Siemens Medical Solutions wanted to elminate links that were secondary to the main offer on landing pages. But Marketing needed to prove its case to other departments. The approach? Test, test, test. more

Office furniture dealer Panel Systems Unlimited found its sales lagging during an economic recession, and knew that it had to act quickly to position itself for the inevitable recovery. Partnering with Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, it focused on upping its search engine exposure. The result: sales tripled. more

Understanding how the Internet changes the rules of marketing is a huge challenge for CEOs: Which practices are obsolete? What new opportunities should be pursued? How do we define success in this new scenario? more

In a world that is now fully connected, people and businesses are putting their opinions, observations, insights, thoughts, and capabilities online, via some very helpful tools. Here's what one fictitious small business did to grow its customer base, and reach potential customers worldwide. more

One of the more successful tobacco control programs is the "Own Your C" campaign commissioned by the state of Colorado, which has effectively found ways to resonate with this hard-to-reach demographic. more

Should a marketer simply start blogging or wait instead until all of the blogging policies and procedures are established before beginning? In other words: Which comes first the policy or the blog? more

Guinness, the top-selling stout in the world, is facing competition as the beer industry consolidates. It also needs to diversify its customer base, as about 95% of its sales volume comes from four markets. Here's how Guinness maintains its distinctive brand reputation. more

The hearing aid industry has suffered from an image problem, because the devices were perceived as ugly and just for the elderly. As a result, just 23% of those who needed hearing aids actually bought them. But based on extensive market research, Oticon, Inc. built a cool hearing aid that ... more

What constitutes marketing operations? Marketing operations adds an emerging dimension to the marketing mix. Enabled by new processes and technology, it goes beyond the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), and 3Cs (Customers, Competitors, Corporation), to fully round out the marketing mix. more

Marketers often lament, "If only I had more time...." Improving your productivity by using something like GTD (Getting Things Done) will take you part of the way there. But you also need to become ruthless at delegating. The more effectively you delegate, the faster you will excel in your career. more

Results from a recent survey found that only 17% of us indicated that our CEOs would give marketing an A. What's more, this study and others continue to suggest that a gap remains between a company's business goals and the metrics marketing uses to measure their impact on these goals. ... more

In this MarketingProfs Classic, Jim Lenskold reminds us that, since the dreaded annual planning and budgeting process isn't going away, it's time to make the effort to get more value out of the process. Jim writes, "Here are four ways to use financial insight to create more profitable strategies and ... more

Wi-Gear, an independent manufacturer formed in 2004, was focused on one product—a wireless Bluetooth headset—geared toward the Apple iPod. It had a tiny sales and marketing budget and no outside capital. It needed to grow its distribution from just online sales to other retail outlets, preferably Apple Stores. But plenty ... more

Kronos had an obvious identity problem that clearly impacted its sales performance, so getting support from the executive suite for a branding initiative should have been a slam-dunk. Except not quite. While everyone agreed there was a brand problem, the solution was costly and very long-term. Here's how Marketing won ... more

SIGG had been selling its aluminum water and fuel bottles to the US outdoor market for years at a price about twice as much as the closest competitor's. It counted on the Swiss reputation for quality to drive sales—but sales were flat. Then its newly formed US subsidiary made some ... more

If you are adopting Net Promoter as part of your survey/metrics approach, there's a rich part of the findings that many who are implementing this approach don't consider: learning from your "Detractors." Here, Jeanne Bliss focuses on Detractors, and how to mine the gold by listening hard to their feedback to ... more

Driving sales is what B2B marketing is all about. Although the precise roles and responsibilities of Marketing may differ from company to company, your marching orders are the same: Help Sales produce more with less. All marketers want to know best practices and share experiences about driving sales. Here are ... more

Softrax Corp.'s enterprise software automates a company's entire revenue cycle. With the advantages of automation not always apparent to potential customers, Softrax based its marketing strategy on educating the market, while competitors relied mostly on advertising. Webcasts featuring government and industry experts—with only an indirect connection to Softrax apparent—formed the ... more

A wise but anonymous marketer once said that a market research report that gets described as "interesting" has failed. It's only when it's "useful" that it gets the pass mark. After all, what's the point of interesting research if it can't be put to use? The sad truth is that most ... more

The manufacturing sector is more traditional than most. Many of its customers aren't high tech—some don't even have Internet access. Fabcon, a Minnesota builder of precast wall panels, struggled with marrying its desire for high-tech operational efficiency and its need to service customers in the method that they preferred. more

Earthlink, one of the country's smaller Internet service providers, serves just over 5 million customers. To differentiate itself, it has decided to provide superior customer service. An early adopter of chat technology, it has sought to actively offer efficient online customer service via chat—both shifting customer support away from the ... more

The nonprofit Oregon Sports Authority (OSA) was striving to bring new sporting events, teams, and tourist dollars to the state. It also wanted to become the official sports resource for state residents. An overhaul of its promotions and more compelling communication of its brand were the ambitious goals that the ... more

Last month, Kwik-E-Mart's opened around the country. You know, the one from the imaginary world of The Simpsons? What's more, the Geico Cavemen have their own sitcom, and fictitious TV-character blogs like Monk's are things that real viewers can comment on. You don't have to be a Twitter-head or a Second-Lifer ... more

The Search Engine Optimization market is over $10 billion in North America alone. The biggest question isn't whether you should utilize Search, but rather who will manage your campaigns. What should your organization do? It depends. When you review your options for in-house or outsourced Search or pay-per-click bid management, consider ... more

With Web hosting fast becoming a commodity, Web hosting firm Rackspace realized it needed to stand out from the pack. Its founders decided they would stake a claim to "fanatical" commitment to customer service. Rackspace wove the concept into its very business structure, even trademarking the term "Fanatical Support." And ... more