Marketing

The Marketing Technology Landscape

May 13, 2013 Frank Gilbane
Content technology, Digital experience, Marketing, Marketing technology
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It’s no secret that marketing continues to increase spending on technology, which raises the question of which technologies they are spending on. The answer is “lots” – the marketing technology landscape has become much larger, more varied, and more complex. One sign is the evolution of some web content management systems to solutions for web experience management, web engagement management, digital experience management, etc., which involves integrating with marketing automation, predictive analytics, social and many other marketing tools and back end systems.

Not all this is new. In 1999 more advanced businesses were already integrating e-commerce, web analytics, personalization, and marketing automation, but it was much harder then and there were far fewer options. I hesitate to say it is easier now, but it is in many ways – the technology is much better and we have much more experience with it. What is certainly not easier is navigating the technology landscape which is extremely dynamic, and contains categories with too many vendors. Both CMOs and CIOs need a marketing technologist function in some form, and would certainly benefit from input from analysts, and a <plug> vendor and analyst neutral conference </plug>. The illustration below may be scary, but should be very useful. Thanks to Scott Brinker for first pointing this landscape out. Scott also has his own similar graphic.

Marketing Technology Landscape

 

 

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The Gilbane Conference is growing!

May 5, 2013 Frank Gilbane
Content Management - CMS, Content marketing, Content technology, Gilbane Conference, Marketing, Web Content Management - WCM
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Gilbane Conference 2013 banner

 

 

 

Some of you may have heard there is some exciting news with regard to The Gilbane Conference.

We have entered into a partnership with Information Today, Inc. to organize and manage future conferences in this 12-year-old series. As you may know, Information Today is the publisher of KMWorld and EContent magazines along with a host of other publications and websites. Information Today also organizes the KMWorld and Enterprise Search Summit conferences, so they are on familiar ground with respect to web content management, content marketing, social media, and many other related technologies.

Information Today also publishes CRM magazine and produces the CRM Evolution conference and exhibition, which will enable us to reach out to marketers and other customer-focused professionals.

We believe the synergies between The Gilbane Conference and Information Today will assist us in producing even better and more innovative conferences in the years to come.

The resources of a larger enterprise and the personal care and attention you’ve come to know at The Gilbane Conference are what you can expect this fall.

We will be announcing the Boston venue and dates in the next week or two and will be posting additional details very soon. If you are not already on our mailing list for advance information you can signup using the quick form below.

Our theme this year is Content and the Digital Experience: Manage, Measure, Mobilize, Monetize, and we’ll be continuing our vendor and analyst neutral coverage of content, marketing, and digital experience technologies for enhancing both customer and employee engagement and collaboration.

We look forward to seeing you in Boston this fall.

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We would love to hear more about your interests. You can tell us more by using our more complete form. Or send us a message.

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Customer experiences, communications, and analytics

January 30, 2013 Frank Gilbane
Analytics, Big data, Customer Engagement, Gilbane Boston 2012, Marketing
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three epicenters of innovation in modern marketing
I recently discovered Scott Brinker’s Chief Marketing Technologist blog and recommend it as a useful resource for marketers. The Venn diagram above is from a recent post, 3 epicenters of innovation in modern marketing. It was the Venn diagram that first grabbed my attention because I love Venn diagrams as a communication tool, it reminded me of another Venn diagram well-received at the recent Gilbane Conference, and most of the conference discussions map to someplace in the illustration.

As good as the graphic is on its own, you should read Scott’s post and see what he has to say about the customer experience “revolution”.

Lest you think Scott is a little too blithe in his acceptance of the role of big data, see his The big data bubble in marketing — but a bigger future, where the first half of the (fairly long) post talks about all the hype around big data. But you should read the full post because he is right on target in describing the role of big data in marketing innovation, and in his conclusion that data-driven organizations will need to make use of big data though these data-driven and data-savvy organizations will take some time to build.

So don’t let current real or perceived hype about the role of big data in marketing lead you to discount its importance – it’s a matter of when, not if. “When” is not easy to predict, but will certainly be different depending on an organizations’ resources and ability to deal with complexity, and organizational and infrastructure changes.

