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  •  
    Point of fact: One of the most alluring things about Facebook is its infinite capacity to find us a new distraction—be it Farmville, virtual gift-giving or browsing through an old flame's recent family photo shoot (major creepiness factor, BTW). Second point of fact: Some companies know this about Facebook, and are already ... more
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    A recent Nielsen study found that global consumption of social media increased 82 percent from Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009 in the 10 countries surveyed, with users spending an average of 5.5 hours on their sites of choice per month! US and Australian addicts are among the heaviest users of all, spending 6 ... more
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    Dudes: Are you ready to give off some fresh new surfer vibes? Search engines are constantly looking for new signals they can use to improve the quality of the results they provide to Internet surfers, says Eric Enge in a recent post at Search Engine Watch. "Search engines continue to ... more
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    Let's face it: If your marketing approach consists of sporadically touting your company's greatness via the overpopulated social mediaverse, you're about to get absolutely nowhere—except ignored. Or hated. Blacklisted, even.  Frustrated with today's confusing social-media etiquette? Well, don't be! There are sassy methods for making your outreach simply ooze old-fashioned Southern ... more
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    "I have a friend in Florida who owns six Subway franchises," writes Barry Densa in an article at MarketingProfs. "He's rolling in dough, whole wheat, and greenbacks." Lucky guy. But few businesses are so recession-friendly, we suspect. So, for the rest of us, Densa has a five-point strategy for helping our customers, ... more
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    "In the technology industry," writes Morgan Stewart in an article at MarketingProfs, "we are constantly focused on the next big thing." And there's often an assumption that whatever comes next will wipe out whatever came before. Do you remember, for instance, when computers were going to make paper obsolete? Or ... more
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    In a recent Search Engine Land article, Andrew Goodman predicts that the biggest risk in 2010-2011 for search marketers may lie in working with outdated assumptions about the size and potential of target markets and the paid-search channel. As a remedy, he suggests five investment or expansion "risks" that could ... more
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    We like to emphasize that mobile is probably the most personalized technology available so far in the 21st century. And these days, finding ways to incorporate yourself into users' daily rituals is crucial to maximizing brand exposure on their up-close-and-personal handhelds. That's one reason for taking a look at GM's new ... more
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    "Since white papers are among the most popular pieces of content for [many] buyers," notes Cheryl Goldberg at the High Tech Communicator blog, "you'll want to create a lot of them. But coming up with new ideas for white papers can be a daunting task." To ease your brainstorming efforts, ... more
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    Looking to make your brand trendier? Get a load of Trendistic, a clear and simple way to watch the ebb and flow of buzz on Twitter. A visit to the Trendistic homepage gives you a quick glimpse at what keyword is hottest on Twitter right now. In addition to the most current ... more
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    Most editors and reporters depend on social media as a source: 55% of print and Web journalists say social media is important or somewhat important for reporting and producing the stories they write, according to a survey conducted by George Washington University and Cision. more
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    In May 2009, Omniture and The CMO Club asked 102 CMOs to rate the relative effectiveness of digital-marketing media. The vast majority (78 percent) gave top marks to email marketing, but a sizable minority (33 percent) reported success in emerging social-media channels, too. That's because, these days, consumers "engage with a ... more
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    Are you on pins and needles waiting for satirists to create YouTube videos that mock your earnest marketing efforts? Probably not. But in a post at his blog, Seth Godin says there's actually a good reason to embrace jokes made at your expense: It means that people have not only ... more
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    Before you start soliciting links and becoming active in online communities, it's best to first ensure that your site's content, structure, and design are in peak condition, Virginia Nussey advises in a recent post at the Bruce Clay blog: "Before you can expect a site to develop inbound links, you have ... more
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    It'd be an understatement to say 2009 was a tough year for Domino's Pizza, what with the awkward employees-abusing-food scandal. A quick recap: two bored employees recorded themselves doing unpleasant things with food, and the video wound up on YouTube. Domino's responded swiftly enough, both terminating the employees and releasing an apologetic YouTube video ... more
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    The Great Recession has certainly not spared nonprofit organizations. With contributions down an average of nine percent, many charitable organizations have been forced to cut services. Some even face closure. Fortunately, though, the news is not all bad. "With the right marketing mix, savvy nonprofits are able to leverage social-media marketing ... more
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    "[I]n our quest for ever more hard problems to solve," says Avinash Kaushik at the Occam's Razor blog, "we forget that the number one goal of every website is not to suck. Especially at the really simple and basic things." To illustrate his point, he recounts a recent conference that ... more
