Brandon Gains
Canada
Own a portfolio in WordPress, Social Media and AI. Host tech events in SF, NYC and 🇨🇦
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Articles by Brandon Gains
6 Ways to Improve Your B2B Content Strategy
A B2B content strategy is the key to your lead generation system. Content is made to attract, acquire, engage a clearly defined customer audience - and then drive profitable customer action. In order to build a successful content strategy your team needs to develop a larger, more cohesive story for your organization to share. It will need clearly defined targets, goals, and a long-term horizon.
The Ultimate Guide To Demand Generation
When marketers set out to create demand generation strategies, a broad perspective is required. This is because demand generation requires a certain (often overlooked) degree of cooperation between the sales and marketing departments. As a data driven process, the best demand generation tactics locate and nurture key prospects over the long term – from both sides of the cycle – engaging them through multiple platforms and touchpoints.
The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Marketing
“Mobile marketing isn’t magic. There’s a science to it.” When you hear growth stories about startups scaling to billion dollar valuations in just a span of few years, you attribute their surreal growth to a lot of internal factors like platforms, market timing, etc. But the truth is that none of it would have been possible without an extremely well planned mobile marketing strategy.
14 Tips to Improve Your Twitter Advertising Strategy
The rules of a twitter advertising strategy are changing. When you use Google to find information, how often do you filter the results by date? What about when you’re searching for advice about online marketing? If you’re anything like me, nearly all of your searches will have the option enabled. The trouble with marketing guides, especially those about advertising, is that they have a short shelf-life. The world of digital marketing experiences change at a speed not seen in other industries.
How to Develop Rockstar B2B Buyer Personas
Learning to develop b2b buyer personas is essential to building a modern marketing organization. When implemented properly these buyer personas create stronger alignment across your different departments. When developing a buyer persona some of the common traits are appearance, personality, their story, their needs, and their values. The idea behind the strategy is that once you’ve better defined your ideal customer you can better market to and sell to them.
8 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Advertising Strategy
Boasting more than 433 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is a potential goldmine for marketers willing to establish and test a paid advertising strategy. The professional social network's ad platform allows users to create a variety of ads and selectively target distinct user profiles, so you can reach your ideal prospects and net conversions that matter.
Referral marketing: The secret weapon that should be in your arsenal
It happens: you end up in the same new restaurant twice in two days. But what happens after, that’s what’s interesting. The first time, you land a great table with an awesome view of the shining city by night. Good so far! Both you and your friend enjoy your  meals. You order the wok-style sirloin with vegetables served over crispy fries and he orders the wok-style surf and turf over pasta. If you’re thinking this place sounds like Asian-Mexican-American fusion, that is correct.
Marketing Attribution: How Can It Improve Your Marketing Strategy?
Today’s marketing landscape is more complex and broad that it has even been: Marketers face more choices, more channels, and more customers. Marketing strategies have evolved to be multi-channel: where marketers design campaigns that seamlessly interact with customers across multiple touchpoints and create a consistent brand experience.
What is Loyalty Marketing?
According to B2B International, “54% of B2B marketers said making customers more loyal was a leading business challenge, a 10% increase from the previous year” Customers are expecting more from brands than ever before. That’s why loyalty programs are put in place by thousands of brands: Not only do customers want brands to convince them why they should use their products/services, but they want rewards for giving them their business.
What is Word of Mouth Marketing?
If you’ve been to a National Park, you know Smokey the Bear. With the classic slogan “Only you can prevent forest fires.” posted throughout the great outdoors. An earnest brown bear in a wide-brim hat holds a shovel in one paw and points a finger with the other. The message is clear: even in this huge wilderness, you can make an impact. Just like you can prevent forest fires, marketers can ignite massive conversations with word of mouth marketing. Why is word of mouth marketing important?
What is Lifecycle Marketing?
