Marty Note: Email Matters
Your email list is something you own. You've earned the right to NOT pay Google or anyone else when you communicate with your email list. The value of the list is HUGE.

We saw a monetary value of $100 a subscriber recently and there are times when you email list can be worth many multiples of that such as:

* When your organic rankings take a huge hit thanks to an algorithm change.
* During peak sales times.

* To create sustainable online community.
* To increase sales.

* To bolster SEO and then increase sales.

Here is a great and simple list for how to increase the size of your email list:

1. Subscribe Button

2.  Ask Your Readers

3.  Give Incentives

4. Speed Up Website

5. Offer A Free Course

6. Squeeze Page

7. Guest Blogging

8. Implement Hello Bar

9. Video Call To Action

10. Scroll Box

11. Feature Box

12. Sumo Me

13.  QR Code

14. Trade Shows

This original research by Internet Retailer offers insights into whats driving growth in sales conversion among Americas leading web merchants.

Marty Note
Listening to David Payton discuss the cool conversion report FedEx created with Internet Retailer:

1. Free Shipping = top way to convert visitors to buyers.
Some will even opt for a slower time for free shipping. Some want ship to store. Free shipping is "essential" said VP Marketing David Payton at SMB Conference today.

2. Responsive = device agnostic.
The ability to see the site and have the site function across platforms is key. Company in David's slide deck saw a 40% increase in conversion from responsive design.

3. Email Marketing Still Matters
David's and FedEx's study shows email is still very important. Persoans and personalizing emails is key. No more batch and blast.

4. Ratings and Reviews
Ratings and reviews boost online sales 62%. David referenced a Bazaar Voice review. Add one product review = 10% product review. From 0 to 30 increase 30%, 0 reviews to 100 = 37% sales increase.

5. Loyalty
Easier to sell those who are already in the boat. Make sure you value and reward those who are loyal to you.

Over Planning Can KILL Your Content Marketing
We see a lot of experts, gurus and people who should know better sharing yesterday's advice. We've read thousands of words about the importance of goal setting, planning and objectives for content marketing.

People talk about creating content marketing calendars and planning everything to within an inch of your life. Good luck with that. Might have worked 3 years ago, but today's social / mobile / connected world means you need to become a NOWIST.

This Curagami post embeds the influential Joy Ito TED talk about becoming a Nowist by pulling from the network to meet demand. Your content needs to do the same.

AND You need to digitally listen. We riff a few paragraphs about what it means to digitally listen such as FOLLOWING those who follow you, Retweeting and curating content from your customers and brand advocates.

Next time you read 1,000 words on planning your "content calendar" STOP and read this Curagami post so you don't over plan your content marketing.

Hard Won Lessons
I spent almost a million dollars of OPM (Other People's Money) learning these five lessons about images and web design, so lessons learned the hard way:

1. Portraits Are Powerful
Portrait images where the model looks directly at the camera, are powerful "welcoming" images great for home, about and category "splash" pages.

2. Babies are DYNAMITE - Use Carefully
Thanks to our ancient caveman brain we can't NOT look at babies. Problem is that is not a secret so babies are now overused to hock insurance, tires and shampoo. If you use a baby my preference is to have the baby looking AT something.

Visitors eyes go where the eyes of people (or babies) are looking, so point your baby image directly at an important Call-to-Action and bet your conversions go up.

3. People Talking To Each Other = DANGEROUS
There may be context where it makes sense for you to have an image where people in the image are huddled together, but I doubt it. If you have two people huddled and a third looking directly out at the camera the image works better.

We respect a huddle. We don't want to intrude, so your web image is working against your online marketing purpose. Your image says we are here having a conversation and YOU (visitor) aren't invited. Not a good idea.

4. People Sell Better Than Widgets, but...
I  prefer to tell human stories even about the most widgety widget, but people bring "like me" problems too. Every visitor is looking for "like me" signals. If you know your archetype and tribe well enough to risk it use images of people consistent with your understanding.

If you have a wide variety of customers and members best to avoid single archetype "like me" images. This is yet another reason I like portraits. Portraits are "universal" meaning the welcoming look directly at the camera removes some of the "must be like me to engage" requirements.

