Karen Tiber Leland says, ““I’ve got 10,000 likes on my Facebook page,” proudly proclaimed the business owner sitting next to me at the conference lunch I was speaking at. Not a bad start, but as it turns out, not nearly sufficient to translate into sales.A recent study soon to be featured in the Journal of Marketing Research explores what Facebook likes are worth, and how they translate (or not) into sales and offline action. Author Daniel Mochon, assistant professor of marketing at Tulane University, and his colleagues found that likes alone don’t directly translate into purchases.... [...]

Ash Read says, “There probably isn’t a single best time to share to social media.There’s a long tradition of studies that have attempted to uncover a “best time” to post to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and almost every other social media marketing channel, with each study finding a wide range of results.Related: 9 Powerful Time-Saving Tips to Help Grow Your Brand on InstagramHere are just some recommendations on the best time to post to Facebook to get you started:– Thursdays and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (Hubspot)– Thursday at 8 p.m. (TrackMaven)–... [...]

Brian Sutter says, “Good, bad or indifferent – 2016 is over. And while 2017 is well underway, I recommend content marketers take one good look back before they go.The past is the past, after all. And there’s plenty of lessons from 2016 that we can apply going forward.1. We’re getting better at this.Good news first: The big story of content marketing in 2016 is that content marketers were considerably more effective than they were even one year earlier, with 62 percent of B2B content marketers and 63 percent of B2C content marketers report that they were “somewhat more successful”... [...]

Scott Ritcher says, “Within the parlance of digital publishing, four prominent pillars have solidified their long-term presence. These include:– Display ads– Video ads– Social ads– Native adsDespite being a relatively new phenomenon, native ads have emerged as the third most popular publishing strategy, along with video ads, as per a poll conducted by Salesforce encompassing 4,000 marketers. Native advertising has become an important component of most major brands’ marketing repertoire with a growth in the number of native advertising platforms.As a case in... [...]

Jacob Warwick says, “The rate of content creation is growing exponentially year over year and content marketers now face more competition than ever before. Media publishers, other organizations and even industry professionals are competing for your audience’s time and attention, even though they may not be direct sales competition. With all this clutter, content marketers must heavily concentrate on crafting an efficient strategy and set of tools to create the right content, distribute it effectively, promote it successfully and drive more results for their business goals. Learn more... [...]

Tom Brant says, “In its quest to index the internet, Google’s search engine has come across quite a few questionable websites. That content occasionally shows up at the top of the search results as an embarrassing example of how its algorithms can’t always discern the truth.Google “Why are fire trucks red?” for instance, and the top suggested search result is a snippet of a Monty Python joke involving measurements, ships and Queen Elizabeth. Although it’s a relatively benign joke, it’s ultimately unhelpful. And as The Outline points out, some results... [...]

John Lincoln says, “Want to ask a question and get a fast answer? There’s a skill for that. In this case, skill is the term for “app” in Amazon Alexa’s voice ecosystem.In case you missed the news, Alexa is Amazon’s digital assistant. It’s capable of voice interaction, offering reminders, playing music, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks and providing up-to-the-minute news. Alexa is also open to a variety of solutions that have yet to be created. To foster their invention, Amazon recently launched an online hub that can help brands get started with creating skills for... [...]

Jeff Shore says, “Check-up time. Park your ego outside, be honest and take some time to determine if your sales presentation suffers from any of these deal-killing strategies.1. Forcing your customer to take the leadThere is a very common question that gets asked in the sales world. And it drives customers up the flippin’ wall. The question? “How can I help you?”The request sounds innocent enough — almost friendly. But think of the implications. We are asking the customer to take the lead and describe both the situation and the solution.Yep, nothing like saying to a customer,... [...]

Eric Siu says, “Cold emailing isn’t easy, but it can be a crucial part of your marketing funnel.On average, people get 147 new emails every single day. If you want to grow your business through cold email, it’s essential to stand out from the pack.What makes this harder is that you don’t have much time to make your first impression. In fact, out of the 147 emails we get, we typically answer about 12 of them and delete the rest within seconds. You need the right email templates to make sure that you separate yourself from everybody else.Shane SnowBestselling author Shane Snow wrote... [...]

Andrea Holland says, “Since the induction of the the new administration, brands have quickly realized that a single tweet from the commander-in-chief can impact their stock. General Motors, Lockheed Martin and now Nordstrom have all been subject to criticism and for better or worse, their share value fell for a time.We’ve watched several companies over the last few months learn this lesson the hard way. When the new immigration restrictions were announced, Uber learned its lesson through a series of missteps and communication lags, whereas main competitor Lyft donated $100 million to... [...]