This article originally appeared on CoreyPadveen.com.
Marketers seem to fall into some pretty common traps when it comes to selecting marketing technologies to add to the arsenal.
I’ve written about the expansive market that exists in the world of marketing tech. There are thousands of tools out there (over 220 in the social media management space alone!) and it can often seem like an impossible task to select the right one for your objectives. That is due largely to the fact that some companies do a great job of selling form over substance and we simply eat it up. After all, a good salesperson will make just about anything appealing. But when it comes to selecting marketing technologies, there are some mistakes that are much more common, and costly, than others.

Among those mistakes are the two cited here. Now, I am by no stretch saying that these are the only missteps a marketer might make, and I am not saying that by being cognizant of these mistakes you’ll be able to remedy the errors of choosing the wrong tool, but your awareness and avoidance of these two issues will certainly help make the process simpler, and can certainly lead to greater results.
Tools that Don’t Play Nice
Like I said, a good salesperson will make the product they’ve been hired to sell look and sound like the perfect solution. While, on the surface, a tool might seem to solve an issue, one thing that marketers often forget is that for a product to really work, it’s going to need to do more than that. It needs to fit.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with products that are built to operate in a vacuum. In some cases, it can be even worse; a lot of products (particularly those that are part of a larger cloud) are designed (or, after an acquisition, redesigned) to work optimally with the cloud as a whole, and integrations with other technologies (or functionality that makes them much friendlier) are removed. Marketers need to look past the superficial capabilities and see how a product might work with other tools and processes that already exist.
Let’s think about this issue in the context of a business intelligence application.
Business intelligence dashboards can be very impressive. They become even more impressive as you are walked through a demo account and see the full range of capabilities that exist when the tool is used to its full potential. But what if you decide to invest in the dashboard only to find that it does not integrate fully with your CRM, or that it integrates, but there are breakages in the structure that lead to difficulties when trying to analyze your data (mechanically). Then, your workload actually increases as opposed to lightening as a result of your new tool.
Take some time and make sure that whatever you plan to add to your toolbox works well with everything else that you are currently using.
Investments are Not One-Dimensional
Another major mistake that marketers make when it comes to selecting marketing technologies has to do with the wonderful world of economics.
When it comes to price, there is a broad spectrum into which these tools fall. There is everything from a set of free applications to the kind of products that only the Fortune 100’s of the world can afford. But we’re not talking about a financial investment in this case – we’re talking about investments of your time. Marketers need to think about the human capital investment that needs to be made in order to capitalize on the use of a product.
Technologies, while impressive, are not foolproof or completely automated yet. There are still several hours (and in some cases much more) of training and implementation that need to be considered. There are even products out there that might require a new, fully-trained staff member using it on a full-time basis in order to reap all the benefits the product offers. We tend to forget about those costs. When we dive into a piece of technology without recognizing the time it will take to learn everything there is to know and leverage its applications to the fullest, our investment into the license turns into a sunk cost. That sunk cost is then increased significantly when we consider the man-hours that went into using the tool (with no results).
You’ll want to do your due diligence (generally by referring to reviews and write-ups that are not influenced by the tech company itself) to see if you can afford to invest the time it will take to master a product. And don’t be fooled by the marketing message that every product is designed to be used to the fullest in just a few minutes; even the technologies that have built their reputation on simplicity and user-friendliness will take at least a small investment of time. We need to factor that into a buying decision as well.
Conclusion
Again, these are not the only issues that marketers face when it comes to selecting a new technology, but they are two of the more costly ones. If you can wrap your head around these two issues, then the chances of selecting the right product increases dramatically. If you want to know more about the process of selecting the right piece of marketing technology, I suggest downloading the new How 2 with t2 eBook. In it, we cover the steps marketers need to take in order to ensure that the investment is right and the benefits are reaped in their entirety.

Building Millennial Loyalty with Content Strategies (Part 1)
/by Corey PadveenThere is a common misconception among marketers that Millennial loyalty is notoriously fickle. The right content strategies can mean life-loyal, highly engaged audience.
In May, my new book, Marketing to Millennials for Dummies will be available online and in-stores. (You can also pre-order the book today!) While the idea of marketing to Millennials can be more broadly understood as marketing to a modern consumer, there are certain traits that have been established with the Millennial demographic specifically, and have slowly begun to expand to other cohorts. As such, I am publishing a five-part series discussing the strategic use of content in the pursuit of building loyalty with Millennials (and modern consumers, in general). This series will run over the next few weeks as we prepare for the launch of our new website and the book. We will begin first by looking at the reality that marketers face when it comes to reaching Millennials and getting them to buy into both a product and, perhaps more importantly, a brand.
