There’s a better measurement of how your site is catching on with the public than simple “Likes”. These likes do tell a story, but because it’s so easy to click the Like button, the story doesn’t have a compelling plot. More interesting is how many people make the effort to actively share your content with their contacts. If they take the time to write a tweet or a post about your content, then they have a more intense affinity to your site than someone who just clicks a button. That idea has just given rise to a new calculation to measure how contagious a website... [...]

Heather R. Morgan says, “Are you guilty of reaching out to your prospects with tired, uninspiring sales emails? You’re probably committing at least one of these three sales email mistakes. Your prospects’ inboxes are full of messages that use the same generic “are you the right person to speak with?” approach. The problem with this type of email is that it’s highly impersonal and doesn’t do anything to engage your buyer in a meaningful conversation about their business. The truth is, most people aren’t interested in connecting you to the right person. Buyers crave thoughtful... [...]

Matt Lindner says, “A holiday shopping survey from Deloitte shows that nearly half of all shoppers will buy online. When it comes to winning online shoppers’ business this holiday season, free shipping is far more important than fast shipping. That’s according to a just-released report from Deloitte LLC, which polled more than 4,000 U.S. shoppers in mid-September about their holiday shopping habits. 87% say free shipping is more important than fast shipping, and many (60%) expect retailers to offer free on-time shipping as late as Dec. 17. Offering free shipping this holiday season could... [...]

Neil Patel says, “It’s absolutely critical that brands achieve relevance. One of the primary methods for accomplishing relevance is to create relevant content. Unfortunately, an aura of mystery surrounds the concept of relevance. It’s misunderstood as a stylistic thing, flair, or something that some writers “just have.” In reality, relevance is more scientific and systematic. You can create relevant content by understanding what relevance is and developing a process to achieve it. The major upside of relevance is that you can accomplish major ranking uptick by creating relevant content.... [...]

Mark Daoust says, “In the days before the Internet, selling a business was a slow but straightforward process: The buyer would drive across town, view the business in person and “kick the tires” before signing on the dotted line. The seller would then sign over real estate deeds, transfer inventory, provide in-person training and hand over the keys. Since the advent of online businesses, however, what used to take weeks now happens in a matter of hours or days. But while selling an online business typically means less paperwork than selling a brick-and-mortar business, the logistics... [...]

Three experienced product developers (Stefan van der Vlag, Rohan Chaudhari and Harshal Jadhav) have joined together to create a game-changing video player they call Social Vidio. They will be opening the doors at 11am EDT today. Here’s the most important new capability. Two-step opt-ins (having the person click saying that they are interested before providing their contact information) have been shown to increase conversions dramatically, in some cases, up to 785%). No video player has ever offered this ability in the past, but Social Vidio does. This simple technique (used by top marketers... [...]

Spencer Dunfee says, “Emotions are always high during the holiday season, and that puts you, the ecommerce vendor, in a very pleasant situation. Emotions often lead to purchases, especially if you target those emotions responsibly. Knowing which emotions to invoke can lead to some seriously amazing sales. Let’s take a look at which will fill carts on your ecommerce site. Love Well, this probably seems pretty obvious. We buy gifts for people during this time of year because we love them and want them to be happy. Sometimes, amid the hustle and bustle and rampant spending and grumpy shoppers,... [...]

Boris Evelson says, “Industry-renowned data visualization expert Edward Tufte once said: “The world is complex, dynamic, multidimensional; the paper is static, flat. How are we to represent the rich visual world of experience and measurement on mere flatland?” He’s right: There’s too much information out there for knowledge workers to effectively analyze — be they hands-on analysts, data scientists, or senior execs. More often than not, traditional tabular reports fail to paint the whole picture or, even worse, lead you to the wrong conclusion. AD&D pros should... [...]

Steve Dille says, “It’s right there, glowing on the horizon: the promise of delivering behaviorally triggered messages to consumers — contextually aware engagement that’s tailored and relevant to each and every individual. Yet, as we’ve discussed in a previous post, 70 percent of brands have admittedthey’ve failed to personalize email messages at all, let alone used behavioral data for triggering. In fact, according to a 2014 study by Razorfish: A whopping 76 percent of marketers haven’t yet used behavioral data for segmentation analysis and targeting in any channel, let alone... [...]

Ali G‘s new Social Interest Freak software finds just the Facebook members who are likely buyers for your product or service, so you can show your ads only to them. Now, you can focus the targeting for your Facebook ads using any number of criteria for defining the audience you are wanting to reach. Maybe you only want to serve people in California, who love Chevrolet and are Republicans with an income over $100,000. Social Interest Freak will let you do things like that. Regardless of what niche you’re in, the better you target your ads, the less waste there will be in ad views and... [...]