Advertising on TikTok: A Marketer's Guide
Ocean Spray was a company that had been around for some 90 years. It knew its market. It knew its product. Building a viral smash success on a fresh platform seemed like a distant dream. Yet, thanks to TikTok, that’s exactly what happened. It all began when an Idaho potato farmer named Nathan Apodaca posted a video of himself on a skateboard, zooming along a highway, with Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” blaring in the background. As if this wasn’t an unusual enough setting, he was drinking a big bottle of Ocean Spray cranberry juice at the same time. The video took off like gangbusters. Ocean Spray gained some 15 billion media impressions, enough to make a noticeable improvement in the company’s overall sales for the quarter. It’s proof that, if you haven’t already engaged with TikTok marketing, you’re missing one of the biggest opportunities since the advent of social media. But a TikTok marketing strategy still requires forethought, learning from the best examples, and a strategic approach. That’s especially true if you want to maximize your chances of achieving viral success. How is TikTok changing marketing? For the unfamiliar, TikTok is a social media app built on short-form videos, often with viral soundbites and song selections playing in the background. It’s not only trendy but capable of building its own trends — many of which can look downright strange if you haven’t used the app yourself. TikTok is changing marketing due to a few factors. First, its reach is nearly unprecedented. It’s reached over 2 billion downloads, according to Forbes. In the U.S. alone, it has over 100 million active users every single month. But it’s more than raw totals. The short-video format has connected with the smartphone culture in a novel way. Consider all that TikTok has achieved: Opening “viral” success to the masses: YouTube, Vine, and the Internet as a whole made viral videos famous. Viral videos, in turn, made mass appeal available to anyone who could put together a remarkable video. TikTok, it seems, has achieved viral engagement at scale. It’s never been easier to create a video that “blows up.” TikTok’s algorithms give even small-following users the ability to hit widespread success if their video earns high engagement rates in the early goings. This means that while mega-influencers are highly successful, TikTok success is just as wide open to micro-influencers. Putting trends into hyperdrive: We’re all familiar with social media trends. The ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge” in 2014 raised $114 million for ALS services, reaching almost every celebrity with a social media account. TikTok’s unique approach to promoting videos makes it possible to almost engineer smaller trends at will. Don’t worry — below, we’ll tackle some examples of how brands have achieved this. Creating a direct conduit to a younger audience: Millennials were the first generation growing into maturity with smartphones. But they’re getting older. TikTok is largely Gen Z-driven. Over half of the population of Gen Z is on the platform, as opposed to 36% of millennials. As Gen Z grows in influence and purchasing power, TikTok is becoming the go-to medium for reaching them. These are just three points demonstrating how TikTok is changing marketing. But the best way to figure that out is to experience a viral hit yourself. After all, TikTok isn’t just about silly and fun trends and enjoying yourself. If you do it right, you can use TikTok for business marketing, just like the world’s top brands. Is TikTok good for marketing? If you’re coming from a traditional marketing mindset, the average TikTok marketing campaign might look strange at first. Guacamole dances? Dressing up in costumes to order burritos? Again, more on that later. But these trends only reflect the shifting demographics of social media engagement. Average engagement rates with micro-influencers on TikTok, for example, outpace those on YouTube at a rate of 18% to 1.63%. TikTok’s unpolished, short-form videos tend to create the feeling of connection between influencers and followers. This is particularly true with the prevalence of behind-the-scenes videos. Many top YouTubers put together highly polished, edited videos that skew closer to traditional television. TikTok feels more informal. For this reason, even YouTube has tried to cash in on the short-form video trend, allowing its own users to post small, bite-sized updates. In other words, marketing on TikTok has become so successful that it’s even starting to influence how the other social media platforms approach their user base. TikTok marketing examples Not everyone on TikTok is doing a great job. Some brands may feel a bit like they’re shouting into the wind. Other brands just seem to have a knack for it. So what separates the brands that know how to do it from the brands that don't? A solid TikTok marketing strategy usually emphasizes two elements: engaging influencers who already have a substantial following and creating an incentive to share and engage. In each of the TikTok advertising examples below, you’ll see how large companies reached out to influencers big and small to create viral hits using these two elements. 1. #Boorito from Chipotle To capitalize on Halloween, Chipotle initiated a “#Boorito” campaign. The premise was simple: Order your burrito in a Halloween outfit for a discounted price. Chipotle gave away free burrito orders for a year to the TikTok users who could generate the most engagement via TikTok likes. Additionally, the brand reached out to influencers like Brittany Broski to get the word out. By the time #Boorito hit, Chipotle was already a TikTok marketing veteran. The #Boorito campaign even outdid its previous campaign, #GuacDance, which generated 430 million views in just six days. 2. Dunkin’ and Charli D’Amelio You don’t have to create a hashtag like Chipotle did to achieve success. Dunkin’ gave D’Amelio an excuse to post on TikTok by creating a “Charli” drink — and then D’Amelio posted about it to her TikTok page, including how the name of the drink looked on her receipt. That was all – a simple, direct interaction with a social media influencer. The results? Dunkin saw its app downloads spike by 57%, and cold brew coffees experienced a sales boost of 20%. 3. Warner Music’s promotions in Argentina and Mexico A company doesn’t have to enlist an A-list TikTok influencer like Charlie D’Amelio to see results. Some companies have good experiences with micro-influencers who have small, engaged followings. Other companies strike a balance somewhere in between. For Warner Music, promoting Justin Quiles’ #DjNoPareRemix meant finding influencers who would be more relevant in Argentina and Mexico. Rather than opt for one major celebrity, they chose six distinct TikTok influencers to spread the word. Across the six videos the influencers produced, the promotion gathered 1.5 million likes with an average engagement rate of 17%. How to plan a TikTok marketing strategy Ask yourself this: How do you start any new marketing strategy? Do you feel like you’re slapping it together last-minute, or do you have the systems in place to carry out your plan with stunning precision? If it feels more like the former than the latter, let’s get back to basics. Here’s how you can create a TikTok marketing strategy, even if you’re working from scratch. Bring your project under one dashboard: Before you do anything, get organized. A TikTok marketing campaign will include several different elements, from reaching out to influencers to planning strategy. Use a solution like Wrike to get an entire team on the same page. This will also distribute easily-digestible timesheets you can assign to team members. Centralize your communication: One TikTok campaign isn’t going to be enough. Sure, you might have the success of an “Ocean Spray” on the first try. But chances are, you’re going to have learning experiences along the way. To better adapt for future campaigns, centralize your communication with marketing project management and avoid siloing your teams. This will help everyone digest the appropriate feedback for future improvement. Start with a template: Even if TikTok is new to you, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Work from a marketing campaign template to automate much of the process of getting started. Create a schedule: Posting to TikTok should include a schedule, just as you’d approach any content or social media marketing campaign. Use an editorial calendar template, so you don’t have to start from scratch here, either. Use what’s worked in the past: Have you had success on YouTube? Instagram? Take lessons from those. You can start with social media calendar templates from our digital marketing offerings to easily replicate what’s worked for you in the past. Research your hashtags: It’s poor form to create your own hashtags on a whim. You have to know what’s already trending. What are people already searching for? Because TikTok’s algorithms sufficiently randomize a video feed, feel free to use high-engagement hashtags that would otherwise seem to have high competition. In fact, adding hashtags with over 1 million mentions is common and often effective. Research the appropriate influencers: If you’re going the TikTok influencer route, your budget will have a lot to say here. But even micro-influencers can be well worth the investment. Platforms like Grin and Upfluence will introduce you to the influencers who are relevant to your target demographics. Creative incentives: In each of the TikTok advertising examples above, experienced brands used a two-pronged approach to their campaigns: influencers and incentives. Influencers help get eyes on your campaign, while incentives drive home the need for engagement. Put it all together, and you have a recipe for consistency. Keep in mind that not every campaign will hit. Some will generate a little light engagement, while others may take off and develop lives of their own. And it’s not always easy to predict which will be which. TikTok boasts some of the highest engagement rates around. But you won’t find out the full potential of your brand until you take the time to consistently create content that sets you up for success. Why use Wrike to create a TikTok marketing campaign? TikTok and Wrike. Never thought the two words would go together? You’d be surprised. Any campaign benefits from proper planning, after all. And once you’ve read our Ultimate Guide to Marketing, you’ll better understand how our project management tools can make every stage of your campaign easier. Think in terms of building a system, not a goal. As bestselling author James Clear advocates, putting the proper systems into place is far more effective for long-term success than chasing goals. As Clear says, “Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win.” Even if you’re new to TikTok marketing, having a system in place immediately puts you at an advantage over those without clear direction. Consider all you can accomplish even before you start engaging with influencers and creating engagement incentives: Creating a plan: As the old axiom goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. We’ve previously written about creating global marketing strategies that incorporate the four Ps of marketing: product, pricing, promotion, and place. With TikTok, the emphasis is on promotion (engaging influencers), and place (getting more eyes on your videos via the TikTok algorithm and early, high-engagement performance). You can double down on your TikTok campaigns by never posting anything haphazardly. Engaging with TikTok trends: How do you know what kind of video will get engagement? By observing for yourself. Follow the same accounts as your target audience — this will get TikTok’s algorithms sending you similar content as your audience enjoys. Observe the hashtags and the principles behind the most successful viral videos. What do they have in common? Which fits your brand the best? How can your brand come to replicate and expand on these ideas? Put it all together with an omnichannel marketing plan and you’ll find ways to drive more engagement than ever before. But remember the unique quirks of TikTok, its algorithm for sending users videos to their feed, and how you need to have a plan for driving engagement on every video for the platform to send it to more user feeds. Apply those lessons consistently and you’ll have a recipe for an eventual viral video. And even if it’s not the one you thought would take off, remember: It’s all part of the overarching strategy for TikTok marketing success.
