The retail store is no longer the one-stop shop it was in the past. Consumers have no shortage of options when it comes to shopping, and it's not just brick-and-mortar stores versus online: Smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers all offer their own advantages when it comes to shopping.

Consequently, few consumers stick to just one channel for conducting their shopping business, even when considering a single product. In fact, a Marketing Land survey shows that 90 percent of shoppers actually use smartphones for shopping in stores. This behavior has cultivated a consumer buying process that is hard to track and even tougher to predict — but marketers are finding tech solutions that enable effective tracking from one channel to the next, and even provide options for leveraging this multichannel utility as an asset.

To succeed in 2016, brands can't ignore the ever-shifting presence of consumer activities. Instead, it's critical to anticipate this sort of behavior and build a marketing strategy that accommodates this new approach.

Traditional advertising placed brand recognition at a premium. Digital marketing has expanded the possible goals of ads in today's commercial landscape, building direct channels for conversions and offering a myriad of other benefits that can be used to build a case for ROI.

But the value of brand awareness itself is just as important as ever — it's why a company like Apple doesn't even have to put its name on its billboards to effectively advertise a product. Consumers see the ad content and understand where it's coming from. Not every company can have such influential awareness at their disposal, but any brand can use consumer recognition as a measure of their success within a specific market.

The first step is testing that brand awareness, and there are several effective ways to figure that out.

The vastness of the internet means it's a competitive place to work, especially when you're trying to win over new visitors. Battles to increase website traffic are often hard-won, and the work of attracting a larger audience is never-ending — but that doesn't mean you have to set your sights months down the road to see results. There are some steps you can take to increase website traffic right away. Even if you're already drawing a respectable audience, consider how these strategies might elevate your website's performance and increase your sales opportunities.

As companies invest more money and resources into their online presence, websites are under more pressure than ever to generate leads that keep the business prominent. Having a website is an important first step, but it's not enough anymore — you have to make sure that site is optimized to accomplish your goals.

For a lead-generating website, there are a number of pitfalls that can ding optimization and inhibit the online property from realizing its potential. Here are four of the biggest problems that can hinder websites in their lead-generation efforts.

There are certain marketing words that have the power to improve response and increase conversion rates, but there's a catch. For these words to be effective, you need to use them in the right place at the right time. Take, for instance, what the team at Zillow discovered about home sales: Listings that include the word "captivating" sell 6.5 percent above what's expected — but you wouldn't use that word to describe a fixer-upper in need of a total remodel. The same applies with all the words listed here — don't use them if you can't back them up. Here's a list of seven powerful marketing words and phrases to keep in your arsenal.

In the increasingly social world, your company has brand ambassadors whether you've actively recruited them or not. A happy experience with your brand can equal a tweet, Facebook post or Instagram snap, which can help you drive more business without investing a dime.

If you're cultivating a brand ambassador program, don't forget to include one of the best pools of potential advocates: your workforce!

We're back with another episode of "Ask the Experts." Today we sat down to discuss using digital marketing to target the right audience at the right time and place, with scale and efficiency. We also make sense of terms like 'programmatic', 'real time bidding', and more, describing what they are and what they mean for businesses like yours.  

In a Search Engine Journal interview, marketing expert Peter Shankman notes that neglecting the customer's point of view is a mistake, insisting, "It's ridiculously important to let the customer drive your business." If you don't know your customer perspective in 2016, you're missing a big opportunity for organic growth in your business. In today's business world, getting to know your audience can be sophisticated and high-tech, or downright old-fashioned. The good news for SMBs? This is your distinct advantage over the big guys — it's almost impossible for a large company to establish the same kind of personal connection with customers or make rapid adjustments to their marketing strategy.

Recent research shows that consumers are significantly more likely trust and engage with advertising that appears on local media sites than national media sites, making local media advertising one of the most relevant and effective advertising tools available today. 

So we sat down with one of our digital experts in our latest episode of "Ask the Experts" to better understand why consumers trust local media advertising and how advertisers can capitalize on it.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the cornerstones of content marketing. Even if you create pages and pages of text, your campaign will stall at the starting line if you aren't following key SEO principles.

It might seem like a good idea to search the Internet for advice on how to get started with SEO, but this isn't always the best plan, as there are many SEO misconceptions masquerading as facts. Here are some of the most common SEO fallacies that you should avoid.

1. Search Terms Have to Be Short

Novice marketers often assume there are more searches for generic, short-tail key phrases like "Cleveland plumbing" or "back pain" than for long-tail keyword like "clogged toilet problem Cleveland price" or "sharp pain in lower back." However, long-tail keywords are more specific in their requirements and, therefore, can help marketers craft more targeted and relevant content. Forbes reports that although long-tail keywords get less search traffic, they make up for this shortcoming with dramatically less competition, which makes it easier for you to rank higher in search engines.