Reading on the Web is difficult. Computer monitors have low screen resolution, and their projected light quickly makes our eyes tired. At most, your prospects read 28% of the words on your Web page, writes Bill English in a post on The Marketing Technology Blog. So you need to make ... more

Just because something is currently labeled a best-practice doesn't mean it's written in stone, says DJ Waldow in an article at MarketingProfs. "[W]e can find and spit back best-practices for most email-marketing-related questions; however, I nearly always find marketers who 'break the rules' with tremendous success," he explains. Here are a ... more

Still wondering how people are really using your website? The answer may be closer than you think, reports Jared Spool in a post at the User Interface Engineering blog. Though the search log may not be a part of a site's regular analytics package, its contents provide a window into ... more

Mark Brownlow of Email Marketing Reports often collates valuable information that we might otherwise miss. Most recently, he reported on the successful test results achieved by various email campaign tweaks. If you need some inspiration for your own efforts, consider findings like these: Adding an extra ... more

If it's late at night and you can't get to sleep, try reading this tag line—it just might work better than a sleeping pill: "Combining the strategy, business processes, implementation, and technical support skills of a CRM systems integrator with the data management, analytic, and marketing skills of a database ... more

"I've had a great opportunity recently to learn what B2B customers want in content by—shock of shocks—asking them," writes Bob Scheier in a recent post at the What Works, What Doesn't blog. As part of a competitive analysis he's conducting for a client, Scheier has asked a variety of readers ... more

Point of fact: One of the most alluring things about Facebook is its infinite capacity to find us a new distraction—be it Farmville, virtual gift-giving or browsing through an old flame's recent family photo shoot (major creepiness factor, BTW). Second point of fact: Some companies know this about Facebook, and are already ... more

A recent Nielsen study found that global consumption of social media increased 82 percent from Dec. 2008 to Dec. 2009 in the 10 countries surveyed, with users spending an average of 5.5 hours on their sites of choice per month! US and Australian addicts are among the heaviest users of all, spending 6 ... more

Dudes: Are you ready to give off some fresh new surfer vibes? Search engines are constantly looking for new signals they can use to improve the quality of the results they provide to Internet surfers, says Eric Enge in a recent post at Search Engine Watch. "Search engines continue to ... more

Let's face it: If your marketing approach consists of sporadically touting your company's greatness via the overpopulated social mediaverse, you're about to get absolutely nowhere—except ignored. Or hated. Blacklisted, even.  Frustrated with today's confusing social-media etiquette? Well, don't be! There are sassy methods for making your outreach simply ooze old-fashioned Southern ... more

"I have a friend in Florida who owns six Subway franchises," writes Barry Densa in an article at MarketingProfs. "He's rolling in dough, whole wheat, and greenbacks." Lucky guy. But few businesses are so recession-friendly, we suspect. So, for the rest of us, Densa has a five-point strategy for helping our customers, ... more

"In the technology industry," writes Morgan Stewart in an article at MarketingProfs, "we are constantly focused on the next big thing." And there's often an assumption that whatever comes next will wipe out whatever came before. Do you remember, for instance, when computers were going to make paper obsolete? Or ... more

In a recent Search Engine Land article, Andrew Goodman predicts that the biggest risk in 2010-2011 for search marketers may lie in working with outdated assumptions about the size and potential of target markets and the paid-search channel. As a remedy, he suggests five investment or expansion "risks" that could ... more

We like to emphasize that mobile is probably the most personalized technology available so far in the 21st century. And these days, finding ways to incorporate yourself into users' daily rituals is crucial to maximizing brand exposure on their up-close-and-personal handhelds. That's one reason for taking a look at GM's new ... more

Looking to make your brand trendier? Get a load of Trendistic, a clear and simple way to watch the ebb and flow of buzz on Twitter. A visit to the Trendistic homepage gives you a quick glimpse at what keyword is hottest on Twitter right now. In addition to the most current ... more

In May 2009, Omniture and The CMO Club asked 102 CMOs to rate the relative effectiveness of digital-marketing media. The vast majority (78 percent) gave top marks to email marketing, but a sizable minority (33 percent) reported success in emerging social-media channels, too. That's because, these days, consumers "engage with a ... more

Are you on pins and needles waiting for satirists to create YouTube videos that mock your earnest marketing efforts? Probably not. But in a post at his blog, Seth Godin says there's actually a good reason to embrace jokes made at your expense: It means that people have not only ... more

Before you start soliciting links and becoming active in online communities, it's best to first ensure that your site's content, structure, and design are in peak condition, Virginia Nussey advises in a recent post at the Bruce Clay blog: "Before you can expect a site to develop inbound links, you have ... more

It'd be an understatement to say 2009 was a tough year for Domino's Pizza, what with the awkward employees-abusing-food scandal. A quick recap: two bored employees recorded themselves doing unpleasant things with food, and the video wound up on YouTube. Domino's responded swiftly enough, both terminating the employees and releasing an apologetic YouTube video ... more

The Great Recession has certainly not spared nonprofit organizations. With contributions down an average of nine percent, many charitable organizations have been forced to cut services. Some even face closure. Fortunately, though, the news is not all bad. "With the right marketing mix, savvy nonprofits are able to leverage social-media marketing ... more

"[I]n our quest for ever more hard problems to solve," says Avinash Kaushik at the Occam's Razor blog, "we forget that the number one goal of every website is not to suck. Especially at the really simple and basic things." To illustrate his point, he recounts a recent conference that ... more

"They say an Internet year is … equivalent to seven normal years," says Kevin Gibbon in a post at SEOptimise—meaning that we can witness seven real-world-years' worth of change in one year online. To help search marketers keep up, Gibbon offers seven ways to stay on top of the competition in the ... more

Sweet news, hardcore Twitter users! Hootsuite—the Twitter management tool developed with marketers in mind—just released an app for the iPhone. That means you can now access the handy features of Hootsuite in any old roost! We first covered Hootsuite shortly after Canadian company Invoke Media launched the adorable owl-themed service. It made ... more

Remember when we told you about Twitcam, the service that lets you stream live video via Twitter? This is kind of like that, but with more oomph and less lag. Say hello to tinychat, which lets you host live Web meetings, TV shows, music jam sessions—or whatever else you wanna do ... more

Some companies seem addicted to email campaigns that shout breathless, time-sensitive offers. Each week, it seems, they tell subscribers about special deals that simply can't be missed—only to make a similar offer the following week. In a post at the Email Marketing Reports blog, Mark Brownlow provides a screenshot with 19 emails ... more