Help! I just launched a new website and my search rankings tanked!

Inadvertently ruining your newly redesigned website's SEO can be a nightmare. Columnist Will Scott explains four mistakes you must avoid before you launch.



Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Celebrate Your Freedom From These 4 Tired Content Marketing Tactics

Freedom is an expression that you'll hear a lot this week as we celebrate America's independence. Our forefathers had a vision for a country that provided citizens with certain rights and responsibilities for themselves and their neighbors.

Marketers today have a unique opportunity to sign their own declaration of independence to free themselves of tired content marketing tactics. This is a declaration that removes antiquated approaches to content marketing and instead focuses on creating value for their customers in a way that builds a better future.

Recent research has found that over 80% of marketers are creating content ,which means that the competition for customer attention is becoming increasingly difficult. Now is the time for marketers to break free of tired content tactics and begin creating more memorable interactions with customers. As continue to execute and refine your approach to content marketing, make sure that you avoid making the following mistakes. 

#1 – Self-Centered Content

In the past, many brands spent time creating content for their website that only provided detailed information about their products and services. Today, the companies that are creating content that speaks to the pain points of their customers are the ones that are winning at content marketing.

Today's savvy and connected customers have countless options available to them which means that marketers must spend their efforts providing helpful resources that focus on solving the top pain points that customers are facing.

#2 – An Inconsistent User Experience

Imagine for a second that you wanted to buy a specific type of firework to celebrate the 4th of July with your family and friends. In order to find the best location for purchasing your fireworks, you did some research online. However, once you got to the actual fireworks stand, nothing matched what you found online. Instead of finding the fountains and rockets that your family had their heart set on, there were only snakes and poppers.

When brands fail to provide accurate information and a consistent user experience across multiple channels, it creates an unpleasant experience for their potential customers. We now understand that often times it takes multiple touch points to convert a customer which means that no matter where they are interacting with your brand online, they should be provided with accurate information in a consistent way.

#3 – Failing to Experiment

Once you get into a habit (any habit) it can be incredibly difficult to break. It can be easy for brands to get in a rut with their content marketing tactics because let's face it, once you understand how to plan for, execute and measure a particular tactic, it becomes more comfortable each time.

Don't let this get in your way of experimenting with different content types that may appeal to your audience. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and it's important that your content team is experimenting and innovating in a way that keeps your customers engaged. Different content types that you may want to experiment with include:

• Video


• Webinars


• Crowdsourced Content


• Influencer Driven Content


• Case Studies


• White Papers


• Infographics


• Podcasts


• eBooks

#4 – Content That Doesn't Connect

It doesn't matter if you're selling B2C or B2B products or services, at the other end of every purchase is a person that is driven to make a buying decision. While a company's content could very well be optimized for search engines in a way that makes them findable, that doesn't mean that it's optimized for their buyers.

Once a potential customer reaches your website, offsite content or social profile, you have a very limited amount of time to create an impression. If they can't see themselves in the content, then they will quickly abandon your content in favor of a content that better suits their needs.

In order to stand out, you MUST create content that tells a compelling story in a way that moves your audience. We are visual learners so it's also important to include visuals that help create a connection to your text content

Celebrate Your Content Freedom Each Day

You have the freedom to constantly delight your customers and innovate the way that you approach content marketing. Don't be content with the status quo.The bar for content quality is constantly being raised so it's incredibly important that you take every step necessary to create compelling content that connects you with your customers.



What other tired content marketing tactics would you like to see your brand (or other brands) break free from?

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How Twitter bios can help you find your audience

Columnist Chris Kerns takes a deep dive into the profile descriptions for millions of Twitter users to bring you insight into why you need to look beyond just tweets to target your audience.



Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

Louisiana Medicaid Expansion Brings Insurance To Many New Orleans Musicians

The state this week became the 31st in the nation to expand Medicaid to the working poor. It's also the first state in the Deep South to embrace the Obamacare program.

The Undeniable Mobile Effect On Holiday Shoppers

Today is June 30. Summer only officially launched 8 days ago yet here I am talking about holiday shoppers. No, I am not crazy from the heat. Retailers across the land are either knee-deep in their holiday plans for the coming season or about to start or are somewhere in between.

And based on results of a survey conducted by Oracle Marketing Cloud and Edison Research it would be wise for the same retailers to not just talk mobile but to actually be mobile - literally and figuratively. 

A little backstory to the research before we get mobile. 

In 2014, Oracle Marketing Cloud and Edison Research embarked on an initial exploration of the holiday shopper, by looking at their planned behavior prior to the 2014 holiday season, and then by examining what those consumers actually did by conducting similar research immediately following the 2014 holiday season.

