Strategy articles by the best and brightest in the field

• Staying Up in a Down Economy: Eight Marketing-Strategy Tips from Best Buy and Wipro CMOsby Roy Young
  Leading companies do not subscribe to the notion that marketing is a discretionary expense. They know that there is business opportunity during economic downturns, and marketing can lead the way. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• How to Target Your Prospects With Military Precisionby J. Woody Meachum
  Predicting where your prospects are online is tricky—and often expensive. And it's not always about where they are but also what are the best ways to reach them. How should you decide where to start? The military has utilized a system called CARVER, a mnemonic term for the weighting factors used to identify and prioritize targets. CARVER helps to discover the greatest opportunities to inflict the most damage while employing the lowest amount of available assets. CARVER stands for... Criticality Accessibility Recuperability (return-on-investment) Vulnerability Effect Recognizability For marketing purposes, CARVER can be applied to help determine which digital marketing tactics would work the best to target your prospects with a proper budgetary assignment. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Six Approaches to Marketing in Tight Economiesby Jim Lenskold
  Marketing pundits have advocated throughout this year that tough economic times are the right time to build bands and grow share of voice. But this will not work for every company. Here are the six approaches that can help you assess whether spending more or less is right for your business. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Marketing to India: The New Frontier for American Businessby Gunjan Bagla
  Marketing executives and entrepreneurs alike have rushed to China in the last decade. Yet, today, India offers an excellent, although somewhat misunderstood, alternative. Here are some myths (and realities) about tapping the potential of this country of 1.1 billion. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Extending and Enhancing Closed-Loop Marketing via the Mobile Channelby Stephan Dietrich
  While mobile marketing can be invasive on its own, integration with the larger marketing campaign mix and proper tracking of customer response can ensure that customers are drawn in, rather than turned off, by mobile messages. The mobile medium has achieved staying power as a gateway for marketers to reach customers in motion. For example, SMS can serve as the initial point of contact with customers, with the intention to drive the customer somewhere (to a store, kiosk, Web site, and so on). [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• How to Avoid Underachievement: Set Goals Only After You Map the Opportunitiesby Dr. Dan Herman
  During your annual planning ritual, do you study and analyze the current situation in your market and then move on straight to setting your goals? Big mistake! Chances are, your goals end up far less ambitious than they should have been. So do your financial results. Instead, identify and map your opportunities before setting goals. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Two Reasons Why SMS Should Be on Your Shortlistby R.J. Talyor
  Should SMS be used for every marketing message? No, definitely not. Your company must consider whether or not your intended message is urgent and determine if subscribers will appreciate receiving it in a mobile form. With that said, there are certainly are two major reasons SMS should be on your shortlist. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Get the Vote: Use Political Marketing Techniques to Power Your Campaignsby Jean Fleming
  Love 'em or hate 'em, politicians are some of the most effective marketers out there. Let's break down how they achieve their ends, and how we marketers can cop their best moves to win the vote—for our products and services. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Navigating the Seven Cs to Relevanceby Claire Ratushny
  Think of it: There are many businesses that offer similar products or services. Prospective customers can purchase goods or services from any competitor, literally anywhere in the world if they choose to, thanks to the Internet. Net result: effectively marketing a business, which translates to owning a slice of customer mind-share, is more challenging than it ever was. It takes something more to market successfully now. And it certainly takes something more than a one-time strategy and a couple of marketing tactics to be effective. That "something" is relevance. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Five Marketing-Plan Pitfalls to Avoidby Tim Calkins
  It's hard to do great marketing without a clear plan. Unfortunately, many marketing plans simply don't work very well; they add little value and end up on a shelf, collecting dust. Marketing leaders need to be aware of these five common pitfalls, and steer clear. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Seven Ways to Woo the 'Aspirational' Luxury Customerby Suzanne Hader
