Inbox Placement Rates 2015: Detailed Analysis

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How To Easily Curate Relevant Content

What's the single most important element of good social media engagement? Your content. With good content you can attract an audience with so much more ease. And at the end of the day, you end up with an excellent brand […]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

How To Easily Curate Relevant Content

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The Absolute Best of the WordStream Blog: 2015

It’s been a hell of a year in digital marketing. This year saw some of the most exciting developments in online advertising, social media, and content marketing we’ve ever seen, and not a month passed when we weren’t excited by a breaking news story or a new feature that lets us reach our audiences more effectively.

With New Year’s Eve upon us, we at WordStream wanted to look back at our most popular posts of the year and see how the topics that were trending on our blog reflected wider trends in search and digital marketing in general.

We’ve split this list into two sections: one with the 10 overall most popular posts of the year, and another listing the 12 most popular posts from each month.

So, without further ado, here are the most popular posts from the WordStream blog in 2015. Here’s to an equally productive and prosperous 2016!

#10: 8 Blog Topic Generators for Blog Post Idea Inspiration, Megan Marrs

Ask any experienced content producer what their biggest challenges are, and you’ll likely encounter the same obstacle again and again – coming up with fresh, relevant ideas consistently. It’s a challenge for even the best of us, which is why Megan’s post about blog topic generators was our tenth-most popular post of 2015.

Blog topic generators like the ones highlighted in Megan’s post aren’t just handy tools to help you fill out your editorial calendar, they’re a very real indication that content producers for companies of all sizes and types experience the same difficulties in content marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America report, 42% of B2B content marketers publish content daily, which suggests that actually coming up with content ideas themselves is half the battle – a trend that has continued for several years now.

#9: SEO Basics: Complete Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization, Tom Demers

Of all the disciplines within digital marketing, search engine optimization (or SEO) is perhaps the fastest-moving. Between adjusting strategies to align with changes to search engine algorithms (we’re looking at you, Google) figuring out which optimizations to make (and where), and even figuring out precisely what SEO actually is, there’s a lot to learn, which is why Tom Demers’ comprehensive introductory guide to SEO basics was our ninth-most popular post of 2015.

 

What’s most interesting to me about this post’s popularity is that despite Google’s insistence that merely creating high-quality, relevant content and offering an intuitive online experience for users is enough for a site to rank highly, there’s still an enormous appetite for introductory-level SEO content – perhaps a reflection of the desire to stand out amid increasing competition. Maybe one day Google will make SEO redundant entirely, but until that day, SEO will likely remain a hot topic.

#8: 5 Ridiculously Powerful Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies, Larry Kim

Advertising on Facebook is one of the most powerfully effective ways to reach new audiences. Although Facebook offers almost endless options for ad targeting, this can be a double-edged sword – it’s invaluable to experienced marketers, but more than a little intimidating to newcomers. In our eighth-most popular post of the year, Larry Kim offers you five immediately actionable and amazingly effective Facebook ad targeting strategies for your Facebook ad campaigns.

 

Obviously, Facebook advertising is hot, hot, hot right now. It’s incredibly effective, can be extraordinarily cost-effective, and offers advertisers an impressive variety of ad formats and targeting options. What’s interesting about this post’s popularity is the adoption of Facebook advertising overall. Even two years ago, many businesses were still trying to leverage Facebook’s organic reach (a fight they were destined to lose), but now, Facebook advertising is the standard for paid social – itself a testament to how quickly our industry changes and evolves.

#7: 17 Best Practices for Crazy-Effective Call-to-Action Buttons, Megan Marrs

A strong, irresistible call-to-action button can make or break the conversion rate of even the most beautifully designed, highly optimized landing pages. Despite their apparent simplicity, there’s a lot more to nailing your CTA buttons than meets the eye, which is why Megan’s post on best practices for call-to-action buttons was our seventh-most popular post of 2015.

Larry is fond of saying that small changes yield small gains, but the popularity of this post and others like it prove that conversion rate optimization – big or small – is still one of the fastest-growing areas of digital marketing. From small family-owned businesses to large corporations, digital marketers at companies of all sizes are paying much closer attention to the little details in the hopes of maximizing their conversion rates.

#6: How Much Does Google AdWords Cost?, Dan Shewan

For newcomers to paid search, “How much does Google AdWords cost?” is among the very first questions they ask before tentatively dipping their toes into the PPC waters. With this in mind, I set out to answer this common question in our sixth-most popular post of 2015.

