Stop chasing clients and start attracting them

One of the most critical components of your Advisory Marketing plan is to stop chasing clients and start attracting them. 

Today, we will show you a simple 3 step strategy on how to do just that.

There are two types of consultants and advisers : attractors and chasers.

Attractors do things differently than chasers and as a result, have a boat load of ideal clients in their lead generation funnel. Not surprising, they almost always make more money than advisors who follow the chaser model.  Chasers spend the majority of their time on the hunt for new clients. They are often desperate for their next deal. Even though they spend the majority of their time chasing clients and attempting to close the deal, their closing rates are rarely better than their counter parts who use an attractor model.  The chaser business model is like a roller coaster business – going from feast to famine and back again to repeat the never ending cycle.

But don’t worry, these 3 simple steps will show you how to stop chasing clients and start attracting them.

Step #1: Become an Attractor-

To become an attractor, you need to create a business that attracts your ideal prospects and clients.  First, you need to find out what your ideal prospects and clients want, need, value and even fear.  Once you find out what your ideal client wants, you simply need to deliver it.  Chasers, on the other hand, are too busy selling or trying to sell that they don’t have the time to find out what their ideal clients want.  Chasers generally believe they do not have the time to find out what their clients and prospects want, need, value or fear-  nothing could be further from the truth.  If they knew just how valuable it is to find out what their clients and prospects want, they would find the time to start asking questions.

Step #2: Find the Answer-

One of the biggest insights shared by Socrates was to never assume or tell but to ask, ask, ask.  By asking your clients, prospects, centers of influence and reciprocal referral partners exactly what they want, you will know exactly what you need to do and offer to have a boat load of clients lined up wanting to do business with you.  The best news about asking anyone and everyone who has knowledge of your ideal client, is that they are almost always willing to help you out by answering a few questions.

Some great questions include:

What keeps you up at night?

What is your top objective?

What has to happen in 1, 3, 5 years for you to be ecstatic about your financial situation?

What do you love about your current advisor (if they have one)?

What would you like your advisor to do differently, if anything?

How do you want to be remembered?

Do you have a plan to ensure that will happen in your estate plan?

Before you begin asking questions, take some time to create a questionnaire that includes all the questions you need to know to best serve your ideal client.

Step #3: Deliver it-

Once you have interviewed the people tied to your ideal client, you need to create a plan to deliver it.  Your plan ideally includes the inner game, game plan and outer game.  From your 12 month plan, identify the to-dos from most important to least important.  Then determine who will complete each action.  If you do not have the staff to ensure you complete the plan, hire another part or full time employee who can assist you execute the plan.  The worst thing you can do is to start a plan and then stop it because you are too busy to execute it.  To ensure you follow through on your plan, you need to plan for contingencies and do the upfront work to make it a reality.

The best advice is to understand that our actions produce our results.  Consistent, right action produces consistent, right results just as inconsistent action produces inconsistent results. To ensure our actions are consistent, take the time to create a plan and do what is necessary to complete the plan to ensure you get the results you desire.

5 Ways to Promote Your YouTube Videos

You can make the most informative and entertaining video on YouTube, but that alone won't guarantee you an audience of potential customers. You'll still need to promote your video in as many ways as possible to help spread the word about your startup.

Here are some of the most successful tactics for promoting a new YouTube video:

1. Promote it on your company blog.
Your company blog is the perfect place to promote your video to your loyal customer base. Talk up each new video in its own blog post, linking to it or even embedding it in the post.

2. Tell your email list.
When you upload a new video to YouTube, send a message and link to your entire email list. If you send out a periodic email newsletter, mention your new videos in it, too.

3. Connect to social media.
Mention your new videos in your tweets and status updates, and link to or embed them in the messages. Facebook, for instance, lets you embed YouTube videos in your status updates. Just paste the URL into the status update and Facebook will put the video in your News feed. Twitter doesn't let you embed videos, but you can link to them from your tweets. And on Pinterest, you can "pin" YouTube videos to your virtual pinboards.

You also can promote your videos on social bookmarking and news sites such as Reddit and StumbleUpon. When you post a link to your video on these sites, you can broaden the viewership beyond your existing customers and social media followers. Note, however, that self-promotion is often frowned upon on many of these sites, so do so as sparingly and subtly as you can.

