If you are a marketing consultant for local businesses, your greatest need is prospects, but not just any prospects; you need hot prospects, ones that both want more business (who doesn’t?) and don’t know how to get it, but may have a vague notion that the Internet may be their answer. Paul James and Anthony Devine have a new software tool that searches out prospects in dire need of online marketing services. He calls it Maps Prospector. Google Maps is a critical tools for local marketing success, but even if a local business has heard of it, they often don’t know how to take... [...]

Eric Siu says, “If you think that the brilliant mind behind LeadPages, one of the web’s easiest-to-use landing-page generators, comes from a hard-core sales and marketing background, you’d be wrong. Clay Collins, LeadPage’s co-founder and CEO, isn’t a sales guy at all. He’s a PhD dropout in developmental neuropsychology, a field from which he approached issues in psychology using a highly scientific perspective. But the science world’s loss is the software world’s gain, as Collins’ unique background allows him to translate his understanding of human behavior into tools... [...]

Tom Tate says, “We are quickly approaching the new year, and with each new year comes new beginnings. If you’re planning to start a new business venture in 2016, then you’ll definitely want to listen to this packed-to-the-brim episode of Ask Me About Email Marketing. This week’s question comes from life coach, Dr. Wasi Saleem, who recently launched his brand and is looking to attract more email subscribers. To answer his question, we’ve recruited Brandon Olson, Content Marketing Manager at AWeber. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to optimize your website by determining your... [...]

Wes McDowel says, “Facebook has been increasing its video content features in an effort to compete with rival YouTube. And that includes Facebook video advertising. As a next logical step in Facebook’s video march, the company has now launched a new option for advertisers to bid for 10-second video views on a cost-per-view basis. The cost-per-view (CPV) bidding is designed for advertisers “who value price certainty for video views or value video views as their primary performance metric,” and is now available globally. Facebook still recommends advertisers use its brand buying capabilities,... [...]

Mike Renahan says, “It used to be that reps would go door to door to pitch a prospect on their product. Why? It was the most effective way to get someone to purchase their offering. But with new technology, new strategies were born. As soon as phones were available, cold calling became a regular practice. Once we started watching television, commercials became engrained in our lives. And now that we’re on social media, sales reps are starting to show up there too. While savvy reps are quick to adapt to new trends, few fully understand the value social media brings for sales. For example,... [...]

Brian Clark says, “Everyone’s creating all this online content, but does it matter? More importantly, are you accomplishing your goals with the content you deliver, or are you simply spinning your wheels? Well, if you’re doing it right, your content is highly effective and tightly tied to your ultimate business objectives. Otherwise, you’re just filling up space on an ignored web page. Content marketing is the most effective and lucrative form of online marketing, because it not only works, it also builds a media asset at the same time. So it makes sense to understand exactly what makes... [...]

Matt McGee says, “No matter how much you use LinkedIn for personal connections, there’s no denying it is the go-to social media platform to engage professionals from every industry, both here in the U.S. and internationally. Boasting itself as the, “…world’s largest audience of active, influential professionals,” LinkedIn has been focused on upping its marketing offerings this year. Back in February, the site launched its “Lead Accelerator” tool, and has since added post analytics for publishers, and upgraded itsSponsored InMail ad product. “LinkedIn has been a very practical... [...]

Ryan Stewart says, “In this post, I’m going to retrace my steps and tell you exactly how to build your own Facebook Group. What are the benefits of building a Facebook Group? Before I tell you how to build one, I quickly need to talk about why you should build one. Facebook might not be “cool,” but it’s crazy effective All the kids left Facebook years ago for Instagram (now Snapchat) and a number of businesses gave up on Facebook marketing efforts when “organic reach” plummeted. Despite this, there are still hundreds of millions of users still on Facebook. In... [...]

Jay Lagarde says, “Product reviews are a major reason why consumers love Amazon. Where else can you go to read hundreds of candid testimonials — or complaints — about every aspect of an item? In this post, we’ll show why product reviews matter to sellers, too. 1. Consumers love online reviews. Study after study has shown that consumers are increasingly reliant upon online reviews when making purchasing decisions. In fact, a recent Nielson study found that 70 percent of global consumers trust online reviews, up 15 percent within a four-year period. Industry experts project... [...]

Lisa Isbell says, “When the time finally comes to tackle a website redesign, it’s difficult to contain the excitement. There are so many things you just can’t wait to have put into place! Then come the first steps to making it all happen. Excitement turns to fear and trepidation as you try to craft a plan and put together the resources to turn all of your lofty ideas into reality. Suddenly it begins to seem more and more like a home construction project: lots of advice from many sources; warnings about rip-offs, scams and slick tactics; choices for things that could go into,... [...]