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Glossier CEO: We're Building this People-Powered Ecosystem

Glossier is both a beauty company and a tech company that is succeeding by staying incredibly connected to their customers. Glossier founder and CEO Emily Weiss says that they are building a people-powered ecosystem where they are co-creating with their customers.

Not only do they ask for feedback from their customers, but they communicate with them on a Slack channel directly. This level of communication with consumers makes Glossier unique and is what powers their product creation and innovation.

Emily Weiss, Glossier founder and CEO, recently discussed the people-powered ecosystem that makes Glossier a unique kind of company with Kara Swisher for her Recode Decode podcast:

We're Building this People-Powered Ecosystem

Glossier is a pretty unique kind of beauty company that's also a tech company. So it's hard for me sometimes to answer that question, are you beauty or are you tech? I think we're both. Right now at a glance were about 200 full-time employees across three offices in New York, Canada, and London. We're about 70 percent female. Our board is 60 percent female. Our engineering team is 50 percent female. It looks a little different than most tech companies. We just crossed last year well over a $100 million in revenue. We're very excited about that.

The way we look at it is that we're building this people-powered ecosystem. Since we launched four and a half years ago, we have co-created with our consumers. The reason we're able to do that is because we know who they are. We have a direct relationship with every single person who buys something from us, unlike you all of the incumbent companies that have been built through retail channels. We've never existed through retail channels. We have no plans to exist through retail channels.

Using Technology to Do Things Differently

The reason being we think that through using technology we can do three things very differently than what all beauty companies have done in the past. One is channel. The second is discovery. The third is listening at scale. Fundamentally, we just think about how do to give people amazing experiences.

In that way perhaps we're similar to Amazon in that they're extremely devoted to the customer. We're very devoted to the customer from the standpoint that we don't want to put things that aren't amazing into the world.

Since we launched we've always relied a lot on user-generated content and feedback. We really started out of a blog that began in 2010 that was all around this premise that people are going to drive purchasing decisions in the future. Not algorithms. Not upselling or cross-selling. If anything, upselling and cross-selling people's opinions, helping to evangelize people's voice such that people can decide what they want.

At Glossier, we've really taken user feedback and asked them for things like what products to make, and where to go in terms of pop-ups or countries. We have fundamentally been able to really change the relationship between brands and customers.

Make Incredible Things That Stand the Test of Time

Traditionally, the way that I grew up with beauty products and brands was always sort of from brands speaking top down to customers. They are saying you're not good enough, saying you don't know what you want, let us tell you what you want. Really dictatorial. In a way, not giving people enough credit to be able to say, hey, actually I use this deodorant every day. So I am an expert at this deodorant. Seriously, we are all experts on the things that we consume and the things that we use.

What we're trying to do is provide the tools, whether it is the physical products that we've created over the last four years or the digital conduits that we're creating now. In the future we hope to help people use their voice and say, hey, how can I help someone else talk about what they've learned about beauty and their products and hopefully inspire others.

We've just typically had a pretty simple premise which is making incredible things that can really stand the test of time. That has equaled so far building these very modern essential products that we hope become icons in the same way an iPhone or an Air Jordan became essential products. Hopefully in thirty years time Boy Brow will connect a fifteen year old in the Middle East to a billionaire in Silicon Valley and we'll be cross generational and cross socio-economic.

We get very excited about creating quality things that make people want to talk about them. Just period full stop. Over 70 percent of our growth so far has been through owned, earned, peer-to-peer, or organic because people just fundamentally want to share that they enjoyed their Boy Brow.

For Us It Has Been Quite Analog

This is something that people are really curious about. I think especially in this age of machine learning for us so far a lot of it has been quite like analog. It's just been posting on the platforms that we have or in our Slack channel, where we have a lot like several hundred top customers, and saying what's your dream face wash?

Sometimes, that's the way in which we will make product decisions. But typically, it's really an art and a science. It really depends on the project and how involved we're going to get versus just sort of say in the office what are we excited about?

Our Innovation Comes From Staying Connected

We stay very connected. Every every team at the company, we're about a third TAC across engineering, digital product, data, and design. Then we have an in-house creative team and we have in-house R&D. I think we're all very connected to the to the customer. We have all of our Net Promoter Score feedback and comments from every single customer who answers it.

We are constantly taking into a Slack channel that everyone from me to my assistant to an intern can read every day just to stay connected to the customer. Sometimes it's a single comment or sometimes it's a macro trend that we that we hear about the translates into innovation.

The post Glossier CEO: We're Building this People-Powered Ecosystem appeared first on WebProNews.

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Neil Patel's 6 Tips to Dominating Google

“Do you want to know what's better than being on page one of Google?” asked digital marketing expert Neil Patel. “Not just ranking number one, but owning the first page.”

In Patel's latest video (below) he reveals six tips designed to help anybody with unique and useful content result on the first page of a Google search. Incredibly, Patel says that these techniques will actually help you achieve not just the number one result, but will rank your content in multiple listings on the first page.

Neil Patel, digital marketing expert, entrepreneur, and business influencer discusses how to own the front page of Google:

Tip One: Interlink Your Content

The first tip I have for you is to interlink your content. Let's say you're trying to rank for a term like 'SEO' or 'online marketing.' If you have an article that's super in-depth about that topic you can create other offshoots. For example, I have a lot of topics about online marketing. One of them is 'Online Marketing Made Simple – A Step-by-Step Guide.'

I also have other articles that break down online marketing tools. What I can do is cross-link those articles together. By doing that It'll increase my chance that both of those pages can rank on page one for the term 'online marketing.'

Tip 2 – Create Multiple Pages That Cover the Same Topic

In addition to that, you want to have multiple pages that cover the same topic. I just gave you an example. One could be on 'Online Marketing Beginners Guide.' Another one could be 'Online Marketing Tools.' Another one could be 'How To Get Started with Online Marketing.' Another one could be the 'Advanced Guide to Online Marketing.'

You get the point. By having multiple pages, and not just two, by having five or six or seven it's going to increase your chances that you can rank on page one with more than just one listing.

Tip 3 – Do Not Duplicate Your Content

The third tip I have for you is to not duplicate your content. A lot of people when they're trying to rank for a term like 'online marketing' they'll take the same content and regurgitate it throughout their whole site. If you do that Google is not going to want to rank duplicate content from your own site multiple times. That will create a terrible user experience. If you do that you're not going to do well, so don't duplicate your own content. Write fresh unique content that you already haven't written about before.

Tip 4 – Build Links

The fourth tip I have for you is to build links. If you build links to your site you're going to rank higher. You know that, but you also want to build links to every version of your posts that you're trying to dominate page one for. Using Ahrefs they have a feature called Link Intersect. You can put in your URL as well as other competitive URLs and it will show you who links to your competitors but are not linking to you.

The beautiful part about this feature is if someone links to three or four or five of your competitors but not you, there's a good chance you could potentially convince them to also link to you. This is because you know they're open to linking to other sites within your space. By using the Link Intersect tool you can see who links to other online marketing articles or other online marketing sites.

Then from there what you'll want to do is hit up those sites and ask them, 'hey you got a detailed post that you cover A, B, and C' that your competition may not. Ask them to link to you as well.  Don't just do that for your main post on that subject but also do it in regards to your secondary and third pages that are also around that same topic.

Tip 5 – Promote Your Articles on the Social Web

The fifth tip I have for you is to promote your articles on the social web. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, you've heard this before. You want to promote your main articles as well as your sub-articles that are also around that topic. But what most people don't tell you when it comes to social promotions is that when you share an article on Twitter or Facebook, most of your fans or friends aren't going to see it. You don't want to just share it once. You want to share it four or five times over the next six months.

