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When it comes to analytics, marketers have spent the last few years acting like kids in a candy store. The typical marketer now uses more than 100 applications in their regular routine, and yet most marketers say their technology is underperforming. Its not that they have the wrong tools, but theyre finding it hard to get a clear view of the big picture

There is an opportunity for marketing departments to get more value from their technology investments. Below are some of the ways marketing organizations can master their technology for optimal performance.

Much of the marketing software weve acquired in recent years has a specialized purpose. Think social advertising optimization or SEO backlink analytics. Even if many of these tools have a narrow purpose, it doesnt mean there arent dependencies between systems or opportunities to simplify project workflows.

The process of orchestrating APIs (application program interfaces) to create integrated solutions from component parts is one way marketing leaders are speeding up their operations. APIs allow one technology to speak to another and share data so that separate processes can be strung together. Historically, there was a choice between best-of-breed and all-in-one solutions, both of which came with tradeoffs.

APIs, on the other hand, allow you to create seamless processes with your existing solutions. Webdam customers, for example, use our API to connect their marketing assets with other applications where theyre used, such as Adobe Creative Cloud for design and Hootsuite for social media.

Selecting and implementing marketing technology is only the first step. When 600 business and IT executives were surveyed recently by software consulting firm Geneca, 75% reported that their new projects are either always or usually doomed right from the start.

Lots of technology solutions are introduced only to falter during adoption. Users get stuck during onboarding or during initial use and just give up completely. These failures are expensive and avoidable.

Training and supporting people through the learning curve is arguably as important as picking the right technology to begin with. Dont assume they will figure it out. People are often resistant to new ways of doing things. Theyll make excuses or put it off unless you give them reasons not to. So make sure marketing tools are getting used, and provide the training and incentives

necessary for your employees to discover their value.

Even with good planning and thoughtful implementation, things dont always click. But you may not know there are hurdles in your way if you havent set clear goals for success or if you simply arent measuring performance. Even if its easy to identify the problem, the technology is there to solve it.. Then track outcomes and use the cold-hearted numbers to determine if its paying off.

Marketing technology is a fact of life today -- you simply cant keep up without it. The key to success is in getting the best out of your technology so that it doesnt get the better of you.

Mike Waite is the vice president of marketing at Webdam

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How to Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Analytics Tools - Fortune

Youve spent your entire life immersed in the digital world. So youre pretty much already an expert, right? Not so fast. As it turns out, theres plenty more to learn in todays fast-moving digital space -- particularly if youre interested in becoming a change agent in your chosen field. Read on for a roundup of three reasons to pursue a masters degree with a focus on the digital, along with one program that gets it right when it comes to helping students acquire the skills they need -- not just to survive, but to truly thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape.

1. Digital skills open diverse doors.

Do a quick internet search of the words digital skills, and youll turn up countless articles on essential, must-have and top digital skills employers are looking for today. At the same time, US staffing and solutions company the Adecco Group reveals that 92 percent of employees arent prepared to navigate the contemporary business world. Claiming top four spots on the list of skills executives think workers lack? Technical and software skills.

But thats not all, insists The Guardian, It's not just the scale and pace of the digital revolution that makes it exciting; it's also the fact that it's being democratized. No longer reserved for IT departments and tech companies, digital is becoming a critical part of every industry and is opening up opportunities across sectors, whether it's top surgeons video linking into operating theatres from abroad or targeted mobile advertising based on clothes you're trying on in real time.

So whether you want to be a teacher, doctor, businessperson, lawyer, journalist, or one of a million other possible career paths, skills like SEO, coding, video editing, imaging editing, blogging and others are quickly moving from the category of nicety to necessity. The takeaway? Digital skills arent just highly sought-after in technology-related sectors; theyre also universally prized.

2. Digitalization is essential to corporate development.

According to a recent article in The Telegraph, Why Digital Skills Matter for Your Company, businesses that improve the digital skills of all their employees will become more productive, innovative, profitable and secure. For bottom-line-minded organizations, these are hard words to ignore. Just how much do businesses stand to gain by embracing all things digital? As reported by The Telegraph based on research by Oxford Economics for Virgin Media Business, the UK economy could see a boost of 92bn and more than one million jobs in the next two years alone.

