Companies with strong alignment between marketing and sales departments have fared better during the economic recession, reporting higher levels of new customers, revenues, and customer retention than those with low alignment, according to a study by Miller Heiman and Northern Illinois University. more

Marketing automation—one of the new buzzwords in marketing—bridges the gap between lead generation and the sales force. Its goal is to improve Sales and Marketing alignment by passing over only sales-ready leads. There are really good reasons why you should be interested in marketing automation. There are really bad ones, ... more

If you're like most people, you live in a world where blame often happens in a systematic and predictable way. People simply have a tendency to believe the fault lies with someone else—and that someone else can be you. Of course, the process can work in the opposite direction, too... ... more

As you nurture your leads, it's important to remember what "nurture" means. Because the last thing you want is to treat leads too aggressively, and so create a sense of alienation, before passing them along to Sales. In a helpful post at Marketo, Maria Pergolino identifies 10 faux pas to ... more

What's the easiest way to learn a tactical lesson about B2B marketing? By hearing it from someone who's already learned it the hard way. You gain the knowledge—but avoid the pain. That's the basic philosophy behind the MarketingProfs B2B Forum: It offers experiential case studies, best practices—you name it—to help ... more

Lead-gen alert: B2B prospects are "sick and tired of the sneaky ways being used to get their information so a salesperson can 'help' them," writes Dale Underwood in a post at the B2B Conversations Now blog. Prospects are skeptical of requesting information at B2B websites, says Underwood, because too many ... more

"Saving your budget (and keeping your team employed) in a down economy really boils down to one word: profit," writes Paul Stein in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you're not making money, you're losing money—and that's never good for business." As our recessionary hangover continues to linger, ROI matters more ... more

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, like many consumer packaged goods companies, has no direct online sales channel—but it finds that email-newsletter subscriptions boost purchases on average 1.5 times annually. Perhaps the reason the Scotts Lawn Care Update email newsletter is so successful is its commitment to the roots of the program—customer service. more

When used systematically, market research is an ongoing two-way communication between your business and its target audience. Treated as such, market research becomes a constant source of information about opportunities for improvement and innovation. And via the Web, you now have a direct round-the-clock link to every potential customer. more

"One of today's hottest B2B marketing topics, along with social media, is content," writes Susan Fantle in a guest post at Marketfish. And if you want your content marketing program to generate and nurture the right kind of leads, she has advice like this:Tell them what they want to hear. ... more

You may be wondering about the evolution of SEO—and whether you'll get left behind as it grows in sophistication. Well, you're not alone. A recent interview with Nathan Thompson at the Inbound Internet Marketing blog yielded some takeaways that may help clarify SEO's development—and demonstrate how you can beef up your efforts ... more

"[L]et's assume that your current lead generation efforts cost $100,000 and generate 50,000 leads," says Pat McGraw at his blog. "[T]hat's a cost per lead of $2. But if your conversion rate is 10%, that means that 45,000 leads or $90,000 failed to produce your ultimate goal—a sale." So how can ... more

The best that most B2B companies achieve with their online marketing programs is "average performance through a favorite tactic and/or advertising partner," states Ben Hanna in a post at the B2B Online Marketing blog. But why are their results so blah when there's an abundance of phenomenal success stories at ... more

Most companies do a fairly good job keeping pace with technologies. But the harder, yet more rewarding, work involves keeping up with how people use the Internet to learn, communicate, shop, and entertain themselves. By matching your Web presence to your customers' Web habits, you stand the best chance of ... more

There's no shortage of advice about which strategies work or don't work for services marketing. Yet they seem to conflict with each other regularly. So what's the scoop? Which ones work? It's less a question of which ones work than it is which ones will work for you given the ... more

To some, June means the official start of those lazy days of summer. To many retailers, though, June is a busy month, because it's when they pick up extra revenue from those shopping for "Dads and Grads"—Father's Day and graduation season. How do you get your share of that revenue? more

With social media a hot ticket item and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube making it easy to share, people are spending a lot of time offering free advice and sharing knowledge publicly, yet they are not asking for anything in return. But it's OK to ask. more

In an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Skeen writes that search-engine optimization provides several return-on-investment measures with a greater potential impact on a company's bottom line than many traditional tactics. However, he notes, because SEO is less tangible than some other areas of marketing investment, it's often harder to clearly show ... more

Over two-thirds of high-tech marketing professionals (68%) say lead generation is their top marketing priority this year and 74% cite social media as among the top emerging marketing channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, according to a Unisfair survey slated for release in late May. more

Does your marketing content tell buyers what they want to hear—or only what you want to say? Writing at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee reports on a study that found content is relevant to a customer's needs only 42 percent of the time—and a lack of compelling content reduces ... more

For Marketing to fully achieve maturity in marketing performance measurement and management—or just take it to the next level—the role of, and skills within, the marketing-operations function at a minimum needs to address three Ps: planning, process, and performance management. more

You must be realistic about the size and characteristics of your target market. So what do you do when your prospects are few in number and elusive? You face the facts—and do battle where you have the best chances of winning and the least chance of suffering casualties. Before all ... more

Even if you business can carve out a Blue Ocean spot—avoiding the cutthroat, backstabbing bloody Red Ocean by making the competition irrelevant rather than trying to beat it—how do you stay in the Blue Ocean for long-term prosperity? Enter the need for the business model! more

The social-media revolution has undoubtedly altered the way you generate leads. On a given morning, for instance, you might write a compelling blog post, tweet about it, summarize the contents for your LinkedIn group and join a relevant conversation at Facebook. All of these actions spark activity at your website, ... more

OK, let's admit it. We've all sat through slide presentations monopolized by the tyranny of one conviction-ridden idea. They make us kind of crazy, right? And doesn't a more social world merit a more social PowerPoint? Well, here's some good news: Now you can breathe real-time life into your next ... more