Hand picked and summarized articles that got our attention this month. Updated regularly throughout the month.
AI Disclosure: Image generating using DALL-E 3; summaries generated using ChatGPT-4
Week of Nov 27
Listen to my thoughts on this week's news. Like it? Listen to last week's!
Positioning Business Leaders for Success Using LinkedIn
This article emphasizes the significance of LinkedIn for business leaders. It outlines how leaders can leverage their presence on LinkedIn to enhance their company's brand and credibility. The article discusses overcoming common misconceptions about LinkedIn, optimizing profiles, and utilizing content to demonstrate thought leadership. It underscores LinkedIn's role in crisis management, talent attraction, and industry engagement, advocating for active, strategic participation by executives.
Email Marketing vs. SEO: What You Need To Know for 2024 (New Research)
This article compares email marketing and SEO, highlighting their unique strengths. Email marketing excels in personalization and customer engagement, while SEO is superior for increasing revenue, brand awareness, and reaching new audiences. Despite email marketing's popularity, SEO offers a higher ROI. The choice between the two depends on specific marketing goals, with an omnichannel approach recommended for optimal results.
How To Create Engaging Content In 2024
This article offers five tips for creating engaging content in 2024. Key strategies include understanding audience pain points, providing unique solutions, testing various hooks, using conversational tones with visuals, and iterating on successful content types. The emphasis is on differentiating content in a saturated market, where the majority struggles to engage significantly with their audience.
RELATED: B2B Marketing Basics click on Content Marketing and Examples in TOC.
Small Business Sales Strategies 2024: Prospecting & Sales Tips
The article from Nimble outlines sales strategies for small businesses in 2024, emphasizing customer-centric approaches and digital tools. Key tactics include social media for lead generation, personalized email marketing, and effective blogging for SEO. It highlights the use of technology, especially CRM systems and AI, in sales processes. The article also suggests sales books and podcasts for further insights, showcasing the role of Nimble CRM in managing customer relationships and enhancing sales efficiency.
Why is Sales Performance Important For My Business?
This article from Nimble emphasizes the vital role of sales performance in business success. It defines sales performance as the effectiveness of sales teams in achieving goals and impacting revenue, customer acquisition, and retention. The article highlights the importance of technology, including automation, CRM, and AI, in enhancing sales processes and customer experience. It also discusses emerging trends like virtual selling and the critical role of adaptability in a dynamic business environment, underscoring Nimble CRM's capabilities in optimizing sales performance.
Week of Nov 20
Listen to my thoughts on this week's news. Like it? Listen to last week's!
12 Email Marketing Trends Marketers Should Know
The article discusses key email marketing trends for 2024, focusing on data protection, privacy, and adapting to new metrics due to privacy updates like Apple's Mail Privacy Protection. It highlights the importance of niche content, engaging elements like GIFs and gamification, and the effectiveness of personalized, attention-grabbing subject lines. These trends indicate a shift towards more engaging, personalized, and privacy-aware email marketing strategies.
How to Run a Marketing Campaign on a Tight Budget
The article provides strategies for low-budget marketing campaigns, focusing on setting realistic goals, using targeted advertising, and maximizing free channels like social media and email. It advocates for internal collaboration, leveraging user-generated content, and creating memorable brand campaigns. The piece also suggests using affordable tools and virtual events to minimize costs, emphasizing that creativity and understanding the audience are key to successful marketing, even with limited resources.
Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing in B2B: How to Make the Best Out of Both
The article contrasts inbound and outbound marketing in B2B contexts. Outbound marketing, characterized by direct tactics like cold emails, offers quick results but faces challenges like long sales cycles. Inbound marketing, focusing on attracting customers with valuable content, provides long-term benefits. The article recommends a balanced approach, blending both strategies to meet business goals and market needs, highlighting the importance of adaptability and understanding customer preferences in B2B marketing.
Boosting search conversions: 5 behavioral strategies to test
The article outlines strategies to boost website conversions, focusing on behavioral nudges. It highlights the importance of social proof, managing cognitive load, leveraging scarcity and FOMO, utilizing loss aversion, and employing anchoring techniques. These methods are designed to enhance user experience and decision-making, aiming to increase conversion rates by effectively utilizing existing website traffic. The article emphasizes the need for testing and adapting these strategies to optimize results.
Content strategy: Why less is more
The article emphasizes a 'less is more' content strategy, highlighting the drawbacks of content overload. It showcases case studies like the U.S. Army and IBM, where reducing and consolidating content significantly improved web traffic and conversions. The piece advises focusing on high-quality, audience-centric content, aligning with Google's E-E-A-T guidelines, and removing non-essential content to boost user experience and search engine rankings.
Week of Nov 13
Listen to my thoughts on this week's news. Like it? Listen to last week's!
