Mobile: The Wild West Of 2013? 2 3 Mobile: The Wild West Of 2013? If the majority of your business comes from paid desktop traffic, there's something you should know... you are very vulnerable. The reason is that you're paying the highest rates to reach a shrinking pool of users. And according to Keith Teare, co-founder of TechCrunch and CEO of just.me, the state of online advertising will only
WSJ Calls Email Marketing A "Dark Art" [VIDEO] 0 1 WSJ Calls Email Marketing A "Dark Art" [VIDEO] This morning, as I was combing through all of the DM-worthy news on the web, I found a video that made me chuckle. Actually, it was the headline, a great headline, for a really dull subject that got my attention... "The Dark Art of Email Promotions." Let me start by saying that I like the
What Do The New Gmail Search Options Mean For You? 0 3 What Do The New Gmail Search Options Mean For You? Gmail just unveiled a new search feature that will give users all kinds of new power to find the emails they want... and bury those they don't. Effective immediately, Gmail users can search through their emails by filesize or word combinations; you can even exclude certain types of emails using a hyphen. From the Gmail
Square Goes International, Eh? 2 3 Square Goes International, Eh? Canadian business owners rejoice: you can now accept payments wherever you can get reception on your smart Android or iPhone -- for only 2.75% per swipe. Yep, the Square has officially launched in Canada. Okay, the word "rejoice" might be a little strong in this context... but if you sell handmade leather belts at craft
The Obama Campaign's Email Marketing Gets Tough 12 2 The Obama Campaign's Email Marketing Gets Tough In Marketing 101, you learn that there are 3 basic reasons that people buy things: Fear, Gain, and Logic. When you get out into the real world, you realize that -- like it or not -- Fear is usually the most effective. However, it's also the most controversial. Fear based marketing can get you sales,
The Update Traffic Strategy 4 0 The Update Traffic Strategy Yes, technology is improving at an unbelievable rate and, yes, good developers are always seeking to improve their products. BUT there's a strategy piece to the upgrade that is often lost on small to mid-size companies. So what is it? The simple fact is that any new device, operating system, or update is an inbound
THE October Meet Up - Featuring a Kindle Fire Give Away 0 4 THE October Meet Up - Featuring a Kindle Fire Give Away It's time to hear more from the best and brightest digital marketers in Austin at Digital Marketer Engage's October meet up! DM Engage's next meet up is Wednesday, October 24th. Idea Incubator LP’s own Chris Oyolokor and Richard Lindner will be speaking on Landing Page Optimization and Mobile Conversion. Chris is our Director of Marketing
Google Wallet 2.0 Is Built For Publishers 8 2 Google Wallet 2.0 Is Built For Publishers At the end of 2011, the tech world was all atwitter about the enormous potential of "micropayments," i.e. the ability for users to make seamless, one-click payments while they're doing pretty much anything... you know, like when you're using iTunes or Amazon (with one-click payments enabled). Google's version, Google Wallet, has been slow to really
How Not To Sell AntiVirus Software 4 3 How Not To Sell AntiVirus Software Wow. Here's a quick word of advice for any marketers who may be considering using scare tactics: DON'T. Just this week, we saw the FTC flex its muscle, body slamming a sketchy anti-virus company for doing something that was actually fairly commonplace in the mid-2000s. The so-called "scareware" company, which went by a number of
Are You Watching The Right eCommerce Metrics? 3 5 Are You Watching The Right eCommerce Metrics? If yours is like most small to mid-sized e-commerce companies, then you don't have any time to waste. You need to solve problems quickly and get the most out of your traffic, and you need an efficient way to filter all of your analytics data so you can do those things in real time. After
The Speed Of eCommerce: Slow And Getting Slower? 1 0 The Speed Of eCommerce: Slow And Getting Slower? Have you noticed the lightning fast speeds at which 2012's e-commerce sites load product photos and process payments? If your answer is no, that's because they're not lightning fast... According to VentureBeat, load times are actually getting slower. They've got it on good authority too. Strangeloop Networks, a website acceleration company, has been diligently testing
Square Is Worth $3.25B 6 5 Square Is Worth $3.25B I have no idea how many credit card reading cell phone accessories exist on the market today; I only know one by name... Square. That's probably why, according to TechCrunch, Square just closed a $200M round of funding that left the company valued at $3.25B. That's the official retail price for the Mergers & Acquisitions
Pinterest Drives Shares, Not Sales, According to Amazon 7 1 Pinterest Drives Shares, Not Sales, According to Amazon After a few quarters of almost unbelievably positive numbers, it looks like Pinterest's reputation as a social shopping machine is starting to come back down to earth. All hypes eventually do... According to Zappos Labs, all that stuff about Pinterest driving outrageous sales volume is no longer accurate. In fact, they say that, while Pinterest
