Ayaz Nanji says, “Some 83% of brands sent general winter-holiday-themed emails last year, and 80% sent Black Friday emails, according to a recent report from Yesmail. The report was based on data from email marketing campaigns sent by 30 major B2C brands in the third and fourth quarters of 2014. The researchers used terms such as “school,”... [Read more]

Eric Dezendorf says, “In my last column, I spoke a bit about achieving the best results for your email program through testing. Now, let’s take a deeper dive into one of those tests. This month, I want to help answer the age-old question: When’s the perfect time to send an email? Remember, timing is everything. An email has its greatest potency... [Read more]

Gregg Crystal says, “The adage “patience is a virtue” doesn’t apply online. Even a one-second delay can drastically reduce pageviews, customer satisfaction and drop conversions. The speed of your site even affects your organic search rankings. Since 2010, Google has been accounting for a site speed in its algorithm. So what’s the biggest... [Read more]

Good content fuels your site’s success. You need content for everything you do online, blogs, backlinks, videos, etc. Content- good content- is what makes you credible. But content doesn’t come from thin air; it takes time, money or both, to create. Radu Hahaianu has just released his latest version of his software, Article Buddy Pro, in... [Read more]

Shayna Marks says, “he Internet is a vast maze of content, products and entertainment—you name it, and it has a home online. Now that just about every business entity has at least one place where their business “resides” online, the challenges of getting found by your target audience are needle in haystack-like stats. Enter search engine... [Read more]

Brian Pittman says, “Google’s Panda 4.2 algorithm rollout, which began over the weekend, continues Google’s commitment to rewarding high-quality, user-focused content with higher rankings. Here are three easy tips for optimizing your PR content for better results: 1. Go long. Many PR pros got used to writing short content because press release... [Read more]

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is both easy and hard; easy because you don’t have to sell anything (they are just signing up for free information) so there’s less resistance by the prospective buyer; but hard because you need to find receptive people, interested in the free offer you are promoting. We just learned about the release of Ultimate... [Read more]

Michael Bird says, “For many marketers in Europe, North America and Australia, China is the next great marketing frontier. With over 1.35bn people and 635m internet users (and still growing), it seems as if there’s no end to the marketing possibilities in China. As most marketers know, however, marketing to Chinese citizens is not exactly like... [Read more]

Carlos Escalera says, “The spam in Google Analytics (GA) is becoming a serious issue. Due to a deluge of referral spam from social buttons, adult sites, and many, many other sources, people are starting to become overwhelmed by all the filters they are setting up to manage the useless data they are receiving. The good news is, there is no need... [Read more]

JP Mangalindan says, “Your Twitter timeline may soon bear a greater resemblance to your Facebook news feed. Twitter is trying out a new look for summary cards — that is, tweeted links on Twitter.com — and the experiment looks a little familiar. “We’re experimenting with summary cards in the timeline to make cards more visually... [Read more]

As we reported, PublishVault opened for new users yesterday. No matter what type of blog site you publish to, this application will benefit your site or sites (they are offering unlimited support for Wordpress sites)... [Read more]

Jose Cebrian says, “The future of email will be live content. First-party data will be the key differentiator in driving results, so the latency of today’s production process will need to change. The advent of real-time content in email over the last few years is changing how marketers can drive relevancy and increase revenue. But to truly leverage... [Read more]

Emma Snider says, “Salespeople are well acquainted with the power of LinkedIn for prospect research, trigger event tracking, and customer engagement. But what about generating new sales leads (read: a lot of them)? If your pipeline is looking a bit empty, peruse the following SlideShare from LinkedSelling. You’ll discover how to whip up a... [Read more]

Anca Bradley says, “On Google’s list of philosophies, the very first one is “focus on the user and all else will follow.” But in the past, many SEO professionals have ignored this advice, crafting web pages designed primarily for Web crawlers, and crammed with keywords. While such an SEO-only strategy worked well 10 years ago, Google and... [Read more]

The better you understand the niche you are marketing in, the better you will be able to sell effectively in that niche. That's the principle behind Niche Genetics Expert, just released by Abbas Ravji... [Read more]

Rohini Srihari says, “In marketing it seems like there are new techniques emerging constantly – yet many of these vanish as quickly as they appeared. Real-time marketing, however, has been tipped to stick around by some of the industry’s leading experts – why is that? One reason may be that engaging customers today is less about selling... [Read more]

