What’s new for Internet marketing in 2016

You do not need a crystal ball, and you do not need to be a marketing genius to know Internet marketing is changing quickly. Google kicked off the new year with a core algorithm update, and that was just the beginning of new things to come in the first quarter of 2016.

Do you ever feel like just when you are getting a handle on one thing, the ground shifts and everything changes? When this happens, most people will start to panic — don't do that. The truth is, if you wait even for just a few moments it will probably change again.

Start by arming yourself with some good information; then take a deep breath, and adjust your game plan.

So, what's new in the digital world so far in 2016? From organic search and map listings to social media and paid advertising (pay per click), we are seeing big changes across the board.

Let's take a closer look at a breakdown of the latest digital happenings so far this year.

Maps and local search

The space for map listings and local search is limited and at a premium right now. Google is showing fewer map listings in the top spot than ever before. Currently, you will find three listings displayed on page one; you can access other maps by clicking on "More Places," but the top slots are reserved for just three businesses.

To help you secure one of those spaces, you must first claim and verify your listing (more information can be found at www.google.com/business).

You also need to understand that a business with an actual, physical location will be given preference. This is a challenge for many service-based businesses covering a geographical area beyond their physical locations. But, this is a benefit to businesses with brick and mortar locations.

To give yourself an edge, focus some time and effort on getting positive Google reviews.

Paid advertising: PPC

Until recently, you could find three paid ad spots at the top of Google search; and then you would see a right column with ads, and even more ads at the bottom of the page. However, in February, the right-hand column of ads disappeared, and now four ad spots appear on top.

It's no secret the top spots are the highest performing, but why remove all the ads on the right? As Google continues to move toward making everything more mobile friendly, it makes sense anything not optimized for mobile use will be antiquated.

According to an article on Moz, "Since mobile doesn't support the right column, Google may be trying to standardize the advertising ecosystem across devices." What does this mean? There is speculation that having more limited space for ads may drive up the cost per click, and it may also make organic rankings (where you show up on a page when someone searches) even more important; but the big winner just might be social media — where you can reach more people for less money.

Organic search: SEO

Google confirmed a core algorithm update this past January, but what exactly is a core algorithm update? Barry Schwartz, who is the CEO of RustyBrick, a New York-based Web consulting firm specializing in customized online technology, explains, "In short, it means that the algorithm that is part of the core algorithm is now pretty solid and consistent — [meaning it] can just join the family of algorithms that Google knows [works]."

A core algorithm update does not really change anything; it just takes what has been tested, and what we have essentially been told by Google is important, and makes it deeply rooted in the algorithm.

Translated in layman's terms: When Google started saying it was important to have current and relevant content on your website, Google meant it. It is now "core" to the search engine's algorithm, and not just a passing fad.

Social media

Where are your customers hanging out on social media? Whether they are on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you need to be there, too. This is where you are going to develop relationships with your customers. They are going to get to know, like and trust you through your interactions.

One of the most important factors of social media to remember is: Be social. Do not be too salesy on social media; you can sell other places — like your website.

Social media is about connecting. Be fun, be authentic, be helpful, be the expert but, mostly, be interesting and likeable. Customers will reward you.

Another big component of the digital world in 2016 is that video is flourishing. You can upload a video directly to Facebook, or you put it on YouTube and share it from there. There are advantages to both, but video is an absolute must this year.

Understanding how to make adjustments in your business is easier when you break all the information down and ask, "What's the point?" Google and Facebook don't just "do" things without a strategy. So what are they trying to accomplish with these changes?

In almost every update, we see a few common components. Practically everything ties back to providing the end user with a great experience. It's important to remember that you, the business owner, are not whom Google or Facebook see as their customer. Their customer is the regular person searching and engaging. Their true allegiance is to their user.

This is why Facebook will throttle posts which are too promotional. Facebook knows the user doesn't want to see it. This is also why businesses who are continually posting current and relevant content move up in the rankings.

When we put these changes under a microscope and try to determine what they mean and how businesses need to adjust their marketing strategies in 2016, we see two big takeaways: content and mobile. Read on to learn more.

Content is king

Have you ever heard, "Content is king"? Well, it's kind of true. In actuality, good and consistent content is king. Content encompasses a lot of things. It includes copy on your website, your blog articles and also your social media posts. Every post, tweet, image, infographic, e-book and video you put out make up your content.

More than anything, your content needs to be authentic. Find a way to use your content in so it resonates with your audience. Give them what they are looking for, and be mindful that what they are interested in may be different than what you want to sell them, which is perfectly fine.

You have the opportunity to get your audience to know, like and trust you through your content. Be patient — you will reap the rewards in the long run.

Growth in mobile

The number of people searching online via a mobile device continues to increase, and Google knows this. The search engine wants its users to have a good experience when they search from their phones. Hence, hearing about things like "Mobilegeddon," which was an algorithm update designed to reward the businesses with mobile friendly websites with better rankings.

If your website is still not mobile friendly, the time is now. Maybe even more important than improved rankings, are the opportunities to improve your customers' experiences when they go to your website. After all, if Google thinks user (customer) experience is that important, maybe you should, too.

We further see evidence of the importance of mobile with the decision to remove PPC ads from the right-hand column of Google search, which was not viewable on mobile devices. There is a really big clue in this move. If it's not mobile friendly, it's gone.

Internet marketing changes rapidly. But, as long as you keep focused on a few key factors, you will be able to adjust your strategies just as quickly.

Always keep the customer experience in mind. Be sure you are making your brand easy and enjoyable for your customers. A big part of that comes from giving them great content and making your online presence mobile friendly.

So if you feel the ground shifting, instead of getting scared, get excited; and, move with it.

Katie Harris is a founding partner at Spot On Solutions. Spot On Solutions specializes in online marketing for the cleaning and restoration industry. Harris has a degree in advertising and public relations and worked as an award-winning journalist. However, she found her true passion is to work directly with business owners as a trainer and coach. She can be reached by email at katie@spotonsolutions.com.

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Source: What's new for Internet marketing in 2016

Schiller schools internet on correct Apple device plurals, but Cook says 'iPad Pros'

 

Opinion

A contentious debate is brewing in Cupertino. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller on Friday took to Twitter to inform tech plebes that Apple devices should never be pluralized, a stance in diametric opposition to beliefs held by CEO Tim Cook.

According to Schiller, multiple Apple products should be referred to without pluralization, for example the plural of "iPhone" is "iPhone" or "iPhone devices." It seems years of rampant misuse have taken their toll, finally and absolutely corroding the exec's resolve to maintain an amiable public persona.

"It would be proper to say 'I have 3 Macintosh' or 'I have 3 Macintosh computers,'" Schiller said, teetering on the edge of despair.

The definitive exposition came in response to a tweet by Andreessen Horowitz partner, analyst and longtime Apple terminology truther Benedict Evans, who earlier in the day referenced "iPads Pro." An honest, albeit fatal, mistake. Or was it?

During Apple's most recent quarterly earnings conference call, Cook is clearly heard borrowing taboo phraseology, notably "iPhones" and "iPad Pros." So did CFO Luca Maestri, but his statements had the stink of fear. After all, Maestri was staring down a steely-eyed, pluralizing madman just acros s the table (at the time Cook was wearing his necklace of Android earpieces, a macabre trophy of war).

Evans' tweet was brought to Schiller's attention by longtime industry analyst turned Apple marketing director turned analyst Michael Gartenberg. Whether Gartenberg's posture on singular/plural nouns played a role in his departure from the company earlier this year is unclear.

At Apple, there is obvious dissension among the ranks. How far the rift runs no one knows, but battle lines are being drawn in the silicate.

As of this writing, Schiller's most recent tweet reads, "It's all fun until someone gets hurt," a telltale allusion to what must be roiling internal conflict. A winking smiley face was added for ironic — and utterly depressing — effect.

Source: Schiller schools internet on correct Apple device plurals, but Cook says 'iPad Pros'

Internet Marketing Company fishbat Lists The Top 4 Social Media Platforms All Yacht Transport Companies Should Utilize

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Source: Internet Marketing Company fishbat Lists The Top 4 Social Media Platforms All Yacht Transport Companies Should Utilize

Fire Your Marketing Team and Hire Homeless People

We have cars that drive themselves and eyeglasses that spit Internet onto our freaking retinas, yet there are about 100 million homeless people in the world.

As entrepreneurs, we have a duty and responsibility to use our powers for good. What are we focused on? Uber for dog walking and the next generation photo swapping app? Seriously. What gives?

Related: Daymond John's Top 7 Tips on How to Launch Your Product Like a Shark

Here's a video recap of my nonprofit's latest event, where we gave back to the most notorious homeless community in the world for two days:

I was driving down the street at SXSW last month, and read a sign that a homeless gentlemen was holding that read, "Ugly + Traveling. Need money for both." That's a great example of strong messaging, and sparked the fodder for this article. Click here for more examples of great signs.

Copywriting, calls to action and clear value propositions are sometimes very difficult to execute efficiently and consistently across all platforms. Not to mention, maintaining your company's conversational tone, edge and personality trait that sets you apart from every other Harry, Dick and Sally. Some companies nail it, and some "not so much."

My point is simple. Your ad and website copy, written content and all other content is the voice of your brand. It's a way for people to care about your business. You can have a great team, great product and great service, but if you miss the mark with messaging, you may be sacrificing all other assets. I can't understand how big companies with big budgets miss the mark so frequently. It doesn't take much to be clever, creative and to stand out.

