Marketing Article Index » More marketing articles
- Wherefore Art Thou, J. Peterman? The Quest for Social Engagement
J. Peterman is a brand with far more personality than most. However, somehow, it got lost along the winding road to the social Web, and it's a tragedy that's costing the cataloger. Here are our ideas to engage the J. Peterman fan base.
Many companies at all stages invest time in planning but lack the processes and leadership needed to ensure a strategy achieves the desired results. Failure is expensive and wastes precious resources. To avoid both and to achieve execution success, check out these four tips.
Many career-minded marketing professionals we coach tell us they are too busy working in their career to work on it. Sound familiar? If so, it's time to switch from autopilot to manual mode and deliberately manage your career.
First impressions matter a great deal. That's why you need to structure your sales calls to establish rapport and drive toward a sense of trust and camaraderie with your prospects. Here are three tips for success on that first call.
A lot of marketing organizations today think that they are on the path to greater insight because they now have analytics technology. The reality is that it takes a significant investment in four foundational areas to ensure analytics success. Here's a look at each area.
Want to market your small business online? Doing so isn't difficult. Just make sure to produce quality content and authentic messages. Here are seven ways to get started with your online marketing.
Through apps or the mobile Web, on a phone or tablet, consumers are watching more and more video on mobile, and now you have some figuring out to do lest you get stuck in the last century. Here are seven steps to get started planning your mobile content strategy.
Many companies turn to newer, hotter media and technology when they want to increase profits. But being successful isn't about tech; it's about effectively engaging customers. Here are three ways to do that.
Google Analytics is a great free tool for e-commerce websites. It can allow marketers and webmasters to record specific data about items purchased, learn how a user navigates the website, and focus on specific, actionable ways to increase sales.
Social networks were meant for real humans—for real-life conversations about real-life things. But, of course, we marketers saw an opportunity. Social media can become a powerful medium... so long as you preserve a human face while acting on behalf of your company.
Value propositions are the heart, soul, and epicenter of a business. They reflect its market positioning while communicating the core promises it makes to its customers. Let's look at three smart organizations innovating their value propositions through mobile.
Though email campaign process metrics such as delivery, open, and click-through rates have their place, if you don't look beyond them... the true impact of your email marketing—and opportunities for continuous improvement—will go undetected.
Positive ratings and 5-star reviews from online consumers are powerful marketing content, because consumers trust other consumers for purchasing advice. But few marketers have integrated reviews into their social marketing.
The time has come for air travel and hospitality brands to address an existential threat to the travel industry: Customer loyalty has all but vanished.
Moving from one-size-fits-all broadcasting to highly targeted communications that are personalized and timely, and in the consumers' preferred channel... that's the proven path to marketing success in today's world.
One of the toughest marketing jobs today is working for an app developer. Here's how text messaging can attract new users and increase engagement with customers.
The if-then logic of the marketing automation process can lead to a snarl of over-communication, with only a loose relevance to the recipient's true interests and needs. It doesn't have to be that way.
Mobile is a boon to the customer experience, because mobile provides myriad ways for marketers to delight customers and improve their experiences in ways previously unavailable.
Content marketing is not rocket science, but it can appear so in the absence of a clear-cut strategy—and planning, without which your content marketing machine will be firing on three cylinders instead of being a turbocharged V8 behemoth.
Here's the quick-and-dirty guide to being an SEO "expert," which merely means you know more than the people around you. This article will accomplish that. Well, not really... But the building blocks are all here.
When the need arises to train a large department within your organization on a new marketing campaign, or you find yourself having to relay crucial marketing information to partners or associates in a short amount of time, traditional e-learning methods just won't cut it.
Whether you think it, believe it, or discard it... the truth is that buyer personas are the start of every successful campaign. Every marketer knows that understanding your buyer is key, but every smart marketer knows that standard demographics just won't cut it anymore.
Globalization brings exciting opportunities and enormous challenges for all parts of a business, but nowhere is that more apparent than in the marketing department. Here's how to avoid five common European marketing pitfalls.
Millennials grew up with the Internet, and they are used to having everything at their fingertips. After interviews with 21 global marketing executives, we defined a five-step plan for improving your marketing to Gen-Y.
Your customers, whether consumer or executive audiences, expect you to use the same mobile technology that has improved their lives to also improve the products and services they use: your offerings.
The retail industry has recognized that critical events in customers' lives can shift loyalties, or serve as opportunities to retain or upsell via event-driven marketing. That approach can also work with B2Bs...
So where does the line get drawn between a creative, compelling email subject line and one that is deceptive (and, therefore, illegal)?
Marketing professionals can use their mobile phones to maintain efficiency on the go and professionally manage day-to-day communication demands by applying the following tips and mobile features.
Like the word "content" itself, "content strategy" is often an ambivalent term. But, however you define it, any good content strategist should have these seven skill sets.
If Pinterest is great for driving referral traffic, Instagram takes the lead in customer retention and engagement. The practices outlined here are only just starting to spread, and they will continue to do so as more brands adopt Instagram.
Lead nurturing and dinner parties require the host (marketer) to build and maintain relationships through conversation, rapport, and trust. And both involve careful planning...
As any marketer knows, sales are mission-critical to the success and survival of all companies. But what many a marketer doesn't yet fully understand is how many ways mobile can be wielded to stimulate sales... more so than via any other medium.
Why do rock stars have fans but companies have customers? The short answer: that's what rock stars and companies want to have. But if you think like a rock star, you can cultivate an army of fans for your brand. Here are four steps you need to take.
Although the dawn of the Web was nearly two decades ago, many small and midsize businesses (SMBs) still have a limited, ineffective online presence. Let's examine the top reasons SMBs are failing online.
Understanding how the customer behavior you can monitor influences the buying process... is key. Here are three areas to monitor and how to tie them to more outcome-based metrics.
The cost of managing an online crisis or reputation issue can seem limitless. Worse, bad news travels online at turbo-charged speeds: A negative tweet or nasty video can end up on mainstream media within hours. It pays to plan ahead.
In the '80s, in the days of Michael Milken and Gordon Gekko, the rule on the street was "eat your young." Nice guys finish last. Hold your information. Keep the rules to yourself. Win at all costs. No matter who or what you have to trample. But not anymore...
Conversion-rate optimization can be intimidating, especially since marketers don't have many sources of clear advice on how to avoid common pitfalls, generate strong ideas, and run tests that get real results.
The battle for attention—and, in turn, engagement—has escalated into an all-out war by marketers... and their target audiences are its victims. This article explores how to innovate brand engagement via mobile, providing three examples of companies that are doing just that.
The combination of search and social is revolutionary. Find out the search capabilities of Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ and how to search-optimize your presence on them.
The iPad is one of the best ways marketers can enhance their brand image and interact with today's mobile generation, but marketers are struggling to find innovative ways that encourage and enhance customer conversation. Here are a few basic steps you should keep in mind.
As consumers become increasingly more connected, so too will multiple shopping channels. The industry has dubbed this shift the "omni-channel" experience. Here's how, by embracing this approach, two brands significantly increased sales.
What really drives success in B2B marketing can be hard to decipher. Here are seven misconceptions about what makes for truly successful B2B marketing—and how you can steer your efforts in the right direction.
This article will help writers gain a better understanding of Google Authorship and Author/Agent rank, learn to set up their own Google Author accounts, and help protect their online work from piracy.
Though some forward-thinking businesses are already using Instagram, chances are you aren't yet, and neither are your competitors. With its universal appeal, however, Instagram is not a medium marketers should ignore. And you'd better move quickly if you want to make an impact.
Mobile devices are the first thing people reach for in the morning, and the last thing they look at before going to bed. Mobile is at the center of your customers' lives. Now, with mobile, you can be at the center of your customers' experiences.
The combination of search and social is revolutionary. Find out the search capabilities of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+—and how to search-optimize your presence on them.
Social media is quickly changing what's expected in today's customer service world. But many companies are still struggling to find a way to fit it into their customer service processes.
Anticipation and planning improve your ability to effectively cope with emergencies such as a storm—or a career crisis—even when its timing is uncertain. Those who are always prepared for an unexpected job change are likely to suffer less than those who are caught by surprise.
Weight Watchers is clearly the dominant company among weight-loss centers and programs. So what are the company's marketing secrets? Let's take a look at six savvy principles Weight Watchers has implemented to solidify its position at the top of the weight-loss stack.
Content is the treasure trove that connects customers to companies now. And where there's gold, you're bound to find miners. The problem is that far too many will be swinging a wimpy little pickax and struggling mightily to break any ground.
In the final installment of this series, we cover three mistakes: Your content doesn't tell a story; your content never leaves home; and your content never grows up.
Your "marketing universe" contains everyone you can sell to; you must expand it, or your business will stagnate. Even if you build a receptive, high-conversion audience, but then can't increase its size, you'll soon be sunk.
What's the best way to establish connections with video viewers? Storytelling. But a great story does not guarantee success. Your video's genre plays a large role in determining whether you'll meet your campaign goals.
Most people's perception of that Millennials don't like radio could do with a splash of cold, hard facts. Here are five ways you can put this phenomenal medium to work for you to reach Millennials.
The next time you confront a marketing problem, consider George Polya. What can marketers learn from the Muhammad Ali of mathematics? Problem-solving in four steps, of course. Here's a brief outline of those steps.
Landing pages aren't dead—or even unimportant—but you shouldn't be treating them as a standalone strategy. Rather, you should be focusing on the big picture: optimizing the entire customer experience.
The rise of real-time bidding (RTB) for online display advertising now allows marketing departments and agencies to build lean display ad campaigns. That's because RTB allows marketers new ways to optimize and adjust display ad campaigns on the fly.
Consumers are using social media to interact with brands, but most customer complaints and comments there remain unanswered. Big mistake! You must deal with these five types of complainers on social media.
Does your content sound like everyone else's? Did you do any research before producing your content? Do you always use the same media format? And do you tailor your content according to venue and audience?
Social media is full of numbers, but most of the time we don't use them in any actionable way... because social metrics are often too complicated. But here are some easy (but rough) calculations that will give you a general idea of success. They may not be perfect, but they will give you actionable insights you need to succeed online.
Changes in technology, marketing channels, and customer behavior challenge a lot of tried and true tactics that worked in the past. The result is fear, uncertainty, and doubt about what will work. That kind of FUD often stands in the way of necessary action.
