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- 13 Mar
Social Media Use in 2018: Platform, Age, and Visit Trends
by Ayaz Nanji
Congratulation. You have finally decided that you need to market your business on social media. And, it was probably a difficult decision.But now, which social media platform should you focus on?
After all, there are eight major social media platforms and a gig-a-load of minor ones. So, how to figure out what is probably going to work for you and your business?
One way is to use what I call the Serengeti Theory of audience marketing
That theory says that I need to focus my “hunt” where my target audience prefers to frequent. And that means, if I want to have success in reaching my target audience through social media, I need to know where they prefer to “hang out”.
A good place to start would be with the current numbers on the “who, what and where” of social media. And, fortunately for us, the Pew Research Center has recently released their annual social media usage report. So, that means, if you want to see where your best prospects are socializing, then you need to read this report. To read a summary of the report, read this article at MarketingProfs.com
NOTE: A Free Registration pop-up opens on this site. Registration is not required to read the article.
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- 12 Mar
Mobile Page Speed Benchmarks, by Vertical, in 2018
from MarketingCharts.com
Seconds do matter. In fact, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing from a page more than doubles when the page load time goes from 1 second to 10 seconds. This is according to Google’s updated look at mobile page speeds.There is Good News and There is Bad News
The good news is that average page load speeds have improved from last year. However, the bad news is that they’re still not fast enough. Indeed, 70% of the landing pages analyzed took more than 5 seconds to display the visual content above the fold. And it took more than 7 seconds on average to fully load all of the visual content both above and below the fold.
Now, these numbers may not seem to bad. But, in the world of “Short-Attention-Span Theater” they can make of break your digital success. To see the full list of what they found, and for an opportunity to see the original Google report and data, read the full article at MaketingChats.com
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- 10 Mar
The Right and Wrong Times to Post on Social Media
from DrumUp
Social Media has revolutionized the way companies do business. From small local stores to big corporate houses, all types of businesses have recognized the importance of social media in marketing. In fact, social media marketing has become such an integral part of a company’s marketing activity that businesses just cannot seem to do without it.Great. So Post it and They Will Come Then?
The success of social media marketing depends on a bunch of factors. Among those are content quality and relevance and time of posting. Yes, even the time of day you post will impact your social media success. The time you choose to post content on social media can well decide how many of your followers see the content. And even hot they engage with it and even if they convert.
To learn when the best times are to post and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram, read the full article at DrumUp
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- 09 Mar
US Youth Exodus From Facebook Accelerates
from eMarketer.com
It seems that the story just keeps getting worse for Facebook. First came the whole “fake news” controversy. Then the “Russian Bots” and the 2017 election. Now even the youth are starting to leave the much vaunted platform.When eMarketer Speaks, the Markets Listen
According to eMarketer’s latest forecast on social network usage, Facebook is losing younger users at an even faster pace than previously expected. And while the social media platform in the past was able to count on Instagram to retain that younger audience, the forecast shows that Snapchat may now be siphoning more users away. This year, for the first time, less than half of US internet users ages 12 to 17 will use Facebook.
For the full story and see more data and insights, read the full article at eMarketer.com
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- 08 Mar
How to Boost Customer Retention With Web Push Notifications
by Megha Rajeev
Currently, only 8.5% of decision-makers in marketing consider customer retention as their top priority. Yet, returning customers not only bring in twice as much revenue as new customers but are also more likely to recommend you to others.They Cost Less and Yield Higher
They also spend more time on your website and give a higher conversion rate. It is old news that marketers who work on retention marketing see an ROI of up to 15x. This is compared to the 4 to 6x ROI for new customer acquisition campaigns.
So how do you up your retention game without investing too many resources in setting up a new channel? This is where Web Push Notifications come in. And to learn how you can make them work for you, read the full article on Jeffbullas’s Blog.
