Ann Handley says, “Knowing how the human mind processes information and images—and putting that knowledge to use—can help you become a more engaging and effective marketer. Researchers in a new(ish) field of study are trying to figure out how our hard-wired preferences affect the decisions we make. Neuromarketing research is “the systematic collection and interpretation of neurological and neurophysiological insights about individuals using different protocols, allowing researchers to explore nonverbal and unconscious physiological responses to various stimuli for the purposes of market... [...]

Georges Berzgal says, “With Christmas fast approaching, it’s important that brands are ready with a strategic email marketing campaign plan. So following on from my previous Christmas email post, here are steps 6-10 towards festive email marketing success… Step 6: re-engage ahead of the holidays About two months prior to the Christmas holidays, it is worth cleaning up your contact list to make sure you are sending your messages to engaged customers. Get in touch with subscribers who have not opened or clicked on messages for a while to see if they can be re-engaged by a small incentive... [...]

Abraham Nord says, “Most marketers now accept the importance of having a mobile strategy for ad landing pages, but which way should you go? Currently, there are three widely accepted methods to make web pages work on mobile devices: responsive design, dynamic serving and maintaining separate mobile URLs. In short, responsive design utilizes a fluid layout which changes and adapts to whatever the visitor’s screen size happens to be; in other words, mobile and desktop visitors are served the exact same URL/content, it just changes by responding to the size of the screen, device and browser. The... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “The proportion of annual revenue that companies spend on marketing and sales varies widely by industry and strategy, according to a recent report from Vital. The report was based on data from the annual reports of publicly traded companies with year-over-year growth in 2014. Companies in certain industries—such as SaaS and social media—tend to be big spenders on marketing and sales in relation to revenue, the analysis found. For example, Salesforce invests 53% of revenue into sales and marketing, and Twitter invests 44%. Other key findings from the report: LinkedIn... [...]

Gene Marks says, “Made a big mistake? Screwed up? Lost money on your marketing? Welcome to my world. This is what it’s like to run a small business. We don’t have the time or the resources to carefully think through everything. So we do a lot of things by our gut. Sometimes things turn out OK. Sometimes, well — it’s not so good, especially when it comes to marketing. But don’t worry. You’re not alone. I hand-picked four of the many winners of a recent marketing contest called the Spark Business Member Casting Call that was sponsored by Capital One Bank (a client of my... [...]

Jami Oetting says, “Communication is about more than what you say, and oftentimes, the nonverbal cues you give off can be more influential than the words coming out of your mouth. Knowing how your facial expressions, posture, tone of voice, and movements affect the viewer is especially important when it comes time to pitch a prospect or deliver a client presentation. Researchers have found that presenters are seen as more competent when they make hand gestures. A person’s tone of voice can impact the audience’s view of how mature, sincere, and intelligent the person is. But... [...]

Kevin Lee says, “People with a marketing automation backgrounds are traditionally difficult to hire, which makes that skillset that much more important for young marketers to acquire. I’ve read a number of career-oriented studies, from a variety of sources ranging from Venture Beat to LinkedIn, that point to a sustainable upward trend in the need for technical marketing skillsets. In LinkedIn’s 2014 survey of skills that were most instrumental in landing a new job, marketing campaign management came in at number 12 and a number of ancillary mar-tech skills – business intelligence,... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Earlier this week Yahoo held its second Mobile Developer Conference in New York. This was the East Coast version of its inaugural developer conference held in San Francisco earlier this year. As part of that event, which I did not attend, Simon Khalaf, Yahoo’s SVP Publishing Products, took the stage to deliver a kind of “state of mobile” talk that was full of data. The highlights are reproduced in a Tumblr post. Yahoo reported that time with apps continues to grow, while mobile browser time continues to decline. In 2014, according to Flurry/Yahoo US smartphone owners... [...]

Olivia Dello Buono says, “With nearly two months ‘til ASCEND Digital Marketing Summit takes place October 18-20 in Philadelphia, we want to introduce you to our lineup firsthand. We’re hosting three special #AWeberHour Twitter Chats, featuring a sampling of our amazing speaker lineup. And since it’s our last chat of the season, we’re going big. Join us Wednesday, September 2 from 2-3pm EDT as we explore the do’s and don’ts of social media marketing. If you’re using social in your business strategy, you won’t want to miss this”. [Twitter Chat] The Do’s and Don’ts of Social... [...]

Stefanie Flaxman says, “As someone who made an intentional decision to have a career working with words, talking to you about the importance of visual content makes me feel a little weird. But I have to tell you, when I’ve been scrolling through my Twitter timeline lately, it’s the updates with intriguing visuals that catch my eye. They’re the ones I read, and the links I click. In the current digital marketing landscape, the strategic use of visual content — whether it accompanies text or stands alone — is a smart move as you strive to produce the best experience for your audience“. 3... [...]