Inbound Industry Report: Jan. 30, 2012

By Laura Pinter | Posted January 30, 2012 | Link | Filed in: Marketing

Top marketing news, articles and tips from the fourth week of January 2012.

Marketing Industry Transformation

Last week, the CMO Council released a new report on “client/agency effectiveness,” summarized by Scott Brinker (@chiefmartec) in CMOs to Agencies: Adapt or Die. The stat that most stood out to Brinker: “only 9% of senior marketers believe that agencies are evolving to extend services and capabilities in the digital age.”

Brinker outlines the actions marketers will take to alleviate this concern; however, many appear to be in the early planning phases. More rapid innovation may be necessary to stay relevant in the coming months and years.

Download a summary of the report (requires registration) or find further insight about the importance of traditional agencies to adapt in Paul Roetzer’s (@paulroetzer) 5 Ways Hybrid Marketing Agencies Will Transform the Industry.

PR

Howell Marketing Strategies (@howellmarketing) reiterates this notion of evolving traditional PR and marketing skills in Think You Can Work in PR? What Newbies Need to Know. Coming from a non-PR background, I can attest to these quite well. Here are a few that are worth keeping top-of-mind:

Constantly educate yourself, whether it’s about industry news and trends, your clients or world events.
Whatever your current involvement is, get more involved with social media, and keep up with new technology.
Be a great, proactive communicator. Maintaining relationships is a core aspect of PR and marketing, and also determinant of your success.

Analytics & Measurement

In Metric-ocracy: Less Data, More Insight, John Quartro-vonTivadar (@qgroks) outlines a New Year’s resolution plan for marketers, focusing on improving success through smart analytics and key performance indicator (KPI) measurement. Here’s a quick recap of his five steps:

Identify the Real Goal—Take a step back from the analytics you currently look at, define an end goal, and realign metrics.
Lay It All Out—Literally. Write down each metric affecting your goal on a notecard, and describe how it should change en route to that goal.
Pick Your Favorite Date for Saturday Night—Ask yourself, “Which metrics can I not live without?” and prioritize accordingly.
Insist on Delivery—For the next 90 days, track, analyze and hold those metrics accountable for results.
Vote Someone Off the Island—Keep the ones that most impacted your goal, and switch out those that didn’t, creating a “metricocracy” of proven KPIs.

Content Marketing

Stephanie Tilton (@StephanieTilton) shows how savvy marketers can boost B2B efforts with best-in-class content with this simple plan:

Invest in content. Shift marketing budgets to support targeted, high-quality content development, distribution and follow-up.
Understand your buyer personas, and prioritize content based on their needs at various stages of the buying cycle.
Gain content-marketing support from company leaders by providing case studies, clearly explaining what you plan to achieve, and assessing the content-marketing efforts of competitors.

In the News

Apple never ceases to amaze, releasing its astonishing fiscal Q1 2012 results early last week. Apple's profit of $13.1 billion was equal to their revenue in Q4 2010. They now have $97.6 billion in cash and equivalents.
GE worked with social media news site, Buzzfeed, to prove the efficacy of content sharing over paid placements.
Google announced that it will update its privacy policies, compiling user data across all its products to create a comprehensive profile. In response, a Washington Post poll with more than 14,000 respondents showed that 66% of Google users would cancel their accounts. Though we doubt this backlash will actually happen, it indicates growing concerns over consumer privacy, and the need for brands with data access to treat it with care.
Facebook will soon roll out Timeline to all users. Upon activation, members will have one week to “clean up” their profiles lest their pasts catch up with them. Learn more about Timeline’s debut in a video interview with Paul Roetzer on the Cleveland morning show, Good Company.