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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 8, 2016 9:26 AM
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While the success of companies such as Apple is often attributed to them “thinking differently,” different ideas just as often fail. Remember the Segway, the Newton, or Google Glass? Further, Apple and other companies’ biggest hits usually come in areas where they are followers not leaders. Apple didn’t introduce the first smartphone; IBM did. Almost 50% of market pioneers fail, and later entrants or organizations that don’t enter a market first often end up being more successful.What is more effective than being different? Being optimally distinct—and marketing yourself as such.Consider the following examples...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 11:24 PM
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The way that search marketing has evolved over the last few years has brought content marketing and SEO ever closer together.
Content creation and SEO used to be very separate disciplines in the past, but now it’s hard to see how either can be practiced effectively without at least some knowledge of the other.
Which brings me to the question: what do content marketers need to know about SEO (and vice versa) to achieve the best results?
In this post I’ll make an attempt to answer that question, with the help of Kevin Gibbons, MD at Blueglass and Sticky Content’s Content Director Dan Brotzel.
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Rescooped by
Jeff Domansky
from World's Best Infographics
July 7, 2016 10:33 PM
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The Internet is currently one of the most powerful media and as such plays an important role in marketing. The first step towards successful online promotion, however, is a company’s website that needs to be optimized for excellent user experience. The infographic outlines some of the most important factors that determine a visitor’s overall experience with the website, as well as some interesting stats on users’ behavior. Today, it is important to have a website that is intuitive and, above all, optimized for display across multiple screen sizes. This way, a company can reach the maximum number of targeted users and make them engage. Therefore, both web designers and marketers need to take these aspects into consideration before they start planning an online development....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 11:29 AM
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Really powerful marketing ideas are all born from simple psychological principles. Storytelling may be a popular buzzword now, but the truth is we’re wired to like stories. They help us better understand the world around us. Children learn social or moral rules through fables, we remember scientific concepts through analogies, and they help us relate to and empathize with others. When done right, storytelling engages your customer in the long-term, allowing them to relate to your brand’s personality and mission, and feel emotionally invested in your success. 80% of consumers want brands to tell their story but can’t remember a good example. So how do you do it right? There are no hard and fast rules but here are some ideas to help you tell your brand’s story through email....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 10:29 AM
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Despite the prominent placement and size (the Twitter cover photo dimensions are 500 pixels tall by 1500 pixels wide), far too many companies are underutilizing this opportunity to express themselves. We think all they need is a little inspiration. To give you a better sense of what a Twitter header photo done right looks like, we've put together a list of some of the best examples from companies around the world. Check them out....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 9:59 AM
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Timing is everything, and maintaining a blog is no exception to the rule. Learning when your audience is tuning in, and therefore when to post, is mandatory for any successful blogger. In the third and final part of this series we’re going to explore how timing can affect your blog readership. Data courtesy of Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella), searchengineland.com (@sengineland) and HubSpot. Content available as a webinar by Dan Zarrella here. Note: all of the data below is presented in Eastern Time (EST) unless otherwise noted....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 9:38 AM
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Did a robot write this article? No, but it could have. This isn’t the plot of a dystopian Philip K. Dick novel, but an emerging journalistic reality. You may already have read material produced by a machine without even realising it. To adapt William Gibson, “the robo-journalism future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.” So how might this technology evolve? And as journalists, should we consider robo-journalists friends or foe? The Associated Press (AP) revealed in January 2015 that it “is now automatically generating more than 3,000 stories about U.S. corporate earnings each quarter.” It noted that this represented “a tenfold increase over what AP reporters and editors created previously.”...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 9:17 AM
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When you’re a small or medium-sized nonprofit, keeping up with all the latest developments on social media can seem daunting. Fear not! You don’t have to do it all.You simply have to do what you do well. So if your social media experience has evolved into something of a runaway train – a little bit of this and that, and some half-finished projects that never really gained traction (e.g., how many Pinterest boards and pins do you really have? When is the last time you posted on Google+?) – then now is a good time to take a step back and look at your social media campaigns with a fresh perspective....