Related: 5 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing Results Without Breaking the Bank

Review your company's content strategy. If there isn't a strategy. Create one.

Review all of your digital and physical marketing assets: websites, ads, social media profiles, marketing collateral, etc. Make sure there's a consistent tone, message and voice.

If you like what you see, make sure the team is all on the same page, and keep pushing content. If you don't, review your direct competitors to see how you can use their success to your advantage and to figure out how to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Source: Fire Your Marketing Team and Hire Homeless People

Digital Vidya launches online marketing helpline

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Digital Vidya

Mahesh Murthy

online marketing

Pradeep Chopra

Sanjay Mehta

Digital Vidya, has launched Ask Digital Vidya, an online digital marketing helpline platform.

Digital marketing is one of the most dynamic industries with almost daily changes happening across various digital media platforms such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Mobile App Stores. Moreover, it's a vast and always expanding domain. One of the best ways to be successful in knowing and leveraging digital marketing is to always remain a student of this field.

Aimed at professionals, entrepreneurs and students, Ask Digital Vidya is a community of digital marketing enthusiasts and experts, who are committed to contribute to each other's growth by asking questions and providing answers across various aspects of digital marketing such as SEO, SEM, Social Media, Content Marketing, Growth Hacking, Mobile Marketing and Web Analytics.

"Since 2009, when we launched Digital Vidya, we've been answering queries related to various facets of digital marketing. We realised that a very high percentage of these queries are repetitive or similar in nature. Moreover, we found that best answers to many of these queries are already available with other users, who are interested in helping others. While there are number of generic Q&A or discussion forum platforms such as Quora and few digital marketing related forums, there's still a definite need for a digital marketing focused community," shared Pradeep Chopra, CEO of Digital Vidya on the launch of Ask Digital Vidya.

The platform has a number of digital marketing thought leaders such as Mahesh Murthy (CEO, Pinstorm), Sanjay Mehta (Joint CEO, Mirum India) as Mentors, who are committed to contribute to the growth of digital marketing community by sharing their expertise.

Expressing his excitement on the launch of Ask Digital Vidya, Mr Murthy said, "I've known Pradeep and Kapil for over 15 years and even taught a few classes for their students. If Indian marketers are digital-savvy today, Digital Vidya is one big reason. Of course, success breeds imitators – but I haven't found anybody else offer the type of knowledge and passion that these folks will bring you."

Mr Mehta said,"This is a great initiative by Digital Vidya and will further fuel the growth of digital marketing industry. As one of the mentors, I look forward to my contribution in supporting this initiative."

Ask Digital Vidya hosts discussions around variety of digital marketing topics such as SEO, SEM, social media, email marketing, inbound marketing, mobile marketing, growth hacking, web analytics and jobs & careers. Since the launch of closed beta version of Ask Digital Vidya in February 2016 to a few selective users, over 150 active discussions across various categories have emerged.

Source: Digital Vidya launches online marketing helpline

Content Marketing for Hotels: How to Get Started Telling Your Hotel’s Story

Content marketing is more than a buzzword. It's an important part of your hotel's marketing strategy. Simply put, it's the creation and distribution of valuable assets, such as videos, blog posts and e-newsletters, as marketing tools to attract and retain customers.

Content marketing is more than a buzzword. It's an important part of your hotel's marketing strategy. 

Simply put, it's the creation and distribution of valuable assets, such as videos, blog posts and e-newsletters, as marketing tools to attract and retain customers. 

For hotels and other accommodation providers, these assets showcase your property's unique story and brand, and complement your room distribution and sales efforts. 

HOW DOES CONTENT MARKETING WORK? 

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI), based in the US, defines content marketing as "…a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action." 

HOW DOES IT WORK IN HOSPITALITY? 

By attracting your target guests, influencing them into booking a stay, and retaining them as repeat guests – just as you do with your hotel website, like those created by SiteMinder's Canvas. 

The key is to first provide useful content that informs and entertains. Secondly, it's important to deliver it consistently to establish credibility and foster engagement. 

As part of your inbound digital marketing campaign, content also drives traffic to your website and social media channels to increase your visibility online. 

What content marketing isn't, is excessive promotional messaging. Occasional outreach to publicise new packages or amenities is expected, but good content is light on the sales pitch. 

WHICH HOTELS DO A GREAT CONTENT MARKETING JOB? 

Looking at concrete examples of content marketing, Marriott is touted as gold standard. 

Under the direction of David Beebe, VP of global creative and content marketing, several full-time staff at the Marriott Content Studio create content in the form of branded magazines, books, TV shows, webisodes, short films and documentaries.

This is in addition to actively engaging on several social media channels around the clock. 

One example is Marriott Traveler, a magazine with destination-based content that provides readers with information on what to do in several cities where Marriott properties are located. 

The initial launch covered three cities, and within three months the magazine had driven bookings to 7,200 rooms. 

The company also produced two short films, 'Two Bellmen' and 'French Kiss' that are shown on in-room television, the JW Marriott brand.com site, and on Marriott's YouTube channel. 

'Two Bellmen', with its high-action plot involving a business traveller, was filmed at a JW Marriott property in Los Angeles. Watch it, and you'll realise that it also tells a story of superlative customer service. 

It currently has more than five million views on YouTube.  

The Marriott brand is always integrated into these print and digital assets, but it's secondary. 

And as a result, the campaign has successfully impacted customer engagement and direct booking conversions. 

SO, WHAT IS CONSIDERED BEST PRACTICE IN HOSPITALITY CONTENT MARKETING? 

Of course not all hotels have the luxury of Marriott-sized marketing resources. 

Hoteliers new to content marketing should approach it by getting into the minds of their customers. 

Ardath Albee, a B2B marketing strategist, CEO of Marketing Interactions, Inc. and an instructor for CMI's Content Marketing University, says combining marketing objectives is a good place to start. 

"The question a hotelier should be asking first is, what can I do to help a specific audience that will also tie into what I want to accomplish for my hotel? So, depending on the type of hotel, maybe it's helping potential and current guests find the best restaurants in the area, or understand what to do while they're in town," explains Albee. 

"Or, if you are business hotel that hosts a lot of meetings, perhaps suggest best practices for successful meetings and conferences. If your hotel is also a resort or spa, maybe it's a blog about healthy living with topics specific to golfing, if you have a course, or sharing your chef's recipes if you have an attraction restaurant." 

The next step is considering a content distribution strategy. There are different ways to deliver content – including social media, email, and on your website. 

"You want to think about how to get the most bang for your buck with the content you develop," Albee adds. "So, think about audience, purpose, and business goals, and then formats and channels." 

A content marketing strategy is itself an involved topic. In a nutshell, it's a multi-layered plan that involves: content creation; deciding when, where and how to distribute content; and how to measure results. 

For more information, these websites provide additional case studies, ideas and inspiration: 

The Content Marketing Association (based in the U.K.) 

Content Marketing Institute (based in the U.S.) 

Asia Content Marketing Association 

Media contact:

Maria Franco+61 410 233 735media@siteminder.com

About SiteMinder 

As the leading cloud platform for hotels, SiteMinder allows hotels to attract, reach and convert guests across the globe. We serve hotels of all sizes with award-winning solutions for independents and groups alike, wherever they are in the world. 

SiteMinder's products include The Channel Manager, the industry's leading online distribution platform; TheBookingButton, a wholly-branded booking engine for direct bookings via the web, mobile or social; Canvas, the intelligent website creator for independent hoteliers; and GDS by SiteMinder, a single-point of entry to a six-figure network of travel agents and the world's major GDSs. With more than 20,000 hotel customers and 400 of the industry's top connectivity providers as our partners, today we have presence in more than 160 countries on six continents. 

For more information, visit www.siteminder.com.

Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

© 2016 Hotel News Resource

Request Information from this organization Please click the link below to request more information from the organization or company featured in this article.

Source: Content Marketing for Hotels: How to Get Started Telling Your Hotel's Story

Mind the Content Marketing Gap

The relevance of content marketing continues to rise. Brands that wish to succeed in this area have dramatically increased their investment in creating high-quality content and promoting it effectively. But some have found themselves unable to make the connection between customers and company, which creates a gap. Although their objective is to "get found," companies often find there's an unexpected contrast between the reasons why they "do" content marketing and the actual results of reaching customers.

The problem? There's a difference between the content they're producing and the content their customers actually want. By identifying what kind of gap your company is currently facing, you will be able to focus on reconnecting with your customer.

Can you identify your company's content marketing gaps from examples below?

Interesting Content vs. Audience Readership

A majority of marketers are creating content without understanding their audience's interests and needs. Yet they expect to attract their target audience and gain traffic to their website. One of the biggest challenges for content marketers is developing interesting content that gets read. Typically, the top reason why people follow brands is because of interesting content. However, only 1 in 5 readers will get past the headline to read in full. Producing relevant and timely content is important to retaining subscribers and keeping a good reputation as an information source. Content marketing is all about creating and distributing material that provides value to your readers. It should be interesting, engaging, and make them want to come back for more.

More brands are hiring people or marketing agencies to produce great storytelling. Many teams are now made up of managing editors, content producers, data and insights strategists, chief listening officers, and content creators. Their combined focus is on getting the messaging just right, by crafting the company messaging framework and developing customer journey maps to connect with the company's core audience. 

Traditional vs. Real-time Marketing

The way consumers communicate and consume content has shifted. Traditionally, TV has been considered a great advertising tool because they reached viewers who were very focused on their TV's for entertainment and as an information source. However, this media platform has become stagnant with the use of DVRs. Plus, it requires a huge investment and has limitations on tracking effectiveness.

