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November 28, 2016
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5 Ways Web Designers Can Create Amazing Websites

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Website Content, Website Design Practices

All masters in their domain have secrets they might not be willing to reveal, but their products and practices can speak for themselves and offer clues to achieving greatness. Web designing is such a field. It demands creativity, attention to detail, and practice. Understand what the best web designers do and you can become a master yourself. Here are 5 ways to amp up your web design skills and create powerful websites:

Avoid slideshows and carousels

Slideshows and carousels are suitable only if you are seeking to feature a lot of information on a single page. Remember though, many of your visitors might not stay on your website long enough to absorb all the information in a slideshow or carousel. Given visitors’ short attention spans, it’s typically better to offer a concise value proposition, especially on your home page, and avoid slideshows carousels. When you are seeking the attention of someone, it is important to deliver content that’s meaningful and remove anything not relevant.

Simplify the navigation through your design

A complex website might seem appealing at first, but it will not be very welcoming for a random visitor. Infusing too many options can be counterproductive. Simplifying the visitor’s experience is recommended so a visitor won’t lose time in an attempt to find the information they need the most.

Do not crowd your header or sidebar. Remove as many links as possible. Dropdown menus might adversely affect the aesthetics of your design and the user experience and can be difficult to use on mobile devices – consider eliminating them

Use a sketchbook!

This old-school hack is a must for designers. When ideas come or you feel like organizing a concept, grab your book and sketch it out as the inspiration flows. Tablets can also help you in drawing your design thoughts, but the feeling of sketching out a design on the paper is irreplaceable. This method can assist you during brainstorming and help organize your design process better.

Read more: 5 Ways Web Designers Can Create Amazing Websites

October 6, 2016
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The Real Truth About B2B Marketing And The Social Media Platforms You Need

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B2B Marketing ,

I’ve read a few articles about social media and B2B Marketing lately that have blown my mind. You won’t believe number three…OK, there is no number three. And this is not a listicle. However, I read an article recently that got me thinking, and there are a few things that need to be said about it’s validity. But in answer to your question about which platform is the best one for B2B marketing? It depends.

B2B social media platformsIt is unsatisfying, I know — but there is certainly no shortage of opinions on the matter. For example, that article I mentioned was called Facebook ranks ahead of Twitter and LinkedIn for B2B decision makers, and the title alone was enough to surprise me. It details the results of a study by United Kingdom PR agency Hotwire called The Changing Face of Influence, and there is a lot of interesting information there. The statistic that hooked me? “…when asked which one channel they’d turn to for information on a purchasing decision, 1 in 4 (24%) decision makers said Facebook would be their social channel of choice.”

Why Facebook over Twitter and LinkedIn, you may ask? “Because we use it more – our study reveals the average decision maker uses Facebook 18 days a month, compared to 13 for LinkedIn. Decision makers look to the channels they’re using as part of their daily routine – we don’t want to check whole new sources of information if we don’t have to.”

Read more: The Real Truth About B2B Marketing And The Social Media Platforms You Need

October 4, 2016
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The four pillars of the future of SEO

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO has come a long way from being all about on-page optimization, building backlinks and creating “relevant” content. When I read popular search engine blogs, I notice a definite trend: SEO is moving toward a more inclusive strategy that goes beyond new ways of link building or content marketing.

A huge part of present-day SEO practices is brand building and influencing search queries themselves, as opposed to starting with a truckload of keywords and creating content around them. Therefore, while links, keywords, content and site optimization remain the building blocks of SEO, the columns on which the edifice is being built are taking on a different appearance. Let’s see what these pillars are.

1. RankBrain
2. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
3. The Knowledge Graph & rich answers
4. Real-time, integrated penalty filters

Read more: The four pillars of the future of SEO

September 29, 2016
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9 Things Social Media Marketers Get Wrong

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Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has arguably survived the initial wave of backlash that came when marketers first started leveraging platforms like Facebook and Twitter to reach new audiences. It was said that social media was a fad, or at least that it was impossible to generate a positive return on investment (ROI) with it. Now, more than a decade later, marketers are still leveraging the power of social media for greater brand exposure, more traffic, and more revenue-generating conversions, among many other benefits.

Even so, there are some critical things social media marketers still commonly get wrong:

1. Followers are the most important metric.
2. Paid advertising is the only sure way to get visibility.
3. The more platforms you’re on, the better.
4. Posts should be automated.
5. Hashtags make everything better.

Read more: 9 Things Social Media Marketers Get Wrong

September 27, 2016
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How To Leverage Marketing Automation For Holiday Email Marketing

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E-Marketing

It’s time to start rockin’ around the email tree. With the holidays fast approaching, businesses should start thinking about using marketing automation to get registers ringing.

This year, make the process easier with email marketing and automation. Rather than creating and sending emails during the thick of the holiday season, use marketing automation features to create relevant campaigns to arrive in subscribers’ inboxes at exactly the right time, all season long.

For most businesses, the last two months of sales account for forty percent of the total revenue earned throughout the year. With so much riding on the holiday season, using marketing automation is a decision even the Grinch wouldn’t disagree with.

To help businesses get their marketing automation groove on, we’ll give you a list of holiday emails that you can send and provide tips to get the most out of your marketing automation during this critical time of year.

Light up inboxes with these 4 automated emails

Wondering what emails you can automate this holiday season? Here’s a list of four emails that will light up inboxes:

1. A welcome email or series
2. Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals
3. An inspiring gift guide
4. Helpful holiday hints

Read more: How To Leverage Marketing Automation For Holiday Email Marketing

June 16, 2016
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Should you Pay for Social Media Marketing?

