Digital marketing has become the primary way to spread the word about your holiday offers and savings.  And since the holidays are a hectic time for consumers, it’s critical to develop a holiday marketing strategy sooner than later that will help you stand out from … Continue reading “7 holiday marketing strategy tips to optimize sales”

Small Business Saturday should be marked on every small business owner’s calendar.  To put it simply, Small Business Saturday is a special day each year when people are encouraged to shop small during the post-Thanksgiving weekend to support their local economies. It applies to all … Continue reading “5 last-minute Small Business Saturday marketing ideas”

Are you paying attention to the right social media metrics? Social media marketing can help you achieve your business goals, but it’s important to track your social media metrics to understand what’s working and what’s not. About 43 percent of consumers increased their social media … Continue reading “26 social media metrics you should track across platforms”

Brands have personalities just like humans do. But if you’re a little unsure how to define your particular brand personality, you’ve come to the right place. A brand personality involves the human characteristics of a brand, which your customers can relate to and connect with. … Continue reading “5 steps to determine your brand personality”

If reaching professionals is a goal of your digital marketing efforts, offering diverse content on LinkedIn is a crucial tactic to explore. LinkedIn now has more than 830 million users in more than 200 countries and territories, calling itself “the world’s largest professional network.” But … Continue reading “17 LinkedIn content ideas that you can post”

Negative social media comments are a reality for many businesses. But how you handle those comments can not only squash any social media fires but also improve your overall brand perception. About 35 percent of customers in the U.S. post negative comments about companies on … Continue reading “7 tips for handling negative social media comments”

SMS text message marketing can be the most effective method of mass communication. Compared to emails, text messages can be more powerful. They have a 98 percent open rate compared to 20 percent in emails, and consumers are 4.5 percent more likely to respond to … Continue reading “8 tips to write an effective marketing text message”

It’s likely that we’ve all been part of a brainstorming meeting that’s been unfocused, long and frustrating, with various ideas shared but no path to move forward. This is not the kind of brainstorming meeting you want to experience with your team. Brainstorming with others … Continue reading “9 tips to run an effective brainstorming meeting”

The power of your digital marketing efforts is based on multiple factors, including your brainstorming techniques. Often an overlooked practice, the more effective your brainstorming, the more creative you’ll be with your marketing.  Not only does your marketing benefit, but your team benefits as well.  … Continue reading “9 brainstorming techniques to inspire even better ideas”

What is a text message campaign? A text messaging campaign allows you to interact with your customers through text messages, which can feel more personal than emails. Also known as SMS marketing text message campaigns have an engagement rate that’s three to seven times higher … Continue reading “Text Message Campaign – 6 things to know before starting”

Every business should have an SMS marketing strategy as part of its larger digital marketing efforts. SMS marketing is the use of text messages to convey your message to potential (and current) customers. It’s also the way many consumers prefer to communicate. About 75 percent … Continue reading “8 tips to maximize your SMS marketing strategy”

The right visuals for your brand speak volumes, and stock photos can play a part in that. But design and visual content is the biggest challenge for about 24 percent of content marketers. Using the right website to search for and discover quality stock photos … Continue reading “16 of the best websites to find quality stock photos”

Lots of people want to talk about email marketing vs social media. But the truth is both email marketing and social media marketing can be powerful for any brand online. But if you had to choose one, which is better? In the simplest sense, even … Continue reading “Email vs Social Media – 5 reasons why email marketing is better”

When you have news to announce about your brand, you’re likely wanting to share it with the media as well. It could be a product launch, company announcement, upcoming event or something else. But regardless of what the news is, you should consider getting your … Continue reading “What’s the difference between a media pitch and a press release?”

