Last week we shared the FOUR types of stories you can tell to create truly effective marketing emails. That’s critical. But it’s just as critical to understand the structure of a story-based email. People have an intuitive grasp of what a good story feels like, but they don’t necessarily know how to break it down. Story structure is a critical Continue Reading...

“All marketers are storytellers,” said Seth Godin in All Marketers are Liars. He’s right. Marketing is about telling a story your audience wants to hear. And nowhere is that more important than in your emails. You can’t lean on the hard sell. You have to offer content that matters. As marketer Terry Dean notes, “Please understand. I’m not Continue Reading...

I was watching the Super Bowl at a friend’s house (for the commercials, of course — the Packers didn’t make it this year.) And suddenly, in between the game and the standard blockbuster ads, I saw … this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLsUhOCqyU Of course I had to get up and scan it. Why wouldn’t I? The code took you to a Coinbase page. Continue Reading...

Twitter’s Conversation Report has been a mainstay for marketers analyzing the platform for years. But this latest version, called “#RealTalk,” is a little different. This one focuses specifically on how brands can succeed on Twitter — and what pitfalls can hurt them. Twenty brands submitted their data for the study, and Twitter mined that data Continue Reading...

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Don Vito Corleone’s phrase from the movie The Godfather is legendary. It’s also the key to getting your audience to buy what you’re selling. Now — leaving a horse’s head in your audience’s bed isn’t what we’re going for here. Selling isn’t about coercion. But it is about offering something so Continue Reading...

Persuasion is the goal of all marketing. As marketers, our job is to sell something — to persuade someone to take action. Maybe you’re trying to sell yourself. Maybe you’re selling an idea, a service or a product. Content is part of that, and these days it’s the most important part. We’re living in the relationship marketing era. Continue Reading...

Has your audience stopped paying attention to you? Content marketing is designed to prevent this, but there are a number of reasons why people might still stop listening. Audience preferences change — maybe they started doing something else. Your segmentation might be wrong. Your content might not be good enough. Or maybe you’re not giving them Continue Reading...

Does dominating the SERP really have the same impact it once did? SEO, simply put, is a “​​set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.” It’s the method you use to reach the top of the SERP, or “search engine results page.” Problem is, it’s only getting harder. There’s more Continue Reading...

If your LinkedIn feed is anything like mine, it’s full of polls. People love to share their opinions, and polls are an easy, low-friction way for them to engage. LinkedIn knows this — and so do the people that use it on a daily basis. Polls have power. But as Spiderman says (and the ancient adage goes), “with great power comes great Continue Reading...

Is your business prepared for a Black Swan? Professor of Risk Engineering Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced the idea of the Black Swan in 2001, and it stuck in the popular imagination. According to Taleb, a Black Swan is an event that fits three criteria: It’s a surprise to observers. It has a major effect. It is rationalized as Continue Reading...