Andrea Francis says, “Remember when it was enough to have a decent-looking website with a couple of your keywords on a few product pages? How times have changed! Increasingly, marketers have to come up with innovative ways to grab visitors’ attention. When infographics first blew up the internet, they had the same impact as when businesses starting publishing their own ebooks, reports, and white papers on the web. Minds were blown, hats were taken off, people applauded. Life was good. But pretty soon, infographics saturated the web and they were no longer as sparkly, shiny, or... [...]

Steve Dille says, “Beer, of course, gave us civilization, according to historians and anthropologists who have explored the misty originals of communities and cultures at the dawn of the human epoch. It was the one sure way of slaking thirst with potable water that wouldn’t give us dysentery (or worse), and by allowing people to socialize and communicate more freely, beer led to advances in commerce, culture and science. It also helped in the evolution of Buffalo wings and professional football, which may be all the civilizing influence some of us care about. An Opportunity On Tap The... [...]

JP Mangalindan says, “Early Twitter investor Chris Sacca said on Friday that if the social network eventually pursued a sale, Facebook, Google, Alibaba or Microsoft would benefit most from acquiring it. That was the gist of Sacca’s latest television interview on Friday. The tech investor, who has funneled cash into more than 40 businesses, including Uber and Instagram, name-checked those four tech giants during his Bloomberg interview. “I think all of those companies would benefit strategically,” Sacca said. “All of those companies would be able to explain to their... [...]

Ashley Johnston says, “The decision by Facebook, which is rather late to the GIF party given that animated GIFs are already commonly used on sites like Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Imgur, BuzzFeed and more, virtually guarantees that animated GIFs will soon be commonplace (like it or not) for nearly everyone. It may even give Facebook an opportunity to re-engage Millennials who already frequently communicate using stickers, emoji, emoticons and animated GIFs. To make use of the new feature right away, Facebook users will need to paste a link to an existing GIF into their status update box. Users... [...]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “Jill Winger lives in the middle of nowhere – and she loves it. The self-proclaimedhomesteader and her family reside on a working farm in the southeast corner of Wyoming, 30+ miles away from the nearest grocery store. And yet Jill connects with 50,000 people every day all over the world, thanks to email marketing. From Farm to Laptop Jill wasn’t always a homesteader. In fact, it wasn’t until she and her husband purchased a 67-acre farm in 2008 that she developed an interest in gardening… then building a compost pile… then keeping dairy animals. She wanted... [...]

Selena Blue says, “Data is officially everywhere. It’s even infiltrating the design of emails — and for good reason. “The more you know about your audience, obviously the better you can tailor an email design to someone,” Justine Jordan, Marketing Director, Litmus, said. Justine sat down with Courtney Eckerle, Manager of Editorial Content, MarketingSherpa (sister company of MarketingExperiments), at MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015, to discuss what tools marketers can access to better their email creatives. When asked what is the biggest asset email marketers have when designing... [...]

Jerry Low says, “According to McKinsey iConsumer’s 2012 survey, emails are still an effective way to acquire new customers. In fact, when compared to social media, they are 40X more effective. Our experience matches up to these statistics. I did a survey a year ago here at WHSR and asked bloggers what was the biggest mistake they’d made in their blogging career. Hands down, the #1 regret these bloggers had was that they’d not built a strong email list from the time they started blogging. I think the #1 blogging mistake I made from the get-go was to not build an email list right... [...]

Ashley Johnston says, “No consumer wakes up and says, “today I am going to be a mobile shopper.” Consumers don’t think in channels. Despite understanding the agnostic consumer environment and having an overwhelming array of data and technology at our disposal, marketers continue to take a very wide-angle approach when targeting consumers. A broad level of segmentation used to be enough for a brand to stand out, but as consumers increasingly express their individuality, they expect brands to interact with them on a more personal, one-to-one level. Research from The 2015 Digital Marketer... [...]

Kristen Dunleavy says, “Have a healthy fanbase on Facebook? High-five! But how many of those followers are real, paying customers? If you want to start converting customers, you’ve got to get them engaged. And one of the most effective ways to do that is with email marketing. Facebook can help turn casual followers into loyal subscribers, and eventually paying customers. Use these tips to boost your email list while taking your relationship with your followers to the next level. Host a Contest Want to grow your email list crazy fast? Hosting a contest or giveaway is one of the most effective... [...]

Isaiah Jackson says, “We don’t need to sell you on the power of using video in your digital marketing strategy. The proof is in the numbers: ⅓ of all online activity is spent watching videos 75% of people visit a marketer’s website after watching a video Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product online after watching a video Click-thru rates increase 2-3 times when video is included in an email (Thanks, Digital Sherpa!) So when we caught wind that our friends at Wistia were hosting their 2nd annual video marketing conference (the aptly named WistiaFest), we sent a few... [...]