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Building and maintaining a trusting relationship with your agency is key to project success. Many relationships with agencies fail because clients treat them like vendors instead of partners. They don't value agency advice when they really need to get a fresh perspective in solving a communication challenge. You can learn that lesson the hard way—becoming battle scarred in the skirmishes with your design agency. Or you can follow these 10 golden rules—and find great teamwork and stronger results in the end.

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If you can do the three big things this month, quarter or year, you'll not only achieve more and earn more but also find that all of the above is measurable. Best of all, it will give you a sense of focus; a sense of True North.

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Marketing departments often have the challenge of dealing with too much data. This week: How do you collect the right sort of data and measure the efficiency of a marketing campaign? Join the conversation! Also this week, read your answers to last week's dilemma: What is the best approach to ensure your newsletter code reaches the right inboxes?

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When corporate America participates in cause-related marketing programs, it enhances its image, customers show greater loyalty, the public recognizes companies as good corporate citizens, and the companies gain a competitive advantage in staff recruitment and retention. But does corporate America really care?

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A single op-ed article will not change the way you or your organization is viewed overnight. But combined with other related initiatives, they are an integral part of an expertise-oriented PR program that will help solidify your firm's standing as an expert in its field.

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This week, add your two cents to the dilemma: What should publishers do to build reader involvement? Also this week, read your answers to the last issue: What makes long Web copy effective?

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Many branding maxims tossed about in the marketing world—and accepted as unquestionable gospel and law—simply are not valid. At least they are not valid for everyone and every business.

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The consulting proposal is a necessary evil. A great proposal can be decisive in winning a project; a poor one can cause you to lose a project, even if everything else in the sales process has gone flawlessly. Use these guidelines to a write a killer proposal every time.

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Creating tradeshow displays is one of the toughest challenges that creative firms face. But if done right, they can be showstoppers. Here's why they are so tough—and what you can do to make them work.

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Here's a disturbing little secret: almost 70% of the people you do face-to-face business with will never speak to you again. It's not that they didn't like you or get value from your services. It's simply that they just don't care. They haven't thought about you since you last spoke to them weeks ago. But why wouldn't they think about you? Didn't that last marketing campaign get great feedback? As the available research suggests, it's not that they don't like you; rather, they have simply forgotten you.

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Robbie has worked at companies with smart, charismatic leaders who have run a good idea right into the ground. A leader without a sound strategy is like a guide without a compass, a ship without a rudder or whatever other clichéd metaphor you like. There's a reason we have so many expressions for the impact of bad leadership—nearly all of us experience it and know how very painful it can be.

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In the first part of this two-part article, we took a look at the heart of the Australian Spam Act and how it differs from other legislation. Here we conclude with a description of message types, together with some examples, as well as a brief discussion on penalties and international implications.

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Last year, Web content came of age as more and more organizations recognized it as an asset, and not just some commodity. Gratefully, more and more organizations have begun to put content first, technology second. However, there's still a lot to do.

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A big question for Web site designers continues to be this: what is the optimal number and placement of marketing call-outs on a Web page? The self-service quality of the Web has led to page designs that all too often serve myriad marketing goals. A single page can have any number of callouts in its layout, trying to catch the attention of a variety of consumers in different states of need. It is very easy for this messaging complexity to overwhelm consumers. But what if we deployed a genetic algorithm on a site to optimize the placement and numbers of callouts within a page layout to grow, on an ongoing basis, a page's marketing gains?

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Chances are that when engineers propose a new car model, they don't fail to include an engine in their designs. Unfortunately, that's not true of many B2B marketers and their direct marketing strategies. Too many creative briefs have a great chassis—terrific messaging hooks, keen insight into audience desire—without the engine to drive it: an honest-to-goodness offer, a do-this-to-get-that promise.

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This week: What approaches or steps do newsletter publishers need to follow to ensure the newsletter makes it all the way to recipients' inboxes? Join the conversation! Also this week, read your answers to the previous dilemma: How can a business cash in on year-end purchasing?

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Poor Eddie the e-marketer has been plagued by errors in judgment all his life. Although he at least understands the importance of e-marketing for driving traffic to his site, he's like a hamster running on a wheel, wasting energy and getting nowhere. Let's take a look at a few of the more typical e-marketing errors Eddie regularly makes—and what he should do instead.

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Long copy works well in direct mail. But how does it work online? This week, add your own two cents to: How can long Web copy be compelling? Also this week, read your answers to the last dilemma: How do spam rules apply in the real world?

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At almost 80 million, Baby Boomers make up the largest generational demographic today. And, among Boomers, women not only outnumber men, but they also influence as much as 80% of household purchase decisions, from food and finance to travel and technology. In other words, Baby Boomer women are the greatest market opportunity today. Better understanding these women will undoubtedly provide companies with greater advantage in the marketplace of the future.

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It's time for those in public relations to take a kinder, more empathetic approach to dealing with the media. OK, well maybe that's being too sensitive. But it does help to put yourself in a reporter's shoes when trying to get editorial coverage about your company or your client.