Thanks to the captivating union of sound, music, and movement, video can convey your company's stories like no other medium. To help businesses harness the power of video and craft entertaining and informative content, Jimm Fox suggests marketers adopt "7 Habits of Highly Effective Video Marketing." Among the tips in ... more

"It's not just social media," Kurt Abrahamson says in this week's episode of Marketing Smarts. "It's socially engaged audiences that are important." Learn why social sharing is an important indicator of engagement—and more useful to publishers and advertisers than the traditional "reach" metrics. more

As a business moves its files to the cloud, the task of transitioning huge amounts of departmental data can become overwhelming for in-house IT personnel. "The challenge of managing multiple cloud providers and getting a diverse set of solutions such as CRM, B2B … and more to work together and ... more

You have to write a post for your company blog, and it's due tomorrow. But you have no idea what to write about. All you can do is stare, filled with dread, at your computer screen. A blank page is the archenemy of anyone suffering from writer's block. What can fill ... more

When you invite new friends to your house, do you assume they'll find a way in, forage for food, and entertain themselves while you're somewhere else doing something else? Of course not. But, notes Kim Roman at Marketing Automation Times, that's exactly how new subscribers feel when your email program ... more

One of the rules of traditional brainstorming is... "Don't criticize anyone's ideas." But does that work? "Criticism is really good for the imagination," Jonah Lehrer explains in this week's episode of Marketing Smarts. more

B2B salespeople spend roughly two-thirds of their time selling in virtual environments—via the Web and telephone—yet most companies haven't adapted their sales skills or content marketing tools to deal with this new reality, according to a new report by Corporate Visions. more

"Doing keyword research is like being a detective: you're always searching for those tiny but valuable clues that decide the fate and future of a case you are handling," writes Lior Levin in an article at MarketingProfs. If you're serious about words like sales, profits, and conversions, Levin argues, your research ... more

When dealing with the ever-evolving world of social media, marketers must be nimble and adaptive if they're going to keep up with the migration patterns of their audiences. In that sense, newly ascendant social network Pinterest has much to offer marketers. more

Shake the cobwebs from your old-school marketing theories, and give them a long, hard look. Are those traditional ideas helping you meet your content marketing goals? If not, consider dramatically changing your approach to content marketing in today's more engaged, networked world.But where do you begin to overhaul your thinking? ... more

When you're thrilled with the results your SEO program generates, you might not ask many questions about how it's done—and let potentially problematic practices go undetected until it's too late. "Companies may not realize [when] employees may be taking shortcuts," writes Douglas Karr at the Marketing Tech blog. "And companies ... more

Marketing on multiple platforms reveals your storytelling savvy, and it has the potential to make your business more relevant to prospects. But it also demands finesse, consistency, and elements of surprise. It's a game of long-term seduction rather than "one and done" communication—that is, a short-term message via a single ... more

"[F]or most messages," writes Carolyn Kopprasch at the Emma blog, "email is just a starting point for a customer who will then go on to purchase, donate, share, comment, or RSVP." So how do you consistently encourage subscribers to take action without turning them off? "From the email itself to the ... more

Although he has helped numerous clients  formulate content marketing plans, Mike Sweeney encountered what he terms "planner's block" when attempting to devise a plan for his own company. How could that happen? "The answer was simple," he writes in the Marketing Trenches blog. "I wasn't asking myself the right questions, and ... more

How far would you go to create the sort of shareable content that goes viral? Would you—for instance—risk your reputation with a video that's almost certain to invite accusations of fakery? In a post at ReelSEO, Jeremy Scott discusses a video that attracted plenty of hits—and skepticism. Did a GForm case ... more

So you've developed a groundbreaking inbound content marketing effort that's pulling in prospects in droves! Congratulations! But here's a question: Have you adapted your internal processes to match your prospects' newly acquired expectations? As Ardath Albee notes in a post at the Marketing Interactions blog, when a clever new outreach effort ... more

A few minutes after sending an email to thousands of subscribers, you notice that something isn't right. Perhaps it's a typo that slipped through your copyediting process; or maybe you sent your message to the wrong list. What should you do? "Exactly how you respond depends on the degree of severity ... more

The year 2011 was pivotal for the mobile industry, marked by a near doubling in smartphone ownership, consumers' growing appetite for mobile social content, and tablets emerging as a formidable fourth screen, according to a new report by comScore. more

You probably optimize the content at your website—but what about SEO for less formal interaction at blogs and social networks? "B2B marketers should be looking to expand the reach of their social media efforts to drive more traffic back to their websites (and their calls-to-action)," writes Jeffrey L. Cohen at the ... more

In an age when prospects and clients want product and service information right here right now, B2B marketers have increasingly embraced content marketing to deliver it. According to MarketingProfs' latest study, B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, nine out of 10 B2B marketers are using content marketing to help ... more

In the US, Hispanics are more likely than blacks and Caucasians to log in to various social networking sites on a daily basis or more often, according to a new American Pulse Survey from BIGinsight. more

You've produced content for your website, blog, and social networks... but why stop there?  Extend your content's reach to SlideShare's 60 million monthly users, who view a whopping 130 million pages on the site. How can you best make use of SlideShare? David Armano offers these five tips for "Optimizing ... more

If you've been an email marketer for awhile, you know how swiftly the landscape can change and evolve: What worked in 2011 won't necessarily work in 2012. Scary thought, yes. But some trends do indeed prove timeless. In an article at MarketingProfs, Maciej Ossowski offers a list of 2011 trends that will ... more

Naming a company or a product used to involve a number of factors—none of which related to SEO considerations. But no longer. "It doesn't matter whether your brand is online or not, "[I]t will be googled, " says Ann Smarty in an article at MarketingProfs. "So, before you choose your brand ... more

To say that marketing execution has changed dramatically over the last 10 years is about the grossest kind of understatement. Then why do all the models of the marketing function look about the same as they always have? more