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Rescooped by
Jeff Domansky
from Business Improvement
July 6, 2016 11:37 AM
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Want your next Powerpoint presentation look like it was constructed and delivered by a pro? Here are 15 ways to create effective PowerPoint presentations.
Via Daniel Watson
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 6, 2016 11:22 AM
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There’s no mistaking the dramatic changes taking place in the video content realm. Consumers are avidly seeking out content from a variety of traditional and new content providers, and they’re eagerly tracking it down across mobile, digital and linear channels. In fact, American media consumption recently hit a new milestone in the first quarter of 2016, with subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) usage now equal in the U.S. with DVR usage. While the myriad content offerings is a bounty for consumers, who now spend 70 hours each week with media, content providers are increasingly challenged to break through and make sure their offerings are front and center. Despite the commotion in the space, however, many of the industry’s best-known content providers agree on one thing: The consumer needs to be the primary consideration. "I’ve been a proponent of a holistic view of content for consumers my whole career,” said Kris Magel, president of Initiative U.S., during a content monetization panel at U.S. Consumer 360 this week in Las Vegas. “And that puts the focus on new technology, new programming and new revenue opportunities. While some have said video has changed more in the past five years than in the past 30, I would argue it’s changed more in the past single year than in the past 30 years.”...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 4, 2016 11:59 PM
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Malls are lumbering, claustrophobic dinosaurs, while anchor stores like Macy's and Kohl's are shuttering hundreds of locations. Fresh Direct and Peapod make it easier and quicker to stock a cupboard than wading through the jam-packed neighborhood Kroger, and Amazon and eBay and Overstock sell, well, everything.
Who needs retail anymore?
In fact, 71 percent of U.S. consumers say they still prefer to buy from physical stores even if the same products are available online, according to a recent TimeTrade survey, which also found that 85 percent like to shop in stores because they say they want to "touch and feel" items before buying them.
Online shopping accounts for only about 9 percent of total consumer retail spending, according to the most recent quarterly figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. But make no mistake—everyone from retail behemoths to specialty boutiques is feeling the pressure to adapt more seamlessly to the digital world, to bring in that all-important foot traffic and to deliver an experience that consumers can get nowhere else....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 4, 2016 11:41 PM
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So we need to do some of the following despite the inner voice trying to keep us plugging away.
- Reading and researching
- Acting on the ideas that emerge
- Creating
- Publishing
- Building digital assets.
To help you find some inspiration I have been crawling through the most shared content marketing articles on BuzzSumo and come up with these 10 “must read” posts on content marketing.
So if you are a savvy digital marketer or an entrepreneur that understands the importance of building great online content, then these are worth a long glance....
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Rescooped by
Jeff Domansky
from Simply Social Media
July 4, 2016 11:29 PM
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Imagine this nightmare scenario: you’re on the verge of launching your newly redesigned website, and you’re already anticipating new leads and returning customers. You’ve spent countless hours working through every last detail before even considering unveiling your new creation to the world. The big day arrives, and you give the green light to launch.
Suddenly, you realize you forgot to plan for one crucial element: the SEO best practices that you had so carefully incorporated into your old website.
Unfortunately, this is not just a nightmare that can be forgotten once you’ve had your morning coffee, but something I’ve seen happen to countless small businesses over my 10 years as the owner of an SEO and online marketing agency.
Your redesigned website was meant to give your business a new lease on life, but instead, you’ve destroyed your organic search rankings and traffic overnight. When you change your site without thoroughly thinking through the SEO implications, you might do something harmful like throw away substantive content or change every page’s URL without making sure to redirect the old ones....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 11:37 PM
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Do you want to add video to your social media marketing?
Looking for ways to increase video views and engagement?
