Digital Marketing Orange County Blog
Harvey Wallbanger Cake Recipe
The Story of the Harvey Wallbanger Donato “Duke” Antone invented the Harvey Wallbanger drink in 1952 at Duke’s Blackwatch Bar on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Unfortunately, it was not a hit until the 1970s when...
Content Marketing for the Holiday Home Stretch
With about two frantic weeks left in the holiday shopping season, the bulk of brand marketing has swept through consumer land. Nevertheless, marketers are still racing down the ‘holiday home stretch’ in a feverish attempt to capitalize...
Whole New Game for Marketing
Few software developers, particularly those who launched the computer gaming industry, ever imagined there would be a ‘useful’ side to their cultural contribution. Whether puzzle, swordplay, laser blast, or leaping hedgehogs, the...
Productive Analytics Direct to Your Doorstep
While the lion’s share of attention is focused on Facebook these days, marketers shouldn’t ignore the impact to be made with Twitter. This lesser-used of the social media mainstays still ranks high when it comes to drawing followers....
The Bottom-of-the-Funnel Nudge
Once prospects reach the bottom of the marketing funnel, conversion is guaranteed, right? Well, not quite. Although these worthy folks have demonstrated solid interest in your brand, they’re still not over the hump that stands between...
Emails You Can’t Ignore
When it comes to generating results, targeted marketing wins the day hands down. The differences between this tightly-focused approach to customer acquisition and yesterday’s scattershot efforts is striking. Consider, for instance, the...
Putting the Shopper Before the Cart
Typically, shoppers don’t ditch their carts during a grueling grocery store excursion. A different matter entirely in the e-commerce realm. In this space, shopping cart abandonment is routinely practiced – even by users primed for a...
Anchor Text Done Right
Any users who’ve clicked their way through pages of online content has had first-hand dealings with anchor text. These are the words in big, bold blue (or possibly other color) – the verbal link you slide your cursor over to...
Give Online Surveys an Edge
So far, so good. The survey responses are pouring in. But how does an advertiser know they’ve hit the mark? Generally, the hit is verified when responses supply juicy insights that facilitate reliable decisions. These precious,...
All-Ears Marketing
With brand markers preoccupied with commandeering a constant flow of output, it seems that communication is a one-way street. But before recipients of information can appreciate fully the content sent their way, important steps must be...
Beware – Crawlers Are on a New Path
If your brand is targeting the top of search engine results, crawling is mandatory. Crawling in this case is the digital mechanism used by Google to scan and index websites. Think of electronic operatives looking around and firing...
Life was so simple, then Equifax, SEC, Whole Foods, Deloitte all hacked!
I have been getting calls and emails for the last few weeks about all the hacks and cyber events. The central question is always, “what do I do to protect myself?” It’s actually an impossible question to answer. Why? We do not have...
The Golden Rule of Digital Influence
In a sense, influencer marketing has been here for as long as advertising has. Just ask the ancient Greeks. In previous times, the art of influence was practiced by important, recognizable personages promoting a specific product,...
A Big Lift for B2B Marketing
The ubiquitous mobile device is now firmly entrenched as the premier B2C delivery system. Who isn’t carrying a pocketful of messaging these days? B2C marketers know it, and use it. So why hasn’t B2B caught on? Not that business-focused...
The Everywhere Leads Generator
In many marketing scenarios, leads acquisition is a necessary first-step. Knowing who’s keen to embrace a message, product, or service enables brands to narrow down the field to manageable dimensions. Rather than a scattershot blast,...
Two Must-Know Metrics for Video Marketers
In a world obsessed with interest rates, video marketers should assign an equal if not higher priority to a pair of other rates: play rate and play-through rate. Both are important, and both are, though inextricably related, two...
Retargeting: Capturing the Ones That Got Away
It is important to know when the right time is to engage in retargeting to potental customers. You want to catch them before it is too late....
Mastering The Metrics
Our quadrant of the universe abounds with metric data. Utilizing metric data effectively isn’t a piece of cake. Read more about metric data here......
Moment by Moment Marketing
If in-depth analysis characterizes your marketing video, don’t expect roaring crowds. Video viewers, demand brevity....
Brand Protection VIA NPS
The mere thought of it sends shivers through the brand marketing world. Alarm bells sound when it happens. People scramble for answers. The dreaded event is the unceremonious farewell customers give to a less-than-satisfactory product...
Mobile Marketing Mandate
The necessity of mobile marketing is a foregone conclusion in contemporary marketing circles. But knowing what’s needed isn’t necessarily the same as knowing what to do. As with most important endeavors, the basics must be incorporated...
Feed vs. Read: And the Winner Is …
In the search to maximize marketing impact, advertisers bravely explore new roads to success. One road to the land of gold has been the automatic news feed. This handy packet of content generally is supplied via channels such as...
