10 Things You’ve Got to Know Now: The Top 10 Digital Marketing and E-commerce Posts in May

It’s that time again Big Thinkers: Time to round-up your favorite, most important posts from the last month and see what matters most to you and your fellow readers. What do you say we skip the big buildup and jump right in:

1. Leading the charge this month is this Travel Tuesday post, “How to Take Charge of Your Travel Marketing.” Given how popular you all found it, I suspect you’ll really get a charge out of reading it. (OK, I promise. I’ll stop with “charge” jokes now).
2. Apple hired Burburry’s former CEO Angela Ahrendts as their new head of retail last month. “What You Can Learn from Apple’s New Retail Honcho,” the #2 post on this month’s list, looks at her past and how that can help shape your future.
3. Speaking of the future, the next entry on this list of your favorites comes from Thinks Out Loud, our weekly marketing and e-commerce podcast. Episode 74, “The Future of E-commerce and Mary Meeker’s 2014 Trends,” explores, well, pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Definitely worth your time.
4. Another Travel Tuesday post — and another set of best practices from an industry leader — makes the list at #4. This time it’s “What Expedia’s Leaders Can Teach You About Digital Strategy” that aims to do just that.
5. Most businesses rely on their physical location for some share of their business. Which likely explains the popularity of our next entry, “What in the World is Happening with Local Search?”
6. There’s no doubt that you really enjoy posts about the future, too. Our #6 post on the list, “Your Customer, Tomorrow,”reviews the work of a number of futurists and explores several key trends that will shape customer behavior in the coming years.
7. Sometimes avoiding errors is just as important as chasing success. Helping you do that is the point of the next item from this month, a Travel Tuesday post called “Do You Make This Digital Marketing Mistake?”
8. Most businesses use search, social, or a combination of the two to drive traffic and revenue. Unfortunately, each has a hidden pitfall that can hurt your long-term success. “Why Search and Social Aren’t What They Claim to Be?” looks into exactly what that pitfall is — and how you can avoid it.
9. Not much more to say about your next most favorite post. “How to Improve Your Email Marketing in Just 5 Minutes” aims to do just that.
10. Finally, “How Brands are Moving Towards Direct-to-Consumer Commerce” looks at how companies increasingly augment existing channel partners by connecting directly with end consumers and how you can do the same. Definitely worth the read.

And, you might want to check out last month’s round-up, “10 More Things You Need to Know: The Top 10 Digital Marketing and E-commerce Posts in April,” too. It actually fell into the top 10 itself this past month, but since I reserve the main spots for original content, it was “disqualified” from the main list. Still, from a content marketing perspective, its popularity offers an interesting case study in content re-use. So check it out if you have a moment.

Interested in learning even more about the future of e-commerce and marketing via the social, local, mobile web? Register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You may also want to review the tips in my recent presentation Digital Marketing Directions: Three Trends Shaping 2014 Hospitality Internet Marketing:

Finally, if you’re interested in learning even more about the future of e-commerce and marketing via the social, local, mobile web, register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

You might also enjoy some of our past coverage of the social, local, mobile web and what it means for your business, including:

• What Your Customers Expect from Mobile and E-commerce in 2014.
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 2014
• Should Marketers Really Trust Google in 2014?
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• Your 2014 Internet Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Thinks Out Loud Episode 56