testing with google optimize

Goodbye Unbounce. Hello Google Optimize? Test Ideas To Try Today

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A surprise email hit my inbox today introducing the wider rollout of Google Optimize. If you haven’t been aware of this new product, which will allow for A/B testing, Multivariate testing, and redirect testing that directly sync’s up with your Google Analytics account and is as easy to integrate with your site as the Analytics tag, then you’re missing out. 

While I am just getting started with Google Optimize myself, I’m already a fan of how easy it is to integrate and get started with. That said, here are a few quick ideas for getting started with your own tests on your website today. Read more →

How To Make Your First Direct Mail Campaign Successful

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Marketing, Retail • 0 Comments

In my last post, I discussed a couple new tools to help you work on your first direct mail piece. I have seen surprisingly high returns when done correctly and with the right processes in place. As the infographic below, with independent research by the DMA exhibits, 79% of consumers act on snail mail immediately, and 51% of people prefer direct mail from local shops. When done right, direct mail is your key to profit.

If you are a small, mid-size, or even SaaS company is considering your first direct mail campaign, here are a few fundamentals to make sure you have in place before your big snail mail send goes out: Read more →

Three Tools To Help You Run Your First Direct Mail Campaign

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, infographs, Inspirational Quotes, Journalism, Marketing, Photography, What's Hot • 0 Comments

Direct mail conjures up the ideas of an envelope filled with coupons, perhaps some real estate post cards, and a few credit card offers. You may think that most of those items you put in the trash, however, there is still a reason why so many companies still use, and succeed with direct mail.

It is estimated (see below, with the Data & Marketing Organization, or DMA, as a source), that 70-80% of all mail is opened, regardless of whether it is ‘junk mail.’ Though it can seem more costly, the response rates are approximately 2.7 times higher with direct mail compared to email. Read more →

Three Ways To Improve Your Small Business Marketing On A Budget

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Retail • 0 Comments

There are two things that most businesses have, but usually are in low supply. Time and money. I’m going to outline a few ideas below that will not only take a limited amount of time and money, but also the tools to help you implement them. I can help your business grow through a few simple ideas that you can start planning and actively doing today. Let’s improve your marketing on a budget with these ideas and tools: Read more →

Featured In: “Three Signs Your Business Could Benefit From An Email Newsletter”

by  on  in Advice, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Marketing, Retail, What's Hot • 0 Comments

My marketing expertise was recently tapped for a blog post on the Insureon website about email marketing for small businesses. Insureon, if you are not familiar, is a leading insurance agency for small businesses. In summary, their three key reasons for adding email marketing to your business are: Read more →

How To Travel More In 2017?

by  on  in Advice, Entrepreneurship, Inspirational Quotes, Skiing, Travel, What's Hot • 0 Comments

As 2016 comes to a close, many are looking to 2017 for their New Year’s resolutions, and I want to not only travel more myself, but encourage and help others travel more as well.

I contributed another article to Under30Experiences, a company that specializes in travel for people ages 21-35, and it discusses how to make travel work for you, including a game to help make it happen. There are a lot of excuses about why people can’t travel, either it is too expensive, they don’t know how to plan a trip, or they don’t know where to go. Yet, they often have a sense of wanderlust when they see my travels and say, “Wow, I wish I could go there!” Read more →

What Is It And How To Fix The Vote For Trump Google Analytics Spam Bot

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, infographs, Marketing, Travel, What's Hot • 0 Comments

I thought I was alone, I asked myself, “maybe had someone injected malware into my WordPress,” or I was wondering, “is my WordPress site hacked?” How can I tell? You see, I was looking at my Google Analytics code and noticed the following items on my home screen, then thought, what is wrong with my WordPress site? Read more →

10 Keys To Success That Require Zero Talent

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Inspirational Quotes, Journalism, Marketing, Travel • 0 Comments

As 2016 comes to a close, the holidays are approaching, and New Years Eve is just around the corner. That means the annual resolutions are also being discussed, planned, and written down.

