One of the reasons in-text has such strong appeal among users is because it's seen more as information than marketing. Here's why.

There has been a fair amount of interest surrounding in-text advertising as of late, and Vibrant Media has taken the pole position in the space.

In-text advertising -- for those of you who aren't familiar with it -- is essentially advertising that is embedded within the text of a page of online content. This is beyond simple editorial adjacency for display advertising. It is actually having an ad unit married to a word or phrase on a page, within editorial. The way it works is this: I'm an advertiser of, say, soap. I approach an in-text advertising provider and tell them I want to own the words "soap," "shower," and "clean."

The executed buy will be these words in articles or within content on sites the in-text advertising provider has relationships with all across the web, underlined and highlighted. Every time a visitor to a page -- with these highlighted words or phrases -- mouses over the highlighted text, my soap advertisement will show, popping up in a sort of "talk bubble," like those seen in pop-up video or a comic book.

Some providers of this sort of advertising, like ContentLink, do text advertisements. Others, like Vibrant, will actually run video.

Vibrant Media is the largest provider of this kind of advertising, with more than Read the complete article on online...

Answer: When a marketing program does not work, always go back to the basics of marketing 101: right target, right message, right timing, right channel.
Despite advances in scenario-based Web design created to track customer online behavior and build profiles, or personas, for targeted marketing campaigns, your customers are still bombarded with tons of irrelevant messages—often the result of batch-and-blast campaigns sent by stove-piped e-mail applications and outsourced e-mail service providers—each day.

If you aren’t getting responses, it is quite likely that your customers view your correspondence as spam, rather than relevant or valuable information, regardless of whether or not they have opted to receive your e-mails. Relevance is key in e-mail. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Proving ROI, using new technologies and leveraging partner marketing were key topics at Red Herring's CMO 2008 conference in San Diego last week.

The conference drew more than 300 senior marketing executives, mostly from b-to-b companies, who shared strategies for competing in today's challenging business environment.

One of the hot topics was partner marketing, with presentations by several executives whose companies use channel marketing models.

Stephen DiFranco, corporate VP-corporate and channels marketing at chip maker AMD, discussed how the company has leveraged its partner channel to confront rival Intel Corp. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Answer: I am always amazed at the still-prevailing idea that list size trumps list quality. Don’t get me wrong: Volume is good. Every record in your e-mail address list has an inherent value that can be reduced to a dollar amount. This leads us to the idea that your database should be viewed as capital and should be treated just like any other useful marketing asset. So why, then, do so many marketers mix bad data into their lists?

A bad e-mail address can have a dramatic impact on your ability to market with e-mail. Bad e-mails come in the form of addresses from third parties (list renters, etc.), complainers who have not been removed from your list and dormant addresses—e-mail addresses of people who have not opened your e-mail in more than 90 days. ISPs view all with equal disdain. While it is not illegal to send to these “bad” e-mail addresses, doing so is a sure way to increase complaints and damage your sender reputation. It’s also a good way to waste money.

So how do you build your list and maintain quality data? Consider these tips: Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Question: What is the best way to optimize search marketing for international markets?

Answer: As the evolution of the Internet continues, b-to-b marketers are reaching a crossroads in determining what tactics have worked in the past to attract traffic to their sites versus what approaches will work in the future. According to Internet World Stats, two-thirds of global Internet users are non-English speakers. This growing volume of search activity means that marketing opportunities will continue to evolve on both regional and global levels.

So how can b-to-b marketers capitalize on this trend? Is the answer as simple as translating all Web pages to the targeted country's language?

Translation is one component of optimizing for international markets, but it's in no way the end-all answer. A word-for-word translation of a Web site is ambiguous. Instead, Web sites should be translated according to concepts. A simple translation does not take into account cultures, customs and preferences specific to various countries. Additionally, a simple translation loses targeted keywords. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

When designing your holiday greetings, a well-planned e-card can effectively enhance your public image and may even result in added business in the new year.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when developing your holiday e-card.

