We all hear the false reports of SEO being dead — perhaps we should all listen, follow suit, pack our bags, and go home. Or, maybe we could continue our jobs, hoping that our clients won’t realize that the money they spend on SEO is a complete waste. Nevertheless, the ones who report SEO’s death are still pursuing the work; they’re doing exactly what they deem as “dead.”

I suggest looking beyond the subject of SEO as being something that evolves over time. Professionals in the space need to understand that SEO is changing for the better, with more attention being focused on how your site looks, how you’re producing content, and how you’re getting links.

It’s no wonder that startups are such a large part of the American dream - a way to disobey authority while risking it all for exponential growth. As Steve Wozniak once said, “All the best things that I did at Apple came from (a) not having money and (b) not having done it before, ever. Every single thing that we came out with that was really great, I’d never once done that thing in my life.” 

Today I want to talk about something a little different - something I find intriguing and helpful to SMBs looking to do it big. That said, we’ll be talking about startups and their relationship with corporations.

Introduction

At the young age of 10, I was the victim of reciprocity in the retail environment. The occurrence remains in my memory because I wanted to try the newest soda on the market - Surge. This “Mountain Dew Killer” of a soda gave a heart-pounding, cardiac arrest-ish experience to anyone who consumed the green syrup. Moreso, they pushed the product down the throats of consumers, specifically that day when people in Surge garb gave me a free 2 liter of the stuff. Little did I know, they were using reciprocity in the form of a concession to make my ten-year-old-self an advocate of the product.

Introduction

Not all mad scientists are villains or evil in nature. In fact, some may have good spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains. Some are even protagonists, such as Dexter in the animated series Dexter’s Laboratory, for those who remember the zany, boy genius who had an endless collection of inventions. Nonetheless, digital advertising involves a lot of experimentation, especially with images, colors, and fonts. If you’re invested in digital advertising, you should feel more comfortable about experimenting with your digital ads often, continuously refining certain elements to maximize performance. We wanted to brief you on some experiments to get the best performance out of your digital ads, and we’ll go ahead and get started.

Introduction

Third party email providers - “advocates” and “affiliates” - require additional diligence when it comes to the acquisition side of your email marketing efforts. This is mainly due to the variety of tactics they may use, from simple forward-to-a-friend mechanisms, to digital advertisements, to full-scale promotional email campaigns. Third party arrangements are especially troublesome due to the lack of brand control and lack of data about where email addresses are really coming from. Nowadays, too few marketers and SMBs actively monitor their affiliates’ email programs, putting their company’s bottom line and digital marketing strategy at risk.

We decided to compile a list of four common examples of third-party tactics used for email acquisition. These tactics are effective when used at the right time, for the right audience, but it’s important to understand how they work in getting you more email subscribers. Thing is, the third-party will not be held responsible for any CAN-SPAM or legal violations - you will.

We introduced the concept of landing page optimization (LPO) to y’all at the beginning of this year. If you remember, it was a two-parter (Search Marketing Special: Landing Page Optimization; and Pt. 2) on LPO and how it plays a significant role in search marketing, specifically to drive direct response from consumers who clicked on your search marketing advertisement. You also learned a few ways to improve the effectiveness of your landing pages, like adjusting the transparency of CTAs or the navigation of your website. Today, we’ll be extending the subject matter into how LPO drives direct response and ultimately increases the ROI of your website. 

Blog post titles can be a bit of a pain sometimes, especially since we’ve written over 80 digital marketing articles in the past 10 months. That being said, we regress back to the childhood days of sing along songs and their strange productions - but for good reason. Cars, boats, trains, and planes are all high consideration items, whether or not you’re selling B2B or B2C. High consideration means that consumers must give much more careful thought or deliberation to a product before they buy. For instance, a luxury boat sale involves a much longer sales cycle than that of a piece of furniture for your living room. So, how do you shorten the sales cycle for high consideration items? Let us introduce you to social proof and how it plays a role in reputation management and social media marketing.

We’ve written a couple articles - Supplement: 2013: The Year of the Online Writer, 4 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2013 - on why content creation fuels your SEO practices and search marketing efforts; it ultimately gives authoritative online publications a reason to link to your website. Remember, Google’s sole purpose is to deliver the most relevant content to the user for a given query. This means that if you enter “st louis traffic lawyers” into the search box, Google wants to give the user the best information on traffic lawyers or traffic law for St. Louis. And if you’re selling traffic law services, then it’s in your best interest to create content that attracts both search engines and consumers to your website.

Introduction

LinkedIn’s social network of professionals encompass over 200 million users across the world. This valuable tool has over 4.2 million c-level executives and 7.9 million business decision makers on their network, giving you the ability to develop ads and target these users with ease. That being said, many B2B business owners often overlook LinkedIn as a viable social media marketing option. This is a problem.

The ad network on LinkedIn is a self-service advertising solution that allows you to create and place ads on high-traffic pages on the LinkedIn.com website. Your target audience clicks on your ad and is redirected to your website. You select which LinkedIn members view your ads by choosing a target audience with several different factors: job title, job function, industry, geography, age, gender, company name, company size, or LinkedIn group. LinkedIn Ads allow you to control your advertising costs by setting a budget and only paying for the clicks or impressions that you receive.

Introduction

Email marketing offers flexibility, quicker results, and higher long-term ROI, especially if you’re looking to generate or nurture leads. But one could get stuck in a system with average content and layout options for all segments, which yields average results. An email marketing campaign should consist of an effective layout and design to increase the amount of opens and click-throughs your emails receive. Below are twelve things to keep in mind when designing your emails.