Monica Montesa says, “Barbecues. Beach trips. Stand-still traffic. Fireworks. As the U.S. prepares to celebrate another year of independence, there’s another holiday trend Americans can expect to look forward to: July 4th-themed emails. Whether you plan to host a huge sale, offer exclusive discounts or simply take an Independence Day spin on... [Read more]

JD Nyland says, “Location data is everywhere. It’s embedded in the photos we share, the GPS-enabled apps we use, and the online transactions we make. And, today, users are more willing than ever to share location data with brands in exchange for more personalized content and tailored promotions. That’s really the idea and the promise... [Read more]

Danny Sullivan says, “Think search advertising is boring, and that it’s all about programmatic and display these days? Microsoft’s move today to dispose of its display business but keep search shows how powerful and unique search remains. As announced today, Microsoft is ridding itself of its display ad sales business. That’s something it... [Read more]

The EpicWin University, founded by Travis Morgan, has just released Freedom Academy, which they say fulfills the promise of the headline. The goal of this new training is showing you how to do Video SEO, ranking videos so they appear on page 1, and doing it in a way that doesn’t require: 1. Making your own videos, unless you want to. 2. Appearing... [Read more]

Jessica Lorenz says, “We generally think of only companies or campaigns having value propositions. For nonprofit companies, communicating the value proposition effectively is necessary for survival. There is a value prop behind every action, including each email sent — why should people read your entire email or click through to a landing page?... [Read more]

Kayla Cobb says, “When we talk about A/B testing, we often think about it on a test-by-test basis. While this singular focus is beneficial, it overlooks testing’s role as an ongoing system for optimization. At MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015, Courtney Eckerle, Manager of Editorial Content, MarketingSherpa, sat down with Lauren Wagner, Senior... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “Most Authorpreneurs earn their living from speaking gigs, consulting businesses, and other indirect sources. Rarely does one make the vast majority of their income directly from the sale of their books. Steve Scott is different. Steve earns a great living selling digital books on Amazon’s Kindle platform … to the tune... [Read more]

You can build a business building websites for local merchants. With Jack Hopman‘s new Website Hero, you can build professional sites in a few minutes. He has done the hard work already. He has created attractive websites for All you need to do is to select the niche, fill in the client’s contact information and push the button on our Proprietary... [Read more]

Rachel Sprung says, “When it comes time to assess your marketing efforts, it’s not uncommon for you to run into a ton of questions. How are your contacts trending month over month? Was the time you spent creating social media graphics for that campaign worth it? And what about your email marketing efforts? How are those stacking up against... [Read more]

Kristen Vanstrom says, “In the world of internet blah, everyone wants to know the secret to viral content. How do you spike your blog traffic with just one or two incredible posts? That’s what we all want, right? If you’re a blogger, you know the worth of steady traffic. Great traffic can take you from hobby blogger to career blogger.... [Read more]

Peter Sheldon says, “Twenty months have passed since Forrester last published our Wave evaluation of the leading B2B commerce suite vendors. During that time much has changed. B2B eCommerce transactions in the US have grown 40% from $559b in 2013 to reach an estimated $780b by the end of 2015. Furthermore, 74% of B2B buyers now research and 30%... [Read more]

Gaming is big business.  Millions of game are downloaded by millions of people. Some marketing companies are profiting (big time) from all those downloads... [Read more]

Amanda King says, “I’ve been in and out of Google Analytics (GA) for the past five or so years agency-side. I’ve seen three different code libraries, dozens of new different features and reports roll out, IP addresses stop being reported, and keywords not-so-subtly phased out of the free platform. Analytics has been a focus of mine... [Read more]

Jack Simpson says, “With high quality content playing an increasingly important part in search rankings, blogging has become a key part of almost any company’s marketing strategy. But writing interesting content is not enough in itself. You might have the best article in the world, but if it isn’t presented in a user-friendly format then... [Read more]

Demian Farnworth says, “Take a moment to try this thought experiment … At what point in your life did you look at your birth certificate to confirm that you were indeed born on the day that your parents said you were born? For most people, the answer is never. You simply took your parents’ word. Because you trusted them. Your parents hopefully... [Read more]

New video technology, called Viddify, adds interactive, attention grabbing bribes inside of your videos to make them more compelling. Without reshooting your videos or even writing new scripts, you can make them more "sticky", so people will not want to click away... [Read more]

Morgan Jacobson says, “An inspiring call-to-action is equal parts design and psychology. Prompting the desired response is never easy, especially as consumers become savvy to the tricks and tactics that online retailers use. The last thing you want is for your CTAs to be labeled “click-bait,” but you have to get buyers to convert somehow,... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook is adding more signals to its ranking of video in the News Feed, adjusting the mix to make sure people see more of the videos they like on the social network. To do that, the company will expand on the traditional like, comment and share metrics and start also taking into account whether people are activating audio,... [Read more]

Jami Oetting says, “It would be great if there was a handy tool that could tell you what tweaks to make to your landing page to get more leads, more shares, and more customers. But until that day, marketers still need to test, test, and do more tests to figure out what changes will result in better results. It can be attractive to test two completely... [Read more]

No matter how good your YouTube video is, if it doesn't get views, it won't sell anything for you. With millions and millions of videos on YouTube, you have to stand out from your competition to be noticed... [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]

Graham Charlton says, “The features you need to add to product pages will vary according to the type ofecommerce site. Some of the things on this list are essentials for any online retailer, while others are dependent on the sector and target market. This checklist contains some of the more common elements that customers are looking for on ecommerce... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Marketers say creating relevant content is the most effective search engine optimization tactic they employ, according to a recent report from Ascend2. The report was based on data from a survey of 286 marketing, sales, and business professionals from around the world (71%, B2B-focused; 29%, B2C). Some 72% of respondents say... [Read more]

Amy Gesenhues says, “According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, researchers from Columbia University and Harvard Business School claim Google is delivering a “degraded version of its search engine,” outranking its own services over more relevant results for local searches on restaurants and hotels. In a study sponsored by Yelp –... [Read more]

Brandon Olson says, “We’ve got a fantastic lineup of speakers at our upcoming ASCEND Digital Marketing Summit in October. To introduce you to these incredible speakers, we’ve organized three special#AWeberHour Twitter chats. Our first chat will be Wednesday, July 1, from 2-3 p.m. ET. We’ll be chatting with three conversion optimization... [Read more]

Richard Lazazzera says, “As an online store owner, you’re always on the lookout for new ways to drive traffic, but how many times have you invested time, energy and money into a new method of driving traffic only to receive low conversions or maybe even none at all? Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, SEO, blogging, social media and guest posting... [Read more]

Jeff Malmad says, “The Apple Watch is blowing up. Analysts predict that around 15 million units will be sold this year. That’s a great start. To compare, Android Wear sold 720,000 units in 2014. And while Apple hasn’t released sales numbers, an interview with Apple’s finance chief indicates that the launch day figures may have... [Read more]