Top Tips for Creating a Twitter Marketing Strategy
Twitter can be complex. Similarly, the techniques and methodologies that brands use to implement their Twitter marketing strategy add yet another layer of difficulty. While some marketing project managers prefer to follow Twitter best practices and cross their fingers, others know that putting a strategy down on (virtual) paper ensures growth and success on the platform long-term. For those who prefer to know what they’re doing on Twitter and why their efforts (and budget) matter, having a strong Twitter marketing strategy is a no-brainer. In this guide, we’ve answered your most frequently asked questions about Twitter marketing, provided a curated list of essential tips, and listed the exact tools you need to achieve your next benchmarks. What is a Twitter marketing strategy? A Twitter marketing strategy is an action plan that aligns with your company’s concrete goals for this particular platform. A good Twitter marketing strategy involves creating and publishing content that will attract new followers and improve your brand recognition. Why is Twitter good for marketing? Twitter is not as creative as other platforms like Facebook and Instagram. However, it does have an advertising audience of 353 million and is the first in line for customer service as far as social media apps go. Not only is Twitter a must-have social media tool, but it’s also effective for engaging individuals, sharing time-sensitive content, and staying up to date with what’s going on in the world as it relates to your business. How to create a Twitter marketing strategy Despite its fast-paced nature, Twitter still requires a bit of strategic planning and discipline to get the most out of it. Not to mention the fact that it’s important to be prepared for all the unexpected conversations that happen on Twitter. Having a strategy in place will help you respond to any situation that may arise while also building a strong marketing and sales funnel for your brand. Here’s everything you need to know to successfully implement a Twitter marketing strategy. 1. Evaluate your current strategy You should check your existing social media accounts both on and off Twitter to make sure they're in good standing. This will help identify any issues that need addressing now before you launch the next phase. 2. Define clear goals Having clear goals is the first step to achieving success on any social media platform. You should create goals that are specific, measurable, and time-bound. These should align with your company's greater objectives and be realistic about the resources you have to dedicate to the project. You’ll also need to get specific about which metrics you’ll use to measure progress and how often you’ll check in with goals. Remember that there are a ton of different metrics available but not all of them will be applicable to your particular goals. 3. Check out the competition By carefully analyzing the accounts of your competitors, you can learn about their weaknesses and develop a stronger strategy. Look for common themes, tweet frequency, and their most popular tweets to better understand what your audiences are looking for. You can also use this information to improve on what they’re already putting out there in your own content. Pro tip: You can also get digital marketing inspiration from original strategy examples found elsewhere that you can make your own on Twitter. 4. Create a Twitter guide Your company’s customized Twitter guide should include a code of conduct and a clear set of style guidelines anyone can replicate. First, follow a clear responsibilities policy to ensure that everyone is on board with how you’ll deal with the variety of scenarios you may find yourself in on Twitter, which can be a well-known hangout for pot stirrers and ‘trolls’. Even something as simple as accidentally having multiple team members answer the same questions can create a lot of confusion and lead to unproductive discussions. Following actionable guidelines will prevent these common roadblocks from happening in the first place. Next, remember that a good social media style guide is also helpful to keep your team's communications on track. This will prevent branding mistakes and minimize miscommunication. Keep in mind that your brand personality should be consistent across all platforms. It should also communicate your company's values and goals. 5. Create your Twitter profile Having a professional Twitter profile can help strengthen your brand and inform your audience. You also want to make sure that your handle is consistent across all platforms. Here are the steps you’ll need to take in order to get started: Create a handle. Your username is the first thing that people will see when they look at your profile. It should include your company's name and other recognizable details. Add a profile photo. Make sure your imagery keeps to the correct dimensions and is high-resolution. Add a header image. Your profile should also feature a clean and prominent header image. It can help provide insight into your company culture or reflect on current campaigns. Write your bio. A well-written and snappy bio is also important to stand out from the crowd. You can also use a tagline or a creative image to highlight your brand personality. Include a link. Send click-throughs to your homepage or a dedicated landing page for Twitter audiences. Choose a location. One of the most important elements of your profile is your location. This is very important for small businesses as they want their customers to be able to find them offline. Add a birthday. Use the date your company was founded or an important launch date. 6. Start a Twitter content calendar A social media content calendar is a great way to align your content across all your channels and identify potential conflicts. It can also help you plan ahead and capitalize on any opportunities that arise. Another benefit of planning out your calendar is that it will help you determine if you're sharing a balanced mix of content. Although you can schedule some tweets to go out ahead of time, the social aspect of social media will still require you to respond to DMs, mentions, and retweets promptly. 7. Schedule some tweets ahead of time Get ahead of the competition by scheduling your tweets to go out on optimal days and times. Doing so will allow you to maximize the engagement and visibility of every post. Unfortunately, you can't always schedule 100% of your tweets or else the platform may flag you as spam. However, it's possible to save time by pre-scheduling content that's already planned in advance. 8. Create a monitoring plan Once your marketing strategy is in place, it's time to regularly evaluate your progress and set goals against those that you set. Use the same project management platform to evaluate your Twitter data and run reports to keep everything in one accessible place. 9. Use social listening Twitter isn't just about speaking. It's also about listening. Through social listening, you can learn about the opinions of other people about your products and services. It can help you develop a more authentic and loyal customer base. 10. Consider paid ads Paid ads aren’t right for everyone, but they can help your new Twitter marketing strategy gain more traction faster. Twitter Ads are a great way to target specific audiences. They allow you to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and find the right messages for your brand. Even if someone doesn't follow your brand or hashtags, a promoted tweet can still show up in their timeline. You can also interact with them in the same way as organic content. 11. Include link tracking Just like you link track on your sales pages, email newsletters, and other social media, Twitter offers another way to obtain data on customer buying journeys. Track the link in your bio as well as any company website links you tweet out. The metrics provided by link tracking tools allow you to monitor how people navigate to your website and measure the effectiveness of your campaign management. They're also useful for analyzing your bottom line as you improve your conversions and traffic over time. 12. Use all of Twitter’s features This one may take some time, but it’s worth noting that the best way to maximize your Twitter marketing strategy is to use every last tool the platform has to offer. For example, did you know Twitter allows users to host live chats? Use a live chat to discuss a topic, ask customers for their opinions, or collaborate with a brand partner on something you're working on. Twitter marketing tips There are countless tips on the internet about how to do Twitter well. The truth is most of your success depends on trial and error plus consistency over time. Here are some of our curated Twitter marketing tips that we’ve either used or seen work firsthand. They serve as a good jumping-off point for any foundational strategy. Start with one, then mix the rest in over time. Think big-picture. One of the most important factors to consider is