The Portent Blog
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10 Aug, 2015
Fast Research for Internet Marketers: Faking the T-Shaped Knowledge Set
By Ian Lurie
Everyone knows I’m normally a diplomatic guy… HAHAHAHAHAHAHA SNIFF AHAHAHAHAHAHA SNORT AHAHAHAHA OK, now that you’ve sputtered coffee all over your keyboard: Somewhere, sometime in our professional lives, we’ve all been confronted with idiocy in the form of lazy ignorance: “Ignorance” = Not knowing the answer. Which happens to all of us. “Lazy” = An… Read More
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2 Jul, 2015
How Conflict Is Key To Creating Great User Experiences
By Misty Weaver
Mr. Fisher Goes to Washington Steve Fisher, co-organizer Design & Content Conference recently visited Portent’s office in Seattle (Washington) to exchange brilliant ideas, but also to tell us some horror stories. For example: What do zombies have to do with content and design? Clearly, a lot. We Content Strategists are officially outpaced and outnumbered. So… Read More
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18 Jun, 2015
Why not?
By Ian Lurie
TL;DR: I wrote my very first Medium post ever. It’s about marketing leadership and getting to “Why not?” Click here to read it. Any smart organization has the risk-takers and the risk-averse. That’s a very necessary balance. If all you have are risk-takers you’ll probably run aground in a hurry. If everyone on your team… Read More
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1 Jun, 2015
The Internet Marketing Stack: Channels
By Ian Lurie
This is the very last post in the marketing stack series! Want to start from the beginning? Click here. Part 1: The marketing stack Part 2: Infrastructure Part 3: Analytics Part 4: Content Part 5: The channels – paid, earned and owned ← You are here Channels are like pipes. They’re the machinery that puts… Read More
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1 Jun, 2015
The Internet Marketing Stack: Content
By Ian Lurie
In part 3, I talked about Analytics. In this post, I’ll rant, rave and finally talk about content. This is content, by the way. Part 1: The marketing stack Part 2: Infrastructure Part 3: Analytics Part 4: Content ← You are here Part 5: The channels – paid, earned and owned First, a rant: All… Read More
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1 Jun, 2015
The Internet Marketing Stack: Analytics
By Ian Lurie
In part 2, I talked about infrastructure and its place in the marketing stack. In this post, I talk about analytics and its role in internet marketing. Part 1: The marketing stack Part 2: Infrastructure Part 3: Analytics ← You are here Part 4: Content Part 5: The channels – paid, earned and owned Analytics… Read More
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1 Jun, 2015
The Marketing Stack: Infrastructure
By Ian Lurie
In part 1, I talked about the marketing stack as a whole. In this post, I’ll walk through the base of the stack: Infrastructure. Part 1: The marketing stack Part 2: Infrastructure ← You are here Part 3: Analytics Part 4: Content Part 5: The channels – paid, earned and owned Infrastructure delivers content to… Read More
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1 Jun, 2015
The Internet Marketing Stack: Overview
By Ian Lurie
I’ve prattled on about the marketing stack for a few years now, but haven’t really explained each chunk. This 5-post series explains the stack as a whole, then piece-by-piece. I’m not some TV series jerk who will keep you hanging, though, wondering which of your favorite characters will die next (cough HBO cough cough). Instead,… Read More
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18 Mar, 2015
Internet Marketing For Asshats
By Ian Lurie
There are internet marketers. Then there are 100% pure internet marketing asshats. They stomp their moral compass to bits in the interest of earning more dollars (or pounds, or drachmas, or whatever). These are a few examples of their tactics: Commit libel Asshats write headlines that imply horrific things/inappropriate or reputation-destroying behavior, like ‘Is This… Read More
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13 Mar, 2015
Happy Pi Day from your Friends at Portent Interactive
By Colin Parker
MMM. Piiiii. It’s just a few hours till the annual Pi Day celebration at the Portent Interactive offices. About 3.14 hours if you’re into the whole brevity thing. Somewhere, my cardiologist is yelling at this monitor. One can only assume there’s no better way to spend an afternoon as a highly paid medical professional than… Read More
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2 Mar, 2015
Mobile & App Content Will Rank Higher. Shenanigans Likely.
By Colin Parker
I read the news today, oh boy. No doubt, many of you have already read the headline from TechCrunch. Or maybe you caught it coming down off the mountain from Google. Google is formalizing its stance on “mobile-friendliness” as a ranking signal worldwide. Not only that, but they’re boosting content from indexed apps in organic… Read More
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8 Jan, 2015
Starbucks stirs the heart: Strength in the Brand Story
By Christian St. Jacques
Seth Godin reminds us, “Great stories agree with our worldview. The best stories don’t teach people anything new. Instead the best stories agree with what the audience already believes and makes [them] feel smart and secure when reminded how right they were in the first place.” Back in September, Starbucks rolled out its first global… Read More
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23 Dec, 2014
It’s Raining Marketing: The Importance of Integrated Marketing Communications
By Kyle Eliason
Halfway during one of my marketing classes in college, I noticed a small quote on the bottom right-hand side of the whiteboard. It said, “Which raindrop caused the flood?” My teacher never referenced it once during the duration of the course. However, ten weeks later, it all made sense. What is this IMC you speak… Read More
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13 Nov, 2014
Symbols in subject lines, AKA the resurrection of Wingdings
By Tracy Beach
I’ve worked at Portent for 14 years now and this is my first blog post. You might ask yourself, “why now?” “Why does he start with this subject?” The answer is that nothing in the past 14-plus years has been more exciting, more inspiring, and maybe even more important than the recent technological advancements that have allowed us… Read More
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28 Oct, 2014
43 tools for modern marketers
By Ian Lurie
Modern marketers are mutts: We have to write, edit, produce, plan, measure, learn, listen, speak and otherwise pull miracles out of our rear ends on a daily basis. We need tools. This is my list. By the way, no one’s paid me, bribed me, threatened me or otherwise steered me towards their products. This is… Read More