September 2009
Social Media - It's Time to Join the Conversation
Over the last few years social media has grown at a rapid pace. Is your company keeping up? It's time to start looking at social media as a potential tool to boost your marketing programs instead of an intimidating trend. By using social outlets like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn, your company can open up conversations with consumers and prospects, promote upcoming events or products, and build its brand.
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August 2009
A Bing Primer for Search Marketers
After much discussion over the best name for Microsoft's newest search engine, "Bing" came out on top. The new name rolls off the tongue and is very fitting. It's to-the-point and sounds exciting, which directly reflects the new engine's take on search. Learn how Bing distinguishes itself from other search engines.
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July 2009
Constructing Lead Generation and Nurturing Programs from the Ground Up
So, you recognize a need for your organization's marketing team to deliver more high-quality leads to the sales team. You anticipate such a cause will be worthy of your organization's time. You're probably right. But rather than outlining what makes lead generation and nurturing programs so valuable, I'd like to discuss the building blocks you must have in place before they ever commence.
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June 2009
Capitalizing on Long-Tail Keywords
Learn why long-tail keywords are becoming increasingly critical in search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns and what challenges they present. Despite increasing management time and scalability issues in your SEM programs, these terms can show a high return for your effort.
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May 2009
Conversion-Driven Analytics
Analytics provides the data you need to track, measure and optimize your online marketing programs. The value of analytics tools becomes even greater when you use them in conjunction with other marketing statistics. In this article, we'll review from start to finish how to make better use of your data.
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April 2009
Time for an Audit?
This month we introduce a structured approach to optimizing a sales lead generation program. When budgets don't allow you to add new campaigns, a program audit can help you better capitalize on existing campaigns.
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March 2009
Making the Most of Your Online Advertising
Optimization is the key to success with any interactive advertising program. With routine analysis and improvements, programs evolve, generating better response at a lower cost. Read tips on making the most of your online media.
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February 2009
New gTLDs: Why We're Taking Notice
We set out to help you determine whether generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) should be on your radar. ICANN establishes its process for purchasing and registering for domains beyond .com and .org.
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January 2009
Forget Global — Google Is Going Universal
According to the research firm Hitwise, about 69.5% of U.S. searches in 2008 took place on Google. Take a look at how the search giant will keeps its hold during 2009: capitalizing on Image Search, expanding mobile capabilities, and adding personalization.
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December 2008
SEM: Success Through Measurement
Businesses are shifting their focus to becoming more profitable and efficient. Learn the ways to make the most of your online tactics, from SEO and paid search, to content targeted advertising and social media.
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November 2008
How Would Sales Rate Your Leads?
Organizations following lead nurturing best practices find that sales gives marketing-generated leads more attention, close rates increase and the cost of conversion decreases. Read actionable tips on campaign customization, integration, timing and more.
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October 2008
Keeping Lead Numbers Up When the Economy Looks Down
Lead nurturing makes the most of existing leads, and incorporating this tactic into your marketing program is especially important when the economy is weak. With the potential for your prospects' sales cycles to lengthen, matching targeted offers with good timing will keep your business in the running.
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September 2008
It's a Big World: Managing International Search
Learn tips for managing the intricacies of a global search engine marketing (SEM) program, which involves multiple languages, stakeholders in various locations, and even different local search engines.
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August 2008
Google's Enhanced Online Campaigns: Even More Qualified Traffic
Not only do Enhanced Online Campaigns allow advertisers to target specific content using keywords, but they also effectively target your marketing budget to the sites where you're seeing conversions.
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July 2008
Navigating the Social Media Landscape
You know what Facebook and MySpace are. What you don't know is how social sites might connect to your marketing plan. Learn what it takes to put a social media marketing plan in place.
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June 2008
Microsoft's Cashback: What It Means to Marketers
Microsoft's Live Search Cashback program is injecting some competition and introducing new ideas into the SEM space — giving searchers and advertisers more options.
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May 2008
Nurturing Warm Leads into the Sales Funnel
Lead nurturing is conducting a conversation, through marketing messaging, with a sales lead to bubble him up to warm status.
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April 2008
An Online Approach to Competitor Analysis
Learn how an analytical approach to assessing the other players in your field can begin with some basic ideas and a few readily available online tools.