In today's world, the focus is on real-time digital channels more than TV. For example, now when a news story breaks, where do people turn for information first? They probably check social media feeds and then search major news outlets. Creating personalized, emotional connections with real-time delivery matters more than ever before, based on this change.

With real-time marketing strategies at play, brands need a laser focus, with constant monitoring, data tracking tools, and dedication to instantaneous opportunities to engage. As with any marketing campaign, though, they need to find the "sweet spot" of personalized relevancy. Overall, the most important concept to grasp is that without understanding your audience, even the best thought-out marketing strategy could falter.

Costs vs. Budgets

There's been a long-standing rule in content marketing that 90% of your budget should be focused on promoting content and the remaining 10% should be spent producing the content. This rule came about during a time when there were limited distribution channels and promotion was expensive.

It is time to rethink the ratio and the distribution channels. Now, because media spends are cheaper, content must become richer and better targeted. It's time for a 60/40 split. Brands that wish to succeed will dramatically increase their investment in the content they produce in the socialized marketplace. The good news is that the costs to promote content are down, so this shift has a bigger impact on process and content philosophy than it does on budgets.

Blogging vs. Mobile Optimized Blogs

Companies that run a blog and want to increase blog traffic may think that creating more blog content is a quick fix. However, even those with the most engaging content and a written road map for how this goal will be achieved, may be missing one key element--optimizing their blog for mobile.

An increasing number of readers access blogs from their mobile devices. Supporting your mobile users is important now and will become increasingly significant. Whether you're just starting out with content marketing or you've been using the same mobile marketing strategy for a while, you must take into account the various devices out there-including smartphones, tablets, and feature phones-and the different ways that users interact with those devices throughout their day. An effective mobile-optimized blog can lead to deeper consumer engagement.

Quantity of Content vs. Realistic Resources

When it comes to effective content marketing, there's something to be said for quality over quantity. It doesn't take a genius to tell you that the quality of your content should be high. You want people to read it, share it, and talk about you. In an ideal world, you'd create high-quality content all the time. However, don't underestimate how long it takes to create a good piece of content. Research, writing, editing, and publishing are all time-intensive, and they can spread energies thin across an increasingly diverse set of content marketing channels. In doing so, some content fails to add value or help position your brand properly.  

With limited resources, one option to look at is repurposing your best content into more variations. When you've put an extensive effort into a piece of content, it deserves a new lease on life. You can dust off those forgotten gems and look for new ways to repackage them into a fresh new piece of marketing content. Dig into your Google Analytics and see what your most popular posts have been over the past year. Try to figure out why they performed so well and how to give them a stylish new makeover. A few examples would be to turn successful, still relevant blog posts into whitepapers, ebooks, or webinars to appeal to a new audience.

Put These Suggestions to Work

To help close the gaps in the great content marketing divide, here are five takeaways to consider:

Know what will resonate with your customers.

Develop a mobile-optimized content marketing strategy and identify distribution channels where your audiences reside. 

Keep it real-time. The simple truth is, if your message is too broad and generic, consumers will see right through you. Real-time marketing can have a significant impact.

Don't get sucked in by claims that quantity is better than quality. Publishing something extraordinary once a week will trump publishing lots of mediocre rubbish.

Identify ways to repurpose content to engage new people. Use data and insights to guide your strategy to make sure that when you talk, your audience wants to listen. Then be sure to monitor and make adjustments throughout the year.

Content marketing can be the most potent of the marketer's weapons. Once companies fully realize that audiences are interested in high-quality, relevant, real-time content, they will be more prepared to truly close the gap and delight their audiences at a deeper level. 

(Image courtesy of Shutterstock.)

Source: Mind the Content Marketing Gap

Furniture maker re-designs website

An office furniture maker in the region has re-designed its website to provide an improved user experience.

Haworth of Holland worked with Grand Rapids technology firm Springthrough, which built the new website, www.haworth.com.

Cole Grysen, web marketing specialist at Haworth, said the company's website was performing well, but Haworth wanted to improve the user experience for the future.

"We conducted research to understand future behavior and preferences," Grysen said.

Updates to the website include improved ability to search the various products and brands Haworth manages globally.

The website also includes features to provide information and inspiration on interior design and space planning.

It's been three years since Haworth last made major changes to its website.

"We are proud to help Haworth think about their long-term technology strategy," said Jeff Williams, president, Springthrough.

Springthrough previously worked with Haworth on its direct-to-consumer website, www.store.haworth.com, which won a website of the year award.

Source: Furniture maker re-designs website

Virtual Media Group Becoming a One Stop Shop for Digital Marketing

BY Felicia Bradley | Posted: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 01:48 PM

St. Louis – Virtual Media Group, St. Louis's premier video marketing firm, is expanding its horizons. In order to keep its clients ahead of the game, the company will now offer a wide range of website and internet marketing services. These new services will compliment the extensive selection of video styles currently offered.

Websites are an essential part of today's business world. If companies do not stay current with the ever changing world of digital marketing they will unfortunately get left behind. Virtual Media Group is here to try to help businesses prevent that from happening.

"We are excited to be offering these new services," said Todd Wallis, CEO. "The decision to offer the additional services came after many of our clients were coming to us looking for help with their websites and internet marketing. It only made sense to begin providing these services and be a one stop shop."

Virtual Media Group now creates three different types of websites that are designed by a team of graphic artists and programmers that are in the top of their field. Virtual Media Group is also offering internet marketing services. These packages will include search engine optimization, pay-per-click ads, and social media marketing and come in different packages to meet any budget.

 

About Virtual Media Group

As a Digital Marketing Partner, Virtual Media Group offers video production, website services and internet marketing. Founded in 2009, Virtual Media Group has created explainer videos and websites for clients all across the U.S. and internationally. From its St. Louis headquarters, VMG helps businesses around the corner, and around the globe, increase leads and sales. In addition to local businesses, VMG serves a wide range of worldwide companies such as Xerox, SKECHERS, Best Western, Union Pacific Railroad, AAA, Aramark and more.

For more information on Virtual Media Group, please visit virtualmediagroup.net

Posted on Tuesday, April 26, 2016 01:48 PM  | Tags: Business , Services

Source: Virtual Media Group Becoming a One Stop Shop for Digital Marketing

How Marketing Automation Streamlines Sales and Marketing

Combined with your customer relationship management (CRM) database, marketing automation software can improve, simplify, and accelerate your sales and marketing efforts. Although marketing automation has been wrongly associated with spam, businesses and customers both benefit from the personalized, timely, and dynamic messages this powerful software enables. 

Your competitors probably already know this, but more than 70 percent of businesses are using marketing automation software, and B2B marketers see an increase of 20 percent in marketing automation-based sales opportunities compared with leads nurtured through other means, according to IDG.

In this article, we'll examine seven ways in which marketing automation software can help turn your static, impersonal marketing messages into sales generators.

1. Set It and Forget ItMarketing automation tools are first and foremost designed to turn manual processes into pre-programmed actions. For example: If your Salesforce CRM gives you enough data to tell you when a customer's birthday might be, or when his or her contract is ending, you can use your marketing automation platform to pre-set an email to launch on a specific day.

Yes, most email marketing tools can help you get this set up, but the data you generate from these emails won't automatically transfer across each of your systems. If your customer opens your email, clicks on a link, heads to your website, asks for a demo, purchases your products, shares the product with friends on social media, and then goes on to buy a second product, your email marketing and CRM tools won't be able to seamlessly track that entire progression without a marketing automation tool connecting them in the middle.

2. Prospect ScoringIn its most basic terms, prospect scoring enables you to rank prospective customers against one another to determine how valuable each person will be to your sales interests. If you've got a white whale account, your marketing automation solution will gather data from your Apptivo CRM database to rank his or her account atop your prospect scoring rankings.

This is particularly useful as you get into the middle and lower rungs of your prospect database. Knowing whether a lead is important enough to dedicate valuable resources to can save you lots of time and money, as well as help you to improve overall sales performance.

3. Prospect NurturingOnce you've determined whether someone is a top or a middle-rung prospect, you can begin to develop your prospect nurturing campaign driven by your marketing automation software. Sure, you can manually send emails, social media requests, and write blog posts that might attract or engage with your prospect, but a marketing automation tool will help you pre-establish a cadence, the messaging, and the deadline for when these communications need to deliver business results.

With your marketing automation solution, you'll be able to track your customer down the sales funnel to determine if he or she is advancing, backtracking, or remaining stagnant, and you can adjust your campaign so that future automated communications reflect this change in tone.

4. Pull In Prospects with ContentNo marketing automation suite is complete without the ability to create, track, share, and draw customers in through content marketing. Your company blog, whether it's proprietary to the marketing automation suite, or if you use a third-party tool, is the lifeblood of your content marketing efforts. Every piece of paid and earned media should end up on your blog. You should be constantly creating new content that speaks to the values of your organization.

Your marketing automation software will help you track, share, and design that content in a way that provides the most business value for your team.

5. Marketing AnalyticsWe've discussed tracking your campaigns in-depth already, but it's absolutely worth reiterating, especially for larger organizations that don't mind having a few interns bang out the manual work done by automation software. Even the best interns won't have the technology to be able to determine things like return-on-investment (ROI), how the customer journeyed through your messaging, whether or not the customer opened and forwarded your email, among many other data points. Once you have this information, you'll be able to adapt your campaigns, accelerate or decelerate your messaging, or scrap your idea completely.

