Nevertheless, marketers are so enthusiastic about social marketing’s effect on top-of-funnel engagement that they say social is here to stay. It has become a core element of their lead generation efforts. And they have hammered out a number of best practices that are worth sharing and emulating.

via How B2Bs Are Working Social for Leads – eMarketer.

An effective landing page is critical for marketers; it’s where a potential lead clicks and either converts—or doesn’t. So it’s important for marketers to pay close attention to how compelling their landing page really is for visitors.

via How Do Landing Page Objectives Differ for B2Bs vs. B2Cs? – eMarketer.

comScore-Top-10-US-Web-Properties-Jul-v-Jun2013-Aug2013A couple of months ago, comScore’s Media Metrix data showed Yahoo closing the gap with Google as the US’ top web property, a development noted here. Now the latest Media Metrix data is out, and it appears that Yahoo! Sites has overtaken Google! Sites as the top web property, with 196.6 million unique visitors in July for the former, compared to 192.3 million for the latter. It must be noted, though, that these numbers do not take into account mobile-only visitors.

via Is Yahoo’s Digital Audience Now Bigger Than Google’s?.

Jumptap-Age-Distribution-Feature-Phone-Users-Aug2013Smartphone penetration stood at roughly 60% of the US mobile market in Q2, according to recent reports from comScore and Nielsen. That still leaves a sizable 40% chunk of the mobile market that hasn’t yet made the switch. So who is still using a feature phone? The demographics of the feature phone user are broken down in a new study [download page] released by Jumptap. As one might expect, the typical feature phone user tends to be older and come from a lower-income household.

via Who Doesn’t Use a Smartphone?.

SimpleRelevance-Email-Click-Frequency-by-Gender-Aug2013Consumers open emails throughout the day, but only click through those emails at specific preferred times, and those windows are often short, per results [download page] from a SimpleRelevance study. The study suggests that while email opens occur during as many as 23 hours of the day, 62% of consumers have only a single hour per day in which they prefer to click through an email message, a fairly surprising result.

via Many Email Recipients Said to Have a Short Window for Clicking.

Let’s be honest. The majority of content produced by brands through blog posts, enewsletters, social media posts, print magazines and webinars is flat out awful. In many cases, the content is self-serving, not useful and, maybe the worst, pointless. Even when you ask marketers themselves, just one in three believe that the content they develop is effective.

via Why Most Branded Content Is Just Awful | LinkedIn.

Yesmail-Email-CTO-by-Industry-and-Device-in-Q2-Aug201349% of email opens happen on a mobile device, says Yesmail Interactive [download page] in a new study examining more than 5 billion emails it sent during Q2. But while mobile opens become increasingly widespread, interaction levels on mobile devices lag comparable rates on desktops by a considerable margin. In fact, across 11 industries analyzed, the click-to-open (CTO) rate for emails opened on desktops was roughly double the rate for those opened on mobile devices (22.6% vs. 11.1%).

via Average Email Click-to-Open Rate Twice as High on Desktops as on Mobiles.

Brandwatch-Top-Global-Brands-on-Twitter-Aug2013Research has suggested that over-communication by brands on social networks can have negative effects. So how many times should brands tweet without turning off their followers? It seems that global brands are betting on at least 30 tweets per week, according to [download page] a report from Brandwatch. The study selected a sample of 253 top brands around the world such as Dell, NBA, and Facebook, finding that 145 57% tweeted 30 times per week or more during the study period.

via Majority of Top Brands Tweeting At Least 30 Times Per Week.

After Page Authority, a URL’s number of Google +1s is more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage.

via Google +1’s Amazing Correlation with Higher Search Rankings – Moz.

“I love podcasts, so I thought I’d try one,” says Dawson of his recently launched hour-long Shane & Friends. “I wasn’t sure my audience would be up for it, but shockingly, they really love it. It proves the next generation is excited about long-form content.”

via Remember podcasting? It’s back – and booming.