thundertech-Trends-Summer-Reader-2015

2 0 5
TRENDS
SUMMER
READER
A mid-year publication dedicated to the lessons
of organizations practicing 2015 trends.
1

f you have been following thunder::tech for a while, then you are probably
familiar with Marketing Trends, our annual guide to emerging marketing
strategies and techniques, which we have presented at the beginning of
each of the past six years. Customers and friends of the agency have always
given us great feedback, but recent conversation has shifted to not just
wanting to know about trends, but more about how to apply them.
That’s why this year, we have decided to release a mid-year publication
completely dedicated to interviews with those who are applying these trends.
Hopefully you are able to learn directly from those doing it and take ideas back
to your organization.
As the marketing world continues to evolve at a rapid pace, thunder::tech
wants you to be armed with as much education to meet your audience where
they’re at today and be ready for tomorrow.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your feedback. Give us a call, talk
to us through social media or email with your thoughts, ideas, comments,
questions, jokes or riddles.
WELCOME TO THE 2015
TRENDS SUMMER READER
I
::Jason Therrien, president
jason.therrien@thundertech.com
@JasonTherrien
2

6AUTO
PILOTS
Marketing automation soars as companies fly toward
smarter analytics, customer journey insights
page 10ACCESS
ANYWHERE
Employees tap into real-time data any time, any place
with cloud-based enterprise tools
page
14BEST
IMPRESSIONS
thunder::tech’s resident experts on digital display
advertising explain how recent developments will help
businesses reach their target audiences more effectively
page 20ON THE
’ZINE SCENE
Whether print or digital, magazine publishing is all
the rage with content marketers
page
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3

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CONTRIBUTORS
GEORGI SILVIA
Project Management
TOM VALENTINO
Writing, Research and Roundtable
Moderation
CRAIG ISRAEL
Creative Direction
COURTNEY MILLER
Design
CHRISTIAN DAUGSTRUP
Photography
MATT STEVENS
Multimedia
MARISSA NORRIS
Editing
TREVOR MARZELLA
Print Coordination
EDITORIAL
DESIGN
DIGITAL
ALEX ARNOLD
Development
JULIE SYMONDS
Project Coordination
5

here is no guaranteed path to
success for today’s marketers.
Potential customers have more
options for connecting with brands, but
that means their attention is harder to
gain. And the sales cycle has become
longer, giving them more opportunities
to fall out of your sales funnel.
There is one solution, however, that
promises to combat both of these
problems and is budget-friendly—
marketing automation.
According to a study by Focus Research,
marketing automation has seen the
fastest growth of any CRM-related
segment in the past five years. Its
adoption is still rising sharply among the
world’s biggest companies—53 percent
of B2B Fortune 500 companies are now
using marketing automation platforms,
compared to 25 percent just two years
ago, per a report published by ClickZ—but
its usage is spreading across sectors and
business sizes.
CBIZ Retirement Plan Services, for
example, made the decision to start a
PILOTS
T
Upgrades are in the works. CBIZ
Retirement Plan Services is now using
Pardot marketing automation software
to roll out a series of educational videos
on its website and in email to nurture
prospective clients.
Shifting to marketing automation will give
the firm a better understanding of what its
audience is looking for, Coyne said.
“The thing I’m most excited about as we get
started is that marketing automation really
lets consumers drive the market,” she
said. “By finding out what they’re looking
for, you can do a better job of creating
products and services they need.”
Statistics bear out Coyne’s theory on the
effectiveness of delivering content that
tailored to recipients’ interests. Relevant
emails delivered through marketing
automation receive 18 times the revenue
generated by one-size-fits-all email blasts,
according to Jupiter Research.
Coyne added that marketing automation
will also give CBIZ Retirement Plan
Services a clearer picture of its sales
marketing automation program as part
of a multi-year effort to double down on
its marketing efforts to better educate
potential clients.
The company, a subsidiary of CBIZ, Inc.,
began building out its marketing program
three years ago. Marketing consultant
Katie Coyne was brought on board to focus
on higher education campaigns, creating
a drip process, identifying and tracking
prospects, and aligning efforts with the
firm’s sales team.
Another key part of Coyne’s role was
developing quality content—the engine that
drives successful marketing campaigns.
Initially, CBIZ Retirement Plan Services’
marketing stack consisted primarily of
email and printed materials. Despite
making strides, Coyne said there was still
a missing piece to the puzzle.
“We were able to determine the content
needed and what our brand should look
like, and we generated materials from
there,” Coyne said. “But we had not done
marketing automation, and we knew that
was a weakness.”
MARKETING AUTOMATION SOARS AS
COMPANIES FLY TOWARD SMARTER
ANALYTICS, CUSTOMER JOURNEY INSIGHTS
AUTO
6

ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY FOCUS RESEARCH,
MARKETING AUTOMATION HAS SEEN THE
FASTEST GROWTH OF ANY CRM-RELATED
SEGMENT IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS.

cycle and whether it can be shortened.
Additional layers of analytics in the coming
months will illustrate how—and for how
long—users are watching videos.
The quest for a better understanding of
customers is a familiar refrain for many
thunder::tech clients, said Bruce Williams,
the agency’s Development Department
director. The team uses several tools,
including software by Salesforce, Act-On,
Marketo and HubSpot, to help them along
the journey.
“Today, there is an arms race to get a
foothold with analytics and customer
journey insights,” Williams said. “That’s
where automation comes in. You’re getting
It’s easy to understand why companies
are so motivated to nurture potential
clients with relevant information that
can spur action. Businesses that use
marketing automation to nurture
prospects experience a 451 percent
increase in qualified leads, and nurtured
leads make 47 percent larger purchases
than non-nurtured leads, according to
a study by The Annuitas Group.
Marketing automation’s ability to
connect marketing and sales was one
of the biggest selling points for Pete
Robison, vice president of marketing
and digital integration at Meyer Products.
The Cleveland-based maker of snow-
and ice-removal equipment installed
information and service in front of the
customer at a volume and accuracy that
a single person behind a laptop working
manually couldn’t provide.”
As companies engage potential customers
with more relevant content, they are
able to build a more complete profile of
those customers in return, piece by piece,
through a process known as progressive
profiling, Williams said.
“When you continue to learn more about
your customers each time they visit your
site, you get a better understanding of
who each customer is, what they are
looking for and how you can help them,”
Williams said.
8

marketing automation software last fall
as a complement to its CRM.
“What I really like about the automated
platform is it unifies marketing and sales
in a way I have never seen in 30 years,”
Robison said. “Potential customers get into
the sales funnel early by visiting our site.
They develop a familiarity with us, and we
earn a spot on their consideration list. As
they go deeper into the funnel, I can see
that. At that point, marketing has done its
job building awareness and familiarity, and
I can send them directly to sales and it’s all
reportable. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Robison offered two pieces of advice for
businesses getting started with marketing
automation. First, they should be patient
with seeing results. Meyer Products
installed its Pardot software at the start
of its heavy retail season and spent the
winter months of 2014-15 fine tuning
lead scoring strategies that could provide
customers with the most relevant content
for their interests.
“You have to learn,” Robison said. “You
don’t necessarily hit the ground running.
We learned the ropes last season, and
now we’re much better with experience.”
Robison’s second tip was to place a
premium on high-quality content.
“The only way marketing automation works
is if you have an attractive carrot for
your customers,” he said. “It’s quid pro
quo: Customers will agree to give you
some information you seek in exchange
for giving them quality content they are
looking for.
“Your content needs to be relevant and
resonate with visitors. It’s the single
most important thing. You can have all
the technical aspects down and the
infrastructure in place, but if you want your
customers to give you information, you
need a content piece that is enticing.” ::
CBIZ Retirement Plan Services and Meyer
Products are clients of thunder::tech.
“WHAT I REALLY LIKE ABOUT THE
AUTOMATED PLATFORM IS IT UNIFIES
MARKETING AND SALES IN A WAY
I HAVE NEVER SEEN IN 30 YEARS.”
:: Pete Robison, Meyer Products vice president of marketing and digital integration
9

ANYWHERE
EMPLOYEES TAP INTO REAL-TIME
DATA ANY TIME, ANY PLACE WITH
CLOUD-BASED ENTERPRISE TOOLS
ACCESS
Use of cloud-based applications
overall is on the rise.
• 93 percent of businesses surveyed
use cloud services
• 88 percent use a public cloud service,
a multi-tenant environment such as
Adobe, Oracle or Rackspace
• 63 percent use a private cloud, which
is dedicated to a single organization
Source:
RightScale 2015 State of the Cloud Report