I'm a solo-preneur and a guy, and I run a women's jewelry and accessories store. I needed data to understand women's jewelry-buying habits. So I designed a survey, ran a contest, and marketed it via lifestyle bloggers. All for less than $350. Here's how.
Seagate, a leading provider of hard drives and storage solutions, realized that they knew very little about a very big target market: college students. So it conducted focus groups to gain insight. Looking to host your own focus group? Here are steps you can take to put together a program.
Focusing on ways to increase customer retention rates is a key to real growth, but you also need to determine whether certain customers are the right fit for your business. Ask these four questions to help you decide just that.
Many marketing organizations are now placing an emphasis on the role of teleprospecting as a component of their B2B lead generation strategy. Here are seven steps (and an RFP outline) that can help you locate, evaluate, and select the right teleprospecting partner.
Many B2B marketers are still avoiding social media. They wonder whether it works and how in the world they can tell whether it's working. Let's put that excuse to rest once and for all, shall we?
"Content marketing strategy" is a phrase that gets thrown around quite a bit, but how well do we really understand it? Not well at all, which is why content marketers make these 10 content marketing mistakes.
Measurability is the battle cry of every digital marketer. The challenge is how to decide which measurements make sense based on campaign objectives. The ultimate challenge is how to optimize in real time to maximize impact on brand-marketing or direct-marketing objectives.
Getting caught up in the content marketing frenzy is easy. But content delivered in the right channel, but at the wrong time in the customer's buying process, can be a wasted touch point. You need to synchronize mix and content with the customer buying journey and lifecycle.
Although the exponential increase in the availability of customer and business data has enhanced our ability to measure success, it has also increased our chances of misunderstanding and misinterpreting it. Avoid these common errors when setting out to measure your marketing efforts
The idea of unlimited customer insights, in real time, guiding every decision, is attractive. But before you embark on a Big Data project, separate the buzz from the reality of turning the hype into insight, business value, and, ultimately, increased revenue.
We are in the age of information overload, with a plethora of blogs for every topic imaginable. We don't have time to read everything. And we need to maximize value: We read content to learn, after all. Which is why marketers must create purposeful content.
Facebook presents a robust opportunity for your to reach potential and current customers. If used correctly, it increases brand awareness and advocacy, lowers service costs, and drives loyalty and incremental sales.
Content has always been, and will always be, the very foundation of marketing. Yet we are challenged with meeting the constant demand for consistently compelling content. These tactics will help you supply such content.
The most difficult task in marketing is to get people to take the action you want them to take. But once they have, getting them to take one more is so much easier—especially if you use "action trains."
Slapping a QR code on a handout or a poster is easy, but creating something useful takes thought and planning. So what are QR codes good for? Plenty, including for your events, if you use QR codes wisely.
Few things are as antithetical to good inbound marketing as purchasing a list of email addresses and blasting them with your latest campaign. You risk significant business damage. Here's what to do instead.
If you are on LinkedIn to really connect with people, LinkedIn Groups is where the party is. But to get the most out of LinkedIn Groups, you need to learn how to be the life of the party—not a wallflower or a party crasher. Here's how.
The final installment in this series answers three questions: What are the keys to successful nurture campaigns? What's an example of a typical nurture sequence? How do I select a marketing automation vendor?
Salespeople's lips moving—that's how deals get done. The entire deal rides on what you have to say even more than what you have to sell. So here's how you'd better the three deadly sins of sales messaging.
As storytelling becomes more and more part of marketing, another trend is coming clearly into focus: Brands are becoming more visual. Businesses that aren't ready for this visual revolution will get left behind.
He is, of course, David Ogilvy, who was given the educational opportunity of a lifetime at the University of Oxford, then expelled (for undisclosed reasons). Here are some lessons you can learn from his life and work.
Agile marketing prioritizes the needs of the customer and focuses on a rapid response to customers and current trends. Here are five reasons you should consider adopting the strategies of agile marketing.
This installment of our series answers two questions: Are blogging and social media viable lead nurture tools? And do all demographics respond well to lead nurturing?
Get this content marketing and PR tactic right, and you'll gain authority in your market, you'll improve your search engine optimization (SEO), and you'll spark conversations that can generate leads. Take these three steps to get started.
Much has been said and done regarding post-Penguin link-building. Here are some foolproof tips to not only secure improvements in your rankings but also survive the Penguin update successfully.
The next cultural shift your organization must pay attention to is mobile marketing—at the strategic planning level and at the tactical level. As a marketer, are you ready to ease your organization into mobile?
Just what the title says... along with an infographic and a host of examples, illustrations, and explanations.
When you see a screen displaying some type of message, image, or video, you are seeing a digital sign. These design tips will help you with your first digital display, and these marketing tips will help you create an ongoing digital display strategy.
You might already have your video marketing strategy figured out, but technology is always changing. Learn whether your video platform is future-proof, and get tips on making sure your video platform and enterprise videos remain accessible and useful as technology advances.
Online videos, which users love, have become useful marketing tools—for SEO, social media programs, and mobile and e-commerce. Here's how video will continue to make inroads in 2013.
As publishing evolves, writers need to expand their skill set to succeed. They must "own" the marketing and sales introduction of their books. What used to be done via a whirlwind multicity book tour is now done mostly online: more efficient, yes, but also a lot of work!
If you could speak with the brains behind TED Talks videos, Google's Webmaster community, and my.barakobama.com—and 17 other digital pioneers, what might they advise? Probably not what you'd expect.
This installment answers two questions: "What's the difference between inbound and outbound marketing? (and which is better?)" and "With so much content to create, where do we focus our efforts?"
Some common questions arise as you begin to implement a content marketing program: How often do I need to update my content? How often should I be publishing? What is too much? How do you find the time to publish?
Mobile marketing changes so rapidly that every day brings new developments, but some trends are here to stay, including the steady growth of mobile apps. To stay at the top of the mobile marketing game, you have to stay on top of these four trends.
Online marketers near and far resolved in January to get to the top of search results this year. If you're still stumped, here are a five simple yet effective tactics to employ during the rest of 2013.
This year's Super Bowl advertisers' near total failure to engage viewers beyond the TV screen led me to distill seven marketing lessons for any marketer looking to get more ROI from marketing investments.
China has become one of the most competitive consumer markets in the world. In such a dynamic market, building a strong brand is imperative if you are to be picked out from the clutter of products. But how, exactly?
Video has become one of the primary ways people consume information and companies market products. Clearly, marketers need to create engaging, fun videos as part of their marketing efforts. But where to start?
This week we answer two questions: When is a lead truly "Sales-ready," and what are some best-practices of lead scoring? And we offer two tools you can use to help you answer those questions for yourself.
I run a liquor store in a small town, and I've always dealt with instant communication among customers. An unhappy customer, can go down to the coffee shop and spread the word all over town. Now every business faces that same pressure online.
If you need some help with your online presence (think social media, blogs, local listings, and more...) here's a list of 10 do's and 10 don'ts to keep your marketing on the right track in 2013.
When pricey data tools are not an option, these few simple steps can help make data work for you by allowing you to derive insights that make the most impact across your department or organization.
Do you need a customer relationship management system to do lead nurturing? The short answer: A good CRM system is critical for getting all the value possible from your lead nurture and marketing automation investments.
It's time to get serious about your strategies for 2013. How will you treat your customers? How will you acknowledge their experiences and build their brand loyalty? How will you encourage interaction with multiple channels? The short answer: listen to them. The long answer: read this article.
Are you able to make sure you're properly resourcing your new-product portfolio? And do you have the tracking tools you need to make sure those products launch on time?
Learn how to measure and communicate the results of your website testing and optimization efforts in this third article of a three-part series on the steps you need to take to create a successful optimization program.
The torrent of content is increasing by the day. It's a good sign: Marketers are getting hip to the power of content. But the only way to survive the coming erosion of engagement with your content is to create a Great Content Brand.
Sure, marketing can generate leads—but leads, though necessary, aren't sufficient. You also need a sales rock star to convert those leads into sales. So, what qualities should your star have?
In Part 1 of "10 Personal Branding Trends for 2013," I shared five important personal branding trends for the New Year. In this second installment, I have five more trends for you to include in your personal branding strategy to make you stand out and achieve your goals.
This second article in a three-part series on website testing and optimization outlines the four key steps you'll need to take to implement your optimization program.
To answer the question of how much content you'll need for lead nurturing and marketing automation, let's look at how you pack for a long weekend of skiing with friends and family at a mountain resort.
When we hear a name, see a logo, whiff a particular scent, or encounter a sensation, we are conditioned—like Pavlov's dogs—to respond in a specific way.
The human brain is programmed to take in a large amount of information when it's presented in a combination of images, movement, and sound. The benefits of Web video as a marketing medium for business, then, suddenly becomes clear...
At the end of each year, personal branding guru William Arruda predicts what personal branding trends will be valuable to career-minded marketers in the coming year. He says many exciting changes are afoot that will simplify building your brand in 2013.
The second article in this series answers three questions: How do we get started with lead nurturing/marketing automation? What is lead nurturing and how does it work? How long till we see ROI on lead nurture?
Whether you've been testing for years or you're just getting started, your optimization program's success depends on careful planning, implementation, and measurement. This is the first in a three-part series of articles that looks at the steps involved.
Our penchant for snappy axioms—most of them a derivative of "set content free"—has put content marketing on a collision course with otherwise sensible business objectives.
If you're interested in optimizing your email campaigns at all, you'll steer well clear of the all-too-tempting email marketing sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth!
We might be living in the age of the Internet, but print collateral is still a part of just about every organization's marketing arsenal. Here's what you need to know to make good choices when purchasing printed materials.
This first article of a series focusing on lead nurturing asks and answers, "How do you achieve alignment between Marketing and Sales?" The series will cover 15 questions that are top of mind for companies.
Your PR folks have access to content treasure you didn't know you had—without weighing down your team or running up the bill. Here are some easy ways they can help you find those content gems.
Buyers don't care about your product or service. They just care about the problems and opportunities they face and how your expertise can help them. Accordingly, Marketing and Sales share a common goal: earning the right to connect with buyers.
Before SMBs embrace new advertising opportunities offered by social networks, they need to seriously consider how to go about measuring the ROI impact of such ad investments.
Reaching people is easy these days. For all intents and purposes, we no longer have technological barriers and geographical boundaries to worry about. Brand awareness is easy to come by. Or is it?
