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Far too often, agencies and companies alike unwittingly focus on tactics—rather than strategy—in their marketing and communications activities. It's not always easy for companies to pause, step back, and review where they are going. However, if you don't have a clear marketing roadmap, you'll likely be going in circles, wasting time and money, and falling short of business and sales goals.

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Customer acquisition directly contributes to your bottom line. Use the following five strategies to help you improve subscriptions to your content—print or online.

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The truth is that most company interactions with customers take place via phone or email, so a single event may be your one critical shot. It may determine 99% of the perception that a customer or prospect holds about a company. Despite the importance of events, many companies waste the opportunity to elevate the audience's perception of them. Here are five tips that can help turn an ordinary event into business theater, to help you create the perception you want.

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Direct mail remains a successful way to reach customers. The trick, of course, is getting customers to act on the mail. How can a marketer increase response rates?

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German Chancellor Willy Brandt once said, "If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying from you, dann müssen Sie in meiner Sprache sprechen." (Translation: then you must speak my language.) Local-language content can help deliver a more culturally relevant experience to your site visitors. It not only optimizes the selling of products and services but also contributes to an organization's bottom line in many important ways.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

A case study provides the opportunity to communicate the benefits that your product or service delivers, in the form of practical experiences of a user organization. This is so much more powerful and persuasive than any theoretical arguments you can muster. So why isn't every organization churning out case studies? A few do; but, for many, generating case studies is a real battle.

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As marketers, we are always seeking ways to make our products and services more attractive to consumers. When we do it right, we know we've created marketing juju. Consumers are more than just attracted to these businesses. They are downright captivated by them. Each of these brands creates marketing juju by (1) facilitating, not dictating the usage of its products, (2) fostering community and (3) assisting consumers in actualizing their aspirations. With the 2005 National Football League season upon us, we should add the brand called "Fantasy Football" to the list of brands with marketing juju.

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In today's increasingly post-literate culture, the idea of a 10-plus page linear narrative may seem out of date. But not so. The role of the marketing/technical whitepaper is on an upswing as companies recognize their effectiveness in communicating with audiences that demand authenticity and detail when making business decisions. The big problem with whitepapers, however, is that their length and complexity make them vulnerable to delays and budget overruns, usually in the late phases of the document review process. Here's how to avoid Death by Review.

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Chris Maher is president of Fosforus, a business-to-business marketing, media, and interactive design firm based in Austin, Texas. Those of you who have read his writing on MarketingProfs know that Chris is a little different from your average agency guy. He beats a drum about real connections (not just marketing) with real people (not just customers). Lately, he's also been worrying about the effect of all this marketing and advertising on the human soul, and thinking about the longer-term implications for our culture and society. These dog days of summer offer a perfect time to pause for some perspective, and reflect on some of the larger issues inherent in marketing and advertising today.

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Many marketing professionals are trapped in discerning the best tradeshows, direct mail pieces or advertising layouts. But the truth is that great marketing starts with the "who." It starts with finding the right people and putting them in the right jobs. Indeed, the "whats" are important, but only in context of "first who."

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Simple is a lot harder than it looks. Indeed, to achieve simplicity, an organization needs to be genuinely customer-focused. Extra investment will be required, as well as a special commitment from designers and management. Is it worth it? Certainly, organizations such as Apple and Google are showing that simplicity can become a genuine competitive advantage.

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A good marketing plan is in essence the Cliff Notes version of the company's current status, how it got there and what if anything needs to be addressed. In other words, a good marketing plan has all the elements of a well-told story.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

For many organizations, 'tis the season to shop for talent, especially copywriters. But it's awfully hard to look beyond the exterior to identify the talent who will really work for you. And while there are no fool-proof formulas for finding winners, you can take measures—right at the start of your relationship—that give you a much greater probability of success.

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This week: It's rare to find a fast-food restaurant that doesn't offer a combo that's a better deal than each item purchased separately. Does it make sense for service businesses to offer their customers the same "deal"?

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Organizations serious about improving their email programs, especially their subscriber opt-in rates, should allocate marketing and development resources toward improving their Web site's onsite registration process. If you're ready to turn your Web site into an email opt-in machine, consider implementing some of the following enhancements.

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Companies everywhere are struggling to differentiate their offerings. They dream of establishing an unassailable market position for their solutions, a position that will enable them to capture a lion's share of the customer's mind and wallet. But to their frustration, no matter how enticingly and expertly their portraits of the solutions are painted—to customers, their solutions and their competitor's solutions usually end up looking amazingly alike. There is a solution.

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There is an emerging group of business mavens—mompreneurs. Mompreneurs are more than just a great tale of free enterprise. They're a market phenomenon that has emerged for several key reasons.

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Companies like Intel, IBM and Adobe are leveraging Marketing Operations to improve performance and ROI as they refine their marketing organizations using an operational focus. But you don't have to be an Intel or Adobe to benefit from this emerging discipline. Here are the seven deadliest marketing sins that plague companies of all sizes and how Marketing Operations addresses them.

CONTENT TYPE: Article | TOPIC: Writing

The Web is not a great place to win hearts and minds. It is not a great place to convince people to do something they did not come to the Web already intending to do. Traditional marketing techniques, such as brand name repetition and the use of images to communicate brand attributes, don't work as well online. What works well on the Web is a useful Web site that wastes no time and gets straight to the point for your customers. Do you know what your customers want when they come to your Web site?

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You know the truth will set you free. Hopefully, the truth will also help you create great marketing results. Here are three communications myths whose time has come to an end.