James Greig is the founder of online business optimisation software provider Bloomtools. James founded the software development arm of Bloomtools in 2004.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

How to improve website performance

How do you actually judge how well your website is performing?

Is web page loading speed really that important?

And if you don’t have a mobile friendly site, how does that impact your visitor retention?

What are the major changes that James has seen in digital marketing over the past 10 years?

What is the trouble with the web industry as a whole?

What is the the main problem that businesses are facing with website designers at the moment?

What are the biggest challenges that most websites face?

Why web designers need to think like a consumer

Why it's important to design a website that looks similar to other sites

Are content management systems for websites the only way to go?

How important is web page loading speed and what can be done to improve it?

Where should your web server be located?

How you can nominate the country that you want top optimize your website for

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Google AdWords [PPC tool]

Google Analytics [Website analytics tool]

Google for Work [Collaborative software tools]

Crocodoc [Website editing tool]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Remarketing using Facebook Advertising [Advertising tool]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Make sure that your website has all the basics first - check out how your site performs on mobile. Test your website on the Bloomtools Grader.

Kevin Hillstrom is the founder of MineThatData, a consultancy that helps retailers, e-commerce brands, and catalogers to understand how customers interact with products, brands, and channels. So Kevin: year-on-year, are customers continuing to spend more money online?

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

What conversion metrics are essential?

We often hear the mantra "mobile first", but is that true for all customers?

Why do companies often ignore campaign and conversion data?

What are the most important metrics to analyse when it comes to selling online?

Are there any particular industry sectors that are more likely to be able to sell online?

What about age segments - how does online purchasing behaviour change by age?

The shift from desktop to tablet and how that impacts buyer behaviour

How will buyer behaviour change moving forward?

What data are companies not looking at but they should be looking at?

How buyer behaviour has changed over the past 3 or 4 years and why a conversion rate drop isn't necessarily a bad thing

The logical progression between a visit from a non-branded term and various repeat visits

Why an indication of visitor progression is an important metric

Why looking at the half life of metrics is important

How to get your customers to become more loyal

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

SPSS [Data mining]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

A genetic algorithm [An algorithm that mimics natural selection]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

The interaction of marketing channels and customer demographics - you have some older individuals who are going to behave a certain way. This interaction between age and demographics is going to push companies in 2 different directions. It is going to be harder to separate your business from ageing customers if that is your demographic! Learn who your customer is and how they use technology to determine your path moving forward.

Ilise Benun is the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com, a national speaker, the author of 7 books for the “creatively self-employed,” and co-founder and host of the “Creative Business track of HOW Design Live”, an annual design conference.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

What are smart marketing objectives?

How do you ensure that your marketing methods are as smart as possible?

How do you communicate in an era when people seem to respond less and less?

How do you ensure that your marketing methods are as smart as possible?

Can you still be creative in your digital marketing strategies when you’re working as a freelancer?

Why you can be more creative when you are doing your own marketing

How much time is appropriate to be focusing on marketing when you are a freelancer?

Why a blog isn't the first marketing tool you should think of

What are the most important ways of building your 'list'?

Why face-to-face networking is still really important

How to opt-in contacts on a ace-to-face basis

Tips for 1-on-1 emails

How often should you keep in contact with your subscribers?

Can you still email your subscribers if you haven't communicated for months?

How well can relationships be nurtures over email?

The important elements of building a buyer persona

Is it always a good idea to put prices on your website?

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Skype [VOIP software]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Evernote [Organizational software]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Make a commitment to a target market and focus on a few marketing tools first - don't try to do everything, so that what you have is manageable and easy-to-do so that you can do it every day.

Ryan Buchanan is CEO of eROI, a digital marketing agency, which he founded to inspire and be inspired. His philosophy is all about stepping into client's shoes with a business mindset first. You can find Ryan over at eROI.com.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

Email marketing ideas for 2015

Is email marketing still innovating?

Will social ever overtake email as a reliable customer communications medium?

How has the increased use of mobile impacted email marketing?

How Ryan obtained the domain eROI.com

Is collecting email addresses still essential for most businesses now?

