Skip Miller and Janelle Johnson Discuss the New Normal of Lead Qualification
Editor’s Note: William “Skip” Miller is President of M3 Learning, a company whose sales training tools are changing the way sales professionals get work done. Skip has spent more than 25 years in various sales, marketing, and operational management roles, including with McDonnell Douglas and Dataquest. He’s the author of five best-selling books, including “ProActive […]
Email Etiquette: Don’t Sabotage Your Career
Email is so common, and such a pedestrian workhorse, that it’s easy to take it for granted. But in a business setting, it’s a fine opportunity for you to win (or lose) people’s esteem, and it can have a very positive (or crushingly negative) effect on your employment. Let’s take a look at a baker’s […]
Dreamforce Attendees: Take the #Tchotchke Tchallenge!
We all want to do something to make the world a little bit better. The Tchotchke Tchallenge exemplifies how you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company or a billionaire to give back; even small companies can make a difference. Act-On has come up with a way for anyone attending Dreamforce to make their […]
10 Things B2B Marketers Should be Doing on LinkedIn
It’s no secret that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. With over 313 million members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is a vital tool in conveying brand identity and increasing reach. And it can be a lead generator as well: CMO.com reports that LinkedIn is now responsible for a staggering 64 […]
Ad Retargeting 101
Every business discipline has its own lexicon. (You could make a game out of matching the buzzword to the industry…rightshoring? SOX? Reverse fulfillment?) We certainly have our share in marketing, especially in the digital marketing industry, but some are actually useful. Take “ad retargeting.” It began as a concept, then became a buzzword, and now, […]
B2B Marketing Best Practices for Twitter
Think Twitter isn’t for B2B? Think again. Here are 10 things your brand should be doing right now on Twitter.
How Data Science Is Transforming Sales and Marketing
What in the world is data science? And why should you care? Data science – and predictive analytics, in particular – is moving the goalposts for salespeople and marketers alike. In fact, it’s moving the entire stadium. Predictive analytics is the foundational discipline that can make marketing more effective and targeted, and your salespeople better […]
Obey Facebook’s Rules of Engagement (Or Else)
Do you know what it’s like to have a major Facebook campaign for a major client go completely dark a mere three hours after a giant PR push? I do. Nothing like getting a call from a frantic client and then seeing the Facebook email of doom in your inbox: Your app has been disabled. […]
Summer SEO News You Should Know About: HTTPS, Rich Snippets, More
Summer is coming to a close and with it the end of (yet) another memorable season in the world of SEO. When Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, announced his three month sabbatical we all joked that no updates could possibly roll out without him at the helm. In his absence we’ve heard rumors of […]
Cohort Analysis: 2 Simple Steps to Better Understand Your Leads
Cohort analysis is an often-overlooked area of marketing analytics. It involves tracking a group that shares a common characteristic (a “cohort”) over a certain period of time and evaluating outcomes. In this post, we will talk about cohort analysis of leads. This involves following a group of leads which were created in a certain period, […]
Did I Just Get a Google Penalty?
Recently I did a webinar called “Did Google Just Penalize Me?” for Website Magazine. We didn’t have enough time to answer all the great questions we got about how you might get a Google penalty, so I’m recapping a few of the most interesting here. If you’d like to watch the webinar, please click the […]
Full-Service Technology Vendors: Marketing Automation Support and More
It’s a new world out there, and the traditional office is a thing of the past. These days, employees working for organizations across every industry are often working remotely, scattered across the globe. It’s a great way to optimize resources and ensure the best possible levels of expertise in your teams. But how can businesses […]
Nurturing Cold Social Leads is a Lot Like Online Dating
I hate to admit it, but I know a lot about online dating. I have lived it, analyzed it, written articles about it, and even done a tongue-in-cheek Ignite presentation on the subject in front of a sold-out crowd of 800 people. I never imagined that my depth of experience in the world of online […]
Marketing Agency Metrics: How to Measure What Matters
When I worked at a marketing agency about 15 years ago, our focus was on telling stories, making connections, and developing content. In a way, we were way ahead of our time, since these days, it seems like that kind of thing is now built into the DNA of most agencies. But in one very […]
A Keyword Primer: Finding and Using Keywords Effectively
Keywords are important for every business online today.. They help drive traffic to your website and, when chosen and used well, draw visitors who become customers. Keywords define a business, and represent the essence of the products and services that are offered. In the context of search engines, keywords help users find your website when […]
5 Tips for Marketing in a Highly Regulated Industry
Marketers working in highly controlled industries face multiple challenges when it comes to reaching their audiences in a personal, relevant way. Industries such as financial services and healthcare have a variety of protocols around how they can market to consumers – especially where personal or financial information is concerned. In the new world of marketing, […]
5 Habits of Superstar Marketers
In a LinkedIn post from last year, Lou Adler, CEO and founder of The Adler Group, points out 12 ways to spot a high achiever. Here are the top three, edited a bit for length: They’ve been assigned difficult challenges ahead of their peers. The best people … are typically assigned tasks, clients and projects […]
5 Social Media Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
We’ve all made social media faux pas before – a few weeks ago, I accidentally sent a group of friends what I thought was a recipe. It turned out to be an accidental selfie I had taken while unaware that my camera was open, in which I bore a striking resemblance to a female (and […]
Google Penguin Recovery from a Manual Action
Editor’s note: We hear a lot about Google penalties. In this post, Kaila Strong of Vertical Measures discusses the impact and mitigation of Google’s Penguin penalty. Martin Laetsch, Act-On’s Director of Online Marketing, offers a high-level overview of penalties in general. He says that if you think you have been penalized, there are three possibilities: […]