Marketing automation software and CRM software are complement to each other. Marketing automation software allows company to schedule e-mails, connect e-mail messages to specific landing pages, target customers based on demographics and behaviors, and track visitor behaviors. CRM solution helps in identifying the source of each lead that comes in and thus helps marketing department understand which campaigns are effective. Read more at: : http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/using-crm-to-complement-marketing-65552

Online advertising can be cost-effective or expensive waste of money for any company and their clients without any effective strategy. Advertising agencies should master the basics of online banner ads and social media advertising. To know more about how to handle the basics of online advertising in-house without the need to outsource freelancer or sub-contractor, follow Brian Hughes (Digital Marketing Director & Founder, Integrity Marketing & Consulting)’s article link: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/7-legendary-tips-get-any-advertising-agency-soaring-online

Travel companies are taking digital marketing approach, including a content strategy across platforms such as blogs, newsletters, dynamic websites and social media management. It is important for travel companies to get maximum people talking about them, mention them in pictures, even if people are not following the company on Twitter or Facebook? The answer is use of hash tags!  Frederic Gonzalo (Owner/Partner, Gonzo Marketing), explain the theory around the utilization of hash tags in destination marketing in his article link:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/hashtags-coming-alive-destination-marketing

Contact center managers should improve efficiency, reduce costs, and get good agent training, reduce turnover and, above all, an outstanding service experience as defined by the customer. Matt Lautz (CorvisaCloud, President), writes in his article link about some contact center predictions for 2015:  http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/931/Default.aspx

2014 was the year of personalization. But, 2015 will be the year of contextualization. Marketers want to deliver the right experience, at the right time, to each user. The digital engagement tools make contextualization possible by combining real-time segmentation and personalization technology which helps to answer many questions about consumers. Sharing and capturing data across data sources like CRM, marketing automation, e-mail marketing systems, etc. and touch points like web, email, social, call center, online store, offline database, etc. helps an organization to create visitor profile that will improve target based marketing. Read more at:  http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/articles/moving-from-personalisation-to-contextualisation/1506

Billions of people can access the web anywhere because of the increased use of smartphones. Businesses are offering mobile apps to engage with customers. Earlier, enterprise mobile apps failed to take advantage of technologies that personalized the experience of consumers. So, next-generation mobility efforts require apps that personalize consumer experience based on identity and location. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/mobile-digital-marketing/five-signs-that-mobile-engagement-is-evolving/1493

In a research it was found that mobile use in 2014 surpassed desktop activity, and that means number of people are accessing internet through smartphones and tablets. There is an immense opportunity for online marketers to reach consumers with information on sales, specials, and events, and therefore it becomes important for businesses to have a mobile-friendly version of their site. Mobile users are now making up over half of Internet traffic, and the challenge is how to reach effectively to consumers in this growing market. Read more at: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/put-your-brand-peoples-hands-literally-how-target-your-mobile-customer

Content marketing is the key if you want to grow your business. Sarah Quinn (Copywriter, Wyzowl), writes in her article link about some content marketing ideas that work: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-come-content-marketing-ideas-work

Social media for brands is to have two-way conversations with their customers. But, using social media as a means to broadcast or push messages is not attracting customers nowadays. Sofie De Beule (Community Manager, Engagor) writes in her article link about what type of data is valuable to create meaningful conversations and how brands can truly make sense of it: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/3-key-steps-make-sense-social-customer-data

The global cloud market is predicted to reach $180 billion by the end of this year, which means we will see new cloud unified communications adoptions. Unified communications (UC) is a system that joins voice, text, email, audio/video conferencing, and IM into a continuous user experience. The integration of mobile tech into the unified communication infrastructure allows businesses to multiply their productivity. Read more at: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/cloud-collaboration-and-future-ad-hoc-real-time-communication-0