Using tools to capture data from both web and social

Whether or not email will always be part of the marketing mix

Why organic reach is so much of a challenge on Facebook

The multiple touch points of a customer order journey

Are companies innovating fast enough to take advantage of mew technology?

What is the 'fluid web'?

What can you learn from your customers?

Working towards a single view of the customer across multiple devices

Why customers abandon shopping carts and what to do about it

What is progressive disclosure or progressive profiling?

Working on increasing the conversion rate while still capturing as much information as possible

How aggressive should a business be when it comes to asking for an email opt-in?

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Google Docs [Group collaboration software]

Asana [Group collaboration software]

Harvest [Time tracking software]

LinkedIn [Business research]

Litmus [Email testing software]

ExactTarget [CRM Software]

Blue Hornet [Email marketing software]

Google Analytics [Website analytics software]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Salesforce [Enterprise CRM tool]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Ask why - always get back to that core goal you want to accomplish - Why am I doing this? Why email Why search? How am I being strategic rather than just jumping right in there and looking for the 'red shiny ball'?

David Whatley is the Founder and Managing Director at MiShop Local, a specialist local search optimisation and citation building service for Brands, National Chains, Franchises and Agencies. You can find him over at mishoplocal.co.uk.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

What is local search engine optimization?

How is local search optimisation different to conventional websearch?

What challenges do companies face with local search optimisation?

What's the difference between local SEO and local listing optimistion?

Is Google good at determining your location if you aren't signed in to your Google account?

Is there still a big local SEO opportunity out there?

Do businesses still have to submit their details to Google, or will Google glean information that is already out there?

What happens if Google has no confidence in relation to the information that is already out there about your business?

Is it still important to get listed in small local directory websites?

Can a business expect to see a reasonable volume of traffic from a local listing on Google?

Can you have a local listing on Google if you don't have a website?

How can a business differentiate itself from its local competitors?

How important is your brand to local optimisation?

Should you ask your customers to write reviews about your business on Google local?

Are there other sites that you should ask your customers to review your business on?

Why getting a surge of reviews isn't great

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Google Drive [Project management tool]

Wrike [Project management tool]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Hubspot [Inbound marketing tool]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Be consistent wherever customers look or find your services. If you have multiple locations, ensure that your name, address and phone numbers are being listed as intended.

David Hickey is Area Director for the online media monitoring company Meltwater; helping businesses drive growth and build brands. You can find them over at Meltwater.com.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

PR strategy examples for 2015

Does traditional PR still work?

What PR strategies no longer work effectively?

How has social media impacted the way that good PRs communicate?

What’s a better PR strategy for 2015?

Are the wrong people interacting on social media?

Is there one social network worth focusing on?

Are traditional media releases still relevant?

Why you reach more people by focusing on the top 5 influencers

How do you encourage brand mentions?

Why you need to look for an emotional response on social media

How do you deal with negative brand mentions?

Is it a good idea to publicly interact with users who aren't happy with your brand?

Why the rise and rise of social media has been disruptive

Can PR professionals still control the company message?

What communication styles are particularly effective at the moment?

Is it best just to focus on the one social network?

Can you sell directly on social media?

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

A great CRM system [Meltwater bespoke tool]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Zendesk [Client servicing software]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Knowing what brand you are trying to build, and what communities you are trying to reach are two  key starting points for PR and social.

Gerald Baron is a specialist in emergency and crisis communications, with deep experience in working with government agencies and Fortune 100 companies.  You can find him over at agincourt.us

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

Crisis communication examples

How has the way that crisis communications are dealt with, evolved over the past couple of years?

How do you deal with social media communication in a crisis?

What communication management technologies assist with crisis management moving into 2015?

Why every business that wants to be big need to interact with their customers online

How to prepare to deal with natural disasters when they happen (from a social media perspective)

Why now is too late when dealing with crisis

Whether or not it is possible to deal with a crisis on social media without knowing all the facts

Crisis management using a combination of Twitter and your own website

Why you must be able to update your website yourself

What software and technologies can assist with crisis management?

How do you deal with engagement in a crisis?