Obviously, this is a perfectly reasonable question to expect from those new to PPC. However, beyond this aspect of paid search, the frequency with which we are asked this question shows that for all its bells and whistles, its power, and its potential effectiveness, paid search still comes down to cold, hard cash for many advertisers. There are a lot of stubbornly common misconceptions about the cost of paid search out there, myths that dissuade businesses that could benefit from PPC from even bothering to explore it as a possibility – mistruths I attempt to debunk in this post.

#5: 14 Marketing Skills to Add to Your Resume in 2015, Megan Marrs

Ask any digital marketer how many skills they use on a daily basis, and the chances are pretty good you’ll be listening to their answer for several minutes. This is because marketers have to wear a great many hats to get the job done (especially at startups), a fact of life in the digital marketing trenches that often results in a wide range of skills. In our fifth-most popular post of 2015, Megan explores 14 marketing skills aspiring and current digital marketers should have strongly considered adding to their resume in 2015.

Aside from making yourself a greater asset to your team and company, diversifying your digital marketing skill set is a solid bet from a stability perspective – especially for recent graduates. Data from LinkedIn and HubSpot indicates that digital marketing jobs remain very much in strong demand, and expanding your skills to make yourself indispensable to prospective employers is definitely a good idea in today’s turbulent economic climate.

#4: 10 Instagram Marketing Tips to Make People <3 Your Brand, Margot da Cunha

Even before Facebook acquired Instagram for a jaw-dropping $1 billion in 2012 (for a two-year-old company), the social photo sharing service was already hip with the cool kids. Today, it’s popular with just about everybody – including advertisers and brands hoping to get in on the action, which is why our fourth-most popular post of 2015 was Margot’s guide to Instagram marketing.

As for why Instagram is so popular with brands hoping to improve their image, the answer is simple. According to data from Mary Meeker’s hugely influential Internet Trends report this year, Instagram is considered the most important social network (not, however, the most widely used – an important distinction) among the highly desirable 18-24 year-old demographic, which has long been the Holy Grail to advertisers of all stripes.

However, it’s not merely the opportunity to reach users in this coveted demographic that makes Instagram so attractive to brands – it’s the fact that these young people are the consumers of tomorrow, which makes brand-building on the photo sharing service even more crucial to many business’ long-term growth strategies.

#3: How to Write an Awesome Blog Post in Five Steps, Dan Shewan

A blinking cursor on a blank page can be an intimidating adversary, even for experienced content marketers. For newcomers to blogging and content production, it can be outright terrifying. That’s why I put together this guide on how to write a blog post in five simple steps, a guide that proved to be our third-most popular post of 2015.

The nitty gritty of actually writing a strong, engaging blog post isn’t particularly timely or topical from a trends perspective, but it is a perennially popular topic. This post, originally published in February, has consistently performed strongly for one simple reason – lots of people want to improve the quality of their content, a goal to which we should all constantly aspire. Looking back on 2015, I’m thrilled that my guide has proven so popular, and hopefully, it’s helped some of you overcome your fear of the blank page and write better blog posts.

#2: Goodbye, Google+: Social Network Broken Into Streams and Photos Products, Larry Kim

The first (and only) hard news story of our top 10 from 2015, Larry’s post on the dissolution of Google+ into separate Streams and Photos products was our second-most popular post of 2015.

 

The Google+ update that shook the digital marketing world…

We were well-positioned to move quickly on this story, which helped us edge ahead of many major publications who were late to break the story. This resulted in the post being picked up by several news outlets, which further propagated the story to even wider audiences. As a result, Larry has used this case study in several of his presentations on how to help content go viral.

#1: 25 Restaurant Marketing Ideas: Tips & Strategies to Win in the Food Business, Megan Marrs

Drumroll please! Here it is, the most popular post from the WordStream blog of 2015 – Megan’s guide to restaurant marketing. We all knew this was a great post when we first saw it, but I honestly don’t think any of us could have predicted just how well this post would do.

I’m fortunate enough to know a few foodies who own their own restaurants (and a microbrewery, which is always awesome), and just from listening to their experiences, I can tell you that restaurant marketing is absolutely brutal. Think about it. Can you imagine an industry vertical more competitive than dining? If so, there probably aren’t many. This is one reason why Megan’s comprehensive guide performed so strongly.

Aaaand now you’re hungry – and so am I.

