Digital marketing insights.

I don’t know if whomever came up with the expression, “the customer is always right”, is more deserving of our scorn or pity. This misguided soul must have had a challenging time running their business, catering to every client's wish and whim.

Hardly a week goes by when I don't come across some kind of request from a company or organization asking for speculative work submissions (also known as "spec" creative, co-creation, or user-generated content).

If there’s one thing business owners universally fear, it’s an economic downturn. Although there are a few industries that benefit, or at least remain stable during a rough patch, even those tend to face increased pressure and competition in slower times.

Fill in the blank: “If I were just able to use a ______________ tool, my problems would be solved in an instant.”

Here at Kayak, we have a pretty open stance about ethics when it comes to sales and marketing – we prefer an inbound, attraction-based approach where prospects seek us out based on our being helpful and valued. We’re simply not in the habit of thrusting ourselves into the faces of prospects.

One thing you’ll notice if you stop in to see us at Kayak, is that our team is quiet eclectic. From young people to industry vets, we run the gamut. What you won't see though, are unpaid marketing interns.

Can there be there a worse idea for your business than engaging in a traditional ad agency media buy? Typically, agencies buy space or air time in bulk (with client money), then either resell it to their clients at a higher rate, or, they set up an account to auto debit the client, and take a commission (20% is not uncommon) on the spend in addition to billing for creative work and consulting.

One of the more common sentiments shared at Social Shake-Up in Atlanta – and a personal cause of mine – was the advice not to outsource your social media and customer relations communications to a third party.

The Collaborative Economy – a keynote at Social Shake-Up with Jeremiah Owyang – left an unexpected impression on me that’s had me thinking for weeks.

When you use your own website every day, it can be hard to notice anything wrong with it. It looks just the way you wanted it to and nothing seems out of place, so why would you need to make any changes?

The power of Twitter is that, as a platform, there is so much to be found - new connections, weird facts, and business opportunities abound. It's important to know what to listen to.

As a rule of thumb, having more content in more places is a very good thing for marketers. At the very least, it gets your content in front of more eyes. At the same time, we all recognize that there are only so many hours in a day, and so many great ideas to pursue. That makes choosing the right channels for your articles incredibly important.

Pop-ups, pop-unders, waiting a few seconds to watch an ad before you can play that video, articles with advertisements mid-stream and email marketing are all interruptive advertising strategies. And, much like that phone call at dinner time, less than welcomed by your prospects.

Although many in the SEO and online marketing industry like to speak about Google's algorithm as if it were an ancient secret buried beneath a mythical tomb, secrets known only to a chosen few who spend their days meditating in silence, the reality is actually a lot more mundane. Even if we don't know exactly what Google wants from a website, we've had a pretty good idea for several years about what our visitors want.

Summer's here and people are taking to the water, whether it's rafting down a slow creek or getting out the waterskis. If you're avoiding the sun by staying in the office, there's a take-away we marketers can learn from the people splashing around at the lake: there are the skimmers, and there are divers.