Growing up, all I wanted was a black Pontiac TransAm that spoke to me and helped me fight crime through a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of criminals operating above the law. What I got was a 1985 Peugeot 505s with cigarette burns on the canvas seats and a tape player that didn’t have a reverse button. Cars have come a long way since the “forward-thinking” days of Knight Rider. Cars not only speak to us, they can drive for us, give us directions, and show the kids some Dora the Explorer while en route to a ski trip in Vermont. And this is just the beginning. Like it…
Content Marketing
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Most Topular Stories
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The Future of (Auto)Mobile Advertising
Post-Advertising25 Jan 2012 | 3:23 am -
Suggestions To Make A Competitive Article Marketing Strategy
247affiliatemarketing27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amCommission Autopilot Insanely Powerful 2in1 Software Suite!..If you want to make money, as in today, not tomorrow, but today, then download this NOW...Make Money.. Or Its FREE! Writing articles can seem easy, but when you have to use them to sell your products the task becomes a bit more daunting. Not only do you have to write an interesting article, but you have to reach thousands of people with the articles you write. Here are a few great tips. Work on your writing. Consider your writing ability to be a skill that you can improve upon. The more you work on honing your article… -
How to Maintain a Community of Relevant Twitter Follows
Straight North Internet Marketing Blog4 Jan 2012 | 6:51 amIf you look at my Twitter profile, you’ll see that I’m following about a quarter of the number of people who are following me: When you see this, you might think, gee, what a snob — but that’s really not the case at all, at least I hope not. What happened is, a while back I made up my mind to get rid of the spammers and other non-relevant follows, so I could actually start paying attention to people who have mutual interests. Here’s how I nurture a relevant group of follows. 1. Clean Out Spammers with TwitCleaner TwitCleaner is a phenomenal Twitter utility that… -
iBooks 2 and iBooks Author: One Week Later, What We’ve Learned — An Executive Round Table with McGraw-Hill, Digital Book World, and Aptara
TheContentWrangler.com23 Jan 2012 | 5:51 pmYet again Apple stopped us in our tracks. We awaited each word with bated breath during last Thursday’s unveiling of iBooks2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U. Now what? After a week of social media frenzy, water cooler chatter, thoughtful analysis, and technical digging, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned. Join us Thursday, January 26 for a live round table discussion with McGraw-Hill – one of Apple’s education partners; Digital Book World – the publishing industry’s premier digital publishing forum; and Aptara – trusted digital solutions partner to the… -
Linking: It Does a Website Good
@TMGmedia26 Jan 2012 | 9:59 amWhen it comes to digital media, competition can sometimes make writers turn into digital grinches. While it’s healthy to stoke friendly competition and take pride in your work, stonewalling and shoulder checking isn’t really necessary.The web was built on the notion of sharing ideas and exchanging news. Links, the glue that holds the Internet content train together, are meant to be given freely and awarded to the best and most relevant content. The saying goes that no man is an island, and the same goes for most web sites and blogs, as networking and collaboration are key parts of…
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The Content Marketing Revolution
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McDonald’s Social Media Goes Wrong? Not a Chance
26 Jan 2012 | 6:49 pmYou’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version: McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories http://t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer. -
Tablet Content Marketing: Crazy Stats and Time to Move
25 Jan 2012 | 6:14 amIf you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on: Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter. This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter. In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units. According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012. The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Tablet: The Curl-Up Device Historically in marketing, we have talked about… -
2 Examples of How Non-Profit Content Marketing Should Work [and grab a tissue]
18 Jan 2012 | 10:10 pmJoshua with his LEGO bricks at age Six As many of you regular readers know, my oldest son Joshua was diagnosed with autism at two years of age (Joshua is now 10). At the age of three, he could barely speak. Today, Joshua would be considered “high-functioning” autistic, which means that, if you don’t look closely, you may not notice he actually is a child with autism. To be honest, Joshua is one of those amazing gifts in life that just keeps giving. We are so blessed to have him in our lives. [NOTE: To give just a bit back to all those who've helped Joshua along the way,… -
Content Marketing and the War of Attrition
17 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pmThere are a lot of reasons why content marketing doesn’t work for some companies. If we were making a list, they would include: A lack of understanding reader/customer needs Focusing on the wrong metrics and objectives A soloed approach to content marketing Poor execution Bland storytelling Lack of authenticity Creating information that, simply put, is not helpful or engaging Sales pitches disguised as content And the list goes on… But the biggest culprit (and it’s not even close) is a lack of consistency, and, in some cases, a content stoppage. Research from IBM in 2010… -
10 Content Marketing Books to Help Sell the C-Level
12 Jan 2012 | 6:16 pmJust ended a pretty impressive Content Marketing Institute webinar hosted by Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua and Rebecca Lieb, Analyst for Altimeter. During the Q&A session, Joe talked about how to sell content marketing to the C-level through some amazing books. Below are some recommendations from Joe (and some that I would recommend as well) for the marketing pro that needs more content marketing budget. The New Rules of Marketing & PR I consider this David Meerman Scott book mandatory reading for all marketers. This best seller, now published in over 25…
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Online Marketing Blog
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Online Marketing News: Women Dominate Community Management, Google Privacy, FBI Social, Twitter Censorship, McD Hashtag Gone Wrong
27 Jan 2012 | 5:40 amThe 2012 Community Manager Report Community Manager is an essential, yet still uncharted territory for many companies that are expanding their presence on the social web. What should you know about the current state of this position? 67% of Community Managers work for a brand The most popular city for Community Managers is New York 65% of Community Managers are Female Be sure to check out the rest of this report presented by Social Fresh. Google & FBI: All Your Social Data Are Belong to Us For non-geeks, here’s the reference (Zero Wing video) “Google Privacy Changes: What… -
5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers
26 Jan 2012 | 9:34 amContent Marketing Not Performing? Troubleshoot SEO Basics. This post is a preview of a new downloadable guide I will be offering for those who pre-order Optimize by March 13, 2012. The full guide will have screenshots, examples and more “SEO Deep Dive” advice. If you want the full, illustrated Content Marketing SEO Troubleshooting Guide, visit OptimizeBook.com to pre-order and subscribe to our mailing list for more details. Content Marketing at its core is about planning information that is thoughtful about the needs and interests of target customer groups as they take the… -
Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck
24 Jan 2012 | 6:56 amMaking the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers. Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions. According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge. I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online. I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?” Some of the answers we received were:… -
11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload
23 Jan 2012 | 6:41 amOnline Marketing is all about information. And people. Making connections that solve marketing problems in today’s environment of social and technological innovation can be challenging. Like many readers of this blog, a big part of what I do as an Internet Marketer centers around being able to consume large amounts of information or better, the right information, synthesizing it and using insights to help others make sense of the challenges and opportunities they face with marketing on the web. As an author, frequent speaker at industry conferences, advisor to clients and the people who… -
Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify
20 Jan 2012 | 6:31 amThe Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite. It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs. Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of: 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one. 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network. This Week in News About Google…
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Copyblogger
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7 Useful Marketing Articles for Your Weekend
28 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amThis week on The Lede … Seth Godin’s simple cure for writer’s block. Why David Ogilvy called himself a lousy copywriter. A case study in the power of the blog. 10 ways to use Pinterest for your business. If you want more links you can use than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. // A Stalker’s Guide to Competitive Research If you ever wanted a shot at becoming a private detective (without the hassle of becoming a private detective), this is it. Comprehensive does not begin to describe this article from Ms. Narayanasamy. In it, she… -
Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWe’re back and we’re ready to talk email marketing. I asked two pros to come on and spill their best advice on the three biggest email marketing questions we get here at Copyblogger. DJ Waldow joins me and Sonia Simone to discuss: The best way to build an email list The 2 reasons why people open an email The most important element of an email that sells How to write emails that get opened How to stay out of your reader’s spam filters Sonia’s secret weapon of email marketing that works This one’s fast and useful, so keep your ears on … Hit the flash player… -
The Glee Guide to Attracting a Raving Horde of Social Media Fans
26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amIf your memories of high school involve wedgies, broken hearts, and getting stuffed into your locker, you probably love Glee. The musical comedy TV show — Ryan Murphy’s smash hit about the nerds, misfits, and social outcasts of McKinley High School’s glee club — is equal parts quirky, cheesy, heartbreaking, and surprisingly delightful. Over its first two seasons, the show has also attracted millions of obsessive fans from all over the world. Glee fans, or “Gleeks,” follow the moves of their favorite show with a passion once reserved for Cabbage Patch Kids… -
4 Simple Steps to a Facebook Timeline that Tells Your Marketing Story
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amSo how about that new Facebook Timeline? Love it? Hate it? Either way it’s here to stay (until it isn’t). As always, Facebook loves to change things up and people love to kvetch about it. You can always use new Facebook Features to improve your marketing, so how can you use the Facebook Timeline to your advantage? Read on. First, a few facts about the Facebook Timeline. The Timeline only affects personal profiles at the moment. Facebook has not announced when (or even if) they will roll the new Timeline look out to Facebook Pages. Second, not everyone has the Timeline yet. If you… -
How to Instantly Transform Your Landing Page Images from Good to Great
24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amReading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller. Let’s say you place a photo of a client on your landing page. Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from. Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers, showing the type of people who do business with you. But would anyone even know that person was a client? The moment you add in a few important details — the client name, the…
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Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad
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4 Content Marketing Goals for a Coach Website
26 Jan 2012 | 7:21 amHow should content marketing be used on the home page of your website? What makes good website copy? More specifically, if you’re a professional service provider, like an executive coach, a consultant, a lawyer, health care or financial adviser… how do you create a website that attracts clients and gets potential new leads? No matter what business you’re in, your content must achieve four things. Here are four goals for your online content: Connect immediately (by speaking to your readers’ challenges or problems) Answer questions and educate (by suggesting… -
A Checklist for 2012 Content Marketing Plans
19 Jan 2012 | 5:23 am2012 Content Marketing – how did we get here so fast? I’ve been reviewing my 2011 blog posts, email broadcasts, videos, and taking stock. I hope you’re doing the same, so you’ll get an idea of what’s needed for your own business in 2012. (Photo courtesy Rawich/FreeDigitalPhotos.net) Here’s a checklist for reviewing your 2011 content marketing results so you can know where to spend your time and energy in 2012: What were your most effective blog posts in terms of numbers of page views? Which posts generated the most comments? What email promotional… -
Content Marketing Tasks: Practice Makes Progress
4 Jan 2012 | 6:15 amIf you’ve spent your career avoiding certain marketing tasks because you don’t think you’re any good at them, you struggle each time you try, and you end up with weak results, take heart. Persistence has been touted by poets for a reason. Your brain learns a lot each time you try something, even if you fail. If you stop trying, you’ll walk away with nothing. If you persist, however, the rewards are huge. Example: public speaking. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs including many of my clients love the chance to get up and speak. The larger the group, the… -
Content Marketing Tip: Start with Ready-to-Publish Articles
29 Dec 2011 | 6:47 amContent marketing is easier when you can outsource some of the writing and researching to qualified writers. A great way to short-cut the time needed to research, write and publish quality online content is to find a good writer to supply articles. For example, as a former executive coach and psychologist, I write for other coaches and consultants who are too busy with clients to write their own newsletters and blogs. You can find good writers in just about any field. While this has created a good business for me, doing what I love, I don’t see many people using other… -
When Business Blogging Works Too Well…
19 Dec 2011 | 6:45 amBlogging for your business works like this: You blog about the problems you solve for your clients You get found on the Web by the people who need your services People get to know you, like you, trust you They email or call and hire you (photo courtesy ddpavumba) But then your business grows, you get busy, and what happens to the blog? I’ve seen hundreds of business blogs written by smart professionals who haven’t been posted since last summer. Here’s my own example. I think I enjoy blogging for other people more than I do for myself! The more work I’m…
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Influential Marketing
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The 4 Principles Of Delusional Economics
27 Jan 2012 | 6:59 amWhen it comes to economic theories, there is plenty of fascination in the business world around how to explain what drives business and purchasing activities. Behavioural economics, the field of economics concerned with examining why people behave the way they do when it comes to their purchasing behaviour, is hot right now. Bestselling books like Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational dig deep into the psyche of people to try and explain seemingly illogical actions. My own upcoming book called Likeonomics, to some degree, looks at a similar theme of why we do business with people and… -
FinnAir, Republic Day & Why Celebration Is The Best Marketing Strategy
26 Jan 2012 | 10:28 amA few weeks ago it was my birthday. The day before on a Saturday morning, my two boys came leaping into our room very excited to wake me up. It wasn't so much about my birthday, unfortunately, as it was about getting ready to do their favourite thing on a Saturday morning: going to IHOP for pancakes. And when there is a birthday involved, it is an even bigger deal. Your birthday is a celebration there. They bring over at least 6 of the wait staff to sing their own version of the birthday song to you. You get ice cream for breakfast (what kid wouldn't love that?). People love celebrations -… -
Honda Masters The Art of Marketing Timing
23 Jan 2012 | 8:44 pmEvery year at the start of the new year there is something that most of us do without realizing it. It is related to making new year's resolutions, but it is more about sequencing your long term goals into the order in which you want to achieve them. One example might be saying to yourself, "I want to be married and then have a kid before I turn 35." Life is full of these little promises. So full, in fact, that often we make them to ourselves without even thinking. It raises an interesting marketing question as well. What would it take to get a customer to reevaluate the life sequence they… -
How “HateSurfing” Can Help Your Small Business
20 Jan 2012 | 6:53 amMost of us have heard the statistic that it is about ten times more likely that someone will post a comment online about a negative experience than a positive one. It is not hard to believe if we just imagine our own experiences. When we are a satisfied customer, usually the easy thing to do is go merrily on our way. If the opposite happens, however, human nature is to seek retribution and the web is the perfect conduit. Negativity is super easy to post online, and irresistible because of the side benefit of being able to influence people who you have never met. Add in the… -
How To Make Your Business Recyclable Instead Of Green
13 Jan 2012 | 6:34 amDespite how it might seem, this is not another post about how you can create a more “green” business. Being green is a great business practice, and has the side benefit of helping your small business to make a positive difference in the world. When we think of recycling, it is no surprise that most people would immediately think of collecting newspapers and plastic bottles. What if instead you considered recyclability as a principle that you could apply to many different aspects of your business? Here are just a few examples of how this could work: Integrate recyclability into your…
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Web Ink Now
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Thinking Right (and Left) about Content Marketing
27 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pmAs I evaluate Web marketing such as blogs and websites, one thing I look for is evidence of both left-brain and right-brain thinking in the creation of the content. This obsession might seem trivial, but I guess my right-brain outlook on life causes me to take a holistic view of content. The right-/left-brain concept is widely credited to have developed from the thinking of American psychobiologist Roger Sperry in the late 1960s. Sperry's Nobel Prize-winning work opened whole fields of psychological and philosophical debate including the idea that there are two different sides of the brain,… -
Playing for Change
23 Jan 2012 | 9:28 amWhen I first saw the original Playing for Change video Stand By Me on YouTube I was moved and fascinated and jumped for joy. Wow. As a music lover and collector of social media success stories, here was both music and social media triumphantly on display and coming together to support a good cause. I talked up the videos via social and in person to everyone I saw. Stand By Me now has 37 million views on YouTube and has sparked a movement. Now, Playing for Change has 15 videos in the Songs Around the World series with a combined 140 million views. If you haven't seen a Playing for Change video… -
Stop SOPA Silliness
18 Jan 2012 | 5:36 amIt didn't work with music: The music industry killed Napster and sued 16-year-olds to protect their dying business model of selling "albums" via top 40 radio. Instead of understanding the immense power of social media like YouTube as a marketing tool to sell single songs (iTunes) and streaming subscriptions (Spotify), the music industry honchos preferred to destroy in a ridiculous attempt to save the status-quo. Listened to top 40 radio recently? It didn't work with email: I get many times more unsolicited (and illegal) email than I did prior to CAN-SPAM. Tons of it from legitimate companies… -
Content Arbitrage
16 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pmWhen I worked my first job on a Wall Street bond trading desk, I was fascinated by financial arbitrage, one of the ways that traders made money. This technique involves taking advantage of a temporary price difference in two or more markets and is usually executed by simultaneously buying and selling the same security. A pure arbitrage involves nearly zero risk. For a simple example, imagine the price of gold is at $1,600 an ounce in London and at the exact same time it is $1,620 in New York. A trader could simultaneously sell in New York and buy in London to lock in a $20 profit. (This… -
Go Mobile
11 Jan 2012 | 9:38 amIn Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district you find several hundred bars within walking distance of the subway station. Yet only a few are visible from the main street; the vast majority are tucked away on the upper floors of back-street buildings. To differentiate, many cater to highly refined customer preferences. So if you want to listen to classic reggae while sipping a Red Stripe, there is a bar for you in Roppongi. But how do you find these establishments when you’re thirsty and confused in an unfamiliar city? Your mobile of course! Because buyers use their mobiles to search for…
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Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis
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Making differentiation meaningful again
26 Jan 2012 | 8:29 amIn a recent Media Post article titled, “TV Brand Names Become Irrelevant,” Aaron Baar states: With so many HDTVs offering the same features (Internet connectivity, high definition, etc.), the brand names are becoming irrelevant. I am sure he is right. Why? Because I had to get up and check whether I own an LG or a Samsung. From memory, all I could have told you was that it’s not a Sony. The BrandZ database also lends credence to Aaron’s statement. The correlation between familiarity with what the brand stands for (Presence) and what brand was bought last is over 90 percent. In other… -
Goodbye purchase funnel, hello loyalty loop?
19 Jan 2012 | 4:33 amMcKinsey & Co want us to think of the consumer purchase journey more as an iterative loop than a simplistic purchase funnel. The idea that the purchase decision journey is not linear has been around for years. I wrote about it in The Global Brand in 2008, referencing Prophet’s Brand Touchpoint Wheel from earlier that decade (click here for a 2003 reference). Don’t get me wrong, I think the McKinsey decision journey is an improvement on the purchase funnel. As I wrote in The Global Brand: A good discipline for developing a customer-centric view is to lay out the different contact… -
How ideals empower brands to grow
16 Jan 2012 | 10:32 amMaximum growth and high ideals are not incompatible. They’re inseparable. So begins the introductory chapter to Jim Stengel’s new book, Grow: How Ideals Power Growth and Profit at the World’s Greatest Companies. It is a provocative statement, particularly for those challenged to grow their business during tough economic times when it is tempting to do whatever it takes to keep a business afloat. But, as Jim goes on to demonstrate, the fact is that doing the right thing in your business is also doing the right thing for your business. Jim refers to ideals as the 400 percent advantage. -
Yet another misstep for Netflix?
11 Jan 2012 | 11:28 amHere is my prediction for 2012: Netflix is going to find itself in serious financial trouble. The predicted problem will have little to do with existing customer’s appreciation of the company’s service, and a lot to do with its continued strategic missteps. This time the misstep is to launch the service into the UK. Launching your brand into a market where an established incumbent already owns your existing positioning is one of the biggest gaffs you can make in global marketing. Time after time, companies have fallen into the same trap. Just because you made it to leadership position in… -
Will social TV really promote virtual togetherness?
9 Jan 2012 | 11:21 amMillward Brown’s Global Futures Group recently issued its Top 12 Digital Predictions for 2012, with forecasts related to wide-ranging topics including gamification, mobile wallets and social e-commerce. But the one that gave me pause for thought was Dave Barrowcliff’s “Virtual Togetherness.” What, I wondered, would make me want to interact with a TV show, or post about it on Facebook, and when would I do so? Don’t get me wrong, I know shows like American Idol and X Factor attract a ton of interaction in the form of texts and tweets, but those shows lend themselves to mass…
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Conversation Agent
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What Keeps You up at Night?
27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amI'm a night owl. Often people will hear back from me in the wee hours because I get creative at around 4pm and then stay in flow for hours after that. By the time I realize I'm cold from the heating going to low for the night, it's way past bed time. When I get into flow, I shut everything else... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
Keep the Faith. Demand Proof. Relentlessly.
26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amThere are two aspects to doing business -- believing in what you're doing, and verifying that it works for your customers and clients. To succeed, you need to do both, relentlessly. When it's only about keeping the faith, you may be worshiping at the altar of hope (or its shady cousin, ego), and... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
How to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhen I met Stan Phelps for coffee a little over a year ago, I learned for the first time there was a term -- lagniappe -- that meant a small gift given to a customers by a merchant at the time of purchase. It cannot be faked of forced, for it to work it must feel real. Our conversation on the... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
The Truth About B2B Social Media Adoption
24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amWhile we've been sharing examples of creative content strategy executions for a couple of years here, it's easy to forget that the rest of the business world may still be wrestling with different issues. The truth about social media adoption, according to the results of a survey conducted by Penton... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent] -
How Much is a Lifetime Customer Worth to your Business?
23 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amFor Zane's Cycles, it’s $12,500, says CEO Chris Zane in Reinventing the Wheel. That means if we start by providing a child his first bike at 4-years-old and continue through the retirement bike, we will collect $12,500 in fulfilling all of the cyclist’s lifetime needs. But to actually sell an... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]
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Social Media Darwinism
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Trust is hard to come by these days
25 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmFor years I have kept tabs on the Edelman Trust barometer report, which comes out every January in Davos. And this year was no exception. After last year I figured this years report could make an excellent gauge of the economy worldwide! Simply put the report states: Trust is down in every industry and every country across the board by an average of 6%. So what does this mean for marketers and for major brands in an era of social media? Well 2 things … Hidden in the data is the fact that CEOs and Government officials are at the very bottom of the totem pole when it comes to delivering a… -
Brands: It’s not enough to be liked
15 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pmImagine a company that has upscale retail locations around the United States receiving tens of thousands of customer visits. Now imagine not having anyone there to greet and interact with those customers. What’s the point of the storefront? Facebook fan pages are much the same thing. But only 0.2 to 2 percent of fans go back to a page. Why? Because there is nothing going on that interests them. Fan pages are a unique marketing canvas to connect with avid consumers. Yet some brands are terribly underutilizing these pages, making them basically brochureware repositories — essentially… -
How important is real-time data? It’s all relative
7 Dec 2011 | 8:35 amThe speed with which social media spreads ideas and information has led many marketers to place a premium on capturing data in real time. But should real-time data be such a priority? Real time means different things to different people when the term is used as a proxy for recency. To an evolutionary biologist, real time could mean thousands of years of species development data. To a 911 dispatcher, real time is a few seconds worth of critical information from a telephone call. What about marketing and advertising? This notion of “relative real time” extends there, too. To a marketing… -
Making Marketing Agility Cool
23 Nov 2011 | 12:00 pmChief Marketing Officers take pride in being the trendsetters around the corporate corral – the arbiters of hip, the sharpest dressers, the consummate gadgeteers. But when it comes to using data to support decision making, the CMO is likely not to be the smoothest operator. Each year the Marketing team works hard to distill consumer insights into planning documents that will guide its programs in the months ahead. Meanwhile, there are already other departments within corporations that are continually refining their budgets and plans using the latest business intelligence data from… -
Romi Mahajan leaves Microsoft to Join Metavana as CMO
17 Nov 2011 | 8:00 amLong time friend and well respected CMO buddy of mine Romi Mahajan is leaving Microsoft to join Metavana. Romi has been profiled on my blog several times so its only fitting that reached out to find out why. What follows is a transcript of what I learned. Q: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Romi, I’ve been a fan of your blogging on ResearchAccess for quite some time and it’s great to finally have a chance to reconnect. I understand that you’ve recently made a significant change in your work situation what can you tell me about that? A: After an aggregate of 9 years at…
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Post-Advertising
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The Future of (Auto)Mobile Advertising
25 Jan 2012 | 3:23 amGrowing up, all I wanted was a black Pontiac TransAm that spoke to me and helped me fight crime through a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of criminals operating above the law. What I got was a 1985 Peugeot 505s with cigarette burns on the canvas seats and a tape player that didn’t have a reverse button. Cars have come a long way since the “forward-thinking” days of Knight Rider. Cars not only speak to us, they can drive for us, give us directions, and show the kids some Dora the Explorer while en route to a ski trip in Vermont. And this is just the beginning. Like it… -
Is Google’s Social Search the New Normal?
23 Jan 2012 | 11:56 amAdditional reporting by Story’s Director of Audience Generation Cyrus Karimi. In early December, Google updated their search algorithm to provide each user with personalized results—the information Google deemed most relevant to the specific user. The news garnered little chatter in the social media realm. According to Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, less than 50 news articles and blog posts were written about in its initial week (and only 290 to date). Earlier this month Google made another important change, updating their search algorithm to include personalized search… -
Social As We See It: Digital Trends For 2012
19 Jan 2012 | 3:08 amThis post originally appeared in our January issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. In the marketing world, getting in on the ground floor of the latest digital trend can pay huge dividends for users, particularly if they’re brands. But it’s difficult to know exactly which emerging site or app to dive into with both feet. Not every idea pans out, regardless of how much VC funding is acquired. True success depends on widespread adoption of the masses, or at least a dedicated community who simply… -
When Political Ads Attack, Everyone Loses
11 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pmWith additional reporting by Adam Uhrynowski. We’re all familiar with mudslinging in political commercials, debates and speeches. In the recent Iowa caucuses, negative advertising was more apparent than ever. But why do America’s leaders spend so much time pointing out the competition’s flaws and defending their political (and personal) histories rather than promoting themselves? Does it even work? What if brands reverted to this tactic? We’ll answer these questions and more after the jump. In a recent debate, war raged between Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich as the Mitt… -
Is Frictionless Sharing a Boon or Black Hole for Brands?
