Effective Clickbank Marketing

Keywords<BR>Keyword filter<BR>Your clickbank affiliate id <a href="http://www.cbfeed.com/signup.php" target="_blank" title="Sign Up for Clickbank">(Account Sign Up)</A><BR>Your tracking id (tid)<BR>Minimum gravity the clickbank products must have<BR>Minimum % referred the clickbank products must have<BR>Number of results to display, max. 50<BR>Clickbank feed refresh time, between 0 and 1440 minutes<BR>RSS HTML <img src="/tip.gif" title="Example: Use to add the HTML feed to your site. Place it in a separate div and edit your CSS to customize the look and feel of the list."><BR> <br /><p><a href="http://www.cbfeed.com/?id=03161414" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Effective Clickbank Marketing

Keywords Keyword filter Your clickbank affiliate id (Account Sign Up) Your tracking id (tid) Minimum gravity the clickbank products must ha...

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The One Question You Must Ask And Answer to Win With Social Media Marketing

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><img alt="Understand the Why of Your Social Media Marketing" class="alignright size-full wp-image-16536" height="319" src="/uncle-sam1.jpg" width="300">“Can we increase our blog readership by 50% in the next 6 months?”</P><P>If you’re a digital marketing or social media professional, questions like this are probably pretty familiar.</P><P>For many companies, specific goals are a godsend since social media marketing is still a bit of an uncertainty. It gives those who are responsible for implementation something more tangible to focus their efforts on. I’ve seen it happen many times where an objective like this is communicated by a marketing director or VP and the marketing team jumped all over themselves and each other to provide compelling answers.</P><P>But I have to just shake my head when that happens.</P><P>It’s so easy to jump in to creative ideas and formulating what’s possible with tactics and tools, all focused on hitting that mark, whether it’s 5,000 more Twitter followers, 10,000 more Facebook fans or 50% more organic referred search traffic to the company blog.</P><P>But there’s one thing that’s missing. It’s really the most important thing.</P><P>It’s more important than a clever social media ad campaign that boosts visits or a contest that attracts blog subscribers.</P><P>The thing that really needs to be nailed down when it comes to blogging or any other social media effort, is the answer to this most important question:</P><P><STRONG>Why?</STRONG></P><P>Before you dismiss this as obvious, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a group of smart, accomplished marketers just assume the person in charge of the directive has a well informed answer to “why”.</P><P>If you’re a social media marketer, content marketer, copywriter or in another role where blogging is part of your responsibility, try to start asking “why” when you receive directives related to growing community, affecting a certain kind of traffic or other key performance indicator.</P><P>If you get a reasonable answer, then you’ll have better context to achieve the goal. If you don’t, then it’s an opportunity to collect the information necessary to make your efforts more productive for you, the company and the audience you’re targeting.</P><P>There are several ways to approach this, but one of the most straightforward schemes for asking and managing the “why” is through a cycle of hypothesis, implementation and optimization. For example:</P><STRONG>Data informed Hypothesis </STRONG>- Our web analytics show a correlation between the number of new blog subscribers and the number of referring visitors to our company site that turn into sales leads. If we attract more new readers on topics of interest, we can increase qualified leads.<STRONG>Plan</STRONG> - Let’s investigate the highest performing sources of new subscribers as well as the content categories of interest so we can focus on optimizing tactics necessary to increase new readers and referrals to the company website.<STRONG>Resources and Tactics</STRONG> – A review of web analytics, social media monitoring and information provided on inquiry forms informs the topics that will drive blog content, advertising and social network promotions to attract new readers. Referring sources that drive new blog readers will be engaged for co-created content, sponsorship, curation and syndication opportunities.<STRONG>KPIs</STRONG> – Key Performance indicators measure progress towards our goals of achieving more blog readers, referred traffic from the blog to the company website landing pages. How much traffic is coming to the blog from what referring sources according to our hypothesis? What content topics are most engaging? What topics drive traffic to landing pages? What are the trends?<STRONG>Outcome</STRONG> – How many leads are generated from visitors referred from the company blog posts created as part of this plan?<STRONG>Optimize</STRONG> –  Review KPIs and outcomes to determine performance optimization: content topics, messaging, CTAs, frequency, promotions. Consider hypothesis revision as necessary.<P>If your social media marketing doesn’t follow a process like that exactly, no problem. You can still ask how the directive rolls up to your business goals. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of connecting the dots and making sure everyone is on the same page.</P><P>Just don’t assume that the “why” is clear or commonly understood. Make it part of your process to gain clarity so there’s meaning behind your social media marketing actions. Few online marketing and social media strategies are refined to the point of having all the answers, but making sure the structure of your strategic approach allows for questioning of purpose can mean the difference between activity and productivity – blogging and social media ROI.</P><P>What’s your approach to making sure you have the “why” answered for blogging and social media marketing tactics? Do you use a brief or other structured documentation?</P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/CUk3Ytu0kzI/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

The One Question You Must Ask And Answer to Win With Social Media Marketing

“Can we increase our blog readership by 50% in the next 6 months?” If you’re a digital marketing or social media professional, questions li...

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Essential Digital Marketing Skills for Content Marketers in 2014

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><img alt="digital marketing skills" class="alignright size-full wp-image-16513" height="293" src="/digital-marketing-skills.jpg" width="300">Like many other digital marketing agencies, we’ve been on the hunt for digital and content marketing talent on a continuous basis over the past few years. Increased demand and competition are driving the need to find people with skills that can actually create impact, vs. fuzzy “potential”.</P><P>Companies looking for agencies are in the same boat, challenged to find partners that can actually affect business goals. Sadly, there are few knights in shining content marketing armor, like our friend to the right.</P><P>In both cases, the ease of publishing online makes it easy for individuals and agencies to present expertise – whether they really have it or not.  There are a few ways to sift through the fluff and puff and one of them is knowing what <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/10/5-roles-content-marketing-success/">skills, capabilities and experience</A> your business actually needs.</P><P>Since a lot of companies are maturing in their content marketing abilities, I think there are a few key skills that stand out in 2014 and beyond. Some of these skills are for individuals, some are spread across an organization. To be truly competitive, I think they need to be present along with creativity and analytical skills.</P><P><STRONG>Customer Segmentation</STRONG> – The ability to identify customer segments through available resources is pretty important for any kind of customer targeting. That means using anything from interviews and surveys with existing customers, sifting through web analytics and conversion data, social media monitoring and other demographic, psychographic and behavioral data sources. Few individuals have most, let alone all of these skills, but the simple task of identifying best/worst customers with data to support profiles is essential.  While building customer profiles and personas from segmentation data is an important skill, so is the maintenance of those profiles over time. Direct Marketers, Email Marketers, Advertising Pros and experienced Content Marketers in particular seem to have these skills.</P><P><STRONG>Buy Cycle Stories</STRONG> – Understanding customer segments also means knowing their journey across the sales cycle. The ability and experience of mapping what questions buyers have as they move from awareness to consideration to purchase are essential for creating a content plan. Beyond answering the questions, “What is it?, How will it help me? “How much does it cost and where can I buy it?”, is the use of storytelling to communicate both practical answers and a narrative for how your brand delivers the solution in a unique and meaningful way. Stories help make an emotional connection with customers and the ability to both anticipate the customer journey and creative ways to communicate your brand value are highly valuable for content marketing.</P><P><STRONG>Multi-Channel Content Planning</STRONG> – When you see how customer segments move across the sales cycle, it becomes clear that single channel marketing like email, SEO, PPC, mobile, etc is a disadvantage. Customers get information from multiple sources and a multi-channel approach helps brands become “the best answer” wherever buyers are looking. Being able to take customer segmentation and buying cycle insight to create a multi-channel content plan is key for delivering the best answer experience for target audiences. That doesn’t mean “expert” at PPC, SEO, Social, Email, PR, etc – but it does mean experience with the planning, integration and coordination with others that do have specialized expertise. Not everything that can be integrated should, so the ability to prioritize according to resources, timeframe and goals are just as important as the planning skills.</P><P><STRONG>Editorial, Creation & Curation</STRONG> – A big part of content planning is the mix of content and media types. How much content should be evergreen? How should it be repurposed? Which content can be co-created with influencers, customers or with internal resources? What role will curated content play in this mix? Answering those questions are an ongoing part of any content planner’s experience and are essential for successful content marketing programs. Beyond planning of content types is familiarity with the tools to help manage their function from content marketing software like Kapost to curation software like Curata.</P><P><STRONG>Community Building</STRONG> - The intersection of content with social media cannot be ignored. No social media marketer can succeed without content and the same is true with community and content marketing. Empathy with the target audience as well as the communities they are influenced by is an essential consideration for content marketing. Being able to plan and promote content that engages and grows a community is very valuable skill.</P><P><STRONG>Amplification & Promotion</STRONG> – Content unread is content that is dead. OK, I just made that up, but it speaks to the importance of content promotion for awareness and exposure. Noise levels are high and it’s a shame (as well as a waste of money) when great content goes unnoticed. Identifying, engaging and managing promotion resources is an important skill in order for the investment in content creation and curation to pay off. Whether it’s integration with email, social networks, social ads, SEO, paid per click, sponsorships, influencers, retargeting, blogger outreach, public relations or any other type of amplification method, the ability to promote content is a skill that is as important as any other or more for a digital marketer.</P><P><STRONG>Nurturing & Marketing Automation</STRONG> - For longer sales cycles common to B2B companies, content is sustenance that draws buyers through an educational and engaging journey from wherever they start to become a lead and a customer. The ability to plan, implement and optimize content performance in conjunction with marketing automation software like Marketo, Eloqua or Infusionsoft is a distinct competitive advantage.</P><P><STRONG>Monitoring, Measurement & Optimization</STRONG> – No marketing program can optimize performance or scale without a feedback mechanism. Monitoring social media, news media, web analytics and conversion data are absolutely essential skills for any kind of digital marketer and especially for a content marketer. Optimizing content performance is a process of initial hypothesis, plan, implementation and then analysis of KPIs (key performance indicators) to adjust messaging, creative and calls to action. While many of these skills are important to an intentionally successful content marketing effort, the measurement and performance optimization piece is in the top 3.</P><P>I think any organization that can develop these skill sets amongst their digital marketing teams will bring a distinct advantage to the company. It’s also important for business marketing managers to develop these abilities and to inspire and nurture these skills within their organization.</P><P>I don’t believe any single individual or organization has mastery in this mix of skills. Most marketing organizations seem to emphasize one area over others and can still be successful. As my business partner, Susan Misukanis likes to say, “You don’t have to boil the ocean to start a successful program”.  However, I am suggesting in this post that it’s important to aspire to a mix of skills like these in order to achieve a competitive advantage, positive ROI, and market leadership.</P><P>At a minimum, an individual or a company that is new to content marketing should have the planning, creation, amplification and measurement skills (with a strong emphasis in 2 or 3). Otherwise, they’ll simply be stuck at <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/02/content-marketing-maturity-model/">Production</A> phase and never really be distinguished from the competition and suffer the harsh realities of Mark Schaefer’s “Content Shock”.</P><P>Beyond these more technical skills are character and personality traits as well as other skills like strategy, creativity and the ability to draw insight from data. Of course those skills are important for any role in an organization.</P><P>What would you add to this list? What would you say are the bare minimum for an individual (according to their role) or a content marketing agency?</P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/6LAya7s7mNQ/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Essential Digital Marketing Skills for Content Marketers in 2014

Like many other digital marketing agencies, we’ve been on the hunt for digital and content marketing talent on a continuous basis over the ...

