Apple Launches iOS 14 with New Privacy Mandates

Apple Launches iOS 14 with New Privacy Mandates


For the past several years, the concept of increasing consumer data privacy has been gaining momentum and has been slowly impacting how marketers use your data. GDPR and CCPA regulations have driven awareness of this movement, and big data collection companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have been shifting to meet the increasing demand for more data privacy. Last summer, Apple made the announcement that their iOS 14 update would include significant privacy updates that will affect all apps. Starting this month, these privacy updates (called App Tracking Transparency) will […]

Marketing, Messaging and Muting During a National or Global Crisis

Marketing, Messaging and Muting During a National or Global Crisis


Pandemic. Protests. Election. Insurrection. Impeachment. Platforms v. Publishers.   It’s hard to believe that these and other major societal and social shifts happened in the last year alone. If you are a business owner or an individual responsible for the operations and image of a company trying to adapt to these changes, it’s been a herculean effort to even keep the doors open up to this point with so many external factors weighing upon us.   Whether it’s local business owners trying to keep their teams and businesses afloat amid […]

The Upside of an Upside-Down World: What COVID Changed and What It Didn’t

The Upside of an Upside-Down World: What COVID Changed and What It Didn’t


Pivot is an understatement for 2020. Marketers and consumers were forced to change behaviors in dramatic and unexpected ways. People are resilient, though, and marketers proved again their ability to adapt and thrive in an everchanging landscapes. While vaccines are on the horizon, a return to pre-pandemic behavior probably isn’t likely for a while. What changes should we expect to continue into 2021?   Virtual Events Turns out there is still value in virtual conferences. High quality live and on-demand content still managed to draw crowds. Virtual conferences eliminated the […]

Google Page Experience Update: More UX Factors to Become Confirmed Ranking Factors in 2021

Google Page Experience Update: More UX Factors to Become Confirmed Ranking Factors in 2021


On Thursday, May 28th, 2020 Google announced a new ranking signal that combines Core Web Vitals with their existing page experience signals (mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS, no intrusive interstitials).   This new ranking factor will not go live until at least 2021 and Google will provide at least a 6-month notice. See Google’s announcement here.   This is similar to other UX centered initiatives at Google (see the “Mobilegeddon” mobile-friendly update, the page speed update, the HTTPS update, and the interstitials update as examples) where they preannounce an algorithm update / […]

How to Diagnose and Address Declines in Your Organic Search Traffic

How to Diagnose and Address Declines in Your Organic Search Traffic


You must be able to understand why organic search traffic (Google traffic, Bing traffic, etc.) declined before you can implement the best strategy to improve it. That was the topic for week two of Weekly Emsights: COVID-19 edition, which you can watch here: If you look at your organic traffic in your reporting platform and you see meaningful declines – here is a list of questions to help you diagnose this loss further:  Questions to help you diagnose organic search traffic declines  Are there any current events?  Is the decline unique to organic […]

5 Marketing Tips for Traversing the Coronavirus Landscape

5 Marketing Tips for Traversing the Coronavirus Landscape


There’s truly no need for us to restate the details of the current coronavirus conditions we find ourselves in. With many businesses feeling like they’re in a tailspin, it’s more important now than ever to take a calm, calculated look at your marketing, advertising and overall communication efforts. And while every business is different and the level to which they’ve been impacted by the pandemic varies, we’ve put together a list of universal considerations and thought starters to focus on as we all try to navigate these uncertain waters.     #1 Don’t Lose Sight  While […]

How COVID-19 Is Impacting SEO

How COVID-19 Is Impacting SEO


Date updated: 4/17/2020 Since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., we have had multiple clients approach us with uncertainty and questions. How is the coronavirus affecting current user behaviors? How do we think it will affect ongoing, long-term search behaviors? The truth is, we’re experiencing this for the first time along with everyone else. But as a data-driven agency, we wanted to dive in and provide some insight into current trends and we put our heads together to discuss. We analyzed all our client data to see […]

