I had the pleasure of presenting at the Enewsletter World workshop this week with Jeanne Jennings and Ryan Dorhn (two amazing, first-class media experts). In one of our breakout sessions, Jeanne broke down 10 specific ways to optimize an enewsletter landing page. In our new social media world, email assets are more important than ever before. As content marketers, it is critical that we develop our audiences and build our channels, with a primary emphasis on email in conjunction with social channels like Facebook and Twitter. Bring the signup above the fold. Use “subscribe” or “sign up”. MORE >>

After reading Forbe’s article today titled 10 Startups Changing the World And What We Can Learn From Them , I started exploring their #9 startup called DocStoc.com. This site offers documents both free and through their monthly payment plan. discovered one document in particular and thought I’d share on Puzzle Marketer. The document is called The One Day Business Plan Worksheet. Two thoughts… 1) DocStoc.com offers marketers a great channel to distribute your marketing material or product information. 2) The One Day Business Plan Worksheet is a great document. MORE >>

by Rajiv Kapoor Lead lifecycle refers to how we manage the life of a lead (or contact or prospect depending on your terminology) from the moment it shows up in the system to deal close. The lead lifecycle defines where a lead can live, how a lead moves along, and what we do with a lead at each stage. Companies typically use a lead lifecycle model for two primary reasons: 1) Preventing sales leads (and potential sales leads ) from falling through the cracks. 2) Reporting on conversion rates through each stage so movement from stage to stage can be optimized. What are the stages? MORE >>

We talk a lot about how critical landing pages are to the effectiveness of your inbound marketing. But no matter how many landing pages you have and how well-optimized they are, no one will get to see them if you haven't mastered the art and science of creating killer calls-to-action. They're the gatekeepers of your landing pages, after all! Those tiny little buggers have to jump out to your visitors, convince them of the value of your offer, and get them clicking -- which is why it's crucial that marketers don't make silly mistakes that could seriously harm their CTA click-through rates. MORE >>

There was a time long ago when dinosaurs ruled the earth and organizations considered it acceptable to have one person who “got” social media on staff. This person would be on call to show people how use Twitter, set up a Facebook brand page, and ultimately, be responsible for single-handedly carrying out a “social media strategy” with elbow grease as the exclusive item in his budget. Meanwhile, his peers managing email, direct marketing, or even the company vending machine got more resources and of course, more appreciation from their colleagues. MORE >>