Unlocking the Secrets of 'Ridiculously Good Content'
The article discusses the creation of effective content marketing, emphasizing a value-first approach centered on audience needs. It highlights the importance of data-driven insights and creative storytelling to engage and resonate with audiences. The piece also advocates for a long-term strategy in content marketing, emphasizing consistency and prioritizing quality over quantity. This approach aims to build lasting relationships and drive engagement, turning prospects into customers.
RECORDED EVENT: Outranking the Biggest Brands with Blogging
Does CEO-CMO Alignment Go Far Enough for Business Growth? Probably Not
The article examines the misalignment between CEOs and CMOs in understanding marketing's role in business growth, based on McKinsey research. Despite a consensus on marketing's importance, there's a division in its perceived function. The evolution of marketing has led to new roles, further complicating this understanding. Many CEOs lack direct marketing experience, impacting their grasp of its technical aspects. McKinsey suggests clearer communication and alignment between CEOs and CMOs, and extending this to mid-level teams for cohesive marketing strategies.
Google says mobile-first indexing is complete after almost 7 years
The article reports that Google's mobile-first indexing initiative, started over six years ago, is now complete. This approach means Google primarily uses a site's mobile version for indexing and ranking. Initially set for completion in September 2020, the deadline was extended to March 2021. A few websites that don't work on mobile will continue to be crawled by Google's legacy desktop crawler. Google Search Console will also remove indexing crawler information, as mobile-first indexing is now standard for all mobile-compatible websites.
Are you Leveraging your Network?
The article emphasizes the importance of leveraging one's network in sales and marketing strategies. It advises against solely relying on inbound leads and highlights the effectiveness of utilizing existing relationships and connections, particularly on platforms like LinkedIn. The piece offers practical tips for engaging with colleagues, past clients, and industry connections to enhance business opportunities and improve sales outcomes.
How to integrate generative AI in your SEO
The article discusses the integration of generative AI in SEO and content marketing. It highlights the potential of AI in content creation but warns against its misuse, which can lead to SEO pitfalls. The piece emphasizes the importance of using AI as an intelligent assistant rather than a complete solution, advocating for a combination of human expertise and AI capabilities to create superior content. It notes that Google's algorithm now prioritizes high-quality, human-centric content, making mere AI-generated content less effective for SEO purposes.
Week of Nov 6
Listen to my thoughts on this week's news.
B2B Tech Decision-Makers Look for Content to Inform Them of Industry Trends
The article reveals that 85% of B2B tech decision-makers value thought leadership content for brand perception. The primary reason for engaging with such content is to stay informed about industry trends, with 67% citing this as a key motivator. Other engagement reasons include comparing products and seeking new business strategies. Decision-makers utilize various information sources, with personalized content being particularly effective in fostering brand comfort and highlighting relevant trends.
Is Speed, Not AI Technology, the Real Enemy in Marketing?
The article examines the pitfalls of prioritizing speed over quality in marketing, especially with the advent of AI technology. It argues that while AI can enhance efficiency, it may also lead to a compromise in creativity and depth. The piece suggests that taking time to understand and execute marketing strategies, rather than rushing through them, can lead to more meaningful and differentiated outcomes. It advocates for a balanced approach where technology is used to aid, not dictate, the marketing process.
How to Train Your ChatGPT — A Marketer’s Guide
The article provides a comprehensive guide for marketers on how to train ChatGPT to serve as a personalized marketing assistant. It outlines practical steps and tips for customizing ChatGPT, including creating brand guidelines, templating instruction prompts, and integrating the AI with marketing workflows. The article emphasizes the importance of continuous training and refinement based on testing and user feedback to ensure the AI's outputs align with brand identity and marketing goals.
MORE AI CONTENT: OpenAI DevDay 2023: Summary for Small Business Owners | What Can AI Do for SMBS?
4 ways to find unique content ideas from real-life insights
The article advises marketers to seek unique content ideas beyond the web, suggesting real-life insights as a rich source. It recommends sourcing content from employees, current and past customers, and even competitors' reviews. By tapping into these resources, marketers can uncover genuine pain points, preferences, and language that resonate with their audience, leading to content that stands out and effectively addresses customer needs and concerns.
Digging deeper into the E-E-A-T Knowledge Graph 2023 update
The article delves into Google's E-E-A-T Knowledge Graph update, emphasizing its significant impact on search results and Knowledge Panels. It highlights the importance of notability and transparency for entities to gain recognition in Google's system. The update has reduced reliance on Wikipedia, favoring diverse, authoritative sources for information. For individuals and companies, the article suggests building a personal brand and educating Google about their expertise to leverage the E-E-A-T signals and improve their online presence.
About the Author
Chris Herbert spearheads Mi6 Agency, emphasizing small business growth and entrepreneurship. On the agency's blog, he offers practical marketing insights and solutions to unique challenges faced by businesses. Herbert advocates for sustainable and responsible growth. His "Rural Entrepreneur Podcast" extends this mission, providing essential advice and experiences for entrepreneurs. He adopts a comprehensive approach, focusing on building sustainable businesses, community engagement, and active participation in entrepreneurial ventures.
