Yearly Archives: 2014
Internet Marketing Kimberly Williams27 May, 2014
What Project Managers Actually Do
Photo Credit to aussiegall via Flickr, image not modified People are often confused about what a Project Manager actually does. Well, here at Portent, we’re the folks who have long guided projects to be timely, efficient, and profitable while making sure that the internal team feels supported and has all the information they need to… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie21 May, 2014
Announcing RainGage
TL;DR version: Portent’s just launched RainGage Enterprise and RainGage™ Essentials. RainGage assesses your online marketing and recommends improvements that win you more business. It provides three layers of marketing recommendations: A strategic assessment across your entire marketing mix A tactical assessment showing areas for improvement A page-by-page, post-by-post (on RainGage Enterprise) and image-by-image set of… Read More
Ken Colborn20 May, 2014
Content for the Customer Buying Cycle
Are you looking to bring in more customers to your site and sell more products? One way to do this is by looking at the customer buying cycle (also known as the marketing funnel). This helps meet the needs of your customers at every step of the buying process. Every time a customer makes a… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie13 May, 2014
One-Trick Ponies Get Shot: Doing Digital Strategy Right
I gave a talk tonight to the SEMPDX crowd. It was an hour of ranting and raving about why digital agencies and in-house marketers are still treated like 1-trick vendors instead of marketing resources. I also went over the process I use when I create marketing strategies. But here’s the fun part: The whole presentation… Read More
Ariana Burgess13 May, 2014
My Ten Years: A Look Back at the History of Portent
I wouldn’t be surprised if some people in the internet marketing industry secretly called me an “old hat” behind my back. I’ve been at Portent for ten years now so maybe I deserve that. The average tenure at a company these days is 4.6 years . Fewer than 10% of people my age stay at… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie9 May, 2014
Research: Site Speed Is Hurting Your Everyone’s Revenue
Site speed, site speed, site speed. Everyone around me is sick of hearing me rant about it, probably because I’ve pushed it on every client Portent’s had since, oh, 2008. Well, tough poo, ’cause I’m doing it again. Portent’s analytics genius, Michael Weigand, and his faithful right-hand man, Timothy Gillman, did some math based on… Read More
Internet Marketing Mike Fitterer8 May, 2014
A Survival Guide to Project Kickoff Land
When you begin a new project with a client, it’s essential to hit the ground running at the speed of light. Doing so will go a long way towards earning trust from the client. Still, you can’t begin the heavy lifting without some standard info. So how do you successfully navigate the early contract waters?… Read More
Design & Development Portent Staff7 May, 2014
Do You Use Data To Improve Your Website Design?
The days of designing websites based merely on visual components are over, unless like being invisible. Don’t get me wrong. I am not against well-designed websites. Visual design of your website plays a key role in shaping your potential customers’ opinions of your brand. The first six seconds after someone lands on your website can… Read More
PPC Kiko Correa1 May, 2014
Harvesting Bulk Negative Keywords with Excel
When I was just a boy, my mother caught me out behind the garage using broad match. I couldn’t sit for a week. Later, I graduated to the hard stuff: media buys, QR codes, direct mail… bad scene, man. Still, despite her best attempts at teaching me the value of plus signs, quotes and brackets,… Read More
Internet Marketing Isla McKetta22 Apr, 2014
Marketing Tactics so Contagious, Even a Professional Isn’t Immune
I like to think I’m immune from marketing. Working day in and day out with all the tips and tricks can make the underlying message of a soft sell glow in my brain like a neon light. And it makes me want to run the other way. Reading Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie21 Apr, 2014
The Marketing Stack, aka: Why Do You Keep Getting Fired?
Update: I wrote a much longer, more complete article about this, called One-Trick Ponies Get Shot And other stories: Digital marketing strategy done right. You might want to read that, instead. TL;DR version: Strategic thinking + tactical recommendations grows digital agency/client relationships. ‘Strategy’ means thinking across all digital disciplines — not just the ones in… Read More
PPC Michael Wiegand11 Apr, 2014
(not provided) for Advertisers™ Beta
If you’re a paid search professional and you’ve been within a stone’s throw of a computer in the last 48 hours, you’ve probably heard: they’re coming for your search query data. Search Engine Land broke the story, Google themselves confirmed it: “Today, we are extending our efforts to keep search secure by removing the query… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie9 Apr, 2014
Everything I Needed To Know About Marketing I Learned Playing Dungeons & Dragons
This is a talk I’ve given before and gave last night to the Seattle SEO Network. But I finally did annotated slides! I cover stuff like: Audience research Return on Time Invested The humor of botch-related friendly fire (it’s a nerd thing) Here you go: Everything I needed to know about marketing I learned playing… Read More
Analytics Timothy Gillman8 Apr, 2014
3 Demographic Reports for Jedi Masters
As an analytics nerd people often assume I’m a Star Wars geek. And they’re absolutely right! While learning about Demographic Reporting in Google Analytics, I found plenty of data analysis aspects similar to one Star Wars character: Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is beloved, powerful, and he is wise. But during the latter stages of his Jedi… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie4 Apr, 2014
6 Reasons We All Need To Stop Complaining
All internet marketers do it. Google’s being mean. Facebook is being dishonest. Twitter is down. I’ve done it too. So, I’m not making fun, or calling out individuals, when I write this: We need to stop. We’re tilting at windmills so large they don’t even notice us, or when they do, can easily brush us… Read More