{"id":112610,"date":"2014-12-18T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T00:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/laurence-o-toole-ceo-analytics-seo\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:53:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:53:42","slug":"laurence-o-toole-ceo-analytics-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-gb\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/laurence-o-toole-ceo-analytics-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Laurence O Toole, CEO of Analytics SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

“<\/strong>Analytics SEO<\/a> are an SEO vending suite providing a tool to monitor and record workflow on most elements of organic search,<\/strong>\u00a0what will be the biggest challenges and opportunities for agencies and brands that use your services in 2015?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a marketing leader in your organisation responsible for choosing the right tools and data to help you grow your business, then you\u2019ve probably felt at one time or another like the proverbial kid in a candy store, dazzled by the fancy marketing messages and bewildered by choice.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much data available and a legion of marketing software tools and APIs covering every aspect of the marketing mix; analytics, site auditing, PPC bid management, website crawling, keyword ranking, competitive analysis, link profiling and disavowing, outreach, PR tools, content marketing planning, content idea generation, CRO, social media, reputation management, website personalisation, webmaster tools, marketing automation, reporting, alerting and dashboarding. (What have I missed?)<\/em><\/p>\n

I think one of the biggest challenges facing marketers in 2015 and beyond is that they know that the answers to their marketing challenges lie somewhere in this tangled mess of systems and data.\u00a0 There is no one-fits-all solution.\u00a0 As marketers, we have to pick the right combination of technology and hope it plays nicely with your existing systems and processes.<\/p>\n

But how on earth do you determine what is best going to fit your needs?\u00a0 How do you find the time to evaluate the alternatives and secure a budget for what you need?\u00a0 To be honest that\u2019s a big enough topic to be the subject of another blog post and in reality it\u2019s really the easy part of the puzzle! Once you have selected the right solution then the real work begins!\u00a0 You need to agree service levels and sign contracts, upload your historic data, configure and learn the new platform, do some business process re-engineering, train your whole team and roll-it out to your customers!<\/p>\n

After you\u2019ve done all this, you probably want to pause for breath.\u00a0 But now you\u2019ve got to convince the powers that be; that your multi-thousand dollar investment is starting to generate a return.\u00a0 Hopefully, this will be self-evident soon after implementation, but if this is not already becoming abundantly clear, then chances are this might require further refinement of existing business processes, re-training key staff and\/or (dare I say it) abandoning the project as a bad idea.<\/p>\n

So as we start looking forward to 2015, it\u2019s a good opportunity to reflect on the investment decisions we\u2019ve made over the past 12 months and the investment decisions we\u2019re likely to make in the next 12 months.\u00a0 And the question on everyone\u2019s lips this year should be;<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What investments should I be making in Big Marketing Data and Technology in 2015?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You first have to look at what sales and marketing software have you bought in 2014 before thinking about the new additions you could add in 2015? (Let me know in the comments \u2013 what\u2019s \u2018out with the old\u2019 and what\u2019s \u2018in with the new\u2019).<\/em><\/p>\n

Every time we implement new software into our business we learn good and bad lessons that help us improve our own approach to software development and customer success.<\/p>\n

In 2014, one of our biggest investments was in Insight Squared<\/a> which is a sales and marketing management tool that sits on top of Salesforce.\u00a0 For a B2B organisation like us, it gives us great summary data and more importantly relevant and timely insights that (painful experience tells me) take an age to get from Salesforce in a digestible form.<\/p>\n

I have a \u2018love-hate\u2019 relationship with Salesforce \u2013 I love the fact that it\u2019s a central repository of customer and prospect information and that I can integrate usage and sales data from our system, with analytics data from Woopra<\/a> and questions from Zendesk<\/a> our ticketing system \u2013 they all play nicely together.\u00a0 But only since investing in Insight Squared have we started to realise the full power of Salesforce.\u00a0 (Hats off to Insight Squared \u2013 they have a very intuitive UI, a great product and a superb approach to on-boarding customers).<\/em><\/p>\n

This complementary eco-system of products have allowed us to hone and refine our sales and customer success processes.\u00a0 We extensively use APIs to connect these systems together and ensure the right data flows to the right system or interface.<\/p>\n

This trend of building closely coupled eco-systems of software that play nicely, or integrating APIs from many providers into one central dashboard solution has been something that has been gathering pace over recent years.\u00a0 This will continue to accelerate in 2015 and beyond as new companies and technologies make it even easier for marketers to get the answers they need at their fingertips.<\/p>\n

\n \n
\n
\n

\n Stay Forward <\/h2>\n

\n Get exclusive insights into digital
media's top-trending topics delivered
directly to your inbox. <\/p>\n <\/div>\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n \n