Marketing
51 posts on Marketing.
Most of what I know about marketing I learned by testing instead of arguing. I split-tested the email subject lines I had written by gut for years, found RSS quietly outperforming the social channels everyone was chasing, tightened a local gym's targeting until it stopped paying for the wrong audience, and turned a B2B company's customer questions into its best channel. I also could not stop reading about brands that pivoted 180 degrees from their first idea, or the 35 startups that changed their names and lived. Here are the articles from that.
- 6 Takeaways from MozCon 2021 Virtual July 12, 2021
The lessons I took away from MozCon 2021, from data validation to the value of being in rooms where you get schooled.
- 35 Startups That Successfully Rebranded Their Names January 12, 2021
Brand names and identities are changing all the time. Here are 35 companies that evolved their identity and became something bigger.
- These Brands Made 180-Degree Pivots from the Initial Idea October 28, 2020
Started reading about company pivots and found myself blown away: Nintendo and other brands that made complete 180-degree turns from their first idea.
- MozCon 2020 Virtual July 14, 2020
Notes and takeaways from attending MozCon 2020 virtually during lockdown, a refreshing SEO conference that went ahead as scheduled from home.
- And How I Got a Free T-Shirt from the T-Mobile CEO January 14, 2020
How a CRM, a social media giveaway, and tracking my prospects led to a free t-shirt from the T-Mobile CEO, and why every brand should do the same.
- Branded Short URL's January 9, 2020
One no-brainer for representing yourself online, whether it is a personal brand or a business: go and get yourself a short URL.
- Internet Marketing Acronyms November 1, 2019
A plain-English glossary of the internet marketing acronyms you will actually run into, from CMS, CPA, and CPC to the rest of the alphabet soup.
- This Spam Is So Bad Even My Grandma Would Not Fall For This April 27, 2018
We all get some SPAM emails during the day, but some emails are just better than others. Down below I will share a good video similar to Georgina Rowland
- Convert Personal Instagram Profile to a Business Profile July 27, 2016
Instagram will not charge you to convert your personal account to a business account. But what it does do, is allow you to pay for advertisements
- How to maintain a good credit score? April 27, 2016
Tips For Maintaining A Good Credit Score. Treat all of your debts equally when it comes time to pay. Keep old credit cards open to maintain a longer history
- What a Local Gym Taught Me About Targeted Ads February 9, 2016
A neighborhood gym wasting money on a broad audience. How tighter targeting and a real offer turned Facebook ads into steady memberships.
- How Customer Questions Became a B2B Client's Best Channel November 19, 2015
An early content-SEO project for a B2B company sitting on a silent blog, and how answering real customer questions grew qualified leads.
- Four Years of Testing Everything: What Actually Stuck October 28, 2015
Years of testing every shiny new thing in digital marketing. What survived, and why the testing itself turned out to be the only thing that mattered.
- We Told Everyone to Steal Our Work September 8, 2015
Ripost invited readers to copy and repost everything we made, including the sentence saying so. What that position cost, and what it bought.
- Snapchat for a Brand? I Talked a Client Into Testing It August 19, 2015
Posts that vanish in 24 hours sound insane for a business. So I talked a client into testing whether that is a bug or the whole point.
- I Talked a Client Into Trying Periscope May 30, 2015
Live streaming from a phone is suddenly a thing. I convinced a nervous client to go live, and the unpolished realness is exactly what worked.
- Mobilegeddon Is Here and I Actually Slept Fine April 21, 2015
Google's mobile-friendly update lands today. For once I am not panicking, because I have spent a year fixing my sites for phones.
- The First A/B Test That Changed How I Think About Pages April 15, 2015
A service business whose landing page looked fine and converted poorly. One A/B test, a clear winner, and the habit of testing over guessing.
- 100,000 Facebook Likes: Qysh Me's First Big Milestone March 5, 2015
Four years after launching Qysh Me, our Facebook page crossed 100,000 likes. What that number really meant, and the slow, unglamorous work that got us there.
- I Tested Facebook Video Against YouTube Links February 12, 2015
Facebook is pushing its own player hard. I ran the same video two ways to see how much it favors native uploads, and it was not close.
- The Welcome Email a Client Was Not Sending January 27, 2015
An early e-commerce project where the biggest win was an email that did not exist yet, and what it taught me about owned audiences.
- A/B Testing Email Subject Lines Changed My Whole Week November 21, 2014
I always wrote subject lines by gut. Then I started split-testing them, and the results were so lopsided I will never guess again.
- The Drone That Flew Across Zeri October 24, 2014
When a drone stopped a Serbia vs Albania match, we put one on Zeri's pages within minutes. What a fast team and a willing partner can do while a story is still alive.
- Giving a Boutique a Reason to Post: Social Media That Worked September 30, 2014
An early social project for a small fashion boutique. How a consistent content rhythm grew a real audience, and what I still recommend.
- Everything Is Going Mobile and I Was Not Ready September 4, 2014
Half my traffic is now on phones and my sites were built desktop first. How I am testing every page the way people actually use it.
