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Dear <<First Name>>:
“CMOs are no longer operating in anything close to such an ideal world,” according to the Boston Consulting Group.
“Technology and consumer behavior and media habits have been and will remain in constant flux, disrupting the influence and effectiveness of long-established channels as new ones quickly emerge.”
The remedy is to be nimble, agile and flexible, but this requires a mindshift. It’s imperative that both marketing leaders and business leaders view the investments in communications as an investment or not a cost.
Why? Because we view and treat costs differently. This inhibits the very characteristics marketing needs to adapt in an evolving environment.
That leads us to the top story in this edition of the Monthly Scripts.
Yours in marketing and communications,
Frank Strong
PS: Looking for an agency partner with the content chops to build a sound strategy and execute? Give our services a try.
The Must-Read Articles
Every month I peruse hundreds of articles about marketing and public relations. Near the month’s end, I use analytics, experience and intuition to select and curate the most important stories for you.
Featured
PR is an investment in business not a cost. “Addressing these challenges starts with C-suite executives treating communication expenditures as a portfolio of strategic investments rather than as an expense line item on a financial statement.” (Boston Consulting Group)
Leadership and the CMO
Analyst firm says marketing must lead. “Marketing will be the creator of the organization’s future.” (Chief Marketer)
The high cost of low-tech leaders. “Companies with executive teams in which half or more of its members are digitally savvy have 48% higher revenue growth and higher valuations (share price to sales ratio) and 15% higher net margins than the rest of the companies studied.” (Sales & Marketing Management)
Marketing
Top marketing challenges. These are the challenges marketers say inhibit revenue targets: “organizational silos (30%) as being among their top 3 (from a list of 12), followed closely by measuring the full value of marketing (29%).” (Marketing Charts)
LinkedIn reveals most in-demand marketing skills. Instagram, content marketing and creative problem solving. (Social Media Today)
'Age of cynicism'. “71% of consumers tire of empty promises.” (Marketing Dive)
In business, we trust. Brands earn customer trust in business by protecting their data, offering a reasonable value, focusing on the quality of their product or service and delivering good customer experiences. (Sword and the Script)
Webinar benchmarks. “An average of 118 people enter an ON24 webinar every minute, and every four seconds someone is asking a question.” (Sword and the Script)
B2B Marketing
The decision-makers. “86% of B2B content consumption is done by others outside the C-Suite.” (Marketing Charts)
Humanless. “Over 70% of B2B decision makers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service.” (HBR)
More human. “...one unexpected side-effect of the pandemic has been the deepening of the human connection in B2B relationships: ‘Over the past year, there’s been a huge opportunity to move beyond the usual business conversations and transactional discussions.’” (The Drum)
Optimism. “Seventy-five percent of the survey respondents said they were optimistic about the business outlook for their organization, 69% said they were optimistic about the economic outlook for their industry and 53% said they were optimistic about the economic outlook within their country or region.” (Customer Think)
Fictional writing in business? About 2/3rds of business marketing writers -- many from B2B -- do not make calls to customers in developing content. (Sword and the Script)
Public Relations
PR leading creative. “Almost 60% of PR firms report that they have been designated as lead creative agency by clients according to the seventh edition of the Creativity in PR study” (PRovoke)
Content Marketing
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast. “Relevance and speed = king and queen of content experience” (Marketing Profs)
Content distribution. Google is shutting Feedburner-emails; viable FeedBurner alternatives to include FeedBlitz, follow.it, MailChimp and ConvertKit. (Sword and the Script)
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Email Marketing
The science of newsletters. Here’s a breakdown of how the news organization Axios has grown it’s email newsletters. (Arik Hanson)
Creativity
Aligning marketing and creative. “Creatives can only do more with less for so long, and then something has to change. ” (Jeff Bullas’ Blog) [disclosure: client]
SEO & SEM
Quality takes time. “...it can take Google ‘several months’ to understand quality changes that are made to a site.” (SEO Roundtable)
Social Media
Complaint amplification. Responding to complaints also lowers the effectiveness of a firm’s other tweets (those not associated with complaints). (AMA Marketing News)
A tree falls in the woods. “most Instagram followers won’t see your posts anyway because 'most people look at less than half of their Feed.'” (The Verge)
Marketing & PR Technology
Moz acquired by iContact. “SEO software startup Moz has been acquired by email marketing company iContact, a subsidiary of J2 Global. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.” (GeekWire)
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Frank Strong, MA, MBA
Founder & President
Sword and the Script Media, LLC
www.swordandthescript.com
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