Customer Relationships articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Retail Survival Tips in a New Economic and Customer Environmentby Adam Boyden
  Retailers did everything possible to attract buyers over the holidays. From educational sessions to discounts and coupons, and special offers, retailers used their ingenuity and marketing smarts to make the best of a dismal season. Nonetheless, numbers were down and every indicator pointed toward an even gloomier 2009. Perhaps the very profile of the retail environment has shifted as consumers settle in for what may be a protracted economic change. Here are some smart, manageable tips on how to survive through the second half of the 2009 buying season and keep your business on track. more
• Why You Are Unpopular Online: Six Ways to Doom Your Community-Building Effortsby Mack Collier
  Companies are increasingly looking to create vibrant and healthy online communities for their businesses. But many companies are seeing their efforts fail or produce flat results. Here are six reasons why many online communities never materialize, and what you can do to improve your own efforts to build online communities. more
• Think and Act Like a Nonprofit to Deepen Connections and Build Relationshipsby Roger Sametz
  For decades, the prevailing wisdom was that nonprofits should learn from for-profit enterprises how to become "more businesslike." Many nonprofits thus embraced best practices in branding, marketing, service delivery, money management, and leadership. They have also learned how to keep different business models running simultaneously. To be successful in all these endeavors has required nonprofits to develop approaches and skills—particularly in communication and branding—that (surprise!) for-profits can now learn from. more
• Should You Launch a Brand Community?by Nancy Strauss
  On company Web sites everywhere, community sections are popping up—both a cause and an effect of a climate in which more and more marketing directors and brand managers are being asked by their companies, "Why don't we do something 2.0?" Although an online community can bring innumerable benefits to a brand, launching one is a project that should be considered carefully, to ensure that your efforts will have the desired results. more
• Case Story: Boosting Email-Subscriber Satisfactionby Stephanie Miller
  Sometimes doing a little more for your email subscribers can make a huge difference. Tafford Uniforms of North Wales, Pa., faced a challenge to engage email subscribers because of two common but seemingly incongruent realities. more
• Five Tips for Small B2B Companies That Depend on Big Channel Partnersby Robbie Kellman Baxter
  It's a challenge faced by hundreds of small companies: how to get the CXO of a Fortune 1000 company to consider its product. One effective strategy that helped get companies such as Citrix and VMware off the ground is to align closely with a major partner. Building a strong channel, even with just one or two partners, can be much more effective and easier to leverage than trying to develop your own sales team and customer relationships. The following five tips can help B2B companies maintain strong channel partnerships. more
• Three Essential Market-Research Methods in an Online Communityby John Kembel
  How much do you know about your customers right now, at this moment? A lot of companies can show you composite profiles that describe their target customers, including job titles, needs, obligations, and goals. No doubt about it: It's important to know those things. But relying solely on such information to connect with customers is like trying to strike up a conversation with a cardboard cutout. It just isn't enough. more
• Ten Essentials of Software-as-a-Service Solution Marketingby Peter A. Cohen
  Here are 10 essentials of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution marketing. more
• Achieving Relevance in Direct Digital Marketing: An Introductionby Bryce Marshall
  There are five keys to making a relevance-centered approach a reality in your direct digital marketing programs(such as email, websites, mobile, and so on). more
• Why Gen Y Is Passing You Byby Kimberly Smith
  What works in enticing a new generation of buyers? Here's why some of your efforts to reach this demographic might be going amiss. more
• Data-Driven Campaigns: Five Ways to Leverage the Customer Data You Have to Drive Conversions and Salesby Morgan Witt
  As marketers, we are all looking to reach "nirvana": targeting the right person with the right message at the right time. It's the clear path to driving conversion rates that exceed expectations. The days of blasting promotion messages to all are dead and gone. The conversation has changed. We must put ourselves in customers' shoes and target them individually as best we can through data-driven strategies. more
