Scott Gerber says, “Social media trends change constantly. Consumers are tired of blatant self-promotion, so put those tactics to rest. What’s a brand to do to hold an audience? From holding contests to promoting gated content, these entrepreneurs from YEChave found success with these creative methods for collecting social media leads. 1.... [Read more]

Josh Constine says, “Google just announced a big restructuring of the company, sending shares up about 6 percent in extended trading. After the announcement, shares of Google rose 5 percent, but have since risen even further. As part of the restructuring, Larry page is now the new CEO of a parent company called Alphabet, while Sundar Pichai will... [Read more]

Ray Hennessey says, “Say goodbye to Google. Say hello to Alphabet. Google Inc. says it is creating a new operating structure under a newly formed umbrella company it is calling Alphabet Inc. Co-founder and current CEO Larry Page will lead the new company, while Sergey Brin, the other co-founder, will serve as president. Google itself will be... [Read more]

IM NewsWatch is always on the look-out for products that offer marketers a chance to be distinctive. Artisanal products, crafted by hand, with the skill of an expert, can benefit marketers who know that the look of a product, advertisement or website affects its success. Today, such a product is being released by Haris Cizmic, Over 160 Creative Design... [Read more]

Kayla Cobb says, “When it comes to testing, it’s exciting to focus on big tests, but being too focused on large-scale changes can hinder marketers from seeing smaller opportunities to test. Oftentimes, small tweaks to ads, copy or smaller webpage elements can lead to dramatic lifts. Cindy Lu, Senior Marketing Manager of Digital Marketing Strategy,... [Read more]

Joe Pulizzi says, “The challenges for marketers in the financial industry are similar to those being experienced in other industries: The marketplace is changing, and customers are no longer responding to one-size-fits-all approaches. But this industry has its own unique considerations: Financial marketers operate in a heavily regulated industry... [Read more]

Baer says, “Content marketing is the ultimate wa y to build brand awareness and connect with your customers. It lets you tell your unique story and build huge buzz around your products or services. It’s also seriously hard work. Fortunately, there are lots of great, time-saving tools out there that can dramatically increase the impact of your content... [Read more]

Stephen Gilbert, Greg Kononenko and Steven Meiracker are online marketers of long-standing. They both create products of their own and market as affiliates for other people's products... [Read more]

Deborah Mitchell says, “Blogger conferences have been a great resource for me as an entrepreneur. In July, New York City was host to two huge blogger events, BlogHer and Blogger Bash, where more than 5,000 bloggers gathered to meet with brand representatives and attend sessions to hone their online skills. Sheryl Simonitis, vice president of... [Read more]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “It’s no secret video is becoming a bigger and bigger part of companies’ inbound marketing strategies. This year alone, we’ve seen Twitter launch video autoplay in our feeds, Facebook give advertisers the option to buy video ads, and the rise of live streaming video via Periscope and Meerkat. Nowadays,... [Read more]

Eric Enge says, “How do the SERPs for commercial queries vary from the treatment of informational queries? Moz is about to publish its new Search Engine Ranking Factors, and was kind enough to provide me with access to their raw ranking data. Today I am going to share some of what I found. In addition, I am going to compare it against raw ranking... [Read more]

Face it, if you want to be a marketer, you need a mailing list of people who have indicated an interest in what you have to sell... [Read more]

Eddie Newquist says, “Three seconds. That’s the tiny window you have to capture someone’s attention with your ad. That window seems especially tiny when the mute button’s been pushed by the platform hosting your material. Muted autoplay ads are growing more and more common, and you need to radically rethink your digital marketing strategy... [Read more]

Jerod Morris says, “Podcasts attract audience attention and build connection. You get that by now. But have you ever stopped to consider how far the tentacles of one podcast episode can extend? This is the subject of our next free Rainmaker Webinar: Start a Podcast to Attract Attention and Seed Your Content Library Consider everything you get... [Read more]

Kevin McGirl says, “There are many characteristics of a good sales person. According to research from Harvard Business Review, the key factors are a drive to succeed and empathy, and according to research that we compiled last year, being social, competitive and driven is what separates a good sales person from a great one. In truth, a sales pro... [Read more]

Naidy Phoon and his business partner Trevor Emdon have been experimenting with using Facebook in new ways to drive traffic to their websites, without spending money on Facebook ads... [Read more]

Andy Paul says, “Let’s face the hard truth: In sales, you are standing all by yourself on a lonely island. At the end of the day, achieving your quota is totally up to you. You have to decide how you are going to allocate your time to the various avenues available to you to achieve this. If you are provided leads but complain that you don’t... [Read more]

Alex Wilhelm says, “Shares of Twitter, a popular social media company, fell sharply today, dipping nearly 6 percent by midday trading. The company’s equity fell in value below the $30 mark, setting new lows. As of the time of writing, shares of Twitter are worth just over $29. For context, Twitter went public at $26 per share, and saw its... [Read more]

Vivek Patel says, “If you want to improve search visibility of your business, link building, or increasing the number of inbound links to your website, still remains a critical and powerful online-marketing tool. But it’s getting tougher to build the kind of links that increase organic search traffic and which eventually encourage strategic... [Read more]

Sam Mann, Jason Finley and Ali Ahmed have just introduced new Fiverr training, called The Big Buck Method, and it has met with a warm welcome. Over 1000 people have invested in this breakthrough training... [Read more]

Baer says, “Let’s face it: most of your old blog posts are aging like milk, not wine. At this point, you’ve probably spent a lot of time creating content. It took you months (maybe even years) to publish all those high-quality blog posts. There’s just one problem: some of that content hasn’t aged well. As a general rule, people are going to... [Read more]

Joseph Denne says, “Many of today’s businesses find themselves overwhelmed by data. They are dealing with multiple data sets which are often collected separately, run in silos, and with huge levels of duplication. This data is mined on an ad-hoc basis by communications teams operating under antiquated marketing strategies, leading to loss... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “This podcast began with the mantra “media not marketing.” In other words, valuable online content does the job that marketing is supposed to do, but instead of people avoiding it, they seek it out. Once you have an audience, you can intelligently determine what people want to buy. Not with random ideas and guesswork,... [Read more]

Carly Stec says, “Instagram is a powerful visual platform for expanding your agency’s reach; however, there’s more to it than point, click, filter, and post. If you want to ensure that your images aren’t lost in a sea of selfies and abstract shots of people’s lunches, you must have a plan for optimizing their discoverability. Hashtagging... [Read more]

Brian Hughes says, “Value-based email marketing is one of the most effective inbound marketing strategies, with 59 percent of marketers increasing their email marketing budgets for 2015. Sixty-six percent of customers have made a purchase as the result of an email marketing message, according to the Direct Marketing Association. And the most... [Read more]

Ann Gynn says, “The challenges for marketers in the financial industry are similar to those being experienced in other industries: The marketplace is changing, and customers are no longer responding to one-size-fits-all approaches. But this industry has its own unique considerations: Financial marketers operate in a heavily regulated industry... [Read more]

Pete Prestipino says, “A new report from Movable Ink indicates that while email recipients on mobile devices are responsible for more opens, those using their desktop are generating more conversions. Movable Ink’s Q2 “US Consumer Device Preference Report” reveals that 68 percent of emails were opened on a mobile device, with... [Read more]

Business.com Editorial Staff says, “Great news! Marketing has a shiny new lead for you. But not so fast—blink those dollar signs out of your eyes. It’s not time to seal the deal yet; you need to get to know each other first. Lead nurturing is the vital middleman between sales and marketing; it helps you build a relationship and gain the trust... [Read more]