4 Jan 2012 | 11:20 amAs frictionless sharing becomes the norm for applications like Spotify and Huffington Post, it feels like we’re at the cusp of an era of increasingly intense oversharing. Facebook’s new sharing mechanism has already contributed to a distinct decrease in manual curating and the rise of automated sharing through software. But the real question is: Will frictionless sharing create a true paradigm shift in the way we interact and share on the web? And what are brands to do about it? Facebook’s recent integration with various websites and applications is the latest and largest move toward a…
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Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon
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Great marketing, small marketing: How it all fits
24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 pmI did a presentation today at Emerging Media Conference: How marketing can change the world. I’ve distilled it down to the essential bits here. It’s not the best organized ever, but it covers the essentials. Give it a read: Streeeetchhh First, a quick mental stretching exercise: “Marketing” is not “Selling stuff”. “Marketing” is: Communications created to deliver and promote concepts and offerings that have value. Maybe we’re convincing our kids to eat broccoli. Or we’re trying to convince someone to go out on a date. Or we’re… -
Google Analytics Tutorial: Install (updated)
20 Jan 2012 | 1:27 pmI noticed that my original Google Analytics video tutorial is a wee bit out of date. Like, 4 years out of date. So, here’s a new basic install video: -
SOPA, and content thieves: They both suck
18 Jan 2012 | 11:25 pmWatching the argument over online piracy unfold in the US is like watching chimpanzees drive a car. They fight over direction but they don’t give a crap if they take the rest of us off a goddamned cliff with them. Here’s my problem with both sides in this Greek tragedy: SOPA = stupid If it passes, SOPA will be a total failure: It’s written by a Republican congressman who, as near as I can tell, doesn’t own a computer. The guy violates copyright law on his own web site. Dude. Did you even know you had a web site? It’s being pushed by big companies who don’t… -
Webinar number 1: Internet marketing, content, and all that jazz
16 Jan 2012 | 5:23 pmPortent’s starting a free webinar series, presented by yours truly. The first one is January 31, 2012 at 11 AM Pacific time. I’ll be doing a deep dive into inbound search content social media internet marketing strategy: The role of search engines, social media and other channels in your internet marketing campaign. What ‘inbound marketing’ really is. How to use content to drive marketing. How to use analytics to direct your efforts. How it all fits together. These webinars are free, as in beer. You do have to register, though, so I’ll forever have your e-mail in… -
In internet marketing, be significant, or be roadkill
13 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pmYou send an e-mail to 40,000 people, and get 1 response. Or, you run a Groupon deal that brings 1,000 new customers, who never buy from you again. Wonder why? You got everyone’s attention. They just don’t care. Now you’ve got a choice: Rend your garments, tear your hair and whine about how stupid the average consumer is these days. Or, you can realize something: Attention does not equal significance Getting attention is nice. It gives you a proto-audience: Folks who might stay to listen. Now, though, you have to show them you’re significant. That’ll get everyone…
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Marketing Interactions
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Are Shorter Sales Cycles a Wake-up Call for Marketers?
24 Jan 2012 | 6:47 pmMarketing Sherpa's chart of the week shows the answer to this question. Q. Please select the time period closest to the length of your organization's entire sales cycle, from first lead inquiry to purchase. In the commentary, Jen Doyle states that these results showing shorter sales cycles correlate to the lower deal prices Marketing Sherpa's annual benchmark survey also discovered. But I think there's more at stake here than lower prices. Everyone has been talking about how much time buyers spend self-educating and researching prior to identifying themselves to vendors. -
6 Tips for B2B Vendors Becoming Publishers
22 Jan 2012 | 11:53 amJudging by the amount of online noise being generated, the idea of publishing content is no longer considered to be an "edgy" proposition for many vendors. But noise isn't going to help you meet your goals. The thing about noise is that we've all become adept at tuning it out. There's just so much of it that we've had to develop the survival skill of discernment. We've become very swift judges of what's useful and what's wasting our time. Time we have precious little of with all the social media interaction, email, meetings and job… -
What Happens When Inbound Marketing Works?
18 Jan 2012 | 2:54 pmThe term "inbound marketing" is getting a lot of play these days as B2B marketers grapple with labels and learning more about how marketing practices are evolving — including the dynamics of content marketing. I'm not getting into what all that means now, but invite you to be part of The Great Marketing Conversation, on January 24th, if you'd like to delve into the nuances. With Robert Rose, Mike Volpe, and Marcus Sheridan, we're bound to stir up quite a discussion. What I do want to talk about in this post is what happens when your inbound content marketing works. -
The Art of The Ask in Content Marketing
15 Jan 2012 | 5:53 pmWhen working on content strategies with clients, the question about which content should be gated always comes up. Content — great content — takes a lot of time, effort and resources to produce. It just makes sense that B2B marketers want people to pay for it with their contact info. Or does it? Regardless of how much has been said about giving to get, setting content free, and sharing without restraint, what comes up for many corporate marketers is that they're stuck in the cross hairs of corporate objectives that don't give them a lot of wiggle room. Accountability and proof… -
B2B Content Marketing as Trojan Horse
12 Jan 2012 | 5:36 pmI sat in on the Content Marketing for Real Marketers webinar, with Joe Chernov and Rebecca Lieb, hosted by #CMI and Joe Pulizzi. Of course there were many great points made, but two of them stood out and prompted this blog post: Content draws 10X more media attention than product launches. Diminishing the brand representation in favor of the story enables it to spread. If you look at the first point, it offers proof that no one cares about products, but rather what they enable — which is what great content marketing is all about. The second points out that it's not about your company,…
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Brian Solis
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Nissan Embraces Social Media to Improve Customer Experiences and Foster Advocacy
27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmIn this episode of (R)evolution, Nissan’s David Mingle, Director of Customer Management and Erich Marx, Director of Marketing join me for a refreshing conversation about social media’s impact on business transformation, customer experiences, and building an adaptive business model to learn and evolve based on new opportunities. We explore Nissan’s approach to new media for not only marketing, but also how the company uses social media to invest in and shape the customer experience over time. Having both David and Erich on the show offered a 360 view of the customer and also… -
The Mobile Marketing Value Exchange
26 Jan 2012 | 8:21 amGuest post by Scott Forshay, creator and editor of mobi.luxe. Following him on Twitter @mobiluxe Establishing consumer relationships through mobile marketing, as with any successful, productive relationship, inherently requires a mutual exchange of value. Whether consumers are opting-in for brand communications via SMS or engaging with the brand in a single instance through scanning a QR code, the onus is on the brand to deliver value in return for customers’ valuable time and information. Without the perception that value has been exchanged for value, the relationship becomes essentially… -
Likes, Genre, Action – Facebook Introduces Clicks to Action
25 Jan 2012 | 10:51 amFollowing the official roll out of its new Timeline, Facebook is introducing Actions, a series of new applications that change how people interact with apps, content, brands, and each other. The new apps will extend Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of frictionless experiences based on Facebook’s Open Graph platform, where apps introduce new ways to share your actions with your friends either implicitly or explicitly. With the new Open Graph platform, developers will introduce new Actions and Action buttons that extend the functionality of sharing beyond Likes to now include a dictionary… -
Looking Beyond 2012: Trends for Leading Transformation
23 Jan 2012 | 9:11 amPart 16 in an ongoing series that serves as the prequel to my new book, The End of Business as Usual… It’s a new year and a new set of predictions to set goals and expectations for 2012. I won’t bother you with the top 10 emerging social networks or apps to focus time and resources. Nor will I gaze in the crystal ball to reveal the five secrets to viral marketing and user/customer acquisition. Instead of adding my forecasts to the endless sea of debatable prophesies, I chose a more aspirational path. 2012 is the year of transformation as digital Darwinism threatens rigid and… -
How Suntrust Uses Social Media to Engage Customers and Comply with Regulation
20 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pmFinancial institutions are bound to rules and regulation than other companies experimenting in customer engagement, specifically in social media, can ignore. Over the years, SunTrust has stood out as one of several examples that understand how to use regulatory boundaries to inspire a new generation of customer engagement. The result is finding balance between risk and reward to meet customer expectations and improve customer experiences now and over time. As I’ve always believed…constraint forces creativity. Bianca Buckridee, AVP of Social Media Engagement at SunTrust shares her…
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nick burcher
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David Beckham on Google+ and hanging out live
15 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pmDavid Beckham is now on Google+ and on Thursday January 19th Google+ users can hang out with Beckham after he has participated in a live video Google interview. David Beckham on Google+ Interview questions can be submitted by posting to Google+ with hashtag #GoogleBeckham and the David Beckham Google interview will be posted to YouTube afterwards. The David Beckham Google interview starts at 1700 GMT / 1200 EST / 0900 PST and the Beckham Google + Hangout is scheduled for 1830 GMT / 1330 EST / 1030 PST - more details can be seen in this video: David Beckham is the… -
Moxie 2012 Trends Report from Moxie Interactive
9 Jan 2012 | 4:04 amMoxie Interactive have published their Moxie 2012 Trends report and it contains a host of useful information alongside fascinating predictions for the year ahead. The report description states: "At Moxie, we publish a report each year that analyzes existing trends in order to gain insight into what will break over the next year. It’s an important and interesting exercise, which helps us focus our energies and filter out the noise. We apply ascendant trends to our clients digital marketing efforts and all year long we meet with innovative technology companies in order to get a jump on the… -
Facebook usage statistics by country Dec 2008 - Dec 2011
4 Jan 2012 | 7:35 amI have been collating Facebook usage statistics by country for a few years now and this means it's possible to look at growth in Facebook usage by country from 2008 to the present. Facebook continues to grow across the world and the big story is the Facebook usage growth in so called developing markets such as Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines. The table below shows the top 30 countries by number of active Facebook users according to the data available from Facebook (leave a comment if you want to know statistics for other countries.) Top 30 countries with highest number of… -
Happy New Year 2012 from London! [HD fireworks video and music download]
1 Jan 2012 | 1:49 amHappy New Year from London! Awesome London New Year's Eve fireworks again, kicked off by Jacques Rogge's Olympic announcement and the 'Chariots of Fire theme' before including Adele, Coldplay, the Prodigy, Faithless and all sorts of other tracks mashed together. The London New Year 2012 Fireworks mix was put together by BBC DJ Nihal with Dan Mumford over a month in a Radio 1 studio - you can download the full mix from Nihal's Soundcloud here : http://soundcloud.com/dj-nihal/fireworksmix2012-by-dj-nihal FIREWORKSMIX2012 BY DJ NIHAL by DJ Nihal Happy New Year! Related posts Like this… -
Heineken social Christmas tree on Facebook and in the real world in Singapore
12 Dec 2011 | 7:50 amHeineken has created a 'social Christmas tree!' Heineken Social Christmas Tree on Facebook The Heineken Social Christmas tree is a Facebook app that allows users to select a Christmas message, a style and 16 Facebook friends, with everything then displayed on a sendable Facebook christmas tree graphic. Heineken have also taken the Heineken social Christmas tree into the real world too. Between 17th Dec and 26th Dec messages will come alive on an 11 metre tall / 48 LCD screen real world social Christmas tree at Clarke Quay in Singapore. More information in the video below and…
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The Toad Stool by Alan Wolk
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The VOD Wars
27 Jan 2012 | 10:28 amWhile social TV seems to be garnering the bulk of the buzz these days, the real action is happening in Video on Demand or VOD.VOD was once treated as the ugly stepsister of the industry, with most operators regarding it as a promotional vehicle (hence the proliferation of 5-minute “Making of X” videos on most On Demand channels.)Purchasing broadcast rights from the studios was costly, VOD technology was very unstable and prone to mid-broadcast meltdowns, and, with the ubiquity of DVD rental services, there was very little demand for On Demand.Until, of course, there was.Reed Hasting… -
The Social EPG is the Social TV of Tomorrow
24 Jan 2012 | 11:46 amWhile social TV apps continue to crop up like proverbial weeds, the future of the social TV app will likely be a proprietary social EPG (electronic program guide) provided by the same company that supplies your pay TV service. It will likely come with a companion tablet device too, one your pay TV provider gives you for a low monthly fee, much in the same way they now provide set top boxes. Multiple tablets will mean multiple fees, but most households will want at least one for every adult or teenage member.This model is the obvious next step for an industry that’s waiting and watching as… -
An Apple TV Will Be Just Like An iPhone Because...
10 Jan 2012 | 12:20 amIt will be sold to you at a heavily subsidized price from a service provider looking to lock you in to a multi-year contract.Because Apple can't build their own pay TV service. Nor can they launch an internet only service. Just like the iPhone, someone else owns the pipes: in this case it is likely to be the same company that provides pay TV service.And if you own the pipes, you can make using lots of bandwidth to watch someone else's pay TV service really expensive and inconvenient.If you are Apple, going through a specific pay TV provider allows you to have all the control you had over the… -
Changing Behavior Around TV
19 Dec 2011 | 4:51 pmAs the convergence of the TV and Interwebs moves ahead, there are still a number of behaviors the industry must figure out how to change, solve for or live with. To wit:TV Is Not A Solitary Activity: whether it’s a group of college roommates or the more traditional family unit, few people have their own personal TVs. That makes recommendation engines a bigger challenge than the kool-aid drinkers let on. Figuring out an easy way for the system to understand who is in the room is going to be one of the biggest UX challenges of our time.Because it’s not just knowing that Dad is in the room… -
Why A Suggestion Engine Is Different Than A Recommendation Engine
17 Dec 2011 | 2:42 pmWhile the terms “Suggestion Engine” and “Recommendation Engine” are used interchangeably, they actually refer to two very different behaviors and desired outcomes.A “suggestion engine” is for those times when we have a fairly specific idea of what we want and are in active search mode.A “recommendation engine” is for those times when we are already doing something (shopping, watching, listening, reading) and basically says “here are some things you might enjoy the next time you decide to shop/watch/listen/read.” That distinction shows that the suggestion engine…
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Servant of Chaos
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Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week
22 Jan 2012 | 7:15 pmIn the year ahead, don’t be surprised when you hear pronouncements such as “social media is over” or that Facebook/Twitter is going the way of MySpace. It is just part of the ongoing cycle of renewal (there must be an end before a new beginning and so on). But just like the “end of branding” or the “Year 2000”, social media will not suddenly disappear – after all, many of us are just starting to get the hang of it. And great articles like these below demonstrate just how healthy this category is! Enjoy! Great article from Mandi Bateson showing how social media and social… -
SOAP Creatives 2012 Predictions
18 Jan 2012 | 6:54 pmRegular readers will know that I am not a fan of predictions (even if I do like a good horoscope). But this one from the team at Soap Creative not only opens the door for conversations with their clients (and potential clients), it also showcases their design skills, approach and track record (six out of ten for last year’s predictions) with a funky sense of humour. 2012 Digital Predictions View more presentations from Soap Creative But out of the predictions shown here - what do you think resonates? What do YOU think will change the way you do business in 2012?
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No man is an iland
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If the email’s legal, it can’t be spam. Can it?
20 Jan 2012 | 2:55 amSometimes it helps to have a “fact” sheet to whisk out when making an email marketing case to colleagues (or yourself). Today’s post fills that role for an issue that often confuses those not directly involved in email marketing… Does compliance with anti-spam law confer immunity from being filtered, marked or even perceived as spam? No. Now for the summary and the evidence… Summary Legal compliance is not the main factor used by those who manage incoming mail (ISPs, webmail services and IT departments) to decide if your email should be delivered to the inbox or… -
Email more popular than beer…and other fun facts
22 Dec 2011 | 5:06 amAs I close down for the holiday break, I though I’d leave you with some lighthearted statistics about email. Something to impress the relatives with. Ready? 1. According to Google Trends, email is more popular than Elvis, the Beatles, chocolate, beer, Justin Bieber and Harry Potter…but not sex. 2. Say you printed out each non-spam email sent in the world on a single piece of standard A4 copy paper: One day’s worth of emails would produce a stack of paper 2,159 times taller than Mt. Everest It would take just over 20 days for the stack to reach the moon In just under 2 hours,… -
Double your sign-up rate? Practical advice for popover forms
20 Dec 2011 | 5:50 amSpiders, scorpions, snakes…and popups. Improvements to browser security largely killed the popup window, but the fear and loathing remains. As a result, email marketers have been reluctant to use “in your face” website sign-up forms that in any way resemble those popups of the past. But times and technology have changed. Is this reluctance to consider more brazen approaches to sign-up forms still relevant and reasonable? With marketers reporting huge sign-up lifts from using them, what are the impacts on user experience? Are there any recommended techniques in this field? I… -
Six approaches for future-proof email marketing
2 Dec 2011 | 2:53 amSo in a terrifying moment of weakness I found myself saying: “It would be nice to get 3000 Twitter followers by the end of the year” Oh dear. Why 3000? Why by the end of the year? Why focus on THAT metric? Why, Mark, why? I’m only human. The seductive appeal of using a random number of followers, likes, +1’s or subscribers as your measure of success is a tricky one to resist. But the mistake led me to ask whether I’ve learned anything over the past 13+ years of online and email marketing. Cue a brief period of panic…followed by a longer period of… -
Did Monty Python write your unsubscribe page? 9 tips to make it better
8 Nov 2011 | 8:48 amAll your calls-to-action are happily driving sales, searches, downloads, donations, phone calls or Facebook love. But not the unsubscribe link. No indeed. This sniveling wretch spends his days sucking subscribers out of your database. (And his nights cavorting recklessly with dental appointments and taxes down the “Needed but not Nice” gin and whisky joint.) As we’ll see, however, unsubscribes are not all bad. And there are good ways and bad ways to manage them. Make it difficult? One school of thought says the best way to keep people on your list is to make it as difficult…
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Content Marketing Today
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How to Write Potent Headlines | Content for Biz
27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmLessons on writing headlines from legendary ad man David Ogilvy are relevant to writers of blogs, websites, articles and social media posts. Written by Joanne Costin I think advertising man David Ogilvy would have enjoyed online marketing for the instantaneous feedback it provides. His rules about advertising weren’t based on opinion, but years of research. As he famously said: “Five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. If you haven’t done some selling in your headline, you will have wasted 80 cents out of your client’s dollar.” Rule No. 1: “The… -
How to Make Google Reader Your Content Marketing Partner
27 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amA Great Video Points the Way to Effective Use of RSS Written by Paul Mosensen An overview on Google Reader, and how to manage RSS feeds, folders, share buttons, and integrate with LinkedIn, Google Alerts, Google+, and Twitter…… Via www.youtube.com -
5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your Marketing
25 Jan 2012 | 4:43 pmImage hazel.estrada via Flickr CC [This is a perfect example of what John is discussing. We have curated his post via Scoop.It.] Written by John Jantsch You need lots of content, you know that, but you also know that content creation is one of the more time intensive marketing activities you have to tackle. While you do need to create your own content as the foundation for your total content and teaching strategy, you can – and should – supplement your content with that from other people. One of the best services marketers can provide these days is to act as a filter for all… -
Moving From Content Marketing to Social Commerce – 1to1 Media
21 Jan 2012 | 6:11 amGreat content can drive customer engagement, but it also can drive transactions. Is your content optimized for both?Via www.1to1media.com -
State of Social Media Marketing Report | Socialnomics
18 Jan 2012 | 4:34 pmAwareness, Inc.shares their new annual report on the State of Social Media Marketing – Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment in 2012… You will notice some underlying themes in this report: Executives and senior managers are looking for traction in three key areas – ROI, integration of social with lead generation and sales, and expansion of social presence and reach. While social marketers feel they do not have the necessary resources to execute initiatives successfully, they must meet the expectations of senior management who demand to see tangible business value.Companies…
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Hard Knox Life
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“There’s something happening here…”
14 Jan 2012 | 5:22 pmAs I sit here at our region’s first Startup Weekend, it is clear that there’s something happening here when it comes to Cincinnati’s entrepreneurial scene. That magic is in the air as we watch over 100 people work on launching a startup in just 54 hours. The success of this event builds on the momentum of the last 12 months that includes: Venture for America announced that Cincinnati is going to be part of their inaugural class of 4 cities starting Summer 2012. The Brandery had a busy year as we moved into our new home into Over the Rhine and the Kauffman Fellows named… -
Mark Cuban’s 12 Rules for Startups
17 Dec 2011 | 10:39 amI just finished reading Mark Cuban’s new ebook How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It. Considering it only costs $2.99, there is no reason for you not to go buy it right this minute. While the entire thing is a great read, I particularly enjoyed a chapter at the end entitled “12 Cuban Rules for Startups.”. They include: Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession. Hire people who you think will love working there. Sales Cure All. Know how your company will make… -
Help Rockfish win iMedia Agency of the Year
15 Nov 2011 | 7:30 amTonight I received the great news that Rockfish is one of ten finalist for the inaugural iMedia Agency of the Year Awards. With iMedia being one of the leading sources of digital marketing news and insight, this is quite the honor. But being nominated doesn’t mean that we are the winner. That title will go to the agency that receives the most votes between now and Friday, November 18th. I am not one to ask for a favor, but this is one of those cases where I will go out on a limb and ask for help. If you have been impressed with the work we are doing at Rockfish, please take the… -
Join our Roundtable on the Future of Digital Marketing
8 Nov 2011 | 7:49 amThis week I am taking part in a fun experiment with a new startup called Roundtable. Roundtable describes itself in the following way: At Roundtable we’re all about empowering meaningful conversations – between thought leaders, between friends, and between curated communities of strangers. It is a really neat concept and one I became interested in after reading a Roundtable on Startup Funding that was hosted a few weeks ago. I decided to jump at the chance to have Rockfish host a Roundtable on the Future of Digital Marketing. After all, we call ourselves a “Digital… -
“Kentucky for Kentucky” – This is a Kickstarter campaign I can get behind
26 Oct 2011 | 6:14 pmThanks for the folks at SocialTimes, I came across one of the coolest Kickstarter campaigns that I have seen yet. ”Kentucky for Kentucky” is aiming to accomplish the following: With your help, we are going to crowd-fund, produce, and air the most epically kick ass Super Bowl 2012 commercial for the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. For Kentucky by Kentuckians. That’s what it means to a be a Commonwealth. It’s a project that Kentuckians all around the world will be proud to be apart of. Join us, become a Kentuckian. While I was not born in Kentucky, I have become an…
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Web Strategy by Jeremiah
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A Worldwide Salute to Community Managers
23 Jan 2012 | 5:43 amIt’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (every fourth Monday of Jan) and I’d like to salute the folks working on the front lines at companies big and small leading the charge. These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency. Charged with the following four key responsibilities: a community advocate, brand evangelist, savvy online communicator, and involved in shaping future products and services they’ve got their hands full. This exciting new role… -
People on the Move in the Social Business Industry, Jan 16, 2011
16 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pmMark you Calendars now that Community Manager Appreciation Day is coming this coming Jan 23rd, please salute your community professionals. Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007. People on the Move in the Social Business Industry: Len Devanna joins Ant’s Eye View as Vice President, Social Business… -
Buyers Guide: A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation (Altimeter Report)
5 Jan 2012 | 11:57 amGet account control now –or risk a career of continual social media sanitation. To match the growing consumer adoption of social media, many companies have launched social media efforts with little planning. As social media spreads beyond corporate communications and marketing, business groups are deploying social media without a standardized process. In fact, enterprise class corporations (those with over 1,000 employees) have an average of 178 social media accounts and this number will only grow if left unchecked. Companies that don’t control these accounts are at risk of having… -
A Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers –Who Will Lead Beyond The Golden Age?
29 Dec 2011 | 8:53 amIn order to understand the movement in the ever-changing tech blog space, let’s dissect the market to identify trends. Whether folks agreed or disagreed, the assertion that Tech Blogs are evolving from the Golden Era to the next, continues to resonate as a healthy discussion. I saw responses from many of the blog management teams (Techcrunch, Mashable, RWW, VentureBeat, BoingBoing, and more) both agreeing and disagreeing, as well as traditional journalists at Wired chiming in. Recap: Four Trends Why Blogs Are Evolving Out of Golden Age In the previous post, it was identified there are… -
End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over
27 Dec 2011 | 11:01 amUpdate Dec 29: I posted a Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers in response to the growing conversation. That’s right. We’re at the end of an important period. The tech blogosphere as we know it, is over. Four Trends Show the End of this Era: Like the film industry, the Golden Era is the emergence period, when fresh innovation in a new medium is born. New techniques, revolutionary content, and different business models emerge as innovators pioneer a new medium. I first had this discussion with Chris Saad, which triggered some thinking on my end. I asked some of the foremost tech bloggers of their…
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Drew's Marketing Minute
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What’s your purple goldfish?
11 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pmGet your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book! A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends. He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way. Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012. Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today. I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it. Really love it. I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the… -
You cannot ignore Google+ for your business
10 Jan 2012 | 12:59 pmGoogle+ cannot be ignored When Google+ emerged last summer, people’s reactions were to be expected. The early adopters were all over it. But for most people who were already suffering from social media fatigue — their response was “oh no…not another site for me to maintain!” And many people simply opted out, not wanting to use/try yet another social networking site. All along, I have been saying that it simply could not be ignored. (like here) Let’s look at time line for those of you who aren’t familiar with how this played out. Summer 2011… -
Mitt Romney is getting tired (or lazy) in Iowa!
3 Jan 2012 | 10:03 amThis upcoming Presidential election will be my daughter’s first opportunity to vote. Combine that with the fact that we live in Iowa, the caucus is upon us and she’s a registered Independent and you can only imagine the flood of mail and calls she’s received leading up to the caucus. You know what all the candidates are thinking…. fresh meat! So I was a little surprised and appalled at what front runner Mitt Romney sent her late last week. The front of Mitt’s postcard to my daughter. Understated would be a nice way to describe it. The back of the postcard sent… -
5 questions to define your 2012 game plan
30 Dec 2011 | 7:58 amDefine your 2012 game plan Over the past month, I’ve been posing what I hope have been some head scratching, thought provoking questions to help you get ready for 2012. If you can answer these five questions — I think you’re going to have a solid foundation for your marketing efforts moving forward. In case you missed one, here are the five questions (with links to the whole post): What do you really sell? Who is your ideal customer? What’s the lifetime value of your customer? What’s your marketing foundation? What’s your legacy sentence? So — have… -
Marketing insights question: What’s your legacy sentence?
