WebMarketCentral

DECEMBER 9, 2009

While most marketers have now embraced social media for monitoring and participating in brand conversations, questions still abound. Sure, online video is hot, but how you optimize video assets? How are b2b buyers actually using social media in their research and buying decisions? What's the best method for approaching social media marketing? Which sites are most important to participate in?

Social Media 20

Social Media Social Marketing Web 2.0 Forrester 20

WebMarketCentral

DECEMBER 7, 2009

In case you missed it (as I did), Anita Campbell a few months ago published 137 Twitter Tips: How Small Businesses Get the Most from Twitter , based on input from the readers of Small Business Trends. This report provides a treasure trove of guidance for marketers who seek to increase their brand awareness, credibility and business results using Twitter.

Small Business Marketing 20

Small Business Marketing Twitter Tips Web 2.0 20

WebMarketCentral

DECEMBER 3, 2009

What's the real the optimal cost per lead for your SEM program? How can you improve conversion rates? Keep your search marketing program growing? Assure you that aren't overlooking any important opportunities for optimization? Discover the answers to these questions and others here in some of the best posts on search engine marketing (so far) this year.

Search Engine Marketing 20

Search Engine Marketing Search Marketing Adwords SEM 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Is Big Brother watching you? Books like George Orwell's classic 1984 and films such as Minority Report and Eagle Eye present a nightmarish vision of an omniscient government watching our every move. The reality is far different story, paranoia about the Patriot Act notwithstanding. As recently as 2004, FBI agents still used laptops with Intel 286 processors.

Social Media 20

Social Media Web 2.0 Eye-Tracking Media 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

Looking for a more powerful way to share presentations online? Consolidate your online profiles and social networking presence? Create a cool Twiiter background even if you're not the artistic type? Generate word-of-word referrals? Use social media more effectively for research? You'll find tools for all of those tasks and others in this collection of more of the best cool online tools.

Tools 20

Tools Best Practices Adwords Word of Mouth 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 18, 2009

Last week I asked the question: will content marketing kill trade publications ? Gordon Plutsky seems to answer in the affirmative, contending that marketers need to set up their own content distribution channels , bypassing the trade media. Ted Bahr, on the other hand, not only won't concede the death of trade magazines but isn't willing even to give up on print versions of them.

Social Media 20

Social Media Aggregators Thought Leadership Media 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

Marketing automation / demand generation software provider Manticore today announced the release of Manticore Technology VII, which includes a fully customizable user interface, email and landing page folders, an email delivery wizard, and drag-and-drop list building functionality. The company made the announcement at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.

Manticore 20

Manticore Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

What two simple words answer almost every SEO question? What common SEO mistakes should you watch out for? How do you create a 301 redirect? Better yet, how can you avoid having to create one? What key trends in search should you be aware of, and how can you adapt to them? Discover the answers to these questions and others here in more of the best articles and blog posts on the practice of SEO so far this year.

SEO 20

SEO Forrester Best Practices Adwords 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

It seems like so much of what is written about search engine optimization (SEO) assumes that you're writing a blog post, or a news story, or the next great "how to" article that's going to be syndicated far and wide on article marketing sites. Sometimes that is what you're doing, but often writing for the web—and SEO—involves less glamorous pages like product or service descriptions.

SEO 20

SEO Product Digg Tagging 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Given the continued high unemployment rate and uncertain prospects for economic recovery, marketing budgets will be tight heading into the new year. Most B2B marketers are likely to find themselves with fewer dollars to spend but more pressure to spend them carefully. In this environment, what are the three or four areas where marketers should focus scare resources ?

Marketing Budget 20

Marketing Budget Budget Programs Allocation Emarketing 20

WebMarketCentral

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Despite a recent dip in users, Twitter remains a hot social media platform (and arguably a better venue for b2b marketers than Facebook). Bloggers not only use Twitter to promote their content, but writing about Twitter frequently is their content. Want to learn more about how to use Twitter for marketing, which mistakes to avoid, and learn from brand that are using the microblogging platform successfully?

Twitter 20

Twitter Web 2.0 Marketing Analytics Tools Tips 20

WebMarketCentral

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Welcome to the first best-of-2009 (so far) compilation. This year will feature expanded, finer-grain categories (such as separate best-ofs for Twitter- and Facebook-related posts) and some renamed categories ("social media marketing" will replace "social media optimization" which in turn replaced a varied basket of terms before it). In the posts and articles below, discover how to map your social media communities, how to monitor your company's social media buzz on a budget, a dozen common socia

Social Media 20

Social Media Marketing Budget Social Marketing Web 2.0 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

One of the biggest challenges b2b marketers face is what to do with all of those "names" that come into your system that aren't really "leads" yet; contacts collected from white paper downloads, webinar registrations, trade shows and other activities. How do you separate hot leads from long-term leads from tire-kickers? How can you efficiently nurture those long-term prospects, learning more about their interests in the process, until they are really ready to engage with sales?

