Consider the free Starbucks iPhone app. For the consumer, it is a handy Starbucks locator, a rewards program, and a cardless way to pay for a latte. For the merchant, it is so much more, a literal treasure trove of personalized information. Starbucks knows that a given customer purchases a bold grande and a slice of marble loaf every morning around 8am, and usually springs for a pumpkin latte three evenings a week. Starbucks probably also knows that this customer is male, aged 35-45, so the obvious demographic metrics fall into placeData mining from social networking sites like Facebook can also yield phenomenal results. To continue with Starbucks as an example, consumers can sign up to win free coffee or even free flights on Southwest on the Starbucks Facebook page. Analytics algorithms acquaint themselves with the registered customer base by examining a customer’s profile: extrapolating age from high school graduation dates, taking note of jobs, and creating a range of likely salaries – all before mining the data from the friends list.

Apps, social networking, blogs, interest groups and other nontraditional channels are a vehicle for substantial data collection and candid statistical analysis, but it is the split second, quantifiable interpretation of the data that lays the foundation for an effective campaign and viral consumer networking that makes a business a better investment than gold.

It isn’t just data anymore. It isn’t just information. It is intelligence.

Equipped with an innovative web analytics department, CMOs can  know precisely who their customers are and what drives sales. With comprehensive web analytics, we learn exponentially more about products and market behavior than with websites and surveys. As the traditional and nontraditional channels inevitably merge, highly effective customized, targeted, and personal marketing for both businesses and consumers will result.

In our next post, we’ll look at the necessary skill sets CMOs need in their burgeoning web analytics departments.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing recruitment firm in the USA. Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally. Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers. MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

In a down economy, that’s code for slash your budget or prove your worth.

CMOs need to take on the mantle of leadership and learn the CFO’s lexicon for return on investment.  By creating a data-driven culture, you can translate your creative strategies into terms the CFO can understand and support.

One of the best places to start this effort is with your web analytics. Websites consume corporate dollars, and it’s a reasonable demand to prove with cold, hard facts that the investment is worthwhile. Although more marketing departments are taking the reins of web analytics away from IT, most are still clumsily fooling around with it. Most organizations haven’t really figured out how to take advantage of this treasure trove of data.

It’s not for lack of trying. Forrester Research estimates that businesses will spend $953 million dollars on web analytics in 2014, with an average annual growth of 17% from 2009. Still, it likens web analytics to a teenager in terms of maturity in the corporate marketing sphere.

The challenge, therefore, is before you. Marketing has a reputation for being surrounded by data but often falling short of effectively leveraging it. CMOs need to shift their work from the more subjective, intuition-driven approaches to a more objective, analytical and data-driven operation.

In practical terms, the shift has four distinct tracts. You are closely watching data, such as traffic sources and volume increases, conversion and bounce rates, etc. But the next step is moving beyond tracking to data analysis. Link the experiences your targeted audience is having on your corporate websites with your marketing programs, using your traditional measurements. Explicitly connect your work to data from your analytics.

Next, cross over from being data-informed to data-driven. That is, make decisions and changes in your marketing programs based on that data. All of this is quite an undertaking, but you’re not done yet. The fourth element is presenting your analysis in ROI terms, aligning your marketing measures with corporate goals and objectives, including profit, growth and savings.

We’ve seen this changeover take place a few times, in which interim marketing executives go in and create web analytics programs where none existed previously and begin to make the shift toward data driving marketing decisions.

Both chief executives understand to a certain extent that there is a bit of intangible when it comes to marketing. A bit of magic, a dose of uncertainty and an unending quest for perfection in timing. Even CFOs grasp the concept of assumption. When justifying your need for marketing dollars,  consider a language soaked in fiscal responsibility and methodical analysis.

Web analytics is a good place to start, because of the web’s growing centrality to business. But it’s not the only place. In our next post, we’ll unpack more practical steps in shifting their culture and the other domains CMOs need to mine for data.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the United States. Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally. Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers. MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

MarketPro has moved to an exciting new space.

MarketPro

41 Perimeter Center East, Suite 635

Atlanta, GA 30346

404.222.9992

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has seen a 40% increase in age discrimination complaints since 2006, and the AARP reports that: “Once unemployed, older workers are, on average, out of work longer than their younger counterparts… Average duration of unemployment for jobseekers aged 55 and over was 52.4 weeks… This compares to 35.6 weeks for the younger unemployed” (excerpt from June 2011 AARP Public Policy Institute Fact Sheet).

It can be tempting to concede to the discouraging tone of statistics, but in reality what helps anyone – regardless of age – keep or find a job in today’s market is understanding technology. Even print materials now seamless cross into the digital world, appearing electronically and leveraged by social media.

It is crucial that job candidates understand the power and uses of social media and blogging. The digital world is infused into every aspect of business expertise, and is changing everything about how business is done. It is changing market research. It is changing direct marketing. It is changing branding.

Is it changing your approach to work or finding work? It should.

What also must change is the way you present yourself. How do you present yourself?  If you have true genuine energy, enthusiasm, focus in the interview process, that comes through.  If you come through as frustrated and feeling like the deck is stacked against you because you do feel like you’re being discriminated against based on your age, that cynicism will show through as well.  Your mental attitude is incredibly important.

There are excellent resources available to help prepare for an interview. Use them in conjunction with updating Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and taking whatever classes are needed to get up-to-speed on technology (or just sit down and talk with your teenager). Then take off your watch (just in case), pick up your Smartphone, and get into the groove – the digital world awaits you.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the USA. Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally. Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers. MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

We are excited to add this location to our current offices in Atlanta and Detroit.