By doing this you're going to continue to get more eyeballs and more shares indirectly. Some of those people may link to the article or leave a comment. This will help with the engagement and better user metrics and that should help with overall rankings in the long run.

Tip 6 – No One Likes Outdated Content

The last tip I have for you is no one likes outdated content. When you publish content it gets outdated over time. It's natural even if you write about tools and tips. For example, if I wrote about Vine, which is a company that Twitter bought, it's outdated. It doesn't exist anymore. Twitter shut it down. I'd have to update that content and talk about a different tool out there, maybe Instagram.

The point I'm trying to make is whatever you write on is going to get outdated. That's okay and that's natural. However, once a year consider updating your main pieces of content because that'll help them all rank higher.

The post Neil Patel's 6 Tips to Dominating Google appeared first on WebProNews.

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Neil Patel's 6 Tips to Dominating Google

“Do you want to know what's better than being on page one of Google?” asked digital marketing expert Neil Patel. “Not just ranking number one, but owning the first page.”

In Patel's latest video (below) he reveals six tips designed to help anybody with unique and useful content result on the first page of a Google search. Incredibly, Patel says that these techniques will actually help you achieve not just the number one result, but will rank your content in multiple listings on the first page.

Neil Patel, digital marketing expert, entrepreneur, and business influencer discusses how to own the front page of Google:

Tip One: Interlink Your Content

The first tip I have for you is to interlink your content. Let's say you're trying to rank for a term like 'SEO' or 'online marketing.' If you have an article that's super in-depth about that topic you can create other offshoots. For example, I have a lot of topics about online marketing. One of them is 'Online Marketing Made Simple – A Step-by-Step Guide.'

I also have other articles that break down online marketing tools. What I can do is cross-link those articles together. By doing that It'll increase my chance that both of those pages can rank on page one for the term 'online marketing.'

Tip 2 – Create Multiple Pages That Cover the Same Topic

In addition to that, you want to have multiple pages that cover the same topic. I just gave you an example. One could be on 'Online Marketing Beginners Guide.' Another one could be 'Online Marketing Tools.' Another one could be 'How To Get Started with Online Marketing.' Another one could be the 'Advanced Guide to Online Marketing.'

You get the point. By having multiple pages, and not just two, by having five or six or seven it's going to increase your chances that you can rank on page one with more than just one listing.

Tip 3 – Do Not Duplicate Your Content

The third tip I have for you is to not duplicate your content. A lot of people when they're trying to rank for a term like 'online marketing' they'll take the same content and regurgitate it throughout their whole site. If you do that Google is not going to want to rank duplicate content from your own site multiple times. That will create a terrible user experience. If you do that you're not going to do well, so don't duplicate your own content. Write fresh unique content that you already haven't written about before.

Tip 4 – Build Links

The fourth tip I have for you is to build links. If you build links to your site you're going to rank higher. You know that, but you also want to build links to every version of your posts that you're trying to dominate page one for. Using Ahrefs they have a feature called Link Intersect. You can put in your URL as well as other competitive URLs and it will show you who links to your competitors but are not linking to you.

The beautiful part about this feature is if someone links to three or four or five of your competitors but not you, there's a good chance you could potentially convince them to also link to you. This is because you know they're open to linking to other sites within your space. By using the Link Intersect tool you can see who links to other online marketing articles or other online marketing sites.

Then from there what you'll want to do is hit up those sites and ask them, 'hey you got a detailed post that you cover A, B, and C' that your competition may not. Ask them to link to you as well.  Don't just do that for your main post on that subject but also do it in regards to your secondary and third pages that are also around that same topic.

Tip 5 – Promote Your Articles on the Social Web

The fifth tip I have for you is to promote your articles on the social web. From Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn, you've heard this before. You want to promote your main articles as well as your sub-articles that are also around that topic. But what most people don't tell you when it comes to social promotions is that when you share an article on Twitter or Facebook, most of your fans or friends aren't going to see it. You don't want to just share it once. You want to share it four or five times over the next six months.

By doing this you're going to continue to get more eyeballs and more shares indirectly. Some of those people may link to the article or leave a comment. This will help with the engagement and better user metrics and that should help with overall rankings in the long run.

Tip 6 – No One Likes Outdated Content

The last tip I have for you is no one likes outdated content. When you publish content it gets outdated over time. It's natural even if you write about tools and tips. For example, if I wrote about Vine, which is a company that Twitter bought, it's outdated. It doesn't exist anymore. Twitter shut it down. I'd have to update that content and talk about a different tool out there, maybe Instagram.

The point I'm trying to make is whatever you write on is going to get outdated. That's okay and that's natural. However, once a year consider updating your main pieces of content because that'll help them all rank higher.

The post Neil Patel's 6 Tips to Dominating Google appeared first on WebProNews.

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Salesforce co-CEO: We Are Just at the Dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“Our customers, they're betting their business on us,” says Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block. “They're disrupting their business models. They're reinventing themselves leveraging our technology. They want to know that we have a trust-based relationship. At the end of the day, it is all about trust.”

Block says that we are just at the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and that companies love to work with Salesforce because they represent the future.

Keith Block, co-CEO of Salesforce, discussed how companies are going through massive business model and digital transformations in this Fourth Industrial Revolution that is just getting started. He was interviewed by the legendary Jim Cramer on CNBC: (video below)

We Are Just at the Dawn of this Era

We're playing for the long game here. We're going to be celebrating our 20th anniversary coming up in just a month. When we think about what's happened over the last 20 years, we've seen revolutionary changes in technology and we're in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. In that Fourth Industrial Revolution, we have companies going through business model changes and digital transformations and the role of the CEO is different than it used to be.

This is where companies love to work with Salesforce because we represent the future. We're all about the future. We're about creating and innovating and co-creating around customer engagement. This is a long game this Fourth Industrial Revolution and we're just at the dawn of this era. So this will be happening for a long time.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted

It's all linked together. We live in a world with these technologies where it is disrupt or be disrupted. If the CEO of a company is not the Chief Transformation Officer they need to come up with a strategy, they need to make a move, they need to embrace these technologies. No industry is really immune from this level of disruption.

At the end of the day, everything begins and ends with the customer. It's all about the 360-degree view of the customer. That has been the Holy Grail since I've been in the industry. Providing the insights, providing the level of engagement, the technology, around how customers can have a greater experience.

Our customers, they're betting their business on us. They're disrupting their business models. They're reinventing themselves leveraging our technology. They want to know that we have a trust-based relationship. At the end of the day, it is all about trust.

Everything Rotates Around Trust.

We are a values-based company. Since the day the company was established we were a values-based company. We have four values and our number one value is trust. Then we have customer success and innovation and equality. Those are very very important to our stakeholders. The modern company is a stakeholder theory company.

It's not just about Wall Street and earnings, which is obviously very important. We take our shareholders very seriously. It's also about our customers. It's about our partners. It's about the community that we live in. Everything rotates around trust. We have a trust deficit. Some people call it a trust crisis in the world right.

If you have an employee, an employee wants to know that they have a leadership team that's listening to them, that they have a voice, and that they trust the decisions the leadership is making. They want to trust that they're responsible decisions that are consistent with the values of the company. With governments, we trust in our leaders. We want to trust in our leaders that they're making great decisions for our citizens.

The post Salesforce co-CEO: We Are Just at the Dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution appeared first on WebProNews.

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Quick Ways to Make Your Google Ads Stand Out from the Competition

Google Ads amounts to billions of dollars in revenue for the search engine giant, but what about your revenue?

Standing out in this competitive-and, let's face it, cluttered-environment can be a huge challenge for advertisers, especially if they're just starting out. There's only so much space on a search results page to go around, after all.

As we enter the 2018 holiday season, it's the right time to take a good, hard look at your stale ads. It's time to breathe some new life into them.