Another reason for this post’s success could be the fact that food-related businesses – from traditional restaurants and food trucks to artisanal ingredient suppliers and “lifestyle cooking” companies – are insanely popular right now. People’s appetite (pun most definitely intended) for good food is voracious right now, which while good for business, creates its own unique challenges. With greater demand comes greater competition, and subsequently a greater need to stand out from the crowd – exactly what Megan’s post helps restaurateurs accomplish.

And now, the 12 most popular posts from the WordStream blog in 2015 by month!

January: 7 Places to Learn to Code for Free, Larry Kim

Our most popular post from January was this round-up of resources where eager minds can learn to code for free, courtesy of WordStream Founder and CTO, Larry Kim. In this post, you’ll find  the more commonly known names in coding education such as Codecademy, as well as a couple you might not have considered, such as MIT’s Open Courseware platform.

What’s interesting to me isn’t just the sheer number of places where you can learn to code for free online, but rather how popular this post was with our readers – and the public in general. With startups routinely making headlines (and not just for enormous IPOs) and adoption of high-tech devices among an increasingly tech-savvy public, more people than ever want to get in on the action by learning to code.

Software engineering and programming skills are among the most sought-after talents that many employers are looking for, and according to several experts – including Microsoft Founder Bill Gates – children should be taught to code in grade school.

February: Goodbye, AdWords Destination URLs: Everything You Need to Know About Upgraded URLs in AdWords, Larry Kim

It didn’t take long before Google captured the digital marketing world’s attention earlier this year when it announced its Upgraded URLs feature in AdWords. As such, our most popular post from February was Larry’s detailed breakdown about this new feature, and what it meant for advertisers.

 

Aside from making adjustment of tracking parameters easier for advertisers, the introduction of this feature represented the then-latest shift in a continuing trend that we’re still seeing today, namely making AdWords easier to manage for advertisers in general. For the longest time, AdWords was pretty much the only player in the game, but increased competition from Bing Ads and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter forced Google to reassess some of the more frustrating bottlenecks in its system. Of course, 2015 would see some more “exciting” updates to AdWords, but sometimes, the little things make a big difference.

March: Goodbye, Google+: Social Network Broken Into Streams and Photos Products, Larry Kim

Although many of us saw it coming (and had been rather vocal about it), the demise of Google+ as we knew it made headlines across the digital marketing world, including the WordStream blog. We were among the very first blogs to publish the news, and this story went absolutely crazy – to date, it remains one of our most successful posts ever.

 

As with virtually everything to do with Google, the news brought with it a predictable response from both fans and detractors. Google+ loyalists claimed Google was merely improving on an already solid platform, whereas critics of the ailing social network – including Larry – saw this news as the death knell for a struggling service that had never really gotten off the ground.

Regardless of where you stood on the issue, time was the ultimate test for Google+, and in accordance with ancient prophecy, the social network did indeed slip farther and farther into obscurity in 2015, especially compared with Facebook’s meteoric growth. Today, Google+ is still popular with digital marketers and many other niche interest groups, but for the most part, it’s a ghost town – just as Larry said it would become.

April: 26 Crazy Facts You Didn’t Know About Google, Larry Kim

Not content to write the most popular posts from each month in Q1, Larry also took the lead in April with this write-up of an infographic about life at Google, the company’s history, and some of the more offbeat facts about the world’s largest search engine.

Aside from offering conversational tidbits about Google – such as the fact that the company rents a herd of goats to keep the lawns at its Mountain View, California, headquarters trimmed – this post revealed a perennial fact of life in the digital marketing and tech industries, which is pretty much everybody’s enduring fascination with Google. People remain practically obsessed with Google, and according to data from LinkedIn, Google remains the most desirable employer in the world (followed closely by Apple and Facebook), an honor it has enjoyed for several years running.

May: Using Emojis in Ad Text Boosts CTR!, Larry Kim

Continuing his unbroken track record earlier this year, Larry’s post on the effectiveness of using emoji in ad text was our most popular blog post published in May.

If you’ve ever met Larry or read his blog posts (which many of you obviously are, if this round-up is any indication), you’ll know he’s obsessed – sorry, passionate – about optimization. With this in mind, Larry set out to test whether the inclusion of emoji, this generation’s version of emoticons, in ad text would improve click-through rate. To the surprise of many, it turns out it does!

The data in Larry’s post is definitely interesting and actionable (be warned – using emoji in ads is technically against AdWords’ editorial guidelines), but to me, the most interesting aspect of this post is its implications for how people consume digital media, their familiarity with conventions such as emoji, and how advertisers can leverage this in their campaigns. Once upon a time, it would have been inconceivable to include emoticons in PPC ads, but as Larry’s data proves, attitudes are changing (slowly).

