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Any marketer who has navigated through all of the changes in the past decade would most likely admit that the journey has been amazing and quite unpredictable. Just over ten years ago, the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, still worked out of his dorm room at Harvard. At that time, cell phones were just becoming commonplace, and the Internet had cemented itself as a pervasive part of our lives. A decade ago, it would have been difficult to predict the impact of social media platforms on marketing. With barely a chance to catch our breath, let’s forge ahead to see what exciting opportunities we are likely to face in the next ten years.

Any company that claims to have never made a marketing blunder is not to be trusted. In the infamous words of John C. Maxwell, “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” Marketing mistakes happen — and so do reporting blunders. How you adapt to, fix, and learn from your marketing reporting blunders is what matters.

FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. According to a Mashable article by Samantha Murphy Kelly, “Report: 56% of Social Media Users” Suffer From FOMO,” it’s a common problem. People who suffer from severe FOMO would give up chocolate for social media if ever presented with such a cruel choice. Most marketers probably already suffer from mild to moderate FOMO, but marketing FOMO is a greater problem than worrying about missing out on the latest online gossip; it’s the fear of missing out on the latest social media platforms, content strategies, and other marketing trends that impact bottom-line revenue.

Leveraging the Power of Visual Social Media

Recently we offered up some of our own thoughts on what to expect from social media for the coming year. One of the things that we believe will continue to grow in popularity over the coming months is visual media. Why? It’s simple, really.

The 5 Latest Email Marketing Trends for 2015 and Beyond

Even with all the hype surrounding social media, instant messaging apps and the dozens of other communications channels available to us in today’s tech-savvy world, email marketing remains one of the most powerful tools a business has in its arsenal. As of 2013, there were approximately 3.8 billion email users world-wide. Email is still the most preferred way for consumers to receive marketing communications. According to a study by ExactTarget, 77% of users prefer to be communicated via email.

Social media may seem like a marketing tactic that doesn’t require much strategizing to be successful. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many businesses make the same mistakes over and over, and then wonder why their SMM isn’t producing the results they were hoping for. That said, here are 10 super simple social media marketing tips to consider when creating a successful social media marketing strategy.

Create a Monster Inbound Marketing Strategy in 7 Easy Steps

Any marketer worth their salt knows you must have a powerful and highly effective inbound marketing strategy to be successful. In fact, as of the beginning of this year, 60% of businesses had adopted some type of inbound marketing as part of their overall strategy. Hubspot found that inbound marketing generates 54% more leads than traditional outbound efforts.

At their core, Net Promoter Scores (NPS) are based on simple, one-question surveys that are meant to gain insights into consumer mentality. The surveys encourage responders to select a numeric rating for how likely they are to recommend a company’s product or service to friends or colleagues. Responders who answer with a 0 – 6 are listed as “detractors,” 7 – 8 are “passives,” and 9 – 10 are called “promoters.”

Can you feel the heat? If so, you’re not alone.

CMOs are being held to higher standards each year to improve efficiency of spend, maximize ROI, and provide transparent impact to bottom-line sales revenue, CMO.com reports. And showing a positive return on investment isn’t just important for gaining buy-in from the rest of the C-Suite. It’s personal, too — in many cases, ROI is how a marketer’s job performance is evaluated.

And then there’s the age old question: how do you prove ROI? Especially when there are multiple channels, multiple touchpoints, and a million different ways customers can engage with your brand.

And the modern answer is far more complex than a last-touch attribution model. Here are 4 key steps to keep in mind when you’re proving ROI:

6 Ways to Get People to Love Your Brand

Most entrepreneurs understand developing and establishing a brand is important. It’s not necessarily easy, and, it’s only half the battle. To win, you must take it a step further. That step is to not only recognize your brand, but to develop a passion for it. According to consulting firm Bain & Company, it costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. What’s more, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by up to 95%.