We learned a great many things about consumers- particularly that their best-laid plans often go awry.

For this year, we revisited that research in order to determine which behaviors are trending, whether mobile is continuing to grow, how online shopping is impacting offline shopping, and other important shopping behaviors. 

Since mobile affects pretty much everything today, it should come as no surprise that it has a profound impact on holiday shoppers and how they shop, as witnessed by the following.

First a series of video interviews of consumers on their thoughts when it comes to mobile and holiday shopping, which is part of our qualitative part of the research. 

And the following findings which are based on the quantitative part of the research. 

The truth is none of the above should come as any surprise to ANY marketer, retail, B2C, B2B - whatever. The world is mobile. Period. 

However, one of the biggest increases from our 2014 post-holiday study to the 2015 post-holiday study was the percentage of holiday shoppers who told us that they had ever used an app to make a purchase. For the 2014 holiday season, 25% of consumers indicated they had used an app to make a holiday purchase-in itself a significant number-but in 2015 that number jumped markedly to 40%. This is nearly the percentage who indicated that they had made a mobile purchase in the 2015 holiday season using a website.

Clearly, the app has become a very important part of the transactional holiday shopping economy. 

Julie Lyle, the current Chairman of the Board for the Global Retail Marketing Association and former CMO of hgregg, Prudential Corporation Asia, and Walmart has a very direct message for marketers when it comes to mobile: 

"In today's highly mobile environment, retailers who do not adopt a “mobile-first” roadmap do so at their own risk. In addition to the feature usage outlined above, consumers now use their smartphones to check availability or source out of stocks from other sellers, compare loyalty program rewards for purchases, confirm/compare warranty or return policies, seek inspiration/ help for product usage and more!"

The Happiest of Holidays 

Regardless of where you are in your 2016 retail holiday planning you can benefit from all the findings from this extensive research. Download Making Spirits Bright: Increase Holiday Results With Retail Shopping Research and enjoy your own version of a winter wonderland. 

'Vulnerable Elders Survey' Predicts Breast Ca Outcomes (CME/CE)

(MedPage Today) -- Self-administered tool takes 4 minutes for patients to complete

Why CMOs Need To Be Bullish On Programmatic Advertising

Before I get to my thoughts on why CMOs need to be bullish on programmatic advertising, let's first take a look at just what programmatic advertising is. 

We define it simply as “Automated advertising buying coupled with machine learning.” However, there are no shortages of definitions of the term programmatic advertising.

“Programmatic ad buying typically refers to the use of software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to the traditional process that involves RFPs, human negotiations and manual insertion orders. It's using machines to buy ads, basically.” -Digiday

“Programmatic advertising helps automate the decision-making process of media buying by targeting specific audiences and demographics.” -Marketing Land

The first definition helps explain it in very simply terms whereas the second helps explain what it does. 

In terms of the different types of programmatic advertising, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)-which is an industry organization geared toward ensuring standards across the advertising ecosystem-there are two types of programmatic buying (the process in which you're buying advertising):

1. Programmatic Direct

Also known as Premium Programmatic Advertising, this is an automated technology-driven method used for buying, selling, or fulfilling advertising. It provides for an Automated Guarantee Systematic automation of sales process. No insertion order (IO) or master services agreement (MSA) covered within the partnership.

2. Programmatic Real Time Bidding (RTB)

Two types of RTBs are Open Auction (audience targeting) and Private Marketplace Deals-which require a private marketplace and allow for fixed pricing and data overlays. We are beginning to see more and more of this type of programmatic advertising being used every day. 

Why CMOs Need To Be Bullish On Programmatic Advertising 

The shift to programmatic tactics means a few things for marketers and the industry as a whole. In essence, it has validated and delivered against the need for data-driven, and accountable ROI-based media delivery. Additionally, it has enabled an efficient method for publishers to monetize core inventory. 

In a nutshell, programmatic advertising aligns media with brand lift metrics for real ROI and only spends money where it will be effective. 

And it would appear that many of your fellow CMOs are planning on being bullish as eMarketer predicts that in 2016 programmatic TV spending will climb 127.8% to $710 million and by 2018 will account for 6% of all TV ad spending.

The New Currency of Advertising

Digital delivery and content is the new currency of advertising. Brands must find a way to connect while measuring returns on more than recall or click through rate (CTR). Only programmatic platforms can deliver that value.

Download The Programmatic Guide for Modern Marketers, Publishers, and Media Planners to learn how to deliver advertising that enhances the customer experience and a lot more.