That said, this meme that dropped into a Facebook group recently caught my eye and I think it was worth sharing, because they are often the traits of successful people like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Ted Turner and many others: Read more →

How To Get Over Rejection Through Rejection Therapy

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, Entrepreneurship, Inspirational Quotes, Interviews, Marketing, What's Hot • 0 Comments

The best salespeople understand that rejection is just a part of the game and have grown thick skin. If I went around a co-working space full of startups and accelerators, I think there are very few that would say their favorite thing is to go out and look for customers. It is the ominous fear of rejection.

In a local Austin startup group, I came across a new TedX Talk from a former Austin entrepreneur Jia Jiang that has since moved to Silicon Valley. After stumbling across a website (which has since become his own) called rejectiontherapy.com he took on a challenge to go out and get rejected. On purpose. The original challenge the previous site owner had put out was 30 days, but he decided to go for 100 and created a YouTube channel, where he actually recorded himself being rejected, and sometimes surprisingly not rejected. (That channel is here). While I could continue to summarize the Ted Talk and Jia’s awesome lessons in overcoming objection, he will entertain you much more. Read more →

8 Must-Have Books For Any Startup Founder & Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Inspirational Quotes, Interviews, Journalism, Marketing, Travel, What's Hot • 0 Comments

Having just returned from a beach vacation, I came back refreshed and rejuvenated, but I was not coming back as inspired as previous vacations. The books I read were fun, thoughtful, and definitely not as heavy as previous vacations, but as a big non-fiction guy, I’d rather read and learn something, then be taken away to a fantasy world consisting of character building. That said, I work with startup founders, entrepreneurs, and business owners every day that are at varying stages of their career, or have varying levels of experience. As such, I tend to go back to the same suite of books that set the foundation of my learnings, so I thought I’d share them here ahead of the holidays. For some, you won’t have time to read, for others, it is the time you finally do get to reset and relax a bit before kicking off 2017. Regardless, here is a must-read list of books for startup founders and business owners. I’ve put it in an order of progression that I feel makes the most sense for a growing entrepreneur and welcome your comments about other must read books, because I know this is only the start of an entrepreneur or startup founder’s bookshelf: Read more →

Last Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Marketing, Retail, What's Hot • 0 Comments

The end of the year is near and you’ve either been ready for the holidays and have been planning for this holiday season since the middle of 2015, or you just looked at revenue numbers for November and December and realized you are late to the holiday party. Don’t fret, here are a few quick and dirty marketing opportunities to get out the door quickly and close out your 2016 strong: Read more →

What To Consider Before Hiring A Marketing Consultant?

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Marketing, Retail • 0 Comments

Every new business, whether it is eCommerce, a brick and mortar, or a new startup has an aspect of their launch that includes the “If you build it, they will come” optimism. Whatever you are selling, people will come, but in reality, there are several basics that need to be in place for you to be found first. Everywhere you look, marketers say, don’t worry, we can just drive paid traffic your way. If someone promises a guarantee like this, run the opposite direction (yes, even if they consider themselves the best marketer in Austin or Texas, or wherever). A great marketer will take inventory and ensure the fundamentals are there first. Read more →

Why I Published A Kindle Book & How I Did It: Technology and the Future of Journalism

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Journalism, Marketing, Travel, What's Hot • 0 Comments

In 2006, there were many nights spent in the library combing the internet, and other sources for my senior thesis at the University of Montana. It is now 2016, and somehow, I keep going back to that paper that I wrote, which was titled “Technology and the Future of Journalism.” There was a lot of information that I dug up that pointed to the world of media, technology, and journalism that we encounter today, whether it was the beginning stages of online subscription models for news organizations, the fall of print, or the general abundance of information, I kept seeing technology advance in the same direction I predicted. I just couldn’t keep this to myself anymore, because the more I looked back at this paper, the more I thought about what still was yet to come based on my predictions. Read more →