I know, I know. You're probably thinking, "Great, another end-of-the-year list!" I'm with you... But, it's easy to get contemplative when the last quarter draws to a close. And there are real lessons to learn. Here are eight of them for B2B marketers.
With the prevalence of the smartphone, email has become a virtually "always on" channel. It can lift retention, increase brand favorability, and create more payers out of players (or subscribers or members or prospects...).
Working through a six-month rebranding effort, we learned seven key lessons we deemed worthwhile to share in the hope they can help others who might face similar challenges.
We're astounded, amused, and occasionally awestruck by brand names that naming consultants and other marketers come up with over the course of a year. So here are the most inspired (and most misguided) product brand names of 2012.
Whatever happened to Cinderella's shoe? Who knows? It didn't go viral. Put another way: Story generation and the way we develop content have changed, so you must change, too—and answer these four questions.
Again, that time of year has come. It's predictions season... And in the spirit of the season, here are 10 marketing trends of 2012 that will grow even more prominent in 2013.
Marketing is often viewed as a cost center, and marketers meet resistance when their budgets are being approved. But Marketing is an asset, and you need to position it to your CEO in terms of the revenue it delivers. Here are some best-practices that can help you do that.
Whiteboards are an essential visual storytelling tool that you as a marketer can help create for salespeople to differentiate your company from the competition—and get customers and prospects to choose you.
When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, millions lost electricity, heat, and water. But just a few days later, many companies promoting to those millions had—cluelessly—gone back to business as usual. Here is a list for brands that "surged" and brands that "sank" in Sandy's aftermath.
Protecting your brand, one of the most fundamental aspects of your market presence, is not something that should be taken lightly or ignored. From the very beginning of your business, you need to create and maintain a solid intellectual property (IP), patent, and copyright strategy.
Whether you're looking to move beyond the occasional tweet or you're aiming to further polish your approach, here are some tips for how you, as a B2B marketer, can take full advantage of Twitter as a marketing tool.
Any e-commerce site owner knows the frustration resulting from the abandonment of a full shopping basket. But the most likely causes of a high rate of abandonment are few, and they're relatively simple to rectify. Here are three key areas that can generate improved conversions if you pay attention to them.
Online video is a highly engaging and versatile tool for B2B marketing and lead generation, including tradeshow marketing. This brief case study shares how a B2B technology company used online video to increase in-person tradeshow meetings with targeted decision makers by 218%.
Don't just try to move up a few places in search results with your SEO efforts; rather, turn a visit to your website into a better experience and help your site to naturally grow in popularity.
As marketers, we instinctively realize it's impossible to pinpoint when our prospects will be buying. That's why it's critical not just to keep in touch but also to make sure your company shows up in all of the right places when the prospect is selectively attracted to buy from you.
Your banner ads aren't all about the click-throughs and immediate purchases. Brand retention and recognition are key goals of online advertising, because you want customers to seek you out when ready to make purchases.
Big Data, applied to marketing, is transforming how marketers in myriad industries attempt to reach consumers. But achieving meaningful returns from Big Data investments can be an elusive goal. Here are five of the best ways to increase the ROI you achieve on your Big Data expenditures.
Have you ever wondered whether a Facebook contest will work for your B2B company? Here are some helpful tips to consider before creating a Facebook contest.
Although social media is a relatively new marketing channel, there is fairly strong consensus that it can help with business growth. What few people realize, though, is that you can actually drive direct sales from social media—provided you have the right strategy in place.
Facebook's Open Graph is a formidable force that is changing the way brands and consumers interact. As 2013 approaches, more brands will try to quantify the ROI of their Facebook marketing investments, and the Open Graph provides significant opportunities to do just that.
Holiday marketing can be tough. But some of the coolest holiday marketing campaigns of years past can prove instructive, so we've identified five campaigns, along with takeaways, to help your holiday marketing.
Almost everyone would agree that content must be relevant. But what is the best way to measure relevancy? Many of the ways are complex, but here's a simpler, three-step process any marketer can use to link interaction (behavior) with content and a method for measuring relevancy.
Let's face it, video is hot—and everyone knows it. Video gets people more excited and engaged with the message we marketers are trying to convey than do paragraphs of writing. But one major problem most of marketers have with video is this: How the heck do you measure the success of a video?
Having a strong online presence is essential in today's economy, and an excellent way to ensure such a presence is to establish a blog that's connected to your company website.
The athletes competing at the London Olympics broke many records, but the number coming out of the Games that is most revealing for us is the worldwide audience: not the number of TV viewers worldwide, but the overwhelming number of global online spectators.
Retailers are planning now to deal with the oncoming consumer-oriented buying frenzy that is Black Friday. Here are eight tips for retailers on preparing a checkout line for the crowds and excitement of an event filled with great opportunity—and great risk.
Speaking is one of the best ways to get the word out about your company. But getting speaking engagements can be tough, and many would-be public speakers struggle to find opportunities. Here are five ways to get speaking engagements that market your business.
Marketers today need to be more in tune with where, when, and how people want to receive messages. You need to build a presence in places that matter most, so that when people come looking, they find you. But that's just the beginning...
We're not talking "Welcome back John" and certainly not "Dear Valued Customer." Real personalization goes much deeper than that today. Call it Personalization 2.0: it means the delivering the right content to the right person at the right time on the right device, using the right channel, published on the right platform.
Every year, your stakes are at their highest during the holiday season, when deals and discounts have proven especially attractive to online shoppers. But what else can you do to boost sales online? And how do you keep shoppers coming back when the holidays are over?
Every year, retailers employ the same strategy: churn and burn through their email list in an attempt to cash in on subscribers over Black Friday/Cyber Monday. But remarketing can produce dollars without weighing down inboxes. You can send fewer emails yet achieve greater impact.
Your customers see the world through a lens of comparisons to meaningful reference points. That has repercussions for the design, measurement, and analysis of customer experiences—and, by extension, customer loyalty.
If you're not deriving customer intelligence from social media to inform your marketing decisions, you're missing an important opportunity to extend the reach and effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
When Pablo Sandoval faced Justin Verlander in Game 1 of the World Series, each had a season full of data at his disposal: what pitches Verlander tended to throw in certain situations, and which areas of the strike zone Sandoval was most likely to get a hit. We marketers can learn from that.
Not Apple, not General Motors, not Microsoft. If we're talking the really big brands currently dominating American consciousness, we're talking politics: the 2012 US presidential election. And the relative strengths and weaknesses of the competing campaigns point to some interesting lessons for brands.
Online video can engage an audience, help viewers retain information, and—for businesses—assist customers in remembering a brand. But how can you go one step further... and make your videos social?
Using paid search in conjunction with retargeting to drive conversions will boost marketing performance overall while amplifying the effectiveness of each tactic. That's because audiences are more likely to respond to marketing messages if they see the same message across multiple channels.
"Trick or Treat" may be a beloved phrase come Halloween, but it takes on a whole new meaning for many B2B marketers whenever a lead generation campaign gets deployed: Will its performance be an absolute treat bag full of results, or do the open, bounce-back, and click-through rates point toward some kind of trickery?
Have you heard of the phenomenon of “declared preference” versus “revealed preference?” If you haven’t, you may be in for a scary surprise this Halloween season if you are using “voice of the customer” research to drive the positioning and messaging for your product launch.
"Science + structure + metrics = successful outcomes" might not be the formula that immediately comes to mind for improving your teleprospecting results, but following it step-by-step is a great way to keep your teams focused and organized throughout a campaign.
Blogs provide an excellent platform for engaging with customers, but many bloggers make fundamental mistakes that can seriously harm their success. Here is a list of nine unforgivable blogging offenses you should avoid.
A rebrand requires a compelling vision that can be understood and articulated by all—starting with your company's leadership and employees. After all, if they haven't bought into the rebrand and the philosophy behind it, why in the world would anyone else?
Engendering trust in your company and understanding what your customers consider great service are vital to getting testimonials from them. Here's how we marketers can make it easy to get those customer testimonials.
Social media is a powerful thing, which is why it can wreak havoc if misused or misdirected. Here are five rules for building users' trust, interesting them in your business, and getting them to talk among themselves about it.
You still have a small window of time to enhance your holiday marketing initiatives before shoppers start checking off their wish lists. The most engaging medium to use with those initiatives is online video advertising. Here are five tips for smart video ads that will make the most of this holiday season for your business.
The most fundamental tenet of professional services marketing is trust. How can you expect potential clients to retain you if they don't trust you? You can't. Until recently, only one path led to trust between you and clients; now, another path is available to you.
That Google personalizes your search results is no secret. What that means for SEO is the inability to target particular groups of customers. But what if you could "fake" Google personalization to step into your customers' search shoes?
What do you get when you put an analyst, a consultant, a practitioner, and a ringleader on the same panel devoted to demand-gen data? You get smart answers to your most pressing questions. Here's a summary of the smarts that such a panel imparted at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum earlier this month.
Grab a smartphone. Key in your website/blog URL. If what you see is jumbled or distorted, you are likely losing tons of traffic—and conversions. Now that your audiences are mobile, is your website?
Marketing is a game of seasons and cycles. We deal with ups and downs, timing, and patience. It's a lot like farming, actually. Farmers have to deal with seasons, and so do you.
With the global economy still slumping, businesses and marketing companies are embracing new methods of social marketing as a way to spread the word in a more reliable, consistent, and cost-effective way. Are you taking advantage of all that LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter offer?
These days, if a marketing organization is to deliver value and show tangible results, it must build an analytical culture. If yours is like most marketing organizations, you already pack a strong dose of creativity. Analytics enables you to combine that creativity with fact-based decision-making—with powerful results.
People hate push marketing: It interrupts their favorite shows. It clutters their screens. And too often it has nothing to do with their interests. But customers don't mind messaging that's relevant to their needs. These four commandments will keep relevancy central to your messages.
Whether you like politicians or not, you've got to hand it to them: On either side of the aisle, they know how to connect with others and win hearts and minds. How they do it is how you can do it, too.
The more than 21 million US college students have a total discretionary spending power of $120 billion per year. No wonder marketers are excited about the opportunity at colleges. Here's a quick refresher course on how your brand can make a splash on campus.
When people want to know about you, your products, and your success story, the first thing they do is go to Google to see what you're doing, even before checking out your website. And if you look as if you don't have momentum, you may never get that call. It's not too late to start doing that PR stuff...
Content creation is a large part of what we do as marketers—and writing effective, well-optimized content is, well, hugely important. In fact, poorly written and unoptimized Web content can render you all but invisible on the Web. Not good...
