Month: November 2014 (Page 2 of 2)

As we did last year we’ve posed some of our attendees’ most frequently asked questions to speakers who will be at this year’s Gilbane Conference. Today we’re spotlighting Jake DiMare, Digital Strategist at Agency Oasis. You can see all Speaker Spotlights from our upcoming conference as well as last year’s event.

Speaker Spotlight: Jake DiMare, Digital Strategist

Agency Oasis

Follow Jake: @jakedimare

Given that there are more smartphones than PCs on the planet and both will be important for the foreseeable future, how should organization’s content delivery priorities and technologies change? How is yours changing?

It sounds cliche, but I am constantly reminding anyone who will listen to take a ‘mobile first’ approach to every customer and employee facing digital property. All front-end experiences should be responsive and native apps may be an appropriate consideration whenever the customer experience will be enhanced by the ability to leverage deeper hardware features or if the overall strategy calls for an installed app on the user’s device.

Marketing is the most talked about discipline that needs to take on more responsibility for technology to be effective. What can other departments learn from the discussion around marketing technology and marketing technologists.

It’s a really interesting time for marketing because both marketers and technologists are making a concerted effort to better understand the depth of each other’s experience and strengths. The result of this confluence is organizations’ marketing goals are better served by the emergence of better new technology while marketers are growing able to leverage the powerful features and functionality becoming available to them. At the same time organizations have stopped ‘rushing in’ to the adoption of new technology and we are seeing overwhelming demand for strategic planning around digital transformation.

This new desire to think strategically before taking action is the biggest lesson the back office can learn from marketing when undergoing digital transformation. We all know new technology is ‘disruptive’ but I think there are still organizations who fail to understand this disruption doesn’t only apply to the hopeful effect transformation will have on the competitive environment.

Although sometimes used interchangeably ‘content strategy’ and ‘content marketing’ refer to very different though often connected disciplines. How and where should these activities be organized?

This is an interesting question that’s come up a few times in the last year. The clear difference between Content Marketing and Content Strategy is one is limited in scope and highly focused on marketing goals, while the other could be applied to any aspect of organizational content from annual reports to training manuals. The other important distinction is content marketers are content producers, curators, and amplifiers. Content Strategists are, as the title implies, strategists, planners, and enablers.

Does the ‘internet of things’ have an immediate or near-term impact on your organization’s information or collaboration infrastructure? How so?

Yes, we are thinking about the appropriate content strategy to ensure content is future friendly and available across devices on all our own digital properties, as well as when advising the clients we serve.

Catch up with Jake at the Gilbane Conference:

Track T: Re-imagining the Future: Technology and the Postdigital Experience

T3: Marketing Automation, Data, and Multichannel Marketing
Tuesday, December 3: 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

T5: Multichannel Content Management – How do you do it?
Wednesday, December 3: 9:40 a.m. – 10:40 a.m.

Register now to hear more from Fred and all of our speakers.

See our complete conference program for more details.

As we did last year we’ve posed some of our attendees’ most frequently asked questions to speakers who will be at this year’s Gilbane Conference. Today we’re spotlighting Rachel Metscher, Director of Content Marketing, ICF International. You can see all Speaker Spotlights from our upcoming conference as well as last year’s event.

Speaker Spotlight: Rachel D Metscher Director, Content Marketing

ICF Interactive; American Marketing Association

Follow Rachel: @rachelmetscher

Given that there are more smartphones than PCs on the planet and both will be important for the foreseeable future, how should organization’s content delivery priorities and technologies change? How is yours changing?

I think it is important to note how your content will look and feel on mobile. I know for my team, we are trying to find ways to repurpose content in visual forms; however,  it is influenced by the fact that our audience are accessing different types of information both at the office and at home.

Marketing is the most talked about discipline that needs to take on more responsibility for technology to be effective. What can other departments learn from the discussion around marketing technology and marketing technologists.

While technology is important, it is also important to remember that technology is powered by people. People will make or break the success if implementing technology. Getting everyone on board is key to adoption. If you don’t plan for adoption and use your technology project is dead in the water. Planning is the key to success.

Although sometimes used interchangeably ‘content strategy’ and ‘content marketing’ refer to very different though often connected disciplines. How and where should these activities be organized?

Every great campaign starts with a plan. Content marketing is no different. I try to advice our team to begin with who are we reaching and why should the care. With those two questions in mind we weave our content marketing initiatives into our editorial calendar to match up the content with the audience we want to reach.  Marketers face a real challenge of quantity versus quality in an age where everyone is a publisher. Again, in my mind, the purpose of content is to communicate with your prospects in a meaningful way. It’s about creating content that your customer needs, not what you want to produce. There is a huge difference. Organizations need to rethink their content creation in terms of value and relevancy. Without value and relevancy the content cannot deliver business results.

Catch up with Rachel at the Gilbane Conference:

Track C: Content, Marketing, and the Customer Experience

C12: Content Marketing Panel
Wednesday, December 3: 2:00 p.m. – 3:20 p.m.

Register now to hear more from Fred and all of our speakers.

See our complete conference program for more details.

We posed the questions below to our conference speakers and have invited them to post their answers here. If you would like to hear what a specific speaker (list) thinks about one of the questions leave a comment and we’ll make sure they see it.

If you are a speaker or moderator and would like to post your answers let us know.

Although sometimes used interchangeably ‘content strategy’ and ‘content marketing’ refer to very different though often connected disciplines. How and where should these activities be organized?

Marketing is the most talked about discipline that needs to take on more responsibility for technology to be effective. What can other departments learn from the discussion around marketing technology and marketing technologists?

Given that there are more smartphones than PCs on the planet and both will be important for the foreseeable future, how should organization’s content delivery priorities and technologies change? How is yours changing?

Does the ‘internet of things’ have an immediate or near-term impact on your organization’s information or collaboration infrastructure? How so?