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When done right, nothing pulls in qualified sales leads like a well-targeted offer for a juicy white paper. Offers for white papers and Webinars make up the bulk of ads in Web Digest For Marketers and the solo emails sent once a week to subscribers. I see what pops, and what lays an egg. Here are best practices gleaned after watching this marke Read More

In his book, The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm, Kenneth W. Gronbach tells a story about stopping at the top of his driveway to retrieve the mail, getting back in the car and hearing his two daughters—aged 13 and 16—excitedly ask what came for them. Both, it turned out, received direct-mail offers from their favorite cl Read More

From article: One of my vacation reads this year was "Famous Last Words" by Jonathan Green. This sometimes funny, frequently poignant compilation of deathbed quotations offers a glimpse at the characters of famous people as revealed by their final words. Whatever words you may utter if your business collapses, the failure can often be traced Read More

Whether you sell products in a store or a catalog, or on a Web site, marketing the experience of ownership is critical in making the sale. Studies show that even with high-ticket items like cars, consumers are driven more by desires than product features. The fantasy of experience offers rich opportunities for creative exploration on Web sites — a Read More

As part of a small-business network Visa designed for Facebook, the world's largest credit and debit card processor is paying for $2 million of advertising on the socializing site. Visa is giving a $100 advertising credit on Facebook to each of the first 20,000 U.S. businesses that download the Web application needed to join the network, which de Read More

If a consumer were to scan her inbox of retail, corporate emails right now, each one would have a subject line that is an offer. Everybody wants the consumer's money, but nobody addresses the consumer's relationship to their company, though they can. Long-term, lifecycle emails train a customer into becoming a better one, and they enhance the Read More

It should be a simple thing but simply saying, "Hello, welcome to our email list", isn't the way to invite or welcome new subscribers into your database. Could not knowing what to say to new members be what is keeping most email marketers from sending welcome messages? It definitely could. Which brings me to the point: just what should an email Read More

Few would question this simple truth: Businesses must differentiate. Growth, profit—survival, even—hinge on their ability to set themselves apart from competition. But is the common wisdom correct? Is most everything you've read and heard about differentiation wrong? Read More

Talk to entrepreneurs about their marketing and communications efforts, and they'll often use the words "branding," "marketing," and "advertising" interchangeably. That reflects the pervasive confusion about the terms, says Gail Guge, managing partner of Wilkin Guge Marketing in Ontario, Calif.. "About 15 years ago, 'branding' became a b Read More

There is an old saying that goes; “Employees don't quit working for companies, they quit working for their bosses.” Regardless of tenure, position, title, etc., employees who voluntarily leave generally do so out of some type of perceived disconnect with leadership. Furthermore, while the accuracy of exit interviews are somewhat debatable, they no Read More