Audience Development Strategy posts focus on how to drive more website traffic through organic and paid sources, including search and social. You’ll also learn how to convert website visitors into email subscribers.
The Rules of (Social) Engagement
Imagine walking into a packed room of 10 roundtables filled to the brim with colleagues, and subject signs like Email Marketing Metrics: What’s Working, Repurposing Content for Profit, Renewal Marketing: Online vs. Print, Building Attendance at Live Events and AdWords: What’s Working?—all with highly respected moderators. And having to pick just
This clip from the Digital Native Survey focuses on the aspect of sharing and discovering content. It asks the participants these four questions:
While perusing the Internet, I was surprised to see yet another article discussing the death of email.
Although this article seemed to be directed toward internal business activities and the focus of other platforms for internal communication, there’s an interesting scenario that exists: some companies are attempting to eliminate internal email communications while others are expanding
The Mequoda Daily serves as our collaboration between research, insight and case studies designed to help online publishers, content marketers and online business owners understand the evolving digital environment better.
The five to seven articles published daily have become training tools that teach how to sell more products, write better email newsletters, experience higher conversion
Sometimes you have to reach out and touch your audience members. Not literally, of course, but not everyone will be actively looking for your content, even if your core content is ideal to them.
If you want to get these types of people on your email marketing list, you may have to go after them,
This segment of our Digital Native Survey features questions that publishers have been wondering ever since multiple subscription platforms have become popular.
In this clip from the Digital Native Survey, you will learn the answers to these pressing questions:
“So you love a brand. How do you subscribe to them?”
More Twitter marketing opportunities arise as Twitter gets a big facelift
Twitter is somewhat quietly rolling out a lot of changes to the site and their platform that directly impacts the businesses who use them for social marketing. Maybe you call Brand Profiles “too little, too late”, but they’re coming.
I could dive into the deep abyss
Seth Godin is the king of turning complex ideas into common sense. On his blog, he once wrote, “How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?”
Last week we wrapped up the final touches on our brand new Facebook for Publishers presentation set to debut during tomorrow’s webinar. If you’ve spent time with us recently, you know that we have an abundance of lessons to teach on Facebook, however until now it’s never been touched up quite so eloquently.
The Digital Native Survey was designed to show how digital natives interact with media and the Internet. The insights are especially helpful to digital immigrants, many of whom operate online businesses and are making the transition to digital.
The following clip shows the digital natives discussing their online subscription habits and their social media usage.
Tips for connecting with your audience
The digital landscape is unique and amazing in terms of communication abilities. There is a vast world of knowledge and entertainment online that can keep people engaged for hours.
As the usage of this medium increases and more opportunities become available online, it’s important that we as online business professionals
After you’ve operated with a specific email template and strategy for a while, it becomes like second nature. You know exactly what’s needed daily, and you’re able to execute on it with ease.
However, consistency may lead to complacence, and if you want your email campaigns to always be as effective as possible, you have
Integrating Social Media With Your Editorial
Back at the SIPA UK Conference in the summer—yes, think warm temperatures and lots of daylight—Sona Hathi of Melcrum and Mark Johnson of The Economist Group presented an excellent session on Practical Social Media: Integrating With Your Editorial. This is something that I know we deal with here at SIPA
You might not have noticed the new YouTube roll-out last week, but a few big things happened that benefit professional users everywhere. GigaOM calls it, “one of [YouTube’s] most ambitious redesigns since its launch in 2006.”
When former Chief Digital Officer, Jean-Philippe Maheu worked for The Ogilvy Group, he said: “Ultimately, brands need to have a role in society. The best way to have a role in society is to understand how people are talking about things in real time.”
Just recently, Facebook made an entire update to their analytics and let’s just say that you can finally make sense from the numbers they’ve given you. And if you can’t—we’ve got a webinar for you. But we’re not just talking analytics, we’re also diving deeply into all of the other massive changes that have taken
On Blogging, Telemarketing and Timing of Emails
Here are three good articles I’ve come across in the last few days, as we gear up for next week’s Marketing Conference in Miami.
