I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
I recently has the privilege to cover the World Business Forum in NYC last week. There were so many great panels and top business minds at the event. I want to highlight some of my favorites.
Seth Godin’s talk on Marketing where he discusses How today’s Marketer needs to be both remarkable and generous.
In his talk Seth discusses his new book This is Marketing and he discusses what it takes to succeed in today’s connection economy.
The new economy was Made of of the following components
A key idea was that Marketers make change happen.
It was truly an amazing talk.
2. A talk by Juan Enriquez on the topic of trends in technology.
Two trends that caught my attention were:
3. Whitney Johnson’s talk on How to build an A Team where she discusses how to design jobs to maximize both employee engagement and performance.
Companies should strive for 70% employee engagement.
Companies should take chances hiring people who are inexperienced to keep a steady pipeline of employees.
4. Daniel Kahneman’s talk on the psychology of how we make Intuitive Judgments and choices based and why people are more risk averse than others. He also discusses how stress impacts decision making.
The World Business Forum is an amazing event packed with insights and for everyone in Business. If you missed out this year; attend the next one.
Sales reps can only be as good as the product and message they represent. Before companies can hire Sales reps, they need a great product with messaging that conveys the benefits to customers. Sales reps need support from marketing in the cross functional organization of tomorrow. The messaging should be able to prevent customer objections. Unfortunately, this is where many Marketing departments fall short.
image via Salesforce.com
Many people that get hired in marketing, lack a sales background and have no idea on how to handle customer objections.
In addition, many people in Marketing lack the background and understanding of how people learn. Teachers and psychologists have this training. Understanding how people learn can make product messaging more effective because it can be presented in multiple formats. Many people in marketing lack practitioner experience and as a result marketing is not as effective as it could be. Practitioners are especially under represented in the Marketing function of many EdTech companies and this needs to change. Now I will make a case for hiring Sales Reps, Teachers and Industry practitioners in marketing.
Case for hiring ex Sales Reps
Knows how to handle objections which can be applied to message
Experience dealing with customers, knows customer pain points
Sees how end-user uses the product
Can increase sales using Sales expertise to make messaging customer centric
Can assist with Sales and Marketing Alignment as companies need to work cross functionally
Understands the issues Sales Reps face and has the credibility of being a Rep when collaborating with Sales Teams
Experienced obtaining , qualifying and converting leads to Sales ie Lead gen/demand gen
Hiring Industry practice experts
They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research -should be in leadership roles
Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists
Tech does this with programmers and engineers.
Why not EdTech!
Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job
This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!
Case For hiring ex Teachers
understands how people learned
skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs
Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them as they can educate customers
Why it is not Good enough to just place them in Sales
People in Sales are not involved in the creative process and cannot change their cards and company messaging.
They cannot address weaknesses in messaging and product.
The Marketer of Tomorrow
Has all of the above in their background or at least a Sales background at a minimum.
My mix of Outside Sales, Marketing, Social Media, helping Customers and Classroom Teaching experience makes me an excellent Marketing candidate for the following reasons:
Former Outside Sales Rep which allows me to create messaging to preemptively stop most sales objections
Can help with Sales Enablement/coaching/go on selected sales calls to improve the sales process
Experienced Marketer
Can build a better talent brand by building out your career site with employee stories
Create and establish new markets along with helping to create new product offerings that complement existing ones
Experienced online audience builder
I have built up a large audience with 21, 000+ followers on WordPress
24,000+ followers on LinkedIn along with a following of 6000+ on my Twitter handle @DanGalante
Are you ready to increase Sales by improving Marketing? Your sales teams deserve better!
Change today!
Are you hiring for Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Customer Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Sales Enablement, Lead Gen, Demand Gen, Retention Marketing, Talent Branding and Employer Branding roles?
I’m willing to build Marketing from scratch if no marketing function exists.
Hiring?
Contact me via LinkedIn or E-Mail to set up interviews. If you are not hiring, share this with people that are looking to hire.
See how I can improve your Sales and Revenue using Marketing.
I’m passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, I served customers as an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, I taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing; supporting marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
I write and publish a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 21,000+ on WordPress.
I’m is seeking a full-time marketing role in Marketing; willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas of: Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Customer Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Sales Enablement, Lead Gen, Demand Gen, Retention Marketing, Talent Branding and Employer Branding roles, contact me directly via LinkedIn or email at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
This week, I covered Advertising Week in New York.
There were amazing panels. My key takeaways from Advertising Week were:
CMOs need a wide array of skills sets from Storytelling to Data Analysis to owning a P&L statement much like CEOs and other General Managers if they want to survive and thrive in today changing landscape.
