Topic | CRM

Thinking of jumping on the business blog bandwagon? Hop aboard, there's plenty of room. But be aware that writing a business blog is significantly different from writing a business e-zine.

Those with a scholarly bent probably got tipped that podcasting was big-time in December, when the New Oxford American Dictionary named “podcast” as the 2005 Word of the Year.

Companies fail at database marketing for a variety of reasons, says Jeff Hassemer, director of product strategy at the data management solutions division for database marketing services provider Abacus. During a Webinar held Feb. 23 by CHIEF MARKETER sister publications “Multichannel Merchant” and “Direct,” Hassemer cited the most common reasons:

If done correctly, loyalty programs can build stronger customer relationships, create lock-in, drive incremental revenue, and much more. But if launched without foresight, they can hurt margins, irritate customers, and distract marketers.

Fred Reichheld stunned marketers in 1996 when he argued in The Loyalty Effect that a 5% improvement in retention can boost profits by up to 100%. Now he is about to shock them again.

Some marketers may shy away from measuring the Net Promoter Score because it sounds too complex. But others are not daunted. Here is how Dell calculated the value of detractors and promoters for its consumer business.

I love direct marketing! It’s one of the few marketing disciplines where we (think) we’ve got all the numbers necessary to measure success and predict the future.

In a truly integrated marketing plan, every ingredient plays a vital role. The fact that you can’t directly attribute a sale to every e-mail message doesn’t mean the e-mails aren’t working.

By a three-to-one margin, marketers said optimizing a Web site for to attract search engines is a better bet for solid returns than paid search listings, according to a study by JupiterResearch.

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