4. Do some old-fashioned public relations.
While most companies focus their promotional efforts on the web, you shouldn't neglect traditional public relations. This means issuing a press release when you've uploaded a new or particularly important video, and also picking up the phone or sending emails to target specific news outlets, such as your industry's trade groups, publications and blogs. Make sure you include a video link in your press release to help online news sources link directly from their coverage to your video on YouTube.

5. Advertise on YouTube.

If you can afford it, you can advertise your videos on YouTube, using parent company Google's AdWords for Video program. Called TrueView ads, they appear on the YouTube site, targeting potential viewers and linking back to the selected video or your YouTube channel page. TrueView ads are pay-per-click (PPC) ads, just like traditional AdWords text ads. So, you pay only when someone clicks your ad.

Start by logging into your Google AdWords account and linking it to your YouTube account. Set a daily budget for the maximum you're willing to spend. Then, select a video to display in your ad and choose the type of ad you want to run.

Google offers four types of TrueView ads. In-search ads appear at the top of the search results page when users search for the keywords you select. In-display ads appear in the related videos section on the viewing pages for similar videos. In-stream ads are short video messages that play at the beginning or end of other videos. And in-slate ads are commercials that play before or in the middle of longer videos.

In-search ads are the best choice for many companies because most YouTube videos are found through searches. So, just like your website, you want your video showing up on search results pages.

The next step requires you to set a maximum cost per view (CPV). This is the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. You can start with just $1 per day but what you spend is really dependent on your budget. You then choose how to target your ad -- through demographics and interests or via keywords. Keyword targeting is often best for in-search ads.

Once your campaign is up and running, you can use the AdWords Dashboard to measure the performance of your ads -- including but not limited to number of views. Depending on the results, you may need to tweak your strategy and possibly create new ads.

Mobile video: how to win the battle for engagement

Instagram has recently introduced video to its suite of options for users and advertisers. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

With smartphones and tablets rapidly becoming the world's preferred method for connecting to the internet, brands are looking to mobile video as the next great battleground in advertising. Advertising tailored to mobile devices is growing rapidly as services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube and Sky encourage mobile viewing. Meanwhile, social media platforms are looking for ways to boost the use of mobile video ads.

Facebook, which gets nearly 60% of its ad revenue through mobile, according to its Q1 2014 figures, sees mobile video as a burgeoning area and is introducing a range video ad formats. These include Video App Install Ads, which enable marketers to drive downloads of their apps through video ads in the mobile news feed. The social network has also launched its premium auto-play video ads in the US (which play silently until clicked, after which the sound comes up) and is introducing this to other markets, including the UK.

Meanwhile, Facebook's image-sharing social network Instagram has introduced video and is striking deals with brands to create what is being billed as beautiful and memorable advertising.

Chris Jacob, director of product marketing at Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, believes that mobile video is quickly becoming a vital part of most marketing strategies. He says: "As mobile video consumption continues to increase, it is becoming an important medium for marketers to maintain brand awareness, build loyalty and influence the customer journey.

"Advertisers are realising that delivering engaging location and smartphone or tablet-optimised video is not only powerful, but is also becoming the best way to reach much of their target audience."

An attractive feature of mobile video advertising via social networks is the sophisticated audience targeting and analysis that is now possible. Jacob points to other advantages, such as tapping into the always-on customer environment and reaching potential consumers when they are most engaged. Jacob says that customers are engaging with mobile video more actively too, choosing to view the content rather than sitting passively through a standard TV ad spot.

To get the best out of mobile video advertising, brands need to use one of the ad management platforms that can guide them through what can be a complex process. Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud offers the Social.com service, a platform allowing advertisers to launch, manage and optimise their video campaigns efficiently and at scale.

Social.com enables brands to use their first-party customer data to better inform their targeting through Facebook's Custom Audiences product. This allows brands to supply Facebook with email addresses from their customer list so the social network site can anonymously target those users with ads. Meanwhile, social.com also offers features such as Interest Clusters & Draft Campaigns, which help boost return on investment.

Mobile video offers stunning prospects for advertisers to engage with audiences through the devices that they keep closest to them. They will need to bear in mind that there are differences between how people use their smartphones and tablets - tending to spend longer on tablets while using smartphones in a more functional way. But given the opportunities for targeting people by location, activity and through their social networks that mobile offers, brands are likely to build it into their marketing plans.

