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A common inquiry we hear from our clients is, "We want to make sure our customers think of us when they have a need, but how can we guarantee that? Short of camping out in their office or calling them every day, how can we make sure they keep us in mind later?"

One simple way we recommend is to use direct email, also known as email "blasts."

Many of our clients come to us and say, "I have this great website which cost a fortune, but I don't know if it's making a difference."

We have news for you: just building a fabulous website isn't enough.

Is it a great first step? Absolutely! Websites are, hands down, one of the best tools for increasing traffic to your business and establishing yourself as a company. But once that site is alive and full of dynamic and relevant content, how do you tell people about it?

You’ll notice that we’ve deliberately refrained from posting a “best of” list for 2007. And for good reason.

We believe in using the past as a learning tool, but it doesn’t pay to get too overwhelmed or to drift into morbid reflection. Because today—as every day—we’re moving forward…ever forward.

What do we look forward to in 2008?

It’s inevitable. No matter how much you plan in this holiday season, there’s always one last gift you forgot to buy…one last-minute add-on to a loved one’s wish list…one last person for whom you feel a sudden rush of generosity.

What is there to do? Where do you start? Where can you go for a great, fun, absolutely perfect gift?

Seek no more in vain! We’ve polled our staff for the best sites and have come up with a list of their favorites. Some of these sites also have brick-n-mortar stores (if you’re really in a rush), but all are well worth a visit.

Remember the good old days of using a favorite catalog to write your Christmas list? My companion was a classic behemoth that became my toy-shopping bible, happily lugged from place to place while I daydreamed about the Barbie Dream House and EasyBake Oven that Santa had, no doubt, set aside for me.

It was a sad day when, due to changing lifestyles and so-called “advances” in technology, these Christmas catalogs became just a fond memory. Since the Sears Wish Book—one of the last to succumb to the advent of the web—was discontinued in 1993, a whole generation of children has missed out on this cherished holiday pastime.

In recognition that yesterday was America Recycles Day, it’s worth noting that we everyday consumers create a shocking amount of e-waste. According to the EPA’s stats for 2005, “between 1.5 million and 1.9 million tons of used or unwanted electronics were discarded in US landfills, including as many as 130 million cell phones {{our italics}}. Only a little more than 350,000 tons were recycled.”

The good news is that this trend is changing, albeit slowly. Industry giants like Dell and Nokia are pioneering recycling efforts aimed at minimizing our footprint on the planet…

According to Mediapost Publications one in five households enjoys “bloop blooping” through television commercials, cackling with the power magically granted to them by Tivo and other DVRs. Consequently, ad spending on broadcast TV is experiencing significant half-year declines-- decreases from 3.6% to $11.84 billion worth of expenditures on the networks even more on syndicated TV.

While hot internet properties such as Facebook and Youtube undeniably get eyeballs, marketers have been struggling with how to commoditize that traffic. Just throwing up banner ads hasn’t been working out that well, according to a study from Forrester that recommends moving past run-of-site placements to engage users.

Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on a recent JupiterResearch study naming Google as the America’s favorite Internet brand. The search-engine-turned-media-company beat out Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, MySpace, Microsoft and AOL, with 35% of the vote.

As online search has become more efficient and effective, users are spending less time searching and more time enjoying the content they’re searching for. What does this mean to search marketers? We have to be even more creative to get and hold consumers’ attention.