Here's a quick crash course on the agile project management methodology and how I, as a marketer, applied it to managing my team. I hope to help you identify where you can improve your marketing project management.
What would you rather have, a big list with dismal conversion rates or a smaller list targeting a highly engaged audience? Thought so. For a healthy opt-in email list, quality always trumps quantity, and here are 19 budget-friendly ways to get the list you want.
Because nearly every person has at least one social media account, businesses have embraced social media to connect with people and drive promotions. A poorly managed social media campaign, however, can easily backfire.
Need a celebrity spokesperson? Bypass Hollywood and turn to YouTube. Established brands have been on a hiring wave of YouTube video stars, such as Toby "Tobuscus" Turner and iJustine, and there's no reason you shouldn't consider YouTube video stars, too.
The way teleprospectors phrase their questions and emphasize key messaging can be the difference between a fully qualified lead or a dial tone. But don't fall into the common trap of writing a script and trying to get everyone to follow it verbatim.
Social media marketing facilitates engagement with consumers in real time and contact with people who influence others. But it also allows you to microsegment audiences in a way that traditional marketing segmentation couldn't possibly.
A common misconception about lead nurturing in marketing automation systems is that its purpose is to "move prospects through the sales funnel." But it's not—at least not if you want the end result to be a sale...
Content creation is a huge opportunity for brands. But when done badly, it's a potentially huge fail that could tick people off—and damage your reputation, your brand, and your business. So Brands must adhere to some basic editorial standards, including these 10 ground rules.
Adding game mechanics to your marketing arsenal will accomplish more than adding a bit of fun: It adds incremental value. Here are three ways to make your existing customers more profitable via gamification.
Naming or renaming your business or product can be one of the toughest challenges you face. Whether you decide to do it yourself or hire help, you need to know some basics before launching out into the wide, sometimes-weird world of naming.
You've seen the hoarder reality shows... Email marketers can be hoarders, too: Do-nothing subscribers are likely piled up in you lists, getting in the way of your marketing. Get rid of the clutter and salvage what you can.
What causes customers to flock to one brand rather than another, even when their offerings aren't substantially different? The ability to listen to customers. But effective listening is not intuitive: We have to work at it. Here's how.
However efficient your organization's processes may be, you're almost certainly experiencing endless rounds of revisions in the development of creative—ads, graphics, emails, press releases... Follow these rules to stop the madness.
Companies are dispensing with the traditional website, instead integrating popular social networks right into their site and communicating with customers in real time via tweets and Facebook posts. Here's why you might want to follow their lead.
How social media is transforming the English language offers lessons for businesses and marketers. With the right strategy, marketers can use those insights to achieve social media wins for their organizations.
We often think of marketing as a way to acquire customers. But, today, business is more relationship-based and therefore just as focused on retaining customers. So how do the 7 Ps of marketing apply to customer retention?
This article teaches you the nitty-gritty of a powerful content marketing tactic that makes use of two of online marketing's most powerful tools: SEO and social media. The benefits you'll derive are invaluable.
Armed with smartphones, shoppers are going to brick-and-mortar stores to evaluate products—then, often while still in the store, buying them online to get deals. That's "showrooming." Here's what you can do about it.
How much is a $3 ashtray purchased at a yard sale worth on eBay? If it includes a short story by William Gibson, then it's worth $101. Still don't believe in the alchemistic powers of a great story? Read on.
The best B2B marketers are successful because they start with building a brand. In other words, the best B2B marketers think like B2C marketers. And here's just how they think and what they do.
Companies often don't practice what they preach (or sell)—a classic case of "the cobbler's children have no shoes." Agencies and marketers are not exempt. Here's a guide to help you succeed at internal marketing.
Marketers far and wide know the value of content marketing. But delivering a high volume of quality content that is profitable and efficient poses operational challenges. Here's a way you can overcome those challenges.
It's an old adage: Driving increased sales from your current customers is easier than acquiring new customers. But when marketing via email, a lot of businesses seem to be missing an opportunity that's right in front of them.
One of the first things consumers look for when making a purchase is a review of the product or service they're interested in. They look to their peers for input and advice and trust them far more than they do the brand, especially if they've had little or no interaction with it.
Most commonly, market research is viewed as a method to improve advertising and marketing initiatives and to develop products that are friendlier to specific markets. However, the true range of uses for market intelligence is much larger than most businesses think.
At a recent industry event, I was often inspired, but also confused... therefore this attempt at Zen, to provide feedback to presenters everywhere about what they do that's excellent—and less than excellent.
Various variables contribute to customer experience: your product line, painless processes, engaged employees... Giving your employees the opportunity to maximize the impact they have on customers enables you to create successful (and profitable) customer experiences.
Getting lost down a dark alley in a seedy, unfamiliar part of town is nobody's idea of a good time, so don't make your customers wonder whether they've visited the wrong side of the Web when they come to your website.
The old adage that "a product sells itself" is nothing more than a sales and marketing myth. Products sell in large part because of the due diligence that is completed before the first sales call is made. That means taking the necessary time to create your "ideal customer" profile and then securing a high-end database of prospects and companies that match that profile.
What was once defined as a tidy "funnel" or a simple "waterfall" is no longer as relevant as it once was. Think, instead, a river fed by many brooks and streams that gracefully come together, only to rush over the edge of the waterfall into the (sometimes) beautiful and tranquil pond below
Instinct tells us that "humanizing" a brand—connecting it in the consumer's mind with a distinctive personality or an engaging personal narrative—is a good idea. But we don't have to rely on instinct. Research demonstrates how human interaction affects transactions, with lessons for marketers.
Marketing folks and designers have the same goal: well-designed sites and well-executed campaigns that convert viewers into customers. But getting to that goal can be challenging. Start by understanding the ways in which marketers and designers are similar, where their differences lie, and what they can do to minimize conflict and maximize creativity.
Thanks, in part, to its pay-for-performance model, affiliate marketing is one of the fastest-growing segments of online commerce. But low-quality affiliates can end up costing, rather than making, money. The best way to make sure an affiliate marketing program delivers sustainable results is to recruit and nurture high-value affiliates.
Although you can use online media to develop relationships, real-world connections are what solidifiy them. Here are five ways social media can support your efforts to increase foot traffic, brand awareness, customer relationships—and sales.
Seinfeld reigned as the most popular sitcom for most of the 1990s and inspired many a workplace water-cooler conversation with its quirky characters and absurd plots. The show might not seem the most likely source of practical advice, but some of its most memorable moments provide lessons for email marketing.
Does your business have a mobile site that is designed with your mobile customer in mind? Is it a branded, usable, engaging experience? If the answer is no, or if you're not sure, you are not alone. One thing is clear, though: If your site isn't mobile friendly now, it's time to make it so.
Pinterest and email marketing are intersecting in three ways: emails that use Pinterest-generated content, emails prompting recipients to follow a brand on Pinterest, and emails that have content appealing enough that recipients end up "pinning" the content. How do you get started?
Creating consistently engaging and fresh content for any company's blog is no easy task; even the most thoughtful corporate bloggers can get stuck from time to time. If you think it's time to rethink your company blogging strategy, follow the following five quick tips to build your audience and make your company blog worth reading.
Online video should be an essential part of every business's online marketing strategy. Of course, everyone wants a video that goes viral, but no amount of money can guarantee a blockbuster. Fortunately, you can employ some strategies to get your video in front of as many viewers as possible.
Your prospects have a huge array of websites to choose to visit—and buy or learn from. You have to give them good reasons to choose yours. So how do you turn your website into your prospect's favorite online business destination?
Email might not be as shiny as social media and other emerging marketing channels, but it's still arguably the most powerful marketing tool around. So how do you maximize this old workhorse for new gains? In part by avoiding these common mistakes.
Many businesses are members of their local chamber of commerce but don't take advantage of opportunity to increase sales and brand awareness. Here are five ways business owners can derive value from their chamber membership.
It would be great if online marketing—websites, pay-per-click, email, etc.—were all you needed to get the most out of your business's marketing plan, but that just isn't the case. Could you make it work? Sure. But you'd be leaving money on the table.
Stories matter. We see it over and over again: Companies that capitalize on an inflection point and grab a leadership position always have a thought-provoking point of view that resonates with buyers.
Webinars can be great lead-generation tools. But virtual communications can also help you build communities, communicate with customers, train sales teams and partners, measure the success of campaigns, and launch products.
For marketers, mobile apps present an unprecedented opportunity to always be a mere arm's length away from customers. And we can know more about them than ever before. But how do you ensure a lasting mobile relationship?
Customers are now using video to educate themselves on products and services before they buy, and that extends across both the consumer and business-to-business markets. Here are five tips from five companies that are making online video work for them.
Even the most seasoned marketing professionals sometimes fall prey to mistakes in tactics or implementation. But with a watchful eye, practitioners can avoid costly pitfalls. Here is a quick review of the 10 most common B2B traps and how you can dodge them:
The importance of local search has been growing. But with the recent release of Google's Venice update, local search has become more important than ever. If you don't have a strategy for local search optimization, you're losing business.
Here are nine ways to draw tradeshow attendees to your booth and engage with them. Some of these tips may seem like common sense, but you'd be amazed at how many exhibitors completely disregard them.
You've been hearing about the generic top-level domain (gTLD) registration expansion. From 22 now (think .com, .net, .org, etc.), TLDs will expand to 1,400+ starting in 2013. Will you be ready?
The process of developing and overseeing a campaign for a company's advertising or marketing program can be broken down into these five steps that a marketing manager must oversee or personally complete.
Even though launching an organization-wide collaboration effort isn't just a marketing project, its success is largely dependent on your internal marketing efforts. Marketing's role is crucial... and here's what it entails.
To inspire people to prepare emergency kits for real-life disasters, the CDC brilliantly crafted an imaginative and educational "zombie apocalypse" campaign, generating some 80,000 Likes and 2,500 tweets. Here's how.
Today, customers can share their rants and raves instantly with a worldwide audience. In such a wired world, your online image is everything! Here's how to track and enhance that image and manage your reputation.
Without content—reports, webinars, and follow-up emails—your expensive marketing automation software will be a big flop. Learn why content is the fuel that makes any marketing automation system run smoothly.
To achieve brand marketing goals, you must know your target audience—and how best to reach that group. Learn three key questions to ask before funneling marketing and ad dollars out of your television advertising budget and into new media.