hree and a half years ago,
Tom Soggs joined Transport
Services as vice president of
operations. One of his first observations
upon arrival was that the company,
which specializes in selling and leasing
semi-trailers, faced a sizeable roadblock
within its own four walls.
“Our sales team was working from static
inventory sheets,” Soggs said. “They could
leave a meeting with a customer who was
interested in a unit. Ten minutes later, it
was no longer available, and we would
have to start from square one. It became
a problem. Our salespeople were always
reluctant to say, ‘It’s yours.’ Instead, it was
‘I think we can do that, but let me get
back to you.’ ”
It was particularly frustrating in quick-
turnaround situations, such as when
potential customers needed to lease a
vehicle on the spot.
deal could be marked as “locked” so that
it wouldn’t be offered to other customers
when it was no longer available.
In addition to having real-time availability,
the app, which launched in early 2013,
now offers sortable vehicle features. Sales
representatives are able to provide a far
more detailed profile of the trailers under
consideration. By arming customers
with more information during the initial
meeting, Transport Services has been able
to shorten its sales cycle, Soggs said.
Foursquare Financial, a Los Angeles-based
financial services provider, has put the
power of the cloud directly into the hands
of its customers. Previously, Foursquare
Financial used a labor-intensive process
for collecting information from applicants
that required an extensive back-and-
forth between the organization and the
applicant, as well as printed forms and
traditional mail.
“When a customer needed something right
now, it became a mad rush,” Soggs said.
“A few hours was too long.”
Among the reasons Soggs was brought
aboard at Transport Services was his
experience in facing such challenges.
Previously, he played a role in digitizing
processes and improving efficiencies
at Stanley Black & Decker, helping the
company to compete globally. Now at
Transport Services, Soggs deduced that to
get more of his new employer’s vehicles on
the road, it needed to head to the cloud.
As such, Transport Services began
working on a real-time inventory app for
iPads that could be accessed by sales
personnel anywhere. Each semi-trailer
offered by Transport Services – including
both the sales and rental fleets – were
loaded into the app, complete with vehicle
specifications and photos. Equipment that
was sold, leased or part of a pending
T

“A CLOUD-BASED SOLUTION FUNCTIONS AS
A TOOL TO SUPPLEMENT AND ENHANCE
MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE INTERACTION,
BUT IT DOESN’T REPLACE IT.”
:: John Hopkins, Wine Trends vice president of marketing

In 2014, Foursquare Financial
implemented a solution on its website
that provided potential customers with a
brief questionnaire to determine the right
type of IRA for their needs. Foursquare
Financial representatives were then
able to identify the proper application
documents, send them by email and
receive an applicant’s signature online
through DocuSign.
“It’s a huge stride for us,” said Kerrie
Jackson, Foursquare Financial vice
president of trust and fiduciary services.
“We worked many hours making sure we
had every question right. When I get an
email from a potential customer, I can now
provide them exactly what they’re looking
for. It’s as if I had filled out an application
for them by hand.”
Customers have taken notice. Jackson said
one customer called Foursquare Financial’s
process “a more modern approach”
compared to his previous financial
institution, which required hard copies.
While taking business to the cloud has
created a better experience for customers
of Transport Services and Foursquare
Financial, other companies are finding
success by digitizing back-of-the-house
practices, too.
Wine Trends distributes emerging, artisan
and luxury wines to restaurants and retail
permit holders throughout the state of
Ohio. Since it was acquired in 2008 by
Heidelberg Distributing Company, Wine
Trends has worked to maintain a balance
creating confident and knowledgeable
employees.”
Hopkins echoed those sentiments.
“The portal is a morale booster and
empowerment tool for our employees,”
Hopkins said.
Regardless of industry, however, Hopkins
urged companies considering a cloud-
based process of their own to remember
that it won’t be a “set it and forget it”
solution.
“It is not a be-all, end-all for the task at
hand,” he said. “A cloud-based solution
functions as a tool to supplement and
enhance management and employee
interaction, but it doesn’t replace it.”
In terms of launching the Wine Trends
employee portal, Earl said her big
takeaway was the importance of planning
at the outset of the project.
“Before beginning a project, consider
the time commitment involved,” she
said. “The strategy, process and design
implementation requires serious
conversation within your team for the
project, which at Wine Trends meant the
website provider, consultant and key
business stakeholders. Your advance work
will make the difference in your success.” ::
Transport Services, Foursquare Financial and
Wine Trends are clients of thunder::tech.
between integrating itself into Heidelberg’s
business without compromising its
culture. Part of the process has included
upgrading sales reporting practices so
that information could be easily shared
throughout the organization.
“As we brought Wine Trends into the fold,
our goal was to develop consistent, one-
voice reporting for our sales team, which
operates in six different cities with differing
personalities,” said Wine Trends vice
president of marketing John Hopkins.
In the past, Wine Trends sales reports
and forms were generated and distributed
through email. It was an inefficient process
that also cluttered employees’ inboxes,
said Sandy Earl, who founded Wine Trends
in 1984 and stayed on in a consulting
capacity once the company was acquired
by Heidelberg.
To improve efficiency, Wine Trends
embarked on a six-month process to
develop a cloud-based reporting solution.
The result was an employee portal, which
provides an easily accessible home for
key sales data. Reports are manually
uploaded, and after logging in, employees
can view information that is pertinent to
their roles.
“The portal is the place where employees
know they can consistently go to see
real-time reports and information,” Earl
said. “There is clarity. It builds employee
confidence that results in more trusting
customer relationships. The portal
improves the customer experience by
13