Understanding Millennials
Contrary to what many think, Millennials are actually more loyal than any generation that came before them. Moreover, Millennials have the potential to be worth more on an individual basis over the course of their lifetime. This goes against another common misconception that Millennials are price sensitive and hesitant to spend any money. While they might be price sensitive in some regards, they will spend their money and stay loyal to a brand if: a) they feel as though there is a significant degree of economic utility in their expenditure, and b) they have developed a relationship with a brand on a personal level.
You might only need to achieve two conditions in order to build that sought-after loyalty from Millennials, but they are not necessarily all that easily reached. You might read about campaigns or initiatives that have succeeded at driving Millennial engagement and conversion, but when it comes to loyalty, there is one strategic asset that will stand out above the rest: content. Developing effective, objective-oriented content strategies will help you connect with your target Millennial audience on a personal level, which will build those long-lasting relationships that lead to conversion, high lifetime value, and long-term loyalty.
Content is a fairly broad term. It comes in many shapes and sizes, and it differs from one medium or communications avenue to the next. While some aspects of your content might change, the strategies outlined in this series are designed to build strong relationships with your targeted Millennials, regardless of the platform on which these strategies are implemented. There are a few keys to remember when it comes to Millennials, however, and keeping these assumptions and realities top of mind while reviewing the strategies in the upcoming series will be very helpful in developing effective loyalty strategies for your target Millennial audience. Those points are as follows:
With these assumptions top of mind, you will be in a better position to make the most of the loyalty-building strategies covered in this series. Be sure to keep an eye out next week for the first content strategy I cover. And don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Marketing to Millennials for Dummies on Amazon today!
6 Social Media Trends to Follow in 2017
/by Corey PadveenWhat social media trends can marketers expect to be on the rise in 2017?
Every year – in fact, it sometimes feels like every day – it seems like social media evolves and matures, ushering in new trends that shape the way we do business; 2017 is no different. Sprout Social has put together this detailed infographic highlighting some of the social media trends marketers can expect to see on the rise over the course of the year.
With the explosive growth of artificial intelligence in 2016, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that this is a topic that finds its way into several trends we can expect to see in 2017. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are among the most powerful resources marketers and society as a whole can access. It is all but certain that in 2017, these two fields will make their way into more and more processes and applications. Take a look at the infographic and find out what you should be on the lookout for in the coming year.
81 Spam Words to Avoid in Your Email Marketing [Infographic]
/by Corey PadveenWhen it comes to email, even a single word can turn your audience off from opening the message. These are a few spam words to avoid next time you run a campaign.
With so much content flooding the every day feeds of consumers online, there are certain triggers that people look for instinctively in order to determine if there is any value in reading further into a piece of content that has been shared. In terms of email, that could mean a single word or phrase in the subject line. Once a certain term is seen, it is immediately registered as spam by the recipient and thrown in the trash. Here is a pretty sizeable list from Beeketing, which focuses on spam words to avoid in order to keep your audience happy.
20 New Fascinating Social Media Fun Facts
/by Corey PadveenThe rate of change in the socialsphere means that every few months there are some hugely impressive social media fun facts popping up that are worth noting.
Once again, a lot has taken place in the world of social media, and that means there are plenty of new facts and figures that should be of interest to marketers. Take a look at some of these incredible new social media fun facts!
Why Targeted Social Ads Are a Good Thing (Just Hear Me Out)
/by Corey PadveenThis article originally appeared on CoreyPadveen.com.
Recently, Adblock Plus announced that it would start serving ads, which is of course, the most predictably ironic thing to happen online in some time. But my question is this: are targeted social ads really that bad?
No; they’re not.
Admittedly, in answering this question, I’m a little bias. After all, if it wasn’t for things like social ads and the industry in which they find themselves, I’d probably be out of a job. This one, anyway. But my professional reliance on advertising notwithstanding, I still think that targeted social ads are, in fact, a good thing. The problem is with the lack of knowledge marketers have about their capabilities, resulting in the removal of the word ‘targeted’ from the equation.
