Marketing Network Blog

This Windows App Automatically Saves Your Work (So You Don’t Have to Worry) http://ift.tt/2nfHzXW Remarkable productivity is often about a thousand unremarkable steps. And occasionally you find an app so ordinary that it feels lost among the crowd of shiny new tools. But give AutoSaver   a chance to impress you because it’s all about that everyday productivity. Every wished that all of your favorite apps had auto-saving features so you wouldn’t have to worry about losing your work? AutoSaver automatically saves your work in any file or tool you’re using  according to a pre-set interval (minimum is one minute). There are two other good things about this app: It’s a tiny freeware download of 21 KB. It’s a portable app that you don’t need to install. If you’re still using Windows 7 or earlier, you’ll have to install .NET Framework 4 first. Don’t Worry About the Next Crash A computer crash is often a massive headache. Add your own forgetfulness to save your work regularly and

After Years of False Starts, Foursquare Has Found its Purpose -- and Profits http://ift.tt/2o1fqs5 This story appears in the April 2017 issue of Entrepreneur . Subscribe » In the spring of 2016, Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck went on CNBC to make a bold prediction: Chipotle comparable sales would fall by 29 percent in its first quarter. The network’s anchor seemed skeptical. The fast-food chain was reacting to some health scares at the time, but no one was predicting nearly as steep a drop in revenue. “What is the technology here? What have you got that enables you to do this?” the anchor asked. Related:  Patience and Faith Built S'Well Into a $100 Million-Dollar Brand Glueck was basically fishing for this question. Foursquare had reinvented itself as a location intelligence company for business, but it was in the painstaking process of shaking off its image as a forgotten consumer app. Glueck had been making the rounds for less than a year, seeding the market with al

6 Ways to Take Your Next Presentation to the Next Level http://ift.tt/2oqGPA3 Many people struggle with public speaking, which usually involves standing in front of your peers, whose eyes are glued on you (and only you), and trying to remember the key points of your presentation. No matter whom you’re speaking to, you need a lot of preparation and practice to effectively create and deliver a professional talk. Related:  7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips From One of the Most-Watched TED Talks Speakers What's more, delivery is just one part of the process. If you want to capture your audience members' attention and prevent them from dozing off or wishing they were elsewhere, you need to step up your presentation's overall quality, from your delivery style to your slide decks (which should be  awesome ). You’re unloading a lot of new information on them, so try to keep them entertained and engaged. “All of that useful information wouldn’t be remembered if I didn’t make

25 Features Every Business Website Must Have in 2017 (Infographic) http://ift.tt/2npc2pA Even though online businesses are becoming more prevalent, they haven't become any easier to launch. To give your online business a greater chance to succeed, there are certain things you need to incorporate on its website. Of course, there are the simple things such as an easy domain name, a phone number and a logo , but it’s also vital to think about the content , links and navigation that will go onto your site. Related:  4 Things to Know About Money and Your Online Business When building your website, sometimes it’s helpful to think of its setup like that of a newspaper -- organizing the most important content “above the fold,” and the less exciting material “below the fold.” In addition, having a strong call to action will help hook potential customers. For help building your business website, check out U.K. Web Host Review ’s infographic below. Related: 25 Features Every Busin

4 Things the New Leader of an Organization Should Do Right Away http://ift.tt/2o5zIN5 Changing leadership is an adjustment process. It’s a period of excitement, growing pains and hope. While earning the trust and loyalty of an entire organization is a challenge, there are five things an incoming leader can do right away to hit the ground running and earn support: Get to know all levels of staff. In some situations, new leadership can mean staff changes across the board. But, in most cases, tenured staff are still in place. The new head coach of a sports team can be great, but he has to start with the players the team already has. Focus on earning their trust and respect.  United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz is a great example of a new leader who came in and got to know people at all levels . He said that “there was a high level of distrust and disengagement with employees” when he came in. That’s not unusual. When new leadership takes over, some people may be skeptics at first. 

Surprisingly, Brand Advertising Drives More Conversions Than You Think! by @LarryKim http://ift.tt/2ng5bP3 Search marketing is so awesome because it’s efficient — the ROI is measurable and tangible. Those big brand advertisers — the ones spending millions to advertise on TV, radio, and billboards — what do they know? What a waste of money, right? Well, if those formats are so useless, why are the big companies pouring so much money into these ads every year? What do they know that we don’t? Well, maybe they know that if consumers have never heard of you, they won’t search for you when they need the product or service you sell. And if they do a search, most probably won’t click on your paid search ad or organic listing. And if they don’t click on your brand, they can’t buy from you. Why? What’s stopping them? Again: They’ve never heard of you. You aren’t a magical unicorn everyone knows and loves. You’re just a boring donkey — another link in a sea of blue links. The ultimate

7 Tools That Make Interactive Content Creation Easy http://ift.tt/2nwcO4I Interactive content is fast becoming the go-to strategy for the biggest brands in the world. According to a survey by Content Marketing Institute , 53% of marketers already use interactive content, and they expect that number to rise: Interactive content is content that requires people to actually engage, instead of just read or watch. The most popular example of interactive content is the online quiz, but that’s just scratching the surface. Here are seven tools you can use to easily make all kinds of interactive content for your marketing campaigns. 1. Apester Apester is a tool that allows you to easily create polls, surveys, personality tests, video quizzes, and a whole lot more to engage with your audience. Embed your creations into your regular blog content to create a truly interactive experience. Big brands like CNET, The Huffington Post, and Fox Sports have endorsed and used the tool. Here’s a

