MARKETING ! Mad Libs:  

EXPERT EDITION

MARKETING is serious business.

We spend tons of TIME pouring over data, trends, newsfeeds, and content.

So, we decided to play with marketing to share their savvy advice while having

So, we decided to play Mad libs with marketing to share their savvy advice while having

experts FUN.

Analysts, influencers, thought leaders, and top-notch experts filled in the blanks on key trends marketers should stay on top of. Check out their bold ideas…

Biggest mistake

The most companies make when choosing a marketing automation vendor is choosing the tool before ‘the house’ is in order. Sam Melnick, IDC @SamMelnick

I believe in content marketing because without content, you don't have ANY marketing at all. Not paid, not owned, not earned. Rebecca Lieb, Altimeter @lieblink

The most underrated marketing strategy today is one where in fact a customer experience strategy sets the marketing strategy. CX is a profit-increasing, loyalty-building, engagement-driving opportunity that marketing needs to play a part in to stay relevant in the age of the customer, where it's knowledge of and engagement with customers that set successful companies apart. Cory Munchbach, Forrester @corrinejames

Attention marketers: stop trying to pimp your products and services. Nobody cares. Instead create the content that your buyers are eager to consume and that they love to share.

David Meerman Scott, Author, Keynote speaker

@dmscott

Over the next year, I want to see more crowd sourcing in marketing because they are already crowd funding, crowd-making products, crowd-sharing products. This means that marketers need to encourage the crowd to fund products, like Uhaul Investors Club, tap the crowd to design products like Quirky and GE, and how Ford is giving discounts to Uber drivers spreading the brand experience. Jeremiah Owyang, Crowd Companies

@jowyang

If I were hiring a new marketer tomorrow, the number one trait I would look for is a passion for storytelling and using data to see what stories connect with customers. Allen Bonde, Actuate @abonde

The most underrated marketing trend right now is what we call content sourcing where we take existing client content and get it out on other sites that target our client's personas. This almost always results in increased website visitors and increased leads for clients.

Michael Lieberman, Square2Marketing @Mike2Marketing

The businesses that do the best at breaking through  

social media noise are the ones that deliberately prioritize content that offers value to their followers and potential customers.

Anne Mercogliano, Twitter @akmercog

If I became CMO of a Fortune 500 company tomorrow, the first marketing tactics I’d get rid of would be cold calling and marketing automation. Lane Sutton, Speaker @LaneSutton

If I could give marketers everywhere one tip on evaluating and using marketing analytics, it would be to make yourself

data-informed, but not exclusively data-driven because the power of serendipity

and of investing in unmeasurable marketing can be incredible.

marketing analytics  

Rand Fishkin, Moz, @randfish

The biggest misconception that B2B marketers have is that B2B does not work on social media. But in fact, there is no such thing as B2B or B2C, it’s H2H (human to human) and those conversations are happening every day. Lana Khavinson, LinkedIn @lkhavinson

The four key ingredients to creating valuable content are: •  Interviewing your buyers to find out what makes them tick. •  Researching the channels they frequent to find the “hot button” issues. •  Thinking of new ways to solve those issues, whether they involve your offerings or not. •  Visualizing the final product, be it blog post, ebook, video, or webinar and asking your top talent to work together to create it.

John McTigue, Kuno Creative @jmctigue

In the larger social media landscape, Google+ is probably the most ambiguous. It's interesting, as while many marketers treat it as more of a chore right now, you get the idea they're doing so with the idea that it'll one day take off. I mean, it is Google after all. It's like superstition. You may not believe that walking beneath a ladder brings you bad luck, but you still don't do it. Nobody wants to take that chance.

John Bonini, IMPACT Branding @Bonini84

marketers: Stop trying to be amazing, and start being useful.

Attention  

Jay Baer, Best-Selling Author & Keynote Speaker @jaybaer

Over the next year, I want to see more attention placed on technology roadmaps in B2B marketing because historically marketers

 

have been reactive with respect to best practices and technology investments. Marketing leaders are still guilty of making technology

decisions that solve the "flavor of the week problem" in marketing. With dozens of different categories of marketing tools that can solve your challenges, and more that seem to spring up

each year, it's critical organizations have a vision for the future state.  Ian Michiels, Gleanster @InsightFanatic

If I were hiring a new marketer tomorrow, the number one trait I’d look for is the ability to GSD*. It doesn’t matter if you have 20 years of experience or are a recent grad, the most valuable trait a marketer can have at a fast-growing company is being able to produce remarkable results.

*Get S%#& Done

Mike Volpe, HubSpot @mvolpe

Google+ is the American West - a new frontier. There aren't many people out there yet and there's so much potential, but many of the people out there are outlaws - marketers that aren't providing value and that aren't truly inbound. They're shouting to get attention and page views and pushing their messages on people in communities that aren't there to be marketed to.

Ben Wachtel, ElementThree @benwachtel24

The four key ingredients to creating valuable content are:

Proper Targeting Customer Education Manageable Length

Accessibility

Shawn Fitzgerald, ThomasNet @sfitzgerald9

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN! Take a moment to tweet at HubSpot to share how you would fill in these blanks and thank our experts for playing mad libs!