At Fat Guy Media, we publish original blogs three times a week on all things related to the art of marketing and web design. Since we are always hungry to learn, we also voraciously read business blogs. Every so often, we come across shareworthy posts we can’t keep to ourselves. We hope you enjoy our menu of the best of the best from the last month.
Business Blogs You Need to Read
How People Are Really Using Snapchat: A Glimpse Into Their Growing User Base [Infographic]
This article, which was published on HubSpot’s blog, offers a wealth of statistics about the popular app Snapchat.
In November 2015, Harvard researchers found that 36% of 18–29-year-old Americans have a Snapchat account, up from 28% in 2014. Today, the app has over 100 million daily active users.
The photo and video sharing app is quickly becoming a huge marketing opportunity.
Here is What’s Wrong with Millennial Marketing
In this blog, the American Banker disputes the reasoning behind marketing to millennials, which has become a popular practice today.
Painting millennials with the same brush is foolish. Some are baristas, others are lawyers, some are teachers and others are artists. They don’t have the same profit potential or interest in the same financial products. Looking at them as a group is not helpful. Nor is it cost efficient.
Microsoft and the NFL’s $400 Million Marketing Fumble
On the eve of the Super Bowl, Mashable brought us the story of how marketing went wrong in Microsoft’s partnership with the NFL after their Surface tablets malfunctioned on national television.
Instead of the Surface starring — or, more realistically, simply blending in to the scenery — it had been publicly reduced. A negative impression took shape: Microsoft Surface tablets are off-brand iPads, if you can even tell the difference between them. That’s not a multimillion-dollar marketing message.
Why the Wrong Web Traffic is Ruining Your Landing Page Test
In a recent blog, Marketing Land argues that as marketers we are looking at web traffic all wrong.
Optimizing your traffic comes with an inherent risk — loss of traffic volume. As marketers, we work so hard to get traffic to our landing pages that we sometimes fall into the trap of believing that if we send enough traffic to a page, some of them are bound to convert.
Not necessarily.
Additive and Divisible Content: The Trick That’ll Double Your Content Success
Contently talks about the power of in-depth content that can be chopped into smaller pieces of content that can then be combined into a larger project.
Creating multipurpose content is something the literary world and media industry do all the time. Think of short-story collections that include previously published stories, or year-end roundups like this popular compilation of New York Times stories with the most attention minutes.
Forget Content, Contact is King
The Huffington Post disputes that content is the answer for everything. Without relationship building, the author says content falls flat.
Using your content to broadcast your message to the masses will do little in today’s social world. Building business relationships, in conjunction with your marketing program will get the biggest impact from all of the content you are creating.
How to Know Your Brand’s Content Personality (And Why it Matters)
Search Engine Journal examines the power of not just branding but developing a brand personality.
Nike isn’t a sports apparel manufacturer. Starbucks isn’t a coffee brewer. Apple isn’t a computer maker. There is something far more emotive to who and what these companies are. For each one, their brands touch people at very root levels of their beings. Nike is a maker of dreams and champions. Starbucks is a community. Apple inspires creativity and innovation.
Make no bones about it, people buy products from these companies largely in part of their personalities, not just because of the products themselves.
We’re always on the lookout for new kick-ass business blogs, so please share your suggestions in the comments.