Is blogging useless nowadays? Not if you're blogging the right way. When done right, blogging can attract a huge pool of prospective customers. Learn how to go from 0 to 1,000 daily blog readers in six steps.
When Peter Parker practices his heroics as Spider-Man, he captivates the citizenry and the press alike. By emulating his superpowers, you too can masterfully connect with customers and followers online.
Although content marketing continues to prove its effectiveness, and it's used by nearly 90% of marketers across all industries, creating relevant, fresh, and intriguing content that engages your community remains as difficult as it has always been. Or does it?
Looking at the evolution of social media over the last few years, you can plainly see that it's now being driven by imagery. Consider Facebook's Timeline (and its acquisition of Instagram) or the rise of Pinterest. However, we forget that email, too, is a social medium. So now is a great time to evaluate how you use images in your email marketing.
Only a few Games ago, trying to take advantage of the Olympics if you weren't a sponsor was as difficult as teaching a Los Angeles Kings "fan" the meaning of icing. But in the case of the 2012 London games, you can... without investing serious sponsor-level cash.
Brand extensions can be a great way for a core brand to develop its overall brand equity and reach new customers. We can learn valuable lessons from those who have done it right, and those who haven't.
Google recently entered the semantic search sphere with its Knowledge Graph update. Semantic search changes the way a search engine "thinks" about a search term. What does Knowledge Graph mean for searchers?
Is your brand's message getting lost in today's data deluge? Learn how to maintain a consistent brand voice, and how to ensure your messaging cuts through the data noise.
Convincing older business owners to invest in social media can be difficult—but it doesn't have to be. Learn five undeniable benefits of social media that could help make the case for a social investment.
Today's revenue-focused marketers need to be experts in inbound marketing. Learn why effective inbound marketing requires relevant, compelling content that is tailored to prospects at each stage of the buying cycle.
Generation Y is estimated to be the largest consumer group in US history, and marketers simply cannot afford to ignore the student segment. Learn why you should be marketing to college students—and how to do so effectively.
How much can your company benefit from a timely rebranding? A business rebrand can make your business look good, and, more important, make your bottom line look good, too. Here are four reasons to rebrand your business.
Today, brands are building social campaign experiences that spread from one brand loyalist to her friends—creating a powerful social loyalty loop that cultivates new brand loyalists. Learn four ways to fuel such a loyalty loop.
Enterprise-grade mobile apps can equip sales teams with a set of high-impact selling tools. But not all apps are created equal. Learn the five essential elements of an effective sales app.
The consumers of Generation-Y are the next great decision-makers in the consumer world. Fortunately, marketing to Gen-Y is actually not as difficult as you might think. Here are five ways to appeal to Gen-Y.
If you aren't tailoring your marketing for a mobile audience, you could be selling your efforts short—and missing a huge opportunity to get results. Here are seven best-practices for reaping the most benefit from mobile.
Countless solutions have been developed to automate lead-scoring, but those scores don't provide salespeople much valuable information. Learn a practical six-question scoring system that effectively evaluates and qualifies leads.
What's the key to effective blogging? Strategy. A solid blog editorial strategy will help you create relevant content regularly to attract readers and convert them into customers. Learn six steps to creating a strategy that gets results.
Want to enhance your mobile marketing efforts? Rather than undergoing dreaded technical training, apply a common-sense approach to mobile. Learn four practical tips from four marketers in the trenches of mobile marketing.
Have your marketing efforts gone "SoLoMo" yet? Learn why combining your social, local, and mobile marketing efforts are critical in today's market—and how you can go "SoLoMo" in seven ways.
I spend two hours a day on Google+ because doing so is enjoyable and good for my brand. In addition to my fondness for its members, Google+ embodies many appealing attributes that make social networking better.
If you aren't one of the millions using Pinterest, now is the time to add the image-driven social network to your traffic-generating toolbox. But if you're going to use Pinterest, do so responsibly by using these nine tips.
Are you using social media to fuel product strategy and development? Learn why social can be an effective research tool, and how three forms of social listening can help inform product marketing.
For analytics to succeed in an organization, analysts must be capable of speaking the language of executives. Learn five ways analysts can create meaningful communication with the higher-ups.
Measuring and reporting on Marketing's value is more important than ever. To truly demonstrate their value and design an effective performance measurement system, marketers should focus on four key areas.
Photography and video have an immense impact on customers' purchasing behavior because they enable customers to visually connect with products before they buy. Learn how compelling visual content can help drive sales.
Here we go again. We have a new buzzword. Social media experts, and many others, are now talking about Social Business. But being a social business is not about having a team of people monitoring LinkedIn, Twitter, and (if you are in the "leading edge") Google+ and Pinterest.
Pinterest has managed to claim a huge following in a short time. But if you're a blogger or content marketer who uses words more than pictures, can you generate buzz using Pinterest? Absolutely—if you've got the right tools.
A lack of communication between analysts and other departments can be an express ticket to ineffectiveness—and can significantly diminish the value of analytics. Here are four ways to improve communication across departments.
Marketing automation companies are steadily rolling out new features and new versions of their products. What changes can you expect? Here are four cool ways marketing automation tools are evolving.
Running an A/B test requires resources, so it pays to know how to conduct tests for the maximum benefit to your organization. Here are eight of the most important lessons on running a successful A/B testing program.
What happened when a Canada-based religious order turned to social media to reach women who were hearing God's call to the religious life? It worked wonders. Learn invaluable social media tips that led to the group's success.
Do your online marketing efforts consider the cultural context of your target market? Learn why cultural understanding is critical to online marketing—and how to implement cultural qualification in your strategies.
Companies that struggle to realize the impact of analytics often blame the solutions they have in place. But communication flaws could be to blame. Here are five ways analysts can enhance communication within their teams.
The popularity of daily deals shows no signs of abating. But how can you ensure your deals effectively appeal to subscribers? Learn examples of daily deals strategies that work wonders—and those that flop.
A major change is afoot in the way people are spending; they are moving away from one-time buying and toward subscribing to services. That shift means more revenue opportunities for marketers—and big changes in how they market.
Why is agile marketing imperative to marketing today? Here are four reasons marketers should implement agile marketing—and seven expert tips for those thinking of starting their own sprints and scrums.
OK, SEO ranking reports are not dead... but Google's personalized search is making them less and less relevant. Learn why many are using the wrong metrics to measure success—and three ways to reach online customers despite personalized search.
Do you think a prospect responds better to your marketing message because you've based it on a customer persona? Unfortunately, that is not the case. To craft effective messaging, you need to address four essential questions.
Want to create the next online viral sensation? Though no magic formula will get you there, the creators of the wildly popular Texts From Hillary website offer four essential tips that helped make their site a huge Internet smash.
Many brands recognize the potential of Facebook's Timeline, but they don't really know how to use it to their full advantage. Learn six straightforward ways to optimize your brand's Timeline to drive better marketing performance.
Creating a great call to action that gets results can be tricky, unless you have a few tricks up your sleeve. Here are 12 essential tips for optimizing your calls to action to ensure they compel potential customers to act.
Despite their critical contribution to a business, sales reps can often get in their own way. Here are three of the biggest ways sales reps kill leads—and three solutions that'll help turn prospects into customers.
If you've ever been to a zoo, you probably used a zoo map during your visit. Those maps provide wonderful visual cues to the customer-experience and performance-chain lessons we can all apply to our businesses.
Like any marketing campaign, a mobile marketing campaign can be well thought out, meticulously planned, and perfectly functional... but still produce limited user engagement. Why? A subpar call to action.
Companies are leaping onto the Pinterest bandwagon, and your brand, too, can benefit from what is now one of the world's largest social networks. Learn what type of content marketers should pin—and how.
In an age of information overflow, having a user-friendly website is critical. How does your site measure up? Here is a three-step approach to analyzing the usability of your website, along with tips for improving its usability.
Sure, you have customers. But are they loyal to you? Learn four things you need to know about your customers to inspire their loyalty.
Choosing and installing a new content management system (CMS) is a great opportunity to improve your online presence. Here are six critical questions to consider when choosing a new CMS.
Do you know exactly what your campaign goals are? Do you know how to measure your campaign outcomes? If not, here are three steps you must take when developing and executing any marketing campaign.
Media appearances are essential if you want to build your personal brand and emerge as a recognized industry expert. Learn 10 tips for mastering media appearances, and five key guidelines to follow during an interview.
The call to action in your marketing materials is one of the most important elements in a campaign. So how can you write one that works? Learn tried-and-true tips that can help catapult your call-to-action writing to expert level.
Too many companies have yet to embrace marketing resource management (MRM) technology, which offers a host of capabilities that can empower them. Learn why you need an MRM solution, and tips for choosing the right one.
For B2B, the ROI from social media isn't always so clear. Learn research findings about the social media use of one B2B segment—and four opportunities for B2B marketers to maximize social media ROI.
Marketing mix analysis provides insights that improve ROI and optimize spend. The question is... will you get better results from outsourcing marketing mix analytics or building in-house capabilities?
Customer experience is about meeting customer needs, aligning touch points, and creating relationships. Learn customer experience basics—and how to create an enriched customer experience that gets results.
The post script (P.S.) can be a powerful tool for marketers—if it's used the right way. Learn five things you can do with your post script to generate more clicks in your emails and capture the reader's attention.
Before taking your brand global, make sure you've done the proper market research, hired the right staff, and implemented the cultural checks needed to succeed. Here are six steps all brands must consider before going global.
Marketing automation systems offer a veritable multitude of capabilities. But don't let all those features overwhelm you. Learn five ways to jump-start your marketing automation strategy without getting stressed out.
Marketers can feel overwhelmed by the waves of marketing "solutions" that come at them daily: new digital advertising options, new mobile apps, every surefire lead-generation scheme in the book. It's enough to give a person a monumental headache. No worries, though. The data doctor is in.
Imagine having a switch that activates your buyer's brain and gets her to pay attention to what you say—and to take action. Learn how "engagement energy" can help you craft stronger sales and marketing messages that get results.
Almost inevitably, every website will encounter a problem of some kind. Many online marketers lack the technical skills to make website fixes themselves. So how can they effectively mitigate a website problem?
Social media success is not just about gaining followers or "Likes." You need to track how many followers buy your products or subscribe to your services. Learn five steps to building a successful social CRM practice.
It's a no brainer. Local businesses that want to maximize their business results should implement hyper-local digital marketing. Learn key tips for effective local advertising that can help take your business to the next level.