CMOs need to be the Voice of the Customer inside of the organization and understand how intent is changing the customer journey.
Customers want a personalized experience with brands while having the their data protected.
Brands need to take a different approach when Understanding and Marketing to Gen Z
Marketing and Advertising is not the same anymore.
Today’s successful marketer is generous,
gives value to the customer and does not steal their attention.
AI will empower Marketers to do their jobs better; bring them closer to customers.
AI will also allow marketers to get quicker feedback to see which campaigns work best at different points in time by allowing them to make sense of all the data they collect.
It is an exciting time to be a Marketer. How will Marketing change?
Comment and share below.
I was amazed about the impact voice technology will have on our lives. According to comscore.com, Voice search will account for 50 % of all search results by 2020.
Voice technology is already in use in many home devices such as Amazon Alexa and Google home. Voice applications are already available in many smartphones as we can use our voice to dictate messages along with smartphone assistants Siri, Google and Bixby.
Home owners can use voice to operate things in their home.
Voice is at the very infancy of its capabilities. People will be able to use their Alexa or Google Home to start their cars and adjust the temperature as well as other commands. Mercedes Benz is implementing a digital assistant in their newer vehicles.
People will be able to dictate a search as opposed to having to open google and type what they are looking for. Voice provides brands and businesses with an opportunity to improve customer experience. However, brands are not currently equipped to serve up content and engagement using voice.
Voice is at the beginning of the technology life cycle. Many believe that voice will be another channel added to the omnichannel experience. Others think that it will overtake existing channel. Bret Kinsella of voicebot.ai discussed the data behind the companies in voice, the technology, its adoption and market growth prospects in his talk Voice Platform wars.
In terms of how Voice is changing marketing, it is on marketers to find new ways to engage their customers using voice. Rob Bennett CEO of rehab agency discusses the impact of Voice technology in Marketing.
CMOs need to incorporate voice into the marketing mix along with the other channels.
Jeff Rhores, Mike Darne, Wilson Tang and Chris Vennard share how they use Voice in their business and its potential for brands.
In terms of SEO and buyer personas, they also need to be built for Voice. Duane Forrester discusses how brands can create a voice optimization strategy and brand personas.
The debate is still out on whether voice will replace social media. Brandon Kaplan of Skilled Creative discusses how voice will replace Social Media and ways Brands can create Voice experiences for their customers.
Voice is an exciting technology and it will be interesting to see how it changes Marketing and how we interact with our world.
How are you using Voice technology? Comment and share below.
Do you have questions on Sales, Marketing and/or Social Media? Send me your questions. If you want my Tumblr insights sent directly to your inbox; subscribe to my blog.
About the Author
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 19,000+ on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
Sales reps can only be as good as the product and message they represent. Before companies can hire Sales reps, they need a great product with messaging that conveys the benefits to customers. Sales reps need support from marketing in the cross functional organization of tomorrow. The messaging should be able to prevent customer objections. Unfortunately, this is where many Marketing departments fall short.
image via Salesforce.com
Many people that get hired in marketing, lack a sales background and have no idea on how to handle customer objections.
In addition, many people in Marketing lack the background and understanding of how people learn. Teachers and psychologists have this training. Understanding how people learn can make product messaging more effective because it can be presented in multiple formats. Many people in marketing lack practitioner experience and as a result marketing is not as effective as it could be. Practitioners are especially under represented in the Marketing function of many EdTech companies and this needs to change. Now I will make a case for hiring Sales Reps, Teachers and Industry practitioners in marketing.
Case for hiring ex Sales Reps
Knows how to handle objections which can be applied to message
Experience dealing with customers, knows customer pain points
Sees how end-user uses the product
Can increase sales using Sales expertise to make messaging customer centric
Can assist with Sales and Marketing Alignment as companies need to work cross functionally
Understands the issues Sales Reps face and has the credibility of being a Rep when collaborating with Sales Teams
Experienced obtaining , qualifying and converting leads to Sales ie Lead gen/demand gen
Hiring Industry practice experts
They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research -should be in leadership roles
Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists
Tech does this with programmers and engineers.
Why not EdTech!
Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job
This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!
Case For hiring ex Teachers
understands how people learned
skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs
Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them as they can educate customers
Why it is not Good enough to just place them in Sales
People in Sales are not involved in the creative process and cannot change their cards and company messaging.
They cannot address weaknesses in messaging and product.
The Marketer of Tomorrow
Has all of the above in their background or at least a Sales background at a minimum.