how Twitter fits into your overall social media strategy. Assign daily supervision. Busy accounts may require a team member’s attention to monitor them every day or even every hour. Have a backup team member for every single account in case one is out-of-office. Plan one month out. A 30-day content plan will help you grow your Twitter following fast. It will also help you track your social media campaigns and analyze what resonates with your audience. Use lists. Through lists, you can get in touch with the conversations that matter to you most. These feeds are curated by the accounts that are most likely to have influential discussions. Develop your voice. Although you can use images and videos to attract followers, a well-written and compelling voice is very important to have on Twitter. Tweet authentically. Don't send tweets that sound like they're coming from a robot or a script. Instead, communicate clearly and politely. Stand out. Follow a unique and original message whenever you post on social media. Doing so will make your Twitter content more engaging. Use polls. Twitter polls allow users to pose questions with multiple choice answers. Gather valuable feedback and opinions about your customer preferences and favorite products. Add photos and videos. Visual assets can help you convey a message more effectively. They can also be used to reinforce an important point or highlight a chart or infographic. Use hashtags. Hashtags are a great way to boost your visibility and discoverability on Twitter. This feature is essential for new accounts. Add branded content. For example, creating a branded hashtag is a great way to organize and promote content about your business. It can also be used to search for user-generated content related to your products. Track trends. Follow trending topics to get notified about new posts and hop on relevant themes. Think before posting. Although most Twitter users rely on the mobile app, search engine preview snippets of profiles may show recently deleted tweets. So think through each message before you hit publish — otherwise, it may come up on Google days, weeks, or months from now! Engage, engage, engage. It's important to create a two-way channel of communication on Twitter to engage your audience. Creating content that encourages your followers to interact with each other is also important. Get verified. A verified profile helps prevent people from being confused with fake and duplicate accounts. Twitter marketing tools to get you started There are three main marketing tools you’ll need to get started, regardless of your goals or strategy. Data measuring and reporting Asset storage Project management platform Without the help of data measuring and reporting, brands aren’t able to perform well on Twitter. The feedback from key metrics such as retweets helps marketers better understand their audience, grow their following, and reach as many new timelines as possible. Asset storage is another essential Twitter marketing tool. Between branded links, third-party links, photos, videos, GIFs, and more, having one central location where all of your Twitter content assets are stored is both convenient and strategic. Last but not least, the most important Twitter marketing tool you can use is a project management platform. Twitter requires you to create content, respond to public and private messages, track data, and keep up with the latest features. A great project management tool will allow you to do all of that in one accessible place so you can stay on top of all the moving parts while focusing on your chosen strategy. Why use Wrike to build your Twitter marketing campaign Like other social media platforms, finding success on Twitter requires a strategy and an intentional approach. That is why using a marketing project management tool is so important. Wrike's marketing project management software lets you track and communicate with your team across all your campaigns in one place. Not only does it help break down silos and make communication easier, but it also gives you a 360° view of your Twitter and related social media campaigns, allowing you to see all of them in one place. Wrike's software also helps you track communication with your team across all your campaigns in one place, so you’re always on the same page, even with Twitter’s fast-paced conversations. If last-minute tweets or replies need approval, team members can easily see your feedback and loop approvers into ongoing conversations via @mentions, which can help cut down on review cycles. For productivity, Wrike's marketing project management software helps you streamline your processes and achieve your goals. Doing so will increase the visibility and efficiency of any strategy you implement. With all of Twitter’s moving parts, having full transparency into your workflows is essential since bottlenecks are that much harder to resolve. If you run a social media strategy on any other app, you already know that project management for digital marketing is different from other project management disciplines. That is why Wrike developed flexible workflows that make it possible to eliminate the guesswork and get more done in less time. Twitter has many complex moving parts with real-time feedback, so solid data reporting is mission-critical to getting it right. Wrike's marketing project management software features dynamic reports that allow you to visualize and gather business intelligence quickly. Ready to take action on your new Twitter marketing strategy? Get started today by organizing your social media plan into assigned tasks and timelines using Wrike’s two-week free trial.
The Most Common Marketing Mistakes: How to Avoid Them
There is so much involved in starting a business, it’s understandable when things fall through the cracks. Unfortunately, marketing is one area that many new business owners neglect or treat as more of an afterthought. Developing a marketing strategy is just as important as developing a budget. It is a key element in growing a customer base and generating revenue. This is not a simple process; mistakes are often made.
How to Track your Digital Channels with Digital Marketing KPIs
In the good old days of digital marketing circa 1971 (when the first ever email was sent), the best indicator of campaign success was whether or not someone looked at what you put out into the world. Now that technology is more advanced and the market is flooded with content, marketers need to use a more sophisticated approach. Enter digital marketing KPIs. Today, agency and marketing directors use digital marketing project KPIs to improve profit, streamline resources, and prove return on investment to their clients. Keep reading to discover the definitions, examples, and tools top marketers use to remain competitive in today’s digital landscape. What are digital marketing KPIs? KPI stands for key performance indicator which is also known as performance metrics. A digital marketing key performance indicator is what marketers use to measure the success of a particular strategy or marketing channel. The KPI or KPIs you choose will depend on what your goal is for the project. Marketers will often choose one or two primary KPIs to support their main goal and a handful of relevant secondary KPIs to support any additional objectives. For example, let’s say you run a social media campaign on Twitter and your goal is to increase your engagement percentage within your existing audience. Your primary KPIs will be the number of comments and retweets each original tweet receives. There are three main categories of digital marketing KPIs to know: 1. Awareness Awareness is all about getting your brand in front of as many new people as possible. If your brand is already established, the next challenge is to help potential customers learn about new products or services they might be interested in. Common marketing tactics in this phase include cold emailing and calling. 2. Conversion The goal of this phase is to make a sale. Marketers often do this by building long-term relationships and trust. Content like blog posts and podcasts with problem-solving advice for the audience works well for this stage. 