JUMP START Blog and Online Community

Think of the last time you created or attempted to create a marketing strategy.

Chances are, you spent a lot of time thinking about what your boss wanted, talking to other stakeholders within your organization and perhaps even looking at your competitors' online marketing tactics to see how you could compete. But the key to creating a really solid strategy is simple and is frequently overlooked by the majority of online marketers: understand your users and deliver what they need!

Find out what you've missed in the world of content marketing for the week ending September 4th. These are a few of this week's top stories, hand-picked by the team at Flair Interactive Services.

The term “marketing automation” is well on its way to becoming a marketing industry buzzword, and rightfully so.  At this point, if you are an entrepreneur or business owner of any kind, you’ve surely heard the phrase used a time or two. So, by now, you must be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Find out what you've missed in the world of content marketing for the week ending August 21st. These are a few of this week's top stories, hand-picked by the team at Flair Interactive Services.

There’s no denying that marketing a small business can be a challenge during any time of the year.  There are certain times, however, when that challenge seems almost insurmountable.  The holidays are a notoriously busy time for businesses and marketers, and it’s so easy for your message to be lost in all the noise. Another crazy time for marketing happens to be right around the corner:  back to school season.

As you probably know, search engine optimization (more commonly referred to as SEO) is the key to ensuring that your site is seen on the internet, but what else do you need to do to increase exposure for your business? We’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again: you cannot simply build a great site and hope that it is seen. It’s a fact that SEO has become a mandatory part of website ownership and management, and press releases can be a very valuable tool to use as part of your SEO efforts.  Here are a few ways that press releases can give your SEO strategy a boost:

I always encourage my clients to make analytics a priority in their weekly (or daily) workload. I'll often help clients set up Google Analytics, Hubspot or other analytics tools to ensure that they have access to important data about how their site, content and campaigns are performing.

The problem is, most marketers don't commit to learning analytics basics or making analytics a regular priority in their busy workdays. I've heard over and over again, "I don't understand analytics!" or "Who has time to look at reports all day long?". And here's where it gets interesting...if you're just looking at reports or if you don't understand what you're looking at, then I can guarantee that you won't get ANYTHING out of analytics!

If you own or operate a website, you understand how important it is to monitor your web traffic numbers. So, what would you do if you found yourself facing a sudden steep drop in your organic search traffic?  The first logical step in recovering from this kind of hit is to find out why it happened in the first place.  Here are a few of the most common reasons that we see clients suffer from a drop in organic traffic numbers:

Whether we approach the topic from the perspective of personal or professional use, most of us have a pretty good understanding of the pecking order of our favorite social media outlets. 

Even with all of the algorithm changes and threats to business owners, Facebook still reigns as king among social butterflies and marketers alike. Running a close second is Twitter, which is then followed by Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. 

Using these platforms in a way that maximizes your company’s reach takes practice and dedication, but first, it’s important to understand that each of the social channels has its own peak hours, patterns of use, and user behaviors.