With that in mind, here are the features the pros use to stand out from the competition:

The Latest Expanded Text Ads

Google made their standard text ads larger by introducing expanded text ads (ETAs) in 2016. The increased character count was a boon for advertisers because it enabled messaging to reflect more of the advertiser's key incentives.

Experts jumped on this new format immediately, even though Google didn't require they switch until January 2017. Even then, advertisers could continue to run standard (shorter) ads, but they couldn't edit them or launch new ones.

Some people hesitated, but advertisers who were slow to switch were at a disadvantage compared to those who immediately moved to the new format. The go-getters ended up with a huge head start since ETAs proved to have higher clickthrough rates (CTRs) than standard ads.

(And good CTRs = good quality scores = lower CPCs = better ad positioning.)

Now you have this opportunity again!

In August, Google further expanded their text ad format-expanded expanded text ads?-but taking advantage of these new character limits is still optional (hint: you should use them).

The latest iteration of expanded text ads introduces a second headline and more characters to all text fields, making text ads even more prominent. Here's what's new:

An additional, optional headline of up to 30 characters

An additional, optional description line

Both description lines can now be up to 90 characters (increased from 80)

And here's a comparison of the three ad formats:

Google's expanded text ads give you more space to connect with prospects.

These longer character counts may not sound like much-oh boy, ten more characters!-but they add up and can have a significant impact on how your ads look (and how they convert). See for yourself how the three types of ads look in a side-by-side comparison:

An example of how these ads appear in the search results.

The new ETAs feature up to 218% more text than the original “standard” format. As expected, search experts are already updating their ads to capitalize on the latest change-and this time you should too!

Even though the extra headline and description won't show up all the time, they'll help you stand out when they do by making the ad itself bigger. The third headline also gives you an extra thirty characters of highlighted blue text at the top of your ad.

Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are optional snippets of text that users can append to their ads. Google introduced the first extension-sitelinks-way back in 2009. These short links appear beneath the ad and direct searchers to different pages of the advertiser's website.

But why stop there? There are now ten different types of manual extensions and six automated extensions that advertisers can use to compel more clicks:

Google ad extensions are free to implement and often improve your ad's CTR.

On average, an ad's CTR has the potential to improve by 10-15% per extension. Aside from adding functionality, extensions increase the surface area of your placement and are free to implement, so they're a no-brainer.

Though every ad extension is potentially useful, there are four (highlighted in yellow above) that you must use (if you're not already). This is because they're easy to implement and they allow you to feature critical incentives and information about your business that would otherwise take up valuable ad copy.

1. Sitelinks

Sitelinks are valuable because they allow you to link deeply into your site. The number of sitelinks associated with your ad varies from 2 to 8. A great tip is to create specialty landing pages for each sitelink which are goal oriented and customized to the link. You can customize sitelinks at the ad group level too, making them even more relevant to specific searches.

Expert Tip: The Unbounce Builder is an excellent tool for quickly creating landing pages that match your ads' sitelinks.

2. Callouts

Callout extensions can be up to 25 characters each and are not clickable. They promote features, benefits, and selling points of your business. They're also a great way to highlight specific qualities of your business that you don't have room to showcase in your primary ad copy. For instance, 250 5 star reviews, 5 convenient locations, all credit cards accepted, etc.

3. Call Extensions

Call extensions add a phone number without wasting any of the primary copy. On mobile devices, a callout extension lets people tap a button to call your business directly. Implementing call extensions is quick and easy, so you should include them in all applicable ads.

4. Structured Snippets

This extension gives users the option to include a list of products or services beneath their ad. Structured snippets contain a category header (e.g., services) followed by a list of items (e.g., pet grooming, pet sitting, dog training, de-shedding).

Using all of these snippets is a great way to differentiate your ad from competitors' ads. You can get creative too. For example, if you're a B2B database host, you could list the features included in your service (e.g., Cloud Automation, Advanced Security, Easy-To-Use Data Browser).

It's worth noting, though, that when it comes to the categories you can choose, you're restricted to Google's preset list. The full list of snippet categories (headers) is available here. Here are some other structured snippet examples based on different ones:

Amenities: Free WiFi, Sauna, Early Check-In, Concierge Service, Continental Breakfast

Brands: Urban Decay, bareMinerals, Nyx, Tarte, Too Faced

Courses: Financial Training, Investment Banking, Business Economics, Fundraising

Using a few of the available extensions creates more opportunities to capture your prospects' attention. It can even push your competition further down the page!

Here's an example of how an ad would appear if all the above extensions showed at once:

An ad with structured snippets, call, callout, and sitelink extensions enabled.

Expert Tip: Not all ad extensions show up all the time, and they appear differently on mobile devices versus desktops. Google's system tries to match the most appropriate extensions to the most relevant searches.

Geotargeting and other important settings

Implementing ad extensions along with the latest ETA format is sure to get advertisers more clicks. Yet this can be a double-edged sword because (sadly) most of us don't have an unlimited budget.

Fortunately, there are some settings and features that you can (and should) use to minimize clicks from unqualified traffic. The settings we're going to focus on are bid modifiers, geotargeting, remarketing for search ads (RSLA), ad scheduling, and negative keyword lists.

Bid Modifiers

Bid modifiers, or adjustments as Google calls them, enable you to increase or decrease bids based on when and how people search. Bid modifiers can apply to devices, locations, ad scheduling, and more. Advertisers bid up or down by percentages.

For example, if you want to bid more aggressively on mobile searches, you can adjust your bids to +30% for mobile devices. Likewise, if you want to appear for desktop searches, but would rather pay less for these types of clicks, you can adjust your bids to -30% for desktop devices.

Expert tip: Use Google's reporting tools to test how your modified segments are performing and adjust bids regularly. You can review performance by location, audience, device, time of day, and more right from the Google Ads main interface.

An example of locations segment (via Google Ads)

Geotargeting

There's more to geotargeting than just showing your ads in your desired locations. You can also refine where your ads appear by excluding certain locations and regions. You can get granular with this too by increasing or decreasing bids to your targeted areas using bid modifiers.

Geotargeting improves your ROI by minimizing clicks from unqualified prospects (e.g., people outside of your service area, neighborhoods below a certain income threshold, etc.). So it's well worth the time it takes to set up and refine.

Ad Scheduling

Maybe you're not open on weekends. Maybe no one is operating the phones after 8 pm every night. Maybe your strongest return on ad spend occurs between the hours of 10 am and 1 pm every day. Once you figure out the best time of day for your ads to appear, you can use scheduling to choose exactly when they show. This is an especially great feature when you have a limited budget.

Remarketing for Search Ads (RSLA)

Remarketing isn't just for display ads anymore! This feature allows you to target search ads to people who have already visited your site. Your ads then appear when they search on Google for the keywords you're bidding on. You can either append RSLA lists to existing ad groups or create groups that only show ads if a searcher is on your remarketing list. Google provides detailed instructions for setting up RSLA campaigns. It's definitely worth investing the time to read.

Negative Keyword Lists

You can ensure your ad isn't triggered for undesirable keywords by creating negative keyword lists and applying them at the account, campaign, or ad group level. The new Google Ads interface makes creating and assigning negative keyword lists simple. Create themed lists (e.g., competitors, locations, common terms) and assign them based on account performance or structure.

Expert tip: Check out Google's search terms report to see exactly what people are searching for when they look at your ads, and then use this info to build your negative lists.

We've only scratched the surface…

The good news is that there are things you can (and must) do to make your brand stand out and to ensure it's reaching the most qualified prospects.

Google gives you some powerful tools to help improve the clickthrough rate of your ads, which contributes to a higher quality score. And, in turn, higher scores help drive down your cost per click, give you a higher impression share, and make your ad more likely to show up than your competitors'. They can even help your ad appear at the top of the search results.