3. Analysis After you make a sale you can use analysis KPIs to determine how much you spent in resources to acquire each new customer. This information will inform your next campaign. Why set KPIs in digital marketing? KPIs in digital marketing prove return on investment to clients and stakeholders. They also help you measure progress, streamline processes, and quantify what would otherwise be intangible marketing benefits. Using KPIs in digital marketing will help you better understand why something does or does not work for your particular brand or strategy. Without KPIs, marketing agencies run the risk of throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks. If your agency does not assert its value and authority through actual proof, it’s hard to get or keep clients long-term. KPIs translate into concrete numbers that prove what you’re doing is getting real results. Who sets KPIs in marketing? At an agency, a marketing or agency director will set the KPIs. Otherwise, the responsibility falls on the campaign manager. Whoever chooses the KPIs also has to come up with a plan for tracking them. They may adopt related marketing tools and habits to make sure results are consistently recorded and monitored throughout the lifetime of each campaign. Agency project management tools such as Wrike can help streamline these processes. Users can easily assign monitoring and reporting tasks to designated teammates so that nothing slips through the cracks. Marketing KPI examples Marketing KPIs differ from project to project, platform to platform, and goal to goal. Use these most common marketing KPI examples below as a jumping-off point: Email marketing KPIs 1. Number of emails successfully delivered, opened, and/or replied to What it is: The total of all emails interacted with compared to the total sent. Why you need it: This information tells marketers if their messages are getting through to inboxes. It also demonstrates whether or not the subject line is persuasive enough and if the campaign promotes further engagement. How to measure it: Use an email marketing campaign software to bypass spam filters and track open rates. 2. Embedded link and CTA button click-through rates What it is: The percentage of people who have both opened your emails and clicked the link or button inside. Why you need it: The click-through rate shows how effective your offers or calls to action are. How to measure it: Add a link tracking app to test components like CTA messages, colors, and placement. 3. Social shares and forwards What it is: The number of times a post has been shared or sent to other people from social media. Why you need it: Sharing is a high-value form of engagement that gets your posts in front of more people which is great for increasing impressions and expanding your audience. How to measure it: Most social media apps include this information within your Analytics. Social media KPIs 1. Number of followers versus number of unfollowers What it is: The total number of people who have followed your account that day or week compared to the number of people who have unfollowed your account in the same. Why you need it: Ideally you'll have more followers than unfollowers but this KPI shows whether or not your content is targeting the correct audience and is interesting enough to keep their attention. How to measure it: Your number of followers is publicly available at the top of your social media profile. However, you may need to use a third-party app to track unfollowers. 2. Likes, comments, and shares What it is: These are the top forms of engagement for any social media post regardless of what platform it's on. Why you need it: Better engagement equals higher conversion rates, steadier audience growth, and stronger relationships over time.= How to measure it: This information is made publicly available on most social media platforms. 3. New impressions What it is: The number of times your content was organically shown to someone on the platform whether or not they interacted with it. Why you need it: This social media KPI demonstrates reach, which you should aim to increase over time through paid ads, better engagement, and more followers. How to measure it: Creator analytics or a behind-the-scenes app will show your new impressions by day, week, or month. Content marketing KPIs 1. Unique visits What it is: The total number of people (or IP addresses) clicking on your website within a given time frame. Why you need it: Unique visits document the volume of traffic over time, which is useful for selling products and services. However, some unique visits might be from bots which is why it's critical to also track engagement and conversions at the same time. How to measure it: Website analytics platforms like Google help users track this data after it’s set up, which means historical data will not be available. 2. Average time on page What it is: The average amount of time all visitors (both unique and returning) spend on each individual web page. Why you need it: Your goal should be to make the average time on page high because it will likely lead to better sales conversion rate. Plus it shows that your content is relevant to your audience. How to measure it: Website analytics tools will help you measure it. 3. Link and CTA button click-through rates What it is: The percentage at which all site visitors click on links and buttons. Why you need it: Most website links and buttons are tied to sales or important data capture such as email newsletters. Having a high rate of success means that your offers and audience are in alignment. How to measure it: Website analytics tools or third party link tracking apps are best. SEO KPIs 1. Keyword search engine ranking What it is: How high your website ranks for a specific keyword or phrase within popular search engines. Why you need it: Your goal should be to rank number 1 on Google and Bing. Or on the first page, at the very least, so that more people will find and click on your website. How to measure it: Type in your keyword phrase into a search engine to see if it shows up or use a tool like SEMRush for more advanced analytics. 2. Organic traffic What it is: Site traffic from anything other than paid ads. Why you need it: High rates of organic traffic means that more people are finding your products and services by simply searching related questions or words, which indicates that your SEO strategy is working. How to measure it: Use a website analytics tool.3. Link click-through rates What it is: The rate at which people are clicking on paid search advertisements or web pages that appear organically in search results. Why you need it: For paid ads, the link click-through rate shows how effective your copy is. How to measure it: Website analytics and third-party apps help you track individual links. Also, whichever search engine advertisement platform you use will likely track this data automatically. PPC KPIs 1. Click rate What it is: Percentage of people who see your ad in search engines and click on it. Why you need it: The higher the percentage, the more persuasive your copy is. How to measure it: Your advertising platform will have user analytics for you. 2. Sales conversion rate What it is: The total number of sales divided by the number of interactions with a given paid ad. Why you need it: This number shows whether or not the offer promised in the ad is still relevant for the audience the ad is being shown to and if it aligns with their expectations enough to persuade them to buy. How to track it: Your advertising platform will have these statistics for you.3. Cost per acquisition What it is: The dollar amount you pay for every new customer you obtained through a paid advertisement. Why you need it: This shows exactly where your budget is going and whether or not your campaign is worth reinvesting in.How to track it: Use an analytics tool or divide the total cost of the PPC campaign by the total revenue made from it. What are the challenges of marketing KPIs? The main challenge of marketing KPIs is choosing the right ones, monitoring them effectively, and turning data into actionable insights. To choose the right marketing KPIs every time, create SMART goals then match KPIs to link your channel type (like email or social media) to your desired outcome. To monitor them effectively, make sure that all your KPIs are measurable and that there are tools in place to capture all related data. Finally, turn data into actionable insights by using a professional services management platform to create automated reports plus easy-to-read insights. What to do when KPIs aren't met Now that you have your digital marketing KPIs set, it’s important to know what happens if your KPIs are failing. If they’re not connected to strategy, overshooting (or undershooting) your goals, or are too outdated now, the best way to get back on track is to adopt a marketing project management solution like Wrike. Why Wrike can help you with digital marketing KPIs Wrike helps directors and managers use digital marketing KPIs to make informed decisions. Wrike Report automates marketing, data capture, assessment, and reporting using visual graphs so that KPIs are easier to understand. At-a-glance updates like these save time and make collaboration that much smoother. Marketing teams can also create templates for repeated campaigns or to relive the success of another client’s strategy for a new project. Use Wrike’s two-week free trial to visualize your objectives and key results (OKRs) so that your KPIs are bulletproof throughout any project.
Where’s the Rest of Your Marketing Revenue Hiding?
This is the final installment in our three-part series focused on CMO pain points. Part 1 discusses the technical challenges of leveraging your martech stack while Part 2 focuses on the unique human challenges marketers face in our “New Normal.” Here, we discuss the solution to overcoming these challenges.