Coutesy : 

• theguardian.com

Why Video Marketing is Underrated and How to Use it to Your Advantage

Video, an online marketing platform that has seen a sharp rise in use and effectiveness, is an often overlooked means for driving relevant traffic to your site – and generating interest in your campaign. An effective video initiative can also bolster your other marketing strategies.

Galactic Café, developer of the recent narrative-driven game The Stanley Parable, got it right.

Galactic Café sent customized preview builds of The Stanley Parable to well-known YouTube users who participate in Let’s Play videos. These users have a tremendous following that tune in for their first impressions of new games.

The developers engaged these YouTube users directly through dialogue in the game. The result: Plenty of organic, viral interaction about the videos that boosted traffic for these YouTube users’ Let’s Play video as well as sales for Galactic Café.

A recent B2B Benchmark Survey revealed more than 90% of marketing respondents used video on a site, second only to the learn more/contact us option (nearly 100%). Video topped white papers and case studies (84%) and even live demos with company representatives (just less than 80%).

We’ll discuss ways to blend video marketing into your online presence, and how easy it is to measure engagement and see results from it. With the proliferation of mobile devices as our primary means of Internet access, and bandwidth and speeds increasing with fiber-optic Internet, it’s prime time for video.

1.  Crunch the numbers

Video content is easily subject to behavior analytics. Because video content is also tagged with keywords and ranks in Google search, you can use a video-hosting site such as YouTube to track interaction. Online retailers such as Amazon and Dell report an increase of as much as 35% when video is incorporated.

Video product reviews on Amazon nearly always appear at the top of Google’s rankings. 

Takeaway: Video content is also easy to share via social networks, and software developers have prioritized video integration in site creation.

2.  Reach customers on a deeper level

Our draw to video is subliminal, too. The concept of fusiform facial area suggests the brain processes categorical data about a person by facial recognition. Basically, the idea is that a person’s face is a factor in how they understand and process the message that person delivers verbally.

The right face on your video campaign can foster trust. A voice also translates your message in an essential way.

Takeaway: A face, a voice, and most of all, emotion, convey what language alone cannot.

3.  Grab attention

Words and images are static. Page viewers are increasingly scan readers. It takes notable effort to read a 300-word blog post, especially compared to a simple click of a video play button. When visitors hit that button, it gives you the chance to actually talk to your prospect. It’s your window to their home. 

Takeaway: Video is an extension of the personal connection we wrote about above, but with a familiarity of having “met” you through your video.

4.  Let your followers sing your praises

Happy customers are gold. You can harvest recorded testimonials at a tradeshow, and it’s best to get as many as you can – aim for at least three, maybe as many as 12. You can also hire a video crew to hold a one-day shoot. Know what key messages you’re looking for when you edit.

Takeaway: The Q&A approach will put your testimonial subject at ease, and will allow you to direct the conversation toward those key messages you identified.

5.  Go forth and conquer

A marketing video on your site is just the beginning. Start a YouTube channel. Incorporate video on landing pages. Post them to social media and your blog page. They’re easily shared through these channels, and the more a video is shared on quality sites, the better your Google page rank.

Takeaway: You’ll reach exponentially more potential clients with a well-made, well-placed video than with nearly any other means of marketing.

8 Reasons Why You Should Create Videos for Your Business

Over the past year, we’ve noticed a stiff increase of demand for video productions, mostly for the benefit of improving our clients’ websites and with the purpose of increasing the conversion rate of website visitors. I predict that this will become an even bigger trend in the next few years, and that video will increasingly become the way of communicating key messages to clients.

According to a comScore study, released in February 2011, 82.5% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed a video online. In a 2010 report from Cisco, 30% of Internet traffic is currently video. By 2013, 90% of Internet traffic will be video. These are impressive statistics, and when looking at the YouTube statistics below, this becomes even more convincing:

• YouTube is the second biggest search engine (after Google).
• 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
• Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day.
• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month.
• Over 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube.
• More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years.
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or almost 140 views for every person on Earth.

So what does all of this mean for us and our businesses? It indicates that people love to consume video and we have to adjust to that fact and serve them with the type of content that they prefer. Yes, a lot of the online video consumption is driven by recreational and entertainment videos. However, there is clear evidence that video is equally prominent and impactful for business purposes.

