Baer says, “The early adopters of social listening and analytics, who first saw its value, were all communications specialists and early pioneers in digital marketing. But almost overnight, the sector exploded and went mainstream, across management silos in enterprises large and small, traditional and new. The birth of the digital native confronted corporates with a new set of challenges—and opportunities (highlight to tweet).Today, it is more important than ever to harness the power of technological advancements in a way that empowers companies to easily create actionable intelligence... [...]

Baer says, “Maybe Periscope and Meerkat are the greatest things ever, but maybe they are going to be the end of live events as we know it in our world.I actually recorded this episode of the Jay Today show on Periscope, the new live-streaming app now owned by Twitter. People are already all over the Periscope the same way they were all over the Meerkat a couple of weeks ago at South by Southwest”.Are Meerkat and Periscope Good News or BadJay Baer’s ‘Convince & Convert’ Blog [...]

Baer says, “Businesses are making a strong return from influencer marketing, generating $6.50 in revenue for each $1 spent, according to the latest poll from influencer marketplaceTomoson. The poll also found that influencer marketing is the fastest-growing online marketing channel, crushing other strategies like affiliate marketing, paid search, and display. Here are some highlights from the study that can help you best use influencers to drive your business strategy:Attract Better Customers Through Influencer MarketingA majority of marketers believe that influencer marketing attracts... [...]

Baer says, “Podcast listening increased 25% last year in the United States, partially due to an increase in usage among businesspeople. Marketers – especially digital marketers like us who have to stay on top an ever-changing tech and trends landscape – love podcasts because they are the most time-efficient education format. You can multi-task when listening to a podcast in a way you simply cannot when reading a blog post. (for more, see our infographic: 23 Reasons Why Businesspeople Love Podcasts)This trend to audio learning is one of the reasons my team and I builtMarketingPodcasts.com... [...]

Baer says, “Customers talk in more than keywords and hashtags. And when they’re posting to social networks, customers say what’s on their mind—sometimes they @mention your brand handle, sometimes they include keywords you’re watching. But more often than not, posts don’t include the keywords or hashtags you’re likely watching (74% of content, our research shows). Furthermore, 6% of social posts don’t include text, since they’re just images or videos.We saw this proven again and again at Super Bowl XLIX, the first rounds of the 2015 NCAA March Madness Tournament, and even... [...]

Baer says, “With every passing year, SEO moves further away from the realm of clear and simple guidelines to the world of blurry indicators and stringent punishments for perceived transgressions.Once upon a time, SEO was synonymous with zeroing in on the right keywords and going crazy with a million iterations and use cases for these keywords all over your site. If you stuffed your site, its meta data, and HTML tags with enough keywords, it was enough to win the battle against Google. It was simple to do and easy to understand, albeit not the most ethical of practices.Today, that A = B... [...]

Baer says, “Scott Stratten’s viral, social, and authentic marketing agency, UnMarketing, keeps him pretty busy. So do his books, like UnMarketing and UnSelling, his UnPodcast, and being one of Forbes’ top social media power influencers. He’s known for his sarcastic tone as he points out brand fails on Twitter.When asked why he goes negative, Scott says this strategy is twofold:It matches his personality, so it’s genuine. UnMarketing came about 13 years ago because Scott was angry that the only way to market to someone was to interrupt them. Tweeting with a sarcastic edge just... [...]

Baer says, “The opportunity to make money on social is quickly being embraced by sales teams who are eager to incorporate social selling into their sales tactics. While this excitement around a new method of selling is great, diving in headfirst can be dangerous if you don’t understand what social selling really is, or what outcome you are looking to achieve.As Devon Wijesinghe, CEO of Insightpool, so perfectly puts it in his most recent post, “Everyone talks about social selling, like the adage when people discussed relative to big data: ‘It’s just like teenage sex: Everyone talks... [...]

Baer says, “When it comes to form conversions, small changes can make a big difference. A few minor modifications to your form’s design, messaging, or layout can lead to major gains.By using a measured and strategic approach to deploying these changes (and keeping track of what works), you won’t just make an impact on your current campaign—you’ll create a roadmap for success in future projects.To help kick off your own Project Conversion, here are the top five form areas to optimize today.Call to ActionAs marketers, we want to make our communications with customers as turnkey... [...]

Baer says, “Content is king.You already knew that, though. If you’ve been in the content marketing industry for any amount of time, you’ve heard this statement.Content marketing is an abyss, a black hole that we fall into every day because we’re trying to build a congregation and a fellowship of readers. We already know that content is king. We serve it everyday. We are the serfs to this master because true content brings us everything we want… if we do it correctly.But Content isn’t alone. You may have heard this next statement too, although it’s not as popular”.Why... [...]