Many of us can recall a time in high school when we were sitting in math class and thinking, “When am I ever going to use this stuff in the real world?”
And then we suddenly find ourselves in the real world, only to realize that numbers actually do play a pivotal role in what we do — especially in digital marketing.
In Velocity’s latest SlideShare, “Insane Honesty in Content Marketing,” we argue for a little-used but hugely powerful strategy: taking the worst attributes of your company, product or service … and highlighting them for all to see.
I really, really, REALLY believe in this approach and I’m amazed more brands don’t practice it.
It’s official: In certain parts of the world, there are now more Google search queries on smartphones than on desktop computers and tablets.
This week, Google’s Jerry Dischler wrote in a post on the official AdWords blog that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries, including the U.S. and Japan.”
We have a 9 a.m. meeting? Yikes! Hold on — let me just click around the internet like a maniac to find something for the morning tweet.
Sound familiar? Scrambling for social content is not a new phenomenon. We have meetings. We run late. Things come up. And it’s really hard to get any meaningful amount of work done when you have the next social media update looming over your head every 30, 60, or 90 minutes.
Have you ever wanted to create a single chart for two different (yet related) pieces of data? Maybe you wanted to see the raw number of leads you’re generating from each channel and what the conversion rate of the channel is. Having those two sets of data on one graph is extremely helpful to picking out patterns and identifying full-funnel trends.
Wouldn’t it be great if creating infographics was as simple as writing regular ol’ text-based blog posts? Unfortunately, the reality is that making visual content like this usually takes a lot more time, effort, and let’s face it — skill — than the written word. Usually.
But considering the popularity and effectiveness of visual content in marketing today, you can’t just afford to throw in the towel.
Whether you’re a budding entrepreneur or just interested in the startup world, you’ve probably heard of the reality TV show Shark Tank.
For those of you who need a refresher, here’s the premise: Each episode features four promising entrepreneurs from all walks of life who pitch their various businesses to a panel of five, cutthroat “sharks” — self-made multimillionaire and billionaire investors.
I have some bad news: Your email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% every year. Your contacts’ email addresses change as they move from one company to another, opt-out of your email communication, or abandon that old AOL address they only use to fill out forms on websites.
As a marketer, it’s your job to make sure you’re constantly adding fresh contacts to your email marketing campaigns so you can keep your numbers moving up and to the right.
One of the most important things a brand can do is understand its target audience. What do they worry about? Where do they hang out? How do they prefer to interact with brands?
When they dive into answering these questions, many businesses discover that social media is a goldmine for their marketing efforts. Not only are social networks a popular place for people to hang out on, but also consumers expect brands to have a presence on social media.
Sometimes, Excel seems too good to be true. All I have to do is enter a formula, and pretty much anything I’d ever need to do manually can be done automatically. Need to merge two sheets with similar data? Excel can do it. Need to do simple math? Excel can do it. Need to combine information in multiple cells? Excel can do it.
While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research.
Well, the need to do keyword research has stayed the same. How you actually do it hasn’t.
So I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with and narrow down a list of terms you should be targeting.
Podcasts: You know they’re becoming more and more popular by the day, and you want to join in on the fun. Maybe you’re finally catching up on NPR’s smash hit, Serial. Maybe you want to find something to help make your commute a little more enjoyable. Maybe you need to do some podcast research to help your company get their own up and running.
Regardless of why you want to jump on this new trend, the truth is that it can be tricky to figure out how to keep up with all of your favorite shows on all of your favorite devices.
I’d venture a guess you get tons of emails in your inbox every day. Coupons, daily deal sites, newsletters, password resets, lead nurturing emails, social media notifications, invitations to friends’ parties, and maybe even a few emails from your mom. That’s a lot to sift through, never mind actually open.
So what makes you want to take that extra step to actually open an email? Often, it’s the subject line. After all, it’s your very first impression of the email — and from it, you’ll do your best to judge the content on the inside.
Success in business comes down to building strong relationships with our associates. As our jobs become more and more globalized, many of us find ourselves traveling and building relationships with people across international borders, where manners and expectations might be different than we’re used to.
The ins and outs of international business etiquette can get confusing.