  Ongoing economic uncertainty has made aspirational luxury customers more selective about what they purchase than ever. "Aspirationals" are aggressively prioritizing discretionary spending, purchasing a select few emotionally charged luxury items but buying everything else at mass or "masstige" outlets. Companies that want to continue to profit from aspirational customers must make their brands accessible and relevant to them by taking their lifestyles into consideration and meeting them half way. Here are seven tips to draw out aspirationals, just in time for the holidays. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• How to Foster 'Workable Wondering' to Harness Consumer Insightsby Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman
  The process of thinking deeply is known as "workable wondering," which involves the use of empirical, rigorous, and relevant information to challenge our assumptions. It means more than collecting information. It requires reading between the lines. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Five Paid-Search Best-Practicesby Jeannette Kocsis
  Most companies should be using paid search as a mandatory component of their marketing. And with search engine marketing spending expected to reach $25 billion by 2012, it's obvious that a good share of marketers understand its potential. But first, understanding best-practices is essential to success. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Digital-Marketing Series: 9 Ways to Reach Digital Natives (and the Rest of Us, Too)by Ann Handley
  New media and technology have inherently changed the way the newest generations experience the world: how they learn, live, play, and communicate. So what's this mean for marketers, specifically, who want to reach digital natives... and the rest of us, too? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Four Overlooked Benefits of Telemarketing (and How to Make the Most of Them)by Michelle Palmer
  Whenever I can, I include telemarketing as part of a comprehensive lead-generation program. When it comes to setting sales appointments, populating a database with decision-maker names, or filling seats at an event, there's no contact method that's more direct or more effective. The results of telemarketing are usually measurable, too, which is also a rare benefit for any campaign tactic. But, actually, you can expect more from your telemarketing programs than appointment-setting and seat-filling. In fact, telemarketing can lend tremendous support to helping you achieve other aspects sales and marketing initiatives. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Guidelines for Choosing Online Marketing Technologyby Charisse Tabak
  The burgeoning online marketing industry has produced a veritable treasure trove of technologies and their associated tools to support your efforts. With this cache of options comes the need to be accurate in your selection, making sure the tool matches the objective. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• Marketing Champion Focused on Customer Analytics: Q&A With Paul Barsch, Marketing Director of Teradataby Roy Young
  Paul Barsch, Marketing Director at Teradata, the business intelligence and data warehousing firm, is responsible for coordinating services engineering teams to define, build, and bring new offers to market. A self-described "information junkie" with over 15 years in marketing for information technology and consulting firms, Paul challenges all marketers to bring value to their organizations by taking the analytical path to understanding customers. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• When the Media Becomes the Marketing: Q&A With CC Chapmanby Mack Collier
  While blogs and social networks seem to get most of the attention when it comes to social media talk, podcasts and videos also remain viable channels to reach and connect with an audience. CC Chapman should know, as he's been active in the blogosphere and social networking spaces for years, but was also among the first bloggers to embrace and effectively utilize podcasting as a communication and brand-building tool. Today, he continues to show his clients how they can put his knowledge to work for them via his work at The Advance Guard. CC was kind enough to talk to us about his Video and Podcasting: Making Media as Marketing session at Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer, and also explain how companies can use video and podcasting as tools to build their businesses. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• How to Be a Good Public Relations Clientby Ford Kanzler
  Since public relations isn't done "to" a company, it's done "with" the management team or owners, there's an essentially different nature to how this kind of professional service is successfully delivered. It's much more akin to legal or medical services with the "defendants" or "patients" (read management team members) having to be deeply and consistently involved in an on-going process. As the now famous slogan coined by tech PR guru Regis McKenna goes, "PR is a process, not an event." Without that, it generally goes nowhere and the agency won't be working with that client for long. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy
• The Power of Podcastsby Lisa Formica
  Social marketing techniques such as blogging, wikis, podcasts, twitter, and virtual worlds have given marketers an extraordinary range of opportunities to reach out to audiences. But do these techniques really pay off—or are they just trendy alternatives that offer no measurable return on marketing investment? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Strategy