The SMS marketing best practices listed below should be part of your text message marketing strategy. And, if you aren’t using SMS marketing. You should be. Why? About 85 percent of consumers in one study say they want to receive text messages from brands. And … Continue reading “SMS marketing best practices for maximum results”

Stock photos can be incredibly helpful in your digital marketing efforts, but are the stock images you’re using look like obvious stock photos? Your visuals matter. When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10 percent of that information three days later, but if … Continue reading “5 tips to select stock photos that aren’t cheesy”

While anyone can create content, the key is creating engaging content that helps your brand achieve your goals on social media and beyond. Engaging content is all about getting results, such as: Click-throughs to your website Overall increase in website traffic Social media mentions, likes, … Continue reading “10 tips for creating engaging content”

Social media is integral to any robust digital marketing strategy, but what social media mistakes could you be making and not even realize? More than half of the world (about 58 percent) now uses social media, and the average daily time spent using social media … Continue reading “8 most common social media mistakes to avoid”

Businesses invest a lot into marketing efforts that bring in new customers, but what are you doing to increase your customer referrals? With more than 2.4 million brand-related conversations happening in the U.S., consumers are obviously already talking about their experiences with brands, for better … Continue reading “6 tips to boost your customer referrals”

While your digital marketing can have many different goals, you’re ultimately looking to increase your sales conversion rate over time. To grow your business, you must identify your sales funnel as part of your digital marketing efforts. Not sure what a sales funnel is? Check … Continue reading “16 tips to increase your sales conversion rate”

A big factor in whether an internet user will click on your search result in Google is the publication date that’s shown. The more recent the content, the more appealing it is. Are you sure that your search results are showing the right dates? Google … Continue reading “5 tips to get Google to display the right date in search results”

Marketers face a lot of the same challenges along the way. Enter marketing Facebook groups. Usually, the most common recurring question is, “Am I doing this right?” Yes, there are courses you can take, books to read and blogs (like this one) to engage with, … Continue reading “9 of the best Facebook groups for marketing conversations”

When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s often best to think small. Think nano influencers. Nano influencers are content creators with between about 1,000 and 10,000 followers (although this range can vary). They typically create content around a specific topic that they’re passionate about, which … Continue reading “Nano influencers: 5 tips to grow your brand awareness”

A lot of efforts to boost your SEO may focus on your overall search ranking for particular keywords that matter to your business. But what are you doing to optimize your Google Search click-through rate? Your search engine optimization should always keep your CTR in … Continue reading “4 tips to boost your click-through rate in Google Search”

All businesses rely on technology to run efficiently. Technology has helped small businesses find ways to compete with large corporations, improve relationships with customers, and help improve internal processes. Small businesses use various technologies, including laptops and desktops, mobile devices, equipment, and more, to help … Continue reading “How does ever-changing technology affect businesses?”

Generating buzz through earned media coverage begins with finding the right journalists to cover your brand’s story and various news updates. Earned media results from media outreach and is the fastest-growing form of marketing. In the simplest sense, earned media refers to any material written … Continue reading “4 ways to find the right journalists to cover your brand”

Even with the best planning, your marketing strategy could fail. Digital marketing comprises various online strategies that identify, build and target an audience with the ultimate goal of turning them into paying customers. It includes the following and more: Social media marketing Search engine optimization … Continue reading “8 signs that your marketing strategy isn’t working”

Including webinars into your digital marketing strategy opens up what’s possible when connecting individuals anywhere in the world. Many companies lean toward webinars because they can be more productive and offer a greater reach than in-person seminars. A webinar is essentially an online presentation given … Continue reading “Which is better? Live or pre-recorded webinars”

While some may think a press release is archaic, it still should be part of your overall marketing strategy. In the simplest sense, a press release is a news story written by a public relations professional and sent to targeted members of the media. Typical … Continue reading “8 tips to write a press release that gets noticed”

Does your business have a media kit? Is it doing everything it can to share your brand story? Whether you’re looking to create your first media kit or revamp what you already have, you’re in the right place. A media kit (also known as a … Continue reading “7 tips to create an effective media kit for your business”

Selling advertising space on your website can create an additional revenue stream from your online presence. U.S. companies are spending about $79.75 billion on programmatic digital display ads, which is about 86.5 percent of the total digital ad spending. And the average person sees about … Continue reading “4 ways to sell advertising on your website”

Creating a blog not only supports your content marketing efforts. It can help you make money, too. But to nail your profitable blog niche isn’t easy. Blogs are very popular. About 70 million posts are published each month just by WordPress users. In order to … Continue reading “10 of the most profitable blog niches”

Social listening offers marketers a huge opportunity to learn from and engage with customers and potential customers online. In the simplest sense, social listening is essentially audience research. You monitor your brand’s social media channels for any customer feedback, mentions of your brand and discussions … Continue reading “9 of the best social listening tools for brand marketing”