Where Does Pinterest Fit in Your Marketing Mix?
When thinking about organic or paid traffic, Google and Facebook often come to mind. Pinterest, for most, does not.
All Things Data-Driven Marketing
Paywalls, SEO, and the Need for a Damn Good Brand
Think it’s tough to earn links or shares for your content? Try earning money.
Pitching a Data Strategy? Here’s How to Ensure the C-Suite Says “Yes.”
Are you a CMO who thinks accurate attribution is a pipe dream? Or a customer experience director who has to hack together data to create something resembling a customer journey?
Is Click Fraud Devouring Your Ad Budget?
Click fraud occurs when a pay-per-click advertisement is clicked on by a user with malicious or disingenuous intent. Click fraud first came to light in 2005, when several major cases were taken to court.
However, it continues to poison marketing campaigns—and find its way into more and more courtrooms. Juniper Research estimates that click fraud cost advertisers $42 billion in 2019.
In a time when advertising budgets are being cut and many businesses are facing economic uncertainty, putting every ad dollar to good use goes a long way.
Advertorials Can Work—If You Get It Right
Advertorials are long-form paid ads, presented as informative articles—hence the name, a blend of “advertisement” and “editorial.”
In past print and current online versions, they match the appearance, perception, and function of the media outlet where they’re hosted, so they don’t really look like ads.
Executed well, advertorials provide value to the target audience while also selling a product or service. They’re a content marketing play that borrows the credibility of the site on which they’re published (if they’re “native ads”) or promoted (if they live on other sites).
Enterprise SEO: Don’t Outsmart—Out Execute
Enterprise SEO has been my topic of choice for extracurricular “thought leadership” over the years. Last year, I gave a presentation on how we generated 40% year-over-year organic revenue growth by focusing on out executing the competition, not outsmarting them.
While my presentation focused on the in-house side of enterprise SEO, I’ve also experienced (and written about) getting things done—or trying to get things done—at an agency. SEO strategies for Fortune 500 brands often take 12+ months to see the light of day or, worse, never do.
Eventually, I got tired of that lack of action, which led me in-house. In two-and-a-half years leading SEO initiatives at Qualtrics, I’ve learned that most companies don’t have a strategy problem—they have an execution problem.
Nailing Product Positioning (w/ Examples)
You’ve spent hundreds of hours perfecting your product and countless meetings defining your brand. You feel great about your team, and it’s obvious to your customers that you care.
Yet, despite your best efforts, your competition gets all the buzz, and you struggle to stand out. Should you change your prices? Add a new feature? Raise more capital?
Before you go back to the drawing board, reconsider your product positioning.
Content Research: 4 Ways to Find a Ton of Wins
If I told you that a post earned 30 links and 100 shares, how would you respond?
“Wow, must’ve been amazing!”
“Not bad.”
“Total flop!”
Your gut reaction says more about the site you’re used to working on than it does about my hypothetical example.
Indeed, the size and power of a site—not necessarily the value of the content—can have the greatest influence on results. That matters, especially when it comes to content research.
Differentiation Strategy (and the Sea of Sameness)
Legendary Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter defines competition in business as the struggle to attain a profitable, unique position in the market. Instead of “competing to be the best,” you should “compete to be unique.”
Differentiation is about standing out from the noise and giving people a reason to choose you over others. You’d think companies would be all about that.
Curiously, not so much. In fact, it’s the opposite—the world has a massive sameness problem. Sameness is the default for most companies today.
8 B2B Link-Building Strategies That Never Go Out of Style
There are only a few things I love as much as link building.
Owning a new pair of high-end shoes has to be one of those. Damn, I’ll admit—I even have a tradition of treating myself with a beautiful new pair after a successful business trip or client acquisition.
As a result, my closet is full of shoes that I’ve bought and worn only once. Above, you can see one of my fav pairs of those red-soled shoes (you got the brand, right?) that I took for a walk only once—but they’re so beautiful!
High-fashion, much like link building, is driven by trends. What was fashionable yesterday is old news today.