Marketing automation (MA) software allows marketers to manage prospect and customer databases, track activity, and personalize their messaging. Get the maximum benefit from your MA software by taking these five actions.
To make social media work for your brand, you need a solid engagement strategy. Learn five engagement-strategy idea starters—and three key ingredients—for social media success.
No excuse justifies emailing like it's still 1999. Today, email marketing is about achieving optimal delivery, response, and financial benefits from the channel. Learn how to modernize your email marketing for success in 2012.
Improving the lead-to-sales handoff at your company—and setting lead follow-up guidelines—can significantly boost ROI and help close Sales. Learn four invaluable handoff techniques you should be implementing.
To get real business results from your social media efforts, you need to build a community, engage your audience, and create word-of-mouth. Learn how running a social campaign on Facebook can help you do just that.
Mobile barcode campaigns can deliver a call to action, engage customers and prospects, and enhance the human experience as it relates to your brand. Learn seven key tips for launching a successful mobile barcode campaign.
Considering the emergence of the social network Pinterest and Facebook's Timeline, it's clear that brands without a solid visual vocabulary will be left behind. Learn six tips for ensuring your brand is ready for the visual revolution.
Email averages an ROI of $40 for every $1 spent, so it's no surprise that 67% of organizations plan to increase their email marketing spend in 2012. Use those new budgets to maximize your ROI by focusing on three key areas.
Links that point to your business website are one of the most important SEO factors that influence your online visibility and search engine ranking. Are you getting enough backlinks? If not, learn four reasons you may be falling short.
Once focused on defending their turf and justifying their domain, CMOs have evolved and now drive business value. They've morphed into a "super-species": Marketing's CEO. Learn five survival principles for today's CMO.
Many companies invest considerable effort seeking publicity via influential media—and then fail to benefit from the masthead value of that exposure. Learn how to increase the business impact of high masthead value publicity.
Not having the right information means that you'll have to base your business decisions more on instinct and intuition than on facts. Having the right information readily available in a manageable and comprehensible format is essential for success. That's why a dashboard is invaluable.
Do copyright laws apply to posting content on Pinterest? Learn why you might not want to take legal action if your copyrighted content is shared without your permission, and how you can parlay "pins" into profits.
You have a good product and great branding, but how do you get the buyers of large retailers to notice your brand? Here are four effective ways to be resourceful when trying to get your product on store shelves.
Public speaking is a powerful way to get your message to key influencers and decision-makers. Want to be a sought-after speaker? Learn what it takes to master the organizational and marketing side of public speaking.
Is your company having a hard time embracing content marketing? Learn why your marketing expertise may be failing you, and steps you can take to reap all the benefits of content marketing.
As analytics become increasingly vital to understanding customers, CMOs can no longer enjoy the luxury of being naive about IT. Here are six steps CMOs can take to embrace technology tools and boost their effectiveness.
Companies need up-to-date marketing capabilities to execute strategies that address today's changing environments and evolving customer needs. Learn how to shift your firm's capabilities, and give your strategies a fighting chance.
We've seen too many high-profile calamities of websites going down in a major way. It's painful to watch, and it must be painful to experience. Though online disasters can happen to anyone, you can take steps to avoid them.
Let's face it, no three words are more beautiful to hear while on the job than "return on investment." Learn the basics of calculating marketing ROI—and a more nuanced approach that'll help prove the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Those of us who spend a significant amount of time watching online video are likely smitten with the inspirational TED talks. But the local TEDx events are equally enchanting, and they offer great lessons in experiential marketing.
Do you know what your customers want from their business interactions? Learn which marketing activities draw customers closer to your brand—and which ones act as repellants.
Sales and Marketing alignment is not a new issue, but marketing and sales organizations should not ignore some of the newest best-practices for creating a strong, collaborative revenue engine. The steps outlined here will fuel that engine by helping to align sales and marketing teams.
Big brands use jokes to market their products all the time. But, sadly, many small and medium-sized (SMB) marketers have lost their sense of humor. Why is that? Maybe SMB marketers sense they have too much to lose. But there's much to gain, too.
Google Spreadsheets is an excellent tool for campaign tracking, reporting, automating, and aggregating complex SEO and social media tasks. Learn invaluable tips for using Google Spreadsheets more effectively.
Though webinars are live and sometimes free-flowing, they should never be disorganized. Careful planning demonstrates respect for your attendees and their time. Here are 47 tips for hosting a webinar that'll wow your audience.
At your next tradeshow, you'll likely be competing for the attention of a finite pool of attendees. So how can you best your competitors and capture (and keep) the attention of attendees? You've got to effectively incorporate mobile.
Social media marketing can either be an extremely worthwhile investment or a massive time sink that brings you no benefit. How can you tell which of those extremes you'll fall into? Learn how to set up your strategy to measure ROI.
If you want to answer the C-suite's questions about how Marketing is performing, you need a dashboard—an insightful report that can optimize performance. Learn five key steps to creating a viable marketing dashboard.
If you're not using interactive images in your marketing, you should be. Learn how they can drive engagement, retention, and sales.
Today, mobile is everywhere. But how can marketers use this powerful force to their advantage? Here are four critical questions every business should consider to maximize its mobile marketing return on investment.
Lead scoring enables marketers to precisely measure the warmth of leads before passing them to Sales, thereby increasing conversion rates. But that can be tricky. Learn how to smooth out the scoring process—and get results.
Is your business truly innovative? Real innovation is difficult to generate, and even harder to repeat. But Pinterest, a relatively new social network, can teach your business three invaluable lessons about innovation.
Behind every successful product, service, or brand lies a powerful concept. Do you have one? Learn what it takes to craft a winning marketing concept, and why having one is critical to the success of your business.
Are people talking about you? If you can get people to talk about your company and its website, half of your marketing will be done for you. The best way to attract that attention is to start a community around your content.
Pinterest is a hot new social media website that provides a way for users to save and display ideas on virtual pin boards. But what's in it for marketers? Here are four ways to use Pinterest to get more business.
Lead generation is hard. Why make it harder by doing it without a plan? Learn how effectively developing your strategy, choosing your tactics, and building your list will help you find killer leads.
Thought leadership—if done correctly—can prompt sales leads to come to you. But some companies still get it wrong. Learn why that happens, how to avoid major mistakes, and how to excel in thought leadership.
Whether a brand is facing a minor kerfuffle or a major tragedy, the path of correction should be simple and clear. Learn how to take control of any crisis situation, and emerge with a healthy brand and reinforced customer loyalty.
Local search is a rapidly growing trend and an essential marketing task for businesses that want to increase sales. Are you reaping the most benefits from local search? Learn five steps that'll help you do just that.
Online testimonials are undeniably valuable, but they come after the sale. What if you could start that engine earlier? Learn how one company used Twitter and landing pages to boost sales and deepen customer engagement.
Usability testing is the most powerful, most effective thing you can do for your website, yet people assume it's too complicated and expensive. But almost anyone can do usability testing—from start to finish—in about three weeks.
What will the remainder of 2012 have in store for B2B marketing? Thanks to data, what lies ahead isn't so hard to predict. Learn five significant trends that will affect B2B marketers in the months to come.
Do you treat customers and prospects as if they were whole human beings—with hearts, minds, and spirits? You should. Learn six steps that lead to a human-centric approach to marketing.
When hosting a webinar, you want people to show up and you want to generate leads. But meeting those goals isn't easy. Here's a five-step plan that'll take the guesswork out of hosting an effective, successful webinar.
Want to grow your SMS and email marketing lists? Your social media fans and followers—who've already demonstrated their interest in you—are the perfect targets. Learn five steps for converting your social fans to subscribers.
When new visitors arrive at your website, you have two ways to seize the opportunity and guide them toward becoming customers. Both opportunities can evaporate in the blink of an eye—if you don't have the proper systems in place.
If you are serious about the words "sales," "profit," and "conversions," you must master keyword research. Learn four common pitfalls marketers make when selecting keywords—and how to avoid them.
The dirty secret of Twitter is that as helpful as it can be, it's also a time sink. Learn how properly using and cleaning up your Twitter lists can help you save time—and generate leads for your business.
Customers today expect more deals and offers during holiday seasons, so it's important to create seasonal campaigns to increase revenues. Here are 10 tips—and a campaign planner—to help you achieve seasonal sale success.
QR codes can be inexpensive to implement and can provide you a measureable return on investment—if you use them correctly. Learn five invaluable tips for implementing an effective QR code campaign.
Twitter is a powerful channel that can help you connect with customers, promote products, and create brand awareness. Learn four tactics for making your Twitter account a social media heavyweight in your industry.
Marketers have a tough job! No juggler's job has ever been as tough. With 13 or so online marketing channels (and just as many offline), the job of cross-channel marketing is difficult. But creating a successful cross-channel marketing organization is possible.
If CMOs are to be accountable for marketing ROI, their organizations must have marketers who have data, analysis, and measurement skills. Here are three steps for effectively creating a fact-based culture.
In 2011, mobile shopping increased and iPad tablet conversion rates soared. Are you prepared for the growing mobile and tablet retail environment? Learn seven key trends that will dominate 2012.
Sure, Facebook promotions can get you some "Likes," but is that all there is? Learn how American Express's Israel division used Facebook to gain valuable customer insight and deepen brand engagement.
When handled adeptly, customer data can be a marketer's most reliable weapon for reaching customers' buying intentions—and closing sales. Learn five ways to build a data-driven marketing culture that'll help you get results.
In today's noisy business listing landscape, it's important that your online anchor be consistent and visible throughout the local search ecosystem. Here are five essential rules to keep in mind when managing your online listing.
Increasing your online sales isn't quick or easy, and it involves a lot of trial and error. Learn three steps that'll help you skip some of the guesswork and boost your website's conversion rate.
Mistakes will happen—even to the very best email marketers. The key is responding appropriately. Learn six email blunders you may encounter, along with guidelines for rectifying them quickly and effectively.
It may be boring, but a thorough discovery and strategy-development process is essential before a website redesign. Here are five important elements of a redesign plan you should have in place and readily available... before the fun design stuff starts.
No doubt about it: 2011 was a big year for content marketing. Twice the number of marketers implement content marketing vs. the number of those who use print, television, and radio advertising. But what's in store for 2012?
Personal-branding expert William Arruda offers six more trends to keep in mind and on top of in 2012 as you continue to build, improve, and polish your own personal brand as a marketer in tune with the times.