Of course, emoji made headlines for entirely different reasons throughout the year, from accusations that developers had been inadvertently racist by failing to include emoji to represent people of color, to news stories about how certain hotels are allowing guests to request room service using messages featuring emoji. Either way, it’s likely that 2015 will be remembered as the year that emoji went truly mainstream.

June: 6 Shocking Things Google Revealed About the Future of AdWords at SMX, Margot da Cunha

For most people, June represents the beginning of summer vacation – long, lazy days lounging on the beach sipping fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them, the smell of irregular-shaped meat patties cooking on charcoal grills, and of the gentle hum of air conditioners (unless you live in Australia or anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere). To marketing geeks, however, June means the start of conference season, and this year was one to remember.

 

Jerry Dischler, left, on stage with Ginny Marvin, center, and Danny Sullivan, at SMX

Our most popular post from June was Margot’s round-up of six shocking things that Google revealed about the future of AdWords at the SMX conference in Seattle (also, way to go for breaking Larry’s streak, Margot). Our friends at Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan and Ginny Marvin, spoke with Google’s VP of Product Management, Jerry Dischler, about the future of the AdWords platform – and Dischler raised more than a few eyebrows with his answers.

Although Dischler’s insights into what advertisers could expect from AdWords undoubtedly stole the show, the fact that Google has spent so much time, money, and effort in developing AdWords demonstrates the speed with which paid search is changing. Introducing new ad formats isn’t just a way for Google to make more money (no, seriously) – it’s a way of adapting online advertising to the expectations and experiences of today’s online consumers. Viewed from this perspective, it’s no wonder Margot’s post was our most popular in June.

July: Average Cost-Per-Click by Country: Where in the World Are the Highest CPCs?, Mark Irvine

Few things get marketers more excited than data, and when it comes to data, WordStream’s Mark Irvine is our very own data whisperer. In part to satiate his curiosity, Mark delved deep into the numbers to determine the average CPC by country for our most popular post in July.

Mark’s post offered up some irresistible facts about CPC from around the world. I won’t tell you which country has the highest average CPC (spoiler: it’s not the United States), but there are some really interesting trends highlighted in Mark’s post, perhaps most interesting of which is the increasing frequency that we’re seeing businesses launch international PPC campaigns to reach new customers.

Mark’s analysis of the data also highlighted wider trends in search, such as the fact that CPCs on Russian search engine Yandex are significantly cheaper than they are on Google (a fact further compounded by Russia’s recent economic difficulties), and that mobile usage was on the rise in many parts of the world, a shift that had its own impact on CPCs across the globe – proof that CPCs are affected by many different factors, not just Quality Score.

August: How to Increase Conversion Rates Without Touching a Landing Page, Larry Kim

Toward the end of the summer, Larry stormed back into the top spot on the WordStream blog in August with this post about how to increase conversion rates without touching a landing page.

 

In this fascinating post, Larry outlines five(!) ways you can increase the conversion rates of your campaigns without ever touching a single landing page. Think it can’t be done? Prepare to be amazed.

It goes without saying that Larry’s page was popular because the tips featured were so actionable. However, it also shows that many digital marketers are moving away from so-called “traditional” means of conversion rate optimization in favor of more unorthodox or emerging strategies. This is likely due to pressures caused by a rapidly changing digital media environment, shifts in how (and where) prospective customers consume media, and a decline in the overall effectiveness of once tried-and-true methods of improving conversions.

I won’t use the phrase, “Think outside the box,” but if nothing else, the popularity of Larry’s post proved that you’ve got to get creative if you want to succeed.

September: The 8 Coolest Ad Targeting Features in Marketing Right Now, Larry Kim

2015 was a great year for digital marketers for many reasons, but one of the most exciting is the sheer breadth of targeting options that marketers have available to them. In our most popular post from September, Larry outlined the eight coolest targeting features that advertisers can take advantage of in their campaigns.

A recurring theme in Larry’s post was that of tailored, custom audiences, particularly those on social media networks. So-called “identity-based” marketing is one of the hottest trends in marketing right now, so it stands to reason that this approach to the creation of highly customized audience segments featured so prominently in Larry’s post. Larry also went even deeper into the topic of identity-based PPC marketing during his incredibly popular session at SEJ Summit in September.

October: New AdWords Customer Match Beats Out Facebook Custom Audience Match Rate, Larry Kim

Hot on the heels of his ad targeting post in September, Larry also took top honors in October with this post comparing the match rates of AdWords’ new Customer Match feature and Facebook’s Custom Audiences.