Why text and phone notifications are very important

The use of social media monitoring tools in a crisis

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

A blog [WordPress.org]

Twitter [A blog promotion tool]

Also discussed: Not Without Salt [Popular blog by Gerald's daughter]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Instagram [Image based social network]

Pinterest [Image based social network]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Most organizations don't understand that news has become a conversation. Embrace the change!

Martin Waxman is a social media, content marketing and communications strategist and teaches digital strategy at University of Toronto SCS. He's also the co-founder of three PR agencies and president of Martin Waxman Communications. 

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

What is New PR?

How has content marketing changed over the past few years?

What is the ‘zen’ of content marketing?

Is there a difference between content marketing and new PR?

How do you communicate effectively in a crisis?

The United Breaks Guitars case study

The importance of adopting the publishing mindset

Why "do a news release" is the easy answer

Why your posts have to really engage people on Facebook

Why you need to start thinking of Facebook as a paid channel

Why some PR agencies haven't changed

Why PRs need to become better visual story tellers

Why community management is a fantastic model for PR

You need to do 'scripted improv'

Why bloggers are their own form of media

Why 'beige' companies may not have a future

Why one or two ill-timed tweets can cause a crisis

As discussed - the "United Breaks Guitars" video

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Evernote [Note taking app]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Travel apps [Replacing guide books]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Never be complacent. We've learned in the past 5/8 years how much the world has changed, and how much it continues to change. Think of ourselves as scientists. Test things out and try to see what works then be prepared to adapt. Embrace the next great thing that comes along that helps us achieve our goals.

Ex-advertising Art Director, National Award Winning Cinematographer Paramvir Singh runs DesiCreative out of sheer love for advertising and brands. You can also check him out at Kiss Films.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

Digital marketing in India

How is the digital marketing landscape different in India compared with Europe and the USA?

Why are clients in India still spending so much money on TV marketing youth brands?

How is marketing in India likely to evolve over the next few years?

How India has skipped the laptop revolution right to the mobile revolution

Are most mobile phones based on the Android platform in India?

Is Facebook an important marketing channel in India?

How reliable is the internet in India?

Will advertising shift to mobile soon in India?

Are consumers quite comfortable with purchasing online in India?

Why international brands should do business in India

What kind of phraseology should you be using when speaking to prospective customer in India - are there any cultural differences to be aware of?

The blogging network, IndiBlogger

Do bloggers feel obliged to give your product a positive review in India?

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

The Browser [Safari, Chrome and Firefox] plus browser extensions from software like Future Tweets

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

Klout [Social media authority scoring]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Get other people to say that your brand is desirable! When you beat your own drum, people don't take you so seriously.

Saul Colt is Chief Evangelist at online accounting service Xero – and he’s also one of Canada’s best experiential marketers and can be found at Saul.is.

Today on Digital Marketing Radio we discuss the following:

What is word of mouth marketing and how do you encourage it?

What about stunt marketing? What’s that and how does it work?

Can every business be creative with its marketing?

Why it comes down to knowing your customers

Why shocking is appropriate for some brands

Why you may not have to be on the big 3 social networks

Can all negative PR disasters be 'fixed'?

Why most ads aren't really that important

Can you still make a significant impact with content?

Why you can't be just outrageous - everything must still have a purpose

Why Saul prefers dealing face-to-face with people

What to do if you are bored with Twitter

Can any business be outrageous in their marketing activities?

Why companies should have a face rather than a logo as their avatar

Software I couldn't live without

What software do you currently use in your business that if someone took away from you, it would significantly impact your marketing success?

Trip It [Travel organizer]

Xero [Accounting software]

Google Docs [Document storage and sharing]

What software don't you use, but you've heard good things about, and you've intended to try at some point in the near future?

WhatsApp [Group chat tool]

My number 1 takeaway

What's the single most important step from our discussion that our listeners need to take away and implement in their businesses?

Push the limits. When you are creating experiences and memorable activities for people, know your customers as well as you can. Know where the line of good taste is, and know how to take 2 baby steps over the line. Get people to talk by creating something worth talking about.