Micro-Moments Interview in American Marketing Association Article

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, infographs, Interviews, Marketing, What's Hot • 0 Comments

A few months back I wrote a blog post addressing the growing importance of Micro-Moments. (Original post here). As we all know, mobile has become a big focus for marketers and how we can best understand the omni-channel customer journey across their need-to-know moments and capitalize on them. Below is an excerpt of the article, however, you can find the… Read more →

Interview Contribution Published In App Developer Magazine

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Poképreneurs, What's Hot • 0 Comments

I recently contributed an interview with LureDeals founder Britt White. You may have remembered my article in the first hours of the Pokémon Go phenomenon discussing “The Rise of the Poképreneur” and his company being one of the first to monetize. I’ve now started to build a reputation as the person that coined the term Poképreneur, so it was only fitting they wanted me to complete this interview. I caught up with the fellow Austin, TX entrepreneur for an interview I contributed to App Developer Magazine. Below is an excerpt, but the full story can be found by clicking here:

Creator of LureDeals Talks About Capitalizing on Pokémon Go Traffic Read more →

Lessons In Travel: Media Coverage & Safety

by  on  in Advice, Travel • 0 Comments

I lived in Thailand during several military coups. Two or three of those I spent time actually in Bangkok as they happened, while the other I was in Northeast Thailand. Sounds crazy, wild and scary, doesn’t it? A military coup d’etat.

It was funny though, when I was out and about, I wouldn’t see anything happening that would even make me realize there was a coup. I take that back, I ended up going out on Khao San Road with a group of work buddies, and instead of the burning tire images I saw CNN showing, which must have happened for about 5 minutes, I instead saw Thai protesters napping, or Thai Military smiling and taking pictures with tourists in front of tanks. It was far from the warnings and terror being broadcasted around the world. Read more →

Poképreneur Hoodie Featured By Printful

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Interviews, Marketing, Poképreneurs, What's Hot • 0 Comments

As a part of Printful’s Fall fashion trends, they included my high quality hoodie Poképreneur hooded sweatshirt. Head on over to their blog here to check out the other fantastic Fall apparel ideas: http://blog.theprintful.com/how-to-transition-into-fall-apparel-5-new-product-ideas/ If you are not familiar with Printful, they provide excellent support for building and managing your own apparel line. Looking to catch your own hoodie? Click the… Read more →

Travel Destinations For Travelers That Have Done It All

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, Entrepreneurship, Hockey, Inspirational Quotes, Travel • 0 Comments

The world is a vast place and even as you travel to new places, the prior locations remain an ever-changing weave of people, architecture, and visitors. I first visited Burma (Myanmar) in 2006. At that time, it was not yet fully open to tourism, with the exception of well-developed tourist tracks. While I guided a couple trips along those said tracks, I also went on a research expedition for the company I was working for to identify new opportunities for travel. Several days of boats and military surveillance up the Irrawaddy took me to the foothills of the Himalaya in the Kachin State, but I was far from welcome Read more →

PokéStack Becomes Newest Addition To The Pokéconomy

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Poképreneurs, Retail, What's Hot • 0 Comments

It was only a matter of time before someone that was a hardcore Pokémon Go player curated a list of top resources for those looking for an edge in the game, or to brush up on their knowledge. Look no further than PokéStack, which was built by Poképreneurs Sandoche Additane and Tsolakidis Paschalis. Here are some examples of items featured: Read more →

Five Tools To Hack Your First Startup Sales

by  on  in Advice, Austin Startups, ecommerce, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Inspirational Quotes, Instagram, Marketing, Retail • 0 Comments

Each day new companies are born and each day, a similar dilemma happens. How do I find my first sales? You’ve built your website, launched it, and thought it would be like the next Facebook, where magically people hear about it and the traffic pours in. Not quite. Of course, there is a friends and family email, announcements on Facebook, Twitter and maybe Instagram, but they’re also not likely your customers. I’ve compiled a few valuable tools, many even free to a point, that will help you hack your first sales as a company efficiently: Read more →