With so many people in the email marketing industry focused on list size, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that email success is primarily based on sending the right message to the right person at the right time. This means getting personal.    But what does it mean to be personal in today’s email marketing world?    The Importance of Email Marketing Personalization Email marketing personalization is all about building a better relationship with your subscribers. This approach is important because your email marketing campaigns have a lot of competition and […]

Email is more relevant and engaging going into 2022 than it has ever been.     As the new normal set in for 2021, marketers continued to send email (not surprising). They have set goals for 2022 and plan to evolve their marketing programs.     Success is dependent upon what your objectives and KPIs are. They are unique to each email program and having the right tools in place will help you achieve success.     What will email marketers be doing and where will they spend their time? […]

The theme for the month is personalization and we want to tackle this topic in all realms of the marketing world, using this piece to touch specifically on search.   Keywords are important and rankings are important. Our expert SEO teams have this down pat. But is there a way to look at it from a non-technical perspective? You know, the consumer perspective? That’s where we get personal.   What Affects Search Results? Every user’s search process will be different from the next (unless you’re browsing signed out, incognito, or […]

Social media has driven the way society interacts with one another. This is a highly personalized world of its own which means making a post is all you have to do to get involved, right? Wrong.   Just like how we as marketers take the time to craft our email personalization and customer experience skills, social media personalization requires the same effort and innovation.   Social media users want to be treated like the individuals they are and companies that take the extra steps to create these personalized experiences can […]

As another “interesting” year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to take stock of the last 12 months and start looking at how your business can optimize your marketing activities in the year ahead.   We throw the word “optimization” around quite a bit in the marketing world—but in 2022, optimization will be more important than ever. This is because, if you haven’t noticed, the world has changed quite a lot over the last couple of years.   The global pandemic has acted as an incredible accelerant in […]

As a project manager, my forte isn’t content strategy or copywriting. But I do appreciate a good process and believe strengthening process can strengthen output.   A lot of work goes into content planning—analyzing data and defining your audience, topics, formats, goals, etc. All of that is fruitless work if it’s not followed with a strong implementation plan.   Once you have your content strategy planned out for 2022, follow these steps to create and maintain a schedule.   Create a Breakdown of Deliverables You likely have a head start […]

  When people buy from a business, they are doing much more than exchanging cash for a product or a service. Instead, consumers increasingly want to buy from people they identify with, who share the same values, and who they actually like.   Purpose-driven marketing campaigns create the opportunity for organizations to show support for the communities which they serve. These campaigns could be anything from supporting a local school’s sports team to raising cash for a specific charity, or even endorsing a political ideology or movement. In doing so, […]

by John Hayes for emfluence   Seriously, if I hear the phrase “Content is King” one more time, I’ll scream. In my humble opinion, this age-old marketing adage is entirely inappropriate. If you should assign the rank of King (or Queen) to anything in your business, it’s the client. Everything else you do, including your marketing content, is designed to serve your clients’ needs. Therefore, I prefer to think of content as a “courtier,” loyal to the throne, and always available to offer the crown some sage advice.   Content […]

Another day, another acronym. If anything has defined the role of an email marketer in the last five years, it’s the constant rollout of new consumer privacy regulations around the world.   Hot on the heels of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which sent shockwaves around the world in 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) sought to give consumers in the state greater control over the information businesses collect from them. Then in 2020, Californians voted to approve Proposition 24, which updated, modified and extended the […]

Google just recently updated their published best practices for writing HTML title tags.   In early August, Google started a new system of generating titles for pages displayed in their search results. This update led to a larger portion of HTML title tags not being displayed as the title link in Google’s search results.   Since that update, Google updated their SEO page title best practices. Here are their best practices for writing descriptive title tags with our added Pro Tips. Following these title tag best practices can help ensure […]

If you boil a great marketer down to their essence, you’ll find a storyteller. They share ideas, entertain and inform, as a way to guide them down a specific path towards a satisfactory conclusion.    There are many ways a marketer can tell a story. Some create exquisitely crafted and highly complex content-led marketing workflows that would put Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace to shame. Others produce content that has more in common with Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip.    As a marketing format, Instagram Stories might have more in common […]

When a marketing technology has been around for as long as email, it’s all too easy to visualize a sudden change in the eco-system, such as Apple’s recent iOS 15 Mail Privacy Protection update, as a potential extinction event. However, if we learned anything from previous “catastrophes,” such as the implementation of Gmail’s promotions tab in 2013 or GDPR in 2018, we should already know that email marketing is far more resilient than that.   Thankfully, email marketing is not a dinosaur, and Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update is far […]

In order to be at the top and remain at the top, you must keep a close eye on your competitors. The Godfather spoke true facts when he said, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. Who knew The Godfather would be on Team SEO?! The point is, you have to research your competitors to make sure you stay ahead of the game. Doing so with Keyword Competitive Analysis is a great start.   What is Keyword Competitive Analysis? Keyword Competitive Analysis (also call Keyword Gap Analysis) is the […]

When Instagram first rolled out their new Instagram Stories feature in 2016, many people (myself included) were very skeptical. These short videos seemed like a copycat version of what younger generations were already posting on Snapchat, the app everyone used for sharing snippets of their life. In addition, the added idea of saving them as “highlights” on a feed seemed like a desperate attempt to differentiate themselves from the popular competitor platform. I remember actively refraining from using this feature at the time to avoid falling prey to another social […]

