Superb internet marketing community & FREE industry reports (no catch!)

I wanted to draw you attention to a FREE resource for those of you who want to benefit from a community of the world’s digital marketing and ecommerce professionals. Econsultancy exists to help its members “sharpen their strategy, source suppliers, get quick answers, compare notes, help each other out and discover how to do everything better online.” I have to say that it is a great source of independent advice and insight on digital marketing and ecommerce.

imho there’s no shortage of marketing opinion online, but being ten years and with 71,000 marketers Econsultancy is pretty special.  Bronze membership is FREE and there is more info here.

These are complimentary reports you get for free upon joining (there’s another 20+ too!).  Great, er, value!

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Online PR Industry Benchmarking Report

By Michelle Goodall and Aliya Zaidi, December 2008

Overview Authors: Michelle Goodall and Aliya Zaidi Pages: 35 Features: Survey-based research about the Online PR Industry, with expert input from respected industry commentators.

Digital Outsourcing Survey Report

By Econsultancy, December 2008

This report, produced in association with Lemon Digital Production, is aimed at agencies who are interested in the business case and challenges associated with outsourcing digital work.

SEO Supplier Showcase November 2008

November 2008

Online Customer Engagement Report 2009

By Econsultancy, November 2008

The third annual Online Customer Engagement Report has been produced in partnership with cScape. This research is based on a survey of 1,300 respondents carried out in September and October 2008.

Email Marketing Briefing – November 2008

By Econsultancy, November 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Email Marketing held in autumn 2008.

Comparison Shopping Engines Survey Report 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This DoubleClick-sponsored research is based on a survey of retailers and agencies carried out in August and September 2008, with the aim of understanding more about the use of comparison shopping.

Paid Search Marketing Supplier Showcase October 2008

October 2008

Paid Search Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Paid Search.

Affiliate Marketing Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, October 2008

This free, 11-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Affiliate Marketing.

Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation Briefing – October 2008

By Econsultancy, September 2008

This free, 12-page briefing contains a write-up of an E-consultancy roundtable on Measurement, Analytics and Optimisation.

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The Services Econsultancy Provide:

Reports: Econsultancy is an award-winning online publisher of reports covering best practice, user experience benchmarking, market data, supplier selection, template files, trends and innovation aimed at internet professionals who want practical advice on all aspects of e-business.

Training, Learning & Development: Econsultancy operates a highly popular training division, used by the world’s leading brands for staff education, both in-house and via public courses. We provide training across all areas of digital marketing and ecommerce and at all levels from accredited one day courses to formal qualifications including diplomas and a Masters in Digital Marketing.

Events: Econsultancy hosts over 100 events a year, including conferences such as the Online Marketing Masterclasses, Future of Digital Marketing and Digital Cream as well as regular Supplier Showcases, Roundtables, the annual Innovation Awards and a range of social events.

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Free memberships of marketing clubs, and online resources are ten a penny.  You just have to surf, or browse LinkedIn groups to see that.  But Econsultancy is very different.  I’d highly recommend you join if you are an internet professional who wants practical advice on all aspects of e-business.

Your call may be recorded

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times.

“You’re call may be recorded and used for training purposes.”

I no longer believe it when I hear it.  And if I don’t believe it, I’d expect many others don’t either.

By all means record calls, make improvements: call centre representatives are a very important bridge to a brand.  But keeping these types of disclaimers on ALL of the time is not the right thing to do.  Far from it.  It’s a lazy and fake way of pretending that you care about customers – and it has a negative effect now.

Could a company be more insincere? If a company wants to try they might want to throw up a library shot of beautiful call centre representatives as a starter!

No.1 Business Waffling: “Thinking outside the box.”

Oh dear.  Buzzword use is on the rise.  And like a deadly virus ‘buffling’ (business waffling) is believed to be mutating such that it is on the rise even outside the work place.  Yikes!

You can picture the scene at home right? No?  Here you go.

Nearly half of you us (as indicated by 46% of respondents in a yougov survey commissioned by Ramada Encore) believe that Buffling is on the rise. Shame on you us.

….and don’t think for a moment this is restricted to the home either.

Fail. Oh, the irony!

Fail

Oh the irony.  Ouch.

Judith Hurwitz’s Top 11 predictions for the software industry

If you are a tech marketer (and lets face it, you probably are if you are reading this), or even better a software marketer, you should read Judith Hurwitz’s Top 11 predictions for the software industry.

Micro postings 02/11/08

Here are some micro postings and bookmarks,  c. November-December:

Merriam-Webster’s 2008 Word of the Year – from Boing Boing.
Too be honest it will be a few years before the American Dialect Society’s 2005 Word of the Year (“truthiness”) is beaten imho.

The Book Design Review blog’s top book covers for 2008 – from Boing Boing.
The Trouble with Physics wins for me.

The leading application and service providers laying the foundation for the Top 500 retailers’ e-commerce operations – from Internet Retailer.com

Everything is an Emotional Buy – from CSM
(Poor spelling aside, this piece makes some good points)

B2B Branding – from Neutron

The Death of Blogging – (How Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004), from Wired.
Luckily no mention of Pownce in the title.  Personally I think that the rumours of the death of the blogosphere are perhaps greatly exaggerated.