These analytics will be what you ultimately use to defend your campaigns, your budget, and your job to your CFO. Make sure you get as much as you can from them.

6. Enhanced Customer DataBehind all of your campaigns you'll want to pack as much customer data as you can into your messaging, your blog posts, and your social activity. We already discussed things like birthdays and contract deadlines, but there are other useful tidbits you can pull from your Zoho CRM tool to enhance your sales and marketing efforts.

For example: How often does a specific user share your content? How much did it cost to acquire this one specific customer? How influential is this person on social media? These metrics will turn your generic marketing efforts into focused, timely, and user-specific messages.

7. PersonalizationSpeaking of customer data: We've all received emails and pitches that have absolutely nothing to do with our interests. In fact, most of you have probably received messages addressed to "Dear Customer" or "Friend." Those messages could have used some help from marketing automation software.

With these tools, you'll be able to segment customers in order to send messages to groups of people for whom only that specific message is relevant. You can also pull in rich user data such as a person's name, title, and location to make it seems as if the email message was sent by a human and not software. Perhaps more importantly, you can determine when users are more likely to open, read, and forward a message, and then set your software to communicate with him or her at that specific time only.

Sure, this sounds really easy when you're dealing with one person at a time. But imagine if you had to send messages to thousands or millions of customers. Only marketing automation software, combined with email marketing and CRM tools, can get the job done.

Source: How Marketing Automation Streamlines Sales and Marketing

The multiple benefits of content marketing

Beyond growing your network, and in turn the new business enquiries those relationships spawn, business networking events are a great means of getting feedback on pretty much all things business.

Like the recent one I attended where the conversation revolved around the merits of so called 'content marketing'.

I describe it thus because there is a misconception that content marketing is a new digitally driven phenomenon. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Back to the future

Content marketing has been around since marketing itself. Any time a business operator has been sought out – or paid for – their opinion on their business field of endeavour, content marketing – potentially in tandem with publicity – has been operating.

This means columns in newspapers and magazines, guest appearances at trade shows and conferences or on radio and television. All of these are forms of content marketing because as the phrase suggests, they are getting a marketing advantage by providing content.

But back to that business networking event.

The person I was engaged with was expressing doubt about the effectiveness of their content marketing efforts: "We get the occasional lead but given what we pay for it, we are considering whether or not to continue with it next year".

"How are you tracking with regards its other benefits," I asked.

"Oh we are pretty hard-nosed" said the business operator. "Unless we get proven leads we spend our money elsewhere".

What about future leads?

Now I'm all for hard leads as a critical measure of return on investment but there's a whole lot more to content marketing that just qualified leads.

The point is while those who are ready to buy immediately are sales and marketing gold, there are still some very handy 'consolation' prizes when it comes to content marketing.

The first is what many call 'link bait'. Link bait refers to the quality of the content you provide being so good that others want to refer to it by including a link to it in any of their own websites, emails and social media.

This spawns the 'viral' that so many organisations spend considerable sums on achieving.

But this viral has an important second advantage.

Google anyone?

Search engines like Google reward websites that are seen as 'opinion leading' by measuring the number of quality links linking to your content – aka an 'inbound link'.

So say a reputable industry publication either re-publishes or links to the piece on your website, Google gives that a big tick and a corresponding lift in prominence to relevant key words.

Say your article was on 'genetic engineering' and the industry's leading website or publication linked to the blog piece on your website. Due to the importance of their website as a quality provider of content in that field, Google would rank the link to it much higher than for say the website of a local newspaper.

And so when searching for 'genetic engineering', your website would be more prominent than it was before the piece was added to your website and linked to.

Multiple benefits

This effect alone will not only increase your chances of getting a qualified enquiry, it will also:

Increase traffic to your website;

Increase the chances of signing up for similar content by email or social media (likely to generate a future qualified lead); and

Increase your prominence in search engines for topics (keywords) your content discusses.

These benefits in themselves are outstanding benefits. But as they say in the infomercials, that's not all.

Because the more you keep your business in front of your prospect, the more likely they are to accelerate their contact with you.

The value of the reminder

The reality is most smaller business operators lead very busy lives. They may well have been meaning to contact you about that new product or service you can provide for them.

So putting your content in front of them has two further impacts.

First it reminds them to get in contact with you about that piece of business. Second, it moves you to the top of their 'evoked set' for your industry.

Top of the class

In marketing terms, this 'evoked set' refers to the brand the consumer recalls for that particular category of business so that it, in the mind of the beholder, becomes the leading brand.

The advantages of this are too numerous for this blog, suffice it to say that whenever that person thinks of or is asked about a provider in your industry, your business will be the one that is mentioned, again increasing the likelihood of a qualified lead.

So after taking all this into consideration, my advice to the business operator at the networking event was to measure far more than qualified leads to understand the success of their content marketing strategy.

Measure things like website visits, email and social media signups, social media 'likes', search engines prominence and brand awareness.

In doing so they may well be pleasantly surprised about just how effective their content marketing efforts really are.

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team, which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.  

Source: The multiple benefits of content marketing

Mobile Marketing is the mantra of today’s world

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Mobile strategy A business without mobile marketing strategy is like no future planning

No consumer facing business can think of survival without having a mobile marketing strategy in place with the world moving to mobile platforms. In fact, every business on this earth has to be active in terms of mobile marketing and social media. There are ways to adopt and emerge as a winner in mobile marketing. with the increasing popularity in smartphones and other mobile devices, it has become essential to transform marketing strategies to mobile platforms. Desktop user base is squeezing and mobile user base is expanding. Most of the businesses have understood it and thus have changed their marketing strategy path towards mobile arena.

This is definitely a good switchover as a business must speak where its audience is. An important point to note in this regard is that this switchover is not a plain vanilla transformation. It has to be a wise and mindful move while moving from regular marketing to mobile marketing. Same techniques and strategies wouldn't work. Organizations that are adopting or in fact carrying the same set of strategies and techniques they are losing impact. The same old techniques will not be as effective as it has been in the traditional marketing scenario. There has to be a different pattern of thinking and a fresh strategy in place to obtain optimized results in mobile marketing.

An important factor while building mobile marketing strategy is to ensure including social media platforms make it more effective. Most of the mobile users having data plans use social media at a very high rate. But it is important to learn which social media platforms to adopt as a part of mobile strategy among so many evolved in last decade. A wrong feeling is that the more social media platforms will fetch more business. This might not hold good if you are not able to put your energies on all those platforms. Each platform will have a different set of requirements and way of handling. You have to understand which social media platform suits your business well. Getting on to all at the same time might disturb your budget and lead to a dilution in results.

Read my next post that is in continuation to this.

           
Source: Mobile Marketing is the mantra of today's world

Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic wins online marketing award

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic marketing campaign recently received national recognition.

The Web Marketing Association chose the clinic's "Enjoy Parenthood" campaign for the Outstanding Integrated Ad Campaign category in the 2016 Internet Advertising Competition.

The campaign, which celebrates the fun and challenges of parenthood, was created by the clinic's marketing and communications department, The Field Group and Deck Ape Productions.

The award recognized the online elements of the campaign. Billboards, newspaper and radio advertising, convenience store posters and direct mail also were used.

Source: Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic wins online marketing award

What marketing is not

People shop and learn in a whole new way compared to just a few years ago, so marketers need to adapt or risk extinction. — Brian Halligan, co-author of Inbound Marketing.

A retailer was dismayed when a competitor, selling the same type of product, opened next door to him, displaying a large sign proclaiming "Best Deals". .

Not long after, he was horrified to find yet another competitor move in next door, on the other side of his store. It's large sign was even more disturbing — "Lowest Prices".

After his initial panic and concern that he would be driven out of business, he looked for a way to turn the situation to his marketing advantage. Finally, an idea came to him. Next day, he proudly unveiled a new and huge sign over his front door. It read, "Main Entrance"! — http://www.webmarketingezine.com/marketing-jokes/marketing-jokes1)

MARKETING has been donned with a superman cloak and is viewed by many organisations as the route to selling off all their products. The marketer is seen as the guru that can work some magic and turn around the fortunes of failing product sales and have customers beating a path to the door.

At least that is now a far way from the now archaic view expressed by Ralph Emerson way back in the nineteenth century:

"If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse trap than his neighbours, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door."

This now famous statement has been proven to be false umpteen times. By now it should be a given, based on experience, that if you make a product that is the best among its peers (or competitor products) it does not mean that it will sell the most, or be the most popular.

HP - Mini Marketing Case

During the 2000s, computer vendors were competing viciously on costs. Margins were low, and by then Dell had been leading the market with low prices and a superior supply chain set-up.

According to Edwards in his article 'Bradley Turns PCs to Gold for Hewlett-Packard' in the December 11, 2008

Business Week, "Bradley believed from the start that HP had to change its PC business. If it kept trying to sell boring boxes at the lowest cost, it would be locked in a brutal struggle with Dell."

One good thing Hewlett Packard (HP) did back then was to hire Todd Bradley to run the PC division. Soon, Bradley realised that the computer had become a commodity and the vendors were just trying to outdo each other on price. Bradley then did something amazing. He got his marketing expert and they hammered out a strategy.

The result? According to Edwards, even during the global recession at the time, HP was handsomely beating Wall Street's expectations, to the point where HP overtook Dell as number one in computer sales.