1. Blog Away. “[B-to-B] blogs are the closest thing to a no-brainer I can think of,” said Paul Gillin, author of Social Marketing to the Business
Email strategy consultant Jeanne Jennings shares some important insight
We talk at lengths about the power and relevancy email plays in today’s digital world.
As a habitual activity familiar to the majority of online users, email doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Although some age groups may not use it as much for communication with friends
The email newsletter has continually evolved, just as email service providers and rules for emailing have
In the beginning, there was not a CAN SPAM Act created by the Federal Government to establish standards for commercial email.
Nowadays, as Internet users have evolved along with the web, there is a need to utilize email newsletter designs
Allowing users to easily unsubscribe from your email newsletter is a best practice for Mequoda System operators. Doing so helps alleviate possible spam complaints or other negative messages that could be sent through social media.
No online publishers ever want their audience to shrink, but we do realize it’s a reality. Sometimes people’s interests change
Thoughts on ROI for Social Media Efforts
I wrote the cover story for SIPA’s November Hotline newsletter on ROI for social media efforts. What should you expect and what parameters should you use? It’s a question that will continue into 2012 and beyond. How do we know we’re spending the right amount of time on places
Choosing the email service provider (ESP) for your business is a more difficult task than many people would think.
For instance, what do the potential ESPs have to offer your business? Will they provide you with a private IP address, or would you be sharing an IP address with others. It’s desperately important to know this
There are three ways for someone to get an article you’ve posted in their feed. First, they’re a fan and they see it when you post the article. Second, a friend saw your article and “liked” it; Third, a fan “shared” your article via Facebook after you posted it. In every single one of these
In an ideal world, we could write one blog post and promote it the same way on every platform. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. Email subscribers sign up to your email newsletter to keep up to date on everything you’re teaching, showing and sharing. They aren’t expected to respond to your emails, post comments
Tips for Your Twitter World
Today’s SIPA Twitter Chat at noon EST will focus on renewals. These weekly Chats have produced some excellent dialogue on various topics—mobile, e-learning—so we encourage you to tune in.
A 7-step guide to the keyword universe
The keyword universe is the core to any successful online business. If content publishers or content marketers lack a keyword universe, they are basically operating in the dark – defining their online existence by assumptions and not clear factual evidence.
How is your keyword universe built and managed? For
Take social media users and turn them into your biggest source of online traffic and audience development
Social media traffic is the easiest source of traffic there is—once you have a network. For Mequoda, it quickly turned into our #2 source of traffic, next to Google. That beat traffic coming in from our email lists, which
Any marketing campaign has the same end goal: make more money for the company. The only difference between a traditional marketing campaign and a social media campaign is that social media marketing is based on loyalty instead of making a quick buck or generating a quick lead.
In our 90-minute Facebook for Publishers webinar, you’ll discover
How easy have you made it for audience members to share your content?
In all markets we’ve seen, social interaction and engagement has been a desired channel for content publishers and consumers. Publishers like when their audience shows interest in their content and consumers are willing to share content when it is of a high quality
The Power and (Occasional) Glory of Email Marketing
Email marketing remains a powerful tool, so powerful that it’s almost like one of those laser weapons in a James Bond film: put in the wrong hands, bad things can happen. I saw an example this week, where a well-intentioned email led to a flurry that had people
The smartest business professionals utilize the tools of the digital age before making major moves. The smart operator or consumer pays due diligence to research before starting a project or buying a product. If the proper attention isn’t paid, it can lead to failure or buyer’s remorse.
It’s interesting; some CEOs expect to take a
New Thinking Puts Spotlight on nOtice
We’ve come a long way from Paul Revere’s ride for dispensing community information. But the British are still coming, at least in terms of innovative ideas. Yesterday was the launch date for nOtice, a new tool from The Guardian, orchestrated to give the community message board a digital updating. The
Email and social media are two popular Internet activities – are you marrying these two behaviors together?
Depending on your audience and the type of online business you operate, you likely find more value in one or the other: email or social media.
Companies with a strong social media presence can have information shared quickly through
Facebook’s growth is one major reason editors and content marketers have turned to the social media platform. With over 800 million members, where else could you find such a large community prepared to share content of interest with their contacts?
