Online Marketing Blog

Digital Marketing News: Pinterest PPC, Facebook Sets, Online Beats Offline Shopping

Lee Odden on Oct 27th, 2017 Online Marketing News

Understanding Machine Learning Infographic

Need help understanding Machine Learning? We now live in an age where machines can teach themselves without human intervention. Sound scary? It should. Scary amazing that is. Applications for machine learning extend from marketing to medicine to interstellar space travel. Find out what Machine Learning is, how it works, and how it will change the world. Infographic.

Google’s New AI Is Better at Creating AI Than the Company’s Engineers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai says his team has achieved “AI inception” with AutoML. AutoML is an artificial intelligence that can assist in the creation of other AIs. By automating some of the complicated process, AutoML could make machine learning more accessible to non-experts. Futurism

Digital Marketing News: Pinterest PPC, Facebook Sets, Online Beats Offline Shopping

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Content Marketing Tactics for Search Marketers – International Edition #SMXLmilan

Lee Odden on Oct 26th, 2017 Content Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences

Content is both king and kingdom in a digital world full of stories. Brands and consumers alike are experiencing and publishing content on a daily basis. Between information overload, increased complexity of search engines and changes in consumer search behaviors, many marketers are less than confident about how to optimize their content marketing.

How can marketers best use content marketing to improve search marketing? How does search inspired content affect content, PR and marketing programs across channels?

At SMXL in Milan, Italy this November 15th, that’s exactly what a panel of experts will be answering. I will be moderating Content Related Strategies for Search with Ken McGaffin, Lexi Mills and Jey Pandian where we’ll be discussing strategies to help identify new opportunities to develop content based on business intelligence, competitive research and historical performance.

Content Marketing Tactics for Search Marketers – International Edition #SMXLmilan

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How 7 Brands Connect With Audiences Through Long-Form Video Content

Anne Leuman on Oct 25th, 2017 Content Marketing, Video

Content comes in many forms, including social media messages, blog posts, video, and more. But video is largely ignored with only 30% of B2B marketers believing video will be critical to their content marketing success.

Considering video accounts for 74% of all internet traffic your brand cannot ignore video marketing. With audience’s having an average attention span of only eight seconds it’s one of the best ways to hold attention and increase audience engagement. This is especially true for long-form video—videos that are roughly 10 minutes in length or longer. In fact, audiences engage in more long-form videos accounting for 63% off all time spent watching videos across devices. Long-form video is a proven and effective way of capturing and engaging audiences, but where do you begin?

How 7 Brands Connect With Audiences Through Long-Form Video Content

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B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks: How We All Can Do Better

Joshua Nite on Oct 24th, 2017 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

B2B content marketing is having a moment—a moment that’s rapidly becoming a movement. We’re finally breaking free of the idea that “professional” means “boring.” Transparency and authenticity are becoming more than just buzzwords. Unique, emotionally compelling content used to be the outlier; soon it will be the norm.

It’s thrilling to see B2B content marketers find a new groove. As a creative, comedic weirdo myself, it’s a great time to be in the business. However, these industry-wide changes do come with significant challenges. As B2B marketing evolves, we need to continually adapt our procedures, KPIs, even our philosophy of marketing.

The whip-smart marketers at Kapost just published their 2017 B2B Content Strategy & Operations Benchmark. They surveyed hundreds of B2B marketers in diverse industries, from small businesses to enterprise organizations. Here are the challenges their research identified, and how B2B marketers can adapt to thrive.

B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks: How We All Can Do Better

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The State of Minnesota Marketing: Insights from 6 Minnesota Brands

Lee Odden on Oct 23rd, 2017 Digital Marketing

Minnesota is home to numerous nationally and internationally known brands, ranging from household consumer names like Target and Best Buy to giants like Cargill and United Healthcare. Given their broad focus, their home state isn’t a singular marketing focus for these big companies. But what about brands where the state brand plays a part of the company brand? What impact does that have on marketing?

That was the topic of a brand panel at the recent Minnesota Marketing Summit in Minneapolis.

Moderated by Nicole Shannon, Executive Director, Advertising for Star Tribune, the session opened up to a standing room only crowd. Panelists were on-hand from Minnesota brands including Explore Minnesota, Minnesota State, Sunrise Banks, Sun Country, Children’s Minnesota and the Minneapolis Downtown Council to discuss: What is the Minnesota brand and how does it relate to marketers and brands of companies operating here?

