SparkToro Blog

Posts by Rand Fishkin:

Marketing Psychology

The “Wall Street Journal” Marketing Problem

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
If you’ve worked in the marketing field long enough, either with consulting clients or as an in-house practitioner with executive participation, you’ve encountered a scenario just like this one. Marketer: “Based on this market research, we know our primary audience: tabletop board game enthusiasts with kids. So, we’ve designed a content marketing campaign, followed by PR and social media outreach,…
Data Hiring Marketing

Survey: 734 Marketing Professionals Share How They’re Hiring in the 2020 Recession

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
If you’re a marketing student about to graduate, a job-seeker considering the field of marketing, or someone who’s looking to advance in their marketing career, this report is for you. Marketing is an immense, growing, and well-paid field, and is one of the few where credentials and alma mater mean far less than quality of work and level of knowledge.…
Data Marketing

The Dirty Secret to Ranking #1 in Google (Part 3 of 3)

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Years ago, one might reasonably separate the elements of Google’s results into distinct entities: Google News, Books, Videos, Images, Local… But today it’s near-impossible. The list of elements Google might show for a given query are so vast and varied that at the macro-level there’s really only three kinds of search results that matter: 1) Google-owned properties and answers (where…
Marketing Product SparkToro

22 Minutes on Audience Intelligence: Slides, Video, & Q+A

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Last week, I was honored to join Jeff Sauer’s superb Data Driven U for a class on audience intelligence. And, thankfully, kindly, Jeff gave me permission to share our class and the subsequent Q+A on this blog. I think it’s invaluable, but frustratingly difficult to understand the answers to questions like: What can I learn about my audience and customers…
Marketing

Why Marketing Flywheels Work

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
The first few years of my career were awful. Drowning in debt, losing nine out of ten pitches for new business, failing to earn clients. It felt like nothing I did moved the needle until I started my blog and slowly, very slowly… things changed. Gradually, more and more people visited my website (seomoz.org, which became moz.com). The content sucked,…
Marketing Psychology

Want Your Content to Succeed? Make it Resonate with the Right Audience (no, not that one).

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
You know the stats. 75% of content gets no links. 91% of content earns no Google traffic. 85%+ of content earns fewer than ten social shares. And we’re not even talking about all web content — just those pieces creators produced specifically to earn shares, links, rankings, and traffic. Tragically, much like the US economy, content marketing is a winner-take-all…
Marketing Product SparkToro

How to Use Your First Ten SparkToro Searches

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Before SparkToro existed, the process of researching a brand’s audience was a frustrating one. I know, because I helped a lot of friends, especially those pursuing early stage ideas or launching new products. It took forever — usually months, sometimes 6+. The data was always self-reported (which meant it was often wrong). And scale was simply unobtainable. We could survey…

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