Want to improve your online conversion rates? Reconsider your registration page. Whether your conversion process includes registering for a demo, signing up for an e-newsletter, or making a purchase, there are particular rules you should follow. more

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

When you plan an event, you pull out all the stops. So, too, should it be with your event promotions. Apogee Search's Brian Combs suggests in a recent MarketingProfs article to add paid-search marketing to your event promo mix. "With almost half of all Internet users now using search engines ... more

"I think one mistake many marketers make is to think of their lead management requirements too narrowly," says Jon Miller in a recent post at Marketo. He suggests it's time to move on up—beyond just nurturing and scoring leads—to a higher level of overall lead management. To help show the ... more

Uh-oh. Just when you thought e-commerce might survive these dreary days, a new report comes along that says online merchants didn't do nearly as well last year as they could have done. Why, you ask? Because online shopping is just too scary for some people. According to research results released ... more

Marketing events with paid search campaigns can be a great source for additional traffic and, with these tips, can also be an efficient promotion channel. more

Twitter isn't the first tool that comes to mind in the B2B marketing toolbox. But COOP Ale Works deftly used it to generate buzz among potential consumers of its specialty brews—creating a level of demand that retail establishments, such as bars, couldn't ignore. more

"I'm finding that all too often marketers are deciding to spend either more or less money based solely on the conversion rate of how a certain search phrase, ad creative, or banner ad performs," says Todd Miechiels in an article at MarketingProfs. "[I]n other words, the percentage of people who ... more

We may be in a recession, but that isn't stopping marketers from spending on search. According to the new 2008 annual survey and forecast from the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), spending on search engine marketing in North America is expected to hit $26 billion by 2013, up from $13.5 ... more

"This will be my third year [at SXSW]," says Aaron Brazell in a post at Technosailor, "but I'm a bit surprised, in a down economy, how many people are going for the first time." Because of that, he decided to offer some advice for the newbies, and kicks off with ... more

As marketers continue to see good ROI from finely tuned mobile strategies, the humble text message has acquired newfound cachet. And in a recent video posted at the CenterNetworks blog, Allen Stern interviews Tatango CEO Derek Johnson, whose one-to-many SMS service enables instant mobile communication with an entire list of ... more

Your e-newsletter is an excellent tool for maintaining customer relationships. But it can also generate income if you offer cool ad space in it.  In a recent article at MarketingProfs, Drew Adams explains how to make it more appealing to select advertisers: Make it relevant. Adams offers an example: "For a newsletter ... more

On Friday 2/27, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for "skittles," then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize. The ... more

Are your sales pipelines feeling a bit clogged lately? Well, welcome to the recession, says Scott Gillum in a recent MarketBridge blog post. "With customers delaying and/or postponing decisions altogether, the ol' pipeline ain't what it used to be," he notes. But, lucky for us, he then offers 7 Pipeline ... more

Hyundai took the bull by the horns in this bear market and scored big. It used behavioral segmentation to identify what was keeping prospects from buying and then developed a strategy that made it easier for customers to part with their hard-earned dollars. What can you learn from its example? In ... more

One of the most dangerous trends emerging is that B2B marketers, and their extended search-marketing resources, are regularly making bad decisions based on "solid analytics data." All too often, marketers are deciding to spend either more or less money based solely on the conversion rate of how a certain search phrase, ... more

Dylan Boyd, who blogs at The Email Wars, tells the story of an email with the subject line: "Limited time only: save up to 25%! Plus get free shipping." Within, he discovered more action verbs than you could shake a stick at. At the top of the email there's a ... more

Not long ago, Ardath Albee of the Marketing Interactions blog registered with a company's Web site so she could download a whitepaper that looked interesting. The next day she received an email from a "Sales Development Specialist" asking Albee to place herself in one of three "buckets" so he could ... more

"If you want to create something very good," says Tom Peters, "it takes time, energy, and sometimes money." That, he argues, is exactly why you should give away your finest know-how for free. Before you beg to differ, consider his ten-point business case, which includes reasons like these: It increases ... more

According to Kara Trivunovic and Andrew Osterday, most mom-and-pop businesses can't do much with email marketing advice that concentrates on sophisticated topics like multivariate testing, dynamic content development and data integration. For those who need entry-level advice, they created a 10-point Do-It-Yourself Primer that includes handy tips in plain English. ... more

Email is a medium for economically and effectively marketing your small business. But most everything out there that provides guidelines, best-practices, and advice on the application of the channel to your marketing efforts are largely geared toward bigger businesses. Until now, that is, because here are 10 tips you can leverage ... more

Sears performed a courageous email-marketing act in mid-December. Like every retailer, Sears was surely eager for additional sales and revenue as the worst holiday season in memory reached a crescendo and the sale window started to close. Despite that pressure, the Sears team had the discipline to hit the pause button on ... more

There's a school of thought that asserts going "viral" is a random occurrence. There is no formula, algorithm or logic that dictates what does and doesn't become a mainstream hit on the Internet. Those people are correct. But there are ways to hedge the bets in your favor—without selling 3/4 ... more

Your company may already have more than enough traffic on your Web site to achieve your business goals, but the problem is that you may have a leaky Web site: Prospects and customers are visiting your Web site, but very few are taking the next step to do business with ... more

Oh, the dreaded negative customer review: shoppers love to read it, and marketers live in fear of it. Marketing teams across the land have been trying to develop strategies for dealing with this new reality. Well, take heart: a recent Forrester Research report called "Myths and Truths About Online Consumer ... more