Andrew Cohen says, “Over the past few years, I’ve worked with dozens of startups through TechStars, General Assembly and the Edge EdTech Accelerator to help founders improve their financial models to secure potential funding. Whenever I ask the entrepreneurs to share their financial models with me, I almost always see one common characteristic: The models are almost entirely focused on expenses. Now, don’t get me wrong. The ability to convey your forecast headcount, marketing budget and fixed costs is critical to demonstrate credibility and your expected use of investor funds. But VCs... [...]

Ben Davis says, “According to Econsultancy and Oracle Marketing Cloud research, 77% of companies are planning on increasing content marketing budgets in 2016. So with more content and increasing complexity of distribution and measurement, what is the future of content marketing? Econsultancy’s recent trends briefing, The Future of Content Marketing, sets out to answer that question. Here’s my take on the future, using some thoughts from this new report and other sources. Authenticity It would be disingenous to say that inauthentic content ever stood a chance, but several factors... [...]

Alexander Paluch says, “Shopping campaigns are becoming a major source of website clicks and revenue during the holiday season, and the “Shopping Campaigns: Play Like Every Day Is A Holiday” panel at SMX Advanced featured tips and advice from three PPC veterans: Ann Stanley, Todd Bowman, and Mona Elesseily. Ann Stanley: Shopping ads, buy buttons, social commerce & remarketing Shopping ads and buy buttons are everywhere. Stanley explored those areas where ads are driven by product feeds, and clicks either lead to retailer websites or convert on host platforms. Her talk was full of... [...]

James Smith says, “Native ads present publishers and advertisers with an opportunity to create non-intrusive, thematic ads that consider consumers’ experience first, which is key to meeting their high expectations. This is especially true on mobile as smartphones take center stage in day-to-day life. It’s no shock that advertisers spent $7.9 billion on native ads in 2015 — a number that’s expected to soar to $21 billion in 2018. Mobile native ads revenue is also anticipated to grow market share over the next four years to hit 63 percent of mobile display ad revenue, up from 52 percent... [...]

Tracey Wallace says, “Lots of special dates are just around the corner. July 4 is almost here. Then, it’s back to school and planning for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas. Next thing you know, you’ll be looking back on 2016 sales numbers trying to figure out how to do it all better next go around. That’s how quickly the retail industry moves. Sure, summer is a slow period, but it’s a great time for planning. If you are anything like most of the retailers in the country, the first half of this year hasn’t been the most profitable. The crazy thing is, economists... [...]

Jerry Low says, “Reduce, reuse, recycle. The three R’s have been pounded into your head since birth. You’re supposed to do everything in your power to reduce your carbon footprint, but you don’t give much thought to your digital one. What if you could put the three R’s to good use with regard to your blog? You can, as long as you create evergreen content. Let’s look at some of the ways you can incorporate the three R’s into your content to drive more traffic. 1. Write a Two-Parter You can live the Hollywood life and write a sequel. Do you really think that the world needed a... [...]

Jeremy Goldman says, “I see it time and time again: Stellar content marketers spend so much time developing great content for their brands that they don’t spend enough time thinking of their own brand. While Instagram, Snapchat, and many others are great platforms, LinkedIn is the single best tool you have at your disposal to build your own brand. (highlight to tweet) I want to shed light on LinkedIn’s top personal brand-building features: 1. Comment on Your LinkedIn Feed Your connections are posting articles, commenting on the activity of others, and starting group discussions—and... [...]

Neil Patel says, “Do you feel lost when you try to think of ways to generate leads for your business? In the wake of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, which, as you’re aware, dealt a disastrous blow to many websites, the search engine giant has not been coy about its desire to see more fresh, relevant, and original content on websites. You know the drill. “Content is king” has been the mantra on many marketers’ minds for more than a few years. In my experience, content marketing has proven to be very effective when done right. But you probably already know all that. What you most... [...]

Ryan Shelley says, “Keywords are essential to every aspect of your SEO campaign, from on-site placement and usage to link prospecting and acquisition. Knowing which terms to target and how to target them can either produce great results or end in a huge flop. Defining and categorizing your keywords will help in your link outreach and community building online, both of which are essential in order to drive relevant traffic to your site. While there are a number of schools of thought when it comes to the types of keywords we should use, I want to walk you through the seven types we use at my... [...]

Luther Landro is a marketing consultant who primarily works with small, local businesses, helping them to add a website to their marketing tool set. And he earns a good living doing it. However, he also runs his own online business, selling software. And he reports that business is doing quite well, too. He is offering other marketers the key to his success in this software business in his new training, How I Made $1,000,000 Reselling Software. He does it with one-page websites (he describes them as “ugly”) on which he offers an application program. These are easy to create. You can... [...]