Reading Time: 3 minWhen it comes to business, having a proper CRM and pipeline is crucial. Knowing who your current leads are, what stage they’re in, and when to respond is vitally important. Many people track that kind of info in something like an Excel spreadsheet, and that’s really not bad. Simply having a place for that data […]
Marketing
Fuel versus friction
Reading Time: 2 minWhen it comes to marketing, there are two main directions you want to work to push — adding more fuel, or reducing friction. This works in many areas of life, as explained wonderfully in a recent episode of the Hidden Brain podcast, but it’s particularly interesting with marketing. Fuel When it comes to marketing, fuel […]
News websites are starting to realize they should have worked to own the conversation
Reading Time: 2 minI’ve made no secret that I think individuals and organizations should work hard to own their content. This includes not only the primary content (like the actual story or post), but also the comments and interactions to the extent possible. The second part of that is difficult, as social media is the default for most […]
Images on your website pages don’t help with rankings
Reading Time: 2 minOver the years, much has been said about optimizing images to help rank better in Google, and it’s mostly accurate. The key is that images will generally only help you rank better in Google Image Search, not in the main search results. Google’s John Mueller laid it out pretty clearly in a recent SEO Office […]
Fewer options = higher engagement
Reading Time: 2 minAbout a year ago, I shared the story of an insurance salesman I met that offered every kind of possible insurance there was, which made me realize that he probably wasn’t an expert in any of them. Too many options can be a problem. The same can be true of your website, though with different […]
One email subscriber = 1,000 Facebook followers
Reading Time: < 1 minWhile I have my share of bad things to say about social media on here, I’m still fairly active on most networks and plan to be for the foreseeable future. I suspect some of you found this post via social media, and that’s great! In the long run, though, email is where your followers need […]
Design is more than veneer
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve been listening to a lot of the “How to Take Over the World” podcast lately, and in a series he did about Steve Jobs, one line of his really stood out: Design is more than veneer. People often think of design as “making things pretty”, and while that may be a piece of it, […]
Do you need Powerpoint?
Reading Time: 2 minWhile slide decks can be a useful tool in some presentations, Steve Jobs was famously against them. When having staff present him with their arguments for or against certainly decisions, he famously believed that: People who know what they’re talking about don’t need Powerpoint If you need to make an argument about an upcoming direction, […]
An FAQ page might be a sign of bad content
Reading Time: < 1 minFAQ (“Frequently Asked Questions”) pages are an oft-used feature on websites, with Google showing nearly two billion of them in the search results. There are times when those pages can be helpful for users, but often they become pages full of “we weren’t sure where else to put this”. If you have a solid content […]
Make sure there is content in your content marketing
Reading Time: < 1 minContent marketing can be a great thing. If you consistently produce excellent content, it’s a great way to gain more exposure with search engines and build more trust and credibility with potential clients. Too often, though, I see companies forget the “content” part of content marketing. In these cases, it’s generally when a company produces […]