Consider these additional statistics:

• When a video is present on a product page of LivingDirect.com, consumers spend 9% more time viewing the page compared to when no video is present.
• Virtually 60% of respondents said they would watch video previous to reading text on the same webpage, and 22% said they generally liked watching video more than browsing text for examining business information.
• 75% of all executives said they watched work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than 50% use YouTube to watch those videos.
• 65% of U.S. executives surveyed by Forbes in October 2010 visit a vendor’s website after viewing a work-related online video.

All of this culminates in the conclusion that you should start implementing a video content strategy if you haven’t done so yet. Here are the top 5 reasons why you should:

1. Your clients want it.
All of the trends indicate that your clients want video from you. Not delivering on this desire only means somebody else will.

2. More content in less time
Video is a unique way of communicating a lot of information in a short period of time. According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research,watching a minute of video is the equivalent of reading 1.8 million words.

3. Branding
Branding is a complex business. Videos allow you to further craft and shape your brand. Video allows you to convey emotions that you can’t bring across with text and still photos only; it provides you with an opportunity to add different attributes to your brand.

4. Multi-purpose use
We have clients that use their videos not only on their website, but also push them out through all the other online channels (e.g. YouTube and Social Media). In addition, they often use the videos in presentations in offline settings, e-mail marketing campaigns or on TV in waiting rooms.

5. Website Quality
Videos improve the overall quality of a website, and how the website is used.

6. Show your personality and profile
Video allows you to project a better and more personal profile to your company and as well as your clients.

For example, lawyers or doctors can give videos a personal touch, which is something that clients very much respond to.

7. E-Mail Marketing
Using videos in E-Mail marketing generates 2-3 times higher click-thru rates compared to static E-Mails.

8. Video prepares you for the future.
Roughly 66% of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video by 2014. All smartphones and most  mobile devices are optimized for video consumption. Being able to provide content in video format increases your ability to differentiate yourself from your competition.

Digital Marketing Trends & Predictions for 2015

The only constant is change.

From technology trends to changing business models to evolving consumer behaviors, there’s a lot to consider in order for today’s marketers to really have a handle on what’s important about what’s next.

Old digital tactics and mastering individual channels are being overcome by the need to create a common brand experience across the digital experience on and offline. Customers expect to access and consume information across platforms, apps and devices and in order for brands to “be the best answer” wherever buyers are looking, they’ll need to figure out what’s next and where to focus.

To capture some of what’s important for digital marketing in 2015, I reached out to some of the marketers I’ve worked with and come to know over the years. It’s an inspiring collection of marketing brain power and experience represented by brands like Cisco, IBM, Dell, Google, Intel, Marketo and LinkedIn as well as industry thought leaders like David Meerman Scott, Ann Handley, Jay Baer, Ekaterina Walter, Mark Schaefer, Ardath Albee, Brian Clark and many more – 21 in all.

Business content has to be more than informative. It should entertain too. That’s why I asked each marketing smartie to share a “selfie” of themselves to go along with their 2015 prediction. A surprising number have never taken and published a selfie before, so you’re seeing them here first.

From content to mobile to ads to humor to being more human – this post covers a variety of important areas of focus for digital marketing in 2015. Dig in, learn and enjoy:

Ann Handley  @annhandley – Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
Is it 2015 already…? And I just learned to routinely write 2014 on my checks…(darn it!)

So here goes: In 2015, I’m thinking about two things:

1. We’re taking the notion of “”brands are publishers”” and pushing the boundaries of that further.

How that plays out: We’ll focus on enormous empathy and customer experience (and not just more blog posts). (That doesn’t mean blog posts aren’t important, for the right company and the right customer. But it means we consider if that’s the best approach, rather than making a post the default.)

We’ll focus on more relevance and new inspirations (rather than just the tried and true).

And we’ll focus on being generously useful. 2015 really will be the year we create and curate content our customers will thank us for. Which leads me to…

2. Marketers become ridiculously proud of their writing!

In our online social world, we recognize that all marketers are writers. Everybody writes, and that’s true whether you are the Chief Content Officer or Marketing VP or the mar-com manager. Our words are our currency – they tell the world who we are, as Beth Dunn points out. They can make us look smart or they can make us look stupid – and so being able to communicate well in writing isn’t just nice; it’s necessity.

