2423 Posts Found

More and more companies around the world understand the importance of really knowing how their customers and prospects view their organizations. They also realize that viewpoints can change quickly.

So how do you keep informed of your customers’ opinions? How do you know they’re continually satisfied? How do you know that they value your company? Or that they feel appreciated?

Gathering this data objectively, accurately … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Angi Fisher | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Most businesspeople intuitively know that the key to successful marketing is having a marketing plan-a blueprint for action. But many companies operate without one, focusing instead on the issues of the moment without committing to a long-term strategy.

A marketing plan does not need to be complex, but it does require several elements to be effective.

Content: Article | Author: Laura Patterson | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

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As service and technology firms begin to awaken from a long, recession-inspired hibernation period, they are again beginning to think about proactive lead generation. If your firm is stepping-up outbound marketing, your first step should be to re-examine your firm’s thinking about what works and what doesn’t.

Consider the following seven service lead-generation misconceptions.

Content: Article | Authors: John Doerr, Mike Schultz | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

This tool will tell you everything you ever wanted to know – and more – about any URL. Simply type in a URL, and more than 100 tools are at your fingertips, neatly organized in a tabbed interface. Starting with the “General” tab, with just a click you can view Alexa’s ranking and feedback for the URL or gather WHOis information, for example. Move on … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Fagan Finder | Subjects: Competitive Intelligence, Marketing / Sales

Want to see your website as a search engine spider does? Use this search engine spider simulator to pinpoint trouble spots that could be preventing you from receiving the ranking you want. Simply enter the URL, and you will receive in return an overall grade for your page. Luckily you also receive specific instructions on what to improve, and how… descriptions, keywords, alt tags, metatags, … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Summit Media | Subjects: Free Stuff / Tools, Marketing / Sales

As part of a comprehensive five-year study, Expertise Marketing looked at more than 500 IT service firms respondents’ use and measurement of a variety of methods to attract and retain clients. Without having a single question on the survey questionnaire about a IT service firms’s culture, it became statistically clear that a firm’s “internal personality” or “cultural DNA” influences its eventual success – or failure … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Suzanne Lowe | Source: CEO Refresher | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Keep this link on hand for the ultimate list of statistical calculators. The site features good basic sample size calculators as well as calculators for more advanced research methodologies (see Power Calculators or Correlation and Regression Calculators). Remember that market testing and research are at the heart of good marketing ROI practices. The more insight you can gain into what marketing activities, campaigns, offers and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: UCLA | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Statistics

Great marketers figure out how to make lives better, with the goal of attracting lots of profitable and happy customers.

But to measure how well marketing efforts help build a large and loyal customer base, it’s essential to identify (and rely on) the metrics that matter most.

Content: Article | Author: Suzanne Taylor | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

“History is bunk” – Henry Ford

In general, most marketing experts have agreed with Ford’s conclusion. While some researchers have advocated using historical or longitudinal approaches to study marketing phenomena, others have dismissed the vast field of history as inherently subjective and hopelessly unscientific.

Content: Article | Author: Peter Golder | Source: STERNbusiness (NYU) | Subjects: History, Marketing / Sales

Brand Finance offers companies an impressive accounting methodology for calculating brand valuation. Investments into brand generate a combination of increased sales, improved competitive positioning and increased asset value. The valuation of the brand asset is essential to help guide levels of brand investments. This should be of particular interest to those companies that can benefit from having the brand value reflected on the balance sheet. … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: Brand Finance | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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Marketers are happy speaking their own language, replete with jargon like “awareness,” “share of requirements” and “customer satisfaction.” Such terminology works fine in the marketing department and with the advertising professionals who execute marketing plans. But there’s a translation problem between that language and the language of profitability and stock price which is the mother tongue of corporate CEOs. “CEOs want to know what a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Whether you’re an individual who sells to corporations or a corporation that sells to individuals, at some point you have to communicate your core value to a specific person through a print ad, television commercial or a cold call-or at a networking event.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a copywriter or a professional speaker to develop a hugely effective essential … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Michel Neray | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

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The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous.

Content: Quotation | Source: Unknown | Subject: Marketing / Sales

IdealsWork helps consumers compare the social and environmental performance of thousands of product brands according to the user’s own individual values. Consumers get to select whatever values are important to them from various categories, such as the environment, women’s issues, minority issues, labor practices, animal rights, weapons, nuclear energy, and so on.

After selecting a set of values, the consumer can then see rankings of … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Source: IdealsWork Inc. | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Social Responsibility (ESG)

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It costs your business a whole lot more to secure a new customer than it does to hold onto an existing one.

As marketers, salespeople and business owners, very few of us have a weekly face-to-face opportunity to make our customers feel valued and appreciated. But if we are smart, we will maintain some sort of program to nurture our customers after the initial sale.

Editor’s … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ernest W. Nicastro | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

CEOs are a restless bunch. They’re tired of hearing how difficult it is to get marketing ROI data. They are really sick of complaints that sales is not cooperating, and that IT says it has more important things to do. Here’s how to make them calm down.

Content: Article | Author: Kristin Zhivago | Source: CMO Magazine | Subject: Marketing / Sales