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5 Reasons Why We Can’t Wait for Social Media Marketing World 2014 #SMMW14

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><img alt="Social Media Marketing World 2014" class="alignright size-full wp-image-16518" height="202" src="/smmw14.png" width="300"></P><P>Most businesses are aware of the importance of social media marketing, but the number of companies really succeeding at it represent just a drop in the ocean.</P><P>When you think about it, the world of social media is a lot like the ocean actually – constantly moving and evolving due to trends and feature updates. Those who really want to to succeed at social media marketing are like expert surfers, continuously swimming in the seas of change, riding the waves of trends, finding the best tools to keep their boards working well and keeping a close eye on the horizon for new best practices.</P><P>Where am I going with this surfing metaphor? <a href="http://bit.ly/1jPVWeR" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/bit.ly/1jPVWeR');" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World</A> 2014 in San Diego, California of course! That is where several of the team from TopRank Online Marketing will be diving headfirst into the ocean of social media marketing smarts . On March 26-28 some of the best social media surfers will be sharing their tips, tricks and secrets and we can’t wait to dive in.</P><P>Social Media Marketing World will be my first conference as a member of the TopRank Online Marketing team and here are 5 things I am really stoked about:</P><P><STRONG>1. Learning how to Ride the Big Wave</STRONG></P><P>In an industry that changes as fast as online marketing, it’s imperative that marketers stay nimble in their social media strategy. Social marketing best practices are constantly evolving and rarely agreed upon. That’s why it’s so exciting that we get to learn about social media marketing tactics from the best and the brightest at #SMMW14. We’ll ride the edge of social media innovation as we learn about social media ROI, time-saving tools, the intersection of content and social and more.</P><P><STRONG>2. Getting Props from the Pros</STRONG></P><P>#SMMW14 will give attendees the unique opportunity to interact with some of the world’s best social media strategists both online and in person. The tweets will fly as we attend sessions together and explore the city of San Diego. Engagement will flow and follower / following counts will increase as social media marketers connect and share insights with each other. The benefits of attending this conference will extend far into the future as we continue to interact socially with the marketers that we met at this conference.</P><P><STRONG>3. Swimming with the Big Fishes </STRONG></P><P>We’re looking forward to learning from and rubbing shoulders with the marketers who are making social media magic happen for big brands like LinkedIn, Citrix, IBM and Whole Foods. We’ll learn all that we can from influential social marketers at #SMMW14 and then put this new information to work helping our clients expand and improve their social media marketing programs.</P><P><STRONG>4. Helping you Get Up on your Surfboard </STRONG></P><P>The TopRank team wants to share the best social media marketing strategies and tactics that we learn at this conference with you! Our CEO Lee Odden will be giving a presentation on How Content Plus an Influencer Network Can Help You Grow Your Business. In addition to myself, Lee and Jesse Pickrain from TopRank will be busy tweeting interesting insights from the keynote speakers as well as live-blogging the highlights of the sessions that we’re attending. Get in on the action by following @toprank, @leeodden, @emilybacheller, and @jpickrain on Twitter!</P><P><STRONG>5. Sunshine and Sea Lions </STRONG></P><P>Coming from the freeze of Minnesnowta, we can’t wait to jet off to sunny southern California! We’re usually knee deep in snow by the end of March, so spending a few days in California will give us that first taste of spring that we’ve been waiting for. We also expect to have a lot of fun at Social Media Marketing World, knowing that the organizers do a remarkable job of making this conference exciting and memorable! From nautical networking parties on an aircraft carrier to the sea lions in San Diego Bay, we know that we’re going to have a great time at #SMMW14.</P><P><STRONG>BONUS:</STRONG> TopRank Online Marketing is the sole media sponsor for Social Media Marketing World and we’ve created the most awesome of conference eBooks featuring tips, tactics and insights from 38 of the numerous speakers at #SMMW14.  From famous social media starts like Mari Smith and Jay Baer to savvy social brands IBM and Whole Foods, this eBook will be an amazing primer for the conference. Be sure to watch for it here on Online Marketing Blog.</P><P>It take a lot of practice before you can feel comfortable standing up on a surfboard and confidently enjoy the rush of riding the waves. You may have to spend a lot of time swimming in the social web before you can stand tall on your surfboard–head and shoulders above your competition. It helps to have a good teacher and some time to observing the patterns of the social ocean–that’s one of the most important reasons why we’re attending #SMMW14</P><P>Will we see you at <a href="http://bit.ly/1jPVWeR" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/bit.ly/1jPVWeR');" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World</A> this year? What are your top reasons for attending? Will you try to surf while you’re in San Diego?</P><P>Top photo: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=145257634&src=id" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=145257634&src=id');" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shutterstock</A></EM></P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/DgDGQsVu_Fs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

5 Reasons Why We Can’t Wait for Social Media Marketing World 2014 #SMMW14

Most businesses are aware of the importance of social media marketing, but the number of companies really succeeding at it represent just a...

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Online Marketing News: Facebook Cuts Into Google’s Lead, 203% Growth In Social, Facebook Users Ignore Brands’ Content

