Knowledge is power, but so is knowing where to go to get the best information. This UK-based research, training and event company is
a respected resource for useful marketing reports and data from affiliate marketing to Web analytics. The reports are paid but have generous executive summaries;
prices for both reports and the annual membership fee ($389US) are given in dollars if you surf from the U.S. The site also indexes many free whitepapers from
vendors. Bonus: a comprehensive calendar of UK marketing events and a couple fun games ("Are You An E-Bore?") you can use to pass time while you're waiting
for a flight.
This site serves as the matchmaker between pre-qualified consultants/firms and the client list of eWork Markets. Their
clients include 465 of the Fortune 500, and those clients are listed in full on the site. You'll find names like
American Express, AT&T, Maybelline and Procter & Gamble. The benefit of this service to their clients is that
eWork Markets serves as a resource for the best consultants in their field, so clients don't have to conduct a blind search
when a need arises. For consultants, the site is a good source of leads for that next gig. There are a broad range of
industries in which consultants can register themselves, ranging from Automotive to Marketing & Sales to Retail. While
it appears that the service is geared toward consulting firms as opposed to individual consultants, it is worth checking out.
And remember, you can be a firm of one. :)
If you are a consultant for an online retailer, your challenges are many: loyalty, retention, lead generation, perhaps even multichannel retailing. At the time of writing, Experian had released a number of new tools specifically for online retailers as well as new whitepapers ripe with case studies and industry analysis (which, of course, hammers home the facts as to why you need Experian's new tools and services). For example, Channel Match enables retailers to link the results from multiple promotional channels to reveal combined ROI. As for the core of Experian's business - consumer lists - their database now includes both demographic and psychographic profiling of tens (if not hundreds) of millions American consumers, which will help better pinpoint customer acquisition efforts.
Remember when you did a search for RSS feeds about "Internet marketing" and you got back 2000 results and most of them were garbage? This tool solves that problem - and it will tell you what your peers are reading on your chosen topic. First pick a topic, and then click on a site or email newsletter that you are familiar with as your starting point. Once selected, FeedAdvisor will show you new content sources based on the aggregated behavior of people who have the same preferences or subscriptions that you do (much like Amazon's "customers who bought this item also bought..." feature).
A value-add to this site is that it is an edited selection of feeds. The FeedAdvisor search engine uses as its universe all the blogs/feeds hosted by sister site FeedBlitz, which is a company that provides the technology behind many thousands of blog-based email newsletters. You can add any of the new content sources to your own feed with the click of a button.
Greg blogs from the bleeding edge of technology. If he
hasn't tried or blogged about the newest social-media application, he will soon. Read him to see what's just over the horizon and, occasionally, to score invites to
test the beta products he writes about.
Hitwise reports on how 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160+ industries, which is one of the broadest research sample groups of any research/monitoring firm. Because Hitwise works with ISP networks (rather than panels of pre-selected people) they are able to anonymously monitor behavior and quickly report on news and trends - and they frequently offer excellent statistics, reports and updates at no cost to publicize their services.
There are several no-cost ways to tap into this information: 1) Visit the site to subscribe to their complimentary email newsletter, and peruse previous issues while you're at it; 2) Download any current reports, which are announced in their monthly email newsletter (at the time of writing, available research reports covered the topics of search marketing campaign strategy and online apparel and accessories); or 3) Check out their blog for frequent online marketing intelligence factoids. Should you require more data, you can pay-as-you-go in their online research store, or pony up for a yearly subscription to their online competitive intelligence resource center. This is the kind of data that could be helpful when you're making the case to senior management to increase the company's Internet marketing budget.
So how do they make money? In part, by offering an overview of all key websites in over 160 niche industry categories and tracking how they compare to one another. The sample report for the automotive industry reveals the amount of traffic to key websites by day, marketing share in terms of traffic distribution across the category, average visit duration across the category and to the major sites, fast movers within the industry, which search engines and search terms were used to drive traffic to sites, what other websites or industries were visited before or after visits to the automotive industry sites and a demographic breakdown of automotive industry site visitors.
This is a search tool that helps you organize and structure your searches and brings related topics and resources to your attention that you would not have thought of otherwise. For example, search for "Internet marketing", and you will be served up with a "discovery area" that is chock full of Internet marketing information organized by possible groups of interest - people, companies, industries, products, news sources and more. You can flag any of these verticals - or specific, highlighted items within each vertical - for further exploration. As you drill deeper and deeper into your search, you are in effect refining the types of stories and resources that are most relevant to your needs. You can also add in any websites that you consider to be a "must-read". With no-cost registration, you can save that search as a custom news channel of your own creation, which you can return to again and again for new information on your topic.
Need to put together a marketing plan for taking your product overseas to the European Union? This site is the place to start
for marketing statistics and research. A no-frills, easy-to-navigate site design makes it easy to find what you want, by topic (statistics, market research,
surveys and reports) and by location, with 233 countries grouped into regions including World, Africa, America, Europe (EU is a separate category) and Asia.
Also, find world population data, a library of business coaching advice and utilities including dialing codes, weather news and
calculators for time, date and currency exchanges.
The MarketingSherpa universe of sites and email newsletters are a must for Internet marketers. You'll definitely benefit from all the practical news and excellent case studies on Internet advertising, marketing and PR. If you are already inundated with email, you can sign on for the Best-of Weekly, a weekly summary of online marketing news.
MarketIt Right.com is a free service that provides step-by-step guides for launching comprehensive marketing campaigns from over 1,700 interactive marcom plans. Perfect for someone new to marketing or for the marketing professional pressed for time. MarketIt Right's timelinesand other tools educate you about the process while keeping your project moving on track - at no cost. Premium membership garners even more - lead projection builders, budget projection builders, marketing plan builders, budgets guides, check lists, reference information and the like, integrated in the context of your marketing profile and/or project timeline. It runs Only $19.95(US) per month with a 3-month minimum.