Admittedly, it was a close call, but Google beat out Facebook in terms of match rate. One thing that is beyond doubt, however, is that both Google and Facebook absolutely crushed Twitter’s custom audience match rate, a fact that may give some advertisers pause when considering how to allocate their advertising budget for 2016. Larry described the introduction of Customer Match as the most exciting PPC news of the past decade, and when you look at this data, it’s easy to see why.

 

Of course, there are wider implications beyond a juicy, data-driven grudge match that few marketing geeks could resist – the most obvious being the further move toward greater ad customization, more granularity in audience targeting, and radical shifts in how advertisers target their audiences. It’s never been more important to start being more granular with your targeting, and as these trends show, it’s only going to become more important in 2016.

November: The Ridiculously Awesome Guide to Facebook Remarketing, Margot da Cunha

Real talk – there is absolutely no hyperbole in Margot’s headline for this post on Facebook remarketing, which is indeed ridiculously awesome and undoubtedly why this was our most popular post from last month by a country mile.

Facebook remarketing is incredibly powerful. For several reasons, however, adoption of this technique remains comparably low, at least from what we’ve observed informally. If you’re wondering about how to use remarketing to recapture “lost” leads from Facebook, Margot’s in-depth guide contains absolutely everything you need to know.

Again, aside from its highly practical applications, Margot’s post reflects wider trends in digital marketing, namely how advertisers are (slowly) adapting to consumer behavior. It’s exquisitely rare for a prospect to complete a desired action in a single sitting (or on a single device), yet many advertisers remain stuck in the past. Think of how many conversions you could lose by failing to remarket – especially on Facebook, where users probably aren’t actively shopping. Madness!

To anyone who has been paying attention, it’s obvious that remarketing, increasingly granular targeting, and audience segmentation are the way forward. If you haven’t already, it’s time to rethink your current strategies.

December: 8 Super Creative, Crazy Effective Display Ad Ideas, Erin Sagin

Last, but by no means least, is Erin’s post from earlier this month on how to apply these super-creative and highly effective ideas to your display ad campaigns. In her post, Erin shows you how to leverage clever, subtle techniques (as well as some more overt tactics) used by major brands to make your display ads more compelling.

 

Image via KISSmetrics

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from Erin’s post isn’t merely how to make your display ads better (though that’s obviously the point), but rather how much of a missed opportunity the Google Display Network is for many advertisers and marketers. Let’s face it, compared to social and search, display often gets a raw deal, as it isn’t perceived as being as “sexy” as paid social or as tangibly effective as paid search. However, for savvy marketers, the GDN represents a wealth of opportunities – if you know how to appeal to today’s audiences and serve them ads that align with their expectations and enrich their online experience.

Find out how you're REALLY doing in AdWords!

Watch the video below on our Free AdWords Grader:

Visit the AdWords Grader.

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Inspirational Feeds for Your 2016 Email Campaigns

Favorite go-to destinations for inspirational content.Related Articles

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How to Effectively Use Remarketing (Infographic)

It seems that each year that passes brings some new forms of advertising that marketers can add as another tool in their arsenal.

These past few years have brought native advertising to the mainstream, which comedian John Oliver analyzed this past August:

Native advertising has taken hold online. Here’s an example from Buzzfeed:

This native advertising happens offline as well. You’ll find it in newspapers, magazines and hear it on the radio (it’s sneaky).

The web has also exploded with the growth of exit intent popups. Hover your mouse near the top of the browser to close or switch a tab and out of nowhere comes a near full page ad asking the visitor for something before they leave – typically an email address. Here’s an example, courtesy of 2xecommerce.com:

In recent years we have also seen the growth of retargeting. This purpose of this is to advertise to people who have previously visited a specific site.

For example, let’s say you visit amazon.com today, place a few items in your cart, and leave. A few days later you’re browsing nytimes.com and see an Amazon advertisement with the products you put in your cart. You can then click the ad and are directed back to Amazon, and complete your purchase.

