Brian Hughes says, “Local search drives more clicks and calls than any other marketing channel, making it the most effective marketing technique for small business. Not convinced? Just ask the BrightLocal team, which found that local search delivers a greater ROI than other digital marketing channels, according to its September 2015 survey. Further... [Read more]

Shannon Evans says, “What’s the meaning of life searches? While some people chase the meaning of life, digital marketers search (pun intended) for the meaning behind customer searches. This is where your SEO team comes in. They have the tools to decipher why and how people search certain keywords or phrases. They have a better understanding... [Read more]

Gary Tomer says, “Live chat is the ultimate sales hack. It’s a big call, but I stand by it. The reason is simple. It’s the easiest way to bump your website conversions in real-time without split testing. This won’t come as a surprise to many of you who have already tried live chat to increase leads (and save on customer service). But, for... [Read more]

It used to be easy to earn a living online, about 12 years ago. There wasn’t a lot of competition and people experiencing the internet for the first time were excited by the newness of it all and would click on anything that sounded interesting. Since then everything has changed. There’s a lot more competition, and people have become jaded... [Read more]

Jordan Elkind says, “Despite much of the hype around social media “Buy” buttons and shoppable links, social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest continue to drive only a small portion of online retail sales. In fact, according to the Custora E-commerce Pulse Holidata Report (Disclosure: Custora is my employer), less... [Read more]

Shelbey Dorsey says, “Every month the MarketingExperiments team hosts a Web clinic designed around a specific topic to help marketers create stronger campaigns. January’s “Boosting Your Only-Factor” clinic discussed the relationship between appeal and exclusivity, and how it’s not enough to have just one — you have to have both. In... [Read more]

Leslie Ye says, “Ah, emails. Love ‘em or hate ‘em (I fall into this camp), emails are crucial to sales, and reps have to be good at writing them. But emails are a difficult medium to master. Thankfully, you don’t have to do it alone. There’s a whole world of email apps and extensions that make it easier for you to improve your writing.... [Read more]

Today is day 2 of the launch of Amplifire, the software that holds a visitor’s attention on your site, or with the unlimited version, on any website you choose. In the first day, over 500 online marketers invested in this new software. It contains “pattern interrupt” technology, showing visitors something unexpected that you design... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “In an effort to improve the user experience, Twitter has unveiled a new timeline feature that will display tweets out of chronological order. The aim is that users will avoid missing out on important updates from people they follow. The feature, which launched Wednesday, is currently optional, but Twitter plans to roll... [Read more]

Demian Farnworth says, “You can hardly critique a guy who nailed the first-ever interview with the world’s most wanted drug lord. Yet, critique Sean Penn we did. Sean Penn, if you remember, is an actor … an actor who, no matter how hard he tries (even after winning two Academy Awards for Best Actor), will never quite shake his most memorable... [Read more]

Bridget Randolph says, “Everyone has an opinion about Tinder. Whether you’re happily single, actively seeking a partner, or in a committed relationship, something about the concept of “swiping” yes or no on strangers’ pictures seems to guarantee strong opinions. There are endless articles about what Tinder (and similar apps) say... [Read more]

Matt Garrett began work on 'Niche Reaper' in 2008, for his own business. Eight years later, after many refinements and improvements, he is releasing the third edition so the rest of us can take advantage of it... [Read more]

Glenn Gabe says, “There you are. A big redesign or CMS migration is looming, and you’re ready to unleash a crawl on the new site in a test environment. You fire up your favorite crawling tool and trigger the crawl… and it lasts all of three seconds. Yes, there’s an obvious problem. The staging server is protected and behind some type of... [Read more]

Ellen Bartolino says, “As a marketer, you’re probably familiar with the number crunching and data analysis that goes along with presenting a monthly report to your team. And while it’s not always the most exciting task, it’s crucial to ensure your brand continues to grow. Utilizing social media in all stages of the funnel is... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Instagram built its billion-dollar business largely on the back of photos, but since adding support for video in 2013 the Facebook-owned app has, by virtue of its massive user base, become one of the most popular video-sharing services in the world. And its video appeal could grow for brands thanks to a change that will... [Read more]

There are a lot of resources you can use to build a business, without having to come up with them yourself. Crowdfunding let's you use other people's money to build your business.  Now there's a way to use other people's videos, too... [Read more]

Tim Brown says, “When it comes to conversions, the ending of your article, blog post or content is usually where you strategically wedge your last-ditch effort. That’s where you want to stick your call-to-action (CTA) and your final plea. This is where you really drive the essence of your message home. Whether you need your website users to... [Read more]

Jennifer Belissent says, “We’re now only a week away from the Mobile World Congress 2016 to be held again in Barcelona. As the excitement builds and we plan our schedules, it serves us to reflect back on last year’s event and to explore what we expect this year. Mobile World Congress remains the pre-eminent event of the mobile industry and... [Read more]

Sujan Patel says, “Marketing is always about what the consumer needs and wants to hear. If it’s not immediately relevant or interesting, then it’s just annoying. That’s why there’s such widespread use of ad-blocker browser extensions. According to PageFair, ad blockers were estimated to cost publishers nearly $22 billion in lost revenue... [Read more]

Since 'Youzign 2.0' was released on Monday, over 6000 copies have been sold. Marketers from around the globe are flocking to get this new, easy to use software. Remember, this new 2.0 version is a product of over 24 months of intensive development work to meet the needs of all marketers who sell products on the web... [Read more]

Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré says, “Think of NPS, or Net Promoter Score, like rocket fuel. If you leave it alone, it won’t do much. But when you load it into a responsive, proactive, customer-driven company: blast off. The most successful companies are those that take NPS data and use it to fuel and direct their marketing methods and even product... [Read more]

Ben Davis says, “Dynamic creative in video is not yet commonplace, particularly in display advertising. The best creative minds in agency land are concentrating on other areas traditionally seen as more profitable. So, I thought I’d trawl around and find some examples of dynamic video creative. Alas, only two of them come from the world... [Read more]

Lisa Froelings says, “At the Goldman Sachs Technology and Media Conference in San Francisco on Feb. 10, Wenig revealed that the company is thinking more as a merchandiser or retailer, instead of just an open marketplace. “We’re changing from an unstructured to highly structured marketplace,” said Wenig. “The brilliance of eBay’s model... [Read more]

Business.com staff says, “Two new Facebook product updates are aimed at small businesses. Here’s how they work. The first is an update to local awareness ads, first introduced in 2012 to provide the ability to target ads to users who check into your site within a certain distance from a store or business location. If you have multiple locations... [Read more]

Jose Cebrian says, “Every company has digital marketing challenges that are unique to their industry, their selling model (direct to consumer/wholesale/hybrid), their technology stack and their organizational structure. But acquiring first-party data to create a true model of customer journey is a struggle that persists across the board. This... [Read more]

Monica Montesa says, “How often should you email subscribers? It’s an age-old question for anyone who sends email. You want to keep subscribers engaged, but you don’t want to give off that needy, stage-five clinger vibe. Nor do you want to get lost in the inbox. So what’s the magic number of times you should email subscribers? The answer... [Read more]

Tommy Wyher says, “Facebook has long held the crown as the king of the social networks, and shows no sign of losing it in the near future. There is a theory in technology that any tech that is in popular use currently, can be predicted to last as long as it already has again, and while there are some obvious flaws to this way of thinking, it... [Read more]