $88.3 billion, led primarily by the strength of mobile and video. Users also spent 22% more time on social media properties in 2018 than during 2017, the report detailed. (Adweek)
- Social media advertising spending has risen 27% year-over-year, topped by a 44% increase for video ads, with accompanying impressions also up 20%, some of the results of interest to digital marketers in report data from Kenshoo's trends report. (ClickZ)
- The highly-anticipated Internet Trends report for 2019 was released at the end of Q2, including digital spending data of interest to digital marketers. For more than 21 years venture capitalist Mary Meeker, partner at Kleiner Perkins, has researched and put out the report, this year weighing in at 333 pages. I recently took an in-depth look at the report.

Digital ad sales are expected to grow by 14% in 2019, according to additional forecast data, a bright spot in predictions showing a slowdown in the overall rate of growth for ad sales, down from 2018's 8% to 5%. (AdAge)

Read more on this topic:

When It Comes to Search Marketing …

Q2 saw Google launch a search update focused on domain diversity, by having fewer first-page results that come from the same domain, and the search giant also rolled out several other changes including:

Making the firm's mobile-first indexing the default for new sites
New guidelines for using “how-to” structured mark-up data and related image recommendations, offering digital marketers more precise instructions to work towards getting pages that generate automatic how-to rich search result entries
Best-practices for building your FAQ pages

via GIPHY What Else?

Google rolled out automatic transcription to certain podcasts on its Google Podcasts app, providing a boon to discoverability via search that will likely help attract new audiences to podcast episodes that include Google's new podcast metadata. (Search Engine Land)
Display and video ads sold with Google Ad Manager, Google's ad server and publisher exchange, got additional auction functionality aimed at removing Google's "last-look" outbidding advantage, while also bringing new minimum pricing strategies and rules. (Marketing Land)
Google's annual Marketing Live event saw the firm announce expanded mobile-first native ads that display in a more visually-rich view across multiple Google feed environments, along with mobile-only gallery ads and several other features of interest to online marketers. (Search Engine Land)
20% of Android Google App searches now come from voice, and SEMrush examined ranking factors including the importance of first-page placement and other facets of voice search. (SEMrush)

Read more on this topic:

When It Comes to Content Marketing …

The end of Q2 saw content marketers getting new data on the optimal times for publishing content on various social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Sprout Social updated its best-times-to-post study, showing that:

Facebook content posted on Wednesdays from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. has the greatest engagement
Instagram also shows Wednesday as the top day, along with Fridays between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Twitter posts have the greatest success when made on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
*LinkedIn posts were seen to get the highest engagement on Wednesdays between 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

via GIPHY What Else?

Instagram began offering a new branded content ad option that allows organic branded content feed posts from creators, expanding the Facebook-owned platform's tools for digital marketers. The new ads contain "Paid Partnership," and are part of Instagram's efforts at increased ad transparency. (Adweek)
The end of Q2 saw the release of Edelman's annual Trust Barometer report, showing that 75% of consumers now value trust over trendiness, along with a wide swatch of other digital marketing insights. (AdAge)
The hyper-personalised advertising brands can deliver with the nascent efforts at merging DNA analysis with marketing may be uncharted waters, but some marketers began testing the genetic marketing waters during Q2. (Marketing Dive)

Read more on this topic:

When It Comes to Social Media …

Several Q2 reports pointed to social media usage remaining mostly unchanged, while the way people use social platforms has shifted, offering digital marketers new opportunities as well as some additional new hurdles to conquer.

Instagram was the only major social media platform to see an significant increase in usage among U.S. adults since early 2018 according to Q2 Pew Research survey data, showing the rest of the most popular platforms saw statistically unchanged usage, with slowing growth across the board aside from the Facebook-owned Instagram. (Pew Research Center)
The Q2 Edison Research and Triton Digital Social Habit study showed largely unchanged social media usage over the past four years, yet some growth for Instagram among young Americans, a drop in Facebook's popularity, and several other statistics of interest to digital marketers. (Convince and Convert)
2019 will be the first year during which more people — 51.7% — use social media platforms from mobile devices than from computers, and those using mobile for all their Internet usage is also expected to increase by 10.6%, according to research data on U.S. social network users released during the quarter. (eMarketer)

via GIPHY What Else?

