When AI Is Done Right

We’re hearing a lot about AI these days and increasingly it’s being incorporated into various marketing technology platforms as well. This week, I had the good fortune of receiving a demo from an up-and-coming social media management platform that incorporated a subtle, yet very effective AI application in its offerings. In a nutshell, the demonstrator selected a long-form article from the company…

How to Leverage Leads from Review Sites

The stats are undeniable—few of us like going it alone, at least when it comes to buying stuff in unfamiliar categories. On the consumer side, the Spiegel Research Center reports that nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before buying. And on the business-to-business front, a G2 Crowd and Heinz Marketing study showed that 92% of buyers are more likely…

Drinking Your Own Marketing Champagne

Ad agencies are notoriously poor at applying their craft to their own brands, but martech companies don’t have that problem. Marketo and Hubspot are masters of inbound marketing, in which brands draw potential customers to them with tactics such as content marketing and search optimization. Salesforce is really good at using Salesforce to sell itself. And Demandbase, a leader in…

An Antidote to FOFB

While Gens Y & Z are famously prone to FOMO, my unscientific survey of hundreds of CMOs suggests many suffer from FOFB, “fear of falling behind.” This fear manifests itself in positive ways like intense curiosity, networking with peers and continuous learning. On the flip side, it can also lead to embracing robotic technologies (i.e. bots, programmatic, AI, phone trees,…

7 Interview Questions for Your Next Marketing Hire

Leadership, whether you’re the CEO, chief marketing officer or chief financial officer, can typically be boiled down to three fundamental tasks: Set the vision, build the team and allocate the resources. Arguably, all three are equally important, yet in this CMO-centric column, we’ve focused more on the first and third, closely examining the strategic and budgetary choices that modern marketers…

Show Don’t Tell

There are two brand videos below. Each is only a few minutes long. Both use emotion to tell a story. But I think you will find that one of the two clearly stands out as a better story – and consequently a better brand story overall – for that company. (Warning: Spoiler Alert) Of course, it’s subjective but I’m guessing…

Yes, TV Advertising Is Still Effective

When Jonathan Beamer took over as CMO of Monster nine months ago, he found a brand that, despite “ten years of neglect” from both a product and marketing perspective, “was still one of the strongest in the job search category.” He credits this residual strength to Monster’s original insight, “that people desperately want fulfilling work,” which remains as true today…

How to Tackle High Expectations for New CMOs

From the moment a new chief marketing officer starts a job, the expectations for improved marketing performance are outrageously high. The CEO is looking for simultaneous upticks in brand metrics and demand generation. The head of sales wants leads that almost close themselves. The HR chief is expecting instant improvements in Glassdoor ratings and an influx of highly qualified recruits….