Sound like a new channel you’d like to test? Neil Patel of Quick Sprout has created an infographic to help you out. Whether you’re just diving into retargeting or have been around the block a few times and want a refresher on some of the principles.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

Resources for Learning More

We’ve covered retargeting in the past, including a couple webinars:

• Converting the 98%: Turning Almost Customers into Actual Customers
• Speed Dating on Advertising

You’ll also find some great content around the web:

• How to Spend Your First $100 on Retargeting Ads
• Putting Retargeting To Work For Your Startup
• 5 Tips for Running a Successful Retargeting Campaign

If you’re going to dabble in retargeting, it’s important to measure the results. You can use Kissmetrics to measure and optimize all your marketing campaigns. I’ve written some articles about how to do this:

• Using Channels in Kissmetrics to Learn Where Your Most Valuable Customers Come From
• How to Track the Effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns
• How to Find out What Marketing Campaigns are the Best for Acquisition, ROI, & Retention

You can also request a personal demo of Kissmetrics to learn more.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is the Blog Manager for Kissmetrics.

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What To Write About When "Everything's Been Written"

Developing great content can be a challenge for any online business. Yet, unless you've been blogging for decades in a static industry, which I'm not sure exists given the technological revolution of the last several years, or manage a blog […]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

What To Write About When "Everything's Been Written"

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Written by Gary Dek, StartABlog123.com

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The 10 Must-Read Email Marketing Posts of 2015

From confirmation emails to connecting with customers, we’ve covered a lot of hot topics on the blog in 2015. So in light of the new year, we’re counting down the best of the best (as determined by your clicks, tweets and shares):

10. Quick Ideas for Emails You Can Send Today

Bookmark this handy email cheat sheet, filled with quick ideas for emails you can send today.

9. How to Write an Autoresponder Email Series

Autoresponder emails have a ton of time-saving and business-growing benefits… and yet 75 percent of businesses aren’t using them. Add a follow up series to your email marketing strategy today and get ahead of the curve.

8. 10 Easy Ways to Grow Your Email List and Revenue

Whether you’ve grown your list to 10, 100 or 1,000 subscribers, it can be hard to reach that next big goal. Here are 10 easy ways to kickstart your email list growth.

7. 5 Time Tracking Tools to Take Back Your Day

Take back your day with these five time-tracking apps that will help boost your productivity, maximize your time and let you do more of the things you love.

6. Twenty Tools to Help You Design Better and Write Smarter

From Canva to Buffer, here’s our comprehensive list of tools to help you design better, write smarter and create engaging content faster.

5. How to Engage Social Followers Using Facebook’s New CTA Button

With Facebook’s new call-to-action feature, it’s easier than ever for your followers to do things like sign up to your email list or start shopping with the click of a button.

4. 6 Ways to Connect with Customers through Email

You’re sending emails in order to make personal connections with people. And if you truly want that kind of relationship with your email audience, it’s essential that you keep these tips in mind before hitting “send” on your next message.

3. How to Reactivate Your Email List in 5 Steps

Considering that the average email marketing list depreciates by 25 percent every year, how can you be sure that the people on your list really want to be there? With a reactivation campaign, of course!

2. Writing Confirmation and Welcome Emails People Love

Whether you have a lot to say and don’t know where to start (or you’re just dealing with the worst writer’s block ever), content is one of the biggest hurdles for first-time email marketers. This blog post will help you get started with the two emails you should create before you begin collecting new subscribers: the confirmation email and welcome email.

1. Holiday GIF Guide

We’ve created more than a dozen GIFs you can use in your holiday promotions (and beyond!), plus tips for using them in your emails!

What’s Next

What do you predict the top 10 trends of 2016 will be? What would you like to see more of on the blog? Let us know in the comments!

The post The 10 Must-Read Email Marketing Posts of 2015 appeared first on Email Marketing Tips.

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The 21 Best PPC Marketing Articles of the Year

Are you sick of year-end lists yet? Too bad! I love looking back at the best and worst of the year (and we have a few more lists in store for you over the next week).

Today I’m sharing my picks for 2015’s best articles on paid search and PPC marketing from around the Web, covering topics including ad copywriting, conversion rate optimization, remarketing, mobile, social ads and more. Let’s get to them!

Ad Creative

1. How to Write the Highest-Performing AdWords Ads, Ever – Unbounce

That’s a tall order, but Johnathan Dane delivers. As he points out, even with a limited character count, we can do some pretty spectacular things when we recognize what users want.

Takeaway:

• When writing ad creative, keep the visitor’s end goal in mind, use tactics like countdown timers and specificity to pique interest, and make it personal as much as possible.

2. The Emotional Science Behind PPC Ads – WordStream

PPC ads can be really boring, but they don’t have to be! So Helen Edwards took it upon herself to dig into hundreds of client accounts to discover the emotional triggers that can increase click-through rates up to 5X across the board.