An Explosion in Advertising
Call it what you want – direct advertising, social media advertising, content marketing, influencer outreach – paid media is paid media in all its forms. And, considering we have seen the amount of branded content we are exposed to on a daily basis increase by tenfold in the last three decades (about 5,000 pieces of branded content per day, by the way) I can understand why consumers are so sick of it. In this generation of free, the last thing we want is to have our highly tailored experience online ruined with ad content we didn’t ask for, right? And yet, there we are, at every turn, facing a brand new ad.
Advertising is nothing new. Broadcasting messages to a wide audience dates back about 6,000 years (in the form of flash banner ads, obviously) and modern advertising (arguably) dates back to 1836, when ‘La Presse’ in France sold space in its newspaper so that it could lower its price to consumers. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing these ads, we might just have hit a tipping point in terms of how much irrelevant content we are willing to take in. And right there is why targeted social ads can be a good thing.
Getting to Know You
Social presents an incredible opportunity to advertisers that so few are properly identifying. Blanketing your ads to the general public will lead to a higher cost-per-click, a lower click-through rate and an overall underperforming campaign. That’s unfortunate when social provides the tools necessary to generate the exact opposite.
By properly identifying your audience and drilling down into the specifics that make up a persona, you can serve ads that fit right into their online experience. That means that instead of angrily resisting your content, they will be much more likely to explore it. This, of course, won’t always be the case, but by implementing these kinds of strategies, marketers can begin to join in on the experience of social as opposed to taking away from it. This leads users to seek out the ad blocking software that has grown so rapidly in the last few years.
Alas, this is largely not the case. The simplicity with which marketers can use these ad platforms and the cost effectiveness of running large-scale campaigns with generic messages has rendered the social audience exhausted. Targeted social ads can mean a greater connection to your audience, and the first steps in the development of a deeper connection, but so few brands are properly utilizing that strategy. Until they do, social ads are going to be more of an experience detractor rather than something that can benefit both sides of the transaction.
The 2 Biggest Mistakes Made when Selecting Marketing Technologies
/by Corey PadveenThis article originally appeared on CoreyPadveen.com.
Marketers seem to fall into some pretty common traps when it comes to selecting marketing technologies to add to the arsenal.
I’ve written about the expansive market that exists in the world of marketing tech. There are thousands of tools out there (over 220 in the social media management space alone!) and it can often seem like an impossible task to select the right one for your objectives. That is due largely to the fact that some companies do a great job of selling form over substance and we simply eat it up. After all, a good salesperson will make just about anything appealing. But when it comes to selecting marketing technologies, there are some mistakes that are much more common, and costly, than others.
Among those mistakes are the two cited here. Now, I am by no stretch saying that these are the only missteps a marketer might make, and I am not saying that by being cognizant of these mistakes you’ll be able to remedy the errors of choosing the wrong tool, but your awareness and avoidance of these two issues will certainly help make the process simpler, and can certainly lead to greater results.
Tools that Don’t Play Nice
Like I said, a good salesperson will make the product they’ve been hired to sell look and sound like the perfect solution. While, on the surface, a tool might seem to solve an issue, one thing that marketers often forget is that for a product to really work, it’s going to need to do more than that. It needs to fit.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with products that are built to operate in a vacuum. In some cases, it can be even worse; a lot of products (particularly those that are part of a larger cloud) are designed (or, after an acquisition, redesigned) to work optimally with the cloud as a whole, and integrations with other technologies (or functionality that makes them much friendlier) are removed. Marketers need to look past the superficial capabilities and see how a product might work with other tools and processes that already exist.
Let’s think about this issue in the context of a business intelligence application.
Business intelligence dashboards can be very impressive. They become even more impressive as you are walked through a demo account and see the full range of capabilities that exist when the tool is used to its full potential. But what if you decide to invest in the dashboard only to find that it does not integrate fully with your CRM, or that it integrates, but there are breakages in the structure that lead to difficulties when trying to analyze your data (mechanically). Then, your workload actually increases as opposed to lightening as a result of your new tool.
Take some time and make sure that whatever you plan to add to your toolbox works well with everything else that you are currently using.
Investments are Not One-Dimensional
Another major mistake that marketers make when it comes to selecting marketing technologies has to do with the wonderful world of economics.
When it comes to price, there is a broad spectrum into which these tools fall. There is everything from a set of free applications to the kind of products that only the Fortune 100’s of the world can afford. But we’re not talking about a financial investment in this case – we’re talking about investments of your time. Marketers need to think about the human capital investment that needs to be made in order to capitalize on the use of a product.
