MarCom Professional

When do you use all your database for a mass mailing?  I have a huge database of contacts – both personal and business.  Knowing when and how to contact them all is a difficult issue because you don’t want to annoy – but equally there are some things that you really want to communicate to a wide audience because the matter is important.

I just received an update from Mike Butcher that is a great example of the right time to use a mass mailing.

Mike is a journalist and the editor of TechCrunch Europe.  He’s a fantastically connected person and I suspect this mailing ran into the thousands. More...

As promised in a previous post “Why are clients still scratching their heads about Social Media?” I wanted to look at the additional skills that marketing leaders will need to possess from now on to understand the new world of social media and drive real benefit from it.

This post has been prompted by some research by recruitment firm Major Players covered by Revolution Magazine that claims online marketing growth “may be stunted by a sheer lack of social media knowledge in the talent pool.”

I’m not suggesting that we need to have a “Head of Social Media” AND a “Head of Marketing Communications”, because marketing leaders of the future will need to be multi skilled and be able to utilise all available channels – old and new. More...

eMarketer reports that U.S. small and medium businesses (SMBs) are adopting social media marketing in greater numbers, according to a market study by Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland.

Social media usage increased to 24 percent, from 12 percent the year before.

It's interesting to note that the most common usage of social media among small business was a company page on a social networking site, followed by posting status updates.

SMB expectations of social media are in line with their experiences, although they are not quite as successful as they had hoped. More...

We have been members of BIMA for a while – it’s a trade body for digital agencies.  They ran an event called “New business generation – farming style” earlier this month.  It was a panel discussion with Chris Cowpe – The Caffeine Partnership, Paul Kirkley – JWT, David Hart – Codegent and Mark Clark – @JFDI.

Here is Jane’s take on the event with her own views expanded.

Changes in Business Development

A subtle yet important shift is starting to change the way we look at business development. The change can be best described as a move from hunting to farming. More...

The demographic mix of Americans capable of using the Internet continues to evolve. With 71 percent of Americans using the Internet (from any location) at least once per month in 2010 -- U.S. Internet users now better resemble the general population.

Overall, eMarketer forecasts the number of monthly Internet users in the U.S. will rise to 250.7 million in 2014, up from 221 million in 2010.

More than one-half of new (novice) users will be ages 45 and up, as many of the remaining laggards join the mainstream. Among younger groups, the Internet is nearly ubiquitous, and most who are able to access it already do so -- leaving limited potential for new growth. More...

Over 11 million hotel rooms and 1 million airline seats are potential new IPTV entertainment applications, according to the latest market study by MRG, Inc.

Hotels and Airlines alone will account for a $1.9 billion global market in 2012, indicating that for most hospitality applications, analog video use is likely to quickly become extinct.

MRG says that both In-Room Entertainment (IRE) and In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) markets show a sharp shift in user expectations.

"While respondents indicated that IPTV may be too expensive for the low-end market, the study finds that there is a substantial and growing need for IPTV to serve the mid- and high-end of the hospitality market. More...

How good are your planning skills? Would you be prepared to put your money where you mouse is and buy shares in a company that you identified as a good investment prospect?

I doubt that many people would. But this could be the outcome of a project driven by Google Insight. Wikinut founder Andy Walton posted a comment about his experiment after I blogged about the application of Google Insight to identify the likely success of a campaign.

Walton’s contention is that Google Insights can be used to link search volumes to product usage and revenue for brands that [are] unique enough to avoid cross over with unrelated searches. More...