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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 15, 2016 2:29 AM
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There were trends that carved a quite niche for themselves such as responsiveness, mobile-friendliness, animations; others that matured such as flat style or scrolling effects; a few that remained unchanged like hamburger menu button or one-pages; and those that took the web by storm and quickly passed like dynamic patterns.
The year certainly supplied creative folks with a fertile environment where one can easily go wild. Although it is challenging to trace every key moment, however, we can demonstrate the overall picture through a collection of ingenious and exclusive projects.
We are going to dive into the best web designs of 2015 that were highly and justly rewarded by Designmodo team. Here’s what we have for you....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 15, 2016 1:21 AM
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As more and more content continues to deluge the web, experts say that embracing a minimalist approach could help your website or app truly pop in 2016.
To this end, the rise of flat design -- or the use of two-dimensional figures and shapes -- will be a major design trend next year, according to printing company Coastal Creative.
Additionally, according to the company, background and full-screen videos can instantly elevate the perceived quality of a site -- especially as Internet speeds ramp up across the world and designers wise up to content that ornaments, but does not distract. For more design trends poised to typify 2016, check out the infographic below....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 10:53 PM
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Visual storytelling is simply the way most brands will decide to go in 2016 & beyond, as they try to tell their story to their customers. Why? Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine… All these trendy social media sites are based on visuals.
“Facts bore, stories sell” is a common saying. But I will go even further (and probably annoy some master storytellers), by saying: “Stories in text bore, stories told visually engage — and sell”.
To drive home this point, and before I delve into the how-to, the numbers in this infographic should be more than enough...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 1:46 AM
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When building a brand, there’s nothing more important than your logo – and no one wants to look dated. That means more experimentation with on-going trends, the resurfacing of classic styles and a few new surprises along the way. Without further ado, here are the 2016 logo design trends we’re sure you’ll love this year.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 1:20 AM
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Therein lies the problem: native advertising is more effective because it masquerades as actual content. But it’s illegal to pass advertising messages off as editorial content. The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom, for instance, banned a native YouTube ad sponsored by Oreo that featured two well known video bloggers because the agency felt it was not clearly identified as marketing communication.
Stateside, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has long waged war on false advertising—marketing or advertising communications that tend to mislead consumers. Recently, the FTC issued an “enforcement policy statement on deceptively formatted advertisements” giving advertisers and publishers alike a heads up: deceptive native ads will not be tolerated.
So how can your brand capitalize on native advertising without breaking the law? The FTC offers some insight in their guide, “Native Advertising: A Guide for Businesses.”...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 12:52 AM
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According to Copyblogger, 80% of people never read past the headline of a web page. The headline is where you make your first impression on your reader and if 80% of readers never look any further, that headline is a failure.
And it gets worse. At least if someone is on your site, there's the chance that something else might attract their attention. But if they are reading a blah headline in an email newsletter or on a social media site, most people won't click and you won't get the traffic and attention you expect.
That doesn't have to be your story.
With the right tools and techniques you can create headlines that make people want to click, read and visit your site, bringing huge amounts of traffic your way. And those same headlines will make people want to share your content, increasing your audience even more....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 13, 2016 11:48 PM
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This past year, we've seen the importance of visual content emphasized by the changes that occurred across almost every major social network, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. At the same time, both video and infographics have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate more easily with their readers.
To help you keep pace with these trends, let's take a look at some statistics that demonstrate the impact visual content has on reach, engagement, and sales....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 13, 2016 10:46 AM
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Influencer marketing was huge in 2015. Just take a look – it’s been on a pretty fast trajectory recently:That presents a challenge to marketers who have been doing it for awhile. Sure, you might have a network that’s engaged with your content and a few VIPs you can rely on to help promote, but they’re getting busier as more companies try to work with them.
With more companies start sending outreach emails, it’s getting harder to get the attention of your targets. The key is following the right steps in planning, research, and nurturing relationships consistently.
To demonstrate the entire process from start to finish, Paul May, co-founder of BuzzStream, joined us for a webinar last week walked us through the real, complete influencer strategy involved in the launch of a previous BuzzStream ebook....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:51 PM
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In 2005, we were reportedly exposed to over 3,500 brand messages per day. Nowadays, that figure is closer to 10,000 (if not already higher).
