How have white papers emerged as marketing tools? Prior to the 1990s, datasheets, brochures and presentations were the predominant forms of marketing collateral. These marketing tools were often perceived to be biased materials that were discounted by many prospects who were early in the decision-making process.

How could marketing professionals get their complex messages in front of qualified customers? A marketing tool was needed that would be read by potential clients and work as a sales agent before contact was ever initiated. …click here to read more

Ok, you work in marketing and you’re expected to have flashy images in your emails or ppt decks, right? But you’re not a graphic designer so what do you do? Just SnagIt! Huh?

SnagIt is a screen capture software that allows you to select and capture anything on your screen and share it with others to visually clarify difficult concepts, create clearer documentation, and give your presentations a professional, dynamic look.

The best part? You don’t need to be a tech-savy person to benefit from this tool since it’s designed for your average computer user. …click here to read more

No matter how large or small your online business is, you should be using some sort of web analytics software. Today, Web site traffic analysis is an industry complete with high-end enterprise solutions like Omniture & Websidestory to free lower-end solutions like Google Analytics. But for the customer, the tools many of these companies provide can turn your Web log data into some slick and useful reports.

Web site analysis tools aim to help you get the biggest return on your web investment.

Using these tools, you can discover:

* How many users visit your site, how many return, and how often
* How users are navigating through your site
* Where in the “conversion funnel” or purchasing process, they’re getting stuck and leaving
* How your various marketing campaigns, such as banner ads and keyword buys, are performing, from clickthrough to checkout
* What content your visitors are looking for, and whether they’re finding it
* Exactly which form fields are driving people away rather than bringing them in. …click here to read more

For those of you looking to get a fast-track start to understanding and setting up a business blog, I invite you to download this free pdf. It is a well written marketing resource guide by Debbie Weil who is a speaker and author of the newly-published “The Corporate Blogging Book”.

Here’s an excerpt from the pdf:

“Who is blogging for business? Lots of companies, often technology-oriented. And lots of savvy marketing types. Here are a few examples of well-written blogs. Note that they are written by one person and in a distinctive voice. Individuals (behind companies) blog.

Corporations communicate in marketing-speak, whether it’s glossy collateral or their corporate home page. Which do you think is more persuasive to the reader? Who wants to be marketed at or sold to? Wouldn’t you rather have an intelligent conversation and decide later whether to buy?”

Download the free Beginners Guide to Business Blogging pdf here and get started on your new blog today!

Email marketing is one of the most powerful methods of generating leads or making money online. But no matter how great your email campaign is, if your prospects and subscribers do not open your emails, your campaign is as good as dead.

In order to get your emails opened, I recommend following these 5 tips which will gaurantee an increased open rate and lead to more sales.

1) Write Like You’re Writing to a Friend

When you go into your inbox, you’ll notice that emails from friends with “informal” subject lines recieve your attention first. You can attract this kind of attention by writing a simple “unofficial” sentence. Write lines like “I hope this will be of help”, “Great event coming up”, etc. Be imaginative and you’ll come up with quite a few related to your message. …click here to read more

Although your corporate website does not allow customers to purchase products or services online, your company can benefit greatly from optimizing your website for the search engines. Ranking well in the search engine results will not only increase your businesses’ brand awareness, it will bring increased sales leads, which will lead to increased ROI from your corporate website.

There are several things that can be done that will make a corporate website more search engine friendly—and making sure that the search engines like your website will help it get indexed properly. It will also increase the number of targeted visitors to the site, increasing it’s overall ROI.

Most corporate websites use high-end web designers who charge a lot of money. If that sounds like your website, then you know that your corporate website is a major investment. By paying attention to the little details that make a big difference when it comes to search engine rankings, you’ll be able to allow your site to ‘earn its keep’ so to speak, and it might even become a part of your full-time sales staff. …click here to read more

The domain name of your website most likely reflects your company name which is expected. It is however, very important to have keywords in your domain name if possible. Here’s an example: Let’s say your company name is “John’s Sales Inc” so naturally you’d want www.johns-sales-inc.com (or something similar) to be your website. Wrong. It’s best to include a keyword-rich domain name like www.sales-automation-solutions.com which are highly searched and profitable keywords.

Google’s algorithm constantly evolves but the domain name is the root of your business so Google values it as such. Try it for yourself. Search for your favorite thing and see what types of domain names are returned. …click here to read more

Successful advertising can make or break your company. How are you currently advertising your business? Is it working? How do you know? Most marketing organizations can’t answer those questions either so don’t worry!
Follow these 10 tips and you’ll be armed with better knowledge to make you shine. …click here to read more

Here’s a great post by B.L. Ochman from the Marketingprofs website. It really explains where online advertising is heading and if your blog ads are even optimized properly.

Blog advertising expenditures have grown 300% in the past year, according to Henry Copeland, president of blogads.com, and blog advertising is still obscenely cheap. In fact, companies can make a really big brand splash for $25-$75K.

Blogs provide advertisers an excellent opportunity to reach a devoted audience niche. Nonetheless, a new American Advertising Federation study on “Digital Media Trends” reports that 58% of “advertising industry leaders” said that they personally are “struggling simply to manage existing online efforts, let alone stay ahead of the curve.”

And, while blogs’ impact is magnified because they reach influencers, blog numbers, until recently, have been little more than curiosities to big brands.

I predict that the cost of blog advertising will rise exponentially in the next 6-12 months. And, as traditional advertisers try a heavy-handed approach to creative, many companies will skulk away, having convinced themselves that this newfangled social media doesn’t work. …click here to read more

If your visitors like your Web site, there is a very good likelihood that the search engines will, too.

With this in mind, the following 10 tips focus on how to develop your site with your visitors in mind, and also effectively conduct search engine optimization.

1. Pick appropriate keyword phrases

This is the single most important thing to do when it comes to optimizing your site for search engines. The words and phrases that your potential customers type into the major search engines are the keywords your site should be using within the specific areas of your Web page (see points 3 and 4, below). Useful keyword research tools are available on the Web, including Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery (both offer trial versions).

However, if you want to find out accurate figures of how many people are searching for your targeted keywords per week/month/year, run a Google AdWords and/or Yahoo/Overture campaign and you will get extremely accurate figures of search engine traffic while (hopefully) generating income that will pay for your research. …click here to read more