Push vs. Pull Marketing: What You Need to Know
Planning your strategy for next quarter and not sure which direction to go in? In this article, we’re analyzing push vs. pull marketing so you can make the best possible decision. Learn more about what they are, how they are used, and the main difference between push and pull marketing. We’ll also go over some push vs. pull marketing examples and provide templates you can use to create winning marketing content. What is push marketing? All advertising can be classified into two broad categories: push and pull. On the one hand, push advertising aims to push products towards specific customers, while pull advertising focuses on the right people at the right time. Push marketing, specifically, is a strategy managers use to promote their products to consumers. The goal of push marketing is to get the products seen by the consumers at the point of purchase. Exposure is the north star for this marketing plan. This can be accomplished through many different channels, including social media, standard mail, or in stores. Although many companies try to build long-term relationships with their customers alongside this strategy, push marketing focuses on acquiring an immediate sale. That’s why it’s great for increasing sales volume and improving brand loyalty. Push marketing can be applied to both B2C and professional services spaces. For example, in the B2B space, a manufacturer or wholesaler may try to convince a retail outlet to stock its product by including samples at an in-person marketing demonstration. Although push marketing seems like the best option on paper, marketing managers should be cautious about making this their only approach. If a company decides to spend a huge sum on advertising, they can easily lose money if their customers ignore their messages. Because push marketing doesn’t focus on building relationships, major drivers of sales, such as repeat business, aren’t a direct result of this campaign type. In other words, using push marketing as your only strategy could lead to missed opportunities. On the other hand, push marketing is most successful when marketing campaigns promote goods and services that are already in demand. Overall, push marketing is a great way to create immediate results and make a strong impression on potential customers. It eliminates the need for branding and promotes a new product quickly. Its temporary effects attract new customers even though it can be expensive and the results are often not long term. Before you get started on a push marketing plan, your team should first gather information on the potential customers that you’ll be pushing the advertisements out to. Afterward, marketers can use this data to choose which platform or platforms they’ll focus on. From there, they’ll be able to create a powerful message that appeals to the right demographic and is highly effective for the marketing channel they plan to use. What is pull marketing? Pull marketing is a strategy that focuses on increasing the number of consumers who want to buy a particular product. It often involves convincing a consumer to actively seek a product in order to get retailers to stock it. Brands that use pull marketing will reach out to consumers through a direct marketing campaign. The consumers then go to a retailer and purchase the product. This allows the producer to both sell the product and fill stock according to the consumer's demand. This strategy typically works best when the lead time is long enough for consumers to compare alternatives. This allows them to make a purchase without being pressured into a hasty decision. It also means companies must convince consumers that they should buy the product they see advertised. The advantage to consumers is that they won’t have to settle for whatever product is in stock elsewhere simply because it is available. Instead, they’ll see the real value of your goods or services through your pull marketing strategy and are more willing to make the effort and reinvest long term if the proposition is strong enough. There are many ways to reach customers through pull marketing, all of which aim to build excitement for a product or a company. With pull marketing, a company can promote a product before it is available for purchase. It saves them money by reducing the number of units they produce before the product launches. In the best case scenario, the demand for a product will exceed the supply when pull marketing is used. Most people are unsure of the differences between push vs. pull marketing. But they should also be asking what the differences are between pull marketing and regular marketing. A pull marketing campaign is different from a traditional advertising campaign. Instead of focusing on a specific product or service, this strategy starts with analyzing the company’s goals and market potential. While both methods may analyze market research data, a pull marketing campaign places a greater emphasis on generating new interest. Pull marketing is especially important for products that are completely unique in some way. Whether it’s a never-before-released trademark doll or a rare kitchen gadget, pull marketing is best used to reach new or underserved markets. Word-of-mouth excitement and attracting plenty of customers is the name of the game with push marketing. This excitement should last across various stages of a product's life cycle, selling out in stores or surpassing user capacity whenever possible. Key differences between push and pull marketing At first glance, push vs. pull marketing seems to be about exact opposites. But in reality, they do overlap. We’ve outlined the primary characteristics of each and how they look when applied in real life. Demand: Push marketing works well with products people are already familiar with or have an interest in. Pull marketing is effective for selling something people may have never heard of before and for creating demand where there was none or little to begin with. Length of time: Push marketing focuses on short-term sales, whereas pull marketing may take longer to establish. Product type: Pull marketing products are typically one of a kind in some way and may require telling audiences exactly what they are. Push marketing products are familiar to audiences and usually require little to no comparison shopping. Goal: Push marketing aims to make a sale immediately, whereas pull marketing builds an audience over time and often from scratch. Cost: Both types of marketing campaigns are what you make of them. They both may use similar channels but reach different audiences. It truly depends on the product and who you’re trying to reach. In a nutshell: the differences between push and pull marketing primarily revolve around the brand’s relationship to the audiences they’re targeting and the sales goals they are trying to reach. Push and pull strategy examples Amazon is a great example of a company that uses both push and pull marketing strategies to make a profit. First, its warehouses are strategically placed close to major cities and metropolitan areas. This makes Amazon a pure push company when it comes to selling its products because their service meets customers where their demand is. At the same time, they use a pull strategy to promote third-party sellers with tools such as retargeting ads that entice users to go back onto the site and complete their purchase. Both are highly effective. Without their warehouses, Amazon would have fewer sellers since space is often an obstacle for brands with physical inventory, which could deter wannabe businesses from the site. And without promoting their sellers' products, they wouldn’t see any profit from their sales. How to choose between push or pull marketing There are two things to consider as you choose between push or pull marketing. The first is demand. Is there already strong demand for what you do or offer? Do you know how and where to reach customers at the point of sale, whether online or in person, for this specific product? If you can confidently answer those questions, then push marketing is the strategy for you. On the other hand, is word-of-mouth marketing an important part of your strategy? Do you know if your offer fulfills a need that your customers don’t realize they have or don’t yet know your solution is the best possible option? If yes, then pull marketing is your best bet. How to set up your marketing strategy with Wrike Wrike is a project management tool marketers use to plan and execute their strategies. Wrike users plan and launch hundreds of digital marketing campaigns across various platforms and languages. Planning and executing these campaigns can be challenging, even for those who already know a thing or two about push vs. pull marketing. That’s where Wrike’s template comes in. This template is built to help marketing teams organize and execute digital marketing campaigns. To begin, break down your campaign into phases. Create tasks that must be completed within each phase and assign them to your team. Each task can be assigned to a specific member of your team. These tasks can be easily categorized into various categories and can be deleted or renamed as needed. Next, track progress with our interactive Gantt chart and export reports for review. Because Wrike is secure, you can safely communicate and share data with other stakeholders and managers to get feedback on performance. Not only is this useful for keeping track of complex push and pull marketing campaigns, but it’s also helpful for managing different marketing projects at the same time. Most marketers utilize both push and pull marketing strategies but have the same team members working on both. Having your projects managed all in one place makes it easier to see progress, communicate tasks, and keep everyone on the same page despite all the different strategies in play. In addition to task assignments, Wrike also offers visual Gantt charts to help users better understand the big picture. The Gantt chart view shows the project's overall plan and all the tasks in its dynamic timeline. It can help you spot delays and maximize your chances of meeting your deadlines. To further maximize visibility, this template comes with a pre-configured dashboard that shows campaign progress, which includes unassigned tasks and overdue tasks. It also includes a variety of predefined widgets to help you keep track of all your campaign data. As you go about creating materials for your push and pull campaigns, Wrike allows you to store campaign assets and label them in files that display in chronological order so you can manage them better. In addition to managing campaigns, Wrike helps both push and pull marketers maximize the efficiency of daily operations. The role of marketing operations management is a critical one, as organizations are now more focused on collecting and managing large amounts of data. This often involves planning, implementing, and reporting on various analytical platforms. Wrike is the ideal companion for analytical marketing teams, who love the ability to manage all of their campaigns. Whether you use our premade template or a custom one, your marketing operations team can execute at new levels of efficiency. In conclusion The debate over the pros and cons of pull and push marketing has been ongoing for decades. Both strategies are often used by marketing professionals as part of their company's marketing plans. Whichever you choose, make sure you partner with a solution that offers the level of organization, visibility, and attention to detail that Wrike does through features such as Gantt charts and dashboards that make even the most complex strategies manageable. Start your two-week free trial with Wrike today.
