A combination of customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation can make an organization understand how to make effective marketing campaigns and what needs to be improved to make them even more effective. Marketing automation is ineffective if the integration of CRM and marketing automation is not correct. For CRM–marketing automation integration to be successful, all the parties i.e. from the sales team to the automation vendor must be at par and if data are inconsistent or duplicated, it can create problem in a marketing strategy or campaign. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-factors-to-consider-when-integrating-marketing-automation-and-crm-66138

Content marketing is a cost-effective marketing tool for any business and hospitals are no exception. Hospitals should consider content marketing to be an important part of marketing strategy. According to a study it was found that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising and yields three times as many leads on a per-dollar basis. Jonathan Catley (MD Connect, Inc), writes in his article about how hospitals can incorporate custom content: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-02-16/content-marketing-new-frontier-hospital-marketing

According to a recent report from Infusionsoft, it was found that 62% of small businesses surveyed cite word-of-mouth/customer referrals as a top 3 tactic in marketing strategy, 34% of people considered email as a top 3 tactic, 25% considered networking, 23% considered social media, 14% considered search engine and 13% considered content marketing. Read more at: : http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/26859/the-most-effective-marketing-strategies-for-small-businesses

Nowadays, selfies are very popular. But, the question is how selfies are relevant in promoting a business? Selfies has unlocked opportunities for brands to promote themselves online. They are highly effective at driving likes, shares, and comments. Brands can make use of this trend to increase awareness of their products and services. Noelle Federico (Business manager and CFO of Dreamstime LLC) writes in her article link about some tips to make the most out of selfies: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2015/26755/selfies-for-smbs-marketing-strategies-not-just-for-teens-and-celebrities

Marketing is the most important aspect in business world. But, companies over market and under market their products. Overmarketing makes things worse. If you undermarket, you lose sales and if you overmarket you can turn prospect customers. The most common form of overmarketing in today’s world of email is sending too many messages to the same customer. Successful marketing can be described as giving the right message to the right customer at the right time through the right medium. CRM strategy prevents companies to over market their products  Rick Cook (writer of technology) writes in his article about some points to follow when implementing a successful marketing strategy. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/how-crm-prevents-overmarketing-62584

Earlier it was easy for marketers to advertise as there were few TV channels, newspapers and magazines. In this digital age, marketers need to identify and communicate benefits to consumers. Greg Satell writes in his article about some principles that will guide the marketers in today’s world. Read more at: : http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/04/16/4-principles-of-marketing-strategy-in-the-digital-age/

Social amplification is a very useful tool for marketing strategy. But what is social amplification? Social amplification helps brands to amplify the reach of organic content and grow a community of loyal customers. It also helps brands reach the right audience through social networks. Jennifer Landry (freelance writer) in her article writes about paid social amplification. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/26513/how-to-use-paid-social-amplification-for-your-brand-infographic

According to John Sculley (entrepreneur and the former CEO of Pepsi-Cola and Apple) a drastic change is taking place in marketing with the expansion of incredible new technologies like big data, cloud computing and numerous miniature sensors as well as mobile devices, making customers smarter. Nowadays customers value each other's opinion more than the producers'. With the beginning of a big-data marketing era, the prospects for entrepreneurs to disrupt and build companies have improved because technology costs have reduced. Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238363

Organizations should keep their marketing strategy flexible. Goals and strategy should be different. Caroline Melberg (Chief Engagement Officer, Small Business Mavericks) writes in her article about some ideas of different goals and strategies that a company should follow. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/your-marketing-strategy-flexible-0

According to Darian Shirazi (founder of Radius and a Forbes contributor), marketers measure success based on the dollar value of pipeline they are able to generate in order to increase revenue. The marketers, who can reach their goals, work closely with their sales team who can find appropriate customers. The ones who struggle to reach their goals are not aware of their sales team's ability to close deals. To highlight pipeline, and to find customers, marketers need to understand deeply how to market properly. Hence marketers today, have access to new data sources, superior analytics, and better integrations that allow them to generate high value pipelines. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/darianshirazi/2014/09/16/marketing-automation-2-0-marketing-intelligence/

No one can deny the fact that in recent times, social media has come in forefront when companies need to market their products and services. It has become an important channel. This has been also revealed in a survey done by Social Media Examiner. In its annual report, the findings say that marketers continue to emphasize social media and 92 percent of marketers think that social media is important for their business – a rise from 86 percent last year. Expanding business by using social media has made the winning race more competitive.

But, at a time, when the word social media is buzzing everywhere, there are some concerns. Social networking site Facebook is losing its shine. Facebook reach is declining. To stay ahead in the race, marketers must think of other platforms and strategies where they can invest.

What are they? Know them at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233959 .