Strategy: See all 741 marketing articles

Strategy case studies, deconstructing real life examples and illustrating lessons learned

• How New Media Helped Auction Direct USA Boost Sales 40%Auction Direct USA
• How New Media Helped a Rural UK Mail Order Company Go Nationwide, GlobalWiggly Wigglers
• How Lenovo Used New Media Along With Olympic Sponsorship to Establish Global Brand AwarenessLenovo
• How a Software Company Generated Strong Click-Through Rates on FacebookSerena Software
• How a Technology Company Leveraged March Madness Live Streaming to Increase Visibility for Its Own ProducteTelemetry
• 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 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

Strategy: See all 71 case studies

Strategy online seminar broadcasts from the best minds in marketing

• Creating a Customer-Centric, Measurable Marketing PlanAttendee rating:  - Oct 16, 2008
• Marketing in an Economic MeltdownAttendee rating:  - Oct 10, 2008
• How to Market Consulting and Professional ServicesAttendee rating:  - May 1, 2008
• Using e-Metrics to Optimize Your All-Around Marketing StrategyAttendee rating:  - Apr 3, 2008
• Going Global on the Web: Avoid the Pitfalls and Seize the OpportunitiesAttendee rating:  - Feb 28, 2008
• Seth Godin: How to Avoid The Meatball SundaeAttendee rating:  - Jan 3, 2008
• Get More Customer Mindshare: Developing a Rock-Solid Value PropositionAttendee rating:  - Nov 29, 2007
• Jack Trout on Worldwide Positioning: An Encore PresentationAttendee rating:  - Nov 28, 2007
• What You Need to Know About Becoming (or Hiring) a Marketing ConsultantAttendee rating:  - Nov 8, 2007
• Small Business Series: Budgeting for the Marketing MixAttendee rating:  - Sep 14, 2007
• Tighten Up Your Marketing Plan: The Nuts and Bolts of Market SegmentationAttendee rating:  - Aug 2, 2007
• Small Business Series: Positioning, Naming and TaglinesAttendee rating:  - Jul 20, 2007
• Small Business Series: Why Most Small Businesses Fail (and How to Avoid Being One of Them)Attendee rating:  - May 18, 2007
• Marketing Through Stories: The Selling Power of NarrativeAttendee rating:  - Mar 22, 2007
• Hispanic Marketing EssentialsAttendee rating:  - Nov 16, 2006
• Evaluating Marketing Mix TradeoffsAttendee rating:  - Oct 5, 2006
• Eleven Big Ideas, with Seth GodinAttendee rating:  - Aug 8, 2006
• How to Build Your Customer Experience Framework in Five Steps, with Columbia Business School Professor Bernd SchmittAttendee rating:  - May 18, 2006
• Hispanic Marketing: Effective Strategic Planning ProcessesAttendee rating:  - Mar 30, 2006
• Uncommon Strategies to Beat Your CompetitionAttendee rating:  - Feb 22, 2006

