Does Brand Really Matter?

A recent experiment reveals how brand impacts the conversion process

Marketers often hear of the "power of brand," and organizations spend significant revenue on building brands. But, is this a truly effective approach for increasing conversion?

Watch this Web clinic replay to learn about a recent experiment with one of the largest print news sources in the United States, and how branding impacts the conversion process.

Work Smarter, Not Harder With Your Marketing Strategy

Ensure That Strategy, not Tactics, Drives Your Social Media

There it is again, another new social media network to investigate. The first question you ask yourself: "Do we join or not?" That's potentially followed up with, "Will my boss ask me about this?"

The rapid growth of social media platforms sometimes outpaces the ability of businesses to get their arms around how best to use it. Before you can use a new channel, you must create a strategy around it. But many marketers struggle with how to create strategies.

In organizations, stakeholders often discuss logistics and tactics rather than strategies: "Who is going to post this to Facebook," or "We should tweet this out from the corporate handle versus the product." That approach is futile for one simple reason: Without a comprehensive, clear strategy, your tactics will never achieve your goals.

12 Tenets of Content Creation

When thinking about content marketing, we often have visions of SEO bliss and customers lining up to buy our products. But such thoughts fade quickly when we're down to the nitty-gritty of producing measurable results from our actions.

The problem isn't that producing high-quality content is difficult... because it isn't: There are lots of fantastic content creators out there, and even better tools to create with. The real issue is that most of the content we're creating isn't answering the questions our customers are asking. Our strategies are all wrong.

It's all too easy to go down the "we are amazing" path of content creation, producing content that's self-promotional, geared for driving clicks, or—worse—content that's not really valuable to your target audience. There's a huge difference between random people reading your stuff and a highly targeted tribe of consumers engaging with your content. Customers want what they've always wanted: someone they can trust.