Ashley Zeckman

CMWorld Interview: Eli Schwartz on Curiosity & SEO Around the Globe

Ashley Zeckman on Aug 13th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World, SEO

Should marketers ignore international and inter-linguistic considerations when it comes to their SEO strategies?

Survey says: BZZZRRRT

In a way, optimizing for search is like participating in the game show Family Feud. To align with searcher behavior and intent, marketers must make educated guesses, and ultimately it is the people who will dictate whether we’re right or wrong.

As we develop content to draw visitors for targeted keywords, search rankings and traffic trends serve as either an affirming “Ding!” or a rejecting “Buzz!” regarding our hypotheses. Web users fulfill the same function as the random samples polled to create Family Feud’s survey response boards.


CMWorld Interview: Eli Schwartz on Curiosity & SEO Around the Globe
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Facebook’s Playable Ads & Business Pages Update, Gen Z Mom Trends, & B2B’s Video Uptick

Lane Ellis on Aug 10th, 2018     Online Marketing News

Facebook Business Pages

Facebook redesigns biz Pages for utility as feed reach declines
Facebook has released a slew of changes to its popular Business Pages offering, including updates to mobile, recommendations, events, jobs, and Facebook Local. The updates bring marketers new opportunities along with the need to re-think certain strategies that may no longer be relevant. TechCruch

Twitter loses ability to let users auto-post tweets & retweets to Facebook
Facebook changed how its API is utilized by some 60K apps, including Twitter’s, doing away with cross-posted auto-tweets unless going through the more limited posting options of Facebook’s Share feature. Marketing Land

Move Over Millennials: It’s Time To Discuss How To Win With Generation Z Moms
An examination of digital native Gen Z moms and their online brand engagement traits and habits. Forbes


Digital Marketing News: Facebook’s Playable Ads & Business Pages Update, Gen Z Mom Trends, & B2B’s Video Uptick
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Joshua Nite

How to Build a Resilient Evergreen Content Marketing Forest

Joshua Nite on Aug 8th, 2018     Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

Evergreen Content Marketing

Evergreen trees are a symbol of life and renewal because they never lose their leaves; they stay green year-round.

Tell that to anyone who has dragged a Christmas tree to the garbage on New Year’s Day.

The truth is, evergreen trees are part of an ecosystem. When they’re rooted and cared for, they thrive and the whole forest benefits. Cut one down and take it home, and it won’t be green for long.

Evergreen content is the same way. We tend to think of it as stand-alone pieces of content that bring in traffic without any additional effort. Something isolated, set-it-and-forget-it. But if you treat your content that way, it will start dropping needles on the carpet with a quickness.


How to Build a Resilient Evergreen Content Marketing Forest
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Nick Nelson

Design for Dummies: 5 Tips to Liven Up Your Written Marketing Content

Nick Nelson on Aug 6th, 2018     Content Marketing, Visual Marketing

Marketing Design Tips for Non-Designers

I’m not a designer. I’m not artsy. I didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I’m a writer to the core. But, as much I love words, I recognize that they don’t jump off the screen and grab people’s attention. Let’s face it: even the most beautiful prose is pretty ugly, from an aesthetic standpoint. You’re not going to find a framed portrait of blocky text hanging at the Guggenheim anytime soon.

As a marketer who is admittedly lacking in design skills, I’ve done an awful lot of reading on the subject, and I do my best to soak up knowledge and advice from the awesome group of visual wizards here in the TopRank Marketing design department.


Design for Dummies: 5 Tips to Liven Up Your Written Marketing Content
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Rewarded Ads, Google’s Podcast Push, SEO’s B2B Power, & YouTube’s Ratio Refinements

Lane Ellis on Aug 3rd, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018August3MMAOpenXStudy

Industry Group Finds Consumers Love ‘Rewarded’ Ads: Marketers, Less So
A new collaborative study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), OpenX, and MediaMath looks at view-and-reward advertising, rewarded opt-in ad types, and what they may mean for digital marketers going forward. MediaPost

Google Has A Podcast App, But Does It Have A Podcasting Strategy?
Google is expected to increase the prominence of podcasts in all search results, expanding on limited tests it’s done with Android and Google Assistant SERPs. Forbes

Huge chunk of young people believe advertising does not welcome diversity
New survey data examines inclusion and diversity in advertising, and how far the industry may still have to go. Campaign US


Digital Marketing News: Rewarded Ads, Google’s Podcast Push, SEO’s B2B Power, & YouTube’s Ratio Refinements
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Ashley Zeckman

CMWorld Interview: How Tamsen Webster Drives Irresistible Change in Marketing

Ashley Zeckman on Aug 1st, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

Few things are more inspiring than the before-and-after weight loss photo: two drastically different figures juxtaposed against one another, usually connected by an impossibly short span of time.

It’s not just the physical transformation that is striking in these portrayals. Even more so, it’s the mental transformation. Something clicked in that person’s head, causing them to fully commit and make the difficult changes necessary to turn their goals into reality. Then, they did it.

Branding expert Tamsen Webster saw this dynamic play out, in various forms, time and time again during her many years as a leader in the Weight Watchers organization. And it’s a big part of what drove her to create Red Thread, a messaging framework focused on tapping into those deep, uniquely human motivations that spark action (or, as she puts it, make inaction impossible).


CMWorld Interview: How Tamsen Webster Drives Irresistible Change in Marketing
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Anne Leuman

Best Practices for Choosing Effective and Captivating Social Media Visuals

Anne Leuman on Jul 30th, 2018     Social Media

Best Practices for Selecting Social Media Visuals

For both B2B and B2C brands, social media marketing has become an age-old tactic by now. And it’s no surprise. Despite working 8 hours a day and sleeping (hopefully) 8 hours, the average person still spends nearly two hours each day on social media, according to a study by Mediakix.

