We’re hearing the question more and more: Should my business be on Pinterest? Now the third most popular social networking site, Pinterest reached 104 million monthly visits in March 2012. If your business relies on high website traffic to increase sales, you should consider joining Pinterest. Pinterest users are 79% more likely to purchase an item they saw on Pinterest than Facebook users who saw an item in their newsfeed or on a friend’s wall. So how can your business use Pinterest to increase your website traffic, improve your brand recognition, and convert new visits into leads?

post as your page or just as yourself with new Facebook Voice feature
Before Thursday of last week, as an Administrator of the emfluence Facebook page, anything I posted or liked showed up as emfluence comment or like. With the new Voice feature, I can toggle between if I want the post to come from me (Jessica) or from emfluence as a brand. I can now weigh in on company posts as myself!

survey says: best practices for creating a great online survey
Delving into the world of digital surveys? Here are 6 quick tips for creating online surveys so you can get better feedback from your respondents.

4 ways every marketer can make their email marketing mobile-accessible
Research shows over 125% growth in accessing email via mobile devices in 2011. 77% of mobile email users check their email before they even get out of bed. On average, around 25% of email readers are viewing your emails at least once on their mobile device.
While email marketers are increasingly concerned about how their emails are prioritized in inboxes, the mobile factor has been sneakily increasing its impact. Whether you’re a novice email crafter or an expert coder, here are 4 tips everyone can use to make your emails more mobile-optimized.

New Google AdWords Matching Behavior Could Have a Big Impact
On April 17, Google announced new matching behavior on AdWords for Exact and Phrase Match keywords. What does that mean in the world of pay-per-click (PPC) marketing? For one, it means that PPC campaign managers everywhere will no longer have to create variations of Exact and Phrase Match keywords, like including both singular and plural versions, misspellings, abbreviations and more…
the importance of SEO early in your website relaunch
This is an excellent case study from our friends at SEOMoz! The client did everything right with 301 redirects on their website relaunch. Maybe a little “too right” and ended up having to be flexible and make some quick fixes. Even when the SEO team and developers implemented everything perfectly, there were still issues and unknowns.

top 9 coolest things I saw at SXSWi 2012
South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) felt like “Disney World for Geeks” in 2012: All the well-known characters from the Tech world were there. Souvenirs and tchotchkes were out of control, and around every street corner: something completely mind-blowingly cool and innovative. Here are easily the 9 coolest things I saw at SXSWi 2012 from Aurasma to Chevy to Google.
top 12 takeaways from SMX West
Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West took place last week in downtown San Jose, California at the McEnery Convention Center. This was “the biggest and best SMX show ever” according to Chris Sherman, Vice President of Event Programming for SMX. I agree! This show featured honest conversation, open sharing, and interaction between experts and novices alike. Deciding which sessions to attend was tough – there were many great options. I focused heavily on SEO, with some local search and social mixed in. Here are the top 12 takeaways I brought back to Kansas City with me.
solving problems and seeing success in Google Places
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking on a local search panel titled “Solving Problems and Seeing Success in Google Places.” On the panel, we presented recommendations for dealing with human support at Google places, tips from an agency perspective, and a look at case study information from my work with Houlihan’s restaurants. Download my Google Places panel presentation slides for more information.

dear Pinterest, with love – a marketer’s introduction
The first time I finally got what the buzz was about with Pinterest, two hours passed like 10 minutes. I’d actually tried to love Pinterest a few times before that but just didn’t get it. What’s so addictive about it? How can people spend so much time on it…? The short answer is: it’s pretty.
Pinterest is an online corkboard of sorts where you can pin images of things you like or want to save for later. Pinterest is an easy way for users to visualize and categorize content. So why is it blowing up?

the importance of bidding on your own brand in ppc
I recently had a client start bidding on their brand words only after they saw a competitor was bidding (poaching). Not only was someone bidding on the client’s brand, they were sending traffic directly to the client’s real website. There weren’t even diverting traffic to an outside site! By running ads on the client’s brand and sending traffic to the client’s domain, the official ads for the client are effectively blocked because the offending party was there first. Even though our client provided official and more accurate ads, they’d been blocked by a company that put up so-so advertising leading to the client’s website. This is a key reason you should be bidding on your own brand keywords for paid search.
study shows paid search ads drive in-store traffic
Online marketing is full of perks. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to track results so accurately. We can measure exactly how effective our online marketing campaign was at driving online sales. But what about the influence it has on offline sales? Of course we know it happens. But we can’t always measure the exact results, especially since in many cases a retailer’s products can be purchased both online and offline.

how do search and social intersect?
How do search and social intersect? Google and Bing (and thus Yahoo!) have different social signals built into their algorithms to allow social media popularity to impact rankings.

