Marketing Sherpa yesterday published a podcasting 101 guide , which began: "Podcasting is about to celebrate its second birthday and we don't know of a marketer out there who isn't at least mulling over the possibilities. Here's our handy guide, including: Surprising data on listener demographics; 3 Mistakes to avoid; 5 Rules for podcast content; 4 Tips to create commercials that get results." I daresn't say any more or I'll get a nasty note from Anne Holland . Access to the Sherpa article is free through Friday September 1, but will cost you a few bucks after that. I'm not a podcasting expert, nor do I play one on TV, but I do know one (a podcasting expert, not a TV): Albert Maruggi at Provident Partners . Shortly after the Sherpa piece came out, Albert supplemented it with podcasting 102 . If you found Marketing Sherpa's podcasting guide of interest, check out the sequel from Albert. As far as I know, his podcast on podcasting will remain free. *...

Check out this newsletter from marketing agency ingage (yes, with a small "i"). The articles cover marketing in the information age, marketing accountability, and leveraging offline marketing efforts to drive targeted online traffic. Interesting enough, but what sets this publication apart from every other marketing newsletter is that ingage has used its own interactive publishing tool to produce it. This tool produces interactive documents that look and act like printed publications, with page-flipping and multiple methods of navigation. While there are other tools on the market that do this, ingage has the only one that, when used to publish on a CD, lets you track response and interest, and update content on the fly. The ingage tool is great for direct marketing (providing measurable ROI) and publications, and really shines for interactive catalog production. Compared to print, the ingage toolset provides greater capabilities (such as inclusion of video, audio, animat...

Ardath Albee of Einsof has released a new e-book titled " Why Naked CRM Systems Don't Work ." She notes a number of CRM-related frustrations that will be familiar to marketers and sales reps, such as: - Marketing doesn't think sales reps are adequately following up on the leads they've produced; sales doesn't think the leads are qualified. - Marketing develops collateral materials to help sales; sales reps feel they don't have the right materials. - Sales people quickly drop leads that aren't hot; marketing loses track of these leads and can't adequately nurture them. - CRM systems don't live up to their promise; sales reps don't keep information up to date because there's no benefit for them. Einsof's solution is to properly "dress" your CRM system with an interactive sales portal. Both sales and marketing benefit from an interactive feedback loop that shows what works, and what doesn't, in the real world. Is this a...

The experts in professional services marketing at RainToday.com recently released a *free* report entitled " The One Piece of Advice You Can't Sell Without ." But given that the report was written by 11 experts in Web marketing and sales, each of whom (natch) has distinct opinions on the topic, it should have been titled "The 11 Pieces of Advice You Can't Sell (or Market) Without." Regardless, this report is well worth the read. Among the 11 authors are Seth Godin (his blog beat this one for the top spot Readers Choice Award from Marketing Sherpa; but, considering that he's written -- how many now? 6? 8? Best-selling marketing books, while I'm, well, just me , I was dang honored to come in with an honorable mention to Seth), Jill Konrath (author of Selling to Big Companies , and an all-around cool person), and the often-imitated-but-never-duplicated Mike Schultz . With 11 different authors, there are, as one would expect, 11 different opinions abo...

With even the most carefully-worded search terms result in thousands of hits, PPC costs are rising, and new laws and spam filters have reduced the impact of email marketing, catalogs remain a powerful marketing tool. Catalogs have am impact and immediacy that can't be matched by email or Web sites; they arrive in the mailbox with bills and letters that the recipient has to look at, and they sit on the desk or kitchen counter, just waiting to be opened and perused. Catalogs are particularly powerful for online-only retailers. Yet it's amazing how few retailers and distributors still take advantage of this powerful tool. Based on some recent client research, I estimate that less than 20% of retailers overall still produce catalogs, and that figure is below 10% for high-tech retailers and distributors. By relying on increasingly difficult and crowded opt-in email and search engine marketing, these retailers are missing a lot of potential business. Paper catalogs have their drawbac...

If you deliver Webinars, hold meetings with remote sales or other personnel, or lead marketing or sales presentations for clients and prospects, you know the value and utility of Web conferencing services . Features and reliability have increased greatly over the last few years. Internet presentations save enormous time and money in travel. As the popularity of Web conferencing services has increased, so has the number of options in the market. There are estimated to be more than a hundred vendors in the space now, though only a handful of leading contenders. Which service is the best? The answer, as it so often is in these situations, is "it depends." Web conferencing services vary considerably in price, functionality, and ease of use. The best solution for 2-3 participant remote sales presentations is different from the best solution for 6-10 participant marketing or training presentations, which is in turn different from the best solution for 50+ participant webinars. Here...