Stephanie Zatkyo says, “It seems like we only just unpacked our fall sweaters, but believe it or not, it’s time for marketers like us to think jingle bells, not jack-o’-lanterns. While consumers are prepping their candy bowls for trick-or-treaters, we should be pouring ourselves a hearty glass of eggnog and planning out our holiday email campaigns. Email continues to be one of the most important communication channels in 2014, butcompetition for your readers’ attention is getting tighter every year, especially during the holiday season. In fact, email volume was 13% higher... [...]

Larry Kim says, “You know content marketing works, so you’ve been plugging away at blog posts, ebooks, and other valuable, educational content for your potential customers. And people come — they find your content in search results and in their social media feeds. But they may not fill out a form and become a lead right then and there. It’s not always because they’re not interested in your message — so how do you recapture those viewers who left your site? Recapturing audience attention to turn lookers into leads is an effective marketing tactic, and if you’re... [...]

Pamela Vaughan says, “With blogging, success doesn’t happen overnight. I know, right? How many times have you heard that little nugget of blogging wisdom? But seriously — a B2B business blog is a huge time investment. It can take a while before you’ve grown it into a truly valuable marketing asset. In the past, we’ve written about the blogging metrics you should be tracking to report on your blog’s success. But we’ve never really talked about the strategy behind blog measurement”. Why You Should Measure New and Mature B2B Blogs Differently HubSpot... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “Last night, Google announced a new Panda Update that helps the search engine identify websites with low-quality content. According to Googler Pierre Far, this recent update, which started rolling out earlier this week and is expected to be complete by next week, will affect three to five percent of queries depending on their locale. Designed to help Google identify thin content “more precisely,” the update will penalize sites with low quality content, while allowing sites with more high-quality content to rank better”. Google Rolling Out New Panda Update Designed... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Ello is having its moment this week. Sparked by a influx of people in the LGBTQ community protesting Facebook’s real name policy and blown into a conflagration by the tech blogging and tweeting digerati, the three-month-old social network is being swamped with so many requests its have difficult processing them all. Thursday Ello said it was getting 4,000 signup requests on hour; Friday it was more than 40,000. The demand forced the site to cap user invitations several times to prevent crashing the system and now there’s waiting list of more than 1 million people.... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Under Vladimir Putin Russia has taken many steps backward toward its repressive, Cold War past. It’s apparently taking another by notifying Google, Facebook and Twitter that they’re now required to register as “organizers of information distribution,” according toThe Dutch-owned Moscow Times. This is reportedly a precursor to imposing what amounts to censorship restrictions comparable to those now governing mass media in Russia. There’s virtually no independent journalism left in the country. The US internet companies have until the end of this year to register... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Twitter is planning to test targeting advertising to fans tweeting about movies. The move was reported first by the Hollywood Reporter. The program, similar to Twitter’s existing TV conversation targeting, will give studios the ability to show ads to people discussing upcoming movies or characters in those films. It will also include targeting of people who show interest in movies in general. Twitter says its data shows that conversations on Twitter are a major influence on movie choice. “Not only are people hearing about new movies on Twitter, they are using it to... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “After 2013′s record-breaking Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales numbers, eMarketer predicts U.S. retail and e-commerce sales are going to continue to climb this holiday season. According to its recent “Holiday Shopping Preview” report, eMarketer predicts U.S. retail sales will grow five percent over last year, reaching $862.53 billion. The same report claims e-commerce sales will jump 16.6 percent during the 2014 holiday season, generating $72.41 billion during November and December”. Report: Holiday Retail Sales To Climb 5% & E-Commerce Sales Predicted... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Despite relatively small budget allocations, cross-channel retargeting has become a nearly ubiquitous tactic among marketers. In a new survey by Marin Software, just 12 percent of marketers said they were not currently using retargeting in their mix. Over half those said they plan to start retargeting within the next 12 months. In addition to usage trends, Marin also looked at the effect on performance when retargeting across channels among the 233 marketers surveyed”. CTRs 2X Higher When Retargeting On Facebook And The Web, Than Web Alone Marketing Land  [...]

Jordan Elkind says, ““Free shipping and free returns” has become the proud declaration of many online fashion retailers. These policies have contributed to the explosion of online fashion sales: customers appreciate the convenience and savings associated with flexible shipping and return policies. Unfortunately for retailers, this consumer-friendly approach has an unwelcome side effect, a little-known fashion e-commerce secret: crippling return rates. This issue will be painfully relevant during the upcoming holiday season, when online shopping — and returns — reach peak volume”. 4... [...]