Is your customer service focused on your marketing efforts or improving the customer experience? Is every interaction with your customer base an opportunity to sell more product?

 Have you ever walked away from a customer service situation and felt scammed?

In a recent Problogger post, Darren Rowse addressed a common problem. Titled What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back?, he goes on to list all the reasons why he hasn’t tackled an eBook he planned to write. One thing he worries about resonated with me precisely because it’s a pet peeve of mine

Read the entire post: Is your customer service a thinly veiled sales job? at Global Copywriting.

Follow Sarah Mitchell on Twitter: @globalcopywrite

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As B2B web marketing comes of age, a battle is brewing between some pretty big players (and a few upstarts) over who will become the primary dashboard for marketers. The three combatants:

CRM – the first app to automate some of what marketers do (and a lot more of what salespeople do).

Content Management Systems – the coal face of web marketing and, increasingly, the platform for all kinds of digital campaigns.

Marketing Automation tools – email, lead nurturing, analytics, campaign management, digital asset management… each with its own dashboard and workflow.

As B2B marketers get more sophisticated, the tools they use are starting to merge. CRM is adding rudimentary marketing automation. CMSs are adding campaign and automation. And the automation apps are filling out into proper ’suites’.

Who will win? More at:

http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/2010/02/08/b2b-web-marketing-the-platform-battle/#?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=posterous&utm_campaign=socialmedia

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Radian6 has released an in-depth ebook covering how to build and maintain a brand community.

Building & Sustaining Brand Communities

Also, check out Radian6's  -12 Step Program to Place Community First

12 Step Program to Place Community First

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How do you keep your website looking fresh and ranking with the search engines when you don’t have time for anything?

Like many small business owners, I have to prioritise my tasks with customer demands always ranking first. School holidays changes the mix a bit with family battling for the first spot. Nearly everything else languishes - including my website. Consequently, my search engine rankings take a hit because I don’t get a chance to update my site as often as usual.

Tricks of the Trade
I do have a little trick to keep Google and the rest of the pack happy. I have a “News” section on my home page. It holds three articles with the most current sitting at the top. It takes less than five minutes to add a news item. By keeping this one small area of my website up-to-date, I achieve several things:

• Even when I’m busy or away, my website looks fresh
• The home page is being updated 3-4 times a month which keeps the search engines interested
• It’s a great way to promote events and business successes without spending a lot of time tooting your own horn
• The content is being refreshed with very minimal time expenditure

The Take-Away
Consider putting a news feature on your home page. Your SEO will improve and it’s a great way to communicate with your users.

How do you keep your search engine rankings during busy periods?

Follow Sarah Mitchell at Twitter: @globalcopywrite

Visit the Global Copywriting Blog for more thoughts on Content Marketing

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Joe Pullizi @junta42 has released  3rd Annual 2010 Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Survey.

Content Marketing Spending Takeaways:

• 6 of 10 marketers are increasing content marketing spending in 2010. Only 7% are decreasing spending.
• According to the 259 survey respondents, average content marketing budgets are 33% of the total marketing budget (up from 29% in 2008)
• Small companies spend more than 2x the amount on content marketing as to larger companies.
• Of all content areas, marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions more than any other area (as a % growth from 2009).
• Content marketing spending overall increased 11% from 2008 to 2010.

Read more at: Special Report - Content Marketing Spending Continues to Rise

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Joe Pullizi @junta42 has released  3rd Annual 2010 Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Survey.

Content Marketing Spending Takeaways:

• 6 of 10 marketers are increasing content marketing spending in 2010. Only 7% are decreasing spending.
• According to the 259 survey respondents, average content marketing budgets are 33% of the total marketing budget (up from 29% in 2008)
• Small companies spend more than 2x the amount on content marketing as to larger companies.
• Of all content areas, marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions more than any other area (as a % growth from 2009).
• Content marketing spending overall increased 11% from 2008 to 2010.

Read more at: Special Report - Content Marketing Spending Continues to Rise

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First wave of Reflections on ClickPredictions eBook:

• Ben Yoskovitz's Free E-Book “ClickPredictions” on Content Marketing Trends
• Joe Pulizzi's The Dawn of Content Strategy and 38 2010 Predictions
• Newt Barrett's Learn What’s Ahead for Content Marketing in 2010 from 39 experts
• Tom Pick's Content Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2010
• Patsi Krakoff's 39 Experts Foresee Content Marketing Trends for 2010: ClickPredictions
• Rick Liebling's ClickPredictions eBook now available
• Dave Fleet's eBook on 2010 Content Marketing Trends and Predictions
• Sarah Mitchell's Coming Soon: ClickPredictions eBook
• Rajesh Setty's Top 10+1 Content Marketing Tips for 2010; Free eBook Download
• Tom Scearce's ClickPredictions 2010 eBook released!
• Ardath Albee's Key Content Marketing Trends & Predictions 2010
• Nanda Kishore's ShareThis featured in marketing eBook

Click for free download now and you can get 2010 started on the right foot with a bit of inspiration and no-nonsense marketing straight-talk.

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Content marketing is changing like never before at a faster pace than we’ve seen in the last 100 years. Companies that learn the new marketing lessons, and implement them well, will be big winners going forward. Those that play by yesterday’s rules will lose.

So what are these new rules? What is the future of content marketing?

To answer these pressing questions, we dusted off our trusty crystal ball and passed it along to 39 of the world's top B2B marketers, e-mail marketers and social media gurus, and asked them one straightforward question, “What are key marketing trends and predictions for 2010?”

The answers are fantastic. You’re going to get a first-hand look into the future of content marketing from the people that live and breathe it every single day. And as an extra bonus, ClickPredictions eBook is also packed with over 100 recommended resources from these experts.

Click for free download now and you can get 2010 started on the right foot with a bit of inspiration and no-nonsense marketing straight-talk.

ClickPredictions 2010View more documents from Ambal Balakrishnan

Acknowledgements
Here are the "behind the scene" heros behind ClickPredictions eBook:

• Thanks to all the contributors for giving their time, talent and content!
• Our special thanks to Marketo (Jon Miller & Maria Pergolino) for all their support. Thanks to Ardath Albee for initiating sponsorship talks with Marketo
• Thanks to Rajesh Setty and Justin Evans who conceived ClickPredictions eBook and worked tirelessly for the last two months to launch it
• Thanks to all the stalwart in StressLimitDesign Team (Justin Evans, Francis Raymond, Emily Vezer, Ben Yoskovitch, Wes Hatch, Colin Vernon, Eric Craven, Peter Ryan) who toiled away day and night(literally!) to build ClickPredictions eBook
• Thank you to Peter Thomas Ryan for the engaging cover page illustration
• Thank you to my buddies Mike Damphousse & Kumar Venkatramani for inviting Craig Rosenberg, Nanda Kishore and Sunil Malhotra to contribute to ClickPredictions eBook

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