25 Must-Read Books for Product Managers & Product Marketers
Are you new to the world of product management and product marketing? Or maybe you just want to pick up a few new reads to expand your skills? Instead of browsing the bookshelves at your favorite local bookshop and choosing one at random, take a look at our list of the best product management books and product marketing reads for tried-and-true recommendations from the PMM community. Product Managers Why read product management books? Product management is an ever-evolving field. Whether you’re a complete newbie hoping to learn the ropes or an experienced IT product manager trying to keep up with changing trends, product management books have a lot to offer. Here are five benefits you can gain from reading some of the best product management books: On the job training can teach you what to do, but books help you learn the ‘why’; They can teach you the theory and reasoning behind the practices, and research shows that we all perform better when we understand why things are a certain way. Product management involves a lot of jargon and unique technical terms. The top product management books can help you grasp the lingo, so you’re comfortable using it and understanding it at work. Reading is proven to help improve memory and focus. If you’re struggling to learn product management through other means, like podcasts or videos, then books may be a great way to take in and remember relevant information. Studies show that reading books also improves your communication skills. As a product manager or product marketer, a huge part of your job is communicating with team members, customers, and other stakeholders. Product managers must always be looking for new ways to improve their products and offer new innovations to the market. The must-read product management books on this list can help you discover new methods and better processes while also boosting your creativity. We’ve broken down our top product management books into four main categories: The best product management books for beginners The top books focused on user experience (UX) and product development strategy Must-read books on web design and usability The best books for product managers wanting to perfect the product development process Product management books for beginners 1. Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology Authors: Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro While Cracking the PM Interview isn’t exactly new (it’s from 2013), it has remained on Amazon.com’s list of bestsellers in technical project management for quite some time and is currently holding the #1 spot. This book is more than a primer on which interview questions to prep for or how to write a killer product management resume (although this book covers both). McDowell and Bavaro get to the core of what the position of a product manager really is. In it, you’ll get to examine the role from all sides to learn not only how to land a job, but master your daily responsibilities and advance your career as well. 2. Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value Author: Melissa Perri Released in 2018, Escaping the Build Trap covers essential product management principles that can be applied to any company, no matter the size. Perri, the author, is the CEO of a product management consultancy, and she brings a wealth of hands-on knowledge and actionable advice to her readers. Rated 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, this book offers value to beginners and experienced PMs alike. Containing only 200 pages, it’s a relatively quick read, packed full of product management wisdom. 3. The Product Manager's Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed as a Product Manager Author: Steven Haines Just released in 2019, the second edition of The Product Manager's Survival Guide maintains all the value of the first, but now with more actionable advice, techniques, and tools for success. Follow this book's blueprint for graduating from novice to confident product manager. Start by understanding the keys to success, then learn how to become a product expert and customer advocate so that you can effectively manage your teams, increase productivity, and further your career. 4. Product Management for Dummies Authors: Brian Lawley & Pamela Schure Part of the “for Dummies” series, Product Management for Dummies is a useful and popular book for product management novices. Written by two product management experts, this easy-to-understand guide is full of essential and actionable info. This comprehensive reference offers easy-to-understand explanations of the essentials of product management, from defining the product life cycle and creating a winning product strategy to gathering customer feedback. With a 4.5 star rating, this book is clearly an essential addition to your product management toolkit — whether you're a novice or intermediate product manager. 5. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager Authors: Josh Anon & Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia. Based on Product School’s curriculum, The Product Book introduces product management students and beginners to key PM concepts and practices. It’s a helpful resource for anyone considering taking on more formal product management education but unsure whether it’s the right career path. Full of recent and relevant examples from huge well-known companies such as Facebook, Google, and more, this 294-page book will help bring product management to life. Books about user experience & product development strategy 6. Inspired: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love Author: Marty Cagan The latest version of Inspired was released in 2017 and has 4.5 stars on Amazon.com. Like the initial version, it’s a ‘masterclass’ book on how to design and develop better products. But, this release embraces new techniques and practices to ensure it’s still fresh and useful to product managers today. Unless your product is valuable, usable, and feasible, it’s not worth building. So says Marty Cagan, whose book takes you through how you should decide which products and designs to pursue, how to prove your proposed product will be successful, defining a minimum viable product, and juggling the conflicting needs of execs, customers, sales, engineering, and design. 7. User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play Authors: Cliff Kaung & Robert Fabricant Voted Amazon Best Books of 2019 Pick and Fortune Writers and Editors’ Recommended Books of 2019 pick, User Friendly is a must-read for anyone interested in product design and development. The authors map out how user experience (UX) has evolved and changed our world over time in a story-driven style that’s engaging to read. It’s an insightful piece that might make you look at UX and product development in a whole new way. 8. Beyond The Prototype: A roadmap for navigating the fuzzy area between ideas and outcomes Author: Douglas Ferguson Beyond The Prototype is all about what to do after you complete your first design sprint, and the optimistic enthusiasm starts to wear off. Author Douglas Ferguson tackles the struggles many teams face after getting to prototype and how to overcome them. Using compelling stories from popular companies such as Adobe and Google, this guide walks you through six essential steps for successful product launches. If you want a usable framework to help take you from idea to product validation, you’ll find it here. Web design & usability books for product managers 9. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Author: Dr. Susan Weinschenk The second edition of 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People was just released in June 2020. In it, Dr. Weinschenk uses her 30+ years as a behavioral psychologist to offer strategies for improving your site's user experience and boosting conversion. Design isn't just pretty, it's purposeful. You want people to respond to your website in a certain way, or take a specific next action? Learn why people act the way they do. What grabs their attention? Is peripheral or central vision more important? What’s the best length for a line of text? What fuels people's actions? Read this book to find out. 10. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web & Mobile Usability, 3rd Edition Author: Steve Krug While Don't Make Me Think, Revisited hasn’t been updated since 2013, it still remains Amazon.com’s #1 Best Seller in their User Experience & Web Usability category. First published in 2000, this bestseller is still an essential guide for web designers and developers. The updated third edition includes fresh examples and a new section on mobile usability, plus tips to make navigation intuitive, user testing efficient (so you can do it more often), and your user experience seamless across all devices. 11. Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines Author: Jeff Johnson Just released in October 2020, the 3rd Edition of Designing with the Mind in Mind is a refreshed version of an essential guide on usability and user interface (UI) design. If you’re a product manager involved in digital design projects, looking for a crash course in UI principles, this is the book for you. From this book, you’ll gain a basic understanding of why user-interface design has to follow certain rules and the perceptual and cognitive psychology behind the guidelines. You’ll also have a better grasp of why your design team makes some of the choices they do. Books on perfecting the development process 12. The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process, and Technology Authors: James Morgan & Jeffrey K. Liker Just released in October 2020, The Toyota Product Development System takes a deep dive into what makes Toyota one of the most forward-thinking product development companies in the automotive industry. This book compares and contrasts the world-class product development process of Toyota with an unnamed US competitor to help emphasize process best practices and how they can impact your business success. 13. Product Lifecycle Management (Volume 1): 21st Century Paradigm for Product Realisation Author: John Stark The 4th edition of Product Lifecycle Management, released in October 2020, offers an expanded version of this cornerstone text. It’s been updated to reflect important technological advances and how they’ve impacted the product life cycle. This must-read guide covers everything you need to know about product life cycle management (PLM), from the main components of PLM initiatives to best practices and environmental considerations you need to keep in mind. 14. Building For Everyone: Expand Your Market With Design Practices From Google's Product Inclusion Team Author: Annie Jean-Baptiste Building For Everyone is about how you can build better products by focusing on promoting diversity and inclusion in your workforce. This practical guide will walk you through how to follow Google’s footsteps of building a Product Inclusion Team to improve your design process. After reading this book, you’ll know essential strategies and processes for executing more inclusive product designs that will help increase your company’s profitability. Plus, it includes real-life recent case studies on what does and doesn’t work so you can avoid the mistakes of those who came before you. 15. Inside Your Customer's Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions Author: Chip R. Bell With 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, Inside Your Customer's Imagination is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their product development processes. Author Chip Bell walks you through proven processes for designing and developing breakthrough products your customers don’t even know they want yet. With the use of examples from big-name companies like McDonald’s, Lockheed Martin, and Marriott, Bell illustrates how partnering with your customers can help you discover a treasure trove of innovations and process improvements. 16. Build What Matters: Delivering Key Outcomes with Vision-Led Product Management Authors: Ben Foster & Rajesh Nerlikar In Build What Matters, authors Ben Foster and Rajesh Nerlikar walk you through their methodology for building products that will meet current and future customer needs. This guide emphasizes the importance of the customer in product development and introduces ways to always keep that fact top-of-mind. This book will introduce you to 10 dysfunctions common to product development processes and then walk you through tactical ways to avoid these traps. Whether you’re a start-up founder, a product leader, or a high-level executive, you’ll find actionable advice in this book that can help improve your business processes. Top books for product marketers We’ve divided our top product marketer books into two main categories: The best books for helping you fuel customer adoption Must-read books about product marketing strategy and best practices Books on fueling customer adoption 17. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products Authors: Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover Hooked is a guide for product marketers, managers, and designers about building products that people want to use. It includes insights into creating user habits and understanding behavioral techniques. Plus, you’ll walk away with actionable advice on how to build and market products that people will love. In this book, you’ll learn a four-step model for building customer habits so that users willingly come back for more, over and over. This guide brings technology, psychology, and business together in a way that will improve your product marketing outcomes and boost your customer adoption and retention rates. 