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Social Media: Creating a Voice and Personality for Your Brand

October 26, 2012 Clea
brand management, Content marketing, Marketing, Social Computing, social media
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Gilbane Conference Workshop: Social Media: Creating a Voice and Personality for Your Brand

Instructor: AJ Gerritson, Founding Partner & Social Media Strategist, 451 Marketing
November 27th, 2012 at the InterContinental Boston Waterfront

For consumers, brand interaction on social media platforms is no longer the exception, it’s the expectation. In order to stay relevant, companies must develop digital tactics that boost the brand’s overall communications strategies and marketing campaigns. When utilized effectively, social media marketing enhances your brand’s voice and personality, making you more approachable and transparent to your target audience. But, how can your company devise a social media strategy that entices audiences and encourages interaction? Which platforms make sense for your brand? How can you monitor the effectiveness of a social media campaign?

In this interactive session, 451 Marketing founding Partner and Social Media Strategist, AJ Gerritson, will outline the major social media platforms, strategic approaches, best practices, time commitment, and measurement tools and techniques necessary as part of an effective social media strategy. Using industry statistics and case studies, AJ will teach attendees how to structure a successful social media strategy that can be easily integrated into your brand’s existing communications campaigns.

See the full pre-conference workshop schedule at Gilbane Boston, then Register.
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Do Google Yourself – Preserving and Protecting your Companies Online Reputation

August 15, 2012 mstevens
Content Management - CMS, Facebook, Gilbane Conference Posts, Information Technology News, Marketing, social media, Social networks
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With The Gilbane Conference just a few short months away, I’ve been thinking a lot about the evolution of themes and topics covered over the past few years. This year we are pleased to have a session lead by Russ Edelman and Toby Bell on Two Key Management Concerns About Social Media :ROI and Reputation Management. This is an increasingly important subject especially when it comes to the enormous impact online reputation has not just on an individual but a company as well.

15 Minutes. 15 Minutes is all it takes for an angry customer to chip away at the integrity of your businesses’ reputation by casting an instant smear campaign across all of your social networks. In some cases that 15 minutes is a generous figure as today’s internet users are more savvy than ever ,especially when motivated by what they deem to be an unfair experience.

Kasio Martin, a self proclaimed internet professional and blogger recently related in one of her entries how a series of bad experiences with local businesses and the subsequent online smear campaigns she launched against them received very different responses, prompting both positive reactions and further negative behavior from her.

“After the bad transaction I googled the business again. I left negative reviews on Insider Pages, City Search, Yahoo, Google Pages and Yellow Pages. These review sites outranked the businesses own Facebook Page in Google. The next time someone googles that business they will find my review 5 times before they get any other information about the company. This took me about 15 minutes to accomplish.”

The part of this scenario that strikes me the most is not just the short amount of time it took this customer to cause a major headache for the offending business, but also that the popularity of these sites she targeted make them the first picks in online search results. The company’s lack of response to her complaints showed even less integrity as it showed they either had a poor social media strategy or none at all. As to the effect they had on the business itself there is no mention but one can imagine that it served as a major discouragement towards attracting new customers.

Ms. Martin recounts an additional story in which her online complaints against a large chain restaurant were not only heard but resolved before the day was through:

“Because the restaurant was a large corporate chain, I didn’t really expect anything to come of it. But I received an email response within the hour. They informed me that they were getting that store on the phone and fixing this immediately. . . Within only a couple of hours they responded to me on Twitter and offered to help. . . Before the end of the workday they had resolved the issue and I didn’t have a bad thing left to say on any channel.”

While the Ms. Martin’s of the world may scare the faint of heart away from attempting to grow their business through social media, both scenarios show that regardless of whether or not you have made pages on these sites, that a Social Reputation is being made for your company whether or not you’re the one facilitating it.

Social Reputation can not be ignored, but it can be preserved and even strengthened through early intervention and constant diligence.