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March 2008
Words That Convert: 10 Lead Generation Copywriting Tips
Copy in lead generation campaigns should entice and convert prospects. Read 10 tips for crafting compelling content in landing pages, microsites and websites.
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February 2008
A Budget Calendar for Pay-Per-Click Advertising
When strategizing a plan for your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) spending, create a PPC Budget Calendar that will help pull in qualified leads at the most opportune times.
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January 2008
The Best Offers (Not Offer) for Lead Generation
No single offer is guaranteed to convert a prospect into a sale. Lead generation campaigns require a fresh mix of content. Think blogs, podcasts and even games.
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December 2007
Online Video: Now Playing Near You
Online video, in its many forms, has become an engaging medium for blending information with entertainment at the center or in support of a marketing campaign.
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November 2007
Cut That Registration Form
Tailor lead generation registration forms to provide a rich user experience, ask only the information needed and encourage the most qualified signups through an ongoing dialogue.
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October 2007
Inside Contextual Advertising
Contextual advertising has the potential to allow advertisers to reach prospects who read and become more engrossed in online content, not just those performing searches in the engines.
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September 2007
Walking the Line - Free Information Exchange and Registration
As prospects become savvier in evaluating when they will part with personal information, marketers must consider their options in allowing for free information exchange versus capturing data through registration.
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August 2007
Think globally, search locally
Geotargeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, in which specific regions are selected for ads to appear, is one tactic in search engine marketing (SEM) that's meeting the demand for better ways to reach a target audience.
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July 2007
The New Face of Offline Advertising
Google has expanded their online portfolio into television, print, radio and newspapers. Marketers will more easily target, create, launch and track offline marketing initiatives to increase conversions while decreasing cost.
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June 2007
How to clean house with Ajax
(And still have Google over for dinner)
Ajax, which is JavaScript loading new content into a page instead of the web browser, can impact search engine optimization (SEO) if not implemented carefully. 90octane offers a proven methodology.
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May 2007
For SEM Impact, Think Search Cycle
When using search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate sales leads, match keywords to the stages of the buying cycle when you'd like to reach your target audience.
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April 2007
Selecting the Right Offer: A Methodology
Implement a process for targeting key decision makers and influencers with informational offers such as white papers, webinars, ROI calculators and case studies in your next demand generation campaign.
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March 2007
Outlook 2007 is upon us
Email marketers must be prepared to make their messages compliant with Outlook 2007. Read through tips that will help your emails render properly, such as avoiding background images and testing margins.
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February 2007
Quality Scores Are Affecting Your PPC Results
Pay-per-click (PPC) services have moved to quality score models. Advertisers compete in a more complex environment where creating relevant ad text, maintaining better click-through rates and providing relevant content on landing pages is critical.
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January 2007
Dear Publication: Is there "guaranteed" quality as well?
Some online publications offer guaranteed lead programs. While they can provide a positive return on your marketing investment, these opportunities must be evaluated in the context of program goals.
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December 2006
Rewind, Fast-Forward (Cautiously, Tracking All the Way)
The 90octane Team offers a review of search engine marketing (SEM) and lead generation strategy changes during 2006 and looks forward to what the coming year will bring for online marketing.
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November 2006
Lead Generation - Matching Offers to the Buying Cycle
Deliver the appropriate marketing message and offer for every stage of the buying cycle in your next lead generation campaign.
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October 2006
Search Engine Optimization: Content Matters
Because search engines strive to deliver relevant results to searchers, your website's content is critical to its rankings. One search engine optimization (SEO) tip is creating clean navigation.
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September 2006
How to Eat an Elephant: Start with a Single Offer Landing System
While the best ROI on a large budget comes from a lead generation program built with strategy, systems and processes in place, organizations with smaller budgets can develop a successful program one piece at a time.
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August 2006
What's New with PPC
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is constantly changing. Take advantage as more options for targeting your audience and testing keywords come into play.
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July 2006
Lead Nurturing with an Interactive Solution Center
A lead generation program should go beyond optimizing for a reduced cost per lead. With a marketing microsite called an Interactive Solution Center, prospects are nurtured into hot leads before the sales team makes contact.
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June 2006
How is Microsoft adCenter Fairing after Round 1 in the PPC Ring?
Microsoft's pay-per-click (PPC) service adCenter is up for review. Will MSN paid search program compete with Google and Yahoo!, and how does the tool impact your online marketing efforts?
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