Baer says, “Last month, Google announced the creation of its new parent company, Alphabet, which will house the Google we know along with lesser-known experiments like Calico and Google Fiber.This isn’t news to you, but here’s what makes it interesting: If you were to search LinkedIn for “Google Alphabet”, you’d find a collection of articles written by CEOs, Presidents, and Ph.Ds. One titled “Google’s Alphabet in 2050 from A to Z” aims to predict future Google holdings. Another titled “Google’s Tragic Alphabet Soup” discusses why this decision will kill Google’s brand... [...]

Baer says, “It was another huge night in politics on Wednesday, as CNN hosted the second Republican debate for the 2016 race to the White House.While playing GOP debate bingo, we stayed up late to track the conversations and reporting of the debate, gathering a ton of realtime insights and data.Some highlights?From Donald Trump telling Rand Paul he doesn’t belong on the debate stage, to Jeb Bush defending his brother’s presidency, here is what the largest spikes in media mentions looked like, and what caused each”.How Periscope is Breaking Media BoundariesJay Baer’s ‘Convince... [...]

Baer says, “PR! It’s powerful. It’s magical. It’s mandatory. For everyone.But wait—is it?No matter what your colleagues or favorite websites tell you, PR isn’t always a must-have—not for every business at every stage. For some very young companies, it can be a waste of money. For others, it can be the move that makes the company happen.Let’s take a look at how to determine when a PR investment is a smart decision and when it’s premature.Your PR ChecklistYour company and product have a name, a brand identity, and a target market.You’ve already ironed this out, right? If... [...]

Baer says, “Content marketing is the ultimate way to build brand awareness and connect with your customers. It lets you tell your unique story and build huge buzz around your products or services.It’s also seriously hard work.Fortunately, there are lots of great, time-saving tools out there that can dramatically increase the impact of your content marketing efforts.FeedlyComing up with electrifying content ideas is one of the hardest parts of content marketing. Luckily, no one ever said you have to do it alone—blogs, online magazines, and newspapers are all great sources of inspiration.... [...]

Baer says, “Let’s face it: most of your old blog posts are aging like milk, not wine.At this point, you’ve probably spent a lot of time creating content. It took you months (maybe even years) to publish all those high-quality blog posts.There’s just one problem: some of that content hasn’t aged well. As a general rule, people are going to gravitate towards the blog posts you published this week and away from the ones you published a year ago.So, that amazing post you published that broke down basic SEO? No one’s reading it because it’s four years old. Forget about the timeless... [...]

Baer says, “Anyone who thinks they will become successful on their own may as well pack it up now. There are reasons that we should be collaborating with other like-minded people in our industry—namely, because it helps you both.There used to be a song when I was little that went, “If we all pull together, how happy we’ll be.” But I wasn’t always of that mindset. I was in it for me and me alone.One Marketer’s JourneyLet me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a punk who had just come out of the coal mines into the blogging industry because of an injury.He was a lone... [...]

Baer says, “You probably know a thing or two about creating good content. Perhaps you dabble on your own blog or write for your company. There’s a good chance you’re already creating more content in 2015 than you did in 2014.That’s the challenge. We’re all content creators trying to reach an audience.To stand out from the crowd, we need to be more interesting, interactive, and data-driven with our content. We need to give users a unique experience. One solution that is becoming more prevalent is interactive content marketing.What is Interactive Content Marketing?Interactive content... [...]

Baer says, “Google AdWords is the largest advertising platform that has ever existed in the history of the world. Seems like a good place to start when launching a new advertising campaign, right?Remember when your mom asked you the other day, “How come I didn’t see your business on Google?” You thought, “I better figure this AdWords thing out.” You opened an account and have been giving money to The Google ever since.If you’re anything like I was when I started advertising, you might be thinking about the following:You’re probably scared to death you’re going to burn... [...]

Baer says, “A recent survey by Forrester Research found that 74% of business buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to B2B marketers, who have been struggling to reach an increasingly independent audience for years. In fact, this change in buyer behavior has been a catalyst for the shift to a customer-centric selling model.“Today’s buyers control their journey through the buying cycle much more than today’s vendors control the selling cycle … Marketing now owns a much bigger piece of the lead-to-revenue... [...]

Baer says, “You are wasting money on content that has little chance of success.Are you creating more content this year than you were last year? Almost certainly so. But, is that extra effort being expended efficiently and intelligently? In many cases, no.As I wrote about in my post “Are you thinking about your blog all wrong?” today’s content marketing success formula is different – a lot different – from the formula of 2013 and prior.Hitting singles and doubles on a consistent, daily basis doesn’t yield results like it once did. The competition is too intense, and the relationships... [...]