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign and a Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products and services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 19,000+ on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
EdTech and E-Learning companies are doing great work. However, I have identified a gap in their marketing strategy that could leave them vulnerable to competitors. None and in some cases very few of the people in the Marketing function of the organization were former Teachers. You can do a search on LinkedIn to verify this.
I acknowledge that EdTech and E-Learning has former Teachers in the Sales and PD functions.
Why it is not Good enough to just place Teachers in Sales
Sales teams have to use consistent company messaging when presenting products to prospects and customers. Also, PD teams are not skilled at Sales and objection handling.
Market Research /SWOT
One Company, a major competitor of all of the others in the space, has Teachers working in every Marketing function which is an edge they can use against the company in a “we were Teachers once” Marketing campaign.
Teachers need to be in the Marketing function of the organization because they are the practitioners who can make the product messaging more credible and compelling. This new improved messaging will help build connection with the buyer because the buyer sees a Teacher-to-Teacher connection.
Our Teacher’s, Students & School administrators deserve better resources that are constructed by former Teachers at every level.
Why Hire Teacher practice experts in Marketing?
They are the customers and understand the pain points better than any market research -should be in leadership roles
Healthcare does this with Doctors, Dentists
Tech does this with programmers and engineers.
Why not EdTech!
Additional Teacher Skill sets that will be useful in Marketing
Can increase Sales because they are the customer and understand the pain points because they have experienced them in the job
understands how people learn
skilled at tailoring content for understanding based on learning needs
Today’s marketing is about educating customer and earning the right to market to them as teachers can educate customers
This is the best market research/ buyer persona there is!
I would be an excellent fit for a Marketing role due to the following:
Teacher Practice expert with 6+ years of experience (SPED & GEN ED, part time, Adult ED and full-time experience)
Former Outside Sales Rep which allows me to create messaging to preemptively stop most sales objections
Can help with Sales Enablement/coaching/go on selected sales calls to improve the sales process
Experienced EdTech Marketer
Can build a better talent brand by building out your career site with employee stories
Create and establish new markets along with helping to create new product offerings that complement existing ones
Experienced online audience builder
I have built up a large audience with 19, 000+ followers on WordPress
24,000+ followers on LinkedIn along with a following of 3,900+ on an EdTech Twitter handle @NYEDTechTeacher
Understand the customer behavior and pain points of Teachers and Principals
Support I need from EdTech & E-Learning Companies
I am asking EdTech and E-Learning companies for the opportunity to come on-site to speak about my qualifications. This will help me demonstrate how I can help them improve the learning experience of our students.
Support I need from Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents
Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents, comment below about the improvements you would like to see from EdTech & E-Learning companies. Please share this article and ask for change. I can’t do it alone. If I can join the Marketing function, I will help to improve EdTech and E-Learning to help the learner of tomorrow.
Dan is passionate about using Marketing to help businesses drive sales. HubSpot Certified in Inbound Marketing, Dan has worked on various marketing assignments including Start Ups, a Political Campaign anda Digital Marketing Conference.
Prior to teaching, Dan served customers as an Outside Sales & Marketing Rep in NYC. In this role, he taught and trained Dentists on the company’s products & services using a consultative selling approach combined with direct marketing. He also supported the company’s marketing efforts at industry trade shows.
He writes and publishes a business blog on the topics of Sales, Marketing and Social Media entitled Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today; which has grown to 24,000+ followers on LinkedIn and 19,000+ on WordPress.
Dan is seeking a full-time marketing role in EdTech Marketing. He is willing to create and build out the Marketing function of your organization if it does not exist. If your company is hiring for roles in these areas, contact him directly via a free LinkedIn Message or email him at Dan@DanGalante.com to set up interviews.
Posted 328 weeks ago
My mix of Outside Sales, Marketing, Social Media, helping Customers and Classroom Teaching experience makes me an excellent Marketing candidate for your organization.
Are you hiring for Inbound Marketing, Digital Marketing, Product Marketing, Content Marketing, Customer Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Sales Enablement, Lead Gen, Demand Gen, Retention Marketing, Talent Branding and Employer Branding roles?
I’m willing to build Marketing from scratch if no marketing function exists.
Hiring?
Contact me via LinkedIn or E-Mail to set up interviews. If you are not hiring, share this with people that are looking to hire.
See how I can improve your Sales and Revenue using Marketing.
