Regardless of your digital discipline the convergence of so much media means that in order to be successful collaboration and knowledge share across departments, agencies, and clients is a must.

For many this will involve a fundamental shift in the way that you think about digital media and the way that you few OPPORTUNITY

In order to make the most out of every opportunity it is important to understand how digital marketers think and where potential conflicts occur….

At the end of the day it’s all about matching

• The right type of content
• To the right person
• At the right time
• At the right point (of the buying process)
• Via the right channel
• Via the right medium

Quality, insightful, relevant, engaging, unique, and sharable content

Here are two great visuals to help you on your way…

The Content Grid, by Eloqua, matches mediums to the purchase phases awareness, consideration, and close

The 2012 B2B Content Marketing Survey from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs published a popular study on B2B content marketing

B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends.

Some of the findings are below

• 9 out of 10 organizations market with content marketing.
• On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their goals.
• Marketers, on average, spend over a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing (see the full budget breakdowns in the report).

Some of the tactics are listed here

A massive thanks to 1500 people who shared this article across social networks and to the many people who commented.

I was truly blown away by the positive response.

The article is here : The Future of SEO: Change, Convergence and Collaboration

Many people have asked me what type of business will win or lose in the new environment that SEO will live in?.

Here is my response

For me, it’s simple, if SEO’s do not adapt to change and collaborate more closely with other channels then they will fail.

Whilst there are many, many great SEO people out there who have adapted to change and have taken a mature business approach to SEO, others still resist and are stubborn –  thinking that their only way to be heard is via conflict and a megaphone.

I interviewed a number of big and small brand SEO’s whilst researching my article – most told me that there are still many immature SEO’s out there that actually give SEO a bad name just like black hats can. These are the  ’know it all’s” with no big clients, brands, or indeed recommendations that engage in endless self and gimmick promotion in very small circles of influence.

For me, I know that SEO’s like a laugh – everyone does regardless of the discipline they are in – but if you REALLY WANT BIG BRAND BUSINESS then you have act more professional nowadays and expand into other circles of influence and drop a few gimmicks.

Sure, find a balance between fun and professional BUT ensure you maintain that balance

Google is on one hand forcing your hand with its changes but on the other hand – look at Google+, it’s showing you how to reach out to people (circles) outside of your current sphere of influence. Do it!

Below is an extract from my recent post on MadMarketingTV

The Common Communication Challenge

I still shudder and wake up with a hot sweat from my sleep sometimes when I see companies miss massive market opportunities to maximize their potential. I suppose that’s the sales and marketer in me. Constantly thinking, constantly reading, constantly listening, wanting to share, wanting to sell.

You see – my background is working in digital markets and as all digital marketers know – people do not consume media in silos. That means that organizations should not approach their marketing in silos. This is a common challenge STILL facing organizations in the US and the UK.

Below are a few ideas and tips on how we can address that:

Embed Marketing Across Your Organization

In today’s competitive B2B market, the alignment of sales and marketing has never been more crucial. What’s more, the alignment of marketing across all discipline in your organization is now a necessity in order to achieve maximum ROMI – return on marketing investment.

It’s not just about aligning marketing with various internal department, it’s about aligning strategies and sharing information across all external marketing channels ranging from social media to email. It’s about building a marketing organization that involves everyone from the front desk to the CEO. How we structure our marketing organizations and communicate internally in 2012 has a massive impact on how effectively we can communicate with our prospects and measure marketing success.

There are many ways that marketing can be further built into your organization and its success measured more effectively. Marketing has a vital role to play across all areas of your organization. In a forward thinking company marketing should be at the center of all activity across all areas of the organization.

For me, marketing should be driving strategy, leading sales and fostering a culture of team selling across all your business functions.

Your Marketing Strategy is Your Communication Strategy

It’s all about COMMUNICATION. It always has been. Utilize every marketing channel and technique you have in 2012 to reach your client in the most relevant way. Here is just one of my ideas;

C - Produce quality Content
O - Ensure this content is Optimized for delivery across all your marketing channels
M - Then choose the right Media channel mix that fits your audience
M - Make sure you plan and set success (hard or soft) Metrics
U - Reach out to Universal audiences – influencers and connectors
N - And engage with your Niche audiences through emerging channels such as social
I -  Interact with your audience in various circles (you have heard of Google+ right?)
C - Don’t be afraid to be Conversational
A - But always be Accountable
T - Build Trust and rapport with your audience
I - Inspire them
O – Show them new Opportunities
N – And win more New business

The success of your marketing depends upon how creatively you can communicate.