But blindly implementing these tips can only help you so far.

It should go without saying (but we're saying it anyway) that you should test all ads with different ad copy (and extensions) and then refine them based on actual performance.

Effective ads-even those loaded with ad extensions-are also only part of a good PPC strategy. Landing page optimization, tracking, A/B testing are critical practices for a successful campaign. Setting clear goals is also very important.

It's also helpful to see what the competition is doing by reviewing competitor ads, landing pages, and incentives. Google's Auction Insights report allows you to see who is bidding against you and their impression share compared with yours. Make sure you're reviewing your competitive data monthly or quarterly. It can help you plan and revise your keyword and ad copy strategy.

An example of an auction insights report (via Google Ads)

Industry tools like SEMRush, KeywordSpy, and SpyFu also provide competitive information and enable you to automate monitoring. They're worth checking out-you can be sure that most experts use them!

Even if you don't dig deeper into the competitive data, however, implementing the above settings and ad extensions-as well as taking advantage of the latest expanded text specifications-will put you ahead of the competition. So get started today!

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The Cast Of "Black Panther" Was Blindingly Beautiful At The Golden Globes

YES, COLORS!

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Zoom CEO: If We Cannot Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter

Zoom Founder and CEO Eric Yuan says that the number one most important thing for a business is to make the customer happy. He says it really comes down to these three areas of focus; Product, Process, and People.

Eric Yuan, Founder, and CEO of Zoom, recently sat down with industry analyst Michael Krigsman, who conducted another fascinating interview for his CXOTALK video interview platform:

If We Can't Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter

I think, every day as a CEO who manages a company, I have so many things to work on but, ultimately, I've got to understand what's the number one important thing as a business, right? If we cannot make the customer happy, nothing will matter. That's why this is our number one priority. If a customer is happy, everything else will be easier. Customers will like to talk with us, share our stories with others and, essentially, will help us to further improve our product experience and also make our business better.

Look at Everything From a Customer Perspective

You've got to look at everything from a customer perspective. If you truly care about them, you are not only going to look at it from your perspective. When you build a product, you will say, “Hey, will this product, will this feature, deliver happiness or add value to a customer or not?”

Anything you do, look at it from a customer perspective. Then, actually, the customers, they will feel more like a part of your business. They're happy to grow your business.

Focus on Product, Process, and People

Ultimately, it's three things. When we talk about happiness, first of all, your product has got to work, right? Every time a customer is using Zoom, they really like it. That's the number one thing; your product has got to work. Every time after the meeting is over, customers say, “Yes, this experience is great.” They enjoy using your product. The second thing is your process. When you do business with customers, you've got to make sure your process is very simple but very easy. The third thing is about the people. Meaning, because not only do those customers use your product but, also, we want to make sure every interaction between Zoom employees and the customers  - say like support, a customer success manager, engineers, our product managers - every interaction between our company and the customers, they enjoy it. Process, people, and the product, from all those three aspects, we make sure the customer is happy.

Watch the full 44-minute interview below or read the full transcript at CXOTALK:

The post Zoom CEO: If We Cannot Make the Customer Happy, Nothing Will Matter appeared first on WebProNews.

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Quick Ways to Make Your Google Ads Stand Out from the Competition

Google Ads amounts to billions of dollars in revenue for the search engine giant, but what about your revenue?

Standing out in this competitive-and, let's face it, cluttered-environment can be a huge challenge for advertisers, especially if they're just starting out. There's only so much space on a search results page to go around, after all.

As we enter the 2018 holiday season, it's the right time to take a good, hard look at your stale ads. It's time to breathe some new life into them.

With that in mind, here are the features the pros use to stand out from the competition:

The Latest Expanded Text Ads

Google made their standard text ads larger by introducing expanded text ads (ETAs) in 2016. The increased character count was a boon for advertisers because it enabled messaging to reflect more of the advertiser's key incentives.

Experts jumped on this new format immediately, even though Google didn't require they switch until January 2017. Even then, advertisers could continue to run standard (shorter) ads, but they couldn't edit them or launch new ones.

Some people hesitated, but advertisers who were slow to switch were at a disadvantage compared to those who immediately moved to the new format. The go-getters ended up with a huge head start since ETAs proved to have higher clickthrough rates (CTRs) than standard ads.

(And good CTRs = good quality scores = lower CPCs = better ad positioning.)

Now you have this opportunity again!

In August, Google further expanded their text ad format-expanded expanded text ads?-but taking advantage of these new character limits is still optional (hint: you should use them).

The latest iteration of expanded text ads introduces a second headline and more characters to all text fields, making text ads even more prominent. Here's what's new:

An additional, optional headline of up to 30 characters

An additional, optional description line

Both description lines can now be up to 90 characters (increased from 80)

And here's a comparison of the three ad formats:

Google's expanded text ads give you more space to connect with prospects.

These longer character counts may not sound like much-oh boy, ten more characters!-but they add up and can have a significant impact on how your ads look (and how they convert). See for yourself how the three types of ads look in a side-by-side comparison:

An example of how these ads appear in the search results.

The new ETAs feature up to 218% more text than the original “standard” format. As expected, search experts are already updating their ads to capitalize on the latest change-and this time you should too!

Even though the extra headline and description won't show up all the time, they'll help you stand out when they do by making the ad itself bigger. The third headline also gives you an extra thirty characters of highlighted blue text at the top of your ad.

Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are optional snippets of text that users can append to their ads. Google introduced the first extension-sitelinks-way back in 2009. These short links appear beneath the ad and direct searchers to different pages of the advertiser's website.

But why stop there? There are now ten different types of manual extensions and six automated extensions that advertisers can use to compel more clicks:

Google ad extensions are free to implement and often improve your ad's CTR.

On average, an ad's CTR has the potential to improve by 10-15% per extension. Aside from adding functionality, extensions increase the surface area of your placement and are free to implement, so they're a no-brainer.

Though every ad extension is potentially useful, there are four (highlighted in yellow above) that you must use (if you're not already). This is because they're easy to implement and they allow you to feature critical incentives and information about your business that would otherwise take up valuable ad copy.

1. Sitelinks

Sitelinks are valuable because they allow you to link deeply into your site. The number of sitelinks associated with your ad varies from 2 to 8. A great tip is to create specialty landing pages for each sitelink which are goal oriented and customized to the link. You can customize sitelinks at the ad group level too, making them even more relevant to specific searches.

Expert Tip: The Unbounce Builder is an excellent tool for quickly creating landing pages that match your ads' sitelinks.

2. Callouts

Callout extensions can be up to 25 characters each and are not clickable. They promote features, benefits, and selling points of your business. They're also a great way to highlight specific qualities of your business that you don't have room to showcase in your primary ad copy. For instance, 250 5 star reviews, 5 convenient locations, all credit cards accepted, etc.

3. Call Extensions

Call extensions add a phone number without wasting any of the primary copy. On mobile devices, a callout extension lets people tap a button to call your business directly. Implementing call extensions is quick and easy, so you should include them in all applicable ads.

4. Structured Snippets

This extension gives users the option to include a list of products or services beneath their ad. Structured snippets contain a category header (e.g., services) followed by a list of items (e.g., pet grooming, pet sitting, dog training, de-shedding).

Using all of these snippets is a great way to differentiate your ad from competitors' ads. You can get creative too. For example, if you're a B2B database host, you could list the features included in your service (e.g., Cloud Automation, Advanced Security, Easy-To-Use Data Browser).

It's worth noting, though, that when it comes to the categories you can choose, you're restricted to Google's preset list. The full list of snippet categories (headers) is available here. Here are some other structured snippet examples based on different ones:

Amenities: Free WiFi, Sauna, Early Check-In, Concierge Service, Continental Breakfast

Brands: Urban Decay, bareMinerals, Nyx, Tarte, Too Faced

Courses: Financial Training, Investment Banking, Business Economics, Fundraising

Using a few of the available extensions creates more opportunities to capture your prospects' attention. It can even push your competition further down the page!

