[THE LATEST] Is your marketing still relevant, 11 marketing objective examples for your next digital strategy meeting, and does backlinking still matter in SEO

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Is your marketing still relevant, 11 marketing objective examples for your next digital strategy meeting, and does backlinking still matter in SEO ...this is THE LATEST! 👀 Extra, extra! Read all about it! This week's must-read: Is your marketing still relevant? Measure what matters: 11 marketing objective examples to guide your next digital strategy meeting SEO building blocks: Does backlinking still matter in SEO? 🎁 Use promo code OMGITSLIZ to get your Website Optimization Summit ticket for ONLY $49! Tickets are currently $59 on the website, so consider this a small gift from me to you. You don't want to miss this one-day virtual event on March 23. By the time it ends, you'll have a clear roadmap of how to immediately start transforming your website into your #1 revenue-driver. Most of the time, the phrase "take my breath away" is associated with happy, swoon-y, romantic sentiments...  OK, it also sparks awkward memories of the nonexistent chemistry between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in Top Gun, if I'm being honest. (When it comes to the danger zone, I'm Team Goose and Meg Ryan, all day every day.) But when I read Marcus Sheridan's first response in his most recent interview, he "took my breath away" in that distinctly negative, "I've been caught red-handed" way I'm sure all of us have experienced at one time or another in our lives: "When I look at 2020, I'm most surprised by the fact that most companies had to get hit over the head with a baseball bat in order to start doing things that they knew inherently they should be doing." I desperately wanted to be the person who read that line and didn't relate to being the positively pig-headed human who has required more than her fair share of cranium-bound baseball bats to get very basic, often mission-critical ideas through her surprisingly thick skull.  What is it about the "devil we know" that is so seductive that we all recklessly abandon reason and choose to voluntarily languish in a purgatory of in-action — regardless of the consequences we know are likely lurking just around the corner? On top of that, although last year forced many (if not all) of us to embrace a veritable waterfall of changes we didn't ask for, what are the false comforts we are still clinging to, as we attempt to regain some sense of stability?  Where do we need to still let go? Where do we need to pick up something new? And what will be the real cost of our willful inaction this time around if we insist on continuing to stand still? 👉 Is your marketing still relevant in 2021? (6-minute read) I'm going to leave it to John Becker's exquisite prose to tell you what this week's must-read is all about: "A little over a year ago, I sat with Marcus Sheridan to take stock of 2019 and look ahead to 2020. Little did either of us know the year we would have. In many ways, 2020 upended life as we knew it, but it also offered clarity and insight into the future of business in a post-pandemic world. Now, with all of this hindsight, Marcus again weighs in on the state of marketing, the future that's coming, and how we can best serve our customers in 2021 and beyond." 📚 Related reads and resources: How does an HVAC company's success with They Ask, You Answer apply to me and my industry? IMPACT+ course: Self-selection and the touchless website buying experience with Chris Duprey (free) IMPACT+ course: Digital sales and marketing framework for today's modern buyer with Marcus Sheridan (free) 👉 11 powerful marketing objective examples to guide your next digital strategy meeting (5-minute read) Whether it's the beginning of a new year or not, data-driven marketers — like yourself — are constantly looking for ways to build a successful digital marketing strategy and metrics to track performance. But what should you be measuring? The answer isn't always the same for every single organization, which can make it tough to decide. Thankfully, IMPACT VP of Services Katie Pritchard is here to save the day with this powerful list is some of the best marketing objectives examples that align digital strategy with the rest of the organization's goals — and actually make an impact on the business.  📚 Related reads and resources: Why revenue is the #1 metric that matters for marketing and sales teams IMPACT+ course: Inbound lead generation and conversion optimization with Carina Duffy (free) IMPACT+ course: Investing in incredible digital sales and marketing results with Chris Duprey (free) 👉 Does backlinking still matter? (2-minute read + infographic) Historically, gathering backlinks to your website was one of the key plays for gaining SEO traction but as people tried to cheat the system with unlawful link practices, Google started to penalize sites and use other methods to confirm content quality. Plus, recognizing the power of backlinks to help with site authority, many websites have also limited their backlinking in fear of losing their own "link juice." So, does backlinking still matter? IMPACT Website Project Manager Melanie Moore and the folks at DIrJournal have the answer to that question in this quick weekend read and infographic.  📚 Related reads and resources: SEO vs SEM: What's the actual difference? What should your SEO audit and analysis include? IMPACT+ course: On-page SEO and the user experience with Kevin Phillips (pro account required, has free preview) 🎓 I've launched a new course for IMPACT+ members!  There's no worse feeling as a content marketer than busting your a*s, only to have sales, leadership, and everyone else in your company questioning the value of what you're creating.  That's why I created this course – The revenue team approach to sales enablement content...  Watch the preview above and then check out the full course! After completing this course, you'll never, ever have anyone question the value of your content again. The revenue you will generate from your content will be undeniable. 📆 Upcoming events you can't miss Website Optimization Summit (March 23) Branding bootcamp with IMPACT and Design Pickle (March 31) 😮 What's the hot IMPACT+ gossip? IMPACT+ not only has the on-demand training you need to be successful, it also has a supportive community ready to help you achieve your goals. And here's what we're talking about right now: What is your advice for a first-time content manager for their first 90 days? What is the average number of page views by your prospects on your website before they become a customer? ❄️ Weeklong nonsense With everything going on in the world, you now get nonsense in every single issue of THE LATEST... As someone who comes from a family of lawyers, I respect her specificity of language. Liz "Hey, Goose, you big stud!" Moorehead Editor-in-Chief @whatlizsaid Manage Preferences | Unsubscribe Sent with 💙 by IMPACT  470 James Street, Suite 10, New Haven, CT