18. The Four Steps to the Epiphany Author: Steve Blank The Four Steps to the Epiphany is commonly thought to be one of the most influential business books of all time. In this updated version, released March 2020, author Steve Blank brings even more insights and relevant examples to the table. Too often, development teams build a product, and when customers don’t bite, they scrap it and try again. Instead, Steve Blank focuses on Customer Development — a concept that’s since become one of the three pillars of the Lean startup. Learn how to pinpoint the right product for your specific market, using techniques that have helped launch over 10,000 startups and corporate ventures. 19. The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to Go from $0 to $100 Million Author: Mark Roberge The author of The Sales Acceleration Formula, Mark Roberge, is an MIT alum with an engineering background that he has applied to sales and marketing. In this book, Roberge promotes the replacement of conventional sales methods with a more metric-driven, process-oriented approach. From this book, you'll learn the techniques Roberge used as SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services at HubSpot to help the company grow from a small, three-person startup to a giant success with a billion-dollar valuation and over 15,000 customers. 20. The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data Author: Gene Kim The Unicorn Project, a highly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling title The Phoenix Project, is written as an engaging novel, but that doesn’t make its messaging any less true or relevant to real-world product marketers, developers, and managers. Gene Kim is a multi-award winning CTO and the founder of Tripwire. In this novel, he introduces five ideals required for product success and discusses internal structures every technology company needs. Books about product marketing strategy & best practices 21. Product Marketing, Simplified: A Customer-Centric Approach to Take a Product to Market Author: Srini Sekaran Product Marketing, Simplified is a comprehensive guide on the world of product marketing. Whether you want to learn more about improving product launches or delivering greater value to the right customers, this book is packed full of valuable info. This guide walks you through the entire product marketing process, including how to understand the customer journey, build a go-to-market strategy, determine pricing and packaging, and influence the product roadmap. 22. Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations (3rd Edition) Authors: Stanley J. Slater, Jakki J. Mohr, & Sanjit Sengupta Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations provides a comprehensive introduction to the world of tech marketing. This book explains all the variables you'll need to consider when launching a product, as well as the logistics for managing the process. From migration paths and types of innovations to managing customer relationships, you'll find a good balance of theory and real-world examples to get the knowledge you need in the world of tech marketing. 23. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen Author: Donald Miller Building a StoryBrand will introduce you to seven essential elements of powerful stories. By using these elements in your product marketing, you’ll be able to improve customer engagement and boost your success rates. This guide breaks down seven story points that resonate with every human, the reasoning behind why customers make the buying decisions they do, and how to create the most effective branding and marketing messages for your product and business. 24. Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy Authors: Neel Mehta, Aditya Agashe & Parth Detroja Swipe to Unlock was written by three product managers at Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, and it’s one of Amazon.com’s #1 Best Sellers. This is a must-read book for any product marketer, product manager, or consultant in the tech industry. The latest edition was released in 2019 and includes over 40 pages of new content. It includes a wealth of case studies on huge companies and covers essential product marketing topics such as current and future trends, emerging markets, and more. 25. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others Author: Daniel Pink Whether you’re pitching a colleague on a new idea, convincing your manager to support a passion project, or trying to sway a customer to switch from freemium to paid, we all spend our days trying to move others to act. In To Sell is Human, bestselling author Daniel Pink teaches you how to truly understand another person’s perspective and craft clear, persuasive marketing messages. What’s next? Are you interested in learning what is a product owner, product management, and product marketing? Maybe you’re looking for a special niche topic you didn’t see mentioned in any of these books? Check out our blog to keep up-to-date on all the emerging trends and latest technology in the product management space. You can also test out our product management software free for 14-days to discover how it can improve your product management and marketing teams.
Scrum in marketing: making enterprises adaptive
Every year and even every month, new technologies, markets and competitors spring up, and today’s businesses have to be agile to be able to face the impending challenges. In such an unstable environment, traditional principles of managing product development may lead companies to failure. If the product requirements change drastically from the time the product is designed to the moment when it is released, it can result in the delivery of outdated products. Otherwise, ineffective change management processes may destroy product development, and the product will never be delivered.New methods in project management Nowadays to be successful, a company has to be fast to adapt. Driven by business priorities, managers use progressive methods of product development aimed to cure the mistakes of traditional approaches. Some of these methods acquired the name of agile project management. These methods originated in R&D departments and now are introduced in marketing as well. Markets change quickly, forcing you to reposition your product. When you introduce an innovative product, it’s not clear how you should promote it and what the customers really need. Very often when innovative products are born, manufacturers and customers may not know how or why the products will be used, so it’s not evident what specific features of a product will or will not be valued. Playing in such markets entails a process of mutual discovery by customers and vendors – and this just takes time. According Clayton M. Christensen’s book “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” research has shown that the vast majority of successful new companies abandoned their original business strategies after trying to implement their initial plans and learning what would and would not work in the market. This shows how important it is for a company to quickly evolve its strategy and tactics.What is Scrum? Scrum as a marketing project management methodology Marketing is often executed in project-based manner. That is why a lot of generic project management principles perfectly apply to marketing and why marketing should also be optimized, similar to project management techniques. Agile cycle approaches to marketing may help to overcome problems experienced by marketing executives. One of these approaches is the Scrum methodology, which has originally been developed as an agile software development method for project management. Now Scrum is successfully employed in Agile business transformation by hundreds of different companies, such as Yahoo.com, Wildcard Systems, H&M, and John Deere, in many different fields, with outstanding results. Scrum adopts an empirical approach, accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or successfully defined in a predictable and planned manner. The focus of Scrum is on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements. This method is praised for making the team more productive, reducing risks and maximizing the business value of a developed product and minimizing the period of the development time. Scrum is based on defining sprints - time periods (usually 2 to 4 weeks) during which the prioritized work (sprint backlog) should be done. During a sprint, the team gets together for daily meetings where team members discuss what they have already done, what they are going to do till the next meeting and what prevents them of doing something that they planned to do. In other words, Scrum meetings are supposed to keep teams on track and help members get their work done. At the end of each sprint, there is a brief sprint retrospective at which all team members reflect about the past sprint. According to Ken Schwaber, co-creator of the Scrum meeting method (along with Jeff Sutherland), the purpose of a daily Scrum is to keep teams focused "on their objectives and to help them avoid being thrown off track by less important concerns." Now Scrum is often viewed as an iterative, incremental process for developing any product or managing any work. Indeed, short and regular meetings can be as important for small marketing teams as they are for production teams. Members of a marketing group may be working on a variety of projects, but they're all working toward the same goal – marketing the company and its products or services. Therefore, every member of a team has to know what the others are working on and what direction the whole team is moving in. Collaborative project management software for Scrum in marketing The Scrum approach to marketing becomes even more efficient when empowered by Enterprise 2.0 technologies. New- generation software, especially tools meant for project management, bring collaboration to marketing and can make it more productive. These applications (I will call them Project Management 2.0 software) let team members easily share information on the projects and tasks they are involved in and help every team member see the whole picture of the company’s marketing strategy. Project management 2.0 software makes collaboration and management more transparent, letting everyone know who is accountable for what and by when. Scrum in marketing makes the possible problems visible at early stages and allows coping with them quicker and with minimal losses. One of the major Scrum principles is “no problems are swept under the carpet.” Every team member is encouraged to describe the difficulties he is experiencing, as this might influence the work of the whole group. Discussing problems early also helps to reduce financial risk. With the beginning of every sprint period, the business owner can change any of the marketing project parameters without penalty, including increasing investments to enlarge consumers’ quantity, reducing investments until unknowns are mitigated, or financing other initiatives. A new approach to marketing requires flexible planning, which is possible with the help of collaboration software. In the ever-changing business environment, short-term marketing plans based on sprints can be much more effective. Marketing managers get an opportunity to switch from one promotion method to another, if the first one proved to be unsuccessful during the sprint period. It also becomes easier to clarify due dates of every small, but important task, to each member of a team. For example if a team is getting ready for a fair, it should be clear about who is responsible for preparing handouts, who will make a presentation about a product and who will design the company showcase. With Project Management 2.0 software, like Wrike for example, it becomes possible for everyone on the team to contribute to the plans, edit and update them. New-generation software brings stakeholders and partners into the collaboration process. Their input and feedback will help shape the marketing agenda along the way. The clients can be involved, too. In fact, the principal aim of every marketing team is understanding customers’ needs and helping clients achieve their goals. In today’s enterprises, achieving the heightened customer loyalty – what brand marketers refer to as “emotional lock-in” – is especially challenging when an organization is dealing with tens of thousands or even millions of customers. Empowered by the new-generation software, Scrum lets you involve your clients in the marketing process and take advantage of the wisdom of the crowds. Collective intelligence helps to improve the quality of products and services and make them fully satisfy the consumer’s needs. Scrum lets you promote your product not for a client, but together with your client. Customers can be involved in various ways. For example, they can literally participate in the development process by sending their feedback and contributing to the plans. So, as we can see, innovative management methods brought to marketing make a company more agile and let it respond quicker to the needs of the emerging markets. It makes a company even more successful when empowered with Enterprise 2.0 tools that bring collaboration into organizations. They help improve communication and turn it from one-way (from a company to its customers) to two-way (from a company to its customers and back), helping to improve products and services. Now you know the Scrum basics, you can see how helps a company make its marketing policy nimble and lets it promote its products with lower costs, avoiding unnecessary money and resource spending and helping to reveal possible mistakes in the initial planning. The result is maximization a company’s benefit.