In this article, you’ll discover 26 ways to use video to improve your social media marketing....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 10:43 PM
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Nothing is better or as invigorating as the great outdoors. If you think about it, the U.S. consists of a wide variety of geographic landscapes, natural wildlife and plants, as well as unique ecosystems. We are able to enjoy these wonders fully thanks to the efforts of the National Park System. The National Park System is celebrating its 100th year of service on August 25 of this year. Because of their efforts, more than 307 million people are able to recreationally visit our national parks, battlefields, monuments and more. We need to stay in touch with not only nature, but also our own national history. The National Park Service achieves exactly that and more. Currently, there are 22,000 park employees and 221,000 volunteers that keep the National Park Service running smoothly.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 11:54 AM
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Successful creatives have one thing in common: they're always looking at fresh material to inspire their work. As much as you'd like to sit down and pull from an unlimited well of design ideas, there is no such thing as inspiration in isolation. Radically innovative work demands equally inventive sources. Don't feel guilty for keeping your eyes and ears open to what other creatives are doing, especially if it's the work they're most proud of: these pieces have the potential to take your own work to places where it's never been before! A word of caution: don't let this inspiration hunting derail you from actual creation. The happiest creatives, as we brought up in this article, don't let comparison get a point where it negatively affects their output. Today, I'll share 50 of the most inspiring and influential blogs curated by successful creatives. In doing so, we'll be looking at 10 categories....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 10:43 AM
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To understand the development of surf art, you need to understand the development of the surfboard—a paradigmatic design object in itself, with an amazing history in the 20th century. The guys (mostly denizens of Californian and Hawaiian beaches) who developed the surfboard as we know it were often social outsiders. Behind the clean lines and perfectionism of their boards was a desire to create a lifestyle outside of the normal working man’s routine. So it’s no surprise that surfing design eventually blossomed into the hyper-expressive and offbeat style that we now know. But let’s start at the beginning to see how this awesome story unfolded....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 10:17 AM
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Google Analytics is possibly one of the most powerful, impactful, and customizable free tools available to marketers. Yet in most cases, the surface is barely scratched on what it can actually do. When speaking with marketers at our annual #ThinkContent Summit, we heard the same analytics problems over and over again. To help with these issues, we’ve compiled the most essential tools in a marketer’s playbook for Google Analytics. This post isn’t intended to give an intro to Google Analytics, but rather serve you with tips that will take your reporting to the next level as a marketer, and in particular help take you content marketing to the next level. Here are the tools and insights that every marketer should understand and utilize to optimize their content marketing campaigns....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 9:46 AM
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At every writers conference or self-publishing panel the question that almost always inevitably comes up is: “How much will self-publishing really cost me?” Because the book publishing industry is one of the last industries to go digital, it’s going through a quick transition. As a result of this shift, authors no longer need to go through the traditional gatekeepers to publish high-quality books and are instead moving toward self-publishing. Launching a book is like launching a startup. Putting together a quality book involves not just writing it, but getting it edited, then formatted, designing a cover, and having a marketing strategy around it. "Not having an editor is like not QA’ing a software product or not testing a drug before it goes out into the marketplace." Below, I break down the costs of how much professional services will cost you for a high-quality book. (For the purposes of calculation we’ll assume you have a manuscript that is 70,000 words.)...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 7, 2016 9:28 AM
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It’s not just a sausage in a bun; it’s a beautiful blank canvas. It’s a hot dog, which is a foodstuff eaten worldwide. Here are 40 distinctive varieties from around the globe — from iconic NYC “dirty water dogs” to fully loaded South American street-cart dogs to Japanese octo-dogs. There is a tubesteak out there for every craving that ever was.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 6, 2016 11:44 AM