1. Tie in your product or service with a holiday theme.
2. Take advantage of what the e-card format has to offer.
3. Make your message viral.

Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Small and midsize businesses are increasing their use of Web 2.0 tools as information sources, providing greater opportunities to marketers that are trying to reach this audience, according to a new study from market research company Bredin Business Information.

The study was based on an online survey in August of 338 business executives at companies with fewer than 500 employees. It examined which online tools SMBs use, how they use them to receive business information and the implications for marketers using Web 2.0 tools to reach SMBs. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Answer: Most businesses—anywhere from 50% to 80%—use Outlook as their e-mail client. What’s more, a recent survey suggests that nearly 40% of these companies will migrate to Office 2007. If the majority of your marketing e-mail list is business domains, you may need to rethink the design of those marketing e-mails. Otherwise, your potential customers may quite literally not get your message. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Second Life has been called virtual reality and said to work like a 3D social network, heralding the emergence of the 3D Web. But all these terms fall short of accurately describing this unique environment. And the baggage they bring with them menaces literal-minded marketers looking to exploit Second Life's huge potential for reaching and engaging with qualified customers.

Baptie Online has invited John Jainschigg, Executive Director of CMP Metaverse, the virtual worlds consulting and custom events business of CMP Technology, and Fiona Gallagher of Sun Microsystems to share their insights, experiences and the interactive opportunities to reach target audiences.

This webcast is hosted exclusively on Baptie.com, the leading community of sales and marketing executives in the technology industry. To view this webcast archive, you must be a member of the Baptie community. If you are not yet a member but qualify, you should register on the baptie.com site.

For more information about CMP's Metaverse services, email John Jainshigg, Executive Director, CMP Metaverse.

The attached document contains the questions, and their answers, that were posed to John Jainschigg from CMP and Kathy Mandelstein from IBM during the September 26 Webcast "How BtoB Marketers Can Achieve ROI in the Virtual World of Second Life." Download the complete Question and Answer document. Contact John Jainschigg, Executive Director, CMP Metaverse for more information about creating a virtual presence for your company.

Here is a summary of the questions contained in the document:

* Does SecondLife provide aggregated audience/user data or demo cuts
somewhere on the site? If so where?

* Would recommendations/best practices be applied to Playstation
'Home' coming up in April?

* How many attendees can attend an event on Second Life at one time?

Event marketers are increasingly turning to the virtual world for staging large- and small-scale events. A recent white paper released by FactPoint Group, a market research firm, studied events created by Unisfair, a virtual event provider, and found that moving events to the virtual world can reduce spending and boost attendance, lead generation and attendee interest.

The study examined more than 200 Unisfair virtual events that totaled nearly 3,000 sponsors and 500,000 attendees. The results found that the average virtual event has a registration of 3,102 people with an attendance of 1,587. Leads generated for each sponsor totaled 348 per event, and attendees spent an average of two-and-a-half hours at each event while visiting an average 16 locations and completing at least five downloads.

Aside from convenience, event marketers have found that the reason virtual events have proven so successful is because they can mimic nearly every aspect of live events. "We do events on a real-world scale," said John Jainschigg, executive director of CMP Metaverse at CMP Media, a media and marketing solutions company that holds its virtual events inside Second Life. "[Our events are] six days long, [with] 50 presenters, a weekend of tutorials, a full convention center show floor, social events, networking events—it's a comprehensive thing." Read the complete article on BtoBOnline. Contact John Jainschigg, Executive Director, CMP Metaverse for more information about creating a virtual event for your company.

it with the slowing economy and pressure to cut costs, technology companies are decreasing their rate of marketing spending this year, according to IDC's annual tech marketing benchmark study.

According to the report, which was based on an online survey and telephone interviews with 99 senior IT marketing executives, tech marketing spending will be up 6.1% this year over last, a drop from the growth rate projected by IDC in March of 8.0%.

Last year, tech marketing spending grew by 7.5% over 2005.