When working with freelancers, "let the buyer beware" is a good rule of thumb. If you aren't careful in the due-diligence process, you may be in for more than you bargained for (literally). How can you make sure you don't get burned?
Many companies have the same overarching goals: increase sales, decrease costs, and reduce churn. But why don't they all succeed? It all boils down to mindfully setting objectives and implementing strong tactics to support them.
We've all seen them—those disastrous ads that make us cringe as marketers. Here is a detailed critique of one ad—gone terribly wrong—that'll help you avoid a host of pitfalls in your ad copy.
Is a site redesign among your company's New Year's resolutions? To end up with a site that's built to last, you'll need a well-crafted RFP that covers all bases. Learn eight invaluable guidelines for creating your site redesign RFP.
The words "engagement" and "hypertargeting" are practically everywhere, but what happens when you combine the two? Learn how one company ran a diverse campaign that captured the interest of core, active, and casual fans.
A website with poorly designed navigation can frustrate your visitors, cost you sales, and hurt your reputation. Learn how to enhance your site's navigation to showcase your content—and keep your customers coming back.
Despite best efforts, mistakes happen to every small business at some point. The key is not to panic, but to apologize to customers—the right way—and assure them that you are still worthy of their trust, confidence, and respect.
Over the years, personal branding has proven to be an effective technique for enabling career success. But how we build our brands is evolving. Learn six personal branding trends for 2012 that'll help keep you ahead of the pack.
Now that 2011 is in our rearview mirrors, it's time to focus on 2012. Though the email marketing environment shifts especially swiftly, five dominating trends from 2011 will continue to reign this year.
Nowadays, the marketer's world is chaotic and cluttered. Effectively meeting a myriad of demands can seem impossible. That's why connected marketing solutions are critical to success in today's marketing landscape.
Are your daily deals promotions hurting your bottom line? It doesn't have to be that way. Here are four key tips for using daily deals to boost awareness, gain and maintain customers, and get results.
Link building is probably the most difficult aspect of SEO. Quality links that bring results are hard to get... unless you have a link-building strategy that targets specific, meaningful market segments.
Sometimes promotions work, and sometimes they bomb. But what makes a promotion tank? Here are eight deadly sins that companies commit—and that you should avoid—when planning and executing promotions.
Is your business throwing Web traffic in the trash? If you're not capturing the traffic you spend big bucks to get, it's time to re-evaluate your lead-capture strategy by looking at the effectiveness of your lead magnets.
How effective is your professional bio at building reputation, gaining clients, and generating income? Here are five detailed critiques of real-life professional bios that'll help you avoid common pitfalls in your own bios.
Picking your brand name is crucial, and making sure that it's Google-friendly is even more important. Before you choose your brand name, learn three major facts about how Google rates and ranks personal and business names.
It's amazing how quickly a brand can find itself in a crisis, struggling to salvage its reputation. But your brand doesn't have to suffer. Learn six steps to take—before and after a crisis—that'll help rebuild customer confidence.
Want to leave a lasting impact on tradeshow attendees? Go mobile. Learn three ways to maximize your tradeshow success using QR codes—and five key considerations for using them most effectively.
Tablets, social media, QR codes, and hybrid events all redefined tradeshow and event marketing in 2011, but what will 2012 bring? How can marketers embrace the latest trends to make their events more exciting and engaging?
If you want to better predict the relationship between marketing inputs and customer behavior, predictive modeling may be your answer. Here are five essential tips to consider before you get started.
The marketing agency ecosystem is evolving because of changes in customer behavior and advances in technology. Is your firm keeping up? Learn 10 key considerations for transforming your organization.
Do you want to improve the performance of your Google AdWords campaigns? Here are five quick checks that'll help you gain valuable insights into your campaigns—and save you money.
Are you an introverted marketer? If so, attending busy conferences might make you very uncomfortable. Here are four ways to break through your challenges and get the most out of any conference.
As 2011 winds down, it's time to consider the trends that will dominate marketing in 2012. Here are the Top 5 trends on the horizon and tips on how to take advantage of them in your marketing plan.
If you are a large-volume sender of email, you should be signed up for all available feedback loops. Learn how feedback loops can help report spam, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce end-user complaints.
Marketing automation offers five main opportunities to improve ROI and drive revenue. Are you taking advantage of them? Learn how marketing automation can help you segment leads, improve conversions, and reduce lead leakage.
How effective can a strategy be if all of your competitors are using it, too? To stand out, step outside the realm of e-books and round-up posts, and apply these six tips for producing unique, compelling content.
How did an author make millions writing about a stuffy academic concept someone else discovered? He messaged it great. Here are five key lessons on messaging your ideas, offerings, and strengths to appeal to customers.
Online communities can deliver outstanding ROI, but they rarely produce value without significant investment, professional management... and consistent, intelligent, and engaging interaction.
Is email marketing for your small business even worth doing? Yes, if you do it well. To ensure your campaigns are effective, you should be practicing the Five Commandments for email awesomeness.
A debate has been raging in certain quarters: Should humor be included in sales copy? Is humor disarming and refreshing, or can it actually hurt sales?
Is your organization experiencing a critical gap between Marketing and Sales performance expectations and actual results? If so, answer these 10 questions and apply these 10 steps to close the gap and ensure results.
Blogging can be powerful and effective only when it's done well. Learn 10 essential tips for writing killer posts that will attract readers—and keep them coming back for more.
With the rise of mobile search and social media, local Web-presence optimization is crucial for small businesses. Learn how to secure a top spot on Google's search results—and knock out the competition.
More and more organizations are investing in marketing automation platforms. Is yours one of them? If so, learn how to select the right one, plan for its adoption, and avoid common implementation pitfalls.
Need help boosting your landing page conversions? Learn six landing page optimization principles that helped one website nearly double its conversion rate...
2011 ushered in a host of changes in marketing, affecting social media, search, and customer relationships. What digital changes and trends should forward-thinking marketers anticipate in 2012?
To deliver the critical wow factor that draws people into loyalty programs and keeps them there, marketers must get inside customers' heads to identify what motivates them. Learn five key points about driving customer behavior.
If staying current in today's PR world is important to you, adopt the famous aphorism "Learn as if you were to live forever." This article highlights skills that remain essential—and some new skills you'll need for future PR success.
Today's B2B marketers can't focus only on generating leads and turning them over to Sales. To get results, they need to create effective, targeted programs that hit the right people via the appropriate channel. Here how.
A third generation of landing pages has emerged over the past year that incorporates ideas from content marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing. Learn what features define Landing Pages 3.0.
Marketing is changing and evolving at a rapid pace. Are you keeping up? Here are five major changes taking shape in 2012 that CMOs can't afford to ignore.
With the exponential rise of the multilingual Web in recent years, extending your online marketing strategy internationally is more timely than ever. Here are five key tips for effective global digital marketing.
If the term "video tour" makes you think of something you'd find only on a real estate website, think again! Video tours are a great way to market a wide array of products and services—if you do it the right way..
The best way to embark on a social media marketing strategy is to prepare in advance. To ensure success and maximize results, learn six questions you'll need to tackle before delving into your next social strategy.
You've managed to get people to your site, but how do you get them to convert? Learn three strategies—based on various case studies—for boosting your site's conversion rate.
Applying social media marketing efforts to an international audience could present unique challenges—but it doesn't have to. Learn six best-practices that'll ensure the greatest ROI in localized social media.
Are you letting leads seep out of your sales funnel? Learn how to plug the holes in your funnel, nurture leads into qualified sales opportunities, and boost your company's bottom line.
What can you learn about content marketing from video vignettes of lawyers speaking candidly about their professional philosophies and personal viewpoints? For one, you can humanize your business and show off your personality in a creative, interesting, and wholly unexpected way.
Today, getting your story in front of an influential writer can mean getting it to a traditional journalist at an established publication, an independent blogger, or a peer-to-peer reviewer. And getting in touch with those key influencers is no easy task. Here's how you can do it.
Just as in dating, being too pushy or too neglectful when marketing could get you dumped. Learn how to effectively woo prospects into becoming long-term committed customers who stick with you through thick and thin.
Today's product-savvy customers expect more from in-store shopping experiences. Learn why new technologies, knowledgeable salespeople, and stellar service are critical in today's shopping climate.
Much like an attractive store, a well-designed website will attract customers who will be happy to be there—and happy to stay. Avoid these four common mistakes that can turn visitors away and hurt your business.
No matter who your customers are or what they desire, 13 human motivators, or "hot buttons," are ultimately responsible for driving sales. To boost sales, learn which motivators and human desires to tap into—and when.
Customers today are actively engaged buyers, so your approach to the sales and marketing pipeline must evolve. Learn six revised stages for implementing and measuring Marketing's contribution to the pipeline.
Effectively managing sales leads today is tricky, but not if you understand the problems between Marketing and Sales. Learn which four lead-management strategies could be hindering your success.
A crisis can serve as a stage to show the world that your company is either unorganized and uncaring or responsible and human. Learn how to preserve your brand equity—and keep your customers—during a crisis.
Thanks to the Internet, event promotion has never been cheaper to do or easier to track. But before you set off to promote your next event online, learn the benefits—and drawbacks—of three popular approaches.
Writing the perfect pitch isn't easy. But knowing how to pitch your story idea to journalists can make the difference between their pursuing—and their flat out ignoring—your pitch. Earn their interest and attention with these 11 tips.
Hugging your customers—at least in a virtual, figurative sense—can increase engagement and boost positive word-of-mouth. Here are six ways to get customers to embrace you and market for you.
In today's social climate, influencers are more important than ever in shaping impressions and customer actions. Connect with those powerful voices. Learn three steps to locating and engaging your key influencers.
Informative and persuasive sales letters might be difficult to write—but they can pay off big time. Learn five tips for writing engaging, informative, and concise sales letters that'll produce results.
Today, call to action buttons provide valuable insight into your prospects' minds. Learn how calls to action can be a lead-generation tool that engages and converts website visitors—and four key predictions on their future use.
Want to increase Web traffic via organic search without breaking the bank? Learn three key ways to build and promote content on your website—and attract and maintain more visitors.
For a small B2B business, the second most important page on its website after its homepage is its "About Us" page. Learn a highly effective formula for creating content for your "About Us" page, and how to track its effectiveness.
Running your small business is a labor of love, but promoting it with new, targeted efforts is necessary to connect with customers. Learn how to keep things fresh and stay connected when marketing your business.
