In today's digitally-focused world, it's tempting to devote the whole marketing budget to online campaigns in an effort to capture the attention of today's always-connected consumer. However, a report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) showed that such an approach might not be wise, as multichannel campaigns can improve purchase intent by 90 percent and brand perception by 68 percent.

Though online marketing gets the lion's share of advertising dollars, if your company is still placing ads in newspapers, airing commercials on TV or radio, or even doing physical community outreach, you may wonder if there's a way to track offline promotions the same way you can with online. While it's true there's no central hub to track every person who converts as a result of offline marketing, there are ways to measure trends using tools you already have to see if offline marketing is having a noticeable effect on your business' bottom line.

Small businesses face a razor-thin margin for error when it comes to generating leads and increasing their customer base. With a new year underway, businesses already have their resolutions in place to grow in 2017.

Increasing leads is almost always among these goals. If you're unclear on how to generate leads but know you've got to find a way, consider these 10 steps to create more opportunity for your company:

1. Send Personalized Emails

Personalization goes a long way via email. Simple efforts at personalization can increase open rates by more than 50 percent, and they have higher click-through rates as well. Start with adding personal names at the tops of emails and then experiment with other personal touches.

The world's largest advertiser, Procter & Gamble (P&G), has challenged its agencies to become more vigilant in addressing issues like transparency and fraud in its pursuit of a better, more efficient digital advertising ecosystem. P&G's Chief Marketing Officer, Marc Pritchard, recently spoke at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's (IAB) Annual Leadership Meeting and implored the entire industry to adopt the Media Ratings Council (MRC) viewability standard, leverage third party tools for measurement and transparency, and work with the Trustworthy Accountability Group to help eliminate fraud. 

Now that the holiday season of 2016 is behind us, the new year presents retailers with a great opportunity to take stock of the past year's events and plan for the year ahead. However, in addition to planning strategies to gain new customers in the next year, marketers shouldn't overlook a key opportunity in 2017: ensuring retailer customer loyalty.

According to a report from RJMetrics, customers acquired during the holidays have a 13 percent lower lifetime value. But it doesn't have to be this way. Marketers can take some proactive steps in the post-holiday period from January through March to boost retailer customer loyalty in the new year and make one-time customers into repeat customers.

The new year is well underway and with it comes the chance to take a fresh look at your marketing practices and make changes in preparation for the year ahead. Marketers need to adapt to this evolving landscape. Though it's true that old habits die hard, here are some practices that are definitely worth getting rid of in the new year.

Say Goodbye to Sales-Only Social Media

When social media rose to prominence in the early 2010s, wise marketers capitalized early on this trend by seizing the opportunity to market directly to their audience with what many saw as free advertising. However, in 2017, more consumers want to have conversations with brands and crave interactions over the same old sales pitches.

The end of one year brings the start of another and an opportunity to make resolutions for the upcoming calendar. The same goes for businesses. This is a great time for organizations and businesses to reflect on lessons learned from the past while planning for a better new year.

For marketers, much anticipation is built around the 2017 digital marketing trends expected to dominate their industry. In such a fast-moving industry, these trends can change dramatically from one year to the next. Brands that don't stay on top of these changes risk falling far behind their competition in the coming year.

Save yourself the trouble and get familiar with these six trends that are likely to dominate 2017.

Brand engagement is vital for gaining and retaining customers, and a strategy can be a tricky thing to craft. However, a look at how the sports world has successfully used social media to engage and energize fans can give you a few ideas about how to drive engagement in a way that will truly grow your online presence.

Make Fans a Part of the Conversation

Being a part of the online conversation is essential for today's brands, as more and more consumers expect to have instant access to companies via Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. However, it's not enough just to post the occasional update or response to a comment or message. Marketing Land columnist Sanjay Dholakia has observed how thoughtful, deliberate interaction has helped sports teams develop brand loyalty and increase fan attention. You can emulate this by posting regular updates, as well as links to content and interactivity invitations (for polls and contests) that will help followers feel like a part of the community.

Though focusing on the consumer journey may not sound like a direct route to increased conversions, nothing could be further from the truth. According to Business 2 Community, businesses that make understanding the customer journey a priority not only see over 50 percent greater returns on their marketing investments, but also see a faster-than-average sales cycle and greater cross- and up-sell revenue. But if you've already explored the world of mapping consumer journeys but haven't yet seen such dramatic results, you could be falling victim to one of these common mistakes.

When it comes to using digital marketing for recruitment, it's no longer a question of if the tools are valuable, but of how you're going to implement them. Paper resumes are a thing of the past in an age where all of a candidate's data can be found online — however, according to the Society for Human Resource Managers, 68 percent of HR managers are finding it difficult to find talent. Here are some tips on using the tools of digital marketing for recruitment to connect with prospective employees.