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><STRONG><img alt="A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter" class="alignnone" height="425" src="/gMifhq3.jpg" width="450"></STRONG></P><P><STRONG>A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter -</STRONG> Dr. Seuss, the writer and illustrator behind children’s classics The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and The Lorax, would have turned 110 on March 2nd. We think that if he were alive today, he would have been a social media master. So to honor his wit and wisdom, here’s our interpretation of the Seuss guide to Twitter. <a href="http://blog.hootsuite.com/a-seuss-guide-to-twitter/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blog.hootsuite.com/a-seuss-guide-to-twitter/');" target="_blank" title="A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter">HootSuite</A></P><P><STRONG>Now Official: Google Adds Restaurant Menus To Search Results -</STRONG> Google announced that it’s now showing restaurant menus as a OneBox-style answer at the top of its search results. It seems to be primarily triggered by searches that involve both the restaurant name and the word “menu,” although Google’s example involves a query that starts with “show me the menu for….” <a href="http://searchengineland.com/now-official-google-adds-restaurant-menus-search-results-185708" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/searchengineland.com/now-official-google-adds-restaurant-menus-search-results-185708');" target="_blank" title="Now Official: Google Adds Restaurant Menus To Search Results">Search Engine Land</A></P><P><STRONG>203% Growth In Social, Only 31% In Publisher-Based Mobile Apps In 2013 -</STRONG> Gartner’s latest mobile industry report is out. Worldwide sales of smartphones to end users totaled 968 million units in 2013, an increase of 42.3 percent from 2012. Sales of smartphones accounted for 53.6 percent of overall mobile phone sales in 2013, and exceeded annual sales of feature phones for the first time. <a href="http://technorati.com/technology/article/203-growth-in-social-only-31/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/technorati.com/technology/article/203-growth-in-social-only-31/');" target="_blank" title="203% growth in social, only 31% in publisher-based mobile apps in 2013">Technorati</A></P><P><STRONG>Facebook Cuts Into Google’s Lead As Top Traffic Driver To Online News Sites [Report] -</STRONG> Add this to the ongoing debate over whether social or search is driving more traffic to online publishers: new data from Parse.ly shows that Facebook took a big bite in January out of Google’s lead as top traffic source for some of the biggest news publishers on the web. <a href="http://marketingland.com/facebook-cuts-googles-lead-top-traffic-driver-online-news-sites-report-75578" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/facebook-cuts-googles-lead-top-traffic-driver-online-news-sites-report-75578');" target="_blank" title="Facebook Cuts Into Google’s Lead As Top Traffic Driver To Online News Sites [Report]">Marketing Land</A></P><P><STRONG>Google AdWords Launches Flexible Conversion Counting -</STRONG> Google AdWords has officially announced a new way for advertisers to track and measure conversions with their new flexible conversion counting. The goal is to help advertisers track the types of conversions that work best for their business model. <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2331470/Google-AdWords-Launches-Flexible-Conversion-Counting" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/searchenginewatch.com/article/2331470/Google-AdWords-Launches-Flexible-Conversion-Counting');" target="_blank" title="Google AdWords Launches Flexible Conversion Counting">Search Engine Watch</A></P><P><STRONG>Google Analytics Adds AdWords Integration For Mobile App Campaigns -</STRONG> Google announced on the Google Analytics blog that they now upgraded their AdWords integration to show Mobile Apps campaigns in Google Analytics. <a href="http://www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-analytics-mobile-apps-18182.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-analytics-mobile-apps-18182.html');" target="_blank" title="Google Analytics Adds AdWords Integration For Mobile App Campaigns">Search Engine Roundtable</A></P><P><STRONG>Google AdWords Redesigns Notifications & Alerts -</STRONG> Google announced on Google+ that the roll out of the new notification and alerts icon in the Google AdWords advertising console should be live for all soon. Google said they began rolling out the new design “earlier this month.” They said the new approach is “more streamlined” for the notifications and alerts system in AdWords. <a href="http://www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-notifications-18185.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-notifications-18185.html');" target="_blank" title="Google AdWords Redesigns Notifications & Alerts">Search Engine Roundtable</A></P><P><STRONG>Study: Facebook Users Ignore Brands’ Content -</STRONG> An upcoming study from Web-content and customer-experience-management provider Kentico Software highlighted some of the challenges faced by brands on Facebook and other social networks, as its survey of more than 300 adults aged 18 and up found that the majority of them usually ignore posts by brands. <a href="http://allfacebook.com/kentico-software-study_b129676" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/allfacebook.com/kentico-software-study_b129676');" target="_blank" title="STUDY: Facebook Users Ignore Brands’ Content">AllFacebook</A></P><P><STRONG>Tumblr Adds Its First Director Of Media -</STRONG> Sima Sistani has been named director of media at Tumblr reports The Hollywood Reporter. She had been the director of mobile growth at Yahoo since August of last year, according to her LinkedIn profile. The position is a new one within the micro-blogging service, and Sistani will report to Lee Brown, who heads up brand partnerships at the site. She’ll focus on courting the entertainment industry through partnerships and help celebs with their Tumblr presence. <a href="http://socialtimes.com/tumblr-adds-first-director-media_b143698" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/socialtimes.com/tumblr-adds-first-director-media_b143698');" target="_blank" title="Tumblr Adds Its First Director of Media">SocialTimes</A></P><P><STRONG>61% Of Marketing Pros Use Social Media Analytics Tools [STUDY] -</STRONG> Almost two-thirds of marketing professionals use social media analytics tools, with campaign tracking their number one objective, reveals a study by Demand Metric that was sponsored by NetBase. <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-analytics-study_b55466" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-media-analytics-study_b55466');" target="_blank" title="61% Of Marketing Pros Use Social Media Analytics Tools [STUDY]">AllTwitter</A></P><P><STRONG>Pinterest Analytics: Mobile Revenue from Pinterest is Up 224% - </STRONG>Mobile revenue from Pinterest is exploding. According to research on <a href="https://www.piqora.com/products/pinterest" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.piqora.com/products/pinterest');" target="_blank" title="Piqora: The Complete Marketing Suite for Pinterest">Pinterest analytics</A> carried out by the in-house data scientists here at Piqora, retailers & brands saw an increase of 224% in January 2014, compared to a year earlier. <a href="http://www.business2community.com/pinterest/pinterest-analytics-mobile-revenue-pinterest-224-0799155#!yJ5JT" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.business2community.com/pinterest/pinterest-analytics-mobile-revenue-pinterest-224-0799155#!yJ5JT');" target="_blank" title="Pinterest Analytics: Mobile Revenue from Pinterest is Up 224%">Business 2 Community </A></P><P><STRONG>Brands’ Organic Facebook Reach Has Crashed Since October: Study -</STRONG> It’s no secret that the portion of a brand’s Facebook fans who see posts that aren’t supported by ad spend is dropping. In a sales deck sent to partners last fall, the social network acknowledged what some brands had observed for more than a year — that organic distribution of posts on brand pages was declining — but it didn’t quantify the extent of the decline to be expected. <a href="http://adage.com/abstract?article_id=292004" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/adage.com/abstract?article_id=292004');" target="_blank" title="Brands' Organic Facebook Reach Has Crashed Since October: Study">AdAge</A></P><P><STRONG>Yahoo to Block Social Log-Ins From Facebook and Google -</STRONG> Yahoo will prevent users from signing into its services using Google or Facebook accounts, saying instead they will need Yahoo IDs. Yahoo revealed the news to Betanews, saying that it will roll out the new log-in process gradually, a process that will require users of the website’s services to register for Yahoo IDs rather than logging in with Facebook or Google accounts. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332511/yahoo-to-block-social-log-ins-from-facebook-and-google" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332511/yahoo-to-block-social-log-ins-from-facebook-and-google');" target="_blank" title="Yahoo to Block Social Log-Ins From Facebook and Google">ClickZ</A></P><P><STRONG>Facebook Messenger launches on Windows Phone -</STRONG> While Facebook is rapidly developing experiences for iOS and Android, the Windows Phone platform often gets short shrift. The company is changing that, announcing Wednesday that Facebook Messenger has launched for Windows Phone. <a href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/03/05/facebook-messenger-launches-on-windows-phone/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.insidefacebook.com/2014/03/05/facebook-messenger-launches-on-windows-phone/');" target="_blank" title="Facebook Messenger launches on Windows Phone">Inside Facebook</A></P><P><STRONG>Google AdWords API Upgrade Adds Shopping Campaigns, Search Funnel & More - </STRONG>Google released a new version of the Google AdWords API, v201402, that brings a tremendous amount of new features. Google’s Jon Diorio summed up his favorite features on Google+. <a href="http://www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-api-v201402-18215.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.seroundtable.com/google-adwords-api-v201402-18215.html');" target="_blank" title="Google AdWords API Upgrade Adds Shopping Campaigns, Search Funnel & More">Search Engine Roundtable</A></P><P><STRONG>New Google Search Layout Has No Underlines, Makes Titles Bigger -</STRONG> Users in Europe are seeing a new variety of Google search results, which many believe is related to Google’s European antitrust agreement. The new layout was spotted by Dan Barker. Interestingly, the new layout makes it harder to distinguish the ads from regular search results. <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2332515/New-Google-Search-Layout-Has-No-Underlines-Makes-Titles-Bigger" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/searchenginewatch.com/article/2332515/New-Google-Search-Layout-Has-No-Underlines-Makes-Titles-Bigger');" target="_blank" title="New Google Search Layout Has No Underlines, Makes Titles Bigger">Search Engine Watch</A></P><P><STRONG>Since It Can’t Sue Us All, Getty Images Embraces Embedded Photos -</STRONG> For the past decade or so, the best defense Getty Images could find against the right-click button on your mouse—home of the “copy” and “save” functions—has been a team of scary lawyers. By copying one of its images and using it on your blog, you’re entering a random drawing where the prize is a terrifying letter offering a tutorial in copyright litigation. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-06/since-it-cant-sue-us-all-getty-images-embraces-embedded-photos#r=rss" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-06/since-it-cant-sue-us-all-getty-images-embraces-embedded-photos#r=rss');" target="_blank" title="Since It Can't Sue Us All, Getty Images Embraces Embedded Photos">BusinessWeek</A></P><P><STRONG>LinkedIn Opens Sponsored InMail Gates to Mobile Ads -</STRONG> LinkedIn is stepping up its content marketing offering with Sponsored InMail on mobile. From now on, marketers and advertisers will be able to leverage users’ inboxes to get content in front of their eyes. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332494/linkedin-opens-sponsored-inmail-gates-to-mobile-ads" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332494/linkedin-opens-sponsored-inmail-gates-to-mobile-ads');" target="_blank" title="LinkedIn Opens Sponsored InMail Gates to Mobile Ads">ClickZ</A></P><P><STRONG>Looking for Content Marketing Training? School Is Now in Session! -</STRONG> According to our annual content marketing research, organizations are investing about one-third of their marketing budgets on content marketing — and the majority are planning to increase their spend in the next year. While this seems like good news, our research also found that fewer than half of marketers consider themselves to be effective in the content efforts they produce. <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/03/content-marketing-training-school/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/03/content-marketing-training-school/');" target="_blank" title="Looking for Content Marketing Training? School Is Now in Session!">Content Marketing Institute</A></P><P><STRONG>Mobile Represents 30% of Ecommerce Site Traffic in 2013 [Study] -</STRONG> If you’re curious about what the state of ecommerce looked like last year, ShopVisible recently released a report that highlights mobile benchmarks, payment methods, shopping channels and more for 2013. What it found was 30 percent of site traffic came from something other than a traditional desktop/laptop, and up to 7 percent of total online revenue came from comparison shopping engines. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332227/mobile-represents-30-of-ecommerce-site-traffic-in-2013-study" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2332227/mobile-represents-30-of-ecommerce-site-traffic-in-2013-study');" target="_blank" title="Mobile Represents 30% of Ecommerce Site Traffic in 2013 [Study]">ClickZ</A></P><P><STRONG>Bing Launches ‘Bing Saves’: Save And Organize Content Found Through Bing Searches - </STRONG>Bing has officially launched a new feature designed to help users save, organize, and share the content they find on Bing searches. Bing Saves is available for access as a public beta on bing.com/saves, where you can also get toolbar bookmarklets that allow you to save content to Bing that you find elsewhere on the web. <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/bing-launches-bing-saves-save-organize-content-found-bing-searches/93641/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.searchenginejournal.com/bing-launches-bing-saves-save-organize-content-found-bing-searches/93641/');" target="_blank" title="Bing Launches ‘Bing Saves’: Save And Organize Content Found Through Bing Searches">Search Engine Journal</A></P><P><STRONG>3 in 4 Retailers Believe Mobile Will Soon Influence the Majority of Consumers’ Purchases -</STRONG> A new study from RSR Research indicates that already, almost half of retailers believe that mobile influences consumers’ purchases more than half of the time. And they’re even more confident of mobile’s influence in the years to come: some 44% believe that mobile will in 3 years influence consumers’ purchases at least three-quarters of the time, up from just 9% who currently feel that mobile carries that level of influence. <a href="http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/3-in-4-retailers-believe-mobile-will-soon-influence-the-majority-of-consumers-purchases-41183/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/3-in-4-retailers-believe-mobile-will-soon-influence-the-majority-of-consumers-purchases-41183/');" target="_blank" title="3 in 4 Retailers Believe Mobile Will Soon Influence the Majority of Consumers’ Purchases">Marketing Charts</A></P><P><STRONG>Study: 60 Percent Of Adults Switch Screens During The Day -</STRONG> Echoing a 2012 study by Google, Facebook this morning released findings from a new research about multiple device usage. While offering some different figures and percentages it essentially backs up the earlier Google results, which show that people use multiple devices throughout the day and for different purposes. <a href="http://marketingland.com/study-60-percent-adults-switch-screens-day-76130" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/study-60-percent-adults-switch-screens-day-76130');" target="_blank" title="Study: 60 Percent Of Adults Switch Screens During The Day">Marketing Land</A></P><P><STRONG>Survey: 87 Percent Want “Do Not Track” To Elude Marketers -</STRONG> There’s a massive gap between marketers’ increasingly aggressive use of data and consumers’ desire not to be tracked and targeted. This is not a new issue. However a new survey from social marketing firm Communispace underscores the chasm. <a href="http://marketingland.com/survey-87-percent-use-track-elude-marketers-76097" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/survey-87-percent-use-track-elude-marketers-76097');" target="_blank" title="Survey: 87 Percent Want “Do Not Track” To Elude Marketers">Marketing Land</A></P><P>On <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/03/grow-blog-community-readership/" title="5 Ways to Grow Your Blog Community and Readership">5 Ways to Grow Your Blog Community and Readership,</A> <STRONG>Dr. Anthony C. Edwards</STRONG> said, “I really appreciate your advice about writing from the consumer’s perspective rather than the company perspective. While we are trying to drive a particular response from the reader, it’s important to remember that we are writing to people and they often appreciate recognition.”</P><P><STRONG>Henley Wing</STRONG> said, “I love tips #2 and #3. Nobody really wants to hear how awesome you are they, they want to hear how you can make them awesome. Understanding the pains, fears and needs of your audience is a great way to resonate with them.”</P><P><STRONG>Anoop Srivastava</STRONG> added, “Lee, I love your first points Facts tell, but stories sell. If we write story with facts, people will start reading it.”</P><P>And <STRONG>Barbara Mckinney</STRONG> commented, “Thanks for the tips Lee. I agree with them all especially with #5.To optimize and socialize your content in social media is one the most important things to do to reach your audience.”</P><P><STRONG>What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?</STRONG></P><P>Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!</P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/lvlkYqCYIAo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Online Marketing News: Facebook Cuts Into Google’s Lead, 203% Growth In Social, Facebook Users Ignore Brands’ Content

A Dr. Seuss-Inspired Guide to Twitter -  Dr. Seuss, the writer and illustrator behind children’s classics The Cat in the Hat, How the Grinc...

