There’s a feeling among many people that spending more gives you a better product. But that’s not always trueThe squeeze page (also called a lead page) is one thing that distinguishes a professional marketer from someone who just has something to sell. The squeeze page is the page where you collect a visitor’s contact information, so that you can deliver information about a current need or related products over time.You want a squeeze page that invites people to share their information with you, rather than scaring them off.Some marketers fall for the fallacy that expensive... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Twitter is working on a product that would allow users to tweet more than 140 characters at a time, according to a report in Recode today.Such a move would be a major departure from Twitter’s founding days, when its 140-character limit was a necessary nod to the 160-character maximum in SMS messages. Since then Twitter has clung to its signature 140 characters, while users have adjusted by tweeting out blocks of text using screenshots attached as photos.The Recode report, citing “multiple people familiar with the company’s plans,” said the new product would allow... [...]

Jay Larson says, “As companies grow, one of the most important questions they seek answers to is how to increase results and revenue. Never has it been truer that the key to a successful, growing business is an aligned sales team.Lack of congruence translates to diminished results and smaller profits. Fix the internal alignment problem first, and you’ll be far more successful in all other endeavors. So, how can you get the most out of your sales team and find the precise way to structure and lead its members to obtain the maximum benefit? Here are three ways:1. Become an advocate... [...]

Joseph Brady says, “How important is it for businesses today to have an actionable content creation strategy?Well, when you consider that the Internet currently has 4.8 billion web pages, and well over 900,000 websites actively pumping out content, then it’s fair to assume that having an all-encompassing content creation strategy is vitally important to organic search engine optimization (SEO).Unfortunately, a number of entrepreneurs and SMBs make the common mistake that any content will do. These are the enterprises that have never truly acted upon the notion that content is king.Either... [...]

E-Commerce sales in the U.S. totaled $306 billion in 2014 and are projected to pass $494 billion by 2018. With numbers like this, it is safe to say that e-commerce is here to stay and is only becoming more powerful by the minute.You might already run your own e-commerce store or are about to launch one from scratch; either way, there are six principles every e-commerce website should follow.1- Clean VisualsVisuals and the overall look of your website are one of the most important elements in building trust with potential customers and in increasing their engagement on your site. If a website... [...]

Kim Garst says, “Most business owners now use social media as a marketing, lead-generation and customer-service tool. In fact, in a recent industry survey, 92 percent of marketers contacted called social media important to their business. Yet, despite the widespread use of social media, many business owners are inadvertently damaging their brand through their efforts, rather than growing and building their business. Here are nine huge mistakes that you may not know you are making on social media.1. Posting the same types of content again and againWhat do you typically post on social... [...]

Holly Pavlika says, “The rise of social media has given consumers more power than ever before, arming them with a platform where they can engage brands in real time. This has created a shift in marketing. While traditional tactics involved pushing out brand content with little focus on creating conversations, new campaigns tap influencers to engage with consumers and create brand loyalty among them.In spite of the positives, the rise of influencer marketing has also led to many questions, like how to select the right influencer agency or measure ROI. Here are the five most important things... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Ever wondered if those content tips you read a few years back are still relevant today? Hit Publish host Amy Harrison has just returned from a conference of conversion experts who spilled the beans on what tactics are working right this minute. And she wants to share them with you …Last week, Amy was part of a copywriting panel at the Call to Action Conference in Vancouver. The two-day event was packed with practical, actionable tactics from conversion experts all around the world.These are the people who know what to do to your landing page, in terms of design... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “As rumored earlier this year, Google has announced Customer Match, a new ad targeting product that gives AdWords advertisers the ability to target their customers through Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail.Similar to Facebook Custom Audiences, Customer Match allows advertisers to upload a list of customer email addresses, which Google then matches against the logged in users on these properties for the purpose of delivering highly-targeted ads.For example, a company with a customer loyalty program can create and target Google ads specifically for members of the... [...]

Russ Jones says, “As much as we like to debate content vs. links, sometimes great content just seems to dominate. I don’t mean to say that great content doesn’t get great links, or that the purposes of creating great content is not to get links, but simply that some content on the web seems to shine through the SERPs.Content might not be king, but it has lot of sway in Google’s kingdom.After sifting through tons of SERP data to find million dollar answer boxes (answer box results that rank at the top for keywords driving millions of dollars in traffic), I decided to dig... [...]