Strategy: See all 26 seminars

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

• Please Come Back to MeEmail Marketing
  According to Loren McDonald, any email list will include recipients who have unsubscribed "emotionally." Instead of hitting the unsubscribe button, they delete your messages without reading them, or direct their...
• How to Kill Your Email ListEmail Marketing
  "Tough economic times increase the pressure on marketers to hit their goals for open rate, click-throughs, conversions, and new email subscriber acquisition," says DJ Francis at the Online Marketer Blog....
• Pepsi's Scheme Fails Taste TestMarketing Inspiration
  By now, you've probably heard about a recent Pepsi outreach that delivered three packages, over the course of an hour, to 25 influential bloggers; the first two contained cans with...
• Kermit Got It WrongEmail Marketing
  Being green can be a plus for marketers. For instance, converting mail to email helps the environment, but also has a number of practical marketing benefits. Customers can take immediate action...
• In-Game Ads: Real, Not Virtual, ROINew Media
  Gaming is no longer the sole domain of geeky guys with programmer's pallor: 44% of online gamers, and 40% of gamers in general, are women. Over half are between 18...
• You Just Don't Understand Me!Customer Behavior
  You've got a great new product for the high-school crowd. The demographics you've researched are screaming that teens love all things digital. So, your marketing team has crafted a great...
• Knock It Off!Email Marketing
  "I subscribe to a wonderful Web-based entity that sends me a weekly newsletter, which I enjoy very much," begins an entry in the Editorial Emergency newsletter. "But a while back...
• Your Twitter ID and YouMarketing Inspiration
  If you attended MarketingProfs' Digital Marketing Mixer, you would have heard keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk bemoan his choice of Twitter ID: GaryVee. In retrospect, he said, the handle—chosen quickly for...
• Warren Buffett's Three I'sSmall Business
  As fallout from the current economic crisis continues to mount, thoughtful people are beginning to ask what we can learn from this experience. In a post at Harvard Business Online,...
• Take the Drama OfflineMarketing Inspiration
  In a video from BNET, Edward Muzio of Group Harmonics explains how email conversations can start unnecessary fights. "It happens all the time," he says. "It starts out as a...
• Four Key Deliverability QuestionsEmail Marketing
  If you're like the majority of marketers polled by Jupiter Research, your number one consideration when choosing an ESP is deliverability. But Adam Covati says an ESP can only do...
• Gimme That!Customer Behavior
  Sales promotions that offer either price discounts or free goods (premiums) are often used to entice customers to buy products. But which is better? Every family has one or two...
• Mission ControlSmall Business
  "We are bombarded with messages that tell us the how, why, should and must of business," says Karen Swim in a post at Words For Hire. "Much of the information...
• Just Let 'Em Go, OK?Email Marketing
  According to a post at the True You Marketing (TYM) blog, "Dennis McConnell … sailed merrily into the office … only to find seven unsubscribe messages in his inbox." All...
• Get Fresh! Go Organic!Search Engine Marketing
  According to comScore, Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches in June 2008, 61.5% of those searches using Google. This is living proof, if we still needed it, that marketers should not...
• A Tale of Two InnovationsSmall Business
  The next time your management team meets to determine the fate of a recently introduced product or service, consider a post by Scott Anthony at Harvard Business Online. He argues...
• You Are Carnac the MagnificentMarketing Inspiration
  "Predictive statements are all around us, " writes Adam Gordon in the introduction to his book Future Savvy. "[I]n the newspapers, on TV, at conference presentations, in industry reports, consulting...
• CAN-SPAM: My BFFEmail Marketing
  Anyone who hears the acronym CAN-SPAM can be excused for assuming it's intrusive and onerous; but in an article at MarketingProfs, Neil Anuskiewicz says the legislated guidelines actually make you...
• You Look Mahvelous!Customer Behavior
  Let's face it: as consumers, we're not that good at judging the volume of a product (eg, how much liquid is actually in that bottle or glass of juice). Moreover,...
• I Like 'Em Small and FocusedSearch Engine Marketing
  Numerous studies have shown that when it comes to finding business information online, the big search engines may fail to deliver. Outsell, for example, found a 31.9 percent failure rate...

Strategy: See all 209 quick reads

Strategy marketing downloads for the busy professional

• Web 2.0 Marketing Guide
  Here's a straight shooting guide on how Web 2.0 can help you grow your business
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Market Forecasting Template
  This guide will give you a mini-seminar on the art and the science of forecasting. Learn the four different ways to create forecasting models and choose the ones that best suit your needs. Then follow these easy-to-follow steps to creating a model where you too can predict the future.
• Trade Show Marketing Template
  Trade show marketing is a high-risk, high-reward endeavor. This Template provides a sytematic look at trade show marketing. It walks you through selection and promotion, to follow-up and measurement. This step-by-step guide will insure your trade show marketing is effective, efficient, measurable, and successful.
• Competitive Analysis Template
  A thorough competitive analysis is a critical component of a solid marketing plan. It is an exercise that will provide you with valuable insights to guide the development of your business strategy. This 20-page template will make the project quick and easy, and you can end up with a leg up on your compeition.

Strategy: See all 10 downloads