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5 AI Trends Every CEO Must Act On
Earlier this year, I shared takeaways from Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report, which showed how AI is reshaping business at a macro level. Building on that, Google Cloud’s 2025 AI Trends highlights five forces that will directly impact companies in the year ahead.
AI is no longer experimental. It is restructuring markets, reshaping customer expectations, and redrawing competitive boundaries. Here are five AI trends CEOs are preparing for now:
Five Steps to Creating Customer Lifetime Value
Mon, Nov 23, 2015 — As we approach the end of the year, it makes sense to think about keeping those customers your team has worked so hard to land this year, and building CLV – customer lifetime value. We’ve long heard about the costs of keeping clients vs. obtaining new ones. The common belief is that it’s 50% easier to sell to existing clients than to new prospects. According to Bain and Co., a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%. Gartner Group says that 80% of a company’s future revenue will come from just 20% of its existing customers.
Do CMOs Really Matter? Harvard Business Review Says Yes!
Thu, Oct 29, 2015 — The October 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review contains an interesting article that discusses the value that Chief Marketing Officer bring to organizations, Do CMOs Really Matter? The business press and academic studies have questioned the value of having a marketing person as a member of the executive team over the past few decades. As you can imagine, the answers have varied. 66% of CMOs recently surveyed indicated they are continually under pressure to demonstrate the value of marketing.
Why You Should Stop Your PPC Ads Now
Wed, Oct 28, 2015 — A Call to Return to Marketing Basics—for the Good of the Consumer and Lead Gen When I’m interviewing a talented applicant for a marketing position, I’m not only interested in their qualifications and experience, but the value they can add to my company, how creative they are in generating solutions and new ideas and -- just as important -- their knowledge of, or at least their desire to, understand my company’s customers.
Rebooting Your Marketing Strategy to Meet B2B Buyer Expectations
Wed, Oct 21, 2015 — Before the digital marketing boom, sales teams were the hunter-gatherers – the ones that had to go into the forest and slay or harvest what our company would subsist upon. In those days, the typical B2B marketer was asked to sharpen the arrows, restring the bows – and hope that our prep work was good enough to ensure an acceptable bounty. When the sales team shouldered 100 percent of the prospective buyer’s journey, it was up to us to ensure the prospect knew about your company, could call or visit the office for more information, and were loaded down with a highly polished set of sales materials (and telephone script) that hooked them on the notion that yes, we are the definitive answer to their problem.
Hiring the Right Marketing Consultant: A Quick Guide
Tue, Oct 20, 2015 — Different Kind of Hiring Hiring a marketing consultant is not exactly like hiring an employee. Here’s why: A consultant should bring value more quickly to your company The problem you are trying to solve is likely finite, not on-going You should expect a consultant’s fees to be disproportionate to a salary So in a nutshell, you should be on the lookout for a firm with an individual who has the experience and track record to quickly add value, and expect this impact will come at a premium as compared to hiring an employee.
Four Ways a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer Can Catalyze Your Company’s Growth
Mon, Oct 19, 2015 — Companies seeking a catalyst for growth or working to manage the choppy waters that often result from a changing competitive landscape or economic swings have a relatively new and effective option to consider. Increasingly, these businesses are turning to firms like Chief Outsiders, that are able to plug in part-time “Executives-as-a-Service” who can make an immediate impact.
Are You Eating Your Own Dog Food?
Fri, Aug 21, 2015 — How An Old Microsoft Corollary Holds New Significance For Today’s Digital Marketer When I helped control Bill’s “Gates” many moons ago, as a marketing executive for Microsoft, there was an old nugget of wisdom that I believe offers new relevance for today’s digital marketer. To ensure the quality of its products – particularly in the “go-go” days of the 1980s, when Microsoft was relatively unchallenged in the marketplace for PC software – executives and employees alike were told to “eat their own dog food.”
Pricing Optimization: How Best To Do It?
Thu, Aug 20, 2015 — In a business environment characterized by recovery from a severe recession, seven years of tepid growth, high unemployment and underemployment, and the explosion of ecommerce (with the lowest price always just a click away), it’s no surprise that optimizing pricing to maximize revenues and/or profits is a critical issue for many businesses. But how does a business know when it can safely raise prices without losing market share? Is market share the right goal, or should it be bottom-line profit? Either way, what pricing optimization information do you need to achieve the chosen goal? If you are asking these questions, you are not alone. Only 15% of all businesses do any kind of systematic pricing study.
Short-Term Insights For Long-Term Growth: Seven Reasons To Consider A Chief Outsider
Wed, Aug 19, 2015 — To gain competitive advantage, enter a new market or accelerate sales, companies often look to hire (or replace) senior level marketing talent. Finding the right person can take time a lot of time in terms of resources – search, interviews, salary negotiations and onboarding. Once hired, it can take some time for a new executive to get up to speed and start to deliver a positive ROI to the company.