Leslie Ye says, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. And when that first impression is made via email, it’s even harder to come off the way you want to. Without the benefit of an in-person interaction, you can’t exactly build rapport or pivot your strategy if something you’re saying doesn’t resonate. So it’s imperative that you get that first email right. While you can’t control whether your email garners a response, you can control everything else — and you should. If the core of your email is an insight or resource, think of your writing as the... [...]

Emma Brudner says, “Setting revenue goals is one thing. Defining the sales strategies that will enable performance (and ideally over-performance) on those goals is quite another. As with most things in life, the “how” is where things get tricky. The year is more than half over. Sales leaders all over the world are pivoting on the plans they laid out at the beginning of 2016 — or even starting to build out the targets for 2017. There’s no need to go into sales planning blind. Recent research conducted by McKinsey & Company revealed five sales strategies that have... [...]

Mimi An says, “It’s no secret that internet users are no strangers to seeking out the information they need online — in fact, Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second. And as the volume of search queries continues to climb, advertisers are recognizing an opportunity to introduce a number of different types of ads. (Think: pop-up ads, autoplaying video ads, and the dreaded mobile ad that takes up the entire phone screen.) As a reaction to some of these disruptive online ads, internet users have started installing ad blocking extensions by the millions. In case... [...]

Ellen Bartolino says, “Setting up proper SEO for your website is no easy feat — especially when you’re dealing with constantly changing algorithms. However, as search engines continue to evolve, it’s becoming more and more important for marketers to keep their content fresh and properly optimized. While it’s tempting to implement a bunch of quick fixes to get your page ranking in the short term, it’s important that you’re also planning a strategy that will scale in the long term. This requires you to continuously redefine your strategy over time by using sustainable... [...]

Lauren Hintz says, “It sounds ironic, but taking time away from work to attend a conference will actually teach you how to be more efficient so you can work less. And that’s exactly what we aim to do — equip you with the skills that’ll make you a leaner, meaner salesperson. So for the first time ever, INBOUND will have a dedicated sales track with content tailored to sales leaders. Here’s what you and 15,000 other sales and marketing leaders will take away from #INBOUND16. 1) Lessons from world-class entrepreneurs. What do Rand Fishkin, Gary Vaynerchuk and Alec Baldwin have in... [...]

Ryan Scott says, “6 months ago, I didn’t care a hoot about augmented reality games. But as marketers, they are about to become real darn important to all of us. In California, two men were playing the new mobile sensation Pokemon Go. They were so enthralled in the game they both walked right off a cliff. Pokemon Go has even caused car crashes as folks who were playing the game tried to catch Pokemon characters while they were driving. A couple days ago, I was in a park letting my niece and nephew play on the children’s toys when suddenly, a whole group of adults converged on our... [...]

Andrea Lehr says, “These days, we’re inundated with digital noise from the moment we wake up. Once we silence the alarm on our phone, we’ll spend the next few minutes on various apps and sites, dodging unwanted ads and unappealing headlines along the way. However, you’ll find that some posts are simply unavoidable — who could forget “The Dress” debate of 2015? It was truly viral content at its best, and the site that sold the dress reaped the benefits: Their organic traffic increased by 420%, and sales of the dress saw a whopping 560% increase. How can something that... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “The goal of the subject line is to get someone to check out the rest of your email. So you’ll want to intrigue and generate interest without saying too much. And you definitely don’t want to go with something that clearly says “Trying to sell you something. Click here to learn more.” (Obviously.) When it comes to generating interest, humans react strongly to five things: Social proof: Do you seem like a credible person? Unanswered questions: Is the answer coming soon? Disrupted patterns: This is different than the other stuff I normally see! Self-interest:... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Indexing as many pages on your website as possible can be very tempting for marketers who are trying to boost their search engine authority. But, while it’s true that publishing more pages that are relevant for a particular keyword (assuming they’re also high quality) will improve your ranking for that keyword, sometimes there’s actually more value in keeping certain pages on your website out of a search engine’s index. New Call-to-action … Say what?! Stay with us, folks. This post will walk you through why you might want to remove certain webpages... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “When you think of great website design, you probably think about a website’s homepage, or their blog, or their product pages. But what about a website’s ‘Contact Us’ page? Far too many website designers put contact pages near the bottom of their priority list in terms of copywriting and design. Think about how many contact pages you’ve stumbled upon that look like they were built in the 1990s, even if the rest of the website is beautiful and updated. That, my friends, is a huge mistake. Your ‘Contact Us’ page is one of the... [...]