These are the exact steps I took to see ROI in 3 weeks, not 18 months

Since Bill Gates was (arguably) the first to popularize the phrase “Content is king” in a 1996 essay, the locution has been harped on to the point of vexation, but it still rings true — maybe today more-so than ever. In the last six or seven years, the level of distribution that business owners and subject matter experts have been able to get with their content has gone from local to worldwide. But, how do you actually get a return on the time and money you put into content marketing? It’s a nebulous concept for most business owners. Content marketers will tell you, “It’s a long game...you may not see results for 12-18 months.” I’m here to tell you that that is a lazy, and possibly dishonest. When you’re a results-oriented business leader, this kind of…

AI, in a marketing context, is a form of optimization (designed to optimize marketing tasks, tools, and communications). It’s on the verge of transforming our roles and is spurring a revolution to our entire industry

Have you ever received a marketing communication from a brand that seemed as if it knew you almost too well — using your name, showing you enticing recommended items, or even reminder cart abandonment emails and unique codes and coupons? Sometimes they even turn up as though someone read your thought. Ever wondered how they do it, or how you can too? The answer: Artificial intelligence marketing. Indeed, Apple’s Siri product, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, or any of the dozens of other AI-driven digital assistants out there are already changing the role that machines play in making our…

Optimizing your website and landing page for higher conversion rates

If you’ve been on the right side of the affiliate marketing trend for the last few years, then you should be seeing positive results for your efforts. You’ve got a team of expert publishers advocating for your brand, and they’re making it easy for potential consumers to learn a bit about your product and to easily navigate to your retail or opt-in registration site. The interest is there, and the traffic is coming. Is your landing page and/or website optimized to get the best from your affiliate program?

Examine load time

What should you be looking at when you examine your website? Turns out, just about everything. Once a consumer clicks on that affiliate link, what happens in the next few seconds can have a tremendous effect on…

Spreadsheets are an essential tool for marketing from advanced calculations for budget forecasts to reviewing marketing KPIs

Every marketer loves data! Whether they are numbers, feedback results or leads, this is what marketers dream about. They say knowledge is power, and that it is.

Importance of spreadsheets in marketing

Whether you’re preparing a report or trying to untangle raw data, working with spreadsheets can be rewarding to your job performance. Not only can it improve your efficiency, it could also speed up your projects. It also improves your insight into your business and the effectiveness of your campaigns.

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Spreadsheets are an essential…

The top skills and attributes of an effective in-house SEO Manager

To be a truly effective digital marketer in today it’s become more important than ever to develop a good range of skills and experience across a variety of different disciples. The ability to work with different teams and specialists enables marketers to collaborate effectively, empathize with colleagues and spot new opportunities. Over the last five to six years I’ve been using the T-shaped marketer approach to guide my professional development, a concept Rand Fishkin outlined in detail back in 2013. As Rand himself explains: “T-Shaped basically refers to having a light level of knowledge in a broad array of skills, and deep knowledge/ability in a single one (or a few)"   The key takeaway for marketers is that breadth breeds respect and overlapping knowledge yields creativity. There are…

Most businesses owners understand the significance of having superb content for their company websites, but when it comes to web hosting, they either fail to take it seriously or they are just blank

My last article for Smart Insights covered the basics of website hosting, so, in this follow up article, I use past experiences (good and bad!) to help you choose the most ideal web hosting service for your business. Some people, like me, resorted to finding a solution by choosing a hosting company that was based on price, not value. The results of such a lazy approach were disappointing, to say the least! So what should be done? When you decide to set up your website, it is imperative to get the right domain that will perfectly suit your business. Another reason why you should get some reliable and quality web hosting.

Why hosting?

Did you know that without hosting you don’t…

Chart of the Day: What do Marketers want from AI?

AI and Machine Learning is not just for the biggest of companies with a large budget - yet many SMEs still think so. There are various ways of adding AI into your business' customer lifecycle, as demonstrated in our infographic below. Machine learning can be applied to interact with first-time customers and those that show purchase intent, to repeat customers and re-engage lapsed customers. Yet the majority of B2B marketers asked, expect AI to help them with identifying prospective customers and improving marketing effectiveness in driving revenue. "B2B marketers surveyed for this latest report were twice as likely to say they’re unclear as to the differences between AI, machine learning, and predictive (37%) as to say they have a strong understanding (19%) of how they differ." Knowledge of AI is still limited, which means…

Here are some of the most effective strategies for social media lead generation for B2B businesses...

When most think of social media lead generation for B2B businesses, they think LinkedIn. However, as great as LinkedIn is at B2B lead generation, it’s not the only social platform that can get you great results. In this blog post, we’re going to be covering tips for how to improve social media lead generation for B2B business.

Why use social media for lead generation?

Lead generation is an essential part of a healthy, thriving B2B business. And social media presents an amazing opportunity to find leads; with around 2.62 billion social media users worldwide in 2018 and that number expected to grow up to 3.02 billion in 3 years, it’s the biggest directory of potential leads that exists. But it’s not just the sheer number of users that makes social media an attractive lead generation solution. Social media…

Chart of the Day: Young people are leaving Facebook and Twitter behind in favour of Snapchat and Instagram

Bo Burnham is an American comedian about to release his first film, Eighth Grade, about an eighth-grader called Kayla finishing up her classes before starting high school. Writing believable dialogue for a character much younger than himself was a difficult task that Burnham’s script pulled off – apart from one important detail: “The only thing I had [Bo] change was, originally, all of Kayla’s DMs and social media stuff was through Facebook. And so I went up to him and went, ‘Nobody uses Facebook anymore, what is this for, my aunt?’ So, he changed it from Facebook to Instagram. That was the only thing I corrected him on.” - Elsie Fisher (Kayla) speaking to Refinery29 But Facebook isn’t just for old people, right? …

Boost in-store sales with social media. Infographic illustrating the many ways in which retailers can integrate their social presence with the in-store experience.

The topic of omnichannel marketing seems to be on the lips of most retailers these days. In a time when customers have multiple points of contact with retailers, the expectation is that their experience is seamlessly integrated across any and all channels.

Whether a customer is shopping in-store or scrolling through Instagram, consumers now expect each touchpoint with a brand to be consistent.

The gradual move to omnichannel marketing represents a significant shift in the thinking of retailers. No longer seen as competing opposites, the online world and the brick-and-mortar shop are now seen as complementary pieces of the whole experience. When strategically integrated, all these elements can work together to help the business thrive.

Retailers stand to…