The lights were a little dim but, apart from that, I was really pleased on how it went as we discussed;

• Attitudes Towards Marketing in the UK
• Marketing DNA & Organization Attribution
• Content & Collaboration – How to Move from Silo Based Marketing Approaches

Pitching up against Marketing celebrities and authors was a tough call;

Tim Ash - author of Landing Page Optimization and chairperson of Conversion Conference

• Landing page myths dispelled.
• The “7 Deadly Sins” of landing page design.
• How to skyrocket your profits through optimal landing page design.

Mac McIntosh -  B2B lead generation and marketing automation expert

• Generate, nurture and qualify more B2B leads.
• Move more prospects forward in their buying process from awareness to inquiry to consideration and purchase.
• Drive more new business, sales and revenue.

Jeffrey Hazlett - Best Selling Author, “Celebrity CMO”

• Fresh ideas for engaging buyers with snaptags
• The value of “friendsourcing”
• Key tips for how B2B Marketers can use social media to engage with and learn from customers in 2012
• Why change is critical, but hard to do

Jim Burns - Founder and CEO of Avitage.

• What does it mean for marketers to “think like a publisher”?
• The importance of continuously acquiring and indexing content
• The role that thought leadership plays in content creation

Steve Gershik - CEO of 28Marketing, Marketing Automation Institute executive advisor and co-fonder of DemandCon, the demand generation conference

• How to score and sift inbound leads
• What to do with leads that are not sales ready
• Common metrics to measure success

Paul Gillin - Writer, Speaker and B2B Social Media Strategist

• Why the value-driven B2B sales process is a perfect match for social media-based engagement
• Which platforms work and which to avoid
• The six fundamental differences between B2B and B2C marketing

Joe Pulizz – Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of “Get Content, Get Customers”, discussed the importance of content marketing and using storytelling to attract new customers.

Adele Revella - President of the Buyer Persona Institute and author of The Buyer Persona Manifesto, discussed the importance of buyer personas and that information is necessary to create buyer personas.

Some great content – I hope you agree

Left and right brain marketing is nothing new but this handy infographic from Marketo really helps when you need to visual to match skill sets to marketing channels. It can really help you understand and get the most from your sales and marketing teams by looking at how left or right brain thinking influences;

TV Advertising Approach

Magazine and Print Approach

Online Advertising Approach

The next, logical step, given the scope and breadth of the online marketing would be a dig deep into left and right brain influence on;

SEO

PPC

Display

Email

Social Media

A blog post for the near future!

Below is an adaption from my Econsultancy post on ’11 things you won’t get for Christmas’

1. The death of SEO

I’ve seen how some of the UK’s biggest SEO companies have adapted to the challenges that, let’s face it, Google sets continuously.

Advances in technology, SEO tools and opportunities created by the end of Yahoo! Site Explorer have actually breathed new life into the SEO blood stream. In 2012, clients will see more value from great SEO but it will be a different type of SEO – a social type of SEO

Read – Google Instant and SEO

2. More keyword data from Google

The numbers seem to be rising; now an estimated 20% of keyword referral data is not reported. This is a problem when looking at site statistics and analytics. It hurts the US and will roll out to EMEA in the next month or so into 2012.

Google says this is a privacy issue and is down to retargeting of sites, plus secure search on SSL. However, if you use Google Adwords you can have the data. Google say it is for security. Bad news if you want to use data for site analytics if you’re not using Adwords services.

In 2012 we will really see if Google is moving to keep all user referral data away from SEOs, killing off rival retargeting companies and competitive ad networks at the same time.

Read - SSL and the experts view

3. A reduction in Google Market share

We all know Google’s not going to go away. Google’s expansion into other avenues such as display and social (with Google+) is a sure fire sign of its ability to flex muscles and make market decisions that have a very subtle, but detrimental, effect to what they consider low revenue stream channels.

Bing initially grabbed some market share, but recent figures suggest that Google grew to 65.6% of US market share with Yahoo! at 15.2% and Bing at 14.8%.

Read - 2012 trends that everyone should be aware of

4. The year of mobile

It is already upon us as the diffusion of mobile marketing innovation spreads at a rapid pace. The smartphone has enabled mobile marketing to move from concept to deployment.

According to Google, 79% of smartphone owners use their mobiles to assist with shopping and 74% make a purchase as a result. 2012 will see some of the coolest innovations in digital coming from the mobile technology sector.

Read - 2011 the year of mobile commerce

5. An end to digital media fragmentation

2011 was the year of fragmentation in digital marketing, from fragmentation of media in the search and display space through to the overcrowding and confusion in the social media world. 2012 will see further fragmentation in other sectors such as the SEO tool/vendor space and a revision of the specialist versus generalist debate.