Email Marketing for Manufacturers

Email Marketing for Manufacturers


Congratulations, you’ve taken the first steps to taking your manufacturing business to the next level with the use of email marketing! That’s right, email is still a thing. In fact, email marketing is used by 92% of manufacturer marketing professionals according to the Content Marketing Institute.   How the Manufacturers Can Incorporate Email into their Marketing Strategy In an industry where each purchase can be an intense and expensive, long drawn-out sales cycles that involve multiple stakeholders and other decision-makers, having a well-thought-out email marketing strategy to provide support is […]

Marketing Leadership: Top Trends for Marketing Leaders in 2020

Marketing Leadership: Top Trends for Marketing Leaders in 2020


Is the role of the CMO over? In Fall 2019, Forrester predicted that CMOs must broaden their view of their role or see their responsibilities divided to newly created positions, such as VP of Marketing Technology. Global corporations, including Johnson & Johnson, Uber and Coca Cola, are revisiting the role of the CMO, and in some cases eliminating it altogether.   Forrester is not saying marketing is less critical to success. Rather, org structures are redefining roles to adapt to evolving marketing technology, consumer sentiment, employee expectations, talent acquisition, automation, […]

Google’s BERT Algorithm Update Explained

Google’s BERT Algorithm Update Explained


It’s been a few weeks since Google began rolling out its latest major search algorithm update, BERT, and many members of the SEM community still have questions about what this change means for search engine optimization and content marketing. For good reason, too. The sheer amount of speculation and “expert” guides that were published just days after the update was announced have made separating algorithmic fact from fiction difficult.   Thankfully, we’ve done most of the heavy lifting for you and put together a no-nonsense guide breaking down the key […]

Meet LaToya Rozof: emfluence’s new HR Manager

Meet LaToya Rozof: emfluence’s new HR Manager


emfluence is excited to welcome LaToya Rozof to the role of HR Manager! In her role, LaToya will oversee employee engagement, hiring, and in her own words, making sure we continue to have fun without breaking any laws.   LaToya joins us as an HR superstar with a passion for fashion. She has 13 years of HR experience and has expertise in employment law, employee relations, and HR strategy. One of her favorite work tasks is finding ways to help make the workplace a destination and not a dread (a […]

What the California Consumer Protection Act Means for Marketers

What the California Consumer Protection Act Means for Marketers


Do you market to consumers in California? You probably need to get to know CCPA. Even if you don’t, the new law could be the model for others states to quickly follow suit. Forbes is calling the measure “a wake-up call for everybody in tech.”   The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), which takes effect in 2020, is the strongest privacy legislation in the United States. The California law protects the consumer privacy of California residents and affects every major corporation who collects data on California citizens. In its current […]

GDPR: Kinda Sucks for Marketers, but Pretty Good for Consumers

GDPR: Kinda Sucks for Marketers, but Pretty Good for Consumers


Like it or not, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming very soon. The legislation is designed to put control into the hands of consumers regarding how their personally identifiable information (PII) is obtained, used and shared. Most would agree that giving consumers control is the right thing to do. It does, however, present some significant challenges for businesses, including non-EU based companies, who do business with or market to individuals who are part of the EU.   GDPR consumer advantages:   Increased security. Companies are required […]

Facebook’s Audience Optimization Tool

Facebook’s Audience Optimization Tool


What You Need to Know About Facebook’s New Audience Optimization Tool

Secure the web! Early experience with the Let’s Encrypt Open Beta

Secure the web! Early experience with the Let’s Encrypt Open Beta


I’m writing this blog post because I just can’t hold in my excitement. Let’s Encrypt has just entered public beta! Read on for technical details.

