284 Posts found for Source: MarketingProfs

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

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

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

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

What’s most frustrating about measuring and quantifying usage on your site?

Not counting common management problems, the issues here are the most troubling, according to one group of Web developers and managers.

If your job includes analyzing Web data at any level, you’ll recognize your own issues in this top-10 list.

Content: Article | Author: Jim Sterne | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

By 2007, the dollar power of Hispanics is predicted to rise to $926.1 billion. The Hispanic community clearly holds a great deal of economic clout, which certainly explains why marketers are vying for its attention.

Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns are ineffective. Here are the top three reasons.

Content: Article | Author: Blaire Borthayre | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

This two-part article discusses the pre-deployment (part 1) and post-deployment (part 2) tasks that an email services provider should include when you outsource your email marketing effort.

Find part 2 at:
Content: Article | Author: Paul A. Broni | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

Conventional wisdom holds that the best time to launch new products is in the early stages of an economic recovery, when demand picks up and customers become less price-sensitive.

While this may be true for some, most companies actually miss a significant opportunity to maximize revenue and profits due to dysfunctional pricing strategies, with roots that can be traced to the years before the recovery. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: John E. Hogan, Tom Lucke | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Pricing

Let’s suppose that the “usability” mantra you’ve heard over the past few years has finally convinced you that conducting user research with your target audience is an essential aspect of your company’s Web site development efforts.

What are your first steps? How do you manage a lab-based usability project from the early planning stages through delivery of a great findings report for the development team? … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Lon Taylor | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

To be effective, your sales letter must be opened, read, believed and acted upon.

To do this, it must attract attention, warm the interest of the reader, create a desire for your product or service, and cause your prospect to take positive action.

Here are five deadly mistakes that might be preventing your success. Eliminate one or more of these common blunders, and your response … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ernest W. Nicastro | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Here is a checklist of sorts that allows you to go through your Web site and evaluate its health and usability; look for potential issues that may affect user experience, conversion rates and site security; and, also, diagnose other issues or problems you may not have considered.

Content: Article | Author: Wil Reynolds | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

There are always two parties—the party of the past and the party of the future; the establishment and the movement.

Content: Quotation | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Change Management, Progress

To help manage more complex and demanding marketing processes, marketers in many leading companies are turning to software technology, commonly referred to as Marketing Operations Management (MOM).

They are using it to get greater control and improve the efficiency of marketing operations. Indeed, they realize that a nimbler and more integrated and flexible marketing function can give them a source of competitive advantage.

As a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Freddie Daniells, Roy Young | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

Recent surveys have found that marketing professionals feel undervalued and CEOs are dissatisfied with their marketing organizations .

That means it’s up to us to make sure others inside our organizations fully understand the contribution and the promise of marketing.

Are you taking the necessary steps now to elevate the stature of marketing as the engine of your organization?

Content: Article | Author: Roy Young | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Direct marketing professionals don’t guess. They base their decisions on statistics and calculate what the return on their investment will be.

Because of what is known as split-testing or test runs, direct marketers rarely get it wrong. Why then do other “professionals” rarely pay attention to this incredibly powerful strategy?

Content: Article | Author: Steve Jackson | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: IT / Technology / E-Business, Marketing / Sales

Given that commoditization is as inevitable as death and higher taxes, you need to review your strategies on how to deal with this transition… without resorting to denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Outlined here are a few strategies, and one reversible “non-strategy.”

Content: Article | Author: Guy Smith | Source: MarketingProfs | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Strategy

Case histories can play an important role in the selling process by establishing vendors’ ability to provide specific capabilities and benefits.

Yet many companies have difficulty in establishing a process for developing case studies, in some cases because they weren’t able to gain customer cooperation. Or sometimes, case studies have relatively little impact, because the testimonies they produced didn’t prove that their customers obtained a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jerry Fireman | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

What’s a style guide? And why do you need one?

A style guide helps you to quickly and cost-effectively publish content that is of a consistent quality. It is particularly important when lots of editors and authors involved are in the publishing process. In fact, it’s critical.

Content: Article | Author: Gerry McGovern | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales

Did you know that only 28% of the entire European population can read English? The percentage is even lower in South America and Asia. Even the growing Hispanic community in the US still prefers to read in Spanish.

This means that if you want to sell your products and services to these markets, you will need to be able to communicate effectively in their languages. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Martin Heimann | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: International

Perhaps you’re trying to write Web copy for the first time. Perhaps you’re not a writer, but you’re charged with developing content. Perhaps you’re an interactive pro who’s wrestling with difficult, disorganized content-and a committee of reviewers.

Take a minute to review these 10 fundamentals of great copy. How does your Web writing stack up?

Content: Article | Author: Gwyneth Dwyer | Source: MarketingProfs | Subject: Marketing / Sales