How did Bradley do it? As I indicated, he got his marketing guru and they hammered out a strategy to make the computer "cool" again. He hired a clothing fashion designer to design laptops, and he had hip-hop star Jay-Z and tennis star Serena Williams talk about how HP computers could be used to watch TV, review photos and edit music.

They re-invented the computer and then significantly increased the margins on their products. Super-marketing to the rescue!

Okay, so what is marketing? Let us start off with what marketing is NOT, and we will get some help from Cohen in her article 'What Marketing is NOT' in the April 8, 2011 edition of

Actionable Marketing Guide.

Marketing is not Sales

To actually close a sale, or to actually effect the exchange of money for the product or service is the job of the salesperson — not the marketer. The marketer may provide the environment to attract prospects, and even prepare and make available the supporting materials, and may even develop or help develop some sales leads, but marketing is not sales.

So even though marketing may seem to be very closely related to sales, according to Cohen, "While marketing drives and supports sales, it is usually someone else's job to close the deal."

Marketing is not Customer Service

According to Cohen, "customer service and marketing have a strong working relationship since agents must understand the ins and outs of every promotion and be able to close and upsell prospects". Even though the customer service agent is the customer-facing person who responds to, and solves the customer's various needs, that is not the core job of the marketer.

Marketing is not senior management's personal

Many senior managers and executives use the organisation's marketing resources as their own personal publicity machinery. In some cases, the marketing strategy may use an executive as the core of its marketing strategy, as Dave Thomas did for his Wendy's stores. It is different, though, when executives are in it just to boost their own image. Cohen, in her article, advised that in such cases the executive "should hire their own publicity agents"!

For good measure, let us expand on our knowledge of what marketing is not, by borrowing two more from Levinson on

entrepreneur.com.

Marketing is not a website

So you want to increase sales, build a website! Sorry, that alone will not work. Remember that there are now gazillions of websites online. Why do you think yours will be known, and found by others? According to Levinson, "if you don't know marketing in the first place, you're going to lose a lot of money online. The web helps with the job, but it's not the whole job".

Marketing is not a miracle worker.

Finally, again according to Levinson, "More money has been wasted by expecting miracles than by any other misconception of marketing. Marketing is the best investment you can make if you do it right, and doing it right requires patience and planning."

Next week we look at what is marketing.

Dr Kenroy Wedderburn is an MBA part-time lecturer. Send your e-mails to

drkwedderburn@gmail.com

.

</p.

Source: What marketing is not

100 Top Web Design Agencies Ranked by topseos.com for April 2016

NAPLES, FL - The one hundred best web design services have been named by topseos.com for the month of April 2016. topseos.com provides businesses with rankings online to showcase the best internet marketing services which produce strong solutions to businesses searching for a variety of solutions to common issues. Services are featured based on their performance in a rigorous examination of their central solutions.

In order to create the best listings possible based on the most detailed investigation of web design services the independent research team spends countless hours analyzing industry trends and market research. Each highlighted service has been tested across five areas of evaluation. The five areas are significant to deciding the comparative performance of the service in relation to major competitors within the industry. To create an even more detailed investigation the independent research team also contacts a minimum of three customer references of competing services.

The 100 top web design agencies for April 2016 are: 

1. The Creative Momentum

2. WebiMax

3. Brandnative

4. Customer Magnetism

5. Absolute Web Services

6. Leverage Marketing

7. Web Full Circle

8. Prime Visibility

9. Ignite Digital

10. Moonstone Interactive

11. Marketably

12. SearchPro Systems

13. 2ndLAW Media

14. David Williams

15. 39WebDesigns

16. 61 Design Street

17. B2 Interactive

18. Apollo Online

19. Nowspeed

20. EZlocal

21. AffiliateCrew

22. STI SEO Services

23. 3Prime LLC

24. Off-Road Studios

25. Local Plus Marketing

26. Clicksor Inc.

27. Corporate Conversions

28. Adage Technologies

29. DreamSoft

30. Holbi

31. Incredible Marketing

32. Modx Webdesign

33. 20/20 Creatives

34. PINT, Inc.

35. Materiell

36. AgencyQ

37. EchoPoint

Source: 100 Top Web Design Agencies Ranked by topseos.com for April 2016

Adaptive Marketing Is on the Rise

As digital marketing further automates customer interactions, it will become even more imperative that technology partners and ecosystem re-think their strategy for how their services and products can reshape the customer experience. Just because marketers can automate something doesn't necessarily mean they will deliver a great experience, and research indicates they need the help.

According to a recent survey by Aberdeen, 96% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) are not satisfied with their ability to deliver customer journeys. Another by eConsultancy found that only 12% believe their marketing is real-time enough to keep up with customer needs.

Partners who want to focus on marketing services can help enterprises address this challenge. And they can do so with a focus on Adaptive Marketing. My definition of Adaptive Marketing is the use of data, technology and processes to build customer experiences that evolve instantly based on the behaviors, interests and needs of real people. The goal is to create a more malleable strategy for engaging customers across channels. Adaptive Marketing assumes that customers take non-linear paths in their journeys. Rather than try to guess those paths--or automate them into hypothetical journeys no one follows--companies should let customers dictate their own path and have a system that adjusts quickly and intelligently for them on the fly.

How can partners engage with marketers to deliver a strategy for adaptive marketing?

1. Help marketing teams compartmentalize the data they have.

With so many buzzwords like "big data," it's tempting to try and first address customer experience issues with algorithms and data modeling. But from a strategy perspective, I'd suggest you first start by understanding what data types a marketer currently has available today. Some examples include:

Customer preferences or attributes. What data do they have about products, services or topics their customer has professed interests in?

Known customer behaviors and events. What events can they track?  How real-time is their ability to track them? An example could be when a consumer adds a product to a shopping cart on a commerce site, or when a B2B customer downloads a whitepaper or registers for a webinar.

Anonymous behaviors. What data do they have available about more anonymous interactions? This could be visitor data on their website, or, if you use a data management platform, data about their audience engagement with digital advertising channels. 

2. Work toward one canvas that removes channel silos.

Customers now interact across a multitude of channels, including display advertising, email, mobile, social and web. Adaptive Marketing requires that there is cohesion among these channels. Unfortunately, most enterprises today still handle the execution of their marketing on these channels with applications internally that are isolated from one another. So, as they message to customers, they do so with minimal to no awareness that another channel might be reaching them at the same time. 

One way you can address this challenge with marketing clients is by working with their internal stakeholders to agree on one system-of-record--or, what we like to call a canvas--to manage their customer interactions in one place. It won't be easy to do, and it also is not a CRM system that manages this from a process perspective. CRM systems lack insight into many of the anonymous behaviors that customers perform across key marketing channels, such as display advertising.

To make this change easier, you can emphasize that the centralized canvas itself doesn't need to replace all of the marketing applications clients have today. They can still run key aspects of marketing execution in the background, but the governance around what interactions get orchestrated should be centralized.  

3. Test; don't just guess.

Finally, you can help marketers test the interactions that they're managing to help them be more adaptive to customer behavior. A/B testing can be a place to start, but it is very binary in terms of choosing the right experience for each customer. As time goes on, you can add multivariate testing and other more sophisticated mechanisms that optimize the experience based on customer behavior, propensity and attributes.

Try these out with your clients, and see if you can take the first step toward an Adaptive Marketing strategy.

Chris Lynch is Head of Product & Industry Marketing for Oracle Marketing Cloud.

Source: Adaptive Marketing Is on the Rise

Internet Marketing Experts Pure Residuals Point Towards Wealthy Affiliate Review as #1 Recommended Affiliate Program

Pure Residuals

Pure Residuals shows their Wealthy Affiliate Review as the best of the best - anyone can earn recurring monthly income.

Pure Residuals rocks and Wealthy Affiliate is the place to be.

— Liz Pimenta

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, April 20, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- There's no shortage of affiliate programs for aspiring internet marketers. Affiliate programs that deliver great results, consistently, that's another story. Pure Residuals, a leading force in the internet marketing world, recently stepped up and gave their endorsement to what they feel is currently the best affiliate marketing program after much thought and research, Wealthy Affiliate Review.

Make no mistake, experts agree that skill and experience are a big part of what helps an internet marketer succeed. But what is also vitally important is the quality of the affiliate program itself. With a good program things go much easier, with a poor program, even the best online marketer may slam into a brick wall. Delivering real value in this area is leading internet marketing experts Pure Residuals, who recently stepped up and gave their endorsement to Wealthy Affiliate Review as the best affiliate marketing progra m on the market today. The response to the news has been very enthusiastic.

"We've explored all of the major and many of the minor affiliate programs so when we give our endorsement to Wealthy Affiliate Review, it's from an informed viewpoint," commented a spokesperson from Pure Residuals. "Wealthy Affiliate Review delivers a system we have seen produce results, reliably and quickly. When we get asked what program a young marketer should dive into, we don't hesitate to say Wealthy Affiliate Review."

Since 2012, Pure Residuals has reviewed the best residual income opportunities. According to the company, the Wealthy Affiliate program is straightforward and honest, something that can be quite rare in the affiliate marketing world. There's no "matrixes" to fill or other less than transparent issues to face. The doorway to success is open to anyone who joins and works hard and smart, unlike other programs, where those who became involved early are much more likel y to succeed than those who join later in the game. All these observations are being confirmed by marketers finding success inside that simply stemmed from their review of the top affiliate programs.

Pure Residuals is also receiving passionate feedback.