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Local SEO: 15 Marketing Activities that Improve Citations

<P><STRONG>The rapid growth</STRONG> of smartphone usage has reinforced local search as an important marketing channel for location-based businesses. The basic building blocks of a local search-engine-optimization strategy are as follows.</P><STRONG>On-page SEO.</STRONG> Content, title tags and rich snippets “LocalBusiness” schema mark-up.<STRONG>Genuine customer reviews</STRONG> on Google+ Local and other review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor.An active <STRONG>Google+ business page</STRONG>.<STRONG>Acquiring local citations</STRONG> that provide location signals to Google.<P>This article intends to cover the last point: how to acquire local citations as a by-product of marketing. In my experience, most businesses that actively engage in marketing just need to be aware of the SEO layer of their marketing activities, to accomplish both objectives.</P><P>Chambers of commerce (or boards of trade) serve as a support platform for local small and mid-sized businesses. They run expos and events, share their mailing lists with members, and provide joint-venture opportunities to their members. Practically all chambers of commerce link to their members’ websites. A backlink from a local chamber-of-commerce website offers quite a strong local citation.</P><P>Local networking groups provide members with contacts, business referrals, and local exposure. Most networking groups would list all active members on their websites. Be sure to ask for a link back to you website on your listing.</P><P>Organizing local events is another effective means of marketing that has local SEO benefits. Use event listing sites such as Eventbrite, Meetup, Eventzilla, Splash, Facebook Events, Yelp Events, Patch, TicketLeap, Festivals.com, CitySeeker, Ticketbud and Zvents. They all provide links to your websites that also provide local SEO citations that help validate your business’ locale. For more, see <a href="http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/110832-How-to-Use-Facebook-for-Event-Marketing/">“How to Use Facebook for Event Marketing,”</A> a previous article.</P><P>Sponsoring a local charity or cause should be founded on genuine interest and concern about the plight or issue of the charity. Most all charities have websites that list events and sponsors. Getting a link from a very local charity website serves as relevant local citation.</P><P>Regional news websites, and radio and television stations cover local news about people and businesses. Getting an interview or feature in news story offers helpful exposure for your business. Getting a link with the feature serves as a significant local citation for your local SEO efforts.</P><P>If your business can financially support partial or full scholarships in local schools and colleges, it would almost guarantee a website mention — a potentially strong local citation.</P><P>Most universities run graduate and temporary job fairs. They tend to promote their job fairs on both their website and on social media, because they want a good turnout from students. They would typically list (and link to) websites of participating companies.</P><P>Cities and towns tend to run specialist recruitment fairs. Even if you are not actively recruiting, consider participating in the job fairs for brand exposure and marketing purposes. Job fair organizers would typically list participating companies on their websites with a link.</P><P>Endeavour to reflect existing business relationships with local businesses on both your partners’ and your website. A local builder, for instance, can have a “Trusted Partners” section on its site where it lists electricians, plumbers, decorators, and architects that it works with. This could be reciprocated on its partner websites (not as a means of link exchange) but to indicate a genuine business relationship and a local citation.</P><P>The more controversial you are (within reason), the more exposure your business is likely to get, with the help of the local press. This is especially effective when addressing local issues. Joining the conversation, and taking the lead for change puts both your personal and business brand in the fore. If picked up by the local press, your opinion and conversations could also be discussed in local blogs and social media with possible links to your website.</P><P>Doing business with local business and suppliers would result in some businesses listing your business as a client or supplier on their websites. This would serve as a local citation.</P><P>Listing jobs on local classified sites attracts not only local talent but with a link to your site, another local citation signal that should help your local SEO efforts.</P><P>Every local business should have a location-based check-in service listing for marketing and customer engagement purposes. Claim your business’ listing wherever possible and ensure that your business name, address and phone number (NAP) are identical to what you have on your Google+ local listing and website.</P><P>Location based services to consider include: Foursquare, Facebook Local, Yelp, AroundMe, and Everplaces. The most important platform to claim your business’s listing would be Foursquare; because it has emerged to become a location data provider for location based mobile apps.</P><P>If group buying is part of your marketing or customer acquisition strategy, you would be delighted to know that they are a viable source of acquiring local citations for local SEO. Websites of group buying services such as Groupon and LivingSocial are structured by city and state. Groupon, for instance, has the following local listings.</P><P>All of those are specific to the state of New York and New York City. All listing pages on group buying sites have a link to the listing company’s page.</P><P>My final tip is to become active on social media. Reach out to local customers, the local press, bloggers and other businesses via social media. Share your progress, challenges, causes, events, and offers. Strive to build a tight-knit local audience and following on your social media account so that you start and participate in locally themed conversations. Don’t view social media as a means of acquiring links. Rather, view social media as a platform for establishing and nurturing local relationships for your business.</P><P>Notice that all of the above 15 tips are about marketing. It is vital to place the SEO layer of citation and link building while participating in normal marketing activities.</P><P>Do you have any other tips that for local citation building? If yes, please share them with me in the comments area.</P><BR><br /><p><a href="http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/110866-Local-SEO-15-Marketing-Activities-that-Improve-Citations/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Local SEO: 15 Marketing Activities that Improve Citations

The rapid growth of smartphone usage has reinforced local search as an important marketing channel for location-based businesses. The basi...

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Notable Internet Marketing Articles for Feb. 27, 2014

<P><STRONG>This installment of <a href="http://webmarketingtoday.com/author/kathleen-fealy/">“Notable Internet Marketing Articles”</A></STRONG> includes, among other topics, engaging customers with authenticity; a comprehensive guide to LinkedIn for Business; and sage, non-technical advice on search engine optimization.</P><P><a href="http://uxmag.com/articles/everything-i-really-need-to-know-about-user-experience-i-learned-in-sunday-school">“Everything I Really Need to Know about User Experience I Learned in Sunday School”</A> by John Boykin, UX Magazine</EM>, February 25, 2014</P><P>Local businesses often get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of online marketing tactics and forget about the power of good user experience. This article presents nine lessons and how they can be applied, to make it easier for you to focus on your customer and look at your site for ways to improve usability and the customer experience.</P><P><a href="http://moz.com/blog/the-best-way-to-suck-at-marketing-whiteboard-friday">“The Best Way to Suck at Marketing – Whiteboard Friday”</A> by Rand Fishkin, The Moz Blog</EM>, February 14, 2014</P><P>In less than nine minutes, learn how to build long-term success and loyalty by marketing with authenticity and creating relationships. This video will make you take another look at your marketing and more importantly, your approach and interactions with your customers.</P><P><a href="http://conversionxl.com/the-science-of-storytelling-memory-motivation-and-its-impact-on-cro/">“The Science of Storytelling & Memory and Their Impact on CRO”</A> by Ankit Oberoi, ConversionXL</EM>, February 21, 2014</P><P>If you need people to convert, use stories. Stories are powerful and create opportunities for visitors to identify or react similarly to the person in the story. Learn how to use storytelling during the different stages of the marketing funnel to improve your customers’ conversions and how to make people remember your product or service, even months later.</P><P><a href="http://mashable.com/2014/02/18/blog-food-groups/">“The Blogger’s Meal Plan: 5 Secrets for Well-Balanced Content”</A> by Rebecca Hiscott, Mashable</EM>, February 18, 2014</P><P>Getting the right balance in your blogging content is cleverly illustrated in this infographic that compares blogging to eating the right food groups in the proper amounts. You’ll see suggestions on how to provide a mixture of how-to posts, case studies, research, light-hearted content, and bold statements throughout the week. This infographic will help in your planning of your blog posts – whether you do them weekly or on less frequent basis.</P><P><a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2330373/writing-for-search-where-meta-tags-meet-david-ogilvy">“Writing for Search: Where Meta Tags Meet David Ogilvy”</A> by Benjamin Spiegel, ClickZ</EM>, February 24, 2014</P><P>It’s time for local businesses to revisit their websites’ title and description (meta) tags — i.e., the headline and brief description that appears in the search result pages. As Google moves more toward semantic search, keyword stuffed title and description tags won’t work as they once did. Based on advertising pioneer’s David Ogilvy’s rules for advertising, the author suggests ways to implement these practices in today’s digital world, keeping in mind that title and description meta tags have character limits. Also, relevant keywords should be in the title and description based on the content and the intent of the visitor.</P><P><a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/headlines-something-extra/">“Can You Resist Clicking These 3 Headlines? (One is So Good I Had to Copy it)”</A> by Jerod Morris, Copyblogger</EM>, February 26, 2014</P><P>If you need clicks, write good headlines. Follow the advice in this article and you will be well on the way to gaining more readerships for your blog and getting people interested in what you have to say. My favorite sentence in the article is “Use your headline to tell people exactly what problem you’re going to solve or exactly what solution you’re going to provide … and the clicks will stream in quickly and clearly.”</P><P><a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2330940/8-UX-Tools-Every-Digital-Marketer-Needs-in-Their-Toolkit">“8 UX Tools Every Digital Marketer Needs in Their Toolkit”</A> by Erin Everhart, Search Engine Watch</EM>, February 26, 2014</P><P>Low cost or free tools are included in this list of eight tools and services that will help make sure that your website is easy to navigate and understand. One of the first rules of usability is that you are not your customer. You might understand them and be able to perceive what they need, but as a business owner or marketer, you have a built-in bias and the best way to see how your site is perceived is to test it with actual customers or people who are good representations of your targeted audience.</P><P><a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/increasing-local-reviews-integrating-offline-marketing-tactics/89415/">“Increasing Local Reviews: Integrating Offline Marketing Tactics”</A> by Prashant Puri, Search Engine Journal</EM>, February 18, 2014</P><P>According to this article, 88 percent of visitors are influenced by reviews. By using some offline marketing tactics, you can make it easy for customers to leave reviews for your business. As a local business, it’s becoming increasingly important to get these reviews as Google is showing star ratings (via schema markup) in many of its search result pages.</P><P><a href="http://marketing.linkedin.com/blog/the-sophisticated-marketers-guide-to-linkedin-the-webinar-video/">“The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn: The Webinar [Video]“</A> by Jason Miller, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog</EM>, February 24, 2014</P><P>This 60-minute video will show you how to better incorporate LinkedIn into your overall marketing strategy. Tips include how to use company pages and updates, how to share information visually, and various social media marketing tactics to increase your brand awareness, build your personal and business’ credibility, and generate leads and business.</P><P><a href="http://www.brightlocal.com/2014/02/19/5-essential-parts-local-seo-strategy-2014/">“5 essential tactics for long-term local SEO success”</A> by Myles Anderson, BrightLocal Blog</EM>, February 19, 2014</P><P>Local businesses need to make sure that their local search strategy is up-to-date and intact. If you’ve been doing local search for a while, this list may not be new. But it still serves as a good reminder of tactics that provide the foundation to local search: Google+ Local profile optimization, geo-targeted pages, blogging, review strategies, accurate citations and implementing a simple social strategy. Included in the article is links to various resources for more in-depth information.</P><P><a href="http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/02/26/facebook-restructure-advertising-platform-campaigns-ad-sets-ads-march-4">“Facebook will restructure its advertising platform into campaigns, ad sets, and ads on March 4?</A> by Emil Protalinski, thenextweb</EM>, February 26, 2014</P><P>On March 4, Facebook will change its advertising campaign structure with the intent of making it easier for advertisers of all sizes to organize, optimize, and measure the success of their ads. This article provides a quick overview of how it will work.</P><P><a href="http://heidicohen.com/slideshare-content-marketing-tips-case-study/">“SlideShare: Content Marketing’s Happy Medium”</A> by Heidi Cohen, Heidi Cohen actionable marketing guide</EM>, February 25, 2014</P><P>Have you created a presentation about your product or service for a presentation and then wondered if you could reuse this asset and share it with others? With a bit of planning, some adjustments and these actionable steps, you could share and promote your presentation on SlideShare and meet a whole new audience. Includes examples and case studies.</P><P><a href="http://searchengineland.com/best-move-kill-site-184568">“When The Best SEO Move Is To Kill The Site”</A> by Eric Ward, Search Engine Land</EM>, February 25, 2014</P><P>Many local businesses either work on building links to their website themselves or hire an outside consultant. Link building is one of the most time-consuming activities as it takes effort – valuable content and research and has value if done correctly. Unfortunately, many local businesses have fallen prey to unethical SEOs who are offering quick links via link farms, paid links, and guest posting with no unique, valuable content. Often, the offer to provide links comes with a low price tag and the unsuspecting website owners thinks they are getting a bargain. This article discusses what to do when a site has lost rankings due to a manual penalty from Google for unnatural linking.</P><P><a href="http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/search-engine-traffic-non-seo-guide/">“SEO Traffic 2014: Your One Stop Reference Guide for Non-SEOs”</A> by Ana Hoffman, Traffic Generation Café</EM>, February 4, 2014</P><P>Local business owners often say to me “Google changes the rules.” How can the regular businessperson keep up? This guide takes you thru the important aspects of SEO and explains it in a non-technical manner, offering additional resources. The guide includes creating big content, Google semantic search, optimizing on-page factors and content, why Google+ is important and shouldn’t be ignored, authorship and schema markup, link earning, and mobile SEO.</P><BR><br /><p><a href="http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/110891-Notable-Internet-Marketing-Articles-for-Feb-27-2014/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Notable Internet Marketing Articles for Feb. 27, 2014