ore customization. Smarter
targeting. Better tracking.
Whether it’s through an
acquisition by Google, another ad
solution on Facebook, or a new tool for
digital display advertisers, paid digital
media continues to become more
sophisticated – and eﬀective.
But success comes with a price tag,
and costs can mount quickly when
strategies are misguided. How can
marketers make the most of their
budgets for digital display advertising,
PPC, SEO and social media?
thunder::tech Optimization Team
Manager David Crader, Social Media
Team Manager Madison Bender and
Senior Account Manager/Media
Specialist J.P. Krainz sat down for a
roundtable discussion to sort it all out.
MODERATOR: How would you say paid
digital media has evolved over the
past year?
DAVID CRADER: Google has a lot of pretty
exciting things in the works right now. It’s
from an agency perspective to determine
how we then target them if we have no
trace of where they’ve been or what
they’re looking at.
On the agency display side, we’re starting
to see our customers ask about DSP
(demand-side platform). This is the ability
to buy display ads when it’s good for their
audience. Just like Dave on the Google
AdWords side, I can buy the terms and ad
space that I want when I need that. I can
go in there, find what I want, bid on those,
get aggressive pricing and then go. And
that seems to be a path that some of our
clients are looking at, as opposed to the
traditional method of buying something
and running it for 30 days.
MADISON BENDER: With social media
advertising, it’s about the breadth of
opportunity that has come about in the
past six months. Mostly the tools are
just enhancing what they’re able to offer.
It’s more data, more automation, more
customization. And Facebook, at the end
of last year, acquired a major ad solution,
Atlas, and how that hopefully will change
the landscape of social media advertising.
now using your search terms, seeing what
you’ve searched over the past 30 days
and using that data to target ads to you.
Google’s also going to improve the
conversion tracking of its AdWords
platform. So now you can tie your offline
activity to your online activity. It does that
by using the location targeting on your
Android devices. If your customers have
that turned on, Google can see if they
clicked an ad and then went to the store,
and then tie that back to your AdWords
data to help you show your return
on investment.
J.P. KRAINZ: As it pertains to mostly
digital display through ad networks
and exchanges, I’m seeing two sorts of
things that have evolved in this last six
to 12 months. One of them is the user’s
flexibility to control their cookies, so the
information is being stored from browser
session to browser session. Some users
are blocking cookie access and others
are erasing them automatically to avoid
tracking all together. Well, how does a
marketer track that? So that’s on the client
side, which is really interesting for us,
BEST IMPRESSIONS
M
Optimization Team Manager Senior Account Manager & Media Specialist Social Media Team Manager
14
DAVID CRADER J.P. KRAINZ MADISON BENDER
THUNDER::TECH’S RESIDENT EXPERTS ON DIGITAL ADVERTISING
EXPLAIN HOW RECENT DEVELOPMENTS WILL HELP BUSINESSES
REACH THEIR TARGET AUDIENCES MORE EFFECTIVELY

