MARKETING HORIZONS

Marketers are under mounting pressure to demonstrate results. In this episode, the renowned measurement master Katie Delahaye Paine shares her latest tips on how to successfully overcome the challenge while preparing for the new developments ahead. Join us to learn two key reasons this issue persists, why you need to set the right objectives, and how silos and fiefdoms can doom your efforts. Innovative AI-driven tools are on the way, but we must apply them with care.

The landscape of higher education has experienced major changes, but it is set to undergo a sweeping transformation in the years ahead. A smaller Gen. Z cohort, combined with increased talent demands in the industry bring both threats and opportunities for academic instruction. Who will survive, and how will they thrive? In this week’s episode, we tackle two compelling opportunities: how marketing professionals should evaluate the role of higher education in their career ladder, and how schools should borrow from the B2B playbook to competitively market themselves for the future. Take a listen with our esteemed guest, Chad Mezera, Assistant Dean of Online Programs for the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University. Chad literally “wrote the playbook” on online education, and has turned WVU’s higher education programs into award-winning, innovative online degrees.

In this episode, Brian Hunt explains, in the clearest possible terms, the total scoop on CTV for marketers. We learned its benefits and drawbacks, the differences between CTV, OTT and linear television, and why CTV is an essential medium for us to be experimenting with today. Career hint: Data science majors can write their own tickets in this field! Join us for the details of how television is becoming more digital, targetable and measurable as a marketing communications channel.

It’s time to look in the digital mirror. Do you like what you see? What does your “digital-first impression” say about you? And why should you care? Whether it’s your company website or your social pages, your web presence makes a bigger difference than you think. In this episode, our guest Andy Crestodina makes the case for investing in your digital presence right now, to make the impact you want tomorrow. He also shares tips on how your digital content must adapt to stay competitive, engaging and relevant. Join us!

Some changes are so subtle you don’t recognize them when they are happening, but then – BAM - you get a wake-up call. That is what our guest, Jay Baer, says about the customer experience. Today CX is all about how you make the customer feel and brands who succeed in the future will excel at understanding, meeting, and exceeding the expectations of their customers. Join us as Jay lays out the roadmap for what you should be doing now to meet the future needs of your customers. Jay is a marketing and customer experience expert and 7th-generation entrepreneur. He is the author of 6 best-selling business books and the founder of 5 multi-million dollar companies. His newsletter, thebaerfacts.com is also chock full of tips and insights on the convergence of marketing+CX.

Early in the pandemic, David Meerman Scott saw marketers struggle to take their in-person events virtual, and concluded that we were approaching the problem from the wrong mindset altogether. He published a 6-minute video explaining the right way to reimagine events for the virtual world. On our podcast, David not only provides a 7-point set of action steps to liven up your virtual and hybrid events, but he also shares what it will take to create the successful events of the future.

Are your models annoying or delighting your consumers? Marketers have been using machine learning for years to help create advanced models, but that is not going to cut it in the future. Too many personalization efforts today rely on algorithms that are turning people off. And our attempts at automated personalization engines are forcing consumer audiences to simply tune brands out.

In this special edition of Marketing Horizons, hosts Ruth Stevens and Cyndi Greenglass review the 2021 marketing trends they believe will have a significant impact on marketers in the year ahead. Some fads have already faded, but some new ones will continue to disrupt and drive business results in 2022. And a bonus: Are you thinking about how to up level your career this year? Ruth and Cyndi also give us a preview of the exciting careers emerging for marketers.

Direct marketing —an approach that uses all types of advertising media to motivate a response, which is tracked and stored in a database—is fast becoming indistinguishable from modern marketing today. Join us as Ron Jacobs, one of the preeminent authorities on this topic, explains the evolution of direct marketing thinking and where it’s headed over the horizon. Hint: Some marketing challenges are not likely to be solved anytime soon, but Ron says new tools and technologies are on the way.

Learn about the exciting job role of product management in tech markets from our guest, Laura Marino, Chief Product Officer at TrueAccord. While tech product managers have little direct authority, they hold great responsibility to represent the needs of the customer and influence others in the firm—engineering, marketing, finance—to deliver products to market at a profit. The future is bright for these professionals, as Product-Led Growth becomes a strategic imperative. Tune in especially as Laura names four characteristics of a successful product.