Companies that use multiple computers typically have an intranet (an internal network) for improving communication between employees, providing product or service updates, and for training purposes. Providing employees with easy access to certain company resources and need-to-know information is an effective way of improving products or services and improving productivity levels. An intranet provides companies with an organized method for sharing files, images, and inter-department communications. Unfortunately, in many cases, companies do not properly optimize their intranet.

By Jerry Rackley

For all that Ralph Waldo Emerson was, he was no marketer. He famously said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” I’d love to debate Ralph about this: what if you can’t sustain your mousetrap innovation rate? What if competitors lower their prices? How will you communicate your mousetrap differentiation to the world? Why will they care? My debate with Ralph will never take place, but this thinking persists.

By Jerry Rackley

Word of Mouth is perhaps the marketer’s favorite promotional channel. We could even say that achieving a meaningful level of Word of Mouth communications is the holy grail of marketing. So how do we as marketers get more of it?

This is an excerpt from HubSpot’s ebook “An Introduction to A/B Testing.” To learn more about split testing, download your free copy.

By Maggie Georgieva

By Jerry Rackley

Whatever the sophisticated definitions are, marketing is a form of communication. We should spend time figuring out how to integrate our marketing campaigns, segment our markets, position our products and all the other specialized things we do. Sometimes, however, we just need to pay attention to how we write. Regardless of where our messages end up, most of them start in written form. Writing, therefore, is an essential marketing skill.

It is rarely easy for a company to create an advertising plan and budget. One must  factor in a number of items, for example how much the company will be able to spend on advertisements, as well as what channels or publications the advertisements should be featured in. One must be sure that the marketing of the product is sent to the right people so that it can cost-effectively increase sales.

Every company needs a good business strategy. Without a business strategy, your company will have no clear focus on how to go about assessing its business assets as well as its employees. Most companies rely on business metrics examples to help them with this.

With any product or service a company provides, it is important to know how the business is viewed in the marketplace. This is particularly true if a company has at least one large competitor.

If your company decides to move forward with implementing a CRM program, the work is just beginning. At this point, you have to figure out which CRM vendor to more forward with.

In the current environment, there are a number of vendors who specialize in a particular field, so it can be difficult to narrow your choices down to one. Companies can use a CRM vendor assessment matrix to help simplify the process of vendor selection.

By Jerry Rackley

I once had a boss who taught me the meaning of the phrase, “when someone asks you what time it is, don’t provide instructions for building a watch.” I confess to being rather impatient. For most communications, I don’t want the War and Peace version of something when the Cliff’s Notes version is available. What this impatience really represents is a style of communication that marketers should care deeply about: brevity.