10 Best Sources for Digital Marketing News & Insider Info
After a long and explosively noisy Fourth of July break—thanks to the neighbors, our dogs are still hiding away in the bathtub—we’re back to the SEM grindstone, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as can be.
Our first series of business upon returning to our desks, however, was to get caught up on all the happenings in the wonderful world of “Digital Marketing.”
A lot can happen in a few days, and as famed philosopher Ferris Bueller once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Let’s jump right into the fray. Here are our favorite resources for industry news, because life moves too fast, yada, yada, yada….
1.) Google’s “The Keyword” Blog
Of course, there’s no better way to get in the know than by listening to what comes out of the horse’s mouth. If you sort through the fluff—the hay, if you’ll indulge me—there’s a great deal of info to be had within Google’s blog.
I tend to sort through Google news and blog topics that interest me and fall in line with our industry, such as “Machine Learning” and “Made by Google,” to name a couple. A real must-subscribe.
2.) Google Ads Blog
Google Ads is another “horse’s mouth” blog we rely on heavily to get our PPC news and updates. Although posts come along sparingly, there’s not a single marketer amongst us who doesn’t lap the new ones up. In fact, this blog is one of the best digital marketing resources we utilize when creating and modifying our clients’ paid search strategies.
We deconstruct the entirety of your customers’ online journey, providing you with a comprehensive breakdown of your wins and lost opportunities.
3.) Moz
Since 2004, Moz has been a leading force in the industry, offering insights, updates, and tips galore. It began as SEOmoz, a blogging site focused on… well, SEO. Then came consulting and a name change (Moz). Then came SEO software and subscription services.
Now? Moz does a lot of work for and with inbound marketing strategies, but it’s their blogs that I’m after. Always transparent—read Rand’s classic post about Moz’s hiccups—and unique, the content they push out hits on every cylinder.
4.) Copyblogger
Breaking news isn’t what Copyblogger is best known for, but if refining your wordsmithing skills is important, you’ll find no better resource than their blog.
Any content marketer worth their weight in syntax should breathe in Copyblogger posts as if they were oxygen. They’re chockfull of valuable insight that may very well lead to a lifesaving “a-ha!” moment.
5.) Search Engine Land
SEO. PPC. SMX. Webinars. Yes, I am just listing links from their site’s navigation bar, but it aids in making my point that Search Engine Land is as close to an end-all, be-all digital marketing resource as it gets. Many of the marketers at Maritz Automotive are avid readers of SEL—we’re on an acronym-name basis now—and head to their front page each morning. It’s basically like a second cup of java, especially when SEL releases their “best of” compilations.
6.) Media Post
Diversity is what Media Post does best, offering up news from all sorts of industries, including auto dealer marketing and online advertising. You’ll have to sort your way through an assortment of articles to find something that caters to your niche or industry, but there’s definitely no shortage of quality content to be gobbled up. Plus, if you’re like me, their posts will bring out your inner journalist.
7.) The SEM Post
While being fashionably late to a party is a thing (arguably), tardiness is never a positive trait to have if you’re delivering the news. The SEM Post doesn’t have to worry about that, however, as it’s frequently the first to arrive on the scene with digital marketing updates and the freshest of fresh stories.
8.) HubSpot
It’s known as the place “where marketers go to grow,” and grow you shall when you subscribe to HubSpot’s marketing blog. Whether you’re a video advertiser, content creator, or automotive paid search expert, HubSpot’s content broaches many related albeit nuanced topics and themes.
One day you’ll discover a few posts about how to produce YouTube vehicle test-drive videos that garner lots of return visits. The next day there will be an infographic on how to write quickly without birthing crappy content. Then, when you least expect it, BAM—a post about SMART goals. And you can bet they’re all interconnected, engaging and relevant to what you do in even the subtlest way.
9.) Small Business Trends
Sometimes branching out of your comfort zone is a good thing, even if it’s just into another comfort zone. Small Business Trends is just that: An alternate comfort zone in which you’ll discover a heckuvalotta info that somehow plays into your niche.
For instance, as a company that works mostly in the automotive SEO industry, we’ve helped many car dealers improve their strategies by simply keeping up with the country’s most recent retail and car-shopping trends. Dig a little, and you’ll no doubt find an eye-opening article that’ll change how you approach a subject, project or technique.
10.) Maritz Automotive Blog
If we added a 10th “Best Source” to this list—oh, hey, we have!—you bet it’d be the Maritz Automotive blog. Having years of experience working for various industries and the results to prove our excellence, we proudly serve up our own digital marketing updates, newsworthy news, and industry tricks that are backed by data and behavioral science. We’re problem solvers, and sometimes talking through those problems in blog form helps us do the solving.
Follow our blog regularly for more insider info, and let’s get a convo going.
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