Joe Pulizzi. Content has for many years been treated as the ugly duckling of the online marketing universe. Today, however, this seems to have changed. Or better, I maybe should say “it starts to change” because every day again I have to notice how companies succumb for the old ways of push marketing under pressure of internal silo-driven personal short-term priorities. Content is part of all these needs and processes. As such, content has no meaning. It only does when it fits in the context of the social persona, the individual connection and relation and the business goal. Bob Gilbreath. MORE >>

It may be called marketing automation, but be careful not to leave sales out of the equation, especially during the planning stage prior to implementing a marketing automation solution. Below are three processes that sales and marketing should collectively establish to achieve the greatest possible return on investment from marketing automation. Step 1: Map the Lead [.]. Marketing Automation Sales Lead Scoring MORE >>

I recently had an experience here on {grow} that sickened me.  I feel betrayed and I think it illustrates another example of the whacked-out ethical approaches in our business as SEO-seekers search for the Almighty Backlink. Earlier this year I was approached by a guy named David Murton to do a guest post for {grow}.  I would say I get at least 2-3 requests like this every day.  The ones from obvious spammers or people trying to get product placements are typically easy to spot but David seemed sincere in his request to get exposure for his writing. Forsooth, the post arrives. Can’t. MORE >>

The following is a guest post from Justin Rachwalski, Strategy Lead at Google. We’ve put together a compelling list of ways you can improve your landing pages and conversions. These tips are easy to implement and, more importantly, can start improving your results immediately. Landing page headlines and ad copy should match. Google AdWords determines cost-per-click in part based on the quality of your landing page. You can improve your score, and bring down your cost-per-click, by making sure your landing page’s content aligns with your ad messaging. It’s as simple as that. MORE >>

The need for fresh sales leads gives a recurring headache to B2B companies and the competition for prospects is only going to get fiercer. The key to success is to constantly supplement your existing lead generation efforts with new sources. well-crafted lead plan will allow you to get the bulk of your leads from old reliable programs while you set aside 5-10 percent of the budget to test new sources. Over the next three weeks I’ll give you a couple of dozen lead generation sources to consider. Let’s start with direct marketing methods. In this case, definitely give direct mail a try. MORE >>