When you order a gift for someone, it's always disappointing if they discover what they're receiving ahead of time. This must have been a problem for L.L.Bean customers who share email accounts with loved ones, because the "Tracking Your Order" FAQ page at its website has quite an interesting recommendation ... more

In this regular Daily Chirp feature, William Arruda shares some of his favorite television ads. And he offers up a lesson for how the ad relates to your personal brand. Today, he looks at a commercial about a subject that still makes some people squirm: condoms. more

Yet another promising piece to add to your digital-strategy arsenal: how about interstitial :15-:30 video spots? This summer, ShortTail Media is launching a beta for its Digital 30 (D30) program—full-page interstitial ad placements in which 15- to 30-second spots can be incorporated. Interstitials are ads you see when you are ... more

"No matter how well your ads, emails and landing pages are performing, they can always be doing better," says Dan Zarrella in a post at the HubSpot blog. The way to gather the data you need is with exhaustive—and ongoing—testing. "Every email, every PPC [pay-per-click] ad, and every landing ... more

Airline travel of late has become decidedly less of a joy. Planes are crowded and passengers are nickel-and-dimed at nearly every opportunity—for bottles of water, blankets, checked baggage, and so on. Which makes for a perfect opportunity for an outfit like Air New Zealand. more

Although she has been successful in promoting and extending corporate brands, the author entered into another chapter of her life a few years ago: re-energizing an acting career. Eventually, she came to see marketing herself as an actor as the same as marketing any other product or service. She revisited ... more

While the blogs we highlight are a great resource for email marketers, you might also benefit from the more in-depth guidance of downloadable whitepapers. Companies have discovered the marketing advantage of offering free whitepapers to prospects, and some of those papers are worth a look. ExactTarget's One-to-One Marketing Field Guide ... more

In this regular Daily Chirp feature, William Arruda shares some of his favorite television ads. And he offers up a lesson for how the ad relates to your personal brand. Today, he looks at Honda's "Cog," which went viral before the term "viral" had gone viral. more

So you say you're still a bit iffy about investing in Facebook's panoply of paid brand offerings (virtual gifts, banner ads, homepage takeovers)? Not to worry: we've done some legwork for you, and turned up some freebies at the site that could actually serve your marketing plan to a "T." ... more

Mainstream is not a target market. In fact, by trying to blandly appeal to everyone, you wind up not really appealing to anyone in particular. Yet, in many companies, "niche" is a dirty word, right up there with "polarizing." more

With the widespread use of technical lingo—words like segment, list, database—sometimes it's easy for email marketers to forget about the actual human being on the other side of the Send button. "[W]e're not just delivering to inboxes," Karen Talavera reminds us in a MarketingProfs article, "we're communicating [with] individuals." Here ... more

Sad fact: Even if you have an unlimited budget to spend on paid search, you may not always get the number of Google ad impressions you seek. Why? Because, no matter how much money you have, "you're not the only advertiser in the world, and Google is trying to show ... more

It's an average morning at the Liverpool Street train station in London, England, with travelers crossing the main hall on their way to platforms or the street. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, 400 people break into a precisely choreographed dance as a medley of toe-tapping songs blares from the ... more

You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, "I have seen an uptick in retailers utilizing customer reviews to sell products in their emails." Why? Because user-generated reviews ... more

In this regular Daily Chirp feature, William Arruda shares some of his favorite television ads. And he offers up a lesson for how the ad relates to your personal brand. Today, he looks at Nestle's "Sweet Dreams You Can't Resist." more

Last month, talk of Volvo invaded the blogosphere when the company embedded live Tweets into a YouTube banner ad for its XC60 model. The feed kept viewers abreast of live coverage of the NY Auto Show, then gave them the option to follow Volvo on Twitter. It's a simple enough ... more

Google has always been considered a giant in the online world—it's even been said it rules the Internet. But one medium it hasn't ventured into is television. Until now, that is. more

While most retailers have experienced various degrees of tumult during this recession, the picture isn't entirely gloomy. A recent survey by Internet Retailer, for instance, shows many online-only businesses have maintained—or are improving—their email marketing conversion rates. Of the 275 retailers surveyed: 56.4 percent report their ... more

Occasionally people may buy on impulse. Often, however, they go through a recognizable purchase cycle. "By targeting specific cycle stages, advertisers can increase relevancy by delivering appropriate messages at the right time," says Page Zero Media's Mona Elesseily in an article at Search Engine Land. Here are her definitions of the five ... more

It's one of the oldest clichés in the book, and one of the most persistent: parents who assume everyone else will share an equally enraptured fascination with the accomplishments of their toddlers. As if no other child in the history of mankind has ever taken his or her first step! ... more

Hulu has certainly made a big splash in the online video world. It's quickly becoming a favorite way to watch TV shows and movies. But what's ironic is that traditional TV ads have been instrumental in its growth. more

When using DVRs to watch television, we've gotten used to zipping through commercial breaks. We've been also spoiled by limited interruptions at online services like Hulu, where ads rarely last for more than 30 seconds. In such an environment, sitting through five-minute advertising blocks on live television seems downright onerous. ... more

We hear lots of advice about maintaining a clean list, and much of it centers on how to handle subscribers who seem uninterested in your messages. At a certain point, you might decide it's time to take them off your list. Before you do, though, consider these four "hidden" segments ... more

Last year, Southwest Airlines refused passage to two young women for obnoxious behavior. The ladies immediately went out and told the press they weren't permitted aboard because they were "too pretty to fly"—sparking a media-driven feeding frenzy on Southwest's precious brand equity. It didn't matter that it wasn't true. It ... more

"I get by with a little help from my friends." The words of that old Beatles song could well be applied to today's search marketers. After all, there's nothing like a good link-back among friends to boost search rankings. And in a recent guest post at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, ... more