Marketing Automation Services 20

Marketing Automation Services Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

Every company wants their website to show up well in search engines, and their marketing teams understand the importance of search engine optimization. And after the thousands of articles and blog posts written about search engine optimization , SEO is no longer the black art it once was. It's still a blend of art and science, but the basics should be well understood at this point by web marketers and designers.

SEO 20

SEO CAN-SPAM Tagging Keywords 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 22, 2009

How can online video help with SEO and online reputation management ? Which social bookmarking sites have the most clout? Can social media really increase revenue? What common mistakes should you avoid in social media marketing? Get the answers to these questions and others here in the final set of the best posts on social media marketing from last year.

Social Media 20

Social Media Optimization Media Web 2.0 20

WebMarketCentral

DECEMBER 4, 2008

The best research tells you not only what's happening, but why. Check out these posts, more of the best so far in 2008, on web marketing and Internet research to sate your curiosity, make better marketing decisions, and arm yourself with online trivia knowledge. Which blogs do reporters read? What are the top uses of the Internet after email and search?

Research 20

Research Paid Search Agency Best Practices Internet Marketing 20

WebMarketCentral

DECEMBER 1, 2008

"SEO is dead." Making a statement like that is a great way to generate lots of traffic, and comments, as Micah Baldwin and Mike McDonald have recently demonstrated. But it's still nonsense. As I noted in my comment to comment Michah's post on Learn to Duck, articles like this have been appearing since at least 2003, so if SEO is dying, it's an awfully slow death.

SEO 20

SEO Long Tail Marketing Tagging Paid Search Agency 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 26, 2008

Aaron Goldman over at MediaPost just posted his 10 Reasons Search Marketers Should Be Thankful. In terms of the research, the links, and the thought put in behind it, this is an outstanding post. Search may not be recession-proof -links to a post Aaron wrote about a month ago where he provides research demonstrating how and why search marketing will remain strong through this downturn.

Paid Search Agency 20

Paid Search Agency Search Engine Marketing Marketing Analytics Tools Tagging 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 24, 2008

On the occasion of the 300th post on the WebMarketCentral blog, and to see how things have changed since the first 100 posts , here are the 10 most popular posts of all time so far. #10: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan , October 8, 2008 The most recent post to make this list presents B2B marketing as a series of concentric layers, with SEO at the core then moving outward from highly measurable online direct response tactics to broader brand advertising. #9: Best of 2007: Articles and Bl

Web 2.0 20

Web 2.0 SEM CTR Adwords 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 20, 2008

How do you come up with a great blog name? What's needed-beyond unique and useful content-to really make a blog successful? Which common blogging mistakes should you avoid? Where is the best place to host your blog? What can you learn from the world's most successful blogs? Find the answers to these questions and more in this list of some of the best posts of 2008 so far on blogging for business.

Blogspot 20

Blogspot Blogger Best Practices Business 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 19, 2008

The trends are clear: as the economic malaise deepens, GDP growth heads into negative territory and unemployment rises, marketers are slamming the brakes on any program that is offline / branding and shifting whatever dollars they have left in their shrinking budgets to online / direct response. Last week, MarketingSherpa published two charts showing the shift from offline to online spending, and from brand advertising to direct.

Paid Search Agency 20

Paid Search Agency Advertorials Telemarketing Lead Gen 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Creating a successful viral marketing campaign has been likened to hitting home runs—you never know which at-bat is going to produce one, so the key is to make a lot of trips to the plate. Put another way, there is no magic formula for producing a viral campaign, you just have to try different concepts. There are, however, certain characteristics that will either increase the odds of viral success, or doom it to failure.

Viral Marketing 20

Viral Marketing Campaigns Digg Youtube 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 12, 2008

This is the second of a two-part series. Part one covered what Twitter is and why it's cool ; this post discusses Twitter etiquette, tools, and speculation about its future. How to Twitter Properly Like any other social setting, Twitter has its own etiquette. This can be confusing to new users. (And, as you can see by spending more than a few minutes on Twitter, it's apparently elusive to many long-time users as well.

Twitter 20

Twitter SEM Tools Practices 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 10, 2008

Here are more of the most useful business, social media and web marketing tools of 2008. Included here are some interesting new tools for getting more out of search, reflecting your personality on Twitter, collaborating with teammates online, writing blog posts more efficiently, accessing your home or office desktop PC from the road, and more. Surf Canyon Surf Canyon is a broswer plugin for Firefox and IE that refines results as you search, helping to make them more relevant so you can find exac

Tools 20

Tools RSS Digg Aggregators 20

WebMarketCentral

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

Most Web 2.0 sites fall into one of a few increasingly well-defined categories, such as social bookmarking (Digg, del.icio.us, Searchles), social networking (LinkedIn, Facebook) or file sharing (YouTube, Flickr, podOmatic ). Twitter, however, stands alone. (Okay, there's also Pownce , but Twitter is better.) Self-described as simply a real-time short messaging service and often referred to a microblogging platform , to those new to it, Twitter resembles nothing so much as a giant cocktail party

Twitter 20

Twitter Web 2.0 Digg Tagging 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 2, 2005

First, I noted in my last rant here that "The Web's most popular search engine still won't find all of the words "Bronto Topica Silverpop" on WebMarketCentral, even though they are all listed on the Hosted Email Marketing Services page." Well, I checked again today and -- Google still won't find these terms on the WMC site , but it found my blog post (top spot).

