Kim Robbins says, “Water daily, direct sunlight, and lots of love. Okay, just kidding, but I really do LOVE to code and design email templates, and there’s lots you can do to care for your email template to make sure you’re getting the most out of it! Emails thrive better in some environments than others. As an email designer, I do my best to code templates that will work well across all email clients, browsers, and apps. If you’ve ever tested your emails to different combinations of browsers, email clients, and apps, you may have noticed your emails display differently depending on... [...]

Anand Srinivasan says, “When it comes to ecommerce, mobile is picking up steam. A recent survey, conducted by the National Retail Federation, found that nearly 57 percent of online shopping traffic during this year’s Black Friday season came from mobile phones. Meanwhile Walmart reported sales from mobile phones nearly doubled from 2014 to 2015. While the debate over whether online shopping will kill brick-and-mortar stores has been around for a long time, do these latest statistics indicate that desktop ecommerce is itself in danger of becoming obsolete? Not necessarily, according... [...]

Sarah Landrum says, “With each passing year, the world of marketing has more and more tools at its disposal, as well as more responsibility. In 2015, we saw new importance ascribed to social consciousness, customer value and privacy. We saw trends that will shape not just marketing, but business conduct all over the world. Each of these marketing trends from 2015 will continue to touch our lives in significant ways well into the future. Content Marketing Hits Its Stride In a recent reader poll, Smart Insights found that content marketing took the top spot for “most commercially important... [...]

Sam Balter says, ““Am I spending too much time on this?” For marketers, this isn’t an uncommon question to struggle with. And after questioning myself one too many times, I decided to conduct some research to determine how much time it takes the average marketer to complete a routine task like creating an email, building a list, organizing analytics, etc. Turns out, the data was lacking. So I conducted a simple survey to get a rough estimate of how much time marketers spend on the following five routine tasks: Building and maintaining marketing list Monitoring, responding... [...]

Sujan Patel says, “Some 150 million blogs exist, but the majority are failures that stick around for only a few months. Meanwhile, nine out of 10 startups fail. Figuring out how to grow an online following, whether you’re trying to build an audience for your blog, product or service, is no easy feat. But content without promotion is just content. No one is there to read it or engage with it, let alone spread the word. If you’ve already tried the usual suggestions, like guest blogging, with mixed results, it’s time to dive into some lesser-known tactics. Here are seven ways to get... [...]

Wes McDowel says, “If you run a business, you need a website. There’s simply no way around it. But have you given any thought as to why? Most of my clients think it’s enough to simply have a nice looking, current website. You know, something they can point to and say, “We’re on the Internet. We’re official!” It’s a classic mistake, and a real missed opportunity. Your website shouldn’t simply be treated as a digital business card. No, your website should be working smartly to make your business more money. This can be accomplished directly, in the case of an eCommerce site.... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “Have you read anything good lately? This year, we asked leading marketers which business books made the biggest impact on their work in 2015. Their responses included a wide-range of topics. From long-time favorites like The Lean Startup to 2015’s Losing the Signal, reading suggestions from the CMOs profiled in our “Get to Know” interview series  make for an expansive reading list. Here are ten business books CMOs told us they enjoyed this year, along with reviews for the most highly recommended reads. 10 Books CMOs Recommended in 2015 StrengthFinder by Tom Rath The... [...]

Brian Sutter says, “Content marketing gets great results if you position your business; write to teach, not sell; follow a strategy; and promote with social media. Learn how to do it. Content marketing has gone from fad to fact. It’s beaten advertising in the battle for next year’s budgeting allocations. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 88 percent of B2B marketers use it now, and 76 percent of those same marketers plan to do more content marketing next year. What does this mean for you? If you’ve been holding back, it’s probably time to try some content marketing or... [...]

Entrepreneur team says, “When it comes to content marketing, it’s important to get out of the sales mindset in order to reach a wide audience and create a genuine interest in the niche that you are promoting. Of course, your content should draw your readers in and make them want to invest their time or money into the products and services you’re ultimately promoting. But the way to do it should always be through crafting interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking content. So how exactly do you create content that speaks to your audience and makes them want to buy without... [...]

Michael Guta says, “Google originally acknowledged that clicks do help “Google My Business” rankings earlier this month then seemed to reverse itself on the subject. The about-face from Google was observed by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable. The reversal on Google’s part leaves those working to promote their brands through Google My Business to wonder which is the case. On Dec. 2, 2015 Schwartz wrote about what he said was the first admission by Google that clicks affect the Google My Business ranking. At the time, Schwartzreported that a company representative, Rahul J,... [...]