Marketing Trends

When we’re wandering around the internet, the hard truth is that we are constantly at risk. There are bad actors constantly attempting to perpetrate cyberattacks on unsuspecting web surfers. And, more and more often, those bad actors are utilizing some pretty sophisticated marketing tactics and we don’t even realize it. Matt Gillis, the CEO of Clean.io, says it’s time to change that mindset.“Most of the CMOs and marketing leaders that would be listening to this podcast, you're buying ads at a dollar CPM, and you're hoping that you get a half a percent click-through rate. These bad actors have figured out how to buy those same ads for that $1 CPM and inject JavaScript and create a 100% click-through rate.”On this episode of Marketing Trends, Matt explains those tactics in-depth, and he discusses the role bad actors are playing in the end-user’s overall experience. Matt explains why the No. 1 goal of this nefarious activity is not necessarily compensation, but more so engagement and, he identifies why popular extensions are not acting in the user’s best interest.Main Takeaways:Customer Experience is No. 1: The mission to make ad experiences better on publishers is rooted in the idea that customer experience is the No.1 priority. If someone comes to a publisher’s website and has a bad experience due to ads or bad actors, more than likely, they won’t return to that site.The Best Performance Marketers in the World: Marketers and publishers need to stop thinking of bad actors as just cyber attackers. Instead, they need to begin to understand that these same bad actors think just like marketers, but are not bound to the same rules and regulations that marketers abide by.It’s All About Engagement: The No. 1 goal of any bad actor is to draw engagement. Bad actors want the end-user to get to a certain landing page by enticing them with a discount code, gift card, etc.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

When your company is 113 years old, internationally known, and well respected, you would think by now everything has been figured out. Turns out, though, that even the biggest legacy companies in the world have room to grow and lessons to learn.“We found that at UPS, we had tons of data. We were swimming in data. [Shipping] traditionally has been an industrial, engineering, and operating company. So data was everywhere, but synthesizing that data and distilling it and transferring that data into knowledge, and information into insights we were lacking.”That’s what Kevin Warren, the CMO of UPS, had to say about some of the challenges they have faced recently. Kevin joined Marketing Trends for a deep dive on why it’s important for even the most established companies to take an honest look at their marketing approach and not be afraid to make changes. Plus he discusses why SMBs are becoming more of a focus, and how to put your purpose and mission at the forefront of every campaign and business activity.Main Takeaways:Make it Stick: When you’re thinking about hosting events, make sure the experience is worthwhile to the customer. Think to yourself, “Is this something that would be memorable?” Make your events memorable, useful, and accessible so that they become something  your clients will move their schedules to attend.That’s Logistics… Or Data: When you have massive amounts of data, the noise can be difficult to sift through. But when you harness all your data, synthesize it and really dive into what the numbers are telling you, it provides you with the tools to improve your approach and reach your customers in a more impactful way.One-Stop-Shop: Customers want the ability to have everything exist in an integrated and streamlined format. For UPS, that means customers need to have the ability to conduct checkouts, fulfillment and delivery all within one simple system. If customers have to go through multiple avenues to get to the end product, your customer experience will lag.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

The core goals for any marketing department revolves around the customer experience. But when you think about the customer journey, what is the difference between the marketing of a product and the experience of the product itself, and how should each of those blend together? “When you think about the customer experience, it's hard to tell whether it's part of the marketing experience or the actual product experience itself. As a result, the more consistency that you can deliver  for the end-user, between all of the different touchpoints that they have with the company, the better that experience will be.”Those are the words of Erin Hintz, the CMO of Barracuda Networks, a leader in security — protecting email, networks, data, and applications for businesses of all sizes. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Erin discusses how marketing departments can prevent the confusion that might happen between the marketing and product experiences in order to create a more cohesive overall customer experience. Plus, Erin discusses the importance of having a strong digital marketing program in place for inbound demand and the (messaging and content) shifts Barracuda made as companies went into the pandemic lockdowns.Main Takeaways:Let’s Get Virtual: Marketers need to come prepared with an idea of how they can convert in-person events into educational and entertaining online events. When events move to a virtual format, you need to be thinking about unique ways that you are making that webinar more impactful for the audience so that they are inclined to take part.Five Star Experience: Marketers need to take a hard look at the customer experience they are creating. Often, it’s hard to tell where the marketing experience and product experience differ. The more consistency that marketers can deliver for the end-user between all the different touchpoints along their journey, the better the user experience will be.Pivot on a Dime: Sometimes it’s necessary to alter your strategy, especially when unforeseen events occur. As marketers, your campaigns must be agile with the ability to alter your messaging to meet the moment. When your campaigns are flexible, it allows you to portray a more timely and impactful message to your audience.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