Takeaway:

• Anger, disgust, affirmation and fear are all emotions you can arouse with your PPC ad copy. But before putting pen to paper, think about the customer persona in addition to the persona you, the advertiser, want to take on.

Landing Pages & CRO

3.  The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You’ll Ever Read – Unbounce

Oli Gardner’s writing never disappoints. With a solid mix of education and entertainment, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry (OK, probably not) and you’ll learn a thing or two about landing page optimization in what’s possibly one of the longest introductions to landing pages out there!

Takeaway:

• Where to begin? Oli shows introductory and advanced techniques to understanding attention ratio, context, imagery, headlines, persuasive design and more.

4. Our 10 Best Landing Page Tips & Tricks Ever - WordStream

Yes, ever! When it comes to the best tips tested and proven to work, Dan Shewan shows how to kill it using tricks that span copy, layout forms, video, devices and beyond.

Takeaway:

• Would you be amazed to find out that No. 1 on the list eliminates the need for landing pages altogether? Well, surprise! Call-only PPC campaigns convert massively well, and businesses should take note.

5. 3 Crazy PPC CRO Hacks To Boost Conversion Rates Right Now – Search Engine Land

Hi, it’s me … here to tell you that conversion rate optimization when it comes to PPC isn’t what you think. In fact, most efforts to optimize your ad copy have absolutely no impact on your conversion rate. But I know what does, and that’s what you’ll learn in this pick for one of the favorites I penned in 2015.

Takeaway:

• Differentiate at all costs (sounds simple but most rarely do), use the ad formats that convert like crazy and always, always explore remarketing as a kick-ass CRO tool.

6. 17 Best Practices for Crazy-Effective Call-To-Action Buttons – WordStream

Designing PPC landing pages can be borderline obsessive-compulsive. But we do it because small changes to the design of your call-to-action button can impact conversions. Megan Marrs shares a huge list of tips for CTA’s of the button kind.

Takeaway:

• From shape to text to color Meg covers it all.

7. How Page Views, Time on Site & Bounce Rate Predict for Changes In Quality Score and Revenue – Search Engine Land

Page views and time on site and bounce rate – oh my! According to some thought-provoking data by Benjamin Vigneron, engagement metrics can be strong predictors for the familiar AdWords scoring system, proving there’s no place like your website to improve your Quality Score.

Takeaway:

• Bounce rate, click-through rate and time spent on site were strong predictors of Quality Score, and a better Quality Score typically means a higher impression share and lower cost per click.

FYI: This is one reason I happen to think Smart Goals are OK for some advertisers.

8. 8 Google AdWords Hacks That’ll Double Your Conversion Rate – NeilPatel.com

When you simply can’t wait for those organic leads to trickle in, you can turn to AdWords to boost traffic. And if you want to learn how to double your conversion rate in AdWords, Neil Patel shares some awesome ways – backed by examples and data – to do just that.

Takeaway:

• More conversions in AdWords means looking at your approach both strategically from a customer journey perspective and tactically, minding the details of a well-managed PPC account.

Day-to-Day Paid Search Management

9. The Secret To AdWords Success, Told By A Former Googler – Search Engine Land

Whenever we can get a closer glimpse into the mind of Google, we’ll take it. This jam-packed article by my friend Frederick Vallaeys reveals the details of what you need to succeed in AdWords. And spoiler alert: Many of the things we deem as best practices are on that list.

Takeaway:

• A successful AdWords account, says Fred, should be driven by the one KPI that matters most to the business, and it should be attainable. Other supporting goals should also be tracked as they offer more data points that make optimization decisions easier.

10. The Essential In-Depth Overview of PPC Bid Management – Search Engine Land

Fred Vallaeys says there are no bad keywords, only bad bids. So what's the cure? No, not more cowbell – it’s this in-depth guide! Learn everything from setting bid management goals to types of bidding strategies, automated bidding and more.

Takeaway:

• If this article teaches us anything it’s that there’s a TON to consider when setting a bidding strategy, and of course, having a strategy is a huge part of a healthy PPC account.

P.S. As you may have noticed, both of the above articles are from Fred Vallaeys, who I think is an AdWords genius. You should definitely follow him on Twitter this year (@siliconvallaeys) if you’re not already!

11. Attention Keyword Hoarders: You Need to Delete 98% of Your AdWords Keywords - Here’s Why – Search Engine Watch

We all know how hoarding begins innocently as a collection of things that we just begin to cherish a little too much along the way. So seriously, it’s time to get out the dumpster and start chucking those junk keywords.

