Gone are the days when marketers make fly by the seat of their pants decisions or decisions based on what they THINK will work for their prospects and customers. In a B2B world, not taking a data-driven approach can be one of the biggest mistakes a manufacturer makes when putting various tactics into place. It is essential to constantly evaluate your prospect and buyer’s behaviors and the analytics behind their actions. Taking this information and using it to make educated decisions about the tactics you employ will make a huge difference in gaining the attention of qualified leads.

As a marketing manager, you have a lot of balls in the air and some worrisome hurdles to overcome on a daily basis. Such as… will that new campaign show positive ROI? Will your clients respond well to your design and messaging? Is this new social media platform worth investing time in, or is it a short-lived trend?

If your business is not in a highly regulated industry like healthcare, insurance, or financial services, you probably haven’t given a lot of thought to marketing campaign compliance issues. Maybe you’re in manufacturing or the tourism industry, not a hospital or bank – and your focus is on implementing the necessary campaign elements to ensure a positive experience for your customer.

In recent years, strategy and our ability to analyze and customize prospect and customer data has changed. Marketing tools in particular have become incredibly sophisticated such as CRM resources, marketing automation, content management, social scheduling & monitoring, surveying, email distribution and much more.

Insurance agents have a lot of options for getting new leads, from cold-calling to trade events, and paying for traditional advertising. The disadvantage of those methods (aside from time and cost) is that you are reaching a broad group, not necessarily people who are looking for what you offer. This is why the information you can obtain from your website is so valuable - these are visitors who are searching for information about the exact products and services that you offer.

The past two decades have brought a definite transition in the way businesses and individuals share their story and position themselves as industry experts. The emergence of content production as an inbound marketing tactic has kept marketers incredibly busy over the last few years – so much that a lot of the content produced was done just for the sake of sticking to a consistent distribution schedule. Readers are now becoming more adept at cutting through the clutter and identifying a post that is just regurgitated information about the latest trending topic. What readers are looking for now are the pieces of content that set a brand apart – something that shakes up the industry or marries the brand with consumers needs through inspiring and in-depth storytelling.

As technology changes, so does the buyer journey for the customers of many businesses and organizations. Marketers who are not relying on data to make important modifications to strategy, design and other elements focused on connecting with prospects and existing customers, may soon be left in the dust. In this Q&A interview with Kyle Lacy, Vice President of Marketing for OpenView Venture Partners and Experience Inbound 2016 keynote speaker, you’ll learn why creating moments is more important than marketing and why it’s becoming critical to rely on data to drive revenue. As a new dad, Kyle also shares some pretty great productivity tips for juggling the demands of both work and life.

This post was written by Jamie Cartwright and originally appeared on Weidert Group's blog on 5/4/16.

Experience Inbound 2016 is jam-packed with nationally-renowned brands and presenters. Jonah Silberg represents Wistia, the leader in helping companies deploy video for inbound marketing. Wistia is a software platform that enables you to create video that turns visitors into leads. In preparation for Experience Inbound, we asked Jonah to answer a few questions about Wistia, his work, and why he's looking forward to Experience Inbound 2016.

If you are a marketer that has ever worked for a business with multiple locations or divisions of a company, you know how difficult it can be to effectively implement a strong social media strategy that focuses on customer behavior and needs. Many marketing professionals have the expertise to implement a strong social media plan in regard to practices, trends, and tactics, yet most do not have the same level of day-to-day customer interaction as other employees within the organization.