Subscription-based companies face a problem. They willingly lower prices to get people in the door. Each monthly charge is only a tiny fraction of their costs. That means it could take months for them to breakeven on each customer. Unfortunately, most people that sign up don’t stick around that…

It used to be so simple. A billboard here. A radio or television commercial there. Perhaps a print ad or two thrown in for good measure. That was your marketing strategy, and it worked . Want to watch the latest episode of The Dukes of Hazzard ? You had to sit through that commercial for cereal.…

Google is marking the start of this year’s Winter Olympic Games — and officially kicked off its own Doodle Snow Games — with an animated Winter Olympics doodle featuring a cast of athletic animals. “Welcome to the opening day of the Doodle Snow Games!” writes Google on the Google Doodle blog. “On…

How long does it take you to write marketing emails? If you’re anything like me, you put lots of thought, effort, and time into each and every word in the message. That’s what it takes to write actionable email newsletters . Your message is full of great content. You might even have some discounts,…

Most of my blog posts are long. I shoot for over 3,000 words in almost all of them. Sometimes, I’ll even go over 10,000 words. Because over the years, I’ve seen that those bring in the most traffic . This isn’t new or unique. Many people have found success in going long. But here’s the thing that…

People always ask me the same question about AdWords: “What’s a ‘good’ cost per click?” And my response back to them is always the same: “Why do you care?” See, most people have AdWords wrong. They obsess over the costs. They know that more and more competitors are advertising on the platform, which…

Not everyone wants to buy what you’re selling. For your startup company to be successful , you need to identify your target market. This is one of the first steps of launching a startup company. But it’s much easier said than done. If you don’t have a clear target audience in mind, your marketing…

It seems like most companies redesign their website every year or so. New trends gain steam, so they want to be more ‘contemporary’ or ‘flat.’ Or new color schemes are en vogue. So every site you visit looks Asana-bright. Everyone now wants to update their site on the same regular basis. I love…

Google adds new SEO Audit category to Chrome’s Lighthouse extension Feb 5, 2018 by Michelle Robbins The popular auditing tool used by developers and search marketers now enables users to run basic SEO checks against site pages. 6 AdWords strategies businesses can use to make love, not war on…

Where is your website traffic coming from? If you’re relying on people to find you through a Google search, search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be at the top of your priority list. You won’t be able to generate leads for your business if nobody can find you. Did you know 93% of experiences on…

SEO isn’t very technical. But it becomes technical because so many marketers and content creators are using the latest “hack” to increase their rankings. The more information there is, the more differing opinions you hear, the more complicated it becomes. But at the end of the day, it boils down to…

People think SEO is all about traffic. But I’m here to tell you that’s not the case. Yes, if you do it correctly, SEO should bring in lots of traffic. Ultimately, though, SEO is about revenue. It’s about driving in new customers to buy stuff. And that’s why most people do keyword research wrong.…

I’ll be honest: I don’t like general marketing statements. You know the ones. I cringe a little bit when I hear “know, like, and trust.” The problem is that these are too flimsy. They’re not actionable or instructive. And they very rarely come with cold-hard data behind it. Turns out, though, that…

Old-school industries don’t get the credit they deserve. Every blog online focuses on the hot new startup. People write case study after case study on the trendy new subscription box. But no one ever talks about offline companies. Even though, many times, there’s WAY more money at stake. Take ‘tax…

How well does your ecommerce website convert? On average, ecommerce sites in the United States convert at about a 3% rate . If you’re hovering somewhere around that number, you might think your website is already optimized for high conversions . Even if you think you’re doing well, there’s always…

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google publishes comprehensive guide to featured snippets Jan 30, 2018 by Barry Schwartz Learn more about how Google’s featured work, the variations and some of…

Bing is launching Audience Segmentation reporting to give advertisers detailed insights about how their search audiences are performing. The new feature also makes it easy to compare audiences against non-targeted users. The new feature applies to Remarketing in Paid Search, as well as In-market…

