Susan Solovic says, “Facebook recently announced financial results that blew expectations out of the water, and its stock shot up on the news. But if you’ll dip into your medium-term memory for a moment, you’ll recall that a few years ago Facebook stock was hitting new lows not long after its IPO. This turnaround is, of course, based on exploding... [Read more]

Ina Toncheva says, “Once your mobile app is out in the wild, you begin to face limitations that make app distribution difficult. Some of those limitations are rooted in the underlying structure of the world of mobile apps: Unlike the Web, where, inherently, content is linkable and websites are connected, mobile apps are usually gated behind the... [Read more]

Josh Manion says, “The battle of the titans is on again this holiday season, as commentators line up to report on Black Friday plans by Amazon, Walmart and the other big retailers, putting a spotlight on the relationship of online and in-store spending. Who’s winning that battle? And where does the truth lie for retailers like Walmart that... [Read more]

There are a number of well-known eCommerce platforms. Perhaps Shopify is the best known, but there are also BigCommerce, Volusion, Spark Pay, CoreCommerce and others. They all do a reasonable job of helping you get an eCommerce store up and running, but they also share another characteristic: The require ongoing monthly payments. Now, there is a new... [Read more]

Sam Belt says, “You’re sitting at your desk writing a follow-up email for the sales call you just finished, when anemail tracking notification catches your eye: Paul Allen is viewing your Product Page. You freeze. Paul Allen is the decision maker at the white-whale account you’ve been chasing since you started on the team months... [Read more]

Patricio Robles says, “If questions lingered about Google’s commitment to lead gen, the world’s most popular search engine answered them this week with the launch of Google Compare for mortgages. The service, which helps consumers shop for a mortgage from multiple lenders, was announced earlier this year and is now available in... [Read more]

Stefanie Flaxman says, “Let’s compare bland content to plain bread. Plain content bread isn’t going to build an authority sandwich for your business; it’s fairly easy to produce and many other places offer it. Editing and proofreading are the peppercorn-crusted turkey and applewood-smoked bacon you need to layer on top of your plain content... [Read more]

Having your own product with your own name on it does a lot to build your credibility. Authors and product creators are seen as experts, and experts are paid better than the average person... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Local business reviews didn’t make the cut in Google’s wholesale revamp of Google+. Google+’s redesign, announced last week, puts the focus on Communities and Collections and removes display of reviews and other local business information such as addresses, phone numbers and hours of operation. The change appears to be... [Read more]

Dharmesh Shah says, “If you’re like me, you probably use Google many times a day. But chances are, unless you’re a technology geek, you probably still use Google in its simplest form. If your current use of Google is limited to typing in a few words and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, then I’m here to tell... [Read more]

Nicola Kenyon says, “Video marketing is so prevalent that by 2016, 74% of all internet traffic will be in the form of a video. The reason videos are so popular is because it’s far easier to consume content by watching an engaging video rather than trying to read about it. But what do your video marketing efforts look like? Have you... [Read more]

If your YouTube video isn't viewed, it won't be of much use to your business. That's why so many marketers work hard at building up their count of views... [Read more]

Jennifer Slegg says, “For many SEOs, a glimpse at the Google’s Search Quality Rater’s Guidelines is akin to looking into Google’s ranking algorithm. While they don’t give the secret sauce to rank number one on Google, they do offer some incredible insight into what Google views as quality – and not-so-quality – and the types of pages... [Read more]

Jason Parks says, ““Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years.” Entrepreneurs might politely disagree with the aforementioned quote from Bill Gates. There is a heck of a lot that you can accomplish in just 365 days, especially when you are sacrificing your weekend mornings or late... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Consumers plan to use a combination of online and traditional channels to research and purchase gifts this holiday season, according to a recent report from the Blackhawk Network. The report was based on data from a September 2015 survey of 1,140 adults living in the United States. Some 73% of respondents say they plan to research... [Read more]

A brand new WordPress review theme called 'Intensivo' has just been released by Leonardus Chang. If, like many of us, you are an affiliate marketer, then you might want to see this professional theme for building affiliate stores (such as Amazon affiliate stores). For 2 days, Chang is offering the theme at a bargain (but dime-sale) price... [Read more]

Mark Traphagen says, “At the recent Marketing Land SocialPro conference in Las Vegas, Danny Sullivan interviewed Mary Engle, associate director for Advertising Practices at the US Federal Trade Commission, during a keynote presentation. Sullivan asked Engle to clarify aspects of the FTC’s guidelines for online advertisers, content producers... [Read more]

Jack Simpson says, “Black Friday is less than half a week away, which means it’s almost time to forget about the woes of the world for one day and get lost in some good-old-fashioned consumerist escapism. In light of this being the UK’s biggest 24 hours for ecommerce and what with us being a digital marketing blog, we thought we’d better... [Read more]

Ömer Artun and Dominique Levin says, “Propensity models, also called likelihood to buy or response models, are what most people think about with predictive analytics. These models help predict the likelihood of a certain type of customer behavior, like whether a customer that is browsing your website is likely to buy something. This helps marketers... [Read more]

That's what Mark Thompson and Matt Callen call their new 'EasyVSL 2.0'. And they may be right. With this new software, you get a lot of flexibility in creating your sales letters.  With this new software, you can create an engaging high-converting slide-based video sales letter in less time than you could imagine is possible... [Read more]

Daniel Hochuli says, “Tell me if this scenario is familiar: You decided to create a piece of content for the brand. You used semantic research to find the topic and created content that is fun, valuable, and informative. Finally, you attached goals to this content in terms of performance, such as: Have the content rank for the semantically relevant... [Read more]

Stefany Zaroban says, “Kohl’s today rolls out deep online-only discounts to run beyond Cyber Monday, and smaller web merchants like UsTrendy reap the rewards of early promotions. It’s only Tuesday, but Black Friday deals are everywhere on the web this week, as a slew of online retailers unveil deep discounts to garner early holiday market... [Read more]

Barry Feldman says, “Blogging is no hobby—at least not for serious business bloggers. After all, 59% of B2B marketers consider blogs the most valuable channel. Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios offers the proof. In 2014, his company asked 1,000-plus business bloggers to provide answers about how they tackle their tasks and summarized the... [Read more]

Jordan Elkind says, “For many marketers in the US, November 11 was an opportunity to promote Veterans Day specials or just a part of their campaign buildup to fast-approaching Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. But for more than 100 million shoppers in China, November 11 is known as as “Singles Day.” Aggressively promoted by Alibaba since... [Read more]

Dan Antonelli says, “Constantly clamoring to grab the attention of prospective customers, small businesses are competing with a lot of noise. Consumers are cutting through clutter by fast-forwarding television shows, subscribing to ad-free digital radio, installing ad-blockers to browse their favorite websites sans-ads and customizing what’s... [Read more]

Matt Walker says, “If, like many vendors, you’ve waited until now to get your holiday marketing plan together, do not fret—we’re here to help. The holiday season is one of the most profitable times of the year, and you need to capture every sales opportunity during the next few weeks. Research firm eMarketer predicts that U.S. retail sales... [Read more]

Monica Montessa says, “Your website isn’t the only place you connect with new people. You interact with others at conferences, your cash register, or even the grocery store (you know the longer those lines get, the sooner friendships and networking opportunities are forged). With all of these face-to-face interactions you have with prospective... [Read more]