allen.comStrategic Marketing Consulting

6/20/2009 7:14:20 AMALLEN.COMStrategic Marketing Tools for Business HOME ARTICLES ABOUT CONTACT Survey 9/6/2007 11:30:04 AMOver the next two years, how will your budget change for social media marketing (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace)? Increase significantly Increase somwhat No change Decrease somewhat Decrease significantly No budget for social media marketing Vote to see real-time results.EVENT PROMOTION & REGISTRATION E-mail invitations Accept credit cards Track RSVPs Manage membership 10/28/2008 8:27:39 AMImprove Your Marketing with Strategic Networking Tools 10/28/2008 8:36:55 AMTechnology: Collaborative Mind Mapping with Comapping We are all faced with the problem of "information overload," whether it’s managing our own information or sharing it with others. An interactive mind map makes it easy to manage and share information in ways that’s interesting, engaging and understandable. As "information overload" becomes more of problem, a mind map can help overcome the overload. [more] Technology: Visual Tool for Marketers: SmartDraw Marketing runs on understanding the many influences that affect customer buying behavior. And, effective visuals help everyone on a company’s marketing team understand what customers are looking for — and develop sound marketing plans for helping customers meet those needs. Learn how to easily create professional quality visuals to show marketing concepts. [more] Technology: Creating Mind Maps with MindVisualizer Marketers have always struggled with how to manage the marketing process, from planning to implementation and customer tracking. One of the biggest problems that marketers deal with is managing ideas. Now, an idea management technique called "mind mapping" has inspired software developers to make mind mapping products that make it easy to capture ideas, draw relationships, and help others understand complex topics. [more] Web Analytics: Web Analytics Resources If you use one of the Web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, you will want to keep up on the latest tips and techniques by reading these blogs. [more] Article: Top 10 Tips for Search Engine Optimization One of the most cost effective ways to attract new visitors to your Web site is to obtain high rankings at search engines. Google and the other major search engines are the sites where most Web users start their search for information, products, and solutions for problems. The challenge is how to optimize a Web site so that search engines will rank your site so people will actually see — and click on — a link to your site. [more] Technology: Motion Computing Tablet PC The size and shape of personal computers has been evolving from desktop computers to laptops as many people work outside the office. Salespeople were early adopters of laptops that could be taken to customer locations for presentations. The evolution continues as field salespeople start using Tablet PCs that accept handwriting anywhere on the screen, such as during PowerPoint presentations, for drawings and diagrams in customer meetings, and other places where handwriting is better than a keyboard. [more] Marketing: Do You Practice Customer Experience Management or Customer Relationship Management? The process of creating a customer relationship begins with the first experience the customer has with your company and, hopefully, it’s followed by many more positive experiences. [more] Marketing: Mobile Marketing to Cell Phones The use of cell phones has grown tremendously during the past few years, but marketers are still looking for ways to use mobile marketing successfully. However, challenges to mobile marketing don’t stop entrepreneurs from launching cell phone marketing ventures. [more] Article: Marketing Research is Everywhere Every marketer needs lots of data about customers, non-customers, and competitors. However, market research data is usually hard to get — and more expensive than you’d think. Fortunately, marketing research data is everywhere. [more] Marketing: Online Holiday Shopping Study: Think Mondays Marketers with consumer-oriented e-commerce Web sites study traffic and sales data as much as brick-and-mortar retailers — perhaps more so since Web servers collect so much detailed data on visitors. But how does your site compares to other retail Web sites? [more] Marketing: B-to-B Prospects Want Information Fresh leads are the lifeblood of any sales organization. However, getting people to respond to advertising and other lead generating activities is challenging, especially for B-to-B marketers. [more] Sites: USPS Delivers Marketing Insights For the last few months I’ve been getting a surprise from the US Postal Service — a magazine that’s full of cross-channel, integrated marketing insights that’s written by real experts. Each issue of their new magazine Deliver has several feature articles and case studies about the marketing issues we deal with every day. [more] Networking: Ferrazzi: Never Eat Alone When I spotted the book "Never Eat Alone" by well-known networker Keith Ferrazzi, I expected a "how to network" book — tips and techniques on how to grow your contact network. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s really about growing relationships — mostly business relationships. You might wonder why I distinguish between networking and building relationships. [more] Marketing: Forecast Revenue Accurately, Then Meet Your Forecast One of the hardest things to do when planning a new venture is forecasting the first year’s revenue. Some managers say their revenue is dependent on so many factors you don’t control that it’s impossible to know what the first year revenue will be. Fortunately, there are better ways to forecast revenue for new products than just making a guess. [more] Book: Peppers & Rogers: Return on Customer Maximizes Value It’s always been difficult to plan effective marketing programs because we can’t accurately project how much a program will contribute to the bottom line. So, how can marketers plan for long-term growth when they’re measured on short-term results? This is the focus of the new book by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Return on Customer . Peppers and Rogers provide the financial building blocks we can use to measure the long-term value of all marketing programs. [more] 4/14/2005 12:45:40 PM| Articles | About | Contact | Blog | Have a question? Call us: (310) 650-3599 | Copyright © 1995-2011 Cliff Allen | All rights...