Dan S. Kennedy says, “Your company’s website should be a place of vast (current) information. But first and foremost, it should represent who you are and what you do. So often I see websites that are more like static brochures than dynamic, personality-driven, multimedia websites. To be a marketing website, your site must have these 10... [Read more]

Richard Lazazzera says, “Search engine optimization, when implemented properly, can help your store rank higher in search engine results and deliver a steady stream of traffic and sales, day after day, week after week, month after month. This makes SEO ultra-valuable for ecommerce merchants in a world where paid ads keep getting more expensive. SEO... [Read more]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “Since Instagram was introduced in October 2010, users have shared more than 30 billion photos. So, what can you do to make your content stand out among the Instagram crowd? Here are some tips from the following Salesforce infographic. Post quality photos regularly. The key word is quality. “Followers may be... [Read more]

Luther Landro, no stranger to IM NewsWatch readers, has released his latest tool for online marketers: Ultimate WordPress Branding. This new software helps marketers and consultants who build sites for others. When you show a sample WordPress site to a potential client or when you actually build a site and turn it over to a client, if it is a plain... [Read more]

David Kirkpatrick says, “By this point, I think most marketers understand the value and importance of the content marketing channel. It’s well known that prospects for both consumer and B2B marketers are now doing most research on their own — I’ve seen research reporting B2B prospects are now getting 80% down the pipeline before ever raising... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook advertisers reached more customers per ad and paid less for each click in the first quarter of 2015, according to advertising automation software provider Nanigans’ Global Facebook Advertising Benchmark Report released today. Nanigans’ customers had a 0.81% click-through rate in the first quarter, up 17% over Q4... [Read more]

Andy Hoar says, “Forrester forecasts that 1 million US B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service eCommerce by the year 2020. B2B buyers now favor do-it-yourself online options for researching and buying products and services, and they are demanding that B2B sellers fully enable those digital paths to purchase. Yet too many of today’s... [Read more]

You may have heard the stories about many everyday people who have earned a good income on the Internet. You’re an everyday person, too. Why can’t you do the same?... [Read more]

Monica Montesa says, “Anytime you interact with Apple – whether online, in-store or with a product – there are no doubts about what company you’re engaging with. From their simple color scheme to their clean website and packaging, it’s easy to recognize when you’re enveloped in an Apple experience. But how do they create such an amazing... [Read more]

Nataly Kelly says, “For most of you, customers can come to you from any country in the world. That means all of your potential customers — the people visiting your website, reading your blog posts, and clicking on your calls-to-action — might speak a myriad of different languages or live in totally different time zones. Once they... [Read more]

Quora team says, “What skills are required to be successful in sales? Not sure how sales skills are evaluated but would be great to see a full list of soft and hard skills. Answer below by Quora user Mira Zaslove. Resiliency. Sales is filled with rejection, and the better salesperson is able to bounce back more quickly and keep positive. A good... [Read more]

Justin Sardi and Neil McPherson have spent the last couple of years developing their video marketing skills. To start, they had some tutoring from a successful video marketer, but after a while they began to experiment on their own. They got some positive results with one product, so they tried this video system on other products, too... [Read more]

Jessica Ann says, “Are you down with UGC? It’s not just another content marketing buzzword. It’s naughty and unpredictable by nature. And it wants your brand to come out and play. You don’t have to be naughty. But you do need to understand the nature of how it works and how it will evolve. UGC is the acronym for user-generated content.... [Read more]

Baer says, “If you’re reading this (or listening via the new Convince & Convert podcast) you’re probably either creating online forms, or are somehow trying to get people to fill them out. Think about the impact forms have on our jobs as marketers, on our businesses, on our success and failures. They are indispensable. But yet we don’t... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “Before today’s guest on Hack the Entrepreneur built a successful company in China, he was just a wandering 20-year-old backpacker, only looking for an adventure. He planned on making a brief stop in the city of Beijing to earn some funds, see the Great Wall, and move on to his next adventure. Turns out, that trip would... [Read more]

Google believes mobile users are being shortchanged by webmasters. Many websites  treat mobile as an afterthought and do little to assure that mobile visitors can use the site easily.. [Read more]

Everett Sizemore says, “If eCommerce businesses hope to remain competitive with Amazon, eBay, big box brands, and other online retail juggernauts, they’ll need to learn how to conduct content marketing, lead generation, and contact nurturing as part of a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. First, I will discuss some of the ways most... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Instagram has fast become a go-to social platform for brands and Instagram’s owner, Facebook, has been encouraging advertisers to embrace it as its user ranks have swelled to more than 300m. One of the ad offerings that Facebook recently rolled out on Instagram is carousel ads, “a way for brands to share more... [Read more]

Josh Hill says, “Even if you’ve never heard the term before, chances are you’ve experienced permission marketing. Ever subscribe to a company’s blog to receive notifications when they publish new posts? That’s permission marketing — you’re volunteering your information up to the company, giving them permission... [Read more]

The multi-national marketing team of IM Wealth Builders (Cindy Battye, John Merrick and Soren Jordansen) have just released their Covert Commissions online software membership site. This is a plug & play system for earning affiliate commissions virtually on autopilot... [Read more]

Baer says, “Peter Drucker said, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” So I assume you’ve heard from nearly every content marketing blog out there how to do the right things. That’s being effective. For example, here are some things effective blog editors do: You plan awesome content. You use... [Read more]

Matt Swan says, “With the rise of cross device tracking, it is perhaps timely to consider the true length of customer journeys and whether as a result, cookie lengths should be revisited. Reduced cookie periods Traditionally it has been an industry standard to set cookie lengths to 30 days, with this being the time frame an affiliate can be considered... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “B2B buyers say thorough contact information is the content element that best establishes credibility on a vendor website, according to a recent report from KoMarketing and Huff Industrial Marketing. The report was based on data from an October and November 2014 survey of 262 professionals who are responsible for, or influence,... [Read more]

Morgan Jacobson says, “What is an ecommerce company to do when one of their “most trusted” payment options gets a big slap on the wrist from the US Treasury? Most are learning right now, though data isn’t yet available to report. So, what exactly happened, and how might it affect your small to medium ecommerce business? A $7.7M Slap Hurts Apparently,... [Read more]

Lee Odden says, “Recording last night’s BeanCast, Altruism or Consumerism, hosted by the talented Bob Knorpp brought up the topic of Content Marketing and whether paid placement of content is just advertising – among many other topics from Dove to Amazon Dash. This content vs. ad question was inspired by commentary from Mitch Joel in his... [Read more]

Amberly Dressler says, “If it feels like your e-commerce advertising is like trying to win a Formula 1 race on a bike you’re not alone. It’s possible to come in first but not likely… The competition is stronger, fiercer and enjoys way more horsepower. Not to mention they’re everywhere too. It doesn’t matter what channels you try... [Read more]

Kurt Wagner says, “Snapchat is making a few tweaks to its six-month-old ad business. The company has stopped selling Brand Stories, the first type of ad it released last fall, according to multiple people familiar with the move. Brand Stories are the equivalent of sponsored stories, allowing a marketer to share photos and video content with users... [Read more]