28 Dec 2011 | 6:59 amWhat’s your legacy sentence? Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way. I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions. I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization. If nothing else — this exercise should fine tune some of your marketing efforts. What’s your legacy sentence? If a customer/potential buyer was going to describe your business in a…
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Seth's Blog
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The honest broker
28 Jan 2012 | 4:42 amIt really is a choice, one or the other. Either you happily recommend the best option for your customer, or you give preference to your own items first. Either you believe in what you sell, or you don't. Either you treat your best partners better, or you treat everyone the same. Either you shade the truth when it's painful to do otherwise, or you consistently share what's important. Either you always keep your promises or you don't. Either you give me the best price the first time, or you make me jump through hoops to get there. Earning the position of the honest broker is time-consuming and… -
Reconsidering Gartner's Cycle of Hype
27 Jan 2012 | 4:22 amOne theory of technology marketing and acceptance goes like this: A technology causes a media hypestorm and rising expectations. Then it crashes to Earth as the popular press and the public discovers that it's not all the hypesters said it would be--through no fault of the technologists who brought it to the world in the first place. Then, gradually, the truth about the technology seeps out until finally it reaches its use case--and then becomes that status quo, just waiting to be disrupted as it previously disrupted what came before. While the violent vicissitudes of this chart make for good… -
Who cares?
26 Jan 2012 | 4:09 amUnless someone does, things start to fray around the edges. Often it's the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team. You've probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn't answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the… -
Solving problems (vs. identifying them)
25 Jan 2012 | 4:27 amOften, we're hesitant to identify a problem out of fear we can't solve it. Knowing that we have to live with something that we're unable to alter gives us a good reason to avoid verbalizing it--highlighting it just makes it worse. While this sort of denial might be okay for individuals (emphasis on might), it's a lousy approach for organizations of any size. That's because there are almost certainly resources available that can solve a problem if you decide it's truly worth solving. Put yourself and your people on a path to finding problems without regard for whether or not they are capable… -
"It's completely up to you"
24 Jan 2012 | 4:06 am... and that's the problem. I was picking out the mat for a framed photo and there were a thousand colors to choose from. The framer uttered the scary invocation, putting the choice back to me. So many things are now completely up to us, more than ever before. Where and how and when we work and invest and interact and instruct and learn... If you think you have no choice but to do what you do now, you've already made a serious error. It seems to me that passing the buck on this merely because it's easier than choosing is precisely the wrong strategy. It enables an abdication of power that…
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Lies, damned lies and statistics
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20 free tools to evaluate social media
26 Jan 2012 | 4:28 pmOne of the first resources we created when starting Rabbit in early 2010 was a list of 20 free social media evaluation tools. Not measurement, evaluation. Tools that will give you some form of meaningful data that you can use in reports. And ones that don’t cost anything. Fast forward almost two years and a lot of that list is out of date, with many of the originals no longer being around or having ‘upgraded’ to full paid for services. As a result, it’s time for a refresh. This is by no means an extensive list, there are other tools around in addition to… -
Over 4/10 Europeans are smartphone owners, 1/5 take pictures of products in store
26 Jan 2012 | 4:23 amComscore and Telefonica (the European telecoms giant that owns 02) have come out with a study about the use of smartphones and the Internet in Europe. The research tells us that in the UK (48%) and Spain (48%) almost half of us are now smartphone (as opposed to ‘feature phone’) owners. Across the five biggest EU states, the average is 42%. Other key findings are as follows: Android leads in phone sales, Apple dominates in mobile web traffic Who is bigger, Android or Apple? That depends how you look at it. In terms of smartphone ownership, there are certainly more… -
Significant number of newspaper visits driven by Facebook
24 Jan 2012 | 2:47 amHere’s a chart that neatly shows how social media is driving a sizeable chunk of traffic towards news sites. According to Comscore at least 10% of visits to the top European newspaper websites are preceded by a visit to Facebook. Previous stats have shown that Turkey in particular is a core Facebook territory, and so it’s no surprise that Facebook accounted for almost a fifth of visits to Milliyet. However, in the UK both the Guardian and Mail, the UK’s (and two of the world’s) biggest online newspapers, had around 13% of traffic coming from the social media giant. … -
The most active Instagram fans are in the Philippines, Brazil and Turkey
18 Jan 2012 | 9:20 amThere is a wealth of research showing that social media users in emerging markets are proportionally more active than their Western counterparts. For example, Indonesia, Russia and Egypt all have 80%+ of their internet populations on social media. Meanwhile, Israeli and Russian social media users spend twice as much time on those channels than people in the UK and US. A latest stat released by Instagramers, a global Instagram community with 240 local chapters celebrating its 1st birthday today, shows the same holds true on the photo-sharing network. The three most active… -
Show me the sales. How does social media impact the bottom line?
12 Jan 2012 | 9:27 amAlmost every agency in this space, ourselves included, is often asked to prove a direct link between social media and sales / conversions. Indeed though awareness for the need for social media marketing campaigns is without a doubt higher than 3-4 years ago, questions about measurement and tangible benefits remain the same. I’ll come back to whether the ‘show me the sales’ question is useful to ask on its own. But the fact is there is research out that shows social media does impact the bottom line. I’ve distilled some of these into ten key points,…
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Find and Convert » Find and Convert Blog OptimizeThis
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Social Marketing 3 Reasons Why It Has Arrived
23 Jan 2012 | 8:50 amSometimes I feel like a dog! One year can be like seven years in Internet speed. Although we’ve been providing SEO services since 2003, I wasn’t one of the earliest adopters of social media, until about 2007. Let’s face it, social marketing was still very young in 2007. It’s hard to believe that was just five years ago! In 2005 Google started talking about how they were integrating search results with social media, but it was very early stage. It wasn’t until October 2009 that Google took a big step forward in social search by indexing content from social media sites such as… -
Search Plus Your World SEO Implications
16 Jan 2012 | 7:59 amGoogle Rocks SEO With Search Plus Your World In case you missed it last week, Google announced a major update to how they deliver search results. The update is called Search Plus Your World. Much is being written about Search Plus Your World. Essentially, it makes search results much more personalized by displaying private content you’ve previously shared with your network through Google+. While Google’s new personalized search raises all kinds of privacy and even anti-trust concerns, I’ll let pundits like Danny Sullivan (and others) cover that aspect of it. I want to comment on the… -
Conference Marketing Lead Generation Tactics in the Digital Age
5 Jan 2012 | 2:19 amEvent marketing has evolved quite a bit during the past 10 years. Today’s marketing budget must be utilized in the most cost efficient ways to do effective lead generation and to deliver real ROI when you exhibit at an industry conference. As my team finalizes plans for Social Fresh East 2012, I would like to share some conference marketing elements that can produce successful lead generation strategies for your next event. Before the Conference Prior to the conference communicate your plans to exhibit at the event through social media. Write one or more blog posts about the topics to be… -
Social Business Becomes Mainstream in 2012
20 Dec 2011 | 3:16 pmTransformation From social Media to Social Business December is the month for predictions for the new year. Generally, I’m not a fan of predictions. While many marketers are predicting the year of mobile for the fifth year in a row, I’m going to take some risk with just one marketing prediction that 2012 will be the year social business becomes mainstream. What is a social business? A true social business has a double meaning. It is one whose culture embodies social from top to bottom. It doesn’t just allow employees to be social, it inspires them to be social because it is the culture… -
Personal Branding in the Corporate Workplace Requires a Plan
12 Dec 2011 | 6:36 amConvergence of Personal Brand and Corporate Brand is Powerful Personal branding is well recognized as the public earned reputation of an individual. The digital world, fueled by content marketing and social media, has propelled the concept of personal branding into the mainstream. Today, anyone can develop a personal brand from a high school athlete to a corporate employee. But personal branding has mostly been associated with the individual. That’s why Toby Bloomberg and I have co-authored a two-day live training event that focuses on the convergence of personal branding in the corporate…
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Eat Media
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Content Crossroads
24 Jan 2012 | 12:43 pmI thought my categorization of ‘The two types of content: traffic (SEO) and trust (brand building)’ covered all the bases. Alas, I was mistaken. We have a new type content, one that gives the perception of trust but is actually just a new breed of traffic content. It’s better written, better researched, better positioned SEO fluff – but still SEO fluff. It consists of a perfectly crafted headline and a perfectly crafted tweet to driving me to an article that barely delivers any new or worthy information. On one hand you could say – big win – SEO has matured… -
Eat Media is hiring in 2012
6 Jan 2012 | 12:53 pmWe’re looking to expand. If you’re amazing get in touch. -
Eat Media: Top 5 Mistakes I made in 2011
27 Dec 2011 | 10:27 amMISTAKE #1 Committing to Content Strategy without a Brand StrategyWhen a client is not established yet, or in startup mode, brand strategy is part aspiration and part adventure — these are exciting times. But when you are working with an established company the rules are bit different and excitement is tempered by the stakes being much higher. Early this year we entered into a lengthy content strategy engagement with a large company that admitted it did not have a brand strategy in place — we’re “working on it,” they said. While we did a lot right: conducted internal… -
Three Brand Experiences and the Commitment To Becoming Amazing
4 Dec 2011 | 9:40 pmAs a customer I’ve often stated, sometimes out loud and littered with expletives, “Why did they treat me like that?” As an agency owner I get to ask the more interesting question – “How did they treat me like that.” Interactions with brands, online or in-person, should always exceed the vending machine experience of -put money in-take product out-go home. But often that is exactly the experience we get. I’ve come to believe there are only 3 types of brand experiences: 1- Exceptional experiences you tell people about. – Mailchimp 2-… -
The Internet is a Playground*
18 Nov 2011 | 4:49 pmEvery day nascent web startups gather buckets of funding with unproven concepts (see Color.) Unquestionably some startups need the money to move the next level. But others, armed with a product that goes WHZZZZ instead of Whzzzhz, simply desire the money while it’s still available. (See – 1999) Most startup founders do not start out as Jobsian geniuses with a fanatical vision of perfection and changing the world. This evolution and maturation usually requires time and patience. But founders are often just workers in a system tilted towards going to market too quickly. A system…
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Direct Marketing Observations
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Chances Are You’ve Met Less Than 5% of the People in Your Social Network
25 Jan 2012 | 8:17 amThe difference between a friend, an acquaintance and the friends and acquaintances we have met online is blurring…Social media would seem to dictate or would assume that I’m supposed to develop or have developed these deep online, networked, connections, i.e. That I have met them. Jay Baer calls it false intimacy. Does it matter that I have not met them? Absolutely not. Or maybe it does… But maybe we should quickly look at what the definition of “connected” is. Check this out: con·nect·ed http://img.tfd.com/m/sound.swf (k-nktd) adj. 1. Joined or… -
Who does Google make it’s money from? A breakdown (Infograph)
23 Jan 2012 | 8:01 am© WordStream, a Google AdWords partner company. -
Internal Social Networks Versus Social Networks-Where Should You Spend Your Time?
17 Jan 2012 | 3:07 pmThe tug-o-war for your time when you participate on multiple social networks can be difficult. Who get’s it and who doesn’t? Who get’s the honor of your participation can also affect your impact because THAT will be where you spend the bulk of your time. Where should you spend your time? On the networks that matter to you or on the networks where you HAVE to participate? Does it matter if you create content or if you lurk? It might, though either exercise require an investment of your time. The fact is, the more networks you’re in, the more likely that your… -
Some Social Tools You Should Know About
12 Jan 2012 | 10:55 amThanks to the folks at imediaconnection, I give you 15 social tools you should know about Friend or Follow tells users whom they’re not following on Twitter. Conversocial.com helps users manage customer service at scale on Facebook and Twitter. Conversocial enables workflow for multi-person teams to tackle the consumer communication for large brands. NutshellMail users social network updates so they don’t have to login and check. Nice! UserVoice creates engaging survey forms on Facebook and other sites to solicit feedback from fans and visitors. MemoLane is a “virtual… -
How Do Organizations Get Better? Reward Simple Behavior
10 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pmI coach. I’ve coached for a number of years spanning every sport from basketball to baseball and I have to say with utmost confidence that most of my teams have had winning records and most of my players have learned something and have had fun along the way. But…There are always those teams and those players that either don’t get it, didn’t get it, or don’t want to get it. “It” being the magic that is winning, learning, growing and having fun. Success. It happens in sports. It also happens in the business world. I for one love sports and business…
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HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
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5 Tricks for Generating Traffic When Nobody's at Work
27 Jan 2012 | 5:30 pmAre you doing anything this weekend to generate traffic to your website? If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are you’ve probably asked yourself at some point: How do I keep marketing effectively when nobody is in the office? You want to continue to drive traffic and leads, but you don't know exactly how. The wrong thing to do is assume that nobody is listening on holidays or during weekends. Depending on your audience, this could actually be a good time for a new blog post, video release, or email. Data from a recent Xobni survey shows that people are still wired into work during… -
What a Top-Notch Lead Management Program Looks Like
27 Jan 2012 | 2:45 pmWalk into any active sales room, and it’s easy to tell how time-intensive most sales operations are. To make the hours spent worthwhile, it’s important to ensure that your sales team is only talking to the most qualified leads. Lead management is a strategy and set of corresponding tools that help companies filter out unqualified leads and better understand the buying cycle of their good leads. When executed well, lead management makes your marketing team more effective, your sales team more precise, and your leads happier. Lead management programs vary from company… -
Facebook Timeline Likely Coming to Business Pages Near You
27 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pmEarlier this week, Facebook announced it will finally be rolling out Facebook Timeline to all users in the next few weeks, replacing the design of existing personal profile pages. While Timeline won't directly affect the look of your Facebook business page (yet), the rollout does have some powerful implications for marketers. You can read more about those implications here. Timeline Design Likely Coming to Facebook Business Pages But, notice how we said yet? That's right, while Facebook business pages aren't affected by the current Timeline rollout, we have good reason to believe that, in… -
12 Critical Elements Every Homepage Must Have [Infographic]
27 Jan 2012 | 10:20 amIf you’re considering a website redesign or are wondering how to generate more leads from your website, there are several critical elements you must never forget to include. Let’s first take a look at the homepage. Ah yes, “thee page of all pages.” It’s undoubtedly one of the most important areas on a website. That’s understandable; it’s a company’s virtual front door, and, in most cases, it gets the majority of the traffic. While homepages generally get the most love, I find it surprising that so many do a poor job of generating leads or… -
The 7 Slides You Need for an Epic Monthly Marketing Report
27 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amHere's a challenge for all you marketers who are on top of your game: How do you make sure your marketing team is taken seriously within your own company? One important step you should take is publishing a thorough, thoughtful, quantitative monthly report on your marketing team's impact. For as long as there’s been marketing, marketers have struggled to show their impact. But today, there's no need to struggle. Today, it's simple to collect the data you need to show how your marketing investments are generating revenue for your business. You just have to pull together the right…
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MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
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Free Friday: Learn How to Give Your Customers a Fantastic Brand Experience
27 Jan 2012 | 9:01 amWant to gain and retain more customers through improved cross-channel customer interactions? Then check out this Free Friday’s offering: the opportunity to attend the free seminar Optimizing the Customer Journey: Strategy and Case Study. Guest speaker and vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Shar VanBoskirk, will give you the scoop on how to optimize your interactive marketing and improve your customers’ brand experience in four steps using CORE principles: Customize Optimize Respond Empower By attending this free seminar, you’ll learn how to speed… -
How to Define Public Relations
26 Jan 2012 | 9:02 amThe Public Relations Society (PRSA) recently announced an effort to update the formal definition of Public Relations. They invited PR professionals to submit their suggestions for how to define what we do. And they unveiled the three leading contenders to become the new official definition of what we in PR do at work. The top three were compiled from more than 625 responses PRSA received. If you go to the site and click on “read annotations” under each definition, you can get a good idea of why certain words and phrases were used. I’m really not crazy about any of them,… -
Marketing Smarts Podcast: Sally Hogshead and the $500 Cup of Coffee
25 Jan 2012 | 8:57 amWhat if you wanted to open up a coffee shop in a hip, urban neighborhood? Chances are you would already face competition from other indy shops, Starbucks, and the local equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts. How could you go about differentiating yourself? The main problem is simple: You and your competitors basically sell the same thing. This means that your point of differentiation will have little to do with your product and everything to do with creating an aura around that product that others find fascinating. One way to do this, according to this week’s guest on Marketing Smarts,… -
Sharing Your Way to B2B Social Media Lead Generation
24 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pmSocial media has always involved sharing quality content with your network, but in its current state, B2B companies need to understand how social media can connect with their sales cycle. Companies need to find prospective customers for their products and services, and they need those prospects to find them. Traditionally, B2B marketers were responsible for generating leads at their companies. That role of marketing has not substantially changed with the advent of social media. But many social media purists have rejected the notion of using any part of social media to fill the sales funnel. -
Marketing Study Shocker: QR Codes & Social Media Have Little Impact for Shoppers
24 Jan 2012 | 8:58 am“As much as people embrace all things digital, they’re much fussier when they turn into actual shoppers. In fact, QR codes and social media have very little impact, according to new research from Catapult Action-Biased Marketing, a Westport Connecticut-based researcher.” Those are the opening lines of a recent Media Post Marketing Daily article, “Shoppers Spurn Social, QR Codes.” Wow. So let’s dig deeper. According to Catapult Marketing’s Brian Cohen, digital shopper marketing director, “We looked at 1,200 consumers, and the role that social media is playing is not as large as…
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Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik
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The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish.
9 Jan 2012 | 4:26 amIt is the season to be predicting the future, but that is almost always a career-limiting move. So I'm not going to do that. It is a lot easier to predict the present. So I'm not going to do that either. Rather, I'm going to share a clump of realities/rules garnered from the present to help ready you for the predictable near future . Now here is the great part… if you follow these rules and act on these insights I believe you'll be significantly better prepared for the unpredictable future. Awesome right? Now here's another surprise: These rules/insights/mind… -
Best Web Metrics / KPIs for a Small, Medium or Large Sized Business
12 Dec 2011 | 4:11 amWe have access to more data than God wants anyone to have. Thus it is not surprising that we feel overwhelmed, and rather than being data driven we just get paralyzed. Life does not have to be that scary. In fact a data driven life is sexiest digital life you can imagine. In this blog post we are going to bring the sexyback. I am going to attempt to significantly simply your life by recommending the critical few metrics you should use to analyze performance of your digital marketing campaigns and website. You'll be able to quickly go from "omg what can I do!" to "omg what… -
Smarter Data Analysis of Google's https (not provided) change: 5 Steps
21 Nov 2011 | 4:22 amIt is astonishingly common that we are asked to analyze the impossible. In perhaps a career-limiting move I'm going to try to do that today (and for a controversial topic to boot!). In this post about an important Google change, I want you to focus less on the data and focus more on the methodology. And – so important – I want you to help me with your ideas of how we can do this impossible analysis better, in the complete absence of data :). So please share your ideas via comments and let's together make a smarter ecosystem. On board? Let's go…. In an effort… -
Data Analysis 101: Seven Simple Mistakes That Limit Your Salary
31 Oct 2011 | 4:42 amData analysis is not easy. It takes years to get good at it, and once you get good at it you realize how much more there is to learn. That is part of the joy. You are always learning. You are always growing. This blogpost is a collection of tips I share with my friends who are just starting out. Each tip is a "simple" mistake that is easily avoided. My hope is that you'll skip them if you are aware of them, and move on to making more important valuable mistakes. :) My plan is to wrap each tip with additional observations, context that will be of value even to those who have… -
Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value
10 Oct 2011 | 5:01 amI am going to break one of my unspoken cardinal rules: Only write about real problems and measurement that is actually possible in the real world. I am going to break the second part of the rule. I am going to define a way for you to think about measuring social media, and you can't actually easily measure what I am going to recommend. So why break the rule? Social media is evolving at an incredible pace. Most of us have no idea how to participate optimally in this unique channel – we are doing TV on Twitter (breaks my heart). The impact on the data side of the ecosystem is that…
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SEO Copywriting
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Need Google+ and Twitter content? Go old school
26 Jan 2012 | 9:42 amOnce upon a time, long before Twitter, Google + and Facebook, there was a powerful piece of marketing collateral that’s all but ignored now. The “tips” booklet. Companies would pay a lot of money for writers to pour through their past articles and ferret out tip-worthy content. These tips were typically turned into a softcover booklet (like “101 Pet Care Tips.” Or “50 Ways to Stage Your Home,”) that sold at trade shows, given away as prospect “leave-behinds,” or marketed as a free gift. Tip booklets were extremely popular. Readers… -
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending January 25th
25 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmYet another busy week is captured in this edition of the latest and greatest Web writing news! “Data retention” legislation usurps SOPA as the newest threat to online privacy and freedom, while Apple’s astonishing first-quarter $13.1 billion profit has all online marketers in a state of shock and awe. Meanwhile, the big G is roasting in both internal and external PR debacles with its self-serving Google+ corruption of search results, and Facebook rolls out its widely-anticipated open graph app’s. Whatever your calling – content, social media, SEO and/or search – you’re… -
A 9-step guide to creating & marketing your own video content – for free!
24 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amGuest Author, Andy Havard All too often, bloggers and small businesses miss out on great content marketing opportunities due to budgetary constraints. Does that resonate with you? Did you know that online video couldn’t be a more cost-effective and convenient marketing approach for any product, brand or service? And you must know that online video is the hot and growing – and most likely indefinite – trend for content marketing? Here, I’m going to tell you exactly how you can master this medium with 9 steps to creating and marketing your own videos from home, for free! -
How to translate testimonials into killer sales copy
23 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amWelcome back! In this week’s Web-writing video how-to, Heather discusses how customer testimonials can help you write better sales pages. For many of us, writing a sales page can be challenging. You may be a really great blogger, able to write about anything, or you may be a small business owner wanting to write your own sales copy for your website…in any case, if you’ve never written persuasive copy before, it can prove to be very difficult. Fortunately, there is a rich resource you can tap for crafting convincing sales copy: tune in and learn how you can draw on your happy… -
Are you suffering behind the scenes?
19 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amHave you ever said, “If I have to write one more post about (something you’ve been writing about a lot) I’m going to go completely insane?” Yeah, me too. Once upon a time, it felt like I wrote copy for every cosmetic dentist in North America. At the drop of a hat, I could talk about veneers, teeth whitening and “laser gum surgery.” Yeah, I was great fun at cocktail parties. I was also bored too. So very, very bored. I’ve seen this happen to in-house and freelance copywriters. Every day feels exactly like the day before. Your writing no longer…
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Tippingpoint Labs
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The right partners can make or break a campaign
26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amKing Arthur Flour and Google Campaign Google worked with their agency GOOD/CORPS to create a series of videos that promote small business. Not unlike the American Express Plum campaign, the idea is to showcase how Google properties enhance a small business and allow it to contribute to the economy. The challenge, and where the campaign seemingly differs from the American Express campaign and specifically the one with Pink Berry, is do all the partners in the campaign stand united? Their desires and goals seem disparate. GOOD/CORPS: We want to highlight how Google helps the economy… -
Why Your Brand Should Fight SOPA-like Legislation
24 Jan 2012 | 11:41 amThanks to the efforts of internet-based companies to get the word out, last week both SOPA and PIPA were stalled in Congress. But the attempts to limit internet freedoms aren’t going to go away. The implications of this type of legislation go far beyond a battle between Google and Time-Warner. They are an all out attack on your marketing plan and your most powerful communications tools. The old guard don’t want to innovate. They would rather attack your ability to connect meaningfully with your audience. The internet is in danger As music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz brought to… -
Is the Elle and Van Cleef & Arpels campaign one to remember?
