We all want to be “successful” marketers. But what does success in marketing even mean? Sure, we can track analytics. We can count how many social followers we have. We can watch our number of website visitors grow. But how do…

If you want your business to succeed, you’ll need to pay close attention to your brand strategy. No matter what size your business is, branding creates trust. A strong brand creates instant recognition in the marketplace, especially amongst your customers. The bigger you build…

The marketing world loves to talk about branding. Take a look at just about any marketing company in the world, and you’ll find the word “brand” on at least one page. Startups and small companies frequently look for ways to get mentions…

I can’t get no satisfaction. Aside from hearing it as the chorus in a rock n’ roll classic, it’s a phrase you never want to come from your customers. No customer satisfaction = no retention. No retention = shrinking…

Online marketing promises a holy grail of customer acquisition where you can flip a switch and watch leads waltz through the door. But that fairytale notion is becoming exceedingly rare and infinitely more difficult to achieve. More than…

Marketing can be a bit like gambling. You test out one advertising channel and measure your results. Every so often, a new marketing channel or program becomes available. Eager marketers jump at the new opportunity and gamble some of their ad…

When was the last time you tried a new restaurant without a recommendation? If you’re like me, it’s probably been a while. Everyone you’ve ever met is just naturally inclined to seek the opinion of others before trying something new. On your…

It used to be so simple. A billboard here. A radio or television commercial there. Perhaps a print ad or two thrown in for good measure. That was your marketing strategy, and it worked. Want to watch the latest…

During the 2014 Grammy Awards, musician Pharrell Williams was seen wearing an unusual hat: Sure, he may have gotten some funny looks, but it didn’t seem like a big deal. That is, until a certain fast food chain seized the opportunity…

I once worked with a business that specialized in making custom squirrel horror dioramas. If you’re wondering what in the world a custom squirrel horror diorama is, then you’ve proved an underlying point of this article. Unique niches are really tough for…

Growth hackers…growth managers…growth marketers — startups these days are all about growth. But are these titles just different names for the same kind of job? And if you’re a startup, which type should you hire and why? This article will help…

Growing a wildly successful software as a service (SaaS) business is a game of numbers. More new customers than canceling customers? You’ll grow. If not, you’ll stagnate, and the competition will gobble up market share right in front of you. At the same…

Are you annoying your customers? Probably so. Inundating your audience with multiple messages at inconvenient times isn’t helpful. Therefore, it’s important to know when and how to engage with consumers. “Marketing is your way of connecting with your customers…

In the past, marketing to consumers based on things like how many pages they visited on a site were rudimentary at best. They could tell you, in broad strokes, what a customer might be interested in — but they weren’t very…

Customer retention. It’s one of the most worthy investments a business can make. Its goal is to retain as many customers as possible. After all, a loyal customer is worth much more than a new customer. …

It’s unfortunate, but inevitably, not all of your customers will continue doing business with you forever. According to the most recent annual report from Recurly, the average quarterly customer churn rate among subscription services for physical goods is…

Ask any successful entrepreneur why their startup succeeded and they’ll almost always point you to a growth strategy they followed. They’ll tell you how much they believed the strategy will work because it was solid and had a really high likelihood…

Last year, mobile internet usage overtook desktop for the first time. If you’re not tailoring your marketing strategy specifically for mobile users in 2017, you’re losing out. Mobile internet access has soared in recent years and it’s…

For some reason, people tend to be equating SaaS companies with free trials. I find this pretty bad indeed. Here’s why: It’s true that many software companies see outstanding results with the free trial business model, but it doesn’t imply that everyone…

When it comes to customer service trends, most marketers and customer support teams groan and shake their head. Here’s another glimpse into supposedly “what customers want” that’s supposed to make them beat a path to our doors. Except it rarely works out…

One of the more loaded questions we hear from execs at our SaaS company is, “How is Marketing doing this month?” Fair question. For B2B marketers who work with lead generation and conversion tracking, the answer beyond “great” may be tricky…

Before we get started, let’s get one thing straight: If the product or service your company offers doesn’t live up to your customers’ expectations, your business isn’t going to get very far. That being said, it’s important to note that the quality of…

It’s no secret that in 2018, like every year, marketers want to get the biggest ROI from their advertising spend. So which channels are worth your attention? A new survey from Ascend2 took a look at the most lucrative…