Google 20

Google Search Marketing Email Marketing Optimization 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 2, 2005

WebMarketCentral had the chance to sit down (figuratively speaking) with Jay Lipe, founder of marketing consulting firm Emerge Marketing, to talk about his background and his company, and to tap into his Web marketing wisdom. Herewith, the inaugural WebMarketCentral blog interview. WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before Emerge Marketing? Jay Lipe (JL): My background is pretty much all in marketing.

Work Management 20

Work Management Small Business Marketing Differentiation Consulting 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 10, 2005

This week, I had the opportunity to talk to Kelly Allan, founder of and senior associate at Kelly Allan Associates in Columbus, Ohio. Kelly's firm assists companies in a variety of industries with marketing and operations consulting, helping them to streamline business processes and achieve better results. Kelly has been widely published -- and is just a really nice guy.

Word of Mouth 20

Word of Mouth Differentiation Work Management Consulting 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 15, 2005

The brilliant and entertaining Anne Holland at Marketing Sherpa recently blogged about the proliferation of advertising, and the need for marketers to save themselves through relevant targeting. She mentioned sand-sculpture advertising on the beach and other examples of the "loud shouting" sometimes done by marketers instead of delivering focused, relevant messages in targeted media.

Ads 20

Ads Marketing Budget Comparison Internet Marketing 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 22, 2005

Marketing professionals, particularly those focused on online or Web marketing, depend on the latest news from a wide variety of sources to help them stay current on their craft. While there are obviously some excellent news sites available (such as MarketingVOX , ClickZ and BtoBonline ), it's impractical to visit all of them and way too time-consuming to sift through all of the articles that don't matter in order to find the ones that do.

Keywords 20

Keywords Contact Marketing Online Marketing Order 20

WebMarketCentral

AUGUST 29, 2005

I just finished reading The Cluetrain Manifesto (yes, I know C-2001, I'm a bit behind on my reading). Those of you who've read this book will understand the reference. For those of you who haven't, I'll provide a more detailed response to the book in some future post, but it is well worth the read. Anyway, I had a "Cluetrain moment" last week when I met an extraordinary gentleman named Brad Cleveland, CEO of a rapid plastic injection molding prototyping company called Protomold.

Telemarketing 20

Telemarketing Search Engine Marketing Contact Marketing Tactics 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 2, 2005

While this is not a political blog, government actions that specifically affect online marketing or e-commerce are fair game. Several states have recently begun sending nasty letters to taxpayers who purchased tobacco products online from several e-retailers, including eSmokes.com. How did they obtain information on these customers? This issue is about far more than the perils or expense of smoking; these actions have the potential to affect anyone and everyone involved in online marketing or e-

Cross-Selling 20

Cross-Selling Act-On Internet Marketing Privacy 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 9, 2005

Marketing is about relationships. And one of my favorite aspects of blogging is "meeting" new people across the marketing blog space. Over the last couple of weeks I've had the pleasure of exchanging emails with several prominent bloggers, all of whom have made me smarter. David Wolfe at Ageless Marketing Many bloggers provide tips, which are very helpful.

Blogger 20

Blogger Blast Campaigns PR Consulting 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 11, 2005

This week, I had the chance to sit down with Albert Maruggi, principal of St. Paul-based marketing agency Provident Partners (and huge baseball fan). His agency assists companies in a variety of industries in all areas of marketing, with particular expertise in PR, events management, integrated marketing and podcasting. WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before founding Provident Partners?

Advertising Agencies 20

Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency Webcast Public Relations 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 19, 2005

While doing some Web strategy consulting work recently for a large office products company, I evaluated several competitors' Web sites. One site -- Avery.com -- stood out not only as the best in the industry, but as an example of creativity and utility uncommon in any industry. Another competitor -- MeadWestvaco -- unfortunately for them, served as a prime counter-example (or perhaps an example of how to do almost everything wrong).

Paid Search Agency 20

Paid Search Agency Companies Work Management Copyright 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 24, 2005

I had the distinct pleasure this week of talking to Farrakh Azhar, founder and CEO of WebGreeter / LiveAdmins. While there are several companies that offer Web site chat software, WebGreeter is unique in offering both the software (hosted) and the operators who handle the chat sessions. In short, WebGreeter customers not only have no software to install, they also don't have to staff the Web chat function.

Work Management 20

Work Management Marketing Management SEM Allocation 20

WebMarketCentral

SEPTEMBER 29, 2005

Recently added to WebMarketCentral.com , the Web marketing portal, are three new pages providing Internet marketers with everything they need to know (for now) about creating and maintaining an effective business-related blog. I've compiled everything I know and was able to find about business blogging onto these three pages: Why Write a Blog for Business ?

Business 20

Business Sample Internet Marketing Newsletter 20