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IDG Research Survey Exposes Pent-Up Demand For Consumable Big Data To Make It Rapidly Actionable

Manual, time-consuming data aggregation is a fact of life for 81 percent of respondents; Most report only lukewarm success, yet Big Data projects are poised to double in 12 months

News release

PALO ALTO, Calif– Organizations can’t gather business insights from Big Data fast enough. Kapow Software, a leading Big Data solution provider, today announced findings from a survey conducted in partnership with IDG Research Services. The results, which represent over 200 business and IT leaders at large organizations, reveal there’s a perception that Big Data projects require significant time and resources to deliver value and a new enterprise trend emerging: the consumerization of Big Data so workers can act on key insights more quickly.

More than 85 percent of business and IT leaders agree that Big Data offers substantial value in its ability to make more informed business decisions and foster a data-driven organization. Top-ranking business outcomes include staying ahead of market trends, competitive advantage, improved customer satisfaction, increased employee productivity and improved information security or compliance.

Despite the perceived business benefits, more than half of respondents (52 percent) rate Big Data project success so far as lukewarm (somewhat successful), and only 23 percent of them perceive Big Data projects to be a success. The inability to automate structured and unstructured data quickly and effectively is among the biggest challenges with 60 percent of respondents noting that Big Data projects typically take at least 18 months to complete. More than half say these projects typically require consultants and other third-party experts to complete.

For the full release click here

23 Tweetable Stats on Email Marketing Tactics and Trends

B2C

Email Still Isn’t Dead!

twitterbirdhash cdl life resized 600 23 Tweetable Stats on Email Marketing Tactics and TrendsThere were 1.3 billion Google search results for the phrase “email is dead” when I sat down to write this. Even though some may think that the era of connecting with consumers via their inbox is over, the numbers tell a very different story. Email is actually better than it’s ever been before, and companies who take advantage of the growing need for mobile-optimization and the very latest stats on best practices could see an ROI that makes interruption marketers want to cry.

As the public’s adoption of mobile technology and the Internet continues to grow, email marketing has proven to be one of the most rapidly changing fields within the arena of marketing. If you needed any more evidence that marketing is really a game for the most nimble, take the following stats to heart:

 Read more…

Software Marketers Lead Peers in Content Marketing

Content Marketing Inst./IDG

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) surveyed more than 1,400 business-to-business marketers in the United States and Canada last year.   CMI found that the software industry is strongly committed to content marketing with 99% using some form of it (social, webinars/webcasts, videos, case studies, and white papers, etc.).  On average, software marketers spend 29% of their total budget on content marketing and a majority expect that percentage to increase in 2012-13.

The research report–sponsored by IDG Consumer & SMB, IDG Enterprise, IDG Global Solutions, and IDG TechNetwork—is available now…

Download the report now

Marketing 2013: No Room for Mad Men

IDG Connect

Over the next two weeks, IDG Connect is serializing commentary from industry experts on marketing 2013 predictions.  We feature expert opinion on the key trends in 2013, and regional outlooks on what 2013 holds for marketing around the world.

Marketers have been trying to understand consumer behavior and motivations since the dawn of advertising and propaganda.  Technology – from the earliest form of radio broadcasts and then TV – has had a deep impact on how marketing campaigns are strategized and executed.  Today’s marketers have resources at their fingertips to get deep consumer insights based on their online and mobile behavior – capabilities that Don Draper and his team would do anything to get their hands on.

Each year, technology gets more precise at targeting the most interested consumers with the highest purchase intents.  What trends will we see in 2013?

Mobile ads will grow
I might as well start the predictions off with the most obvious one.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard that mobile advertising is growing at an exponential rate.  That’s because it works, and it works because the technology to enable it keeps getting more precise.  As companies are able to discern more granular information about mobile users’ behaviors (device, location, etc.) the success of mobile ads will grow.

Reliance on first-party cookies
In the desktop world, marketers had things figured out.  By attaching their cookies to popular sites such as NYTimes.com, they could track a user’s behavior, learn more about them and target ads specific to their behaviors.  But iOS doesn’t allow third-party cookies, and neither does Android (it’s possible to get around this on Android, but it’s not reliable).  But now brands realize the value of mobile ads, and that means they’re ready to do something about it.