on the ground and online: channeling the best of both worlds
The close of 2011 brought the announcement of hundreds of brick-and-mortar locations closing for stores such as Sears and Kmart. Business owners both large and small have every reason to feel a bit rattled. Just as marketers must integrate new media into traditionally-based marketing channel models to survive, business owners with storefronts on the ground must adapt their strategies to appeal to consumers in the digital shopping space as well.
emfluencer Corey Morris to speak at SMX West 2012
Attending SMX West for more search engine marketing knowledge? Be sure to catch our own Corey Morris, Search Engine Marketing Strategist for emfluence on the…
Google’s “Search, plus Your World” summarized for marketers
Google rolled out a big update recently called “Search Plus Your World.” While the search community has written many in-depth articles about how it works here’s a brief look at what marketers need to know about the update.
Marketer Do’s and Don’ts: Google’s “Search, plus Your World” update
Search Plus Your World has caused quite a stir in the search marketing community on a number of levels. The short version is this: This update is the biggest Google update in a decade. While the hype may be overdone, it’s not something we can ignore.
Here are a few things that you should know about the Search Plus Your World update and some steps you should be taking to ensure that you are evolving your digital marketing activities to keep from being left behind.
when to involve the SEO team in your site redesign
How frustrating is it to see clients and colleagues miss opportunities? Answer: Not nearly as frustrating as seeing mistakes made that penalize website rankings over time.
As an SEO, I pride myself in being able to join a project at any point and welcome new challenges. But, there’s no doubt that being on a project from the beginning produces the best search engine optimization results. Here are three reasons why you should involve your search marketing team from the very beginning of your site design.

keep it simple – the importance of simplicity in email marketing
Raise your hand if you remember the KISS rule? Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Every day, I see dozens of email marketing campaigns from clients that spend hours tweaking and perfecting their email marketing messages. I’m all for sending out quality product, but are we sweating too much over details our readers skip over?
Here’s my argument for simplicity in email marketing.
integrating your digital marketing for best results
Successfully integrating a marketing plan takes some work and is based in good planning. To your consumer, an integrated marketing plan will look seamless. The tone and information will be consistent, the consumer will know exactly where to find you and what to expect when they get there. What can you do to inject harmony and coordination to your brand experience?

not all keywords are created equal in SEO
8 aspects of your search engine optimization you should consider on a keyword-by-keyword basis
by Corey Morris, emfluence Search Engine Marketing Strategist

announcing emfl-U: Digital Marketing Bootcamp, Nov 9th
One thing we hear often at emfluence is how unavailable digital marketing education seems to be. Sure, you can take another 1-hour webinar on LinkedIn, but where can you find a seminar on strategizing and intgetrating every aspect of your digital marketing?
The answer is in Kansas City, November 9th.
Announcing emfl-U: Digital Bootcamp

most popular email newsletter topics of 2011
Ever wonder what your peers or prospects are most interested in? When was the last time you checked out what your most clicked on link of this year was? We thought we’d pull back the curtain a little and let you know which emfluence articles were most interesting this year.

What your domain-level reporting is telling you about your email marketing campaigns
Your email deliverability – whether or not you’re being delivered to your subscribers’ inboxes – is a huge factor in what return on investment you earn from your email campaigns. After all, if the subscriber doesn’t see your email, they can’t act on it.
Domain Level ReportingOne of the benefits of email marketing is that, like all digital marketing, it comes equipped with analytics and reporting that can talk to you about the status of your campaigns. One of the most important set of metrics to watch is your results by domain. Domain-level reporting allows you to see results not just of your email as a whole, but also across each receiving domain.

what’s in a (from) name – who should your email marketing be “from”?
It’s probably on the top 5 most asked/most discussed questions in email marketing: “Who should our marketing emails be ‘from’?”
The best “from” varies based on a lot of factors: B2B vs. B2C, profit vs. nonprofit, Sales emails vs. Marketing emails vs. News and Information. Each email type or topic is likely to be sent from your Email Service Provider and you can decide who the email comes from.
So, who should your emails be from?
notes & takeaways from the 2011 emfluence User Conference
Whether you attended or if you didn’t get the chance, the notes will be worth gold. Take a peek at the top takeaways from the three keynote presentations at the 2011 emfluence Marketing Platform User Conference.
a lesson in wow: Helzberg proves their reputation for great customer service
Helzberg Diamonds offered a deal last week that seemed too good to be true… and turned out it was. Their online system had a glitch and their advertised “surprise savings” were a surprise even to them! These are the moments that define a company’s reputation. There are a lot of lessons to be taken from how Helzberg handled the potential catastrophe.
"*" indicates required fields