Greg Shuey says, “When formulating a paid content promotion plan, most advertisers turn to the main players: Facebook, Twitter and Google Adwords. But a new kid is in town, and when Pinterest rolled out the beta version of promoted pins last year, it became a game changer. Pinterest has a highly active and targeted userbase, and can often be... [Read more]

Jim Joseph says, “What’s your number-one tip to boost your social-media following? A: First of all, I’m going to state right there’s no one single way to boost your social-media following. It takes a matrix of methods and a continuous commitment to create, establish, build and maintain a social media presence and following. But if you... [Read more]

Megan Burns says, “In 2014, Forrester analyzed CX Index data to see which of the three dimensions of CX quality matters most to customer loyalty – effectiveness, ease, or emotion. We found that emotion, how an experience makes the customer feel, has a bigger influence on their loyalty to a brand than either of the other two factors. Repeating... [Read more]

Sam Bakker and Brad Stephens announced their new software, VideoSkins, yesterday. Since then over 1000 marketers have seen the value and invested in a copy. These eager marketers know that for their videos to be effective, they must drive conversions, sometimes driving opt-ins and sometime driving sales. Bakker and Stephens say that VideoSkins is the... [Read more]

Shareef Defrawi says, “Considering a rebrand? You’re probably aware that it will be no easy feat. On top of the soul searching, repositioning, creative, legal headaches and everything else that’s involved, you’re going to have Google to reckon with. So much of the work we do in marketing is based on building brand recognition and online... [Read more]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “There are many reasons why someone might buy something on your ecommerce site, aside from the promise of free cake and endless Gifs of kittens yawning. Here are the three most glaringly obvious: Because you are selling exactly what I’m looking for. Because you’re selling it for less than everyone else. Because... [Read more]

Jim Joseph says, ““Measurement” is a hot topic in marketing right now, although I’m not sure there was ever a time when it wasn’t important. Back in the day, when the bulk of a brand’s marketing budget was based on advertising and promotion, it was a tad easier to measure its effectiveness. With marketing budgets much more fragmented... [Read more]

Richard Fairbairn, Mark Lyford and Paul O'Keeffe have just announced a new tool that builds traffic virally and increases opt-ins for your website... [Read more]

Karissa Bell says, “The team behind Microsoft Outlook has a new email app that makes it a lot easier to ignore your inbox. Send, released on iOS Wednesday, is an email that app that takes an instant messaging-style approach to your inbox by stripping out almost every aspect. See also: 5 ways to wrestle your email into submission Unlike Outlook,... [Read more]

Adriana Lee says, “This week, IT security software firm Rook Security released a free tool that can sniff out malware leaked from Milan’s Hacking Team, a clandestine group that sells surveillance and malignant software to governments, law enforcement and other private clients worldwide. Ironically, the Italian firm that helps governments spy... [Read more]

Ginny Soskey says, “The marketing industry has always been obsessed with the quality vs. quantity debate. Should you create more content of a lower quality or less content of a higher quality? In an ideal world, the answer would always be less content of a higher quality. You’d spend lots of time researching and writing every post, then when... [Read more]

The Easiest Funnel creates a complete list building  and sales funnel, live on your website in around 3 minutes flat. That's the promise Barry Rodgers is making.... [Read more]

Sonia Simone says, “You’ve heard it a thousand times: the money’s in the list. If you’re serious about your digital business, you need to build a list of people who are paying attention to you, typically an email list. So, how do you get people to sign up for your email newsletter? You probably already know the answer to this one: Reward... [Read more]

Mark Gadala-Maria says, “While the concept of relevance has always driven successful marketing efforts, it is a core requirement for effective marketing in today’s cluttered and hypercompetitive marketplace. In fact, the entire premise of all search engines is determining the relevance of any one website to a submitted search query, and matching... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “Long ago, search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and online marketing went hand in hand. Not so much today. For real. Of course, it seems like a loaded question, doesn’t it? How much SEO does the modern content marketer really need to know? Particularly those just starting out? Well, it’s a serious question. One that... [Read more]

George Katsoudas first released Associate Goliath years ago. (We became aware in 2012.)  But he seems to never be satisfied. Every year, he renovates and improves it. This weekend, he just released version 5.0, with many improvements... [Read more]

David Mihm says, “To all Moz Local fans in the UK, I’m excited to announce that your wait is over. As the sun rises “across the pond” this morning, Moz Local is officially live in the United Kingdom! A bit of background As many of you know, we released the US version of Moz Local in March 2014. After 12 months of terrific growth... [Read more]

Stephanie Balaouras says, “To help security pros plan their next decade of investments in data security, last year myself, John Kindervag, and Heidi Shey, researched and assessed 20 of the key technologies in this market using Forrester’s TechRadar methodology. The resulting report, TechRadar™: Data Security, Q2 2014, became one of the... [Read more]

Kieran Flanagan says, “There are many things you can do in eight minutes or less. You can tidy up your to-do list. You can chip away at your mountain of emails. You can delete unnecessary meetings from your calendar. You can even get a real workout done (seriously). You know what else you can do in eight minutes or less? Get a bunch of great... [Read more]

Your sales and commissions would inevitably rise if you could create ads so that your visitors would want to click on them. That's what Shock Spots software is designed to do... [Read more]

Monica Zent says, “Is a summer slowdown inevitable for your business? According to a survey by digital media company Captivate Network, summertime can have a negative impact on the workplace. The survey found people reporting drops in productivity, dips in attendance and increased project turnaround time. However, such setbacks need not be the... [Read more]

Trevor Klein says, “Content marketers hear regularly about how quality is far more important than quantity. You can publish a thousand blog posts in a year, but if only three of them are truly noteworthy, valuable, and share-worthy content—what Rand would call 10x content—then you’ve wasted quite a bit of time. Here at Moz, we’ve... [Read more]

Daniel Burstein says, “Mobile email opens have surpassed desktop opens for the first time. How does this affect your email conversion and open rates? How should your company optimize for mobile? In this Chart of the Week, we share device-specific open and conversion data. Watch our interview with Jessica Jacobs, Director of Product Marketing,... [Read more]

Pete Prestipino says, “Bing is branching out from its search advertising roots, releasing a program for native advertising. Advertisers will be able to target users outside of search with Bing Native Ads, taking advantage of available intent signals – ranging from users’ interest (via their prior search queries), the context of the... [Read more]

Martin Gilliard says, “The role of technology in marketing is dramatically changing. It began with interdependent tools that solved one issue. Now we’re seeing a fundamental shift in investment to software that helps companies illustrate, measure and quantify the overall impact of marketing expenditures on their business. The shift in investment... [Read more]

Kraig Swensrud says, “Marketers, who were once tasked with just building awareness for companies, have evolved into brand ambassadors with a new boss: customers. Scrutiny or success of a campaign is determined and delivered by customers tweeting, blogging and voting with their dollars. Gone are the days of calling a marketing campaign successful,... [Read more]

Personalization has always been a part of the marketer’s toolbox. Talking directly to the reader, with personal details such as name included, tends to produce better results. But this kind of personalization is really rather superficial. You must know the customer at a deeper level in order to make the most sales. As reported in Email Insider,... [Read more]