PJ Lucas, an increasingly successful internet marketer, recently said, "Pure Residuals' Pj Germain cuts through the bull and makes things simple and straightforward. His training and coaching skills, plus, his added sense of humor have helped me with a difficult learning curve and given me confidence in a relatively unknown land of online marketing. I am thankful to PJ for his patience and sincerity in working with me to develop skills and knowledge. He can make you laugh when you want to cry. That is helpful too!"

For more information, be sure to visit http://pureresiduals.com.

Pj GermainMagnum Marketing LLC8506235153email us here

Source: Internet Marketing Experts Pure Residuals Point Towards Wealthy Affiliate Review as #1 Recommended Affiliate Program

9 Ecommerce Marketing Skills That Drive Success

Ecommerce marketing success can come unexpectedly. Nonetheless, having the proper set of ecommerce marketing skills can help drive success.

From pay-per-click advertising to blogging and from search engine optimization to analytics, ecommerce marketing is broad, diverse, and, potentially, complex. The aim is to find those activities, promotions, and tactics that generate profits.

Five years ago, Practical Ecommerce published an article describing the skills critical for ecommerce entrepreneurs. The suggestions were, perhaps, counterintuitive: be able to write, know how to learn, and be a skilled listener. These skills were about the strategic capabilities that entrepreneurs require.

Building on these skills, here is a set of tactical capabilities that should help your ecommerce marketing succeed.

1. Writing, Content Marketing

The ability to write is, essentially, the ability to communicate online. Every ecommerce product description, every blog post, every how-to article, every about us page, every video script is an act of writing. Done well, writing will help drive your ecommerce marketing. Done poorly it will bring laughter and embarrassment.

An example should make the point. This actual message was sent to thousands of subscribers in support of a retailer's "Sizzling Saturday" sale.

"If you have been waiting for the best year of the Spring, your patience is paying off! At [name of retailer removed] it's izzling [sic] Saturday this weekend, and for one day only you can save big! Plus see the week-long savings, too!"

Clear writing is a requirement for ecommerce marketing success.

2. Data Analysis, Analytics

Successful marketers examine facts and statistics to make good decisions about how to invest in marketing and promotion. This ability to consider facts and understand the implications of statistics is called data analysis. It is important for modern ecommerce marketing.

In a November 2015 article about how challenging it can be to quantify the impact marketing analytics is having on a business, Harvard Business Review reported three observations:

According to a survey, companies plan to increase their investment in marketing analytics 73 percent in the next three years;

Data analysis is impacting many areas of marketing, including customer acquisition, marketing mix, customer retention, social media, segmentation, and promotion strategy;

Marketing organizations are not as effective at processing data as they should be.

Those ecommerce marketers that can more effectively use and understand data are more likely to succeed.

3. Testing and Data Collection

Closely related to interpreting and analyzing data is the ability to collect facts and statistics about your company's marketing performance.

This marketing skill encompasses the ability to properly set up Google Analytics or similar, optimizing it for your ecommerce business with specific, meaningful reports. It includes understanding how testing works and using testing platforms like Optimizely or similar. It also includes the ability to glean data from each software package your business uses — such as sales data, email reports, or order management.

In this example, measuring or collecting information about when respondents entered a contest makes it easy to see the impact that email marketing had. Thus, monitoring how the campaign did might lead to making better decisions in future campaigns.

If you can collect good information about how your marketing is performing, you are more likely to make good decisions based on that information.

4. Design

Graphic and website design are online marketing fundamentals. The way an ad, an article, or even a product detail page looks can have a significant impact on how the marketing message or even the product is perceived.

Filson is a good example of a company that uses design to support is brand.

"Campaigns are about raising the profile of brands or moving customers in a specific direction to buy a company's products or services," wrote Liz Alton in a 2013 HubSpot blog post. "One of the critical elements of getting people to buy is trust. Brands are essentially the way that customers code a specific offering in their minds: this brand represents quality and luxury, or this brand represents comfort and value.

Alton continued, "Regardless of what your target customers hold in highest esteem, a brand is shorthand for that. Every piece of creative you release — blog posts, brochures, Google PPC campaigns or Nimlok booths at trade shows — says something about a brand. If the design is less than professional and aligned with the brand's core messaging, it can undermine years of work and good impressions. By contrast, good design speaks volumes to a company's professionalism, quality and positioning in the market."

How your site, your ads, and your brand materials look matters for ecommerce success.

5. Development

The ability to write code can be a huge advantage for marketers. This ability may be as basic as understanding HTML and CSS so that you can do a better job of posting articles in WordPress. Or it might be the ability to develop your own marketing tools and reports.

By some estimates, half of all digital marketing jobs require at least some technical expertise. This is the case because so much of what is done online requires at least an understanding of coding.

Learn to code and you will have more control over your marketing. With more control, your chances for success increase.

6. Advertising

Ecommerce advertising must be planned, created, purchased, executed, and measured. And it must be done in many channels, using many forms of media, including pay-per-click advertising on search engines and on social media sites, display advertising, native advertising, mobile advertising, video commercials, and more.

The effective ecommerce marketer understands how advertising works and seeks to get the very best possible return on investment.

Ad management is a high-end marketing skill that can take a long time to learn and even longer to master. But it is worth the effort. Advertising can drive sales and profits.

7. Email Marketing

To paraphrase the Direct Marketing Association, an email address can define you online. It is, to an extent, your digital name, and email marketing may be one of the best ways to reach ecommerce customers. You can communicate directly to consumers who know your business and are interested in your products.

In fact, a survey by the Direct Marketing Association of digital marketers found that many believed that email marketing was, in fact, the most effective marketing tool.

A Direct Marketing Association survey found that many marketers believe that email provides the best return on investment.

Learning to effectively market via email may be the single best thing you do for your ecommerce marketing.

8. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation can reduce marketing expenses, increase conversion rates, boost average order value, and, in some cases, even improve shopper experience.

As a skill, marketing automation is about managing the processes and workflows in an automation platform like Marketo, Infusionsoft, or even MailChimp.

For your ecommerce marketing, find the automation tools that work for your business and master them.

9. Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is the process of making your web pages easy for web crawlers to access and index. The idea is that if Google, Bing, and other search engines can easily find and catalog what is on your page, it can more easily list your site on the appropriate results pages.

The SEO aim is not to trick search engines with fake content or keyword stuffing, but rather to help search engines locate and understand your content.

Done well, SEO will help make your site easy to find, which can lead to marketing success.

Source: 9 Ecommerce Marketing Skills That Drive Success

217 Influencers & Experts Tell Me Their Worst Influencer Marketing Mistake (Part 3)

You can find part 1 and part 2 here.

These are just the answers from 217 influencers and experts which originally appeared in this ultimate guide to influencer marketing.

Not realizing what's worth following. The human mind is designed to follow people, not businesses. I made the mistake of building a faceless brand for many years. But, as I've grown in my confidence, I now understand the power my story, my family, and my values bring to my mission. People crave authenticity. Your manufactured brand will never outpace you in that race.

My biggest mistake was not building my email list. Once I started focusing on getting more email subscribers (and sending them good stuff), my revenue literally tripled in one year.

Brian Dean (@backlinko) backlinko.com

I made a mistake once and answered a question from an influencer and suggested my product as an added value to the influencer and got back a big no thanks. It has to be added value we are providing without any sales pitch. Any wiff of a sales angle and the influencer is turned off. I have seen others do this in their regular marketing, when we talk about ourselves and lose sight of the problem that is being solved. It is like a lead balloon, falls with a big thud.

My biggest mistake is consistency. You have to allocate and dedicate time and resources to consistently follow, participate and callout with influencers.

Also contacting the influencer before showing some interaction can also be a buzz kill. influencers know they have the eye of the people and they are careful with their connections. They want to make sure you care and are going to add value to the community. The contact has to be focused on what you can do for them and the community (think about what they want and are trying to achieve) and what value you will provide to the overall community.

I see two glaring errors that are often made in influencer marketing. The first is not taking time to build value and a relationship prior to approaching influencers. Just like in "real life" you don't jump right into a new friendship asking for favors. You give first, and develop mutual respect and understanding. The other error I see is marketers spending time in the wrong location - guest posting, or soliciting influencer support within a sphere that is not reaching their own ideal audience. This amounts to wasted time and energy on the part of all involved.

The biggest mistake I see people make in influencer marketing is the ones that can easily be prevented. They focus more on trying to scale their influencer outreach than personalizing it. This means they don't send personalized emails, don't take the time to research and understand their influencers and their audiences. The focus of your influencer outreach should be to make it a win for the influencer, a win for their audience and a win for you.

Joel Widmer (@jwidmer) fluxedigitalmarketing.com

When I received copies of my first published book I thought it would be a great idea to send a copy to all the 20 or so people I mentioned in the back as being influential to me. I simply sent them the book and asked if they'd review it or share with their community. To say that was lame would be an understatement as I made no attempt to build up rapport or to even tell them why I thought they and their followers would benefit. In hindsight it's highly embarrassing and rather unsurprisingly, none of the people replied!

Tim Brownson www.adaringadventure.com

I'd say, the biggest mistake is trying to connect with Influencer without having researched on them. These people are usually busy: if you want to succeed you have to emerge from the crowd when outreaching: knowing their hobbies, their passions, citing their articles or quotes, is essential. But, people don't get it and keep sending emails that will be ignored.

Giuseppe Pastore (Zen2Seo) giuseppepastore.com

The biggest mistake I've made is assuming that relatively obscure information is only relevant to people interested in my niche. But, when I did outreach for my post on The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, it quickly became one of my most popular and highly shared posts, even in the highly specific memory improvement niche. I now know that this kind of information has wider appeal amongst influencers than I originally thought.

