Thursday, December 15, 2016

Happy Holidays!

Getting closer and closer to 2017, and everyone starts to think about the year ahead.

Most of Honeycomb's clients have been planning and budgeting for months.

As far marketing predictions go, mine is easy: the more context there is, the higher the ROI.

The effectiveness of a generally oriented blog post or email is not-so-slowly dying. Being as relevant as possible to a prospect's, or customer's, current situation, even psychology, is becoming more and more important. Tracking opens and clicks are important, but measuring daily or weekly active users to ensure consistent engagement until conversion. Instead of just bringing you to this blog post, we should optimize it so that you engage, subscribe, share, and keep opening it up.

In the meantime, grab a cup of hot coffee and check out these must-read 2017 marketing predictions from other marketing experts:

  1. 6 Marketing Trends for 2017, Chief Marketer
  2. 5 Content Marketing Predictions for 2017, Convince and Convert
  3. 2017 Marketing Predictions You Won't Have Read Elsewhere, Marketing Tech News
  4. 6 Marketing Trends for 2017, Chief Marketer
  5. 60+ Content Marketing Predictions for a Successful 2017 [E-Book], Content Marketing Institute
  6. 7 Email Marketing Predictions for 2017, Campaign Monitor

Thursday, November 17, 2016

November Marketing Links

Heading into the last 45 days of the year, I'm starting to see more and more prediction articles for marketing in 2017.

While they are all important to read and take note of, let's not forget how many election day predictions we read...and we know how accurate they turned out.

Maybe next month I'll pass along a few predictions of my own.

As per usual, take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these must-read marketing articles:
  1. The importance of emotional mapping in B2B marketing, Fierce CMO
  2. Inbound Marketing Effectiveness Report, Act-On
  3. Maximizing User Adoption by Understanding Behavioral Economics for Startups, Startup Management
  4. 27 SaaS Products for the Marketing Department, David Cummings
  5. Infographic: Cognitive Bias Codex (How many biases do you have?), Ritholtz



Tuesday, October 04, 2016

...And Fall

Fall in DC is my favorite time of year.

Football.

Lower humidity.

Normal, comfortable temperatures.

Product launches and new clients.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” — Albert Camus

All good things. Take a quick break from your busy fall schedule and check out these articles:


  1. Poll: Executive responsibility for content marketing strategy growing, Fierce CMO
  2. 5 Growth Hacks to Supercharge your Invite or Referral System, SaaS Growth Strategies
  3. Execs Create Thought Leadership Content to Stand Out, eMarketer
  4. Study: Customer network effects can improve B2B data accuracy to over 95%, Fierce CMO
  5. Infographic: Cognitive Bias Codex, Ritholtz




Friday, September 16, 2016

Fall of the Wall Dividing Sales and Marketing?

Traditionally, the relationship between sales and marketing was fraught with distrust and misunderstanding. Sales people were reluctant to share any information about their sales activity and funnel, while marketers were blindly messaging market segments without direct feedback from sales teams and their prospects.

Over the past 5-6 years, this situation has changed. The deployment of powerful cloud based tools to sales teams, like Salesforce, and to marketing teams, like Hubspot, have allowed companies to break down these silos. The goal is to build a transparent data-based funnel from lead to close to referral and track how, where and when your sales and marketing dollars are working...and not.

Want to learn more about how Honeycomb works with our clients to build this kind of sales and marketing infrastructure? Click here and schedule a call to learn more about how long it takes to set up these programs and how to use them to increase conversion rates and grow revenue.

As far as must-read marketing articles, what caught my eye in the past month?
  1. LinkedIn launches conversion tracking capabilities, Fierce CMO
  2. 27 SaaS Products for the Marketing Department, David Cummings
  3. 19 content marketing ideas that aren’t blog posts, 500 Startups
  4. B2B marketing budget planning tips for 2017, Fierce CMO
  5. 5 Psychological Principles of High Converting Websites (+ 20 Case Studies), Kissmetrics





Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Dog Days of Marketing?

This month's Straight to the Point post will be short, as I'm sure most of you want skip over this part and click on links to five awesome marketing articles.

What caught my eye in the past month?
  1. Survey: HubSpot is top automation solution in satisfaction, market presence, FierceMarketing
  2. How We Grew Conversions 100% by Rethinking Our Design Strategy, Groove
  3. Case Study: Quantifying the Value of Marketing, Sales Benchmark Index
  4. 53 Drip Campaign Emails With An Above 40% Open Rate, Hubspot
  5. How to Promote Your Content Like a Boss, Sweet Fish Media
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to email me at jeff@honeycomb-consulting.com



Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Must Read Marketing Articles for July

For the past 10-15 years, marketing has been undergoing a series of shifting changes in strategy, tactics, feel and tone. As you know, the basics of human communication are eternal, but the methods  by which we, the professional marketers, reach customers are constantly being tested, improved or discarded.Keeping up to speed on the latest techniques is a challenge for all of us. The whole reason I started this blog nine plus years ago, was to share the articles I felt were important for my fellow marketers and non-marketing business leaders to read.