Also, for the first time since 2004, tech marketing spending will lag global IT spending, which is projected to increase 6.7% this year. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

he importance of a highly responsive mailing list in determining the success of a direct mail campaign cannot be overestimated. Before choosing a list for your campaign, it is important to understand industry basics as well as the distinct roles of list managers and brokers.

List managers represent the actual owner of a mailing list that you might consider renting. List brokers are consultants who can help you find lists of mail responders (people who have responded to some type of mailing and have asked to receive information) who match your target profile. List selects cost more, but they enable you to target demographic, geographic and psychographic information to create a mailing list that will garner an even higher response rate.

Remember that lists are rented—normally for one-time use only. Each time you wish to send out a mailing, you must rent those names anew. Discounts for multiple uses are standard industry practice.

As e-mail marketing has taken hold in recent years, list selection has become even more critical. Permission-based e-mail marketing—communications sent only to those who have specifically requested to receive marketing messages for products and services like yours—is critical, as even one misstep can result in e-mail distributors blacklisting you for future efforts.

Sending an offer to a list that has not specifically opted to receive e-mail about your product or service, or using a list gleaned from membership directories, for example, could have negative consequences.

List selection is an ongoing process in an ever-changing market. But by testing... Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

What's the role of Second Life for business? What steps can marketers take to explore these new online communities, invest wisely and achieve outstanding results?

Join John Jainschigg, Director of CMP Metaverse, and Kathy Mandelstein, Director of Worldwide Developer Programs for IBM, for best practices on securing strong ROI from metaverse investments. CMP is the only global multimedia company registered as a metaverse developer, and IBM is one of the largest and most successful users of Second Life, and a strong proponent of 3D virtual reality as a strategic tool for collaboration, customer engagement and marketing. Moderated by Kate Maddox, Senior Reporter, BtoB Magazine and Media Business. View the webcast archive....

To receive the complete list of questions asked on this webcast, and the answers, email John Jainshigg, Executive Director, CMP Metaverse.

Each year, BtoB selects 10 b-to-b Web sites that do an exceptionally good job of communicating with their audiences. These sites find innovative and compelling ways to share product and services information and, just as important, they make that information easy to find. Though they use different means, the end is the same: meeting the user's needs. As simple as it sounds, it's an approach that's too rare in the world of business marketing. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

The IT vertical encompasses multiple subcategories—networking, security, storage, application development and wireless, to name a few—but companies successfully marketing to the professionals in this space have found there are some strategies and tactics that have universal appeal. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

As VP-strategic marketing and business development of CMP's Channel business, Kate Spellman knows how to reach IT decision-makers. Prior to her current role at CMP, she was the publisher of the company's SmallBizResource .com; she has also served as senior VP- corporate marketing. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Global IT and telecommunication spending is projected to reach $3.3 trillion annually by 2010, growing at a compound annual rate of 4.5% from the $2.7 trillion spent in 2005, according to Gartner Research. IT purchases in the U.S. are expected to grow to $1.0 trillion by 2010—including $871... Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Identify your b-to-b audience and understand the messages that will connect with them, recommends the search engine land blog. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

There's a motto every software and tech vendor should follow, according to Ilan Paretsky, VP-marketing at Ericom Software: "Know thy IT crowd; they're tough, but always fair." Paretsky and his company do, indeed, know their audience well. Ericom has served more than 30,000 customers and... Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Webcasting provides a unique way to communicate more effectively with widespread software architects, developers, and managers, system administrators, IT professionals, prospects and partners. Webinars incorporate live streaming video, audio and interactive chat technologies to create informative and stimulating presentations at a fraction of the cost associated with in-person meetings and presentations. Beyond cost and time savings, the true value of the Webinar is when the viewer gains valuable insight that contributes to the success of their business or career.

For technology marketers, Webinars have grown into a proven lead-generation vehicle. You can cost-effectively broadcast in-depth messages and interact with a targeted, highly qualified audience in real time. The data gathered through registration, polling, and feedback surveys can build a powerful audience profile. Marketers can use this intelligence to measure the effectiveness of the campaign and build relationships with customers, partners and prospects. Download this document?