By Brooke Neuman, Content Producer
With today's highly competitive marketplace, it has become increasingly difficult to capture new consumers and retain existing ones. Because of this, many companies are turning to a burgeoning inbound marketing strategy - content marketing. In fact, 58 percent of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months, up from 54 percent last year, according to Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs' fourth annual B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends-North America report, sponsored by Brightcove.
By Carrie Majewski (née Schmelkin), Director of Content Marketing, Content Boost
When it comes to customer experience, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to keep factors such as personalization, modality and automation top of mind to increase efficiencies and bolster productivity. After all, just one simple misstep can cost your company its market.
By Sue O'Keefe, Senior Editor, Content Boost
The cloud can seem like a scary place for SMBs, because things like hacking, security breaches and fraud are making major headlines. If a companies like Target or Michaels can be compromised, can a SMB's data really be safe? Yes, said participants on The Cloud of Tomorrow panel at Cloud4SMB Expo, and the best move SMBs can make it to jump right in. The main barrier to adoption of the cloud for SMBs is a cultural one, panelists agreed.
By Allison Boccamazzo, Managing Content Producer
For TollFreeForwarding.com, a provider of international phone numbers, ITEXPO East 2014 represents the ultimate social hub.
By Allison Boccamazzo, Managing Content Producer
How do you create a delicious contact center recipe? A lot of things that may have never been considered, according to panelists from today's session titled, "Best of All Worlds: New Face of Customer Service," which took place at ITEXPO East 2014 in Miami, FL.
By Brooke Neuman, Content Producer
The communications industry has drastically changed requiring businesses to communicate in new ways. Because of this, it's become more difficult for some companies to keep up. So how can your business invest in the appropriate technology to keep up with the changes and win a competitive advantage?
By Brooke Neuman, Content Producer
While the BYOD movement is nothing new, it's become increasingly apparent that companies must adopt an effective BYOD strategy or risk getting left behind. With the ubiquity of smartphones and the increasingly popularity of tablets, more business are casting an eye toward BYOD. In fact, according to Gartner, 50 percent of workers will be required to use their own smartphone on the job by 2017.
By Allison Boccamazzo, Managing Content Producer
There's no two ways about the fact that big data is shaping the customer experience; however, "shaping" doesn't necessarily mean improving. Big data certainly boasts the power to improve the customer experience, but only when approached the right away, today's group of panelists agreed during, "The Relationship Between Big Data and Customer Experience," held at ITEXPO East 2014 in Miami, FL.
By Rachel Ramsey, Content Director
A few years ago, it was completely acceptable for a retailer to know if a customer was walking around in its store. Today, big data is changing everything: Retailers can know not only that customers are in their stores, but also who they are, what their shopping patterns are, what they're looking for and how you can give them personalized offers and experiences.
By Brooke Neuman, Content Producer
More marketers today are becoming increasingly aware that mobile is important given the growth of tablets and smartphones - by the end of 2014 there will be more mobile devices on Earth than people. Because of this, mobile marketing has transition from just a "buzz" word to a full-blown, must-have marketing strategy. In fact, 33 percent of companies have a mobile marketing strategy and 62 percent of marketers plan to have a mobile marketing strategy within the next 12 month, according to a recent report titled "Mobile Marketing: Plan, Trends and Measurability" from KingFish Media. But what's the key to mobile marketing success?
By Brooke Neuman, Content Producer
Big data is no longer a buzzword, it's here and changing everything. In fact, big data is helping companies across all industries answer real-world business problems as well as provide insights into everything including consumer preferences, inventory and Twitter feeds. According to research, 87 percent of marketers agree that capturing and sharing the right data is important to effectively measuring ROI in their own company and 70 percent of C-suite executives expect a return on their big data investments within one year.
By Sue O'Keefe, Senior Editor, Content Boost
A recent study from the Customer Contact Council indicates that going above and beyond when responding to customer service requests does not improve the customer loyalty. Answering their questions quickly and efficiently-in other words, reducing their customer effort-is emerging as the new way to make customers loyal to your brand.
By Sue O'Keefe, Senior Editor, Content Boost
When you combine an increasingly ubiquitous technology (VoIP) with a rapidly emerging global phenomenon (mobility), what do you get? Mobile VoIP, which is a growing byproduct of these two market forces. Without question, mobile VoIP is taking the industry by storm, both in residential and business markets. But what's driving this growth?
By Sue O'Keefe, Senior Editor, Content Boost
SMBs are often reluctant to think about things like disaster recovery and business continuity and when they do, often wonder if they can find the time and money to put plans into place. "The question I always ask when businesses are debating whether it's worth the trouble is, "How much is it going to cost you if you can't do business with your customers?' " Joel Maloff, vice president, Channel Development for Phone.com, told TMCnet at ITEXPO East 2014. "If you are down for a day or a week or a month, could your business ever recover?"