19 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amVan Cleef & Arpels on Luxury Daily Presented as an attempt to recreate the magic felt when falling in love, The Van Cleef & Arpels Love Stories campaign doesn’t evoke a modern day love affair feel. I am lost within it’s beautiful scapes and models but wonder what would make a young urban female (audience as defined for this campaign effort) to share the video with friends. By rethinking luxury marketing and opening up the campaign to a wider content creation and brand distribution approach, both Van Cleef & Arpels and Elle Magazine may have garnered a larger return. -
“One Track Mind”: Diverge the track for greater return
12 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amAV Club's One Track Mind The traditional one advertiser, one media publisher relationship can hinder a campaign both from a content and distribution standpoint. Brands and publishers must think bigger about the content they create in a way that garners engagement, audience, and ultimately, results. Think about how ancillary campaign content created by the sponsoring brands as well as partnering with more than one advertiser, can drive interest and untapped eyeballs. One Track Mind is a 10-part series, brought to you by Jameson, that pairs an A.V. Club writer with a songwriter they admire… -
A gem of an idea: JCK Rock Star
5 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amJCK Rock Star As a former marketing director at a New England based jewelry retail chain and as an avid watcher of Project Runway, I was smitten with JCK’s Rock Star series from the start. I think JCK is pioneering what journalism is becoming – part entertainment, part talent scout, part branded content. As JCK starts to think about a second season of this show, I wanted to suggest some ways in which the distribution approach and the brand inclusion could evolve. JCK online, along with Swarovski Gems, challenged five acclaimed designers to create jewelry using Swarovski gemstones…
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Brain Traffic Blog
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Don’t Use That Language With Me
26 Jan 2012 | 2:40 pmPerhaps I’m distracted, maybe I’m tired. I’ve read this copy three times and I still don’t know what it’s talking about. I must not be focusing. Maybe I need more coffee … Or maybe, the problem is the copy itself. Ah, yes. I see it now: jargon. Obscure, technical terms I think I should know, because the copy keeps using them, but I don’t (what’s a “drive-by download”?). Words that sound impressive, but may be uncommon, and therefore vague, to a general audience (think “erudite” instead of “well-read”). -
Content Strategy and Responsive Design
19 Jan 2012 | 3:03 pmMaybe you’ve heard the term “responsive design.” Maybe you haven’t. Many people think it solely refers to the technical aspects of design, but that’s not exactly the case. Responsive design can have a major impact on your content. I’ll tell you how it works, how it can affect your content, and why you should—and need to—care. What is responsive design? Responsive design is the practice of having one website that adapts to the device it is being viewed upon. Or, more simply: one website for all screens. So, why is it important? If you’ve… -
Brown Paper Packages
12 Jan 2012 | 2:36 pmA comprehensive content strategy must address a wide range of factors: business goals, audience needs, the competitive landscape, available resources, various platforms and channels, timelines, structural configurations, keywords, migration plans—the list goes on. It can feel like all the unanswered questions might swirl into a funnel cloud and engulf the project. When that happens, what can we hold on to? Sometimes, a metaphor helps. One I find useful is the brown paper package. Let’s go shopping Imagine a retail store. Inside, the shelves are lined with unlabeled packages. -
Tell Us What You Want (What You Really, Really Want)
5 Jan 2012 | 3:03 pmHappy New Year! We hope you have the best year ever in 2012. Especially because the whole world is going to end on December 21, according to the ancient Mayans. Or not. Nobody knows for sure.* Hey, it could happen. There are three things, however, that we DO know for sure: We have AT LEAST eleven more months to rock the Brain Traffic blog. Blogs, like all content, are only successful if it provides value to the user. We’d like you—yes, YOU—to tell us what topics you’d like to see discussed on this blog. That’s right, there are 22 Brain Traffic employees standing… -
And That’s a Wrap: 2011 By the Numbers
22 Dec 2011 | 2:41 pmLooking back on 2011, it’s been quite an exciting ride. Here’s a look at what happened this year … Brain Traffic: Welcomed 443 attendees from 150 cities and five continents at Confab: The Content Strategy Conference Made Tenessa Gemelke do a complete fashion parade of all 61 items purchased as part of her experience on What Not To Wear Rocked out to 55 tracks on the Brain Traffic Lock-in Rdio playlist Wrote 50 blog posts (including this one) Secured more than 35 speakers for Confab 2012 Completed 37 client projects Listened to 15 episodes of Content Talks, a podcast series…
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Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting
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Klout, the Super Bowl, and Our Addiction to Shooting the Messenger
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amTwo weeks ago, I received a Klout Perk to be part of the Social 46, a gathering of Indiana’s top social media influencers. According to the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee, Klout was used to help identify the participants, and the list was augmented manually with known local bloggers, gadflies, and connectors. I do not know how many of the 46 were “found” by Klout versus already known by the committee, and it’s not particularly relevant. Last week, the group convened to learn more about the Super Bowl festivities – which have a breadth almost unfathomably… -
Marketers, Here are the Keys to Your IT Department – Good Luck
25 Jan 2012 | 8:02 amClinton Bonner is an Open Innovation author/blogger, futurist and Marketing Manager at TopCoder – a global Open Innovation platform and community. Look no further than a very recent post by the purveyor of Convince and Convert and you’ll notice something remarkable. As Jay lays out 4 Nearly Guaranteed 2012 Social Media Predictions, what do you notice? Have a quick look at his 4 predictions: Multi-Media Soars – Jay is speaking about video and photo apps that enhance social media, draw more users off of the likes of Facebook and into new channels driven by mobile app… -
Comparison of 100 Top Companies on Social Business and Corporate Culture
22 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amAre social business and corporate culture inevitably linked? In a recent podcast, Mitch Joel interviewed Fred Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, and creator of the Net Promoter methodology. Fred made a statement that has stuck with me in the several weeks since I tuned in: “You can’t be the best place to buy, if you’re not the best place to work.” As social business moves from the toddler stage to youth stage, it’s becoming accepted wisdom that the best and most social organizations transform from the inside out. Whether it’s Charlene… -
Social Media Success May Depend on HR
19 Jan 2012 | 12:00 amGuest post written by Mark W. Schaefer. Mark is a consultant, college educator, and author who blogs at {grow}. There is a growing gap between the social media “haves” and “have-nots.” Some companies I visit have embraced social media enthusiastically and are moving into some pretty advanced ideas. Other companies are simply checking the box. They have a blog and Facebook page… and they view the job as complete. Still others are paralyzed and have not done anything at all. What’s the difference between these scenarios? It’s not necessarily… -
The Power of Transparent Marketing to Rock Your Business in 2012 and Beyond
17 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amGuest post by Marcus Sheridan. Marcus passionately speaks and writes about business and marketing on his blog, The Sales Lion. Make sure to download his popular, 230-page FREE eBook—“Inbound and Content Marketing Made Easy” ‘Transparency’ Ahh yes, one of the most over-used words, yet under-utilized actions, in our society today. News stations, despite their incessant claims, aren’t close to being transparent. The folks in Washington DC, on both sides of the aisle, couldn’t be any less transparent. And as for businesses small and large, this void of true transparency is the M.O.
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PR 20/20
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Awareness to Action: Following the Success of the Anti-SOPA Movement
18 Jan 2012 | 11:35 amCommunications professionals, from marketers to journalists breaking headlines, work with an overarching goal in mind: make people care about you or your cause so much that they take action. Action ranges from encouraging audiences to comment on and share a blog post all the way to making purchasing decisions, but what about when the stakes are higher and sharing information as we know it is at risk? A milestone in the SOPA / PIPA legislation protests hits today as tech giants—including Google, Microsoft, Wikipedia and Reddit—take action and “blackout” their… -
Background Information: SOPA, PIPA and the Internet Blackout
18 Jan 2012 | 11:05 amYou may have some trouble navigating the web today, and it’s all driven by a an Internet blackout protest against proposed Congressional legislation intended to stop copyright infringementand privacy. Read on for a brief introduction to SOPA and PIPA legislation, where they stand in Congress, and why they impact every business andindividual with a web presence. SOPA SOPA, the Stop Online Privacy Act, or House Bill 3261, was introduced to the United States House of Representatives on Oct. 26, 2011 with bipartisan support. Its intent is to more heavily enforce copyright infringement… -
PR, Customer Service and Social Media Walk Into a Bar ...
17 Jan 2012 | 3:35 pmThis is a variation of our standard Inbound Industry Report, taking a deep dive into one hot topic from the second week of 2012—the convergence of PR and customer service driven by social media. Stay tuned for an overview of last week's other big news: Google Search Plus Your World. In the wake of the N-Control customer-service-turned-PR disaster, last week shined light on three more companies that faced PR issues driven by social media mishaps. Quick overviews: Boners BBQ — Customer writes negative (but honest and well thought-out) review on Yelp. Restaurant… -
2012 Digital Marketing Conferences [Downloadable Database]
11 Jan 2012 | 9:20 amBack by popular demand, our 2012 digital marketing conferences database (download) features nearly 50 events, hand-selected based on their relevance to online marketers, speaker base, industry excitement and networking opportunities. Similar to last year, the database includes the following information for each conference, providing a quick and easy comparison: Event name Description Date Location Attendee summary Pass cost Download the free database here. While all the conferences listed provide the opportunity for networking, ongoing learning and unique experiences, we're most excited… -
Inbound Industry Report: Jan. 10, 2012
10 Jan 2012 | 10:40 pmTop marketing news, articles and tips from the first week of 2012. Blogging Tips: How to Grow Your Reach Neil Patel (@neilpatel) shared tips to grow your blog's reach, using Seth Godin's (@sethgodin) Rule of 10 (that if you find and nurture 10 people who love what you have to offer, they'll tell 10 friends, and so on). Some of my favorite suggestions from Patel include: Go beyond your blog—expand your reach through guest blog posts and comments on other blogs, and social media engagement. Build relationships with your "10"—thank them for their comments/retweets,…
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Social Media Explorer
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Employees on Social Networks: To Be or Not To Be…
27 Jan 2012 | 9:30 amEditor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Ann Davlin who works at MotoCMS – an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider. It’s not a secret that many recruiters and business owners use social networking sites to screen prospective employees. According to the survey of 300 hiring professionals conducted by Reppler the most popular online resources for time wasting are Facebook (76%), Twitter (53%) and Linkedin (48%). It probably means that the whole (online and offline) business world considers it necessary to take social networks activity into account and use it… -
Death to Bot Talk: Tips On Voice In Writing For The Web
26 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmEditor’s Note: This is a guest post by Suzanne Norman, director of brand at Emma, an email marketing and communications company. The bot problem Let’s face it: most companies write marketing copy for the web and email that reads like it was written by a robot. And nobody likes bots. (See: spambots, twitbots, fembots, that 80s movie with Emilio Estevez where all the semi-trucks come to life.) photo by davedehetre I spot this kind of writing all the time in email marketing campaigns — that’s the realm I work in — but it’s just as rampant in every other… -
The Power of A Blog
26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amWhy are blogs such a powerful communications tool in the arsenal of a company? There are lots of reasons, really. But the explanation I’ve used that normally gives those who don’t quite understand blogging have their “ah-ha” moment is a simple one. To understand the power of a blog you have to compare it to something familiar. Think about your company newsletter. If you’re not that hip to blogging yet, your company newsletter is probably still printed and circulated in everyone’s box in the mailroom. Or maybe it’s mailed to everyone’s house. But… -
Can Big Brands Go Local?
25 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amI’ve argued recently that we are entering the Age of Relevancy in Marketing. The more relevant your message is, delivered to the more relevant audience at the more relevant time and in the more relevant place, the better your marketing will be. One critical element of that Relevancy Bullseye is location. Local is better because local is more relevant. But corporations and brands struggle with local. It’s hard to sit at corporate headquarters and be connected on a 1:1 basis with every single customer, worldwide. It’s not just hard, it’s impossible. Or is it? Kevin Magee… -
The Sad Reality Of Silicon Valley
24 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pmSay goodbye to CoTweet. As of February 15, the free version will no longer be offered. Free customers will be given a chance to transition to ExactTarget’s new Social Engage product that is essentially an improved version of CoTweet’s enterprise product, but they’ll eventually have to pay for it. And frankly, they should have to. The innovation and integration with ExactTarget’s long-standing excellent email suite isn’t something the company should give away. And it’s not something they have to. ET supplies email marketing and (now) social media management…
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TheContentWrangler.com
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iBooks 2 and iBooks Author: One Week Later, What We’ve Learned — An Executive Round Table with McGraw-Hill, Digital Book World, and Aptara
23 Jan 2012 | 5:51 pmYet again Apple stopped us in our tracks. We awaited each word with bated breath during last Thursday’s unveiling of iBooks2, iBooks Author, and iTunes U. Now what? After a week of social media frenzy, water cooler chatter, thoughtful analysis, and technical digging, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned. Join us Thursday, January 26 for a live round table discussion with McGraw-Hill – one of Apple’s education partners; Digital Book World – the publishing industry’s premier digital publishing forum; and Aptara – trusted digital solutions partner to the… -
[Infographic] The Big Mac Index
19 Jan 2012 | 4:53 pmAccording to The Economist, “bugernomics” is “a lighthearted attempt to gauge how far currencies are from their fair value. It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), which argues that in the long run exchange rates should move to equalise the price of an identical basket of goods between two countries. Our basket consists of a single item, a McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger, produced in nearly 120 countries. The fair-value benchmark is the exchange rate that leaves burgers costing the same in America as elsewhere.” The folks at FoodBeast.com explain… -
[Infographic] Where The Outlets Are: The Best Airports And Airlines For Digitally-Savvy Business Travelers
12 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pmDigitally-savvy business travelers need to work on the go. Tablets, smartphones, and laptops make it possible to keep the information flowing. But, without a good, fast connection to the net and an electrical outlet to charge power-hungry mobile device batteries, business travelers aren’t very productive. The folks at Online MBA News put this handy infographic together (using data from a variety of sources) to help business travelers find the airports and and airlines that are helping them stay connected. Via: Online MBA News -
The Financial Services Insider: Who Needs A Web Content Management System When We Can Print The Web?
11 Jan 2012 | 2:37 pmby The Financial Services Insider (a secret, for obvious reasons) Too many companies are still treating enterprise web content as an animal separate and apart from the rest of the enterprise’s content. It’s a wasteful mistake that leads to some crazy behavior. Let me explain. I work for a financial services provider which is supposed to file its web properties with an industry watchdog or face audits and possible fines. When I started with the company, the websites had never been filed, and the compliance department was reluctant to increase the public web presence for fear of… -
[Infographic] How To Spot A Yelp User
5 Jan 2012 | 1:03 pmYelp, the popular review website where consumers share their views about restaurants, hotels, and other service providers, is extremely popular. Users of the site create millions of reviews each year, impacting the decisions of others who use the site as a guide to good experiences. But, who are Yelp users and how do you spot them? This infographic from the folks at FlowTown attempts to answer that question. Our question for you is “Do you use Yelp?” and if so, for what? Share your experiences in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you. Flowtown – Social Media…
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Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com
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Advice of the day: Stop waiting for your ship to come in (illustration)
24 Jan 2012 | 11:47 am -
Apple, China and the Curse of Living in Interesting Times
22 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pm[Note: Not that this blog has a topic, but if it did, this post is way off it. I apologize to those who have figured out this blog's topic and I promise I'll get back to it right after I post this foray into the topic of international trade, manufacturing and globalism -- a topic that I was surprised to discover that I can only write about while watching six hours straight of NFL conference championship games.] According to Chinese lore (or something sounding like Chinese lore), there are three phrases that seem like well-wishing toasts, but are actually a three-part “Chinese… -
Inst@Review: iBook Author isn’t just an ebook authoring tool
19 Jan 2012 | 12:53 pm[Note: Shortly after I posted this, I edited it to remove a rant I had that I've since discovered was misinformed. I've explained it at the bottom of the post.] Apple introduced an incredible product today called iBooks Author. Apple describes the product this way, “iBooks Author is an amazing new app that allows anyone to create beautiful Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more, these books bring content to life in ways the printed page never could.” Now, it may be strange to… -
Scott Adams on IP theft: “It feels like a compliment”
19 Jan 2012 | 6:54 amRecently on Twitter, I confessed a personal concern with my growing realization that the only economist who makes any sense to me is not actually an economist, but is Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip. I’ve never been much of a reader of newspaper comics (even those online), so I’ve never been much of a fan of Dilbert. (I do have a personal Dilbert spotter who forwards me links whenever the strip makes fun of something that might be, uh, like me.) While Dilbert, the comic strip, may be off my radar screen, I am very much a fan of Scott Adams’ blog at… -
Evangelicals, Catholics & Politics
16 Jan 2012 | 8:48 pmJFK, as presidential candidate, addressing Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960. Over the weekend, a group of politically-active evangelical leaders gathered in Texas to determine who they would jointly support among the candidates seeking the GOP presidential nomination. According to reports, the two finalists were Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. From those choices, the evangelical leaders decided to endorse Rick Santorum, despite knowing his chances of beating front-runner Mitt Romney are a long-shot, at best. Hearing about this gathering of ministers in Texas reminded me of…
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Savvy B2B Marketing - Latest Blog Entries
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Week in Review January 27th
27 Jan 2012 | 6:19 amIs it really the last Friday in January? Where did the month go? How are your resolutions going? Still hanging in there? We resolved to read more blog posts and we haven't been disappointed. The New Year has been chock full of great new content from all our favorite bloggers. This week is no exception. Enjoy these picks and have a great weekend - one last weekend to get your honey do list done before the big game! 4 Ways Social Media Improves the Sales Process via @1to1Media Still trying to figure out the value of your company adopting social media? Here are four terrific… -
Does your brand stand up?
26 Jan 2012 | 11:40 amYou are not in control of your brand. You never were and you never will be. You may own your brand, but, its identity is defined by your audience: your prospects, peers, and customers. You can make suggestions, of course. You can make your own statement about what you stand for. You can create logos and taglines, vision statements and mission statements, unique selling propositions and value propositions. These are all valuable brand assets, but they are not your brand. Your brand isn’t what you say. It’s what “they” say. And what they say is based… -
Savvy Speaks: Tips for Engaging in LinkedIn
25 Jan 2012 | 4:26 amLinkedIn is sort of the dark horse of social networking; just about every professional we know is on it, but it doesn't get a lot of attention in the media compared to its flashier cousins, Facebook and Twitter. How do you use LinkedIn to your best professional advantage? The Savvy Sisters share their best tips: Stephanie Keep Connected and Current Beyond the obvious step of keeping your profile current and offering links to valuable information that showcase your expertise, use the link between LinkedIn and Twitter to update your status with tweets. And be sure to explore the world of… -
Savvy Toolkit - 101 Landing Page Optimization Tips
24 Jan 2012 | 8:47 amI was doing research recently for an article on the importance of custom Landing Pages for small businesses. In reading lots of supporting background material I ran across this article: 101 Landing Page Optimization Tips by @oligardner at @unbounce So much more than just a list is actually the 101 tips broken down into 14 category specific chapters! I read through and took notes adapting my comments to my original small business audience but I also thought there was a lot in here that the Savvy B2B audience could walk away with. Landing pages are afterall often the customers… -
10 Requirements to Deploy Successful Online Content Marketing
23 Jan 2012 | 7:02 amContent marketing is a really hot topic these days and is considered the foundation of any good inbound marketing strategy. In today’s competitive online business environment it’s a must for search engine visibility, social media marketing, lead conversion, brand building and referral traffic. Below are 10 requirements for deploying successful online content marketing. Blog– While there are other ways to deploy content marketing online, a blog represents one of the most flexible ways to publish content on the internet. Try to host a blog on your own current domain…
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Social Signal: Latest Blog Posts
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Alex on why you should stop apologizing for your online life
9 Jan 2012 | 10:55 amIt's easy to fall into the trap of thinking what we do online isn't real, and doesn't matter. And it doesn't help that we've developed the acronym IRL, In Real Life, to refer to the offline world. But why shouldn't we regard our online lives as just as real, just as valid and just as meaningful as our offline ones? That's the question Alex posed a few months ago at TEDx Victoria, proceeding from a blog post she wrote last year for the Harvard Business Review.The talk, titled "Ten Reasons to Stop Apologizing for your Online Life", just went live. And if you've ever wondered why a valued… -
Just because you have numbers doesn't mean you have insight
6 Jan 2012 | 4:43 pmOne of the most seductive things about social media is the way it allows us to quantify things. I have more friends than she does – I must be more popular. That blog post got more hits than this one, so that one's more effective. We have more Twitter followers this month than last month, so we're on the right track. Numbers are lovely that way. In a world where everything seems open to interpretation, numbers offer certainty. Five is bigger than three: end of argument. Problem is, a beautiful number can hide an ugly bunch of oversimplification. Trying to quantify the complexities of human… -
15 best practices for managing your first (or subsequent) web development project
13 Dec 2011 | 5:05 pmBack in the day, the only real way to have an online conversation was to build your own blog or online community. These days, many people, companies and organizations have their first taste of online conversation and social media through pre-established social networks like Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. But eventually, you might outgrow what you can do with those sites alone, or decide you want to have a new kind of conversation that is best supported with an online community of your own. When that day comes, you’ll face the painful, terrifying and thrilling experience of building a website… -
Engage your audience before your speech
12 Dec 2011 | 9:55 amA lot of speeches begin with someone introducing you to the audience - reciting your background and qualifications, and then encouraging them to greet you warmly as you head to the microphone. And once the applause dies down, you're looking at a sea of people who are probably as unfamiliar to you as you are to them. Your first few lines not only have to launch your speech, but establish a rapport and some degree of trust with your audience. But in the era of the social speech, you don't have to speak to an audience of strangers. You can get acquainted and start the conversation days or even… -
The social speech: How your friends and followers can help you write your next presentation
7 Dec 2011 | 4:44 pmSpeechwriting is a notoriously solitary profession. You might have a few conversations with a client, their staff or — if you're writing for yourself — a mirror. But a lot of your work is going to be just you, a keyboard and the unforgiving blank screen. At least, that used to be the case. But when you're crafting a social speech, speechwriting can be a team activity. And even though you still have to do the actual writing, you can draw on the ideas, experience and ingenuity of a large networked audience. You may feel a little hesitant about asking your network for help, especially out in…
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Article Writing & Marketing Insights - EzineArticles Blog
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Top Spelling Blunders Part III
27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amA Little Practice Will Take Your Efforts a Long Way Your ability to communicate with your audience will give your credibility an incredible boost, strengthen your efforts online and offline, as well as afford you the freedom to concentrate your energy elsewhere. A critical piece of communication is using correct spelling and good grammar. This will ensure you maintain your reader’s attention on you and your topic. You may consider investing in a spellchecker, finding a proofreader, or enrolling in an English Grammar course. Whatever you choose to do, you can rely on getting spelling and… -
Expert Author Showcase: Jonathan Huie
26 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amMeet EzineArticles’ Expert Author Jonathan Huie in Today’s Author Showcase While writing his first book, Expert Author Jonathan Huie realized his publisher wasn’t going to market his book as much as he had initially expected. So he did what any author would do: try to get his book the attention it deserved. His first step was starting a website and a daily inspiration email list to attract and nurture followers. After searching the Internet for more methods to get his book into the hands of readers, Jonathan found EzineArticles.com. After publishing several books and gaining… -
How to Find the Perfect Niche for You
25 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amWhat’s a niche anyway? Your niche is essentially your expertise and/or the type of information you provide your audience in your articles. It can be broad or narrow and it can be based on your interests or your products/services. If you are just starting out in article writing or simply wish to realign yourself as an Expert Author, we have some simple questions to help guide you in finding/refining the perfect niche for you. Grab a pen and paper and let’s get to it! 1. What is your expertise and/or what are you passionate about? Identify the root of your passions and/or expertise. -
Behind the Scenes at EzineArticles: Meet Rob
24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amGet an Inside Look at the Team Behind-the-Scenes Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the people who make the EzineArticles system successful. Not only will you find out more about their role at EzineArticles, you will hear stories about what it’s like to work here, gain insider tips, and maybe even get a peek into their personal lives. In the process, you will discover a little bit more about who we are as a company, a website, and as a team! Continuing the series is Rob, EzineArticles’ Director of Online Education. Find out how he can make your article writing efforts easier, get… -
New Easy-to-Use Scratch Pad Tool
23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amJot Down Your Next Great Idea The My.EzineArticles.com member interface has a new feature that Expert Authors just like you are already gushing over! The new Scratch Pad feature will help you keep your ideas, goals, and notes organized. Simple, accessible, and easy-to-use, you can easily jot down ideas from your research, webinars, customer feedback, and much more! Effective Scratch Pad Uses While there are a variety of uses for the Scratch Pad, here are a few ways you can begin using the Scratch Pad to stay organized and use your time effectively: Editorial Calendar: Creating an Article…
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Pybop: Exceptional Web Content for Exceptional Businesses
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About That Blog You’re Planning …
26 Jan 2012 | 6:41 pmYeah, that one. The one that seems difficult to get started. Let’s talk about that. But first, a story about tea. I recently had to give up caffeine. Not forever, I hope. But for now, I’ve switched from morning French Roast to tea. I know next to nothing about tea, except that ... continue reading About That Blog You’re Planning … -
Authenticity for the Masses
9 Jan 2012 | 6:57 amHello Robot Shelly, If this is really you and not some automation … An Oxymoron? Every three or four months, I send an email letter to anyone who wants to stay in touch with me, Pybop, or the practice of content strategy in general. If you’ve signed up for this Letter, you ... continue reading Authenticity for the Masses -
Eleven Things I (Re)Learned in 2011
30 Dec 2011 | 4:11 pmIt’s difficult not to think of New Year’s resolutions this time of year. Instead of looking ahead, though, I found myself looking back at all the things I learned (or relearned) this past year. Here are eleven: Sometimes it’s best to take a deep breath and throw process out the window. ... continue reading Eleven Things I (Re)Learned in 2011 -
Pybop Founder (that’s me) to Speak at Confab 2012
18 Nov 2011 | 2:59 pmI am very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at Confab: The Content Strategy Conference in May 2012. The talk is currently titled (and about): The Magic Layer: The Secret to Every Successful Content Strategy With every effective content strategy, a little bit of brightness begins to glow somewhere in the ... continue reading Pybop Founder (that’s me) to Speak at Confab 2012 -
Watch a Content Strategist Paint for a Good Cause
10 Nov 2011 | 2:25 pmOn a whim, I volunteered — along with all the top-notch, award-winning creative agencies in San Diego — to decorate a canvas for Ad2 San Diego Cause Marketing Night to benefit My Girlfriend’s Closet, a non-profit organization that clothes teen girls in need. What was I thinking? Watch ... continue reading Watch a Content Strategist Paint for a Good Cause
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Straight North Internet Marketing Blog
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How Often Should You Review Your Internet Marketing Strategy
24 Jan 2012 | 7:43 amInternet Marketing Strategy Requires Ongoing Attention A Strategic Look at Marketing in 2012 Back in December I wrote a post suggesting that companies change gears too often on their marketing. The flip side of this problem, of course, is not changing gears often enough. How do you know when it’s time, as an old manager of mine used to say, to stop beating a dead horse? SEO and Social Media Certain aspects of Internet marketing need to be reviewed on a monthly basis, regardless of your results. In particular, I’m thinking about social media and SEO. Changes in these areas are… -
Font Selection for Web Designers
17 Jan 2012 | 6:17 amLet's Take The Confusion Out Of Font Selection If 95% of web design is written language, then, as a web designer, it only makes sense to do all you can to make that written language effective. It’s no secret that quality design is about much more than looking pretty–it’s about giving users a sense of your brand; communicating information quickly and clearly; and providing a place to offer a clear call to some desired action, be it subscribing, becoming a member or making a purchase–and written language is key to achieving those goals. That’s why font is such a key part… -
Is LinkedIn Still a Valuable Marketing Tool?