But the social media landscape is changing—alot. Organic reach on Facebook is declining with changes to the Newsfeed, some of which are still rolling out. Twitter is struggling to retain their active users. Instagram is experimenting with long-form video content. LinkedIn is also investing in more video.

Given these changes and regular updates, the best practices for each platform are constantly evolving. But what’s one thing that isn’t poised to change anytime soon? The importance of using eye-catching, compelling visual content to draw people in.


Best Practices for Choosing Effective and Captivating Social Media Visuals
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Smarty-Pants Speakers Drive Voice Search, YouTube’s Rejiggered Hashtags, & Google’s Word Count Wisdom

Lane Ellis on Jul 27th, 2018     Online Marketing News

July 27 2018 TopRank Marketing News Image

Report: Smart speaker ownership driving voice adoption on smartphones
The popularity of voice search on smartphones has grown in part due to more Americans owning smart speakers, with a new NPR and Edison Research report revealing 18 percent now own so-called smart audio devices. Marketing Land

Report: Facebook takes a back seat to Instagram as ad spend on the Facebook-owned app grows 177%
New research data shows that Instagram had ad spending four times Facebook’s rate year-over-year during the second quarter of 2018, while YouTube’s ad spend was nearly triple that of last year. Marketing Land

Emojis Score With Mobile Users
New study data shows that the use of emojis has resulted in a sizable boost of mobile e-mail open rates, with open rates boosted over 80 percent resulting in 363 percent revenue gains, but are digital marketers convinced? MediaPost


Digital Marketing News: Smarty-Pants Speakers Drive Voice Search, YouTube’s Rejiggered Hashtags, & Google’s Word Count Wisdom
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Anne Leuman

Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers

Anne Leuman on Jul 25th, 2018     Google, Search Marketing, SEO

2018 Google Updates & What They Mean for Marketers

Since the inception and rise of digital marketing, marketers have been keeping a watchful eye on Google — the ruler of the kingdom of search.

From research project to technology giant, over the last two decades Google has cemented itself as the dominating force in internet search. And while there are other rising contenders in the space, as of June 2018, Google owned 72.21% of all desktop searches. And the domination continues if you look at mobile, with Google owning a whopping 90.20% of searches.

Of course, Google’s market (and marketing) domination isn’t because of their speed to market in the late 90s, but rather the company’s dedication and investment in evolving the platform. And some of the latest evolutionary tweaks and new features are hitting soon — or have just recently arrived.


Google Game Changers: 5 Recent Updates and How They Affect Marketers
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Lee Odden

Trust in Marketing is at Risk. These CMOs and Marketing Influencers Share How to Fix

Lee Odden on Jul 23rd, 2018     Digital Marketing

CMO Half Life

The average tenure of a CMO is under 4 years representing a crisis in confidence amongst business leadership when it comes to marketing. Expectations for marketing are higher than ever amongst business leaders and customers alike.

To advance the valuable contributions marketing can make from boosting short term sales to growing long term market share, it is important for marketers to build trust and influence. But there are challenges:

  • A study from Fournaise Group that fond 73% of CEOs say “Marketers lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient growth and 80% of CEOs simply don’t trust marketers at all, while 91% do trust CIOs and CFOs.
  • New research from Marketing Week reports only 30% consider marketing ‘very important’ at large B2B companies.

Trust in Marketing is at Risk. These CMOs and Marketing Influencers Share How to Fix
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s Bot Detox Fallout, Google’s Mobile Thumbs-Up, & Millennial’s Top Social IQ Factors

Lane Ellis on Jul 20th, 2018     Online Marketing News

Friday, July 20, 2018 Digital Marketing News RankRanger Report Image

Report: Google’s mobile search results now show image thumbnails 45% of the time
Mobile Google users see image thumbnails in nearly half the search results shown, according to new report data. Should marketers consider placing greater importance on thumb images? Search Engine Land

Twitter’s bot purge welcomed by agency execs
Twitter recently deleted millions of spam and inactive accounts in an effort to improve the platform. Does the move increase credibility among marketers and influencers? DigiDay

Report: Social media sentiment not predictive of offline brand outcomes
New research looks into online and offline brand conversations and their effect on consumer sentiment, plus the motivations that drive them. Marketing Land


Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s Bot Detox Fallout, Google’s Mobile Thumbs-Up, & Millennial’s Top Social IQ Factors
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Nick Nelson

The Future of Connection on Facebook: How Stories May Change the Marketing Game

Nick Nelson on Jul 18th, 2018     Facebook, Social Media

How Facebook Stories Will Change Social Media Marketing

“You have part of my attention – you have the minimum amount.”

This scathing remark, delivered by actor Jesse Eisenberg while portraying Mark Zuckerberg amidst a heated deposition in the 2010 film The Social Network, has a certain pertinence today with regards to the company Zuckerberg founded back in 2004.

As Facebook’s news feed algorithm becomes increasingly restricting for brands and publishers, many of us are finding it difficult to capture even the minimum amount of our audience’s attention on the platform.

The search for elusive reach on the world’s largest social media channel has led some marketers to explore Facebook Groups as a way to stay visible with users. But it appears the more critical frontier may be Facebook Stories, a feature that is rapidly on the rise and — according to the company’s own top execs — represents the future of connection on Facebook.


The Future of Connection on Facebook: How Stories May Change the Marketing Game
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