they need to do more than just that now?
They need to involve social media, they
need to involve Google AdWords, plus
some of the digital display side, and then
mix in a bunch of offline things.
From there, we can look at what the cam-
paign in general looks like, and then see
how digital, in this case, supports the rest
of the activities they’re doing.
BENDER: Just to build off of what J.P. was
talking about, earlier today we spoke about
this as the touch points—how many touch
points you need to have to influence a con-
sumer and to get them even to your website
and then to convert. One platform is not
enough anymore. And one platform needs
multiple other opportunities just to succeed.
With social media advertising, we can’t
do it perfectly without a great website or a
great landing page. And I know, Dave, that
you do the same thing with PPC, having all
these different tools laid out to tell the
whole story and to inform the consumer.
Within that, we’re educating the client.
So there are a lot of opportunities in front
of us, if we’re willing to kind of get into
the different nooks and crannies and play
with all the different ways to build out
the campaign.
CRADER: It really shows your authority as a
brand when the customer sees your ads
everywhere they go, across the Internet, on
social networks, on search
results. Maybe you have two
listings on search results, one
page listing and one organic,
free listing. You start to really
look like the authority in that
area. And you can do every-
thingprettyinexpensivelyifyou
just target it correctly.
MODERATOR: Do you think
it gets difficult to track
everything as the playing
ﬁeld changes?
BENDER: For me, for social media adver-
tising, no. I think tracking is definitely
getting better. It’s something that I think
marketers started to complain about a
lot, especially to Facebook and Twitter,
the big two. Analytics in the past two
years, for both of those platforms, have
just evolved tremendously. There’s so
many more opportunities for marketers,
whether that’s a small business market-
er or an agency like us. They’ve built out
a variety of tools that makes it easier for
us to track everything.
IT REALLY SHOWS YOUR
AUTHORITY AS A BRAND
WHEN THE CUSTOMER
SEES YOUR ADS
EVERYWHERE THEY GO.
MODERATOR: Are you seeing clients
really taking advantage of any of these
options lately?
CRADER: Yeah. One of our clients is using
that in-market targeting, which uses your
search history to target ads to users. It’s
working out really well for them. It’s a lot
different than the search network on Google,
where those clicks can be very expensive,
around$50to$70sometimes.Andthisnew
in-market targeting allows us to
get clicks on websites across the
Internet for a couple of pennies,
sometimes. So they’re seeing a
really good return on investment
from it.
MODERATOR: As we start looking
at some of the growing options,
do you see these things creating
more opportunities or more chal-
lenges and more considerations
to juggle?
KRAINZ: I think for a lot of our clients, it’s a
matter of education on the opportunities. So
they come to us and say, ‘Hey, I want to ad-
vertise my goods and services on this news
website.’ We’ll say, ‘OK, great. There’s a
couple different ways to do that. But what
other plans are you actually integrating
that with?’
In the past, they would just do a digital
campaign and throw it out there, and people
would look at it and maybe click on it, get to
their website, and we were good. But how
do we educate the client, in this case, that
15

is giving us that you’ve done all these
things and here’s the result that you’re
getting back.
The tracking is there, but what are the
numbers behind that tracking experience?
CRADER: One exciting thing from Google’s
end is the ability to now try to track things
without getting a developer involved. So
they’ve come out with this new tool called
Google Tag Manager. It’s made really more
for marketers and just general users to
allow us to set up these complex tracking
systems without having to hire someone
to install it. So that’s really nice for us, for
Madison and for me.
MODERATOR: Dave, would you call it
the most interesting change you’ve
seen recently?
CRADER: Tracking-wise, I think probably
the offline tracking is probably more
interesting. Who would have thought that
they’re using your phone to see where
you’re going?
And that could be scary on the consumer
side, if you’re thinking about this in terms
of that creepy factor. But at the end of the
day, it’s helping us provide better content
to people that’s actually interesting
to them.
KRAINZ: For the digital display side, the
tracking elements are great and it’s a nice
baseline for what we want to do.
Everyone can go and click on the ad
and get where they want to go, but does
anyone convert after the fact? Did they
spend time on that page or other pages?
The tracking element doesn’t just stop
at who clicked the ad—was it accidental,
was it for real—but how do they dig
deeper into the site to get more of
that information?
And then through both Dave’s and
Madison’s teams, they take the numbers
they receive from that, put them together,
and say, ‘This is what the user is seeing, in
general.’ Well, how can we, then, on our
side, understand from what the client
KRAINZ: That’s the best part. I like that one.
CRADER: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. I wouldn’t
have thought that technology was
available, or if anyone had opted into that.
But apparently, millions of people opt into
location tracking, because it helps with
your maps and stuff. When you search,
maybe for ‘gas stations near me,’ if you
have that turned on, Google can better
serve you more relevant results. But at
same time, they’re using that data to see
where you’re going.
One thing to keep in mind is that
everything is anonymous. You can’t track
it to an individual. It’s just aggregate data
that they’re using, or else you might be
crossing the line a little bit there. Google
takes privacy pretty seriously.
KRAINZ: So building off of what Dave
was talking about, for me on the digital
displayside, it is an interesting shift that
we’re starting to see where demographics
are getting laid on top of location tracking.
16
From left, thunder::tech’s J.P. Krainz, Madison Bender, Tom Valentino
and David Crader discuss recent developments in digital advertising.
Listen to the full recording