Are you thinking writing doesn’t matter in our video/podcast/Instagram world? Actually, it matters more. Good writing is like an iceberg – use your best words to convey depth under the surface. That means you’re got to choose those words well, and write with economy and the style and the end reader in mind (there’s that empathy thing again!). That’s true whether you’re writing a listicle or the words on a Slideshare deck or the opening paragraph Lee wrote at the top of this post… 

Jay Baer @jaybaer – President, Convince & Convert
It’s already happening, but 2015 will be the year of paid amplification. With content marketing reaching near-ubiquity, the success pendulum with swing toward boosting consumption of content. That will put a new focus on math, testing and optimization as content production and content distribution become equally important.

Mark Schaefer @markwschaefer – Executive Director, Schaefer Marketing Solutions
As far as 2015, there is a vast change on our horizon that will be led by augmented reality and wearable technology. This change will be so profound in fact, that I think we will look back at this revolution as something that is as important as the Internet itself.

By the end of 2015, wearable technology should be gathering enough steam that we will begin to see some early marketing applications. What does marketing look like when the Internet surrounds us like the air that we breathe? Fascinating to think about.

Pam Didner @pamdidner – Global Integrated Marketing Strategist, Intel Corporation
Marketers have been advised to create and tailor different formats of content with customized copy for highly fragmented marketing channels from TV and print to various social media platforms in order to reach their target audience. It’s the right thing to do.

Digital marketing will continue to morph and promotion channels will be further fragmented. The major change for 2015 is NOT about digital marketing. The major change will come from Marketers by Going Back to Basics: reevaluate the target audience, determine what works and what doesn’t. Re-prioritize and be smart about resource allocation and investment.

Mike Stelzner @Mike_Stelzner – CEO, Social Media Examiner
Major change in digital marketing: Those that pitch are becoming ignored. A little bit of selling here and there is great, but those marketers who do nothing but sell, sell, sell, are gonna get ignored, dismissed and overlooked by consumers and prospects. Get cracking folks, it’s time to actually care. That means dedicating more resources to things that are harder to track, like answering customer questions and providing more value online.

Brian Solis @briansolis – Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group
I’d love to say that by 2015 we will truly see digital strategies that are integrated across social, mobile, advertising, marketing, comms, et al. But, we won’t. What we will see though is a more conscious effort to bring disparate groups to the table to learn how to collaborate across screens, channels, and moments of truth to deliver ONE experience to customers wherever they are in the lifecycle.

John Jantsch @ducttape – Founder, Duct Tape Marketing
I believe organizations will go deeper into overall strategy with digital marketing – Chief Digital Officers will help organizations lessen their focus on demand creation and heighten it on organizing an end to end customer journey through digital storytelling tactics.

Bill Hunt @billhunt – President, Back Azimuth Consulting
In 2015 companies will stop treating digital marketing as a tactic and embrace it as an ecosystem. The ecosystem will enable a singular goal of attracting, engaging and retaining new and existing customers by providing information and content that gives them everything they need to locate, purchase and use their products and services. The days to preaching to customers rather than exciting and informing them are rapidly coming to an end and marketers that can effectively connect with prospects will win.

Joe Pulizzi @joepulizzi – Founder, Content Marketing Institute
In 2015 we will see a large move among brands to buy media companies, flush with cash and short on patience to build loyal audiences.

DJ Waldow @djwaldow – Digital Marketing Evangelist, Marketo
2015 will be the year of HUMAN for digital marketers. Gone are the days of corporate-speak messaging and dull, boring campaigns. Instead, we’ll begin to see more marketers incorporate human-speak into their messaging – videos, pictures, humor, and human!

Ekaterina Walter @Ekaterina – CMO, Branderati
In the age of infobesity and increasing digital noise, visual storytelling will continue to emerge as a strategy for not only standing out, but also for nurturing and growing vibrant and engaged communities. The ability to craft visual stories that inspire emotion and spark the movement will help companies get noticed and amplify their message throughout those communities.

Brian Clark @brianclark – CEO, Copyblogger Media
2015 will continue a trend that has caught steam this year, which is mixing paid media with owned media to accelerate content distribution. The best “native” advertising helps build an audience into a a long-term business asset, and that’s a goal worth spending on in conjunction with owned content creation.

Jason Miller @jasonmillerCA – Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn
Coding will become a necessity for digital marketers. As the modern marketer strives to understand how social, content, demand gen, PR, and SEO call all work successfully within a fully integrated marketing strategy, the next skill is to add coding to their resume/ LinkedIn profile. The ability to understand how front end wed development and coding can affect, enhance, and optimize a content strategy will become a necessity for marketers instead of a nice to have.

