Betsy Scuteri says, “Small businesses are the forefront of our economy. In fact, every minute a new business in the U.S. is started and according to some people, more than 50% of all workers will be self-employed by 2020. Surprising to many, even with all of the interest in entrepreneurialism in America, there has actually been a downward trend... [Read more]

Mitch Meyrson says, “While Apple didn’t invent podcasting, it certainly put it on the map, and the iTunes’ podcast directory is the primary place people go to find podcasts. This doesn’t mean that only Apple users can find and consume your podcast; listeners find and consume podcasts through any number of devices, mobile applications,... [Read more]

Peter O’Neill says, “Our new B2B marketing role pages are just one month old, and we have already published new reports on B2B channels, marketing through communities, B2B metrics that matter, and thought leadership programs. All topics at the sharp end of B2B marketing. Our team was also present at Forrester’s two Marketing Leadership... [Read more]

When it comes to getting sales and leads online, there is one thing that 99% of successful marketers use, an online mail list of email addresses (and usually names). Experienced marketers may have found ways to successfully build a mailing list. How about you? Without this list, any sales you get are “one-off” events. You can’t follow... [Read more]

Carly Stec says, “”Today, getting people to hear your story on social media, and then act on it, requires using a platform’s native language, paying attention to context, understanding the nuances and subtle differences that make each platform unique, and adapting your content to match,” explains social media entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk. He... [Read more]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Twitter is a champion of free speech – its former UK general manager once described the social network as “the free speech wing of the free speech party” – and it has only very recently started removing extreme violent content, and launched a crackdown on abuse on its network. Porn is still prevalent... [Read more]

Baer says, “Marketing has been the custodian of digital communities since the arrival of social media over ten years ago. But is marketing really the right place for it? It turns out that just about anyone else in your organization might do a better job at convincing consumer to become customers via social media (highlight to tweet). Seem too... [Read more]

Shane Paxton struggled for 5 long years to get his marketing business into the black and supporting his family. As he looked at his situation and the scant success he had, he realized that the difference between his site and his top competitors was the level of authority... [Read more]

Rachel Rodgers says, “If you’re doing it right, your digital media business is probably an intellectual property factory. Smart small businesses have a content creation conveyor belt and publish new content all day everyday, from ebooks to infographics. And while there is a lot of talk about the benefits of creating content, there is very little... [Read more]

Seth Fiegerman says, “Big Blue is teaming up with the world’s most popular blue app. Facebook and IBM announced on Wednesday that they will put some of their advertising tools and experts together to help big companies more closely personalize their marketing to customers. The collaboration allows the two Big Blues to double down on big... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Companies spend lots of time and money trying to climb the ranks of the SERPs, but fully maximizing how many people click on your results can be a difficult undertaking. In an apparent effort to do just that, online travel giant Expedia is employing an unusual tool: Emojis in some of its page titles. Google has supported... [Read more]

Online videos are being used more and more by the top marketing sites. It's no wonder; they grab attention and increase sales. It's not always easy to make your online videos look professional; you often need a boost from graphic artists who do this for a living... [Read more]

Eric Devaney says, “Here’s a hypothetical for you: Let’s say your company has decided to invest in a website redesign so you can improve lead generation, and you’re responsible for managing the project. Naturally, one of the first questions you have is, “How much is this website redesign going to cost?” The answer, of course,... [Read more]

David Moth says, “Behavioural marketing technology allows brands to provide targeted, relevant communications based on a user’s web activity. It can also be further improved by tying in other demographic and contextual information. For many businesses this end goal is still a long way off, but some marketing channels are being optimised using... [Read more]

Karissa Bell says, “Developers: You can now build apps on top of Meerkat. The live streaming service is opening up its platform to allow anyone to create apps that work with Meerkat, the company revealed Wednesday. SEE ALSO: Meerkat now lets you watch some live streams without Twitter “We want to create a community for third party developers... [Read more]

This new software lets you add videos from YouTube to your website.  If your site is about gardening, for example, there are thousands of YouTube videos in the gardening niche... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “Today’s guest on Hack the Entrepreneur has dedicated her life to making the world a better, brighter place … with the power of doodles. She was a Financial Empowerment Consultant and the founder of The Empowered Dollar. During this time, she helped millennials and low-income families fix their finances and feel empowered... [Read more]

Mark Donnolo says, “One of the keys to great a sales compensation plan is having a playbook for your team to reference as you go through the design. The team can stay on track not only during the design phase, but as you govern the plan throughout the year and evaluate the plan for the next year. A solid framework for your sales compensation... [Read more]

Max Altschuler says, “Once you start getting on the phones, you need to prepare psychologically. In this post, I want to share some interesting pieces of advice for running successful sales calls that are outside the norm. The following is an excerpt from an article by my friend Vanessa Van Edwards who runs a behavior research lab and focuses... [Read more]

What do you need to make animated videos that really sell? Well, you could hire someone who claims to know how and pay them to make a video for you, try it and see if it works. It may not, and you start over again.... [Read more]

Lara O’Reilly says, “Many people don’t even know Amazon has an advertising business. It sells ads across Amazon.com and Amazon-owned sites like IMDB.com. It also sells mobile ads across its Kindle e-book range and Kindle Fire tablet, and it has an ad platform which extends Amazon ads to other websites. Speaking at The Financial Times’... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Facebook wants publishers to give it their content, and in an effort to address their skepticism, the social networking giant is reportedly offering to let them keep 100% of the revenue from ads they sell. According to The Wall Street Journal, publishers such as National Geographic, The New York Times and BuzzFeed have... [Read more]

Baer says, “You’ve been working for a year or more, and the big day is here at last. Your product is finally ready to launch. Now’s the time to kick off your online marketing campaign and watch the customers roll in. You set up your hashtags, update your Facebook page, and get the message out to anyone who’ll listen. And then—nothing. What... [Read more]

This is the story of how videos (and the graphics in them) that convey emotion made Doodle Labs $414,400 last year with Whiteboard Videos. We all buy emotionally. Savvy marketers all know that. When you know the emotions that drive their search for a solution, you can make videos that convert, videos that make sales... [Read more]

Greg Sterling says, “In a blog post today Google reported that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.” Google declined to provide more color or detail beyond this statement — other than that “mobile” here means smartphones only. While there have been many conference... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Which search engine optimization tools are marketers’ favorites? To find out, G2 Crowd recently examined 310 in-depth evaluations of SEO tools written on its software review platform by business and marketing professionals. The researchers ranked the tools based on customer satisfaction scores as well as the size of their... [Read more]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “When Kathryn Aragon began her role as content manager at analytics company Crazy Eggtwo years ago, she faced a big problem: Crazy Egg’s email subscribers weren’t happy about getting emails every day. Their irritation turned into a negative brand perception that needed to change – and fast. Crazy Egg’s blog, The... [Read more]