What separates the amateur and the professional salesman? It’s not the car, the clothes, or the coffee. Nor is it the product. A real pro could offset global warming by selling ice in Alaska. The approach is what separates the pro and the amateur. The professional knows that once they’ve got the prospect’s attention and they’re talking value, they’ve got all day to make a sale. The professional understands that they’re going to develop a relationship with their customer and listen to their needs.
The state of referral marketing by Referral SaaSquatch - CUInsight
It’s no secret that marketers are using an increasing amount of their time and resources with marketing technology. With marketing software spending is projected reach $32B+ by 2018 according to Radius. Digital marketing teams are bouncing around between marketing automation platforms, customer relationship management software and content management systems to do their jobs effectively.
29 Digital Marketing Statistics for 2017
The digital marketing industry has been growing for over two decades now and is expected to continue growing well into the future. According to Statista, the U.S. spent $59.82 billion on digital advertising in 2015 and spending is expected to reach $113.18 billion in 2020! This article was written to educate you and your colleagues about: In 2016 about 22% of businesses were satisfied with their conversion rates (Econsultancy, 2016).
Reviewed: Top 10 Customer Experience Software Platforms
Do you remember the story of the princess and the pea? The fairy tale centers around a young woman who’s in line to be the wife of a prince. Before marriage, the king asks her to sleep on, not one, but a stack of royal mattresses every night. Why? The king wants to test if the princess is sensitive enough to be worthy of his son – and listen to the people to govern the land responsibly. So the king sticks one single pea underneath the eligible princess’s heap of mattresses every night.
Calculating Churn Rate and 12 Customer Churn Statistics
Repeat customers are the most valuable customers you have. However, maintaining your relationship with loyal customers can be tricky. These relationships need to be maintained with a consistent and rewarding customer experience. When your customers are happy, your business will prosper. This article is written to help you learn more about what churn rate is, calculating churn rate, and several churn statistics that will help you design a better customer experience.
What is Coupon Management?
You’ve finally cleared the office and it feels like you just finished a marathon. What a Monday. You’re head’s still be spinning from dashing to endless meetings and returning so many emails. Time to grab a glass of wine, some Netflix and just relax. But first: the grocery store. You’re on a mission to grab the Malbec, the wasabi crisps, the hummus to match. No one faults you for indulging in that bar of dark chocolate. Before you can say sweatpants, you’re at checkout.
What is Social Commerce - Our Collection of Trends, Statistics, and Examples
The rise of online shopping and social media has to lead to the birth of a new type of purchasing behavior that offers consumers a better digital shopping experience. Social commerce is about building a relationship with customers and not about pushing a product or service like traditional commercial tactics. This article is designed to show you the terms, trends, and in-action examples of social commerce.
Top 10 Marketing Automation Platform Reviews
A 2010 hailstorm in South Dakota dropped the largest hailstone in recorded history. It was the size of a soccer ball and weighed two pounds. When we hear facts like this, it’s easy to understand why “cloud seeding” – trying to control the time and place of precipitation – is so popular. Stanford University studies cloud control techniques to gauge its effect on climate change.
Growth Hacking vs. Growth Marketing
Lots of Englishmen move from dreary ol’ England to warmer climates. However, none but one of these expats has ever become the most notorious and celebrated pirate in all history. Meet Edward Teach. He’s just relocated to Jamaica with his family and begun working as a shiphand in the nearby port. He’s really loving it. The warm breeze on his face is pleasant and his sea legs are sturdy. After enlisting in the Royal Navy, he sails through the Queen Anne’s War of 1716 without a scrape.
15 Growth Automation Statistics You Need to Know
There once was an Indiana country boy who called himself “The Hick from French Lick.” Starting at age 13, the rural youth began a love affair with basketball. He didn’t think himself much of a player, despite what people told him, and he resolved to be his best. Before going to school every morning, “The Hick” shot 500 free throws. His efforts paid off. Before long, the boy grew into the man known worldwide as Larry Bird.