to the desktop, and all the way through
back to the ad buy. Layering it on top of
one another, not only within one concept,
but within multiple services, you can build
a picture of your whole audience.
CRADER: Google’s getting a lot better with
cross-device tracking, as well. Seeing what
you did on your desktop computer and
then how you might have done something
on your phone, now you can track both
of those with cookies and other methods.
It’s definitely getting more complex, but
they’re staying on top of it. I think they’re
doing a pretty good job.
MODERATOR: Do you feel that the lines
between your respective practices are
blurring more and more as we continue
to evolve and as more of these things
and technologies get implemented?
KRAINZ: Yes, on digital display, the user
just sees content everywhere. Maybe they
distinguish if it’s ads or native content
or stories that are basically bought by
other companies.
So in one example, there’s a program
out there that can actually take your
location, based on if you’ve opted in for it,
or you hit the ‘Yes’ button on your phone
to be tracked. It then also lays over some
of the demographic information,
like household income, age and gender
to then give marketers a good idea of
who exactly is out there consuming
that content.
If there was a grocery store opening
near town, I wouldn’t necessarily want to
advertise to people who live 50 miles away.
But I really want the people within that
5-to-10 mile range. And I want to make
sure I’m talking to people who can maybe
afford the services that I provide.
I’m looking at household income, zip code,
and possibly age, and then seeing if I can
target my campaign.
BENDER: And going back to what we were
saying about how these all work together
earlier, we can now bridge online to offline,
all the way through mobile devices, back
For me, it’s trying to understand how we
give the user relevant content, and in
places that they’re already looking and
would have the propensity to want to
purchase. If we can loop together all those
things that we talk about and put that in
front of the user, we’re going to get to that
point of having more impressions on that
person to actually make a purchase.
BENDER: Absolutely. I appreciate that you
said content. I think Dave would, too, that
it’s almost the focal point of anything we
need to do. We may be talking about our
digital marketing initiatives, but we’re
increasingly coming to the point where if
you don’t have the content, what are we
advertising or what are we sharing, and
how are we impacting audiences? Who
are we educating? The content is really
something that’s very important to
build off of.
CRADER: You don’t always want to go
directly for trying to get someone to buy,
buy, buy. Buy today. Just kind of give
people a break. Let them read about your
IT’S TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HOW WE
GIVE THE USER RELEVANT CONTENT,
AND IN PLACES THAT THEY’RE ALREADY
LOOKING AND WOULD HAVE THE PROPENSITY
TO WANT TO PURCHASE.
17

company a little bit. Let them read some
publication that you’ve written. Build trust
with the user before you force them to
submit their information to you.
MODERATOR: Is there a fine line that you
have to walk in order to be effective
without just turning people off by giving
the impression that you’re omnipresent,
you’re everywhere?
BENDER: You get into that creepy factor
pretty quickly if you’re just remarketing to
someone all the time, and you’re following
them around the Internet. So it is important
to diversify your marketing options that
you’re presenting to an audience.
And every user is different. So if one
user sees my Facebook ad twice, they
may complain. But others could see my
Facebook, Twitter and my blog posts and a
bunch of others in combination 10 times,
and they might not even realize that it’s
10 different touch points. So just being
creative and keeping things changing and
updated and timely makes the difference.
KRAINZ: I think when we educate our
clients in remarketing or whatever, a lot
of the times they’ll go, ‘Wow, that’s really
cool. That was weird. I saw that ad for
sneakers.’ Then we kind of explain how
that happened, they’re like, ‘Oh, man,
that’s sounds creepy. I don’t like that at all.’
If you’re looking at things like shoes, that
sounds like a good idea. But if you’re
maybe looking for another job while you
are at work or something, and all of a
sudden that ad shows up for that company,
and your boss says, ‘Oh, Jenkins, what’s
up with this ad?’
MODERATOR: So as we start to look
ahead toward the second half of 2015,
where do you see things going?
BENDER: Fingers crossed, I’m hoping that
all of these ad platforms that rolled out at
the end of last year start making their way
into wider markets so that we can begin
using them for clients. So Atlas-promoted
pins for Pinterest. I’m hoping that Twitter’s
going to roll something else pretty big out.
And we’ll be able to get into these more
customized ad options.
KRAINZ: I see three things that I’m kind of
just looking out for and trying to educate
our clients. One is making sure you still
have the integrated plans. You’re involving
not only digital display, but PPC and social
media, plus the web work that it takes to
actually land those types of people.
Second, display gets that bad rap of just
kind of being that static content right up
there. So what can we do to make that
better for not only the user, but the client
who’s actually paying us the money?
There are some ad units out there called
‘the rising stars,’ and they’ve been out
for some time, but we’re starting to
see our clients start to ask about them,
because they’re seeing them in their
daily life. Those are ads that expand and
either move over the screen or have little
e-commerce integrations in them. So it’s
kind of a mini site within the content, but
it’s not intrusive.
And then the third thing is really educating
our clients on what is actually out there,
what are some of the things that could
be “evil,” if you will. There are plenty of
unscrupulous partners out there that do
things to take clicks from others.
A lot of deceptive things can happen
blindly to the customer, but how do we
then identify those and say we’re going
to use quality partners that are delivering
quality content, so these digital display ads
don’t continue to go down the ignored or
terrible click through rate path?
CRADER: I see people really doing a
bigpush toward app advertising right now.
I think that’s only going to continue to
expand as mobile phones get more
sophisticated, as well as in-game
advertising with the apps on phones.
That’s just going to continue to rise.
I also think that things are just going to
get more expensive. The marketplace
is already pretty filled up with people
using these ads. It’s not really a hidden
channel any more, it’s more mainstream
now. Everyone’s really getting in, which
drives up the prices. Now, I think it’s
going to evolve into this lifetime value
measurement, where it’s us trying to figure
out how we get more than one purchase
from this customer, to actually make a
profit on it.
You might have to pay more than you’re
willing to in order to get that first sale.
You might actually lose some money. But
if you get a returning customer, then
that may make it worth it. Building lists
of customers and figuring out ways to
continue to market to them will help keep
them in the funnel. I think that will be the
future of this stuff.
MODERATOR: If you’re a middle-market
brand, is there anything else coming
in the next six to 12 months that you
would be thinking about as you put your
marketing plan together?
BENDER: Changing the entire mindset of
social media being free. When Facebook
and Twitter entered as a marketing option,
it was viewed as a free alternative to your
website. And we’re still combating that
mindset every day. It’s not a question in
2015 or 2016 of if you will advertise on
these platforms, but how you will advertise,
how much your budget will be, and what
other marketing initiatives you’ll be
dedicating to pushing to the social media
ad campaign.
CRADER: I face the same thing with Google.
People are wondering why they’re having
to pay for these clicks, when they can just
18