Smart technology is part of the Internet of Things (IoT), and it is referred as the high-tech products equipped with an Internet connection which enables to communicate data to the owner. Now kitchen appliances, thermostats etc. are being created with sensors that can communicate information via an app or through email. These are meant to improve the quality of life for consumers, but it also opens up new marketing opportunities. These technologies are giving marketers an opportunity to know what people are buying, how satisfied they are with their purchases, and what they may be interested in buying in the future. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/understanding-internet-things-and-mobile-marketing

Mobile commerce has outpaced desktop e-commerce in 2014. According to a report by Mobile Marketing Magazine, it was found that mobile advertising grew at a rate six times faster than that of global desktop marketing. Business Insider also forecasted that mobile payment volume in the United States will increase to $818 billion by the year 2019. So, according to Brett Relander (Founder, Launch & Hustle)’s article link now it has become important to look at the mobile marketing trends for 2015:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/mobile-marketing-trends-2015-0

In this age of competition, it is important for sales people to be up-to-date. According to venture capitalist and Internet guru Mary Meeker, in 2012, 13% of all Internet traffic was executed from mobile devices. If sales team is equipped with a mobile CRM, it will help an organization to be flexible. It is also a proven way to boost sales, increase productivity and company revenue. To know more about the strategic advantages of using a mobile CRM software, follow: http://www.maximizer.com/blog/5-strategic-advantages-to-using-a-mobile-crm-software/

Many online retailers nowadays are using big data to personalize their consumers’ shopping experiences which in turn increased their revenue and brand loyalty. Tracey Wallace (Managing Editor, Bigcommerce), writes in her article link about how to increase repeat customers, average order value and, increase your online store revenue: : http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/data-insight-action-4-ways-generate-roi-ecommerce-analytics

51% of brands believe real-time social media engagement is their biggest challenge on social media. According to a research it was found that 72% of customers expect brands to reply within an hour. So, it is Imperative to know how brands can meet their customers' expectations? Sofie De Beule (Community Manager, Engagor), writes in her article link about some tips to meet customers' expectations on social media:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/3-tips-meet-your-customers-expectations-social-media

In a recent study it was found that 38% of marketers plan to shift spend from traditional advertising to digital advertising in 2015, 42% are planning to do advertising with more B2C marketers, and 34% are planning to move spend to digital than B2B marketers. It was further found that marketers plan to allocate more budget on social media advertising, social media marketing, social media engagement, location-based mobile tracking, and mobile applications. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/26900/2015-digital-marketing-budgets-top-priorities-metrics-and-challenges

According to a recent study it was found that the most-visited websites in the US have on an average of  75 technologies in their marketing clouds, delivering anything to a user and only 13% of their IT people say they are "very effective" at managing those technologies. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/26934/three-threats-lurking-in-your-marketing-cloud-and-how-to-bust-them

According to a new study by Teradata 2015 Global Data-Driven Marketing, it was revealed that companies and marketers are developing business value from data, integrated marketing platforms, and customer-centric data-driven marketing strategies. The study also found that more accurate decisions are key benefits of using data, 38 percent of the marketers said that their biggest challenge is improving customer acquisition and retention and 90 percent of marketers said that making marketing individualized is a priority. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-news/90-percent-of-marketers-say-individualised-marketing-is-the-future/1486

According to the market study by ABI Research, it was found that revenues generated from integrating, storing, analyzing, and presenting Internet of Things (IoT) data will reach $5.7 billion in 2015 and it is also estimated that it will account for nearly one-third of all big data and analytics revenues. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-iot-analytics-will-reach-57-billion-2015-0

Small to medium-sized businesses use contact management systems (CMS), where a single sales person interacts with the entire client base and they replace CMS with CRM system when their clientele increases. Marketing can be done using CMSs, but with CRM systems one can extract sales data more implicitly. CRM systems allow marketers to target customers that the system has identified by analyzing and CMSs reveal when last time a customer purchased a product or service. Nowadays, vendors advertise their CRM products with features that allow for the integration of CMSs but in reality, data from the contact management software can only be extracted and imported into the CRM system. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/is-it-time-to-integrate-your-contact-management-software-with-your-crm-software-65416