I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
Last week, I covered the Search Marketing Expo in New York City. Search Marketing Expo has is a great event for SEO, SEM, and Digital Marketing professionals. SMX provides attendees with an opportunity to learn actionable techniques in conference sessions and training workshops. Google and Microsoft provided seminars on various SEM topics.
Organic traffic has reached its peak and will decline.
To keep traffic coming to their sites, Marketers will need to find ways to nudge consumers as Zero click queries continue to grow.
Organizations need to shift their investments in product, content, and brand. Decisions on how to redeploy these resources need to be a company-wide effort.
At the end of the keynote, I met Rand and received a signed copy of his new book entitled Lost and Found.
In Google’s Keynote, I learned how businesses can get an edge during the holidays. I also learned of Google’s plan to use Google Images and YouTube for eCommerce. Google is also allowing businesses to use location-based Ads in Google Maps.
The key insights of the presentation were:
1. According to Google most shopping visits start online.
2.When diners search for a great place to eat the searches are probably happening on a smartphone.
3. When people are online in cars, more than half of them are searching for information on a mobile device making localization and targeting important.
4. . 2/3′s of shoppers say that online video has given them insight and inspiration to make purchases.
5. Shoppers use at least 3 channels or more when shopping.
6. Brands need to provide an omnichannel channel experience all year, especially during the holidays.
7. Sales are happening online and offline. As a result of this shift, Brands need to serve customers on the channels of their choice.
I covered the Product Marketing Community event in New York. Product Marketing Community was founded by Product Marketers for Product Marketers.
Attendees of Product Marketing Community events take interactive workshops led by product marketing leaders and network with their peers.
The event covered how to: build and execute: go-to-market strategy, buyer insights, messaging, content, and sales enablement.
Product Marketing Community founder Rowan Noronha kicked off the event.
Currently VP of Product Marketing for Zix, Rowan has led product marketing for North America (Office of the CFO) at SAP and Cognizant. He also serves as an Advisor to SAAS startups.
Here are takeaways on go-to-market strategy, developing buyer insights, and sales enablement.
Marketers need to develop and deploy a buyer-centric go-to-market strategy.
It is time for marketers to ask better questions about buyers.
Businesses should identify their ideal audience for their offering. Data from this analysis can be used to target better prospects and improve go-to-market results.
Only certain target customers will buy due to internal and external factors.
To grow revenue, businesses need to develop and use better competitive insights. Developing these insights entails examining everything about the competition to identify: strengths, weaknesses, competitor priorities, growing, and under-served markets.
Product Marketing involves more than just supporting the Marketing and Product Management teams. Product Marketers serve Marketing, Sales and Product teams. Each team has different needs and responsibilities. However, they all play a role in growing the business and serving customers.
Product Marketers serve as market experts and translators for teams from across the organization.
What is Product Marketing?
Product Marketing is the discipline of bringing a product to market and nurturing its success. Businesses need to create and market products people want to buy. To do that, they need to use the Pragmatic Framework.
Product Marketers are taking on some Product Manager responsibilities.
Product Marketing needs a separate brief.
Johnathan Hinz of Seismeic shares his insights on sales enablement and its role in marketing.
The lack of Sales and Marketing alignment is due in part to the inadequate amount of customer value mapping relating to the number of buyers types.
Product Marketing Community New York was a great event.
I covered the Product Marketing Community event in New York. Product Marketing Community was founded by Product Marketers for Product Marketers.
Attendees of Product Marketing Community events take interactive workshops led by product marketing leaders and network with their peers.
The event covered how to: build and execute: go-to-market strategy, buyer insights, messaging and content and sales enablement.
Product Marketing Community founder Rowan Noronha kicked off the event.
Currently VP of Product Marketing for Zix, Rowan has led product marketing for North America (Office of the CFO) at SAP and Cognizant. He also serves as an Advisor to SAAS startups.
Here are takeaways on go-to-market strategy, developing buyer insights, and sales enablement.
Marketers need to develop and deploy a buyer-centric go-to-market strategy.
It is time for marketers to ask better questions about buyers.
Businesses should identify their ideal audience for their offering. Data from this analysis can be used to target better prospects and improve go-to-market results.
Only certain target customers will buy due to internal and external factors.
To grow revenue, businesses need to develop and use better competitive insights. Developing these insights entails examining everything about the competition to identify: strengths, weaknesses, competitor priorities, growing, and under-served markets.
Product Marketing involves more than just supporting the Marketing and Product Management teams. Product Marketers serve Marketing, Sales and Product teams. Each team has different needs and responsibilities. However, they all play a role in growing the business and serving customers.
Product Marketers serve as market experts and translators for teams from across the organization.
