Mastering Email Marketing: A Playbook for the Program
An operational playbook for running an email marketing program in 2009: the calendar, the segmentation, the testing process and the review cycle.
The Archive
2009
The Rise of Inbound Marketing: Why Outbound Stopped Working
How a term coined by a two-person Boston startup in 2006 became a marketing philosophy with its own book this year, as spam filters made outbound harder.
Content Marketing Trends Shaping 2009
How a deepening recession pushed more businesses toward content marketing in 2009, and why the term is still catching up to the practice.
Mastering Mobile Marketing: A Marketer's Playbook
An operational playbook for running SMS and mobile campaigns in 2009, from list building through compliance to measurement.
Real-Time Search: What Every Business Needs to Know
A decision framework for whether a business needs an active, real-time presence, on Twitter especially, now that search results surface live content.
How Bing and Real-Time Search Reshaped SEO in 2009
2009 turned SEO from a Google-only conversation into a real competitive market, with Bing's launch, real-time search and a rebuilt index all in one year.
Mastering Retargeting: A Marketer's Playbook
A working playbook for retargeting in 2009, when it ran through third-party ad networks and cookie pools rather than a built-in Google or Facebook feature.
Why Social Media Marketing Pays Off: Dell and JetBlue
The 2009 ROI case for social media: what Dell, JetBlue and other early movers got back in sales and support savings, and what it cost them to find out.
The State of Facebook Marketing in 2009
Facebook closed the year past 350 million users with Pages, self-serve ads and expanded Insights analytics in place. Here's what that means for businesses.
A Practical Guide to Twitter (X) Marketing
How Twitter works in 2009: the mechanics of tweets, replies, retweets and hashtags, and what businesses can do with them before any ad product exists.
Common Location-Based Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
The specific missteps businesses made testing check-in marketing after Foursquare's March 2009 launch, and how to sidestep each one.
The State of Social Media Advertising in 2009
By 2009 Facebook had passed 300 million users and opened self-serve ads to any business, while Twitter's audience kept growing with no ad product of its own.
Building a Conversion Optimization Strategy From Scratch
How to build a conversion optimization program in 2009, when squeezing more from existing traffic matters more than winning new visitors.
The State of Online Reputation Management in 2009
A 2009 snapshot of online reputation management, from viral backlash reshaping how brands handled complaints to the first monitoring tools businesses used.
10 Email Marketing Strategies for a Recession Year
Ten email marketing tactics that fit where the channel stands in 2009, from recession-driven list decay to the first social sharing buttons in campaigns.
Inbound Marketing From Scratch: An 8-Step 2009 Guide
A step-by-step process for setting up inbound marketing with no blog, no lead capture and no idea where to start: personas, content gaps, measurement.
Mastering Content Marketing on a Post-Crash Budget
An operational playbook for running content marketing in 2009, when it meant a blog, a newsletter and a gated whitepaper rather than a dedicated department.
12 Mobile Marketing Strategies That Work
Twelve concrete mobile marketing tactics from the SMS and WAP era of 2009, and the reasons each one either paid off or wasted budget.
A Practical Guide to Real-Time Search
The technical difference between traditional crawl-based search and the real-time search results emerging in 2009, and why Twitter is at the center of it.
Building an SEO Strategy From Scratch on a Recession Budget
A step-by-step build order for a 2009 SEO strategy on a recession budget, from keyword research through link earning to tracking what converts.
A Practical Guide to Retargeting
With budgets squeezed by the recession, marketers are turning to specialist vendors that follow visitors around the web and bring them back. Here's how.
Social Media Marketing: What Every Business Needs to Know
A decision framework for business owners weighing whether to invest time in Facebook and Twitter in 2009, and how to tell if your business is a fit.
Why Facebook's Self-Serve Ad Targeting Mattered in 2009
Facebook passed 300 million users in 2009 and opened Facebook Ads to any business with a credit card. Here's what that shift means for revenue, not just reach.
How Twitter Marketing Changed Digital Marketing in 2009
A look back at 2009, the year Twitter went from niche microblogging tool to a marketing and customer service channel that companies could no longer ignore.
Case Study: Winning With Location-Based Marketing
An illustrative 2009 scenario of a local retailer testing check-in marketing right as Foursquare launched, and what drove foot traffic.