- Marketers: Don't Just Buy Media—Earn It! by Ben Straley
Want to get started with an effective earned-media marketing program? Here are three tips for launching, measuring, and monetizing a low-cost earned-media program that will drive a surge in online word-of-mouth traffic about your brand.
- Your Website's Missing Ingredient by Jerry Bader
When websites fail, most often it's because they do not function effectively as your primary communication tool. The Web is overcrowded with options, and unless you're prepared to deliver a compelling, differentiating presentation you will be quickly dismissed as irrelevant. ...
- Measuring What Matters in Email Marketing, Part 2 by Karen Talavera
There are many approaches to using email-campaign metrics to measure and improve marketing performance. The following are the top five approaches, along with appropriate measures and usable insights for each.
- How Social Is Socially Acceptable in Email? by Stephanie Miller
Marketers face a bit of a quandary in deciding how social to be. There is a seemingly endless number of social networks, all with conversations that might be relevant to the business.
When it comes to email, the issue becomes trickier ...
- Cures for Eight Common Small-Marketing-Firm Ailments by Steve Adams
Small-agency quirks don't have to be fatal. In fact, many can be fixed by applying simple technologies that provide big-business tools while allowing firms to stay true to their small-business core. The following eight cures to the common small-marketing-firm ailments ...
- Put Crowdsourcing to Work for You: Five Tips for Getting Started
by Kimberly SmithSome companies are finding that their customers have a truer understanding of their own motivators and needs than even the most-qualified Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and (what's more) that an outsider perspective may be just what their organizations need.
It's called ...
- Brand-Building: The Limits of Engagement by Joel Rubinson
Suppose you learned that most of your brand's buyers are switchers: that only 15% of your customers are highly loyal to your brand and account for maybe half of sales. The harsh reality is that that's a typical pattern for ...
- Social Media: Three Essentials Your Business Needs Before You Engage
by Elaine FogelIt's true that social media has become the most popular marketing channel since the advent of the Internet, but marketers need to develop a solid strategy first before testing the new waters.
Whether yours is a small or midsize company, nonprofit, ...
- Eight Tips for Hunting for Revenue Where No Budget Exists—Get to Executives by Steve Lightstone
It's tough out there. Budgets are being cut. Markets are shrinking. Prospects aren't buying the way they used to. But you can still sell effectively. You just have to think differently.
The message is important, but it's effective only if the ...
- Eliminate Fear: Use Your Click-Through Data! by Josh Nason
In every email campaign, you should have direct links to specific pages on your website, helping you gauge and track what's moving the meter in your emails. If you're using a proper email service provider (ESP), you should be able ...
- A Newbie's Field Guide to Twitter for Business: 29 Questions (and Answers) About Starting Out
by Beth Harte, Ann HandleySo you've heard that Twitter is a great tool for connecting with customers in ways that haven't been previously possible. But you still don't get it, right?
Not only doesn't Twitter make obvious and immediate sense, but it's also marked by ...
- Six Smart Tactics for Dealing With the Economic Downturn
by Michael BarrThis is no time for business as usual. To keep the customer and win the sale, a marketer has to outsmart the competition. But how do you motivate your customers to spend their marginal purchasing dollars on your product instead ...
- The New Direct Mail: Five Tips to Turn Print Campaigns Into Gold by Randy Spurrier
Twitter and Facebook might make for captivating marketing headlines, but the same savvy Chief Marketing Officers who are embracing social media are also quietly reinventing a less-buzzy marketing technique: direct mail.
- Getting Buy-in for Social Media: Six Tips for Convincing a Skeptical Boss
by Mack CollierConvinced that social media will further your marketing goals but having trouble getting the message across to your skeptical boss? Try speaking in terms that he or she will understand.
- Three Ways Healthcare Brands Can Leverage Social Media by Maryann Kuzel
Marketing professional in the healthcare industry may be missing a golden opportunity to meet the sometimes-desperate needs of patients, to become more relevant and supportive in the long arc of their journey to better health. If they do, they will ...
- The Customer Lens: An Approach to Customer Touch-Point Analysis by Barre Blake
Few marketers would dispute the statement that it is the sum of all customers' interactions with a company, over time, that ultimately creates or destroys that company’s brand value. Yet few companies take the time to look at their own ...
- Social Media 101: Use Twitter to Attract Prospects and Engage Customers by Debra Ellis
Before you enter the relatively new frontier of social media, you need an action plan. Although the costs are low, social media tools require extensive maintenance to be effective. Your strategy needs to fit your corporate culture, resources, and customer ...
- Three Essential Market-Research Methods in an Online Community by John Kembel
How much do you know about your customers right now, at this moment?
A lot of companies can show you composite profiles that describe their target customers, including job titles, needs, obligations, and goals. No doubt about it: It's important to ...
- Ten Essentials of Software-as-a-Service Solution Marketing by Peter A. Cohen
Here are 10 essentials of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution marketing.
- Achieving Relevance in Direct Digital Marketing: An Introduction by Bryce Marshall
There are five keys to making a relevance-centered approach a reality in your direct digital marketing programs(such as email, websites, mobile, and so on).