In an article at the MarketingProfs website,  Mike Volpe explains that SEO is one of the most effective ways to help your customers find you. He compares SEO to a gigantic onion, noting that "there is always another layer you can peel off." For your site to show up first ... more

One reason social media sites have caught on like wildfire among users is that, by and large, they operate on basic principles of social decency. Now, be honest: Do your social-media skills match the subtle standards set at sites like Twitter and YouTube? Not sure? Well, here are a few site-inspired rules ... more

In an article at MarketingProfs, Josh Nason suggests you might be letting valuable customer data go to waste. "In every campaign that you send out," he says, "you should have direct links to specific pages on your website, helping you gauge and track what's moving the meter in your emails ... more

It seems almost inevitable these days: You run a search on your company's name or product and a negative review, remark or blog post appears in the top listings. What do you do? "Don't  ... lose your cool and try to retaliate," says Internet Marketing Consultant Jeremy Martin in a recent ... more

"In the world of multi-channel and [multi]-location opt-in and opt-out, how do you keep your lists in sync?" asks Dylan Boyd in a post at the Email Wars blog. "Can you?" To explain what he means, he outlines the ways that one client—a retailer—builds its email list: Customers opt in ... more

OK. Quick fable: Prior to a trip to Nebraska, Dave Carroll checked his $3500 Taylor guitar with United Airlines. (If you've been online at all recently, you know where this is going.) The guitar suffered serious damage, and Carroll spent months pursuing the issue via the usual channels of complaint—to no ... more

Lots of B2B marketers focus on including a great call-to-action in their copy. But in a recent post at the Marketing Interactions blog, Ardath Albee reminds us that the CTA is not the takeaway. The CTA is all about getting what you want from a prospect or client. The takeaway ... more

"Email programs tend to start with slow and cautious frequency, produce easy ROI, and become stars," says Karen Talavera in an article at MarketingProfs. The problems start, though, when management decides that more email would be even better. "[A]s with all good things," she notes, "increased consumption eventually leads to ... more

"Writing is as simple as falling off a log," says guest columnist Daniel Passamaneck in the Editorial Emergency newsletter. "[W]riting well is as challenging as the 10-meter diving platform." His advice for avoiding a high-dive belly-flop includes: Writing with care. "It seems like a fairly straightforward proposition to think ... more

Does your website feel like a wallflower these days—left out of the online marketing party? Are you seeking in vain those "rich anchor text" links from other websites or blogs that might boost your site into the ranks of the Internet in-crowd? Gaining those much-prized inbound links is an important way to ... more

"Building your own opt-in email marketing list is an accomplishment," says Steve Adams in an article at MarketingProfs, "but don't stop there. Once you start reaching out to your list with great content, you can then improve the targeting and relevance of your email marketing campaigns by using segmentation." The ... more

In today's challenging economic environment, marketers are seeking better ways to maximize ROI. One way is to leverage insights from both SEM and email to drive greater success across channels. In a recent article at Inside CRM, Ram Krishnamurthy and Brad Neelan offer up five strategies for using such a twin ... more

Not long ago, your spell-check would have revolted at a word like blogosphere; type it into a recent edition of Microsoft Word, however, and you won't see that angry red squiggle beneath its 11 letters. The bastardized term has been accepted by the software as a "real" word. Likewise, most ... more

Heads-up, all of you out there who market to moms: Food mogul Nestlé is using Twitter to promote Juicy Juice—the super-popular, and now vintage, juice-box brand that caters to kids. Expect to see the pea-green pieces on mom-targeted sites like CafeMom and BabyCenter.com. Questions like "How do you stimulate your child's ... more

You might wonder whether the stories you tell in email marketing campaigns should be long or short. In a pair of posts from Chad White at the Retail Email Blog, you'll discover that it, well, depends. He offers two examples.  According to White, Neiman-Marcus has been incorporating brief quotes from designers in ... more

"Is your website search- and social-media-friendly?" inquires a recent post at the Online Marketing Blog. According to Lee Odden, search is the most efficient and effective way for consumers to discover content. However, focusing on standard SEO tactics, such as keyword usage and links, is not enough to remain competitive, ... more

As of June 13, Facebook has made it possible for users to secure a URL for both their profiles and any Facebook Pages they administer. Why this matters: Facebook is super-juicy SEO-wise. It's rich with content, oft-accessed, and constantly being updated. Securing a vanity URL with your name (for your ... more

We spend a lot of time discussing topics like deliverability and relevance, but rarely touch on another factor that plays a critical role in successful email marketing campaigns. "Process is such a basic thing that is so often ignored," says Kevin Senne in a post at the Email Experience blog. ... more

"Do you know what attracts your readers? What headlines they respond to most? Do they respond to pictures? Do they know what your offer is?" asks Peter Da Vanzo in a recent SEObook.com post. Testing will give you answers, but it can be tedious and costly. Da Vanzo offers the following ideas for quick-and-cheap, ... more

"Testing can be a powerful tool to move your email marketing program forward," says Kelly Lorenz in a post at the Bronto blog. "Testing can also help you move from 'It depends' to 'It works for us.'" But before you test, she says, you should ask a few questions like these: ... more

Chad White of the Retail Email blog was impressed when he recently received an email from Lands' End with this subject line: Free Shipping + 20-50% off summer! Swim, shorts, polos and more. "I really liked this checklist approach to listing departments," he explains. "It feels less like it's pressing ... more

In a post at the DIRECT website, Ken Magill discusses the results of a survey conducted by MailerMailer. Among its more interesting findings: Subject lines containing up to 35 characters significantly outperform those with more than 35. "According to the email marketing software-on-demand provider," says Magill, "messages with subject lines ... more

"B2B readers love web content," writes Cris L. Rominger in a post on the Red On Marketing blog. "Anyone who has created or consumed content in the B2B marketplace knows this—B2B buyers are information hounds." Add to that the analytical nature of most IT professionals, as well as the pace ... more

Once in a while, a digital ad grabs you just like that. And one thing that really boosts its impact is if the person featured in it is—you. Read on:  Last year, to sell tickets to its women's basketball games, Gonzaga University released a video of a coach calling the ONE person whose attendance would ... more

"A subject line … invites others into your email marketing open house," says Josh Nason in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you have something to sell or a message you want to get across, that subject line better be good—or else your prospects might head to a different neighborhood." Nason ... more