What's New in Marketing Feb 2023 - How does your digital engagment compare?

In February, the Generative AI Chat wars between Google and Microsoft have continued with both Bard and Bing ridiculed by journalists trying to find fault with them. You're likely fully up-to-speed based on the coverage in the mainstream media.

Still, this doesn't mean that #ChatGPT isn't still useful to marketers, so just to note that I recently got access to the new Bing integrating ChatGPT after joining the waitlist when it launched in early Feb. My first impression of Bing chat-based search is... It's too slow / laggy = unusable. It has a nice feature of recommended sources, but they're poorer quality than Google, so my recommendation is 'don't bother for now', instead keep using ChatGPT direct from OpenAI via the Playground which I use to avoid most of the downtime.

Benchmarking your digital comms engagement rates

I've found that online marketers love statistics about digital marketing. It's no surprise, since they show the amazing trends in adoption. More importantly, they help us use a more data-driven approach to inform our marketing investments and optimize our use of the digital channels.

Given this, we work hard to find the best sources, so we can share the latest benchmarks. We have just updated our compilation of benchmarks on display ads, email, search, social media and conversion rates all linked to from my post on the best statistics sources for digital marketing aimed at helping students and professional research online adoption and benchmarking.

2023 update to the Smart Insights Martech mindtool?

I created our 'Martech Wheel'?several years ago now to help businesses benchmark the free and paid #saasmarketing tools they use. It's structured so lower cost, more popular tools are around the edge with enterprise tools towards the middle. It's stood the test of time fairly well given that it's limited to 30 categories, but there are some other suggestions in the comments which were useful - including Gen AI.

Brand building vs sales activation - what is the optimal mix?

I think many are suprised by the recommended 60:40 Brand vs Activation ad investment split when they first see it. Here Les Binet reviews?how they can reinforce each other, and for students or interested professionals links to a classic/thought provoking Marketing Effectiveness Paper.

Are using Google Performance Max to the Max?

Growth in Google PMax is 'off the scale' in the latest Skai benchmarks. My post covers 9 questions to ask to get the most from Pmax.

If you're using Performance Max already, there was a major update to PMax options in February announced on LinkedIn by Ginny Marvin, who is Ads Product Liaison at Google.

Re-framing product marketing

IMO product marketing doesn't get enough attention as we discuss digital communications. I thought this was a useful thought-provoking LinkedIn post prompting questions about how digital marketing can support product marketing goals.

I hope there's some nuggets that are useful for you. I'm here to learn too, so I'm always grateful for any feedback or thoughts these spark or recent developments you have found interesting??

Thanks in advance, Dave