Here's an example of how an ad would appear if all the above extensions showed at once:

An ad with structured snippets, call, callout, and sitelink extensions enabled.

Expert Tip: Not all ad extensions show up all the time, and they appear differently on mobile devices versus desktops. Google's system tries to match the most appropriate extensions to the most relevant searches.

Geotargeting and other important settings

Implementing ad extensions along with the latest ETA format is sure to get advertisers more clicks. Yet this can be a double-edged sword because (sadly) most of us don't have an unlimited budget.

Fortunately, there are some settings and features that you can (and should) use to minimize clicks from unqualified traffic. The settings we're going to focus on are bid modifiers, geotargeting, remarketing for search ads (RSLA), ad scheduling, and negative keyword lists.

Bid Modifiers

Bid modifiers, or adjustments as Google calls them, enable you to increase or decrease bids based on when and how people search. Bid modifiers can apply to devices, locations, ad scheduling, and more. Advertisers bid up or down by percentages.

For example, if you want to bid more aggressively on mobile searches, you can adjust your bids to +30% for mobile devices. Likewise, if you want to appear for desktop searches, but would rather pay less for these types of clicks, you can adjust your bids to -30% for desktop devices.

Expert tip: Use Google's reporting tools to test how your modified segments are performing and adjust bids regularly. You can review performance by location, audience, device, time of day, and more right from the Google Ads main interface.

An example of locations segment (via Google Ads)

Geotargeting

There's more to geotargeting than just showing your ads in your desired locations. You can also refine where your ads appear by excluding certain locations and regions. You can get granular with this too by increasing or decreasing bids to your targeted areas using bid modifiers.

Geotargeting improves your ROI by minimizing clicks from unqualified prospects (e.g., people outside of your service area, neighborhoods below a certain income threshold, etc.). So it's well worth the time it takes to set up and refine.

Ad Scheduling

Maybe you're not open on weekends. Maybe no one is operating the phones after 8 pm every night. Maybe your strongest return on ad spend occurs between the hours of 10 am and 1 pm every day. Once you figure out the best time of day for your ads to appear, you can use scheduling to choose exactly when they show. This is an especially great feature when you have a limited budget.

Remarketing for Search Ads (RSLA)

Remarketing isn't just for display ads anymore! This feature allows you to target search ads to people who have already visited your site. Your ads then appear when they search on Google for the keywords you're bidding on. You can either append RSLA lists to existing ad groups or create groups that only show ads if a searcher is on your remarketing list. Google provides detailed instructions for setting up RSLA campaigns. It's definitely worth investing the time to read.

Negative Keyword Lists

You can ensure your ad isn't triggered for undesirable keywords by creating negative keyword lists and applying them at the account, campaign, or ad group level. The new Google Ads interface makes creating and assigning negative keyword lists simple. Create themed lists (e.g., competitors, locations, common terms) and assign them based on account performance or structure.

Expert tip: Check out Google's search terms report to see exactly what people are searching for when they look at your ads, and then use this info to build your negative lists.

We've only scratched the surface…

The good news is that there are things you can (and must) do to make your brand stand out and to ensure it's reaching the most qualified prospects.

Google gives you some powerful tools to help improve the clickthrough rate of your ads, which contributes to a higher quality score. And, in turn, higher scores help drive down your cost per click, give you a higher impression share, and make your ad more likely to show up than your competitors'. They can even help your ad appear at the top of the search results.

But blindly implementing these tips can only help you so far.

It should go without saying (but we're saying it anyway) that you should test all ads with different ad copy (and extensions) and then refine them based on actual performance.

Effective ads-even those loaded with ad extensions-are also only part of a good PPC strategy. Landing page optimization, tracking, A/B testing are critical practices for a successful campaign. Setting clear goals is also very important.

It's also helpful to see what the competition is doing by reviewing competitor ads, landing pages, and incentives. Google's Auction Insights report allows you to see who is bidding against you and their impression share compared with yours. Make sure you're reviewing your competitive data monthly or quarterly. It can help you plan and revise your keyword and ad copy strategy.

An example of an auction insights report (via Google Ads)

Industry tools like SEMRush, KeywordSpy, and SpyFu also provide competitive information and enable you to automate monitoring. They're worth checking out-you can be sure that most experts use them!

Even if you don't dig deeper into the competitive data, however, implementing the above settings and ad extensions-as well as taking advantage of the latest expanded text specifications-will put you ahead of the competition. So get started today!

[dmktgdad]

Dolphins vs Bills

[Read More ...]

[dmktgdad]

Quick Ways to Make Your Google Ads Stand Out from the Competition

Google Ads amounts to billions of dollars in revenue for the search engine giant, but what about your revenue?

Standing out in this competitive-and, let's face it, cluttered-environment can be a huge challenge for advertisers, especially if they're just starting out. There's only so much space on a search results page to go around, after all.

As we enter the 2018 holiday season, it's the right time to take a good, hard look at your stale ads. It's time to breathe some new life into them.

With that in mind, here are the features the pros use to stand out from the competition:

The Latest Expanded Text Ads

Google made their standard text ads larger by introducing expanded text ads (ETAs) in 2016. The increased character count was a boon for advertisers because it enabled messaging to reflect more of the advertiser's key incentives.

Experts jumped on this new format immediately, even though Google didn't require they switch until January 2017. Even then, advertisers could continue to run standard (shorter) ads, but they couldn't edit them or launch new ones.

Some people hesitated, but advertisers who were slow to switch were at a disadvantage compared to those who immediately moved to the new format. The go-getters ended up with a huge head start since ETAs proved to have higher clickthrough rates (CTRs) than standard ads.

(And good CTRs = good quality scores = lower CPCs = better ad positioning.)

Now you have this opportunity again!

In August, Google further expanded their text ad format-expanded expanded text ads?-but taking advantage of these new character limits is still optional (hint: you should use them).

The latest iteration of expanded text ads introduces a second headline and more characters to all text fields, making text ads even more prominent. Here's what's new:

An additional, optional headline of up to 30 characters

An additional, optional description line

Both description lines can now be up to 90 characters (increased from 80)

And here's a comparison of the three ad formats:

Google's expanded text ads give you more space to connect with prospects.

These longer character counts may not sound like much-oh boy, ten more characters!-but they add up and can have a significant impact on how your ads look (and how they convert). See for yourself how the three types of ads look in a side-by-side comparison:

An example of how these ads appear in the search results.

The new ETAs feature up to 218% more text than the original “standard” format. As expected, search experts are already updating their ads to capitalize on the latest change-and this time you should too!

Even though the extra headline and description won't show up all the time, they'll help you stand out when they do by making the ad itself bigger. The third headline also gives you an extra thirty characters of highlighted blue text at the top of your ad.

Ad Extensions

Ad extensions are optional snippets of text that users can append to their ads. Google introduced the first extension-sitelinks-way back in 2009. These short links appear beneath the ad and direct searchers to different pages of the advertiser's website.

But why stop there? There are now ten different types of manual extensions and six automated extensions that advertisers can use to compel more clicks:

Google ad extensions are free to implement and often improve your ad's CTR.

On average, an ad's CTR has the potential to improve by 10-15% per extension. Aside from adding functionality, extensions increase the surface area of your placement and are free to implement, so they're a no-brainer.

Though every ad extension is potentially useful, there are four (highlighted in yellow above) that you must use (if you're not already). This is because they're easy to implement and they allow you to feature critical incentives and information about your business that would otherwise take up valuable ad copy.