• Why All the Talk About Dog Food?by Aaron Strout
  Have you ever heard the expression "eat your own dog food"? It's a concept that essentially means that one is "walking the talk," or leading by example. Many companies have talked about being "customer-focused," but how many really are? Unfortunately, just saying you're committed to doing something is dramatically different from actually doing it. There is no place where this idea is truer than in the world of social media and online communities. more
• Three Ways to Personalize Your Email Marketing: Remember Who You're Talking toby Karen Talavera
  Sometimes we get so caught up in the procedural logistics of email marketing that we forget we're communicating with real people. We think in terms of lists, databases, target audiences, and segments. With email, as with conventional channels, it's important to remember that there are real people on the other end of our messages. When we press the send button, we're not just delivering messages to in-boxes, we're communicating with individuals. Here are three tips to help you personalize and "conversationalize" your email and, in so doing, remind yourself (or retrain your brain, if necessary) that there's a living, breathing person receiving those digital marketing messages you send. more
• 25 Ways to Build Trust (and Sales!) with Customer Success Storiesby Casey Hibbard
  Capturing the experiences of your most successful customers not only boosts your credibility but also educates buyers and shows them the payoff of your solutions. Here are 25 ways to use customer success stories in your sales and marketing to increase buyers' trust. more
• Reading Your Buyers' Digital Body Language: A How-To Guideby Steve Woods
  Today's buyer is in control. This transition means that our sales teams are no longer required as a conduit of information. Industry websites, vendor sites, blogs, social media, and search all make the required information readily available and, by doing so, leave the sales representative out of the room. As a result, it's impossible for the sales rep to read a buyer's physical body language to understand what aspects of a message are of interest and determine whether the prospect wants to move forward. Marketing teams must therefore instead read a buyer's digital body language—his or her Web activities, email responses, search activities, and engagements in events and demos—to understand what messages are working. more
• Online Reputation Management: A View From the Topby Leslie Gaines-Ross
  The first few months of 2009 have already been tumultuous for reputations. So what can be done? Below, some of the findings of that online-reputation study as they relate to seven realities of managing online reputation in today's world—and some solutions to strengthen your reputation in the months ahead. more
• Suiting Up for Customer Loyalty: Email That Fitsby Stephanie Miller
  For every email marketer who has ever heard an executive say, "Email generates revenue, just send more email," this one is for you. Most email marketers care about their subscribers and want to provide a good experience. But sometimes, business demands make it hard to advocate for long-term subscriber value. Men's Wearhouse offers a great solution to this dilemma. more
• Customer Feedback to Improve Email Performance: Ingredients for Success from Betty Crockerby Stephanie Miller
  Marketers talk about asking for feedback all the time. Yet, few marketers take the time to really engage with subscribers on any level. That's why BettyCrocker.com stands out. more
• How to Become 'Their Brand': Engaging Today's Fickle Customersby Manila Austin
  Marketers today understand that consumers think, feel, and react in ways different from June Cleaver some 50 years ago. We use descriptors like fickle, indecisive, and disloyal to describe the modern consumer. Just what do these terms mean? Mainly, they mean that consumers have too many choices—multiple brands, brand extensions, and sub-brands—and too much stimulation, especially online, making it nearly impossible to predict their next move. And yet, marketers continue to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on segmentation analysis and other research, hoping to understand and predict the behavior of these fickle consumers. It's as though they're still chasing June Cleaver when neither her modern counterparts nor today's consumerism as a whole bear any resemblance to the past. So what can marketers do? They can start by grasping the profound societal and technological changes that define today's new consumerism. more
• Endurance Training: Five Brand-Building Exercisesby Kimberly Smith
  When the slow season strikes, devote some energy to pumping up your brand. These five exercises will show you where to start to best position yourself for the inevitable upturn. more

