Can your customers easily navigate your website from any device they have on hand? That includes a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a smart phone. If they have problems navigating your site on any of those devices, you need to upgrade it to a responsive design.

You could say that consumers are becoming needier; give them what they want and they simply want more of it.

Just under a year ago, YouTube Product Manager Zach Lupei announced the introduction of Bumper ads. These six-second videos are ads designed to be more suitable among smartphone and similar small-screen video watchers. The idea is as online videos get shorter, shouldn't advertisements too? But what can you as a business or advertiser do with seconds? The answer is a lot.

Travelers dislike surprises. Before they book a trip, they're inclined to not only scour reviews, but also study pictures of a hotel, local attractions, restaurants and even the cabin of the plane.

You don't see it every day, but it pops up more than it should: the grand re-opening event. Consumers may view this type of event as a way to cash in on extended promotions and discounts. But marketing professionals know a “reopening” is code for a launch that did not go right. A reopening is a second chance to remedy whatever went wrong.

Launching a new business is akin to a balloon launch – the act of releasing something promising into a great unknown with no guarantee it will take flight and soar.

Is your marketing centered on your customer? Before answering, look at what your marketing focuses on the most. That will give you the answer and you may be surprised it is not customer centered. Most marketing today focuses on non-customer approaches: the channel through which the customer is engaged, the product the customer is interested in, or the event that might trigger the customer to buy. None of these approaches make the customer the center of your marketing.

By now, we've all gotten comfortable living the future of marketing: digital interactions, social media, mobile and hyperlocal targeting, and consumer-controlled advertising. Of course, comfort only means it's time for the newest arrival, and this one will be another exciting development for the marketing world.

We all know the internet changed the world in innumerable ways. What was once normal life is ancient history. While everything was certainly turned upside down with the advent of the internet, some industries were more impacted by it than others. The travel industry, for example, saw a dramatic shift from consumers using travel agents to people going online and booking their own reservations.

The snickers about those darn “cord-cutting millennials” have barely quieted down – not to mention the ensuing fears they would hasten the demise not only of cable TV, but satellite and “regular” TV, too.