5. In Action Shots Use The MOVEMENT
If your image is riding a bicycle POINT the movement at something important. I don't like movement images as heroes (largest images on a page is called a hero), but I love them in "sub-hero" images because movement creates excitement and allows me to direct the visitor's eyes where we want them to go.

Why Contagious? You could read Jonah Berger’s Contagious: Why Things Catch On as an update to Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference, but I wouldn’t (lol). 

Berger’s assertion that Gladwell is mostly wrong seems moot. The Tipping Point is philosophy. Berger’s book is ditch digging psychology based on his empirical research at Wharton.

Berger shares 3 key ideas to create viral marketing:

• Find or Create Inner Remarkability.
• Leverage Game Mechanics.
• Make People Feel Like Insiders.

This Curatti.com post shares my favorite examples for each of Berger's Contagious traits including Red Bull for "Inner Remarkability", Scoop.it for leveraging game mechanics and Rue La La for making people feel like insiders.

If you are going to create #contentmarketing these days it better be EPIC. There is way too much noise. Only Epic Content will do. Here are 5 Easy Steps To Create Epic Content Marketing:

* Get your C-level executives to BELIEVE.
* Think Mobile First.
* Work with customers and creating a "commons".
* COPE (Create Once Publish Everywhere).
* Write a Content Marketing Mission Statement.

Set the stage with those easy steps and EPIC is possible, epic content marketing is probable IF your commitment is strong, you learn fast and you don't mind failing a little. Remember the content you write is NOT about you.

Epic content marketing is always about CUSTOMERS. Answering questions, solving pain points and finding innovative ways to be "of service" are all great ideas for your EPIC content marketing.

Most people curate for the benefit of themselves or their organisations. What if we considered content curation from a user centered design perspective? What would audience centered curation look like?

Here are some ideas

Here are the content marketing tips for #startups and #smbs shared in this post:

1. Create content before, during and after events.

2. Support great posts about you by writing about them.

3. Don't SELL, CURATE instead.

4. Create content with an eye toward what you want.

5. Tools matter.

http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/11/5-quick-easy-content-marketing-tips.html 

Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

How To Get Great Visual Content

• Create tension between your visual and your thesis. 
• Explain the tension quickly. 
• The more disparate the image greater need for immediate connection. 
• Any image can work WITH explanation. 
• Harvest images from Creative Commons (be sure to attribute).
• Harvest images from internal resources. 
• Harvest images by creating contests and games to ASK for them.
  
  Because your written content marketing is only as powerful as the opening and supporting visuals.

Great tips for how to make sure your images arrest and develop on Facebook. 

Great example of what works here from Coffee-mate. Tips include:

* Put Call To Actions In The Image. 
* Add a little competition into the mix (where you win either way). 
* Always take time to create IMAGE and text.

* CTA simple and clear. 
* Make sure real time feedback is in the mix (rich get richer). 

We live in visual times. Make sure your Facebook visuals arrest and develop. 

Content Marketing 101 "Wow you create a lot of content," a friend said at lunch yesterday. I felt the need to apologize (again). "I love Internet marketing,

Google can feel like a dungeon master. If your website is mission critical, and whose isn't now, and any traffic source controls more than 30% of your websites traffic and/or conversions you are in trouble.

Diversification is the key to online marketing success. This post is about 3 Giant Steps to creating your own Internet marketing destiny. Following these steps mean Google's moves will hurt less.

If you've just been tagged with a traffic penalty don't rush out and start changing things. Organic change is needed, but you should do so with a plan.

BUT, you can double down on PPC, up your email marketing fequency and increase social. Those moves may close the gap left by a Google algorithm change while you begin to remove links (with RemoveEM.com) and do the other things that will get your Google train back on track.

Here is the piece about how to diversify your traffic sources and build your list:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/102639884404823294558/posts/Maf8cEcEBGu

Marty - some valid points here, but I distrust post that tell me no one size fits all and then tries to get me to wear one size. I also distrust polls that are set up to have a clear easy winner (as theirs is). Read my notes before reading the piece.