Facebook advertisers and users of the firm's Business Manager platform got new layout changes and features, including streamlined Ads Manager navigation and tools to improve new client on-boarding, Facebook announced in Q2. (Marketing Land)
LinkedIn saw revenue growth of 27% for FY19 Q3, a 24% increase in on-platform sessions, and record engagement and job posting levels, according to report data from parent company Microsoft. (Social Media Today)
Q2 study data showed significant differences in social media usage not only between traditional age group categories, but also within generational groups, such as older Gen Xers using LinkedIn 9% more than average consumers, while younger Gen Xers use Instagram 11% more than average. The study offered a variety of demographic information of interest to digital marketers. (Adweek)
Social Media Examiner released its eleventh-annual social media marketing industry report, offering 46 pages of statistical data gathered from surveying over 4,800 marketers, offering insight and interpretation on how a variety of social media platforms and practices are working for marketers today. (Social Media Examiner)
U.S. adults are using Instagram more than ever, at an average of 27 minutes daily and expected to increase through 2020, while Facebook and Snapchat have both seen a drop in the average number of minutes of use per day, according to Q2 forecast data from consultancy eMarketer. (eMarketer)

Read more on this topic:

When It Comes to Influencer Marketing …

Implementation of B2B influencer marketing continued to expand during Q2. Last month our CEO Lee Odden examined this growth and shared 7 Top B2B Influencer Marketing Trends for 2020, including:

Increased use of AI
Democratized Influence
Brandividal Media
More Engaging Content Formats
Influencer Tech Integration with other Martech
Consumerization of B2B Influencers and Content
Influencer Experience Management

What Else?

Influencer marketing saw success in numerous industries, delivering strong performance to some firms in the travel industry, and MarTech Advisor took a look at which influencer marketing strategies have worked well in this market. (MarTech Advisor)
Influencer marketing statistics were explored in infographic form, including predictions showing the practice is poised to top the $10 billion mark by 2022, and revealing a 1,500% increase in searches for information about influencer marketing over the past three years. (Social Media Today)
Instagram tested the elimination of likes and follower counts as a possible method for driving more focus to content, and Marketing Land took a look at the impact such a move by the Facebook-owned platform could have on influencer marketing. (Marketing Land)
Customized influencer apps released during Q2 from decentralized social media platform Escapex represent a new twist on a longstanding social media theme, bringing new challenges and opportunities for digital marketers. (Fast Company)

Read more on this topic:

When It Comes to The TopRank Marketing Team …

The team at TopRank Marketing has had a busy, exciting, and productive Q2, and here are just a few of some of the team’s highlights in the press during the querter:

Marketing Influencers: Our 2019 Top 30 (ExoB2B)
Modern Marketing Influencer Series: Key Ingredients of a Great Content Marketing Strategy for 2019 (Oracle Modern Marketing Blog) (client)
An Undervalued Work Management Strategy: Listening (Workfront)
B2B Lead Generation Ideas: A Full-course Content Planning Dinner (DivvyHQ)
Learn How To Solve The Experience Equation With The Right Technology And The Right Strategy (Digitalist Magazine)
Influencer Marketing Trends for 2019 - A live interview with TopRank's Lee Odden (Rival IQ)
A Sophisticated Marketer’s Perspective: Lee Odden on Ruling the Content Kingdom (LinkedIn)
Leading Influencer Marketing Agencies (Influencer Marketing Hub)
B2B Influencer Marketing in 2019 (Rival IQ)
Top 31 Best Social Media Blogs of 2019 (HowSociable)
Onalytica - The Influential Times Episode 1 [Podcast] (Onalytica)
10 branding strategies for your small business to build awareness and loyalty (Intuit / QuickBooks)
How a Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results [BuzzSumo Webinar Video] (YouTube / BuzzSumo)

Goodbye, Q2. Hello and Welcome, Q3.

B2B marketers, we hope that your Q3 is filled with plenty of success and innovation, and hope that you'll join us each week and keep up with the latest industry news, trends, and opportunities in our Digital Marketing News Roundup, with highlights and video commentary from Tiffani Allen and Joshua Nite. *Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post Q2 Wrap-Up: Top Changes & What’s Ahead For Marketers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

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4 Things CMOs Can Do to Prolong Their Tenure

A 2017 study showed that CMOs are facing the shortest lifespan in the C-suite. This is due, in large part, to the rapid transformation of marketing technologies and practices. As a result, many CMOs are turning to data to prove their worth and demonstrate marketing ROI.