Growth Automation
Computers aren't just for the front pocket of my shirt anymore. Fantasy stories like Game of Thrones are all the rage. Kids two-strap their backpacks to protect their posture later in life. Maybe you've witnessed (and appreciated) these changes yourself. As being interested and involved in life became a social value, aka "cool" - I've simply become what's known as well-informed. Part of this is reading three books a day. Ok, let me clarify: I am not a wizard. I read from three books a day.
Growth Automation and the Inevitable Journey That Got Us Here
Email was invented in 1972 and launched us into a communication revolution. For the next 6 years email would be pure. People would only send messages to those they knew personally. These were the days when getting email was a treat! “You’ve got mail” was the most exciting sound your computer made. Sadly, those days are long gone and now we all receive a constant barrage of email which offer little to no value. It took 6 years from the invention of email to see the invention of SPAM.
13 Winning Customer Acquisition Examples
Night’s fallen but the big man refuses to stop driving. His blonde companion is asleep in the front seat, quietly snoring into his flannel. Since leaving Sandusky, Ohio, they’ve been on the road for almost a month. If they don’t scare up some new business, it’s the end. They need to reach Minnesota before daybreak to keep schedule and make their sales meeting. His determined grip on the wheel reflects the determination of Tommy Callahan himself.
17 Surprising Referral Marketing Statistics
My friend sold swords on military bases for a living. Yes, people actually do that. By swords I mean gigantic blades of stainless steel that were used in films like Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. In front of the booth was a rack that held five blades, tips thrust down into the wooden container like The Sword in the Stone. You couldn’t help but notice their sales display. But they were costly. And being a soldier isn’t the highest paying job around.
7 Ways to Drive E-Commerce Referrals
“Oh, I like that! Where’d you get it?” we ask this all the time. Even before the internet, retailers relied upon the goodwill and kind words of customers to impact the bottom line. These days, we know that 92% of consumers trust a recommendation about a sale from their inner circle. Leading e-commerce brands understand that referral marketing can drive a significant portion of their revenue and build existing customer loyalty.
9 Key Customer Lifecycle Stats for 2017
In 1906, Vilfredo Pareto made the famous observation that just 20% of the Italian population owned 80% of the property. He found this peculiar, and so investigated it further while in the University of Lausanne in France. In 1909, he released the Pareto index which showed that this inequality in distribution carried “through any human, society, at any age or income.” He was commended by the Adam Smith Society for his work in economics. And then…everyone forgot about Vilfredo and his ideas.
Demand Generation Strategy in 2017 - What You Need to Know!
Flashback: it’s 1989. Dusk is falling and an Iowa farmer is staring out over his fields, reflecting upon his situation. It all seems normal until … he starts hearing voices. “If you build it, they will come.” Yes, I’m recalling the pivotal scene from the hit movie “Field of Dreams.” So, what does Kevin Costner have to do with a demand generation strategy? You’re correct, not a damn thing. However, those angels in the outfield perfectly captured the heart of most B2B leadership.
Veronica Jones: Growth Marketing Detective
She scanned the semi circle that surrounded the sprawling boardroom table, quickly picking out Ephraim, the earthy-looking CEO who she’d spoken with at her interview. “Veronica, join us! Welcome to our Monday Energy Flow. Everyone, this is Veronica, the newest member of our Marketing Team. She comes to us with over ten years of experience under her belt from some of fashion’s top e-commerce brands.” …Well, not exactly. Veronica looked around the room, taking quick inventory of her new coworkers.
7 Stellar Examples of Mobile Marketing Personalization
Why is personalized marketing so powerful? Because users feel empowered, appreciated and very much understood when you use it. Personalization also has the added benefit of making it easier for consumers to locate the products most relevant to them. Digital brands that can share a feeling of empathy with customers are going the farthest since buyers are out to purchases more than goods these days. Yes, also going into those shopping carts is a sense of belonging, comfort and convenience.