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Social Media Marketing

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and the many other social media sites have changed the face of the internet. They started out with just free ways to allow businesses to market and drive traffic to their websites. However, many of the social sites now offer paid marketing options, which allows businesses to gain massive exposure to a very highly targeted market.

Paid social media advertising can be very powerful when used correctly. When you choose major platforms and you target the right segment of users, you may find that you gain a ton of great exposure. Each platform will be a bit different, but every business can benefit from paid social media marketing.

Benefits of Paid Social Media Marketing
There are several key benefits businesses of all sizes gain when they pay for social media marketing. Whether you’re running a small, local business or a large worldwide corporation, there are plenty of benefits. Some of the key benefits include:

Read more: Should you Pay for Social Media Marketing?

June 14, 2016
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Why Email Marketing Must Be a Priority for Real Estate Agents

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E-Marketing

Email is easily the most ubiquitous digital communication technology. Ninety-five percent of online consumers have at least one email address and most check their email every day. If you are not incorporating this valuable tool into your real estate marketing, you are missing out on valuable leads. Here are a few items that make email so important and ways you can leverage it for marketing success.

Emails transmit information that a phone call can’t. When you contact prospects by email, you can immediately send them photos of homes, information about the size and price of a property, and important information for the sale. Letting the home speak for itself can be far more persuasive than trying to verbally describe a listing that your client or prospect just has to see.

Most consumers prefer email. In surveys, consumers indicate that email is their preferred method of contact for commercial communications — and, it makes sense. Email can be scanned, allowing people to gather the gist of a marketing message in just a few seconds. Unlike phone calls, email is not time bound. You can send your messages and consumers can peruse them at a time that is convenient for them. Email provides a record. If your prospects want to review the stats on a property, it’s right there in their inbox when they want it.

Email provides a great return on your marketing investment. The average email marketing campaign provides a 4,300 percent return on investment. Email allows you to reach as many or as few prospects as you would like at a very low cost. By using this method regularly, you can significantly drop your customer acquisition costs and increase your real estate business net profits.

Read more: Why Email Marketing Must Be a Priority for Real Estate Agents 

June 9, 2016
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How to Use Email Marketing to Strengthen Business Relationships

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E-Marketing

If you want to grow your business, you have to consider the role of email marketing in your promotional mix. It’s still one of the less expensive marketing vehicles to employ, and by following a few simple rules you can change your customers’ perceptions of your email (and your company), drive sales, and foster better relationships in the process. To get started, this column will talk about advanced opt-in options, newsletter dos and don’ts, and pairing your email with other marketing vehicles. Our next column continues the discussion by exploring educational offerings, email and online survey best practices, and how to engage your customers via email using loyalty programs and rewards.

Can You Go Beyond Simple Opt-In?
Most reputable companies ask for customer buy-in when they collect email addresses. Granted, to maximize opt-ins, your website might auto-check the box that says “Contact me about promotions and offers.” Hey, at least you’re giving customers a choice.

Opt-ins are good, but consider giving your customers a few specific options rather than one vague choice. You’ll want to keep your list of options short. After all, if you make customers think too much or take too much time, most will get bored and abandon the task. That said, I’m not recommending you include all of these; the list below is to get you thinking. Depending on the type of product or service you offer, not all will apply to you. For example, you can give customers the option to:

Read more: How to Use Email Marketing to Strengthen Business Relationships 

June 7, 2016
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3 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing ,

Social media marketing is as important as SEO in this day and age. A third of millennials say they prefer to communicate with businesses via social media. So you need to optimize your website for social media marketing. The first mistake you should never make is viewing your website and your social media channels as mutually exclusive parts.

Yes, social media can help you meet your B2B sales quota, but this only happens when you combine your SEO efforts with your social media efforts. And that involves optimizing your website. This guide is going to show you some of the things you have to do in order to get ready for social media marketing.

Connecting with Social Media

In order to generate B2B business leads through LinkedIn, you can’t just operate on LinkedIn. You must form a clear path between this social media network and your website. Including your website in the bio of your profile is relatively simple, but not a lot of companies use their website to link back to their social media accounts.

Such a simple change can make a huge difference.

Display these links prominently and don’t just install a sharing bar at the bottom of your page. This may require some additional add-ons or some more coding, but it’s well worth the effort in the long-term. There are plenty of tools that will allow you to do the same thing.

For example, WordPress comes with a range of third-party add-ons that will do this for you automatically. You want it to be easy for users to get from social media to your website and your website to social media. You also want to make it easy for them to share content from your site to their social media feeds.

Read more: 3 Ways to Optimize Your Website for Social Media Marketing 

May 12, 2016
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75% of marketers say social media marketing is paying off

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Social Media Marketing

Social media is generating better returns on investments this year than it did last year, according to Salesforce’s new “2016 State of Marketing Report.”

The report finds that 75% of retailers and other marketers say that social media delivers either a “strong” or “some” return on their investment. That’s a 46-percentage point increase from the 29% who said so a year earlier.

“Social media marketing is a core piece of a lot of retailers’ businesses,” says Vala Afshar, Salesforce’s chief digital evangelist.

That’s despite the fact that social media led directly to relatively few sales over the most recent holiday season. Only 1.8% of online retail sales over the holidays stemmed from shoppers clicking directly from social networks to retail sites, according to marketing platform vendor Custora, which examined online shoppers’ visits to more than 200 online retail websites.

In part, social media has become a more effective marketing tool because marketers are increasingly developing holistic, cross-channel marketing campaigns rather than developing their social media marketing campaigns in a silo, Afshar says. The report finds that 63% of self-declared “high-performing” marketers integrate social media into their overall marketing strategy, far more than the 28% of marketers who say they are “moderate-performing” and 20% who say they are “low-performing.”

Read more: 75% of marketers say social media marketing is paying off

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