What are GIFs? A Medium of Communication
GIFs (which stands for Graphics Interchange Format) have become a major way to communicate. Twitter announced in June of 2014 that GIFs are now supported by their social network. What are GIFs? Although they are just now starting to pick up steam, GIFs have been used on the internet for years. Tumblr, a […]
5 Social Media Hacks to Help You Work Smarter, Not Harder
Being on social media is all about working smarter, not harder. I’ve written about different tools for analytics, hashtags, and posting tools. Let’s look at 5 social media hacks to make your job even easier. 1. IFTTT If This Then That is an app based on recipes to make your life easier. These recipes are […]
You Need a Social Media Content Calendar. Here’s Why.
Remember those analytics tools I wrote about? Hopefully you have some statistics from your social media networks that have pointed at some posts that have performed well. Based on those numbers, now is a great time to create a social media content calendar if you haven’t already. Not sure you need a social media content […]
Tips for Choosing the Perfect Hashtag
Twitter and Instagram thrive on hashtags. They make searching for specific content easy, whether its a tweet, image, blog, video, or to make commentary on a specific event. But how do you go about choosing the perfect hashtag? Here are some tools and tips to make it easy. As you create your hashtag, here’s three […]
Social Media Analytics: Tools to Get You Started
Social media success lies in doing more of what works, and less of what doesn’t. So, how do you know what’s hit or miss? Take a look at your social media analytics. These numbers are more than just likes or retweets. They’re the quantitative facts to help direct your social media content. Once again, let’s […]
How Do You Measure the Success of a Website?
What does it mean to have a successful website? In the past, having a website that worked and looked good may have been all a company was really looking for. But in 2015 a website can and should do much more. A company needs to set standards for what their website strategy will do and […]
3 Social Media Tools to Help Get You Started
Social media is all about participating in the conversation. Initially, managing social media will be time consuming. But if you put in the hard work early – get organized and plan ahead – managing the wide variety of accounts will be a cup of tea. Ultimately the social media tools you use will depend […]
Blogs We Read for Content Marketing Inspiration
Sometimes there is nothing more intimidating than a blank piece of paper. When you know you need to have a blog written and you don’t come to the computer with the topic in mind, you can risk wasting a lot of time looking for inspiration in the wrong places. Whenever I start writing for a […]
Title Capitalization Rules for the Busy Blogger
It’s no secret that titles are important. They are the first impression a reader has of our content. It’s important for a title to be descriptive and to garner attention, and that takes work. You don’t want all your hard work to go to waste because of title capitalization errors. Let’s be honest, which words […]
The Dangers of Small Business Blogging
According to HubSpot, companies that publish 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts. While this data is true and valuable, it doesn’t speak to the quality of blog posts and how that affects inbound marketing. Writing is hard. Grammar and […]
Why target= “_blank” is your friend. External links should open in a new tab!
Attention online publishers! If you are linking to a source within your content you need to make sure said source opens in a new tab. No excuses. Here’s why: Think about the experience of a reader. They are really into reading your article when you reference a video you watched that has another example […]
6 Tips for an effective Call to Action (CTA)
While some symbols and design elements have become intuitive for users, your visitor does not always know what to do next. It’s up to you to tell them what to do, and why they should do it. A key piece of your inbound marketing strategy is an effective Call to Action. An effective Call to […]
An Email Marketing Strategy Can Be So Much More than a Newsletter
Sometimes it seems as though email marketing gained most of its reputation before the days of social media. For a lot of business owners, the term “email marketing” conjures visions of bad clipart and awkwardly placed images, alongside blurbs of content outlining everything that happened in their business that month. But the ways in which […]
Why Inbound Marketing is Like Dating
A while back (pre-HubSpot) we developed a series of landing pages for a client. The offers that were featured with these pages were aligned with a direct mail campaign they had been sending out over the past several months. These offers were geared towards trying to get people in the door, or what I like […]
How to resize images using WordPress
Have you ever uploaded an awesome photo to your WordPress website or blog, and then have it take 12 seconds to load on the page? Or maybe you’ve wanted an image to take up more or less space on the page. You can do these types of edits right in the backend of WordPress. So […]
Google Trends as a Keyword Research Tool
