actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

While New York City is drenched in sunlight and warmth, our hearts go out to those in the ever-growing number of storm hit areas including Texas, Florida, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and other areas.

The record-breaking storms bring into sharp focus that we need to heed warning messages going forward. Further we need to have backup plans to protect us as much as possible.

Based on my experience as a marketer, the worst problems I’ve ever had were due to issues beyond my control. Even the best marketing campaign won’t perform when outside forces wreck havoc. One client of mine captured zip codes with their email addresses to be able to suppress mailings to affected areas.

Speaking of outside forces, Equifax’s security breach underscores how connected and dependent we are on the smooth exchange of data including personal information.

To that end, Google has been taking steps to encourage websites owners and blog admins to adopt secure protocols. (Specifically, your URLs start with “https://” and you’ve installed a valid SSL certificate to authenticate your website.)

Starting with the October update of Chrome, If your website is not using secure protocols, a “Not Secure” message will appear in the location bar when your visitor starts entering information in any input field. 

This animated GIF from SSL2Buy illustrates the new behavior:

And, It's not just Google. Mozilla’s FireFox and Apple’s Safari browsers are making similar changes with support from the major Internet organizations.

Because It's a good idea! Moving to a more secure Web is win-win for both you and your audience.

Since these changes affect nearly every website we as marketers create, manage and use, I've asked my webmaster, Larry Aronson, to explain the Benefits of migrating to SSL/https.

1. Domain Authentication – Assures  your visitors that the webpage they asked for is the webpage they got. That no man-in-the-middle bad guy has intercepted your visitor’s request URL and returned a page pretending to be from you.
   
   
2. Data Integrity – SSL encrypts all communication between your website and your visitors. Any attempt to remove, modify or add anything turns it into nonsense. No government or communications company will be able to add, change or remove webpage content sent to people connecting through their networks to you.
   
   
3. User Privacy – It’s not just the newsletter signup forms on your website that need to be encrypted. It’s also login credentials, blog comments, searches and more. Think about how visitors connect through open WiFi and mobile data networks they know nothing about. Yet, they'll still hold you responsible for keeping their input confidential.
   
   
4. Load Speed – A new Web protocol version, HTTP 2.0, is replacing the very old version 1.1. HTTP 2.0 manages multiple connections over SSL more efficiently. Your website’s visitors will experience faster page loads. HTTP 2.0 requires SSL and falls back to the old protocol for websites without an SSL certificate.
   
   
5. Search Ranking – Google regards secured websites as more reliable, more serious in intent than unsecured websites with similar content, especially if the website requests user input. Your secure website will appear in search result pages before insecure websites that would otherwise have the same ranking for a given search term. Not secure pages in SERPs will be labeled as such.

As we’re in the midst of prime marketing conference season, I’m getting ready for MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Boston from October 3^rd through 6^th.  It’s one of my favorite events. It always feels like I’m coming home. I’m speaking about content amplification and distribution.

Later in October, I’m attending Incite Group's Brand Marketing Summit, a marketing event that brings senior marketers from top brands together to discuss the key issues facing marketers for 2018 and beyond.  I’m attending this New York based event for the  opportunity to engage with top-level professionals, presenters and attendees. 

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

P.S. For those of you who plan ahead, now's the time to get your ticket for Social Media Marketing World 2018 this coming March. If it’s too big an investment consider getting a creator’s pass (which includes my session on blogging.) Act now and save! The current promotional sale ends Friday. 

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MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2017

MarketingProfs B2B forum is one of my favorite conferences of the year. Join me in Boston, October 3-5, 2017, for an exciting program and fun events. Register now with my promo code: AMPLIFY1717  to save $100.
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​​​​​​​Social Media Marketing World 2018 is just around the corner (February 28 - March 2, 2018, at the San Diego Convention Center.)

Brought to you by Social Media Examiner, this is the conference for anyone wanting to learn how to make the most of social media and meet the companies and experts in the field.

Join me at this exciting event. Don't delay – the current promotion ends Friday!

• Heidi Cohen participated in Aaron Orendorff’s massive update to his post: How To Network At A Conference. 

  This article is a lesson not only in how to gain recognition at a conference but also how to transform existing content into massive content.

• Heidi Cohen was among the Top 50 Women In Content Marketing. W00t! Hat tip to Lee Odden and his Top Rank Marketing team for compiling this along with Traackr.
  

• Heidi Cohen was tapped to talk about low cost local small business marketing on Aadly blog. It’s worthwhile advice you can use from 9 influencers.
  
  
• Heidi Cohen also participated in a Content Marketing Institute round up post on key content marketing hires. My favorite was Jay Acunzo: Chief Common Sense Officer.