By hiring an outside expert in lead optimization and leveraging its full range of data, San Francisco-based Objectivity increased turnout for its webinars an average of 10%. The quality of the leads is high as well: More than 30% of the leads typically score high enough to be handed off ... more

For email marketers, dealing with the small business owner can be an ongoing challenge. There are typically three main obstacles to introducing email marketing to a small businesses. more

Sadly, the value of most conference panels is questionable, due mostly to the lack of effective moderation. But done well, a panel can be enlightening and instructive and can serve the needs of the audience (and the speakers) equally well. In other words: Yes, there is a right way to ... more

Most marketers have email addresses for less than half their customers and prospects. If this is the case for your company, it might make sense to explore email appending. Let's first look at the process, and then we'll examine how one publisher implemented its communication plan. more

Are we in a recession, or poised to enter one? Maybe, maybe not. However, let's assume that the US economy will be in a recession and that as marketers we need to work within that reality. Here are five tips for what you can do to market your products or ... more

Tracleer won approval in 2001 as the first oral treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, an illness difficult for patients to grasp. Tracleer helps patients control the symptoms, but it has drawbacks. Faced with high patient-dropout rates early on in treatment, the drug's maker needed to change patient perceptions. more

Email can be a great call to action for multichannel customers, particularly in retail but also in B2B marketing. We all know that email can play a powerful role in turning Web researchers and site browsers into buyers. In fact, more and more of our retailer clients are building a specific ... more

A developer/distributor of 1,000+ videogames found it overwhelming to keep track of its digital marketing collateral for the huge inventory. A new digital-asset management system was the first step in solving the problem; the second was getting geographically dispersed staffers to use it. more

Kimpton Hotels had successfully created a loyalty program, but its email program was lagging. By implementing an email strategy that focused on segmentation and targeting individual preferences, and by adding a corporate branding strategy, the company increased email bookings fivefold. more

Here are the 10 biggest business blunders, and advice on how you can avoid them sinking you (and your company). more

Whether you are campaigning to gain budget approval to implement your nurturing strategy or need to illustrate ROI for an existing nurturing program (or you are just trying to evaluate your current tactics) effective measurement of your nurturing program is critical. Outlined below are five steps to measure your nurturing initiative ... more

Business for Blooms Today boomed around Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. But the company needed a way to drive sales during non-peak times. Via a new email strategy, it increased non-seasonal sales—as well as open and clickthrough rates—and grew its email list 40% in just over a year. more

Cognos held some 10 conferences annually for its customers and prospects. When the software provider tried a single 3-D virtual conference, it reached more active visitors than the 10 conferences combined. more

Podcasting can give your company a new image and personality. And, increasingly, podcasting offers the promise of being another highly effective way to reach and develop potential customers. That's only if you can produce compelling, "buzz-worthy" content, of course. more

Are dead email addresses haunting your open and click-through rates? If once-active recipients have stopped opening your emails, are no longer actively reading your messages, or aren't clicking on email links, those recipients are no longer in the land of the living. In the spirit of Halloween, here's some advice ... more

Office furniture dealer Panel Systems Unlimited found its sales lagging during an economic recession, and knew that it had to act quickly to position itself for the inevitable recovery. Partnering with Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing, it focused on upping its search engine exposure. The result: sales tripled. more

Without metrics to track performance, marketing and business plans are ineffective. For marketers, three primary metrics stand out as a starting point for tracking their performance. Once companies are aware of their competitive position, their desired outcomes, and what it will take to achieve those outcomes, companies will be better able ... more

Your reputation can be greatly enhanced and reinforced by speaking at industry events. This article provides a checklist to help you win valuable speaking gigs. Invest some time in getting on the stage, and it will pay off many times over in helping you build your business. Follow the tips ... more

The better you are at involving your customers in the philosophy of your brand, the better they'll understand why you're special. more

In a world that is now fully connected, people and businesses are putting their opinions, observations, insights, thoughts, and capabilities online, via some very helpful tools. Here's what one fictitious small business did to grow its customer base, and reach potential customers worldwide. more

In this MarketingProfs Classic, originally published in April of 2003, Suzan St. Maur highlights 10 online writing concepts that also kick offline. "After all the agonies we suffered some years ago when some tried to make offline text work online, we've finally turned the tables," she writes. "Now we can borrow ... more

Beaten down by a constant stream of customer "No's," some salespeople find it difficult to pick themselves up and jump back in the game. But there are other salespeople whose motivation and resilience enable them to make every customer call as enthusiastically as if it were the first. For the ... more

Out of 18 choices, why does one piece of content get 49% of the vote while another gets 0%? more

Attracting—and ultimately closing—deals with new clients can take professional service providers anywhere between several months and several years. Since most firms rely on their partners and principals to bring in new work, client acquisition ends up consuming a lot of the organization's most valuable resources. One sure way to increase profitability, ... more

The hearing aid industry has suffered from an image problem, because the devices were perceived as ugly and just for the elderly. As a result, just 23% of those who needed hearing aids actually bought them. But based on extensive market research, Oticon, Inc. built a cool hearing aid that ... more