Glori Blatt says, “While many etailers view themselves as in competition with Amazon, it’s more effective to use Amazon’s success as an example and learn from it. We did that when we looked at three strategies to borrow from Amazon. Now, here are four strategies that you can use to optimize your differences to Amazon to provide your customers with an unbeatable shopping experience. 1) Curation Amazon has a huge product assortment, one that’s difficult even for the largest corporate retailers to compete with. Instead of trying to compete by offering consumers a product assortment... [...]

Matt Burke says, “It happens to the best of us. Maybe it’s because of a shift in strategy. Maybe it’s due to a lack of relevant content. Maybe they never meant to subscribe to you in the first place… Nah, that can’t be it. After all, you’ve been busy pumping out remarkable content to your targeted audience, right? But truth be told, sometimes your subscribers lose interest in what you have to offer—and that isn’t always a reflection on you or the quality of your work. They just need to be reminded why your offerings are so valuable, and why subscribing to your emails or blogs... [...]

Chris Simpson has released Get Blogging Results, for people who wanted to use a blog to sell their own products or affiliate products. Get Blogging Results will show you how to start a blog about a topic you are interested in, and use that blog to earn a living. Perhaps not ever possible topic can be turned into a money-maker, but many can, and Simpson shows you how, including: • How to find a niche that has profit potential • How to create your blog in that niche, starting from nothing • How to promote your blog to interested people • How to use Adsense to earn money from your... [...]

Emma Snider says, “The pen is mightier than the sword. Which is good, because you probably don’t want to threaten prospects into buying at sword-point. As the primary “weapons” to convert prospects into customers, words are incredibly important to salespeople. How sales reps deliver their messages and converse with contacts can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of a conversation. Using the wrong phrase might cast a negative shadow on the proposal, while tweaking just a few words in the pitch might induce a client to buy immediately. The underlying message is certainly critical,... [...]

Ginny Soskey says, “Do you remember your first A/B test on email? I do. (Nerdy, I know.) I felt simultaneously thrilled and terrified because I knew I had to actually use some of what I learned in college stats for my job. I sat on the cusp of knowing just enough about statistics that it could be dangerous. For instance, I knew that you needed a big enough sample size to run the test on. I knew I needed to run the test long enough to get statistically significant results. I knew I could easily run one if I wanted, using HubSpot’s Email App. … But that’s pretty much... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Great news, marketers: Facebook just announced a feature that can help drive more traffic from your Facebook Page to your website: a call-to-action button. While this feature isn’t available to everyone just yet, it’ll roll out in the U.S. over the next few weeks and worldwide starting in 2015. So if you don’t see it on your Page yet, rest assured that it’s coming. In the meantime, you can catch up on all the feature’s details in this post. Here’s How a Facebook Page Call-to-Action Works Page admins can choose one CTA button... [...]

Emma Snider says, “The end of the year presents a unique vantage point — a perfect time to look both forward and backward. That is, if you have time to look up at all in the mad dash to make your annual goal. With 2014 almost behind us, we asked sales experts to weigh in on what they thought were the top sales trends of the year. Take a minute to read through the list and judge your company’s performance against these developments. If you are falling behind on an item or two, don’t fret — better late to start than never. Make it a New Year’s resolution. 1) Increased Sales... [...]

Ginny Soskey says, “Hey, you. Yes, you. I know you’re trying to improve your company’s presence on Twitter, but you’re often feeling constrained by that 140 character limit. There’s actually a way around that character limit — and it can help you increase your conversion rates. Think that’s too good to be true? It’s not: Using Twitter Cards, you can actually embed rich media that don’t count toward your tweet character limit. These rich media allow your fans and followers to do things like download an app, visit a landing page, give over their email,... [...]

Rick Whittington says, “Think fast! 2014 is winding down, and you may have extra money left in your marketing budget. Don’t let it go to waste! Here are 30 ideas for spending leftover funds in your marketing budget. 1) Test new versions for low performing calls to action. Estimated cost: $50 per call to action Sort calls to action by click rate and conversion rate, then redesign ones with the lowest performance. Change the design to see if you can attract more visitor attention, and tweak the wording to see if you can strengthen the “connection” between the messaging on your... [...]

Eric Murphy says, “Sponsored articles are one of the new shiny new objects in the content marketing world. This new advertising channel has opened the doors for brands to become part of everyday conversations with consumers on the platforms they trust most for news, education, and entertainment — media outlets. Sitting at the intersection of editorial thought leadership and native advertising, sponsored articles have only recently risen to prominence as a tactic worthy of garnering a share of marketing budgets. The novelty of the practice, for brands and publishers alike, means that... [...]