actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

Happy Thanksgiving!

Many cultures and religions have harvest-based festivals.

Grounded in the history of the Pilgrims’ first harvest, Thanksgiving gives short shrift to other immigrant groups and the native nations. 

Thanksgiving has lots of associations. Many of them are marketing and sales-oriented.

None is better known than the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.I remember taking my nephews to see the gigantic cartoon balloons get inflated the night before. They’re tied down surrounding the American Museum of Natural History like helium filled parodies of the dinosaurs whose bones rest inside.

Traditionally, many US businesses hustled after Thanksgiving to capture holiday sales. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, gets its name from the fact that many retailers’ financials went into the black (aka: made money for the year) starting on this day.

As marketing and sales methods have become more sophisticated, this big sales weekend has become increasingly competitive. Sales start earlier and earlier with many retailers luring price-conscious shoppers in before their dinner is even digested.

Personally, I find this sad.

Yes I’ve taken advantage of these post-Thanksgiving sales.  I remember shopping with my sister and my mother.

Yes I’ve created more holiday sales and incentives than I care to count. Stirring the desire to shop for different types of product.

Yes I’ve used this season to improve business profitability.

But, I truly believe that, at its best, American Thanksgiving focuses on sharing and appreciating what we have.

It’s about being with those people we cherish most.

On Thanksgiving and other holidays, my mother always said we give thanks for our family and those who are like family.

She meant the people we chose to be our family. Since we had a small family, my mother always invited friends who didn't have other family to join us.

My mother created new, more inclusive customs in our family.

Her recipe books contained cooking stains on the pages where the keys to her ritual food resided. Not that she needed them.

True to her giving nature, my mom freely shared them in their entirety to her friends and family. (I say this since many cooks omit an ingredient or two so no one can imitate their recipes exactly.) She set in motion new generations of more open families.

Regardless of your nationality or beliefs, I ask you to take a few minutes this week to reach out to those who mean the most to you.

Let them know how important they are to you. I’m not talking about an empty gesture but rather heartfelt communication. Not just a Teflon email or text that can be easily misconstrued.

But engage with them person-to-person. Show your human side.

I wish all of you the best for Thanksgiving regardless of where you live.

I want you to know I appreciate your readership and engagement.

I am thankful that you’re part of my extended circle.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

Digital Marketing Maturity: The Results are In

The Progress Digital Marketing Maturity Guide helps organizations determine the level of sophistication within their digital marketing operations.

Using this guide, Progress worked with Dimensional Research to conduct a global survey of 700 marketing professionals gauging the level of digital marketing maturity across various verticals and company sizes.

You can use these findings to benchmark your organization against other groups.

Important survey findings include:

• 80% of organizations require manual processes to get their systems to work properly
• 87% of organizations are using big data and analytics to drive conversions
• 69% of respondents stated their analytics solution is fully integrated, and they can see data in one place
• The 700 respondents ranked as Intermediate on the digital marketing maturity scale as defined in the Digital Marketing Maturity Guide

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• Heidi Cohen was one of the 50+ experts who contributed to Mike Alton’s round up post, 52 Influencers Reveal the best and worst monetization secrets.
  
  
• Heidi Cohen was selected by OmniConvert as one of the top 50 bloggers who practice what they preach!
  
  
• Pressly tapped Heidi Cohen to contribute to their ebook, The Ultimate Guide To Content Marketing.
  
  
• Need help with your holiday promotions? Here’s what 17 experts including Heidi Cohen recommend.

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