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Customer Relationships case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned

• Tips From Microsoft on Cultivating Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty on a Global ScaleMicrosoft Corporation
  CASE STUDY: With millions of customers in more than 90 countries, Microsoft has its hands full keeping customers satisfied and loyal. But it has found a way to do so—by using Web-monitoring tools, social-media analytics, and the energy of influencers. Read on for valuable insights. more
• How a Single Voice Recording Scored Immediate Ticket Sales for Boston CollegeBoston College Athletics
  CASE STUDY: Boston College had just two weeks to inspire alumni and fans to make a last-minute trip to Florida after the school's football team secured its first conference title game. An enticing voice-marketing campaign quickly generated 5,000 ticket sales, netting $200,000. more
• How a Company's Word-of-Mouth Strategies and Customer Focus Helped Grow Its User Base 150%FreshBooks
  CASE STUDY: Small businesses need all the TLC they can get. Billing and invoicing online-solution provider FreshBooks knows that better than most. Its customer-centric focus is so fresh and refreshing, word-of-mouth has spread far and wide—and helped grow its user base 150%. more
• How Mobile Text Marketing Is Increasing Ancillary Revenues, Room Upgrades, and Customer LoyaltyDays for Business Alliance (Days Inn)
  CASE STUDY: Cutting-edge customer service that relies on mobile texting has helped an alliance of hotels to retain customers among the thinning number of business travelers—and avoid disaster during the economic downturn. Read on to see how. more
• How One Company's Content Marketing Improved Qualified Lead Generation, Boosted Revenue 38%Intellitactics, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: Good content can position your company as an expert in its field, delivering more and better-qualified traffic to your door. Here's how one company leveraged its vendor-neutral whitepapers, podcasts, and more to increase leads, conversion, and (ultimately) revenue. more
• How Kodak Generated Marvelous Results by Turning Users Into SuperheroesKodak Imaging Network
  CASE STUDY: Kodak knew that in all of us there's a superhero yearning to come out. It launched a viral-video campaign that reached two million customers and prospects who unleashed their inner superhero (along with howls of laughter), generating traffic to—and sales for—KodakGallery.com. more
• How a Facebook Game Attracted 10 Times the Traffic, New Fans, Real SalesAdobe Systems, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: Here's how a single Facebook game application attracted more than 11,500 plays, 10 times the usual traffic, 5,500 new fans, and more.... more
• How a Franchiser Automated Its Marketing Support to Improve Efficiency, ProfitabilityCartridge World
  CASE STUDY: Global ink and toner supplier Cartridge World expanded its US presence to 650 franchisee-owned stores. But its marketing support lagged behind. Here's how the company turned things around: creating a centralized marketing resource center, upping efficiency and increasing profitability. more
• How the Obama Presidential Campaign Leveraged Mobile Marketing to Generate Support, Increase Participation and OutreachObama for America
  CASE STUDY: Mobile marketing offers a sense of immediacy and intimacy that few other media can. Such timely connection is what the Obama for America Presidential campaign leveraged to establish deeper relationships with supporters. Here's how. more
• How a Women's Clothing Retailer Bucked the 2008 Downturn, Upped Revenues via EmailIntermix
  CASE STUDY: Today's economy has earnest marketers scrambling for consumer attention. As inboxes become inundated with yet more marketing messages, the bar continues to inch higher for those attempting to stand out from the clutter. Here's how one retailer tweaked its email program to grow revenue, even in this market. more
• How a Targeted Lead-Development Program Earned an IT Company 34% Yearly Growth for Five Years (and Counting)CenterBeam
  CASE STUDY: For IT company CenterBeam, sales is indeed a numbers game, but not in the traditional sense. Rather than trying to engage as many leads as possible, the company's sales force instead nurtures a smaller quantity of well-qualified prospects. more
• How Intuit Used Viral Marketing and an Interactive Web Site to Generate Small-Business Leads, Engage CustomersIntuit, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: Inspired by the viral success of Office Max's "Elf Yourself," QuickBooks-maker Intuit set out to creatively engage small businesses with its "Jingle Generator." The effort exceeded targeted metrics, earning viral a spot in the marketing mix. more
• How Branded Social Communities Help Sony Increase Consumer Engagement, Loyalty... and Sales!Sony Electronics
  CASE STUDY: Sony Electronics rolled out a series of online, community-focused features aimed at providing value for (and connecting with) personal electronics users. The effort is paying off with high usage, increased customer insight, loyalty... and sales growth. more
• How OfficeMax Helped an Education-Focused Charity Increase Funding and Classroom AdoptionsOfficeMax
  CASE STUDY: OfficeMax teamed with nonprofit Adopt-A-Classroom to create an annual event to recognize and reward standout teachers for their dedication and sacrifice. This year, OfficeMax stepped up its marketing for the program, upping classroom adoptions +800%. more
• How a Medical Imaging Company Helped a New Sales Team Establish Client Relationships and Surpass Sales GoalsToshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.
  CASE STUDY: In tough economic times, one company set out to care for its people in a unique way. Toshiba America Medical Systems efforts to align and nurture its sales team means the team is now on track to exceed sales goals. more
• How Travel Channel Effectively Engaged More than 2 Million Facebook UsersTravel Channel
  CASE STUDY: Imagine a world in which you persuade your customers to kidnap their friends so that you can then convince them it's in their best interest to visit your Web site. Virtually, it's already happening. And turning out quite well for the Travel Channel. more
• How Intrigue and Personalization Helped a Marketing Firm Connect With Handpicked LeadsBabcock & Jenkins
  CASE STUDY: Relationship-marketing firm Babcock & Jenkins didn't tell prospects what it could do, it gave them a taste. Its campaign, launched with a package of brownies from a mystery source, showed how it uses intrigue, personalization, humor, and the soft-sell to establish and advance client relationships. Results: A tasty 50% response rate. more
• How a Telecommunications Company Enlisted the Quirkiness of an Offbeat Celebrity to Build Brand AwarenessGotVMail Communications, LLC
  CASE STUDY: GotVMail set out to raise brand awareness, promoting itself in a way that would both amuse its audience and set the company apart. What resulted was a viral video campaign starring Gary Busey. more
• How a Telecommunications Company Used Video to Streamline Its Sales ProcessDigium
  CASE STUDY: Digium created a Web-based video that covered all the essential points of in-person presentations, but in a format more easily accessible to all of its sales outlets. The results: a more efficient sales process and an effective press tool. more
• How a Technology Firm Used Social Media to Build Awareness for Its Web-based Monitoring ProductRadian6
  CASE STUDY - How does a social-media monitoring company build excitement for its flagship product? In the case of Radian6, it leveraged (you guessed it) social media and the medium's inherent word-of-mouth properties. Here's how. more