What caught my eye in past few weeks?
  1. The Recursive Product Strategy That Musk Used To Build An Empire, First Round
  2. Building Your Content Marketing Workflow Part 1: Identify Content Needs, Kapost
  3. Content marketing used to drive leads, customer engagement, brand awareness, FierceCMO
  4. 5 lessons for building a scalable SaaS sales machine, TNW
  5. AngelList: What is it, who is it for, should you care?, Emerging Prairie
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Click here.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Almost Summer Reading

I'm not sure if June qualifies as summer or not. I used to think so, but some people classify summer as July and August. Seems a little short.

However you think about it, June is definitely the month to be outside as much as possible enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. 


Are you on the beach working on your tan? Then here are this month's relaxing must-read marketing articles:

  1. Unleashing the power of B2B case studies, FierceCMO
  2. How to get buyers to respond (even when they’re busy), Jeff Molander
  3. Kahuna report: Mobile email trending upwards, messaging improves retention, FierceCMO
  4. The Inbound Marketing Effectiveness Report, Act-on
  5. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.


Tuesday, May 31, 2016

May Reading

Suffering from vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sun? We should get some sun soon.

In the meantime, here are some interesting articles to check out.
  1. Email Marketing Tips: 33 Industry Experts Share Their Best Strategies and Tactics, Drip
  2. Study: IT, finance departments most influential in B2B purchases , Fierce CMO
  3. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read, Moz
  4. 10 of the most effective growth hacks The Next Web
  5. Discover the Optimal Ad Copy for Every Keyword and Time of Day, SEM Rush
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Visit www.honeycomb-consulting.com now.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Can February March? No, but April May.

I'm not usually a fan of puns, but this one slipped into this month's newsletter anyway. For you pun-tastic people out there: you are welcome.

For the rest of us, hear are this month's five must-read marketing articles:

  1. Create More Value With Marketing, And Less Frustration, Sales Benchmark Index
  2. F8 Update: 10 New Facebook Features Every Marketer Must Know , Buffer
  3. Survey: HubSpot is top automation solution in satisfaction, market presence, Fierce CMO
  4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
  5. The Platform You Never Planned For, Platform Strategy
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call us anytime.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Spring Reading

I am procrastinating on my annual bout of spring cleaning. It's only March, I know. But I feel like I'm already ready for May! How about you?

While you are daydreaming about summer, take a few minutes and read these five must-read marketing articles:
  1. 16 Copywriting Mistakes You’re Probably Making (and How to Fix Them), Shanelle Mullin
  2. Report: More than half of app users bail within 30 days of download, Fierce CMO
  3. What's hot in B2B website design, Patrick Goreman
  4. 50 Split Testing Ideas (You Can Run Today!) Neil Patel
  5. What’s Next? 8 Trends I’m Excited About, Medium
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Feel free to call me anytime.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Busy Weekend Reads

The weekend is a time for rest, right? Maybe that was the case long ago, back in the 20th century. Everyone knows that Saturdays and Sundays can be busier than regular weekdays. Change is only constant.

That rings doubly true when I look back and think about the wide variety of clients that we've worked with recently.

Here are a few examples:
  • publicly traded government contractor
  • cybersecurity analytics platform
  • consumer focused social discovery mobile app startup
  • B2B enterprise software developer
  • cloud computing cost reduction tool
  • video messaging mobile app
  • Wireless Distributed Antenna Systems engineering company
Whew. That a bunch of wildly different companies. I guess that's what keeps us passionate and excited each day- so many great teams building cool and interesting technologies.

Take a quick break from your busy weekend and read these five must-read marketing articles:
  1. The 8 Players in the Programmatic Ecosystem, Brian Sim
  2. Here are the Scripts for Sales Success — Emails, Calls and Demos That Close Deals, First Round Review
  3. Product/Market Fit: What it really means, How to Measure it, and Where to find it, Eric Jorgenson
  4. CMO Council: Marketers struggling to personalize, create real-time interactionsFierce CMO
  5. 15 documentaries on Netflix that will make you smarter about businessr Business Insider
Want to learn more about Honeycomb and how we are helping our clients address their strategic and tactical marketing priorities? Drop me a line.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Snowmageddon Again?

Snowmageddon (Again)!Looks like another decent snow storm is heading to the East Coast and, predictably, everyone is freaking out.

We will see how snowy it actually gets, but a weekend storm shouldn't cause too much disruption.

Socked in this weekend? Grab a coffee (or warm adult beverage) and read these five marketing articles:
  1. Grantland and The Surprising Future of Publishing, Stratechery
  2. How to Failure-proof your Business with Customer Development, Eric Jorgensonda
  3. New Co-Registration Test Data: 7 Lessons to Improve Your Opt-in Rates & Grow Your List, MarketingSherpa
  4. Why Buying Email Lists Is Always a Bad Idea Hubspot
  5. The Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Becoming A Master Negotiator, James Altucher