Content by

Kara Burney

How to Create an Email Newsletter That Actually Drives Leads

Email newsletters can be incredible lead generation tools, but they’re very easy to get wrong. Think about it: How many email newsletters have you subscribed to (or been added to)? How many do you actually read? The truth is that most company newsletters are poorly executed and don’t do much to attract or hold a…

19 Marketing TED Talks Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind

In need of a little motivation? Just sit back and press play. These 19 marketing TED Talks are guaranteed to make you hit the reset button on your marketing strategy. 1. Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man 2. Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce 3. Dan Cobley: What physics taught me about…

The NBA Dominates NFL, MLB, NHL in Online Fans

Baseball is America’s pastime. But on social media, the NBA is the most popular U.S. sports league. NBA teams boast an average of 7.6 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter combined, according to data from the TrackMaven platform. By contrast, NFL teams average 4.6 million followers across all three social networks combined. MLB teams…

Rethinking SEO: How to Write for Search Engines in 2018

It’s hard to keep up with all of the changes to search engine optimization (SEO), and keyword strategies are no exception. But with advances in artificial intelligence (AI), constantly changing search algorithms, and shifting search behaviors, yesterday’s SEO techniques are no longer relevant. If you don’t make some changes, your search engine rankings could take a hit….

How to Build a Content Marketing Team

I am not know for my deft use of sports references. But when it comes to the ethos of team building, Vince Lombardi nails it: “Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” The truth is, you don’t need a…

The 5 Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

As a marketer, how can you step up your game while handling all that’s working its way into your ever-shrinking day? The most successful marketers call upon a mix of simple, tactical tricks and smart strategies to tame the chaos of being a modern-day marketer. #1: Successful marketers really understand their audience Before crafting any…

The Best Time to Post on Twitter? Depends on Your Industry

Imagine if you never wasted another social media post at the wrong time again. This is where the Burrito Principle comes in. No, it’s not a new campaign from Chipotle. The Burrito Principle is an idea put forward by Darian Rodriguez Heyman of Social Media for Nonprofits. Heyman’s thesis is simple: if you want to reach people…

Ecommerce Marketing Tips to Boost Your Revenue This Holiday Season

The holiday shopping season represents just a few months out of the year, but it can be the most critical time frame for a marketer. If ecommerce marketing is your sweet spot, there is no room for error. Your performance across the holiday season has an outsized impact on your company’s bottom line. To help your…

21 Writing Tools That Help Content Marketers Stay Creative

“Why write? Where does writing come from? These are questions to ask yourself. They are like: Where does dust come from? Or: Why is there war?” Lorrie Moore nails the fugue state that the act of writing induces in most humans in her essay “How to Become a Writer.” But for today’s content marketers and content…

The 100 Best Brands According to Marketers

Coca-Cola and Pepsi. McDonald’s and Burger King. Verizon and AT&T. Marketing has its fair share of brands wars. But which brands do marketers admire most? To find out, we identified the 100 best brands, according to marketers. Here’s how: Thousands of marketers use the TrackMaven platform to track and benchmark their companies against leading competitors, influencers, peers,…

New Instagram Research Says When in Doubt, Choose Mayfair

America’s biggest brands are doubling-down on Instagram. But new research from my creative colleagues wondered if something as simple as choosing different Instagram filters could impact the results businesses see on Instagram. It turns out there is one such titillating trend. Here’s the big reveal: Posts that use the Instagram filter Mayfair get more interactions on average….

Are Software Companies in a Social Media Bubble?

Software companies are known for explosive growth. On social media, that stereotype holds true: Fortune 500 software brands blow all other major B2B industries out of the water in online audience growth. Just take a look at the graph below, which plots the average follower growth, average engagement ratio, and median social media audience size…

How to Lead a Marketing Team: Proving ROI, Measuring Success, & More

Today’s marketing teams are in a state of pandemonium from the top down. Don’t believe me? Consider this. Chief marketing officer (CMO) turnover is higher than ever; 62 percent of companies replace their CMOs with someone from outside the company. Even more alarming, the tenure of CMOs working for the biggest brands in the U.S….