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    "They say an Internet year is … equivalent to seven normal years," says Kevin Gibbon in a post at SEOptimise—meaning that we can witness seven real-world-years' worth of change in one year online. To help search marketers keep up, Gibbon offers seven ways to stay on top of the competition in the ... more
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    Sweet news, hardcore Twitter users! Hootsuite—the Twitter management tool developed with marketers in mind—just released an app for the iPhone. That means you can now access the handy features of Hootsuite in any old roost! We first covered Hootsuite shortly after Canadian company Invoke Media launched the adorable owl-themed service. It made ... more
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    Remember when we told you about Twitcam, the service that lets you stream live video via Twitter? This is kind of like that, but with more oomph and less lag. Say hello to tinychat, which lets you host live Web meetings, TV shows, music jam sessions—or whatever else you wanna do ... more
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    Some companies seem addicted to email campaigns that shout breathless, time-sensitive offers. Each week, it seems, they tell subscribers about special deals that simply can't be missed—only to make a similar offer the following week. In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow provides a screenshot with 19 emails ... more
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    We recently encouraged businesses to expand their local search horizons and add more local flavor to their national search campaigns. Now, in a post at the Content Rich blog, Jon Wuebben offers more arguments for growing local roots in your search campaigns.  Wuebben quotes Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, who ... more
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    When building an online community, there are some underlying principles that hold true whether a company is large or small, and among those is a genuine commitment to openness and fostering a dialogue. When starting a blog, companies need to be prepared to embrace those principles; they must also be ... more
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    You're probably familiar with the story of The Little Mermaid. In this classic tale of unrequited love, a girl exchanges her voice for the chance to be close to a prince. It's a parable about finding the right voice amid the melee. Faced with a plentitude of uncertainties about social media, ... more
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    Too often, argues Julia Rubiner in the Editorial Emergency newsletter, automated email messages lack the human touch. "They frequently sound like they're coming from a robot for whom English is a second language," she says. "If you're trying to connect with people and persuade them to take action … you ... more

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  • When Best-Practices Aren't: Five Ways to Break the Rules of Email Marketing and Still Win the Game by DJ Waldow
    A best-practice is the generally preferred practice, one that will make your company more money, thus making your boss happy, which in turn will make you happy. If it were only that easy. more
  • The End of the Long-Copy vs. Short-Copy Debate by Barry Densa
    Which converts better and drives more sales: long-form copy or short-form copy? "The more you tell, the more you sell," claim the adherents of long copy. "No one has time to read below the fold," counter short-copy partisans. Of course, both sides are right... more
  • A Five-Step Guide to Take Your Campaign Global by Dina Paglia
    How can you ensure that your translated campaign carries the impact of the original? More important, how do you avoid the enormous cost (new creative, photography, design) of having to launch a new marketing campaign for each local market? more
  • A 10-Question Lead-Generation Checkup Checklist for Your Website Pro Contentby Bob DeStefano
    Is your website a lead-generation machine? Your website can be your most powerful marketing tool, delivering a steady stream of new business leads and filling your sales pipeline. Find out your website's lead-generation potential by giving it a lead-generation checkup. more
  • Five Simple Link-Building Tips Pro Contentby Oliver Feakins
    Link-building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. The process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link to your website. Spammy, automated products seldom cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Doing it right means link-building by hand. Here ... more
  • Six Keys to Writing a Great Proposal by Doug Stern, Jaclyn Landon
    Looking for ways to create a proposal that sets you and your company favorably apart? Ways that capture the great things you have to offer? Here are six suggested best-practices intended to not only maximize your chances to stand out and land the job but also manage the risks. more
  • Problem Solved: How Do I Keep My Website Interesting, and Keep Visitors Coming Back? by Claire Coyne
    We've created a cool website. The bell and whistles are working well—not too little, not too much. We're getting lots of visits from lots of cool folks. But now that we're up and running so well, we're panicked about keeping content fresh! How do I keep it interesting, and keep ... more
  • Selling Like Billy Mays: Five Essential Character Traits That Make a Product Easy to Sell by Barry Densa
    Billy Mays, who, sadly, passed away at age 50, was a potbellied, black-bearded Atlantic City carnival barker who wore a blue long-sleeve shirt and a white undershirt. And direct marketers loved him. According to Mays, to be great and an easy sell, a product must have these five essential character ... more
  • How a B2B Company Went From Zero Brand Awareness to 190 Leads With Its First-Ever Direct-Mail Effort by Pete Savage
    With Q4 looming, along iwth company revenue targets for the year ahead, this company faced the perennial dilemma common to B2B marketers: how to fill the sales funnel with quality leads now to get a jump on sales-cycle activity in January. A classic direct-mail package and a brilliantly simple strategy ... more
  • Is Your Homepage Overwhelming and Underperforming? Pro Contentby Kathryn Roy
    Are your website visitors like tourists strolling through Times Square on their way to a matinee with little time to spare, or are they a captive audience willing to watch and absorb all you hope to communicate? Websites increasingly appear to assume the latter, but Web-analytics data prove the former. more