Customer Relationships: See all 83 case studies

Customer Relationships online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• What Matters Now in Branding: Ten Ideas to Get RefocusedAttendee rating:  - May 21, 2009
• Customer Experience Intensive: What CEM Means for Your Brand and Your MarketingAttendee rating:  - Apr 30, 2009
• Direct-to-Consumer PR: Putting the "Public" back in Public RelationsAttendee rating:  - Sep 11, 2008
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Strategy First on Facebook: Opportunities of a Ready-Made Marketing PlatformAttendee rating:  - Jan 10, 2008
• Seth Godin: How to Avoid The Meatball SundaeAttendee rating:  - Jan 3, 2008
• How to Develop a B2B Lead Nurturing Program that Really WorksAttendee rating:  - Dec 20, 2007
• How To Build a Consistent Pipeline of Customer ReferralsAttendee rating:  - Oct 18, 2007
• Post-Click Marketing: How to Make Your Landing Pages Hit, Not MissAttendee rating:  - Sep 13, 2007
• What Marketers Need to Know about Podcasting and Streaming VideoAttendee rating:  - Aug 9, 2007
• Ten Cravings of Generation X and Y: Satisfying This Young and Lucrative MarketAttendee rating:  - Jul 26, 2007
• Customer Message Management 2: Confuser or Clarifier? Creating Customer-Relevant MessagingAttendee rating:  - Jun 8, 2007
• Social Media 1.0: What B2B Marketers Need to Know About Video, Widgets, Blogs and MoreAttendee rating:  - Apr 11, 2007

