According to DIRECT's Ken Magill, a recent announcement from AOL hints at where Internet service providers' spam-filtering techniques are headed, and "what marketers had better start doing if they want their email lists to continue to perform." Here's the scenario: Until now, senders with consistently low complaint rates earned a coveted ... more

Americans 65+ comprise less than 10% of the active Internet, but their numbers are growing: In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet grew 55% to 17.5 million in November 2009, up from 11.3 million in November 2004, according to a survey by Nielsen. more

If there's one thing marketers know how to do, it's to make things sound better than they actually are. Consider a drink often requested by Paul Williams at Starbucks—that purveyor of infinitely customizable beverages: Iced, tall, no-shot Americano. Even if you know how to decode Starbucks lingo, you might still ... more

You might not have the big-time marketing budget of a major retailer—but as the holiday season peaks, don't forget there's a secret weapon in your arsenal. "Email marketing campaigns are affordable, and can help small retailers to compete with the big boys during this crucial sales period, " says Wendy Lowe ... more

In late October, Twitter launched its Lists feature, which might just improve your life in a panoply of organization-friendly ways. The new feature helps you sort your own contacts based on personal relevance, but—maybe more importantly—it also provides you with ready-made groups of people to which to target your messages. ... more

Americans can't live without the Internet and television; they prefer advertisements that are innovative and playful; and they are open to new technologies that monitor their media usage if privacy is ensured, according to a recent study by Synovate. more

Few companies have been spared the ravages of the recession, but some strategies seem to be working to help small businesses stay afloat. In a recent article at Inc., Elizabeth Wasserman suggests tactics that small retailers might employ to add some ho-ho-ho to the late-holiday sales season—and boost results in the ... more

Annual global advertising expenditure will have declined 10.2% by the end of 2009––the worst annual drop in modern times––but is forecast to stabilize and grow 0.9% in 2010, according to projections by ZenithOptimedia. more

"Every once in a while," writes Ardath Albee at the Marketing Interactions blog, "I get a bit irked at the irresponsible email practices of companies that play fast and free with their databases." In this case, an email from a marketing solutions company raised her ire by lying to her. Repeatedly. ... more

In the third quarter of 2009, Americans' consumption of new media formats grew at a brisk pace: DVR use increased 21% year over year, while the use of online video increased 34%, according to Nielsen's latest A2/M2 Three Screen Report. more

How much B2B branding is too much? You want to incorporate your B2B brand message into every encounter with prospects and clients. But how do you do that without overdoing it? more

The purpose of a pay-per-click (PPC) ad, says Nick Usborne, is "to match a thought in a reader's mind and then move that person forward to your landing page with a click." But here's the catch: You have to do it in 95 characters or less if you're writing a ... more

Get this: 8 in 10 smartphone users say they have trouble accessing content from their handhelds. What's more, they swear they'd spend at least $9 more per month on purchases if the products they wanted were easier to find. The stats come from a survey of both US and UK smartphone ... more

Peruse the blogosphere for email marketing guidance, and you'll discover a number of seemingly inviolate dictums—rules that must not be broken if you aspire to a successful email program. But in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow argues that many "best" practices are in fact simply ... more

Signaling continued restraint in marketing spending, the revenue for three key B2B media platforms declined during the third quarter of 2009 at approximately the same rates as during the first half of the year, according to American Business Media's Business Information Network. more

Since 2003, senior executives have steadily increased their use of electronic media—so much so, that as of 2009 80% say within five years they will be consuming over half of their work-related media online and 60% say the same for leisure media, according to a Decision Dynamics Survey cosponsored by ... more

With today's increasingly price-conscious consumers, there is ample room for improvement in advertising efficiency: The ratio of average short-term return on marketing investment––sales within three months of media execution––is $1.09 for each dollar spent, according to a recent study by Nielsen. more

In a video at TED.com, Israeli conductor Itay Talgam gives a spirited 20-minute talk on what modern leaders could learn from great conductors. Interestingly, a lot of the principles he presents in the video can apply to nourishing a social-media campaign. Here are some of his words of wisdom that can cross over ... more

"Before the current recession," writes Mark Dolliver in an article at Adweek, "popular wisdom said wealthy people tended to be relatively untouched by the ups and downs of the economy and would keep buying high-end products and services no matter what." Well, times have changed. If your business serves the luxury ... more

As phishers (criminals masquerading as trusted entities to grab usernames, passwords and credit card info) become more sophisticated, and your subscribers become more cautious about online commerce, it's important to know how the average customer vets the marketing messages you send—especially those in which you request personal information. A legitimate appearance—in ... more

Increasingly, marketers are turning toward brain-imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in the quest for the Holy Grail "buy button." We call it neuromarketing. The brain, however, is reluctant to reveal its code. more

Business owner Fran Murdy presented all the symptoms of full-blown Search Overload Syndrome (SOS), Microsoft's term coined in its recent commercials for Bing, when he fessed up in a forum discussion not too long ago at InboundMarketing.com: "I'm in desperate need of help to find keywords for my business." Soon afterward, fellow ... more

Few things are as irresistible as a mobile game that lets players rack points up during waiting-room or bus-ride lulls. But if you're a brick-and-mortar shop, or a restaurant, there isn't much incentive for throwing another branded version of Tetris out into the ether. What to do, what to do? Solution: Hook up ... more

Those of us who check multiple email accounts throughout the day can hardly imagine a world in which people don't read messages as soon as they receive them. But in a post at the Retail Email blog, Chad White reports on a Pivotal Veracity study that found email recipients in August ... more

In a recent post at the Online Marketing Blog, Adam Singer summarizes Charlene Li's keynote at Search Engine Strategies San Jose last summer. Co-author of the business bestseller Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, and a MarketingProfs presenter, Li examines the intersection of search and social media. According ... more