What is Product Marketing?
Product Marketing is the discipline of bringing a product to market and nurturing its success. Businesses need to create and market products people want to buy. To do that, they need to use the Pragamtic Framework.
Product Marketers are taking on some Product Manager responsibilities.
Product Marketing needs a separate brief.
Johnathan Hinz of Seismeic shares his insights on sales enablement and its role in marketing.
The lack of Sales and Marketing alignment is due in part to the inadequate amount of customer value mapping relating to the number of buyers types.
Product Marketing Community New York was a great event.
Propelify is an event where people from across the Northeast can turn ideas into action.
Officials from the New Jersey State government attended. They offered entrepreneurs resources to start and/or scale their business in New Jersey.
New Jersey Tech Council CEO Aaron Price and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy delivered the opening keynote. In their keynote, Aaron and Governor Murphy discussed Propelify’s mission and why businesses should consider New Jersey.
There were additional talks on topics from Cannabis, Customer Experience, Marketing, Sales, Recruiting and Entrepreneurship.
Cannabis: From New Brand To IPO In A Prohibition Market panel.
Rebecca Price moderates a panel on The Science Behind Smart Recruiting and Seeing Thru the Resume.
Entrepreneurs networked with investors. There was also a Startup competition.
Exhibitors represented diverse entities ranging from Government, Advertising, Financial Services, CPG, HRTech, Universities, Incubators, Accelerators, IT, Healthcare and E-commerce brands.
Propelify was a great event.
I want to thank Aaron Price and the New Jersey Tech Council for having me as their guest.
I covered Advertising Week in New York. Advertising Week is where the best minds of Marketing and Advertising meet to share and learn best practices.
Matt Scheckner Global CEO of Advertising Week shares his thoughts at the opening breakfast.
There were great panels and workshops.
My key takeaways from Advertising Week 2019 were:
1. Brands need to better understand emotional intelligence and be able to apply it to their content creation. Other emotions besides happiness drive purchases. Spencer Gerrol the CEO of Spark Neuro shares insights from a biometrics study on how emotion in content affects brand value.
Spencer also did a live demonstration showing how the brain responds to Ads in real-time.
2. According to Gary Vaynerchuk, Marketing is becoming more like Sales in terms of being results-driven. Brands will eventually need to create up to 500 pieces of content per day to engage the ever-increasing buyer personas and customers’ tastes. Gary also shared the idea that LinkedIn is the best platform for organic reach.
3. Brands need to organize their organizations around the customer journey and experience. Philips SVP of Digital Marketing and E-commerce Blake Cahill shared how the company is organizing and transforming around the Customer Journey. He provided actionable steps companies can take to better serve customers.
4. The funnel of today will look like a flywheel by 2030.
Nikki Issac of Mircosoft shares Microsoft’s Research on Marketing and the Customer Journey. She also moderates a panel with Esteban Ribero of Performics.
Brands need to use data and AI to better understand their customers. According to research conducted by Microsoft, only 20% of today’s marketers have a high customer experience quotient (CXQ). A high(CXQ) means that brands fully understand user intent to create their customer journey; improving their performance to increase customer engagement.
Why should Brands be Customer-Centric? Brands that were Customer-Centric saw a 45% increase in ROI/ROAS.
We will see the rise of the Chief Journey Officer or CJO.
Where are you on the Journey?
5. Brands need to understand the role of Social Media in Customer Journey and how it impacts customer buying habits and decisions.
Businesses need to improve how they use Social Listening
and Analytics tools to understand customer intent.
A framework needs to define and address KPIs at each touch-point in the customer journey.
Why is this important?
More Marketers believe Social Listening is important.
6. Brands need to apply design thinking to cultivating empathy for end-users, interpreting and framing problems they experience, creative solution generation, and continuous prototyping and testing. The goal is to provide creative solutions for the end-user.
7. Brands need to listen and understand the customers of tomorrow. It is not just about Gen Z but Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha will be more active on social issues and more open to challenging the status quo than Gen Z.
8. According to Samsung Ads, with the rise of the Connected TV, Brands will be able to track and measure the effectiveness of their TV ads, similar to online advertising. Targeted TV is of critical use for advertisers because TV is viewed on Mobile, Desktop, Native Smart TV and Display. Advertisers expect to be able to track customers across platforms while producing ROI/ROAS reports just like online advertising.
9. Televised sports will increase its presence in Television programming. Soon, Sports Betting will be Televised according to CEO Chris Ripley of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Eventually, gamblers will be able to view Sporting events and place bets in real-time over their Smart TV and/or connected devices. This will provide gamblers with great customer experience.