Anthony Metivier (@AnthonyMetivier) magneticmemorymethod.com

Biggest mistakes I've seen others make are being irrelevant and giving up too early. They contact someone one time, never hear back and give up on it. Or they send spam messages which are not targeted and not relevant at all. You need to be in it for the long run. It takes time to build a name for yourself and establish relationships with influencers. Second, you need to be relevant, targeted and provide something unique and of value to the person you are contacting. There's no point in contacting an influencer about something they see all the time, or something don't care about and have no interest in.

Marko Saric (@markosaric) howtomakemyblog.com

When doing cold influencer outreach, the biggest mistake I have seen is not proofing your email, tweet, etc before sending it. This is more than likely the first impression someone sees of you, so make it count.

Chris Makara (@chrismakara) chrismakara.com

The biggest mistake I see people make in influencer marketing is failing to establish credibility. This is vital as you've maybe 10 seconds to convince the influencer to even read your request. "Warm" outreach is best, where you already have a relationship with the influencer through Twitter and/or other social networks. But if you don't have that, then name-drop--mention other influencers you've worked with or acquaintances you have in common--or cite well-known brands you've with, or link to A-list blogs or journals where you've been published.

Tom Pick (@TomPick) webbiquity.com

My biggest mistake was trying to get personal/chummy too fast, it really turns someone off. You really have to build some rapport first and make the relationship worth their while.

Mary Green (@marygreenim) mary-green.com

When I first got started, I made the mistake of acting like a fangirl when meeting big name bloggers I admired. If you can't respect yourself and your work enough to act like a peer, the chances of them promoting your work is almost zero.

Jennifer Gresham Founder of everydaybright.com. You can find her on Facebook.

There are two big mistakes made with Influencer Marketing I've seen in coaching clients to gain more influence and authority publishing content online. First, they have terrible POSITIONING. The are positioning their approach as my good friend Kimanzi says, "Chasing Influencers". You should not be viewed as "chasing" but rather as an advocate or partner. Secondly, they don't consider their ALIGNMENT. Alignment means you are in line with the influencer's objectives. We've featured multiple best-selling authors as a guest on my podcast because I reached out with the message that I wanted to help them promote their book, rather than leading with my own motivations. Keep your positioning and alignment correct and you'll develop great partnerships and many new friendships.

Jeremy C. Jones (@jonesima) Self Publishing Expert and Author Advocate. You can find him on Facebook.

I approached influencers as if I needed them. They were the stars, I was the wannabe. Mistake. I soon realized, "Hey, I'm an influencer, too." In fact, they needed me as much as I needed them. Symbiosis.

Donna Merrill donnamerrilltribe.com

I picked a fight with a really well known person in the legal industry. I did this shortly after starting my law firm internet marketing agency, NiftyLaw. Little did I know he sat on a lot of conference committees and was well connected. Even though I disagreed with him I am not sure I fully understood the potential effects it would have. Lesson learned: play nice...always.

Mike Ramsey (@MikeRamsey) Nifty Marketing

A common one would be to get the influencers involved and then once the post is all finished don't follow through with the outreach the people featured or the wider community to get the post the attention it needs.

You need to follow up with everyone featured via email or Twitter (depending on if you want links or shares) to get them telling their audience about it.

You also need to follow up with other names not featured to get them sharing it - people love to share this sort of content.

You also have to make it SUPER easy for the influencer to share like including a click to tweet link in the email so all they have to do is click it to share to Twitter, this makes a huge difference than just asking "please share on Twitter" as they have to go log in and actually share it.

And even if that IS their intention... they might forget or get distracted.

So have the click to tweets, the embedded links, the link to upvote on Inbound or whatever you want to achieve in the email for them.

Stuart Walker Nichehacks.com

a) Not getting to know what's important to the influencer

b) Not being clear on what you want the influencer to do

c) Thinking that influencers alone can help

d) Not saying thank you and building at least a loose relationship with the influencer

Ramon Ray (@ramonray) and smarthustle.com

The biggest mistake is putting all the burden of success on the influencer - as if success simply takes securing your market's influencer. Don't forget the "marketing" in "influencer marketing." Plan entire campaigns around that influencer. You can't just call it a day when Jay Baer has blurbed your book. Now you need to market that blurb - and, better yet, involve Baer in a campaign.

Joanna Wiebe (@copyhackers) Creator of Copy Hackers and Airstory

Fully trusting someone or depending solely on one person is the greatest mistake I have ever made. The person's confidence made me trust him, but on the other side, due to the work pressure (I assume) he could not fulfill the task I entrusted him with. Ultimately, that lead me to forgo some of the prestigious projects at hand.

I'm sure he didn't do this on purpose, but my leniency led him to take it in an easy way. Though I have told him about its seriousness and the projects on hand, but he could not deliver it on time.

I've learned a lesson from this incident... that one should not depend on only one person for everything since he or she may have other things to deliver on deadline. Sometimes a constant vigil or follow up may bring results on time, but most of the time, it may irritate the other side and get things twisted.

Philip Verghese 'Ariel pvariel.com (@PVAriel)

My biggest mistake is failing to keep up with my connections and letting it go stale. I meet people and hang out at conferences and we get along well... then I get back in my office and just go back to it. If you don't take the time to nurture those relationships and keep up the communication, then it becomes little more than a casual "hey" when you pass in the halls at a conference... and not much more.

David Risley blogmarketingacademy.com

Not a clear mistake but just generally I could have been better at nurturing relationships. I've had some good support from influencers in the past but the guys who really do it well are constantly nurturing relationships with influencers on a daily basis. I haven't really done that and I would like to get better at that. I think if you can prove yourself useful to influencers on a regular basis, they are much more likely to support you.

Dan Norris (@thedannorris) 7daystartup.com

The biggest influencer marketing mistake which I see others making (and I was probably guilty of myself some years back) is not accepting and learning from failure. The harsh reality of the matter is that most influencers don't care about the contents of 99% of pitches. To get to the level of being regarded as an 'influencer' an individual has had success in one or more ways and, unfortunately, this means they're busy people.

If you read ten guides on 'how to do influencer marketing right' they'll all tell you that you need to carefully identify your influencers, justify why they should care about what you have to say and make them feel special. In reality, that's often not enough. Most 'influencers' are busy people and sometimes absolutely nothing is enough to gain their attention. That doesn't always mean to say you approached in the wrong way, sometimes simply that you reached out at the wrong time.

As such, especially in the early days of building relationships with influencers, failure is common. That is, failure in the form of no responses. The mistake many make, however, is to give up. There's no denying how powerful influencer marketing is, however the reality is that it takes time to get right and even then, there's no guarantees of success. The real recipe for success is simply dedication. Stick at it, continue doing things which are likely to garner an influencer's attention and before long, that success will come.

James Brockbank is Managing Director of Digitaloft, a specialist team of results driven content marketers situated in the North West of the UK. You can find him on twitter @BrockbankJames.

One of the biggest mistake marketers do when they run Influencer marketing campaigns is not to track and monitor the performances. An Instagram influencer campaign can be monitored with tracking links or hashtags (if you don't use link) It's also important to identify the best influencers based on your industry or niche. The narrow it is the better your camping will perform. I've already tested some Snapchat influencer campaigns and tracking is crucial.

Stefano Mongardi The Web-Mate (Snapchat: stemonga)

The biggest mistake I ever made in Influencer Marketing was to think I could build a business by creating content for everyone. Only once I learned to focus on a target audience did I finally see results.

John Meese (@JohnRMeese) johnmeese.me

If you want to be well known and be an effective influencer, it's important to be known as an expert in a particular area. Don't just talk about any topic that comes up, focus on one particular area. This will usually be whatever your main business focuses on (in my case, buying/selling websites). When I first started out, I used to try be an expert on everything and pretended to know about every subject. While it's helpful to have a practical understanding of all areas of business, you can't be an expert at everything. Keeping focus means you are more likely to be recognised as the "go to guy/girl" in your niche.

Thomas Smale feinternational.com

Biggest mistake I've made is not taking a consistent approach to the content I create for my own platform. If you're too busy actually running your company instead of working on your personal brand I think it's important to pick one medium and stick to that consistently whether that's blogging, podcasting, youtube or something else - being consistent is key and I've failed there but working to correct.

Chris Guthrie (@ChrisGuthrie) UpFuel.com

The biggest mistake is that many people are claiming that they're influencers in a topic or field that they really don't have experience in. No joke, I met a life coach who was 22 years old last week. Is it just me or does that seem a bit ridiculous? How is a 22 year old person with hardly any career experience really be a life coach to people? In order to be a true influencer you need to live, eat, breathe and sleep your craft and be genuinely helping/teaching others by mostly giving your stuff away for free.

Greg Hickman (@gjhickman) system.ly

At pitchanything.com, we've seen more than 1,000 marketers and entrepreneurs ask for help. Today, these young entrepreneurs are losing the art of a compelling story, because they've been taught to A/B split test messaging, and "the audience will choose right marketing message." Yes, this A/B testing does work, to a degree, but in the end you'll find, all your messaging will end up in "get rich quick" -territory, which might drive traffic and revenue, but won't communicate brand quality. Testing is good, but don't give up on a good story that is authentic and connected to your brand, just to drive some extra traffic.

Oren Klaff (@pitchanything)

The biggest mistake I see with influencer marketing is around positioning. People don't position themselves correctly as an influencer. Instead, they need to position themselves to the market they want to work with directly.