“Branding” “Our brand is strong” “Brand equity” “Our brand is admired around the world” These words and phrases make most entrepreneurs and employees roll their eyes. They view brand as an overused term that means very little to the world outside the company. But your brand may be the most valuable…

Businesses need to look toward the future to survive and thrive. I’m sure you’ve got an effective strategy in place that targets Millennials or Baby Boomers . But it’s time to shift your focus to a younger generation. The term Generation Z describes people born after Millennials. They may also be…

17 comments, 223 likes on Facebook, and 88 retweets. You’re writing stuff, and people are reading it. They’re clicking your links and arriving at your blog. Your efforts are finally paying off with a steady stream of traffic. We’re not going to focus on the importance of a business blog . You know…

Don’t let money stop you from pursuing your dreams. If you want to start your own business but don’t have the funding, you can still get it off the ground in a number of ways. As an entrepreneur myself, I admire anyone who wants to create a company. It’s not easy. In fact, only half of small…

Moats are ditches of water that surround castles. They’re the first-line of defense against intruders. Legendary investor Warren Buffett suggests you look at your business in a similar way. Your business is the castle, and the moat is what protects your business from competitors. Some refer to this…

I’m a bit of a cable news junkie. Now, I don’t watch it often, but am generally more interested how a news product can draw people in hold their attention for hours, and keep them coming back everyday. But why is this so interesting? And why should marketers care? Because news itself can be pretty…

You may not have heard of Alan Mulally, but he’s led one of the best turnarounds in modern American business history. As Chief Executive for nearly 8 years at Ford Motor Company, he steered the company through the Great Recession (without taking a bailout), restructured the massive corporation to…

Every consumer is different. Some people like to shop online , and other people prefer shopping in stores. There are customers who spend days or even weeks researching a product before making a purchase, while others buy something without any prior intention at all. This is called an impulse…

A new website should be an opportunity to improve SEO, conversion rates and digital marketing as a whole. Unfortunately, it can also be an invitation for disaster — if the right steps aren’t taken to ensure a smooth transition from old website to new, you can damage the SEO equity your site has…

I’m a big advocate of blogging. It doesn’t matter what business you have or what industry you’re in, blogging can be used as a lead generation tool . How often do you get unique visitors to your website? Unless you have an ecommerce store, there’s no reason for a prospective customer to visit your…

I’ve no idea how to actually do the two-step. Apparently it looks a little something like this: It’s way too complex for me. Fortunately, when it comes to marketing, the two-step opt-in form is much simpler. What is a Two-Step Opt-In Form? Well for starters it’s a two-time hyphenated term that’s…

The ecommerce customer is a moving target. I mean that in more than one way: Online behaviors and buying preferences evolve constantly. Customers jump around relentlessly from apps, to messaging platforms, to social sites and websites. They’re mobile. How do you woo these “moving targets” into…

The customer is always right. I’m sure you’ve heard this before as the golden rule of business. But what this rule doesn’t encompass is the customer experience. The saying should be: always put the customer first . You may have certain operations and practices in place to make things easy and…

How many people are actually reading your blog posts? It is reported 43% of readers say they skim through posts. If you want people to consume the content you’re writing, get them hooked during the introduction. Take a second to think about the goal of each article you publish. Are you just trying…

Hosting an event is a great way for businesses to gain exposure . This holds true whether it’s a holiday or a special occasion for your customers, the community, or your industry. You may want to promote an event even if you’re not hosting it. For example, maybe your company will have a booth set up…

It was a decent experiment while it lasted. Google has announced that Review extensions will stop showing this month and will be deleted entirely in AdWords accounts in February. An update appears on the support page about the extension. Advertisers that ran Review extensions and want to keep their…

Every business has room to improve their conversion rates . If you’re looking for a place to start, analyzing your website is the first logical step. While you may have done A/B testing or used some similar techniques in the past to get a surge in conversions, you can take your efforts one step…

Today I want to talk a bit about what it’s like, as a marketer, to be marketing something that’s difficult to market. You see, there’s a common problem that many marketers face, and it’s also one of the most asked questions I hear when I’m on the road, as a speaker: “How do I great marketing for a…