Mother natures

Weather Underground has launched what may be the first of its kind — a tool that lets marketers track sales against local weather conditions. It’s called “Sales Tracker,” and it’s part of a new (and still in beta) Business Center that aims to help marketers and business owners understand — and take advantage of — changes in temperature, precipitation and so forth. The Sales Tracker tool requires only a location and a date range. With that information, marketers can create a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that already has the weather information installed — just manually add sales data and the spreadsheet generates a summary that shows how sales have corresponded to local weather conditions. It also generates charts showing daily sales compared to temperatures, precipitation and dew point. A separate Temperature Maps tool shows a half-dozen U.S. weather maps comparing the current five-day forecast with historical temperatures, which may … [Read more...] about Is Mother Nature Causing Stormy Sales? Weather Underground Shows How Weather Impacts Your Bottom Line

When Google launched the OfficialGoogle Blog back in 2004, it started as sort of a ho-hum event. There wasn'tanything particularly gripping, and some wondered if the company should be moreedgy with its posts. Since then, Google has launched more than 70 additionalofficial blogs over the years. Some have gotten edgy; a few even have comments, but mostimportant, they've turned into an essential communications vehicle for thecompany. A few weeks ago, I sat down with Karen Wickre, who aside from herformal title at Google of senior manager, global communications & publicaffairs, is who I'd best describe as "mother of the blogs." Karen is ultimatelyresponsible for how they all work, and she shared some insight on how Google makes use of blogging.Will the big three of Google - Larry, Sergey and Eric - ever blog? Will comments come to the main Google blog? Will Google's blogging replace press releases? Read on…. Danny: How would you characterize your role in relation to the blogs? Karen: … [Read more...] about Mother Of The Google Blog On Google’s Official Blogging

Alexa was a hit on Super Bowl night. Siri’s a household name. And everyone from the usual suspects — Google, Microsoft and Samsung — to unknown upstarts (Mycroft, anyone?) is trying to dip at least one finger into an increasingly tempting pie. Voice assistants are no longer “the next big thing” or “the wave of the future.” They’ve hit the mainstream. In two years’ time, Gartner reckons that 75% of American households will own at least one smart speaker. And 50% of online searches will be voice searches. If you were still on the fence about the importance of voice search, these numbers should convince you. Clearly, the way we look up information on the web is changing before our eyes and — ahem — ears. Our interactions with electronic devices are becoming more and more like everyday conversations with fellow humans. Which means that optimizing your online presence for natural language search has never been more crucial. … [Read more...] about 10 Natural Language SEO Tips To Help You Gain An Edge (With Examples)

As SEOs, we know having the right content, in the right place, at the right time, can work to elevate search positioning and increase a local business’s conversions. After all, getting in front of your customers when, where and how they want to interact with your brand is a leading concept behind inbound marketing. Simply put, if you’re not getting in front of your audience when your audience is trying to find you, you are in trouble — especially on a local level, where multiple competitors compete within close proximity. The idea that content is key to increasing local search visibility is not new, but strategies to determine exactly what content your audience is seeking are constantly discovered. You can create great content all you want, but if your audience isn’t searching on those terms, or if they are uninterested in that content, time and energy spent on producing the material will not render increases in positioning. Great content that your audience is … [Read more...] about 4 effective local positioning strategies you’re overlooking

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Is Mother Nature Causing Stormy Sales? Weather Underground Shows How Weather Impacts Your Bottom Line Is bad weather good for business? Or is good weather a pain in the bottom line? Weather Underground has launched what may be the first of its kind — a tool that lets marketers track sales against local weather conditions. It’s called “Sales Tracker,” and it’s part of a new (and still in beta) Business […] “Optimizing” Pre-Image Optimization The harsh truth on email image blocking comes as one of the earliest lessons in email design. It’s hardly a new one, though, and we have a standard best practices short list to “optimize for images-off” — use live text for copy, include alternative text on images, make buttons bulletproof and so forth. The list … [Read more...] about Marketing Day: May 16, 2012