What is MarketingProfs?

It's a rich and trusted resource that offers actionable know-how to help you market your products and services both smarter and better. Entrepreneurs, small-business owners and marketers in the world’s largest corporations make up its 357,000 subscribers, making it the largest in its category. Through the MarketingProfs Web site, newsletters, conferences, seminars, forums and so on… we help you navigate your way to market your business and keep you informed of the newest and best tools. Think of us as a beacon of light illuminating the path through the clutter.

What’s with the bird logo?

Did I say beacon of light? I could have also said a bird calling you to the wild. A very smart bird, who understands that businesses are overwhelmed with marketing advice and tactics. Instead, this bird delivers the goods to you in a way that you can apply to your own needs.

The bird is also a reminder that, in this rapidly changing world of marketing communications, it takes many voices worldwide to keep current with trends and tactics. It takes a flock of people, in fact. We collect the best voices in marketing – folks who are practitioners, academics, consultants, authors, bloggers, coaches, students, trainers, and so on – in one place.

Does the bird have a name?

We call him Jay. But he answers to anything.

I get the "Marketing" part of your name. But what are "Profs"?

The site was founded 8 years ago by Allen Weiss, a marketing academic, as a place where both his fellow "prof"-essors and marketing "prof"-essionals could learn from each other. Get it?

We’ve expanded the mission since then. But you know how it is… the name stuck. If I were clever, I might say that the name refers to the "profits" our readers reap, but that would be cheesy.

Who are your contributors, anyway?

They are people we trust as the sharpest minds in marketing. We ask them to write or blog or speak for us because they are (as they say in Boston) "wicked smart" people. What’s more, they are practitioners, academics and consultants who truly understand and love marketing. They come from all walks of life – corporations big and small, small businesses, agencies, whatever – which feeds into our mission to deliver the best thinking across a wide spectrum.

Not just anyone can write for MarketingProfs, by the way. Our editorial team solicits and publishes only the best content, and we reject much more than we accept. The vetting by our team of editors is rigorous, because we know our readers trust us and regard our content highly.

Does the world really need another marketing Web site?

MarketingProfs isn’t just a Web site. We certainly publish a site online (as well as tons of online newsletters). But we also produce live events, virtual seminars, and offer a stage for community interaction. Got a thorny marketing problem? Find answers in our online forum. Want to hang out with other marketers? Check out our group blog.

In other words, we are a one-stop shop for marketing know-how. Isn’t that a relief?

But you charge money for some content. Why should I pony up cash when there are other sites I can read, for free?

You don’t have to. In fact, most of our information is available completely free of charge. But we hope you do become a paid member – in fact, we think $279 (our annual membership fee) is a darn good deal given the quality, breadth and depth of our content, not to mention the results that our faithful readers tell us they reap in their own businesses when they apply what they’ve learned from MarketingProfs. (When we are having a bad day, it feels good to read their testimonials here.)

Very simply, we charge for some content because it costs us to produce it. We could skimp on quality and not charge for it, but that’s not our style.

Believe us, producing content that’s good enough to pay for is not an easy thing. At least, it’s not easy on the Web, where the idea persists that everything should be free, and charging for content is often an unpopular choice. Luckily, lots of people agree with us: Our paid members come from Microsoft, IBM, GE, Cisco, 3com, Amazon, Adobe, and many more large and small businesses.

Why should I visit you when there’s already MarketingSherpa, MarketingVox, and thousands of marketing blogs delivering marketing advice?

Because you are discerning. And so are we. Like you, we read a lot of information around the Web, too. But we think you’ll like the sensibility that our hand-picked contributors bring to the topics they cover. And we hope you’ll trust us to be the lens through which you view this business of marketing.