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As a marketing professional, I love keeping up on the latest and greatest marketing news – and sharing it with you. And as a business owner, I also keep up with new trends in business development, sales, and more. 
Here’s what I read (and listened to) this week, that I think is worth your time. 

Crawl, walk, run and fly: The 4 stages of scaling website analytics (MarketingLand): Most people don't love the idea of digging into their website analytics (or any of the other marketing data at their disposal). As a matter of fact, one reader of my book reached out to tell me “I wanted to stop when I got to the section on metrics – but I'm glad I didn't.) This article from Marketing Land gives you insights into how to efficiently use your metrics to manage your business. I love that it points out that your analytics tools give you too much data. Remember to focus on the data that actually matters for your business.

Five Things Micro-Influencers Want Brands to Understand in 2019 (MarketingProfs, Registration Required): As a small business owner, you're likely either a micro-influencer yourself, or you've considered working with one to promote your products and services. In this article, Ismael El-Quidsi outlines the results of a survey of over 1000 micro-influencers so you know what to expect if you're adding micro-influencers to your 2019 strategy (or if you're striving to become one yourself)! A couple of things that I learned – less than 1/2 of the influencers who responded were looking for monetary compensation. Many also would work for on free products (or services), exclusive event access, or affiliate benefits. Not surprising? Most micro-influencers are primarily on Instagram.

SMB Work-Life Balance (GetResponse): Oh man, as a small business owner (and working with small business owners), I'm always fascinated by how we live. How many hours do we all work? (25% work more than 40 hours… probably not what they thought they were signing up for!) Do any actually check out on the weekends? (9% do – but 91% still work weekends…) If you want to see how you stack up, you can download the full report.

Conversations that Sell (Nancy Bleeke): Have I mentioned how much I love Blinkist? I can read a book (yes, an entire book) while I'm drying my hair. (Or now that I've got Airpods, I can listen to a couple of books while I'm knocking out gym time.) This week from Blinkist I checked out Conversations That Sell. The key message: “No matter how great the product or service you're offering, always focus on how it creates values for your clients.” (Sounds a bit like customer-first marketing, doesn't it?)