get them for free on Google. It’s more
competitive nowadays. So really, you’re
going to have to pay, at some point, to get
those clicks. And most of the time, it’s
going to be worth it.
So for middle-market brands, I would
definitely recommend at least trying it
out. At the very least, try out remarketing.
Everything’s very trackable. And if it
doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But most of
the time, it can.
KRAINZ: For middle-market brands, having
your creative message out there in some
of the niche publications, it may feel like,
‘Well, they know who I am. We’re in this
small niche and everybody knows each
other.’ But this is your opportunity to talk
about maybe something new or some way
that you can help their business.
If you’re providing new products or
services, this could be a means to
introduce those to your customers in a
unique and specific way. Having digital
display for very targeted purposes is what
middle-market brands should be looking
forward to. ::
Available on iTunes and Stitcher.
Listen to an extended
audio version of our paid
digital media roundtable
in podcast form.
thundercast.thundertech.com
19

LINCOLNELECTRIC
The Company:
A global manufacturer of welding products
and equipment
The Publication:
ARC Magazine
The Platforms:
Print, digital via ArcMagazine.pub
and Lincoln Library app for iOS and
Android devices
The Launch:
April 2015
hether it’s to suit your personal or professional
interests, there’s a good chance the next
magazine to show up in your mailbox or on your
tablet won’t come from a traditional media company.
The trend of “brands as publishers” is not new – Red Bull,
considered by many to be the gold standard of content
marketing, began printing its Red Bulletin lifestyle magazine
in 2005 – but the practice is picking up steam. Non-media
organizations continue to dive into the waters of publishing.
The Story:
Lincoln Electric faced a daunting
proposition: How do you get people
interested not only in your brand, but your
entire industry?
The American Welders Society projects
its industry faces a shortage of 290,000
welders by 2020. Fewer welders, of course,
means fewer workers using Lincoln
Electric equipment. To keep business
bustling, marketers at the company
deduced that the industry overall was in
need of an image boost.
To that end, Lincoln Electric launched
’ZINE SCENE
WHETHER PRINT OR DIGITAL,
MAGAZINE PUBLISHING IS ALL THE RAGE
WITH CONTENT MARKETERS
ON THE
W
Marriott International, for example, just put out the first issue
of the Marriott Traveler in March.
We caught up with Lincoln Electric Co. and Darice Inc., a pair
of organizations that recently incorporated magazine publishing
into their respective content marketing strategies. Their
respective business sectors – welding and crafting – couldn’t
be more different, and their methods for delivery vary, too,
but each is making a splash with its audience thanks to its
publishing efforts.
20