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- 07 Mar
Here’s How Marketers Fared in 2017 in the Metrics That Impact Email Deliverability
from MarketingCharts.com
Close to one-quarter of US marketing emails fail to reach the inbox. This is according to an analysis released last year by Return Path. With deliverability having such an impact on email marketing success, Return Path has once again delved into its data [download page].The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The report does show both good and bad trends in some industries. Positive indicators include metrics such as read and forwarded messages, along with messages replied to and those marked as “not spam”. Such actions act as indicators of subscriber engagement, with these tracked by several mailbox providers. Negative indicators include messages marked as spam along with messages deleted before reading.
To see the data and insights, and for the opportunity to download the original report, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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- 06 Mar
Are Webinars Dead? How to Make a Webinar that Works in 2018
It’s 2018, and the way our prospects and customers find and consume content has certainly changed. While it would be great to say that there’s one new, highly optimal content format that all marketers should use for lead generation instead of older formats, it just can’t be said. It’s a little more complicated than that. No, webinars aren’t dead, and neither is the PDF ebook.The Bar Has Been Set Pretty Low
However, what has changed is a saturation of mediocre PDF ebooks, webinars, and other forms of gated content available online. So while webinars aren’t dead. Now that doesn’t mean marketers should continue running the same, tired playbook.
To see the new Play Book, and learn how to use it, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 05 Mar
How to Do A/B Testing: A Checklist You’ll Want to Bookmark
When creating landing pages, write email copy, or designing call-to-action buttons, it can be tempting to use intuition. Sometimes it’s just a “feeling” that is used to predict what will make people click and convert. But basing marketing decisions off of a “feeling” can be pretty detrimental to results.The Magic 8-Ball: “My Sources Say Yes”
Rather than relying on guesses or assumptions to make these decisions, you’re much better off running conversion rate optimization (CRO) tests — sometimes called A/B tests. CRO testing can be very valuable. That’s because different audiences behave, well, differently. Something that works for one company may not necessarily work for another.
But these tests can also be complex. And if you’re not careful, you could make incorrect assumptions about what people like and what makes them click — decisions that could easily misinform other parts of your strategy. So, to learn how to do A/B testing before, during, and after data collection so you can make the best decisions from your results, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 03 Mar
Pain Points: A Guide to Finding and Solving Your Customers’ Problems
by Dan Shewan
In the world of marketing and sales, we have focused for generations on “customer paint points.” How to identify them? How to address them? And how to connect them to what we are selling? These have been the focus of our efforts, energies, research and work.But, What Are Customer Pain Points?
And how you can position your company as a potential solution? Well, the short answer is – a pain point is a specific problem that prospective customers of your business are experiencing. In other words, you can think of pain points as problems, plain and simple. And like any problem, customer pain points are as diverse and varied as your prospective customers themselves.
However, not all prospects will be aware of the pain point they’re experiencing. And, that can make marketing to these individuals difficult. First, you effectively have to help your prospects realize they have a problem. And, then you need to convince them that your product or service will help solve it.
To learn how you can do this, and do it well, read the full article at WordStream.com
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- 02 Mar
Is it Time to Add Video Marketing to Your Content Marketing?
by Neil Patel
Now, this may seem like another instance of “fake news,” but there will actually be 0ver 3.7 million blog posts written today. In fact, it is easy to say that the market is flooded with blog articles.And Now for the Bad News
And while blog competition increases, click-through rates on display ads have continued to decrease. In fact, the average click-through rate of display ads is a staggeringly low 0.05%. So how does your content have a chance of standing out? And, where to turn?
Well, it may be video marketing that could be the solution.
By 2021, it is estimated that video will drive 82% of all consumer Internet traffic. But, is it the right time to add video marketing to your content marketing strategy? Not sure? To see a list of three reasons why you need to invest in video marketing and three reasons why video marketing might not be the best fit for you, read the full article at KISSmetrics.com
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- 01 Mar
10 Steps to Launch a Successful Social Media Marketing Campaign
by SEMrush
Don’t be fooled. Creating viral social media campaigns may look deceptively simple. And it’s a common mistake for brands and other businesses to think that social media marketing is going to be easy. There are 14-year-olds on YouTube going viral, we’ve all thought at some point, so how hard can it really be?