5.3 trillion display ads are shown online each year, 400 million Tweets sent daily, and 4.75 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook every day.
This relentless stream of content makes it harder than ever for your message to cut through the noise and get attention.
And while there’s no secret formula to creating content that gets shared, often, the content that people share isn’t random. By understanding some of the science behind successful content, you can increase your chances of success.
Here’s our guide to breaking through the noise.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:35 PM
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It’s natural to think that wider adoption brings increasing competition. While that’s technically true, the outlook isn’t as bleak as you may think.
After all, even though adoption is increasing, the number of B2B and B2C organizations who consider themselves effective at content marketing is dismal — 30 percent and 38 percent respectively. What this should tell you is that there is a gap, and you can fill it.
Make 2016 your best content marketing year ever by making one-percent improvements in these areas...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:21 PM
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Adding video to a landing page makes it 53% more likely to appear on the first page of Google results. (Source: AdWeek Social Times)
A thumbnail image of the video is presented on the search engine results page (SERP), which makes it stand out amongst the text-based listings and is therefore twice as likely to get clicked. What’s more, YouTube is the second largest search engine and the web’s third most trafficked site.
Social success
People love sharing video on social media networks. And social networks are encouraging people to share video. Facebook has made a clear commitment to video adding auto-play, view counts, and more mobile functionality to its native video player. Twitter has a native app allowing you to record, edit and tweet videos under 30 seconds long. Vine is ALL videos.
Live streaming apps such as Blab and Periscope are rocking social media. The list goes on....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 8:38 PM
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To commemorate the new 2016, I decided to ask 20 online marketing experts about their ultimate tip for the upcoming year. The world of internet marketing changed a lot in 2015, so it is safe to assume that the same will happen in 2016 as well. Without a further a due, here’s what the people I interviewed had to say
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 1:18 AM
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We asked several sources from the last year -- each of whom approaches content marketing from a different angle -- to share their takes on the major trends emerging in the discipline.
Michael Farmer, chairman, Farmer & Co.; author, “Madison Avenue Manslaughter” Content marketing, which requires 24/7 storytelling to engage consumers, is more the natural domain for PR firms than for advertising agencies. As content marketing becomes more important in the media mix, advertisers will be prepared to assign relationship leadership to their PR firms.
I predict that PR firms will take advantage of this and backwards integrate into more traditional forms of advertising, becoming highly effective AOR competitors to ad agencies. Content marketing will propel PR firms from the sidelines onto the playing field with much larger budgets if they take the appropriate strategic steps....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 15, 2016 2:15 AM
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Although paid search is our primary focus here at WordStream, we (along with almost every other company these days) are also in the media business. Purely by virtue of having a blog, we’re constantly looking at ways to not only optimize our content’s performance, but improve the content itself.
Since content is such a big part of what we do here at WordStream, we wanted to look back at our content marketing advice and collect it all into one, invaluable post. However, we weren’t “content” (pun most definitely intended) to focus on our content marketing advice from 2015, but rather the very best content-related content from the entirety of the WordStream blog.
So here we are – the best content marketing advice we have to offer. Whether you’re a seasoned blogger with strong traffic or a fledgling newbie with a small (yet beautiful), brand-new blog, you’ll find plenty of actionable advice you can use immediately in these 13 tips and strategies....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 15, 2016 1:03 AM
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Every publicist feels a combination of schadenfreude and cold-sweat relief upon reading about a crisis involving someone else’s client. And is it me, or does it seem that entertainment publicists have an extra helping of these opportunities? Whether it’s due to naughty personal behavior or corporate shenanigans, we all get our chance at crisis management at some point. This little multiple-choice quiz based on hypothetical scenarios (some of which may or may not bear a resemblance to real-life episodes) can help us all keep our skills sharp.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 2:10 AM
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A website is one of the most important marketing and branding vehicles a business can have and it is one of the primary tools that customers and clients (present and potential) will use to either find your contact details or make contact with you. So, how easy is it for website visitors to contact you?A contact us page is not a barrier; it’s an entry. So take inspiration from how these 40 creative contact us pages are doing it....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 1:29 AM
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Wow I can’t believe it’s already year 2 in our top 100 Instagram series. Last year’s list was amazing (and actually contained 150 awesome Instagram accounts) but this year is equally stunning — if not more so! This year you will find a LOT of nature, outdoor and adventure photography. I guess that’s just what I ran into most over the last 12 months.