How to Optimize Your Product Online http://ift.tt/2mUsJXv Reader Resource Tune in April 7 and find out how to provide stellar customer care with social media in our free webinar. Register Now » You work hard to attract visitors and prospects to your website and product listings. But if those people leave without buying -- or without at least signing up to receive email updates from you -- they may not come back. Related:  3 Ways to Optimize Your Startup's Content Marketing You can still retarget those who have been to your website, and retargeting is a good way to capture those who might not return. However, if there is a disconnect with your offer, you might not convert your visitors, regardless. If that happens, you'll just end up wasting money on advertising that’s not going to give you a favorable return on investment. If you want to generate consistent sales, you need to optimize your product listings. Here's how. Get your customers to refer their friend

9 Must-Have Visual-Marketing Tools on the Web http://ift.tt/1IkVnDd Visual marketing is a primary source for customer engagement in the modern age. A necessary component for competing online, visual content is the best way to distinguish yourself from the crowd. The question is, how do you make your content the best when so many others are pushing to do the same thing? Related:  Increase Your Visual Content Engagement in 5 Steps (Infographic) Quality and consistency are key: If you don't put the work in, and fight to be seen, you won’t be. Marketers understand this, and put in many hours behind the scenes to make magic happen. But having the right visual marketing tools up your sleeve -- for image creation and optimization and editing, free-image sources and image monetization -- can really help. Image-creation tools Canva   --  A product whose best-known evangelist is marketing legend Guy Kawasaki, Canva is a simple but incredibly effective design tool. Create various sty

How to Turn Any Website into an RSS Feed http://ift.tt/1fp798k A Reader Asks: I’m trying to follow a website in Feedly , but there’s no RSS feed! Google Reader used to offer the ability to follow any kind of website, regardless of whether or not the site offered RSS. One of the websites that I’m trying to follow is Art Travel , but unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any kind of feed. I’ve tried several options, like creating a feed using an online service, such as Page2RSS  (among several others). Most of these services don’t work or limit the number of times the service checks for new feed items. Also, the Feedly channel on If This Then That (IFTTT) only works for Feedly Pro users, which requires payment. Is there an alternative? Kannon’s Reply: Lots of sites nowadays don’t offer RSS ( what’s RSS? ) or other news feeds. Getting an RSS feed for an RSS-less site sucks . That’s because the majority of feed creating services rely on web crawlers or web scrapers . Web crawlers/s

Take a Step Closer to Web Mastery With These 7 Free Resources http://ift.tt/1L6I6Tc Websites can be a tricky business. You have to stay current with the latest design trends, ensure that your site is easily navigable and usable, improve your conversion rates through A/B testing, prioritize your call to actions, stay current with trends in your traffic reports, make sure your site works on mobile devices and sometimes even deal with spammers, hackers and bots that insert malicious code into your site or cause other issues. The good news is that we're in the information age, and many people are sharing their best-kept web-design and development-related secrets, often for free. There are plenty of resources that you can access as a website owner that will make your life a lot easier. Related:  12 Hacks to Keep Visitors on Your Pages Longer Here are seven free sources that you can store in your toolbox and access whenever you need them. 1. Website monetization through ads Most

8 Creative Home-Based Business Ideas That Anyone Can Pursue http://ift.tt/1J9apgj The Internet has brought with it countless priceless opportunities such as videos of laughing babies , memes of grumpy cats , and sales of uranium ore on Amazon (replete with the required “ Back to the Future ” jokes). But arguably the Internet’s biggest contribution to the world is in the area of entrepreneurship . In the past, if you wanted the Donald Trump lifestyle, you had to put on your best suit, grovel to the bank manager, and take out a loan that could either make you or break you. Now you can start up online at minimal cost and minimal risk, with just your laptop, a dream, and plenty of caffeine. Clothing is optional. So is the toupee. Blogging & Writing Picture my day. I rather lazily get up at around 10:00am, and after breakfast and walking the dog, I sit down in front of the laptop to channel my inner George Orwell. Yes, when it comes to being a writer, I am living the dream. B

50 Global Entrepreneurs Recommend 50 Books That Forever Impacted Their Lives http://ift.tt/1K26NAD From 2011 to 2013, I read 197 books, and I became more cultured, intelligent, informed and dare I say better looking. Books have the power to change lives. ( I feel like somebody needs to queue the Reading Rainbow theme song. “Take a look, it’s in a book, Reading Rainbow !”) I’m pro entrepreneur in all I do. Let’s consider me the self-proclaimed "People’s Entrepreneur." My mission is to help other entrepreneurs realize their dreams and maximize their potential. It’s the reason I created a Facebook group for a bunch of entrepreneurs to connect, share their wisdom, stories and ask questions. We have almost 4,000 entrepreneurs from about 20 countries. We all ask questions daily and learn from each other and get better at being entrepreneurs. Related:  9 Brilliant Business Books You Can Read in an Afternoon One of the recent questions was, “Name one book that has had the gr