Technologies, while impressive, are not foolproof or completely automated yet. There are still several hours (and in some cases much more) of training and implementation that need to be considered. There are even products out there that might require a new, fully-trained staff member using it on a full-time basis in order to reap all the benefits the product offers. We tend to forget about those costs. When we dive into a piece of technology without recognizing the time it will take to learn everything there is to know and leverage its applications to the fullest, our investment into the license turns into a sunk cost. That sunk cost is then increased significantly when we consider the man-hours that went into using the tool (with no results).
You’ll want to do your due diligence (generally by referring to reviews and write-ups that are not influenced by the tech company itself) to see if you can afford to invest the time it will take to master a product. And don’t be fooled by the marketing message that every product is designed to be used to the fullest in just a few minutes; even the technologies that have built their reputation on simplicity and user-friendliness will take at least a small investment of time. We need to factor that into a buying decision as well.
Conclusion
Again, these are not the only issues that marketers face when it comes to selecting a new technology, but they are two of the more costly ones. If you can wrap your head around these two issues, then the chances of selecting the right product increases dramatically. If you want to know more about the process of selecting the right piece of marketing technology, I suggest downloading the new How 2 with t2 eBook. In it, we cover the steps marketers need to take in order to ensure that the investment is right and the benefits are reaped in their entirety.
5 B2B Digital Marketing Must-Dos [Infographic]
/by Corey PadveenWhen it comes to B2B digital marketing, there are certain priorities that marketers need to ensure are top of mind.
For B2B marketers, there are certain subtleties that make for significantly improved campaigns and results. While the evolution of marketing has led to a melding of both the B2C and B2B worlds, there still exist a handful of differences that may appear small but are actually hugely important to the success of an organization. These B2B digital marketing focal points have been highlighted by MDG Advertising in the infographic below.
What stands out most with regards to these B2B digital marketing must-dos are the focuses on data-centric strategy and quality content. With so much noise, it is all too easy to create poor content simply with the goal of getting your brand seen. With a better understanding of your data and a devotion to creating the highest quality content that you can, your B2B brand stands a much better chance of beating out the competition online.
Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2016
/by Corey PadveenPerhaps more so than ever before, the 2016 Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies zeroes in on big data applications and where they are in the eyes of the market.
Let’s first start by taking a look at this year’s edition of the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies:
We have discussed what the Hype Cycle means and how to read it in the past, so in this case, we’re simply going to focus on what the trends indicate and what we can expect to see in this space in the coming year, largely from a marketing perspective.
Augmented Reality: Poised for a Boom
Augmented reality has long been headed towards the Trough of Disillusionment. While the concept has been interesting for quite some time, universal and practical applications for the existing technology have not really existed.
Enter Pokémon GO.
The Hype Cycle might show augmented reality in the Trough, though it is likely a little closer than 5 to 10 years from mainstream adoption based on the speed with which an existing AR platform swept the public. Now, of course, hype and nostalgia had a lot to do with it, but it is still telling of how much closer we are than we might have once believed. There is clearly a market for functional AR, and we can expect to see marketers, developers and brands both large and small trying to capitalize on this reality (moving AR into the Slope of Enlightenment sooner than expected, maybe even passing Virtual Reality in that timeframe).
The Singularity Cometh
“One cubic inch of nanotube circuitry, once fully developed, would be up to one hundred million times more powerful than the human brain,” Ray Kurzweil wrote in The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. If we look at the Innovation Trigger on the Cycle and follow that through the Peak of Inflated Expectations, we can see that this statement is on the verge of becoming a reality.
The use of data, machine learning and deep neural networks is what makes up so much of the 2016 Hype Cycle, and while it might be over a decade before much of what is in the works becomes commonplace, the point here is that it is all in the works.
Machine learning is already marked as 2 to 5 years away, despite the fact that it sits atop the Peak of Inflated Expectations. That is largely because its applications can really only be refined and developed further once a breakthrough is made. So the transition through the Trough of Disillusionment will be rather quick (comparatively speaking). Another reason for that is the accessibility (as compared to more cost-prohibitive developments, such as virtual reality). Machine learning and neural networks are slowly making their way into everyday items thanks to open sourced code and technology. This will mean a very subtle but profound technological revolution will arrive in a very short period of time.
