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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.

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Too often, companies ignore search optimization simply because senior management does not understand it well enough to provide the necessary leadership and support. And if top management does not view it as priority, marketing and sales people are disinclined to pursue it. They will apply traditional, "accepted" tactics, shying away from one of the most efficient, measurable ways to get in front of prospects.

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The gig is up. Your customers think it's simply too much work to reap the benefits of a "loyalty program." So here's the classic experience customers have with loyalty programs. After reading this, how loyal would you be? Scratch that. After reading this, how much of this makes you downright exhausted and inclined not to buy from a company that makes you jump through such hoops?

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Companies sometimes have two names: the company name and the brand name. This week: How do you find a dream name for a company or product?

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Last week, we ended the first part of this two-part series with a discussion of the perceived entry barriers to marketing to Hispanics. Now, we take a brief look at the tactics that marketers use to reach the Hispanic market, and discuss in depth Search Engine Marketing as an optimal way of reaching Hispanics.

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When Netflix launched in the late '90s, most people thought its developers were nuts. Even with the dot-com era in full bloom, the idea of renting movies via mail struck most as somewhat ludicrous. Looking back on Netflix's startup story, one of the co-founders shares five customer-focused lessons that stand out as critical in creating the then-innovative Internet business.