Share and share alike, we’ve all heard the phrase. Many of us often practice the principle. Now this noble concept of give and take will play a major role in propelling marketing into a new realm of possibilities. GE has unlocked the doorway with a recent test campaign. To quantify the value of online buzz, the company distributed …

  In a marketing world, currently changing quicker than a race car shifts gears, it’s difficult if not virtually impossible to get a handle on how to connect with customers on a consistent basis. New variables, realities, and information are pouring in by the nanosecond, creating a jungle of confusion. To help marketers through these complexities, here are some timely …

    Nowadays, most marketers are tuned into the growing popularity of mobile apps. Still, the app landscape is shrouded in mystery, leaving the vast majority of advertisers confused and stuck in the mud. As a result, creating effective mobile marketing strategies is becoming a growing challenge.  To get a handle on the ‘mobile madness,’ it helps to understand the …

  So you’re sending out wave after wave of painstakingly-crafted emails, but they’re never reaching their destination. Yes, you’ve been listed on one of the dreaded blacklist sites. Naturally, you plead with the blacklist owner for mercy. But you’re flatly rebuffed with a curt instruction to ‘re-permission’ your list. Then you do the only thing you can – jump up …

  More than a few businesses feel lost in a social media swamp. New trends, arcane concepts, and innovative techniques – the confusion keeps mounting. It’s hard to know what’s what, who’s who, and how well you’re doing. The good news is — there are ways out of the mess. Give one or more of these simple tools a whirl. …

Retailers have an extra reason to raise their glasses in celebration this New Years. According to the stats, 2011 brought you a pretty juicy holiday season. How good was it? Try a 15% jump over last year’s seasonal take. Congratulations! You responded to the tough economic times with all the right moves — special promotions, longer store hours, free shipping, …

  While Coca-Cola has had a subtle, pervasive influence on our culture, it has definitely shaped the way we think of Santa. Prior to the advertising illustrations created by Haddon Sunblom illustrations in the 1930s, the Christmas saint had been variously illustrated wearing blue, yellow, green, or red. After the soft drink ads, Santa would forever more be a huge, …

  It’s time to do a little time traveling. Not too far. Just a quick side trip into ‘012. After all, it’s just around the corner. And the New Year is sure to bring more blistering changes sweeping through the world of digital marketing. All of which means marketers should be ready to react and adapt. Here’s what the future …

Online marketers have a whole new bag of tricks designed to connect with consumers. Unlike content advertising, the connection is based on consumer characteristics and determined by sophisticated algorithms. Known as targeted advertising, the phenomenon is spreading through the net at a blistering speed thanks to the surge in ad tech companies. Does this mean targeted advertising soon will be …

Is it time to reassess the use of the term ‘social’ in social media? Quite possibly, especially when you consider how decisions currently are made. In the contemporary climate, both consumers and business people increasingly rely on information provided by others. The purpose of the information, of course, is to facilitate more effective decision-making. That’s a definite social interaction. Yet …

It all comes down to brand familiarity. And that’s precisely why social media is such a powerful marketing tool. No other online resource does so well at bringing people up close and personal with whatever it is you have to sell. Once you’ve pumped up brand familiarity to an irresistible level, your next move is major – persuade customers to …

    If you write it, they will read. It’s true. Your audience has wide open eyes and ears for your email marketing message. But consumers are a picky lot. So not only does your message have to be loaded with high value info. It has to be in the right format. Or consumers will likely walk away, no questions …

  Once upon a time, online advertisers crafted sizzling campaigns by bidding to run ads in tandem with keyword searches. This was the power of Google Adwords, a resource that put the almighty keyword in the center of the marketing universe. It still holds this position…sort of. You see, Google is about to unveil its nextgen search tool, which bends …

    The Facebook kingdom is overflowing with companies jostling to boost brand awareness. Are you lost in this crowd? Are you ready to carve out your own niche? Here’s how to put your Facebook page in the spotlight with the sheer power of entertainment. 1. Sponsor an Event – Everyone loves music. And Facebook fans are no exception. Feed …

  Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Food. Drink. Messaging. That’s right, messaging. It’s not uncommon for even the savviest businesses to overuse email, social media, and texting in their quest for customers. Unfortunately, the info avalanches typically send customers rushing away from the business instead of to it. Enough is enough. Overuse it, and lose …

So, you’ve got Facebook and Twitter fans pouring in from every corner of the known universe. Fantastic! But don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. If your social media campaign is like most, people eventually will be turning away from your message…if they haven’t done so already. ‘Impossible!’ you protest. “I could fill a football stadium ten times over …

  Smart phones are getting smarter. It’s only a matter of time before we all have little beeping, blinking geniuses in our pockets. Understandably, mobile marketers are rushing to exploit the I.Q. surge. Easy access and compelling content translate to soaring sales, right? Well, not quite yet. The formula for mobile success still is a riddle awaiting the correct answer. …

Within a single minute, millions around the world last week learned of Steve Jobs death thanks to the very personal technology he helped bring to fruition.While it is rare for the departure of corporate executive to receive the attention of a pop icon or a religious leader, Steve Jobs was both to so many of us.More than the value of …

Your favorite relative apparently loves online retailers. The proof is Uncle Sam’s sales tax policy — he doesn’t require internet businesses to collect any! That’s right. Not one single penny. Why is the government keeping its mitts off of cyber sellers? Most of the reluctance is an outgrowth of the 1992 decision handed down in Quill v. North Dakota. Here’s …

