With changes in media distribution, marketers are rapidly adapting their methods of budgeting, reporting, and investing in paid, owned and earned media to reach and engage their customers
Investment in media is frequently grouped into the 3 media 'buckets' of earned, shared and paid which each give opportunities to influence customers. None of these media types are new, but what is new is the increasing prominence given to owned and earned media while paid media has always dominated in the past.
Digital media adoption and usage is constantly evolving in today's digital landscape. As of January 2024, 62% of the world's population uses social media. It's fair to say that paid, earned, and owned media offer marketers a never-ending array of new opportunities to win and retain more customers.
Current definitions of paid, earned, and owned media
In short - paid media means the content distribution has been paid for, whereas earned and…
From SMART to SMARTER marketing objectives: Discover how to define marketing objectives, measure your digital marketing goals, and use data to inform your marketing strategy
When identifying specific marketing objectives to support your long-term goals, it is common practice to apply the widely used SMART mnemonic. You will know that SMART is used to assess the suitability of objectives set to drive different strategies or the improvement of the full range of business processes.
By its simplest definition, an effective SMART marketing objective is:
Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound.
But you will learn in this article that beyond this well-known acronym, there are different variations and nuances which you can apply to practice Smarter Marketing.
What is Smarter Marketing?
The SMART acronym is much more than a mnemonic since it defines a way of thinking about getting better results within business and marketing. This mindset is based…
Consumer mobile usage and adoption. Use our mobile marketing statistics compiled from the best free sources to inform your digital marketing strategy and mobile user experience
It's hard to imagine today that there was a time when smartphones weren't the major device for accessing the Internet. Desktop used to dominate. I recall a headline from back in 2008 when it was forecast by by Mary Meeker, an analyst at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers that "Mobile to overtake fixed Internet access by 2014". That same year, Eric Schmidt of Google exhorted businesses to take a 'Mobile First' approach to designing web experiences, informed by customer-focused smartphone analytics. Our mobile marketing statistics compilation contains
15+ years later, in 2024 understanding mobile engagement of online users is more vital than ever so digital markers can eng2age and influence their mobile audience. Today, the latest research from Statista shows that more than…
Social media done well is your absolute best shot at getting even closer to the most important people for your business
By embracing today's social media trends, you'll open a direct line of communication with your everyday audiences, channeling both positive and negative feedback from your customers, colleagues, competitors, and other voices in your brand's social ecosystem.
As of 2024, 62.3% of the world's population uses social media. This represents 8% YOY growth, which doesn't look to be slowing down. So, the public and connected nature of social media today helps us shine an even brighter spotlight on our brands. It's like digital PR on speed.
But it's no secret that consumers and advocates are becoming more aware, and demanding, in terms of their social experiences of our brands too. That's why it can help to turn to the biggest social media trends of 2024 to inform our strategies.
We've contacted a group…
Structure your next big marketing campaign using the 5-step RACE Framework to inform your strategy. Integrated across plan, reach, act, convert and engage, our marketing solutions are proven to win more customers and accelerate your ROI
Have you got an up-to-date marketing campaign planning process? Creating ad-hoc campaigns, or re-using previous successful approaches, can be the time-saver you need to get a new campaign up and running.
But, without understanding the wider PESTLE issues before planning a campaign, you could target the wrong audience with incorrect messaging, or even cause offense. Keep reading for examples of marketing campaigns that do just that, plus our recommended tools for your marketing campaign PR management.
What is the RACE Framework?
The RACE Framework supports managers and marketers to integrate all their key channels and tactics into one plan. Apply the RACE Framework to streamline your marketing strategy today, so you can clearly track and manage your campaign…
4IR means manufacturers are using technology and digital marketing techniques to streamline their marketing strategy
We are living and working in the 4th industrial revolution where increased competition coupled with changing customer expectations translates into a renewed focus on digital marketing for manufacturers. To keep up, manufacturing businesses need to optimize their approach to digital to stand out and defend their market share.
How does the digital era influence marketing for manufacturing?
According to Mckinsey, digital transformations are 'long-term efforts to rewire how an organization continuously improves and changes'.
This generic definition is true for all industries but it's particularly prominent in the manufacturing industry right now. For example, this PwC survey of oil and gas executives reported that manufacturing leaders see the most potential in technologies that combine data and analysis.
In this insightful report, PwC outlined a framework for digital transformation within the sector. This demonstrates that…
How to use Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP) to develop marketing strategies
Today, the STP marketing model (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) is a familiar strategic approach in modern marketing. It is one of the most commonly applied marketing models in practice, with marketing leaders crediting it for efficient, streamlined communications practice.
STP marketing focuses on commercial effectiveness, selecting the most valuable segments for a business and then developing a marketing mix and product positioning strategy for each customer group.
As Martech continues to develop, so do opportunities for segmentation, targeting, and positioning. So whether you're brand new to STP or a seasoned veteran, it can be useful to take stock and double-check you're utilizing every chance you get to reach, interact with, convert, and engage customers.
But, how do you know which customer segments to focus on? We recommend using personas to identify your…
Simon Sinek explains how to use the Golden Circle model to truly differentiate your brand's value proposition when most fail
Leadership expert Simon Sinek is perhaps best known for giving one of the most popular TED talks of all time, which you can view at the end of this post. The Golden Circle theory explains how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change in a business based on his research into how the most successful organizations think, act and communicate if they start with why.
I think that marketers will find the most value in his Golden Circle model, which helps give focus to how a business can stand out from similar competitors by communicating its differences.
I was prompted to check it out after a workshop when discussing the importance of developing a strong digital value proposition as part of a digital marketing strategy a few years ago. One…
How to streamline your planning and measurement of integrated digital marketing using RACE
Smart Insights created RACE as a practical tool to help marketers and business owners plan, manage, and optimize their digital marketing using a more strategic, structured, and data-driven approach.
Our RACE Growth System for improving marketing effectiveness has two parts which we will introduce in this article through two different visuals:
1. The RACE Planning Framework: defines the essential activities and measures businesses need to master to survive and thrive in today’s marketing world.
2. The RACE OSA improvement process: defines the three steps needed to build and implement your growth plan - either for your overall marketing plan or for an individual channel, such as organic search, social media or email marketing.
Use our free, planning template download to get started with using RACE to grow your business. These will help you create a 90-day prioritized plan to improve your results from…
Examples of essential questions to ask when structuring a digital marketing audit
Auditing your digital marketing activities is an essential technique to start a digital marketing strategy. But they’re also useful for finding opportunities to improve your digital marketing by identifying priorities you need to act on to get better results.
Knowing where to start and what to include can be difficult since although you may have your own area of expertise such as search, social media or business, you may not know about other topics. In this article, we’ll provide a comprehensive checklist you can use for your business based on the Smart Insights RACE Digital marketing framework. Each of the five parts of RACE is broken down into five to give a comprehensive evaluation of digital marketing for which I outline questions in this post.
I developed this framework…
