Martin Beck says, “Did Google just take aim at Pinterest? The search giant announced a new photo bookmarking feature within mobile versions of Google Images with a description that sounds very similar to a certain digital scrapbooking site: The perfect image of your next big adventure, knitting project or style-changing haircut is bound to exist somewhere out there. But what happens once you find the image? Take a screenshot? Maybe try to save the webpage? Starting today there is an easier option: you can now star and bookmark images directly from Google’s image search in your mobile browser. Just... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Email accounted for 25.1% of e-commerce sales referrals on Black Friday, says one report, while another finds that marketing emails drove 25% more online sales over the weekend than they did a year ago. Email marketing may not be flashy, but the channel drove a significant share of e-commerce orders over the holiday weekend and today. 25.1% of e-commerce transactions on Friday stemmed from shoppers clicking from emails, according to report by marketing platform vendor Custora. Another report, by Adobe Systems Inc.’s Adobe Digital Index, finds email marketing accounted... [...]

Rebekah Iliff says, “Conscious consumption is on the rise. People are seeking out ways to make better decisions about what to buy, and do-good brands are becoming household names — TOMS, Warby Parker and Ten Thousand Villages, just to name a few. From donating product or a portion of sales to establishing fair wages for factory workers, more and more businesses are assigning value to ethical business practices — and consumers are seeing the value in it too. Since as early as 1936, when consumer review publication Consumer Reports was founded, consumers have craved insider... [...]

Jack Simpson says, ““Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” That is the saying that springs to mind when I see marketers dismissing Snapchat as a significant channel. Presumably they’re the same people who realised social media was a good idea five years later than their competitors. But when it comes to Snapchat’s importance as a marketing tool you don’t have to take my word for it. There are plenty of numbers to back up the claim. In this post I’m going to cover some of the most compelling data-powered reasons to use this platform. 1. Snapchat has 100m... [...]

Robert Stroud says, “Amazon Web Services is rapidly growing Since I joined Forrester 2 months ago, we have seen multiple announcements from public cloud providers. Amazon Web Services (AWS) numbers are now available. As reported by The Motley Fool, “at the RE:Invent  conference a company representative disclosed “AWS is now on pace for a run rate of $7.3 billion — up 81% year over year”. Current market leader AWS, followed by Microsoft Azure and IBM, have confirmed that cloud for many enterprises is not only an option; it is the default for new initiatives for many enterprises.... [...]

Stefanie Flaxman says, “The concept of style has multiple layers of meanings, and this week’s Copyblogger Collection contains multiple layers of insights. At first glance, the following is a series of three handpicked content marketinglessons that will show you: How to tell a meaningful marketing story How to optimize every blog post you write How to avoid landing page pitfalls that make you lose business Within these lessons, however, you’ll also discover three different types of infographics. Infographics visually depict your unique perspective and immediately communicate style“. 3... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “The holiday shopping season is one of the marketing world’s annual highlights, but for many non-retailers, the last two months of the year are nothing more than business as usual. Even so, the billions of dollars that retailers pour into marketing during this period can complicate matters for non-retail brands. How can they market effectively when just about everybody is being bombarded with retail-related campaigns? Here are five tips. 1. Don’t sit on the sidelines The holiday shopping season can be an intimidating time for non-retail marketers tasked... [...]

News reports say that online buying is taking over Black Friday. In-store buying dropped dramatically, while online buying surged ahead. That’s good news for internet marketers, especially for affiliate marketers promoting physical items. However, sometimes online sellers need tools to assist them in building their online traffic and conversions into sales. Cyber Monday provides a convenient time to explore the tools that are available. And many tool builders use this opportunity to build their customer base by offering special deals on Cyber Monday. Here are the deals for online marketers... [...]

MOZ team says, “Where do you host your content? Is it on your own site, or on third-party platforms like Medium and LinkedIn? If you’re not yet thinking about the ramifications of using hosted blog platforms for your content versus your own site, now’s your chance to start. In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores the boons and pitfalls of using outside websites to distribute and share your content“. How to Use Hosted Blog Platforms for SEO & Content Distribution MOZ Blog  [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “Mike Loveridge, Digital Marketing Manager, Humana, runs the conversion rate optimization program at Humana, which is comprised of a team of 15 testers and supporting staff. In his interview at the MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015 Media Center, Mike explained that the team has spent the past year getting a process in place that would walk a tricky tight rope: keeping costs down, while improving the quality of the test. Locking down this process can be difficult in an enterprise-grade company, Mike said, but especially in the insurance industry with government regulations“. Learning... [...]