by Laura H. Vogel | Tweet this Here’s the dilemma: You need to plan an event, but you have no background in event planning. Somehow this duty has been thrust upon your shoulders. Relax. We’re here to help. Many organizations don’t have a dedicated point-person for event marketing. Yet, an event can make or break a campaign. Here are some handy tips to help you from planning process through the big day. Get Out The Whiteboard. No matter the type of event you’re planning, you need to map out a strategy. What’s the goal of your event? Are you introducing a new product or service to customers? MORE >>

by Joe Chernov | Tweet this. Rule #5: Reimagine; Don’t Recycle (via Content Rules ). Great advice.  So great, in fact, that we try to live it (when it comes to marketing, anyway) every day. Take our book reviews – please.  Why do I feel the urge to insert a Henny Youngman reference here?)  Periodically we review a must-read B2B marketing or social media book on this blog.  But it doesn’t take long for those reviews to get buried beneath our avalanche of fresh content.  So we though we’d reimagine the reviews – not as fleeting blog posts, but as a durable asset.  Eloqua book of book reviews. MORE >>

by Joe Chernov | Tweet this. An old adage states, “Write what you know,” which, generally speaking, is sound advice.  But what happens when it’s your job to create content for people just like you ?  In that case, isn’t writing what you know likely to be redundant?  Perhaps in those cases it’s best to identify what you don’t know, and let that need steer your content creation. Perhaps it’s time for an amended adage to: “Write what you know; commission what you don’t.”. That’s exactly what we did with our latest Grande Guide.  The Grande Guide to Wikipedia. It’s a mystery, and it frightens me.  MORE >>

by Joe Chernov | Tweet this. Last week Jeremiah Owyang asked me what theme unites all of our infographics.  The answer is “change.”  The Content Grid provides marketers with content marketing framework – in other words, a model for change.  The Blog Tree represents a fundamental change in the way a list is conceived, applied and visualized.  The History of SXSW , which commemorates the 25 th anniversary of the South by Southwest festival, is a celebration of change. Change” is also the lead character in today’s Eloqua + JESS3 infographic.  click image to download full-sized PDF). Share email. MORE >>

by Jesse Noyes | Tweet this If you follow social media, online influence or Facebook marketing, chances are you heard the news last week between Klout and Involver. Klout measures influence on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and, most recently , LinkedIn. Involver is a social media marketing company. Together the two startups are making it possible for brands to customize the Facebook fan page experience based on fans’ Klout scores. The connection between social media influence and Facebook marketing made headlines. Full disclosure: Involver is an Eloqua client.). Share email. MORE >>