According to comScore, Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches in June 2008, 61.5% of those searches using Google. This is living proof, if we still needed it, that marketers should not only be investing in paid search, they should be optimizing their sites to be picked up in unpaid, organic search ... more

Let's face it: as consumers, we're not that good at judging the volume of a product (eg, how much liquid is actually in that bottle or glass of juice). Moreover, we use (sometimes erroneous) mental shortcuts to make inferences about how much a given product contains. For example, a well-documented ... more

"In these stressful economic times, it is more important than ever to build messages that resonate with your audience," says Winston Bowden in an article at MarketingProfs. "Like retailers, nonprofits should be thinking about how they can tell their story and leverage the holiday season." Here's some of his advice ... more

Numerous studies have shown that when it comes to finding business information online, the big search engines may fail to deliver. Outsell, for example, found a 31.9 percent failure rate among business users when researching topics using the major search engines. That's because, according to Jason Prescott in a MarketingProfs ... more

If the popularity of the 3G iPhone is any indication—Apple sold over one million units during its first weekend on the market—the smartphone is here to stay. According to Loren McDonald, this presents something of a quandary for email marketers. While everyone likes the idea of customers having access to ... more

It can be tough and costly to win sympathetic ears for your life-changing service. But the Net—and a wildfire proliferation of iPods—have conceived a powerful ally for you: the podcast. A full 18.5 million US users listened to podcasts last year—a figure that might hit 65 million by 2012, says ... more

Is it more effective to tell customers your brand name right away in advertising? Or is it better to create a little mystery, and reveal the brand name only at the end of the ad, once you've intrigued them? One might think that it's better to create some mystery. (After ... more

While mobile marketing can be invasive on its own, integration with the larger marketing campaign mix and proper tracking of customer response can ensure that customers are drawn in, rather than turned off, by mobile messages. The mobile medium has achieved staying power as a gateway for marketers to reach customers ... more

While good SEO boosts site traffic, not all tactics used these days are above-board. Some, designed to "trick" search engines, are not only bad business: they can get your site banned. And that's no treat. To make sure you're operating with the good guys, it's best to avoid using questionable tactics. ... more

In late August, 2.9 million subscribers learned the identity of Barack Obama's running mate with a 26-word text message delivered via SMS (Short Message Service). The announcement joined a trend of strategies employed by the likes of NBC (Olympic coverage), Fox (American Idol) and others. According to R.J. Talyor, the ... more

When Apple unveiled its first iPhone in 2007, most reviews highlighted features that skewed to personal—rather than business—use. You could use the iPhone for many things, but you surrendered a measure of professional functionality in the tradeoff. A recent re-design, however, coupled with the introduction of the App Store, has made ... more

Whether customers come back and buy your product again may likely depend on whether they remember it fondly or not. So, how do you promote positive product memory? Well, research on consumers' memories for experiences (eg, listening to music, attending an event) shows that whether they remember an experience as good ... more

Even if your email campaigns meet goals and deliver great ROI, you probably wonder how you compare to industry standards. If so, you’re going to love the spreadsheet in a recent blog post from Mailchimp. The company analyzed 271 million emails delivered by its system on behalf of small business ... more

Should SMS be used for every marketing message? No, definitely not. Your company must consider whether or not your intended message is urgent and determine if subscribers will appreciate receiving it in a mobile form. With that said, there are certainly are two major reasons SMS should be on your ... more

If you dropped everything and followed the leader every time a social media tool went live, you'd never have time to do real work. Right? Not this time. Chin up: the social media gods have smiled upon you. While your rivals fought for the title of Early Adopter—taxing both their ... more

No doubt about it: corporate images are important, and many companies work very hard to cultivate them. But how do specific corporate images (eg, an image of being innovative, trustworthy, socially conscious) affect customers' impressions of the products a company makes? In some instances, quite a lot. Research shows that ... more

Marketers have recognized the immense creative talent that resides outside of Madison Avenue. They've recognized that, with Consumer-Generated Advertising, properly executed, they can generate quality, consumer-relevant content at a fraction of the cost of conventional agency productions. And these commercials break through the clutter with their "real" feel and relevant ... more

Founded in 1897, the Blue Cross is one of the UK's oldest animal welfare charities. It built an online community of pet owners - then launched a viral campaign, including rich media, that had people flocking to the social network. more

A recent television ad from Britain's Hovis has gotten as much press for its cinematic scope as for the bread it markets. Shot with 750 meticulously costumed extras over a week in the city of Liverpool, the spot checks in at a full 122 seconds—one for each year of the ... more

If you have a television, you've seen the snarky Apple ads that personify Microsoft as a hapless dork in a bad suit. That "loser" characterization went more or less unchallenged until a recent Microsoft campaign kicked off with some surreal spots featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. One vignette—set in a ... more

"[Your subscribers] are reading e-mail on mobile devices more frequently than ever," says Winston Bowden in an article at MarketingProfs. "[And] there are some specific issues to consider." At a minimum, he suggests you keep PDAs in mind as you design: Optimize image ... more

Do you have a live Internet video channel in your future? You may scratch your head wondering how such a Web presence might improve your business. But, even though it's not a mainstream marketing vehicle today, real-time streaming is a trend to watch. What started as live sports and concerts on ... more

Of course we want customers to like our brand. But recent research suggests that an even more important driver of brand equity is brand attachment. Brand attachment represents the emotional bond that consumers have between a brand and themselves. (Ahhhh! That's the cologne he wore on our wedding day!) Consumers ... more

In a provocative post at the Online Marketer Blog, DJ Francis argues that the days of email marketing—as we know it—are numbered. "Marketers are no longer interrupting customers' lives with sales pitches," he says. "Instead, they (or the good ones, at least) are concerned with providing value so that the customer ... more

Some advertisements stand the test of time, and a classic television spot for Volkswagen is currently making the online rounds. It opens with a shot of two neighbors emerging from a pair of identical houses. "Mr. Jones and Mr. Krempler each had $3,000," intones the narrator as each man walks ... more