Rowan Curran says, “Years ago, I worked at a large customer service vendor. Our CEO had tasked us to “eat our own dog food” – that is implement our own solutions for our customer service operations which comprised of 40 or so tier 1 and 2 customer service agents. With these marching orders, I put a group of consultants and business... [Read more]

Olivia Dello Buono says, “There’s a difference between being influential and being “sales-y.” Here’s where sales gets a little fuzzy for most people. How do you know when you’re pushing too much? How do you know if you’re doing enough? John says influence comes from uncovering people’s needs and wants – and delivering value that... [Read more]

Andrew Fischer says, “Business and customer data has existed for ages. Mostly, however, it sat hopelessly trapped in handwritten ledgers, filing cabinets, and floppy disks, a precious resource untapped. The introduction of Data Management Platforms (DMPs) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) aid the increase of customer data collection so much... [Read more]

For steady, growing income online it’s hard to beat a “club” or “inner circle” or a group of whatever name in which people pay you to be a part. Your job is to drip content to them on a pre-defined schedule and tell more people about your club. If you provide good content, people will stick around as long as they continue... [Read more]

Jason Miller says, “If you’ve ever met me or seen any of my photography then you know I have a passion for rock ‘n’ roll. But as every good marketer knows, it’s important to continually expand your horizons. Lately, I’ve been doing that by diving into the genre of classic jazz. The more I listen to and study jazz, the more parallels... [Read more]

Brent Leary says, “Account-based marketing (ABM) is a term that has gained a great deal of traction over the past 12 months, but many still aren’t familiar with what it is. Wiley Publishing has just released “Account-Based Marketing for Dummies” to help people understand how ABM can help drive more B2B sales. Sangram Vajre, CMO and co-founder... [Read more]

David Gamber says, “5 key questions from the 2016 Digital Marketer Webinar In our recent webinar, Shift happens: How marketers are navigating their biggest challenges of 2016, Spencer Kollas, VP of Global Deliverability at Experian Marketing Services, and Sal Tripi, AVP Digital Operations & Compliance at Publishers Clearing House spoke about... [Read more]

Brett Ingram and Mo Latif have partnered to create a new automated solution for  website traffic using viral videos: 'Vidio Sniper PRO'. Automatically, beside the video embedded on your site is a collection of thumbnail and text descriptions for your selected products. Anytime during the video or at the end, your visitor sees the clickable product box that is easy to use. This removes a lot of friction in the sales process. When clicking is easy more people click... [Read more]

Carly Stec says, “Scope creep: These two words strike fear in any agency team working on a website redesign. Scope creep not only leads to reduced profit margins and delayed launches, but also unhappy clients and employees. So how do agencies successfully protect against scope creep when redesigning client websites? Here are seven proven methods... [Read more]

Brian Carroll says, “Every Friday leading up to June 7, when IRCE begins in Chicago, MarketingSherpa will be diving into the lessons learned from last year’s Media Center interviews with speakers and attendees, such as Eoin Comerford, CEO, Moosejaw. He and I spoke last year about taking risks in campaigns in order to reap the rewards of customer... [Read more]

Caitlin Nicholson says, “For modern businesses, the key to being successful is to stay current. The advent and growth of the Internet and social media have made the world a smaller and more connected place. We are seeing a transition from business-to-consumer and business-to-business to human-to-human. Marketing initiatives must adapt accordingly. When... [Read more]

Luther Landro is no stranger to regular readers of IM NewsWatch. He has become known as a successful marketing consultant to brick and mortar businesses who want to develop an online presence that extends their ability to sell retail goods from their stores... [Read more]

Ben Davis says, “When it comes to automated email campaigns, many companies are falling short. According to the recent Email Marketing Industry Census in association with Adestra, a mere 55% of the marketers surveyed said their company’s in-house automated campaigns were ‘quite successful’. In even more mediocre news, just 7% deemed them... [Read more]

