Our Favorite Resources
iNVESTIGATE
In our opinion, one of the most important reasons for corporations to participate in social media is because it provides an honest, unfiltered view of your marketplace and your customer. Looking for a good resource to get up to speed on what social media is about and how to use it as means to iNVESTIGATE? the Marketicians recommend Social Media Explorer . Written by our friend and fellow Louisvillian Jason Falls, we are proud to say that this is widely regarded as one of the best social media blogs out there. We appreciate his view that social media is simply another tool to deliver your brand strategy, not a solution in and of itself.
While social media is invaluable, sometimes nothing replaces good old data, especially when you need to maximize insights to shape your direction moving forward. Forrester Research is a market research company comprised of hundreds of analysts covering just about any topic you can come up with. Sign up for a free account that will provide you access to many of their research reports, newsletters, and audio/video content that is tailored specifically to your role or area of interest.
iNNOVATE
TED is a small nonprofit with the mission “spreading ideas”. When you are gearing up to think innovatively, this website is a great place to start to quickly get inspired about what really is possible. TED holds annual conferences that bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. On the website the best talks and performances from TED and partners are available to the world, for free. It’s like having a VIP ticket to hear perspectives from the most charismatic, dynamic personalities of our time. Be sure to check out the pieces by Jamie Oliver, Tony Hsieh, and Roz Savage.
Trendwatching.com provides great food for thought when pondering long-term direction of your company and/or industry! A fun site that publishes monthly summaries of emerging consumer trends, as observed by “spotters” in over 120 countries worldwide. A good springboard to launch innovative thinking.
iNTEGRATE
the Marketicians™ are fanatical in our belief that delivering an integrated, deliberate customer experience will put you head and shoulders above your competition. In the Church of the Customer blog, Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell provide a great resource for learning from companies that “get” the importance of the customer and integrated customer experience. Also great reading to demonstrate the power and importance of word of mouth.
Written by brand strategist Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent is ranked among the top 25 marketing blogs in the world for good reason. Valeria is all about connecting ideas and people, and her posts shed light on how to integrate strategic marketing plans and social media to serve business strategy. Reading her entries over your morning coffee is worth your time!
iMPLEMENT
Elicia is a true Seth Godin groupie, since way back to his Permission Marketing days. He is a daily dose of inspiration and a kick in the pants. If you’re one of those people that are reluctant to pull the trigger and iMPLEMENT, Seth is just the person you need. One of his mantras is simply “Go. Make Something Happen”. All the planning in the world doesn’t matter until you iMPLEMENT. Cynics, beware!
iTERATE
MarketingProfs is an invaluable resource in your quest to continuously improve marketing performance. As we all know, the world of marketing is changing at a more rapid pace than ever before. Never get left in the dark again! Their website contains over 4,000 how-to articles on email marketing, branding, search engine marketing, lead generation, social media and more.Their weekly newsletters keep you posted on the useful online seminars they offer. Keep up to date on the newest and best tools so that your marketing is always improving. All for free.
As you iTERATE your marketing efforts, make MarketingSherpa a regular stop. MarketingSherpa is a research firm specializing in tracking what works in all aspects of marketing (and what does not). Rather than offer private research to clients, they publish all their research for their entire online community to benefit from. Their goal is to give marketers of the world the stats, inspiration, and instructions to improve their results.
theMarketicians™
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