Getting Past the Marketing Midpoint
Website visitors are pouring in, tromping down the marketing funnel. There they are, in the middle. Will they advance or abort? That all depends. Their decision largely will depend upon what they encounter. They’re on a quest to solve...
When Narrowmindedness Pays Off for Marketers
Be wide open and embrace all. A good policy in many instances. But there are times when narrow thinking can pay generous dividends. Case in point is the microsite. This destination is a public arena ripe for brand promotion and user...
Brick and Mortar on a Digital Path
Who says digital and physical retail must be diametrically opposed? Those who do are in for a stunning surprise. The two have met … and the meeting apparently is good, and destined to get better. Driven by an urgent need to be relevant...
Video Marketing: Let the Message Fit the Moment
Crank out the marketing videos and throw them into the ring. So long as they’re touting your brand, they’re hitting the mark, right? Well, maybe. It’s entirely possible that they’re falling miles from the mark. How will marketers know...
The Plus Side of SEO
With search engine optimization getting the lion’s share of attention, another kind of optimization often remains hidden in the shadows; It shouldn’t be because it’s a critical. When all is said, and done, it’s the ultimate...
Is Your Website an Obstacle Course?
The good news is, most website visitors want to reach your intended destination. Whether that destination inspires them to make a purchase, fill out a form, or any of a dozen other objectives, brand-consumer goals often begin in...
Three Steps to a Conversion-Rate Boost
With search engine optimization getting the lion’s share of attention, another kind of optimization often remains hidden in the shadows; It shouldn’t be because it’s a critical. When all is said, and done, it’s the ultimate...
The New Content-Customer Alignment
Smart, intuitive, and anticipatory. This trio of adjectives aptly describes the phenomenon known as dynamic content. In the marketing sphere, dynamic content is highly reactive – it adjusts and aligns with known user characteristics...
Ad Extensions: Add Power to Your Ads
If your business is running a paid search campaign, Google has a gift for you. The gift, known as an ad extension, provides a bonus boost for your AdWords strategy. As the term implies, a Google ad extension literally adds information...
A Persona For Every Product
Before a brand unleashes any marketing campaign, a customer persona must be defined. And so, the knowledge quest begins, driving all known resources forth to learn what makes their customers tick. This highly-regarded process, of...
More Conversions: Marketing Your Way to the Bottom of the Funnel
With so much emphasis on reaching the top, brand marketers often lose sight of an equally important destination – the bottom. The location in question is the bottom of the marketing funnel. This is where all the conversions happen....
Retention: Reversing the Brand Break-Away
Virtually every brand knows the feeling. It’s that sinking sensation experienced when hammered by the latest customer attrition statistics. Yes, once-devoted shoppers are breaking away from your beloved camp, sometimes producing a...
Call to Action (CTA) : Marketing’s Profitable Nudge
You can’t push your way to profits. Not in the world of brand marketing, anyway. Slam consumers with too much force, and they’ll likely bolt from the barn. This caveat is particularly relevant to the implementation of any...
Lower Your Bounce Rate: How Brand Marketers Can Minimize See and Flee Syndrome
Getting people to your website is one thing. Keeping them there is another. In the world of digital marketing, it’s common for people to connect with a website, glance around, and bolt – the ‘see and flee’ syndrome. Otherwise known as...
Small Brand vs. Big Brand: How to Grab Your Share
If you’re a modestly-sized, relative unknown vying to make some marketplace noise, fierce competition is your foe. Think of what you’re butting heads with. Basically, you’re pitting scant resources against powerful, cash-chunky,...
Improve Your Native Ad Appeal
Look Native, Be Native, Stay Native It looks like an editorial. It feels like an editorial. But it is not an editorial. What is this conglomeration of text and images that masquerades as a magazine or newspaper article? Branding...
The Value of Consistency in Multichannel Marketing
Multichannel marketing has changed the game. Marketing was a lot simpler when the only available delivery system was word-of-mouth. Invent the wheel, and tell your neighbor about it. Or maybe roll it over to a friend for a quick demo....
Chatbot: Digital Marketing of the Chatty Kind
If your staff could spare more moments to interact with customers & prospects, think how much better your brand would look if it was represented by a friendly face. Que chatbot. You’re dreaming! Your staff is swamped, and...
Conversion Tracking Explains All
How can brand marketers determine what really happens after users click an ad? How do they know if a prospect does what was hoped for? This enlightenment is readily available thanks to a digital tool called ‘conversion tracking’. Much...
Striking Thumbnails and Other Video Marketing Tips
In video marketing, thumbnails play a much bigger role than you think. As every worthy brand marketer knows, content shouts loudest when it’s reliably searchable. If content catches the search engine eye, plenty of limelight is coming...
The Expanding Reach of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing, it’s happened for centuries. Once they grab the limelight, their opinion turns to gold. It doesn’t matter what their station in life — celebrity, government official, business leader, athlete, or who knows...