Takeaway:

• You don't need more keywords to improve Quality Score, and you don’t need more to improve conversions, either. It’s OK to expand your keyword sets but for the love of all that is good, make sure you clean up those that aren’t working on a regular basis.

12. 5 Ways to Use the 80/20 Rule for AdWords – Search Engine Journal

The 80/20 rule is used in a lot of different business and life scenarios, as you may have already learned if you’re a fan of Perry Marshall. Here, Rocco Baldassarre shows us some really cool ways to apply the 80/20 rule to AdWords.                          

Takeaway:

• From location targeting, time of day and keywords to products, services and more, you really can apply the 80/20 rule to all sorts of AdWords scenarios to improve its effectiveness.

Advanced PPC Tactics

13. How To Track Your AdWords Competitors Over Time Using Auction Insights – Search Engine Land

Don’t you just love hacks? In this piece, AdWords script genius Daniel Gilbert shares a smart script that helps you pick your top five competitors based on highest impression share, and can show you historical data, too.

Takeaway:

• Um, run the script! Also for more AdWords script mad science, follow Daniel Gilbert (@danielgilbert44) on Twitter!

14. New to Google Shopping? Read These 9 Tips To Own It – PPC Hero

If you’re new to Google Shopping campaigns and just not sure what path to take,  Kirk Williams shows you the way in this sweet overview of the ever-expanding shopping channel. (BTW, shout-out to Google Shopping genius Kirk for all his contributions to the PPC Hero blog, Moz and other places!)

Remarketing and Display

15. 10 Remarketing Facts to Make You Rethink Your Entire PPC Strategy - WordStream

I simply had to set the record straight in 2015 on this whole “remarketing is creepy” thing. In actuality, remarketing is totally spectacular for a whole host of reasons, and that’s what I want you to know.

Takeaway:

• If you’d like to explore more channels (including social), pay less than search ads, build your brand and experience nice conversion rates, remarketing is the way to go!

16. Three Must-Download Remarketing Lists To Use With Your Search Ads – Search Engine Land

Remarketing lists for search ads gave advertisers a whole new super fantastic way to target. In this article, Matt Lawson shares three types of audiences to try, and more to explore with these downloads you can easily import.

Takeaway:

• Get in there and start playing!

Mobile and Local

17. 26 clever ways to get more phone leads with PPC/CRO - Part 1 and Part 2 – Econsultancy

If Drake had his very own PPC campaign, he might not be crying about missing those late-night calls. But business owners and marketers don’t have to follow in his footsteps with these fantastic methods for getting more phone calls with PPC in another one of 2015’s best from Johnathan Dane.

Takeaway:

• People who call are usually more ready to pull the trigger versus people who simply fill in a form. Take note: These are among the most desirable types of leads for small and medium businesses today.

18. Under The Hood: How Google AdWords Measures Store Visits – Search Engine Land

Things got real in 2014 when Google AdWords launched the ability to track in-store visits … but seriously, how does it work? Googler Matt Lawson takes us under the hood in this fascinating article.

Takeaway:

• Google Maps knows things about buildings – even their shapes – and  when layered with Wi-Fi, cell tower and GPS signals, the data gets even more specific. Whoa.

19. Mobile Marketing 101: The Efficient Formula for Unleashing Your Full Potential – Search Engine Journal

News flash: Your target audience uses smartphones. So don’t put your mobile ad campaigns on hold any longer. This jam-packed article by Andrew Lolk gives an excellent starter guide for answering the demand of the mobile user.

Takeaway:

• Simple principles apply for mobile ads, like short, call-focused copy and landing pages with not necessarily less content, but better organized content for mobile.

Social Advertising

20. Everything PPC Advertisers Want To Know About LinkedIn Ads – Part 1 and Part 2 – Marketing Land

As much as I think that LinkedIn is the red-headed stepchild in the social advertising world, it’s interesting to learn about what it canoffer, and Sahil Jain gives a thorough summary of missed opportunities you may not know about in this two-part series.

Takeaway:

• With all the features and strategies being employed by advertisers right now in LinkedIn, it’s worth a second glance if it makes sense for your brand.

21. The Top 10 Paid Social Media Hacks of All Time – WordStream

If you’ve been following me on the conference circuit this year, you know I’ve been obsessed with hacking social media. So let me show you the best hacks I’ve learned along the way in this article inspired from a webinar I co-hosted with Matt Umbro earlier this year. 

Takeaway:

• The best tricks to increase your quality scores in Facebook and Twitter, the very best targeting features and much more.

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