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Why Do Customers and Prospects Say No Even When They Mean Yes?

I want to start this by painting a picture. You walk into a store looking for a specific item. You aren’t sure where it would be, whether it’s in stock, or even if it’s necessarily the item you need to solve your problem.

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Are you missing out on the most critical digital agency deliverable?

Ask the average business leader what they want from their web partner and they may tell you it’s a killer website. Okay, so you know making it pretty isn't enough... they might also mention prompt service, transparent billing, or consistent lead generation results. These are all good answers of course, but I think a lot of people miss the biggest point of all.

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What are Zero-Click Search Results… and Why Should I Care?

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.

10 Proven Ways to Beat Back Writer’s Block

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.

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Is it time to look at researcher type visitors through a different lens?

A lot of businesses think that content marketing goes something like this: you write a bunch of articles, post them to your blog, share them in social, and magically see new leads come pouring in. What happens is quite different.

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Marketers Should Borrow This Key Technique from Medical Research

About a decade back, I worked with a gastroenterologist who was turning heads in medical research. I had the good fortune of traveling with this man through Europe putting together the presentations he gave to peer researchers.

12 Questions Your Prospects are Asking, Whether They Know it or Not

Ask almost any marketer what customers think about when viewing a website and they’ll tell you it comes down to, What’s in it for me? It's generally agreed that’s the big thing we have to get across. It's incentive to keep reading or to take action. The presumption is that “what’s in it for me?” neatly distils our buyers’ motivations into a very clear question. Or does it?

It's bigger than that; it's purpose; a reason for being.

People around me know that I’m not afraid to give ‘it’ away. What I don’t think I’ve been very good at is expressing why. In September of 2019, I participated in the Landmark Advanced Course which helped me to gain clarity around this. I’d like to share that why with you here.

Vendor or Partner: Which Do You Want to Have (or Be)?

I had a chance to speak with a group of my peers recently. Rather than talk with them about the latest search engine optimization trends or lead generation tactics, I asked them a very simple question: were they vendors to their clients, or partners?

What You Need to Know about Links, Citations, and Mentions

As you undoubtedly know by now, it’s a good thing to have your business or website being discussed in the right circles. Links between a High-rise Window Washing business and a Truffles Kiosk aren’t likely to be relevant.

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Gutenberg + HubSpot = Super-site on a Shoestring

You may have heard... in the midst of the Christmas rush in 2018, Automattic (WordPress’s parent company) deployed Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor, which freaked out millions of users, and frustrated developers as well.

Should shares, testimonials, and pie charts go poof?

I have to ask: does Social Proof still hold value? It's one of the concepts internet marketers love to talk about, even bemoan the loss of (share counts discontinued in 2015 by Twitter, for example).

What does the Gutenberg Editor in WordPress mean for my website?

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.

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The Best Web Metric of them All

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.

Get more from Your Discovery Process by Asking More Questions

One of my clients once described the client discovery process we use at Kayak as being like therapy, except longer and with more crying. :) He was obviously joking, but I will freely admit that we spend more time getting to know our clients than they expect.

Digital marketing insights.

Insights from Randy Milanovic, awarded Buzz Sumo's Top 100 Digital Marketing Influencer.