What Does a Project Manager Do in a Marketing Agency?
Within a marketing agency, the project manager is responsible for planning deliverables (including creating a project calendar), communicating with clients, and keeping marketing projects on track. Find out more project manager responsibilities and skills in this post.
How to Build Your Next Year's Marketing Plan
Looking ahead of schedule and devoting ample time to planning out your campaigns and marketing milestones is not only essential for success, but also for allocating resources and finding where gaps exist. Waiting too long to plan can result in unrealistic expectations, team goals that don't align with company objectives, and a marketing team scrambling to throw something together as quickly as possible instead of focusing on top quality output.
Be the Next Megabrand with Growth Hacker Marketing (Book Review)
In this book review, we'll tell you why we think Ryan Holiday's 2014 book Growth Hacker Marketing is a great addition to your digital marketing library, as it details how brands like Twitter and Facebook skyrocketed to the next level and paved the way for the future of marketing and PR.
Someone's Getting Fired: Totally Avoidable Marketing Mistakes That Will Make You Cringe
Marketers, you have a tough job to do. You have to be edgy enough to stand out in a crowded market and attract attention — but not so edgy you embarrass yourself, attracting the wrong kind of attention. And if you screw up, there is no, “Quick, take it down before someone notices!” Not only has someone noticed, they’ve likely shared the photo or screenshot on Twitter, posted it to Facebook, and submitted it to Reddit. All you can do is pray you haven’t inspired a trending hashtag, and hope customers have short memories. So, how do you push the envelope, without pushing it so far that your PR team gets called in for emergency damage control? It can feel like an impossible balance to achieve. Creativity alone doesn't cut it, you have to be smart — and you have to have the right process in place to protect yourself and your brand from any embarrassing gaffes. Is process the kiss of death for creativity? As tricky as it is to walk the line between creative genius and career suicide, it’s just as tough to strike the right balance between a thorough approvals process and one that's overwrought. That's why, for many marketers and creatives, process just means more stress. Extra hoops to jump through, complicated reviews involving too many people and opinions, and an endless cycle of revisions, until all that’s left is an overworked mess of a marketing system and a burned out team. But the right process isn’t just extra red tape — it’s a safety net. It means you can take the risks that are necessary to stand out and win the market, and rest easy knowing that all the right checks are in place and your brand is safe. Here are 3 costly process mistakes to avoid, plus tips for a streamlined marketing workflow that will set you up for success without slowing you down. 1. Vague creative briefs 70% of designers say that marketers submit unclear creative briefs for new jobs. This means designers are either forced to chase down the details they need to begin work, or guess and fill in the blanks themselves. Either way, you're looking at a lot of wasted time, and a much higher chance that mistakes will be made or key details overlooked. Workflow tip: Every efficient marketing and creative process starts with an effective creative brief. Take the time to establish standardized creative briefs and work requests, complete with fields for campaign goals, file formats and dimensions, related assets, and due dates. It will save your team valuable time (and unnecessary stress) by ensuring expectations are clear and no guesswork is required. [Download a free creative brief template here: The Creative Brief Template: Elements of an Effective Creative Brief] 2. Ambiguous approvals At one point or another, most marketing and creative professionals have heard someone in the C-suite say, “Why did you use this? I never approved this!” There’s nothing quite like the sinking feeling you get in your stomach. And yet the approvals process is often a confusing mess. If the CMO and Creative Director give conflicting feedback, whose comments do you follow? If one person gives their stamp of approval, and another asks for edits, does the first person need to look at the revised version again? And if you send something out for review and approval and don’t hear anything back, does that mean there aren’t any edits or just that everyone’s been too busy to look at it? Creative teams say their #1 collaboration challenge is too much feedback from too many people, so the last thing you want is a drawn out review process with too many voices weighing in. But you do need to bring some order and transparency to the review and approvals process. Workflow tip: Use an online proofing tool that lets people leave comments directly on digital images and documents, so that feedback is precise and all reviewers can see which revisions have already been requested. Plus, approvals can be assigned to specific people, so the author can clearly see who’s given their approval, who’s requested edits, and who hasn’t reviewed yet (and they can send friendly reminders). 3. File version mix-ups When it comes to creative collaboration, your revisions, drafts, and mockups often result in dozens of versions of the same file. When files get sent out for review and approval, consolidating documents with everyone’s feedback and updates into a single definitive version is a tricky task. And when it comes time to print, publish, or upload the final file, it’s all too easy to mistakenly choose the wrong version. After all, you’re probably navigating a mess of files with names like, “final-draft-campaign-Oct-17.jpg,” “last-complete-final-Final(V20)_copy.jpg”, and “Final-ad-USETHISONE.jpg”. Keeping everything organized so that old, unapproved versions aren’t accidentally used in final campaigns is unnecessarily stressful. Workflow tip: Gathering everyone’s feedback doesn’t mean you’re doomed to disorganized files. Simplify your digital asset management by limiting the number of revision rounds. Since every revision results in new files, streamline your current process by eliminating unnecessary steps. Then, use an online proofing and approval tool that supports file editing and versioning. Instead of being emailed, forwarded, and copied, all edits are made to a single file — and everyone on your team can clearly see which version is most up-to-date. Score your biggest marketing wins At Wrike, our marketing department uses our own app to perfect our creative process and launch winning campaigns. Start a free two-week trial of Wrike’s new solution for marketing and creative teams, with nothing to download or install.
How to Supercharge Lead Generation With Project Management
The right project management strategies can teach marketers how to nurture customer relationships, scale lead generation efforts, and produce better, more organized systems for success. Read on for examples and tactics you should know to increase your marketing leads and convert a higher percentage into sales.
