If you want to measure the impact of social-media campaigns on your brand reputation, try a free tool called Trendrr, Warren Katz suggests. "I haven't been using it long," he says at the CMG Partners Perspectives blog, "but so far I've found it incredibly useful for gauging the play [that] ... more

"We fuss over subject lines, offers, calls-to-action, and targeting, but sometimes a lack of response is simply a matter of timing," says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog. "By the time the recipient checked her inbox, your carefully crafted email was buried by Facebook alerts, ... more

In a post at the MineThatData blog, Kevin Hillstrom poses a scenario in which 100 of your online customers abandon their shopping carts on a Monday. The following day, after a targeted email campaign, 30 click through and half make a purchase. "So these are good numbers, right?!" he asks. ... more

When analyzing the success of your email campaigns, you might be staring right at useful data that goes unused. Take, for instance, the amount of newsletter copy used to tease an article on your website. "Can we really expect more clicks just by playing with paragraph length and number?" asks ... more

"[T]he degree of uncertainty in business and consumer markets has soared," says John Quelch in a post at Harvard Business Online. "Yet, to conserve cash, most firms are reducing spending on the market research that would help manage that uncertainty." He reports that spending has dropped for four straight quarters, ... more

In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters significantly outperform those with more than 35. "According to the email marketing software-on-demand provider," says Magill, "messages with subject lines ... more

"Very few executives give a hoot about opens and clicks," says Stephanie Miller in a post at the Daily Fix blog. "In fact, very few marketers even look at their email system reports (I can't make this stuff up!)." The problem, she argues, is that these types of data cannot ... more

In a post at the iKnowtion blog, Sreekanth Sampathkumaran tells a story about healing his back: though the injury was minor, simple movements became painful. "While searching for relief, instead of sticking with my typical remedy of sleeping it off, I decided to apply analytics to find the best solution," he ... more

We all know that content is king in search engine optimization, but in a recent Search Engine Land post, Daniel Waisberg reminds us that "usability is queen." According to Waisberg, the synergy between content and usability design can be a powerful generator of website conversion rates. To help search marketers optimize ... more

In a post at the Internet Marketing Strategy blog, Ian Lurie claims that you can create a successful marketing analytics program in just 27 easy steps. It sounds like a lot of steps—and there is a lot to consider—but his process is both comprehensive and straightforward. Lurie begins by explaining ... more

Click Forensics has released statistics for the first quarter of 2009 revealing that 13.8 percent of clicks are a result of fraudulent behavior. Although that figure is down from 17.1 percent in Q4 2008, it's still too high for search marketers' comfort as they watch every penny spent and earned. ... more

As summer approaches, and your subscribers begin to go on holidays, you might wonder whether you should scale back your email campaigns. But in a post at the Email Experience Council blog, Ryan Allis says, "Not only should you feel comfortable sending out your messages over the summer, it's also ... more

When hunkering down to face a challenging economic climate, you might become so focused on survival that you don't notice when the storm begins to weaken. In an article at BusinessWeek, Gene Marks explains how to spot true signs of a recovery: Pay attention to the Consumer Confidence Measure, released by ... more

In a guest post at the Solutions for Southeast Asia blog, Barbara Pezzi of Swissotel explains how the introduction of advanced segmentation in Google Analytics enables her to group website visitors into highly specialized segments. "We are no longer limited to tracking paid vs organic traffic," she says, "but can ... more

You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, "I have seen an uptick in retailers utilizing customer reviews to sell products in their emails." Why? Because user-generated reviews ... more

As B2B budgets tighten, CFOs are becoming more demanding. Show me the results! Justify the expense! What more can a CMO do? In a recent post at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee offers some words of advice on producing the cold, hard facts that CFOs are desperate to see ... more

While most retailers have experienced various degrees of tumult during this recession, the picture isn't entirely gloomy. A recent survey by Internet Retailer, for instance, shows many online-only businesses have maintained—or are improving—their email marketing conversion rates. Of the 275 retailers surveyed: 56.4 percent report their ... more

"I run into lot of people who confuse web reporting with web analytics," says Anil Batra in a post at his Web Analysis blog. He illustrates the confusion with the story of a marketing manager who believed her analytics needs were covered by a staffer proficient at pulling data. "Does ... more

"For marketers, it's very easy to get caught up in raw numbers," says Prashant Kaw in a brief video embedded in a post at the HubSpot blog. "Such as, 'Oh, I did 50,000 visitors to my site this month,' or 'I got 10,000 leads.' But it's very important to know ... more

Clearspring Technologies, which has helped everybody from WaPo to UCSF bring their branded wares to the mainstream, has put out a new tool that tells you how popular your widgets are on social networks. The ConnectedAds tool can follow the movement of your branded widget across 80 different social networks, ... more

Jon Miller wrote an interesting article for MarketingProfs last summer that deserves a second look. Its title: "The Definitive Guide to B2B Marketing in a Recession." ('Nuff said?) One point that stands out in the article is this: a downturn is no time to be faint of heart. Instead, Miller ... more

In Part I, we suggested a few cuts to make in your current marketing budget to help keep your bottom line healthy during these tough times. Now let's take a look at a few line items you should probably keep intact—or even fund a bit more. According to Pat LaPointe ... more

In a post at the Istobe blog, Chris Herrick reports on key takeaways he picked up at the Predictive Analytics World and eTail West conferences held earlier this year. In his view, the lessons include simplicity and restraint. Here are two of his recommendations: Zero in on the metrics that matter. ... more

You closely monitor the results of your paid-search efforts. Shouldn't you do the same for your natural-search program? In a recent MarketingProfs article, Netconcepts' John Thielmann says measuring your natural search performance is not only a good idea, it's imperative if you're reporting progress to higher-ups. So, where to begin? By establishing ... more

Welcome to MarketingProfs' inaugural issue of Marketing in a Downturn. We are glad you signed on to receive these once-a-week guides to navigating rough economic seas—and safely making it through to the upturn. We will chart this course together. But if you wish to opt out, just click on the link below. ... more