Here are a few Do’s and Don’ts for getting you started:

  • Do Google yourself: This is simply the easiest way to find what’s being said about your company around the entire internet. For faster results try signing up for Google alerts for your company.
  • Do check your @mentions on Twitter and Wall on Facebook: See what’s being said about you both good and bad in seconds. This is a great public forum to address questions, comments and complaints from your customers.
  • Don’t ignore negative online comments: While the easiest solution to a jaded customer review may be to delete it or simply ignore it, this sends an undeniable message to others that either you don’t care enough to answer the complaint or that you’re not on top of your online presence at all.
  • Don’t let third party sites and blogs outrank your own in search results: If third party pages such as yelp, hub pages, and Wikipedia are the first returns when someone searches for your company then your customers/potential customers will receive biased opinions before they even make it to your own site. Stay active on all of your websites and social media outlets and you’ll be sure to have your companies mission and services heard first and foremost.

And finally,

Don’t let negative opinions get in the way of your business’s goals: There will always be critics of the work you do and the worst thing you can do is let it get in the way of the doing a good job. Stay true to your companies mission and purpose and ultimately that work will speak for itself, hopefully in the form of good reviews for a positive Social Reputation.

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For more information on the Gilbane Conference please visit our website @:

http://gilbaneboston.com/12/index.html

To read more about Russ Edelman and Toby Bell’s Session at Gilbane Boston you can find out more @:

http://gilbaneboston.com/12/conference_program.html#c4

http://gilbaneboston.com/12/speakers.html

 

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Welcome Social Media Marketing Manager Mary Stevens!

July 31, 2012 Frank Gilbane
Content Management - CMS, Gilbane Boston 2012, Gilbane Conference Posts, Information Technology News, Marketing, social media, Social networks
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We are very pleased to welcome Mary Stevens to the Gilbane Conference team as Social Media Marketing Manager. Mary is already active on our social channels and someone you’ll be hearing a lot from as conference activity ramps up.

In addition to keeping our social channels updated on conference and related activity Mary is a resource for conference attendees, sponsors, speakers, fans, who follow or want to engage and network with the Gilbane conference community. She’ll be updating you more specifically on what that means to you, but in general, she’ll be facilitating communication, conversations, and networking among all stakeholders. For example, we’ll be publishing speaker social media links to help attendees learn more about our speakers in advance of the event.

Mary can be reached via email; she can be found on our Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn pages and groups (buttons below); you can follow her posts on this blog (none yet!); and you can DM her at @gilbane or @gilbaneboston.

Follow the Gilbane Conference!

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What technologies is marketing spending on?

July 18, 2012 Frank Gilbane
Content Management - CMS, Gilbane Boston 2011, Gilbane Boston 2012, Information Technology News, Marketing
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Spencer Ante reports in today’s Wall Street Journal that As Economy Cools, IBM Furthers Focus on Marketers. The title and the short article are focused on IBM’s well-known emphasis on marketers, but the article is of more general interest in driving home the extent of one trend in corporate technology spending – the growth of marketing spending on technology – and provoking a number of questions about what it means. At only 600 or so words the article may be useful for some of you to forward to others in your organization that would benefit by thinking more about the effects of this trend.

The article quotes some recent Gartner research that marketing budgets are roughly 3 times IT budgets as a percentage of revenue, and grew between 2011 and 2012 while IT budgets shrank. Current marketing and IT budgets are both expected to increase, but with marketing budgets increasing at twice the rate of IT budgets – 9.0% vs 4.7%. Gartner has also predicted CMOs will have more control over technology spending than CIOs by 2017. Also, ”In total, Gartner says companies spent up to $25 billion worldwide on marketing software last year, up from about $20 billion the previous year. Overall corporate software expenditures totaled $115 billion…”. These are impressive numbers, and our own experience based on discussions with our conference attendees, consulting clients, and other analysts and investors, suggests a broad consensus with the trend. Certainly IBM is big believer.

But the next level of detail is even more important for technology vendors and all CMOs who want to benchmark their competitors spending and strategies – for example, what are CMOs spending money on? what should they be spending on” and how do they organize their infrastructure to learn about, purchase, and manage new marketing technologies, and work with IT?

A vocal segment of the technology press suggest that the future of marketing is all about “social”. A favorite prediction of analysts is that the “Web is dead” and the future is all about mobile. Savvy marketers are beyond such oversimplifications. As important as social and mobile are, I think it is safe to say they are still a small percentage of the $25 billion Gartner number. I would love to be enlightened by anyone who has more details on what the percentage is, and what technology categories others think will benefit most from the increase in marketing spending.

Why is this?