To significantly boost sales, you've got to understand base sales drivers and marketing's impact on them. Learn from examples that illustrate how factor analysis can help you yield consistently high ROI.
Need to stay on top of stats? Let the games begin. Make monitoring metrics fun, and learn how to keep track of your social media, search engine optimization, and email marketing efforts.
Few companies realize the incredible power of their customer communities. Don't be one of them. Learn about the interplay between content and community and four engagement lessons that'll keep you ahead of the pack.
In April 2009, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos convinced Zappos founder Tony Hsieh to sell his online shoe store despite his initial reluctance. The story serves as a lesson to all marketers on building rapport with customers.
When soliciting business via email, there's a right way and a wrong way to grab your subscriber's attention and interest. Here's a real-life example—and a detailed critique—of an email solicitation gone awry.
Are your campaigns reaching the intended audiences? Learn how to create an effective multicultural marketing campaign—and avoid the common pitfalls many endure when marketing to growing ethnic groups.
Today's customers are more value-oriented and less loyal. Considering the increase in customer expectations, the competitive landscape, and the data deluge, marketers will need an analytics approach to succeed.
Both face-to-face and virtual marketing are essential components of any company's communications strategy. Learn the benefits of both approaches and how they can be combined to maximize return on investment.
Effective B2B lead generation, lead qualification, and lead nurturing programs are built on a rock-solid messaging platform—your offer. The most important aspect of a great offer is a deep understanding of what motivates potential buyers.
President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign was successful because he created and mobilized advocates. Brands can apply that winning strategy, too—if they invest in and drive customer advocacy programs.
With email inboxes more crowded than ever, your message's successful arrival in the recipient's inbox is half the battle. The second half of that battle is standing out from the crowd. Here are three tips that'll help you get noticed.
If you're a small business, building backlinks to your website can be an effective way to gain traffic and increase revenue—no matter what your industry. Here are five ways to kick off your link-building with ease.
Online marketers have a dirty little secret. They've got no idea what to do once they've earned enough social media "likes" to reach their goals. Here are five ways to turn those fans and followers into brand advocates.
More than ever before, brands today are shaped by customer experiences—including those online. Create positive digital experiences with these four tips that'll help you effectively build and manage your brand online.
To keep up with the ever-changing world of marketing, you've got to roll with the punches. As marketing channels emerge and evolve, so should your ideas, strategies, and metrics.
SMS marketing is a huge growth area for all businesses. It's cheap, easy to track, direct, and personal. Interested? Learn how to collect your customers' mobile numbers—and keep them open to receiving texts.
Raw leads are neutral entities at first, but you can turn them into real prospects. Learn how to qualify those with high-value potential and move them to closed-deal status.
What makes a great ideation session? The quality of the participants, the energy of the facilitator, and the range of creative exercises. But there are five guidelines that'll exponentially boost the odds of having a productive session.
Many businesses take great pains to build and nurture their offline brand, yet they drop the ball when they take their messages online. Avoid that problem with these five tips to connecting your online and offline identities.
Content is more than just words. Content experiences that are strategic, planned, structured, and measured can develop a new customer narrative that'll bring companies and customers closer than ever.
When a customer makes a purchase on your site, are you able to pinpoint exactly who to give credit to for the sale? Learn how Virgin Atlantic Airways tackled that problem.
Whether it's listening to an iTunes 30-second free snippet or grabbing a snack pack of chips, people like to sample. Apply that idea to marketing, and learn why it pays to create consumable, snackable content.
Your customers will soon wield more and more power, becoming the most powerful communications channel. Are you ready for the new world of marketing? Learn the five keys to building a crowdsourced future..
Buyers are now driving the buy/sell process once controlled by field sales, causing sales teams to miss their targets. But high-volume lead generation won't help. Here's why a "less is more" approach is the answer.
Do you know your audience? If you're taking a one-size-fits-all approach to website design, you could be alienating your core customers. Make sure you learn your audience's Web-usability priorities, behaviors, and preferences.
Social media marketing can broaden your reach, enable you to engage your audience, and help you create raving fans if you use it the right way. So why are so many businesses still treading water with social media marketing?
The key to achieving high rankings in search and creating buzz in social media is solid content. Fortunately, the Web provides free marketing data that can help you create relevant subject matter and learn about your customers.
What's the use in receiving stellar product reviews and making lots of sales if you can't pick up the pieces when something goes wrong? Here are eight ways to protect your brand when tackling customer problems.
Up until the mid '80s and early '90s, salespersons held most of the trump cards. To make decisions, buyers had to rely on the information that sellers brought to the table. But the buying/selling process has changed.
One of those reassuring little white lies we tell ourselves as marketers is this: People make linear decisions. It's simpler to draw straight lines about people's behavior, so to date we have typically pushed people through carefully scripted marketing processes. But, especially today, it just ain't so.
HGTV shows make those overnight home transformations look so easy. Many marketers approach their marketing plans the same way: a few days and a few dollars, and voila—a new marketing plan! But that won't get you results.
A company can successfully build its brand name in many ways, but perhaps the factor most important for its continued success is its relationships with clients. Learn to keep the magic alive—and get results.
For years, marketers have been working to perfect their sites to create just the right energy to ensure happy customers—and seamless selling. But it wouldn't be wise to transfer those same strategies and websites to the mobile space.
Right now, in countless corporate conference rooms, otherwise productive professionals are quietly snoring during yet another PowerPoint presentation. Such presentations are costly, ineffective, and distracting.
A customized prospecting list is a great resource for your cold calling, direct mail, and email marketing efforts. If you prefer to "do it yourself," here are nine steps for building a free B2B marketing database for your outbound marketing campaigns.
Where does the CMO fit in at your organization? How CMOs are positioned can affect the influence they have over major decisions. Here are four ways CMOs can gain the power needed to be effective.
Spice up your email campaigns. If you're sending out only promotional messaging, your campaigns could be bland. Here are four types of greetings you should include in your message stream.
A few weeks into Google+, and most at least know of the new social networking site, even if they haven't joined yet. Still resisting? Based on its current growth rate, you may want to jump in sooner rather than later. Or not.
Marketing is like baseball. If you can measure data well, you can unlock new insights about how to win. Here are some ways to keep score of your digital relationships—and get results.
Many companies have referral programs, but how many can say theirs converts at about three times the rate of other online campaigns and brings in over 500 product sales each month? Learn how one company did just that.
One-to-one marketing is time-consuming, but as any sales professional can tell you, the personal touch—communicating directly with the decision maker—can be very effective.
If you create or manage direct mail programs, the current economy probably has you pulling your hair out. Now is the perfect time to get back to basics and remind yourself of the following seven core principles of direct marketing.
Humans or machines—which are superior these days? Both human and machine translation can be used when taking marketing content global. Learn three translation techniques—and when to use them.
To get the most out of your online marketing, don't go it alone. Get powerful influencers in your corner to help spread the word about you. Here's how to build your team of evangelists and create a winning word-of-mouth campaign.
Are you increasing your inbound leads? What happens once you get them? Without successful conversion, leads are essentially useless. Here are six steps that'll immediately increase your lead-conversion rates.
When social media use first took off, many posed the question, "Is social media going to kill email?" But savvy email marketers soon realized they could use social media to their advantage. Here's how.
Smartphone use is exploding, providing new opportunities to connect and engage with target audiences. Learn how to optimize your mobile marketing campaigns, and effectively track and record mobile conversions.
Are you ready for the new marketing paradigm that's emerging? It's human-centric marketing, an evolution of the current customer-centric approach. And it will change the way we are introduced to and form relationships with brands.
Today's customers often rely on social networks to interact with brands. Marketers need to adapt to a customer-centric model and understand consumption patterns across social networks and the total digital ecosphere.
Without a well-crafted, clear, and consistent email design for your brand, your messages could be lost—or ignored—in the vast digital space. Here's how you should and shouldn't design your emails to get results.
Do you know why your customers behave as they do? People tend to have difficulty explaining exactly why they like a product, but using images can help you get to the root of the real drivers of customer behavior.
Want to improve your website's conversion rate? First, you'll need a professionally designed website that's been built with SEO in mind. Then, use these four tips to boost conversions and turn your visitors into customers.
Direct mail certainly isn't what it used to be, but email marketers can apply many of the theories used for direct mail campaigns to increase the value of their email marketing. Consider these key lessons.
Wouldn't it be good to know who your ideal prospects are before sending out emails, newsletters, tweets, or Facebook fan-page invites? Learn how to identify, find, and market to the right customers.
If you have a website that gets a good deal of traffic but generates no money, placing ads on your site may be the key to success. Learn how ad type, placement, and location can boost your website revenue.
Self-service business intelligence (BI) and social marketing are a match made in heaven. BI tools may be exactly what marketers need to demonstrate the value of social media. Consider these best-practices for gaining great insight.
How can you engage customers via real-time marketing? Marketers are adopting technology that can help recognize a customer's interests and provide actionable intelligence in real-time to any customer channel.
Is your online presence scattered about and disconnected? Learn how to centralize and connect your presence across different social sites by creating a social hub that'll get the right people to see your content.
What's the use in crafting clever emails if they get relegated to the bulk folder? Engagement rates will determine whether or not your emails will make it to the inbox. Learn how to drive engagement and get your messages read.
Just like hit Broadway shows, social media campaigns need to be evaluated, prepared, and tweaked before their big debuts. Here are six ways to perfect your campaigns to ensure they launch to standing ovations.
You might think you don't need a media relations program, or don't have the resources for it... but how cool would it be to have the media singing your praises? Use these tactics, and you will soon have a chorus of coverage.
Stories are how we make sense of the world. Learn how telling mini-stories will allow buyers to take your offering for a virtual mental test drive, to accept change—and to reject the status quo.
Many have pronounced tradeshow marketing dead. But with the right strategy, hard work, and flawless execution, tradeshows can still be a productive part of your marketing plan. Here are 12 ways to breathe new life into your tradeshows.
In all your business communications, you want to put your best foot forward—and that calls for careful writing. Careful writing enhances your credibility, so avoid making these common errors and keep your copy clean.
Think marketing automation platforms are just a way to make your marketing organizations more efficient? Wrong. These systems—if used properly—can do wonders for your interactions with prospects and customers.
Search engine optimization works best when it's the last, rather than the first, item on your website checklist. Don't miss these commonly overlooked steps that can vastly improve your site's performance—before you SEO.
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