However, social media marketing is more difficult than the existence of kid YouTube stars would lead us to believe. It’s not enough to let one great post carry your marketing efforts. Instead, you need to be creating and executing entire social media marketing campaigns.
But successful social campaigns require thought and strategy.
Although great campaigns take time to create, there are 10 easy steps anyone can follow to produce and launch successful social media campaigns. To see them all, read the full article at MarketingProfs
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- 28 Feb
A Winning LinkedIn Profile: Three Questions to Ask and Answer
Social media marketing has been around for quite a while. Some have seen success in leveraging social media of their marketing efforts. But, as a whole, social media has been a struggle for marketers.“Social media platforms as a whole aren’t scoring high on the lead awesomeness scale,” asserts Kissmetrics, “But among the low-scoring social sites, there is one that stands out as a success marker. You guessed it. It is LinkedIn.”
LinkeIn is Built for Business. But it’s Not Easy
Nearly 80% of marketers consider the platform the most effective social media source of lead generation. And, winning on LinkedIn isn’t rocket science. And it shouldn’t be hard. But it does take some effort.
You need to start by asking yourself three questions. To see what those questions are, and how to build a killer LinkedIn profile, read the full article at MarketingProfs
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- 27 Feb
B2B Exhibitors Devote Large Portions of Their Marketing Budgets to Events
from Marketing Charts
B2B events and exhibitions are important for marketers. They can help to satisfy a broad range of critical marketing goals. Events can help in identifying new customers. They can be used to reach sales leads and even for building awareness.But Just Exactly How important are Events and Exhibitions to B2B Marketers?
To find understand the importance being placed on events, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) conducted a study. They wanted to determine exactly how influential exhibitions are to participants. And what they found was that the level of importance has increased. In fact, events are now considered the most valued tool in their marketing arsenal.
To see additional insights and to access the original report, read the full article, go to MarketingCharts.com
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- 26 Feb
Mobile First Indexing: How to Prepare Your Business
by Chad Crowe
By now, there should be no argument. Smartphones have changed consumer habits. They have changed how we access the internet, how we read our email and even how we search for things online. The impact has been huge on so many levels. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that if you wanted to reach potential new customers online, your marketing campaign revolved around getting in front of people using their desktop computers.Today, more than 50% of search engine queries happen on mobile devices.
In recognition of this, Google has announced that they are going to make the switch to mobile first indexing this year. They haven’t issued a specific timeline for complete mobile first indexing as of yet. At this point, they want to give businesses and developers time to get their mobile sites ready. However, Google has already started testing mobile first indexing with a small number of websites.
So, while there’s no need to panic. But, now is the time to be proactive. And to see how this will impact your business website and some initial steps you can take to make sure you don’t get lost in the transition, read the full article on ChiefMarketer.com
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- 24 Feb
AdWords Event Tracking Made Easy: How to Track Custom Conversions
Custom event tracking is an amazing tool. It’s a way to quantify all those valuable actions taken on your website that regular, old, conversion tracking simply can’t capture. So, typically, conversion tracking takes place by trigger events such as when a “Thank You” page is accessed.However, this is not the case when the action takes place on-page. As an example, someone does something on your page that you would like to track. But, that action takes place on a single page and no “Thank You” page is generated. And, that means that since there is no URL change, conversion tracking doesn’t take place.
This is where Custom Event Tracking comes into play . . .
Custom event tracking allows you to measure the results of an on-page action. It may be something as simple as a form fill-in. Or a light box opening. Or it may even be a product being added to a shopping cart. But by wrapping that action in a specific tracking code – upon completion – a conversion is recorded. And all without bringing your prospect to a new page. And, Voila! Your event is tracked.
