Digital marketing insights.

Regular Kayak clients and readers might already know that we aren't big fans of pay-per-click advertising, at least not as a long-term strategy for building traffic and generating sales opportunities.

Several times a year, major auto shows are held in cities like Paris, New York, and Milan, so the world's top car designers can meet to show off their concepts. According to media reports, it isn't unusual for the companies in attendance to spend several hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make the trip and participate.

Recently, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Kayak Online Marketing was named as a finalist for the Breakout Business Award, awarded annually by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

In case you haven't heard, the latest Google algorithm update (nicknamed "Hummingbird") is online and ready for action.

Over the life of the series, Breaking Bad has been big on drama, action, and suspense. One thing it hasn't had, however, is a lot in the way of practical business lessons – at least for the majority of us who don't spend our time running illegal black markets out in the desert.

Current Kayak clients and regular blog readers will already know that we are huge fans of "attractive" marketing, and do our best to avoid interruptive tactics. But until now, we haven't taken the time to spell out exactly why.

In some ways, doing business over the Internet (or starting new business relationships online) represents something of a Catch-22 for customers and clients.

"Customer engagement" has become a popular buzzword in the online marketing industry in recent years, even inspiring a number of books and seminars designed to help creators and their clients get buyers more emotionally invested in companies and products.

Most business people realize by now that search optimization (and by extension, a big degree of success or failure in Internet marketing as a whole) comes down to having strong content and a good link profile.

It's no secret that images can be more powerful than words in marketing, but most companies don't understand how to use visual presentations to create an impact that lasts longer than a single momentary impression.

Guest blogging should be a staple of any online marketing plan, since it allows you to instantly attract new readers and build credibility for your ideas.

Twitter, like Facebook before, has become such a ubiquitous part of our world that nearly everyone, from tech-savvy teens to web-weary senior citizens, knows what tweets are and how they're used.

It is a rough time to be a sports fan. It doesn't matter what league or game you prefer, athletes are being busted left and right for cheating in the pharmaceutical sense, turning to experimental medications (and worse) just to gain a competitive edge.

The world isn't flat, there is no fountain of youth to be found in Florida, and drinking snake oil isn't going to give you any superhuman powers. Strange as it might seem, however, these were all once popular enough beliefs to get people to go to pretty great lengths (or part with big chunks of their own savings) just to find out.

Just a few years ago, a lot of business owners discovered something great about basic social media marketing: Once you have your profiles set up, it's largely a matter of investing time, rather than money. For those used to burning through cash on pay-per-click or other forms of advertising, it was music to their years.