Read - Digital fragmentation and specialists

6. An end to talent wars

Digital has always suffered from a lack of talent due to the immaturity of the market. However, as the market matures, people with diverse skill sets become more in demand.

As media and organisations integrate having just one core of specialism does not necessarily guarantee maximum return.

In some technical disciplines a degree of specialism is required. However, as search, social, mobile and display campaigns are often run in tandem, people really need to develop their skill sets in all areas of digital to remain top of the talent pool.

Read - The digital talent time bomb

7. An accurate measurement of social media

There have been some great advances in the measurement and attribution of social media in 2011. Huge strides are being taken to measure and show the value of interaction, particularly within Facebook.

Social media attribution places a value on any engagement using cluster based technologies that track ‘Likes’, purchases and such. From this you can attempt to measure both the viral nature of actions and conversions, while highlighting the key influencers.

However, social media by its very nature and its viral causality means it is difficult to truly measure its immense impact all of the time.

Read - Social media attribution

8. An end to cookie compliance issues

Last week the the ICO released its updated guidance for UK website owners. Although this is a comprehensive document that can be seen as a step in the right direction, it still does not address the underlining issue of educating users.

Until people truly understand the value of cookie tracking and remarketing, marketers will continue to face tough challenges in 2012.

Read - Cookie compliance

9. A truly integrated digital organisation

As marketers get their heads around multichannel attribution, 2012 will see a seismic shift in the integration of online marketing teams.

To do this organisations will need to adapt, restructure and manage talent across a number of different disciplines. The role of a digital marketing agency has changed and simply saying you have SEO, search, display, social media, email, and affiliate departments working with your offline and PR teams does not always mean you are good at integrating your market efforts.

In 2012 I hope clients can go to agencies and see SEO people sat with creative and social teams, PPC and display experts sat in ‘biddable media’ departments. Hot desks should be everywhere as people need to share knowledge and data across the whole organisation (on and offline). It’s human capital, almost a physical thing.

Read - Is the digital agency dead

10. The mega return for VCs

Digital has indeed held its own in the recession. 2011 saw a large number of acquisitions and a lot of consolidation, especially in the display area. VCs have seen this as a time to reinvest.

The key challenge for companies with funding is differentiation in crowded spaces. Mergers and acquisitions that consolidate digital channels may bear more fruit in the short term, and some VCs may have to be extra patient to see return on their investment.

Read - The Acqhire

The full Econsultancy article is here

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8562-11-things-santa-won-t-bring-you-this-year

Below is just a tiny snapshot of comments, quotes and changes you may have witnessed over the last year.

• The PPC v SEO debate is subsiding as PPC margins diminish
• The value of SEO becomes more measurable
• PPC compliments SEO now more than SEO complimenting PPC
• SEO is a large part of PR
• PR is a large part of SEO
• Affiliate marketing is no longer the standalone channel that is once was
• PPC, SEO and social media tactics are being used in tandem
• Facebook advertising is driving display growth
• Display marketing techniques are begin to use search marketing techniques with real-time bidding
• Display and search approaches are now working together rather than acting in discord
• Mobile has become to be a massive part of the search acquisition channel

• Video and rich media form part of PPC, SEO, social and mobile strategies
• ECRM and Social CRM refine and revitalize email marketing and marketing optimization techniques
• Cross channel attribution management and measurement has become essential to all marketers
• Technology has become the enabler of marketing creativity driven by people

All of the above points highlight that our online marketing environment is constantly shifting and changing in numerous guises.

Hence, to integrate and optimize marketing channels you need to integrate and optimize your people, talent, and processes.

Read more here on State of Search

How good was the quality of the SEO data that you used in the pitch?

All too often the analysis feeds back to where you went wrong regarding the mechanics of the pitch.

Was it the Powerpoint, the pitch team, pricing, the company offering, the company structure, a conflict of interest with client or a lack of testimonials?.

It is only natural to focus your attention on the business development process and there are thousands of blog posts out there which can tell you the ‘do’s and ‘don’ts of pitch management.

Here is an alternative way of looking at it;

http://www.stateofsearch.com/business-development-and-seo-data-winning-that-pitch/

I have always been a fan of attribution regardless of the media channel and social media is no different. Whilst I fully understand that social media is a very unique channel and it is impossible to measure all its value. Infact – if you tried to write about all the value that social media has to offer then you will have a very long blog post on your hands. There are many such posts out there and i dare not add to them.

In my Econsultancy post I tried to explain how social media fits in attribution type sequences and how ‘value and influence’ are becoming attribution like metrics.

The full artice

Social Media Friend or Foe?