- How We Grew Qysh Me's Facebook Page August 19, 2014
Facebook was where our audience already lived. How Qysh Me turned useful how-to content into a growing, engaged page, and why we shared value instead of links.
- How Claiming a Google Listing Put a Dental Clinic on the Map June 24, 2014
An early local-SEO project for a dental clinic invisible in local search. The unglamorous fixes that got them into the map pack.
- Instagram for a Business That Swears It Is Not Visual June 10, 2014
A client swore their business was boring with nothing to photograph. Here is the Instagram experiment we ran to prove there is always something.
- Testing Retargeting Ads: Part Magic, Part Creepy March 26, 2014
Those ads that follow you around after a visit? I set them up for a client. The results are surprisingly good and a little unsettling.
- My First Client Website Rebuild Was a Lesson in Mobile March 18, 2014
An early agency project: rebuilding a local restaurant's site for mobile, and what a single responsive redesign did for their bookings.
- Facebook Reach Is Falling and I Am Testing What Is Left January 17, 2014
Organic reach on my Facebook Pages drops every month and Facebook clearly wants us to pay. What I am testing to hold on to my audience.
- Content Marketing Is Just SEO That Finally Respects People October 31, 2013
Everyone talks about content marketing like it is new. It is the same goal I always chased, only now the honest way and the winning way agree.
- I Put My Own Face in Google Search Results and It Is Wild August 15, 2013
Google Authorship attaches your photo to your articles in search results. I set it up this week, and it is doing something to my click rate.
- Google Took My Keywords Away. I Am Testing Around It May 28, 2013
The (not provided) line in analytics keeps growing and hiding my search terms. Instead of complaining, I am finding other ways to read intent.
- Google Is Killing Reader and I Am Taking It Personally March 20, 2013
Google is shutting Reader down in July. Losing the quiet engine behind how I stay informed is a hard lesson about free tools I do not own.
- Why We Built Partia e Fortë on Facebook First February 11, 2013
Before we had an office, a recognizable logo, or a single vote, we had a Facebook page. Why the platform choice was the strategy.
- My New Mantra: Test, Test, and Test January 22, 2013
After two years of arguing about what works in marketing, I found the answer. Stop arguing. Test it. The idea that changed how I work.
- SEO in a Language Google Barely Knew November 20, 2012
SEO for Qysh Me meant ranking in Albanian, a language with almost no digital content at the time. Why that emptiness was an advantage.
- Everyone Says Go Responsive. I Tested It on One Site. November 15, 2012
Responsive design is the phrase of the year. Rather than argue about it, I rebuilt one site to adapt to phones and watched the numbers.
- I Made My First Infographic and It Actually Traveled September 11, 2012
Everyone in marketing is making infographics right now. I finally tried one, spent way too long on it, and learned that the design was the easy part.
- Qysh Me Gatu: When the Recipes Became Their Own Thing August 25, 2012
How Qysh Me's cooking section grew into a vertical with its own identity, its own audience, and the first ads we ever sold.
- Pinterest Is Quietly Sending Me Traffic I Did Not Expect June 19, 2012
I signed up for Pinterest as an afterthought. A few weeks later it is in my top referrers. Here is what I am testing to figure out why, and whether it lasts.
- Our Content Engine: How We Planned Qysh Me's Articles May 16, 2012
The editorial system behind Qysh Me. How real questions people were already asking became a repeatable how-to content engine.
- Penguin Hit and Half the SEO Tricks I Learned Are Now Dead April 26, 2012
Penguin is punishing the exact link-building and keyword tactics people sold as gospel two years ago. I am cleaning house, and relieved.
- Facebook Timeline for Pages: I Redid Ours All Weekend March 4, 2012
Facebook is forcing every Page onto Timeline. I spent the weekend testing what the big cover photo and pinned posts can do for a brand.
- The Numbers Behind Qysh Me, One Month in 2011 November 5, 2011
A single month of Google Analytics from Qysh Me's early days: 44,111 visits, 163,950 pageviews, and a traffic mix that quietly explained the whole business.
- RSS Is Boring and It Is Also My Secret Weapon November 3, 2011
Everyone is chasing Facebook and Twitter, but the quiet thing growing my blog is RSS. How I use Google Reader and Feedburner daily.
- I Am Putting QR Codes on Everything. Does Anyone Scan Them? September 20, 2011
QR codes are suddenly on every poster and business card. I ran an experiment to see whether people in Prishtina actually scan them.
- I Got a Google Plus Invite and I Cannot Stop Playing With It July 14, 2011
Google finally made a social network that is not a Facebook clone. Circles are clever, and I am testing whether any of it helps a brand.
- A Month Chasing My Klout Score Made Me a Worse Marketer May 9, 2011
Klout claims to measure your influence with one number. Getting obsessed with pushing mine up taught me more about vanity than influence.
- Google Just Changed the Rules and I Am Weirdly Excited March 15, 2011
The Panda update shook up SEO this year. Thin content is punished, real content wins, and I think that is good news for people like me.