In a world driven by content, the B2B space is no exception. That fact, according to  Farnaz Maters, the Executive Director and CMO for Principal Global Investors, means that grabbing someone's attention is more difficult now than ever before, and it’s a marketer's job to create things that rise to the top in the sea of content.“Where we are in B2B, it’s basically a content war. It's about having differentiated content that our clients actually care about. People have gotten closer to the brands that they know and the asset managers that they've got long-standing relationships with. But at the same time, as people are hunkering down and being selective in who they're engaging with, it's made it more difficult to be able to expand our reach to people who don't necessarily know us.”So the natural question becomes, how can B2B companies create content that not only grabs the attention of its clients, but goes one step further and gets them to engage as well? On this episode of Marketing Trends, Farnaz dives into how B2B marketers should be thinking about the content they create. She challenges them to ask themselves a simple question: What is the purpose of this piece? Plus, she discusses why the hardest aspect of working with data is sometimes just deploying it correctly. Main Takeaways:Make Content That Drives Conversions: Your content always needs to have a purpose. When you are ideating new creative ideas, don’t just create content to have for your channels. Instead, strategize around the direct purpose of that content and what outcome you hope it leads to.Are You Using Your Data?: When you make the investment in being data-driven, make sure you are actually utilizing your data to its fullest potential. Make sure that data is being used to inform your marketing strategy and activation efforts, and that it’s being used within other departments, such as sales.What’s the Value in This?: Everybody wants access to your data. But it’s important to constantly be thinking about what the roadmap is, where you’re going to deliver business value, and making sure that the value you are bringing is iterative. When you take on big strategic projects you have two options: You can work toward the perfect state, or you can take on a mindset of iterating and delivering business value while strategically thinking about what your endpoint is.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Every marketer is looking for that magic channel. The one space where it feels like everything resonates perfectly with your audience and your message cuts through the noise. More often than not, though, finding a hybrid, thought-out, multichannel approach is the true secret formula for success.“I won't say that there's an individual channel that works really well. What I will tell you is that we have found multi-channel communications [to be] incredibly effective if you're sequencing them in a thoughtful way. I think the answer is we're not finding a single channel on its own is going to be, make or break.”That’s the opinion of Rahul Kak, the Executive Director of Behavior Change Marketing at CVS Health. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Rahul discusses exactly why a cohesive multi-channel approach is better than being dependent on one avenue and gives marketers reasons to explore that option. Plus, he touches on how marketers can make the biggest impact when it comes to personalization.Main Takeaways:It’s Not Magic: There is no magic channel. Every marketer wants to say email or SMS channels are great, but the reality is that non one channel should be your main driver. Instead, marketers need to focus on a cohesive multi-channel approach. If marketers sequence their messages across all channels in a thoughtful way, you won’t be too reliant on one area.I’m Not Here to Get Personal: Marketers want the ability to reach every customer on a personal level, but the reality is that you simply cannot have a one-to-one relationship with all your customers. Instead, what markets should be doing is clustering similar archetypes, and then channeling your efforts into those pods to create a more personalized experience for those distinct groupsBuilt To Fail: Do not go into a project with the mindset that it is going to succeed right out of the gate. Instead, go into each campaign with the mentality that most projects will fail, or most projects are going to require testing and tweaking.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com.   Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