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As marketers, we love trends. Taking advantage of industry trends is how marketers make a living. We analyzee and criticize, and we often enjoy our banter, whether it's about the latest social channels or annoying buzzwords. But how often do we assess negative trends in our industry? And do we truly dig down to find the underlying reasons for those trends? Today, let's take a look at the common challenge of breaking through content noise and how that noise has led to two other challenges: our increasing reliance on paid advertising, and channel over-saturation. I've wrapped up each section with tips on how to combat these negative trends....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 6, 2016 11:32 AM
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TVs sold on Amazon.com were 15% less on the Friday after Thanksgiving than they were on Prime Day 2015, Market Track finds. Amazon.com Inc.’s second annual Prime Day promotion takes place July 12, but if last year is any indication, shoppers might be better off waiting until later in the year for the best deals. A report from retailer pricing, advertising and promotions tracking firm Market Track finds that on Black Friday 2015, televisions were 15% cheaper compared to Prime Day. Video games, meanwhile, were 12% cheaper on the day after Thanksgiving than Prime Day, which last year was on Wednesday, July 15. Amazon Prime is Amazon’s annual subscription where shoppers pay $99 and receive perks such as free expedited shipping. Market Track examined the prices of nearly 400 items on both Prime Day and Black Friday 2015 across five categories: TVs, video games, laptops, small appliances and tablets. Of the five categories studied, small appliances had the least difference in pricing, with those items 3% cheaper on Black Friday than on Prime Day. Overall, all categories studied were cheaper on Black Friday than they were on Prime Day....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 6, 2016 10:59 AM
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If you’re on a business trip to the city of Lausanne in Switzerland, you might have to think twice about drinking an evening beer on your company’s tab in one of the city’s bars. Eyebrows would certainly be raised in accounting at a 33cl beer that costs a whopping $17.60. Situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, the city has the highest beer prices in the world, according to a ranking released by GoEuro. The website compared the price of local and imported draught beer in hotel bars worldwide to compile their ranking. If you find yourself on a business trip to Lausanne, it might be better to visit one of the city’s supermarkets where a bottle of beer costs only $1.42 on average by comparison.Hong Kong also charges extortionate prices for alcoholic drinks in bars with a 33cl beer coming in at just over $11 on average. Paris and Zürich follow with beer prices in bars averaging $10.08 and $10.03 respectively. New York is the only US city to make the top 10 of GoEuro’s ranking with a 33cl beer in a bar costing $9.22 on average. Rome and Tel Aviv round off the ten costliest places to drink beer worldwide with both charging just over $9 on average. There is a massive disparity with the cheapest cities for beer drinkers, the majority of which can be found in Eastern Europe. Bratislava’s bars charge a mere $2.80 on average for a 33cl with Kiev and Cape Town coming second and third for the world’s most affordable brews.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 4, 2016 11:52 PM
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Many small business owners today think that owning a brick-and-mortar business excuses them from having to learn and master digital marketing.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, mastering SEO and local optimization for your locally run business will bring a higher ROI than just about any other marketing activity you use.
It’s one of the quickest ways to quickly and simply (notice I did not say easily) get your business in front of thousands of new eyes and earn customers for life. With a few simple steps, you can set yourself on the path to long term digital marketing success.
But how do you start marketing your brick-and-mortar business in the digital world? What steps do you need to take over the next 30, 60, or 90 days to successfully grow your online reach and increase sales like you have never seen before?
I’m glad you asked.
In this article, I’m going to give you a step-by-step and day-by-day plan for marketing your brick-and-mortar business....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
July 4, 2016 11:33 PM
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Columnist Chris Kerns takes a deep dive into the profile descriptions for millions of Twitter users to bring you insight into why you need to look beyond just tweets to target your audience.
Social media is as much about sharing information as expressing a certain kind of image to the rest of the world. Being able to choose the moments we want to share (and leave out the ones we’d rather not) gives users the ability to curate a public perception — a mix of who we really are and who we want to be.
But these self-identifying labels are not just in messages; they’re also in our profile descriptions. Some people choose to list their job, others an allegiance to a favorite sports team. By looking at profile descriptions for millions of Twitter users, we can see some interesting patterns emerge about how groups of people describe themselves....
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According to Jonah Berger, innovations that catch on mix familiarity and novelty.