1. Sitelinks

Sitelinks are valuable because they allow you to link deeply into your site. The number of sitelinks associated with your ad varies from 2 to 8. A great tip is to create specialty landing pages for each sitelink which are goal oriented and customized to the link. You can customize sitelinks at the ad group level too, making them even more relevant to specific searches.

Expert Tip: The Unbounce Builder is an excellent tool for quickly creating landing pages that match your ads' sitelinks.

2. Callouts

Callout extensions can be up to 25 characters each and are not clickable. They promote features, benefits, and selling points of your business. They're also a great way to highlight specific qualities of your business that you don't have room to showcase in your primary ad copy. For instance, 250 5 star reviews, 5 convenient locations, all credit cards accepted, etc.

3. Call Extensions

Call extensions add a phone number without wasting any of the primary copy. On mobile devices, a callout extension lets people tap a button to call your business directly. Implementing call extensions is quick and easy, so you should include them in all applicable ads.

4. Structured Snippets

This extension gives users the option to include a list of products or services beneath their ad. Structured snippets contain a category header (e.g., services) followed by a list of items (e.g., pet grooming, pet sitting, dog training, de-shedding).

Using all of these snippets is a great way to differentiate your ad from competitors' ads. You can get creative too. For example, if you're a B2B database host, you could list the features included in your service (e.g., Cloud Automation, Advanced Security, Easy-To-Use Data Browser).

It's worth noting, though, that when it comes to the categories you can choose, you're restricted to Google's preset list. The full list of snippet categories (headers) is available here. Here are some other structured snippet examples based on different ones:

Amenities: Free WiFi, Sauna, Early Check-In, Concierge Service, Continental Breakfast

Brands: Urban Decay, bareMinerals, Nyx, Tarte, Too Faced

Courses: Financial Training, Investment Banking, Business Economics, Fundraising

Using a few of the available extensions creates more opportunities to capture your prospects' attention. It can even push your competition further down the page!

Here's an example of how an ad would appear if all the above extensions showed at once:

An ad with structured snippets, call, callout, and sitelink extensions enabled.

Expert Tip: Not all ad extensions show up all the time, and they appear differently on mobile devices versus desktops. Google's system tries to match the most appropriate extensions to the most relevant searches.

Geotargeting and other important settings

Implementing ad extensions along with the latest ETA format is sure to get advertisers more clicks. Yet this can be a double-edged sword because (sadly) most of us don't have an unlimited budget.

Fortunately, there are some settings and features that you can (and should) use to minimize clicks from unqualified traffic. The settings we're going to focus on are bid modifiers, geotargeting, remarketing for search ads (RSLA), ad scheduling, and negative keyword lists.

Bid Modifiers

Bid modifiers, or adjustments as Google calls them, enable you to increase or decrease bids based on when and how people search. Bid modifiers can apply to devices, locations, ad scheduling, and more. Advertisers bid up or down by percentages.

For example, if you want to bid more aggressively on mobile searches, you can adjust your bids to +30% for mobile devices. Likewise, if you want to appear for desktop searches, but would rather pay less for these types of clicks, you can adjust your bids to -30% for desktop devices.

Expert tip: Use Google's reporting tools to test how your modified segments are performing and adjust bids regularly. You can review performance by location, audience, device, time of day, and more right from the Google Ads main interface.

An example of locations segment (via Google Ads)

Geotargeting

There's more to geotargeting than just showing your ads in your desired locations. You can also refine where your ads appear by excluding certain locations and regions. You can get granular with this too by increasing or decreasing bids to your targeted areas using bid modifiers.

Geotargeting improves your ROI by minimizing clicks from unqualified prospects (e.g., people outside of your service area, neighborhoods below a certain income threshold, etc.). So it's well worth the time it takes to set up and refine.

Ad Scheduling

Maybe you're not open on weekends. Maybe no one is operating the phones after 8 pm every night. Maybe your strongest return on ad spend occurs between the hours of 10 am and 1 pm every day. Once you figure out the best time of day for your ads to appear, you can use scheduling to choose exactly when they show. This is an especially great feature when you have a limited budget.

Remarketing for Search Ads (RSLA)

Remarketing isn't just for display ads anymore! This feature allows you to target search ads to people who have already visited your site. Your ads then appear when they search on Google for the keywords you're bidding on. You can either append RSLA lists to existing ad groups or create groups that only show ads if a searcher is on your remarketing list. Google provides detailed instructions for setting up RSLA campaigns. It's definitely worth investing the time to read.

Negative Keyword Lists

You can ensure your ad isn't triggered for undesirable keywords by creating negative keyword lists and applying them at the account, campaign, or ad group level. The new Google Ads interface makes creating and assigning negative keyword lists simple. Create themed lists (e.g., competitors, locations, common terms) and assign them based on account performance or structure.

Expert tip: Check out Google's search terms report to see exactly what people are searching for when they look at your ads, and then use this info to build your negative lists.

We've only scratched the surface…

The good news is that there are things you can (and must) do to make your brand stand out and to ensure it's reaching the most qualified prospects.

Google gives you some powerful tools to help improve the clickthrough rate of your ads, which contributes to a higher quality score. And, in turn, higher scores help drive down your cost per click, give you a higher impression share, and make your ad more likely to show up than your competitors'. They can even help your ad appear at the top of the search results.

But blindly implementing these tips can only help you so far.

It should go without saying (but we're saying it anyway) that you should test all ads with different ad copy (and extensions) and then refine them based on actual performance.

Effective ads-even those loaded with ad extensions-are also only part of a good PPC strategy. Landing page optimization, tracking, A/B testing are critical practices for a successful campaign. Setting clear goals is also very important.

It's also helpful to see what the competition is doing by reviewing competitor ads, landing pages, and incentives. Google's Auction Insights report allows you to see who is bidding against you and their impression share compared with yours. Make sure you're reviewing your competitive data monthly or quarterly. It can help you plan and revise your keyword and ad copy strategy.

An example of an auction insights report (via Google Ads)

Industry tools like SEMRush, KeywordSpy, and SpyFu also provide competitive information and enable you to automate monitoring. They're worth checking out-you can be sure that most experts use them!

Even if you don't dig deeper into the competitive data, however, implementing the above settings and ad extensions-as well as taking advantage of the latest expanded text specifications-will put you ahead of the competition. So get started today!

[dmktgdad]

Crypto Expert: Bitcoin is More of a Collectible

The co-founder of crypto security firm BlaKFX says that Bitcoin was a great proof of concept and will be around for a long time, but it's more of a collectible. “You need to have common liquidity pools,” says Kara Coppa, BlaKFX co-founder, and COO. “If you can't move your money from fiat to crypto and move it into ecommerce to purchase something it's really useless.”

Kara Coppa, BlaKFX co-founder, and COO, discussed the cryptocurrency and her companies efforts to ensure its security in an interview on Fox Business:

The Biggest Heist in World History

We all thought Bitcoin was going crazy, but cybersecurity issues were a big problem this year. There was $1 billion lost in 2018, the biggest heist in world history, in humanity. There are a lot of issues with blockchain, it is a new technology. However, BlaKFX has uncovered many issues and we have 18 plus patents pending, lots of solutions to fix all those problems and make it secure.

We are working with the governments right now, especially in Malta where Blockchain Island is. We are helping them to create cybersecurity regulations to ensure that there is no theft and to make sure that we can move forward with this as a currency in the future.

As we see more asset-backed tokens, tokenizing highways, buildings, sports teams, and fractionalizing different types of assets to so that others can get involved, it can go mainstream but it has to be secure.

Governments Coming on Board with Cryptocurrencies

I think in 2019 we will see governments start to come on board and launch their own cyrptocurrencies. Dubai for example, by 2020, their initiative is to have their entrie government on blockchain.

