It’s no surprise that the increasingly social web have enabled customers to be heard while helping to improve the very products and services they’ve purchased. As millions of people continue to search online for the product they need and the service they want, do you know how the recession has impacted your customer’s value perception?  How are you going to improve the customer experience to optimize your products and services?

Your customer may have already shifted their spending in favor of private label brands over name brands or reduce the quantity or frequency of buying altogether.  Perhaps the freemium business model has become the new standard to get your customer to try your product. Whichever way you look at it, consumer’s perceptions of an interaction are influenced heavily from their purchasing experience, by how they research to who they trust.

To understand and improve customer experience, companies should first research their customer’s natural behaviors, and then seek opportunities to influence those behaviors through targeted strategies and niche offers.

According to a recent Nielsen analysis revealed generationally shopping habits that reflect...

Wouldn’t it make sense that if you spent more money on email marketing than pay-per-click marketing, you’d have a reasonable explanation for that choice?

Well, according to the data discovered in Econsultancy’s 2010 Email Marketing Census, companies are spending more on email marketing (17% of online budgets) than PPC (16%) despite not fully understanding the return on investment (ROI) achieved or taking advantage of one of the most important benefits of email marketing: segmentation.

When you run PPC campaign, you attempt to segment your target audience by using different ad creative and targeted landing pages. You wouldn’t bring a “window shopper” to a landing page that displayed only one product, would you? So it’s a shock that many companies are still not using segmentation to target their email campaigns and deliver messages, or offers, that are tailored to their customers’ known interests and...

Yesterday I added my two cents on sensationalism across so many aspects of our lives. 

Today - I want to share my perspectives on the signs of a great leader. Not the sensationalism oriented gurus that seem to be popular today. Those approaches may not be the best to follow. As Dale Carnegie said, "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain -- and most fools do."

So how do we know when we're following a true leader? Well, that's something we all have to decide for ourselves. But I have some ideas about what it takes to excel- as an expert and a leader. So here's my list.

1. Positive, no Matter What.  Leaders don't jump on the easy bandwagon of negativity. A true leader is determined to find the positive no matter how ugly things appear. They hold fast to their positive vision - tirelessly seeking the best outcome for all. Anyone can throw in the towel and succumb to  negative, woe-is-me, finger-pointing thinking. Leaders rise above the negative path - finding positive aspects in any situation to help their followers find a better way to live and grow.

2. Problem Solving. When there are issues, leaders focus on solving them...

We’ve been taught that if we just persevere and persist, we will ultimately win.

Like the man who is told there is a million dollars behind a thick brick wall, and he is given a small chisel to get to it. His hands bleed and he persists day and night, breaking a way through the wall.

He seldom sleeps, never quits, works as hard as he can, denies himself rest and entertainment. He persists until finally, after months of backbreaking work, he gets through the wall, only to find that he was lied to – there is no money there.

Persistence Works When

Before you start on a mammoth task, make sure there is money behind the wall. Do your due diligence.

But when you are convinced that you’re on the right track, that your goal is legitimate, and that it’s up to you to achieve it, persistence is the way to get there.

It’s not about intelligence or who you know or some silly college degree – the hallmark of champions is persistence. The only time it doesn’t work is when the goal is wrong or you quit.

Persistence separates the men from the boys...

As I speak to conference audiences across the country about social media, one of the questions I always get asked is... how do I know which social media sites to use?

Of course... there is no single, magic or easy answer to that question.  It all depends on your goals, your overall marketing strategy, your resources and your industry.  It's not a cookie cutter sort of thing.

However...there's nothing wrong with a little cheat sheet to help you determine which sites are best for:

• Customer communication
• Brand exposure
• Driving traffic to your site
• SEO

Which is why the cheat sheet created by CMO.com is so handy.  It ranks the most popular/used social media sites (from the biggies like Facebook and Digg to the less talked about Reddit and del.icio.us) as good, okay or bad for the...