So, to learn what the AdWords custom event tracker is and why it matters, read the full article at WordStream.com
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- 23 Feb
How Emotional Marketing in B2B Drives Customers
by Tamar Weiss
In the world of marketing, there’s a perception that B2B marketing is serious and logical. Whereas, B2C marketing is fun and creative. And yet, the role that emotions play in both B2B and B2C marketing is strikingly similar.“Most of us think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, but we are actually feeling creatures that think” – neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
To gain a clearer understanding of the concept, Tamara Weiss recently interviewed Jonathan Kahn. He is the co-founder and creative marketing hacker at creative agency JM Consulting. Additonally, she talked with Michal Zarankin, head of digital marketing at in-app engagement platform Insert.
In the interviews, they shared their thoughts on the role of emotions in B2B marketing. And, to read a few of those insights, read the full article at MarketingProfs.com
NOTE: A Free Registration pop-up opens on this site. Registration is not required to read the article.
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- 22 Feb
Mapping Content to All Points in the Customer Journey
By all accounts, brands will more than double-down on their commitments to content marketing in 2018. According to recent reports, they will be accelerating the cadence of their content activities. They will be leveraging their blog posts, guides, ebooks, infographics, microsites and videos. All as a means of finding, converting and retaining more customers.But with this increase in efforts, comes an increase in expectations.
And having the ability to map your content to all the points in your customer’s journey to purchase becomes even more important with rising expectations. Meeting the goals of increasing awareness, improving conversion rates, and accelerating the sales funnel requires data insights. And those insights need to inform. It is those data insights that can be used to align specific content to its influence at each stage of the customer journey, necessary to optimize the ROI and effectiveness of that content.
To see more, read the full article on Chief Marketer.
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- 21 Feb
How to Boost the Credibility of Your LinkedIn Profile Fast
by Mitt Ray
People are becoming extremely skeptical about everything online. And for good reason. There are a number of factors that have contributed to this increasing sense of skepticism. Such as the rise of inflated and fake Facebook followers, fake Twitter accounts being exposed and online frauds have served to drive this trend.And that is exactly why credibility is so important to your business today.
One social network in particular where you should pay attention to your credibility is LinkedIn. It is the de facto source of business with many using as a significant source of leads. And, if people who check out your profile quickly trust you, they will want to work with you. That means that if you want to use social media to drive engagement, traffic, and sales, you need to take steps to boost your profile’s credibility.
And that means you must have a LinkedIn profile the engenders trust and confidence. But to accomplish that is no easy task. To help you out, here are all the steps you can take boost your Linkedin profile’s credibility on Jeffbullas’s Blog.
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- 20 Feb
Your Google Rank Doesn’t Matter Anymore
Back five or six years ago, we had all the information we needed. It was there, all within Google Analytics, and you could get relatively accurate search volume estimates from within Google’s Keyword Tool. However, that changed. Google move to encrypted search. The tools and services we used to that point were rendered less and even ineffective in measuring the impact of organic search on a granular level.Changes. . . All These Changes
Next was Google’s decision to move search volume estimate within their Keyword Planner tool to show estimates in broad ranges. These changes have forced marketers to adapt their search strategy. Now they need to focus less on individual keywords and shift to a topic-centric content strategy. This is especially true for content sitting at the top of the funnel.
Now, to find out if your Google Rank even matters now, and what you can do about it, read the full article at HubSpot.com
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- 19 Feb
Which Demand Gen Channels and Tactics Are Working for B2B Marketers?
from Marketing Charts
Current data indicates that B2B marketers have greater demand gen budgets this year. But with those larger budgets come rising revenue expectations.The Age-Old Question: Which Comes First, Conversions or Engagement?
According to a recent Demand Gen Report study [pdf download available], the current focus for B2B marketing is shifting away from quantity based metrics. Rather, most B2B marketers are now shifting to lead quality and conversions. That means for a majority of B2B marketers surveyed, email, search and websites are their first choices.
So, to see more of the data and to download a copy of the original report, read the full article at MarketingCharts.com
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