INBOUND ACCELERATOR

Today is Monday, Feb. 17, 2020. That means that here in the U.S., it is also Presidents Day, which always falls on the third Monday of February. Aside from being a great time for retailers to offer sales on bath towels and bedding, appliances and mattresses, it is one of dozens of holiday’s listed in a downloadable calendar offered by our friends over at HubSpot.

The calendar lists both official holidays like Presidents Day, and less official but more Instagram-worthy options for small businesses to jump on board with such as Star Wars Day (May the Fourth, of course) and National Sunglasses Day.

In marketing, as with almost any endeavor, there is theory and there is reality. Just ask any veteran of a given profession who has recently had a conversation with a freshly-graduated newcomer full of ideas about “how it works” that come from classes and books.

Those classes and books are great, and should be very close to what happens on the ground and in the trenches, but real-world results can also be much different. Which is why it pays to take time to review your actual results and see how they compare to what you would have expected based on best practices and industry averages.

Effective marketing and PR strategies need to be designed, from the beginning, to reach prospects and customers at every point along the buyers’ journey. If you miss stages along the way, you’ll know it because conversion rates will suffer.

Yes, video is everywhere. As pointed out by Omnicore in this infographic, nearly 9 in 10 businesses are using video in their marketing in some, and more than three-fourths of consumers say a video has convinced them to download an app or buy software.

In some professions, there are no questions about how to get the results you want. Precise manuals spell out exactly how to replace an engine part or calculate the needed statistics in an actuarial table. But with marketing and content creation, the guidelines are a little more, let’s say, open to interpretation.

This includes writing business blog posts that deliver results – wouldn’t it be great if there were an absolute answer to what works? Then you would know whether to write long or “KISS” by keeping it short and simple. Unfortunately, the answer is not exact, but there are some statistics, best practices and complicating factors to keep in mind as you find the perfect length for your next blog post.

When you are trying to cut through the clutter of an exponentially expanding amount of online content, it has to be great (as I talked about in my last lesson). One way of making your content great is to base it on original research.

Effective use of social media, which builds relationships and grows your audience, requires doing more than posting about your monthly specials or even featuring user-created content by hosting selfie stations in your place of business.

It requires understanding your customers and creating conversations and sharing information about other things they are interested in, besides just those your business offers.

When asked which SEO tactic is most effective at improving search rankings and driving website traffic, 75 percent of marketers agree it is this:

RELEVANT CONTENT CREATION.

Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t. In fact, 1 in 3 marketers say content creation is their greatest challenge. Do you agree?

Any good integrated marketing and PR program is built on a foundation of planning, strategy and interdepartmental collaboration. But the bricks, steel, windows and doors that make up the structure the world sees are composed of content.

Content is essential, whether you are talking about basic website text on the homepage and in FAQs, downloadable whitepapers, reports, and other resources, or blog posts, bylined articles contributed to industry media, social media updates, or even videos and infographics and other images. Content matters.

When Pan Communications asked CMO and top marketing experts from around the country and globe what they see as the most important skillsets, challenges, and budget priorities for this year, some pointed to new advancements such as AI and martech, and how to manage all of the data that goes along with those developments, but many others circled back to the very basics: great writing skills, storytelling, and great content that connects with others.

The infographic below includes a ton of great information to think about, but I want to touch on a few of the key skillsets and challenges these top marketing experts are watching for 2020.