Your e-newsletter is an excellent tool for maintaining customer relationships. But it can also generate income if you offer cool ad space in it.  In a recent article at MarketingProfs, Drew Adams explains how to make it more appealing to select advertisers: Make it relevant. Adams offers an example: "For a newsletter ... more

How do companies reap solid advertising ROI from email newsletters? They incorporate four key marketing tactics into their campaigns: relevancy, list quality, design, and tactical landing pages. And then they apply them, like this.... more

A new trend uncovered by Hitwise reveals that search queries on all major search engines are starting to get longer and longer. In a recent study, the measurement firm found that searchers are typing four or more words at an increasing rate to find what they're looking for. Searches using ... more

If you're new to digital marketing, you're not alone—and it's never too late to start making an online impact. This especially holds true with email—which, for many marketers, has proved to be the Golden Channel. Case in point: Seiko. "Two years ago," writes Dianna Dilworth in an article at DM ... more

On Friday 2/27, Skittles surrendered itself to the Zeitgeist. Visits to Skittles.com led users directly to Wikipedia (later changed to a Twitter search for "skittles," then to the official Facebook fan page), and attempts to explore the site navigation—little more than a pop-up—guided users elsewhere still: flickr, YouTube, Summize. The ... more

Under normal circumstances, Dylan Boyd believes email copy should be clear and concise. He explains his straightforward rationale in a post at the Email Wars blog: "[I]f I get 500-700 emails a day in my inbox, then I need to know WHO, WHAT, WHY and What's in it for me. ... more

One of the most dangerous trends emerging is that B2B marketers, and their extended search-marketing resources, are regularly making bad decisions based on "solid analytics data." All too often, marketers are deciding to spend either more or less money based solely on the conversion rate of how a certain search phrase, ... more

Every day we are bombarded with bad news about the economy: dismal corporate earnings, budget cuts, advertising gone dark, clients and agencies and people coming and going, and a sense of turbulence, malaise, and timidity. What can marketing do? Today's brand leaders should follow these 7 Ps of branding as ... more

In search, you have a very short window of opportunity for engaging your prospect. The key to ensure you get seen through that tiny window: give searchers exactly what they're looking for. One way of doing this, says Medium Blue's CEO Scott Buresh in a MarketingProfs article, is to use ... more

It's refreshing when a company seems to get it right, and DJ Waldow uses a post at the Bronto blog to explain why email messages from US Airways impress him on a regular basis. Why, it's like they're singing "Come Fly With Me!" Here's what sets them apart, according to ... more

Dylan Boyd, who blogs at The Email Wars, tells the story of an email with the subject line: "Limited time only: save up to 25%! Plus get free shipping." Within, he discovered more action verbs than you could shake a stick at. At the top of the email there's a ... more

Lingerie label Agent Provocateur is characterized by its risqué unmentionables and the naughty ladies that grace its adverts. So when it announced plans to explore social media earlier this year, we thought we knew what to expect: simpering femmes fatales that appeal more to men than women. We scoped out ... more

As a busy blogger, Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports often receives questions from his readers. And in a recent post at his blog, he lists a number of typical queries, to give us a sense of what marketers are pondering these days.   ... more

There are some great free resources to help with keyword research. Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool, for example, can provide useful insight. But as Keyword Research Analysis expert Valerie DiCarlo points out in a recent online article, these types of tools should just be a starting point. "The free tools ... more

Is it better to send an email on Monday or Wednesday? What about Tuesday or Friday? If you wonder about each day's pros and cons, a post at the 60 Second Marketer has some practical advice. Here's a sample of their wisdom: Sending a message on Monday has the advantage ... more

Last week, we offered tips to help you determine your authentic corporate voice. Now that you've collected some cool insights, here's our second set of tips, to help you in your final phase of daring to go viral. Think hard on the data you've collected, and imagine scenarios where you can ... more

"Digital marketing has become the way to communicate in the 21st century," says Elaine Fogel in a Pro article at MarketingProfs. "Social media, email, search engine marketing, interactive marketing, blogs, wikis, and knols—the list goes on … to include mobile marketing, podcasting, videos." But in your rush to marketing's online ... more

According to Kara Trivunovic and Andrew Osterday, most mom-and-pop businesses can't do much with email marketing advice that concentrates on sophisticated topics like multivariate testing, dynamic content development and data integration. For those who need entry-level advice, they created a 10-point Do-It-Yourself Primer that includes handy tips in plain English. ... more

What's your Return On Sound? Budgets may be tight and long-term planning may feel out of reach, but a few simple principles can help lay the groundwork for long-term brand value for "sonic identity." Music and sound create significant long-term brand power. That effect comes by design, and it starts ... more

Marketers may think they have to sacrifice site usability to maximize their rankings with the search engines. But the truth is, the most efficient strategy is finding a balance between the two strategies. As Netconcepts' Stephan Spencer said in a recent MarketingProfs article, "SEO, when done right, enhances the usability ... more

A recent McDonald's ad sets a scene many of us see every day, but throws in a twist. Two cultured-looking men are reading at a table in a highbrow coffee house when the first friend—neck wrapped in a scarf—mentions that McDonald's now sells cappuccino. His goateed compatriot greets the news ... more

"Most email marketers do not view soft bounces as being a major cause for concern," says Dela Quist in the UK DMA Email Marketing Council newsletter, "so rarely, if ever, have any specific strategies been in place for dealing with them." According to Quist, this erroneous belief is based on ... more

You know you're on the up-and-up, and that your email messages contain legitimate offers for actual products or services. Unfortunately, though, you're often sharing inbox space with fraudulent messages that claim to come from popular retailers and banks. Those emails are, in fact, nothing more than phishing scams designed to ... more

There's a school of thought that asserts going "viral" is a random occurrence. There is no formula, algorithm or logic that dictates what does and doesn't become a mainstream hit on the Internet. Those people are correct. But there are ways to hedge the bets in your favor—without selling 3/4 ... more

When he saw a reputable marketer praising the use of Fwd: in the subject line of an original email, Matt Hill decided to explain why he disagrees. "[E]ven selectively this is a bad idea," he says at the Email Karma blog, noting that spammers often use this device to trick ... more