  It’s a great big Google world. OK, sure there are dozens of other search engines. But if you need to find something out in a hurry, who you gonna click? Most likely the big G. Great news for those of us tackling direct B2B marketing. But if you’re planning to mine major gold from Google or any of the …

Like most of us navigating the marketing landscape, I’m constantly on the hunt for insights that bring the sometimes nebulous world of social media into sharper focus. Recently, I learned of an online resource that promises to do that, and more — Emerging Trends in B-to-B Social Media Marketing: Insights From the Field. Published by ‘B to B Magazine’, this …

Steve Jobs’ resignation from the position of Apple CEO signals the end of a remarkable period in the computer giant’s history. In 1997, the year Jobs returned to Apple, the company was floundering. Ho-hum products and monetary waste had taken their toll. This once-shiny Apple now seemed rotten to the core. As if waving a magic wand, Jobs restored the …

Last week, Hewlett Packard’s startling announcement sent shock waves through the computer world. As hard as it is to believe, the company intends to slam the brakes on its tablet computer and smartphone products. Yes, these nifty gadgets soon will be a thing of the past. What else may become a thing of the past truly boggles the mind. Management …

It’s a question that likely dates back to the first time a member of the human species exercised his or her right to voice an opinion – At what point does freedom of speech go too far?The answer typically is found in that fuzzy gray area between inalienable rights and common sense. Recent unrest in Egypt, and then in the …

Where would we be if Thomas Edison had given up after his initial experiment? Quite possibly at the candle shop purchasing the latest in wax-coated illumination for our homes and offices. Throughout history, perseverance has made the difference between soaring success and agonizing defeat. And this is as true for marketing as it is for the next scientific breakthrough. The …

So why can’t we have insurance that plans for them? Today, Laguna Beach was closed to through traffic due to flooding. It has not flooded here in 100 years. Yet today, downtown business owners are devastated by a natural disaster for which they have no insurance. In the words of city councilman and local business owner Kelly Boyd, “This is …

Numerous companies and organizations are tapping into a new kind of firepower — brand relevance. In a nutshell, brand relevance gauges a customer’s affinity for a given brand. The metric, in turn, enables marketers to calculate the success of that brand. This approach carries with it a very large assumption – a brand’s relevance to a consumer influences purchasing choices. …

    A battle is raging online. And not just between those mighty search engines. Email and social networking are in a blazing hot contest. At stake are the hearts and minds of thousands of users. Chadwick Martin Bailey reports that three-fourths of all online visitors very likely will share content with friends and family via one of these channels. …

Virtually anyone selling a product or service has a few of these ticks in their fur – brazen, big- mouths tearing a company to shreds with torrents of criticism. Most executives wish they simply could wave a magic wand, and POOF! — the restless discontents would just vanish. In reality, however, these bothersome opinion-shouters could be providing companies with a golden …

    As with television ratings, search engine rankings often determine the popularity and therefore sponsor-worthiness of websites. He who gets the most hits, gets the most greenbacks. It’s the universal law of cyberspace. In a bold attempt to survive and triumph in the red hot rankings race, owners, marketers, and managers are constantly on a quest to discover the …

  More than a few of you out there probably will be affected or maybe even afflicted by last week’s election. Some might be uncorking champagne and dancing energetic jigs in the streets. Others might be seething volcanoes of discontent. But no matter where you are on the mood meter, you have ample reason to be grateful. Why? Because, my …

Once upon a time, social media was a convenient way for thousands of attention-seekers to exchange news flashes about the minutiae of their lives. Then marketing entities discovered a pot of gold gleaming somewhere within the social media rainbow. They swooped on Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest, did a little molding, and snap — turned them all into indispensable …

Hi-rez photos, streaming videos, screaming graphics, 3D virtual worlds.   Seems no website worth its weight in high speed data bits lacks these essential components of visual sophistication. Still, as more and more commerce and communications shift into cyberspace, the role of quality content will continue to grow in importance. What this means is that one word could be worth …

It’s an avalanche, a flood, and a blizzard all at once. Major changes are ripping through the world of marketing with gale force. And what’s driving these winds of change? You guessed it – the Web. Along with social media, online videos are doing their part to shake up the world of communications. The stats tell a powerful story. Neilson …

  I recently attended the NHRA Winter Nationals and noticed that the most popular body for those outrageous funny cars seemed to be Pontiac. So when I asked another spectator why, he simply said “they have the best aero-dynamics.” My horse sense told me this was likely to be true. Wow! I thought to myself.     GM phased out …

 America needs jobs to bring us legitimate growth and prosperity again, and manufacturing jobs are the key to our ability to compete in a global economy. Why? Because the physical shipment of U.S. goods to other countries is the most tangible way to balance the trade deficit and create sustainable growth and wealth, but of course we need to be …

  I’m sure you have experienced it yourself. Your  waiter, who has done a superb job of serving you so far, surprises you and your guest with an “on the house” dessert. He simply offers it as a token of thanks for being such a wonderful guest. Although it may appear to be a random act of kindness, it has …

  Social media is all the rage in marketing these days. But does it bring value to business marketers? BtoB Magazine (Crain Communications) has been following this topic very closely with several excellent case histories focused on Twitter, which was published in the June 14, 2010 issue. Take the case of Con-Way, a pure B2B transportation logistics provider, who has …

We’ve all done it. You make some marketing decisions based on your own behavior, media habits and brand values. Sure, sometimes your instincts are spot on. But this only accelerates bad habits. Just like how winning in Las Vegas on your first visit can establish a false perception of your gambling skill.   The digital marketing concept is the philosophy that firms …