Instagram Redesign Leaves Space For Ads? 0 0 Instagram Redesign Leaves Space For Ads? Do you really care about being able to browse Instagram photos on a map? It's an honest question... I really want to know if you're super excited about the new Photo Map feature, or if you feel kinda like, "what's the point?" For months, I've been wondering how Instagram, and now Facebook, will attempt to
Hey Startups, This Meme Has Your Number 0 0 Hey Startups, This Meme Has Your Number Sure, hilarious cat memes are way overdone, but they have their place... and sometimes they can actually be way helpful. Like when they politely inform you that your startup pitch sucks. And the way I see it, unless you're the next Billy Mays, your pitch probably does suck. It's a given... It may seem pessimistic
Why Google Play Desperately Needs Gift Cards 0 0 Why Google Play Desperately Needs Gift Cards It's been very interesting to watch Google transform itself from a search/ad powerhouse to a device/media powerhouse, a lá Apple or Amazon -- mainly because we've been able to watch and learn from Google's missteps. Look, I know you're probably not launching a tablet device or an iTunes-esque media marketplace... I'm not either. Still, there's
Why Outlook.com CAN Compete With Gmail 3 0 Why Outlook.com CAN Compete With Gmail Despite the fact that pretty much everybody and their dog made the switch from Hotmail and Yahoo Mail to Gmail years ago, you might be surprised to learn that Google actually doesn't own the biggest slice of email traffic... only the most relevant slice. And with the launch of Outlook.com this week, Microsoft is hoping
Why Your Next Job May Be In Social Booking Management [INFOGRAPHIC] 0 1 Why Your Next Job May Be In Social Booking Management [INFOGRAPHIC] As a social media manager, a pretty huge part of your job ends up being reputation management in one form or another... there's really no way around it. Consumers are going to going to give feedback and lodge complaints however they see fit, and that's often via social media. In the hospitality industry, the need
The State Of The Buying Cycle [INFOGRAPHIC] 0 0 The State Of The Buying Cycle [INFOGRAPHIC] Remember that old graphic called the "Buying Cycle" from Marketing 101? It was basically a flowchart that had things words like "Awareness" and "Evaluation" on it? It doesn't matter, because either way, you can chunk it... Thanks to advances in digital marketing, that old flowchart has so many new stages, complications, bypasses, and loops that
Groupon vs. LivingSocial vs. Google Offers 0 0 Groupon vs. LivingSocial vs. Google Offers Despite all the lumps Groupon's taken in the media, the Daily Deals industry as a whole is continues to be a go-to resource for local marketers who need to scout out some new leads. That's because, for lots of local businesses, daily deals are the most cost effective way to advertise... and it really does
The Bricks And Mortar Online Sales Funnel 0 1 The Bricks And Mortar Online Sales Funnel Remember how retailers used to feature CTAs like "Find us Online!" in their commercials, mailers, and in-store displays? Maybe it seemed super hip and forward-thinking to older generations. But for Generation X and Yers, it just seemed absurd. Of course your company is online, my freaking plumber has a website, we thought. Here's the thing;
It's Not The Offer, It's The Call-To-Action 0 0 It's Not The Offer, It's The Call-To-Action Coming up with super attractive offers is a fine art, but presenting those offers with the proper CTA is just as important. Actually, it's more important... Lots of companies have a great product, but don't know how to market it effectively. Good marketing is almost always the difference between success and failure. And there are
Little Known Ways To Squeeze The Most Out Of Your Engagement [INFOGRAPHIC] 0 0 Little Known Ways To Squeeze The Most Out Of Your Engagement [INFOGRAPHIC] Are your social media profiles getting tons of engagement, but failing to spread the love around to your blog or website? This is one of the most common gripes I overhear at digital marketing happy hours. And while there's no single, silver bullet fix for this problem, the good news is that everybody's in the
DM's Summer List Optimization Checklist 0 0 DM's Summer List Optimization Checklist (Yes, I know this title's redundant) Stock brokers have a saying, "Sell in May and go away." And while you may see dozens of articles debunking this age-old saying on popular finance websites, it certainly would have been good advice to follow this May... and last May too. All economic calamities aside, summer is traditionally
Is Facebook About To MySpace? [Controversial Headlines Rule] 0 0 Is Facebook About To MySpace? [Controversial Headlines Rule] Before you get on your soapbox about whether or not Facebook is the future of social media or in decay, read that headline again... Don't read the words, read the strategy. Personally, I don't think Facebook is going anywhere anytime soon. BUT as a blogger, I have a few perfectly good resources to cite as