However, some editors and content marketers have not quite figured out an appropriate strategy for building
Adwords is a cost-effective paid marketing solution used to buy traffic on the keyword phrases your audience is searching.
Some online businesses use Adwords to strictly sell products. I’m sure you have seen these ads before, or have even utilized Adwords in the past.
Some publishers use Adwords to build their email list as they’ve run
Deaf Ears Put Google+ at Back of Line
I received an email last week from Google informing me that a SIPA member had added me “to his circles” and invited me to join Google+. The email had a picture of what looked like an old manual dial-telephone with faces inserted where the numbers should be. The
What Google+ will and won’t do for online publishers
It’s not exactly safe to say that using a Google network does anything for your SEO status. In fact, I’ve seen blogs on the Google-owned Blogger platform get completely ignored. Even worse, they were completely ignored once the blogger ditched their domain name and opted for the
If you’ve been on the social media map for a while you’re probably not looking to be trained on re-tweets and social media etiquette, but it’s normal for even the most successful businesses to wonder how they can do more.
If your best friend suddenly got a facelift and became a Buddhist monk, you’d still love him right? He wouldn’t quite look the same, and he might act differently, but he’s probably a little better looking and maybe even a little better of a person now, correct? Well that’s all debatable, as is any update
Value of Marketing Conference Reflected in Speakers
Today is the early-bird deadline for registration for SIPA’s 28th Annual Marketing Conference in Miami Beach, Dec. 7-9. The way I like to give value is to list key tips previously issued by the speakers, and then present the sessions they will be leading in Miami.
1. On yesterday’s Twitter
11 tips for writing holiday themed emails
The holiday season seems to start earlier each year; which gives businesses more chances to generate revenue.
If you’re retailing this holiday season, be aware that there is a lot of competition. You need to stick out in your communications or get lost in the clutter.
Email correspondence is an important part of your audience pyramid. It resides in the second tier – referred to as Subscribers – right above website visitors.
The Visitor tier accounts for your website traffic and is comprised of the largest volume of people. Many of these visitors will wander onto your site, leave and never
Collecting data from your email marketing campaigns allows you to determine which activities are the most beneficial to the health of your online business.
Smart online publishers use this data to plan their future email calendar, focusing on products and topics that generate the most website traffic and audience interaction while generating revenue.
For Mequoda
Three ways to take what Google has given you and make the most out of it
Parents have been telling their kids for years not to post anything on the web that they wouldn’t want an employer to see. And drunken college photos and angsty teen blog rants may have been all they needed to worry
Hail ‘Caesar’! A Great Call to Action
Watching the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s (STC) production of Julius Caesar here in Washington, D.C. a couple months ago, I just thought, “That Shakespeare guy would have made some copywriter.” The power of persuasion he gives to Mark Antony’s famous speech can serve as a lesson for all of us
Issues and Answers from Our ‘Mobile’ Webinar
Here are 11 tips from SIPA’s recent Webinar on Going Mobile for Publishers: Developing a Content Delivery System for an Increasingly Portable World – presented by Andy Swindler, president of Astek Consulting, and Joanne Valentino, director marketing & communications for The Medical Letter Inc. The actual webinar is now
Do you ever find great blog content that you want your friends or colleagues to see? Savvy publishers enable their readers to easily share content via email because it means more eyes on their content.
It may also mean new conversions of registered, subscribing members; people who could end up purchasing products or attending events.
Ten steps to turning editors into digital brand evangelists
There’s no denying that every company needs a social media strategy, a company-wide policy and at least one person at the helm of actually executing all of the aforementioned items. What’s great about publishing, is that you have a workforce of editors under your belt who already
Some niche media publishers are charging up to $150 per M for Tweets
While I know many writers, editors and publishers who use their Tweets to promote their own blogs, books, magazines, events and other information products, I was surprised to hear that some publishers are now selling them like banner ads and email blasts.
The going
Twitter has become a micropublishing site of great value to niche publishers. It’s best used for building relationships, facilitating conversations and finding people interested in your topics.
Many online business professionals were skeptical of Twitter’s actual value due to perceived ROI issues. However, people are generating revenue as tweeting on the behalf of sponsors is