This installment of “Notable Internet Marketing Articles” includes, among other topics, engaging customers with authenticity; a comprehens...

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Online Marketing News: WhatsApp Facebook? Bots Overtake the Net, Social Wins for SMBs, Twitter Facelift

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><STRONG><img alt="Location-Based Marketing Infographic" class="size-full wp-image-16510 alignnone" height="257" src="/Location-Based-Marketing-Infographic.jpg" title="Location-Based Marketing Infographic" width="450"></STRONG></P><P><STRONG>How Location-Based Marketing Delivers Ads to In-Store Shoppers</STRONG> [Infographic] – Micro-location and proximity targeting are happening in brick and mortar stores right now. This infographic explains some of the location-based marketing systems out there and how they tap into wifi, GPS, NFC and other technologies to detect location and help deliver ads. <a href="http://marketingland.com/location-based-marketing-shoppers-73574" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/location-based-marketing-shoppers-73574');" target="_blank" title="Location-Based Marketing Delivers Ads to In-Store Shoppers">Marketing Land</A></P><P><STRONG>LinkedIn Unlocks Influencer Program</STRONG> – LinkedIn has expanded their influencer blogging program from 500 to 25,000 this week. The blogging function will extend to more members in the future. Enabling LinkedIn members to blog will give LinkedIn substantially more content and engagement opportunities to drive pageviews and website visits. It should also provide more value for members. <a href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/02/19/the-definitive-professional-publishing-platform/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blog.linkedin.com/2014/02/19/the-definitive-professional-publishing-platform/');" target="_blank">LinkedIn Blog</A> (client)</P><P><B>Less Than 40 Percent of Web Traffic Comes From Humans</B> – The chart differentiates between “good” bots, like search engines and analytics tools, and “bad” bots, like scam advertisements, scrapers, hacking tools and spam bots (hacking and spam make up 5 percent of total traffic). It’s troubling that bot traffic is evenly split between 31 percent “good” and 30.5 percent “bad,” but throw humans in there and things start to even out. Maybe humans need a “Take Back the Internet” rallying cry. <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/02/14/humans_make_up_only_40_percent_of_web_traffic_the_rest_is_from_bots.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/02/14/humans_make_up_only_40_percent_of_web_traffic_the_rest_is_from_bots.html');" target="_blank" title="Less than 40 Percent of Web Traffic Comes from Humans">Slate</A></P><P><STRONG>Klout Quietly Tests Native Ad Product</STRONG> – Klout has already conducted an alpha test of native ads with a few undisclosed brands with what it deemed “great” results. The move comes hot on the heels of reports that the online social influence start-up is being sold to social customer service company Lithium Technologies for $100 million or more. <a href="http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2328026/klout-quietly-tests-native-ad-product" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2328026/klout-quietly-tests-native-ad-product');" target="_blank" title="Klout Tests Native Ad Product">ClickZ</A></P><P><B>LinkedIn Study Shows Social Media Marketing is Working for SMBs</B> – LinkedIn conducted a survey of 998 SMBs in the U.S. and Canada and discovered that 81% of SMBs are using social media. They see it as a way of maintaining brand presence (90%), generating word-of-mouth (88%), delivering information about their company (89%) and attracting new leads (82%). <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2014/02/linkedin-study-shows-social-media-marketing-is-working-for-smbs.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.marketingpilgrim.com/2014/02/linkedin-study-shows-social-media-marketing-is-working-for-smbs.html');" target="_blank" title="LinkedIn Study: Social Media Making Difference for SMBs">Marketing Pilgrim</A></P><P><STRONG>Twitter Testing Major Profile Redesign That Looks a Lot Like Facebook</STRONG> – The main picture and bio will be scaled to the left with significantly more real estate dedicated to the header photo. The revamped tweet stream is also a departure from its signature look. There is a greater focus on photos and content cards. It moves away from a strictly vertical timeline too. <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/02/11/twitter-redesign-facebook-google/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/mashable.com/2014/02/11/twitter-redesign-facebook-google/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link');" target="_blank" title="Twitter Testing Profile Redesign">Mashable</A></P><P><B>Bitcoin Bubble Could Burst as Investors Rush to Withdraw Cash </B>– Investors have been left high and dry holding on to plummeting bitcoin as a bug in the software has prevented them trading in the currency.  <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/bitcoin-bubble-could-burst-as-investors-rush-to-withdraw-cash-7000026410/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.zdnet.com/bitcoin-bubble-could-burst-as-investors-rush-to-withdraw-cash-7000026410/');" target="_blank" title="Bitcoin Bubble Could Burst">ZDNet</A></P><P><STRONG>When Mentos and Diet Coke Went Viral</STRONG> – As familiar as we all are now with user-generated branded content, it really didn’t make an impact until 2006 when Eepybird Studios, a video production team, went super viral with their “Extreme Mentos and Diet Coke” clip. Here’s an interview with the creators asking about the science of going viral and why YouTube wasn’t even part of their plan in the very early days. <a href="http://www.reelseo.com/mentos-coke-viral/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.reelseo.com/mentos-coke-viral/');" target="_blank" title="When Mentos and Coke Went Viral">ReelSEO</A></P><P><STRONG>5 Ways in Which Search is Evolving</STRONG> – The great thing about search is the way it keeps changing and growing, meaning website owners and marketers need to adapt and exploit new opportunities regularly to maximize their search presence. Here are five noteworthy directions in which search is evolving that digital marketers need to be aware of. <a href="http://econsultancy.com/blog/64342-five-ways-in-which-search-is-evolving" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/econsultancy.com/blog/64342-five-ways-in-which-search-is-evolving');" target="_blank" title="5 Ways Search is Evolving">eConsultancy</A></P><P><STRONG>A Visual History of Google Algorithm Changes</STRONG> [Infographic] – Over the years, Google has made thousands of changes to the way it finds and prioritizes information on the web. While most of these changes have been small, there have also been several major changes, which have affected significantly how marketers think about SEO. Here’s a snapshot of when and why Google rolled out its most notable algorithm updates. <a href="http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-algorithm-visual-history-infographic" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-algorithm-visual-history-infographic');" target="_blank" title="History of Google Algorithm Changes Infographic">HubSpot</A></P><P><STRONG>Netflix is Building an Artificial Brain Using Amazon’s Cloud</STRONG> – In an effort to further hone its recommendation engine, Netflix is delving into “deep learning,” a branch of artificial intelligence that tries to mimic the structure of the human brain to solve problems that are usually too difficult for computers. <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/02/netflix-deep-learning/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/02/netflix-deep-learning/');" target="_blank" title="Netflix Building Artificial Brain">Wired</A></P><P><STRONG>Is it Time to Give Your Mobile Marketing a Push?</STRONG> [Infographic] – As much as 76% of consumers have enabled push notifications on their phone. Marketers measure 50% higher open rates with push notifications versus email–and double the click-through rates! In addition, 70% or more of consumers found all types of push notifications, including order updates and location-based messages, to be valuable. <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2014/02/is-it-time-to-give-your-mobile-marketing-a-push-infographic.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.marketingpilgrim.com/2014/02/is-it-time-to-give-your-mobile-marketing-a-push-infographic.html');" target="_blank" title="Give Your Mobile Marketing a Push">Marketing Pilgrim</A></P><P><STRONG>The New iPhone Feature That Could Change Your Mobile Content Strategy</STRONG> – Included as part of Apple’s iOS 7, the iBeacon feature uses Bluetooth location-based technology to allow a sensor to communicate with a nearby device. Tiny transmitters can be placed throughout a building to determine visitors’ locations and send targeted alerts to their phones as they move about. Combine this with push notifications and marketers benefit from a one-two punch. <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/02/ibeacon-enhance-mobile-content-strategy/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/02/ibeacon-enhance-mobile-content-strategy/');" target="_blank" title="New iPhone Feature That Could Change Your Content Strategy">Content Marketing Institute</A></P><P><B>Study: Personalized Emails Deliver 6X Higher Transaction Rates, But 70% of Brands Fail to Use Them</B> – Experian Marketing Services has released its 2013 Email Marketing Study, analyzing a wide breadth of email marketing best practices, including personalization, social integration, mobile and customer preferences. Not only did personalization prove to lift transaction rates and revenue, Experian stated that personalized promotional mailings had 29 percent higher unique open rates and 41 percent higher unique click rates. For triggered email campaigns, personalization resulted in double the transaction rates compared to non-personalized triggered emails. What are brands waiting for? <a href="http://marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241');" target="_blank" title="Personalized Emails Deliver 6x Higher Transaction Rates">Marketing Land</A></P><P><STRONG>Facebook Allows Users to Enter a Custom Gender</STRONG> – Facebook announced that it will allow its users to customize their gender on their timeline. Previously, the only options available were female and male, but now there’s a custom option for users to identify as their preferred pronoun. They have also added the ability for people to control the audience with whom they want to share their custom gender. <a href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/02/13/facebook-allows-users-to-enter-a-custom-gender/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.insidefacebook.com/2014/02/13/facebook-allows-users-to-enter-a-custom-gender/');" target="_blank" title="Facebook Allows Users to Enter Gender">Inside Facebook</A></P><P><STRONG>Facebook to Buy WhatsApp for $19 Billion</STRONG> – Facebook will buy fast-growing mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, as the world’s largest social network looks for ways to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd and underscores its determination to win the market for messaging, an indispensable utility in a mobile era. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140219" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/19/us-whatsapp-facebook-idUSBREA1I26B20140219');" target="_blank" title="Facebook to Buy WhatsApp">Reuters</A></P><P><STRONG>Study: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest Buttons Rated Most Effective Social Media Marketing Tactic</STRONG> – 37 percent of marketers rated social sharing buttons as very effective for increasing conversions from consumers, with 46 percent claiming they were somewhat effective. Live chat/instant messaging, user-created collections and user-generated content also rated highly in the survey. <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-sharing-conversions_b54936" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/social-sharing-conversions_b54936');" target="_blank" title="Social Sharing Conversions">MediaBistro</A></P><P><STRONG>Infinite Scroll Search-Friendly Recommendations</STRONG> – To make sure that search engines can crawl individual items linked from an infinite scroll page, make sure that you or your content management system produces a paginated series (component pages) to go along with your infinite scroll. <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/02/infinite-scroll-search-friendly.html" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/02/infinite-scroll-search-friendly.html');" target="_blank" title="Infinite Scroll-Friendly Recommendations">Google Webmaster Central Blog</A></P><P><STRONG>Starbucks and The Economist Admit to Using Google+ for SEO More Than Social</STRONG> – According to The New York Times</EM> Starbucks, “Updates its Google+ page for the sake of good search placement, and takes advice from Google representatives on how to optimize Google+ content for the search engine.” And the audience director for The Economist commented on how Google+ helps with their SEO strategy — their Google+ posts actually show up in search engine results. <a href="http://searchengineland.com/starbucks-economist-admit-using-google-seo-social-184527" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/searchengineland.com/starbucks-economist-admit-using-google-seo-social-184527');" target="_blank" title="Google+ More for SEO than Social">Search Engine Land</A></P><P><STRONG>Google To Introduce A New Content-Recommendation System For Publishers Next Month</STRONG> – The search and advertising giant is pitching content companies on joining a beta of the service. The new program could present competition to companies like Taboola, Outbrain, and Zemanta, which recommends multiple articles from a given publisher on that outlet’s website. In typical Google fashion, they had nothing more to report. <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/10/google-is-pushing-a-new-content-recommendation-system-for-publishers/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/venturebeat.com/2014/02/10/google-is-pushing-a-new-content-recommendation-system-for-publishers/');" target="_blank" title="Google Introducing New Content-Recommendation Platform">Venture Beat</A></P><P><STRONG>4 Things Online Marketers Should Know About User Experience (UX)</STRONG> – Discover four important concepts that search engine optimization (SEO) professionals contribute to the user experience (UX) and user experience design (UXD). UX expert, Shari Thurow, explains the difference and puts it all in a context in this super smart post. <a href="http://marketingland.com/4-things-seos-know-user-experience-ux-73200" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/marketingland.com/4-things-seos-know-user-experience-ux-73200');" target="_blank" title="4 Thinks SEOs Need to Know About UX">Marketing Land</A></P><P><STRONG>Cara Posey</STRONG> on <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/02/content-marketing-maturity-model/" target="_blank" title="Essential Stages of Content Marketing Evolution">Essential Stages of Content Marketing Evolution – If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying</A>, said “This is an excellent resource that really helps identify what stage you are at and where you want to be. There is such a huge jump between some of these smaller steps. Organizations need to know that they aren’t failing if they haven’t yet hit storytelling or monetization, but there is certainly opportunity to do better and be more successful.</P><P>“Even those of us in the content marketing space must make a concerted effort to keep moving forward. Thanks for always inspiring us to do so and for breaking it down so simply. Luckily I have a copy of Youtility</EM> that Jay kindly signed at WOMMA Summit. Time to hit the books again!”</P><P><STRONG>What were the top online and digital marketing news stories for you this week?</STRONG></P><P>Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!</P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/4BpSbmL2uqQ/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Online Marketing News: WhatsApp Facebook? Bots Overtake the Net, Social Wins for SMBs, Twitter Facelift

How Location-Based Marketing Delivers Ads to In-Store Shoppers [Infographic] – Micro-location and proximity targeting are happening in bri...

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5 LinkedIn Marketing Tips to Optimize Your Social Media Success

<a id="dd_start"></A><img alt="LinkedIn" class="size-full wp-image-16554" height="331" src="/linkedin-2014.png" width="450"> Image source: Slideshare</P><P>Last week we published the first Social Media Marketing World <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/03/social-media-marketing-world-ebook-2014/">conference eBook </A>and while it’s had over 15,000 views on Slideshare and many thousands of views here already, I think we’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg.</P><P>As a robust sized eBook, it’s full of practical advice including platform specific tips like the following 5 nuggets about LinkedIn.</P><P>With over <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin/2014-linkedin-company-presentation" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slideshare.net/linkedin/2014-linkedin-company-presentation');" target="_blank">277 million members</A>, 3.5 million active company profiles and 187 million unique visitors across LinkedIn web properties, there’s a remarkable opportunity for companies to connect with business professionals on LinkedIn. Luckily, when we interviewed a selection of SMMW14 speakers, 5 of them gave specific tips about how to optimize LinkedIn for social media marketing. Here are their excerpts from the SMMW14 eBook:</P><P><img alt="Martin Jones" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16559" height="118" src="/martin-jones-smmw14.jpg" width="150"><BR>Martin Jones (@MartinJonesaz)<BR>Senior Marketing Manager, Cox Communications</P><P><STRONG>The Real Value of LinkedIn:<BR></STRONG>No single social platform will define your personal brand and clarify the unique value that you bring to an organization or project as well as LinkedIn.</P><P>Use your personal profile page to tell your story, and do so in a way that is clear, concise and engaging.</P><P>LinkedIn is a powerful platform for establishing your personal brand, but only if you take the time to learn it, optimize it and use it.</P><P><img alt="Jill Rowley" height="119" src="/jill-rowley-smmw14.jpg" width="150"><BR>Jill Rowley (@jill_rowley)<BR>Social Selling & Social Business Evangelist</P><P><STRONG>Optimize Your Reputation:<BR></STRONG>2014 is the year of #ProfessionalBranding and the #SocialEmployee.</P><P>It’s time to move from using LinkedIn as a resume to using LinkedIn for your online reputation.</P><P>If you’re in Sales, optimize your profile for the Buyer versus the Recruiter.</P><P>Eliminate the #QuotaCrusher #ExpertNegotiator language. Include rich content (videos, infographics, podcasts, eBooks, blog posts) that inform your buyer and helps establish your subject matter expertise.</P><P>Always be connecting & curating quality content!</P><P><img alt="Connie Bensen" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16556" height="120" src="/connie-bensen-smmw141.jpg" width="150"><BR>Connie Bensen (@cbensen)<BR>Global Social Strategy & Governance, Dell<BR>(TopRank client)</EM></P><P><STRONG>Optimize LinkedIn for Lead Generation</STRONG><BR>LinkedIn can be more effective than Twitter and Facebook for B2B lead gen with these tips:</P><P>Relevant and timely content. Leverage LinkedIn’s demographic segmentation features to develop content for various audiences and deliver it on time for maximum sharing.</P><P>Engage frequently and directly. Post and respond to comments. This will help build your company’s influence and the targeted communication fosters trust and loyalty.</P><P>Post company updates and news. People enjoy reading new information about their favorite brands. Post frequent status updates to keep your customers up-to-date on events and offers.</P><P>Great brand examples to learn from on LinkedIn include: Dell, Salesforce, Hubspot, and Zipcar.</P><P><img alt="Viveka von Rosen" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16557" height="120" src="/viveka-von-rosen-smmw14.jpg" width="150"><BR>Viveka von Rosen (LinkedInExpert)<BR>Author & Founder, Linked Into Business</P><P><STRONG>Inbound Marketing on LinkedIn<BR></STRONG>The key to successful selling on LinkedIn is moving from people “knowing” you to “liking and trusting” you.</P>Make sure your profile accurately represents you and your brand.Establish connections with your target market.Share useful content through the use of updates, group discussions and messages.<P>Do this and stay top of mind with your connections and before you know it, your prospects will be coming to you!</P><P><img alt="Neal Schaffer" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16560" height="119" src="/neal-schaffer-smmw14.jpg" width="150"><BR>Neal Schaffer (@NealSchaffer)<BR>Author & Founder, Maximize Social Business</P><P><STRONG>Social Selling With LinkedIn:<BR></STRONG>LinkedIn, more than any other platform, is most effective when your entire company is behind your efforts.</P><P>Don’t just stop at marketing your Company Page: Get your salespeople involved with using LinkedIn for Social Selling.<BR>Get your employees involved as part of an Employee Advocacy program.</P><P>Don’t forget the targeted status update opportunities you have for Paid Social on LinkedIn too!</P><P><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/toprank/smmw14-ebook-38-social-media-marketing-tips-from-top-experts-brands" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slideshare.net/toprank/smmw14-ebook-38-social-media-marketing-tips-from-top-experts-brands');"><img alt="Social Media Marketing World 2014 eBook" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16543" height="336" src="/smmw14-ebook-cover-450.png" width="450"></A></P><P>To access ALL of the tips from our 38 eBook participants, just visit our <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/toprank/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slideshare.net/toprank/');" target="_blank">Slideshare page</A> where you can view or download the full PDF.</P><P>Also, if you want to hear all of these tips and much more in person, then be sure to check out the Social Media Marketing World <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.socialmediaexaminer.com/smmworld/');" target="_blank">conference website.</A></P><P>Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.</EM></P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/dAQlp66BP20/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