DARICE
The Company:
A wholesale distributor of crafting supplies
The Publication:
Craft Business Insider
The Platforms:
Digital via CraftBusinessInsider.com
The Launch:
January 2014
The Story:
As a wholesale distributor, Darice has
supplied retailers with crafting supplies
since 1954. Today, however, the company
offers shops more than scrapbooking,
home décor, bridal and floral products.
It now shares can’t-miss content, too.
Darice created Craft Business Insider, a
publication to educate craft store owners.
Craft Business Insider shares industry
trends, marketing tips and interviews with
store owners. Darice is maximizing the
exposure for the magazine’s content and
extending its shelf life by placing articles
on LinkedIn and in white papers.
“We started to realize there was a real
need in our industry to bridge the gap
with content marketing for mom-and-pop
shops,” said Anne Polkinghorn, director
of marketing for Darice and its consumer-
facing subsidy Pat Catan’s.
What started out as a print magazine
shifted exclusively to the digital realm after
six issues. The magazine’s content was
well received by readers, Polkinghorn said,
but printing costs were prohibitive.
ARC Magazine, a publication to showcase
welding lifestyle that includes cover stories
on well-known welders, tips and tricks, and
DIY project spotlights. The first issue of the
magazine was published in April.
“We wanted to be clear: This isn’t a product
catalog,” said Craig Coffey, Lincoln
Electric manager of U.S. marketing
communications and publisher of ARC.
“We’re not overtly trying to sell anything.”
The inaugural edition was circulated to
100,000 Lincoln Electric customers and
distributors, and plans are in place to print
120,000 copies of the second issue, due
out this summer. A digital edition of the
first issue quickly became the most
downloaded document in the Lincoln
Library, an iOS and Android app that
houses catalogs and product information.
In addition to enlisting nearly all 22
members of the Lincoln Electric marketing
department for the second issue – just
eight staff members produced the spring
issue – additional outside professional
writers are being brought in to contribute
stories, a move that will provide diverse
voices and extra credibility, Coffey said.
“I want this to be known as a magazine
for welders first and a Lincoln Electric
publication second,” Coffey said. “Our
brand will shine through. We don’t need to
beat people over the head with it. We want
them to like ARC for its content first.”
The Last Word: Coffey, on successfully
delivering your content marketing to
your audience:
“You need to think multidimensionally. A
lesson we learned late in the game with
ARC is that we needed a fully functional
website to launch the magazine. Your
content itself is a product. How do you get
it to the marketplace and sell it? You have
to be able to position your content and get
it out there so your audience can see it.”
Darice made the decision to go digital-only,
allowing the company to put more money
toward content creation instead of printing
“For us, the goal is to create a tool for these
customers and establish Darice as a
leader in our industry,” Polkinghorn said.
“It’s helpful for our smaller customers,
but we can also take it to Walmart and
say, ‘Look at what we’ve put out.’ It’s not
something anyone else in the industry
is doing.”
The Last Word: Polkinghorn, on creating
content that resonates:
“Content marketing needs to offer value to
the customer. Customers don’t care about
you, they care about what they need and
you can do for them. With our content,
we aim to provide next-level inspiration,
not just products and prices. Unless
your audience is at the buying point, that
information doesn’t have value to them.” ::
Lincoln Electric and Darice are clients
of thunder::tech.
21

The sunflower gracing the cover of this
magazine is more than just a festive symbol
of summer—it plays an important part in
thunder::tech’s history.
More than a decade ago, when we
introduced “integrated marketing” to our
customers, we wanted a visual metaphor to
REVIEWIN
53% of B2B Fortune 500 Companies are using
marketing automation—up 25% from just 2 years ago
(page 6)
Businesses using marketing automation to nurture
prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads
(page 8)
93% of businesses surveyed use cloud services
(page 10)
help explain the concept. We decided to use
a sunflower, since each petal could represent
a part of a greater whole. And like the
petals of a sunflower, each of our services
is engaging on its own, but when they’re all
working together, they create something
stronger that stands tall in the field. Plus,
the color matched our original logo.
We don’t use the sunflower in our branding
anymore (there is still a living sunflower in
our office, though), but our commitment to
delivering integrated marketing solutions is
as strong as it ever was. ::
Marketers are tracking where you drive, shop and eat…
and you’re letting them
(page 16)
22
WHY A SUNFLOWER?

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AND WATCH FOR 2016 TRENDS
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