Top Marketing Blogs This Week: 5 Pages Your Blog Needs, Colors And Emotion And More

What do you have planned this weekend? A little time off? Catching up on some work? Whatever it is, here are a few noteworthy articles to add to your reading list, so get yourself a cup of coffee (or something a little stronger if it pleases you) and dive in. There’s a little light reading and a little not-so-light reading but all will get you thinking about some aspect of your marketing. Enjoy!

10 Tips For Optimizing Pinterest For Business

Written by Martin Jones 

Starting off with some relatively light reading, this post is a good reminder for those of us using Pinterest that there’s more to it than adding a photo here and there, now and then. And for those not yet using Pinterest, it’s a good starter guide. Martin makes his tips quick and to the point, so you can spend less time reading and more time doing. I’ll share one that stuck out at me: use an editorial calendar. It’s something you may think about for your blog, but have you ever considered using one for Pinterest? Interesting – and useful – idea. Read the rest of Martin’s tips for some action items you can put to work for your business immediately.

Read it

5 Signs Your Marketing Isn’t Integrated

Written by Eric Wittlake 

I’ve featured Eric here before, but hey, a good thing is a good thing. And Eric knows how to write a good thing. Put this in the light-reading but heavy-thinking column. This article touches on something that’s been bugging me a lot recently, and that’s the complete disjoint between marketing channels. There’s no such thing as “Facebook marketing” and “mobile marketing”. It’s all just marketing. Everything we do as a business, on whatever channel, through whatever medium, is all part of our brand and message. We need to be thinking about our marketing more holistically and Eric gives us a few things to start with. Take a look at his points and then give some thought to how you’re treating your own marketing plan.

Read it

4 Pages That You Should Add To Your Blog And Why You Need Them

Written by Daniel Sharkov 

Daniel has been here before, too, but he also hit on something that’s been on my mind lately, and that’s the “other pages” that should be on a blog (like this one!) so it’s well-rounded and gives people the information and direction they need. I’ve been scouring blogs of every type to see what additional pages they have and I’ve outlined some new pages that I want to add here. (If you have any opinions on this, I’d love to hear them!) Daniel’s post makes some great points about pages that would be a good addition to your blog and a rationale for why. Here’s one I’ve been seriously pondering as a great idea: a “new here?” page. Do you have one of those? Do you think it’s a good idea? While you think about that, check out the rest of the pages in this post and see if it gets your gears spinning the way it did mine.

Read it

How Content Length Affects Rankings And Conversions

Written by Neil Patel 

I’ve made it easy on you so far, so it’s time for something a little more intensive. You’ll need some brain power to process this one. It’s a relatively short read but it’s chock full of screen shots, graphs, and stats. Don’t let that scare you though, because Neil summarizes it all with some straightforward conclusions that you can hang your hat on. And you get all this number-y goodness because Neil recently conducted his own study to find out whether content length affects search engines – and readers. And you know how those two are not the same thing! Before you read it, take a moment to consider what the answer might be and why. Then head over and check your assumptions. Let me know if any of it surprises you.

Read it

Communicating Love In Business: Colors & Imagery

Written by Evan Austin 

This is my favorite post of the week because it’s part fun, part brainy and all interesting. You probably already know that colors can affect your mood and emotions, but have you ever considered how using colors in your business can affect how customers feel about your company and brand? Evan gives us some interesting facts about how colors affect us physiologically (even though we may not recognize it) and how we perceive them emotionally. For example, did you know that blue tends to convey – no, not sadness – but trustworthiness? Maybe that’s why we see so much “corporate blue”.  Evan also gives you some ideas for using color on your website. It’s fascinating psychology and it made me want to run out and learn color theory. Check out his post and see how you can use color to elicit the desired emotions from your customers.

Read it

I hope you enjoyed today’s roundup, and remember, if you have a blog that you love and think would make a good addition here, I’d love to know about it!