Entrepreneurs, by definition, don't play it too safe. So for a company that serves startups and small businesses, what better way to launch a rebranding campaign and generate buzz than doing something novel and risky—but being wicked smart about it. Which is where the bugs come in. more

It's safe to say the first batch of post-dot-com-bubble brands have come into their own. Brands like Google, eBay, and Amazon. The one thing that sets them apart? They became successful without the support of television advertising to help launch them. more

In cooperation with Ball State University and the Email Marketers Club, ExactTarget studied 18 methods used by marketers to build an email list. Among the results published in its 2009 Email List Growth Study are these conclusions: The best method for email list growth is onsite registration; ... more

Bird-of-mouth (noun): The spreading of news or information via Twitter. more

A cool thing is happening through sites like blogging service Xanga, review site Yelp, and Twitter. Some of their faithful users have started attending meet-ups, where folks who interact online and live in the same geographic area can actually meet—in person! What a concept. Now, here's the really good news: These ... more

In the past, recessions have proven disastrous to the momentum of eco-conscious movements. But not this time. "There is a growing body of evidence that [green policies pay big] dividends," says Chet Dalzell in an article at MarketingProfs. Apparently, "environmental concerns resonate with consumers—even amid a … recession." Dalzell suggests ... more

In this regular Daily Chirp feature, William Arruda shares some of his favorite television ads. And he offers up a lesson for how the ad relates to your personal brand. Today, he looks at Honda's "Cog," which went viral before the term "viral" had gone viral. more

You're a marketer who's hip to the idea of social media: You have a blog, you know Facebook inside and out, and you can Tweet with the best of them. But the big question is, Are you listening as well as talking? Here are some of the top tools for ... more

In this new age of conversation between corporation and consumer, chip-maker Intel and PC-maker ASUS have embraced "crowdsourcing." Allowing consumers to design the ideal PC, they are gaining valuable consumer insight and in the process building not just a PC but customer loyalty. more

You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, "I have seen an uptick in retailers utilizing customer reviews to sell products in their emails." Why? Because user-generated reviews ... more

Last month, talk of Volvo invaded the blogosphere when the company embedded live Tweets into a YouTube banner ad for its XC60 model. The feed kept viewers abreast of live coverage of the NY Auto Show, then gave them the option to follow Volvo on Twitter. It's a simple enough ... more

Some time ago, we highlighted a MarketingProfs article in which Michael Antman cautioned against making word-of-mouth (WOM) strategies the primary element in your marketing mix. "He raises reasonable points about the limitations of WOM," says Deborah Eastman in her response. "[A]fter all, it can't completely replace other forms of marketing ... more

How does helping out a friend, or a friend of a friend, become a million-dollar business... with not a penny spent on advertising? When those little favors are in huge demand—and word-of-mouth and social media spread the good news like wildfire. more

Last year, Southwest Airlines refused passage to two young women for obnoxious behavior. The ladies immediately went out and told the press they weren't permitted aboard because they were "too pretty to fly"—sparking a media-driven feeding frenzy on Southwest's precious brand equity. It didn't matter that it wasn't true. It ... more

"I get by with a little help from my friends." The words of that old Beatles song could well be applied to today's search marketers. After all, there's nothing like a good link-back among friends to boost search rankings. And in a recent guest post at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog, ... more

Clearspring Technologies, which has helped everybody from WaPo to UCSF bring their branded wares to the mainstream, has put out a new tool that tells you how popular your widgets are on social networks. The ConnectedAds tool can follow the movement of your branded widget across 80 different social networks, ... more

In a post at the Brains of Fire blog, Spike Jones tells the story of Pizzeria Delfina, a San Francisco establishment that chose not to ignore its one-star reviews at Yelp. Instead, the restaurant printed up employee T-shirts with gems like "This place sucks" and "The pizza was soooo greasy. ... more

The iPhone and iPod touch positively swept the Engadget Awards, winning Gadget of the Year, Smartphone of the Year, Handheld of the Year, Portable Media Device of the Year, and, finally, a spot in Editors' Choice. So, what's this mean for you? It means you need to be ... more

"We all like the comfort of the crowd," says Mark Brownlow in a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog. "The knowledge that others went here before us tells us we're on the right path." Because of this tendency to trust the wisdom of crowds, he argues, you can encourage opt-ins ... more

According to an iProspect and JupiterResearch study released last year, search users prefer "blended" search results—in which results are potpourried with videos and other media—over standard (slightly boring) text-only search results. Blended results (Google's term is "universal search") work like this: If you've got a restaurant, a search on your restaurant's ... more

Small businesses need all the TLC they can get. Billing and invoicing online-solution provider FreshBooks knows that better than most. Its customer-centric focus is so fresh and refreshing, word-of-mouth has spread far and wide—and helped grow its user base 150%. more

When you plan an event, you pull out all the stops. So, too, should it be with your event promotions. Apogee Search's Brian Combs suggests in a recent MarketingProfs article to add paid-search marketing to your event promo mix. "With almost half of all Internet users now using search engines ... more

In last week's installment, we offered step-by-step tips to get you tweeting on Twitter. This week, we offer a few more advanced steps to take, based on Jim Sterne's advice in a MarketingProfs article. Incorporate these into your tweeting habits, and you'll be well on the way to becoming a Twitter ... more

Given the recent Facebook redesign, you're probably hearing a lot of yammer about Twitter. If by now you're not familiar with how Twitter can benefit your brand, walk with us as we cut through the noise and break it all down. In a recent article at the MarketingProfs site, Jim ... more

As marketers continue to see good ROI from finely tuned mobile strategies, the humble text message has acquired newfound cachet. And in a recent video posted at the CenterNetworks blog, Allen Stern interviews Tatango CEO Derek Johnson, whose one-to-many SMS service enables instant mobile communication with an entire list of ... more