Entrepreneur team says, “If you build it, they will come. If you’re an entrepreneur who knows anything about business, then you know that this motto is worthless. There are many skills, factors, and resources that are necessary to getting a company off the ground and growing it into a success. Smart entrepreneurs also know they don’t know everything. But they can always learn. Here, our friends at TradePub have rounded up 10 great eBooks to help entrepreneurs gain the skills they need to take their companies to the next level. You’ll learn how to do everything from obliterating your... [...]

David William says, “Bill.com announced plans for a partnership with Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), QuickBooks’ parent company, at the QuickBooks Connect Conference held this week in San Jose, Calif. The partnership will bring digital payments into QuickBooks Online and offer seamless online bill pay. “By building Bill.com’s trusted bill pay network inside of QuickBooks Online, millions of small business owners can now manage bill pay from start to finish right within QuickBooks ,” said René Lacerte, CEO of Bill.com in a press release announcing the partnership. Details of the QuickBooks... [...]

Cliff Condon says, “Your business model is under attack. And it’s not by your competitors. It’s under attack from your customers. Three years ago, Forrester identified a major shift in the market, ushering in the age of the customer. Power has shifted away from companies and towards digitally-savvy, technology-empowered customers. They now decide winners and losers: Our Empowered Customer Segmentation shows that more than a third all US online adults want new and engaging digital experiences. They will switch companies to find these experiences. In this environment, being customer-obsessed... [...]

Liz Willits says, “Sometimes, less is more. And when it comes to your email marketing strategy, this can absolutely be true. While some audiences love to receive a long, descriptive email, others may quickly become bored or overwhelmed by messages that contain a mountain of text. For these subscribers, a short, snappy, attention-grabbing email is both more engaging and more effective. And as you deliver content your audience wants, it can also mean higher open and click-through rates for you in the long run. If you’ve tried long-form emails and aren’t seeing results, it may be time... [...]

Brent Sleeper says, “It’s self-evident that designing and delivering a product or service that your customers want to use is the best route to business success. But the way marketers help companies get there has changed dramatically in recent years, as products and services increasingly live in the cloud of web and mobile apps. There was a time — not so long ago, really — when marketers and product managers operated in very different spheres. Product managers built stuff. Marketers sold it. Of course, that’s a simplification of an interrelated relationship between marketers and product... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Twitter’s third-quarter earnings report and corresponding call with analysts on Thursday covered a lot of things you probably already knew about the company. Its ad revenue continues to grow, but slowly. Its monthly audience continues to grow, but slowly. It still hasn’t turned a profit. Its ads are getting more engagements, but it’s getting less money per engagement. But there were a few new things to learn about Twitter’s business. Every day, Twitter is winning millions of new users, but every day, Twitter is losing almost as many Twitter execs used to point... [...]

Andrew Chapin says, “Online advertising sucks.You already know the reasons why: First, there are the visuals: Most ads are ugly and interrupt the browsing experience — and then there’s what ads do to website-load times. Users do everything in their power to avoid those irrelevant, intrusive ads: Nearly 200 million people worldwide use ad-blocking –software. And the result for publishers is almost $22 billion in lost ad revenue. So, what’s a publisher to do? Ad scrollers help. This relatively new format appears as a window, running in line within the content... [...]

Marc Wayshak says, “Your prospects receive hundreds of emails every day, and most of them get sent straight to spam. When your prospects scan their email inboxes, you only have a few seconds to win them over.  They’ll glance at your email address, the subject line, and the first 50 to 60 characters of your email. Then they’ll decide: Read it or delete it? Simply put, you need a strong strategy to set your emails apart from the hundreds of mediocre prospecting emails out there. Whether used as an initial point of contact or as a supplement to a phone call, your emails can be a powerful... [...]

Sophia Bernazzani says, “Facebook started as a way for college classmates to communicate, and it’s since evolved into a hub for content creation, sharing, and advertising. Over one billion active users engage on Facebook every day, which represents a tremendous opportunity for advertisers to leverage their content in front of potential customers. The variety of targeting options available allow marketers to get the greatest value out of each ad dollar spent on this vast network, making it an ideal place to drive conversions, downloads, and lead generation. In fact, Social Media Examiner found... [...]

Arliss Coates says, “In new research, Econsultancy has discovered startling ways modern marketing is failing at what should be its top priority: Recognizing customers as individuals across devices and media. It began with a premise that won’t startle many data-weary marketers – that despite the assurances of the vendor community, achieving true customer recognition isn’t easy and isn’t happening for many companies. Customer recognition is the end-all, but we’re far from the end When we look at marketers’ priorities in the chart below, we find a focus on personalizing messaging... [...]