Dimitar Stojanov says, “Your website can be great channel for customer conversion and online sales. Among the various pages included in your navigation menu (e.g., Features, Tour, About, Contact), you might also include a dedicated pricing page where you describe—and list the prices of—your services or products. That’s a typical approach,... [Read more]

Steve Olenski says, “According to a recent study, the average human attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. This means that if you are to have any hope of engaging your audience, your number one job is to create content that can command attention for longer than eight seconds. Easier said than done. Even harder: getting your audience... [Read more]

Zorian Rotenberg says, “Smart sales reps are getting on board with social selling. Researching, engaging with, and reaching out to prospects on social media sites can help salespeople familiarize themselves with their buyers and separate themselves from the crowd. If used correctly, social insights can warm up a cold email or call to the rep’s... [Read more]

Business.com team says, “Do you know your place? Facebook does. Thanks to a combination of cellular networks, Wi-Fi and GPS data, a Facebook app called Place Tips provides you with myriad information about where you’re at, such as posts from friends who have been there, menu items from nearby restaurants and upcoming events. As TNW reports,... [Read more]

Peter Gasca says, “A picture is worth a thousand words — but in business, entrepreneurs don’t like to leave much to interpretation. It is for this reason that graphic interchange format files, or “GIFs,” have proliferated our digital landscape over the last few years. And while you may not know of them, there is a very high... [Read more]

Seth Fiegerman says, “Create a social network or risk everything. That was the original pitch for Google’s Facebook rival, Google+, a refrain hammered over and over by the social network’s chief architect, Vic Gundotra, in meetings with the company’s top brass. Gundotra, described by colleagues we spoke with as charismatic and... [Read more]

Paul Rouke says, “In previous articles I have discussed my admiration for the online experiences offered by the likes of ASOS, Booking.com and (yes, honestly) Lingscars.com. Now it is time to add another online experience to the pantheon of greats; the phenomenal ecommerce experience that is AO.com (formerly Appliances Online). My opinion... [Read more]

Robert Rose says, “Have you heard? Video on the web is popular. OK, I state the obvious – but video has truly emerged to become both a huge opportunity and challenge for brands in their content marketing efforts. In terms of how big the opportunity is for B2B marketers in particular, consider that a study by Forbes and Google found that 75%... [Read more]

JOhn Fetto says, “Americans are increasingly open about their sexual orientation and acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community continues to grow. As such, it is more important than ever for marketers to understand the influential and growing population of LGBT consumers. In recent research, Experian Marketing Services... [Read more]

Chow says, “Many people have the dream of making money from blogging. Many people have the dream to become full-time bloggers, finally quitting their day jobs to live the dot com lifestyle. Maybe that’s why you’re here reading John Chow dot Com. And while both John and I are pretty public about who we are and what we do, there are many successful... [Read more]

Daniel Beulah says, “At the Media Center at MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015, we interviewed your successful brand-side marketing peers, along with researchers and industry thought leaders. One interview stuck out from the rest because we interviewed someone who’s title was “customer.” Jill DAmato, the wife of our own Brian DAmato, Senior... [Read more]

Olivia Dello Buono says, “Social was the theme of the month, as some of the most popular platforms revealed big changes and features to their algorithms. And with summer festivals, vacations and celebrations underway, people are feverishly sharing their stories, videos and pictures – something that fearless brands are capitalizing on. If your... [Read more]

Kayla Cobb says, “In the world of marketing, there’s always a push to stay ahead of the curve and, more importantly, ahead of competitors. However, it’s hard to dedicate the time, money, manpower and technical know-how to launching truly eye-catching (and revenue-generating) campaigns. This is especially true for smaller companies with marketing... [Read more]

Megan Van Viack says, “Despite the growing number of ways that marketers can now reach consumers, email marketing remains the digital marketer’s highest-performing digital tactic, including as a source of qualified leads. And email subscribe forms are the most common way that marketers build their highest-performing email lists. When consumers... [Read more]

Kate Laggett says, “Customers today simply want efficient, effortless service, and are increasingly using chat as a way to get to the information that they are seeking. Chat usage rates have risen in the past three years — from 38% in 2009 to 43% in 2012 to 58% in 2014. We find that all demographics – young and old – are comfortable... [Read more]