Matt Mansfield says, “It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday and one of Tom’s regular customers just called to let him know that the website is down. Jumping into action, Tom calls his hosting company only to find out that his website database has become corrupted thanks to the new plugin he added last week. Their advice? Restore his site using the latest... [Read more]

Jeffrey L. Cohen says, “If it’s Friday, it must be my day to create some content. Marketers are busy planning, creating, optimizing, and analyzing, and for many of us, creating content is just one of many things on our to-do lists. We’ve all seen the stats that reveal B2B marketers are spending more time, budget, energy, happy hours, hackathons,... [Read more]

Selena Blue says, “Does your email audience prefer short or long emails? How about images versus GIFs? If you don’t know the answer to any of these questions, it’s OK. All you need is an A/B email test. Testing allows us to better understand our customers, and determine ways we can better engage them. Last week, we detailed nine experiment... [Read more]

Kelsey Meyer says, “If your goal is to lose weight and you want to measure your progress, you use a scale to track pounds or a tape measure to track inches. You would never measure your weight loss by tracking your height. If you did that, you’d never know how far you’ve come — how many pounds or inches you’ve lost — and you wouldn’t... [Read more]

Verónica Jarski says, “Most marketers get very excited about user-generated content (UGC) because it can boost brand awareness and business. But beware: Some UGC can actually damage your brand. Here’s a look at common problems in UGC, according to a Vivoom infographic. The company analyzed more than 4,000 user-generated videos and discovered... [Read more]

Brian Shilling says, “About 1 in 5 emails never reaches the intended inbox, according to Return Path’s 2015 Deliverability Benchmark Report. Yet email deliverability rate remains one of the most overlooked email marketing metrics. Though most email marketers focus on optimizing click-through rates and open rates—and for good reason—those... [Read more]

Brian Hughes says, “As a Facebook and Twitter competitor, Google+ never really stood a chance, certainly not after Instagram charged on the scene (and to a lesser degree Tumblr, Snapchat, WhatsApp and YikYak). From the confusing design to weird names (remember sparks?), it seemed doomed from the start. Even Google Authorship, which promised to... [Read more]

Jayson Demers says, “SEO is a popular online marketing strategy, and therefore, competitive, but I’m consistently amazed at how many business owners and marketers opt not to engage in an SEO strategy because of its perceived limitations or drawbacks. One of the biggest misperceptions is that SEO is expensive, and it’s driven by the fact... [Read more]

Sergey Stefoglo says, “WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. There’s a good chance you’ll need to optimize or work on a website that uses WordPress, if you haven’t already! Whether you’re a business owner, designer, developer, PPC expert, SEO consultant, or writer — getting familiar with... [Read more]

Ginny Marvin says, “With more video being created for vertical viewing (in large part thanks to Snapchat), video distribution platform Virool is launching a mobile vertical video ad unit. Called Video Reveal, the units appear dynamically inline within editorial content on mobile devices, including iOS and Android. The company claims it is the... [Read more]

Demian Farnworth says, “Do me a favor, dear content marketer. Type this phrase into Google: “You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One).” I’ll wait. Okay, did you do it? What is the top result? It should be the product page for Jeff Goins’s ebook on Amazon. In fact, the first entry should be the Kindle version and the second entry should... [Read more]

Ellen Bartolino says, “Video has quickly become one of the most powerful mediums for sharing your message: 78% of people watch videos online every week. What’s more, 55% of people watch videos online every day. But like any new marketing tactic, video needs to be done right to have an impact on your business. This means creating the right... [Read more]

Barry Levine says, “As the internet continues to blur many competitive differences like pricing and product selection, brands have increasingly seen their customer data as a key differentiator. But, as it turns out, there’s a bigger competitive headache beyond whether a customer is just a click away from buying something like what you’re selling,... [Read more]

Todd Ebert says, “Thanks to online research, buyers are a lot smarter now than they were even a decade ago. Today, there’s simply no excuse for being an uninformed buyer. But, by the same token, there’s no excuse for failing to educate potential customers even before they become leads. The overwhelming majority of B2B marketers understand... [Read more]

Michael Brenner says, “Questions about content marketing ROI are probably the ones I hear most from marketers who are struggling to build their own business case internally. We know our customers are turning out advertising. And we know that as consumers, we are all consuming more information online. We are looking to get informed and we are... [Read more]

Fam Mirza says, “Startups and small businesses have little to no reputation. Nobody knows who you are or what you stand for. One of your immediate concerns is branding. If you want to start a path to better branding this year, look to big companies for inspiration. You can learn a lot from big brands, and there’s no reason why you can’t do... [Read more]

Drew Hendricks says, “Today’s businesses realize that paper checks are the least efficient way to pay suppliers and service providers. Whether they’re setting up payment processing for the first time, or they’re considering migrating from an existing payment platform, electronic payments are always the best option. Unfortunately, the most... [Read more]

Graham Gullan says, “As marketers, Peter Drucker’s oft-repeated phrase, “What gets measured gets improved,” is more than a piece of wisdom—it’s a way of life. We know we need to measure results in order to actually get them, but all too often we’re measuring the wrong things—especially when it comes to social media metrics. It’s easy... [Read more]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Whether or not business school is worth the investment is a hot topic these days. But regardless of where you stand, you don’t have to go to business school to gain a better understanding of how businesses work. “Business” is quite a versatile topic with many components. There’s a lot that goes into... [Read more]

Amy Bishop says, “Whenever people talk about mobile search, one of the first things that always comes to mind is location, location, location. Since mobile phones are… well, mobile, these devices open up opportunities to target consumers who may otherwise have been hard to reach. Proximity According to a Consumer Barometer Survey, 82 percent... [Read more]

Erik Devaney says, “We’ve all heard how important it is to make a good first impression. Show up late for a job interview? That’s a bad first impression. Eat a ton of garlic and forget to brush your teeth right before a first date? Also a bad first impression. Go to meet your significant others’ parents for the first time dressed... [Read more]

Shawn Collins Says, “I was recently on Stephan Spencer’s podcast, Marketing Speak, and we chatted all about affiliate marketing. marketing-speak-with-stephan-spencer We chatted about the early days of affiliate marketing, the need for affiliates to provide value, using social platforms, some of my favorite tools and resources, and affiliate tax... [Read more]

Brienna Pinnow says, “Achieve maximum impact with addressable advertising This is an exciting time for digital marketers, with the growth of new devices and channels bringing more opportunities to intelligently and creatively engage. However, this rapid channel growth also means there is more potential to overspend on marketing and advertising... [Read more]