10. Any business can use technology and creativity to: build community, start and scale an eCommerce business, create content and campaigns that convert.
Facebook’s Mark D’Arcy, CCO and VP of Global Business Marketing showed how to do this using Facebook.
Mark also spoke on Facebook’s social initiative Boost with Facebook. Boost with Facebook helps break down socioeconomic barriers by offering people the chance to up-skill on everything from using Facebook to finding a job. Boost with Facebook is a combination of online learning and live workshops.
Advertising Week 2019 was a great event. I want to thank everyone that made the event possible. On a personal note, I want to thank Matt Scheckner the Global CEO of Advertising Week and the Sunshine Sachs Communications team for having me as their guest.
I covered the Digital Agency Expo in New York. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this event, Digital Agency Expo is a conference focused on how to build, grow and scale a Digital Agency in 2019.
Ryan Deiss, the co-founder, and CEO of Digital Marketer opened up Digital Agency Expo.
In his opening talk on how to recession-proof a Digital Agency, Ryan identified three Key skills that agency owners and marketers need to master for success.
1. Master the skill of Copywriting
2. Master Email Marketing
3. Be able to create Partnerships
Ryan challenged the concept of a Full-Service Agency. He also argued against the notion that a bigger Agency is more profitable and can consistently produce high-quality results.
Ryan also recommended books to read along with a model for a successful agency.
It was an insightful talk.
Another great talk was delivered by Keap CEO Clate Mask. He outlined the five Stages of Agency growth. Clay also shared how he struggled to get his business off the ground. He kept going despite being told to get a job. His advice for when things get tough:
Evan Radisic of Proposify shares the State of Proposal research. Proposify examined 1.6 million proposals creating a blueprint of a winning proposal.
One of my favorite talks was the Keynote by Gary Vaynerchuck. Gary shared how to create, grow and scale a digital agency. He shared how he built multiple businesses on a shoestring budget despite his humble beginnings. Gary also took questions from the audience. I have included a portion of the talk here.
I attended EdSurge ImmersionNYC this past Friday. The event was designed for EdTech startups that are looking for Advice in the areas of Marketing, K-12 Sales, Scaling Up and Exiting. Attendees had the opportunity to hear from leaders at Various Education organizations ranging from CEOs, Founders, School Superintendents, and Venture Capitalists.
I enjoyed the presentation provided by Brett van Zuiden of Clever. In his presentation, he reminds us to think of users when designing products versus the way we would use a product.
He reinforced the idea that great product design cannot happen without truly understanding our customers.
Attendees had the opportunity to take three Clinics led by experts in Sales, Marketing, Scaling up and Exiting. I enjoyed the clinics because they were customized and led by experts.
The clinics that were most relevant to me, were two clinics on Marketing and one on Selling to K-12 school districts. I was able to meet and connect with many great entrepreneurs in the clinics. We received advice that was customized and actionable.
There were also many opportunities to network throughout the event.
EdSurge also announced the upcoming launch of its new service called EdSurgeIntelligence.
The services will apply a fresh approach to market intelligence and learning for investors and executives. EdSurgeIntelligence will allow users to analyze trends from early childhood through higher ed, the workforce and more.
I want to thank the Edsurge Team for having me at Edsurge ImmersionNYC.
I covered the Digital Marketing World Forum in New York this past week.
There were great discussions on Digital and Social Marketing. The topics ranged from the customer journey, customer experience, customer retention, personalization, using data, and privacy legislation.
My key insights were:
1. To improve customer retention, brands need to understand their customers to personalize their experiences across all touchpoints. Marketers from different verticals shared how they were able to improve customer loyalty and retention by personalizing and creating customer experiences across all touchpoints.
2. Many times, customer data tells a story that contradicts preconceived hunches and opinions. Marketers from T-Moblie and Decoded found this out when they marketed Cell Phone plans to the 55+ community.
3. Marketers have the tools to better understand their customers and to track the results of their efforts faster than ever before. These tools empower marketers to improve the customer journey and experience. With this power comes the obligation to better serve their customers and to quickly pivot when their tactics and strategies are not effective. Marketers with different products and services shared their stories and strategies.
4. Companies that are going to use Chatbots to serve customers need to train Chatbots to handle complex requests from customers. Chatbots should not be used to answer questions like the hours of a store or simple information that can be obtained from a website.
