Website usage in the US has stalled. And with at least 90% of the US adult population already using the internet, growth in website usage is unlikely to come from new users. New data from Adobe – showing a 2% drop in website visits between January 2015 and December 2017 – has the analysts arguing… Read More: The Battle for Website Visits is Increasingly Being Fought on Smartphones – Marketing Charts
Study: 97% of SMBs DIY Marketing, Most Don’t Get It
“According to Brandmuscles’s 2018 State of Local Marketing Report which surveyed over 2,700 “dealers, agents, franchisees and distributors of national and global brands,” 64% said that the actual SMB owner executes all marketing efforts. Another 26% said marketing is a team effort but not anyone’s full-time job and 7% have a dedicated marketing professional on staff. Only 3% said they outsource marketing to an agency or vendor.
Based on this study, roughly 97% of SMBs execute some form of DIY marketing. Two years ago we discussed a survey of 1,000 SMBs that put this DIY figure around 71%. This suggests a significant increase, and the Brandmuscle study went on to say that the percentage of owners that execute all marketing efforts themselves went from 51% in 2017 to 64% this year.
While the data show an increase in DIY marketing in the SMB space, other data points indicate serious flaws with this approach. For example, Brandmuscle shared a stat from another study (not clear which study) that said 60% of SMBs do not know who owns their Google My Business listing. Additionally, the survey found 36% of SMBs aren’t sure if their website is mobile responsive.”
Crossing The Water; Bill Staines
We are crossing the water our whole life through
We are making a passage that is straight and true
Every heart is a vessel, every dream is a light
Shining through the darkness of the blackest night
For there is no shallow water, and naught but love to keep
Us safely from the dangers and the devils of the deep
Yet with every breath within us we search forevermore
To find some peaceful harbor on that far-off shore
For some it is a glory, for some it is a game
For some it is a story filled with emptiness and pain
But as rising winds in chorus, we search for steady ground
There is only that before us there can be no turning ’round
For there is no other journey that will ever be the same
No second chance arising that will call you by your name
When the welling waves wash o’er you, and the stormy winds they drive
Give your heart a song, sing it loud and strong, keep your dreams alive
Google Q&A: Google’s Newest Knowledge Panel Feature That You Might Just Hate or Love
Another good article from Mike Blumenthal via BrightLocal:
The Google Q&A feature presents a brand new minefield for business owners to navigate. Here, local SEO luminary Mike Blumenthal shows you how to use Google Q&A for businesses and explains how to counteract the bad while making the most of the good.
Source: Google Q&A: Google’s Newest Knowledge Panel Feature That You Might Just Hate or Love – BrightLocal
Video Deep Dive: Google Posts Impact Study
Mike Blumenthal shares this:
This is our Deep Dive Into Local from February 7th, 2018. In our Deep Dive series, we take a closer look at one thing in local that caught our attention and deserves a longer discussion.
Go to the source to read the transcript: Video Deep Dive: Google Posts Impact Study
Watch here:
Improve Your Location Marketing Game With Customer Reviews
More data that supports paying attention to those pesky customer reviews:
Recently, industry analyst Brian Solis wrote a column that speaks volumes about the importance of customer reviews in a business’s location marketing strategy. In “Empowered Consumers Are Searching for the Best and Worst Brands Before They Buy,” he noted that:
- According to Google, mobile searches that include “best” have grown by more than 80 percent in the past two years.
- Searches ending with “to avoid” have grown 1.5 times in the same span.
- Searches for “worst” are also on the rise.
- “Is ____ worth it” mobile searches grew by more than 80 percent.
Solis believes the increase in these kinds of searches indicates that consumers trust brands less and trust each other more. In addition, the proliferation of more powerful mobile phones makes mobile consumers better equipped to do in-depth research on the fly in their social networks and the channels they trust.
Go to the source for more: Improve Your Location Marketing Game With Customer Reviews – Adweek
Study: Replying to Customer Reviews Results in Better Ratings
An analysis of tens of thousands of hotel reviews on TripAdvisor. Source: Study: Replying to Customer Reviews Results in Better Ratings
Stephen Hawking has moved up the deadline for when humanity has to find a new home — from 1,000 years to just 100.
Source: Stephen Hawking now says humanity has only about 100 years to escape Earth
If You Knew
If You Knew
What if you knew you’d be the last
to touch someone?
If you were taking tickets, for example,
at the theater, tearing them,
giving back the ragged stubs,
you might take care to touch that palm,
brush your fingertips
along the life line’s crease.
When a man pulls his wheeled suitcase
too slowly through the airport, when
the car in front of me doesn’t signal,
when the clerk at the pharmacy
won’t say Thank you, I don’t remember
they’re going to die.
A friend told me she’d been with her aunt.
They’d just had lunch and the waiter,
a young gay man with plum black eyes,
joked as he served the coffee, kissed
her aunt’s powdered cheek when they left.
Then they walked half a block and her aunt
dropped dead on the sidewalk.
How close does the dragon’s spume
have to come? How wide does the crack
in heaven have to split?
What would people look like
if we could see them as they are,
soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
reckless, pinned against time?
Source: http://www.ellenbass.com/books/the-human-line/if-you-knew/
Bright, shiny objects! 
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