Susan Emerick @sfemerick – Manager, Enterprise Social Strategy & Programs, IBM
Employee Advocates will humanize digital marketing experiences on behalf of their brands, outperforming traditional media investments. This will require digital marketers to once again rethink and reshuffle the budgeting decision deck.

David Meerman Scott @dmscott – Keynote Speaker and Bestselling Author, Freshspot Marketing
In 2015, digital marketing will converge with digital selling in a meaningful way. Marketing (one to many) and sales (one to one) are beginning to use the same techniques of content creation and real-time engagement. The best organizations will not run marketing and sales as separate “departments” but will merge the two functions into one customer facing organization focused on revenue generation.

Ardath Albee @ardath421 – CEO, Marketing Interactions
Marketers will become obsessive about becoming relevant to their audiences and buckle down to do the work that informs the development of a digital strategy.

Tim Washer @timwasher – Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media, Cisco Systems
As brands strive to create authentic connections online, especially with Millennials, more will understand that a clever laugh or the vulnerability of silliness is the most efficient path to earning trust and loyalty. Mark 2015 as the year of humor in digital marketing.

Tom Webster @webby2001 – Vice President, Edison Research
My top change/trend for digital marketing in 2015 is the rise and eventual preeminence of mobile data. Clickstream data simply misses too many elements of the consideration and purchase process, and gives things like social media, word of mouth, and traditional media/advertising short shrift. But as a call to action from social media, a party, the radio, or a billboard arise, today’s smartphone-equipped consumers can take actions in the moment in a way that can be directly attributed to the medium that drove the action, without friction.

Consider this—I’m walking around town, listening to online radio over my phone, and I hear an audio ad for a product that might interest me. In the past, were I to hear that ad, I’d have to remember the name of the company, then go home and use a search engine to learn more about the company before an eventual purchase. Who gets the attribution credit in that scenario? Search, sadly—and a most undeserved credit it would be.

But the continual removal of barriers between message and action that mobile gives us (for those who begin to think that way) will begin to restore the balance of the Force for attribution, and digital marketers can start to get away from channel-based thinking and move towards a more human behavior-centered model, with mobile serving as the unifying principle to unite offline and offline marketing.

Adam Singer @AdamSinger – Analytics Advocate, Google
Digital analytics sophistication and (effective) usage increases: we know from research, talking to users and being an active part of the industry that marketers are increasing emphasis on measurement. Our team even launched a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) to provide a free and robust resource to educate marketers and help them succeed. An ever-expanding mix of devices and channels is creating even greater pressures for digital teams to quantify their efforts, but the technology is here and the market demand for talented analysts & data-savvy marketers has been in place long enough that 2015 is the year digital measurement finally comes of age. Smart brands have already formalized their efforts across organizations and efforts. If you’re not there it’s time to catch up.

Connie Bensen @cbensen – Global Social Content Strategy, Innovation & Governance, Dell
My prediction for 2015 is that the digital marketer aka Social Bizologist (the person guiding the integration of social into the business functions of an organization) will be asking for an end-to-end content solution. We need a tool that can facilitate content efforts from ideation to publishing while tracking the usage and performance of content across the customer journey. This will allow for ease in repurposing, localization and accommodate real-time efforts.

Lee Odden (hey, that’s me!) @leeodden – CEO, TopRank Online MarketingThe convergence of marketing, public relations and advertising will accelerate even faster in 2015 and beyond as agencies and internal corporate organizations fulfill each of those roles. Content creation, search optimization and social media will be less siloed as specific departments and treated more like skills that exist across the organization. Optimizationwill move beyond individual tactics and focus more on overall customer experience across channels. Marketing is everybody’s job and more companies will leverage internal resources through social business and collaboration platforms as well as participation marketing with their community to integrate scaled content creation and social media engagement.

As you can tell, each marketer that shared insights here brings their own experience and perspective as a flavor to their prediction. Each has their own bias but collectively, I think this group represents a great cross-section of ideas that we, as marketers, need to consider for the rest of 2014 and into 2015.

What do you think the most significant changes and important trends will be in 2015? What is it about digital marketing that will be most important for your business and customers in the coming year?