By Alexandra Reid
We are bringing you our roundup a little earlier than usual this month because we will be celebrating Canada Day early next week when this post would otherwise be published.
We covered a lot of ground this month on our blog, from RIM to training your boss, tribal marketing to productivity tips. We even launched content marketing as a new service offering.
In case you missed any of our posts, here’s a handy roundup:
June 6: Getting the marketing right at an event product launch by Francis Moran and Alexandra Reid
June 14: Putting Ottawa’s puzzle together by Leo Valiquette
June 18: Balancing investment, Minimum Viable Product, and time to market by Peter Hanschke
June 20: Training your new boss by Francis Moran and Leo Valiquette
And on a related note…
In addition to our series, our associates and guest bloggers were also busy writing on a great range of topics. Here are our other posts from June, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
June 4: Why RIM could and should bounce back: Mobile needs to innovate by Jesse Rodgers
June 5: Levering the power of teamwork to drive a successful content marketing program by Alexandra Reid
June 11: The evolution of branding and advertising by Rob Woyzbun
June 26: Ottawa entrepreneur Scott Annan comments on the relaunch of Mercury Grove by Alexandra Reid
June 12: Content marketing tips: SEO implications for rebroadcast articles by Alexandra Reid
June 7: We launch new content marketing service offering by Alexandra Reid
June 19: 10 questions B2B companies should ask before selecting a content marketing service provider by Alexandra Reid
June 27: 7 ways to stay sane and productive by Leo Valiquette
June 21: PR people really are dead and mindless sheep by Francis Moran
June 8: Is it spring time for venture capital in Canada? by Francis Moran
June 13: Product marketing vs. brand marketing: Separate your product or separate your users? by Ken Rosen
June 25: Tribal marketing for ‘Generation Me’ by Bob Bailly
June 28: Why is there a lighthouse on your brochure? by Francis Moran
June 22: Social Media Breakfast Ottawa: Digital measurement and consumer understanding by Alexandra Reid
Image: Michel Z Binden
By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are MarketingSherpa, MarketingProfs, Business2Community, Entrepreneur Stories, PC Advisor, and Wired.
Content marketing: 21 ideas for planning, creating, and leveraging content from your webinars
Webinars can help your content marketing and audience-building efforts. They are great tools to use in the complex sales cycle, including nurturing and generating leads. In a recent webinar with ReadyTalk, MECLABS’ presenters Todd Lebo and Daniel Burstein shared 21 ideas with the audience to plan, create and leverage webinars, including segmentation, repurposing content and multichannel marketing.
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By Bob Bailly
Prior to leaving on a holiday to Europe at the beginning of May, I was preparing an article on how tribal behaviour has been shaped by our expanded use of technology. Scotland, southern Spain and London didn’t change my topic, but the way I look at it was certainly altered.
A number of years ago I was researching this subject and came across a threaded blog entitled Tribe.
What had got me going then was this part of the post:
…Basically what tribal life is about is kinship. A tribal society is a society that functions by kinship — which is not limited to blood kinship, because all beings in the universe are kin, just as all societies conceive of the universe based on their own social structure (example: medieval Europeans, who lived under kings, saw the universe as ruled by a Divine King; modern society, which functions like a machine in which people are more or less interchangeable parts, sees the universe as a machine, etc.) indigenous tribal people, who live in an extended family … see the universe as an extended family as well, in which everyone is obligated to take care of everybody else. The closer the kinship, the greater the obligation.
I was intrigued because so much of my research into human business behaviour at the time had been concerned with evolutionary neuroscience and the concept of how decisions are controlled by our primitive brain’s self-interest. What’s always intrigued me is why and how the me, or the ego, or the mind controls the brain to look beyond itself and to become tuned to the group, the pack or the tribes to which it belongs. My questions: Why should we feel obligation to our tribe? What is it in our belonging that is central to how we operate as individuals? And finally, are new technologies changing our tribal behaviours?
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By Alexandra Reid
The digital marketing space is becoming increasingly complex as consumers find more ways to uncover information about brands. They are looking at websites and social media through their desktops, laptops, and mobile devices but haven’t left behind more traditional channels such as TV, magazines, and radio. Media isn’t dying; media is proliferating and marketers are struggling to keep up with consumers as they demand a more holistic approach to how they receive information and communicate with brands.
That was the message Chris Greenfield, President of Ipsos ASI, shared with the Social Media Breakfast Ottawa audience this week. He stressed that businesses should not put all their money into digital marketing, and whatever they do invest should go towards providing a consistent and engaging experience for their audiences. It’s no longer about just paid media and advertising, but earned media. In this environment, brands should focus on providing consumers with a great experience across multiple touch points, and consider using reach and response as their goals on these channels, said Greenfield.
“Touch points do not act in isolation,” said Greenfield. “Brands must think and act holistically. It’s a 360-approach. Expect consumers to experience their brand at more than one touch point.”
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By Alexandra Reid
It’s all over the headlines: B2B businesses are investigating and investing in content marketing en masse.
In fact, B2B marketers are employing an average of eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their goals and are spending more than a quarter of their budgets on content marketing. As a content marketer myself, I understand the appeal and regard it as a superb marketing option for authority-based businesses and for any company for which establishing thought leadership is a critical marketing objective.
But, as I have argued before with regards to social media marketing, marketers have a way of putting the pressure on businesses to adopt (supposedly) new practices. Content marketing done right can be expensive and it isn’t for everyone. Businesses must take a step back, do their research and ask the right questions before diving in headfirst. This is especially important for content marketing because its success rests entirely on the quality of the content produced and how it is shared with the target audience.
If you’re a B2B business seeking content marketing services, here are some questions you should ask, after doing your own research, to ensure you select the right people for the job:
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We are bringing you our roundup a little earlier than usual this month because we will be celebrating Canada Day early next week when this post would otherwise be published.