5. Privacy Legislation similar to GDPR is coming to the United States. Laws in California and Nevada are being enacted in 2020. OneTrust shared how Marketers can prepare and comply with the Californa Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
I covered Voice Summit last week at NJIT in Newark, New Jersey. Voice Summit is the largest voice tech conference that brings the conversational design ecosystem together in one place.
Last year was the first Voice Summit. It was amazing to see how the industry has advanced in the past year. This year, the conference grew to over 5,000 attendees!
Voice Summit was a great place to network. Many Voice Startups demoed their offerings as well.
Founder Pete Erikson shares the story of Voice in the opening press conference. Pete shared the podium with Voice industry leaders and Newark Civic Leadership.
The conversation in Voice has shifted from should brands have a Voice Strategy to how to effectively incorporate voice technology across the organization. Attendees had opportunities to attend hands-on voice workshops on topics ranging from creating brand guidelines to building a voice strategy from the ground up. I took the Voice strategy workshop conducted by Brett Kinsella of VoiceBot.Ai. We received a workbook that had questions that served as building blocks to build our voice strategy.
I had was able to get a look at the Expo Floor where I was able to meet exhibitors and explore the Amazon Smart Home. It was amazing to see how voice technology has transformed the home experience. In this video, I was able to ask Alexa to play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and to play music, etc.
Marketers have many opportunities with Voice and Audio Content according to Voices.com research. Content takes the form of short and long-form ranging from Flash Briefings up to Audiobooks.
However, when it comes to smart speakers only, 18% of users discover skills from brand advertising according to Vixen Labs.
Brands need to prepare to change their Marketing and Advertising for Voice. A panel shared their thoughts on how to improve how to achieve this aim.
Edison Research and NPR conducted market research on the topic of smart speaker customer behavior. The number of smart speakers in U.S. homes grew 78% from December of 2017 to December. The research packed with data you can see here.
Brett Kinsella led a panel where Marketers shared how they have developed and implemented their strategy for Voice.
Steve Keller of Pandora shared his thoughts on the topic of Sonic Branding and Sound Business.
On a side note, NJIT was nice enough to provide me with a tour of the start-up incubator and co-working space opening this September. I was able to see areas being built from the ground up just as startups are.
I also was able to see the Alexa Cup which is Amazon’s initiative to pair Marketers and developers to work on projects such as Female Empowerment and Mental Health.
What touched me on a human level was the closing keynote entitled “A journey through a deaf developer’s eyes.” In this keynote, Thomas Chappell of Prudential shared his story. Thomas is unable to speak.
After his talk, I was able to meet him. People communicate with him using Voice to speech technology and American Sign language. I was able to use the technology on a smartphone to have a full conversation with him.
Voice Summit was an amazing conference. I want to thank Pete Erikson, the Modev Team, NJIT, the City of Newark, and the State of New Jersey for having me as their guest.
I covered the Digital Summit Series in New York City this past Wednesday and Thursday. The Digital Summit Series provides attendees with comprehensive workshops on Digital Marketing that are conducted by speakers from leading brands along with industry through leaders. Topics ranged from Content, Email,Search, Mobile, UX Design, Social and Strategy. Attendees were also able to network with other attendees. I learned so much over these two days. Here are some of the highlights.
Stacy Minero delivered the keynote on Day One of Digital Summit entitled the Craft of Content in which she show how Brands can make an impact using Content.
1.Key takeaways were that Consumers want Brands to talk with them and not at them.
2. Consumers want Brands to take a stance on Social Issues.
3. Consumers expect Brands to solve social problems.
4. 89% of Content is not noticed at all
5. 40% of Consumers are more likely to respond to brands who respond to them
6. The old world started with Storyboards and TV now The new world starts with the customer and canvas.
7. Examples of Brands Creating Great Content include Heinz with the #MayoChup campaign and HBO with with its promotion of the digital streaming of Sopranos.
8. Before posting content Brands need to ask if the content they create is memorable or meaningful.
The keynote gave me a lot to think about.
Seth Godin gave the keynote entitled This is Marketing on Day two. In the keynote Seth covered many great points on Marketing from his book This is Marketing.
Marketers make change Happen.
Pick Yourself.
Tell a story that resonates with the people you seek to serve.
Pick the Smallest Most Viable Audience or Most Viable Market
Marketing is not advertising anymore
Television is about Mass Marketing and the Internet is a micro-medium
Seth also had an interactive Q & A session. He had a Poke the Box style Mic with the caption Catch the box; which he randomly tossed in the audience prompting them to to ask questions.
I really enjoyed the talk.