Customer Relationships: See all 35 seminars

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

• Where SEO Yin Meets SM YangSearch Engine Marketing
  "Is your website search- and social-media-friendly?" inquires a recent post at the Online Marketing Blog. According to Lee Odden, search is the most efficient and effective way for consumers to ...
• Time After Time After TimeEmail Marketing
  "We fuss over subject lines, offers, calls-to-action, and targeting, but sometimes a lack of response is simply a matter of timing," says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email ...
• How Dare You Assume That?Email Marketing
  When you hand someone a business card at a conference, do you assume your email address will be added to their list for marketing campaigns? Probably not. And that's why ...
• Is This My Fairest URL of All?Interactive Marketing
  As of June 13, Facebook has made it possible for users to secure a URL for both their profiles and any Facebook Pages they administer. Why this matters: Facebook is ...
• I Feel Your Pain—Here's an AspirinSmall Business
  "When your visitor arrives at your site," says Pete Caputa in a post at HubSpot, "they're most likely looking to solve a problem. In order to grab their attention and ...
• You Have Much to Learn, GrasshopperMarketing in a Downturn
  In a post at the Marketing Minute, blogger Drew McLellan admits he gets some rather strange mail. "But I have to say," he notes, "chocolate-covered grasshoppers might just top the ...
• Mom Probably Knows BestEmail Marketing
  In a post at the Deliverability.com blog, Dennis Dayman presents a short series of off-the-cuff emails that his wife wrote in response to his question about video in email marketing ...
• Seed That Video and Reap Its HarvestInteractive Marketing
  Good news for all you budding Spielbergs out there: YouTube this month made it possible to automatically seed freshly uploaded videos across popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and even ...
• Hey! Over Here! We're Buying!Customer Insight
  Good news for retailers! There is one consumer segment that apparently remains ready and willing to buy: Hispanic shoppers. "According to a new study conducted by Experian Simmons for Univision ...
• Nobody Likes a Wild-Goose ChaseEmail Marketing
  Chad White of the Retail Email blog was impressed when he recently received an email from Lands' End with this subject line: Free Shipping + 20-50% off summer! Swim, shorts, ...
• Mixology 101Email Marketing
  In a post at the Daily Fix blog, Stephanie Miller says you don't have to choose between the social and email channels. "No need to take sides, my friends," she ...
• We Suck!Marketing Inspiration
  When you think of ways you want customers to describe your product or service, you'd probably want them to avoid that most dubious of superlatives: The Worst. But in a ...
• Do It Now: Get WhitelistedEmail Marketing
  Mailer Alert: A new Yahoo Mail feature—the "contacts button"—should make whitelisting even more important for email marketers. "You get a lot of emails, some good (from friends, family, even favorite ...
• Be a Pocket MillionaireInteractive Marketing
  Right in time for the much-anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update debut on June 17, AdMob has introduced a slew of ad units that will help enterprising advertisers make the most ...
• Walk a Few Steps in Their ShoesB2B Marketing
  "Value, desire, and price rule our lives as salespeople," says Mike Sigers in a recent post at the Simplenomics blog. When a prospect considers a purchase, Sigers explains, the product's ...
• Pack 'Em InSmall Business
  In a post at the Viral Garden blog, Mack Collier discusses why so many companies struggle to launch and maintain active online communities. To find success, you'll need more than ...
• Look to Your Own DNAMarketing in a Downturn
  Different people have had different reactions to our hobbled economy. Some are heartsick over tough choices made to keep a company solvent; others might thrill to the thought of newly ...
• Latest List-Growing StrategiesEmail Marketing
  In cooperation with Ball State University and the Email Marketers Club, ExactTarget studied 18 methods used by marketers to build an email list. Among the results published in its 2009 ...
• Short, Sweet and Clicked-ThroughEmail Marketing
  In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters ...
• You Talkin' to Me?Interactive Marketing
  Once in a while, a digital ad grabs you just like that. And one thing that really boosts its impact is if the person featured in it is—you. Read on:  Last year, to sell tickets ...

Customer Relationships: See all 326 quick reads

Customer Relationships marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Email Success Stories: How 11 companies are pushing the (electronic) envelope
  Propel your email marketing efforts beyond the subject line. Read Email Success Stories: How 11 companies are pushing the (electronic) envelope to learn how to convert your emails into money-making machines.
• Twitter Success Stories: How 11 Companies are Achieving Their Marketing Objectives—140 Characters at a Time
  Twitter’s brief tweets let you communicate with friends and family. But did you know that those 140 characters can also build your business? Read Twitter Success Stories: How 11 companies are achieving their marketing objectives, 140 characters at a time.
• The Obama Playbook: How Digital Marketing and Social Media Won the Election
  Want to create a veritable army of customer-advocates to champion your brand? The Obama Playbook: How Digital Marketing and Social Media Won the Election shows you how the Obama campaign masterfully used new media to build awareness, engage prospects, and start a movement. It takes you step-by-step through the new media strategies of the campaign and provides actionable guidance on how you can modify each to benefit your business. Both entertaining and useful, it's an invaluable resource for the savvy marketer who wants to take full advantage of the amazing powers of new media.
• Web 2.0 Marketing Guide
  Here's a straight shooting guide on how Web 2.0 can help you grow your business
• 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.
• 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.

Customer Relationships: See all 6 downloads

Customer Relationships Daily Chirp for the busy professional

• Marketing Addictionary: 'Badvocate'
  Badvocate: (noun): People who passionately criticize or detract from companies, brands, or products. more
• Get Creative
  We've seen some great creative ads in the past, both online and on television. Now imagine that you could be the brains behind a nationwide ad. Well, Panasonic gives you this opportunity with its Next Generation Talent competition. more
• Entrepreneurs Can Change the World
  A video can empower. It can inspire, creating a moment or a feeling that moves you to sally forth and conquer the world. It can leave you feeling capable and invincible and energized, all at once. Like this one does. more
• Marketing Addictionary: 'Mobsmacked'
  Mobsmacked: (adjective) That stunned feeling you get when your marketing efforts worked TOO well, and you can't keep up with customer demand. more