Viral marketing has been all the rage in recent years: Companies are intoxicated with the idea of creating the next video that spreads across the Internet and becomes a viral sensation. But for every successful viral effort there are countless attempts that totally miss the mark. Here's where David Meerman Scott comes in. Scott understands why ideas spread in a Web 2.0 world, and he educates his clients on why the "old school" rules of PR and marketing are totally irrelevant in a time of content-sharing on YouTube and Twitter. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

With the growing significance of the Web as an integral part of the long B2B sales process, companies are more aware of the value of content: meaningful communications material that attracts and holds prospect attention. But... where will that content come from? It can (and should) come from you and your employees. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

HTML email marketing is now thriving and widely encouraged for its strong ROI and results. Pundits predict an ROI of $45.65 for every dollar spent on email marketing in 2008. Email was also voted best marketing vehicle for customer retention, according to Jupiter Research. HTML email has come a long way, but there is one major pain point that remains: compatibility across all major email accounts. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Blogging takes advances in marketing one step further by allowing businesses to initiate conversations with their audience. Gaining a better understanding of your customers allows you to more effectively and efficiently market to them. This, of course, lowers your marketing costs. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

One of the biggest challenges that marketing departments face is producing marketing tools that actually get used by the sales team. You want to create marketing tools that help sell products, not collateral that sits on a shelf. So how do you do it? How do you create a marketing tool that not only gets used but also can reinforce your marketing messaging so that everyone is speaking the same language? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

As web marketers seek new ways to boost conversion rates and improve the site experience of their visitors, interest in multivariate testing is on a feverish rise. But those unfamiliar with the techniques are often unclear about where to start, or how to ensure success. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Marketers must continually fight the temptation of executing random, disconnected lead-generation activities to prospects. Success today requires marketers to apply the discipline of campaign development in order to establish a relevant, timely dialog with the target audience. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Nearly all search engines use spiders (also known as robots, their original name) to go out and scour the Web looking for Web pages. These search engine spiders then bring the data back to be indexed by the engine. Since roughly 1996, individual meta commands have been used on individual Web pages to modify how search engine spiders behave. The most useful of these commands are fairly universal and respected by almost all search engines. Here are some of the more popular ones and reasons you might want to use them (or not). [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

When Bob Lutz of GM or Jonathan Schwartz of Sun set up their blogs, they probably didn't worry too much about the review with Legal. But how does, say, a midlevel corporate marketer or product manager set out to create an "official" blog with the sanction of Legal? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Web analytics tools and pay per click reporting features are becoming more sophisticated, offering savvy marketers vital insights into what's working, what's not, and what needs more effort. But there is so much data available that it can become difficult to determine what to look at and which to ignore. TMI (or Too Much Information) becomes both a blessing and a curse. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Online users expect more today from Web sites, and competition is fierce. Marketers should be considering how to change their sites to keep up with customer expectations of the Web, and to increase conversions and enhance the brand experience. In fact, all companies with public-facing Web sites may soon be challenged with a redesign. There is opportunity for marketers to take the lessons of customer-centricity and put them to work to optimize customer relationships online. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

If you hadn't paid much attention to title tags until now, but you implemented the basic concepts covered in part one of this series, you are already well on your way to creating a better user experience as well as a more-optimized search experience. Of course, most of us aren't satisfied with just the basics. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Mobile technology continues to develop. The number of consumers with mobile devices capable of retrieving and viewing email continues to increase rapidly. The early adopters of the Blackberry have given way, in numbers at least, to those using what are fast becoming fully functional internet-ready devices. With multiple mobile platforms on the market and mobile phone companies vying for the sale of not only the devices but also the data plans that supply the bandwidth, these "mini-messengers" are in the hands of millions of consumers. Could your email be more mobile friendly? [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Why is it that one of the most important elements of a Web site—title tags—which also tend to be one of the easiest to manage, is so often done incorrectly? What makes that shortcoming even more amazing is that SEO practitioners constantly talk about title tags. In fact, if ever there could be an area of universal or near-universal agreement in the SEO community, it would be in regard to the importance of title tags. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Ultimately, brand protection is all about vigilance. By regularly monitoring the use of brands online, organizations can ensure prior infractions don't recur and can rapidly identify when new incidents arise. In a world where an organization's brand can represent half, or more, of the company's equity, it's an investment of time and resources that's well made. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Technology marketers have spent decades trying to connect with CIOs. And in an environment where technology is fueling innovation, yet investment capital remains tight, reaching CIOs has never been more important (or more difficult). Here are five proven approaches. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Today we discuss some SEO tactics that may or may not be Black Hat, and how to deliver a dope smack to commenters who don't add to the conversation. All that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics and what's new on the technology front. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