You don’t need a bunch of paid fancy tools to do basic keyword research for your website or blog. Google Trends is a great introductory keyword research tool for any business owner that is producing and posting their own content. When you’re creating a blog post, you want to make sure the terms you […]
Developing a Marketing Budget when Outsourcing Marketing
When it comes to marketing, there are no one-size-fits-all strategies. Every strategy needs to be customized depending on the goals and needs of the company. Just like the strategy, a company’s marketing budget also needs to be highly customized. Marketing budgets tend to be somewhere between 2% and 20% of gross annual revenue. That’s a […]
One time SEO vs. ongoing SEO
Just like everything on the web, SEO is changing. What used to be reserved for developers and programmers is now the job of a great content writer and a content management system. What’s the difference between one time SEO and ongoing SEO? One-Time SEO SEO done one time is usually done at the launch of […]
Stop Spamming: How to grow your email list the right way
How awful is it when you go to a networking event, hand out a few business cards, and get an impersonal html email in your inbox the next morning? It’s only been a few hours since you met this new contact, and they’ve already added you to their email list without your permission. When this […]
The Simplest Keyword Research Tool
When writing content for your website or blog, your first step is to think about your user and what they might be searching for. What are their challenges, and how can you help them? It’s a good idea to do some keyword research to ensure the term your optimizing the page for matches up with […]
Writing Website Content – Ask Yourself These 4 Questions
Are you having trouble writing website content? Ask yourself these four questions. Will people know what I do within seconds? Will they understand what page they’re on and what it’s about? Will they know what to do next? Why should they buy/subscribe/download from this site instead of from someone else? When writing website content, […]
My Facebook Link Image is Not Showing–How to Fix it!
**Updated 1/19** Have you ever posted a link to Facebook, wanting it to look like this: But instead, it looked like this?: If your Facebook link image is not showing, it can be pretty frustrating. That’s why I’m here to help you to make sure that every link you post looks professional every single time. […]
What is Inbound Marketing? A Strategic Guide for Modern B2B Growth
Understanding what is inbound marketing is essential for any business looking to attract and convert high-value customers without relying on intrusive outbound sales tactics. The philosophy is simple: create valuable, relevant content that aligns with user needs, allowing prospects to find you naturally when they are ready to buy. However, the digital landscape has shifted […]
Content Creation doesn’t have to be hard
Content creation has become one of the most important avenues for driving traffic to your website. According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound report, companies that blog have 55% more website visitors, and generate 88% more leads than those companies that don’t. Here are some reasons why you really need a blog: It creates fresh […]
SEO tactics to keep in mind when building your website
You can’t trick a search engine, so don’t even try. The days of over-stuffing keywords, and cloaking to get found online are long gone. If you’re serious about getting relevant organic search engine traffic, you need proper on-page SEO tactics in place. On-page SEO tactics consist of placing your most important keywords within the content […]
Website Strategy tip: Offering value to your website visitors
Not only is it important to have a nice looking and informative website, but you need to have an effective website strategy to go with it. In this series of blog posts I’ll be going over what a great website strategy looks like with some tips and tactics that will get you there.
MYPN Power Lunch Series
Last month, we had the pleasure of teaming up with Manchester Young Professionals Network for a Power Lunch Series event here at the studio. The event was sponsored by Northwestern Mutual and included a presentation, lunch, and networking. I presented one of my favorite topics, “debunking social media myths.” This is where I spend […]
Digital Marketing: Got Strategy?
Most of the digital marketing blogs I read are broken down by discipline and channel. One section for SEO, one for PPC, one for social media. This may be an organized way of writing about digital marketing, but when a brand executes their plan, all of these pieces need to be working together to achieve […]
Signs You Follow Too Many on Twitter
How many people do you follow on twitter? And how many of those people do you really follow? Do their tweets matter to you or are you constantly scrolling past looking for something else? There are no rules for who, or how many you follow but setting some guidelines for yourself can make your entire […]
8 Benefits of Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective piece of a marketing plan. It is convenient and extremely cost effective. By sending an email, you are putting more emphasis on the message’s content and less on how it’s delivered, helping you become more memorable to your loyal or prospective clients. Here are 8 benefits of email marketing along […]