Welcome to our second “marketing influencers roundup”, where we bring you 10 of the best, most diverse, interesting, important, and insightful pieces of content we stumbled upon in recent weeks. Along with a tiny little take on why we think each link is worth your time.
Let’s go.
1. Who: Social Media Today
What: An infographic describing Instagram Influencer Marketing in 2020 – and what you need to know about it.
Why: Influencer marketing is growing very rapidly, in order to keep up with it all – this post shows why it might be wise to get your brand on Insta. Again, we’ll say that it might be that key opinion customers are more important in such times like the COVID19 crisis, compared to key opinion leaders.
2. Who: Campaign Monitor – the email marketing & E commerce automation software company, part of CM Group.
What: An article on U.S. email marketing benchmarks for 2020 by day and industry.
Why: What’s benchmark for email open rate in the fishing and hunting industry… on Wednesdays? Glad you asked! Cause this study by CM can tell you precisely. It’s 15.5%. Not amazing. And since CRM Marketers may be using a growing number of channels on a daily basis, but email marketing continues to be perhaps the main one – we think you’ll find this link super useful.
3. Who: Bernadette Doyle – A marketing expert with almost 70K followers on Twitter
What: A Bernadette TV (it’s a thing!) episode about the importance of knowing your customer.
Why: Because “there is no amount of cleaver promotion or cleaver copy writing or cleaver sales tactic that can create a ‘want’ in customers. The fundamental ‘want’ had to be there.” And cause she has been mentioned and recognized by major newspapers and magazines including Forbes, All Business, and Daily Mail for her tremendous understanding of customer marketing.
4. Who: Daniel Newman – Principal Analyst at FuturumResearch, CEO at Broadsuite & V3B, Contributor at TEDx Alum, Global Speaker on Digital Transformation
What: A blog post on 5 AI and analytics trends that marketers and brands should be investing in.
Why: He writes for Forbes and smart CRM marketers should read what he has to say. The main point to remember about the specific piece here is that “being a data-driven organization is no longer an option.”
5. Who: Dharmethesh Shah – CTO & Co-Founder, HubSpot
What: A quote (part of an interview).
Why: Because he founded HubSpot and has more than 282K followers on Twitter. And remembering that we speak to actual people is all the more important in extremely sensitive times such as this, when the world is facing the tragic Coronavirus outbreak.
“Many companies have forgotten they sell to actual people. Humans care about the entire experience, not just the marketing or sales or service. To really win in the modern age, you must solve for humans.”
6. Who: eMarketer
What: A report on Customer Experience in 2020 – Advancing Core Marketing Practices and Case Studies of Success.
Why: The report states that “a cohesive customer experience matters, or so consumers say. Last year, 72% of internet users worldwide said a disconnected experience would make them change service providers or brands, according to MuleSoft and Opinium Research.” That’s a lot, and you can use it the next time you ask for resources to unify your CRM efforts.
7. Who: RetailWire
What: New IRI “Channel Trends in CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) Today” Report
Why: Because they say that “despite the persistent threat of a recession, consumers remain confident about their financial well-being and are contributing to CPG sales growth, according to IRI’s newly released Q4 2019 Consumer Connect Survey. However, as consumers prioritize saving time, effort and money, they are shifting their shopping habits to channels they feel best support them.” Which is all super interesting, but even more so – we’re eager to see how it all stacks up in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak.
8. Who: Business of Fashion and Doug Stephens (the RetailProphet)
What: An article titled “In Brands We Trust: Why Companies Are the New Communities.”
Why: Because understanding the importance of nurturing your most valuable asset – your existing clients – and of the “community” premise, is 100 times more important in such dire times.
9. Who: RetailGeek
What: A podcast titled “Jason & Scot Show Episode 210: Amazon Go Grocery and News.”
Why: Cause staying up to date is ever so important, and these guys cover many bases.
10. Who: National Retail Foundation
What: A petition!
Why: “The trade war with China threatens U.S. jobs and raises prices on American families,” says the petition sign-up page. Not sure why, it sounds kinda important.