For over a year, there's been lots of talk about Web 2.0. Whether hyped or not, there's definitely some meat to it. The Web is no longer static and one-way. Instead, visitors play a role. Users participate and connect to each other through services as opposed to visiting Web sites. ... more

A civil engineering firm with a tremendous reputation faced a major challenge: It had grown its business by repeat business and referrals, and now some of its best clients were beginning to retire. The company was losing market share. By implementing a "voice of the customer" survey and then creating marketing ... more

Dunderson, a Swedish manufacturer of high-end urban clothes, wanted to expand its clientele to the key US market. Since the vast majority of its business came from third-party retailers selling to European consumers, it had limited exposure to Americans—mostly through one retail outlet in New York City. At the same ... more

Several factors have dramatically altered the landscape of B2B marketing in recent years, forcing marketing practitioners to rethink their tactics and reinvest their resources to achieve superior outcomes. Here are the top challenges B2B marketing organizations now face, and how to address them. more

In his keynotes and recordings, world-class motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar often talks about the importance of having meaningful, specific goals. And he'll drive home his point with the rhetorical question, "What would you rather be in life, a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?" As marketers and business ... more

Fast food consumers are rarely loyal—if they see a shorter line across the street, that's usually where they'll go. Accordingly, Miami Management—which owns 16 Wendy's franchises in Kentucky—implemented new technology that changes the drive-thru process by adding multiple lanes and a remote order center. The long-term payoff: quicker, more accurate ... more

Congratulations! The lead machine is up and running. Your marketing programs are bringing in new prospects and you're starting to have an impact on the revenue line. You have a bigger budget this quarter, and more target audiences to add to your list. The stakes just got higher. With untested ... more

Many business owners or CEOs have not taken the time to educate themselves about what marketing is, and what it should be doing for them. Sometimes, even those who have lack a good grasp on a good and accurate definition of marketing. Why does this happen? And what can we ... more

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The goal of lead generation is the creation of more selling opportunities. As a result, lead generation is a critical subset of a company's sales and marketing strategy, and it must be carefully managed to ensure that the sales team is in front of qualified buyers, selling and closing. more

These smartest and bravest professional service firms have discovered the risks and rewards of the client satisfaction survey done right. Here's how you can do the same. more

We've learned not to trust email to arrive safely in the recipient's inbox. So we leave voicemail asking whether the person received the email or the earlier voicemail. How much follow-up is too much? Where do you draw the line to avoid becoming a stalker or "that crazy person who keeps ... more

Though by no means cutting edge in the usual sense... scissors and related tools help drive the $30 billion craft and hobby industry. Fiskars Brands, Inc., a global brand based in the Netherlands with U.S. headquarters in Madison, WI, was losing sales of craft tools—including its famed specialized scissors—to commoditized, ... more

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When an online electronics retailer runs a holiday-season Google paid search campaign, and the resulting cost per acquisition is far higher than the average cost per order, something is not right. Yet that's what happened with the 2005 holiday campaign of The Source By Circuit City. The following year, Source flipped ... more

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Getting your site to rank high in the search engine results and getting searchers to click through to your site are among the foremost objectives of B2B search engine optimization. But that's just the beginning. You still have to turn the visitor into a customer or client. more

It's the first week of the quarter. You're on deadline to get new programs and sales tools in gear. Meanwhile, the sales team is having its kickoff—and changing the success criteria for your lead machine! They're not deliberately changing the game on you. They're in "New Quarter's Resolutions" mode. If they ... more

Case studies are like condensed action films—full of characters, plot, and conflict—in which, thanks to your help, the clients get what they want. Part of a case study's persuasive power comes from its energy. It should be exciting to tell and hear. Many of us, though, bore with ours. The reason? ... more

When a top Web site took a close look its landing pages, company officials noticed something unacceptable: The landing page for the company's most popular search term converted about 30 percent less frequently than the company's general landing page. By simultaneously testing four new versions of the landing page, the site ... more

This week: Do you compensate a sales team on gross sales or gross profit for services? See if you agree with our experts. Coming up: Hate meetings? How can you make them productive? Add your two pesos. more

Attending networking events can be frustrating and ultimately a waste of time for many business owners and professionals. Here are three ways to make them pay off for you. more

Tradeshows can be one of the most expensive forms of marketing. Paying to act as an event sponsor (complete with a booth and travel for employees) often runs into the tens of thousands of dollars. But there are options to tradeshow sponsorships that will still get you out in front of ... more

ITtoolbox was looking for a way to increase ROI on lead-generation campaigns for its 700 advertisers, among them such big guns as IBM, Microsoft, and Accenture. So ITtoolbox built its own contextual keyword engine, which provided a greater than 50% boost in lead volume and dramatically increased relevancy, boosting conversion ... more