Other sessions that I enjoyed were on the topics of improving: Email Marketing, Marketing Workflow, B2B Marketing and Video Marketing. Pictures of these slides will be posted to Instagram.
If you want to attend in your city, click here for more information.
Did you attend Digital Summit? What are your thoughts?
I covered TechDay in New York City at the Jacob Javits Center this past Thursday.
Organizers of the event offered the opportunity to: network with Venture Capitalists, Accelerators, listen to Tech Talks, Fireside chats and pitch your start up. Attendees were able to look for a job or business opportunity with exhibitors and start ups. Entrepreneurs even had the opportunity to audition for SharkTank.
I write about the three topics that I am most passionate about; Sales, Marketing and Social Media. These topics are covered from my experiences in outside sales and marketing. My objective is to use my expertise to help business and the individual.
During my time in field sales, I wanted to obtain the business of Dental Schools and Hospitals. After obtaining meetings and making presentations to prominent Dentists, I was informed that they could not buy from me. After handling objections, showing how my offerings were better than the competition, I found out why. The decision-makers explained that they were under contract with large manufacturers and distributors.
These competitors offered deep discounts to Dental Schools so their students would get comfortable using their products. When students would become licensed Dentists, they would use the products they trained on instead of the competitors. These competitors built lifelong customer loyalty.
When I called on certain Dentists, they said they liked a particular company’s product. I asked them why they liked the product and would they consider switching for something comparable with faster service. The Dentists said no saying that they learned on particular equipment in Dental School and it was the only thing they felt comfortable using.
Geoffrey Moore discusses the Technology life cycle in Crossing the Chasm.
Dental manufactures and large distributors used pricing to target the Innovators/Early adopters/which in this case was the dental students and hospitals. To increase market share, they offered discounted pricing in exchange for purchase and long service contracts. These manufacturers and distributors succeeded in targeting dental students right before they would become customers; earning them years of customer loyalty.
Here is how this SAAS marketing program could be executed on the Technology Life cycle curve.
Innovators Preparation programs
Offer Preparation programs discounted pricing and free trials to try the product.
Have Pre-service Professionals get comfortable using the product.
Early Adopters Early Career Professionals
Offer them free trials and a lower discount.
Early/Late Majority Seasoned Professionals
Offer Trials and discounts to targeted staff and managers
Laggards Senior Staff Members
Continue to innovate the product and messaging to show how the product is being used.
Obtain Testimonials from satisfied staff and managers.
Show how the product exceeds competitors.
When appropriate, offer free and discounted trials to all appropriate prospects.
This is how Tech companies can improve their market share and generate life-long customer loyalty.
Tech Companies have the chance to improve business and generate life-long customer loyalty. This opportunity can be seized by offering discounted pricing and free trials to Innovators/Early Adopters which in this case are the preparation programs.
What Tech product do you want to try?
Comment and share below.
Additional Market Research Why & How People Buy Tech
When marketing and selling a tech product or service, it is important to ask two questions to understand your buyers.
1. What motivates people to buy a tech product or service?
2. How do people find a tech product or service to buy?
I surveyed my LinkedIn audience for answers.
1. What motivates people to buy a tech product or service?
People buy a technology product or service for many reasons.
2. How do people find a tech product or service to buy?
People find and buy technology products or services in different ways.
These findings suggest businesses need to create customer-centric offerings to survive in a competitive marketplace. Answering these questions will help businesses develop, create and, position offerings people want to purchase. I
Why & How People Buy
When marketing and selling a product or service, it is important to ask two questions to understand your buyers.
1. What motivates people to buy a product or service?
2. How do people find a product or service to buy?
I surveyed my LinkedIn audience for answers.
1. What motivates people to buy a product or service?
People buy a product or service for many reasons.
2. How do people find a product or service to buy?
People find and buy products or services in different ways.
These findings suggest businesses need to create customer-centric offerings to survive in a competitive marketplace.
Answering these questions will help businesses develop, create and, position offerings people want to purchase.
About Me
I’m a Strategic Marketer with Field Sales, Sales Enablement, Content Creation and, Classroom Teacher/Trainer skill-sets using Marketing to drive Sales/Growth.
As a Marketer, I’ve worked with Start-Ups, a Political Campaign, and a Digital Marketing Conference.
I’m certified in Inbound Marketing with classes in Marketing, Product Management, Product Marketing, SEO, SEM.
Before teaching, I was an Outside Sales and Marketing Rep. selling and marketing dental products to Dentists using consultative selling, trade show marketing, field marketing, and market research.
I publish Sales, Marketing & Social Media Today a blog covering industry events and trends.
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