Part of the reason are expensive legacy systems and infrastructures. But a bigger reason is that everyone (not just marketing) is learning. Most of the new technologies have some learning curve, but are not rocket science. The really steep curve is learning how to integrate and utilize new technologies, and especially data they provide, effectively – and that is something we all: technologists, marketers, analysts, will be learning about for awhile.

Learn more at Gilbane Boston.

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Follow the Gilbane Conference Facebook page

July 12, 2012 Clea
Admin, Content Management - CMS, Facebook, Gilbane Boston 2012, Gilbane Conference Posts, Information Technology News, Marketing, social media, Social networks
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We have had a Facebook page for a couple of years but it has suffered from neglect. No longer. We have updated the page and have a new secret resource who will be keeping the Gilbane Conference Facebook page active and useful for all those who prefer to stay informed about our conferences via Facebook. The link is http://www.facebook.com/Gilbane.Conferences.

Gilbane Conferences

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Gilbane Boston workshop details posted

July 2, 2012 Clea
content management, Content Management - CMS, Digital publishing, Gilbane Boston 2012, Information Technology News, Marketing, Mobile, Semantic Technology, Social software, Tablets, WCM
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The best way to start the Gilbane conference is by attending one or two of the pre-conference workshops offered on Tuesday, November 27, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm:

  • Insider’s Guide to Selecting WCM Technology – Tony Byrne & Irina Guseva, Real Story Group
  • Implementing Systems of Engagement: Making it Work with the Team That Will Make it Work – Scott Liewehr & Rob Rose, Digital Clarity Group
  • So You Want to Build a Mobile Content App? – Jonny Kaldor, Kaldor Group (creators of Pugpig)
  • Content Migrations: A Field Guide – Deane Barker, Blend Interactive & David Hobbs, David Hobbs Consulting
  • Social Media: Creating a Voice & Personality for Your Brand – AJ Gerritson, 451 Marketing
  • Text Analytics for Semantic Applications – Tom Reamy, KAPS Group

See the schedule and full descriptions of the in-depth pre-conference workshops.

Please save the date and check http://gilbaneboston.com for further information about the main conference schedule & conference program as they become available.

New Location!
Intercontinental Boston Waterfront Hotel
510 Atlantic Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02210

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Welcome Digital Clarity Group

June 12, 2012 Frank Gilbane
CMS, content management, Content Management - CMS, Gilbane Boston 2012, Information Technology News, Marketing, WCM
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As many of you may know, Scott Liewehr has been involved with Gilbane activities for years and was our lead consultant and analyst for web content management, and a contributor to our conference program, a role he will continue again this year as a chair of the Customer and Engagement track. Scott has been putting together a team to launch a new analyst firm over the last few months, and the not-so-secret effort is just now officially launched, but already busy, as the Digital Clarity Group (DCG).

Given Scott’s experience and energy level, I was gratified and a little surprised how easy it was to talk him into joining the Gilbane Group. I was gratified and not at all surprised to find he was great to work with and immediately in high demand among our customers. With the seriously impressive group of colleagues Scott has assembled Digital Clarity Group is an organization you will be hearing a lot more from and about. Congratulations and best of luck to all on the team. Below is today’s press release introducing the team and a little about their vision.

(Disclosure: In case you hadn’t noticed, DCG is an analyst sponsor of Gilbane Boston - of course!)

DCG Press Release:

Digital Clarity Group Identifies Top Trends For The Digital Enterprise

NEW YORK, June 12, 2012 – Engagement and control are two words driving conversations across the enterprise in 2012 and beyond. As the CIO grapples for technology governance, the CMO struggles to keep up with the chaotic changes in marketing.  Both are challenged with leveraging technology to engage, collaborate, socialize, and measure the more empowered consumer and the ever-more virtual workforce.  To meet this challenge – some clarity is needed.

Digital Clarity Group (DCG), a new research-driven advisory firm focused on helping leaders navigate the digital transformation, is celebrating its launch today by identifying several seismic trends affecting the enterprise.