5 LinkedIn Marketing Tips to Optimize Your Social Media Success

Image source: Slideshare Last week we published the first Social Media Marketing World conference eBook and while it’s had over 15,000 vie...

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Print Newsletters as Content Marketing Tactic: Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><img alt="Print Newsletters Mail Delivery" class="alignright size-full wp-image-16474" height="225" src="/Print-Newsletters-Mail-Delivery.jpg" title="Print Newsletters Mail Delivery" width="300">One of the oldest forms of content marketing are printed newsletters that arrive by snail mail, providing valuable, information-rich content that your customers and prospects want. They can be an effective compliment to online promotions or serve niche markets where print is a preferred format.</P><P>Given the overall decrease in postal mail, a print newsletter can stand out to the recipient, unlike an online newsletter that can get lost in an already too full in-box. Conversely, due to the continuing rise of postal costs, newsletters are more likely to be concise and targeted, providing special appeal.</P><P>According to the <STRONG>2014 B2C & B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends</STRONG> report for North America, <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/mprofs/b2c-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-and-trendsnorth-america" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slideshare.net/mprofs/b2c-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-and-trendsnorth-america');" target="_blank" title="B2C Marketers Use Print Newsletters">B2C marketers</A> use print newsletters with greater frequency at 29% compared to their <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/mprofs/b2b-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-and-trendsnorth-america" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.slideshare.net/mprofs/b2b-content-marketing-2014-benchmarks-budgets-and-trendsnorth-america');" target="_blank" title="B2B Marketers Use Print Newsletters">B2B counterparts</A> at 22%. In addition, customer retention/loyalty is cited as a top marketing goal for B2C compared to lead generation for B2B.</P><P>But, both types consider brand awareness</EM> to be a crucial content marketing goal, which could explain why print newsletters continue to hold value as a content marketing tactic.</P><P><STRONG>Consumers still love getting mail.</STRONG></P><P>Direct mail, which includes print newsletters, also resonates with consumers in a way that email simply does not. According to marketing firm <a href="http://printinthemix.com/uploads/File/newsletters/PIM%20Spring%202012%20Final.pdf" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/printinthemix.com/uploads/File/newsletters/PIM%20Spring%202012%20Final.pdf');" title="Epsilon ">Epsilon Targeting’s Consumer Channel Preference Study</A>, direct mail continues to deliver as consumers’ preferred means of receiving marketing messages from brands. Here are some of their key findings:</P>Six out of 10 U.S. consumers surveyed say they “enjoy getting postal mail from brands about new products.”Across all key verticals – from financial and insurance to retail and personal care – direct mail is preferred over email by all respondents.The propensity for direct mail also extends to the 18-34 year old demographicConsumers report getting an emotional boost from receiving direct mail; 60% agree they “enjoy checking their postal mail boxes.”Half of all respondents concur with the statement, “I pay more attention to information I receive by postal mail than if it was received by email.”<P>As with any print medium, a brand has an opportunity to develop a relationship based on a mutually beneficial value proposition. Print newsletters represent an open invitation to communicate your company story as well as its products and services and to <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2012/07/life-cycle-optimization-content/" target="_blank" title="Optimize Beyond the Sales Life Cycle">optimize beyond the sales life cycle</A>.</P><P><STRONG>Demonstrate value to cut through the clutter.</STRONG></P><P>As digital marketers, we sometimes forget that good old-fashioned print meets the conditions of content marketing: demonstrate your value proposition while providing value.</P><P>Print newsletters, just like <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2014/02/print-magazines-content-marketing/" target="_blank" title="Print Magazines as Content Marketing Tactic">print magazines</A>, are a mainstay for many companies wanting a credible way to cut through the clutter. Typically, your newsletter periodical will include articles around one specific subject or topic related to your brand or company and written for a group of people with a common interest — namely your products, services or cause.</P><P>Like any marketing communication, it’s important to establish a consistent distribution cycle to be the most effective. Whether it’s weekly, monthly or quarterly, determine a regular schedule and stick to it.</P><P>Although the recipients of your newsletter gave you implicit permission to enter your home or office, remember, newsletters are not ads. If you are sending out a promotional newsletter, your goal, of course, is to turn prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers. You just want to steer clear of any overt sales pitch. But calls to action are more than acceptable.</P><P>A print newsletter allows you to give more in-depth information to readers, which is especially important when trying to educate buyers about complex products or services. Once they understand fully the benefits of what your company has to offer, they will be more likely to buy.</P>It grabs attention.It’s a proven way to nurture customers, members and leads.There are no costs for distribution because you already own your customer list.Print is enjoying resurgence because it feels new when compared to digital marketing.The printed word is perceived to be more substantive and therefore more credible.Print allows people to unplug from the online chatter. Its noise to signal ratio is zero, compared to the Internet.Print is tactile, providing a deeper visceral connection to the brand. (Read <a href="http://printinthemix.com/research/show/92" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/printinthemix.com/research/show/92');" target="_blank" title="Using Neuroscience to Understand Role of Direct Mail">Using neuroscience to understand the role of direct mail</A>.)For niche demographics, like seniors, print is perceived as more legitimate.Print newsletters enjoy a longer shelf life, leading to more active engagement.Lacks the immediacy and accessibility of other digital communication channelsBudget and timeline may strain marketing resourcesWith people moving with greater frequency, keeping your list clean may be difficultCost prohibitive to publish in more than one language for most companies<P><B>George Dickel® – The Cascade Hollow Courier</B></P><P>This <a href="http://secure.dickel.com/en-row/Products/whisky/cascade-hollow-whisky.aspx" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/secure.dickel.com/en-row/Products/whisky/cascade-hollow-whisky.aspx');" target="_blank" title="Tennessee Whiskey Distiller">Tennessee Whiskey distiller</A> since 1870 celebrates its sipping heritage with apparel, glassware, accessories and tours and publishes a print newsletter to promote it all.</P><P><a href="E:\aaaaa\has'\1\data\make money online free and fast\seob\George-Dickel-Consumer-Goods-Print-Newsletter_new.jpg" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/downloads/wp-content/uploads/George-Dickel-Consumer-Goods-Print-Newsletter_new.jpg');"><img alt="George Dickel - Consumer Goods Print Newsletter" class="size-full wp-image-16471 aligncenter" height="274" src="/George-Dickel-Consumer-Goods-Print-Newsletternew.jpg" width="340"></A></P>Quality publication that enhances its overall brand message with consistent design and century-old feelCelebrates the outdoor lifestyle so prevalent in the south with content and promotional items, like collectible decoy replicas, to matchPromoting a Huntin’ and Fishin’ story contest further engages their readers adding to their enjoyment value<P><B>Valent Bioscience Corp.</B></P><P>This company was the <a href="http://www.creativityawards.com/42A_Newsletter_B2B.php" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.creativityawards.com/42A_Newsletter_B2B.php');" target="_blank" title="Valent Bioscience Gold Winner">Gold Winner</A> in the 42nd annual Creativity International Awards for B2B newsletter design, proving that science doesn’t have to be boring.</P><P><img alt="Valent Bioscience Print Newsletter" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-16475" height="507" src="/Valent-Bioscience-Print-Newsletter.jpg" title="Valent Bioscience Print Newsletter" width="393"></P>Great use of white space, typography, color and visuals4-pages packed with relevant content, including application notes and new product innovation, for its target audienceEstablishes their thought leadership with a strategic article under the heading, Vector Vision, discussing the benefits of controlling the mosquito population, i.e. vector control<P><B>Antalis</B></P><P>This leading European distributor of papers and packaging products <a href="http://www.creativityawards.com/42A_Newsletter_Consumer.php" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.creativityawards.com/42A_Newsletter_Consumer.php');" target="_blank" title="Award-winning Print Newsletter">took home the gold</A> at the 42nd annual Creativity International Awards.</P><P><img alt="Antalis Award Winning Print Newsletter" class="wp-image-16473 aligncenter" height="263" src="/Antalis-Award-Winning-Print-Newsletternew.jpg" title="Antalis Award Winning Print Newsletter" width="340"></P>Bold use of color, design and typographyContent promotes products relevant to the print and visual communications industriesEffective use of non-traditional format, fitting for the creative visual artsEmploys storytelling in a way that makes sense to its target audience looking to learn more about curious metallic®, a specialty paper<P><B>First impressions</B>: Even though your newsletter is most likely free to subscribers, will a new reader perceive value in it? The layout and openness of the design, color and weight of the paper and the balance of text and graphics are being scrutinized in a nanosecond. Does it say, read me now or shelve for later? All elements of your newsletter design should enhance your overall brand message and meet readers’ expectations.</P><P><B>Format</B>: Newsletters don’t have to be letter size portrait booklets to be called a newsletter. Other formats may work better, depending on your industry. Explore different sizes, orientations and folds based on the purpose and content length of the publication.</P><P><B>Content</B>: Carefully choose your articles so that each one generates results. Avoid using generic filler, such as recipes or quotes. Focus content on industry trends, new product innovations, a top customer spotlight, or company milestones. The goal is to include focused content that meets the informational needs of your target audience. Including testimonials of satisfied customers can add a persuasive element to your content and lets your customers do the selling.</P><P><B>Sales tool</B>: You can attract more readers and more potential customers by featuring your company’s area of expertise. This should be tips or best practices that are useful to readers regardless of whether they do business with you. A utility company might offer “energy efficiency tips” or a hotel conference center could offer a meeting and planning guide for corporate clients.</P><P><B>Offline promotion</B>: Promote free subscriptions to your newsletter. A simple way to generate leads is to include a call to action in all your company’s marketing communications, such as ads, brochures, catalog, trade show signage, etc. that encourages customers to call or email for a subscription.</P><P><B>Online promotion</B>: Include a sign-up box on your website for your free print newsletter and include an archive of sample newsletters to show exactly what the subscriber can expect. Promote it through all your social media channels to drive people back to your website to sign up. You may even want to run a contest using social channels, enticing people to sign up for the printed material.</P><P><B>Maximize exposure</B>: Having gone to the time and expense of publishing a newsletter, you want to cast your net wide. Here are a few additional tactics you can employ:</P>Mail your newsletter to all former customers or potential customers who have requested information on your product or service in the past but never ordered from you. Just be sure you make it easy for them to opt out.Give your salespeople copies of the newsletter to hand out on sales calls, at trade shows and exhibition booths.Send the newsletter to all potential clients who may have a strong interest in a solution-oriented article you published that may appeal to them. For example, if your technology solution helped a local hospital save thousands of dollars on staffing costs, send a copy of the newsletter to all the hospitals in your service area.<P>When people actually want to receive information about your company, doesn’t it make sense to include a print newsletter in your marketing mix?</P><P>If you like in-depth articles like this about content marketing, be sure to visit our <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/06/content-marketing-definition-tactics/" target="_blank" title="Content Marketing Tactic Definitions">index of content marketing tactics</A>.</P><P>Photo credit: <a href="about:www.shutterstock.com/pic-154552895/stock-photo-mail-box-in-front-of-a-house.html" title="Mail Box in Front of House">Shutterstock</A></EM></P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/_PaGKor0024/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Print Newsletters as Content Marketing Tactic: Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

