by 360Digital Talent | May 13, 2015 | Modern Marketing, Thought Leadership
I get it. You’re at a B2B company and you run marketing. Your budget’s tight, the CRM campaign is producing leads, the VP of sales trusts the pipeline, so why rock the boat and add mobile? According to the numbers, you’re not alone if mobile has been closer to the bottom of your list than the top. Almost 80% of us aren’t creating content readable on a mobile device. But the fact is, if you don’t mobile-ize, you’re leaving traffic and leads on the table, and Google is about to start ignoring you. Here’s why– 1. As of April 21, Google is using the mobile-friendliness of your website as a ranking signal. That’s what Mobilegeddon is, and it will impact the traffic on your site. Google even created a mobile-friendly test tool (our site passed the test!) so you can gauge your site’s status for yourself. 46% of Fortune 500 companies have failed to make their websites mobile-friendly as of Q1 2015 (insert jaw-drop emoticon here). If you’re not mobile-friendly and your competitor is, they’re now appearing higher on smartphone search engine results pages (SERPs) than you are– and getting more traffic. 2. Customers are increasingly coming to your site via mobile. According to Merkle RKG, mobile devices now account for 45% of organic search traffic, up from 34% in Q1 2014. EmailMonday, in their magnum opus review of CRM stats, In this brief case study from PwC, a construction products company increased its “where to buy” queries by 23% simply by re-engineering their website to a responsive design. 3. You can probably get a competitive edge by acting now. According to digital...
by 360Digital Talent | Apr 21, 2015 | Modern Marketing, Three Sixty in The News
We did it. A successful exit. During a long career in digital marketing for several leading tech companies, I saw a lot of M&A action. A couple of deals turned out great. Most of them failed miserably. I’ve actually seen, firsthand, a deal that evaporated more than a billion dollars’ worth of market share in the 12 months following an acquisition. There’s a life experience worth keeping. For our part, we’re a boutique executive search company, and we found a lot of success working with people in a space we really enjoy – data-driven marketing and advertising tools. We most often work with companies who are building new solutions for the modern world of advertising and marketing – AdTech, MarTech, programmatic, real-time bidding, data science, content marketing, CRM, and other layers in today’s marketing software stack. Like many other companies in our space, as we found traction, we had several larger companies approach us. Some were serious in their approach, looking to bring our expertise and connections on board in a mutually beneficial relationship. Others were just looking for a few new employees for their current business – and we’re a bit too visionary for that. However, we did establish a relationship with a larger firm that, ultimately, won the day. On 21 April, we announced our acquisition by The Newport Group. This would not be the billion-dollar roll-of-the-dice I just mentioned, but it was still a big deal for us – and for them. We weren’t giving up our independence unless we thought it would make a positive difference. Thankfully, our experience with Newport says that we made...
by 360Digital Talent | Feb 10, 2015 | Blog
A management genius shuffled off this mortal coil this past weekend. Trouble is, we all mistook him for a basketball coach. In 1961, a little-known assistant coach named Dean Smith took over as leader of the University of North Carolina basketball program. In his 36 years as the Tar Heels’ head coach, he won two national titles, won at least 20 games for 27 consecutive seasons, and became the architect for one of the top five college basketball programs of all time. His achievements as a coach make him a giant in the world of basketball… but it turns out he was also a damn good manager. In the aftermath of his passing, NBC and Yahoo Sports have surfaced a letter written by the already-great Smith in 1983 to a promising, yet skinny, freshman on his team. One Michael Jordan received this concise assessment of areas where improvement was needed (click image for full size): In short, Coach Smith puts on an absolute clinic on giving performance reviews. Let’s break this one down: 1. This is a review full of respect. One of the greats in the game just called this skinny 18-year-old “Mr. Michael Jordan.” A small signal, but one that shows the way. We’re less formal in this day and age, but respect that rolls downhill never loses momentum. 2. Coach gave the review in person. This letter is a follow-up. This wasn’t a hearts-and-flowers retrospective, just a senior manager who knows what he’s doing giving face-to-face advice to one of the new kids. It comes from relationship. 3. The review is specific. If you’re not conversant...
by 360Digital Talent | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog, Thought Leadership
After an amazing Super Bowl, Pete Carroll is looking like a lot of CEOs these days. Why? He made the wrong call. Or did he? As most of America knows, Pete Carroll is the coach of the Seattle Seahawks. In Sunday’s Super Bowl game against the New England Patriots, his team had a golden opportunity to win the game in the last minute. Near the goal line, he called a passing play for his team when “accepted wisdom” was to run the ball using their superstar back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch. The Patriots intercepted the pass, ran out the clock, and won the game and the title. The play was a gamble. Carroll admitted as much after the game. He thought the Patriots would be ready for a running play, and took a chance on a passing play. He took full accountability. Naturally, Pete’s being roasted on the Internet by Seahawks fans, who are using “idiot”, “brainless”, and “he should walk up to a cliff and keep walking” in their post-game commentary. Here’s the thing. Like most of us in our business pursuits, he didn’t make the wrong call. In order to get into the Super Bowl, Pete’s team needed to execute on one risky play after another to come from behind and beat the Green Bay Packers. He was hailed as a motivational genius. At the end of the first half of Sunday’s game, he took a risk by passing for a touchdown instead of settling for a sure-thing field goal. Chat boards were praising Pete as a master tactician. Pete did what Pete does. He took calculated...
