Armed with a clear and compelling vision, you can lead your organization to achieve that result as part of a strategic communications plan. Author Kim Marcille explains three ways a strategic vision can help your organization:

Social media evangelists are in love with Twitter, Facebook, and their ilk because these networks enable continuous “naked” conversations. Robert Scoble, I believe, has stated that his goal is to have at least one naked conversation a day.

To help ensure your email marketing messages get across, avoid these four mistakes:

Author Mark Magnacca suggests ways that individuals and businesses can capitalize on an understanding of the “So What Mindset” to succeed in even the toughest economic times:

Now, if you are a new copywriter … or new to financial subscription promotion … you might think this is a good headline. But to anyone with experience, it’s fairly lame.

We present a case study on how one growing business improved its fulfillment process through a customized online service.

Consumers spend 80% of their income within 20 miles of home. That means your marketing should cover at least a 20-mile radius.

With a little innovation, postcards can break through the clutter and deliver direct mail advertising messages to your audience instantaneously. Here are eight powerful ways to use postcards:

One possible future for magazines is to make them more like the Web — in particular, like social media and other Web 2.0 sites.

When it comes to meetings, an important part of a company’s internal strategic communications plan, the question of productivity is often a huge issue. Here are five common meeting pitfalls and how you can fix them:

Alumni programs have become crucial for customer relationship building, strengthening brands, and recruiting the best and brightest. Consider these tips for building your own alumni program as part of a relationship marketing plan:

A radio spot for Web site developer American Eagle tells how the company created a successful Web site for a “business entrepreneur.” Business entrepeneur? As opposed to all those entrepreneurs who have nothing to do with business?

More than two-thirds of the world’s online population visits social networking and blogging sites. Reaching this captive audience can lead to greater credibility, more exposure, and higher sales. If you’re considering SMM, be sure to avoid these five mistakes:

August Turak explains how Trappist monks are guided by a management philosophy that has six basic tenets, applicable to companies large and small:

Greening your business is not only one of the latest marketing trends, but it’s also a smart move, especially during an economic downturn. Here are three tips to lessen your carbon footprint and save your business some money:

Critics often accuse direct marketing copywriters of hype and puffery, but I think the real B.S. artists in marketing today are wine and beer writers.

Here are some ways to get closer as part of your customer relationship building efforts:

Show you are responsive to consumers by venturing into social media with a plan. Example: When McDonald’s launched its first blog, customers bombarded the company with complaints about toy Hummers in its Happy Meals. Unprepared, the company was slow to respond. Lesson: Social media is a powerful relationship-building tool, but only if you’re ready to listen and act on customers’ comments ...

We're looking to create an incentive plan for all rank-and-file employees who bring in leads that help us land new business. (That's already part of our sales force's job, so they would be excluded.) What kind of incentives work best? I'm assuming cash is popular—so how much? How should we track our incentive program?—Bill M., Las Vegas

“Ugly works” in direct mail design, writes my colleague Denny Hatch in his latest column in Target Marketing (7/08, p. 50). His premise: direct mail should be intentionally designed to look ugly and junky, because it will increase response.

Studies show that most growing businesses plan to maintain or increase spending on marketing and business development in the months ahead as the economy recovers. Here are five small business development tips to help you become more competitive in 2010:

Offering genuinely valuable information is one of the best ways to strengthen bonds with existing customers and reach out to new ones. Here are five strategic ways to do it:

Blogs are spreading faster than kudzu in the business world, and for a reason: They help build relationships with customers, something every business and boss want to see. Here’s how to write blog posts for your company, without spending too much time, according to Stephanie Lloyd, founder and CEO of Radiant Veracity.

If it’s important to be user-friendly, and if the highest form of user-friendliness is user-centric, then why aren’t you doing it? That’s the challenge posed by Dev Patnaik and Robert Becker, co-founders of Jump Associates. They do “need-finding,” which is part of their user-based business design. Three reasons to uncover your customers’ needs:

If you don’t know how to harness the power of social networking, you can be left out in the cold, says Steve Fretzin, founder and president of Sales Results Inc. He offers these tips: