Most Recent articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Every Blue Ocean Will Eventually Turn Red; Create an Unfair Advantage Insteadby Dr. Dan Herman
  The vast red and blue oceans of the marketing world tsunamied into our awareness and vocabulary a few years ago, when two professors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, claimed that competition can be rendered irrelevant. Their book, Blue Ocean Strategy, heralded the news to marketing managers and CEOs all over the world: After years and years of surviving in red bloody oceans, swarming with murderous competitors, finally there's a better alternative! Let us consider an example of a company that supposedly followed the Blue Ocean strategy. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Has Your Telephone Become Your Sales Prevention System?by Todd Miechiels
  Is your company guilty of throwing dollars at campaigns to increase Web traffic, only to turn around and squander sales opportunities due to poor telephone and email handling? Make sure that your telephone system isn't preventing prospects from reaching out and touching someone at your company. As soon as you finish reading this article, pick up the phone and call your company's sales lines and test the process for yourself. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Six Keys to Writing a Great Case Studyby Doug Stern
  "Case study" is really just another way to say "storytelling." The best ones recognize that we all connect on a primal level with anything that begins with "Once upon a time" and ends with "and they lived happily ever after." So how do you write a case study that shows you care, makes your clients feel good, and (indirectly) demonstrates your credentials? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Popping the Top on Your Brand's Potential With Social Media: Q&A With Gary Vaynerchukby Mack Collier
  There's probably no better case study on how a business leverages social media to connect with customers and grow itself than Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library. Here, Gary shares the reasons your company should pay attention to social media, and what impact these tools will have in the years to come. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Direct-to-Consumer PR Reflects Power of Do-It-Yourselfby Gail Martin
  With the rise of search engines, Wi-Fi, and a Do-It-Yourself mindset, today's consumers are more empowered than ever before. They not only believe that they're entitled to information but also have unprecedented access to information on a global scale. An increasing number of consumers turn first to the Internet when they want to make a purchase—even if the product will be bought offline. That's why any PR strategy focused solely on media gatekeepers is missing a large piece of the market. While there's still value in sending your message via traditional media, more and more prospective customers are doing their own research online, bypassing newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV completely. Here are five tips for creating successful direct-to-consumer PR. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Managing Marketing Performance: The Role of Data, Analytics and Metricsby Laura Patterson
  Performance management has been applied to various parts of a business for quite a long time, particularly when it comes to manufacturing, logistics, and product development. Applying the concept to marketing is finally coming of age. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• What Do Your Marketing Communications Reveal About You?by Becky Carroll
  Every touch from every department is marketing. Each customer interaction, whether via phone, email, direct mail, or Web, leaves an impression about your brand. Are your marketing communications self-serving, or are they serving customer needs? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Tough Times Increase Pressure to Meet the Marketing Effectiveness Imperativeby Jay Milliken and Chiaki Nishino
  Businesses today are hunkering down. With consumers clutching their wallets more tightly, companies are scrutinizing every budget item in an effort to maintain profitability even as revenues are flat and costs rise. And with marketing commonly viewed as a discretionary spend, it is one of the likeliest victims of the ax. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• The Luxury Catch-22by Martin Lindstrom
  In the luxury brand business, stretching brands too thinly across market segments may gain short-term revenue increases, but it also almost guarantees long-term loss to the shareholders, brand owners, and, well, consumers. So, set your limits for how much you really want to stretch your brand before you open your doors to the public. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Email Marketing and Social Media, Part 1: Adding Social Media to the Email Newsletterby Anna Billstrom
  Email is not dying in the midst of the social-media revolution. In fact, the question we should be asking is: How can email marketers best leverage the new social-marketing applications? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Top 5 Legitimate SEO Techniques That Will Help Your Business Get Foundby Mike Volpe
  It is essential that you make it easy for customers to find you, and one of the most effective ways to do so is search engine optimization, which focuses on getting your Web site listed in the unpaid, organic search engine results. How do you actually get your Web site ranked high in search engines? The answer is quite simple, but getting there can be a bit more difficult. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Clearing the Air About Word-of-Mouthby Deborah Eastman
  Michael Antman's recent article, "Six Reasons Word-of-Mouth Doesn't Work," struck a chord. He raises reasonable points about the limitations of WOM; after all, it can't completely replace other forms of marketing communications. However, we can't ignore the impact of WOM. What's more, here's what companies should be doing to leverage it. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Email ROI, or Kicking Our Baby Out of the Nestby Stephanie Miller
  Email continues to be a highly effective channel. But for too many marketers, email revenue per subscriber is not growing, and more and more subscribers are simply ignoring the messages. How can we continue to grow our email programs? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• The Latest SEO Trends and Metrics: What's Hot, What's Notby Stephan Spencer
  It takes time and experience to stay on the cutting edge of SEO, and more than likely you don't have that kind of time, considering your other marketing efforts. So here's a quick update on what's hot and what's not in the world of search engine optimization. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Soothing the Savaged Consumer Soul: 11 Ways to Show Love When Times Are Toughby Jeanne Bliss
  If you are in the business of serving customers, right now is the time to seek out the intangible opportunities to soothe the savaged consumer soul. Here are 11 ideas that will bring you dividends by soothing the frayed nerves during these times of spending woes. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• How to Generate Marketing Leads Efficiently and Increase Marketing Returnsby Zephrin Lasker
  Marketers are under pressure to generate returns. Cost-per-lead lead-generation advertising allows online marketers to pay only for leads—not for clicks and impressions that might never convert. Here are four steps to generate leads and increase your returns. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• A Six-Step Web-Branding Blueprint for the Experience Economyby Jerry Bader
  Change is inevitable: As an economy matures, ages, and ultimately evolves into something new, adjustments must be made to our business development, marketing, and branding. Failure to adapt to new realities results in potentially unwanted and dramatic consequences. We are all aware of how modern economies have developed from those based on agriculture, to those based on industry, and then on information. But where do we stand now? Is the information economy dead? If so, what's replaced it? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• The Power of Search Within a Complex Sales Cycleby Roxanne Lott
  Now that we know that 85% of B2B customers use the Internet at some point during the buying process, why is it that so many business executives still contend that online marketing "doesn't work" for businesses with enterprise solutions or complex sales cycles? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Case Study: The Attraction Advantage—How Mexican Mangos Ripened Sales 13% in Four Monthsby Jenny Schade
  It's a marketer's dream. Customers are so passionate about your product they actually crave it. In fact, outside of the US, your product is the number-one consumed fruit. However, here's where the dream hits reality. You're in the US, where two-thirds of US consumers have never tasted a mango. You've been hired to generate sales during the Mexican mango season—which is only four months long. One thing is crystal clear: You have to get it right the first time. Or mangos will be out of season and you'll be out of a job. That's the situation that our firm, Lewis & Neale Public Relations and JRS Consulting, faced when EMEX, an association of Mexican mango producers and shippers, retained it to conduct a four-month campaign (limited to Mexican mango season) to increase fresh mango visibility and consumption in the US. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent
• Email Hygiene: Six Ways to Polish Your Listby Eric Groves
  You already know the importance of a permission-based email list. You even practice list segmentation to improve the relevance of the emails you send to your customers and prospects. But how much time do you devote to cleaning your email list? If your email hygiene is lax, you're greatly limiting the success of your campaigns. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Most Recent

