"I had a customer who made my blood pressure spike as soon as I heard she was on the phone," writes Scott McKain in a Pro article at the MarketingProfs site. "We would jump through hoops to try to keep her happy, and she stressed all of us beyond description." There ... more

When we create and evolve lead-generation programs, we tend to focus on strategies, tools and goals. It's just as important, however, to plan for the management of all the data we collect. In a pair of posts at the Database Diva blog, Lori Feldman outlines common lead-management mistakes made by marketing ... more

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

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

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Land article, Andrew Goodman predicts that the biggest risk in 2010-2011 for search marketers may lie in working with outdated assumptions about the size and potential of target markets and the paid-search channel.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

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

"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

"Several months ago I was meeting with a Director of Marketing Operations and we were reviewing their corporate lead qualification process," says Carlos Hidalgo in a post at the Annuitas Group blog. "As he explained how they qualify leads, I asked him if sales and marketing agreed on the definition ... more

Remember when we told you about Twitcam, the service that lets you stream live video via Twitter? This is kind of like that, but with more oomph and less lag. Say hello to tinychat, which lets you host live Web meetings, TV shows, music jam sessions—or whatever else you wanna do ... more

Some companies seem addicted to email campaigns that shout breathless, time-sensitive offers. Each week, it seems, they tell subscribers about special deals that simply can't be missed—only to make a similar offer the following week. In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow provides a screenshot with 19 emails ... more

Although companies know they need a marketing message that stands out in the marketplace, 62% of executives rate their company's message as average to poor and only 38% say their company has a differentiated story, according to a survey from Corporate Visions. more

We recently encouraged businesses to expand their local search horizons and add more local flavor to their national search campaigns. Now, in a post at the Content Rich blog, Jon Wuebben offers more arguments for growing local roots in your search campaigns.  Wuebben quotes Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, who ... more