How can machine learning enhance your digital marketing strategy?

The launch of Google’s new machine learning tool, RankBrain which contributes to search engine results, left many people wondering what impact machine learning would have in the realm of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With the tech industry going crazy for all things Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), machine learning, and chatbots, it’s important to know what the technology is, where it’s going, and what impact it will have on digital marketing as a whole. This article will explain these concepts as well as share some tips on how to adapt to machine learning. [si_guide_block id="87369" title="Download Business Member resource – Machine Learning Briefing" description="Explains how businesses can harness AI with a focus on marketing automation and email marketing."/]

The Growth and Popularity of Machine Learning and AI

Machine learning is, in fact, not new to the tech world. It first appeared as a concept back…

The three C's of customer social rewards: Community, Comparison, and Charity.

It’s been said that the greatest gifts are those shared with others. I’ll share a memory with you. In third grade, my classmates had a communal pet. Herman was more than a hermit crab — he was an icon, a mascot, a symbol of our community. One week, as a reward for helping a classmate, I was bestowed the honor of taking Herman home for the weekend. The sense of duty I felt to my classmates was my first palpable sense of social responsibility, and it was, itself, the true reward for my behavior. Science tells us there is something to this concept of social rewards. Fundamentally, we are wired to connect with others. We are always attuned to our social context. In which group do I belong? What are my peers doing? Am I keeping up with the Joneses? Am I…

Streamline your marketing with CRM automation

We all have a list in our mind of the newest marketing tools and strategies we’d love to implement. The only thing we’d need is a bit more time, resource, people and did I mention time? Realistically, we are only able to keep up with about a dozen strategies. What if I told you that you could streamline some of your marketing processes to free up that magical time and resource? Not only that, but you could reduce errors and improve marketing measurement in the process. All of this without buying the latest marketing tech release – you can do this in CRM.

CRM as an essential marketing tool

In the same way that your sales and marketing teams are connected during the sales process, so should your sales and marketing software. Clever use of customer data is the…

Agile Marketing holds the power to transform your company in 2017.

Agile is a technique that has been enthusiastically adopted organizations of all sizes and across every industry. No matter where your business currently stands with its goals, Agile Marketing can give your business the ability to use small tests to quickly understand what new tactics are most effective. Don’t let 2017 end without understanding the following four Agile Marketing tenets. Once you put them to work for your brand, you’ll see why this methodology has become so popular all over the world.

1. Small, Strategic Goals Are Better Than Big Ones

As the name suggests, Agile Marketing gives marketers a lot of freedom to roll with the punches. This is possible because you set small, strategic goals. You then observe your team’s efforts to reach them and adjust accordingly. Neil Patel recommends small goals as a “hack” that can transform your business.…

Employee advocacy can give your brand a social media boost

When it comes to brand awareness and audience acquisition, managing a coordinated posse of advocates is essential. You need a viable base of people loyal to your brand who are willing to share your content and post about how awesome your products are. There’s simply no better way, other than advertising, to maximize your brand’s reach on social media.

Sure, niche-relevant influencers and your community of customers are the obvious answers, but your own workforce is a great resource too. Employees are often untapped for advocacy purposes, because without a sound strategy in place, it can feel like you’re asking too much of them, which can cause morale to plummet. However, by developing a company culture that celebrates and rewards ongoing advocacy performance, it’s possible to use content sharing as a potent employee engagement tool…

What is event tracking and how you can use it to improve micro conversions and macro conversions

According to the definition given by Google: 'Events are user interactions with content that can be tracked independently from a web page or a screen load. Downloads, mobile ad clicks, gadgets, Flash elements, AJAX embedded elements and video plays are all examples of actions you might want to track as Events’. In plain English, for those of us who aren't coders, we can give this example: When we have a video in our site and once a user clicks the button for the video to play, an event will be triggered. At the same time, when this event is triggered you can see the result of this action on Google Analytics Events are then grouped in this report in the 'Behaviour' section of Google Analytics.

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Generate revenue online from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube live streaming

Social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have reoriented their services towards video streaming to great success. 

In the last few years, each company has developed live streaming opportunities that have enabled users to monetize their feeds in a variety of ways. The following article will highlight various ways to monetize live streaming using each platform.

Facebook

Facebook first offered their 'Live' function almost two years ago. It enables users to post streams as well as one-off videos. Since then, video has become one of the most used features on the site.

In February 2014, prior to launching video streaming, only 1/4 of all videos posted to the site were uploaded directly while the rest came from YouTube or similar sites. One year…

These easy steps will make you reconsider your brand strategy

a brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that last, taken together, account for a consumer's decison to chose your product over another - Seth Godin Seth Godin's definition – listed above – summarizes exactly the true meaning of a branding performance. If consumers choose your brand over the competition’s, you win the game of business. Branding is complex. However, for your company to experience success, the branding strategy that you adopt must be carefully planned, tested, and ultimately optimized. But, if you have never done it before, it can be harsh in the beginning. We have collected several key factors that many big-level brands actively seek through their branding strategies. Success leaves clues – if we’re smart, we’ll pay close attention and adapt. If we’re not, we’re ought to spend some more time failing at what others have already failed before,…

Use these steps to maximize your email outreach

It is difficult to argue against the benefits of automated email outreach when it comes to online marketing, be it for promoting your blog posts, software or conducting general sales pitches. However, the biggest challenge is to make them look personal. Sending emails is the easy part. The challenge is to get responses from the people we send the emails to. With the sheer number of emails that reach a person’s inbox, you really have to find a unique way of standing out in your recipients’ inbox. To give you an idea how small tweaks can change the way your campaigns perform, here are some stats: Research conducted by MailChimp indicates that adding both, the first and the last name of the recipient in the subject of the email can double the open rate when compared to adding just the first or last…

White labeling your surveys will build trust when collecting data and help increase response rates

Protecting your brand identity in today’s digital world is of paramount importance, especially if you are engaging with customers and asking for their feedback. Consumers are savvy and something as simple as a bona fide branded domain can build trust and increase response rates to your online surveys. Does it really make a difference when so much data is collected every day? Consumers today can be reached in a multitude of different ways but respondents are wary of handing over personal data unless they know it is a legitimate request and the data will be handled and stored securely. Therefore, it’s helpful to all concerned when sending a survey invitation to be able to identify immediately who has sent the request. A simple way to ensure this is with secure domain branding. Something that can only be done with…