Most Recent: See all 2261 marketing articles

Most Recent case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned

• How a Technology Company Leveraged March Madness Live Streaming to Increase Visibility for Its Own ProducteTelemetry
• How a Technology Firm Used Social Media to Build Awareness for Its Web-based Monitoring ProductRadian6
• How a Young Company's History-Making Soccer-Jersey Sponsorship Increased Sales, Brand Recognition and MoreXanGo, LLC
• How a Small Internet Publisher Doubled Its Email Database & Reduced Marketing Spend With Cost-per-LeadTripmela, Inc.
• How a CEO Uses Twitter to Convey the 'Sole' of His CompanyZappos
• How Weekly Reader Boosted Renewals by Altering Its Direct Marketing Package and CollateralWeekly Reader
• How Sherwin-Williams Used Digital Collateral for a Newly Launched Product to Engage Retailers and ConsumersSherwin-Williams Company, Krylon division
• How an Email Marketing Solution Startup Signed up 300 Customers in 7 DaysMad Mimi
• How a Video Podcast Series Garnered a Top Industry Award and 68,500 views in 12 MonthsTellabs
• How One Whitepaper Generated 500 Leads and Significant PR for a B2B ManufacturerJER Envirotech
• A Niche E-tailer Sizes Up Glamour... One Customer at a Time, Boosting Sales with a Personalized Web Site ExperienceSydney's Closet
• How a Bed & Breakfast Inn Boosted Its Bookings with One Video AdMorning Glory Inn
• How a Consumer Electronics Company Leveraged the Power of Community to Uncover Market Preferences and Build Excitement for a New Product LineEastman Kodak Company
• How a University Embraced Social Media and Scored Millions in YouTube ViewsCarnegie Mellon University
• How a Web-based Company Increased Leads 90%—and Sales 23%—via PPC-Visitor Profiling, Landing Page PersonalizationCompany: Continental Warranty
• How MyFax Upped Customer Engagement, Achieved a 79% NetPromoter ScoreMyFax
• How a Finance Director Left Her Day Job and Launched an 'Engaging Brand' Online via a Podcast and BlogThe Engaging Brand
• How a Small-Business Consultant Leveraged a High-Profile TV Commercial to Generate New Traffic and Win New BusinessLocalZing
• How an Online Software Biz Doubled Its Sales Leads, Increased Site Traffic 75%Makana Solutions
• How a Retail Company Increased Web Sales Order Value 60% via Automated PersonalizationPersonal Creations

Most Recent: See all 82 case studies

Most Recent online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• Actionable Web Analytics: Unleash the Marketing Power of Your Web DataAttendee rating:  - Aug 28, 2008
• Proven Ways to Create Engaging Online Customer ExperiencesAttendee rating:  - Aug 21, 2008
• Getting Through and Staying Clean: Improving Your Email Sender ReputationAttendee rating:  - Aug 15, 2008
• Getting Through and Staying Clean: Better Email DeliverabilityAttendee rating:  - Aug 14, 2008
• Prove It: Tools and Techniques to Measure the Effectiveness of Social Media CampaignsAttendee rating:  - Jul 24, 2008
• Seven Secrets to Inspiring PresentationsAttendee rating:  - Jul 17, 2008
• Beyond Trade Show Metrics: Improving Your Event Marketing ROIAttendee rating:  - Jul 10, 2008
• Using Facebook to Market Your Offering, Enhance Your Brand, and Develop CommunityAttendee rating:  - Jun 26, 2008
• Connecting the Dots: How LinkedIn Can Enhance Your Marketing (and Your Marketing Career)Attendee rating:  - May 29, 2008
• Email Customization: Getting Personal to Deepen Relationships, Generate Additional Sales, and MoreAttendee rating:  - May 22, 2008
• Solving B2B Marketing Dilemmas: A Sneak Peek at the Boston B2B Forum on Driving SalesAttendee rating:  - May 15, 2008
• How to Market Consulting and Professional ServicesAttendee rating:  - May 1, 2008
• Identity Marketing: Using PR to Reach the Minds (and Wallets) of Today's Diverse ConsumersAttendee rating:  - Apr 24, 2008
• Using e-Metrics to Optimize Your All-Around Marketing StrategyAttendee rating:  - Apr 3, 2008
• Advanced Tactics in SEO: Part Art, Part Science Attendee rating:  - Mar 27, 2008
• Social Media for Marketers: A 15-Step Process to Engage with Your Customers OnlineAttendee rating:  - Mar 13, 2008
• Going Global on the Web: Avoid the Pitfalls and Seize the OpportunitiesAttendee rating:  - Feb 28, 2008
• Harnessing a Portfolio of Brands: The Harrah’s StoryAttendee rating:  - Feb 21, 2008
• Telling a Story that Sells: Case Studies with HeartAttendee rating:  - Feb 14, 2008
• Generating Leads With Compelling White PapersAttendee rating:  - Feb 8, 2008