Said Peter Winebloom, skills director a manufacturers organizations EEF, Britain is on the cusp of a global, technology-driven fourth industrial revolution, but the challenge comes from ensuring that we have access to the right skills in the right numbers. In other words, if the UK -- and other countries, too -- is to reach its potential, it will take workers with the right digital skills make it happen.

3. Students with digital skills are prepared to respond to future changes

Digital has fully infiltrated the contemporary consumer experience. The result? Consumers have higher expectations than ever before. Organizations looking to maintain their success with customers and profitability need to do more than satisfy what customers want now; they also need to be forward-thinking about what theyll want next. Asserts The Guardian, Businesses must invest now in digital training to empower their employees, boost productivity and fuel innovation or the UK might be left behind.

But the ability to predict, plan and ultimately maneuver the challenges of the digital evolution doesnt just benefit businesses. It also benefits workers who -- with the right combination of digital knowledge, skills and savvy -- acquire built-in defenses against obsoletion.

Introducing the Masters in Digital Business Innovation and Transformation

Now that you know why digital skills are so important, it begs the question: What masters degree can best position you for success in the business world? The part-time, English-language program offered by the IMC FH KREMS - University of Applied Sciences/Austria offers students a direct path to the skills they need to turn the obstacles of digital transformation into ongoing opportunities.

With a focus on the cultivation of practical skills within an international context, the program is also non-industry-specific -- meaning its graduates will enter the working world not just with a prestigious Master of Arts in Business and 120 ECTS credits, but also with a broad and transferable outlook which can be applied to any industry.

Digital fluency is so important in the 21st century that it is now being prioritized alongside math and literacy as essential skills in countries around the world. Do you have the digital skills you need to reach your career goals? If not, IMC Krems Masters in Digital Business Innovation and Transformation may be the perfect way to make sure youre ready -- not just for the challenges of todays digital world, but also for whatevers coming next.

Joanna worked in higher education administration for many years at a leading research institution before becoming a full-time freelance writer. She lives in the beautiful White Mountains region of New Hampshire with her family.

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Why You Need a Master's Degree that Develops Your Digital Skills - Masterstudies News (blog)

This week we learned about the genesis of the Pussyhat Project that gave the Women's March movement their most recognizable symbol; a few tips for writing better to-do lists; and the nuts and bolts of "defensive Googling" for job seekers this year.

These are the stories you loved in Leadership for the week of January 22:

To-do lists are notoriously easy to write and just as notoriously hard to complete. Among their key pitfalls, as writer Stephanie Vozza puts it, is that they "dont provide context about the tasks, they dont give you a timeline, and theyre easy to ignore." Sometimes the way around those problems is to stop yourself from adding certain items to your list in the first place.

Do you practice what digital marketing consultant and Google aficionado Tina Arnoldi calls "defensive Googling"? If not, you should consider it. Here's her game planwith step one being to Google your own nameto help job seekers optimize their personal brands so that recruiters can find them easily (and for the right reasons).

When it comes to daily productivity, it's sometimes the things you stop doing, rather than the new habits you adopt, that make all the difference. Fast Company asked employees at some of the leading tech companies to reveal which routines they're trying to weed out of their workdays in the year ahead, and why.

There's no better way to invite distraction into your workday than to say "yes" to every request thrown at you. But batting them away in real-time can be exhausting. Here are a few alternative methods of tuning out the most taxing demands on your attention so you can stay focused for longer.

The day after Donald J. Trump's inauguration, millions of women (as well as men and children) participated in the Women's March in the U.S. and globally, and many wore pink knitted caps. That moment was weeks in the making, and it began when several American women decided to turn a common craft into a symbol of organized defiance. This week they shared their process and objectives with Fast Company.

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From Pussyhats To Boosting Your Job-Search SEO: This Week's Top Leadership Stories - Fast Company

SEO is the art and science of search engine optimization.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 26, 2017

The JM Internet Group, a leader in online SEO training for small business owners and marketers, is proud to announce an update to its popular list of best SEO conferences for 2017. SEO or "Search Engine Optimization" is the art and science of propelling a company, product or service to the top of search engines such as Google or Bing. In addition to online training, blog posts, and webinars, many practitioners find it useful to attend real-world trade shows on SEO.

