Toby Nwazor says, “It is a new year and you must have made your plans. You must have made some projections with your management team to decide where you want your organization to be at the end of the year. One area you just can’t afford to ignore during this planning process is your sales department. It deserves your attention because your sales team determines how successful your business will be. To a large extent, whether you make profit or incur losses depends on it. Take a good look at the sales figures. What are they like? What kind of results did you get from the sales department... [...]

Alex McEachern says, “We’ve already covered what retention marketing is, and why today’s elite ecommerce stores have already started on a retention-focused strategy. But where should you begin with your own retention strategy? Read on to learn what to do before you get started, how to allocate your marketing budget, and when you can expect to see results. Let’s get started! Where Do You Start? Every tall building started with a solid framework, and every tall tree started with the roots. Retention marketing is the same. You can create something amazing, but you need to lay down... [...]

Ian Harris says, “Search marketing evolves on a daily basis. The constant introduction of new and innovative processes means that strategies can shift frequently as SEOs and marketers try to work out the best way to deal with new online environments. From Google updates to advances in technology, the methods we use to measure the success of an SEO campaign, however, may not always be giving us the full picture. Many in the industry still cling to the growth of organic as the metric to measure success but, while it’s still very important, we’re not measuring like for like when comparing... [...]

Sonia Simone says, “Are your readers doing what you want them to do? Are they registering for your free membership site, downloading your ebook, or signing up for your email newsletter? If not, you need to learn a master craftsman’s copywriting secret. This technique acts like a remote control to get your readers to take action. Press this “magic button” and you’ll see your results improve dramatically. The secret, masters-only technique to compelling your readers to act is to”. How to Be a Copywriting Genius: The Brilliantly Sneaky Trick You Must Learn Copyblogger  [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “Yes. I’ve read the studies. I know the correlations. Long-form content, on average, earns more engagement, higher rankings, and more shares than their more concise brethren. But, that does not make long-form content the same as great content. It does not make long-form content the goal of every content effort. It certainly does not mean that longer content is better content. Confounding variables are, in my opinion, behind many of these correlations. Long-form content, at least the good stuff, intentionally targets searchers and browsers seeking lengthier, more... [...]

Matt Byrom says, “With 91 percent of businesses citing that they plan to increase or maintain their spending on video in 2016, it’s evidently clear that video marketing is not just a passing trend, but one of the very best ways to connect with your audience. Everywhere you look, people are sharing videos, or even making purchases after they’ve watched a video. But what happens when your video doesn’t get shared, or produce any sales? It could be that you’re making one of these classic video marketing mistakes. 1. Creating One-Size-Fits-All Video Content The key to... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Avid Amazon shoppers may notice some patterns when performing product searches on the retail behemoth. Better-selling products tend to show up at a more frequent clip. A new study from Ripen eCommerce looked at more than 344,936 unique products and 746,500 search results to find what high-ranking products have in common. Amazon Best Sellers Rank Of all of the items measured, the top correlation with high rankings was unequivocally a product’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank. This metric is assigned to a product across specific sub-categories and categories (if popular) and correlates... [...]

Carrie Dagenhard says, “As content creators, we have no choice but to remain humble because every time we publish an article, it’s one of 2 million blog posts being published on the same day. Sure, we possess plenty of SEO know-how and a knack for delivering information in a way that’s entertaining and interesting. But, after vehement denial, mini breakdowns and tearful calls to our moms, we content creators have had to accept a difficult truth: Our talent alone isn’t always enough to generate leads. This doesn’t mean we’re throwing in the towel, though. Far from it, in fact. Content... [...]

Ben Davis says, “This year it’s the 10th anniversary of Econsultancy’s Email Marketing Industry Census, in association with Adestra. Subscribers can download the full census but first let’s look at three key charts from the report. Email atop the ROI charts Though marketers may seem to have had a love-hate relationship with email as digital has matured, the channel continues to rule the roost for ROI. Almost three-quarters (73%) of company respondents rate email marketing as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ when it comes to ROI. This is up from 66% in 2015. Only 5% rate email... [...]

Rob Garner says, “Diving into the world of real-time content, where your tweets, posts, blogs, etc., are consumed the minute they’re published, is not for the rigid. Every viable business is solving someone’s problem or making someone’s life better, which means that no matter the subject, someone will care enough to read about it – and you’ve got to be prepared to roll with what the audience is telling you. In fact, that’s where you need to start – from the perspective of the people who will be consuming your content. These 12 tips will help keep your audience top of mind –... [...]