Technology industry veteran Scott Liewehr is President and Principal Analyst of DCG and has assembled an extraordinary “all-star team” of experts to focus on working with business leaders on all aspects of digital transformation.  This includes advising technology vendors on how to approach this market, as well as the buyers on how to better navigate the changes. As Scott stated; “Consumers and knowledge workers alike are grabbing control of the reigns and not letting go. The combination of the social web, open standards, the cloud, and ubiquitous mobility to name just a few, represent a field of dreams for empowered audiences to both collaborate and self-satisfy. For organizations, these represent an opportunity to transform, innovate, engage and develop loyal customers and employees like never before.”

The transformation that DCG addresses is the overlap of where Innovative Change meets the Social Enterprise and Consumer Engagement, and is facilitated with Adaptive Technology.  And as part of the inaugural launch of DCG’s practice, the team has identified several seismic trends impacting leaders across these four themes.

Former Forrester Analyst, and industry veteran Tim Walters is a Partner and Principal Analyst in the new venture and also serves as Director of Research. Tim most recently led Forrester’s research on intranets/employee portals and the emerging next-generation Information Workplace.  His top transformational trend stresses a focus on an enterprise’s need for speed as opposed to “backbone technology”. “Today’s business environment is what the US military calls VUCA – Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous,” said Tim. “The five-year plan is as archaic in this context as a flintlock rifle on a modern battlefield.  Agility, flexibility, and rapid response will define the winners of the next decade.  Tactics are the new strategy, and ‘business as usual’ is a terminal disease.”

Cathy McKnight is also a Partner and Principal Analyst with DCG, and comes from senior and director level consulting/advisor roles with IBM, Prescient Digital Media, and Aon Hewitt.  She identified employee engagement and empowerment as one of the largest trends impacting the enterprise.   As Cathy said, “To satisfy consumers’ growing demand for comprehensive systems of engagement companies have to completely rethink their approach to everything; operations, IT, sales, customer service, employee empowerment – everything. Success will require a long-term commitment, a full company transformation, and the willingness to embrace the disruption rather than avoid it. ‘That’s not how we do things here’ will appear on the tombstones of the hesitant and half-hearted.”

As a Partner and head of Client Services for DCG, Elise Segar brings more than 15 years of industry expertise to bear directing sales strategy with iFridge & Company, as well as RedDot and, subsequently, OpenText.  As one of the most important trends in the Digital Enterprise, Elise identified the extraordinary importance of collaboration between sales and marketing teams; balancing technology, process – and patience.  As Elise said, “today’s sales and marketing teams are armed with more technology in their quiver than ever imaginable.  Marketing teams can target and tailor messaging, and sales can track and understand relevance of message at any stage in the funnel.  But balancing the tools and the process – and allowing the right amount of adaptability for these teams to understand this context is what is critical.”

Robert Rose is a Contributing Senior Analyst with DCG and comes with a deep background and experience in web content management technology, marketing, and enterprise marketing strategy.  He’s working with DCG to help lead the Web Engagement and Experience Management research and advisory themes. The biggest trend he identified is the need for CMO’s to embrace the chaotic nature of the new consumer engagement model – and to approach technology as one would media, channels or even brand messaging.  “Technology should only be scaled where it helps to drive agility and flexibility to react more quickly,” said Robert. “Adaptability will be the new competitive advantage in marketing. The enterprise’s ability to not only be agile – but its capacity to embrace chaos and change will be critical to marketing success.”

Digital Clarity Group Research themes

Digital Clarity Group’s mission is to provide research-driven, actionable advice to business leaders who are working through the strategic application of adaptive technology.  This may come as a focus to engage employees more deeply or enable a more social and collaborative workspace – or as a way to create new digital experiences for customers and engage them more holistically.  Or, it may come as a way to use measurement techniques to draw insight into any of those areas.   In short, today’s business leader is challenged with creating innovative new strategies for navigating digital transformations.  DCG is there to provide the clearest, most pragmatic, and actionable advice to make that effort successful.

As part of its launch and the identification of these five trends, DCG invites you to a virtual “open house” for food, drink and conversation about the enterprise’s digital transformation.   Join the DCG team in New York City on June 25th at the W Hotel In Times Square.  At 2:00 PM the team plans a more formal conversation on DCG’s plans for research, and at 5:00 join the team for casual cocktails and celebration of the DCG launch.  Space will be limited so please contact DCG to reserve your place.

Contact Information

Elise Segar
Director Client Services
info@digitalclaritygroup.com
www.digitalclaritygroup.com

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