John McIntyre reengager.com (@johnmcintyre_)

The biggest mistake I made was not taking a strong position on something. In the real world, listening to people and considering their points of view is the best way to grow. But, to influence people online, you need to take strong positions.

Andrew Warner (@andrewwarner) mixergy.com

The biggest mistake that influencers make is that they try to be liked by everyone. They're afraid of being polarizing, and tone their message down to be "all things to all people", when they shouldn't be holding back. The best influencers are those who can defend strong opinions, which makes them more influential at the end of the day!

Marc Mawhinney (@marcmawhinney) naturalborncoaches.com

Displaying a self-orientation by constantly selling "why you should select me" instead of selling why you should change.

Anthony Iannarino (@iannarino) thesalesblog.com

The biggest mistake anyone can make as an influencer is to believe their own hype and sell out thinking that their followers will simply become obedient, compliant consumers. Being an influencer means you are there to serve. You become the central node in an extended social network that runs on trust. You can never betray that trust, even when you use your elevated position within the network to market. Integrity is key and so is passion and the need to keep things real. There are countless examples of influencers who built up a popular profile on social networks only to see it crash and burn because they failed to grasp this simple truth.

David Amerland davidamerland.com (@davidamerland)

The biggest mistake I see people make is focusing on influencing rather than connecting and/or offering valuable content. The real reward comes from establishing a relationship. Influencing is simply a natural by-product. Here are a couple of annoying things that turn me off (and probably other people): 1) Automatic thank you's sent from a service. (they're not personal); and 2) when someone I don't know pings me through social media asking, "How can I help you?" (a hollow offer)

Jesse Lyn Stoner (@jesselynstoner) seapointcenter.com

I was excited when I finally landed my first big guest post on a MAJOR blog. I was hoping this would really help me connect with the owner! BUT...I learned I was making a gaffe by replying to every comment I got, which is considered 'comment-stuffing' or a bald attempt to up your comment count, just to get a bigger number. Feedback through the grapevine was that I was 'grandstanding' and had a swelled head. Yow! Obviously, I stopped answering every single comment, but I never did end up building much of a relationship with that particular influencer.

Carol Tice (@ticewrites) makealivingwriting.com

Biggest mistake I see others make is treating people on the other side (visitors, clients, and customers) like numbers or statistics, rather than like real life human beings. The reason, of course, is that it doesn't scale...and that's exactly why it matters.

Tom Morkes (@tmorkes) tommorkes.com

Too often I see people forget to make their messaging all about the individual they are reaching. Focus more on the "Why" and the "Purpose" of YOUR target and it will lead to more results for YOU. Remember, it's not about YOU. It's about the client.

Ben Newman (@continuedfight) bennewman.net

Placing yourself as an authority without identifying your core audience, niche, and genre are the biggest mistakes I am seeing in the industry these days. For the first 2 years I blogged in the dark (without identifying my audience's need, passion and interest), but once I knew the ingredients, people started recognizing my blog.

Kulwant Nagi (@kulwantnagi) bloggingcage.com

The biggest mistake I've ever made in influencer marketing is not understanding my audience and fan base inside out.

Erik Qualman (@equalman) www.equalman.com

200 pages. Then 90 pages. Then 59 pages. When I started out writing books and courses, I was under the impression that you needed at least 200 pages in a book. When I wrote 90 pages, I'd be a little nervous. The last course we had, I wrote just 59 pages--and clients ended up with a skill, instead of more information. My mistake was assuming that clients wanted bulk, and that's the last thing they need. What they really want is the shortest route to a skill. If your books and courses are getting thicker (with dozens of bonuses), you're making a big mistake.Clients want results, not more information.

Sean D'Souza www.psychotactics.com (iTunes) (Stitcher)

I did not set clear expectations at the onset of my first influencer campaign (what exactly I was providing them, niche audience that was being targeted, etc), and that affected communication between myself and a pretty larger and influential company. In the end my influencer campaign sounded more 'canned' than providing an honest review and recommendation to purchase their product and it did not have a lot of readership. It flopped and the company has not worked with me since then. I learned a valuable lesson about setting expectations and clear communication before you start an influencer campaign.

Chantal Bechervaise (@cbechervaise) takeitpersonelly.com

The biggest mistake I've seen a lot of other brands or affiliate marketers (as bloggers), is to promote unethical or questionable offers just to make a quick buck. In the world of online marketing (and in life), it takes years to build up a trusted reputation. The reason why this is so common in the world of online marketing, is that sometimes you can make a quick buck by promoting something scammy. Bottom line... always think about what you do and promote online before doing it.

Zac Johnson of zacjohnson.com

Accepting irrelevant campaigns. It's in the influencers interest to stick with their niche. Not just for respecting the fans and followers, but also for maintaining integrity.

Erik Emanuelli (@ErikEmanuelli) nopassiveincome.com

Lack of authenticity. People plugging products that they clearly don't use and/or like. Always shines through.

Niklas Laninge, a psychologist running the edtech startup Daily Bits Of (@dailybitsof)

The biggest mistake I've seen many influencers make (especially on Instagram) is promoting products and services that don't align with your existing platform. For example, a fitness influencer promoting a product that has nothing to do with fitness (like financial). It's important to know your audience's demographic and whether they align with your current platform. Don't just be a frickin' pitchman/woman, give real value and your audience will LOVE you!

Ebong Eka @EbongEka (twitter, snapchat, instagram [every dang social platform]) EKAnomics.com & EbongEka.com

Pestering a speaker at an event after they have just spoken - bad timing. Not researching speakers and analysts at an event beforehand. Adding comments to blogs that are blatantly selling with littler regard to blog content.

The biggest mistake I've seen others make in influencer marketing is not investing time in content creation. Some people believe that they have to share their own blog posts exclusively in order to build thought leadership, which is simply not true. Successful influencers share a healthy balance of relevant third party content mixed in with their own content.

Michael Cheng @michaelhsc, cofounder of snip.ly

I think there's a fine line between promoting your own products and services and being overly promotional. I'm sure I flirted with the latter, especially earlier on in my career. But, the 80/20 rule can be used here too - promote other people's content 80% of the time and your own 20% of the time (I could still get better at this I bet! ;-)

Gina Horkey, (@HorkeyHandBook) horkeyhandbook.com

The biggest mistake I see others make in influencer marketing is not taking the time to be authentic in their communications. People see right through that canned, fake stuff! I teach thought leaders to engage authentically when they send emails, respond on social media, and prepare content to post online. This isn't difficult--it means slowing down and sending a genuine message, tweet, or blog post. It means being a resource for others. And above all, it means making your communication personal, so the person on the other side feels valued.

Shannon Hernandez www.thewritingwhisperer.com @writingwhisper

The biggest mistake I made was focusing on building a following but not converting the following to my email list. I have 280,000 followers on Facebook, but now my access to them is controlled by Facebook, and I need to pay to play. Had I converted them to my email list I would have access to them on my terms and not Facebook's.

Gordon Tredgold www.gordontredgold.com @gordontredgold

Near to me the biggest mistake most rising influence marketers make is "Starting without an incentive". When you don't have anything to give in exchange of an email, your email list will take time to grow. It's better to create an incentive before stepping into the industry. It's not compulsory to create a really giant incentive, you can just start with a short e-book. As soon as you start giving an incentive in exchange for an e-mail... you'll boost your email list and your business.

Umair Akram (@iclicknetworks) mytechmag.com

Someone once added me to a Facebook group, and although mildly annoyed, I followed along with the postings. A few weeks later, the same person who added me to a Facebook group (or so I thought) posted about how annoying it was to be added to Facebook groups without being added to them. For some reason, although I knew better, I responded by saying, "Isn't that the same thing you did to me?" My intention was to be helpful by letting him know that perhaps these people didn't realize they were adding people to groups and assumed they were getting requests to join. Instead, it made me look like a troll. The moral of the story, if you're thinking something you're about to post on social media could be misinterpreted . . . don't post it.

Zeb Welborn (@zebwelborn) welbornmedia.com

Never generate traffic through negativity, personal attacks, or media stunts. That's because people will pay attention out of curiosity, but they only buy from people they respect. Getting attention by raising a ruckus may generate short term interest, but it hurts your long term business. Be respectful, and be respectable at all times.

Todd R. Tresidder - Founder and Money Coach at FinancialMentor.Com

Thinking that you can be an influencer overnight. I've helped clients BECOME influencers, it takes a while, and key relationships in your industry help make it faster but it still takes time to build those too! Plan on a solid year to two years of hardcore influencer marketing. (I made this mistake at the beginning too!)

Jaime Tardy (@eventualmillion) eventualmillionaire.com

My 'Influencer' status started when I was recognized by LinkedIn for my work and chosen by them to be one of the world's top 150 Business influencers. My mistake was I was embarrassed by the accolade and reacted slowly to the opportunity. I didn't realize the power it brings, and the reach it gives you. Today I get many requests to undertake keynote speeches all over the globe as a result of being a business influencer.

The biggest lesson I learned as an influencer, is that you can't be an influencer from 9 to 5, and then get back to a "different life". It's not even a job. It's a lifestyle. The way you articulate people around you is so intricate and yet so simple, that, at some point you really have to blend all of the "techniques" and "strategies" into your lifestyle. That's how it works, for me. Influencer marketing is not about what you say, but mostly about who you (really) are.

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Source: 217 Influencers & Experts Tell Me Their Worst Influencer Marketing Mistake (Part 3)