Simms Jenkins says, “This week, we have a love letter with straightforward instructions on how to deliver – and receive – more love in the inbox. Dear Brand That I Care Enough About to Tell You How Much I Love You, Last week, I wasn’t reserved in pointing out faults and areas of improvement for many email marketers. This week it is time for my love letter. I love email and I love when brands do email right – or at least try to. So here are some things that make me (and other smart email subscribers) love you. (Marketers, keep working hard for inbox love.) 1. You Make... [...]

Christian Arno says, “Email is still alive and well in the marketing world, but what can you do as a marketer to ensure your emails are engaging consumers today? In 2009 The Wall Street Journal published an article declaring that email was, if not quite dead, very much on its last legs as the king of digital communication. Ironically enough, it was the single most emailed article of the day. Five years on, instant messaging, shares, likes, tweets, and all the other ways we have of exchanging information have become increasingly important, both within the marketing world and the daily lives... [...]

Lee Odden says, “The obstacle in front of most large, or mature companies of any size when it comes to digital and content marketing, is the battle with status quo. From strategy to tactics and especially measurement, change is often seen as interruptive and risky vs. adaptive. But without adaptation, we can hardly evolve, can we? As Tom Fishburne implies in the cartoon above, change isn’t risky, safe is risky. Companies evolving from Stasis to Production and into Utility and Storytelling modes ofcontent marketing maturity begin to broaden the scope of what business goals content can deliver... [...]

Kevin Lee says, “Syndicating your content to a third-party site or guest blogging for a respected publication can be a boost for your business. Here’s a deeper look at the benefits, and potential drawbacks, of this strategy. If your company is regularly publishing good content on your site, you might consider syndicating a portion of this content out to third parties, for example, to online publications in your business vertical. Why Syndicate or Guest Blog? More Visibility. Although you may have put a lot of SEO effort into your business domain, few B2B sites have the site authority... [...]

Robert Miller says, “Google Analytics is always updating and adding new features. Here are four methods to help you get the most out of your analytics tool. As a part of the consulting services I provide to clients, I often do trainings of Google Analytics. Sometimes it’s one-on-one or to a small group, and other times it’s to multiple teams at once. As such, there is usually a broad range in the knowledge base of training participants. Here are four resources that I find are helpful for clients to get started with Google Analytics. A number of them would actually be helpful with... [...]

The latest ClickZ blog post is titled “The Rise of Content = The Resurrection of Publishing”. Jeanniey Mullen says, “The rise of content marketing means that as a publisher, you hold the keys and power to the future. This week, NewsCred released an article called “50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing.” I’ve been following NewsCred for some time and have been impressed with their outreach and engagement strategy. So when this email came through, I decided to take a look. As I read through the facts (although some of them are a few years old), I found myself... [...]

The latest TopRank blog post is titled “Integrate Social Media Marketing With All of Your Online Marketing Efforts”. Lee Odden says, “Integrating content across channels of discovery and engagement like social networks is an important part of optimizing for the customer experience. In fact, according to the2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 83% of marketers stated they have integrated their social media and traditional marketing activities. Social Media contributes to all aspects of the customer journey, so integrating social media marketing with overall online marketing efforts... [...]

The latest TopRank blog post is titled “SEO Storm or Light Shower? Google’s Panda 4.0 Update”. Lee Odden says, “The thunder clap of Google’s Matt Cutts’s Twitter post could be heard across the web this week with the announcement of the search engine’s latest update, Panda 4.0. Of course the type of Panda I’m talking about isn’t a cute bear from China. It’s the name of an algorithm used by Google to filter out low quality content from search results. The first Panda update in Feb, 2011 was fairly aggressive, affecting about 11% of queries on Google and millions of searchers.... [...]

The latest TopRank blog post is titled “2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report”. Lee Odden says, “Mike Stelzner over at Social Media Examiner has published the 6th Annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report based on a survey of over 2,800 marketers. It’s a pretty robust report at 50 pages and covers the gamut of social media marketing topics from the most important social platforms for marketing to the most important social content types to the ways marketers will be changing their approach to social media in the future”. 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report TopRank Blog  [...]

The latest TopRank blog post is titled “Over 100 B2B Content Marketing Statistics for 2014”. Lee Odden says, “Thanks to Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, each year there’s a new report covering the latest trends in B2B content marketing. From insourcing vs. outsourcing to the most effective tactics, there is plenty of insight in this report to help guide B2B marketers in the right direction. As a blogger, public speaker and strategist, I know how convenient it can be for statistics in a report like this to be broken out. I did this once before with 100+ B2B Content... [...]