The ‘Business 2 Community’ team says, “Content marketing is the link between brand awareness and lead generation. Done well, it builds familiarity, affinity and trust with prospective and current customers by providing information that resonates. But video is taking content marketing by storm as people are spending more and more time watching... [Read more]

Shawn Rubel says, “One of the best ways to build trust with prospective customers is with good web design. It can no longer be argued that a website’s design is and will continue to be one of the most influencing aspects on a customer’s initial opinion of a company. Studies show that just updating the design to make it look more modern can increase... [Read more]

Milad Oskouie says, “If you run a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, or you only have one product to sell, then you probably have one single, dedicated pricing page. Here’s how to make sure your pricing page is effective: 1. Keep It Simple, Stupid Let’s start with some basic truths. People don’t go to the Web to read. When... [Read more]

Are you a Clickbank affiliate? There is a major advantage over being an Amazon affiliate or eBay affiliate: your commission is much higher, usually 50% or more. However, usually you may have to work harder to earn that commission. That’s because Clickbank has so many products that it is hard to sort through them and find the ones that people will... [Read more]

Tucker Schreiber says, “Your storefront looks great. You’ve spent a lot of time tweaking it and making sure everything flows properly. But why aren’t any visitors adding products to their cart? You’ve taken time to advertise your store and it’s getting traffic, but it isn’t converting. Perhaps your visitors... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Twitter CEO Dick Costolo continued his state-of-the-Twitter-union-is-strong tour last night, sitting for a live-streamed Q&A interview at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. Costolo, who had been fending off some investor unrest about his leadership, has seemingly calmed the waters for... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Facebook has the most global members of any social network, but YouTube has the most monthly visitors, according to a recent report from Global Web Index. The report was based on data from Global Web Index’s panel of Internet users age 16-64 from 31 countries (China excluded). Panelists were asked about their habits on... [Read more]

As many people have probably told you, webinars are the best format to present your message persuasively. The problem for many of us, though, is that we are not comfortable speaking on live webinars. The pressure of a live webinar is too great. You have to get it right the first time. Not only that, you have to deal with issues like: * It’s expensive... [Read more]

Lara O’Reilly says, “AOL’s stock is down 11% after the company’s senior management team gave its outlook for 2015 during its Q4 earnings call. In short, the company described 2015 as an “investment year” and said that there may be “disruption” in the first two quarters of the year as it recovers from... [Read more]

Jami Oetting says, “Projects don’t always go as planned. You can perfectly outline the tasks, major milestones, and timeline for each project, but in the end, things happen: clients don’t send the information you need, a key employee walks out the door, a technical issue pops up that requires you to rethink the approach. This can... [Read more]

Adriana Lee says, “Google has now made it easier for armchair physicians to find things to freak out about. The tech giant just announced the inclusion of medical information to its Knowledge Graph searches, allowing anyone to contradict their doctors right in their offices. Essentially, it amounts to Google’s own souped-up version of WebMD, but... [Read more]

If you spend a lot of time creating your presentation slides and videos for presenting to clients or prospective clients, Heri Rosyadi has a new solution that will save you time while improving the look and feel of your presentations. He calls it Local Business Presentation Kit. He created it specifically so you don’t have to spend a lot of time... [Read more]

Chow says, “Video platforms like Youtube.com and Vimeo.com are becoming more popular each year because they allow a unique way for bloggers to engage with readers. What once used to be the text generation is slowly being taken over by visual aids because they’re easier to understand and can provide more value in a shorter time. Having the right... [Read more]

Todd Wasserman says, “In another effort to refine and improve ads that users see in their Facebook News Feeds, the company introduced a Relevance Score for ads this week. The scores, which are based on a scale of 1 to 10, measures how well the ad will perform for its targeted audiences. The numbers are a reflection of the ratio of positive to negative... [Read more]

Rob Lass says, “Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. If you’ve been sending emails to your subscribers for the holiday, keep it up! Now’s the time to attract those last-minute shoppers. Considering that consumers are rushing to purchase final gifts (hey – it still counts!), they’re probably searching through dozens of Valentine’s... [Read more]

Videos can attract a lot of attention on Facebook if they are placed where people congregate. The problem is that placing a video in strategic places can be a daunting task. That’s why Precious Ngwu and Chad Nicely just launched 'Social Engage'. ... [Read more]

Jonathan Dane says, “Multiple tests and research have shown that phone leads have the highest closing rate. I’m here to show you how you get more of them. In case you missed part one of this two part blog series, you can find it here. Have you ever been scratching your head trying to figure out how to get more quality leads that are easier... [Read more]

Ken Bowen says, “The Jacksonville Jaguars, located in the home city of MECLABS Institute, have not had a winning season in nearly a decade. By some measures, the team has actually gotten worse in recent years. Yet, despite a miserable 1-7 home record for the 2013 NFL season, the Jaguars actually enjoyed a significant lift in local revenue in 2014... [Read more]

Ellie Wilkinson says, “Dealing with duplicate content can feel a bit like doing battle with your site’s evil doppelgänger—confusing and tricky to defeat! But identifying and resolving duplicates is a necessary part of helping search engines decide on relevant results. In this short video, learn about how duplicate content happens, why... [Read more]

You can build an online store that gets some of the billions of dollars people spend on home furnishings. Every modernized country around the world buys a lot of furniture from online stores... [Read more]

Andy Eliason says, “When Pinterest emerged as a popular and effective network for reaching new customers, businesses jumped on the new platform as fast as they could, filling up boards with pin after pin of content. Naturally, with so many new pins demanding attention every day, people with something new or original to say were getting buried... [Read more]

Bernadette Coleman says, “It may come as a surprise to you to read that companies are still using press releases as a tool in their SEO campaigns. Many SEOs believe the notion of press releases having any direct impact on ranking is dated. With press releases still occupying a portion of the SEO budget in many marketing models, it begs the question:... [Read more]

Ben Potter says, “A couple of years ago, I wrote an article for Econsultancy stressing the importance ofwriting a brief when looking to appoint a search agency. This was in response to the fact that, in my experience, so few businesses seem to do so. A brief plays an absolutely vital role on a number of levels: To encourage the business to ask challenging... [Read more]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “There are lots of things you need to do to have a successful blog. Not only do your posts need to be well-written, helpful, and relevant to your target audience, but you’ve also got to make sure you’re promoting them correctly so they get in front of people who could become your fans — and maybe even... [Read more]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “Are you sharing the love with your customers this Valentine’s Day? You should be. “Data collected on Valentine’s Day 2014 from 500 million shopping experiences showed that retailers experienced an 11% improvement in average order value the week leading up to Valentine’s Day,” according... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Pinterest, already the most commercial of major social networks, is planning to introduce a “Buy” button as soon as this year, according to a report by Re/code today. Citing multiple anonymous sources, the Re/code story says the button could be rolled out as soon as three to six months and would likely start as a limited... [Read more]