When it comes to marketing in 2020, Marty Kihn, the Senior Vice President of Strategy for Salesforce Marketing Cloud said it best:“This was both a cultural shift and a consumer behavior shift, then also an economic shift. Advertisers had to react to all those changes in consumer behavior, the channels that people were consuming ads on, and then the economic pain behind the scenes, which affects advertising. Advertising is very much driven and tied to GDP in general. So I think that you saw tons of stuff that Ph.D. thesis will be about written for years to come happened in 2020 and how advertisers reacted.”While 2020 threw society a major curveball, and we’re all still working our way through certain things, the business world carried on, and it adapted at a pace unseen before. We welcomed Marty back to Marketing Trends to dissect some of what happened in 2020, including the ways marketers were forced to pivot. Plus, Marty also explains why digital channels have altered the marketing landscape for good and how influencers rose in importance.The March to May: From March to May, not only were consumers trying to grapple with their new reality, but brands were trying to figure out the best ways to reach consumers. Overnight, digital advertising and social engagement saw major upticks. Brands needed to figure out how to react to their new normal and it really took between March and May for brands to settle in.The Rise of Digital Transformations: Companies realized they needed to digitize fast, regardless of if things went back to how they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means companies that had gone digital needed to scale their technologies. But companies that didn’t have a robust digital strategy were forced to accelerate their digital agendas at an accelerated pace.Influence This: Influencer marketing saw a dramatic rise in 2020. As more and more consumers engaged with digital channels over the course of the year, influencers became more important. With brands trying to send less messaging to their consumers, the ability for influencers to mix products and services into their daily lives became a valuable strategy for marketers.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

When you’re selling something to someone online, the name of the game is ease of sale. You never want to make the transaction hard, just like you never want to make it tough for a customer or potential customer to find you. So how do you create a frictionless experience from search to final sale? The answer is to use data as your guiding light. “We like to see what is being searched and then we prioritize and change things [on our website] so that we can make it easier for our members to find those things. Because we all know from personal experience that when you have to click, click, click to try to get to some information, by that time you're probably saying, ‘I'll just find it somewhere else.’”That’s Deidre Davis, CMO of MSUFCU and on this episode of Marketing Trends, Deidre discusses how MSUFCU uses its data to continually optimize the customer experience. Plus, Deidre talks about why personalized customer experiences are a driving force for her company and the perceived challenges credit unions face as an industry, especially from a marketing perspective.Main Takeaways:Click, Click, Boom!: When you’re analyzing and digesting your data, make sure you are looking at what the customers are telling you they want to see. When MSUFCU noticed that one of their most-searched items was about routing and account numbers, they made that more easily accessible for what their customers wanted.MythBusters: Credit Unions are often not perceived to have the same advantages that major banks possess when it comes to personalization, data collection, and customer privacy. However, this is one of the biggest myths credit unions face when educating their customers on their products and overall benefits.Five-Star Experience: Whether you’re selling products or services, the one thing that remains a must is the customer’s experience must remain at the top of the priority list. Make sure you are constantly evaluating your customer and member’s perspective and remain in constant communication with them.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

There are certain holiday traditions that just hit differently. From the old-schoolMacy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to the new-school release of the Starbucks holiday cups, these time-honored rituals have become synonymous with the holiday season. But what happens when one of those customary activities is forced to undergo a swift change? That’s what happened when UNICEF’s annual Halloween boxes went from the hands of kids to the laptops of corporations.  “One of the byproducts of being forced into a virtual trick-or-treat experience, we were able to actually personalize it for some of our corporate partners. They could brand it, they could put their names on it, they could raise money for the thing that they were most passionate about. [Virtual events] really give us a chance to extend beyond just the youth audience and get into a bit of an older audience. So it did also give us an opportunity to get a glimpse into what this could be if it was expanded beyond just schools.”Those are the words of Shelley Diamond, the CMO of UNICEF USA, and for decades, trick-or-treating was one of the main ways that the non-profit connected with individuals. Shelley joined Marketing Trends to discuss how UNICEF spun its popular trick-or-treating event into something new and memorable for both adults and children. Plus, she explains the lens through which her team views digital advertising, and why UNICEF’s mission is rooted in the brand.Main Takeaways:Rooted in Brand: Your brand should always reflect your mission. Every touchpoint — from advertising to social content to storytelling — has to lead back to the overall mission of your company or non-profit, and reflect the goals it is striving to achieve.Take it Virtual, but Make it Count: If an event has to shift to virtual, look at it as an opportunity to reach a broader audience. When UNICEF moved its trick-or-treating campaign online, it saw a greater opportunity to reach a broader audience.It’s a Digital World, We’re Just Living in it: Digital media should be viewed as an avenue to gain valuable insights about your customers. From email marketing to search, to online video content, marketers need to constantly be looking at what the data is telling them. If the results are positive in one place, lean into that medium. If something isn’t working, analyze where the issue is and address it.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

