In the rush to adopt trendy new media as quickly as they pop into existence the word “media” is often forgotten and the process of Media Planning overlooked.   A medium must always justify itself onto the media schedule.

What’s this got to do with my original point about revolutions and clarity?  It is this:

If we strive to plan our campaigns properly we will realise our need to have the full picture at our disposal.  It has started already and has fueled the development of Super-Control-Panels that bring all of our analytics  into one place, including our CRM systems.   If you’d like to know how to get your hands on a Super Control Panel then drop us a line.

Our next post will be about linking Social Media to CRM to Marketing Automation.

It appears that Senior Account Directors and Managers need help to stay abreast of the ever increasing number of elements involved in multi-channel delivery.   Here is a great list of project management tools courtesy of Plugged.in,  they call it the GRAND List.

Here is our summary,  but do visit Plugged.In to see their comments;

Huddle

Basecamp

5pm

Collabtive

Project Pier

GoPlan

ClockingIT

OnStage

DeskAway

Redmine

Zoho Projects

activeCollab

ProofHub

ProjectOffice

OpenGoo

Source: Marketing Sherpa

If you have an informal process with a few guidelines that are only occasionally followed then you are in transition.  When you are analysing your results look back at the processes that you applied and those that you did not.  Think about how the process could have made things work more smoothly and how you could have improved creativity and relevance.

Strong policy and process throughout all functions on the run-up to pressing “go” will significantly improve email marketing and automation effectiveness.  If you are struggling with developing this policy process procedure then drop us a line; we have a template for that.

Your process should include how to plan, execute, measure and report on everything you do.

Source: MarketingSherpa

ViralJab provides consultancy, digital strategy and creative support to do this.

Among the findings:

• A total of £1967 million was spent on online advertising, an increase of £209 million year-on-year.
• The Internet accounted for 24 per cent of overall advertising spend – second only to TV ad spend at 26 per cent.
• Banners and embedded ads were the most used display ads, followed by display affiliate, pre-post roll and sponsorship ads
• While the majority of brands using digital formats are in the entertainment and media sectors (14.4 per cent), technology brands accounted for 9.4 per cent of overall share and business and industrial brands accounted for 8.2 per cent.

In 2009, for example, companies spent 26 percent of their ad dollars on print, while their customers spent only 12 percent of their media consumption time there. Internet advertising took only 13 percent of ad budgets, yet people reported spending 28 percent of their media-use time there.

eMarketer, a research and analysis firm for digital media and marketing, notes that in 2011, the combined newspaper and magazine advertising spend is $4 billion more than for Internet advertising. They project the trend reverses in 2012, with Internet spend leading by $2.9 billion.

Yes you can create your own QR Code for your business card or anything.

Making your communications easy to understand and to the point is critical to keeping your prospects’ attention.  Complexity is a key reason that prospects don’t want to deal with a company or buy a product; complexity in communication, too many choices or perceived difficulty in implementation, all feature in research.

2) Be knowledgeable

Knowing your stuff and making your communications with prospects valuable is the key differentiator from your competitors.  If you can provide information which is valuable to your prospects they will be happy to receive it, keep it and even look forward to receiving more.  And guess who they’ll speak to when they’re ready?

3) Make it relevant to each recipient

Knowing your prospects are short of time means you’ll understand that none of them will be interested in your products or services until they reach the final steps of their sales cycle and are ready to reach a decision between suppliers.  Until then they are interested in the key drivers for their businesses.  Your communications need to focus on these – the business benefits of using you.

4) Focus your time and effort where it’ll make the most difference

By gathering market information and monitoring key changes in prospect companies you can develop unique communications that depict your proposition in your prospects’ environment thereby demonstrating your good fit and business edge over its competitors.