Around August 17th, Google started a new system of generating titles for pages displayed in their search results.   Historically, in Google’s search results, they would display what you place in your HTML title tag as the title (big blue copy) and what you place in your meta description tag as the description (smaller black copy underneath the title). They may have updated your title and/or description based on the specific query if they thought it better served the user. The description is much more likely to have changed than […]

by Ken Magill for emfluence   The idea behind BIMI, or Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is pretty simple: An organization buttons up its email security. Then the organization can have its logo displayed in the avatar box next to the from line on mobile inboxes or in the messages in web browsers in participating email inbox providers.   (Google)   What is BIMI? BIMI’s aim is to drive the adoption of DMARC, the scheme under which domain owners authenticate their servers using the SPF and DKIM standards, and then […]

There’s no place like the Internet. Your web analytics read like the plot of a scary sci-fi movie: some of your audience clicks and views might not be human! Don’t panic! It’s not the robot uprising, just some bot traffic.   While bot traffic is not world-ending, it’s important to know the different bot types and how to avoid the unwanted kind; if left unchecked, bots can negatively impact your brand integrity, your search rankings, and cost your company money by attacking your apps, websites, or ads.     What […]

As we return to in-person events, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed, and maybe even a bit rusty when it comes to your event marketing strategy. Like most companies, you’ve probably seen a decrease in your inbound lead volume due to the pandemic and are wondering how to get the most out of upcoming tradeshows and other events. Adding digital marketing to your traditional tradeshow marketing channels can help you expand your reach at your next event and find new prospects within your target markets. The below guide is […]

Starting in June, Google began testing an article carousel in some journalist knowledge panels. (Photo Credit: Blog.Google)   Google’s explanation for the update includes, “With so many complex, important stories unfolding daily, people not only rely on specific publishers for the latest news, but also increasingly turn to trusted individual journalists, authors and experts.” Learn more from Google here.   This aligns with Google’s push to showcase expert, authoritative, and trustworthy content. This is commonly referred to as E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) in the SEO community. Google wants to […]

Whether you use social media or not, there’s a good chance your target audience does and would be delighted to see you slide into their view. But don’t just go posting away here, there and everywhere. Learning where, when and how often to post can be the difference in being annoying or showing up at the right time and place. Before determining the frequency, you’ll need to identify the location or the social media platform on which your audience will most likely interact. And, to do this, you’ll need to […]

The internet is a big place. According to estimates from Internet Live Stats, there are over 1.8 billion unique websites in existence today and this number is only going up. This mind-boggling statistic is awe inspiring but at the same time more than a little intimidating, especially for local business owners.   If you are a local business owner, you may be wondering how your website is supposed to compete in a search landscape that can contain literally millions of competitors. This is where local search engine optimization (SEO) comes […]

On June 2nd, 2021, Google announced a broad core algorithm update, as they do a few times a year. This newest update is called the June 2021 Core Update. These updates typically take a couple of weeks to fully roll out.   A second core update will be coming in July 2021 as well. Some of the planned updates were not quite ready for the June launch, so it is planned to be launched in July 2021. Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several […]

The phrase “above the fold” originates from newspapers. It refers to all content literally above the folded line on the front page. It’s the most visible content and is meant to capture people’s attention so they’ll grab the paper off the stand for further reading.     In the digital media world, its meaning has extended to include the area of content that’s readily visible and therefore the most important for inviting your viewer to digest more of your ad, web page, email, etc.   Why Should I Care About […]

“Social media has truly caused a massive shift in the world of marketing.” I’m sure you’ve heard this same sentiment repeated a thousand different ways, so much so that you may even be tired of it. However, it’s stuck around because it still rings true: social media has become a staple of today’s marketing landscape and forever changed the way we communicate with our audiences. It’s given a voice to obscure brands, revolutionized the power held by consumers, and changed forever the way that marketers interact with and gather data […]

During the midst of the Coronavirus, we gave ideas on how to improve your analytics data with 40+ items to audit in your Google Analytics account. Today we want to discuss Google Analytics updates that were officially released on October 2020.  Google Analytics has proved to be a great tool for data-driven marketers. Since a major update is only introduced every few years, new releases are eagerly awaited to understand new techniques that may be possible in the coming months after release.     Why the Big Fuss about Google […]

Part 1: Content Strategy  It’s time to rethink your entire marketing and advertising strategy. No, really, it is. iOS 14 promises to curtail Facebook and other platforms’ long-standing (arguably uncouth, depending on whom you ask) data practices. Google Chrome, the most widely used internet browser by FAR, is moving to block third–party cookies, and the world is in the throes of a global pandemic that has upended marketing, advertising and general business “conventional wisdom” as a whole. With so much in flux, it’s time to get back to the basics. It’s time to stop working […]

If you’re a digital marketer and have been residing anywhere but under a rock, you’ve heard about browsers phasing out third-party cookies by 2022. What felt like forever is now on our doorstep, and it will impact everything from website and conversion tracking to audience targeting. While we’re still not sure how all the varying data companies are going to adjust and aren’t going to go into the specifics of how it all works, let’s talk about what you can do to prepare starting right now.   Instant Forms One […]