"The basics to SEO are taught in my popular SEO Fitness Workbook, but I find that attending yearly conferences are excellent supplementary information for anyone who knows the basics," explained Jason McDonald, director of the JM Internet Group. "By updating our list of the best SEO conferences for 2017, we are alerting our community to various trade shows, usually with either a West Coast or East Coast venue where they can learn from the search engine optimization elite and get ideas for practical success vis-a-vis search engines. "

To browse the list of SEO Conferences, visit https://www.jm-seo.org/2016/08/seo-conferences/. The list organizes conferences with the most effective shows at the top of the list. It should be noted, however, that any conference that made this list is undoubtedly worth attending! The list is updated twice a year.

Books on SEO and Conferences on SEO: Fundamentals and Supplementary Materials

SEO typically generates the highest return on investment (ROI) for small businesses because one does not have to pay for organic results on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. That said, books on SEO are the best first step for someone seeking to learn the basics of SEO. With that basic knowledge in hand, a next good step is to attend one of the twice-yearly SEO conferences. Most are held on the West Coast and then on the East Coast, alternating Spring and Fall. Fortunately, the venues are nearly always fun - cities such as Seattle, San Francisco, or New York, making it a wonderful opportunity to squeeze in some tourism as well as in-depth learning from the SEO cognoscenti. By providing an up-to-date list of the best conferences on SEO, the JM Internet Group is helping small business owners build a quick list of "must attend" conferences concerning this important, and effective, methodology of zero cost Internet marketing. Many conferences offer discount ranks for pre-bookings, and still others offer "digital only" options. So even if one cannot travel to New York City or San Francisco, one can avail of the experts on search engine optimization. (The JM Internet Group also maintains a popular list of the best SEO books at https://www.jm-seo.org/2015/05/best-seo-books/).

About JM Internet Group

The JM Internet Group provides SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Google AdWords training and courses for busy marketers and businesspeople. Online search engine optimization training helps explain keywords, page tags, link building strategies and other techniques needed to climb to the top of search engine rankings for Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The teaching methodology is hands on, with live examples and discussions, taught from the convenience of each student's computer.

Contact: JM Internet Group, Media Relations Web. https://www.jm-seo.org/ Email. jm(dot)internetgroup(at)gmail(dot)com

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The JM Internet Group Announces Comparison Information on SEO ... - PR Web (press release)

When you know what it takes to position your website in the top of Google search results, you have gained a major competitive advantage compared to your competitors, who may blow all their money on pay-per-click or other expensive internet Marketing strategies that can cost them a fortune.

Using intelligent Search Engine Optimization strategies can generate lots of targeted traffic to your website if you know what you are doing. Just look at the small case study below for one of our clients and you can see how SEO still works in real life.

This client is in the language translation and localization industry. The total amount of real inquiries were really low and the conversion rate was very poor. However, initially when we started, the client received around 1,000 visitors/per month on average from organic traffic but their conversion rate was only 0.25% (see screenshot below).

This obviously sent us clear signals that we needed to change their SEO strategy and targeting methods. For example, before we started, their content was too generic with a clear lack of focus and it clearly did not appeal to their target market. They did rank for certain generic keywords, but they were too generic to convert. In addition, certain generic keywords were not intended for their target market but more for users looking for online and machine translation. Google preferred other categories of websites on the search result pages (SERPs) for those queries they tried to rank for. It was no wonder why they had such poor conversion rate. They lacked many on-site issues on all their landing pages, which had to completely be re-done.

We restructured their entire SEO strategy in regards to target and personas of their audience. First the content and in-depth keyword approach was rewamped by using long tail keywords trying to bring in many targeted and long tail keywords in the top of Googles SERP. In addition more focus was placed on ranking money making keywords which are keywords more inclined to convert into real clients. We also helped boosting their domain authority further by using high quality back link building. The combination above along with fixing other on-site issues really helped in boosting the conversion rate, the amount of conversions and organic traffic for this client.

Compared from the period (October 1, 2015-March 31, 2016) to the previous year in the same period:

This client is in the dental industry. Initially when we started the client had little conversions from organic search in Google. Initially the client only received 34 inquiries and 2,181 organic visitors in the period of Jan 1-Jan 31st 2015 and conversion rate was 1.34%. The clients website looked old and disorganized, but also had lots of SEO issues in terms of urls, content, canonical issues, keyword approach. We revamped the clients website completely and restructured the website using better SEO structure and silo, generated more targeted content, better cross linking, wrote laser targeted articles for their target audience, built high quality back links from relevant and high authority websites.

