123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: Key Skills for Successful Marketing

According to research conducted with marketing leaders across twenty-five industries, the most important skill for the future of marketing is Content Marketing. Other key skills include:

• Strategy and Brand Management
• Data and Analytics
• Customer Marketing and Insight
• Marketing Automation

The same research also revealed the top five challenges facing marketing teams:

1. Lack of talent bandwidth to execute on goals and objectives
2. Lack of insight into the customer journey/experience
3. Difficulty measuring and reporting on ROI
4. Difficulty generating sales pipeline
5. Difficulty forecasting pipeline.

Learn more about the survey at MarketingProfs.com (free subscription required).

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

New book shows how the World War II era influenced the rise of the modern American brand.

1 Minute Advice: Brands that Make Emotional Connections

A recent survey of U.S. consumers ranked brands they feel connected to via a "Brand Intimacy Quotient." Brand intimacy demonstrates a strong emotional bond with a brand, making it all the more likely that a consumer will maintain brand loyalty even amidst competition from other brands. These were the top ten brands in the survey:

1. Apple
2. Amazon
3. Disney
4. Target
5. YouTube
6. Toyota
7. Walmart
8. Costco
9. Harley Davidson
10. Google

Learn more about the survey at MarketingProfs.com (free subscription required).

This post is brought to you by 123 eGuides, publisher of authoritative, affordable guides to help small businesses get the most from your marketing. Now available: The updated, revised Third Edition of the popular eGuide, Branding 123, that details a 3-part system for how small marketers can build a breakthrough brand. Included in the Third Edition are profiles of 5 small brands that grew up using techniques similar to those outlined in Branding 123. Read more about this eGuide here.

New book shows how the World War II era influenced the rise of the modern American brand.