Most Recent: See all 141 seminars

Most Recent mini articles distilling bite-sized advice (from our Get to the Point newsletters)

• Are You a Leader to Follow?Small Business
  In a post at Harvard Business Online, John Baldoni says true leadership has little to do with your position on an org chart. Just because you have an executive title,...
• The Angel in Red Speaks to UsMarketing Inspiration
  According to Drew McLellan, there exist only a few rules for outdoor advertising—for instance, use provocative visuals and less than seven words. But in a blog post, he recalls a...
• When the Big Boss Blogs ...B2B Marketing
  Is this the beginning of the end for the CEO blog as client outreach? A report by Forrester Research seems to think so, according to a recent article by Christine...
• The Revolution Will Be WidgetizedNew Media
  Imagine you've got a great product, and you've opened your first boutique. You're drumming up customers, but getting traffic through the door is tough. Then you think, What if I...
• Can You Do a Split?Email Marketing
  If you don't use A/B-split testing to analyze the results of your email campaigns, you probably aren't getting the full picture. According to a whitepaper from L-Soft, "Results can show...
• Give to ReceiveSmall Business
  "There's still something to be said for a free sample of a product," says Mike Essex, who has made a sport of seeing how many he can receive in return...
• Whoa! You're Scaring Me.Customer Behavior
  Careful how you say that! When introducing a new product whose usage may involve a slight risk, research is showing that a positive message is paramount. Many new products carry...
• You Bored Me at HelloEmail Marketing
  In a post at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee discusses the potentially calamitous effects a bad first sentence can have on your email campaigns. She highlights typical errors with...
• Life Is TweetSmall Business
  "Twitter has become an essential tool for PR, and has relevance for almost every type of business," says Sandra Fathi, president of Affect Strategies. Here are only a few of...
• Have You Considered an ... Open Relationship?Small Business
  Before you sign up for exclusive sponsorships, Rohit Bhargava suggests taking a hard look at what you really get out of the deal. Because if your sponsorship makes it difficult...
• The Big ThreeMarketing Inspiration
  This October, MarketingProfs is hosting the Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona, where a stellar line-up of experts will address the Big Three of online marketing: Email, Search and Social...
• Talk to Me—LessB2B Marketing
  Another Monday. Another newsletter to crank out. You've built a decent subscriber list, and your clients are happy to receive your ramblings. So why aren't you that happy to produce...
• Go with the e-FlowEmail Marketing
  "Email is not dying in the midst of the Social Media revolution," says Anna Billstrom. But your email marketing strategy, she says, must evolve to go with the flow. Take...
• Oh, Behave.New Media
  It's knowing where prospects are—and how they behave—that's paying off for today's New Media marketers. Their advertising dollars are in hot pursuit of a fragmented audience that now receives thousands of channels...
• Make NiceSmall Business
  When General Motors first launched its Saturn division in 1990, the main attraction for many customers wasn't a line-up of fairly mundane economy cars wrapped in unusual polymer body panels....
• I Remember YouCustomer Behavior
  As we mentioned last week, customers like to be woo'ed and won. Here's another way to look at it, with memory and immediacy each playing a part. This bit of...
• Give 'Em What They Paid ForEmail Marketing
  "Transactional messages like membership confirmations and shipping notifications show some of the highest open rates in the inbox," says Aaron Smith at MediaPost's Email Insider blog. "Customers receiving these [are...
• The Small Guys Really Know How to SocializeSmall Business
  If you're a small business, you're aware that Web 2.0 offers entirely new channels for attracting and cultivating customers. And in a post at the Acquiring Minds blog, Robert Lesser...
• We're Short on Euphemism TodayMarketing Inspiration
  We live in an age of euphemism. A used car isn't "used," it's "pre-owned"; we're sold "bathroom tissue," not "toilet paper"; and no marketer in her right mind would dream...
• Olympics of the MindSmall Business
  Colleen Coyne, a former member of the U.S. women's ice hockey team, earned a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Games. And in a post at the HubSpot blog, she...

