Photo by Chris Knight, via Unsplash

Time for another monthly review! We’ve narrowed the list down to just 10 articles—the ones we think will be of the most benefit to you—so you know you’re getting our best recommendations.

Don’t forget to check out last week’s post about the Facebook Zero update and the best ways to keep your organic reach up. Now, without further ado, here’s our recommended reading for March!

Photo: Jordan Whitfield, via Unsplash

What is Facebook Zero? Back in January, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced a major change to the platform, a shift in focus from “helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”

Any time a marketer catches wind of updates to an algorithm, we cringe and hold our breath. They’re not all a big deal—these tweaks actually occur pretty frequently as each platform strives to create a better user experience. But this one is expected to have widespread repercussions for businesses and marketers, and here’s why:

Uh oh. You mean the decline in organic reach we’ve seen over the last year and change is only going to get WORSE? What are you trying to DO to us, Zuckerberg?!

Oh, right. Make people enjoy using Facebook again. Okay, that’s fair. Obviously that makes things a little more difficult for us, but all is not lost! Let’s take a look at a few simple, actionable strategies that will keep your business showing up in the news feed.

Photo: Nick Morrison, via Unsplash

Another month come and gone, and lots of news to show for it!

February was full of social media updates, but there’s also some good articles on writing, eCommerce, email marketing, and the rise of mobile, not to mention SEO and video. Take a look—you don’t want to miss anything!

Photo: ​Cristina Gottardi, via Unsplash

This post was originally published December 20, 2017, and has been updated to reflect new information.
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Net Neutrality is a phrase that’s been in the news a lot lately, and with good reason. To distill it down to its simplest form, it is the nondiscrimination law of the Internet. It protects our ability to communicate freely online, to visit the websites we choose, and to view the content we want to see.

Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission voted in favor of dismantling their own 2015 rules and relinquishing their authority over Internet Service Providers. What does this mean? 

The way has effectively been cleared for the nation’s largest phone and cable companies to block, throttle, and discriminate against content they don’t like. 

Major communication companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon will have the ability to slow down their competitors’ content in order to drive more traffic to their own. They can charge extra fees to allow some companies greater speed, while leaving others in the dust. They can block content completely—websites, messaging apps, and video services like FaceTime and Skype—unless you pay a fee.

This ruling will likely have far-reaching impacts on the way we use the Internet, both personally and professionally. This week’s blog condenses the major points down to the 10 most important, so you’ll know better what’s happening now and what to expect in the coming weeks and months.

(Photo via rawpixel)

Video marketing is almost a requirement in this digital age. Millions of companies, big or small, are dipping their toes into creating video for their social media accounts and websites. You can see this by the 25% growth in revenue worldwide for online video advertising in 2017.

Video content, in many cases, offers the best return on investment among other types of content. Digital content consumption has grown explosively in the past few years, thanks to modern devices becoming more and more accessible to consumers. Cisco predicts that globally, video traffic will account for 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2021, up from 73% in 2016.

In order to prepare for your video marketing over the coming year, the guys at Breadnbeyond have researched what happened in the video marketing industry throughout 2017 and made more than 30 predictions on the state of video marketing in 2018 across social media platforms.

But before we jump into that, let’s take a look at why you should start implementing video marketing for your business!

Photo: GuHyeok Jeong, via Pixabay

This post was originally published March 2, 2017, and has been updated to reflect new information.

​Your business’s website is the cornerstone of a solid digital presence—a necessity in today’s world. Research shows that consumers favor businesses that have websites. It’s surprising how many small businesses out there still don’t have one at all!

What if customers know your business exists, but they can’t find you online and see what you have to offer? Or how to reach you? With more than 3.58 billion Internet users worldwide, websites are more important than ever.

Here are three simple reasons why.

Photo: Joanna Malinowska, via Freestocks.org

I’ve written a good bit about email marketing, but one subject I haven’t yet covered in depth is the value of email marketing automation. I touched on it briefly once [in Email Marketing the Right Way—How to Create Amazing Content] by mentioning these (pretty amazing) stats:

• Welcome emails have, on average, four times the open rate and five times the click-through rate of a standard marketing email
  
  
• Email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have, at 62%, the highest above-average engagement levels

Automated email campaigns are also known as drip campaigns. They’re set off by a predetermined trigger—like signing up for an email list or special offer—and are designed to guide prospects through the sales funnel.

These types of campaigns provide you with a continuous supply of qualified leads. According to MarTech, companies that excel at drip marketing generate 80% more sales at 33% lower cost.

This week, we have an infographic from Salesforce that illustrates the benefits of automated campaigns, the different types you can set up, how the triggers work, and what parts you should test periodically to optimize performance!

Photo: Sabri Tuzcu, via Unsplash

Happy Tuesday!

One month already gone. How does this keep happening?

I have some good stuff collected for you this month! Lots of social media tips, plus some helpful articles on blogging and content marketing, consumer behavior, current design trends, online reviews, PPC advertising, and video marketing.

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for more tips as we strive to Make Digital Simple!

This post was originally published July 26, 2017, and has been updated to reflect new information.

​Creating audience engagement is one of the cornerstones of successful marketing. The more engagement your content receives, the more visible it becomes. But how do you get your audience to like, comment, and share? That’s where good design comes in.

From blog posts, marketing emails, and social media posts to eBooks or your website, your content can be amazing but still sit gathering dust if its presentation is lacking. Good design is good for your brand. Following a few simple guidelines can transform your content from “meh” to “Wow! These people look like they know what they’re talking about.”

This week, learn about three fundamental design concepts that will take your content to the next level and help you boost your audience engagement!

Photo: Jessica Thames, via Pexels

Your Google My Business listing is arguably the most important piece of your business’ local SEO footprint. Is the information it contains accurate? Have you claimed the listing? More importantly, do you have access to the listing?

If you can’t immediately answer “yes” to those three questions, jump on board, ’cause we’ve got some work to do! In this week’s blog post, I’ll give you a quick overview of how to claim your Google listing and also explain what you can do with it—which is quite a lot, actually.
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Let’s get started!