If you have a marketing database you probably have something in there that is like a cancerous tumor. It's what I call the "database deadbeats". Database deadbeats are what I refer to those contacts who are in your database but are really useless - they don't return to your website, open your emails, register for webinars or buy your products anymore. They take up room and bring your response rates down. Consider sending different call to actions to those who have not expressed any interest in any of your recent email campaigns or visited your website in the last few months. Chad H. MORE >>

Managing desktop PC environments remains costly in most IT environments. First, most PCs are on a schedule to be ripped and replaced every 3 years, requiring a recurring hardware investment and labor to be budgeted to affect the change. Even more so, PCs continue to place a management burden on the IT organization. As one example of the PC burden, the average PC user in these surveys generated 8.4 calls to the support desk per year. Hardware configuration/reconfiguration (MACs) - $26.00 Hardware deployment - $7.00 Software deployment - $121.00 Application Management - $32.00 Softricity). MORE >>

When planning online advertising and email promotion budgets, it's critical to calculate the likely ROI upfront whenever possible, as well as to establish campaign benchmarks. The first step is understanding the average and likely range of CTRs for various programs. The growth in online advertising, the proliferation of enewsletters, the emergence of new forms of information delivery such as RSS and the emergence of social media sites have all affected CTR, so planning based on current data is crucial. The Advertising Is Good For You blog tracks these statistics from DoubleClick. to 7%. MORE >>

If you plan on entering the world of podcasting or want to make yours better, you can read what I've learned in my MarketingProfs article, " Lessons Learned from Podcasting." " Similar to blogging, podcasting is a medium that B2B marketers remain on the fence about. Are they worth the time investment? Should you start a podcast to generate leads? would say probably not, at least if that's your only motivation. Podcasts work because they have an appeal of authenticity. There is power in the human voice. If that's a goal you have, then read on. Any suggestions here would be welcome. MORE >>

A few days ago, I replied to a question regarding QlikTech scalability. See What Makes QlikTech So Good? August 3, 2007) I asked QlikTech itself for more information on the topic but haven’t learned anything new. So let me simply discuss this based on my own experience (and, once again, remind readers that while my firm is a QlikTech reseller, comments in this blog are strictly my own.) The first thing I want to make clear is that QlikView is a wonderful product, so it would be a great pity if this discussion were to be taken as a criticism. That said, let’s talk about what QlikTech is good at. MORE >>