This week, Skye Learning is spotlighting Brock Allen, a strategic marketing and business development consultant with over twenty years of experience in Vice President of Marketing roles. Skye was thrilled to include Allen’s expert commentary in Mobile Marketing, a course within Skye’s online Certificate in Digital Marketing.

As a consultant, Allen has architected viral campaigns, generated substantial qualified leads, and helped clients drive huge acquisitions. He has also served as a digital marketing expert for Boston Online Marketing. Previously, Allen worked at Blue Sky Technology Partners, QSI, and AWI.

Search engines will reward websites that contain relevant content related to a keyword search by ranking those websites higher in search results. A website will also want to use those targeted keywords in a way that will raise the page's visibility with various search engines.

Are you a digital marketing professional looking to advance your career? The Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP) certification is a premier, industry-recognized credential that reflects your mastery of online marketing concepts and best practices. 

There are three steps for earning your OMCP certification:

Have you ever purchased a product based on the recommendation of a friend, family member, or colleague? It's an accepted principle of marketing that consumers tend to trust and follow personal recommendations—usually from family and friends—more than they trust traditional advertising messages. And, in the digital age, a growing number of consumers are also following advice and recommendations from people they don't know but still trust: influencers.

This week, Skye Learning is excited to spotlight Ronald Couming, an expert in search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing. He’s also a subject matter expert who appears in numerous courses within Skye’s Certificate in Digital Marketing.

Couming is CEO and Founder of RCS Online Solutions, which helps business owners and entrepreneurs find, convert, and retain clients. He also hosts a weekly radio show called Internet Marketing and Business Solutions with Ronald Couming. Learn more at RCS Technology Solutions.

Each year, Google answers more than two trillion search queries — which translates to more than three million searches per minute. This means that for every minute a business is not properly optimized for search engines, it is missing out on thousands of potential visitors and customers. Search engine optimization (SEO), the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through search engines, is a must for small businesses that engage in marketing online.

Here are 5 best practices for maximizing your results using search engine optimization.

The terms search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) are widely used in the marketing industry. Digital marketers define both terms as the marketing of a business online, using both paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs) as well as unpaid methods (SEO). Search engine marketing is a strategy for promoting increased website traffic and visibility. The bulk of SEM is conducted primarily through paid advertising.

For entrepreneurs, a marketing plan is an essential resource, as it outlines the new venture's approach to attracting potential customers and convincing them to buy the products or services. It can also be used to obtain funding from investors.

Entrepreneurs rely on marketing plans to quantify expected marketing goals and results and provide a reference point for the organization; they also offer structure and direction for the marketing effort. In addition, a marketing plan can be employed to communicate marketing strategy and objectives to others in the organization.

This week, Skye Learning is spotlighting CL Tian, a subject matter expert who appears in Skye’s Conversion Rate Optimization and Digital Marketing Strategy courses.

CL Tian is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship who focuses on strategy, technology, and design for early- and growth-stage companies. She is also the founder of PINKOA, a Boston-based digital marketing firm. PINKOA helps its customers achieve their business growth goals and adapt to the latest consumer behavior using the most relevant cross-channel, multi-channel, and touch-point digital marketing strategies.

This week, Skye is following up again with Stephanie St. Martin, Senior Marketing Manager at Archetype Consulting and expert in all things marketing—including social media marketing, content marketing, and search engine optimization.

Below, Stephanie St. Martin explains the evolution of SEO and content marketing: