Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 1

What are the real reasons many seemingly-promising business ideas fail? How can you increase customer loyalty? Why do corporate marketing departments often seem so chaotic—and how can they operate more like a well-oiled machine? What do sales people need from marketing when launching a new product?

Read about all of this and more in some of the best articles and blog posts from the last year on marketing strategy and branding.

The 6 Untold Reasons Why Businesses Fail by Growthink

Dave Lavinsky elaborates on six common but often unrecognized causes of business failure, such as confusing ego with a business opportunity, trusting "white lie" feedback and failing to make a 100% commitment.


100 Tiny Tips to Create and Maintain Loyal Customers by Bootstrapper

This must-read post for every small business owner and marketing professional provides tips on everything from where to find new customers (not only in the obvious venues like on Facebook and at industry conventions, but at volunteer events and other places) to how to effectively network, communicate and build relationships (e.g., "Send a thank you gift when a customer renews a contract"), to easy-to-use tools and services (such as FreshBooks) to help your business run more smoothly.


The boobs have it, the biggest PR blunder since New Coke by Marketing Edge

The always brilliant Albert Maruggi explains how UPS bungled an unusually powerful branding opportunity with Kentucky Derby-winning horse Big Brown. Due to "short-sightedness combined with a lack decisive management" on the part of UPS, the company had to shell out big bucks to avoid sharing the spotlight with Hooters—not a brand one normally associates with either horse racing or parcel shipping.


SEO: best bang for your buck for generating online leads by E-consultancy

Aliya Zaidi summarizes research from E-consultancy showing that while "natural search, email marketing and paid search are still the most commonly used methods for generating online leads," "SEO (is) seen as providing the best value for money." PPC gets a higher percentage of budgets (not surprising, as it has a direct cost per click not applicable to natural search) but natural search clicks provide superior value.


How to run marketing like a profit center by iMedia Connection

Is your marketing department more focused on "firefighting" than executing productive strategies? Is it difficult to measure the ROI of marketing activities and prove the value to the CEO? Having trouble coordinating activities with other functions? David Hutchinson provides a roadmap to success in this excellent article, using marketing operations—process-based management well-established in other disciplines that "enables informed decision making, accountability, sustainability, visibility, teamwork, strategic thinking and best practices execution." For a longer treatment of this topic, pick up a copy of Value Acceleration: The Secrets to Building an Unbeatable Competitive Advantage by Mitchell Goozé and Ralph Mroz, previously reviewed here.


How to Profit From Testimonials…Even With No Testimonials! by Copyblogger

Dean Rieck (is that real hair?) delivers 17 clever ways to get the effect of testimonials for your product or service without actually using testimonials, such as showing pictures of people using your product or service, noting how long you've been in business and/or how many products you've sold, displaying a seal or approval, or citing favorable reviews.


5 Things Salespeople Really Need From Marketing by Sales and Sales Management Blog

Sales guru-ess Jill Konrath concisely explains what a sales team needs from the marketing department in order to launch a new product successfully, including sales tools, competitive research, and above all a compelling value proposition.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Best of 2008: Web Analytics
Best of 2008: Email Marketing Tips
Best of 2008: SEO Keyword Tips & Tools
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Link Building
Best of 2008: Website Design
Best of 2008: WordPress Tools and Tips
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEM Landing Pages
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 3
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 2
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 2

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technorati tags: marketing strategy branding Growthink Dave Lavinsky Bootstrapper FreshBooks Marketing Edge podcast Albert Maruggi Big Brown E-consultancy Aliya Zaidi David Hutchinson marketing operations Value Acceleration: The Secrets to Building an Unbeatable Competitive Advantage Mitchell Goozé Ralph Mroz Copyblogger Dean Rieck Sales and Sales Management Blog Jill Konrath

del.icio.us tags: marketing strategy branding Growthink Dave Lavinsky Bootstrapper FreshBooks Marketing Edge podcast Albert Maruggi Big Brown E-consultancy Aliya Zaidi David Hutchinson marketing operations Value Acceleration: The Secrets to Building an Unbeatable Competitive Advantage Mitchell Goozé Ralph Mroz Copyblogger Dean Rieck Sales and Sales Management Blog Jill Konrath

icerocket tags: marketing strategy branding Growthink Dave Lavinsky Bootstrapper FreshBooks Marketing Edge podcast Albert Maruggi Big Brown E-consultancy Aliya Zaidi David Hutchinson marketing operations Value Acceleration: The Secrets to Building an Unbeatable Competitive Advantage Mitchell Goozé Ralph Mroz Copyblogger Dean Rieck Sales and Sales Management Blog Jill Konrath
Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom