The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Consumers have long told marketers to be relevant and non-disruptive with respect to advertising. Some answers to those demands in the past have been through online creative and digital technology, such as viral video content like Jeff Gordon's Pepsi Max Used Car Salesperson scare, or behavioral targeting and retargeting.

I'll start by saying that many marketers are indeed doing digital, but even if you are or know of a business owner or marketer who is, ask yourself if they are doing the best they could be with their digital marketing efforts. Chances are you or they would say, "No." Even with the number of business and brands using digital, I still come across a number of stories where I hear about a marketer not willing to try digital, whether it be social, mobile, desktop display, or search.

"Things were so much simpler before Apple," says my 11 year old daughter after a recent panic attack over the thought of losing her Instagram followers and pictures. Her iPod Touch was a lemon and luckily under warranty, but the time between her device crashing and her logging back into her Instagram app was pure torture… for both of us!

Building an effective marketing strategy has always been important and sometimes daunting task for businesses and it isn't getting any easier! If you've spent any time reading this blog, you know that developing integrated campaigns is key and new studies show how vital mobile has become to these solutions. As a business owner/CMO/part of a marketing department; having a good understanding of this can be vital to your upcoming marketing successes.

If you play a hand in your company's marketing efforts or sell traditional media, there's a study worth paying attention to for two reasons:

On a recent client visit, the main purpose was to help them plan their 2013 strategy.  One of the topics we covered was how the management team and sales people could remain digitally relevant in 2013.   After seeing the movie "Parental Guidance," it was obvious one of the lead characters, Artie Decker could relate.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first text message. Sent on December 3, 1992, the first text went from a PC to a mobile device over Vodafone's U.K. network and read, "Merry Christmas."

I was at my usual Starbucks getting my usual morning beverage, and while I waited, checked my email as usual. A gentleman in his 70s was behind me asking if I was reading a book on an eReader; apparently he saw me reading one of my lengthy emails and did not know what an eReader looks like.

If you're a business leader looking to advertise using digital—or you are a salesperson responsible for digital sales—knowing what your market is currently spending in digital advertising will help you gauge what kind of budget you may want establish for your online initiatives. If you don't currently know the current local DMR (Digital Marketing Revenue) for your market, Borrell and Associates has released a handy interactive map of over 500 regions where digital dollars are being spent.