How to Run Influencer Marketing Campaigns
I do. The early 90s was rife with outsized, utterly impractical trousers thanks to MC Hammer’s 1990 smash hit, “U Can’t Touch This.” Everyone was walking around dressed like Aladdin. And loving it. When I think of those absurd pants, I think of influencers. If you want people to listen to your brand, buy your product, or just wear funny clothing – partner with an influencer. They have power and reach.
Increase Conversions with Personalization Campaigns
If you’re striving to implement personalization marketing but aren’t sure of the best tactics, this article is for you. Marketers have long understood personalization as a surefire way to increase conversions. Offering products or services in a targeted and familiar fashion drives consumer action unlike anything else. Why? Because your users like to feel special. We all do.
Landing Page Optimization Strategy Guide
Landing pages are an essential part of your marketing strategy as your audience moves deeper into your website and explores your products and services. Landing page optimization comes down to achieving an ideal blend of persuasive content, value and minimal design to drive conversions. A landing page optimization strategy is the only way to consistently improve your funnel and even a 1% increase will mean big changes to your bottom line.
Create a Complete Loyalty Marketing Strategy
Loyalty marketing is the strategy of doing well for your brand by making good with existing customers. As the customer journey becomes a nonlinear brand experience that has no set end-date, companies are shifting their focus from one-time offerings to a more long-term relationship. This means offering users an individualized experience replete with added benefits. Studies show it takes 10 times the resources to acquire a new customer than to sell to an existing one.
7 Customer Lifecycle Campaign Examples
Customer lifecycle marketing campaigns are the most effective way to address evolving needs through the customer journey. With a segmented user base, you can effectively target groups based upon the current relationship with your brand to improve user experience, build loyalty and increase revenues. Generating sales with new customers and securing repeat business is a matter of providing consistent value across your lifecycle channels.
The Secrets of Men Who Share Pants - Part 2
In our previous post, we did some field research around men, fashion and sharing. Turns out, they’re not likely to talk about clothes much with their buddies. Not exactly groundbreaking, but why? It’s likely tied to pervasive gender stereotypes, but we’ll let the social scientists unpack that one. Meanwhile, there’s an epic opportunity that exists in menswear right now – a multibillion-dollar industry that’s historically under-attended to when it comes to marketing.
The Secrets of Men Who Share Pants: Part 1
Sharing. It’s a powerful human instinct. It’s the driving force behind the success of most B2C businesses today, and it’s the behavior that referral marketing is built on. But when you think about the act of sharing an online store or product – let’s say, apparel and accessories – who do you picture? A cluster of men sitting around the lunch room discussing where Craig got his new jeans, or where Ryan scored that beard oil that’s gotten him more than one head-turn at the water cooler?
Intro to Myers-Briggs Personality Types
Imagine you’re at a party and this party represents all of your target customers. As with any party, some people are talking in a large group in the center of the room while some chat in small groups of two or three around the outside. For marketers, it’s crucial to communicate with each of these groups differently. Because they all have different needs and preferences as people. Personality targeting has been shown to improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
The Beginner’s Guide to Customer Marketing
Customer marketing is the lifecycle strategy that the best companies use to retain loyal customers by delivering on brand values and exceeding expectations every step of the way. Businesses that budget for an optimized customer experience consistently earn higher revenues. As Marketing Metrics reports, companies are 40-65% more likely to sell to an existing client than a new one. Yes, we all want to put our best foot forward to new customers, but is your brand walking the walk?
7 Examples of Telecom Referral Marketing
Telecom companies enjoy a strong, steady stream of engaged users via their referral marketing programs. Brand advocates signaling new users with word-of-mouth messaging is the only effective way to sway brand loyalties and long-term contract obligations. In the hyper-competitive industry of internet, cellular and cable giants, there’s no room for static interference or feedback. And telecom companies know a thing or two about effectively using multiple channels.