However, in order to prolong your tenure to work, it’s important to know what data is the most impactful to bring to the C-suite. Bonnie Crater, CEO of Marketing for ROI measurement platform Full Circle Insights, shared her insights with me on the four things a CMO can do to ensure they have a place in their company.

Why Such Low CMO Tenure?

Before learning about those four tips for prolonged tenure, I asked Bonnie if she could provide greater insights into why there has been such a low CMO tenure among all in the C-suite. She said a CEO once told her, “Marketing is a complicated discipline, and many CEOs don’t fully understand just how challenging it is.”

Yet there is more. Crater cited the lack of background in marketing by CEOs. Another key factor is marketing has been among the last departments to automate processes and generate hard performance metrics. Therefore, CEOs get performance metrics from every other department in the company. That leaves only fuzzy marketing data rather than specific metrics to track.

Crater added:

“Fortunately, best practices are emerging for marketing in the digital age, but we’re faced with complexity. So many new channels have emerged over the last 10 to 15 years. With new systems, marketing can now genuinely connect activities with company goals, so marketing initiatives align with overall objectives. When the marketing function is aligned with company goals and CMOs leverage technologies to measure progress and quantify results, misalignment can be reduced or eliminated.”

Cat Howell, the founder and CEO of Eight Loop Social, a social strategy agency specializing in Facebook advertising, adds that building an effective funnel and making sure a brand’s content and campaigns align with it is vital to success. She says the funnel is so fundamental that most companies assume they’re approaching it correctly, but the funnel may no longer be built to align with customers or the company’s objectives if it hasn’t been examined in a while.

CMOs have a better chance at extending their tenure when they more closely align marketing initiatives with company objectives. That leads to four key things a CMO can do to change their status:

1. Planning

Planning typically is an annual activity. It involves identifying sales goals and understanding how to achieve them by measuring lead volume, conversion rates, and velocity. Planning aligns marketing objectives by disclosing how many leads are needed to meet revenue targets.

2. Achieving

Achieving occurs when a CMO tracks goals to understand performance versus objectives. This reveals specific results. Marketers should monitor progress at various intervals. Ideally, it helps to use a dashboard. Predictive analytics can help professionals see patterns in the data that can bring insight and lead to better performance. According to Crater, this ensures they are achieving the results they need to meet goals that were outlined in the planning phase.

3. Optimizing

This is the process of making changes to improve results. For example, a CMO can adjust marketing-sales handoff processes to increase efficiency. This is also a way to ensure opportunities don’t fall by the wayside. Marketers should look at process improvement opportunities on a regular basis.

4. Evaluating

Finally, evaluating involves looking at campaign results and assessing the marketing mix. If a campaign strategy works especially well, marketers can decide to increase its use. Likewise, they can discontinue less effective programs.

Results of These Tactics

Crater’s own experience with seeing these tactics enacted by CMOs has always been positive. She stated, “CMOs who align their department’s activities with company objectives and access the technologies they need to get a granular view of progress can improve marketing efficiency by 30%, 50%, and sometimes 100%. My observation is that marketers who follow this approach get promoted. They are certainly not getting fired.”

Shun the Silos

It’s critical that marketing and sales figures line up to ensure accurate and standardized reporting. That means avoiding the often omnipresent silos that exist between sales and marketing. This is not always an easy thing to do.

That’s because software solutions for marketing and sales use function as their separate systems of record. If sales and marketing don’t use a common database, their data won’t match. Neither will find the other’s numbers credible. Crater offered a solution. “Consolidate data on a single system.” It already functions as the system of record for many companies. When marketing and sales have a single source of data truth, they can standardize reporting, create coherent strategies, and more closely align their operations. Transparency breeds success.”

New Roles for CMOs

While marketing initially lagged behind other departments in automation and data application, CMOs who commit to applying data and measuring results are quickly becoming as information-rich as CFOs. This is enhancing their stature within the C-suite. Crater’s vision of the future includes CMOs moving to other data-driven roles, such as Chief Revenue Officer. For CMOs, there is much opportunity ahead if they focus on these four things and create a role for themselves in the new digital environment.

* A version of this article originally appeared on Forbes.

How can a CMO work with their budget and also maximize opportunities as they emerge? Find out by reading “CMOs Need to Balance the Expensive Cost of ‘Free.’”

Read the blog

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