For digital marketers, it ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. There are serious challenges inherent to the digital landscape that nobody is talking about. Not long ago, advertisements were the end result of days, weeks, or even months of painstaking research and creative…

Optimizing the customer experience is a great way to get new customers. It’s also one of the best ways of fostering customer loyalty. According to Teradata, only 41% of marketing executives are using customer engagement data to inform…

Much more than just a buzzword, disruptive marketing is changing the way we react to, understand and accept companies and their advertising. From a business standpoint, disruptive marketing represents a key shift in an era where promotional strategies update as fast…

A hot prospect has demoed your software or product, and now you’ve got Sales talking with the decision-makers about an enterprise solution that will be your biggest yet. You find out they’ve narrowed down their decision to you and two of…

We are all bombarded by media. So much so that we easily tune it out. The more interruptive it is, the more absurd we find it and the more likely we are to disregard it. So what’s a company to do when…

When it comes to attracting and retaining B2B customers, the biggest push is on creating value. We know B2B customers buy value – in the form of convenience, simplicity or integration. But what exactly is value and is it something that…

There are a billion emails sent every day by MailChimp alone. There are over two million blog posts published each day. Average page length has become a staggering ~2000 words, which based on average writing times, can…

It’s all local. Despite living in a global economy, many customers only care about what’s happening in their neighborhoods and cities. Brands must connect with consumers on their playing fields. And that means understanding people’s languages, cultures, and traditions. Marketing with location at the…

The marketing persona is a tried-and-true customer segmentation strategy that many companies rely on to get the big picture about the people they serve. At the same time, these marketers and their teams are gathering copious amounts of data from and…

Marketo, the lead nurturing platform, is one of the best tools for marketers to create long-term relationships with customers, from creating prospects to converting them into advocates. This “lead nurturing” is a proven tactic for moving prospects through a…

It’s hard for digital marketers to ignore headlines claiming, for example, “How Kraft Gets Four Times Better ROI From Content Than Ads.” That’s certainly an impressive figure — four times better ROI! — but those who take it at…

More leads, please. In most companies, it’s an ongoing process to generate interested buyers to your product and services. We want qualified leads that move effortlessly throughout the sales cycle. But the problem lies in our preparation. Some of us just don’t have…

Growth hacking is an evolution. Not a revolution. It takes a different skill set. A new way of thinking. However, at the end of the day, a lot of what you’re doing still looks and sounds like real marketing. Not today’s…

There are over 2,000 marketing technology companies today. Each one doing something a bit different, filling some unique yet critical need. That means on a daily basis, marketers might choose from 100 different software programs to fulfill relatively basic…

When it comes to lead generation, quality matters over quantity. But by the same token, people don’t like being sold to and they resent the notion that they’re simply “numbers in a database somewhere”. With that in mind, Ascend2 conducted research…

It’s time to upgrade your SaaS marketing team. With the right tools, your staff has the opportunity to acquire new users, offer quality customer service, and boost retention rates. However, some businesses shy away from experimenting with new tools. “New technology can be scary,…

A new report released by eConsultancy, in collaboration with Oracle Marketing Cloud, has revealed precisely which channels marketers feel deliver the biggest impacts on their return on investment, and how they bring those priorities to light within their respective teams and…

Everybody wants loyalty, but not everybody is willing to do what it takes to get it. Many business owners forget that behind the computer screen is a human being who thinks he or she deserves all the attention in the world…

Salesforce.com recently released their 2016 State of Marketing report, filled with valuable insights on what separates the top marketers and sales teams from the mediocre and the just plain bad. High performers were noted as “’extremely satisfied’ with the current outcomes…

Onboarding never ends. Some SaaS teams may approach onboarding as an activity － a one-time event for each consumer. However, it’s time to change your perspective. Consider onboarding as an ongoing process that continues beyond initial setup. Whether it’s teaching loyal consumers…

You know that customer retention is important for any company; even more so for SaaS. If you keep customers around, they keep paying you. Churn rate should be one of the most important metrics for any SaaS company. Though there are

For B2C businesses, content personalization is a no-brainer. Customers love the fact that something has been recommended just for them.  But what about businesses that market to other businesses? Do they get the same value out of personalized content?  A

Remember back in simpler times when online advertising was just web and email? While the marketing was much simpler, the opportunities were also very limiting. You essentially could only reach the user while they were on their computer – and even…