You'd think that to get half of your subscribers to click through, you might have to give away a million dollars every month. Publishers Clearing House actually does give away millions of dollars, but that wasn't enough on its own to earn a significantly higher-than-average response rate on its email ... more

In the B2C space there's a lot of buzz around mobile marketing, but in the B2B sector it's more likened to a whisper. B2Bs are missing out on super-sized opportunities for integrating a valuable new brand touch point for their customers and establishing a dynamic new communications channel with professional ... more

New vision and approaches can add significantly more value to brands over their competitors. Some brands can easily become commodities. Unless they choose otherwise. more

By using new campaign-management techniques, smart marketers can gain a sizable and lasting advantage over the competition in the auction for keywords—ensuring their ads show up high in search results without dampening ROI. more

The hottest trend in brand marketing right now is the very thing that has fueled traditional advertising's ongoing evolution: Brands are bypassing traditional media outlets in favor of creating their own private media platforms. That's right, brands are becoming the media. more

There's no question that online video is fast becoming a favorite of Internet users around the world. But the hit-or-miss nature of viral video, the brand quality considerations of user-generated content, and the general disdain for television commercials online have left marketers wondering, "How do I make video work for ... more

Sir John Hegarty, the man behind the Levi's jeans and Lynx deodorant ads, once claimed, "Music is 50% of an ad's success." Yet even today very few metrics are regularly applied within the planning and creative processes to measure the value of music and sound to a brand's marketing. more

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

How much B2B branding is too much? You want to incorporate your B2B brand message into every encounter with prospects and clients. But how do you do that without overdoing it? more

Increasingly, marketers are turning toward brain-imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in the quest for the Holy Grail "buy button." We call it neuromarketing. The brain, however, is reluctant to reveal its code. more

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

Is Facebook really a tool for business? Paul Chaney says yes. Much the same way a power company connects homes and businesses with electricity, Facebook is a "social utility" designed to facilitate connections between people as well as businesses. Accordingly, it can be highly useful as a business tool. This article ... more

Ask most US consumers whether they want to receive mobile-marketing messages on their cell phones, and they will usually answer with a resounding "No." Consumers worry they'll start receiving unwanted Viagra ads and messages from a prince in Kenya. Nothing could be further from the truth. more

We are at a unique place and time. The crossroads of environmental and economic crises provide agile companies with the ability to capture market share in a down market by cutting their media buys and engaging their fan base in new ways. more

Facebook offers many features for strategic networking and generating visibility for your company. Among them, Facebook fan pages are (currently) the only feature fully indexed by Google. By inserting keyword-rich text throughout your fan page and updating regularly, you can create tremendous search engine optimization. The following 10 elements of dynamic Facebook ... more

Want to get started with an effective earned-media marketing program? Here are three tips for launching, measuring, and monetizing a low-cost earned-media program that will drive a surge in online word-of-mouth traffic about your brand. more

Today's marketers are challenged to implement multiple techniques—from search to affiliate to media advertising and more—to achieve different results. Each channel has its own set of rules, its own potential results, even its own manager (whether outsourced or in-house) to keep things running smoothly. Although, in theory, each channel can operate ... more

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

Intrigued by the ease, broader reach, and lower cost of hosting a virtual event? Be aware that there are distinguishable differences in how online conferences are planned and carried out—and the technology is just the beginning. Here's how to effectively navigate the process to hold a successful virtual event. more

Some companies are finding that their customers have a truer understanding of their own motivators and needs than even the most-qualified Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and (what's more) that an outsider perspective may be just what their organizations need. It's called crowdsourcing, and within are some real-world examples and tips for ... more

Your own keyword analytics data is the most valuable marketing asset of your company. In fact, the data contained in the keyword report from your Web-analytics application (which tells you how people are finding your site through paid and organic search) is much more valuable than traditional marketing data, such ... more

Banner ads are tried-and-true forms of advertising that can deliver great results while driving a return on investment. So why are advertisers so hesitant to use them? Maybe it's because they have been overrun with cheesy, annoying, misleading, and downright dumb content, creating an aversion to this otherwise effective form ... more

This is no time for business as usual. To keep the customer and win the sale, a marketer has to outsmart the competition. But how do you motivate your customers to spend their marginal purchasing dollars on your product instead of the competition's? more

Contextual ads, whether delivered by Google, Yahoo, or any other company, are not standalone ads in the way that a newspaper classified ad is. In fact, your pay-per-click ad is simply the connector between a desired keyword or phrase and a destination landing page. So while you may have some wonderful ... more

It might sound counter-intuitive, but "sweating the small stuff" is actually a recipe for success. In fact, it can be one of best weapons in your business arsenal. more