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CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Communications

In today's sophisticated marketplace, overcoming communication obstacles is critical—especially early on in the sales process. It is increasingly obvious that the competitive battle for customers is being won or lost at the top of the sales funnel. So, how does a firm make itself stand out from the rest?

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A new Internet gold rush has been taking hold with the emergence of social networking, blogging, podcasting, and other Web 2.0 experiments. Media companies and Internet giants have reacted promptly by acquiring many of the new players to take advantage of these new advertising vehicles and evolve their endangered models. Yet advertisers themselves have stayed on the sidelines to a great extent. Small businesses, especially, have reacted cautiously to Web 2.0 marketing, fearing its hype and its inherent risks. Here are clear examples of why they shouldn't.

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RSS may not ever replace email as a delivery tool. But nonetheless, it will move Web site traffic, because people can use RSS readers to receive content without having to visit a site. Here's a primer on RSS, and why marketers should care about it.

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Blogging is one of the hottest trends on the Web. Whether yours is an individual blog, a group blog, a character blog, or a CEO blog, there's no doubt that, done right, a blog can position you as a thought leader, bring your Web presence to life, and help you engage with your customers. But with over 75,000 new blogs created every single day, and tens of millions of blogs already in the blogosphere, it's not a given that you'll get found by your target audience and develop a loyal following of readers. What can you do to pull in the crowds and to rise in the rankings? Here Stephan shares his secrets.

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What's the difference between so-called new marketing and traditional marketing methods? How can a marketer adapt?

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As the old adage goes, "timing is everything." But while the idealistic mantra of direct marketing has always been to make the right offer to the right customer at the right time, the reality is very different.

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Database marketing is about creating customers. Once you have a customer, you have a first sale and an opportunity to make the second, third, and more sales over time. But if you settle for a single sale but lose the customer, you must start over and resell each and every time.

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Despite the death knell sounded for email marketing, it has persevered as the most direct and effective way to reach your customers. It's critical, however, to reach them on their terms. Here's the basics on how to send permission-based email that speaks to your clients and prospects.

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The more ads look and sound the same, the more we simply let them fade into our subconscious. They become little more than background noise. What's an advertiser to do?

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Consumer preference services are a proven tool to curb the invasive use of personal data through cold calling and cold mailing. They protect the integrity of the marketing industries that rely upon telephone and post. But they fail to address the root cause of customer abuse—data gathering, CRM, and analytical processes that systematically abuse customers without their knowledge. Here is the second of a two-part argument for an identity preference service to protect the integrity of the entire relationship marketing industry.

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Finding ways to encourage customers to talk about your company and products is easy once you know what to do. Even in the B2B space, you can indeed create buzz.

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With click-to-call, it's now possible to bridge the gap between the online and phone channels, and track the effectiveness of both.

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Relationships. Trust. Delivery of superb value. These are core ingredients of a successful service firm. Talk to 100 service firm marketers and leaders, and they'll all tell you (and most of them believe it) that their firm is at the top of their industry in each of these categories. Why, then, do service firms typically do such a poor job of bringing relationships, trust, and value into their marketing mixes?

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At a time when America is still feeling the sting of a prominent columnist being paid handsomely by a third-party for writing favorable opinion pieces; the nation's most respected newspaper publishing fabricated stories; and television stations running government-supplied and funded video news releases to report stories about the war, more greed is not good. And it's not just happening among the nation's elite news organizations.

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In tradeshow marketing, it is tempting to boast about the busy buzz at your booth and how many leads you generated. But don't succumb to temptation. You would be so much better off if you paid attention to lead quality instead of quantity. One secret to tradeshow success is your ability to qualify prospects on the tradeshow floor. Here's why.

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Reverse engineering is the process of working back to a solution from an end result. In the era of result-oriented marketing (how did we ever afford to do it differently?), reverse engineering can help marketers refocus their efforts and resources to ensure marketing delivers results that are in line with business goals. Let's start with a simple scenario.

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Consumer preference services are a proven tool to curb the invasive use of personal data through cold calling and cold mailing. They protect the integrity of the marketing industries that rely upon telephone and post. But they fail to address the root cause of customer abuse—data gathering, CRM, and analytical processes that systematically abuse customers without their knowledge. Here is the first of a two-part argument for an identity preference service to protect the integrity of the entire relationship marketing industry.

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As marketers, we are continually investing in strategies that set customer expectations about how our goods and services will perform. Through advertising, sales meetings, product demonstrations, and so on, we craft a message that we think clearly sets a compelling vision. But so often, that vision focuses only on the goals and expectations of the customer relationship. You also need to think about the feedback component, letting your customers know how they are doing as they use your goods and services.

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How often has a sale been lost after we believed the customer clearly understood their problem and would make a logical, quality decision?

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When should companies allow declining, aging brands to finish their life cycles? When should they opt to revitalize them? There are hard questions for companies in view of fast-changing consumer demands, increasing global competition, and diminishing awareness of heritage brands among younger consumers.