If you're responsible for the direction of the online strategies for your company or organization, you've probably been hearing buzz about Twitter, a next-generation instant messaging tool. Even if you're new to Twitter, this article will serve as a guide to educate you to help you make a decision, by ... more

SIGG had been selling its aluminum water and fuel bottles to the US outdoor market for years at a price about twice as much as the closest competitor's. It counted on the Swiss reputation for quality to drive sales—but sales were flat. Then its newly formed US subsidiary made some ... more

Driving sales is what B2B marketing is all about. Although the precise roles and responsibilities of Marketing may differ from company to company, your marching orders are the same: Help Sales produce more with less. All marketers want to know best practices and share experiences about driving sales. Here are ... more

Softrax Corp.'s enterprise software automates a company's entire revenue cycle. With the advantages of automation not always apparent to potential customers, Softrax based its marketing strategy on educating the market, while competitors relied mostly on advertising. Webcasts featuring government and industry experts—with only an indirect connection to Softrax apparent—formed the ... more

Earthlink, one of the country's smaller Internet service providers, serves just over 5 million customers. To differentiate itself, it has decided to provide superior customer service. An early adopter of chat technology, it has sought to actively offer efficient online customer service via chat—both shifting customer support away from the ... more

In today's ever-changing, increasingly interactive media world, marketers are captivated by a new business buzzword: "consumer-generated content." While word-of-mouth has always been powerful, consumer-accessible technology (the Internet, podcasting, video production, social networks, etc.) puts it on steroids. Success in this new world order requires marketers to develop a new perspective, a ... more

Consumers are beginning to take environmental impact into consideration in purchase decisions. Businesses that demonstrate environmental responsibility have the opportunity to contribute favorably to their images while aligning themselves with the preferences of their customers. To get the full value out of green practices over time, companies need to let the ... more

With Web hosting fast becoming a commodity, Web hosting firm Rackspace realized it needed to stand out from the pack. Its founders decided they would stake a claim to "fanatical" commitment to customer service. Rackspace wove the concept into its very business structure, even trademarking the term "Fanatical Support." And ... more

As YouTube, Google and MySpace announce that video advertising will become a key driver in their future revenue strategies, the glitzy, anonymous ads we have been used to for years will have to change course. Ads need to be intriguing in some way; they need to urge us to watch them. more

Royal Canin Canada puts an enormous budget behind creating customized, breed-specific pet food. But many pet owners don't realize how much their dog or cat could benefit from a specially formulated food. By creating a loyalty email program targeted with information on specific breeds, Royal Canin was able to earn ... more

Does the hype of the iPhone equal runaway success? Is the game already won? Or will there be an equal and opposite reaction when possibility and excitement about the future gives way to reality, and inevitable issues arise with service, availability, bugs in functionality and unfulfilled expectations? more

Some 80% of available jobs are never advertised, and over half of all employees obtain their jobs through networking. The most important component of a successful job search is your network, consisting of friends, family, neighbors, acquaintances, teachers, and coworkers. more

How rare is it to see a senior marketer from any professional service firm—even one as prominent as BearingPoint—leading a series of cutting-edge conversations that do not appear to be directed at just his internal colleagues? We checked in with Paul Dunay and learned the extent to which he has ... more

Podcasts are an excellent way to share your latest findings and juiciest developments in a medium that's engaging, fun, and portable. If you're thinking about podcasting, here's the second installment of an insider's peek at the creation of a podcast series, complete with professional tips from a talented audio team. more

Let's give it up for Unilever! This company has not made any false moves on the marketing-to-women front, and the "presenting" sponsorship for its Pond's brand is another smart strategy in a long line of savvy business decisions. With its sponsorship of "The Starter Wife," Pond's gets its name linked ... more

If you are flying from Los Angeles to Tokyo, you can learn how to say "how are you" in Japanese. The lesson is provided as part of the JAL in-flight entertainment in four language categories: numbers, dates, words, and dialogue. Other airlines also offer interactive audiovisual language programs, including Virgin ... more

How do you sell a niche product with a limited potential audience? Try an in depth-television infomercial. Professional Tool Manufacturing's infomercial for Drill Doctor, a drill-bit sharpening machine, is one of the longest-running infomercials in TV history. It has consistently driven retail sales—more than two million Drill Doctors have been ... 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

Now that YouTube is more popular than all the sites of the TV networks combined, some wonder whether broadcast TV's days are numbered. It may well become more important for your brand or company to be on YouTube than to be advertised on TV. Undoubtedly for some, that day has ... more

When Dutch Internet company Rhinofly needed new designers, project managers, and programmers, the company didn't want to use traditional job boards because in the past they hadn't been effective in attracting qualified candidates. To target the best tech-savvy job candidates, Rhinofly created a video capturing the essence of the company ... more

A Web widget is a mini tool—a chunk of code that people can insert in just about any Web page to perform a specific function. Usually, Web widgets are snippets of HTML. Experienced Web developers may question the significance of Web widgets. For them, the concept of chunks of reusable ... 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

A competing online marketing company's unorthodox approach to self-promotion got consultant Karl Long thinking about ways he could use his personal blog as a public relations tool to help his company, Local Zing. As a tiny Florida player in the field of advertising for small businesses, Long knew he should consider ... more

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