When creating a business card, keep in mind that it will be a memento in someone's wallet or purse to remind them of your meeting. So make sure your card includes these top 5 elements of the well-designed business card. more

Does your website make it easy for customers to find and purchase the products they want? Here's a 10-point outline of an online merchandising strategy. Have you covered all your bases? more

This week's guest , Laura Ries, believes in tying a brand's core message (the "verbal nail") to a striking visual image (the "visual hammer"). Her premise is straightforward: To leave a lasting impression on the mind of customers and potential customers, brands must rely on images because they wield a ... more

"In sports, the best coaches find hidden talent to help propel their teams," writes Greg Zakowicz at the Bronto blog. "In email marketing, that means finding underused tactics." A perfect example of a hidden email talent is the use of symbols in subject lines. Since few email marketers are using subject-line symbols, they can be a great ... more

When everything's going well, it's easy to find yourself in an email-marketing rut. Perhaps you've gotten complacent with ROI that's good—but not great. Or maybe you're boring your customers with the same campaigns they've seen a thousand times. "Whether you want to shake things up or simply polish off the dullness," writes ... more

We've talked plenty about Pinterest's potential to spread the gospel of your awesomeness, but what about the lessons its success can teach us about creating fashionably cutting-edge Web design? Here's a big one: According to Babar Suleman, writing at The Daily Egg, "Pinterest's meteoric rise to social media ubiquity is powered by its ... more

Visual content is crazy-hot these days, and the hottest place for sharing it is Pinterest. Traffic to the virtual pinboard site has shot up exponentially in the past year. But how effectively are businesses sharing their visual content on Pinterest? Unfortunately, not very. Most companies grab images from wherever they ... more

Marketers remain bullish on the potential of QR codes, but a Temkin Group study in April found that only 24% of US adults are actually using them. So notes Dan Wilkerson in an article at Mashable. According to Wilkerson, there are five common mistakes being made by QR-code marketers that are turning ... more

We have short attention spans, and we don't have a ton of time to learn. Plus, the success models of companies like Kickstarter make it clear that the case-study video plays a pivotal role in today's business success stories. So how do you make a crowd-pleaser video that gets real results? ... more

Websites are great ways to relay lots of information—and that's a blessing and a curse, as business sites pack in as much about themselves, their products, their customers, their services, as they possibly can. Against that daily data barrage, the use of imagery can pay off big, KISSmetrics tells us in ... more

Small businesses can learn lots from design firm Method's socially appealing philosophy. Case in point: Method's Interaction Design Director Ben Fullerton recently wrote an eloquent article for Fast Company about turning website design pixels into a brand experience for users. Here are our favorite bits of advice from the article: Embody what you ... more

The growing popularity of visual content platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram shows that people crave eye candy. But do companies need to hire expensive graphic designers or buy expensive software to create visual content? Not at all. Businesses of all sizes can craft inexpensive visual content that engages current ... more

Let's say your small business doesn't have the resources to hire a professional copywriter for email campaigns. That means you—or someone on your overtaxed team—is trying to create effective messages without a solid knowledge of what works and what doesn't. So, what must you know? In a post at his blog, pro ... more

"When you think about your creative content, many factors come into play: your copy, your font choices, the layout and, of course, the images you choose to communicate your message," writes Jessica Hughes in a guest post at the Emma blog. "In short, looks count," she says. When you're selecting stock ... more

Even when elements of your email campaigns deliver strong results, there's always a chance you can do better. Consider the case of a tried-and-true call-to-action (CTA) button used by HubSpot. During a slight redesign, the inbound marketing firm decided to test a few alternatives. "We were pretty shocked to discover that ... more

"Countless small businesses send out countless emails every day," writes Gary Levitt in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you were to sift through campaigns and results (as I do), the mountains of data would suggest two breeds of email campaign: the outstanding … and the invisible. Your emails need to ... more

"Designing emails that look great no matter where they're read can be quite the challenge," writes Justine Jordan at the Litmus blog. "As more people read email on mobile devices, chances are your recipient might view your email ... on a mobile phone as well as on their desktop." To help you ... more

"Despite some predictions that mobile SEO will be of negligible importance, mobile search has grown 5x in the past 5 years—far outpacing PC searches—and the growth is only set to continue with the rapid uptick in smartphone sales," writes Lior Levin in a guest post at HubSpot. That means if you ... more

In 2008, Lifehacker published a list of 10 ways to get blogging done without it becoming a chore. "Writing your blog should be a fun way to stretch your mind and stay connected to trends, friends, and the greater world," they note, "not another computer task."  Best practices for blogging haven't ... more

You're seeing tablets more and more: on subways, in planes and in waiting rooms. To ensure you don't miss out during this cultural switch in reading habits, a number of publications have covered ways to ensure your site is tablet-friendly. We've decided to highlight the tips provided by CIK Marketing, as ... more

In our latest Marketing Smarts Podcast, we talked to Alicia Arnold, senior VP of digital at Hill Holliday, about the myths surrounding creativity. At the center of our conversation was one myth: Creativity cannot be taught. more

The average email subscriber faces an inbox filled with clutter. Once she sorts through a variety of personal, professional and marketing messages, she won't look kindly on messy or incoherent email offers. "Without a well-crafted, clear and consistent design for your brand, your email is going nowhere in a hurry," ... more

Part three of this five-part video series on digital loyalty explores customer understanding of loyalty programs, social platforms and access devices (e.g., mobile), common user-interface challenges, and alignment of loyalty programs with business goals. more

Building a mobile application means winning more traction for your efforts: You can be with users all the time! But often, developers and execs might not quite "see" your great idea; instead, they see challenges and unplanned costs. It's time to educate yourself about such obstacles, so your next app proposal ... more

One aspect of being social is relaying information as efficiently as possible. But data is dense, and we have more of it to sift through than ever before. To help you get your data across in an eye-catching way that resonates, Fast Company offers a list of five tools businesses can ... more