emfluence Wins 13 KCDMA AMBIT Awards

emfluence Wins 13 KCDMA AMBIT Awards


Last week, emfluence and our wonderful clients won 13 KCDMA AMBIT awards for excellence in targeted, measurable marketing – 2 more than last year! emfluencers took home 6 gold and 7 silver awards in the Email, Social Media, Business-to-Consumer Marketing and Search Engine Optimization categories.  The AMBIT awards are particularly important to us because of their judging criteria. AMBITs are awarded based on results and measureable goals in addition to design and creative, perfect for our marketing standards! Congratulations to the emfluence Email Marketing team and SPIN! Pizza for winning […]

emfluence — and Friends — at the AMPS 2015

emfluence — and Friends — at the AMPS 2015


The emfluence crew loves any occasion to celebrate great work, but was especially excited to attend the first-ever AMPS Awards — an awards show put on by the Social Media Club of Kansas City, where awards were judged by fellow social media professionals on those points that mean the most when you’re really in the business. emfluence and our pals (client) SPIN! Pizza were thrilled to have gotten a few nods from people we admire.

BookDaily Taps into An Army of Self-Published Authors with PPC

BookDaily Taps into An Army of Self-Published Authors with PPC


Technology might have thrown the traditional publishing industry into turmoil, but BookDaily.com is thriving—and helping authors succeed—thanks to a digital marketing strategy, that emphasizes Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. Three years ago, they wanted help reaching a new market and the PPC team at emfluence was eager to help. BookDaily.com, owned by Virginia-based ArcaMax Publishing, offers the first chapter of more than 88,000 books via email, for free. BookDaily.com’s customers are the thousands of authors who use its platform to promote their titles. (A basic account is free and allows authors to […]

Gmail adds its own unsubscribe link

Gmail adds its own unsubscribe link


Today, Gmail inbox users noticed appearance of a new easy unsubscribe link at the top of many promotional emails. And this is pretty good good news for email marketing practitioners.

emfluencer Dave and client Mercedes-Benz of KC to speak at EEC14

emfluencer Dave and client Mercedes-Benz of KC to speak at EEC14


emfluence CEO, David Cacioppo and our client Kris Nielsen from Soave Automotive Group/Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City will be speaking at the 2014 Email Evolution Conference in Miami, January 23.

email marketers take a look at the new Gmail inbox with tabs

email marketers take a look at the new Gmail inbox with tabs


Gmail has rolled out their new Inbox, featuring a tabbed (categorized) look. There are three default tabs for “Primary,” social notifications and promotions. Many email marketers’ emails will probably be classified as promotions, and so many are concerned that it will decrease open and click through rates.

what’s in store for the 2013 Marketing Platform User Conference


It’s almost summer which around emfluence means it’s time for our annual emfluence Marketing Platform User Conference! A full day of sessions on best practices, training on new features in our Platform and case studies from our savvy clients. We’re brewing a lineup of super powered content for this year’s conference and we thought we’d let you sneak a peek at the sessions:

tweet aggregator storify announces stories for business


Storify is among the newer tools for a social media practitioner and has been gaining popularity as a way to collect and organize tweets, especially those collected around a specific hashtag or top. Today, they launched their Storify Business account option, offering journalists, agencies, brands and bloggers the chance to upgrade their toolset.

twitter link update: you can take my heart, but don’t take my characters

twitter link update: you can take my heart, but don’t take my characters


Twitter recently rolled out – a bit early – their character-reducing update for tweets with links. Now instead of counting all URLs (including photos/short links) as 20 characters, they’ll count as 22.

emfluencer Jessica Best to speak at SXSWi 2013

emfluencer Jessica Best to speak at SXSWi 2013


This year, our Community Director, Jessica Best won’t just be attending South by Southwest, she’ll be presenting! Among the top notch speaker line-up in Austin this March, you’ll find our emfluencer speaking on how to make your email marketing really… well, *rock.*

seo news: how JCPenney and social media are affecting Google’s results


A few notes about things in the search engine optimization (SEO) world that you may or may not have heard about, including changes to Google’s algorithm thanks to JCPenney’s recent press and social media’s impact on how we search.

get smarter about social media: notes from Social Fresh

get smarter about social media: notes from Social Fresh


Social Fresh’s fifth social media conference was hosted April 19th just across the state in St. Louis. We sent Jessica Best to soak up some knowledge about emerging media from some heavy hitters. Here’s what she gleaned:

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