10 Jan 2012 | 7:02 amWhat's Your Take on LinkedIn? With profiles for over 135 million users and seven million companies, LinkedIn is a rapidly growing social network—adding as many as one new member every second, according to reports from Mashable, and considered the most important network by 60 percent of those tested in a recent social media study. Yet despite this continued growth, to a lot of businesses, the true value of LinkedIn as a corporate-focused social network seems unclear. Amongst popular networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, how does LinkedIn compare? Is it still worthwhile to invest… -
How to Maintain a Community of Relevant Twitter Follows
4 Jan 2012 | 6:51 amIf you look at my Twitter profile, you’ll see that I’m following about a quarter of the number of people who are following me: When you see this, you might think, gee, what a snob — but that’s really not the case at all, at least I hope not. What happened is, a while back I made up my mind to get rid of the spammers and other non-relevant follows, so I could actually start paying attention to people who have mutual interests. Here’s how I nurture a relevant group of follows. 1. Clean Out Spammers with TwitCleaner TwitCleaner is a phenomenal Twitter utility that… -
The Boring Website Checklist
20 Dec 2011 | 6:45 amDoes your business website produce sales or snores? Review the factors that determine whether your site gets A’s or Zzzzzz’s. Content Boring: Lots of industry jargon only you can understand. Rip-roaring: Plain English. Boring: Corporate speak; words or phrases like “synergy” and “deep dive”. Rip-roaring: Plain English. Boring: Long sentences that vaguely convey several inconsequential ideas. Rip-roaring: Short sentences that sharply convey one important idea. Boring: Product- and company-focused content. Rip-roaring: Customer-focused content. Boring:…
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SiteFox
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Politics, Small Businesses, and You…
24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amWe don’t often talk about politics here, but we came across this awesome infographic that is definitely useful for all small business owners. If you’re not sure who you’re voting for this year, check out the infographic below to see how each candidate stands on small business issues. I’m sure it will change and hopefully we’ll get some updates. In the mean time check it out and let me know what you think. How much of an impact does the candidate’s stance on small business issues impact your choice? Credit: FastUpFront – Business Loans Made Easy. -
The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Guide [Free Download]
9 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amLet’s face it. Online marketing is difficult to understand and even harder to execute successfully. There’s so much talk about using Facebook and Twitter or having a conversation with your customers. How are you, a small business owner, supposed to find the time to learn all the in’s and out’s of online marketing? That’s why we put together the SiteFox Marketing Guide. It’s a 99-page guide that explains exactly what you need to know about marketing your business online. It also includes a set of action plans to help you execute a successful online marketing… -
Definitive Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing
22 Dec 2011 | 11:16 amThink back to a time you had a problem you needed solved. How’d you find the business you’re using now? Most likely you did one of two things: searched a business directory (maybe online) OR you asked a friend for a recommendation. Having people recommend your business is the basis of word of mouth marketing. It’s doing something so memorable that people talk about you; it’s tied to customer service, viral marketing, and just being a business people like working with. How are you maximizing your word of mouth marketing? What are you doing to make sure people talk about… -
Our Marketing Tracking Document [Free Download]
20 Dec 2011 | 1:00 amWhen we first started marketing SiteFox, we realized that it wasn’t all about big marketing campaigns or messaging programs. We quickly learned that it was really about maximizing our returns from each channel. One of the things we did early on was setup a document to track each channel and gauge its efficiency for registering new clients. The efficiency is based off a number we derived after deciding on how much of our revenue we wanted to invest in marketing. We’ve been using the spreadsheet for a while now and it’s really helped us strategically invest money in ways that… -
Dos and Don’ts for Your Small Business Newsletter
15 Dec 2011 | 6:00 amAlthough social media gets all the buzz, email marketing still continues to be an extremely lucrative marketing channel. Businesses are continuing to grow their email lists and connecting with consumers through their newsletters. Making sure you’re creating an active newsletter list directly effects your revenue from your emails. Following a few core rules will make sure you get the most from your list and keep your subscribers happy and opening your emails. Do: Use a Professional Template The first tip is to use a professional template. You’ll notice that a lot of people use the plain…
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The Mythic Marketer
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The “Great Marketing Conversation” Continues – A Baker’s Dozen Answers To Questions
25 Jan 2012 | 12:30 amI was very honored yesterday to get to participate with some extraordinarily smart folks in what was labeled “The Great Marketing Conversation”. It was a webcast hosted by PropelGrowth and sponsored by the DemandGeneration report. Joining me on this webcast were: Mike Volpe – CMO of Hubspot. Ardath Albee – Author and B2B Marketing Queen Extraordinaire Marcus Sheridan – The Amazing Sales Lion (nuff said) What was originally going to be a “Debate” of how content marketing and inbound marketing differed – turned into a wonderfully productive conversation about how to actually… -
What Tim Tebow Teaches Us About Content Marketing
15 Jan 2012 | 11:28 pmSo, over the weekend, I went back and re-read Seth Godin’s All Marketers Are Liars (it was subsequently retitled with the words “tell stories”). Also, like I’m sure a good many of you, I watched the NFL playoff games. But something struck me as I watched the Denver game, the coverage and the steady stream of Facebook posts, Twitter updates and overall restaurant conversation over the weekend. Tim Tebow is a damn good content marketer. Marketing As Storytelling Is Powerful So, big shock – I believe in this wholeheartedly. Now, Seth Godin said it much better in his book than I… -
Context Aware Content Marketing – Somethin’s Got A Hold On Me
12 Jan 2012 | 12:58 amSo, I’m the guest speaker at a Webinar hosted by the folks over at Hippo today. When they asked me to speak – they wanted me to put some thought into how “context” was going to play a role in changing the process of content marketing. Okay – Context Aware Content Marketing. That’s cool. I got it. Now for some strange reason – As I wrote this post – I felt the need to put on some music. And what hit me was Etta James’s Something’s Got A Hold Of Me. I have no idea what this has to do with marketing (other than… well it’s Etta – and it’s just an… -
What’s Your 2012 Story? What Kind Of Hero Will You Be?
30 Dec 2011 | 4:58 pmHappy New Year! So, what will be Your story in 2012? How about your business? Whether you are simply throwing 2012 wishes into your New Year’s fire, making resolutions, or putting the finishing touches on your 100 slide 2012 Go To Market Powerpoint – it’s all the same thing: Crafting your story is knowing what you want – and then accepting the responsibility for making it happen. If you simply state what you want without accepting the responsibility of realizing it/receiving it – you’re simply not authoring your own story. In short (to paraphrase Jagger and Richards)… -
Twas The Night Before A Nutty Christmas – My Wishes For You!
23 Dec 2011 | 5:45 pmFor those that have known me for some time – you’ll recognize this as what I used to send out as my yearly email card. A little fun just before Christmas – celebrating the year that was. This year, I thought I’d move it to my blog. So – without further ado – I give you… Twas the night before Christmas – My wishes for you…. ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through our nation no candidate was comfortable with the pre-caucus situation. All our hopes were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that things…
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Jeff Korhan
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Google+ for Small Business: An Interview with Chris Brogan
26 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pmIn this interview, New York Times bestselling author Chris Brogan offers insights into the power of Google+ for small businesses. Google+ is an emerging social network that promises to challenge Facebook – especially in regards to its benefits for businesses. While Google+ is only a fraction of the size of Facebook, it is indeed backed by Google – the corporation that controls 2/3 of all search on the open web. Search results are and will be increasingly influenced by what is shared on the social networks. However, much of the sharing on Facebook is completely invisible to Google… -
Innovate or Die – The Race to The Top
22 Jan 2012 | 8:30 pmImagine a web with perfect search capabilities – one in which consumers have access to everything they want to know about your business and others just like it. Knowing that, would you operate differently than you are today? You can hope your prospects will not discover other sources that are cheaper or better than yours, or you can accept that the day will soon come when they will know all that you do – and more. Competition is something that keeps business owners and marketers up at night. They bemoan that some are trashing their markets by offering pricing at which nobody can… -
Facebook Contest Engages Small Business
20 Jan 2012 | 7:57 pmOnce in a while you come across an opportunity that is a no-brainer – such as receiving FREE stuff. Facebook wants to help small businesses, and they believe the best way they can accomplish that is introducing you to the benefits of Facebook advertising. FREE Facebook Advertising So, they have launched a contest, one that will earn you up to $150 of FREE Facebook advertising just for signing up and attracting at least 100 new Facebook fans before the contest closes on April 1st. If you are especially ambitious, you may wish to go for the opportunity to be one of ten small businesses… -
Creating Addictive Marketing Content
18 Jan 2012 | 10:03 pmOne of the distinguishing qualities of successful marketers is they are passionate students of human behavior – more specifically, buying behavior. Human beings have innate tendencies that lead to actions – some favorable, and others not. Addictions are unfavorable behaviors that can develop very innocently. For example, exercise is a positive action that people take to improve or sustain their vitality. Yet, even exercise can become an obsessive and unhealthy addiction, one that can lead to fatigue and a number of other imbalances. What you are really interested in is not… -
Presentation Skills for Marketers
17 Jan 2012 | 8:02 pmSuccessful marketers know that presentation skills are just as important as the message – maybe more. The reason for this is every message is subject to interpretation, and the better it is presented the more likely the audience will draw from it the necessary elements that are going to be of value to them. Media used to be the domain of specialists. Some had expertise in radio, television, newspapers, and other forms of print. Now we are surrounded by media – which means anyone in business needs to develop the skills for using it well. This also means that every small business is…
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Sparksheet
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Sparksheet at Dx3 Canada
23 Jan 2012 | 12:13 pmThe Sparksheet team is heading to Toronto this week for Dx3 Canada, the first-annual trade show and conference about Canadian digital marketing, advertising and retail. The event takes place on Wednesday and Thursday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. As Dx3’s official content partner, we launched a special micro-magazine – the Dx3 Digest – filled with original think pieces and Q&As with top execs at Canadian brands like Roots, The Bay, Freshbooks and Casale Media. Sparksheet will also have its very own booth on the trade show floor where you’ll find us shooting video… -
It’s Time to Focus on Tools of Curation
23 Jan 2012 | 10:10 amImage courtesy of life serial, via flickr One of the more sobering realizations you might have upon completing a pitch or a book is that generally, no one asked you to write it. There are no agents, publishers or readers out there waiting with bated breath. Whatever. No one asked Steve Jobs to start Apple. No one asked Rosa Parks to sit up front. No one asked Hendrix to pick up a guitar. In fact, most of the exalted moments of humanity are the result of people starting off on ventures that no one asked them to pursue. With today’s technology, it’s easier now than at any point in the… -
Enjoy Your Steak: Why Hotel Brands Are Embracing the Celebrity Chef
19 Jan 2012 | 10:41 amNobu Restaurant, One&Only Cape Town The greatest hotelier/chef partnership in history was the one between César Ritz and Auguste Escoffier. Back in the late 19th century the duo were responsible for opening London’s Savoy Hotel and Paris’ Ritz, among other properties. Unfortunately, the next 100 years were pretty much a steady decline from those lofty heights. Hotel restaurants, rather than the grand temples of gastronomy that they once were, became grim, depressing refuges for the most rubbery of chicken and the saddest pasta primavera, their existence entirely dependant on the… -
What is SOPA?
17 Jan 2012 | 10:16 amOn Wednesday, Jan. 18, you will have to live without Wikipedia. That’s right, the English version of the popular online encyclopedia is going dark for a day. But more importantly, today marks the day in which a number of technology companies from the United States will fight over a pair of internet-regulation bills. Wikipedia, Reddit and other prominent websites and online ventures are up in arms about two bills that are relatively similar: Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP (intellectual property) Act. Both bills are meant to tackle the issue of websites from abroad that offer pirated… -
Apple’s January Surprise
17 Jan 2012 | 8:04 amEveryone knows that Apple sat out last week’s International CES, the largest tech-related trade show in the world. The big secret is what the famous tech company will reveal during a media event in New York City later this week. Multiple media outlets reported last week that Apple started to send out invitations for an “education event” on Jan. 19 and that the company would be making some sort of announcement at the gathering. But other than that, not much else is known about what Apple will reveal. So naturally, many prominent news sources and blogs have been speculating about the…
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Content Mastery Guide
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Welcome to the Blogosphere, Now What?
25 Jan 2012 | 1:45 pmWhen I tell people that I'm a blogging consultant, the usual response is, "Now, that's a job that didn't exist a few years ago!" True enough. And if you're like most business owners, blogging is a strategy that you've never considered, until you started hearing from marketing agencies, web designers and content marketing experts that blogging is not only helpful, but essential. In fact: B2B (those who sell products or services to other businesses) companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not B2C (those… -
Blog Readers Are Your Friends, But...
18 Jan 2012 | 5:43 amMy definition of friend has changed from spending so much time online. I have many friends that I've never met in person, and probably never will. Some friendships began with a five-minute Twitter exchange; others were sparked in person and then deepened online. I've written before about how you want to engage your blog reader as if you're already friends. After all, even as a brand new reader, that person has still come from somewhere. Maybe they found you on Google, "Hey, my friend Google the search engine thought I should meet you because I'm looking for..."… -
You Don't Need to Be First on Google to Attract New Local Clients With Your Blog
2 Jan 2012 | 6:23 pmWhen I read Seth Leonard's article about the Google hoax, I breathed a big sigh of relief. At last someone put into concise words what's been niggling at me for years. "You shouldn’t ignore search engines completely," he writes, "Just don’t break your back trying to game the system." And he goes on to share four great ways get your website seen, which are definitely worth a look. The benefits of blogging extend far beyond attracting strangers via Google and other search engines. Blogging has the power to strengthen your community connections,… -
How FreshBooks Connects via their Blog
2 Jan 2012 | 6:02 amIn the recent How to Write a Blog Post webinar, I highlighted these four blogs as examples of the four different types of blog posts you can write: The Wegman's Fresh Stories blog, for this example of a "how to" post Southwest Airline's Nuts About Southwest blog, for this example of a personal post The Coaching4Clergy blog (my client J. Val Hastings), for this example of a thought leadership post The FreshBooks blog, for this example of a connecting post FreshBooks are innovators in the field of online invoicing, so it's no wonder that their blog is so creative and… -
Blogging Makes Being a Local Celebrity a Celebration
22 Dec 2011 | 10:38 amBlogging can feel like an ego-driven pursuit, especially when we get too caught up in the numbers: how many "Likes" do I have on Facebook, how many comments am I getting, how many people are there on my mailing list? When I talk about how blogging makes you a star and the "go to" expert in your industry, I see some people shy away from that idea. They say they don't want to be a celebrity; they just want to help people and earn a good living. Maybe it's time we redefined what it means to be a celebrity, and why it's an admirable goal for any…
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Inbound marketing, technology, branding, and social media for schools
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Weekend Update – Jan28
28 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amHappy Social Media Saturday! Listed below are links to interesting things I found on the web this week: cool tools, great blog articles, memorable Tweets – anything that stuck out to me and I think is worth sharing. I encourage you to check them out for yourself. Blog Post: Great Schools Admissions Marketing Just Got Easier - Innovative Marketing Resources, a strategic marketing company based in Shirley, Massachusetts, today announced the release of a new tool used to forecast marketing activity required to meet school enrollment targets. The tool is designed to increase effectiveness of… -
How To Search Twitter For Hashtags Using Hootsuite
26 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amDuring this screencast I will show you how to search Twitter for hashtags using Hootsuite. Sign-Up for FREE Hootsuite Account Blog post at edSocialMedia: Twitter Hashtags For Independent Schools Let me know if you have any questions by posting them in the comments section below. -
Back to the Basics – Fundamentals of Writing
24 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amDedicated logophiles like me fawn over words in the same way classic-car connoisseurs go gaga over a ’67 Shelby Mustang. In the age of social media, words are an invaluable commodity to all professional communicators. After all, revolutionary ideas can be conveyed in 140 characters or less. What if America’s founding fathers had uncorked on Twitter, “We hold these truths to be self-evident – all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”? Now, that’s potent stuff. When posting, be vigilant. Words are an asset,… -
Announcing #indyschool Hangout on Google+
20 Jan 2012 | 9:49 pmRecently I wrote a blog post for edSocialMedia introducing new hashtags for independent school educators to use on Twitter. My goal was to make it easier for independent school people to find and share information related to independent schools. I also wrote a post a few months ago declaring that Google Plus is Dead! Well it appears that I was wrong… Google Plus is not dead – it’s actually thriving. I had slowly been changing my opinion of Google Plus and then I saw that Google began merging search and Google+. This changes everything! Whether you like Google Plus or not… -
Social Media: It’s About the Relationships!
19 Jan 2012 | 3:00 amAt a recent Independent Schools conference, I was talking about social media with a Head of School (not my own) who said dismissively, “Oh, we outsource all our social media.” I didn’t say anything, but inside I just cringed. Outside social media consulting firms can certainly be valuable for independent schools if you need assistance with crafting a social media strategy. But if you are using an outside consulting firm just to post content for you, essentially pushing press releases or school news on an otherwise static page overseen by someone outside your organization, you are…
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OpenView Blog
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A Way With Words? Why Writing Still Matters to Your Bottom Line
27 Jan 2012 | 7:39 amAs a kid, my father would sometimes put on his best British accent and tell me that one of the keys to success in life is mastering the “King’s English.” What he meant is that being able to write clearly, accurately and succinctly is an essential skill. Fast forward 20 years and that simple piece of advice still rings true.You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere.” — Lee Iacoccaimage provided by: freedigitalphotos.netWriting and editing have been a fundamental part of my career since I began as a… -
The Future of Personal Computing: Converged Converged Devices
27 Jan 2012 | 7:32 amFirst, there was the land-line.As wireless technology became increasingly more efficient and compact, it started to make sense for people to carry around cell phones. By 2002, mobile phones eclipsed land-lines in total number of call minutes, and by 2010, there were more cell phones in the US than people. Increasingly, young people (myself included) are foregoing land-lines entirely. Why deal with two phone numbers and two voicemail boxes if you don’t have to?Image provided by: William Hook's PhotostreamAt some point in the mid 2000s, cell phones began gobbling up other handheld… -
Resumes: Are We Going Cold — Or Efficient?
26 Jan 2012 | 7:42 pmimage provided by www.freedigitalphotos.netI recently read an article from the Wall Street Journal that discussed how some firms are requesting a hold on resumes. Instead of resumes, they prefer a candidate to send links showcasing their “web presence” or even an elevator pitch via a short video. When I was reading through the article I couldn’t help but think how awesome it would be to receive links and videos from candidates rather than mining through resumes submitted online.But then I started thinking about the other side of things — the candidate side. A lot of people want to… -
Market Research Interview: Respondent Recruitment Tips
26 Jan 2012 | 2:07 pmImage provided by: mojofieldwork.comOver the last few weeks, I have written a series of blog posts on how to design a targeted and unbiased market research interview script and how to plan out the data collection process for a market research interview project. This week, I will share 5 market research respondent recruitment tips to improve your team’s success rate in recruiting interviewees for your market research interview projects.Securing a sufficient number of qualified respondents to participate in your research process is often times one of the most frustrating aspects of a market… -
Market Research Interview Tips: Data Collection Methods
25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amImage provided by: cartoonstock.comOver the last two weeks, I have written a series of blog posts regarding how to design an effective market research interviewing script and how to choose the right question style for your market research interview questions. This week, I will be covering how to plan out the data collection process of a market research interview project.This is a very important phase of the research that must be planned out prior to beginning the first market research interview, as poorly organized data collection will almost always result in corrupted, incomplete and/or…
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Selling with Content
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How blog content became a pool company's best salesperson
2 Jan 2012 | 8:30 amThis is great video produced by Michael Seltzer, owner of the Social Media Examiner. Seltzer interviews Marcus Sheridan, owner of River Pools and Spas who tells his story of how posting blog content, as part of an inbound marketing program, turnred his business around after it tanked in 2008 when the recession hit. There are several videos about Sheridan's story, but for me, this one stands out because Seltzer digs out the details. We find out how content became Sheridan’s best saleperson, and exactly… -
User stories: great for sales support, poor for SEO or converting sales leads
13 Dec 2011 | 11:33 amOf all the content that companies create for marketing, “user stories” confuse the most. The confusion comes from its extremely uneven performance at different marketing functions. For salespeople, a well written story about a successful user, who has a situation similar to a potential customer, is a big help in closing a sale. But buoyed by positive feedback from the sales department many marketers overuse this type of content and apply it for less appropriate functions. The problem is that while customers in “similar situations” find… -
Exploiting content marketing's dirty secret: most content is a commodity.
16 Nov 2011 | 2:15 pmContent marketing is becoming a victim of its own success. As more organizations invest more in content development (Hey, everybody's got a web site!) the sheer volume of content being released goes way up. The more content that is created means that more of it will be similar and thus it becomes a commodity. The number of websites alone has doubled in the past three years (chart below). More sites, more content. Total Sites Across All DomainsAugust 1995 - November 2010 Today, smart content developers are shifting their efforts from content creation to UNIQUE content creation. -
A history of content marketing in under 3 minutes
1 Nov 2011 | 9:04 amDigital media has made it easy for brands to embrace content marketing and tell their story. But companies have created user centric content for hundreds of years before. This short video timelines the history of company created content starting with "The Furrow," a customer magazine published by John Deere in 1895, right up to the present. Along with a rocking sound track from Robert Rose of the Content Marketing Institute this video offers great perspective. -
Message to marketers: "We are all publishers now."
1 Nov 2011 | 7:35 amContent creation for traditional media and public relations is very different from creating content for a content marketing program. In this short video, content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi explains the difference.
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SamuraiWriter.com/blog
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Update: How To Get The Best From a Freelance B2B Case Study Writer
10 Jan 2012 | 1:04 amAn earlier post, “Need Input from IT Marketers Who’ve Hired Freelance Customer Success Story Writers ASAP“, introduced a project that fellow success story writer, Pamela DeLoatch (b2bstorytelling.com), were working on. The idea was to create a series of video interviews for b2b marketers interested in how to get the best from a freelance B2B case study writer. Today’s post is an update on that project. Pamela and I got a list of questions together from responses kindly submitted by members of LinkedIn discussion groups, created a general interview script, and then took… -
2012: The Year IT Networking Gets Samuraized…
20 Dec 2011 | 2:40 pmOr, in other words, 2012′s the year that Samuraiwriter Services goes full duplex into the world of content marketing in the IT Networking marketplace(s). And readers will have opportunities to contribute in a number of ways. Here’s a mind map I put together to create this post. (Click the image below and a larger version opens at the facebook fan page for Samuraiwriter Services.) See below for an explanation of the key messages. The high-level plan is as follows: 1) Write for B2B IT Marketers tasked with building and nurturing business relationships with specific buyer and… -
Need Input from IT Marketers Who’ve Hired Freelance Customer Success Story Writers ASAP
4 Dec 2011 | 6:39 pmIf you might be in the market for a freelance b2b case study writer in 2012, and want to get maximum value for your investment, this post’s for you… Fellow b2b case study writer, Pamela DeLoatch, and I have started a project on the critical questions businesses want answers to before hiring freelance writers. For example: What makes one writer stand out from all the others? How can you know if you’ve got a dud or a keeper? What weight do you assign to any working experience the writer has had in your industry? What are the ‘extra skills’ you look for in a b2b… -
Google Plus Profiles and Business Pages
25 Nov 2011 | 7:07 amJust an update on where I am with online social media. Last July, in a post about Google Plus, I explained my thinking on reserving FaceBook for family/friends, and making use of Twitter, LinkedIn and a very new Google Plus for my b2b marketing activities. Four months on and I’ve found little need to change those ideas. In fact, with the emergence of Google Plus into at least the online light of day, I think it’s an ideal environment for a b2b service providers. Here’s what I’m doing with Google Plus: 1) Google Plus Personal Profile: This is branded as ‘Mark…
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ideaLaunch
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Learn the Top 5 Content Marketing Buzzwords for 2012
27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 amFor a moment, consider buzzwords as you would clichés. Confused yet? Clichés can be annoying, often boring, but think about how they became clichés. In most cases, they were repeated endlessly because they were true and accurate. Buzzwords are similar animals. While sometimes annoying to frequent users or sources of confusion to the uninformed, buzzwords convey a specific meaning to items, programs, techniques, and/or strategies. With content marketing taking center stage in the digital world, some new buzzwords are appearing. One of the more popular contemporary buzzwords, sure to be… -
Top 10 Content Marketing Moments of 2011
26 Jan 2012 | 9:03 amContent marketing may by “king,” but like any tool, however fabulous, you must use it properly or suffer negative consequences. Search engine content can help—or hurt—your website. Content marketing will achieve or hamper your goals equally depending on its quality. In 2011, along with its pundits and critiques, content marketing had its wild successes and inevitable failures. Here are some of the most important content marketing moments of 2011. Content marketing for mobile devices flourished. Mobile applications with search engine content exploded in 2011. The expanding ability of… -
Screening Great Writers
21 Dec 2011 | 3:33 pmWading through the so-called professional writers out there to find the experience, skill and proficiency you need is challenging, but essential to finding the best of the best. Here are a few tips that might help you find the tested, proven professionals with the experience you need to join your staff fulltime. 1.) Forget the fulltime hire, go freelance at WriterAccess.com. OK, that is our site. So just kidding. Not really. But on to the next. 2.) Cover Letter. Try posting a job that declares in the first paragraph that the requirement for consideration is creating a thoughtful,… -
Content Curators are the True Kings
20 Dec 2011 | 3:23 pmWe’ve all heard the expression Content is King. After all, content is the fuel behind the social media revolution currently sweeping the Web. Close examination of the art world, however, offers a solid case that curation, not content, may in fact be the ruler online. When it comes to content marketing, developing a content strategy for your company starts by curating your existing content assets, along with researching the assets of the competition. You roll up all research found using competitive research tools and quickly learn how you stack up with the competition in a number of… -
The Meaning of Meaning
14 Dec 2011 | 3:28 pmContent that’s meaningful, entertaining and helpful will keep readers coming back and is certain to achieve all kinds of KPI’s like time-on-site, conversion rates, improvement of your listings positions in the search engines and more. We all know that, right? Maybe not. Think of one company that is producing meaningful content. OK, how about one blog. That’s easier. And how much money are those bloggers making for their meaningful content? Not much. How much money are companies spending on content? Billions. Something’s wrong with this picture. Companies, listen up.
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Tiny Business, Mighty Profits
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The Secret To Becoming Proficient At Absolutely Anything
25 Jan 2012 | 8:39 amTweetMy wife would look at me with pity in her eyes. Me, fumbling around with a socket wrench or (look out!) circular saw. Puzzled. Completely useless. Driving back and forth from my dad’s house with borrowed tools rattling around in my trunk and (if I was lucky) my dad sitting next to me in shotgun. Today, I am proud to say that I am one step above useless as a handy man. Dare I say, approaching a passing grade as a honey-doer. My goal is to become proficient in this area. I’m not looking to become Bob Villa here. I just need to be able to fix a leaky toilet. Here’s how… -
How Anyone Can Become The Smartest Person In The Room
18 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amTweetThis is so easy, so powerful and so true. If you want to become the smartest person in the room. Be silent. Not catatonic silent. Sit up, lean in to the conversation and maintain strong eye contact. But say little. Call it “engaged silence.” There is power in this kind of silence. This is particularly effective if you… listen very carefully to what is being said. Actively process the information in your mind. Then, respond thoughtfully and thoroughly. Apply this to your business and personal life. In sales situations, arguments and debates. You will be… -
How To Leverage The Strength Of A Small Email Marketing List
11 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amTweetI’m sorry. It’s possible that the Internet marketers have led you astray. I’m one of them. Guilty as charged. We talk about building huge email lists with automated “drip campaigns.” We advise our clients to send bulk emails through email marketing software because it is “scalable.” But this isn’t always the best email marketing tactic. Here’s why… The Small List’s Strength Is The Big List’s Weakness There is no question that building an email list within an email software program is a smart move. The email… -
Does Your Marketing Pass The MasterCard Test?
