Marketing

Top 10 Steps to a Successful Content Marketing Strategy
May 21, 2012

Digital Content is everywhere - your website, blogs, social media outposts, and every mobile device imaginable. And with customers and prospects radically adjusting to this wealth of information, companies are investing in developing digital content like never before. Despite their efforts, however, these same companies often miss valuable opportunities because they lack a well-rounded content marketing strategy.

This new whitepaper from Bridgeline Digital identifies the top 10 steps to building a content marketing strategy that you can execute within your company in an effective and timely manner.

What you will learn:

- What is content marketing management
- Why you should treat content like a critical business asset
- How to understand the content needs of your audience
- Why maintaining an editorial calendar is so important
- Why you need to give your content a "voice"
- Why content management and web analytics tools can best help you deliver relevant content

This Retailer Just Flat Out Stinks
May 21, 2012

You'll be hard-pressed to find an uglier quarterly report out of the retail sector than what J.C. Penney (JCP) delivered on Tuesday night. Investors figured that new CEO Ron Johnson's "Fair and Square" pricing strategy wouldn't be a hit right away, but no one assumed that the recently remodeled department store chain would be this earnings season's biggest disaster.

Free Whitepaper: The 3 T's of Modern Marketing: Team, Technology, Tools
May 17, 2012

A new digital marketing landscape is beckoning; how can you be sure you're prepared? With the simultaneous explosions of mobile, social networking, Wi-Fi and constant connectivity, we're creating a world that constantly offers more, with more selection, more options and more more than ever before.

More than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared weekly on Facebook alone — certainly the fastest growing of the social platforms, but definitely not the only one. It's simply not enough to call this digital landscape "modern marketing" anymore.

Key points you'll take away from this free whitepaper include the following:

  • how to build the best team, insource vs. outsource;
  • what are the right tools for your marketing strategy — content management, e-marketing, web analytics and e-commerce;
  • how to choose the most effective technology for your company goals — SaaS vs. perpetual, integrated vs. multiplatform; and
  • how to tie all three together to increase traffic, visitor engagement and conversions.

The Need for Change in Retail Marketing Strategy
May 16, 2012

Today's world is a transparent one. Shoppers can search for price information while in-store and find another price locally or order online — all with nothing more than a smartphone and the appropriate app. Clearly competing on price, while only partially effective 20 years ago, is an exercise in futility today.

Retailers’ Marketing Ploys More Varied
May 15, 2012

Americans are getting more old-fashioned in their shopping habits. That’s the claim of the 2012 Shopper Engagement Study, which found that more shoppers than ever are making their final shopping decisions inside the store.

Free Whitepaper: List Marketing or List Madness: Exorcise the Demon of Bad Data
May 14, 2012

Uncover the ins and outs of selecting the right list provider. Check out this free whitepaper, which covers the following: tips to identify audiences that respond; pros and cons of house, purchased and rented mailing lists; important details about list owners, managers and brokers; and how to sort through the clutter to get the best lists possible. Download this free whitepaper to find the right list partner for you.

Mother’s Day Marketing Tips for Merchants
May 9, 2012

Mother’s Day madness is in full force because the big day is less than a week away, which means there's related content floating all over the web, from sales and promotions to inspirational photos and videos. Let this act as your wake-up call! Although merchants should have already started their marketing campaigns, it’s not too late to get started or to step it up a few notches.

How Personalization Can Go a Long Way to Creating Customer Loyalty
May 3, 2012

The world of retail has certainly changed over the past hundred years. What started as small local shops that knew their customers by name and hand-picked products for them has morphed into national chains that see hundreds of shoppers an hour. Due to scale and shrinking margins, personalized service had largely faded from the retail experience.

RadioShack CFO Tasked With Making Target Deal Profitable
April 26, 2012

RadioShack’s same-store sales and gross margin fell markedly in the first quarter, as the retailer put CFO Dorvin Lively in charge of its growing but currently unprofitable store-within-a-store relationship with Target.

Toy Maker Plays With Social Media to Grow Sales
April 26, 2012

Top toy makers Hasbro and Mattel are struggling through tough quarters, but smaller U.S. rival Step2 grew its toy sales over the past 18 months, in part by employing social media and web review software.