Dear Fellow Marketers,

The days of one-way marketing dominance have ended and the new era of open, two-way communication is well underway with the social and digital media explosion.  What we like best about being marketers during this era is having the opportunity to “earn” attention versus only having the option to buy it.

We compiled the “Twelve for 12” for those marketers within our industry who, upon reviewing and digesting it, will be one-half validated and hopefully the other half inspired.  These marketing musts (or “suggestions”) are what many companies are currently exploring or already doing.  What the “musts” have in common is that each will accelerate your two-way marketing strategies, allowing you to fully realize the benefits of engagement.

Transformation isn’t always an instant, wave-of-the-magic-wand-occurrence.  Most often, it’s the result of crafting and adapting. It requires commitment.

In this day and age, relevance is real time and transformation should happen regularly.  We’ll be using this list to inspire transformations for ourselves and our clients. We encourage you to take this list below and make it work for your own marketing strategies and goals in 2012. For a printer friendly version of the TWELVE for 12, please click here!

Our best wishes for the New Year!

Dan’l and The DMA Team
(more…)

Every day, we rely on tools to help us perform our marketing jobs most effectively. There are countless tools out there and they are ever-evolving. Keeping up with them is like keeping up with which city Bravo’s Real Housewives will be invading next. But, we’re always on the lookout and make a point to try out those which have the greatest potential to help us and our clients. Here are three recent “blips” on our radar that we’re incorporating into our (mostly) well-oiled machine:

• FB Insights – saying Facebook is ever-evolving is an understatement. Ever experience FB moving slowly or stubbornly not performing certain functions for a short time? More than likely they’re updating or adding or improving. And while some of their “improvements” are suspect, their Insights upgrades (new charts, lists and analytics) really are helping us be better FB marketers.
• Google Analytics –Beta – If you are tempted to move to the Beta version of Google Analytics, beware! While they are working out the kinks, curious marketers like us have dabbled in the Beta version and actually lost data (thanks a lot, Meg). We’ll keep you abreast of momentum and milestones reached as the new Google Analytics becomes more, well, safe to use.
• HootSuite Case Studies – Regular posts about real-life lessons on the HootSuite blog are great tools and, we think, the best kind of marketing for the HootSuite product. So, these case studies provide us with usable tips AND marketing inspiration.

Posted by: The DMA Solutions Team

If you are not already using a Web site analytics tool, you might be surprised at the quantity and quality of information (more…)