4 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amTweetFor what seems like an eternity, MasterCard has been running the “Priceless” ad campaign. You know the ones I mean… A man has a terrible cold, runny nose, cough, the works. As he purchases things with his MasterCard, the narrator gives us the prices: Hot soup, $4.00 Cold Medicine, $11 Tissues, $1 Blanket, $24 Making it all better, priceless. The Punchline Says It All People don’t buy soup or cold medicine. They don’t buy tissues or blankets. They buy outcomes. They buy the benefit. They buy the solution to a problem. The benefit is priceless. Same goes… -
3 Ways To Overcome Skeptical Eyebrows When Selling A Service
18 Oct 2011 | 8:00 amTweetClick here to listen to this post A service is a promise. You can’t touch it. Smell it. Or try it on and see if it causes a blister when you walk around in it. It’s just words… “I will do XYZ for you. I promise.” Your prospect is skeptical. Will you do what you say you are going to do? Of course, to make things more difficult, you are a tiny business. You don’t have a strong brand that reassures your prospect that you have been around a while and you are trustworthy. That’s what brands do. They remind prospects that everything is…
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The Content Lab
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Six reasons why your brand belongs on Tumblr
18 Jan 2012 | 1:22 pmA unique, vibrant social community filled with creative minds, sharing millions of photos, and posts every day doesn’t have marketers knocking down the door to engage with all those users. Why? Because marketers are afraid to take chance at something they’re not used to, something they may fail at. That’s Tumblr’s story. However, brands should strongly consider adding Tumblr to their social marketing programs for six reasons ranging from Tumblr’s dynamic look and feel to its popularity among socially savvy audiences. Tumblr is unique but it’s not scary.It’s a different kind of… -
Beatles fans: beware of iTunes Match
12 Jan 2012 | 10:43 amListen: do you want to know a secret? I’m really not an early adopter. I’m as tantalized by the pastries in the Apple Store as anyone else, but I rarely press my face to the glass in the months before a release. I didn’t have an iPhone until Verizon said I could get one, and I’m mostly content to watch my friends and colleagues struggle with their totally cool, totally unreliable, totally expensive 1.0s. There are exceptions. A big one came in 2001, when I was a music-magazine editor, and a PR team handed me 20 compact discs and an MP3 player that would hit the market months later. I… -
Raytheon Sum of All Thrills: a twist on content co-creation
28 Dec 2011 | 12:51 pmHow would you like to design your own thrill ride? At the Raytheon Sum of All Thrills attraction at Disney’s Epcot theme park, you can do just that. Through Sum of All Thrills, which I visited recently, you use a workstation provided by Raytheon to design a brief but exciting ride that you then experience via a mechanical pod equipped with a virtual reality screen. While sitting in your pod, you twist, turn, and dive according to a path that you’ve designed. Sum of All Thrills is an example of content co-creation, in which the brand and consumer mutually participate in the formulation of… -
Content marketing: the year in review
21 Dec 2011 | 1:51 pmIn 2011, iCrossing made several major investments to show clients how to build connected brands with useful content. In 2012, I expect iCrossing will make content marketing more personal. Here are five highlights from 2011:1. “Brands-as-Publishers” Report In February, iCrossing published a report on how brands can become publishers in real time. Building a Connected Brand: How Brands Become Publishers in a Real-Time Marketing World discusses how companies can use content to become connected brands –- or brands that form close relationships with their audiences by being visible, useful,… -
Finally: personalized content at scale
7 Dec 2011 | 2:05 pmThe time has come for marketers to really segment content to audiences in real time across the entire digital world. That’s because iCrossing today announced the acquisition of Red Aril, a data management platform (DMP) provider. We believe the acquisition places iCrossing squarely at the forefront of a significant marketing shift occurring from optimizing campaigns to customizing content for segmented audiences in real time. Customizing content for segmented audiences is something that offline marketers can do well with the help of tools such as customer data bases and list matching. To…
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The Outbrain Blog
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4 Priceless Personal Finance Content Marketing Examples
24 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amUnless you’re an accountant, financial planner, or perhaps Warren Buffett, personal finance is probably not at the top of your list of exciting topics to read about. But not all personal finance content is boring and inaccessible. Here are a few businesses that show how content can be a relevant, beneficial and effective channel for personal finance companies to pursue in order to find consumers on the web who are likely to be interested in their products or services. Mint This popular online money manager keeps a robust blog that features extensive tips and how to’s for topics… -
What You Can Learn From Tim Tebow (This Week in Content Marketing)
19 Jan 2012 | 8:45 amAnd we’re back — this week with news on house ads, metrics, engagement, and…football? There are content marketing takeaways lurking in the most unexpected of places, if you know what to look for. What Tim Tebow Teaches Us About Content Marketing by The Mythic Marketer No matter what team you root for, Tim Tebow has undeniably struck a chord online. Here’s a look at what has helped him become the topic of so much conversation. Lies, Damn Lies, and Marketing Metrics by iMedia Connection As the saying goes, when you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself. How can… -
Content the Real Thing for Coca-Cola (Videos)
12 Jan 2012 | 8:56 amSocial media has changed the game when it comes to marketing and brand development. It’s no longer what you say, but how you say it. Little wonder that the world’s most iconic brand is taking the lead in engaging its consumers through content. Coca-Cola’s mission for 2012 is “Content 2020,” the brainchild of Coca-Cola’s Jonathan Mildenhall,VP Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence, who recently explained to a panel that “All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the… -
Content Is King for Big Brands in 2012 (This Week in Content Marketing)
12 Jan 2012 | 2:45 am2012 is already well underway, and there’s no time like the present to make sure your content strategy is airtight. Check out these articles for guidance on where to begin: CMO Predictions for 2012 – Part 3: General Mills, Gogo, L’Oréal, NASCAR, Visa Hail Content as King by Forbes.com Stay ahead of the curve this year by checking in on which brands are pegged to put out the best examples of content marketing. 20 Women Who Rock Content Marketing by Content Marketing Institute Follow these women on Twitter so you can tap into their rock star know-how. Also, check out the… -
Driving Innovation at Outbrain
10 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amHow many times you thought to yourself during work – This process must be improved! or I wish we had the time to think this through… or even better, I have this great idea, I wish I had the time to implement it? For me, a lot of times. In the last two weeks of 2011, our R&D (located in Israel) and whoever wanted to jump in from the company, took the time off and had Quality Time which was spent learning new technologies, improving inner processes, and (the best part) participate in 3 days of a Hackathon where we each chose an idea/project, implemented it in a limited time,…
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@TMGmedia
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Linking: It Does a Website Good
26 Jan 2012 | 9:59 amWhen it comes to digital media, competition can sometimes make writers turn into digital grinches. While it’s healthy to stoke friendly competition and take pride in your work, stonewalling and shoulder checking isn’t really necessary.The web was built on the notion of sharing ideas and exchanging news. Links, the glue that holds the Internet content train together, are meant to be given freely and awarded to the best and most relevant content. The saying goes that no man is an island, and the same goes for most web sites and blogs, as networking and collaboration are key parts of… -
The Rise Of The Profersonal In Social Media
25 Jan 2012 | 9:57 amIn the past year, social media was the vehicle that drove several high-profile careers off a cliff.Pro athlete Larry Johnson tweeted a homophobic slur that resulted in a fan petition calling for his removal from the Kansas City Chiefs. He was later suspended.Gilbert Gottfried lost his gig as the voice of the Aflac duck for making a joke about the aftermath of a devastating tsunami in Japan.Journalist Octavia Nasr was fired for a controversial Tweet that violated CNN’s social media policy.But high-profile celebrities weren’t the only “victims” in our era of real-time… -
How Writers Can Stop Being Scared of Their Own Voices
24 Jan 2012 | 7:06 amThe biggest roadblock for writers trying to perfect their voice isn’t using the correct grammar, proper spelling, or consistent syntax. It’s fear.One of my college professors once called me out for being too tentative in a story. I was writing a review of the movie “High Noon” and after a decent lead, I just lost my voice. He asked me point blank, “What are you afraid of?”It was a pretty heavy question for a 20-year-old who thought he was invincible and couldn’t imagine any other career than being a writer. However, the more I thought about it, and the more I worked on… -
Web Gems: The Art of Being a Web Editor
18 Jan 2012 | 7:20 amGuess what? It’s not all about you.Anyone who has ever played on a team knows that. And shortstops know it best.This idea is the fabric of his or her nature. While pitchers, outfielders, and catchers have received the lion’s share of the glory in baseball, they would be nowhere without a good shortstop.The great 1910 Chicago Cub infielders Evers and Chance would be nothing without their shortstop Tinkers. The late 1990s will remembered not only by gargantuan home runs by drugged-up sluggers, but also for the great shortstop play of Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Nomar… -
10 Better Ideas Than Looking at a Top 10 List For Advice
17 Jan 2012 | 6:30 amTop 10 lists are like new year’s resolutions. They seem great at first, but they quickly make you feel bored, hopeless, and like you’ve wasted your time.And that’s usually because they are filled with things you know you should do but can’t commit to doing. They’re too aspirational. Too shoot-for-the-moon-y.Which is why I’ve kept this one bare-bones, tactical, and hopefully useful for you beyond the 4 days it typically takes us to crash and burn through our empty new year promises.1. Check which pages on your site earned the most inbound linksAny search engine optimizer who knows…
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Brad Capone
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How To Stream on Facebook LIVE
26 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmHow to live stream on Facebook: Step 1 - Create a Page If you don’t already have a Page and you represent an organization, business, celebrity, or band, take a few minutes to create one. It’s free and easy to set up. Learn more Step 2 – Select App Select the Facebook live stream application you would like [...] -
Television Ads Are Not Just for TV Anymore
25 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmThe key promotional method used by many consumer products companies, especially those targeting the mass market, is the television advertisement. Even though television viewing has declined over the last 10 to 20 years, the amount spent on TV ads remains large, with one estimate suggesting that 2011 spending will exceed $60 billion. While television advertising continues to [...] -
Quick Tricks for Dressing Up Your YouTube Videos
24 Jan 2012 | 6:30 pmThere are many ways to produce an attention-getting video, but much of it still feels like alchemy. Lucky for us, Stephanie Buck has pinned eight tricks for brands to try—ones that have made other vids big hits. “Today’s consumer loves quirk, something different that he can catchphrase or hashtag,” she writes. “The trick is finding [...] -
Making Funny Ads
23 Jan 2012 | 6:59 pmKia is all about the critters. In the U.S., of course, the Korean automaker has the hamsters rapping for the Soul. Over in England, it has another formidable creature selling the Picanto: a cat who’ll stop at nothing—particularly not a pack of dogs—to follow the Picanto around the neighborhood. The spot, posted over at [...] -
People who talk, buy!
22 Jan 2012 | 6:57 pmNot always, but often. Many studies have demonstrated it. The latest one, a research by Bain & Company, highlighted that people who have a conversation with a brand over social media spend 20% to 40% more money the brand than other customers. What’s really surprising is that someone is still surprised about it. People buy something because [...]
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George Passwater
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Success in the New Year: Plan Out Your Change Or Don’t Get Off the Couch
19 Jan 2012 | 10:16 amChange. We’re entering a New Year and most of what you hear is about is…change. People always make resolutions to do things different in their personal and professional lives. Some want to lose weight, get a better job or even start dating – whatever floats your boat. Now of those who say they’re going to change, more than half will lose steam and quit before three months is up. Why? Is it because they don’t have the determination? They don’t have the time or energy? Sometimes these are factors of them throwing in the towel, but I see a larger reason. They don’t’ sit down and… -
3 Reasons How Your Business Benefits From Content Marketing
22 Dec 2011 | 8:18 am“Our customers don’t pay attention to content, so why should we pay for someone to create it for our business?” Believe it or not, I heard this statement a few weeks ago from a company I interviewed. They didn’t believe content was worth focusing on as an element in their marketing mix. Well, according to eMarketer, 73 percent of businesses rely on their own, branded content, and 41 percent leverage user-generated content and/ or reviews. Based on these statistics, content shouldn’t be an afterthought or something business can ignore — it’s an important piece of any company’s… -
Email Marketing: 3 Ways to Lower Unsubscribes Rates and Prove You Don’t Suck[Video]
1 Dec 2011 | 1:54 pmDoes it freak you out every time someone unsubscribes to your email list? If it does, don’t take it personally. Now this doesn’t mean you suck, but you may want to take a step back and look at what you’re doing. In this video, I go into 3 ways to lower your email marketing unsubscribe rates and prove you don’t suck. For some reason, my embed is freaking out my page, so here’s the link to the video. Let me know what you think with a comment below, ok? http://youtu.be/Ug15r-pMTxg Related posts: Email Marketing: An Essential Part Of Your Content Marketing Toolbox… -
Black Friday Web Hosting and WordPress Theme Sales
25 Nov 2011 | 9:11 amToday is the day after Thanksgiving for us in the United States. After coming out of my turkey and pie coma, I saw there’s some pretty cool black Friday sales going on today. Two of those are for some products I use in my own business and wanted to let you know about them. They are both affiliate products with related links I use and trust. Genesis WordPress Theme The Genesis WordPress theme is a thing of beauty. I use it for some of my client’s sites and now in the process of moving my site to it as well. The fantastic folks at Copyblogger Media decided to give the gift of a discount to…
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Maastary B2B Marketing Blog
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Revenue: Both a Sales and Marketing Metric
25 Jan 2012 | 7:56 amTwelve days ago I posted the following question on a LinkedIn discussion group. “Why do so many Marketing VPs refuse to have revenue on their goal sheets? Isn't this a necessary component for sales and marketing alignment?” I was surprised by the number (45 at last count), variety, and quality of comments. The comments can be summarized in 3 different positions: 1. Some people see Marketing as nothing more than a support organization for Sales, and easily outsourced.2. Others pointed out the value and importance of strategic marketing roles, such as identifying target… -
6 Sales and Marketing Mix Must-dos for 2012
17 Jan 2012 | 11:07 pm1. Create a Proactive Online Presence The world has moved on, yet many B2B businesses remain anchored in past practice. An old (sales) boss of mine used to say, "We know who are target customers are, we know where they work. Why do we need to advertize or promote? We can just call them. There's only a finite number of them, after all". But that was 20 years ago! Nowadays over 80% of B2B purchases are instigated or investigated using online resources. This makes having a strong and proactive online presence via the Internet, social media and other online information services of paramount… -
9 Secrets to Sales and Marketing Alignment
22 Dec 2011 | 9:52 pmSales and marketing alignment is a key success factor for driving revenue and customer growth. A series of studies by ITSMA* found that solution provider websites are the most frequent source of information, in the early stages of the buying process. This hidden buying process along with economic and competitive pressures is pushing better sales and marketing alignment to the top of many CEO's priority list. Improving Sales and Marketing alignment has been a goal for many years. Unfortunately, it is much easier in theory than in practice. A recent study by the Aberdeen… -
Best Practice: Launch Readiness vs. Relevancy
2 Dec 2011 | 11:50 amEven in "the good old days" when technology marketers assumed their target market simply consisted of the folks who worked and managed "the IT shop", it was a challenge to develop truly compelling product positioning and launch materials. At launch the key requirement was to be ready, on time, with the right set of content and collateral; to satisfy the launch check list. How easy it was for non-technical staff to understand the content, how targeted and relevant to the real decision maker, how well the product was competitively positioned by business value, were all secondary or… -
4 Reasons to Align Marketing and Sales Now
28 Nov 2011 | 11:55 amThe evidence is overwhelming. While relationships remain crucial to the sales process, above all, business customers want a good buying experience and one that leads to the purchase of the right product or solution for them. They want help from someone who really understands their needs. What's more, they want to control both the nature and the pace of their buying process. Already, over 80% of buyers consult online information sources during the buying process. Initially to help them decide what kinds of solutions may be available and which vendors might be able to help. They seek out…
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5 Minutes a Day
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How To Earn Income Without Working For It
23 Jan 2012 | 8:00 amIf you are looking to earn money but are limited on time then you need to learn the basics of passive income. Passive income is income that you don’t have to continually work at to earn. There may be some maintenance but basically you do the job once and then collect income well into the future. Books, CDs and applications are great examples of passive income. You write the book and then collect royalties on it forever. Record a CD and collect royalties on it forever. Develop an exciting game or business application and collect royalties on it forever. Just like your blog or… -
Offer the Solution
16 Jan 2012 | 9:08 amA few posts back I suggested that people buy solutions not features. They have seen all the fancy options that you offer at a dozen other places. It is all information overload. In the end, what your potential customer needs is the answer to ‘Why’ they should choose you. It is easy to get stuck in a rut when you are looking at all the pieces that you have to offer. Think of a car. As an automobile manufacturer you could look all day at every individual piece and share with everyone how wonderfully strong or lasting that particular piece is. But, it is just one piece. Without… -
Make This Year Great by Doing These 3 Things
2 Jan 2012 | 4:00 amUpdate your website A fresh new look may be all you need to be inspired again. Commit to posting at least one blog post per month At least once a month. Once a week is better. Three times a week is best. Help someone in need You don’t have to go far to find someone in need. You may find by helping someone else that you benefit most. -
How To Get Out Of Debt
30 Dec 2011 | 7:52 amOver the last several years many things have had an impact on my life. Four things that I have been blessed with are my kids. They bring me a great deal of joy and I love them dearly. They give me 4 reasons every day to work hard and give 100% in all that I do. Part of my duties as a parent is to pass on any lessons I’ve learned along the way to them. If you are like me, you have struggled financially in your life. There have been ups and downs. Because of this and since money is such an integral part of life I set out on a mission to develop a system that not only I could… -
Sell the Solution Not the Features
28 Dec 2011 | 1:30 amIt is easy to get caught up listing everything your company or website has to offer. We all try to “out-feature” the next guy. My background is in web hosting and we are the best in the world at comparison charts with hosting features. Geeks with lists to the nth detail. So, why aren’t people buying? Truth be told is, especially in the web hosting world, that most companies are so similar that you can change a logo and you would never tell the difference. Everyone has the features. Unless you have a niche (which I hope you aim to have), you are just another convenience store…
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Content Marketing Blog
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Tiffany’s Gets Clever with Content Marketing
26 Jan 2012 | 1:44 pmTiffany's Wants to Make Your Valentine's Day Blue Tiffany & Co. is making it easy for women send their significant others a special clue for Valentine’s Day. A new “Drop a Hint” button is now featured next to every item on their website. With a simple click, you can send prospective shoppers a friendly email nudge just in time for "won't you be mine." Simply click the "Drop a Hint" button, garnished by a little red heart, next to an item of your choice. A screen will pop up with a customizable email message. Enter your sweetheart’s… -
Why Content Marketing Works: Courtesy of Coca-Cola's Content 2020 Plan
19 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pmCoca-Cola’s Content 2020 advertising strategy puts content at the core of its mission: "All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the 24/7 connectivity. If you’re going to be successful around the world, you have to have fat and fertile ideas at the core." If that’s not testament to the value of content marketing, well, you just need to try it for yourself. Coca-Cola even created an internal video to explain the Content 2020 vision, which you can watch here. Content marketing guru… -
How Content Helped Create Baby Soft Skin
18 Jan 2012 | 11:27 amAs content marketing consultants and content writers, we don’t easily drink the Kool Aid and often see through most “marketing speak”. In fact, we find great joy in looking out for badly written content and can’t even read a menu without editing (occupational hazard). But, when a company tells their story well, we’re all ears. When the effectiveness of the product backs up the story, we’re compelled to shout it out to the world. Authentic story telling works. Here’s an example of how: I was recently on the hunt for something that would help soothe and… -
Being “Real” is at the Heart of Good Content Marketing Services
6 Jan 2012 | 12:18 pmDuring this morning’s coffee run, we ran into a client who thanked us for introducing him to content marketing. That’s a good way to start the day when your company provides content marketing services. He said he wrote his first blog post the night before and that crazy things were happening as he began to write. “It was awesome. I realized that I could have been doing this since last summer and could have a whole slew of information already out there if I hadn’t been so afraid of ‘marketing.’”He first came to us about eight months ago for ideas… -
Why and How to Do a Blog
16 Dec 2011 | 2:56 pmWhen we say “social media,” many people have visions of Facebook posts and Twitter updates, with the occasional image of LinkedIn breaking into the scene. Yes, these are three of the top social media tactics in use today, but what about a blog? Believe it or not, a business blog is part of the social media family too and comes with its own set of perks. Social media marketing can include any mode of connecting through conversation and blogs are one of the best ways to get a conversation going. In fact, here are 19 reasons why your business should be blogging. Why no love for the…
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Content Marketing for Technology
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The true costs of freelance writing projects
19 Jan 2012 | 12:28 pmIn a tight economy, some companies try to save money on writing projects by outsourcing to other countries, or by using sites like Elance to find inexpensive freelancers. A recent MarketingProfs article discussed the challenges of using sites like Elance. Outsourcing can be a false economy. A friend told me recently that her company was outsourcing all of their documentation work to India to save money, but that the effort will increase the workload on their developers, who must now write exactly what they want to go into the documentation. As a freelance technology writer myself, I have… -
My wish for 2012 in tech: Not too cloud-y
28 Dec 2011 | 9:40 pmHot news for 2012: Frost and Sullivan says that 2012 is the year that cloud computing will go mainstream. by Fractal Artist I don’t know about you, but for me in B2B technology marketing, 2011 was the year that “cloud computing” pushed way past mainstream into the realm of overuse. In the past year, I’ve written about cloud computing, public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, cloud storage and cloud identity. I’ve written multiple pieces describing the myriad benefits of cloud computing. (Does anyone in enterprise IT not know what cloud computing is? -
Real vs. perceived value in technology marketing
1 Dec 2011 | 12:07 pmI’ve been reading Mark Stiving‘s book on pricing (Impact Pricing) and was struck by the concepts of real value and perceived value – and the gap that sometimes lives between them. Real value is what’s actually in the product. In technology markets, it’s what engineering designs into the product. Perceived value is what the customer thinks the value is – and what they buy. Hence it’s very important to pricing. Perceived value may reside in things outside of engineering’s control, or in something considered unimportant by developers. I’ve known… -
Is your website elitist?
16 Nov 2011 | 4:53 pmby peregrinari Have you ever been to a technology website and not been able to figure out exactly what the product or service does (or indeed, if the company is offering a product or a service)? Despite the fact that I’ve worked in the tech industry for a long time, this still happens fairly regularly. Even when I can figure out what the company does, I often cannot determine who they are selling to. Are they selling to the enterprise? The small or midsized business? The consumer? Some combination of the above? It’s usually because the website is so filled with jargon… -
Who are you calling a user?
28 Oct 2011 | 11:38 amIt feels like time for a language crusade – so here’s my latest rant: the word ‘user’ when applied to people in technology marketing and writing. When you’re writing about technology from an IT perspective, you need some way to talk about, you know, those little people who use the technology that you’re buying. Hence the term ‘user’. Even apart from the negative connotations, it just seems so impersonal. Worse, it implies a perspective where the important thing is the technology and that the people using it are only secondary. Lately,…
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B2Bbloggers.com
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The Top Three B2B Marketing Themes for 2012
19 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amWhile 2011 was coming to a close, I noticed a slew of articles on what B2B marketers should anticipate this year. Of the 10 or so articles I read regarding B2B marketing predictions for 2012, there were three top themes consistent amongst each article. 1. SOCIAL MEDIA According to an article by Gary Halliwell on iMediaConnection , a wider range of employees and departments will be representing brands on social media in 2012. The employees and departments will increase as companies find broader uses for social media beyond sales, marketing and brand recognition. Some potential broader uses as… -
7 Reasons You Can’t Afford to Ignore Lead Nurturing
12 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmAs a marketer, your most important job is to generate leads for your business. But what good are those leads if they’re not managed properly? These 7 statistics show that if you’re not taking advantage of lead nurturing, you’re losing customers and revenue, and very quickly. 1. Only 25% of leads are legitimate and should go to sales. 50% are qualified but not ready to buy. (Source: Gleanster Research) Nearly half of your leads will not be ready for a sales call immediately after their first conversion. But that doesn’t mean you should just ignore these leads or throw them… -
There’s More to Pipeline Metrics Than Leads
17 Nov 2011 | 3:51 pmMany marketing organizations use lead volume as the primary way they evaluate program effectiveness. This metric is too limiting. Here’s a common scenario to help illustrate why marketing organizations need to use metrics beyond lead volume when evaluating program effectives and marketing’s contribution. Imagine you have two new customer acquisition programs in play: Program Excalibur produces 100 qualified leads and Program Camelot produces 50 qualified leads. At first glance, it might appear that based on volume or the quantity of qualified leads, that Excalibur is the better… -
Five Steps To Better B2B Lead Generation
9 Nov 2011 | 12:59 pmMany marketers who have discovered tips or tricks about their field keep those items close to their chest. It’s understandable why they would want to preserve these secrets, whether for competitive advantage, job security or simple jealousy. They use these strategies to help create leads for their sales teams, and watch their secret tools or methods mature over time and find ways to improve them or get a little more out of them. A lot of these hidden tools and tricks are around finding ways to pull in more leads to the top of your marketing funnel, whether to increase your social media… -
Social Business Is Spreading, But Is Anybody Listening?
1 Nov 2011 | 6:54 amA recent Gartner survey asked the question “Who is leading social media initiatives in your business?”. 35% of the respondents answered “Marketing.” 10% said “PR.” Nobody said “Sales” or “CRM” teams. The immediate conclusion to this is that companies are still falling short of using social media, and the web to listen. While marketing departments are getting much better at tracking brand in the B2C space, most B2B organizations would most likely hold their hands up and say they still ‘don’t get it.’ There are several reoccurring themes as to why…
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Home Business Infopreneur Resources
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How Will SOPA and PIPA Effect Marketing and Social Media?
