Thought Leadership Marketing is a term that has come into its own in the past few years. Yet few firms get it right. Below are 14 best practices that I've found work for me over the past 15 years of being in this Internet marketing business.
1. To Predict the Future, Look at the Past: Mark Twain once said history doesn't repeat itself; it rhymes. As special as we humans think we are, we do have a tendency to repeat ourselves en masse, with changes that reflect the nuance of the age in which we live. >> Click to continue
Internet marketing firms have been advertising Webinars in my Web Digest For Marketers email newsletter for well over 10 years. I've also been hired to speak at dozens of Webinars myself. Below are my top tactics for getting the most out of your Webinar events. >> Click to continue
There are those on the cutting edge of Internet Marketing who pooh-pooh Email Marketing.
Email Marketing isn't hip, like Social Media, or edgy like Mobile Marketing (both of which we cover extensively in
Web Digest For Marketers). But, you know what? Email Marketing works.
The key to the health of an email list is high-quality content. >> Click to continue
As Publisher of Web Digest For Marketers, I eat, sleep and breathe list marketing: Everything from list hygiene to subscriber acquisition, editorial, retention...on and on it goes. I'm here to tell you it's a very worthwhile and stimulating business. Not a day goes by where I don't learn something. >> Click to continue
The truth of the matter is, like it or not, we're all in sales. Even those people who are in marketing are in sales. We sell concepts, we sell products, we sell services, we sell advertising, we sell ourselves. That last one is the most important, for if you don't have buy-in on yourself, you won't sell much of anything else thereafter. Of course, selling yourself is the hardest thing to sell because you're so close to the product, namely yourself. So hereunder, I share some angles on selling yourself to others. >> Click to continue
I've been publishing Web Digest For Marketers since April 1995. I learn something every time an issue goes out. The truth is, I learn many things. Some lessons are predictable, but many are counterintuitive. Below are my Top 10 confessions, practices and tactics I have picked up over the years. >> Click to continue
1. Identify the Audiences Within Your Audience: Email newsletters are typically pretty focused publications, and therefore the subscribers will have many
characteristics in common. Still, it's important to realize your audience is probably not all look-alikes, like so many cut-out paper dolls.
Addressing specific audience segments can engage different parts of your list. The people who click on email-marketing reviews and ads are typically different
from those reacting to PPC or SEM content. >> Click to continue
During the dot com bubble, people spoke of "Internet Time." At the time, this largely meant how fast you could burn through your VC funds and how fast you could get more. Some of these excesses led to the creation of commercials in which you couldn't figure out who the company was or what category they represented. >> Click to continue
I worked in ad agencies for over 15 years. Quite often, I worked with the "New Business Teams" that would score new accounts. We had a few tricks for identifying pieces of business we thought we could shake loose from other ad agencies. At the other end of the spectrum, I also worked on some of those shaky accounts that competitors pitched and took away from us. >> Click to continue
Grow Your "House List" If You Haven't Already: In the world of traditional direct mail, a "house list" is a list that the "house" or company has created (and owns) of people to whom the company can market. In email circles, your house list is your list of opt-in subscribers who have agreed to receive marketing messages from you. Some of these people may be customers; most probably are not. (Just because someone has purchased from you does not automatically mean that you can email to him or her forevermore; you must get permission.) Your house list will quickly become your most valuable email marketing asset. If you're like most email marketers, you will soon become obsessed with the care, feeding and growth of your house list. >> Click to continue