One of the biggest hurdles that many companies face in adopting a blogging strategy is that they aren't sure how to quantify the results of their efforts. But as blogging has evolved, and it has become much easier to accurately measure blog performance and tie those measurements back to achieving specific goals. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Sculpting PageRank? Are you scratching your head, wondering whether Stephan is talking about carving a masterpiece? In a way, he is. If you are considering your options for getting a jump on your competitors in the search results, take a closer look at PageRank sculpting. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

What goes unnoticed by many can be an keen advantage for the few. By taking steps to not only build a personal brand but also seek new ways to circulate your name, you will be more successful. Here are three easy (and easily overlooked) things you can do to juice up your personal branding. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Since many traditional advertising platforms are static in nature, and consumers are becoming increasingly interactive in their preferences, companies must become increasingly adept at using a mix of new interactive tools to reach their audiences. We are living in an interactive, entertainment-oriented society; let that fact guide you as you develop new marketing programs. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

The best communications strategies will envelop not only authorities in new and traditional media, but also those voices in the "Magic Middle," who help carry information and discussions among your customers directly. Here's the foundation that will help you and your company engage with bloggers more effectively and genuinely. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

How do you start from scratch yet create a top-ranked marketing blog in less than a year? If the author had anything close to a foolproof formula, she'd be making an infomercial right now rather than writing this article. Nevertheless, here she shares some tips from her own experience to help you achieve success with your marketing blog. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

If the Internet community didn't know its place in politics back in 2004, it certainly does today. Its "place" is to engage and educate us, promote candidates, help with fundraising and more... all through the use of new social-media tools that are increasingly vital to a candidate's overall marketing strategy. [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Despite all the talk, the mainstream media coverage, the conferences, courses, and books on social media marketing, there's quite a bit of ambivalence, fear, and (sometimes) outright hostility directed toward social media by CMOs, CEOs, and CFOs. All of this leads to the dreaded "we just want to stick our toe in the water, and see what this stuff is all about" and "we want to do a small, low-budget social media project and track the ROI." [Read the full story] Marketing Articles: Web Sites

Wacom's digital pens and their capabilities are well-known in the business world. To continue growing, however, the company needed to address the consumer market. Here's how it effectively reached a new fan community. [Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Web Sites

AutoAnything.com, which sells custom-made automotive accessories and performance parts, designed its homepage almost a decade ago. But as e-commerce has become more competitive, the site needed a strategy. After testing different versions of landing pages, AutoAnything.com increased landing-page conversions by up to 12%.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Web Sites

Marketing executive and consultant Lewis Green wanted to re-establish his company in January 2004 after moving across the country. With no professional network in place, he figured the best way to promote his business would be a blog. His first attempt failed. But not his second.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Web Sites

By hiring an outside expert in lead optimization and leveraging its full range of data, San Francisco-based Objectivity increased turnout for its webinars an average of 10%. The quality of the leads is high as well: More than 30% of the leads typically score high enough to be handed off to sales.[Read the full story]
Marketing Case Studies: Web Sites

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. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Web Sites

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. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Web Sites

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. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Web Sites

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. [Download] Marketing Downloads: Web Sites

Blogging Summit 2005 - MP3 Recording [Download] Marketing Downloads: Web Sites

"This is a truth of the Internet," writes Seth Godin in a post at his eponymous blog. "When traffic comes to your site without focused intent, it bounces. [Seventy-five percent] of all unfocused visitors leave within three seconds. Any site, anywhere, anytime." Godin calls it "silly... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Web Sites

If you visit a new site called wowOwow.com —or, formally, The Women on the Web—you'll find a guided tour hosted by none other than venerable gossip columnist Liz Smith. She begins by explaining why a group of longtime friends—including Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin and... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Web Sites

They email, they blog, they text, they chat. And now, they twitter. Yikes. Twitter.com offers a real-time service for "friends, family, and co-workers" to communicate what they're doing (in 140 characters or less)—"between emails and phone calls." Great. Do you really need to add this to your... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Web Sites

When Disneyland first opened the It's a Small World ride in the mid-1960s, the catchy chorus of its theme song was largely metaphorical. No more. Advances in technology have made the world a much smaller place for everyone—and opened global opportunities for small businesses like... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Web Sites

While conducting a seminar workshop entitled "Old Media vs. New Media," Lewis Green's enthusiasm for the topic was palpable. And in a post at his blog, he says initial feedback was positive. A review of post-talk surveys, however, revealed that at least one audience member... [Read the full story]
Marketing Quick Read: Web Sites