Digital marketing insights.

I'm so happy to share this transcript from an SEMrush webinar on Personas that I was fortunate to present. The host, Tristam Jarman, opened the door and I walked through into a wonderful world of friendly faces and great questions. I hope you enjoy. There's a lot a good intel in here.

A zero-click search result occurs when a user visits Google, enters a search string, and never leaves the Google ecosystem. This typically occurs because they click to YouTube, see an answer snippet, or click a link to Google Maps, etc. It's a huge barrier to searchers clicking through to your site.

You've probably noticed that I'm a huge proponent of content marketing. I don’t just recommend posting articles for the sake of SEO, but more so as a way to start conversations and share knowledge. Most people I meet love this… right up until the moment they sit down and start typing.

It’s at this point they realize their minds have gone blank and they don’t know where to start.

If you are a Wordpress user thinking of updating from version 4.9.8 to 5.0, you may want to read this. Unless of course, you like to get caught napping.

Every time I see articles that focus on designing for new apps (like Gutenberg, Wordpress' next-gen editor), the latest design trends (like flat design), or visuals that are supposedly “outside the box” (meaning non-standardized) I have to roll my eyes just a little bit.

One of the guiding principles behind my firm – and really, my life – is that you need to be willing to try new things. That helps me stay young, I think, but also helps to avoid getting too complacent in an ever-changing digital marketing world.

Marathons are long, hard, taxing and exhilarating races that require immense dedication and perseverance. Online marketing is no different. In fact, I’m even going to go one step further and say that online marketing isn’t just like a regular marathon, it’s more like one of the hardest marathons in the world. What makes it so hard? Let’s break it down.

Most marketers would say they know a bad website when they see one. The crazy fonts, cluttered layouts, and outdated animations are dead giveaways. And yet, we continually see surveys – like this one from Nielson – that show us how lots of organizations keep frustrating online visitors.

If you don’t know a lot about the servers where your website is stored – or even which company you’ve purchased web hosting through – you certainly aren’t alone.

Back in 2013, I co-wrote a book with my friend and fellow Canadian marketer, Sam Fiorella, titled “Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing”.

At some point in the last decade, a critical number of people started thinking about the kinds of side effects that might come with using too many pesticides, antibiotics, and other foreign substances to grow food.

In the digital marketing field, blogging holds a pivotal role. It not only boosts your lead generation and search ranking efforts but also serves as a platform for your voice, a gateway to your community, and a facilitator of communication with the world.

As far as the advice goes, “always look on the bright side” scores pretty well. It’s not a bad song lyric, either. But is there such a thing as too much positivity, especially when it comes to making business decisions?

Your website isn’t just a marketing item – it’s a potential hub of information, relationship-building, and sales activity. It’s also the most visible component of your marketing plan. Do you get the sense it's under performing? Let's check on a few of the most common and telltale signs...

At some point or another, someone in your life – like a parent or spouse – probably reminded you that you aren’t indeed the centre of the universe. That’s something we all come to learn eventually, even if we don’t necessarily like it.