One of the oldest forms of content marketing are printed newsletters that arrive by snail mail, providing valuable, information-rich conten...

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Essential Stages of Content Marketing Evolution – If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying

<a id="dd_start"></A><P><img alt="content marketing evolution" class="alignright size-full wp-image-16498" height="265" src="/content-marketing-evolution.jpg" width="300">An important part of developing skills and expertise is to understand where you fall on a continuum of what’s possible and then take action to evolve and advance accordingly.</P><P>With so much digital marketing advice and information on the web, it’s easy to follow along with the latest best practices. But what about 1 or 2 years from now? How valuable would it be to anticipate the challenges and opportunities beyond the current 6 or 12 months of marketing planning?</P><P>What is in <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/09/future-of-content-marketing/" target="_blank">your future</A> for content marketing?</P><P>Along these lines, I’ve been developing a model of content marketing maturity to help companies better understand where they are and where they could be with their own content marketing and as a guide for using outside <a href="http://www.toprankmarketing.com/services/content-marketing/" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.toprankmarketing.com/services/content-marketing/');" target="_blank">content marketing services</A>. This is especially relevant as the need to develop more integrated strategies has become the minimum to compete.</P><P><STRONG><img alt="content marketing stasis" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-16500" height="94" src="/cmmm-stasis1.png" width="95">Stasis</STRONG> – The focus is on the status quo. Content is created because it’s necessary or required. Press releases, new web site content when products and services are launched and the occasional blog post.</P><P>Few dedicated resources are allocated to the content marketing effort and while there may be some experimentation with online content through blogging and basic social networks, the content tends to be very brand centric. SEO works independently of social media and is focused on promotion, distribution of brand messaging.</P><P><STRONG>Organizations at this stage</STRONG> aren’t looking to grow outside of what they’re already doing until they start to see competitors overcoming them on multiple earned, owned and shared media channels.</P><P><STRONG><img alt="content marketing production" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-16501" height="93" src="/cmmm-production.png" width="95">Production</STRONG> – With the realization that more content means more potential destinations for links, social shares and entry points through search visibility, companies in production mode find ways to create more content..</P><P>The “more content” approach tends to be very SEO centric, with an emphasis on creating specific, keyword focused content to justify search engine rankings.</P><P>With this predominantly SEO perspective, content is seen mostly as a link building tactics. In other worlds, create content so good (and promote thought social channels) that people will link to it and share on social networks.</P><P>There may be dedicated resources to content production as well as a SEO focused strategy for content and the use of social media for amplification. Processes and tools are used to make the content ideation, management, optimization, promotion and measurement efforts efficient and more effective.</P><P>A shift begins to occur where keywords are not the solve focus for determining the topics for a content plan and some emphasis is placed on mapping the customer journey through the sales cycle. Content is developed according to specific customer segments and their information needs through the buying journey.</P><P><STRONG>Companies at this stage</STRONG> reap rewards pretty quickly as they grow their footprint on the web. However, traffic increases do not always indicate an increase in leads and sales. A common issue is a boost in search visibility and organic referrals without a corresponding increase in inquiries. Thus begins investigation into more specific opportunities from the customer point of view and more empathy with the buyer journey.</P><P><STRONG><img alt="content marketing utility" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-16502" height="92" src="/cmmm-utility.png" width="93">Utility</STRONG> – As marketers develop their content marketing programs, processes, use of tools and skills, a shift starts to happen. Rather than letting keywords and brand messages about features and benefits drive all content planning, investments in content that empathizes with the customer and that contributes to useful experiences are made.</P><P>As distint customer segments are developed, with their common characteristics and information needs, content planning emphasizes answering customer questions and they move through the sales cycle. That content is optimized for search and social media discovery and promoted through multiple channels.</P><P>Content usefulness is the standard, versus simply being informative. The content or media creates value in and of itself. Imagine a buyer’s guide, or advice about how to get more value from a product or service – beyond it’s intended use.</P><P>Jay Baer has an entire book about creating this kind of useful content called, <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2013/07/marketing-matters-jaybaer-youtility/">Youtility</A>, that I highly recommend.</P><P>Building connections though social networks is a key component for content promotion and growing influencer relationships starts to emerge as a critical skill.</P><P><STRONG>Companies that master the creation</STRONG> of truly useful content also attract growing social communities. This creates a robust ecosystem of content and engagement. Competition amongst mature content marketers creating utility is already tough and will only increase. In order to create a more meaningful connection with buyers and the community, marketers start to tap into more emotional appeals in their content.  It’s not enough to inform, but to help buyers feel what the brand stands for.</P><P><STRONG><img alt="content marketing storytelling" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-16503" height="91" src="/cmmm-storytelling.png" width="94">Storytelling</STRONG> – As companies come to know the questions their target customers have during the sales cycle, there are also efforts to define and put forth a brand narrative – the story a company tries to tell to a specific target audience.</P><P>Evolving content marketing beyond features and benefits and incredible usefulness means connecting with customers on an emotional level. What better way to do that than through stories?</P><P>One way to think of this stage is that rather than just informing your customers, you’re creating experiences across channels through stories that contribute to both intellectual and emotional needs of the buyer.</P><P>Answering questions about what customers care about and how the brand wants to be known, are filtered through buying cycle analysis. Content planning identifies key brand narratives as part of the content marketing strategy and those stories drive content ideation across owned, earned, paid and shared media.</P><P>Social Networks mature at this stage and interactions with communities and influencers often contributes many of the content ideas. Along with growing influencer relationships is the growth of brand authority and subject matter experts as influencers themselves.</P><P>This is where “being the best answer” wherever customers are looking becomes a key driver for content. Also, integration of content with search, social, PR and influencer marketing is dynamic and optimized.</P><P><STRONG>Evolving skills at integrating marketing messages across channels</STRONG> is a distinguishing feature of mature content marketers. Most companies are satisfied with the growth rates in community, engagement, customer acquisition and revenue at this stage. And yet, some will want more as they evolve their publishing capabilities and see even more opportunities to become the dominant authority in their industry.</P><P><STRONG><img alt="content marketing monetize 360" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-16504" height="95" src="/cmmm-monetize360.png" width="95">Monetization 360</STRONG> – Of course the goal for any stage is to monetize based on how effective content is at creating awareness, interest, driving consideration and ultimately purchase. This is the core function of marketing – create awareness, educate and inspire leads and sales.</P><P>However, for this stage, we’re talking about the ability to monetize through customer acquisition as well as through syndication, advertising and sponsorships. In other words, the marketing content is so good, so useful and such a great experience, that it can generate revenue on it’s own. Few content marketing programs can or need to achieve this stage, but of course it’s fantastic when you can.</P><P><STRONG>Very few companies are able to monetize content marketing in this way</STRONG>, but I think we’ll see a lot more in 2014 and beyond. Some of our projects are just starting to enter into this stage and I’m looking forward to being able to share case studies and examples to complement movement through these 5 stages.</P><P>Not all companies will follow a model like this, 1 2 3 of course. That’s the point of the model: to anticipate where a company wants to be with their content marketing program and to create a strategy to evolve to the stage that makes the most sense.</P><img alt="Content Marketing Maturity" class="size-full wp-image-15738" height="267" src="/content-marketing-maturity-toprank-4501.png" width="450"> TopRank’s Content Marketing Maturity Model</P><P>It’s also unlikely that an entire organization’s content marketing program can be summed up as just one of these stages. But when you look at the characteristics of each stage, it’s easier to see how to align content marketing strategy to be more effective – for customers and for your business.</P><P>What do you think of this model? Do you see any similarities in your own experience as you’ve matured your content marketing capabilities?</P><P>Top image: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=124603345&src=id" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=124603345&src=id');" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shutterstock</A></EM></P><a id="dd_end"></A><BR clear=all><BR clear=all><img alt="Loading ..." class="post-ratings-image" height="16" src="/loading.gif" title="Loading ..." width="16"> Loading ...<br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OnlineMarketingSEOBlog/~3/M5HLa_1lD3E/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></p>

Essential Stages of Content Marketing Evolution – If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying

An important part of developing skills and expertise is to understand where you fall on a continuum of what’s possible and then take action...

Baca selengkapnya »