Once you do make it secure you don't have to have it annonomous. You can have governments part of that bigger picture. When you bring in banks and governments into this cutting-edge technology it goes a long way. I think that is also another prediction for 2019, we will see a lot of alliances.

We will see the government sector coming in together, different exchanges and cybersecurity companies coming together to make it a better, tighter technology.

Bitcoin is More of a Collectible

I think Bitcoin was a great proof of concept and I think it will be around for a long time, but it's more of a collectible if you well. You need to have common liquidity pools. If you can't move your money from fiat to crypto and move it into ecommerce to purchase something it's really useless.

The post Crypto Expert: Bitcoin is More of a Collectible appeared first on WebProNews.

[dmktgdad]

Everyone Has A Rom-Com Leading Lady That Matches Their Personality – Here's Yours

They're all pretty great in their own way.

View Entire Post ›

[dmktgdad]

Matthew McConaughey Just Revealed That He Was A 100% Sure The Role Of Jack In "Titanic" Was His

"Alright, alright, alright I am the king of the world!"

View Entire Post ›

[dmktgdad]

41 Times The "Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina" Were Adorable IRL

Move over Riverdale, there's a new cast to stan.

View Entire Post ›

[dmktgdad]

25 of the Best WordPress Plugins for Marketers

Did you know there are over 56,000 WordPress plugins available today?

WordPress plugins allow you to enhance your website's functionality by adding features and capabilities that don't come standard with the system.

From writing tools to SEO tips to analytics, WordPress plugins will help you arrive at any solution you're seeking, all while keeping your website as speedy as possible and saving you time along the way, too.

But with so many options available, it's tough to figure out the best ones to use.

That's why we've done the work for you. Below you'll find a list of the 25 best WordPress plugins (not in any specific order) that every marketer should explore.

  25 Essential WordPress Plugins for Marketers

These 25 plugins have been reviewed by some of the top marketers in the industry. They'll also keep both you and your WordPress website running efficiently and effectively. If you want more, check out the official WordPress plugin page.

1) Jetpack

Source: WordPress

Jetpack is an all-in-one WordPress plugin that offers advanced features such content tools, mobile themes, and more. You can take advantage of all of Jetpack's features to enhance your website, or pick and choose just what you want to activate based on your unique needs. Some of these features include automated social media posting, site statistics and analytics, and different SEO tools to help you measure and promote your website success.

2) The SEO Framework

Source: WordPress

With The SEO Framework, your website's search rankings will improve drastically with the help of the plugin's numerous, automatic optimization features. These features have the ability to optimize every page, post, and term on your website so it is not only easier to find on the internet, but it is also more searchable on all social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. No matter if you're new to SEO or an expert in API, The SEO Framework will help you optimize your website.

3) Just Writing

Source: Just Writing

Just Writing takes WordPress' Distraction-Free Writing Mode (DFWM) to a whole new level. This plugin introduces important features like spellcheck and paragraph styling to help you focus on your words without having to constantly drop out of DFWM to implement basic formatting.

4) Pretty Link

Source: Pretty Link

Pretty Link makes it easy to manage and track your internal website links. You can shorten links (the way you would on a site like bit.ly), track the number of hits to a link, discover traffic sources, and find out the browser and host provider of your site visitors. You can also use the plugin to easily create redirects (301, 302, and 307s). 

5) Google XML Sitemaps

Source:  WordPress

The Google XML Sitemap plugin makes it easier for search engines, like Google and Yahoo, to crawl your site and retrieve information. It will also notify search engines when you create new content so you don't have to manually submit changes to search engines.

6) Pixel Caffeine

Source: WordPress

Pixel Caffeine allows you to manage Facebook Pixel and Facebook Product Catalog all within the plugin. Tony Capetola of Sales Orders says Pixel Caffeine is a great plugin because “marketers can make use of some more advanced features like the ability to track Facebook Ad conversions within WordPress's dashboard, the ability to create custom audiences based on last visit time (retention window), WordPress taxonomies (categories, tags, etc.), and previous customers behavior (works with WooCommerce), etc.”

Added bonus: Pixel Caffeine automatically keeps up with Facebook's latest updates so you don't have to.

7) Broken Link Checker

Source: WordPress

Want to prevent Google from following broken links on your website? Broken Link Checker parses your posts to identify broken links and notify you when they surface. To save you time, the plugin makes it easy for you to edit a broken link from the plugin page, eliminating the need to manually go into each post to make changes.

8)  Calculated Fields Form

Source: WordPress

“[Calculated Fields Form] allows you to create simple calculators for your WordPress site. You can easily build finance calculators, quote calculators, booking cost calculators, health/ fitness calculators, and other link-worthy tools,” says Roy Harmon of Advertoscope.

With this plugin, you can also create forms with automatically calculated fields and use predefined form templates that will save you time and ensure accuracy.

9) Akismet

Source: Spider My Web

Akismet helps you avoid (and eliminate) spammy comments on your blog. The plugin automatically reviews and filters comments when it detects any signs of spam. You can easily keep tabs on which comments are caught or  filtered to maintain control over what's being displayed on your site.

10) All in One SEO Pack

Source: WordPress

All in One SEO Pack helps you optimize your WordPress website for organic search. The plugin works for people with varying levels of SEO experience, from the non-technical to the coders.

Kim Smith of GoodFirms says, “The plugin supports content as well as image XML sitemap while providing advanced canonical URLs. It supports key Google SEO tools such as AMP and Analytics and notifies search engines about the updates and changes”.

The plugin has XML sitemap and image XML sitemap support (which is what informs Google about the URLs on your website that are available for crawling), and it also provides you with support in other areas including Google Analytics and custom post types, which is helpful for marketers who are working to measure the success of their campaigns or SEO work and goals.

11) Title Experiments

Source: WordPress

The title of a blog post has a direct impact on click-through rates (CTR). Title Experiments makes it easy for you to A/B test one title against another so you can track what converts best and increase your CTR.

12) TablePress

Source: WordPress

TablePress is a plugin that helps you create, customize, and embed beautiful and unique tables on your WordPress site. Your tables can include all types of data and be placed anywhere on your website. Swadhin Agrawa of DigitalGYD.com says, “TablePress makes it insanely easy for anyone to create a customizable and responsive table on their blogs.”

13) Editorial Calendar

Source: WordPress

Keep your blog organized with the help of this plugin. Editorial Calendar uses a drag-and-drop functionality to simplify the way you schedule and manage your blog content. You can also manage posts from multiple authors, quickly edit titles and publishing times, and manage drafts within the plugin.

14) TinyPNG

Source: TinyPNG

“This free plugin allows you to quickly compress images so they load faster. This is important for SEO value and ensuring people don't bounce off your pages due to slow load times,”  says Todd Kunsman of EveryoneSocial.

TinyPNG will make your website faster by automatically optimizing your JPEG and PNG images upon upload, renaming them to TinyPNG and TinyJPEG. Images are analyzed, and then the plugin compresses them appropriately. Once this happens, the image is then sent back to your WP website to replace the original image. The plugin will make your website load faster while saving you storage space.

15) Smush

Source: WordPress

“Smush quickly compresses and optimizes images in bulk, letting you focus on other things,” says Izaak Crook of AppInstitute. Smush servers do all of the work for you, meaning your images will remain high-quality while reducing their file size. This frees up space on your server so your website will be significantly faster.

16) W3 Total Cache

Source: WordPress

Looking to improve the performance of your website? This optimization plugin helps all marketers deliver a better user experience by increasing server performance, reducing load times, and providing CDN integration (which increases your website's performance and decreases loading time to enhance user experience).

17) Imsanity

Source: Imsanity

“Imsanity is a popular, free WP plugin for managing image file size. It automatically resizes images without loss of quality and saves you from having to manually scale them before upload,” says Marina Dolcic of MorningScore.

