B2B Tech and Content Marketing

Moving Beyond Linear Customer Journeys in 2021

Companies had to move beyond traditional, linear customer journeys in 2020 and build digital experiences across an exponential number of channels. As the world continues to adjust, here’s what IT leaders should prioritize in 2021, according to Kevin Cochrane, SVP Product Marketing of Acquia. During a year when practically everything felt unsteady and unpredictable, digital transformation was the guiding light for organizations looking to come out ahead and remain connected to their customers. I

The Evolution of Web Content Management to Digital Experience

Is web content management gone for good? Or has it simply evolved into a new model? Gartner retired the Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management (WCM) in 2020. We believe the decision was driven by the notion that the WCM market has reached maturity and the world is now moving toward a broader range of digital experience capabilities that offer the flexibility to deliver omnichannel experiences bundled into . As Gartner notes, “WCM functionality now constitutes a subset of DXP.” While the WCM

Lessons on Building a Customer-First Website

There are thousands of marketing technologies that can help boost customer engagement. But the tried-and-true tool to boost customer engagement is the website. With more people turning online to find solutions to their problems and searching for information via everything from Google, to voice assistants to chatbots, it’s likely a new customer will land on your website. And when they do, you better provide an experience worth sticking around for. Instead of treating the web like another single-p

5 Ways Technology Can Solve Hybrid and Remote Work Challenges

The working world doesn’t look like it used to. Companies planning their transition back to the office are looking for a way to create a better employee experience in-office, remotely or a mix of the two. According to , 55% of U.S. workers prefer a hybrid work model where they would have the ability to work remotely three days per week while keeping the option to visit the office on an ad-hoc basis. Employees now feel more empowered to leave their jobs and find new ones if the employee experienc

Are You Ready to Radically Transform Your Digital Ecosystem?

Today’s organizations need to push boundaries and think beyond current divisions and silos that keep them from seeing the full customer experience. The past two years have totally shattered how we typically think of digital experience. That’s why the theme of this year’s event is radical innovation. Organizational transformation starts by expanding employees’ mindsets so that everyone sees themself as an ambassador of both brand and customer experience. While there are traditional customer-faci

How COVID-19 Impacted Digital Accessibility in Education

For many families and educators, the COVID-19 pandemic and the mass shift to at-home learning cast a spotlight on critical issues of equity and a lack of resources that students and teachers have been grappling with for decades. As the pandemic closed universities around the globe, concerns grew over how students could keep up with their classes without proper internet access and equipment. Similarly, public school systems needed to find new ways to facilitate learning at home without the same a

First-Party Data Is Marketers' Secret Ingredient for Customer Loyalty

This year’s Girl Scout cookie season may have successfully gone virtual, but in the tech world, the relevance of cookies has long expired. Google announced weeks ago that it was planning to phase out support for third-party tracking cookies in its popular Chrome browser within two years. This move has been viewed by many as the final blow in the death of third-party cookies in marketing and the latest wave pushing us toward stronger privacy-focused open web standards. The collapse of third-part

3 Lessons for Reshaping CX Strategies in 2021

Forbes Communications Council member Lynne Capozzi is the CMO of Acquia, an open source digital experience company. She has a successful track record in building and leading marketing organizations through all phases of companies — from lean startups through larger public companies. Even before the pandemic struck, business leaders were pushing to keep up with the explosive growth of touchpoints, technological advancements, and continuously rising customer expectations. Now, with COVID-19 as an

6 Major Trends for B2B Technology Marketers in 2019 According to the Content Marketing Institute

From scaling mountains of consumer data, optimizing content for a looming mobile-only future to reckoning with the advanced features of automation, today’s technology marketers are struggling to not short-circuit from information overload. As more organizations start to embrace the transition to total digital transformation, tech marketers are now faced with the challenge of crafting a distinct and cohesive brand identity across an explosion of customer touchpoints while CMOs at large-scale B2B

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Dancing Video Is a Great Lesson For Higher Education Marketers. Here's Why.

Just one week into 2019 and the people had decided: They simply couldn’t get enough of one Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—specifically, her killer dance moves. A video featuring the Democratic New York representative dancing went viral just as the new year was kicking off, and right when the congresswoman was in the process of being sworn in. Coincidental? Not really. Her political opponents attempted to portray the clip as an embarrassing relic from Ocasio-Cortez’s college days, but the internet resp

Episodic Video Content: What It Means for the Future of Social Storytelling

Sure, Netflix may have revolutionized the way we watch television by giving viewers the ability to consume stories on demand, without advertising interruptions. But what if instead of getting just one story, viewers could now experience stories within stories? While some marketers may feel like they just stumbled into the plot of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, this multi-content experience is quickly becoming a reality as more brands start exploring serialized video content and long-form visual

Play It Again—Spotify's Personalized Content Experiment Could Solve the Ad Block Dilemma

“Yeah! Can you play that jammin’ new Google Chrome ad?” Okay, while sponsored ad breaks might not make it on your end-of-summer hits list, one popular music streaming service is testing out new ways for audiences to discover and interact with commercialized content. In August, Spotify embarked on an experiment in Australia they’re calling Active Media, where users of Spotify’s free ad-supported service are given the freedom to skip an unlimited number of ads. The test also lets advertisers par

Is It Time for Us to Be Transparent About the Marketing in Content Marketing?

Catchy jingles, front-and-center product placement beneath boldly emblazoned brand logos, and impossibly gorgeous actors posing beside their latest purchase—it’s easy to tell when you’re watching an ad, right? Maybe not so much anymore. A 2016 report by MarketingTech found that only 19 percent of consumers were able to tell the difference between marketing and non-commercial content on social media platforms. This new development is worlds away from the in-your-face tactics of marketing’s past

Marketing to Real People Starts with Losing the Consumer Label

Turns out, a lot more than we think. Although it may be easy to regard a person’s name as nothing other than an identifying label, names are the first way we have of describing ourselves to the world. Names represent a greater sense of individual identity and serve to distinguish us in a crowd. Often, a person’s name carries personal or cultural significance that connects them to their family or community. The same holds true for group identities. Whether you’re a Southerner, an Eagle Scout, or

Activism en Vogue: The Rise of Inclusivity in Marketing to Women

Fashion and beauty brands have often presented themselves as VIP only clubs. From Juicy Couture’s socialite spokesmodels to Hermes handbags tantalizingly limited supplies, traditional practice for luxury brands has been to set lofty standards for female buyers to aspire to in pursuit of an elite status beyond that of the other ‘regular women.’ However, with the current cultural push for more inclusive feminism and the focus on activism efforts like the “Me Too” movement pushing to let all women

The Art of the Blurb: Lessons for Marketers from Writing Book Jacket Copy

They say never judge a book by its cover, but that rule doesn’t hold true to back covers. As bookstore customers browse through aisles of titles, packed with hundreds of stories spanning dozens and dozens of chapters, they generally only spend a few seconds skimming a novel’s back cover or inside jacket blurb before determining if it’s worth buying. Even if a work is as revolutionary as The Great Gatsby or The Lord of the Rings, no one will ever know if it doesn’t have an interesting sales pitc
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