Douglas Karr's Articles on Martech Zone
- E-commerce and Retail
What Is Credit Card Tokenization?
Credit card tokenization is a security feature that replaces a credit card’s sensitive account information, such as the 16-digit primary account number (PAN), with a unique digital identifier called a token. The token is used in place of the PAN to facilitate a payment transaction, and is only valid for a specific transaction or set of transactions. Tokenization is a…
- Content Marketing
Your Content Won’t Convert Without Well-Placed, Obvious Calls-To-Action
As Martech Zone has grown over the years, I’ve been investing much more time in both user experience (UX) as well as monetization. As the site was growing over the years, I wasn’t seeing the monetization growing, either from ads or on referral or affiliate links within the content. It’s a careful balance… do I bug the heck out of…
- Content Marketing
WordPress: How To Disable The New Widgets Administration
Every once in a while there’s a new feature in WordPress that just doesn’t appear to be well thought out. I believe one of these was when WordPress decided to go full-force with its Gutenberg editor and apply it to widget administration as well. I shared this recently in an article on the challenges of using WordPress as your CMS.…
- E-commerce and Retail
AmeriCommerce: A Flexible E-commerce Platform With Native Subscription Box Capabilities
While there are many popular e-commerce platforms, few have the native features that have really gained popularity over the years with consumers. One example of this is the subscription box, where a company brings together a themed box that’s mailed to a subscriber who pays a monthly fee. You’ll find these almost everywhere nowadays and I even subscribe to a…
- Marketing Infographics
Key Metrics You Should Be Focused On With Digital Marketing Campaigns
When I first reviewed this infographic, I was a bit skeptical that there were so many metrics missing… but the author was clear that they were focused on digital marketing campaigns and not an overall strategy. There are other metrics we observe overall, like the number of ranking keywords and average rank, social shares, and share of voice… but a…
- Marketing Infographics
How To CAREfully Choose A Name For Your Business
We’ve assisted in the process of naming quite a few businesses and products over the years for our clients and it’s not as easy as it seems. Out of the box, there are a few strategies you can use to come up with a name for your business, including: Use your own name – This can be a simple and…
- Martech Zone Apps
App: How To Accurately Calculate Your Marketing Campaign Return on Investment (ROI)
Campaign ROI Calculator Campaign Results Direct Campaign Expenses * $ Expenses specifically for campaign. Direct Campaign Revenue * $ Attributable revenue generated by campaign. Indirect Campaign Revenue * $ Additional annual revenue, if any. Platform Expenses Annual Platform Expenses * $ Annual platform licensing and support. Annual Campaigns Sent * Campaigns sent on platform annually. Salary Expenses Annual Salaries *…
- Content Marketing
How To Syndicate External RSS Feeds In Your WordPress Theme or Child Theme
Some folks don’t realize it, but WordPress has integrated the ability to syndicate RSS feeds with some out-of-the-box features. While there are widgets to do this, you may actually want to include the ability to publish other feeds directly into your WordPress template. WordPress supports both Magpie and SimplePie RSS Caching within its available function, fetch_feed: fetch_feed – retrieve an…
- Mobile Marketing, Messaging, and Apps
What Is SMS Marketing? Terms, Definitions, Statistics… And The Future
Did you know that the first text message ever sent was Merry Christmas? That’s right… twenty years ago, Neil Papworth sent the message to Richard Jarvis at Vodafone. Text messages were initially limited to 160 characters because that was the maximum length of a message that could be transmitted over the network using the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM)…
- Paid and Organic Search Marketing
The Features Every Content Management System (CMS) Or E-commerce Platform Must Have For Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
I met with a client who has been struggling with their search engine rankings. As I reviewed their Content Management System (CMS), I looked for some basic best practices that I could not find. Before I provide a checklist to verify with your CMS provider, I should first state that there is absolutely NO reason for a company NOT to…
