MarketingProfs guest blogger Jamie Klemcke shares ideas for the best customers to target for receiving direct mail and what you can do to make direct mail effective. more

Content is more than just words. Content experiences that are strategic, planned, structured, and measured can develop a new customer narrative that'll bring companies and customers closer than ever. more

You're driving. Through Iowa. Endless fields of corn. Row after row of stalks the same size, the same height, the same color. That, actually, is much like a drive through radio advertising. How can you hope to stand out? more

MarketingProfs guest blogger Kalen Smith discusses three good reasons why it is important to have consistent pricing, especially during a recession. more

"People have limited attention to spare," writes Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports. "They focus on those messages perceived as deserving that attention: messages that are clearly important, personal or something they want and expect." There are, however, a number of barriers that stand between your email campaigns and your subscribers' ... more

MarketingProfs blogger Veronica Maria Jarski offers tips for writing clear objectives from the MarketingProfs PRO seminar Measuring & Sustaining Social Success. more

Whether it's listening to an iTunes 30-second free snippet or grabbing a snack pack of chips, people like to sample. Apply that idea to marketing, and learn why it pays to create consumable, snackable content. more

"As you get started in SEO, you'll read a lot about things you should be doing to optimize your website for organic search," writes Marty Diamond at the Diamond Website Conversion blog. "What you may not hear as much about, however, is what you should avoid doing." To help you identify ... more

MarketingProfs blogger Jason Miller shares 5 ideas for making sure that your business takes advantage of the social couponing craze. more

MarketingProfs blogger Carlos Hidalgo shares tips inspired by Bono in how to be more interested in customers rather than have business be just all about you. more

What can marketers learn from journalists? Good storytelling. Here are seven ways marketers can wield journalism skills to produce content that grabs attention and encourages conversation. more

MarketingProfs guest blogger Gary Gebenlian shares the different stages of your customers' purchasing process so that you can better reach them. more

As marketers gear up for the fourth quarter, the busiest time on their marketing calendars, nearly two-thirds (63.4%) say they are planning to increase focus on social media over the next 12 months, while nearly one-half plan to increase focus on email (45.5%) and content marketing (45.3%), according to a ... more

MarketingProfs blogger Ted Mininni discusses how annoying and pointless pop-up ads are and expresses surprise that businesses still use this attention-seeking ploy. more

Stories are what language is built around. They make people lean forward and listen. And if you want your marketing and advertising to be much more engaging, use storytelling. more

MarketingProfs blogger Helena Bouchez interviews another Daily Fix blogger Elaine Fogel about the importance of letting clients know that change is necessary for business growth. more

The key to achieving high rankings in search and creating buzz in social media is solid content. Fortunately, the Web provides free marketing data that can help you create relevant subject matter and learn about your customers. more

In a post at Junta42, Joe Pulizzi discusses communication techniques he developed during frequent public-speaking engagements—300 in five years—and how they influence his online content. "The best idea I can share regarding public speaking is to keep it simple," he says. "To execute that concept, I stole a page from ... more

MarketingProfs guest blogger Brian Whalley explains a 5-slide process for explaining to other folks in your company the results from Internet marketing. more

We all know it: Content rules in today's digital marketplace. Prospects expect to find information about any product or service that strikes their fancy—in a matter of seconds. As a result, the function of the salesperson in this "content-driven environment" has "changed dramatically," John Jatsch writes in an article at ... more

MarketingProfs blogger Ginger Zumaeta discusses how to best reach Latinos by going mobile ... and what that means exactly for companies. more

Quick! Recite the first five billboards you saw on your drive to work this morning. You don't remember, right? OK, how about the first three headlines you saw on your favorite news source? Nope? OK. One last chance: Name one commercial you saw on TV last night. more

MarketingProfs Carrie Shearer reviews Ruth Stevens's book, "Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers" and shares highlights from it. more

MarketingProfs blogger Beth Harte shares her summer reading, including books on reputation, measurement, branding, social media, customer-centric business, and tribes. more

If you're not an SEO expert, you might wonder what to ask when hiring SEO staff or consultants. How do you tell the difference between someone who knows exactly what he or she is doing and someone who just knows a lot of lingo? To help out, Rand Fishkin created an ... more