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- Vendors are in ferocious competition to engage customer C-level executives who can assure prospective peers that "this" purchase decision is the right one. One such way of engaging executives is the Executive Sponsor Program, a standard "sales tool" since companies like IBM and Xerox pioneered relationship-based sales models many moons ... more
- MarketingProfs has gotten pretty good at producing a steady digital stream of marketing know-how for our members. But darn it, sometimes it's lonely doing everything through IP packets. Once in a while we've got to see another face, share a plate of nachos, and swap a few stories from the ... more
- A new Internet gold rush has been taking hold with the emergence of social networking, blogging, podcasting, and other Web 2.0 experiments. Media companies and Internet giants have reacted promptly by acquiring many of the new players to take advantage of these new advertising vehicles and evolve their endangered models. Yet ... more
- With click-to-call, it's now possible to bridge the gap between the online and phone channels, and track the effectiveness of both. more
- Database marketing is about creating customers. Once you have a customer, you have a first sale and an opportunity to make the second, third, and more sales over time. But if you settle for a single sale but lose the customer, you must start over and resell each and every ... more
- Despite the death knell sounded for email marketing, it has persevered as the most direct and effective way to reach your customers. It's critical, however, to reach them on their terms. Here's the basics on how to send permission-based email that speaks to your clients and prospects. more
- Consumer preference services are a proven tool to curb the invasive use of personal data through cold calling and cold mailing. They protect the integrity of the marketing industries that rely upon telephone and post. But they fail to address the root cause of customer abuse—data gathering, CRM, and analytical ... more
- Finding ways to encourage customers to talk about your company and products is easy once you know what to do. Even in the B2B space, you can indeed create buzz. more
- Relationships. Trust. Delivery of superb value. These are core ingredients of a successful service firm. Talk to 100 service firm marketers and leaders, and they'll all tell you (and most of them believe it) that their firm is at the top of their industry in each of these categories. Why, then, ... more
- Reverse engineering is the process of working back to a solution from an end result. In the era of result-oriented marketing (how did we ever afford to do it differently?), reverse engineering can help marketers refocus their efforts and resources to ensure marketing delivers results that are in line with ... more
- Consumer preference services are a proven tool to curb the invasive use of personal data through cold calling and cold mailing. They protect the integrity of the marketing industries that rely upon telephone and post. But they fail to address the root cause of customer abuse—data gathering, CRM, and analytical ... more
- As marketers, we are continually investing in strategies that set customer expectations about how our goods and services will perform. Through advertising, sales meetings, product demonstrations, and so on, we craft a message that we think clearly sets a compelling vision. But so often, that vision focuses only on the ... more
- The gig is up. Your customers think it's simply too much work to reap the benefits of a "loyalty program." So here's the classic experience customers have with loyalty programs. After reading this, how loyal would you be? Scratch that. After reading this, how much of this makes you downright exhausted ... more
- How can B2B companies truly differentiate their offering and be relevant to customers over the long term? This is where brands come in. more
- When Netflix launched in the late '90s, most people thought its developers were nuts. Even with the dot-com era in full bloom, the idea of renting movies via mail struck most as somewhat ludicrous. Looking back on Netflix's startup story, one of the co-founders shares five customer-focused lessons that ... more
- Problems cost money. More often than not, however, the only cost that customers and sales people focus on is that of the proposed solution. The most critical cost, the cost of the problem, remains the best-kept secret in the selling world—and certainly the most overlooked. more
- While Leigh is a huge Mac fan, her recent experience at her local Apple store was surprisingly underwhelming. In fact, it was bad. While it's possible that the problems she encountered are isolated, there are nonetheless some good lessons for anyone managing a retail merchandising experience. more
- After years of paying lip service to the importance of marketing while engineering and design ruled the roost, technology companies are learning that maybe they need to be more like other businesses after all. more
- One of the most exciting and promising developments in marketing is the emergence of something called Net Promoters. First described two years ago in Harvard Business Review, Net Promoters is now being adopted by a growing number of highly respected firms, including General Electric, Intuit, and SAP. What is it? And ... more
- Consumers want to align themselves with brands, employers and even investments that stand for something we believe in and that we can feel good about. Here's how smart companies are responding (and how your organization can, too). more
- Customer experiences are the foundation for competitive differentiation, value creation, and brand identity. While some companies create emotion-driven customer experiences that leave an impact on shoppers, others create "co-production" experiences in which customers are active co-producers. Here's how it works. more
- Brand extensions represent a way to leverage a brand's assets and equity to market new products, increase sales and hopefully, profits. While there can be significant strengths to brand extension strategies, there can also be significant risks in diluting or severely damaging the brand. There is a great deal at ... more
- Every marketer has by now heard the terms viral, buzz and word of mouth. Some will even have noted terms such as brand advocacy, advergames, blog marketing, influencer panels and consumer empowerment seeping into the industry's vocabulary. Collectively, the latest shift in thinking in the world of marketing has been termed ... more
- Northern Virginia is plagued by shopping centers with the most horribly engineered parking lots—some lots capable of holding thousands of cars, but with as few as one entry/exit! What's worse: Just when you turn a corner and think you're on your way to escape, you dead-end at a random curb. What's ... more
- Have you learned the best way to identify and serve customers in your target segments? Segmentation could be the marketing tool that sets your company apart from the competition. Get the full story. more
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