Native advertising: A meaningful way to break through the clutter
Anyone who runs in marketing circles has probably heard the phrase “banner blindness”, and most people (marketing circles or not) suffer at least occasionally from the phenomenon. Banner blindness refers to the fact that consumers today are so inundated with display advertisements, particularly during online content browsing, that they’ve both consciously and subconsciously started to tune...
Good SEO habits: Turning over a new leaf in 2018
Join a gym, start that diet, call your parents more and turn over a new leaf for your SEO strategy. Whether you’re a stickler for New Year’s resolutions, or the very thought makes you roll your eyes, reviewing your SEO habits for 2018 should be a priority for every business and digital marketer. You don’t need me to tell you how fast-paced the digital world can be, with the pressures of...
3 ways to build your brand identity using content marketing
Can your company’s content pass the “no-logo test”? When I work with digital strategy clients who are struggling with content marketing, I always ask them to take the logo test, inspired by this excellent Content Marketing Institute article. You should try it, too. To do that, copy and paste articles you’ve written, along with articles from your competitors, into Word...
Here’s how ecommerce brands can create their marketing strategy for 2018
Whether you just launched your ecommerce business or even if it has reached the point of maintaining a massive userbase, it is important to create a killer marketing strategy to stay ahead of the curve. When it comes to ecommerce businesses, the only way for consumers to find out about your brand is through effective marketing. But sadly, there are many brands that only focus their efforts and...
How to reverse-engineer your online advertising strategy
In PPC, we often talk about eye-catching ad copy — but columnist Jacob Baadsgaard suggests that, rather than focusing on different ways to catch your customer’s eye, advertisers should start by looking at what customers are already responding to. Online advertising experts love to talk about the importance of matching your landing page content to your ads. And you’ll get no...
Smart content & smart SEO: mastering audiences & architecture
In today’s contextual algorithmic world, building a website that reflects SEO best practices while delivering results begins with creating the right architecture and building content that is smart and easily discoverable by your audiences. What Is Smart Content? Simply put, smart content is: Discoverable (easily found). Optimized (from point of creation). Profitable (measurable). Easily...
Knowing your audience better is your competitive advantage: A case study
Sometimes, the key to increasing ROI is not to expand your targeting, but to refine it. Columnist Kristopher Jones shares a case study where hyper-targeted advertising based on detailed customer personas produced award-winning results. Paid advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram allows you leverage your existing customer data (emails, names, addresses) to create...
Six ways to improve convenience store advertising campaigns
Whether you’re a manager at a large national chain of convenience stores or heading up a local family business, it’s important that your advertising budget is wisely spent. A badly run advertising campaign will not only be a waste of carefully guarded company funds, but may also damage your company’s reputation. Here are six ways you can improve your current, and future, convenience store...
How can small businesses compete in the new age of email marketing? 3 ways.
Email marketing isn’t what it used to be. Which is not to say that it’s become any less effective. Quite the opposite, actually: Email continues to offer the best return on investment around — outperforming other digital marketing channels substantially. In fact, according to the Data & Marketing Association and Demand Metric, email has a median ROI of 122 percent. So, all...