Continue reading… 

IDC Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 6% in 2012, Despite Economic Uncertainty

IDC PMS4colorversion  300x99 IDC Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 6% in 2012, Despite Economic Uncertainty
IDC Press Release

9/10/12

Strong performance in software, storage, enterprise network and mobile device markets offset weaker trends

FRAMINGHAM, MA – IDC announced the availability of new research, Worldwide Black Book Query Tool, Version 2, 2012 (Document # 236347), that shows Worldwide IT spending remains on course to grow 6% this year in constant currency, only slightly down on last year’s pace of 7% growth, in spite of continuing macroeconomic uncertainty. Strong performance in software, storage, enterprise network and mobile device markets has offset weaker trends in PCs, servers, peripherals and telecom provider equipment. However, the strength of the US dollar in the first half of 2012 means that IT spending in dollar terms is on course for growth of just 4% this year, a significant downturn for US-based tech vendors from the US dollar growth rate of 10.5% in 2011. Including telecom services, total ICT spending will increase by 5% this year in constant currency to $3.6 trillion (growth of 2.5% in US dollars).

For the full release click here

3 Digital Marketing Trends To Watch in 2012 and Beyond

B2C

Chances are on any given workday, marketers take advantage of a social feature, channel, tactic, or strategy that didn’t exist 12 months ago. An accelerated rate of change has always been a hallmark of social marketing, and with this in mind, eMarketer published a study in this area, Top Digital Trends for 2012. It explores digital marketing trends in 2012 and beyond, and predicts dramatic industry changes as both the hardware and software platforms of choice shift in favor of mobile devices, social media sites, and dynamic content. I was particularly struck by three key ideas:

1.         Companies are no longer satisfied with standard social media success metrics

2.         Magnetic content allows companies to succeed in the social and digital spaces

3.         2012 will see a dramatic increase in Smartphone and tablet users, as well as an increase in online video consumption

Read more… 

 

B2B Email Marketing Best-Practices and Trends

Marketing Profs

Email is still an invaluable asset to marketers; however, only 30% of B2B marketers are using email marketing as their primary lead generation tactic, according to a study by Pardot. Rather, in today’s marketing environment, email appears to be more effective for nurturing prospects than lead generation, the study reports. In addition, most (65%) B2B companies are devoting less than 25% of their marketing budgets to email marketing, 27% are allocating 26-50% of their budgets to email, and only 9% are allocating more than 50% of their budgets to email efforts:
http://bit.ly/O5gkHV

Update on Tech Market Intelligence: The Role; Budgets; and Trends

IDC PMS4colorversion  300x99 Update on Tech Market Intelligence: The Role; Budgets; and Trends

As with almost all functions within a large and complex marketing organization, the Market Intelligence (MI) organization is under pressure to transform. In our recent discussions with top MI executives, three transformational trends stand out as “guidance” for this profession.

1. Transform the MI organizational model and team to be more proactive. MI staffs tend to be spread thin and rarely have the bandwidth to move out of “response” mode. IDC believes that the MI function needs to increase the self-service capability for the majority of its internal clients. Better information portals, and the tools and training to access these resources are key to this effort. In doing so, MI should then be able to place more active attention to the second guidance area which is:

Continue reading… 

B2B Marketing Trends: A First Glimpse into Content Curation Habits and Activity

CommPro

Last year my company, HiveFire Inc., shared the results from our B2B Marketing Trends survey and found that 82 percent of marketers are incorporating content curation – the process of finding, organizing, and sharing online content – as part of their overall content marketing strategy. (Click through to this recent post titled “Content May Be King” for more content curation definitions and trends.) The fact that this represents a notable increase (up from 48 percent) from the Content Curation Adoption survey that we issued earlier that year sent a strong message that curation is gaining favor amongst marketers.

Continue reading… 

The Top-10 B2B Marketing Trends for 2011

1/24/11

Happy New Year! It is January and time again for the obligatory 2011 predictions. Many marketing experts have strong opinions on what they think will happen in 2011.

Instead of coming up with what I think is going to change in the B2B marketing world in 2011, I decided to ask you and tap into the combined wisdom of over 17,000 marketing professionals in the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn. I asked you to rank the marketing areas you think will become more important in 2011.

Here are the key trends that B2B marketing professionals think are shaping B2B marketing in 2011.

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