Most Recent: See all 428 quick reads

Most Recent marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Lead Generation How-To Guide
  Learn how you can generate leads, qualify and track them through the sales cycle!
• Web 2.0 Marketing Guide
  Here's a straight shooting guide to how Web 2.0 can really help you grow your business
• Blog Marketing Guide
  From establishing your company as an expert to providing a forum for testing new products, and much more, blogs can be useful, cheap and effective. Want to give it a go? This 65-page Bible of Blogging will get you started.
• Marketing Strategy Guide
  This Guide explores the three stages of effective marketing, and how you can determine which approaches will give you the greatest bang for your buck.
• B-to-B Marketing in 2008: Trends in Strategies and Spending
  MarketingProfs research provides B2B marketers guidance for making budget and media mix allocations by exploring the issues and emerging trends in 2008.
• Direct Marketing How-To Guide: Your Template for Optimal Media Selection for B2B Marketing
  Find out what's new, what's hot and what's not in B2B marketing trends.
• Email Marketing How-To Guide
  Get the most up-to-date info on email marketing. Step-by-step guides and answers to all those annoying questions about contradicting metrics.
• Inside Secrets for Using Blogs Effectively -- listen to the podcast
  MP3 Recording
• Small Biz How-To Guide: Positioning, Naming & Taglines
  Spot-on positioning leads to names that attract customers and taglines that sing. Get your small business on the track to marketing success.
• Benchmark Report: Marketing ROI (Year 3)
  In this 2007 survey, the third annual on ROI, respondents who use ROI for their marketing efforts expect greater growth and enjoy greater confidence from their senior management than respondents who don't use ROI.
• Small Biz How-To Guide: Market Research
  Need to learn about your customers without the big price tag of market research firms? This guide on do-it-yourself market research will help you get the information you need to position your business without emptying the corporate coffers.
• Small Biz How-To Guide: Avoiding Key Pitfalls
  Let's face it, more small businesses fail than succeed. Make sure yours is one of the winners with this guide to getting your small business off the ground and solidly on the road to success.
• E-Newsletter How-To Guide
  The e-newsletter has become ubiquitous. Almost a dime a dozen. How do you make yours not only stand out in the inbox, but make a positive impact on your bottom line? This guide will show you how.
• Marketing Metrics How-To Guide
  Metrics is the guiding light of your marketing efforts. Without measurements, you're operating in the dark. Make sure you are tracking the right metrics, and get tips on interpreting the data with this comprehensive guide.
• SWOT Analysis How-To Guide
  This comprehensive, step-by-step how-to guide will help you assess the position in the market of your product or firm, by identifying the product's Strengths and Weaknesses, by considering the potential Opportunities the product has in the marketingplace, and by assessing the potential Threats posed by either the competition or the marketplace.
• Online Research How-To Guide
  Set clear objectives and a realistic scope to online research projects. These are just two of the steps that this comprehensive, step-by-step planning guide will help you to accomplish to insure your online research results in the most relevant and useful information possible.
• Lead Generation How-To Guide
  Great product, great sales team, great marketing collateral - now what? People to sell to, of course. Put your lead generation tactics under the microscope with this enlightening how-to guide. Get more and better qualified leads, faster today.
• B2B Direct Marketing How-To Guide
  Direct marketing is one of the fastest changing disciplines within marketing today. What worked 10 years ago, isn't working today. Heck, what worked last week sometimes doesn't even work today, so keep your skills sharp with his How-To guide, focusing on the B2B market.
• Conducting a Marketing Job Search
  Here's your guide to landing that perfect marketing job. Complete with exercises, checklists, and a whole boatload of advice, you can be on your way to a better, more challenging, and more rewarding position.
• Your Career Management Guide
  As marketers, you juggle many projects, priorities, and agendas all at the same time. This life of multitasking sometimes means you forget one of your most important professional projects: managing your career. Although we can't help you find the time to manage your career, this template to managing your career can tell you how. With exercises, checklists and step-by-step guidelines on how to make this lifelong project - your career - your biggest professional success.

Most Recent: See all 46 downloads