Ah, chocolate. Who doesn't love it? Short of an ice cream cone, nothing produces an instant state of bliss better than a good chunk of the sweet stuff. Now, a new research study presents chocolate as a product that can virtually sell itself—better than any marketer can, anyway. These researchers ... more

When your subscribers cut back on spending, you might be tempted to compensate for lost revenue by stepping up your email campaigns. But be forewarned: It's a potentially hazardous strategy. "Instead of being financially rewarded for emailing more," says Barton Schaefer, PhD in an article at MarketingProfs, "you may be punished ... more

When you have a great idea—a true light-bulb moment—you don't want to be bothered with pesky marketing research that tells you it won't work. "People who really, really want to believe, will believe," says Steve Cuno in an article at MarketingProfs, "regardless of where the evidence points." But to avoid ... more

In a recent post at Harvard Business Online, Scott Anthony coined the term Great Disruption to describe our current economic climate. "In the Great Depression," he reasons, "demand, output and wages declined across the board. Today's times are different. It isn't just that demand is sagging. It's that change is ... more

You can always find someone willing to sell you a solution for boosting your keyword effectiveness. But in a recent blog post, search marketer PotPieGirl offered her favorite free keyword research tools: Your brain. We were all consumers before we were marketers, she reminds us. So ask yourself, "If I ... more

If you've made some recent improvements—whether to your product, service or customer experience—now is the time to trumpet those changes!  A new year, with consumers anxious for a new start, is a great time to tell your subscribers what they can expect on their next visit to your site. In a post at the ... more

In a post at the HubSpot blog, Prashant Kaw says his small education-oriented Web site has achieved remarkable Google rankings in a category loaded with heavyweight competitors. His dependence on the search engine, though, gives him cause for concern. "While marveling at my site's ability to outrank large .edu behemoths ... more

In a post at her Conversation Agent blog, Valeria Maltoni recounts how a Skype call to her family in Italy went horribly wrong on Christmas day. "My account is set up to auto-recharge when it dips below a certain amount so that I do not need to worry about interrupting ... more

If you read blogs on a regular basis, you've seen comment spam. There are the obvious offenders (those people, for instance, who work their way around the blogosphere leaving generic cut-and-paste lines like, "I love your blog, check mine out"). Then there are those who rub other readers the wrong ... more

"It can be done, I've seen it," says the Email Karma blog of Goodmail's email certification platform, which now enables users to include video in email messages. "However," the blog says, "if you don't have the marketing budget for certification, you can always try … converting video to an animated ... more

On the weekend it launched, Apple sold one million iPhone 3Gs—and not just to early adopters and hipsters: stats from ChangeWave suggest iPhone's moving in on the smartphone (read: ENTERPRISE!) market, currently dominated by BlackBerry. Already, iPhone's a fertile ad medium. From MySpace to Stella McCartney to the Associated Press, ... more

It's a brand new year! Time to start fresh, set new goals—and write 52 dry-as-bones B2B blog posts. But wait. The words "B2B blog" don't have to strike dread in the hearts of readers. Chris Brogan wrote a terrific post in 2008 that will surely help you polish your B2B ... more

The advent of DVR technology struck fear in the hearts of advertisers worldwide. Suddenly, viewers were able to fast-forward through TV commercials! A sad truth quickly emerged: when given the option, consumers love to hit that FF button. Now, let's (ahem) fast-forward to today. Are we witnessing the demise of ... more

"When it comes to marketing budgets, more is always better than less," writes Adam Cahill in a refreshingly honest column at ClickZ, "so let's not pretend this is a 'glass half full' situation we're dealing with." However, he notes, the current economic downturn can produce some positive outcomes. For instance, ... more

"The news regarding investment in marketing is not good, with many firms cutting their marketing budgets left and right," reports Neil Anuskiewicz in an article at MarketingProfs. Before taking such drastic steps, you might want to consider his better option: "Instead of taking an axe to your marketing budget … ... more

When it comes to your company's reputation, what the Internet giveth, it can also taketh away. The benefits of good online buzz can diminish in the space of hours or days if a harsh critic or unhappy customer decides to make their complaints public. Since you can't formulate a plan ... more

Cost-effective, and just plain effective, email communications are quite possibly the one sure thing to cling to in the current downturn. So, are you treating them—and your subscribers—right? In a post at ClickZ, Stefan Pollard says there's no time like the present to improve your email marketing programs. He offers ... more

"Initially, I wanted to be the CEO because I wanted to make the decisions," says John Edwardson, CEO of CDW, in a video on ChicagoBusiness.com. "And one of the lessons I learned a long time ago was that if you make all the decisions, nobody will want to work for ... more

It’s no secret that when the economy goes south, the first cuts companies often make are from marketing. That could mean "bye-bye search budget" if you don’t take steps now to protect it. William Leake of Apogee Search explains in a recent MarketingProfs article how to keep the axe from ... more

MarketingProfs' own Roy Young recently asked Barry Judge (CMO of Best Buy) and Jessie Paul (CMO of Wipro) how they planned to stay up in a down economy. An article at MarketingProfs details their responses, including this helpful tip from Judge: "Seek out pockets of demand, and invest." Here's how: ... more

"There's been talk for some time now that ISPs would eventually take into consideration whether an email was authenticated when deciding whether to block email from a particular sender," says Chad White in a post at the Retail Email blog. For this reason, he was intrigued when Hotmail flagged an ... more

Last year, Chris Anderson of Wired magazine made news with the controversial decision to publish the email addresses of PR practitioners who consistently bombarded him with irrelevant pitches. Now, Michael Arrington of the TechCrunch blog has fired an opening salvo at companies that fail to enforce embargoes. "We've never broken ... more

It happens with every downturn: some companies find ways to thrive. In a recent post at B2B Marketing Confidential, Andy Hasselwander offered some good advice on doing business when the economy goes south. His source? None other than Studs Terkel's book about the Great Depression, Hard Times. One chapter in ... more

You already know why you need to be on Twitter. And if you've taken the leap into the great microblogging beyond, it's likely you've come across some issues: It takes so much time to produce the number of Tweets necessary to convince Twitter users there's a HUMAN BEING back here! It's ... more

"If you want to avoid being stuck with inventory or downtime during a recession," advises Seth Godin in a post at his eponymous blog, "you might profit from realizing that people [now] tell themselves a different story when they go to buy something." Two years ago, your customers might have ... more