"You walk into your local Sprint store to pay your monthly invoice," writes DJ Waldow at Waldow Social. "You [go] to the counter and hand the Sprint employee a check that covers the full amount due. The Sprint employee takes your check and says, 'Please do not reply to me. ... more

US consumer spending on online deals (daily deals, instant deals, and flash sales) is forecast to reach $3.6 billion in 2012, up 86.9% from the estimated $1.8 billion spent in 2011, according to a report by BIA/Kelsey. However, the forecast signals a maturing market. more

Does the size of a social media following matter? Though two in three SMBs (67%) say they favor quality over quantity, including a plurality (40%) who prefer very engaged followers, more than one in four (27%) SMBs place more importance on the number of followers than engagement level, according to ... more

Who would've guessed a few photo filters and instant sharing capabilities would produce a social hit? Instagram, that's who! The image-based social network, available on iPhone and Android smartphones, boasts more than 100 million users. Many are brands: Starbucks, NASA, MTV, and NBC News are some of the most successful Instagrammers. Recently, the ... more

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. more

"Word-of-mouth is not what it used to be," writes Bob DeStefano in an article at MarketingProfs. "Just 10 years ago, upset customers, or raving fans, could spread their opinion about your business only to their family, friends, neighbors, and work colleagues." Now, however, a simple Google search displays unhappy vitriol ... more

Some 10 million people will likely end up buying the new iPhone 5 in the 10 days after it hits stores on Sept. 21, 2012, and the iPhone 5's release will present a huge mobile app marketing opportunity for brands, according to Fiksu. more

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. more

"Many companies are stressed out about marketing to Generation-Y, those born between 1982 and 1993," writes Tim Hare at MarketingProfs. And with a good reason: "I'm sure you've heard about how sizable the Gen-Y demographic is: 80 million consumers and $200 billion in spending power." But it's not as difficult as ... more

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? more

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. more

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. more

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. more

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

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 ... more

Content consumption is no longer a choice, it's innate. If you own a smartphone, tablet, or laptop, chances are you're absorbing content the majority of the time that you're awake. This brief survey considers how marketers consume content, and how they use and measure it in their work as marketers. more

Social media guidelines are the hallmark, and often the Achilles heel, of a solid social strategy. To be successful, your user guidelines need to be simple and facilitate right social behavior—instead of forcing visitors to wade through legalese. The worst thing a social media policy can do is make users feel ... more

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. more

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. more

Take a look at your Twitter profile. Do you see unimaginative variations on the same basic tweet? Have you noticed a corresponding lack of follower engagement? If so, it's time to mix it up. more

Add oomph to your tweet stream! The Social Media Examiner has conceived 16 creative ways to boost your Tweeting. These tips are designed to help you better organize and structure your Twitter strategy to get noticed. Our favorites: Create a Conversation List. Who you follow defines your Twitter experience. A conversation list helps to ... more

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. more

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. more

B2C brands have Facebook figured out. But B2B brands? Not so much. Yet, it doesn't have to be that way. more

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