Our readers know they can find a lot of actionable marketing & technology advice in the Growth Spurts blog, since we update the content several times a week. And each month, we offer a roundup of the most popular posts of the month, just in case you’ve missed them. We’ve extracted the most useful information into tips you can use, and in many cases have provided a link to additional information in case you’d like to learn more.

Here, then, are our 5 favorite posts for the month:

In-Person Marketing

• It’s Showtime – Some practical advice on how to use trade shows and conferences as a way to gather useful competitive intelligence, including listening to what those who visit your booth have to say about competitive vendors, and directly visiting those competitive vendors’ booths.
• How to Pick the Best Booth Location at Exhibitions – Not all trade shows and exhibitions offer the opportunity to select your location, but if you are provided that option, take advantage of it, since the location of your booth is the most important way to drive traffic to your booth. Things to look for include: choosing the right section; choosing a large alley; and choosing a booth at the end of an alley or on a corner.

Web Marketing

• 6 Design Trends Taking Over the Web – While it’s always worth paying attention to design trends, always remember that “trend” can often be a synonym for “fad” – unless something significantly improves your customer’s experience, it’s usually best to wait before jumping on every design bandwagon. Continue reading to find out what’s on our watchlist for the months ahead.

SEO

• Internal Linking for SEO: Examples and Best Practices – Internal linking, or linking from one page or blog post to another, is one of the easiest SEO tactics to incorporate into your SOP. Yet it is quite often one of the most overlooked. Whether you write your own blog posts and website pages or work with writers and contributors to generate content, don’t let any piece or page go live until it includes at least one internal link. Read more about the importance of this tactic in this article.

Content Marketing

• Do’s and Don’ts of Top of Funnel Marketing – This article makes some key points about top-of-the-funnel (or “V1”) prospects, including the most important fact about this group: they don’t even know they need your product or service. Therefore, the focus has to be on education. Do you have a different strategy for reaching prospects at different stages in the buying cycle? If not, here’s some information as to why it’s important.

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