Michael Weiss, managing director at figure18 and a veteran speaker, consultant, client advocate, and sales executive, has an interesting perspective on marketing and advertising, not to mention the role of the agency, in today's always-on, always-open business environment. more

Social media has become an important way for financial advisers to engage with clients and grow their business, according to survey from Accenture: 48% of financial advisers say they interact daily with clients via social media and 74% say social media helps them increase the financial assets under their management. more

How is marketing automation like the Wizard of Oz? Without being noticed, both work furiously behind the scenes to produce an experience that works like magic. Check out the following infographic to find out just what marketing automation can do for your business. more

To illustrate the technological advancements that changed the course of marketing, Marketo put together the following infographic based on The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation. more

To meet revenue goals, Sales and Marketing should work together. Unfortunately, they often don't. Why is that? Check out this infographic to learn about reasons for the clash and some ways Marketing can help Sales. more

In 2012, an estimated 9.6 trillion text messages were sent out. What were all those texts about? Fortunately, you don't to have to read over someone's shoulder to find out. Leads360 did the research then created the following infographic. more

Though email messaging is an important part of the selling process, texting can be an effective way to supplement email and phone channels, according to a study by Leads360. Sales prospects who receive SMS text messages during the sales process convert at a rate 40% higher than those who do ... more

The sales world seems to be in a state of constant change, thanks to the emergence of new technologies. To explore the most pivotal inventions that revolutionized sales, Lattice Engines created the following infographic. more

Sales organizations are starting to use tablet devices to create engaging mobile experiences that deliver transformational business results, driving new revenue, differentiating the buying experience, and solving big productivity problems. more

Demonstrating value is certainly a fine reason to measure our actions and their results. But discussing marketing measurement with Jim Lenskold during this week's Marketing Smarts podcast got me thinking that we may be thinking about the purpose of measurement exactly backwards. more

"Buyer personas don't work if you make stuff up," Adele Revella told me during this week's episode of Marketing Smarts. "They work if you listen to customers first." But to gather real, actionable customer intelligence, you need to talk to actual customers. That can be challenging for two reasons. more

With the advent of digital, social, and mobile media, the consumer buying process has become more complex than simply identifying a need, exploring options, and making a purchase, according to new research conducted by Latitude and About.com. Even so, buying decisions appear to happening more quickly than ever, the study ... more

The typos on the title slide and other errors in this slide show are intentional. Moreover, MarketingProfs sincerely implores you to not follow the advice herein as prescription. In fact, consider it proscription. more

Dan Pink argues that selling (especially in the form of persuading or convincing someone to do this or that) is deeply embedded in our nature. "We need to move away from thinking of selling something as a kind of unnatural, scurrilous act," he insists. more

Smartphones and tablets are growing in popularity, so you might be assuming that they are completely transforming how folks shop. Transforming? Yes. Completely? Not quite. This infographic shows how mobile devices are really affecting the shopping experience. more

Shoppers plan to spend $92-$96 billion online during the 2012 holiday season. To help brands understand how to reach those online shoppers, Maxymiser created this infographic of five online-shopper personas. more

As Hanukkah draws to a close and Christmas approaches, online retailers naturally wonder how the happy—and profitable—holiday season might add to their bottom line. Here are some clues. more

Traditional face-to-face tactics are still fundamental for SMB marketers: Personal relationships and networking (95%), tradeshows and industry events (89%), and in-person events (86%) rank as the most popular marketing tactics for finding new customers, according to a survey of small and midsized businesses conducted by Forrester Consulting for Act-On Software. more

More than half of Americans (57%) are expected to shop from the comfort of their own computer and mobile screens this Cyber Monday; moreover, consumers will use social media for finding discounts (57% of consumers), reading reviews (51%), and finding gift ideas (49%), according to Radium One. more

Ellen Valentine, product evangelist at Silverpop and my guest this week on Marketing Smarts, has an interesting perspective on the perennial tension between Marketing and Sales: Technology is to blame! And it's likely the solution, too... more

With the holiday season all but here, more small business owners are making Small Business Saturday an integral factor in their holiday sales plans, according to a survey from American Express and the National Federation of Independent Businesses. more

To better understand holiday shoppers and their attitudes about online tools and channels, LivePerson conducted its 2012 Holiday E-Commerce Survey then highlighted its findings in an infographic. more

Are you happy with the quality and quantity of your leads? If not, your lead generation program likely needs a tune-up using the following five principles of lead generation. more

Over time, insiders in the analytics industry have codified A/B-testing to help clients understand how it all really works. This infographic by KISSmetrics and Conversion Rate Experts highlights one approach that works particularly well for SaaS businesses—and can be applied in other industries. more

A note to our readers: MarketingProfs has decided to cease publication of the Get to the Po!nt (GTTP) newsletters, and this issue of the B2B Marketing GTTP is the last you'll be receiving. We hope you continue to enjoy our daily newsletter, MarketingProfs Today, and our best-of-the-week newsletter, MarketingProfs This Week.As a tradeshow exhibitor, you create an exhaustive ... more