It’s that time of year again. The eighth installment of HubSpot’s annual State of Inbound 2016 Report was recently published by the Boston-based inbound marketing automation software provider. Even though I read it every year, what I found particularly intriguing about this current offering is its generally brand-agnostic methodology. The vast majority (85%) of the study’s 4,500 […]
Chris Horton
Is It Time to Ditch the Term “Social”?
Is social media social? What at first blush might seem like a highly ironic and utterly absurd question has a surprisingly firm grounding in reality, at least in today’s existing digital marketing reality. When you take a moment to stop and think about it, much of the largely two-way interplay on the ubiquitous digital communications […]
A Note to the Small Businesses Still Not Mobile Optimized
Believe me, I get it. An inveterate slacker who tends to view any sort of change with a wary eye, I understand how difficult it can be to embrace new technologies, especially as a small business with limited resources. But we’re halfway through 2016 and the world has clearly gone mobile, yet almost half of […]
Forget Millennials: Time to Prepare for Generation Z
This post is not meant to dis Millennials. In truth, I’ve had my fill of Millennial-bashing comments and commentaries in recent years, often promulgated by the not-so-silent ranks of disdainful Boomers and disgruntled Gen Xers, much of it undeserved. The largest demographic group in U.S. history, the Millennial generation (aka Gen Y) already has and […]
A Simple Formula for Success in Online Content Marketing
A colleague once asked me to come up with a simple formula for success in online content marketing. After pondering the question for far too long, I came up with this response: Write as yourself. Write for your audience. Achieving success in online content marketing is all about finding the balance between authenticity and relevance. […]
Hey Retailers: Want to Boost Sales Conversion? Build a Mobile App
Perhaps the best piece of evidence that a given marketing technology has reached maturity and broad-based consumer acceptance lies in its ability to drive conversion actions at every stage of the buying cycle. According to Criteo’s Q4 2015 State of Mobile Commerce report, mobile apps are doing just that, at least for U.S. retailers. By providing online shoppers […]
What is Proximity Based Marketing?
As mobile continues to hit the mainstream, our approaches to information discovery are rapidly evolving along with our buying habits. A recent study conducted by IDC Research and YP found that only 36% of online desktop and mobile users initiated a local business search on a traditional search engine. Moreover, approximately 80% of study participants said they […]
Note to Businesses: We’re All in eCommerce Now
One needn’t look any further than Amazon to bear witness to the growing power of eCommerce. This past holiday season offered up a spate of direct and anecdotal evidence to suggest that eCommerce in general, and mCommerce (mobile commerce) in particular, is on the rise and is quickly redefining the retail landscape. Research from Adobe […]
8 Ways to Improve Your Online Content Marketing
It’s 2016, and the digital tsunami rages on, drenching us all in a virtual deluge of online content and forcing companies of all sizes and industry segments to contribute to the endless content flow or be mercilessly drowned out by the competition. In the midst of such a content cataract, the question on everyone’s mind […]
5 Proven Digital Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses in 2016
As 2016 draws near, it sure feels like we are entering into a veritable golden age of digital marketing, at least for larger businesses. Article after article regales us with tales of the rise of corporate programmic ad buying, or how enterprise-level companies are using content marketing and rich media to produce a wellspring of […]