Top Mobile Marketing Trends for 2016
With mobile devices an ever-present fixture of modern life, keeping up on mobile marketing trends is more important than ever. When looking to improve customer acquisition rates, customer conversions and retention rates, fine tuning how your audience interacts via their mobile device is key to maximizing your revenue.
5 Ways to Optimize Your Loyalty Marketing
Sophisticated consumer buying behavior has created expectations that brands will consistently reward their loyalty. Adopting an omnichannel loyalty marketing strategy is the strongest way to continually reward your customers, keep them happy and incentivize spending.
7 Financial Industry Referral Marketing Examples
In order to acquire, retain and improve customer experience, referral campaigns are estimated to be in use with as many as 30% of all North American financial institutions. Since the bottom line is top of mind for every company involved in financial services, it’s no wonder that most successful companies have chosen to take advantage of referral marketing. The reason why is a matter of numbers.
SaaS Referral Marketing - A Match Made in Heaven
Not all forms of marketing are created equal. Certain channels for SaaS can build a flywheel effect for your company where they organically add new customers every month for your service. SaaS referral marketing is one of these organic channels that we’ve seen Dropbox, Evernote and Typeform use to build profitable marketing campaigns. There’s good reason for making this point. SaaS products tend to have a lot of features that would typically send marketers running.
27 SaaS Webinar Marketing Examples
Webinar marketing is used by B2B companies to share their industry expertise and start a conversation with prospective customers that are further down the marketing funnel. Let’s take a look at how a few leaders in SaaS are using webinar marketing to nurture their high-value prospects. Uberflip helps companies aggregate and manage their content on a single platform. In fact, a few of the webinar site examples that we’re looking at today use their solution.
Loyalty Marketing Best Practices in 2016
Loyalty marketing has grown increasingly important over the last several years. With the general shift to a membership-based economy, where people are now subscribing for access to services rather than paying for outright ownership, the need to maintain strong customer relationships is more pressing than ever. Your churn rate, the number of customers that cancel subscription to your service over a given time period, can often be a make-or-break metric.
Mobile Email Campaigns in 2016 - What You Need to Know
While traditional desktop email campaigns have been passed over in favor of other marketing channels, mobile consumer behaviors are prompting marketers to reassess and get creative with their mobile campaigns. Taking the lead from top e-commerce brands, we’re going to discuss how to send mobile-optimized emails to your customers. What types of messages to send, what metrics to measure, and how to map these within the customer life cycle for this evolving engagement model.
Loyalty Marketing Best Practices in 2016
Loyalty marketing has grown increasingly important over the last several years. With the general shift to a membership-based economy, where people are now subscribing for access to services rather than paying for outright ownership, the need to maintain strong customer relationships is more pressing than ever. Your churn rate, the number of customers that cancel subscription to your service over a given time period, can often be a make-or-break metric.
How to Improve Your Retention Marketing Strategy
A successful retention campaign starts even before your first contact with a customer and continues throughout the lifetime of that relationship. It begins with your reputation, continues with who is talking about your brand, and goes even further as customers dive deeper into your retention marketing experience. Your retention strategy needs to focus on campaigns for customer engagement, referrals, and loyalty. Each of these channels strengthen the lifetime value of your products.
Our Comprehensive Guide to Referral Marketing
“Referral marketing is the science of converting customer’s social capital into brand’s economic capital. “ [Harvard Business Review] Referral marketing is the only marketing channel that helps you capitalize on word-of-mouth advocacy and grow organically. Unlike paid-advertising that brings you random visitors, referral marketing is a much more optimized marketing strategy that enables people who love your product to bring in people who would love your product, too.
10 Ways to Optimize Your Push Notification Strategy
Taking advantage of a push notification strategy is an effective way to reach users and provide them with immediate, actionable value. These often overlooked messages are both convenient for the recipient and highly valuable for brands. What’s not to love? Whether you’re trying to drive engagement, drive sales, or push more total app installs – using push notifications in a personalized, respectful manner is a gateway to marketing success.
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