It’s August. The perfect time for a summer holiday break. But wait, there’s no time. We’ve got programs to deliver, content to craft, nurture tracks to build, new martech to scope and implement, and endless stuff to get done to execute against second-half 2017 pipeline and revenue targets. What happened to the summer slowdown? It […]
Marketers’ most precious resource & ways to maximize it Read More »
When two of the world’s leading AI research firms, Google DeepMind and Open AI, team up to research the “safety challenges” of artificial intelligence, you know the threat is real. While we may not have a sentient Skynet in the next decade, the greatest risk AI poses today is to your job. Fear of replacement by
Don’t worry, marketers. Robots won’t replace you… yet. Read More »
With buzzwords like AI and machine learning being thrown around more than a football at training camp, it’s important for marketers to understand the ins and outs of how the various components that make up these technology advances work. Advancements in natural language processing (NLP) were one of the major steps forward that allowed AI
Natural language processing 101 Read More »
Over the past few years, e-commerce has been slowly and steadily transformed by artificial intelligence (AI). The world has watched Amazon go from bookseller to voice-activated, product-recommending, Internet of Things behemoth over the last 15 years, and — for many reasons — e-commerce has been an area of great AI adoption, particularly in marketing. That
The future of AI marketing applications in retail Read More »
Welcome to Part 1 of this series: “A Nine-Part Practical Guide to Martech Enablement.” This series will outline a process to building a data-driven, technology-supported marketing organization within your company. Much is being written about martech, digital transformation and digital maturity, but there’s scant guidance on how to actually go about this journey. This series
Part 1 — What is ‘martech enablement?’ Read More »
When I look at the affiliate business, I see it has truly grown in prominence over the last 10 years. Today, affiliate marketing gives brands nearly limitless opportunities to expand their partnerships, diversify distribution and reach new consumers. And the importance of this channel for marketers will continue to grow. Forrester Consulting, in a study
Affiliate is more than a platform Read More »
In traditional marketing organizations, brand and direct response (DR) efforts occupy two very distinct and discrete positions. Brand tends to focus on long-term impact intent, and DR focuses on short-term. Brand is top of funnel, and DR is bottom of funnel. The two categories are different sides of the same coin, with the same end
How to bridge the gap between brand and direct response marketing Read More »
Late last year, Gartner published a report that predicted that CMOs would spend more on technology than CTOs or IT directors this year. Seismic reverberations resonated around the business community. Had we reached a tipping point? A transfer of power from the tech team to the marketing team? Additionally, some CMOs wondered if they were
6 adages to heed as you begin using martech in earnest Read More »
Failure to be a good steward of consumer data by letting it fall into the wrong hands will soon result in severe penalties in the European Union. In the event of a data breach, companies will have to pay the equivalent of 20 million euros or 4 percent of annual revenues, whichever is larger. Ouch!
The impact of GDPR on marketing technology and cybersecurity Read More »
When viewed in comparison to the paid media evolution over many generations, from newspaper to radio to TV to the many digital formats of today, customer relationship management (CRM) is considered less than sexy — even antiquated, in some circles. I beg to disagree. Mass media and top-of-the-funnel tactics are critically important to grow a
A way to think about modern CRM Read More »
