'One of the things I took away from the recent SXSW conference is the frenzied search going on to find new ground for our marketing messages. The media landscape is a mess. TV, radio, and newspaper advertising are in a freefall. Online ad click-though rates are dropping. Nobody is quite sure how to master “native advertising” that cleverly embeds ad messages in content. All the old “pipelines” for our content are drying up. So one viable alternative is to borrow somebody else’s pipeline. No wonder this is the new media gold rush — influencer outreach. MORE >>

'There’s no question that web analytics are vital, but even Shakespeare acknowledged that one can have too much of a good thing.  In an environment where nearly everything that happens online can be measured, the challenge for marketers isn’t gaining the ability to measure even more factors, but rather the clarity to focus on measuring what matters. How can you measure all of the sources that contributed to a conversion–not just the last click? Which Google Analytics (GA) metrics are most important? How can you take action on analytics reports? MORE >>

'10 Things Your CEO Needs to Know Now about B2B Demand Generation. love salespeople. Are you one? feel for your suffering and want to help you. But to help you, you have to help me set proper expectations with your company’s leaders. That’s the theme of this post. Why do I feel for struggling salespeople? First and foremost, I carried a bag for over two decades, so I know how your feel. carried a quota. was you. Recent experience bears it out too. What can I do? My prospects are hiding under rocks! ” He begged me for advice, which I gave for free. There ain’t no magic. MORE >>

'At their annual Amplify conference last week, Silverpop unveiled the culmination of a two year project that conveniently matches the Customer Data Platform (CDP) concept I’ve been describing for the past month. While the timing is just coincidental, Silverpop’s Universal Behaviors provide more evidence that a new breed of system is emerging. Silverpop’s new features load customer behaviors from all sources into a central database, match identities to create a unified customer view, and make the resulting information available for real-time, automated interactions across all channels. MORE >>

'I know I promised a comprehensive HOWTO in last week’s blog post, Your social campaign needs 1000x followers   but I was spending time with NPR over the weekend, as heard through WAMU 88.5FM here in DC, and TED Radio Hour came on, titled “Giving It Away” so I had to discuss this instead this week. What What really caught my attention was the last segment, “ Amanda Palmer: How Do You Get People To Pay For Music? If you listen to the NPR segment or watch the video, you’ll hopefully get me, feel me. It also says a lot about her. Related articles. celebs.gather.com). MORE >>