27 Jan 2012 | 6:17 amThe "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and "Protect-IP Act" (PIPA) will have negative consequences for search engine marketing and marketing and social media. The internet has changed the way people communicate, interact, socialize, and conduct business. The world wide web has been a means for democratic institutions to grow, spread, and flourish around the world. In less than a decade the internet has penetrated the lives of most people on the planet. Voices that would otherwise be silenced by oppression and persecution have been given an outlet to communicate with people continents away. The… -
Niche Research is Key to Attracting Visitors to Your Website
2 Jan 2012 | 6:49 amSo you may have found the specific niche market you would like to focus on, you have created the site, created all of the layouts, arranged all the content and put your own personal touch to it. The next action for you is to find out is how to compel people to look at the website you relentlessly worked on for hours. Related posts: Niche Keyword Research Tools are a ‘Must Have’ To find niche market ideas, numerous keyword tracking tools have... The Importance of Keyword Research Services One of the SEO services that companies perform for clients... Don’t Buy Niche Reaper As… -
Video Editing Systems for Your Videos
31 Dec 2011 | 7:43 amThis post is recommendations for video editing software to help you make videos to promote your business. My guest poster, Tyrone Shum, gives his opinion with suggestions on the easiest to use video editing software systems. Related posts: Recording Videos without Having a Camera Phobia I have a great camera phobia myself that I need... How To Add Captions To Your Video Web When you have decided to take part in the production... Basic Video Marketing Tips Online video marketing will help you to make your site... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. -
Choosing the Right Niche for Your Blog
30 Dec 2011 | 7:00 amAs you know already, I use Amazon a lot as an affiliate. Not only on Squidoo, but on other websites as well. This post by guest poster, Darren Courtright, gives some great tips on choosing your niche using both free Google tools and Amazon. I think this is information that you will find most useful in helping you research your next niche market. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. -
Staying Focused Is the Key to Online Success
29 Dec 2011 | 5:46 amStaying focused is one of the things many people have a difficult time doing, especially when working from home. Related posts: Email Copywriting Success You can easily succeed at email copywriting if you make... The Road to Success Is Paved By Twitter Marketing Mounting a successful Twitter marketing campaign demands that you plan... Simple Tips to Include SEO on Your WordPress Blog Your WordPress blog needs something besides quality content, if you... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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Your Heart's Content
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Increase Email Open Rates With 4 Tantalizing Subject Lines
25 Jan 2012 | 2:54 pmEmail subject lines can make or break your email campaign. Write a compelling subject line, and recipients will take the action you want by opening your email. Write a dud, and your email quickly gets moved from Inbox to Trash folder. All that stands...(read more) -
Project Spotlight: Sponsored Social Media Contests for Dansko
6 Jan 2012 | 3:02 pmSocial media contests are a powerful tool in content marketing. They're a fun way to encourage user-generated content, gather leads, engage customers and get people talking about your products and services. Recently, our client Dansko wanted to harness...(read more) -
5 High-Tech Content Marketing Trends for 2012
23 Dec 2011 | 10:36 amRoughly 9 in 10 organizations rely on content marketing to connect with consumers, according to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs . Marketing with content clearly has become mainstream, and it's evolving in increasingly sophisticated...(read more) -
3 Corporate Blog Best Practices
14 Oct 2011 | 2:08 pmCorporate blogs are a great way to build a relationship with consumers, communicate your organization's values and rank higher in the search engines. As with any content marketing initiative, there are "best practices" to ensure your organization gets...(read more) -
Capturing Business Travelers With Custom Travel Content
9 Sep 2011 | 3:14 pmWhere are your customers right now? Chances are, a handful of them are in the sky. One in five U.S. adults are expected to take business trips in the next six months, according to the U.S. Travel Association. Custom travel content aimed at business travelers...(read more)
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Content Insights
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The Connected Car
26 Jan 2012 | 3:49 pmI'm fascinated by the Quantified Self movement and the many resulting apps and apparatuses available. We can monitor everything from the number steps we take in a day to our sleep patterns. As I've continued checking it out, I see how this movement has cast an even wider net. Recently, I read “Highway to Health” in Metropolis Magazine. Author Jade Chang explains that Ford has taken personal data to a whole new level by incorporating wireless technology into their vehicles to keep self-trackers connected while on the road. I thought I'd take a moment to share a rapid… -
10 Reasons to Embrace SEO
24 Jan 2012 | 11:22 amAs someone who has worked in marketing and advertising for years, I’ve seen certain words that used to be harmless develop negative connotations. Most of us don’t hear the word “advertisement” without thinking of an annoying interruption. Particularly, the acronym “SEO” (short for search engine optimization) has become associated more and more with spam, manipulation, and trickery. Shifts in the meaning of words are a natural part of lingual evolution, but these particular buzzwords suffer because of the people who exploit their popularity to make a quick… -
Think Mobile Is Only a Channel? Think Again
19 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pmThe use of mobile in the U.S. and around the world is growing faster than you can say “app or mobi site?” The possibilities for mobile are exciting and, at the same time, mind boggling. Where do you start planning the mobile content and experience for users? And, internally, where do you begin planning ownership and process for mobile? The planning starts before you realize it. It starts with your view of mobile. How you see mobile will affect everything else you plan—for better or for worse. So, it’s worth taking a moment to check your perspective. A Love Affair with… -
What Should Content and UX Strategists Know About Distractive Driving?
18 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am(A note from Content Science: If you’re reading this article while also driving, please consider your fellow drivers and concentrate on the road! We’ll be here when you get to your destination.) So much has been written and talked about on creating mobile content, but one topic seems surprisingly absent from the conversation. It’s an emerging area of content that, if not addressed responsibly could have deadly consequences. What is this emerging area? Distractive content. Distraction is a problem The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has found that, each… -
Influenc-ERS vs Influence (Or, a Clue to Clout)
15 Jan 2012 | 2:00 amI originally shared this post on my personal blog in July, 2010. It's quite popular, so I've moved it here. Fast Company just launched The Influence Project, which kicked up some controversy. The gist is Fast Company is forming a quantitative influence metric by seeing what individual, or influencer, has the clout to drive the most clicks to...Fast Company! WHAT'S WRONG: The Popularity Contest Brian Solis, author of Engage, succinctly states that "influence is not popularity." On a guest post for Solis, Damien Basille explains his take on why measuring individual…
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Jontus Media
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Online Marketing Tips for Newbie Consultants
27 Jan 2012 | 11:30 amIf you’ve just registered your company, decided to go out on your own as a consultant, are prepared to embrace online marketing strategy to get you where you want to go, then good for you! That’s awesome and I hope you really achieve what you’re setting out to do. It’s an exciting adventure. No doubt you’re going to set up a website but have you really thought about how you’re going to use it? Is it just going to be a nice, pretty online business card? Something people will find if they know who you are and google your name? Something you will know exists… -
3 Things Kodak & Your Marketing Strategy Could Have in Common
23 Jan 2012 | 2:40 pmSo Kodak has gone to the wall. The once giant of the photographic industry has shuffled off this mortal coil. It’s a shame. They’re the first brand in photography I can remember from my childhood. You know I can still see that familiar logo on my grandmother’s shelf. There’s a lesson or three in the story of Kodak’s demise. Just as Kodak needed to future proof their business, you need to change your mindset and set out to future proof your online marketing strategy. 1) Be Open to Change Kodak kept coming up with new products but they got stuck in the box of… -
Convert Visitors into Customers
20 Jan 2012 | 10:04 amThe majority of visitors to your website will never show their face. They won’t comment, send you a tweet, follow you on Facebook, Google+, download your free ebook or sign up for your newsletter. But if you check your Google Analytics you’ll see that they are there. The silent majority are the visitors who account for the majority of your page views; they arrive at your site via Google search or Twitter and (often) quickly disappear but many stick around to check out your About page or your Services page. Whether you’re getting regular lurkers who don’t make… -
360 Degree Guerrilla Marketing
17 Jan 2012 | 9:13 amGuerrilla marketing sets out to create unique, engaging and thought-provoking content to generate buzz, and interest. The concept and term was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. Guerrilla marketing in the real world is any unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources: PR stunts, surprise giveaways, weird and wonderful gimmicks. Digital guerrilla marketing uses both mobile and web technologies to engage the consumer and create a memorable brand experience. This week’s episode looks at 360 Degree Marketing, a guerrilla tactic… -
How to Develop an Editorial Calendar Template
11 Jan 2012 | 1:09 pmThe better your editorial calendar template, the better the implementation of your business blog strategy is likely to be. Developing a successful editorial calendar, however, is not always easy. What’s more it is often much more complex than just putting a bunch of dates and preliminary titles for blog posts together. SEO, Engagement and Conversions My own business blog editorial calendar focuses on the following 7 key elements: Targeted aim OR goal SEO keywords Post title Post Url Keyword Total Key fascination Key emotional appeal The calendar also includes preliminary publication…
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markaguinn.com
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Random Photo 1/16
16 Jan 2012 | 9:38 amThis is a photo I took in the mountains outside of Panama City, Panama. If you ever get the chance to travel to Panama, don’t pass it up! You’ll enjoy a real learning experience in culture, food, art, history, food, engineering, food, nightlife, nature, and food. Oh, did I mention the food?!? Mmmmm. -
Random Photo 1/9/12
9 Jan 2012 | 7:55 amThis photo was taken in Felicity, CA. If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit this amazing little town, it is definitely worth the trip (just don’t go during the summer, because the design of the place is overshadowed by the blistering heat). Designed to be a remembrance of the world’s history, you will walk along rows of historical facts, excerpts from classic literature, and recreations of the world’s most famous artwork all carved in granite. At the beginning of the walk, you’ll see a pyramid that contains Fecility’s self-proclaimed “Official… -
Bending over for Medicare
8 Jan 2012 | 10:52 amI read an article yesterday at Money.CNN.com discussing problems with the U.S.’ healthcare system (“Doctors Going Broke” ). I’ve worked in the medical field in some form or fashion for over 12 years now, and it’s nice to finally see the mainstream media picking up on a problem that healthcare professionals have been screaming about for a long time. Every year, Medicare pays physicians less and less to provide more services. As we’re moving into the age of the Baby Boomers, this is beginning to break the fiscal stability of our private practitioners. Several years ago, I heard from… -
This is just a test…
6 Jan 2012 | 8:50 amYou can ignore this message (unless you really need something to read)… I’m just testing a plugin. -
Creating a 2012 I can be proud of
1 Jan 2012 | 9:24 pmEvery new year, we seem compelled to make New Year’s Resolutions in an attempt to better ourselves and improve the overall quality of life. I still haven’t figured out exactly why we do this. Maybe this is just human nature because, as humans, we are never truly content with where we are or what we have accomplished. We know there is something better, and we constantly strive to make life better for ourselves and our loved ones. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Our ambition and curiosity have pushed us to do some pretty amazing things. For example, someone had the ambition to place a…
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247affiliatemarketing
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Suggestions To Make A Competitive Article Marketing Strategy
27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amCommission Autopilot Insanely Powerful 2in1 Software Suite!..If you want to make money, as in today, not tomorrow, but today, then download this NOW...Make Money.. Or Its FREE! Writing articles can seem easy, but when you have to use them to sell your products the task becomes a bit more daunting. Not only do you have to write an interesting article, but you have to reach thousands of people with the articles you write. Here are a few great tips. Work on your writing. Consider your writing ability to be a skill that you can improve upon. The more you work on honing your article… -
How To Effectively Market And Promote Your Articles
27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amMobile Money Pages Get Started In 15 Minutes From Now!..Turns an 80 hour process into LESS THAN 2 MINUTES!- Point & click software- Run it with your mobile phone- No hand-coding sites- No website needed You are interested in learning more about article marketing. With so much information available on the Internet, it is hard to narrow down what is legitimate and what is trash. In this article, we will provide you with high quality tips and tricks that may just work for you. Write your article as a technical blueprint. This means using a how-to format, including charts and… -
Learn How To Write Good Articles To Promote Your Business.
27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amDeadbeat Millionaire Traffic and everything all done for you...... with almost nothing left to do but sit back and collect more and more instant paychecks, month after month... If you are looking for all of the basics regarding article marketing plus some other tips that you might not have heard of, this article is for you. This can be a confusing subject with all of the different opinions and information that is available but we have made it easy with the following tips. A great article marketing tip is to not forget to promote your articles. If you’re not promoting your… -
Affiliate Marketer Program Businesses – The Genesis Of One’s Future
27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amMobile Mass Money The BIG Money Online.. Is Not Even Online Anymore...You can get out ahead of the crowd and take advantage of a massive change thats going to make billionaires in the next few years (and whole lot of millionaires besides.) Allow your curiosity soar. People often ask me after having a presentation in the event affiliate programs are really the path to go. Unless you are a Rockefeller along with bottomless storage compartments, the internet ClickOpp business is the only method to proceed. Here’s the reason why: 1. You have to invest nothing to start out. I… -
How To Write Subject Lines That Convert
27 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amCommission Hijack ZERO Click Cash Siphoning Tactic...- NO Article Marketing- NO Facebook Ads/Fan Pages - NO PPC, PPV, CPA- NO Complicated SEO In this article I’m going to reveal a few great information about experts academy online and Experts Academy. There are many important aspects of email marketing campaigns, but one that’s very basic is the subject line. Before your email can convert anyone, it has to be read and without a compelling subject line this won’t happen. By writing subject lines that arouse people’s interest, you’ll have a better…
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Industrial Marketing Today
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Industrial Marketing Content that Helps Buyers
25 Jan 2012 | 1:43 pmIt is very common to find marketing content from manufacturers and industrial companies that is all about how great their products are or that their technology is innovative. Sellers may be too close to the forest to see the trees and firmly believe their marketing content is helpful to their buyers. Buyers can easily find information about your products and that of your competition from their online research. So ask yourself this question, “Is my industrial marketing content really helping my buyers make a more informed decision and is it moving them closer them to a RFQ?” I suspect most… -
Website Evaluation Comes Before Site Redesign
18 Jan 2012 | 9:53 amMany manufacturers and industrial companies consider a website redesign during Q1. The two main reasons are 1) Not showing up in Google search results (SEO – Organic Search Engine Optimization) and/or 2) Not getting enough qualified leads from the website (Traffic and Conversion). You know your industrial site needs a major makeover but diving right into a site redesign without first doing a website evaluation or a site audit can be a costly mistake. Poor SEO and conversions are the symptoms that are obvious to you. Only an in-depth website evaluation can diagnose the underlying causes. -
Internal Links – the Secret Sauce for DiY SEO
10 Jan 2012 | 10:13 amIt is no secret that link building is critical to SEO success. However, some people often ignore internal links because they are just not aware of their SEO benefits. To most do-it-yourselfers (DiY), link building for SEO means external or inbound or backlinks. These are links that originate from another site and point to a page on your domain. Don’t underestimate the SEO power of internal linking. They are not only great for increasing the number of pages indexed by Google but also help you target a larger number of keywords, especially long tail keywords. The number of site pages indexed… -
Create a Content Series for Industrial Marketing
3 Jan 2012 | 10:13 amHappy New Year! This is my first post in 2012 and I want to start the New Year by answering a perennial question about content marketing for manufacturers and industrial companies. The question – what do we write about? The answer – create a content series. Just like popular TV serials, you want to create a series of short blog posts that revolve around a common theme. There are many advantages to this content marketing strategy. The most important ones are: Bite sized content is easier to consume online and on mobile devices Regular doses of short blog posts are good for building… -
Top 10 Industrial Marketing Posts of 2011
22 Dec 2011 | 9:22 amAs we wind down 2011, this is a good time to review all the industrial marketing posts that I have published here and been viewed by you, my readers, during the year. Not all the posts were written in 2011, one was way back from 2008. If there is one important takeaway from this exercise, it is that blog posts live forever and continue to attract traffic long after they have been posted. That’s the power of inbound marketing with content. I looked at my Google Analytics for the entire year and have selected the top ten blog posts using a combination of Pageviews, Engagement and Social…
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Priority Integrated Marketing
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Webinar: How Financial Institutions Are Leveraging Social Media
26 Jan 2012 | 9:22 amLast month, Priority’s Brian Bierbaum presented “How Financial Institutions Are Leveraging Social Media”. I recently interviewed him to hear what he had to say about the presentation. Download audio file (Jim_Brian_December_2010_Webinar_Interview1.mp3) Brian explained to me that he covered a lot of ground, but focused on: Examples and case studies showing how credit unions and banks are using social media on channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Foursquare Various social media tactics that could be employed depending on your bank or credit union’s social maturity… -
SOPA and PIPA: Copyright Protection or Threat to Free Speech?
24 Jan 2012 | 11:54 amWhen Wikipedia chose to “go dark” by shutting down its site last Wednesday, people really took notice. Google took a symbolic stand by blacking out its iconic name on its homepage and many other sites took a stand as well. This online protest (and others that occurred offline) had an impact. Both SOPA and PIPA were shelved indefinitely just two days later. The legislation that was at the heart of this story is two-fold: in Congress, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and in the Senate, PIPA (PROTECT IP Act – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of… -
Olympic Ban on Volunteers and Social Media
16 Jan 2012 | 9:16 amJason Douglas, Priority’s social media strategist, woke up bright and early last week to speak with a Minneapolis-based radio station about the recent news that Olympic organizers have effectively banned social media for volunteers. Hear his take on the ban and my take on how Olympic organizers could have learned a thing or two from healthcare and financial services marketers. The Olympic Ban If you missed it, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have created social media rules (that effectively ban social media) for its 70,000… -
2012 and 2013 Hospital Marketing Trends: We Want Your Input!
12 Jan 2012 | 12:01 pmThe Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development is working hard to bring Connections 2012 attendees a line-up of speakers that address topics on top of your to do list for 2012 and 2013. Below are some insights into what I think will be hot topics in 2012 and an opportunity to give your feedback. 2012 Hospital Marketing Trends Below are my two cents. What do you think? Mobile Marketing In 2010, social media was the buzz at conferences around the world, including SHSMD Connections. By 2011, my impression was that most of you had gotten social media policies in place, budgets… -
Credit Union Contest Microsite Engages 33,734 Unique Visitors
10 Jan 2012 | 3:29 pmWhen we started developing a microsite for one of our financial services clients, we anticipated that the contest could go viral. However, we quickly learned there’s no limit to the extent an audience will go to win a contest. Read on for the play-by-play and results. The Contest As part of their “people helping people” philosophy, Michigan Schools and Government Credit Union (MSGCU), created a grant submission program. Each year, they give away a series of “mini grants” to classrooms throughout their community, ranging from $200 to $1,000 in value. In May, MSGCU began…
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Content-ment
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Content Strategy and the Birth of the Cool (or Fabulous Business Blog)
11 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amShould you go forth and publish content before launch? Not to fill up the buckets on the site, but to determine the viability of newly-established editorial calendars and workflows? PERHAPS.Birth of the CoolMany of us have been lucky enough to witness the birth of something new. Like babies. Or cool. As in Miles Davis’ classic album “Birth of the Cool.” Or even, perhaps, a company blog.Blogs, like babies and classic jazz albums, are each special in their own way. Unlike most babies or classic jazz albums, blogs ushered in a revolution in online publishing. Waves of that revolution are… -
Busy Content Strategist Is Busy
8 Dec 2011 | 8:26 pmIt's been a busy couple of months. To say the least. In the meantime:The fantastic Kristina Mausser asked me to write a post for the Follow the UX Leader blog. I was honored. So, I wrote a post about content strategy and managed to make it partly about whiskey. Go figure. I titled it "An Intoxicating Tale of Content Strategy."Contentmanagement.com republished my "7 Steps to Keep Your Content from Sending You to Prison" post on their blog. Again, I was honored.The Minneapolis/Saint Paul Content Strategy Meetup group invited me to speak about curation and content strategy at their November… -
Keywords, Work-arounds, And Souring The User Experience
28 Sep 2011 | 9:00 amCampaigns and other short-term online efforts can easily spoil online navigation and the user experience. Dismissing familiar cues to cut corners will leave people confused and ultimately unsatisfied. Consider campaigns early in the creation of a content strategy and you'll preserve the online user experience.User experience and the supermarketI fancy milk on my morning cereal. I don’t have a cow, so I go to the store to purchase it. I like it when that process is easy. It was, for the longest time.Ever since I was a kid, I understood the mysterious code of the milk cap:Blue cap = 2%Yellow… -
7 Easy Steps To Keep Your Content From Sending You To Prison
23 Aug 2011 | 9:49 amGovernance of online content is critical. If avoided, it will make your online presence less effective, at best. At worst, you could be facing a $2,000,000 lawsuit. These seven quick tips will help provide a better experience online. And they just might keep you out of the courtroom.A rare story about online content and the law appeared in the news last week. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum ran into a bit of trouble. Intellectual property trouble. Unlicensed third-party content trouble.Presidential hopefuls need websites. They are usually better at presidential hopefull-ing than… -
Coke Fiends and Content Strategy
28 Jul 2011 | 2:33 pmThe Coca-Cola Company has unleashed a new type of soda fountain into the world. They've put some online marketing muscle to work to promote it. But is it enough?My wife is an unapologetic Diet Coke enthusiast. When she breathlessly told me about a new sort of soda fountain at the local Dairy Queen, I was curious.What could make a soda fountain new? Isn’t it just soda? Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and maybe lemonade and root beer?I was in for a surprise, as this was no ordinary soda machine. This was a Coca Cola Freestyle machine.The Coca Cola Freestyle soda fountainWarren Buffett,…
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Content Mastery Guide
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Welcome to the Blogosphere, Now What?
25 Jan 2012 | 1:45 pmWhen I tell people that I'm a blogging consultant, the usual response is, "Now, that's a job that didn't exist a few years ago!" True enough. And if you're like most business owners, blogging is a strategy that you've never considered, until you started hearing from marketing agencies, web designers and content marketing experts that blogging is not only helpful, but essential. In fact: B2B (those who sell products or services to other businesses) companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not B2C (those who sell products… -
Blog Readers Are Your Friends, But...
18 Jan 2012 | 5:43 amMy definition of friend has changed from spending so much time online. I have many friends that I've never met in person, and probably never will. Some friendships began with a five-minute Twitter exchange; others were sparked in person and then deepened online. I've written before about how you want to engage your blog reader as if you're already friends. After all, even as a brand new reader, that person has still come from somewhere. Maybe they found you on Google, "Hey, my friend Google the search engine thought I should meet you because I'm looking for..."… -
You Don't Need to Be First on Google to Attract New Local Clients With Your Blog
2 Jan 2012 | 6:23 pmWhen I read Seth Leonard's article about the Google hoax, I breathed a big sigh of relief. At last someone put into concise words what's been niggling at me for years. "You shouldn’t ignore search engines completely," he writes, "Just don’t break your back trying to game the system." And he goes on to share four great ways get your website seen, which are definitely worth a look. The benefits of blogging extend far beyond attracting strangers via Google and other search engines. Blogging has the power to strengthen your community connections, turning them… -
How FreshBooks Connects via their Blog
2 Jan 2012 | 6:02 amIn the recent How to Write a Blog Post webinar, I highlighted these four blogs as examples of the four different types of blog posts you can write: The Wegman's Fresh Stories blog, for this example of a "how to" post Southwest Airline's Nuts About Southwest blog, for this example of a personal post The Coaching4Clergy blog (my client J. Val Hastings), for this example of a thought leadership post The FreshBooks blog, for this example of a connecting post FreshBooks are innovators in the field of online invoicing, so it's no wonder that their blog is so creative and… -
Blogging Makes Being a Local Celebrity a Celebration
22 Dec 2011 | 10:38 amBlogging can feel like an ego-driven pursuit, especially when we get too caught up in the numbers: how many "Likes" do I have on Facebook, how many comments am I getting, how many people are there on my mailing list? When I talk about how blogging makes you a star and the "go to" expert in your industry, I see some people shy away from that idea. They say they don't want to be a celebrity; they just want to help people and earn a good living. Maybe it's time we redefined what it means to be a celebrity, and why it's an admirable goal for any service-based…
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ContentLEAD
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Twitter revamp a chance for small businesses to streamline Twitter marketing
27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pmA report from Chadwick Martin Bailey and Constant Contact found that Twitter marketing can drive sales. -
Content marketing 101: Five steps for fueling conversions online, Part 3
27 Jan 2012 | 1:21 pmAs your content marketing plans grows, you should start seeing the results you expected, and there are tools you can use to monitor your progress. -
Small business owners prefer Facebook marketing to advertising
26 Jan 2012 | 2:31 pmA report from MerchantCircle found that 70 percent businesses benefit from social media marketing with Facebook, but paying for ads on the platform has not been as effective as they would have liked. -
Email marketing, social media marketing benefiting small businesses
26 Jan 2012 | 9:47 amA report from Elite Email found that social media marketing and email marketing have become more popular among small businesses. -
Businesses using social media marketing struggle with content consistency
25 Jan 2012 | 1:34 pmA report from A.T. Kearney found that too many businesses using social media marketing miss engagement opportunities on the channel.
