Increasing Podcast Response with Veotag

Back in January, Sridhar Ramanathan of the Pacifica Group wrote an interesting post about the pros and cons of using podcasts for B2B marketing. His conclusion: that podcasts shouldn’t take precedence over demand gen priorities such as SEM, but are nonetheless “… a very low cost way for you to augment your installed base customer communications and lead nurturing campaigns with another mode of delivering thought leadership pieces.”

At CDI, we’ve been integrating podcasts for some time as offers into client campaigns, less so as standalone offers, more often as part of information kits alongside downloadable content such as white papers, or in content syndication programs where we have the freedom to swap out content if a particular asset isn’t performing well.

Direct Marketing: Rules vs. Laws

The following post comes courtesy of guest blogger, CDI Creative Director Dave Dumanis (thanks Dave!):

In demand generation, we have this phenomenon called best practices. In other fields, they’d be called rules, or guidelines. They’re pieces of information or advice that, if closely followed, can boost our odds: frequent calls to action, selling the offer rather than the product, making use of “learning benefit” bullets, and making sure emails and their associated landing pages look like they came from the same planet.

Break these rules, and we risk crippling our response—unless we do so carefully, knowingly, and selectively, preferably in the context of testing.

6 Questions on TCO of Marketing Automation Technology

Recently, I was interviewed by Andrew Gaffney, Editor & Publisher of Demand Gen Report, for an upcoming article on the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of marketing automation solutions. With Andrew’s permission, his questions (and my answers) are reproduced below.

AG: Do you think marketing execs are aware of the all of the costs associated with implementing and integrating a marketing automation solution?

HJS: I don’t. Marketing automation has taken on the aura of a “magic bullet” for demand generation and lead management, but in practice marketing automation technology alone automates marketing as much as sales force automation automates sales.

AG: What are some of the factors companies may overlook when they look to automate processes that had previously been manual and often unconnected?

New White Paper: Tips for Webinar Invitation Success

CDI has just released a new white paper: “Top 10 Tips for Webinar Invitation Success” containing ideas, techniques, and strategies for increasing registration and response from e-mail Webinar invitations. Inside you’ll learn:

• the 3 key copy elements to include in your e-mail headline and sub-head …
• the common copywriting mistake that turns off readers instantly …
• why expensive keynote speakers may not make a difference …
• when to use graphics in your e-mail and the secret to making sure readers see your key messages even if they have images turned off …

RSS Advertising Driving Leads & Traffic for Cisco

RSS usage is growing in leaps and bounds. According to the Avenue A | Razorfish Digital Consumer Behavior Study, 56 percent of online consumers now use RSS feeds, and so it was only a matter of time before someone figured out an effective way for publishers to monetize the content and also use RSS as an effective advertising vehicle.

A hybrid of online advertising, newsletter sponsorships, and content syndication, RSS advertising shows great promise of being a highly effective, targeted vehicle for driving traffic and leads from an audience that is influential, active online, responsive, and pre-disposed to relevant content. (According to Bloglines, RSS users return three times per day and consume feed content for 20 minutes per session.)