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10,000 Subscribers: How a Marketing Blogger Achieved Success

Blogging is one of the most powerful ways to market your company. But only a few of the 156 million people who are publishing blogs achieve a big following. One is Chris Brown, owner of Marketing Resources & Results, a full-service marketing consulting firm in Northeast Ohio that helps companies attract new customers. Chris has published the blog Branding & Marketing since 2006. She’s written more than 900 articles on marketing strategy, marketing tactics, branding, social media, and market research. Last week, she reached a major blogging milestone: 10,000 subscribers. In this interview...

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Blogger Outreach | Gianfagna Strategic Marketing

5 Right Ways – and 4 Wrong Ways – to Reach Out to Bloggers

Bloggers wield enormous influence in many markets and smart marketers strive to get bloggers to write nice things about them. But outreach to bloggers can be tricky. Many bloggers resist overtures from marketers and other outsiders. Here are five do’s and four don’ts when approaching bloggers to write about your company, product, or service, from my perspective as a blogger and a marketing consultant who advises clients on social media. ...

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Shut Up, Already: How Over-Marketing Kills Relationships

Permission-based marketing is now at the heart of relationships between companies and their customers and prospects. People opt-in to receive your emails, like your company on Facebook, subscribe to an RSS feed from your website or your channel on YouTube, or follow you on Twitter or LinkedIn. But having permission to market to someone isn’t a license to bombard them with marketing messages. In fact, not knowing when to shut up is a classic marketing mistake. Here’s how over-marketing can kill a customer or prospect relationship and 7 ways to avoid this...

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13 Creative Ideas for Your Next B2B Direct Mail Campaign

Smart marketers know that direct marketing can play a crucial role in a business-to-business lead generation marketing strategy. But creating a direct mail campaign that makes it past the mailroom and the administrative assistant to the desk of a business decision-maker – and captures the executive’s attention – can be a real marketing challenge. Here are 13 ideas for creative direct mail formats – some familiar and some you may not have thought of – that can help get your next B2B mailing past the gatekeepers and entice business executives to open...

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Marketing Insights: New Stats Profile Top Social Media Users

The 2011 Social Media Habit Report by Edison Research and Arbitron, reported on Hubspot last week, provides a wealth of statistics that prove the ubiquity and influence of social media. But what’s most fascinating about this new research is the window it opens on the habits of the 46 million Americans who check social sites several times a day. Who are these habitual social media users? And what can marketers learn from their extraordinary level of engagement with social networks? Here’s what this important study shows and three takeaways about social media for...

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6 Factors that Set Great Brands Apart

Every smart marketer knows the importance of branding. A strong brand differentiates your company from competitors, conveys the highest value you deliver, and serves as an implicit promise to your customers of what your organization stands for. But what’s the difference between a good brand and a truly great one? How do you create a brand identity that’s so powerful, it becomes one of your most valuable assets -- and the centerpiece of a smart marketing strategy? Here are six factors that separate the best brands from the rest, and examples of...

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4 Lessons Big Direct Marketers Can Learn from Small Mailers

The marketing budget for a local, service-based business is a tiny fraction of what a global company spends on marketing. Yet small marketers with limited resources sometimes outshine the big guys when it comes to marketing effectiveness, especially in direct mail. Here’s how a regional painting business in Cleveland, Ohio nailed a prospect direct mail campaign with a simple postcard, while Dell, a huge business-to-business marketer, committed several cardinal sins of direct marketing in a B2B direct mail promotion -- plus four lessons for your smart marketing strategy....

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Can Your Marketing Campaign Pass the “Huh?” Test?

A marketer has a few seconds at best to engage the audience in an ad or marketing message. But many marketers forget this simple fact when they develop marketing campaigns using elaborate or confusing creative concepts. When the audience’s reaction to an ad is “Huh?” instead of “Wow!,” it’s a painful waste of marketing resources. Here are three examples of advertising and marketing campaigns that fail the “Huh?” test – and three tips to avoid making mistakes like this in your smart marketing strategy. ...

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10 Ways to Boost the Marketing Value of Your Website

Are you getting the results you want from your website? Whether you’re a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer, a great website is essential for a smart marketing strategy. Here are 10 ideas to boost the marketing value of your website through higher traffic, better search engine rankings, and more effective engagement with your customers and prospects. ...

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How Cleveland Marketing Agencies are Winning Big Accounts

You’d expect marketing agencies on Madison Avenue and Michigan Avenue to be producing world-class work for big companies. But how about marketing agencies in Cleveland, Ohio? Major marketers can choose agencies anywhere in the world, yet more and more are selecting marketing teams in Northeast Ohio. Top executives from three regional agencies and a large Midwestern bank explained why global brands and other market leaders are “Choosing Cleveland” at a NOCA (Northeast Ohio Communications Advocates) Forum at the Cleveland Plain Dealer on April 27. Here’s how these local firms are landing prestigious accounts...

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