Don’t miss this opportunity to vote for your top five candidates to be among the fifty most influential people in sales lead management in 2009. Then be sure to watch for the results on November 16, 2009. If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form , call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website. Because the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) is closing the polls at Midnight Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Friday, November 13th. Both members and non-members can vote. MORE >>

“The focus of the contest  was not ‘let’s get customers’,&# he said. &# The focus was to drive more traffic to the website, build inbound links, and create good content.  At long last, I bring to you my valued {grow} folks, a true B2B social media success story that can really be measured by MONEY.  I believe this is the only one in the world.  ; )  And it is GENIUS! Best of all, the success comes from one of our very own {grow}-er’s, Nathan Dube aka @DubiousMonk, a frequent comment contributor. The submissions can be found here and they are hilarious.  MORE >>

Why is it that B2B websites are so terrible at engaging the people they're designed to serve? The simple answer is because companies tend to design websites based on what they think is important, rather than what their prospects and customers value. In fact, one of my most highly read posts, even today, is B2B Websites Not Effective —a post I wrote June 5, 2006. The other issue is that websites are political hot potatoes. What I'd like to know is who wrote the rule that says all corporate websites must follow a standard navigation format? Solutions. MORE >>

Not only have I discovered that I really love this type of work, but I am also seeing common trends of what websites do well and where they could do better. It should go without saying that your website should be aimed at your prospects and customers, but, perhaps surprisingly or not, this isn't often the case. It's quite common for me to go to a website and be quite puzzled about what this company actually does. Put on your prospect glasses and really look at your website: Can your reader easily find important information? Make this prominent interesting. tell them! MORE >>

Basic link building involves getting your website listed on partner sites, quality online directories and do-follow social bookmarking / social networking sites. Depending upon your industry and the keywords you are trying to rank for, those efforts may be enough to get you a top spot on Google and the other major search engines. But if you've taken care of the "low hanging fruit" with regard to links and your site still isn't ranking well, you may need to try some more advanced link building techniques. Link bait. Produce "linkable" content that others will be happy to link to. MORE >>