Introducing the TrackMaven Barketing Department!

Happy National Dog Day! Maven the Corgi might be the face of TrackMaven, but we have a ruffin’ pawesome team of canines (and their owners) on our team. In honor of #NationalDogDay, we’re head-over-paws excited to introduce you to our Barketing Department. Want to join the pack? Tweet us a picture of your furry friend…

The State of Social Media for Business in 2016

Social media spending is projected to balloon to 21 percent of marketing budgets in the next five years. But what will social media marketing even look like five years from now? If the last six months are any indication, change is the only constant. Here are the big-picture shifts going on in social media marketing right…

How to Build a Webinar Program That Actually Drives Leads

Webinar platforms are quickly becoming an essential part of the martech stack. The reason is simple: webinars drive leads. But as with most marketing programs, the right execution is essential to make a webinar program work. After all, if you’re going to ask someone to take 30 minutes to an hour out of their day,…

How to Motivate Your Team With Competitive Marketing Intelligence (+ Free Template)

There are many ways a business can go belly up. Disruption. Irrelevance. Obsolescence. For marketers, the most pernicious is the so-called Schumpeterian gale of creative destruction: getting out-branded. But this fear can be turned into a tool for success by motivating your team with competitive marketing intelligence. Consider as a cautionary tale the battle of…

What 51 Million Pieces of Content Say About Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Is your business leading or lagging on social in your industry? Without competitive benchmarks, it’s impossible to tell. And if it’s possible to tell what’s working and what isn’t, why commit to a social media marketing strategy in the first place? Our latest research puts an end to that existential crisis. We analyzed the social…

Social Listening vs. Social Media Analytics: What’s the Difference?

Businesses looking to improve their social media marketing have a bevy of tools to choose from — over 186, according to Chief Marketing Technologist. With that many potential solutions to choose from, the paradox of choice is certain to set in. To ease your anxiety I’ll break down two common — and often complementary —…

Instagram Report: How to Post Like the Fortune 500

This post features insights from our new ebook, The Fortune 500 Instagram Report. Download your free copy to learn how America’s biggest brands use Instagram, including the best times to post, trends in hashtag and filter usage, and more. Fortune Magazine’s annual Fortune 500 list ranks the dominant revenue generators in American business. Given the huge…

How The New York Times Grows Its Digital Audience [WEBINAR]

How can newsrooms harness the power of data and analytics without compromising editorial judgement? Ari Isaacman Bevacqua, Growth Strategy Editor at The New York Times, joined #TrackMavenLive to discuss how she works with reporters and editors to increase audience reach and deepen engagement while maintaining Times values. Ari joined me to talk about: How to…

Save 3+ Hours a Week With Recurring Marketing Reports

Marketers spend 3.55 hours a week on data collection and analysis alone. Luckily, TrackMaven is here to remove the time-suck of marketing reporting with our latest product release, which enables marketers to set recurring marketing reports. So what could could you accomplish with three extra hours in your work week? Below, you’ll find three ways…

Reporting Up: How to Prove Your Marketing Success to Stakeholders

With so much data around buyer touch points, your “Marketer’s Intuition” isn’t as persuasive as it once was. To build consensus and executive buy-in, you need the right data on your side. Across the board, however, many marketers lapse into two common reporting pitfalls: activity-based reporting, and “data-in-a-vacuum” reporting. Here are the warning signs to…

Why the New Instagram Business Tools Just Transformed Your Marketing Strategy

The free lunch is officially over on Instagram. Here’s the reason for this proclamation: On May 31, 2016, Instagram announced a new set of business tools designed to help brands “stand out, get insights, and find new customers” on the platform. We’ve been chronicling this impending shift in Instagram’s utility for marketers for months. But…