Month: January 2015

  • The sunset of keyword-based SEO

    In a tacit acknowledgement that (not provided) basically killed keyword-based optimization, Google Analytics over the weekend relocated organic keyword tracking, burying it inside the campaigns menu. Why the change? For years now, fewer and fewer keywords were being picked up by web analytics software. Encrypted search and mobile are the two reasons they’ve vanished from…

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  • The Devil You Know Metric

    There’s a phenomenon in the field of marketing analytics that is vitally important for you to understand because it showcases why people make the choices they do about metrics. I’ve no doubt you’ve read stories of people using or misusing a particular metric in ways that would seem almost comical if they weren’t so sad.…

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  • Minimum effective dose of marketing

    After a shower recently, I noticed a logistical problem: all of the normal bath towels weren’t available. So I used a hand towel, which was sufficient to get the job done. Even though it was optimal, it achieved the desired effect. That got me thinking about a concept I first read in a pharmacology book…

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  • Marketing contains 32 times more data than you can see

    This is an excerpt of my upcoming book, Marketing Blue Belt. Pre-order your copy now! Data. It’s the lifeblood of many businesses, the cornerstone of great marketing, and the most confounding problem companies and marketers face today. Today, we’re surrounded by more data than ever before. Think about something as simple as a Tweet on…

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  • The killer social media app of 2015? Solving post office zero

    There’s a small fortune to be made for any startup or company out there willing to put the work into it. The product is, or will be, the killer app of 2015 and years to come if it’s done well. What is it? It’s the solution to this problem: Every single new messaging and social…

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  • Before you start your 2015 marketing

    Before you start your 2015 marketing, take a few minutes today to do some mise en place, a French cooking term for “everything in its place”. Get out a notebook and write down all of the ideas that have bubbled up over the holidays. Lots of things coalesced – capture them now before the daily…

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  • My 3 words for 2015

    As another year rolls over, I look back at the three words I chose for the previous year to see how I did, then look at the new words for the coming year. I tend to pick words that are verbs when I can, because reciting them works as a subtle imperative for me to…

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