Since the 1950s, the foundation of marketing has been the Four Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. While the internet has changed and marketing strategies have taken on a new look, and many new ones have popped up, these four elements are still at the helm of an effective marketing plan. With this is in mind, Danny Brown has developed his own marketing strategy: PITS (Persuasion,

Social media is one of the top marketing strategies. Just about everyone is taking the time to work Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and so on. But, how do you know if your social media efforts are generating results? It’s true that working social media will boost website traffic and will create connections and engagement, but is that enough? Will these benefits translate

In a great article from AWAI, the author said, “The money is in the details. Every product has a story, history, and a process with which it's created in addition to its inherent features and benefits. And just like with acting, incorporating them will generate a hugely compelling piece.” So, what exactly does this mean? Well, think of Anthony Hopkins’ role as Hannibal Lecter. Do you think

We all know about the subscriber optin box. It’s the portal to your email list. But, how’s it going with the sidebar optin and/or the feature box optin? If you’re like most of us marketers, could be better. So, if these two optin strategies aren’t bearing the fruits you’d like, what else could you do? Three newer optin strategies are here, knockin’ down barriers and getting you inside

We’ve kind of been trained to think that all marketing numbers matter, especially when it comes to social media. How many Twitter followers do you have? How many Facebook followers or fans do you have? What about Google+ or Pinterest? While these numbers used to be important and in some instances still are (even if just for show), quantity isn’t all it used to be. I’ve seen Twitter users

This is just a quick tip on the importance of a simple website. I found the webpage below through a Tweet. I clicked on the link because I wanted to read the article, but guess what? The crazy-hectic background and left sidebar made me look here, there . . . I didn't know where to look. And, that was it for the article. I quickly exited the site. The article may have been exceptional, I’ll

I've written about some of the website metrics Google looks at as factors for ranking your site. There's page views, time on site, bounce rate, and there's page speed. I found a great infographic that talks about page speed and why it's so important and it's shareable (I love shareable content!). Unfortunately though, the image wouldn't size properly for this blog (appeared too small), so I'll

Yep. There’s another marketing term and strategy, crowdsourcing. It’s important not to confuse crowdsourcing with crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding your project through donations from people – a large number of people. Crowdsourcing does use lots of people, but to generate ideas, not funds. An article at CBSNews.com, explains, Despite the jargony name, crowdsourcing

Keywords are what help search engines categorize and index your content. And, it’s what online searchers use to find what they’re looking for. Yes, search engines go by lots of other things to rank your content, but when it comes to searchers, they use keywords. I know I use them personally and for my writing research all the time. But, how do you come up with words or phrases that are what

Email marketing is a must. It’s the only way to develop a relationship with your audience. It’s like visiting each one of your subscribers daily, once a week, or monthly. You visit however many times you and your subscribers feel is right. This marketing strategy builds trust. Now, although you may be sending your emails faithfully, are they being opened? If not, that relationship becomes

Some social networks, like Facebook, LinkedIn, and GooglePlus, have optimization features for shared blog posts. It’s kind of how you’d optimize your blog posts on your website. Below is a list of 3 social network features to be aware of (and take advantage of): 1. The post title. Along with creating a keyword effective and powerful blog post title, you need to keep the characters to 40.

A new study shows evidence that there is a correlation between lead generation (through inbound traffic) and blogging frequency. I’ve written about this before, that blogging on a regular basis and as often as you can matters for at least three reasons: 1. Search engines love fresh content. If you’re offering content that is valuable to your audience, it will boost your search rankings. 2.

Last week I talked about creating your own social network posting schedule template. In that article I mentioned having an Excel column for Titles in the template. I added a ‘Title’ column in my template, so I can tweak the title of a particular post for each time I tweet it within a week, a month, or other. Why do you want to tweak your titles? The hard truth is that only a minute fraction

Power Words to Make Your Promo Succeed Guest Post by Will Newman Let me start by apologizing to you. I'm going to talk to you about something I talked about a couple of years ago. Not the same words, but the same ideas. Today we're going to chat about verbs … and how the verbs you use can make or break promotional writing. Let's start by recalling briefly the 4-Ps:

An article I wrote a while ago, Website Ranking - Basic Metrics (1), got a lot of engagement. Interestingly, the engagement came from both sides of the coin – those who like knowing their ranking numbers and those who don’t. Down with Rankings On the ‘con’ side of dealing with website rankings, some appreciated the information the article provided, but don’t hold much weight in the ranking

If you’re like me, you have a social media posting schedule in place. It might be through an automatic service or done manually. It’s a schedule to help you be consistent . . . and stay visible. But, do you actually keep track of which bits of content you’re sending where and how often? Twitter is my primary social media network. I schedule tweets for about every hour and 15 minutes. I space

I’ve decided to make Wednesdays TIPS days. The posts may not be too long, but they will be packed with actionable tidbits of content writing and content marketing tips. Today is about the power of GooglePlus. I do marketing research every day and a littler earlier today, I was looking for GetResponse’s blog page. Instead of going to the site, I thought it’d be quicker to do a Google search

Being a marketer is a never-ending learning process. You’re always reading the heavy-hitters and doing research as to what’s working ‘now’ and what’s not. The reason? The rules to the game are always changing. Well, in my research I came upon an amazing article at Matthew Woodard’s site, “How I Increased Email Conversion By 469% Instantly.” It’s one of those articles that makes you say, “Ahhhh.

No matter what business you’re in, words are at the crux of everything. Whether it’s an in-house note, instructions, guides, web copy, content writing, fiction writing, book marketing, entertainment . . . You get the idea. Words instruct, alert, command, teach, enlighten, encourage, amuse . . . and they motivate. There are powerful words. There are magically motivating words. There are words

Have you gotten a Direct Message from another Twitter user and tried to reply back only to get message that you can’t because they don’t follow you? I have and it’s annoying. Or, have you wanted to privately DM a user who posted publicly because of the ‘following’ issue? Again, I have. Well, Twitter must have ESP or users complained, because they’ve taken care of that problem. With new

I get lots of queries asking if I allow guest posts. Guest blogging is a powerful content marketing strategy. Accepting guest posts is a great way to make connections and increase visibility. But, when I get a query that asks if I accept guest posts, I automatically know the blogger didn’t do her research. I have a page specifically titled, “Guest Posts” in my menu bar. If the blogger was

Social media and other content distributors are over-flowing with information . . . with content. They’re bursting at the seams. Readers can get information from Joe’s Business, Cindy’s Business, and myriad of other businesses. There are posts on everything you can possibly think of, including: How to Make Money Online Lose 10 Pounds in 30 Days 5 Tips on Being an Alpha Marketer Top

SEO is an acronym for ‘search engine optimization.’ It’s the marketing strategy that allows the search engines, such as Google, to find your website and its content. Being aware of these strategies is essential to having the search engines not only find your site, but to also categorize and index your content. This is how your content is made available to online searchers. This strategy is

At this point in time, most everyone knows the importance of ‘working’ social media marketing. It’s a powerful marketing strategy that has the ability to bring traffic, boost authority, boost search rankings, and increase conversions. Again, it’s powerful. But, when using social networks, there are certain practices you should avoid to prevent harming your brand’s image, credibility, and

Press releases are a powerful content marketing tool. They generate visibility about a specific event within your business. According to Women in Business About.com, "A press release is a written communication reporting specific, but brief information about an event, circumstance, or other happening typically tied to a business or organization." Below is an example of a press release from an