Building a Better Marketing Information System in 5-Steps
Focus on the customer … focus on the customer. This juicy advisory morsel has been served unceasingly to brand marketers far and wide. It has been observed faithfully since the dawn of civilization. The reason for its prevalence is a...
How to Stop Buyers in Their Tracks
Why do people buy online? A fair enough question, and one that brand marketers should ask – and hopefully answer with a high degree of accuracy. But taking a reverse route can prove equally beneficial. Rather than limit oneself to the...
Hurry Up, It’s the Holidays
See that blur? Feel the wind? You’ve probably waited until now to unleash your holiday marketing thrust. What you’re experiencing is the mad tumble-rush of holiday shoppers passing you by, leaving you behind in an empty desert. Catch...
Marketing to the Moment: How to Find & Optimize Your Brand’s Moment
There’s a right time for everything. Swing too soon or too late, and you’ll miss the ball. As in most other fields, this principle has influenced many a marketing strategy. In the age of mobile media, however, the principle is the...
What Will Happen in the Search Engine Showdown?
Something’s stirring in the world of search engine marketing. Small movements, sometimes undetected, are taking place. Significant changes will be the result. The movements are those of competing search engines stepping into the dusty...
Learn the 5 Often-Overlooked Buying Stages of the Modern Consumer
It has been called everything from the ‘buyer’s journey’ to the ‘consumer buying decision process’. But no matter which label brand marketers slap on the phenomenon, most experts divide it into five basic stages. Interestingly, the...
How to Find Strategies for the Small Screen
Mobile video hasn’t scored its first international blockbuster. Few productions have triggered advanced ticket sales and long lines. Nevertheless, more and more eyeballs are finding their way to the small screen. And surprise, brand...
The Simple Reason Everything Tastes Better with Targeted Content
Lucky you. Legions of industries and customers use, consume, embrace, and even devour the product or service provided by your business. You cover everything from retail to finance to public utilities. That’s one heck of a customer...
How to Wrestle with the New SERP
Google definitely keeps brand marketers on their toes. In the world of the search engine king, rules are rewritten by the truckload. Parameters are changed at the drop of a hat. Get comfortable with one reality, and you’re tumbling...
Why Marketers Must Learn to Speak Fridge
Just when you mastered mobile connectivity for marketing purposes, along comes the latest thing … or should we say things. The Internet of Things (IoT) is on its way, and it’s coming at light speed. The implications for brand marketers...
Is It Time to Put Your Money Where Your Message Is?
Not long ago, around 2008, financial services and social media marketing were pretty much strangers. Seldom did the promoters of financial brands dip their toes into digital waters. Rarely did they venture beyond tried and true...
How to Decipher Marketing’s Emotional Espionage
For eons, people have struggled to get in touch with their feelings … to understand what makes their precious selves tick. Marketers have been on the same quest for nearly as long. And now, in the highly-advanced 21st century, brand...
Brand Marketers…Don’t Hang Up the Phone!
Brand marketers, take heed. Apparently, there’s something about the human voice that captures the hearts and minds of consumers. It’s a quality that digital communications somehow lack. Call it familiarity, friendliness, or warmth. But...
Will Big Data Bump Market Research Out of the Picture?
What’s extremely large and is packed full of data? If you said big data, you get the prize. But aside from its immensity, big data still remains a fuzzy term to legions of marketers. These bewildered souls know they should use it. But...
Foot Traffic Still Trumps Web Traffic
Foot Traffic Still Trumps Web Traffic Everybody on the planet knows that the use of mobile devices is surging. But we’re nowhere near the saturation point. According to estimates from eMarketer, by 2018 the number of smartphone users...
Social Mutations
Ok, sure we expected the changes. But not this fast. Not so fast it’s hard to recognize our familiar destinations these days. The changes in question refer to those taking place in the world of social media. Next to the speed of light,...
What is Digital Marketing And How Can it Help Your Business?
One of the most important things in the world of marketing is surely Digital Marketing. Not only does it provide you with the ability to boost your business to new heights, it can also increase your exposure and generate a lot of...
A More Productive Alternative to Everywhere Marketing
These days, if you’re not doing social media marketing, you’re nowhere. That doesn’t mean, however, that your brand must be everywhere. The trick is to find the happy medium, limiting yourself to the social channels best suited to your...
Power of the Pipelines
You might think website traffic is website traffic. Doesn’t matter where it’s coming from. As long as it arrives, your online brand marketing is in great shape. Numbers get the search engines to notice, right? Yes, that’s true. Traffic...
If the Ad Fits, Use It
Ad Space in Cyberspace. Throw an ad into cyberspace, and success is guaranteed, right? After all, the world is teeming with more than two billion smartphone users. How could you possibly miss with all those visitors jumping into...
Big Shift for Apple
The nerve of Apple. The company might be mashing the plans of marketers hoping to keep viewers glued to their smartphones 24/7. But in the process, it may be contributing to a more alert humanity. For its latest generation of the iOS...