Mike Sands says, “Brands continue to invest more in digital advertising: This year, spending on digital display ads in the US is anticipated to hit $32.17 billion, eclipsing search ad spending for the first time. However, a rise in spending doesn’t necessarily translate into better customer relationships or more ROI (return on investment). Click-through... [Read more]

Sonia Simone says, “When I prepare for a presentation on digital business and content marketing, I think a lot about what I want the audience to take away. Of course, there’s always the First Rule of Copyblogger, which I preach to anyone who will listen. But telling people “don’t publish content that sucks” tends to need a little more... [Read more]

For steady, growing income online it's hard to beat a "club" or "inner circle" or a group of whatever name in which people pay you to be a part. Your job is to drip content to them on a pre-defined schedule and tell more people about your club... [Read more]

MOZ team says, “Keyword research, when done right, is a fairly complex process. Uncovering new keywords and appraising their value should involve a robust toolkit, a multitude of different sources, and a great deal of thoughtfulness. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares a strategic and straightforward 4-step process (including a passel... [Read more]

Ben Davis says, “We recently ran an article about the importance of canonical tags to differentiate between similar product pages. You can read that piece here. But what about when a competitor’s page seems to have bumped you out of the search results? That’s another topic that Jon Earnshaw, CTO Pi Datametrics, discussed at Brighton... [Read more]

Greg Sterling says, “It’s now well established that people spend more time with their smartphones than they do with their PCs. The obvious implication of that is a “mobile-first” or cross-platform marketing strategy. That extends to branded or sponsored content as well, according “The State of Branded Content,” a new report from Polar.... [Read more]

If you are a consultant who sells websites to your clients, WordPress is both a blessing and a curse.  If makes it easy for you to build sites, but it also makes it easy for your clients to take their upgrade and maintenance work to someone else... [Read more]

Carly Stec says, “This year, 73% of content creators plan to prioritize creating more engaging content, while 55% plan to prioritize creating visual content, according to a report from Content Marketing Institute. This means more infographics, more social media images, more video content, and more visually appealing advertisements. What constitutes... [Read more]

Shubhomita Bose says, “eBay’s efforts to revamp its business are paying off, as the company has reported better-than-expected results in the first quarter. The online retail giant has posted a 5 percent revenue increase, beating analyst expectations. Following the announcement, eBay shares rose 2.1 percent to $24.98 in extended trading. The... [Read more]

Tim Peterson says, “Earlier today, I wanted to watch the “Damn Daniel” video. The viral video that turned a pair of white Vans sneakers into a symbol of the life originated as a tweet, so I searched for it on Twitter. Bad idea. Then I remember Google has access to Twitter’s full firehose. Great idea. That’s all to say: Twitter isn’t... [Read more]

Rowan Curran says, “Knowledge is power. And in a time where insights drive business differentiation, knowledge is also the origin of power. In our daily routines as consumers, search is probably the most common application we use to find knowledge, and it forms the basis of our personal systems of insight. But at long last, search in the enterprise... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “Thanks to the rise of social platforms like Instagram, more and more brands are adding influencer marketing to their digital marketing mix. But as influencer marketing matures and the most prominent influencers become more costly to work with, is it time for brands to adapt? As detailed by Digiday’s Yuyu Chen, a growing... [Read more]

Samantha Murphy Kelly says, “Facebook Live is quickly becoming the hottest new live-streaming platform for both publishers and regular people. From Buzzfeed’s exploding watermelon to Dallas-based tattoo artist Liz Cook who streams ink sessions in real time and that snake expert who extracts venom from animals (note: omg), broadcasters — both... [Read more]

SBT team says, “Are you tired of seeing ads and “promoted posts” in your social media newsfeeds? Trust us, you’re not alone. The constant ad interruption is taking its toll, and consumers are not afraid of letting brands know how they feel. So, what are small/startup business owners supposed to do if investing in ads is increasingly a waste... [Read more]

Kayla Matthews says, “There’s a reason why email is the second biggest category where marketers spend their money. Dollar for dollar, email is still the most effective digital marketing tactic available. Email confirmations are one branch of email marketing, and they can be used for many purposes. For example, when someone uses an online ordering... [Read more]