Courtney Eckerle says, “The marketers at fitness app RunKeeper needed to find a simpler process for utilizing the data they had available to properly segment RunKeeper’s 40 million global users. Learn how the team was able to improve deliverability and send content to the right people at the right time through a segmentation effort that doubled... [Read more]

Rachel Sprung says, “How do you decide which topics to write about on your blog to attract the most traffic and leads? What about which types of blog posts to write? How many to publish in a week? How to promote them? These are just some of the questions you might have when creating your blog strategy — and knowing a thing or two about... [Read more]

Baer says, “We all know it’s essential to create great (and ubiquitous) content. But the time pressures are real. Most of us—even if we have a team backing us—can’t spend dozens of hours each week writing blog posts, engaging in witty real-time banter on Twitter, sharing insightful articles on LinkedIn, and building robust online communities. As... [Read more]

We have warned you in the past about the risks of hacking for a WordPress site. The fact that there are millions of sites using WordPress, all of them configured by default the same way, means that when a crook finds his way into one site, he can find his way into almost all. If you want yours to be one of the exceptions, you may need ;Blog Defender... [Read more]

Greg Sterling says, “Whether you call it Mobilegeddon, Mopocalypse or something else, Google’s mobile-friendly update arrives tomorrow. The update will be significant and potentially impact a large number of websites that aren’t mobile-friendly. Remarkably, some estimates suggest that as much as 40 percent of the top sites aren’t mobile... [Read more]

JP Mangalindan says, “Google is introducing a new algorithm that affects how mobile search results appear — a significant change that will take anywhere from several days to a week to roll out. Moving forward, when you do a Google search on mobile, search results will prioritize websites that the search engine deems “mobile-friendly”... [Read more]

Chow says, “Sure, it is certainly important to build up your social media following or your mailing list. You want to have your avid supporters, fans and online cheerleaders. At the same time, it is undeniable that one of the most important and one of the largest sources of traffic will always be search engines. Ranking for your target keywords in... [Read more]

No one of us can sell as much as all of us put together. That’s why smart product developers invite others to become affiliates. They have contacts you don’t have, so you immediately increase your audience. Remember, though, that the more you do to help your affiliates promote your product, the more effective they will be. In fact, the best way... [Read more]

Ted Schadler says, “Customer are mobile first. Is your website? Are all your webpages? Google did something important for your customers today: it changed its ranking algorithm for searches on smartphones. If Google deems your web page mobile-unfriendly, then it will be devalued in the search rankings. Your page will be buried. My colleagues... [Read more]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Today, Facebook announced three brand new updates to the News Feed algorithm specifically meant to improve user experience. How? By providing a better balance of updates from friends versus updates from businesses, publishers, public figures, and local organizations. Every time Facebook updates its algorithm, brands... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Today, Google began to use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal, but the search giant isn’t stopping there in its push to promote good experiences for mobile users. Last week, Google announced that it is changing the way URLs are presented in the SERPs. On the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Google’s Bartlomiej... [Read more]

New customers are the life of any business.  Finding them isn’t always easy, especially for local businesses. If you can offer a local business a website that will give them a steady supply of new leads, a smart owner should jump at the chance for this stream of new business... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “If you want your website’s About page to work, you have to answer one crucial question. And no, the question isn’t, “How many years have you been in business?” It’s the one question that’s at the top of your site visitor’s mind. And if you answer it to her satisfaction, there’s a good chance she’ll stick... [Read more]

Mike Ramsay says, “Local content has been no different. I started out my career creating duplicate local doorway pages using “find and replace” with city names. After getting whacked by the figurative newspaper a few times, I decided there had to be a better way. To save others from the struggles I experienced, I hope that the hard... [Read more]

Ginny Soskey says, “For most marketers, this will sound familiar. You’re sitting around a conference room, trying to figure out how to best engage your leads and customers, sell more products, or just “stay top-of-mind” for your target audience, and someone decides there’s a solution that can solve all of those problems at once: an email... [Read more]

Derek Thomas is a man who struggled with earning enough to live on from online marketing. He was an affiliate marketer but wasn’t doing well. Then he got interested in researching the keywords people were searching for. He applied the knowledge he gained to his business. He got so good at uncovering keywords that he became good at niche and affiliate marketing... [Read more]

JP Mangalindan says, “Most people just want to be liked — even if that means a cursory thumbs up on Facebook. But a News Feed update announced Tuesday, which will roll out over the coming weeks, will somewhat deemphasize the feature. Posts highlighting what a friend Liked or commented on will either show up lower in your News Feed or not show... [Read more]

Luca Paderni says, “Programmatic advertising is revolutionizing the way online display is traded. It is set for high growth in 2015 across all of Europe and is a top item on marketers’ list of tech to investigate this year. After an initial take-up limited to direct-response, brand marketers are showing growing interest in programmatic buying... [Read more]

Jacob McMillen says, “Even minor drops in availability can result in lost revenues, reduced output, and decreased productivity. Take a quick second to think about something right now: Can you guarantee beyond any reasonable doubt that the people using your web or online services will never experience downtime for more than a few minutes? What... [Read more]

No one of us can sell as much as all of us put together. That’s why smart product developers invite others to become affiliates. They have contacts you don’t have, so you immediately increase your audience. Remember, though, that the more you do to help your affiliates promote your product, the more effective they will be. In fact, the best way... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook says it’s giving people what they want — and that could result in Pages getting less of what they crave: reach and referral traffic. Facebook announced three updates to its News Feed algorithm today and warned that the changes could cause reduced distribution for some Pages. Facebook said referral traffic to media... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “The purpose of the subheadline is two-fold. Standing out to a reader is its first purpose. The second purpose is a little more complex. Imagine your average reader. She has fallen in love with your headline. It’s a good one. It’s a humdinger. And now she is scrolling down the page, evaluating whether or not she wants... [Read more]

Charlie Keegan says, “As a marketer, you may feel that getting anyone to buy anything at all is hard enough. What happens when you build a company entirely around something people don’t really want anyway? Maybe you sell memberships to the local gym. Maybe you provide tax services or software to help people manage their money. What happens... [Read more]

Greg Ball says, “When it comes down to it, most of your business expenses should help improve your company’s profitability. When you spend, it’s wise to ask yourself, “how does this move the needle?” Years ago when I was managing Burger Kings’ worldwide video operation, the philosophy at the time was that with every expenditure, I needed... [Read more]

Lucas Santo says, “On Pinterest – the social platform built on beautiful, shareable imagery – opportunities for shopping come cleverly disguised as outfit inspiration, smoothie recipes and DIY centrepieces. For consumers, it’s a place to hunt and gather. For brands, it’s a goldmine. Consider this: we analyzed data from over 529, 000 Shopify... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Do consumers like humor in marketing emails? Do they prefer formal or informal language? Is it acceptable to include the occasional “LOL” and “BTW”? BuzzStream and Fractl recently set out to answer such questions by surveying 1,200 people between the age of 18 and 64 about out their email etiquette preferences.... [Read more]