The Imsanity plugin matches the size of your images with the display in a browser. It resizes previously uploaded images by automatically scaling them down and replacing the original images with the new versions, which saves you time as all of the work is done for you.

18) OptinMonster

Source: WordPress

Looking to grow your email list? This plugin comes with an easy-to-use form builder to help you create opportunities for your visitors to convert. From popups to slide-ins to sidebar forms, OptinMonster offers a variety of different templates for lead generation forms. The plugin also integrates with several email marketing providers, such as MailChimp, HubSpot, AWeber, Infusionsoft, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor.

19) Revive Old Post

Source: WordPress

Formerly known as Tweet Old Post, this plugin helps marketers extend the life of their old social posts by automatically re-sharing them to social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You have the ability to schedule posts and manage multiple accounts so you can easily drive more traffic to your content.

20) Head, Footer and Post Injections

Source: WordPress

Most WordPress users end up needing to use several plugins - some people even use dozens. Head, Footer and Post Injections is a plugin that allows you to copy any unique code that you use for other plugins, keep it in a centralized and organized location, and easily insert it wherever needed. The plugin is theme-independent, meaning you'll never lose your data (no matter how many times you change your website theme).

21) Google Analytics by Monster Insights

Source: WordPress

This plugin uses an API with Google Analytics that makes it easy for you to track the performance of your blog directly from your WordPress account. With added data for search result pages and error pages, Google Analytics by MonsterInsights makes performance reporting easy.

22) HubSpot Contact Form Builder and Conversion Tools

Source: WordPress

HubSpot's drag and drop form builder allows you to easily build contact forms to use on your WordPress website. The plugin also includes a pop-up creator, live chat widget, contact database, and previously-written code for you to simply copy and paste into WordPress.

HubSpot's Contact Form Builder plug-in is unique because it's an all in one plugin - it helps you stay efficient by keeping all of its features in a single location. Christine Kilbride of Majux Marketing says having a large number of “plugins can slow down your site.” But because HubSpot provides everything in one plugin, the tool keeps your site fast and responsive.

23) Redirection

Source : Redirection

Redirection is a free redirect manager that allows you to set up your 301 redirects and manage 404 errors. There is a logging feature so you can see all of the redirects on your site as well as information about each visitor that is redirected.

24) Yoast SEO

Source: Yoast

Yoast is your all in one SEO plugin.

“This highly effective WordPress plugin makes the process of delivering SEO improvements on a site much easier,” says Sean Flannigan of coolblueweb.

Yoast helps you get the most out of your website SEO with straightforward XML Sitemaps, breadcrumb navigation control, content analysis, snippet previews, and several integrations that show you how your website performs in different search engines. Nicolas Straut of Fundera , says, “This plugin identifies and suggests solutions for potential SEO problems in your content, identifies what you've done well and helps you easily edit your snippet, keywords, and other post details.”

25) Autoptimize

Source: StackPath

“[Autoptimize] makes it easy for non-technical marketers to make their sites lightning fast. We all know how important it is to have a fast website - without it, our Google rankings suffer and potential customers will go somewhere else,” says Jon Nastor of Hack the Entrepreneur.

This plugin aggregates and caches (a.k.a. stores) scripts and styles, which enhance your site's overall performance. Autoptimize also has extensive API available so you can tailor the plugin to your website's needs.

Final Thoughts on the Top Essential WordPress Plugins

These are only 25 of the thousands of WordPress plugins available to marketers. WordPress plugins can help you improve your site, whether it's speeding up your page load time, improving your site's functionality, or tracking metrics. These powerful tools are often free, have features tailored to individuals and businesses of all sizes, and are fairly easy to use. Give a plugin or two a try and see how much it enhances your day-to-day WordPress experience - and your business.

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Landing Page Essentials: A Free Video Crash Course from Unbounce and Skillshare

Ever heard the saying “Cart before the horse”? Or “You have to crawl before you can walk”? Or “You can't put lipstick on a landing page with 27 links”?

That last one may be exclusive to landing page software employees, but the sentiment is the same. Unless the foundation of your landing page is strong, any optimization beyond that will be a waste of your time-and ad spend. Because even the slickest, fanciest landing page will leak precious conversions if it lacks certain crucial elements.

For the sake of those ad dollars, let's go back to basics.

In collaboration with our friends (and customers!) at Skillshare, we've created a free video crash course on the fundamentals of a high-converting landing page. Whether you're building your first page or just want a refresher, you'll get a checklist to set up each of your pages for success.

The full course, Creating Dedicated Landing Pages: How to Get Better ROI for Your Marketing Spend, is hosted by Unbounce VP of Product Marketing Ryan Engley and comprised of 11 videos totalling a quick 31 minutes. Sign up for a free Skillshare account and dive right into binge mode, or keep scrolling for an overview of what every landing page you create should have.

Bonus: Skillshare is offering 2 free months and access to thousands of other marketing classes just for signing up through our course.

Who's it for?

Anyone running marketing campaigns! But in particular, those who execute on them.

Whether you're responsible for launching paid advertising campaigns, build and design landing pages yourself, or work with designers and copywriters to create them, this course will ensure you've covered every base to create a compelling and high-converting post-click experience.

In a nutshell: It's for anyone who runs paid marketing campaigns and wants to get the most bang for their buck.

What will it teach me?

In 11 videos, Ryan will take you through the process of creating a persuasive marketing campaign, cover each step of building a successful landing page within it, and explain the “why” behind it all so you're taught to fish instead of just being handed the fish.

A few tidbits to start

Attention Ratio

If you're thinking, “What's wrong with sending people to my homepage?” then Attention Ratio is a great place to start.

“Your website is a bit of a jack of all trades,” Ryan explains. “Usually it'll have a ton of content for SEO purposes, maybe information about your team…but if you're running a marketing campaign and you have a single call to action in mind, your website's not going to do you any favours.”

The more links you have on your page, the more distractions there are from your campaign's CTA. You don't want people to explore-you want them to act. And an Attention Ratio of 1:1 is a powerful way of achieving that.

Learn more about Attention Ratio in chapter three.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Somewhat self-explanatory, your Unique Selling Proposition describes the benefit you offer, how you solve for prospects' needs, and what distinguishes you from the competition. This doesn't all have to fit in one sentence, rather, it can reveal itself throughout the page. But if you're going to focus on one place to do the “heavy lifting,” as Ryan calls it, this place should be your headline and subhead.

Take Skillshare's landing page for a content marketing course by Buzzfeed's Matt Bellassai (if his name doesn't ring a bell, Google him, grab some popcorn, and come back to us with a few laughter-induced tears streaming down your face). Without even looking at the rest of the page, you know exactly what you'll get out of this course and how it will help you achieve a goal.

Learn more about Unique Selling Proposition in chapter five.

Social Proof

What's more convincing than word of mouth? Since we don't advise stalking and hiring people's friends to tell prospects how great you are, the next best thing is to feature testimonials on your landing page. The key here is that you're establishing trust and credibility by having someone else back you up.

Customer quotes, case studies, and product reviews are just a few of the many ways you can inject social proof into your landing page. Think of it as a “seal of approval” woven into your story that shows prospects you deliver on the promise of your Unique Selling Proposition.

Customer testimonials serve as the proof in your pudding.

Learn more about Social Proof in chapter eight.

And now for all the bits

Watch all 11 episodes of Creating Dedicated Landing Pages: How to Get Better ROI for Your Marketing Spend to set your landing pages up for success in less time than it takes to finish your lunch break. Beyond being 100% free, it'll save you a lot of guesswork in building landing pages that convert and precious ad spend to boot. So settle in for a mini binge watch with a sandwich on the company tab-you earned it.

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