The triumvirate of eBay, Amazon.com, and Craigslist sat atop the shopping and classifieds website rankings, with eBay clearly the leader, according to Hitwise data. more

Under normal circumstances, writes Dylan Boyd in a post at The Email Wars, the use of animated GIFs in email campaigns can be a dicey proposition. "[S]ometimes they work with a promo or special event," he says, "sometimes they just make things look cheap." Either way, it's a risk probably ... more

Here's a juicy tidbit to chew on: One of the reasons Facebook is such a force in the social scene is that it makes it easy to catch up with friends without actually having to talk to them. Yep, you got it: Your Newsfeed outfits you with their latest photos, blog ... more

Careful, now: New research posits that consumers may suffer paralysis by analysis if they aren't allowed to trust their guts when making buying decisions. In a recent post at the Neuromarketing blog, Roger Dooley cites two experiments regarding consumer decision-making reported in Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide: The Jam-Tasters. One group ... more

In a Pro article at MarketingProfs, Kathryn Roy discusses seven infectious diseases often found in B2B marketing efforts. And she not only explains how to diagnose each disorder but also provides cures that can lead a campaign back to health. Here are a few examples: Glitzitis: This "refers to companies that ... more

In a post at Deliverability.com, Andrew Kordek acknowledges the ongoing push for relevant email campaigns—sending the right message to the right person at the right time. But despite these discussions, he worries that email marketers stop short of demonstrating true R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the people on their email lists. "Are you ... more

Here's happy news for intrepid marketers seeking to more easily manage their brand reputations and promote their fab companies: in partnership with Sawhorse Media, Technorati has launched Twittorati, "where the blogosphere and twittersphere meet"! Here's why these two are a perfect new match for marketers: Sawhorse specializes in aggregating tweets from ... more

"Many senior sales executives are still looking for a predictable flow of leads at the end of a lead acquisition and nurturing 'funnel,'" says Francois Gossieaux in a post at the Emergence Marketing blog. But there's a problem with that expectation. "[T]he funnel metaphor," he argues, "is broken." Here's why:  ... more

The top online-retail category by average order size ($) in July was computer hardware, followed by the automotive category and consumer electronics. more

You probably invite customers to join your email list during their online activity, but do you have list-building strategies for offline interactions? Andy Sernovitz uses a post at Damn! I Wish I'd Thought of That! to suggest offline methods for generating permission-based subscriptions. Here are two low-tech options you may ... more

July's top online retailers—based on conversion rate—were food home-delivery and mail-order service Schwan's, Green Mountain Coffee's Keurig brewing system, and florist ProFlowers, according to Nielsen Online. more

"Marketing analytics used to simply be about measuring the hits on your website and the number of opens and clicks on emails," says Lisa Cramer in an article at MarketingProfs. But leads no longer move through the traditional buy cycle, and your marketing efforts likely reflect these changes, which means basic ... more

Even if you use the product or service you sell, that doesn't mean you know what it's like to be a customer. The reason, argues Rohit Bhargava in a post at the Influential Marketing Blog, is that most business owners or execs don't go through the buying process. He uses ... more

Applying SEO best practices like keyword research and link-building is a surefire way to start increasing your search rankings. However, in a recent Search Engine Watch post, Chris Boggs warns us not to forget the non-SEO ways to get websites consistently ranked for relevant desired terms. "SEO involves getting lots ... more

Sales techniques that succeed in a strong economy can work against you in a weak one. The reason, says Bruce Wedderburn in the whitepaper "Five Questions Your Clients Are Asking," published by Huthwaite, Inc, is that buyers' motivations are different in growth periods (expansion, corporate growth and hiring) than they ... more

"Imagine if a customer in one of your stores asked a rep where to find a particular product and that rep directed [her] to a door that led to the alley behind the store," says Chad White in a post at the Retail Email Blog. "What do you think that ... more

OK, we admit it: For a platform as popular as it's become, Twitter's surprisingly hard to understand to the untrained eye. What are all those messages? IMs? Forum discussions? Public IMs? And what the heck is a "tweeple," for goodness sake?!! Most importantly: What's with this rumor that Twitter can ... more

Heads-up: It's time to take a fresh look at LinkedIn. That's what Diana Huff says in a recent guest post at the Savvy B2B Marketing blog. "In the last year or so, LinkedIn has significantly increased its functionality," she reports, "making the business networking site a great way to gather ... more

"The business environment is shifting so fast these days that I'm continuously seeing companies jump from one idea to the next in some kind of frenzied attempt to force results to happen on their time line," says Ardath Albee at the Marketing Interactions blog. "If something doesn't work immediately, they ... more

"In email marketing, we seem to tolerate a level of mystery that would not be acceptable in any other channel," says Stephanie Miller in a post at the Daily Fix blog. Take deliverability: You might know, for instance, that you have a "delivered" rate of 95 percent. "This is a ... more

What are two of the biggest obstacles companies face in link marketing? Consultant Justilien Gaspard believes they are: (1) developing linkable content, and (2) making people aware of it. In a recent Search Engine Watch article, he offers advice on how to overcome these Big Two and start linking up with hot ... more

If you worry that an email with a horizontal (left-to-right) scroll will confuse your subscribers, Dylan Boyd is prepared to disagree. Unless it tests well, he doesn't suggest using this type of scroll as a regular feature, but he does think it can serve as a useful interrupter that spurs engagement. ... more

Recently, TubeMogul reported that Twitter refers some of the least-fickle viewers to video sites, with tweeties watching videos 36.91 percent longer than those referred by Facebook, and 49.98 percent longer than those referred by Digg. Got dreams of broadcasting live to this eager bunch? Now you can! Ride the statistical wave ... more

"In light of the economy, more and more marketers are concerned with late-stage leads," says Karen Landis in a recent post at the My Educated Guess blog. "While many marketers won't discount [newer] leads entirely, they will stop messaging them on the theory that they are too early-on in the ... more

As the global recession grinds on, marketers continue to turn to email marketing to drive sales. But those efforts often confront email-deliverability obstacles: In the US and Canada, more than 20% of commercial email doesn't reach subscribers' inboxes. more