A Business Shift
Lastly, a major paradigm shift comes in the form of the workspace. We recently discussed how there were more marketing technologies than ever after ChiefMarTec.com released its annual Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic (shown below).
While we are more than likely to see consolidation in most (if not all) of these spaces, we will likely also see a budding new marketplace for friendly business and marketing tech. What do we mean by that? In essence, a move away from the competitive nature of technology landscapes and into a more cohesive network will lead to changing strategies for both the marketers and the tech companies. It’ll be interesting to watch that shift unfold.
Conclusion
Again, there is a lot on the horizon, but much of what is listed in this Hype Cycle seems quite a ways off (even more so than usual). That said, the speed of transformation is at an all time high, so we can be all but certain that while these emerging technologies may seem like a ways off, they will be a part of mainstream applications before we know it.
20 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
/by Corey PadveenThe world of marketing is always changing, and to keep ahead of the pack, these are a few marketing mistakes to avoid.
Sometimes, the best advice anyone can give you is what not to do. Marketing is a versatile world that allows for everything from data to creativity to mix together and form unique campaigns. With so much flexibility, that leaves a lot of room for opportunity. And error. While best practices are always a good idea to follow, these are a few major marketing mistakes to avoid if you want to ensure your continued success.
Content
Data
Crisis
Search
Social
Now that you have an idea of some of the mistakes you’ll want to avoid, you can get started on executing your campaigns in the most efficient way possible!
Important Ad Blocking Information for Marketers
/by Corey PadveenAd blocking is a trend that is on the rise, and these tidbits of ad blocking information will make the life of a marketer quite a bit easier.
Over the last year (in particular) the conversation around ad blocking has increased significantly. That is largely due to the fact that ad blocking has moved away from a fringe practice, adopted by only those particularly tech savvy individuals to the mainstream, where it is easily accessible and readily adopted.
So what do marketers need to know about ad blocking in order to ensure that marketing efforts and, equally importantly, ad dollars are not wasted?
Ad Blocking Popularity is Surging
Just last year, in 2015, the number of people using an ad blocking software grew by 42% globally. It is now estimated that roughly 4-6% of web users are using an ad blocker. Google trends and the number of available ad blockers are just a few indicators that this is a very hot market.
Revenues are Being Lost
In 2015, it is estimated that nearly $22 billion in ad spend was lost due to ad blockers, and that number is expected to nearly double for 2016. Data on the publisher side is scarce, so many publishers do not even know when they are losing revenue or how much is being lost.
Mobile has Surpassed Desktop
Over the last few years, desktop websites were really where the majority of ad blocking had taken place. Now, mobile is on the rise, and ads can be blocked both on the mobile web and within apps, which has led to mobile overtaking desktop in terms of where the majority of ads are blocked.
From January 2015 to January 2016, there was a 90% growth rate in mobile ad blocking users, and there are now over 400 million mobile users globally blocking ads on their smartphones, the majority of whom are in China, India and Pakistan.
Social Advertising is Not Immune
Advertisers had initially hoped that networks like Facebook and Instagram would provide gateways through which ads could still be displayed, but that is not necessarily the case. While Facebook and other networks are doing what they can to ensure ads are being shown, ad blocking technologies continue to find ways around these changes.
Social advertising, however, is a better alternative as the ad blocking technologies are somewhat flawed when it comes to these media types.
What does this mean for marketers?
There are two ways that marketers can (and should) look at this. First, there is the reality that content matters most in any strategy. People want to see content that matters, and generally prefer not to be targeted by distracting, irrelevant media. That said, it is becoming harder and harder to get content featured, so advertising is almost unavoidable if you want your brand to succeed online. But understanding your audience and effective targeting with your ads is a key starting point in order to ensure that your brand grows organically following your campaigns.
Second, it is important to understand that without ad dollars, all of these platforms that everyone loves so much will cease to exist. We might be in a disruptive period right now, but that is not to say that advertising is dead. It is simply an evolutionary point. People see over ten times as many ads/ten times as much sponsored or branded content today as they did in the 1980s. A breaking point was almost inevitable. For the time being, those with ad blockers simply wouldn’t be interested in your ad to begin with, so again, targeting is essential.
It is only a matter of time before a comfortable middle is found, and your strategy will have to keep an eye on ad blocking trends and adapt accordingly in order to ensure that your dollars don’t fall into that lost ad revenue stream.