Academic research can be overwhelming and hard to wade through, but some of it holds some gems for small businesses looking to improve their marketing and overall business tactics. Gregory Ciotti, content strategist at Help Scout writing for Unbounce, offers a neat overview of 25 tips for small businesses gleaned from research. These include: –

Leads360, a provider of CRM and lead-management software, has crafted an infographic walking us through the evolutions of the sales profession since Don Draper roamed Madison Avenue in “Mad Men.” In short, marketing and selling have gone from being centralized operations to being a two-way conversation with buyers that involves layers of influence. “If they […]

Marketing automation is the technology supporting demand generation. Demand generation is “the art and science of creating lead flow for sales.” The goal of the former is to yield the latter, and Thor Johnson, the leader of Team Thor Marketing writing for Marketing Land, has some insights to make that happen. In this first post […]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have finalized “Mobile Phone Creative Guidelines.” The guidelines, which are meant to supplement the MMA’s “Universal Mobile Ad Package,” aim to help resolve the fragmentation in the mobile ad industry. “Additionally, the new guidelines provide directives that are necessary to empower creative shops and publishers […]

According to BIA/Kelsey, social advertising revenues in the U.S. will hit $11 billion in 2017. In 2012, social ad revenues totaled $4.7 billion. If the company’s projections are accurate, it will mean a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.6 percent. The forecast included an optimistic note about locally targeted social ad revenues, which totaled […]

GetResponse, an email marketing solutions provider, has created an infographic showing how integrating social sharing in email marketing messages can drastically improve results. Here are some of the more notable findings: –

Facebook is an easy target for disgruntled marketers who want to complain about users seeing irrelevant ads. The truth of the matter is that if an advertiser is running ads that are being shown to the wrong users, it’s on them, not Facebook. The social network arms advertisers with plenty of targeting options and data, […]

On Wednesday, Facebook announced partner categories, which are unique groups of Facebook users created using third-party data about the products and brands they purchase. Data for partner categories will come from Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon and other third parties, though Facebook assures users that no personal information is shared between itself, third parties and advertisers. Ads […]

Auto insurance is one of the most popular and, consequently, competitive lead-generation verticals. It has undergone some notable changes in recent years, which means those on the buy and sell sides have had to adjust their strategies and perspectives. What to know about the auto insurance vertical “The auto insurance vertical is unique in the […]

KISSmetrics, a Web analytics provider, has put together an infographic looking at how the use of colors can influence conversions and behavior. Here are some interesting pieces of data from the infographic: –