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BizChangerZ
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Adding Pinterest to Scrolling Social Sharebar
18 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pmModifying plugin code is just about as fun as having a root canal; it all comes down to where you’re adding the plugin, and what social media platform your using. Lucky for you, I am obsessed with modifying plugins and I’m here to make your life easier. Pinterest is the fastest growing social media network to date. Businesses (like yours) should take advantage of this new found fame by incorporating the Pinterest sharing widget to their blog and/or website. Without further ado, here’s how to add Pinterest to Scrolling Social Sharebar. Let’s Get Started! Log into… -
With Mobile, The Degrees of Separation Between Brand and Consumer Vanish
11 Jan 2012 | 7:11 pmConsider for a moment all the various mediums we use to connect and promote our brand with our target audience. We have email, TV, radio, billboards, print media, online banners and events to name a few. Have you ever thought about the degrees of separation between your message and the person you hope it reaches? Now I am not talking about the various lengths we go to in order to ensure our target audience sees our message, I am talking about the actual interaction between brand and consumer. I was watching a presentation the other day put on by Celtra http://www.celtra.com/ about mobile… -
Success in 2012
10 Jan 2012 | 6:40 am2012. The year of growth and recovery. Everyone seems abuzz with what new and exciting things this year will hold. Social streams and blogs are already talking about the iPhone 5 (we wish it was the iPhone SJ), the iPad 3, the expansion of Mobile Marketing and the Red Sox winning the world series (maybe that one is just me being hopeful). With all that chatter, how do you still stand out? How do you find and keep your ideal clients? You know, the ones that are just right for your business, want to stick with you and turn into lifelong advocates? Forget about growth and recovery for a… -
Time to Update WordPress 3.3.1 is Here
5 Jan 2012 | 11:32 amYet again another WordPress update has arrived! From their announcement summary they have fixed several vulnerability issues from version 3.3. “This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K. and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team.” As usual updating of WordPress as easy as a click. When you log into your WordPress admin you should see a link at the top of the page indicating the… -
3 Easy Fixes for the Most Common Social Media Blunders
5 Jan 2012 | 7:57 amSo far universities don’t offer a degree in social media and creating a social media strategy for your business can be as fun as getting a root canal. Whether you’ve been using social media for a while or you’re just getting started, most businesses are making the same costly social media blunders. Good news is these blunders have an easy fix. But if you continue doing them, you won’t get the most out of your social media endeavors. And you don’t want that, right? Here are three common social media blunders and how to fix them. 1. Get Leadership to Buy In Social media is the new…
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Jeffrey Orloff
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Guest Post Spam
23 Jan 2012 | 1:50 amThere are a few things that are important to anyone who runs a web site. No matter what type of site they own, everyone wants: A high position in the search engine results page for their keywords Relevant visitors who will stay on their site A whole ton of traffic To do this, web site owners seek what are known as backlinks to their web site (or pages within their web site). Backlinks are incoming links to a web site or web page from another web site. There was a time that any incoming link was considered good so people would flood bulletin boards, directories and comment sections with links… -
Guest Post Spam – A True Story
13 Jan 2012 | 7:45 amI am a huge advocate of guest posting as an online marketing strategy. In fact, much of my writing and marketing business consists of writing guest posts for my clients and finding quality blogs to publish them on. And I try to reciprocate as well. For a few of the blogs I run, I have opened up the door to allowing others to contribute with guest posts of their own. So I set up a few ground rules, listed them on a Write for Us page and allowed people to register for the site. Just like I had seen so many times before. Only I made one little mistake. Guest Post Spam Over the years, I have… -
Guest Posting, An Infographic
9 Dec 2011 | 10:02 amI quite frequently laud the benefits of guest posting as a way for businesses to market their website and products. So when I stumbled across this inforgraphic that shows just what guest blogging can do, I had to share it out with my readers. You see, many people forget all the benefits of writing a guest post. You build credibility You reach out to new customers/readers You build back links You receive traffic from the web sites where your guest posts are published The problem many people run into when exploring guest blogging as a marketing strategy is time. They are so busy creating… -
Your Blog Does Not Have Original Content
1 Nov 2011 | 1:59 pmWhen contacting blogs for my clients who I write guest posts for I am often asked the question, “Is the content original.” Since I don’t want to get into an argument about semantics, I always say yes but the question should be, “Is the content unique?” because there is no such thing as original content on the Internet. Just run a search for Top iPad Apps for… and see how many results you get. Or better yet, try searching for there are no new ideas. There are pages of articles discussing this very topic. Fiction writers are taught this early on. When crafting a story, writers of… -
Understanding the Panda Search Signals
24 Oct 2011 | 2:20 amWill Critchlow was a recent guest on SEOMoz’s Whiteboard Friday where he discussed a questionnaire he uses to help people better understand how to create content that Google’s Panda update sees as quality content. The questionnaire, as used by Critchlow, would be given to survey takers about a particular page on a web site. Those surveyed would simply answer yes or no to the questions. The data returned from the survey could be used to see how well the targeted content would fare. Of course that doesn’t mean we can’t take something away as bloggers, writers, SEOs, marketers, etc. By…
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HarrisonAmy
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How To Create A Simple Tagline
27 Jan 2012 | 1:26 pmOkay, so in last week’s Fast Copy Friday I asked you if you had any copywriting questions that you’d like me to answer, and you did, and I made a video and then answered a couple more in the blog post. Forgive the video – I was meant to record it with natural light this morning, and in reflection I’d have chosen a waaaay better angle. The kind of angle that makes me look like Kate Moss. Which would have probably meant asking Kate Moss to do the video instead Enough frivolous irreverence, let’s get your questions answered: How Do You Create A Tagline? If you have… -
Harrisonamy Reviews: Engagement From Scratch by Danny Iny. Win A Free Copy.
23 Jan 2012 | 3:01 pmIf you write a blog for your business, or have a newsletter then you probably want to be popular with your audience. It’s unlikely that you would publish content, or do your email marketing hoping to cause as much annoyance to your reader as stubbing their little toe. Instead you want to inspire them, make them laugh perhaps, or help them out by giving away useful advice, and there’s a really good chance that you want to engage your community. Because having any kind of community is great, but having an engaged community is the secret sauce for success if you are selling to an online… -
How To Write A Sales Page (That Sounds Like You)
13 Jan 2012 | 5:31 amOne of the biggest concerns I see with business owners who want to write a sales page, is about sounding natural. You want to be persuasive without being icky and salesy. This is particularly true if you’re a personality entrepreneur. When you look for sales page templates, you’re going to see items to include like “fast action bonuses” or “scarcity”, and “urgency” and it just seems so pushy. I like to show personality entrepreneurs that you can have natural sounding sales copy, even by using a “sales page” structure. So here’s… -
7 Ways To Crush Overwhelm And Get Into The Writing Zone
10 Jan 2012 | 3:56 amHappy New Year To You! This is a guest post by Carol Tice who runs Make A Living Writing . Through her website, courses and membership group, she tells you what you need to know to rock it as a freelance writer and earn what you’re worth (which is probably more than you think!) The Godmother to freelance writers Ever needed to write, but you just couldn’t? There are a lot of distractions out there, both online and off. Pesky interruptions from family members who have the nerve to crave your attention. Those fun LOLcats. Bejeweled. Choose your poison. There’s also so much to… -
Blame The Cake. Never Write: Man Up! In Your Sales Copy
21 Dec 2011 | 1:10 pmNobody likes to feel bad about a problem they’re having and that includes your customers. My mum is brilliant at listening to any challenges I’m facing without making me feel like it’s really my fault. If I haven’t exercised she’ll understand that the weather’s been a bit cold, if I’ve forgotten to do something, she’ll tell me I’ve probably been working too hard. My brother on the other hand will tell me to man up, stop messing about and do what I need to do. (Got to love brothers). In your sales copy, forget being like my brother, you…
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Brafton
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Internet marketing news roundup, January 27
27 Jan 2012 | 5:14 pmWhile news of a Facebook IPO hit the web on Friday, the earlier part of the week was all about Google, as the company continues its move toward unifying its service into one platform. On Wednesday, the company announced a new privacy policy, streamlining its previous guidelines into one more easily understood principle. Essentially, data from all of its services, which include search, Gmail, Google+ and YouTube, among others, will be used to determine the content most relevant to users across Google products. All logged-in users' activity will be tracked and applied throughout the platform. -
Internet Explorer good for site speed: Found to be fastest browser in recent test
27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amStrangeLoop conducted a recent test of web browsers and ecommerce websites to gauge the average load time of the pages in different browsers. According to the test, Internet Explorer 9 is the fastest of the three most popular browsers, a list that also includes Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. The average load time for a website on IE9 is 7.12 seconds, while Firefox boasts a load time of 7.15 seconds and Chrome comes in at 7.5 seconds. Additionally, the study found that overall website load time has decreased 10 percent since the same analysis last year. According to StrangeLoop, web… -
69 percent of smartphone users access web every day
27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amGoogle and market research firm Ipsos recently came out with a study on the growing market of smartphone users and their behaviors. According to the survey, 69 percent percent of American smartphone owners access the mobile web at least once every day. While this figure is still less than the 80 percent of desktop or laptop owners accessing the web every day, it represents consistent and steady growth. According to Google, gaining a better understanding of the market will allow businesses to tailor their content marketing production and publication more effectively. Aside from greater mobile… -
Survey shows users may cancel Google accounts over privacy update
27 Jan 2012 | 9:13 amIn response to Google's new privacy policy, the Washington Post recently conducted an informal poll of its web readers to gauge their feelings toward the shift and their futures with the company's services. At press time, 16,325 people had taken the poll and 65 percent said they would cancel their account with the company due to the new policy, set to take effect on March 1. The policy streamlines Google's stance, from more than 60 different policies to one general concept. Essentially the company will now begin tracking user activity across its various services - search, Gmail, YouTube, etc. -
Search engine DuckDuckGo breaks its own traffic record, expects growth to continue
27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amOn its Twitter account, DuckDuckGo reported that it broke its own daily traffic record on Tuesday. The Tweet itself came on Wednesday, and it's likely that the startup search engine will consistently add to its traffic in the coming weeks. According to the site's numbers, it has had more than 730,000 direct hits on Tuesday. The following day, it garnered more than 848,000 visits. Additionally, the website has consistently reached traffic volumes above 550,000 users in each of the last two weeks. While DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go if it hopes to catch up to the bigger players in…
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Content Gyan: Content Writing, Content Strategy and Content Marketing Blog
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How to create content to engage your prospects
24 Jan 2012 | 10:44 amThe primary purpose of your content is engaging your prospects and you can engage your prospects only when you offer them something really, genuinely valuable through your content. It must hold some meaning. When they have consumed your content they shouldn't feel as if they could have better spent that time doing something else. -
What makes you an outstanding content writer?
20 Jan 2012 | 12:27 pmAs an outstanding content writer you should provide a content solution rather than simply content writing services, provided your client wants it. Content marketing these days doesn't just mean creating compelling content and then submitting it to various search engines and online directories. Content writing and content marketing is a complete dedicated promotional activity including strategy, conceptualization, audience engagement, social networking, analytics, search engine optimization and distribution. -
Why I charge the way I do for my content writing services
6 Jan 2012 | 11:40 amWhen you're paying for content writing you are not merely paying for the written word, you are paying for the entire package that comes with hiring an experienced and professional content writer running a long-lasting business on the Internet. -
How regular blogging helps your customers and clients
4 Jan 2012 | 11:08 amThe primary purpose of your business blog is to provide helpful content to your customers and clients and consequently, keep them engaged. You can help them by providing solutions to the problem (that can be directly or indirectly solved by your product or service). -
Should you create content or curate content
21 Dec 2011 | 8:21 amYou can strike a perfect balance between content creation and content curation by focusing on value rather than quantity. When publishing content on your website, whether you are creating it or linking to it you need to focus on what value it is providing to your visitors.
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Content for Biz Blog
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How to Write Potent Headlines: a Lesson from David Ogilvy
25 Jan 2012 | 12:33 pmI think advertising man David Ogilvy would have enjoyed online marketing for the instantaneous... -
Content Pays Homage to Craft & Materials
23 Jan 2012 | 7:35 pmI wanted to know more about George Nakashima’s work so went to his website where I learned about... -
Credible Content: Walmart Enlists Customers to Help Fellow Shoppers
20 Jan 2012 | 9:36 pmI don’t know about you, but when I shop online, I gravitate toward reviews. They contain sweet bits... -
Not Enough Leads from Your Contractor Website? Here’s Help.
18 Jan 2012 | 10:48 pmIn his recent enewsletter Michael Stone of Markup and Profit reported the results of a survey among... -
Steal the Voice of Your Top Sales People for Web Content
17 Jan 2012 | 10:38 amThe way information is presented on websites is changing. In part due to the increasingly social...
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Content Marketing For Entrepreneurs
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Are You Writing Articles That Attract Your Ideal Clients?
18 Jan 2012 | 8:42 pmAbout two years ago, I worked with a client who wanted help with positioning himself as a go-to authority in his industry. He initially found me through an article I had written somewhere (as most of my clients do) and wanted me to basically perform miracles for him. Okay — I’m a miracle worker sometimes (dusting off my shoulders:), so I took on the challenge.My first job was to take a look at his business and one of the first things that I took inventory of was the types of content he had created and in particular if he was creating content that resonated with his ideal clients. -
How Entrepreneurs Can Quickly Beat Writers Block
15 Jan 2012 | 4:02 pmDo You Have Writers Block?If you are an entrepreneur who shies away from writing articles because you struggle with writer’s block, do not waste your time trying to beat it by using traditional “writers block” books and courses out there. Those are typically written by fiction authors who are trying to help other fiction writers — and that’s a whole different animal!Fiction authors typically write from a purely internal creative place. Entrepreneurs like us, need to also write from an external influence — and that’s solving the problems of our… -
Google Scholar
12 Jan 2012 | 7:00 amWant To Refer To Scholarly Publications In Your Work?Are you in a niche where you’d like to write content that references scholarly content from academic publishers, universities, professional societies, librarians and more? Using these types of references in your work can dramatically add to the credibility of your articles and they are easier to find than you may think. Simply use Google’s search engine for scholarly search: Google Scholar.Want To Be Considered A Scholarly Resource?If you are an educational professional, etc. and would like the content of your site to be… -
7 Updates For Your Virtual Assistant To Handle
11 Jan 2012 | 2:27 pmI was in the middle of delegating these 7 tasks to my wonderful virtual assistant (Pam) so I thought I’d jot them down for you to delegate as well:1. Change your blog footer copyright to 2012.2. Change your newsletter copyright to 2012.3. Update any terms of use, disclaimers, etc. that may contain a 2011 date.4. Check Google’s webmaster tools to see if your sites have any dead links a.k.a. 404 errors (your sites have to be set up in webmaster tools first)5. Check stats to see what social media site is bringing you the most traffic and spend a little more energy over there.6. Get… -
Top 5 Things I Learned About Writing Content In 2011
8 Jan 2012 | 4:41 pmEvery year I like to reflect and assess what is working in my life and what isn’t. These are the five things that came up for me during 2011, when it came to creating content in my business. Maybe you can identify with some of these.1. Statistics Can Be AddictiveIn 2010 my husband was obsessed with his Blackberry and in 2011 he moved on to an iPhone. I think he may be even worse now. He is addicted to his apps the way I am addicted to my “stats”. Keeping an eye on your content statistics such as blog article views and article directory views can really get addictive…
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Content Strategy Hub
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Calculating Your Social Media ROI
26 Jan 2012 | 6:45 amSocial Media ROI. Is social media worth the investment? While some companies are trying to figure out if they should invest in new media, others dove in head first and are now trying to figure out what the return on their investment is. I decided to throw together this short report to try to simplify...Calculating Your Social Media ROI is a post from: Content Strategy Hub -
Selling by Putting Your Faults on Display: A Mini Case Study
23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 amFor most people trying to sell a product, displaying your faults seems counter-intuitive. Maybe even downright scary. If someone criticizes you, why would you want everyone else to see it too? This may not make sense at first, but your critics are actually one of you best business resources. For two reasons… You can use...Selling by Putting Your Faults on Display: A Mini Case Study is a post from: Content Strategy Hub -
The Street Vendor Solution to Marketing: 8 Ways to Be Unique
19 Jan 2012 | 6:43 amIn Columbus, at the edge of the Ohio State University campus, lies an area called the “Gateway District.” This area has a movie theater, a few restaurants and some bars. Really, it’s just an area for a ton of college kids to gather and party. On the weekends, this place really busy. And what does...The Street Vendor Solution to Marketing: 8 Ways to Be Unique is a post from: Content Strategy Hub -
[Infographic] How to Jump on the Content Marketing Bandwagon
16 Jan 2012 | 6:47 amThis infographic was recently published on the MarketingProfs blog. It does a pretty good job of summing up what content marketing is, how it’s used, how it should be used and why it is effective (in relation to the customer). Before you go on and take a look through it, I have to to warn you...[Infographic] How to Jump on the Content Marketing Bandwagon is a post from: Content Strategy Hub -
Google Goes Social. So What?
11 Jan 2012 | 8:11 amThe news of Google’s integration of Google+ into their search results took the internet by storm yesterday. So yes, I am a bit late to the party. But it’s only one day, so that’s OK. And that one day (or one night really) gave me the opportunity to think it through and try to figure...Google Goes Social. So What? is a post from: Content Strategy Hub
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Ron's Copy-e-Writing Blog
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Top 5 Ad Copywriting Books on Amazon
17 Jan 2012 | 2:13 amThe bigger the marketplace, the more confused you get. Loads of books, big and small, color or black/white, cheap and expensive (if you consider $14 to be expensive!), coming in all shapes and sizes…I love and hate Amazon for the same reason. God! You must be feeling the same way. Which one to buy? Which will suit your requirements? Which one will be the best investment? Disclaimer: The book authors mentioned below have not paid me to speak about them, and neither am I a great book reader. Copywriting is an “art” and it doesn’t come by reading, for all I know. So, even if you think… -
What are the 3-W’s of a Compelling Guarantee?
16 Jan 2012 | 11:46 pmA while back, I got direct mail selling software. Or rather, it was trying to. It didn’t do a very good job … all because of the guarantee. I was half sold on buying, but I wasn’t convinced. I’ll be honest; I hadn’t read the letter thoroughly. I skimmed it as I often do at first. In skimming it, I didn’t see a guarantee. On second skim, I missed it again. The third time — on a thorough reading — I found the guarantee. There it was at the bottom of the last page, 9-point type, in a footnote. Simply by the guarantee’s placement, without even reading… -
Article Marketing is Out, Guest Posting is In?
13 Jan 2012 | 1:53 amTell you something, there’s started a big debate after the Google Panda update in 2011, regarding whether article marketing is out and guest posting is in. When Ana Hoffman says, article marketing still works, although crafted in a clever way, a SingleGrain.com article strongly purports that guest posting is in. If you ask me whether article marketing is dead, I would say – article marketing is dead (IMO)! Why? I am not going into some research stats here. Just use your common sense. When you search for anything on Google, do you see any article directories’ articles? NO. Did the… -
Ultimate Blog Marketing: Building Brand Awareness
12 Jan 2012 | 2:11 am“Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.” - Bertrand Russell Market is HUGE. Competition is hard. And if you want to rise above the rest and attract MORE clients in NO time, you have to “show” you are the best. Did you notice something there? I didn’t say “prove”; rather I said “show”. Why? Here’s a lesson for you to learn. Marketing is all about persuasion, conviction and construction of your market presence. And when it’s online marketing, it is worse, more ruthless and plain cut-throat in the true sense of the term. No, mere talent… -
Are You Using VigLink Link Monetization Technique?
11 Jan 2012 | 10:48 pmThe main difference between a blogger and a writer is that a blogger is a businessman, but a writer is not, rather a salesperson. Why? A blogger needs to look at every aspect of his business. A writer just needs to sell his “product” to his clients. A blogger talks about visitors and conversion rate. A writer talks about clients and sales. A blogger tells you about his passive income. A writer tells you about his active income. A blogger is a unique individual with unique views and opinions. A writer is a prostitute of words. In short, a blogger can be a writer, but the reverse is…
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Words That Begin With You
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Is Content Curation Just Organized Theft?
27 Jan 2012 | 5:17 pmCourtesy of cambodi4kidsorg (flickr) Content marketing, inbound marketing, content creation, content curation, content aggregation… Wow. Maybe it should be called “content aggravation”! It seems like there are a million different terms and philosophies floating around now that content marketing has really started hitting its stride in the minds of the average business person, especially in relation to online marketing. So, I wanted to spend some time (maybe a few posts) discussing some of this terminology and trying to explore what it actually means to the average… -
WTBWY TV: How Can You Market With Content?
26 Jan 2012 | 5:55 amThis is the third in a series of videos covering some of the basics of Content Marketing. Please let me know what you think in the comments, as I’ve never done this before! Transcript: Hey, thanks for joining me again. This is Justin P Lambert from Words That Begin With You, Customer-focused Content Marketing. Now, this video’s talking about a pretty broad question and I’m not going to try to cover it completely. You wouldn’t want to sit here that long, and I wouldn’t either. But the question is, how do you go about marketing with content? -
WTBWY TV: Why is Content Marketing So Important?
23 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pmHere’s the second in a series of brief instructional videos covering some basics about content marketing. Enjoy! Transcript: Hi everyone, it’s Justin P Lambert again from Words That Begin With You, customer-focused content marketing. If you watched my first video, it was on the question of “what is content marketing”? This time I’m going to talk about a slightly different question: “why is content marketing so important”? You’ve probably noticed in the last several months, if you’ve been doing any sort of research at all about… -
Do You Still Need a Company Brochure?
21 Jan 2012 | 5:10 amCourtesy of Andrea Balzano (flickr) I’m a member of a LinkedIn group called The Association of Independent Business Consultants and had the opportunity to participate in an interesting discussion recently that got me thinking. I remember back several years ago when I was first considering opening my doors as a freelance copywriter, long before I ever made my first cold call or snagged my first portfolio sample, I felt the need to design, write and print several copies of my company brochure. Don’t laugh too hard. You probably did the same thing. So Carolyn‘s question was:… -
WTBWY TV: What is Content Marketing?
16 Jan 2012 | 3:04 pmEnjoy the first in (what I hope will be) a long line of brief, instructional videos. It ain’t much, but it’s out here and I’m hoping I’ll get better as I go along. Let me know what you think! There’s a comments section below, you know? Transcript: Hey, how you doing? This is Justin P Lambert from Words That Begin With You, customer-focused content marketing. I wanted to put a series of videos together, just to give you a real quick insight into how I view some basic content marketing concepts. And this first one, the one you’re viewing now,…
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B2B Digital Marketing
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Content Marketing Advice: Stop Competing with My Children!
26 Jan 2012 | 2:52 amToday, marketers are locked in a battle for attention. As individuals, we are flooded with more marketing messages than we can consume. Getting our attention requires something exceptional.To date, the currency that purchases our attention is content. Content that is useful and connects with our priorities, content that entertains, content that teaches. Content that offers us something beyond your brand and message.However, content is merely the vehicle. The future of marketing is about attention. Attention that today is focused on our priorities at work and at home. Priorities that include… -
How to Market to the New Mass of Influencers
24 Jan 2012 | 3:12 amIf cable and online video fragmented TV audiences, then audiences are shattered when everyone produces their own channel or subscribes to a handpicked list of channels produced by their friends, influencers, entertainers and chosen brands.Once upon a time (approximately 1,500 days ago) companies could reach out to influencers individually. They could brief them and spend time with them. Today, there is a new mass of influencers, too numerous to connect with individually and not influential enough to warrant the expense of one-to-one outreach.Now everyone has a soapbox and a small audience. As… -
Google+ for SEO? Don’t Focus on Your Brand Page!
19 Jan 2012 | 2:39 amGoogle, Plus Your World was rolled out just over a week ago, and the online world has adopted the rallying call to get onto Google+ for the SEO benefits.Multiple articles point to brand pages as the solution. Publications from mainstream (Mashable wrote “get your Google+ brand page into as many influential people’s circles as possible“) to niche (HelloBloggerz.com wrote “brands need to invest more time into promoting their Google Plus brand pages“) are misleading marketers.The problem is, Google+ Brand Pages are not the ticket to SEO success. In fact, if you focus… -
Why Your Content Will Never Be Good Enough
17 Jan 2012 | 6:11 amQuite simply, the marketing content you create will never be good enough. You will need to produce better content every single day.Today, someone trumped your content. Just now, they become a more useful source of information to your audience.How Your Content was TrumpedContent quality is relative. As more companies focus on developing and producing quality content, the overall quality of content will improve and the expectations of content will increase. Your content may have been good when it was created, but now it’s merely average.In content marketing, your competitors are not just… -
B2B Social Media Opportunities [#B2Bchat Recap]
16 Jan 2012 | 10:48 amIn our most recent #B2Bchat discussion, we looked at a number of social networks and how B2B marketers can take advantage of them, and once again I was pleased to have the opportunity to moderate the lively discussion.Rather than a deep dive into a single network or objective, the discussion quickly touched on a number of social networks or platforms.Participants identified a number of specific opportunities, however what was most apparent throughout the discussion is that social media is moving quickly. B2B marketers need to stay on top of the market if they are to identify and take…
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One Spoon At A Time
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How Bloggers and Content Marketers Can Generate Unlimited Video Ideas
23 Jan 2012 | 5:05 amPaul’s Note – today’s post came about following an exchange of emails with Adrienne from www.AdrienneSmith.net. We got to talking about video and Adrienne asked me if I could help her with something that she was having some problems with. And that something was this: “How do I come up with ideas for videos?” Now [...] -
More Thoughts On Goal Setting – 2012
16 Jan 2012 | 3:09 amNew Year is the time when people set themselves new ‘goals’ – and I’ve done the same. And I’ve written about this process in a couple of places. Firstly, there was a Subscriber Only post here: 2012 Goals – Doubling The Income Of My Main Site And then there was this recent post: Goals Are [...] -
Goals Are For Life…Not Just For New Year!
10 Jan 2012 | 5:22 amSo yesterday I had an exchange on Twitter with Davina Brewer of 3 Hats Communications prompted by the tweet you can see here. If you can’t read it – depending on your screen size and resolution – Davina wrote: Still haven’t finished the Resolutions post. At this pace, I’ll know what I’m shooting for by [...] -
Prediction For 2012: The Death of The $37 eBook
3 Jan 2012 | 3:26 pmFirstly, Happy New Year! If you’ve been checking in on your favourite blogs over the New Year there have been a slew of two types of posts. One is a ‘what are your goals’ type of post. And the other is a ‘predictions for 2012’ type of post. Subscribers to One Spoon will have read [...] -
The Maths Of YouTube – #videomarketing
30 Dec 2011 | 11:10 amPaul’s Note: today’s post is a guest post by a good friend of mine called Steven Washer. Steve is my ‘go to’ guy whenever I have a technical question on video. He’s currently launching a course on Sales Videos – and has three information packed videos available for you to view for the price of [...]
