The PR 20/20 Blog

Great marketers understand the importance of having good data on their businesses. So much, in fact, that they’re doing everything they can to get their hands on as much data as possible. 

That’s great! We recommend that. But what are you doing with all of the data you’re collecting? 

For many of us, the answer is glancing at our collected analytics once a month, quarter or year because we don’t really have the time to deep dive through Google Analytics and excel spreadsheets.

All that telling data you’re collecting, including trends and insights your boss and CEO might be very interested in, is going to waste.

This post originally appeared on the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute's blog. The Marketing AI Institute was created and is powered by PR 20/20. 

Will AI replace your job?

To be honest, no one knows for sure. Not yet. Which makes it more important than ever to ask the question.

We know AI is advancing rapidly. Image and voice recognition have become serious technologies. Natural language processing and generation are progressing. Neural networks push the envelope of how well machines learn without human intervention.

This has led to some insane advancements. We all now have AI voice assistants in the form of Siri and Alexa. Self-driving cars are viable technologies—and self-driving trucks may be next. Google built AI that taught itself how to be superhuman at a board game—without human teachers.

It's still very early in AI. But these advancements mean we need to move beyond hype and start asking tough questions.

How might AI redefine marketing jobs? How might it redefine our entire industry? And how do we train ourselves and others to survive potentially massive disruption?

“Traditional, structured education is very important, yet much success is derived from highly motivated individuals that have dedicated their lives to the concept of lifelong learning. These individuals prioritize the creation of time in their busy lives each day to educate themselves on new concepts and ideas. These individuals understand the importance of creating plentiful opportunities in all spheres of life.”

— Why You Should Strive to Be a Lifelong Learner via Entrepreneur

At PR 20/20, we live by this lifelong-learner mindset, and professional development is at our core. Simply having a college degree or background in a related marketing role isn’t enough— instead, we stay hungry for knowledge and seek to learn more. Marketing is a fast-paced and ever-changing industry, meaning staying up on the latest trends, techs and best practices is constantly important to your career.

Luckily, you don’t have to search far for resources to help you learn the basics or master advanced skill sets in marketing. Much of the work is done for you, thanks to ample online digital marketing course and certifications. Did we mention many of them are free, too?

Check out five of our team’s favorite online digital marketing courses, all for free, below.

Roughly 2.34 billion people worldwide use some form of social media. That’s a lot of potential followers, clicks, likes and engagements waiting to happen with your brand on social. But, what good are these metrics if you’re not in tune with what your audiences are saying? 

Creating relevant, engaging social media content for all of your brand’s channels is only half the battle. Staying up to date on what your followers are engaging with, and using social platforms as a communication tool to connect with leads, prospects and customers, monitor complaints and address questions is the other half. And to do this effectively, you need to proactively monitor and engage with your audiences.

This is where HubSpot’s monitoring tools become your best friend.

By taking advantage of all of HubSpot’s social capabilities, monitoring your feeds becomes easier and more effective.

As marketers, we’re required to wear many hats throughout the day— author, producer, consultant, data analyst, social media guru. The list goes on.

But in reality, how much time are marketers really devoting to these types of roles in comparison to planning? According to iMedia, the average marketer spends the majority of their time on planning tasks, whether that be scheduling or attending meetings, reading and responding to emails or managing relationships.

What if you could spend less time planning for success, and more time actually reaching it? That’s the exact thought process behind PR 20/20’s Marketing Growth Hackathon^TM.

When you hear the term “hackathon,” does your brain immediately go to a room full of computer geeks furiously typing on multiple computers? If so, you’re not far off.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in 2013 and has been updated to be more current and comprehensive. 

The term doublethink was pioneered by George Orwell in his dystopian masterpiece 1984. In it, an alternate England is enslaved by the totalitarian Party, headed by the omnipresent Big Brother.

To maintain power, the Party invents Newspeak, a reductionist language that eliminates the ability to express complex thought.

Doublethink is the result: the ability to believe two contradictions without question. In 1984, doublethink is everywhere: citizens believe they’ve been perpetually at war with another country one day, perpetually at peace the next. It’s also present in the Party’s slogan: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

That world may be fictional, but doublethink is real—and it’s destroying your content creation efforts.

If you’re interested in growing your business, then lead generation campaigns are a must.

It’s not surprising that marketers are obsessed with leads. In fact, “53% of marketers say half or more of their budget is allocated to lead generation.”

These campaigns come in the form of gated content offers like survey reports, coupons, free events, job applications, and much more. There’s no shortage in creativity, so why the shortage in leads?

After hours of production, are you dedicating ample time and resources to promotion?

Below are ten tactics to distribute your offer, and capture more leads.  

From changes in algorithms to new features, social media is constantly evolving. It can be a full-time job staying up to date with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like.

However, with these challenges come opportunities for brands to grow their fan base and leverage audiences like never before.

The key to keeping up? Agility—being able to move quickly, nimbly and easily.

Below we highlight four brands that are taking their social media presence to the next level through agile marketing. Marketers, these tips can breathe life into your company’s social media strategy.

Picture this: you’ve just launched the most robust, creative lead generation campaign yet. The gated asset is evergreen and useful, and the promotion is creative and clickable. You’re probably feeling pretty good (rightfully so); but, the work is far from done.  

The most successful performance-driven marketers are always tracking, reporting and adjusting in real time. They let the data tell a story, and if need be, change the narrative as quickly as possible. In fact, regular reporting may be the most critical piece of a marketing strategy.

Taking a step back (and in case you missed the first two posts in this series), top marketing minds weighed in on building truly performance-driven strategies. The first step is gaining executive buy-in and the second step is more intelligent goal setting. In this final installment, the experts address the importance of campaign reporting. Read on to see what they have to say.  

Have you ever experienced writer’s block? If you’re a content marketer like me, chances are you have. 

Fortunately, there are ways to overcome this blank page problem, but first—let’s take a step back. 

The earliest signs of content marketing date back to 4200 B.C. in cave paintings. Marketers have been telling stories to drive engagement and generate leads for years in some form or another. But, the future of marketing resides in the hands of those creating compelling content that inspires action. 

The rest? Well, it's just noise.

According to Hosting Facts, more than two million blog posts are published every day to the web. Knowing this, it’s imperative for content marketers to tap into their creative side to develop content that attracts and retains key audiences. But how you ask?

Follow along for four tips and tricks to get your creative juices flowing inside (and out) of the office to help your content breakthrough the overwhelming noise and reach the most relevant audiences.