Chief marketing officers at US companies are planning significant hiring and budget increases over the next two years as they remain optimistic about prospects for their companies and the economy, according to a survey conducted by Duke University and the American Marketing Association. Overall, CMOs expect marketing budgets to increase, ... more

A recent Nielsen study found that global consumption of social media increased 82 percent from Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009 in the 10 countries surveyed, with users spending an average of 5.5 hours on their sites of choice per month! US and Australian addicts are among the heaviest users of all, spending 6 ... more

As B2B marketers continue to pinch pennies, a post last summer by Adam Blitzer at the B2B Marketing ROI blog deserves a second look. The question Blitzer addresses is this: For B2B prospecting, are free trials better than paid pilot programs? While Blitzer acknowledges that offering free trials to prospects may ... more

Cross-channel attribution is about assigning credit for marketing results to where credit is due. Most marketers and agencies either attribute all credit to the last touch point or have no way of attributing the credit in a meaningful manner. Here are the five common mistakes they make—and can avoid, by ... more

Which converts better and drives more sales: long-form copy or short-form copy? "The more you tell, the more you sell," claim the adherents of long copy. "No one has time to read below the fold," counter short-copy partisans. Of course, both sides are right... more

Dudes: Are you ready to give off some fresh new surfer vibes? Search engines are constantly looking for new signals they can use to improve the quality of the results they provide to Internet surfers, says Eric Enge in a recent post at Search Engine Watch. "Search engines continue to ... more

Let's face it: If your marketing approach consists of sporadically touting your company's greatness via the overpopulated social mediaverse, you're about to get absolutely nowhere—except ignored. Or hated. Blacklisted, even.  Frustrated with today's confusing social-media etiquette? Well, don't be! There are sassy methods for making your outreach simply ooze old-fashioned Southern ... more

Combining your product with top brands is an incredible way to escalate growth. If you are looking to drive revenue, enter new markets, or reposition your product, brand licensing can lead to dramatic results. As with any new endeavor, however, pitfalls abound. more

In a recent Search Engine Land article, Andrew Goodman predicts that the biggest risk in 2010-2011 for search marketers may lie in working with outdated assumptions about the size and potential of target markets and the paid-search channel. As a remedy, he suggests five investment or expansion "risks" that could ... more

We like to emphasize that mobile is probably the most personalized technology available so far in the 21st century. And these days, finding ways to incorporate yourself into users' daily rituals is crucial to maximizing brand exposure on their up-close-and-personal handhelds. That's one reason for taking a look at GM's new ... more

"Since white papers are among the most popular pieces of content for [many] buyers," notes Cheryl Goldberg at the High Tech Communicator blog, "you'll want to create a lot of them. But coming up with new ideas for white papers can be a daunting task." To ease your brainstorming efforts, ... more

Looking to make your brand trendier? Get a load of Trendistic, a clear and simple way to watch the ebb and flow of buzz on Twitter. A visit to the Trendistic homepage gives you a quick glimpse at what keyword is hottest on Twitter right now. In addition to the most current ... more

In a post at the Build a Sales Machine blog, Aaron Ross predicts that B2B boards and VPs of sales will repeat a "fatal mistake" in 2010. They'll assume this "old bedrock sales principle" still holds true: "If I need to double revenue growth, I need to double my sales ... more

In May 2009, Omniture and The CMO Club asked 102 CMOs to rate the relative effectiveness of digital-marketing media. The vast majority (78 percent) gave top marks to email marketing, but a sizable minority (33 percent) reported success in emerging social-media channels, too. That's because, these days, consumers "engage with a ... more

Are you facing increasing pressure from your leadership team to justify your marketing decisions? Most marketers can no longer afford to make decisions based on intuition or gut feel. Today, making good decisions requires data. Data and technology enable marketers to act and react. more

Cross-promotional efforts can help companies spread the word as new online-marketing platforms are launched, boosting follower interest and opt-in. The following are 10 popular strategies that companies use to maximize their digital-marketing mix. more

Some marketing activities or processes (in reality, many business activities) require "artists" to produce the desired output. However, that by itself does not make the output art. The distinction is important. more

Before you start soliciting links and becoming active in online communities, it's best to first ensure that your site's content, structure, and design are in peak condition, Virginia Nussey advises in a recent post at the Bruce Clay blog: "Before you can expect a site to develop inbound links, you have ... more

When IBM suspected that a bad economy and widespread IT budget cuts would negatively affect attendance at its IMPACT 2009 SOA conference, it devised a strategy that used social networking and other online tactics to boost attendance and build stronger customer relationships. In a case study published by MarketingProfs, Sandy ... more

It'd be an understatement to say 2009 was a tough year for Domino's Pizza, what with the awkward employees-abusing-food scandal. A quick recap: two bored employees recorded themselves doing unpleasant things with food, and the video wound up on YouTube. Domino's responded swiftly enough, both terminating the employees and releasing an apologetic YouTube video ... more

Consumer frustration with website performance during peak traffic times negatively affects business results: 78% of consumers have switched to a competitor's site due to poor Web performance during peak times, according to a new survey from Gomez. more

During uncertain economic times, acquiring new business is the biggest challenge facing B2B companies: 38% of a small group of multichannel executives surveyed cite cost-effective customer acquisition as their highest concern this year, according to a recent survey from MeritDirect. more

Looking for ways to create a proposal that sets you and your company favorably apart? Ways that capture the great things you have to offer? Here are six suggested best-practices intended to not only maximize your chances to stand out and land the job but also manage the risks. more

"They say an Internet year is … equivalent to seven normal years," says Kevin Gibbon in a post at SEOptimise—meaning that we can witness seven real-world-years' worth of change in one year online. To help search marketers keep up, Gibbon offers seven ways to stay on top of the competition in the ... more

Sweet news, hardcore Twitter users! Hootsuite—the Twitter management tool developed with marketers in mind—just released an app for the iPhone. That means you can now access the handy features of Hootsuite in any old roost! We first covered Hootsuite shortly after Canadian company Invoke Media launched the adorable owl-themed service. It made ... more