Here’s a look at some of the things we’ve been reading, watching, and discussing in the Olive studio this week:
Ikea’s Awesome New Kids Toys Look Like They Were Designed By Kids (Because They Were)
Marketers and designers are great at coming up with new ideas. It’s what we do, right? But an often overlooked first step is checking in with your audience to find out what they’re looking for. Ikea toy designers did just this by turning children’s drawings into real-life toys. Sometimes the answers are right there if you know who to ask!
— Jessie Reagen
How to Optimize Your Content Repository to Align Sales and Marketing
During my time embedded within an internal marketing department, I grew increasingly frustrated with the sales team insisting they didn’t have enough tools to work with while piles of blogs, white papers and sell sheets collected dust. These tips from Marketing Profs addresses this particular pain point and offers up a few ways to mitigate it.
— Eliza Green (@ElizaAnneGreen)
45 Experts Share Their Best SEO Ranking Boosting Techniques
While there are no ways to guarantee your site ranks high on search engines, there are certainly tactics you can implement to move it up in the ranks. This huge list of expert SEO best practices recommends guest posting, keyword selection and placement, quality content, audience targeting, and more. This is a long one, so grab a steaming cup of coffee, find a comfy couch, and dive in to this quality article.
— Katie Yohn (@KatieLyohn)
How to Win a Competitive Pitch in 7 Steps
Working in business development, I’m always looking for ways to improve close rates and get an extra advantage, especially when we’re up against other agencies on any given pitch. This article provides some useful tips and reminders of how to get an edge when you’re up against multiple bids.
— Ben Oberg (@benoberg)
The Emoji Diversity Problem Goes Way Beyond Race
From flags to food, the lack of culture-based emoji is vast. If/when emoji finally covers all of their bases, will we even be able to find what we’re looking for?
— Leah Gauquie