MarketPro – Philadelphia

12^th Floor- East Tower

1500 Market Street,

Philadelphia, PA 19102

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading marketing staffing and marketing recruitment firm in the USA.  Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally.  Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers.  MarketPro places talent all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry

More often than not,  junior-level professionals simply  can’t develop the   marketing strategy needed for a significant start-up to be successful.   The practical ideas they generate are often very good, but less effective without the benefit of an senior-level perspective for the marketing direction of the company.

So how does a start-up get past these hurdles? Outsourcing the work to agencies or an independent consultant are often more costly than hiring a full-time executive. A much better option is to bring in someone on an interim basis, typically six to nine months, to work with the company’s chief officers in drafting a comprehensive marketing strategy. You get the benefit of having an experienced professional on your team at a crucial time in the company’s development without having to swallow the steep salary that an individual of that caliber would demand over the long haul.

It’s the same general principle as bringing in an experienced software architect at the beginning to help design the entire system. Once everything is in place, you have the flexibility to bring in lower-level employees to implement the ideas. Software development companies don’t have to pay coders anywhere near what they would have to shell out to keep a high-level software architect on the payroll. Marketing is no different. The junior-level employees have an important role to fill, but they are much more valuable to a startup because of their ability to put a plan into action.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the USA.  Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally.  Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers.  MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

The historical solution to that age-old problem was to hire a consultant. But put the word “consultant” at the end of anything, and it quickly gets expensive. Yet on-demand marketing expertise is exactly what Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies need in order to set the pace in today’s ever-changing marketplace. How do the successful ones do it with today’s restricted budgets?  They do it on their own terms – with Interim Marketing Executives.

Companies outsource manufacturing and tech support to work faster, better, cheaper. Finance departments have used interim executives for years. Entire R&D efforts are purchased as companies identify new markets. Ad hoc marketing expertise is  now essential is all competitive business models – Interim Marketing Executives are moving in for brief periods of time, and getting results for  smart companies.

An Interim Marketing Executive is a highly skilled, independent mid- to executive-level professional, hired as needed to quickly integrate into a company and perform a specific task, project, or transition. They are especially effective when a new and impartial perspective is desired, marketing strategy is to be developed or revamped, or when a specific skill set is needed only for  a few months, or years.

In light of this creative solution, smart companies have found a way to take advantage of new, competitive landscapes they would not have been able to in years past.

For example, MarketPro, a national placement firm, helped a multi-billion dollar publicly-held company accomplish just this task. By hiring just one of MarketPro’s Interim Marketing Executives, they were able to launch one of its most successful brands in China. Directly following the strategic development and launch of the brand, MarketPro’s Interim Marketing Executive quickly and seamlessly transferred this strategy and knowledge to the existing staff. The value of the Interim Executive’s service to the long-term business sustainability is unquantifiable in its magnitude.

A nimble workforce has been the goal for a decade. All decision makers have visions of highly qualified personnel switching gears on a moment’s notice and redirecting efforts to new projects seamlessly. What is just now being understood, however, is that these changes need to happen from the top down, and realistically, the best way to achieve this level of flexibility is with interim partners, perfectly paired to a businesses’ needs, and with an unrivaled depth of expertise.

Interim Marketing Executives are the way for businesses  to get the talent they need when they need it, and at a price far more competitive than consulting firms. Free of internal politics, Interim Marketing Executives are utilizing their proven abilities to take savvy companies to the forefront of a new competitive edge.

About MarketPro:

MarketPro is the leading interim marketing executive and marketing executive search firm in the USA.  Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally.  Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers.  MarketPro places talent in all marketing related disciplines and does so in less time with a higher success ratio than anyone else in the industry.

About MarketPro:

A WBENC certified business, MarketPro is the leading marketing staffing and marketing recruitment firm in the US.  Whether your need is interim / contract or direct placement, we provide top companies with talent that exceeds expectations both functionally and culturally.  Our recruiters know the best marketing talent, because they are experienced marketers.  MarketPro places talent all marketing related disciplines, including creative, digital, communications, market research, brand / product management and direct response.

As a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the AMA Executive Advisory Board, I was able to participate in creating a whitepaper on future of marketing. 

On the advisory board are 20 of the brightest marketing minds in Atlanta, including executives from AT&T, Google, Cox Communications, Kodak, Coca-Cola and Arby’s. 

Ken Bernhardt, a panelist and marketing professor at Georgia State University did a great job of summarizing the whitepaper in recent column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. 

In the whitepaper you will find great information on:

• The changing relationship between brands and consumers.
• Increased demand for personalization.
• The changing role of marketing and the change is skillsets necessary to have a successful marketing career.
• Words of Marketing Advice for 2020.

This seems like such a basic part of the job search process, however I am finding more candidates confused about this today than I have seen in during the 12 years I have be in recruiting. 

Ultimately you need to send a thank you note to everyone you have interviewed with.  In today’s world the preferred method for such communication is e-mail. 

Each letter to needs to be personalized to the recipient and can be used to highlight a point you made in the interview that you believe was important.  Please notice I said to highlight a point, not to create an entirely new line of thought.  This is not the time for I forgot telling them all the things you forgot to bring up during the interviews. 

Be humble and grateful, yet confident in your ability to exceed their expectations.  Ultimately people want to work with people who are excited about working with them and for the company.  Please address in your why you are excited about being part of the team. 

Timing is also important, if you send the note from your smartphone when you get to the car, you are stalking.  Best time is that evening when you are done with you work day.  If you wait too long it will be hard to convince them you are really excited about the role and company. 

Also check out:

Win-Win Salary Negotiation

How to Prepare for an Interview

Career Success Triangle

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