The State of Minnesota Marketing: Insights from 6 Minnesota Brands

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Digital Marketing News: Twitter Video Ads, Livestreaming Rise, RIP Eric Ward

Lee Odden on Oct 20th, 2017 Online Marketing News

Livestreaming

The Rise of Livestreaming: Why People Watch, and How Brands Can Benefit [Infographic]. Facebook users comment 10 times more on live videos than on regular videos. Find out what people are watching, what their preferences and behaviors are in this infographic from Koeppel Direct. MarketingProfs

The four habits of successful data-driven marketers. Econsultancy invited marketing experts to discuss what they do, the problems they face, and how they overcome obstacles which revealed 4 keys to data-driven marketing success from data management, to testing hypothesis and proper attribution models. Econsultancy

Twitter introduces a new video-centric ad format. The Video Website Card starts out as an auto-playing video with a customizable headline, which then opens up to a larger video and website preview, and ultimately directs viewers to the advertiser’s chosen website when they tap on it. Will this format take off? TechCrunch

Digital Marketing News: Twitter Video Ads, Livestreaming Rise, RIP Eric Ward

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How We’re Building a Content Marketing Dream Team

Caitlin Burgess on Oct 19th, 2017 Content Marketing

A few members of the TopRank Marketing content marketing dream team.

As the digital landscape continues to grow and shift, digital marketing — particularly content marketing — has a majority stake in most brands’ marketing strategies these days. After all, nearly half of the world’s population now uses the internet, and we want our content to meet people where they are and when they’re searching.

As a result, brands and agencies alike are on the lookout for savvy, driven content gurus with proven writing, planning and strategy skills to add to their marketing teams — including TopRank Marketing.

How We’re Building a Content Marketing Dream Team

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3 Mouth-Watering Content Marketing Case Studies That Bring Home the Bacon

Elizabeth Williams on Oct 18th, 2017 Online Marketing

If you’ve ever been pregnant, lived with a woman who’s pregnant or even just been around a pregnant woman, you can guess it is not smart to lie to a woman who’s pregnant about food.

Well that’s how I felt today. 6 months along and in arrives a marketing email with the subject line: “[Infographic] Good Marketing starts with good snacks.” Yes, I understand, I’m not literally going to get any food out of this, but I expect to see some mouth-watering graphics upon opening the email. Nope.

Instead I found food references in the copy like “Are you giving your prospects nourishing snacks or asking them to bite off more than they can chew?” and “Make your content highly snackable”. Still, this email teased me enough to click on the CTA to the infographic: Surely within it food will reside!

3 Mouth-Watering Content Marketing Case Studies That Bring Home the Bacon

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How to Choose Dynamic Images for Your Blog Posts

Joshua Nite on Oct 17th, 2017 Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

I’m a content writer, not a graphic designer. My job is to make the words dance, to convey useful information in an entertaining way.

As such, for a long time visuals were just an afterthought for me. Yeah, a blog needs a header image. So after I’m done writing I’ll slap something on there, check that box, and send it off to the client.

As content continues to proliferate, though, that laissez-faire approach isn’t enough. Your potential audience has far more content available to them than they’ll ever be able to read. That means they’re actively looking for reasons not to read your content. A weak—or worse, missing—visual is a perfect excuse to move to the next thing.

How to Choose Dynamic Images for Your Blog Posts

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How to Make the Switch to Content-Driven SEO #MNBlogCon

Caitlin Burgess on Oct 16th, 2017 Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing

TopRank Marketing’s Joshua Nite made his debut on the speaker circuit this past weekend at the 8^th annual Minnesota Blogger Conference held at Concordia University in St. Paul.

Charming the crowd with his unique brand of wit, creativity, mad content marketing expertise, and numerous “cats with hats” references, Josh delivered a The Good Place-themed presentation titled: “The Good News About Creative Content: From SEO-Driven Content to Content-Driven SEO.”

As someone who spent 12 years as a creative comedy writer for a video game called The Kingdom of Loathing, Josh said he was terrified by the concept of SEO-driven content when he made his transition into content marketing.

“The worst content to write, and the worst content for people to read, was the stuff that [search engine] robots liked to read to most,” Josh said.

How to Make the Switch to Content-Driven SEO #MNBlogCon

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Digital Marketing News: Twitter Happening Now, Snapchat Context Cards, LinkedIn Video Ads

Lee Odden on Oct 13th, 2017 Online Marketing News

Video Ads Are Finally Coming to LinkedIn (client) – When LinkedIn began allowing users to upload videos in August, video ads seemed like an inevitability, and they are now one step closer. LinkedIn announced today that it is running a closed beta test of video for sponsored content “with a limited number of advertisers.” AdWeek

Twitter Plans To Release A Bookmarking Tool #SaveforLater. You know how you can save posts to read later in Facebook? Well, Twitter is looking to do the same thing. For all of you liking posts as a way to bookmark, you can stop that practice with this new feature. Will this mean likes will go down? Probably. BuzzFeed

Digital Marketing News: Twitter Happening Now, Snapchat Context Cards, LinkedIn Video Ads

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