For years, your favorite cup of coffee and your daily newspaper have been synonymous with each other. But it turns out that that morning routine is just another thing being disrupted by the digital age. Kerel Cooper, the Senior Vice President of LiveIntent, explains it like this:“More people are waking up in the morning, grabbing a cup of coffee and opening up their inbox. So gone are the days of opening up your door and there's the newspaper on the front step. It's, it's now your inbox. And I think publishers and brands recognize that.”So how can brands take control of a consumer’s inbox? And where should they be focusing those efforts to win open rates? Kerel joined Marketing Trends to discuss why email marketing continues to thrive, why content is more important than ever, and the need for marketers to understand why the death of third-party cookies might be a good thing.Main Takeaways:Time to Level-Up: Content marketing has never been more important. With more and more people at home, every chance you get to reach a customer must be more creative, and it should center around how you are retaining customers, how you are selling products, and how you are educating the marketplace on your products.Inbox is the Hot New Thing: Email inboxes have steadily replaced newspapers as consumers’ go-to source for early morning information. Marketers who think email marketing is a thing of the past need to shift their focus to how they are connecting with consumers via newsletters.Gimme that Cookie: As third-party cookies begin to fade away, marketers must start understanding where they are getting their data and how they are utilizing that data. If you have been heavily reliant on third-party data, you need to shift your focus to gathering your own data. The larger your dataset is from a first-party data perspective, the more in control marketers will be of their own destiny.---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

There are many lessons we’ve learned in 2020, including many in the world of marketing. When traditional means of advertising are flipped on their head, finding another method that works is paramount. Many different strategies were attempted, but one has risen above the rest: influencer marketing.“In 2020 people are online so much, we're seeing the performance of our influencer campaigns continuing to accelerate and increase in value. The concept of an influencer has really transitioned into the mainstream where you open the front page of the New York Times and you're like, there's going to be two or three articles that mentioned influencers or TikTok or Instagram. it's so pervasive in a way that I think was sneaky for most people, but it's now so huge.”That’s Mae Karwowski, the founder and CEO of Obviously, which provides quality influencer marketing for the world’s iconic brands. On this episode of Marketing Trends, Mae discusses some of the latest trends in influencer marketing. She talks about why it’s key to understand the value a potential influencer can have on your brand, and she stresses that the number of followers a so-called influencer has does not correlate to purchases.Main Takeaways:Know Your Voice: When deciding to enter the realm of influencer marketing, it’s important to work with people who not only understand your brand, but make sense for your brand as well. If a particular influencer's followers are used to them reviewing cameras and you’re a beauty brand, it doesn’t make sense to work with that person. Instead, work with influencers who are authentic matches for your brand.Follow the Leader: CMO and marketing departments need to start thinking about influencers as a distinct channel and not just someone you write a check to. In order to have success when utilizing influencers, you need to strategize a campaign around them just like you would any other channel.Bigger Isn’t Always Better: As the price of influencers rises, think about the cost of who you’re working with. Is it more important for your brand to go after one large influencer? Or are you better off working with smaller influencers in order to reach the same audience? If you work with a larger number of micro-influencers, you can reach your audience at the same scale and may find a more loyal audience. ---Marketing Trends podcast is brought to you by Salesforce. Discover marketing built on the world’s number one CRM: Salesforce. Put your customer at the center of every interaction. Automate engagement with each customer. And build your marketing strategy around the entire customer journey. Salesforce. We bring marketing and engagement together. Learn more at salesforce.com/marketing. To learn more or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, visit MarketingTrends.com. Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.