Compared from (Jan 1, 2016-Jan 31, 2016) to the previous year in the same period:

This client is a local client in the Rehab industry. Before Marketing Ignite took on the project in May 2015, the client received very little traffic from organic search in Google. The clients lead conversions from Google (organic traffic sources) were very limited. Initially the client only received 309 organic visitors and 10 inquiries/month (May 1st May 31st, 2015). See screenshot below. Obviously more work needed to get done to boost the amount of organic traffic and conversions.

Marketing Ignite re-structured the SEO strategy, making the clients site more SEO friendly and worked on a number of SEO elements such as doing an in-depth competitive analysis to formulate a winning attack plan for the client with a main focus on boosting domain authority. The urls were vague and not targeted. The overall SEO silo and structure was redone from scratch. Because this client was a local client, more emphasis was built to target high quality and local back links to become more relevant for Google in the local search results. Targeted articles (on-site and off-site) were written and posted in order to gain more momentum in the organic traffic.

Comparing from Mar 1-Mar 31 2016 since start (May 1-May 31st 2015)

Because we dont want to waste your time on theoretical jargon, we will instead teach you intelligent SEO strategies based on 19 years of experience that Marketing Ignite uses to deliver top rankings and traffic in Google. These SEO strategies are the same step-by-step and up-to-date practical approaches that we use for big corporate clients. But because we know that you may not have a corporate budget, you will gain access to this at a fraction of the cost.

Not only will you learn how to gain top placements for competitive keyword phrases, but you will also learn how to convert more with your search engine optimization efforts. Many companies focus only on getting top placements, but if there is no conversion, it is all a waste of time (except for branding purposes).

You can learn online from the comfort of your own home at your own pace. More importantly, its designed so that anyone with basic computer skills can learn in depth of important SEO practices that hold true in todays SEO industry.

The training starts out with the more fundamental search engine optimization concepts to ensure that everyone will properly understand the process from the beginning. It then moves forward to more advanced Search Engine Optimization practices, which are necessary to gain higher placements in Google.

Once you have gone through all the modules, you will be very knowledgeable, understand the process, as well as be able to position your website in the top of Google. The strategies that you learn are White Hat, meaning they abide by the search engine guidelines.

This training course is applicable for webmasters, business owners, affiliate marketers, bloggers, IT students, and basically anyone interested in learning how to gain top placements and traffic from Google.

Johan Hedin, the Managing Director at Marketing Ignite Co. Ltd and his team have spent tens of thousands of hours in research, tests and quality control in order to develop an easy to understand Training Course in SEO that teaches anyone in-depth and the process of getting top placements in Google.

He has a B.B.A and M.B.A in Marketing from the United States and has worked with the biggest affiliate internet Marketing companies on the web such as Commission Junction/ValueClick Inc and other internet marketing companies. He has lived and breathed search engine optimization and internet Marketing since 1998 with a passion for helping businesses succeed online. In 1999 he started his own Internet Marketing Company and quickly learned the process of gaining top rankings in Google. He is also often a speaker at internet marketing conferences and he has been producing and distributing ebooks, memberships and other digital products online for many years.

Johan and his team at Marketing Ignite have positioned thousands of competitive keywords in the top of Googles search results for small, medium and corporate clients and have continuously stayed in the forefront of search engine technology.

If you are a newcomer, this module will help you to explore the world of search engine optimization.

In this module, you can learn how to nail it from the very beginning. This is going to be the blueprint for your success!

Everything starts out from here. Learn a bullet-proof way to impress Google and other search engines.

Content will play a big role in how your website will be indexed and positioned.

Once you have completed all of your on-site optimization, you will need to start looking in other directions, and this module will provide you with all of the necessary tools!

Dont commit these mistakes that can spoil everything. Learning how to avoid these costly errors will help you tremendously!

There will be a large volume of competitors out there, but, with the right guidance of this module you wont have to fear anything!

If you have traffic, you need to know everything about it. Where it comes from, how many minutes they stay, etc. This module covers everything about web analytics!

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Online SEO Training Course | SEO Training Course in Thailand