JUMP START Blog and Online Community

Hubspot reports that "marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts."

Those are great odds and definitely worth pursuing.

If you haven't started a blog for your organization, now is a good time to do so. To get you started, here is a step-by-step guide to developing and posting a blog through Hubspot. 

Viral content is different than any other form of marketing content. It's in a category of its own. I see it as the sardonic hipster teenager of the family who doesn’t study but somehow aces all of his tests, and is constantly pontificating about some profound realization that just occurred to him.

So why is this kid so popular? Why is he so successful? Flair Interactive provided some helpful thoughts on what makes content go viral back in October 2009. Now six years later, here are some additional thoughts on what makes viral tick and stick. Viral content tends to:

• Give readers a sense of identity
• Fuel readers' egos
• Create connections
• Promote causes
• Entertain or amuse readers

After a hectic work week, it’s easy to feel a little loopy. But how about a little crazy, as coined by Jim Metcalf (see quote below)?

As marketers, we’re inherently split in multiple directions. We’re natural dichotomies. We work quickly but with precision. We work strategically and hands on. We work collaboratively and independently. But most importantly—we’re creative with an inherent drive for results.

This natural inclination to bend the rules just enough within structured environments, and think outside of unorthodox confines in order to get results is, in fact, what makes us marketers. So in this instance, “a little crazy”, , seems oddly appropriate.

In celebration of our sensible insanity, here are some viral marketing videos that truly accentuate our eccentricity.

You just finished tweaking your marketing project plan with the latest timelines. You’ve reconciled your budget for the month. You’ve completed all of your web updates for the week. And you’ve updated the marketing report card for your newest campaign.

It’s time for a walk outside. Maybe even have a latte. Or so you think. Just before you breathe in a sigh of restful relief, your all-too-familiar Outlook reminder pops up. You have 15 minutes before your next meeting. Break’s over.

Everyone reading this can relate. It isn’t a unique problem, as demonstrated by this hilarious video by Tripp and Tyler:

There’s a reason SEO is an ongoing challenge for marketing professionals. It’s a fairly abstract concept.

There’s the part that’s easy to grasp—identifying words that resonate with each of our audiences. Now that makes sense. It’s easy for us to understand using the right words when communicating with one another in order to a make connection. That’s just being human.

But with SEO, it gets a little more complicated than that. We’re taking extra measures to ensure these words are identified by inanimate web crawlers. Now that sounds like Stephen King’s next best seller when you really think about it. That concept is a little more difficult to comprehend let alone throw into standard practice.

According to the Radicati Group, email use worldwide will top 3 billion users by 2020. While some industry experts are convinced that social media’s convergence with the ever depleting millennial attention span is going to erode email just as email depleted print, that number certainly presents a very different picture.  

Back in November 2013, Flair Interactive provided tips on building a successful email campaign. While that post is still relevant and accurate, in 2017, there are some definite changes in what defines and drives a successful email campaign.

So, what has changed in the last three years to keep email relevant, effective, and aligned with the technological trends that are impacting marketing as a whole? Let’s take a look:

According to HubSpot, companies who invest in inbound marketing are FOUR TIMES more likely to be effective. Most of us would love to get results that are four times better than what we're getting right now!

Do you have an effective inbound marketing strategy in place?

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• Audit your current marketing strategy
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• Optimize your platforms for inbound marketing
• Design a marketing plan that yields results

Improve your marketing effectiveness through inbound marketing with our Inbound Marketing Game Plan package. Click on the buttons below to download the "ABCs of Inbound Marketing" ebook or to get a free, no-obligation Inbound Marketing Game Plan quote:

Marketing as a discipline has its own unequivocal challenges. The spectrum of skills and knowledge needed to succeed in a marketing role is broader than perhaps any other discipline. Marketers are required to be both strategic and tactical. They can be equally as aggressive as they are diplomatic. And they need to toggle between the lines of creativity and analytics.

So it only makes sense that a marketing team would be composed of a relatively broad range of personalities and work styles. Different team members land on different ends of the spectrum, and they all bring different strengths and insights to the collaborative equation.

While that diversity is excellent when it comes to the many needs of marketing departments, anyone leading a marketing team sits in a very unique and “character-building” position. In Flair Interactive’s October 2016 #TBT Blog, How to Provide Your Marketing Team with Constructive Feedback, Marissa Kasarov gave some excellent insights on managing marketing teams and providing constructive feedback.

The blog is comprehensive and I really have nothing to add to it since originally published. Instead, I’d like to add an addendum:

Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at InsightSquared tells us (through the adjacent quote) to make the customers feel smart. And it makes perfect sense.

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality tells us that the human psyche is structured into three parts—id, ego, and superego. How we think, feel, and behave are all a by-product of these three forces working together.

Since our everyday lives are impacted by the inner-workings of this complicated ensemble, it only makes sense that really great marketing and advertising taps into this powerful trio. Appealing to customers' egos and ultimately making them feel good about themselves continues as a solid marketing strategy.

So let’s take a look at some examples of how companies succeeded by listening to Joe and Freud:

Want to stay up-to-date about the latest news, updates and happenings in the world of online marketing? Subscribe to our mailing list for weekly updates. This week, we've compiled a list of the latest Facebook updates for the week ending March 4, 2017:

1) 5 Tips To Creating An Unbeatable Facebook Ad Campaign:

Are you trying to nurture leads through Facebook ad campaigns? This Kissmetrics blog post describes the tweaks that you should implement while running your ad campaigns. Follow these tips to improve your ad campaigns.

 2) How To Refine Your Facebook Audience For Better Ad Targeting:

Another great post related to Facebook ads is published by Social Media Examiner. This article explains how three Facebook custom audience segments can be built and analyzed.