Cameron Weeks says, “Over two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone, and our constant reliance on them provides various ways— beyond just talking—to connect with the world around us. In fact, one of the smartphone’s most basic components, its text messaging capabilities, can be key to connecting with your prospects. And, these days, with less than one-third of smartphone usage actually involving talking on the phone, there’s no better time to brush up on why you should text your prospects—and how to do it. Unlike driving while texting or walking while texting, texting while... [...]

Larry Kim says, “Worried about the recent changes to Google’s ad layout on desktop search? Don’t be! I come to you today with a simple message: Keep calm. This change — which will see Google show up to four ads above organic search results and remove text ads completely from the right side of desktop search results — is a net positive for paid desktop search and PPC marketers. Yes, really. Like Kevin Ryan, I’ve been urging people not to panic since this change started rolling out. Plenty of search marketers have overreacted and predicted certain doom, but there is no reason for... [...]

Ariel Sanders is offering a free e-book called Kindle Samurai, to help beginning book writers plan their Kindle work for the best sales results. In this book, Sanders explores some critical topics for successful authorship. He want to show you how to rank on Kindle, with the lest effort and expense. It goes without saying that the least expensive way to rank is suing organic search, in which your book rises to the top of the search results for a keyword. But, of course, not just any keyword will do. So Sanders addresses the question of how to find keywords that generate a lot of search traffic. You... [...]

Jawad Khan says, “In the last year, more than 61 percent of U.S. consumers made a purchase based on a blog post. 82 percent of consumers enjoy reading relevant content on blogs and more than 70 percent of consumers learn about a company through its blog rather than paid advertisements. Countless studies have shown that content marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective ways to build a strong brand image, establish long-term customer relationships and boost sales. However, a major reason why many brands fail, to maximize the ROI on their content marketing efforts, is lack of focus. Instead... [...]

Chirag Kulkarni says, “Social media is a powerful tool to grow your business.But I didn’t think that for many years. I started a business called STR with virtually no social, or web presence, which costed us big time. With my next company C&M, I learned the power that platforms like Twitter can have one ones’ business. But with the ever-changing social atmosphere, how does one keep up with the trends of 2016. Here are my suggestions to dominate social media in 2016. Snapchat Despite the drop in valuation, and complaints that the platform doesn’t have a sustainable source of revenue,... [...]

Pamela Wilson says, “Do you want to build an amazing business and lifestyle? Well … – Listening to theorists, rather than practitioners, isn’t going to get it done. – Reading a few articles isn’t going to get it done. – Daydreaming, without actually doing, isn’t going to get it done. If you want to build the business and lifestyle of your dreams, then you need to take the first step. You need to take the first step toward learning from people who are actually out there building amazing businesses and lifestyles through the scalable power of digital products and... [...]

Kelsey Libert says, “Is the saying “any press is good press” really true? Whether it happens as part of a carefully orchestrated PR stunt or accidentally, the potential payoffs and drawbacks when a brand dominates the news can be huge. In our latest collaboration, Fractl and Moz explored how a surge of media coverage impacted seven companies. By looking at brands that dominated headlines within the last year, we set out to answer the following questions: – Does positive press coverage always bring more benefits than negative press coverage? – Beyond the initial spikes in... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Sticky or fixed ecommerce elements are the features that appear to follow you down the page as you scroll. They’re an established tactic to improve ecommerce UX. Here’s a bunch of examples… Sticky calls to action Currys won’t let you forget you’re on a product page. As you scroll through extensive product detail and specifications, including video, the right-hand side of the page is always dominated by price, an ‘add to basket’ CTA (call to action) and delivery information. What’s doubly nice is the way this sticky element... [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “Today, Facebook announced the international launch of Canvas, an immersive full-screen ad player that lives and breathes on Facebook’s mobile interface. In a partnership with multiple brands and agencies, Facebook wanted to give users the ability to build a brand story on a “canvas,” which likely was the rationale behind its name. Canvas loads directly in a user’s mobile news feed up to 10 times faster than the standard mobile web. This native ad experience is fully customizable for advertisers and creative teams and is available internationally. Facebook began... [...]

Anna Kayfitz says, “In today’s digital marketing world, competitive intelligence often takes a back seat to all the key performance indicators (KPIs) on which marketers are focused—open rates, social engagement metrics, lead-to-sales opportunity conversion rates, etc. That inward focus on how well you are doing with your revenue-driving marketing tactics is critical. But it can lead you to celebrate the wrong things. Don’t let your KPIs overshadow the importance of knowing exactly how your digital marketing strategies are performing in relation to your peers who are competing... [...]