Witmer Group Marketing Blog

Is Gmail’s new tabbed inboxes the death of email marketing?

Back in May, Google began rolling out an entirely new Gmail layout. Gmail accounts now default to an inbox that is segmented into three tabs: primary, promotions, and social. There are two more tabs Gmail users can elect to use, forums and updates. Gmail automatically filters incoming emails into one of these three (or five) tabs. Users can help Gmail learn where they want their emails to go by reassigning an email to a different tab with an easy drag and drop or creating filters for incoming emails.

Content marketing campaigns work and they work well. Linkbaiting does not work well for sustainable and successful marketing campaigns. People are far more likely to click through to an interesting article, video, or visual like an infographic. That is because quality content, perceived as interesting or valuable, is a better draw to targeted audiences than a straight up advertisement. This is what makes content marketing campaigns so successful. Mashable.com recently posted a fantastic article explaining how to create and manage ongoing content marketing campaigns. The title of the article is a little misleading, “Stop Linkbait before it Ruins Content Marketing,” but I understand the author’s point.  If you are creating high quality, relevant content for your audience, your content marketing campaign is not just baiting the viewer to click through, only to be disappointed by the lack of content on the other end. When campaigns provide low quality or advertisements at the end of a link, well, that is linkbaiting. We agree this is something to avoid, don’t trick your audience. No one likes that. We enjoyed reading the article and hope you do as well!

Today’s consumers want content that satisfies their search – to the point, quickly and effectively. To effectively reach them, create robust content with more about ‘what’s in it for them’ and less ‘look at me’ messaging. Here are four simple but effective ways to increase conversion by getting your content right:

Technology has steadily been transforming the marketing profession, adding new tools, techniques, and strategies. With this change, it shouldn’t be a surprise that modern marketing strategy must be multi-faceted. Witmer Group has defined the modern marketer by having two sides: an artist and a scientist.

Smart marketers understand that traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute.  There has to be a better way to improve visibility. That’s where content marketing comes in.

Misunderstood by many, SEO really is a language all its own. While it is critical to the success of your content and your content marketing, there is still much confusion.  Why is this?  The quandary could be because SEO has changed so much so fast. What worked two years ago for your SEO content won’t help your rankings today.

Over the past 10+ years I’ve worked with a lot of companies – CEO’s, CFO’s, Marketing Director’s, etc doing a variety of tasks related to marketing and online lead generation. I was reading an article recently about how CEO’s continue to rely on costing cutting – even when very specific growth is projected. Aligned with this are a lot of small business owners we work with who range from the very cautious to an ‘I’m all in’ mentality – where every cent is being put back into the company via staff, marketing and technology. As I think of my roots in advertising and more traditional marketing practices, I have recently been contemplating –

I am sitting here with my team member, Kristina Witmer – owner and managing director of Witmer Group, we have been tossing around blog topic ideas. One that resonated with us is the process a business goes through when identifying their marketing needs. We know it can be a painful process, and even doomed from the start, if the marketing team doesn’t ask the right questions, get buy in from leadership, and have clearly defined, measurable goals.

It’s true. Search is still the #1 activity on the Internet and will likely hold its well-earned place for years to come. As long as there are searchers, there will be search engines. And searchers are vital to your marketing strategy. After all, they are the most motivated people on the Internet and (if you’re lucky) the ones who visit your website.

Like many in SEO and content marketing, I have been reading a lot of articles on Google’s Hummingbird update. A Witmer Group team member forwarded an article to me that we think is the best we’ve read, Gianluca Fiorelli’s “Hummingbird Unleashed.” His article covers what the Google update is and isn’t in fantastic detail.