  • 10 Best and Worst Internet Company Names of the Decade by Laurel Sutton
    Like the internet phenoms they trumpeted, Internet company names of the last decade have been, by turns, wildly inventive, deeply troubled, breathtakingly silly, serviceable (if dull)—and, occasionally, brilliant. Here are the trends and names that rose to the top (and sank to the bottom). more
  • How to Capture Your Company's Essence in 15 Words by Kathryn Roy
    As a B2B company, you may never air a 15-second message on NPR. But distilling your company description to its essence is a powerful goal. It will force you to jettison the jargon and superlatives. And your message will resonate all the more with prospects. more
  • Bearing Bad News: Six Ways to Reduce the Sting When Your Message Stinks by Jonathan Kranz
    I can't promise you that by following these suggestions you'll recover from bankruptcy or resurrect your business. But you can move on with dignity. And, sometimes, when your organization faces its darkest hour, choosing dignity may be the best, last business decision you can make. more
  • Don't Make These Value-Proposition Mistakes by Kathryn Roy
    You think your value proposition is as strong as it needs to be because you are making sales, right? But you may be selling in spite of, not because of, your value proposition. more
  • Five Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages Right Now Pro Contentby Anna Talerico
    Only about 3% of paid clicks convert, on average. That's a lot of conversions left on the table. Here are five things you can do to turn more of your clicks into customers. more
  • Write From Your Reader's Perspective by David Fideler
    When potential customers arrive at your website or look over your marketing materials, they immediately want to know what's in it for them. If that's not obvious, chances are they will move on quickly. By using the word "you," you begin to establish a connection with readers because you address their ... more
  • Eight Ways Marketers Can Benefit From Using Alltop by Mack Collier
    In aggregating and organizing content from top sites around the Internet, Alltop goes a long way toward solving the filtering problem that many of us have. Alltop can be an invaluable tool for marketers. This article shares eight ways that we can benefit from using Alltop. more
  • Is Anybody Following Your Thought Leadership? Five Best-Practices by Paul McKeon
    A big part of making market leadership pay off is an ability to convey and promote thought leadership. Thought leadership is the outward expression of market leadership. It conveys your views on where your market-space is heading (or should be heading), and by communicating in that way, you show confidence ... more
  • Email Marketing Tips for the 2009 Holiday Season by Alex Williams
    The holiday season is the most important time of year for retailers, when aggressive goals are set for increased traffic and sales, both in-store and online. Email marketing is a powerful tool that retailers can use to build their brands and increase sales during that crucial period. more
  • Three Strategies for Inspired Holiday Email in Tough Times by Karen Talavera
    The pumpkins come out, the days grow shorter, the weather cools, and there's no mistaking that the holiday season is upon us, even though we're barely past the back-to-school rush. Already, it's holiday marketing time. Yet, in recessionary periods, what is normally a festive season is not all sweetness and light—for consumers ... more
  • Top 5 Elements of an Annual Business Plan by Donna Bletzinger
    It's that time again: the end of another fiscal year. Time to assess this year's successes and start planning for next year. What does that mean? It means it's time to write your business plan. A business plan can be hundreds of pages or just a few. Whatever the volume, however, ... more
  • Improving Campaign Deliverability for PC and Mobile Users by Wendy Lowe
    All the time spent planning your campaigns seems like a waste if a large number of your email messages are not making it to your subscribers' inboxes. Moreover, the constant evolution of technology means more people are checking their email with their mobile devices. For email marketers, that means one thing: ... more
  • 'Hypey' Copy That Converts, and How to Write It Pro Contentby Barry Densa
    Hypey copy is like a fine wine. It has great legs, a fine body, and a rich nose. Hype excites the emotions, stimulates the buying glands, and ultimately converts better- than-dull; drab; "only the facts, Ma'am" marcom-style copy. The challenge, of course, is how to differentiate bad hype from good hype. more
  • Seven Questions Local Businesses Should Answer Before Investing in SEO by Kenton Newby
    In the current economic climate, many local businesses are seeking more-effective ways to market. Since their potential customers are increasingly using the Web as a way (and sometimes the first and only way) to find products and services, local businesses realize that their marketing efforts should include at least some aspects ... more
  • 10 Practical Tips for Creating Blockbuster E-Books by Jonathan Kranz
    Without careful planning, your e-book may become a sinkhole of confused agendas, missed opportunities, and poor distribution. Here are a few key things that might help you avoid the pains and achieve the gains. more

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  • 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.
  • Paid Search Advertising Template
    If you're a little intimidated by the prospect of Paid Search Advertising, seriously, join the crowd. Here it is though -- a guiding light through the complex waters of Paid Search Advertising. We assembled a 30-page template to make learning and implementing a successful paid search advertising campaign for your firm as easy as possible.
  • Benchmark Survey: Communication Skills
    Link directly to the raw (aggregate) data in this 2005 survey about the skill level survey respondents have in various ways of communicating. With access to the raw data, you can view the results, and even filter them to see how a subset of companies in your country or industry answered. In this way, you can interpret the data in the most meaningful way for you.

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