Regular readers know that I build my top 100 lists over the period of 1 year, adding items to an Evernote list as I organically encounter them. And the result is a list of the 100 best Instagram accounts I ran into during that time that I think you should check out over the next 12 months!
If you’re new to DailyTekk, be sure to check out our other annual top 100 lists. This is already year 5 for our top 100 websites and we’ve already put up a brand new list this year of the top 100 podcasts. But don’t miss the top 100 YouTube channels, top 100 Viners and top 100 Pinterest accounts!...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 14, 2016 1:07 AM
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People believe that the culture of storytelling is coming to an end, but we believe that it is just transforming its shapes. A good story is always like a gift to the readers, listeners, or viewers. Taking advantage of this strong connection between humans and the art of storytelling, the web developers and designers are now incorporating storytelling in their designs. The art and science of storytelling on the web comes with countless benefits, some of them are listed here....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 13, 2016 11:56 PM
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Every so often a new app will suddenly appear on App Store and get everyone talking.
The latest app to do this is Peach – a new social networking app from Dom Hofmann, co-founder of video-based social network Vine.
Peach is “a fun, simple way to keep up with friends and be yourself,” and has exploded onto the scene – breaking into the top #10 Social Networking apps in the App Store already (there’s currently no Android version).
We decided to drive below the surface and investigate how Peach works, as well as share a super-early case study on how Product Hunt have been using the platform to engage with their audience.
Let’s get started!...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 13, 2016 11:43 PM
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Content promotion takes a lot of time.
In many cases, it takes longer than it does to create the content itself.
This means efficiency is key.
And to achieve efficiency, as well as consistent results from your promotion efforts, you need tools.
Tools help automate boring, repetitive tasks and give you insight into the relevant data by helping you analyze it.
Tools are what this post is all about.
I’ve put together a list of 15 tools that can help you promote content more effectively....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 13, 2016 12:03 AM
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The hard hitting reality is that most businesses fail to rank for their targeted commercial keywords and don’t get intended results from SEO.
Are you willing to build a more sustainable and robust traffic for your website?
Then let’s roll with 5 alternative traffic sources to Google. Presenting the first one....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:41 PM
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The main question every marketer needs to answer is, “Did our content resonate with the audience?”
Looking at common metrics such as likes, shares, tweets, views, and so on measures distribution. But wide distribution doesn’t necessarily mean you resonated with your audience by affecting their mindset.
Just because your clever article or professional video appeared before your audience, it doesn’t mean they engaged with it. It’s just there, one swipe or click away from being ignored. But once they pause long enough to let the video play or start reading the article, that’s when real resonance begins.
That engagement is what you should measure to determine the real impact of every piece of content....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:28 PM
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When people arrive on your site, they will be forming their first impression within 50 milliseconds. They will then be deciding whether or not to stay on the site within 10 seconds.
This miniscule amount of time makes it hard to pull in new visitors with text or great offers. Customers are drawn in or repelled by your web page based upon appearance.
The importance of images and other visual content in website success has become even more apparent in recent years. Brands that already use custom visual content see conversion rates that are about seven times higher than other sites, according to an infographic from SocialMediaToday...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 11:09 PM
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What if you wanted to place text or an arrow on your Facebook cover photo without it getting covered by the profile photo? And what about the shared link thumbnails on Facebook or in-stream photos on Twitter ... how big should those be?
If you're looking for a detailed guide to social media photo sizes -- including recommended dimensions, minimum and maximum dimensions, image scale, and more -- then this is it.
The infographic below from Jamie Spencer of MakeAWebsiteHub.com is a great reference to bookmark or keep close-at-hand the next time you're creating an image for your social media profile.
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
January 12, 2016 1:27 AM
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If you don’t understand why you should use a particular tactic, you won’t know when to use it. This means you’re playing a guessing game, and the results will be all over the place.
I want to clear up as much of this as possible in this post.
We’re going to look at the 7 most important principles of content marketing and how you should apply them.
Once you understand how these principles affect your overall content strategy, you should be able to get a better grip on when you need to use specific tactics....
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Lots of creativity and web design lessons here.