Content Marketing Make vs Buy: Why You Absolutely Need To Do The Work In-House

Part 2 of a 3 Part Series Sergio Zyman, the one time "enfant terrible" of marketing and the man who brought you New Coke, once famously said that companies didn't need agencies to develop their marketing strategy for them. In his 2002 book The End Of Advertising As We Know It, Zyman was adamant in his assertion that most agencies overemphasize art and entertainment at the expense of creating work that actually sells a product. Fast forward a little more than a decade later, and I think the same can be said of agency …

Content Marketing Make vs Buy: Do You Really Need To Hire An Agency?

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series When it comes to delivering the quality and quantity of digital and traditional materials needed to fuel content marketing initiatives, one of the first questions a lot of marketers ask themselves is: do I really need an agency? Which is usually followed by: can I really afford to hire one? The answer to both questions is yes. And no. It's not an easy decision. A lot of it has to do with your organization's ability to staff up with the talent necessary to produce the quality of work that …

Ogilvy On Content Marketing: “Tell The Truth But Make The Truth Fascinating”

David Ogilvy was the master of content marketing. Yes, I know Ogilvy died in 1999, years before the term "content marketing" came into everyday use, but his insights into what grabs the attention of consumers and jolts them into action are just as applicable today as they were in his "Mad Men" heyday. And just as simple. Even though Ogilvy was practicing his craft in the halcyon days of print and TV, he never got caught up in the "creativity" of the ad game. He knew that in order to be successful, his ads needed to …

Getting Social Media Marketing To The “Next Level” By Aligning Programs With Broader Business Goals

Social media marketing is not all fun and games. Despite what some people may tell you, there's a lot more to the discipline than posting, tweeting, liking, and sharing. Done right, social media adds a powerful accelerator to your marketing programs. One that amplifies your messaging and facilitates the customer acquisition process. The challenge is proving it to a skeptical C-suite that wants you to draw them a straight line from a sent tweet to a closed sale. While we all know that "connect the dots" approach to …

Embrace the Three S’s. Keep It Searchable, Snackable, And Shareable For Content Marketing Success

I came across a great infographic from Boston-based content marketing company Skyword that I thought really summed up the importance of developing and disseminating bite-sized, high-quality, well-crafted marketing content (verbal, visual, and video) that resonates with and actively engages your customers.  Skyword defines content marketing as "the art and science of creating web content that informs, entertains, and converts" and goes on to further explain what they see as the keys to content marketing …

How Medical Marketers Can Take Advantage Of The Accelerating Adoption Of Mobile Technology

Increasing access to mobile technology is on the verge of forever transforming the way healthcare professionals assess, diagnose, treat, and manage their patients’ illnesses inside and outside the hospital. In the same way, 24 x 7 real-time access to information about products, technologies, and services that can help facilitate that transformation has already fundamentally changed the way medical marketers reach and influence clinical decision makers. If you're not already using mobile technology in your …

Reassuring Customers After Data Hacking: How Vudu Did It Right And What We Can Learn From It

I just got an e-mail (see below) from the CTO of on-line movie streaming service Vudu telling me that thieves broke into their Silicon Valley offices recently and made off with computer hard drives containing customer data. My immediate reaction was "yikes!" but then I read on. Unlike a lot of notices that I get on an all too regular basis from banks and retail outlets, this wasn't an impersonal message about an undisclosed "security event" that led to a compromise of customer data. I was told specifically what …

New King Of The Hill? Why LinkedIn May Be The Best B2B Social Media Platform Out There

I’ll admit it, I have a soft spot in my heart for LinkedIn. If it weren’t for the business-oriented social media site, a headhunter working for my current employer never would have found me. And I wouldn’t be happily working for an innovative medical technology firm that lets me wear flip flops and jeans to work while I gaze (occasionally) at the Pacific from my office in sunny San Clemente, CA. But marketers who think of LinkedIn solely as a job search tool are missing point. And missing a great opportunity in …

7 Easy Steps to Creating MedTech Social Media Content that Gets Results and Keeps Your Regulatory Team Happy

If you’re like me, there’s nothing you hate more than having a great marketing idea get squashed by regulatory and never see the light of day for fear of running afoul of the FDA. I get why it happens (and thankfully it doesn’t happen that often). I just don’t like it. That’s why, when it comes to social media engagement, we’ve developed a process that keeps our regulatory team happy while allowing us marketing types to create content that gets noticed, talked about, and shared. You can too. Here’s how. Start …

Cold Calling in the Age of Digital Networking. Enough Already!

As an ex ad agency guy, I know how difficult it is to drum up new business in an exceptionally competitive marketplace. I've been the guy who picks up the phone and tries to get through to the marketing decision maker with the message about how our services can help make their life easier, propel their business to new heights, or solve that unsolveable problem. Hated it! And the fact is, I don't remember a single cold call that ever turned into a meaningful assignment. But when I made the jump to the client side …