Deluxe Corporation, which provides customer loyalty and retention programs and other marketing services as well as promotional products and printed items to small businesses and financial institutions, has announced two acquisitions intended to expand its small business Web services customer base. Deluxe's Hostopia unit has signed a definitive agreement to purchase certain assets of Aplus.net and completed the purchase of search engine marketing firm MerchEngines. Deluxe will pay approximately $30 million for these companies.

Interactive marketing spend will hit $55 billion and represent 21% of all marketing spending in 2014, as marketers continue to shift dollars from away from traditional media and toward search marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, social media and mobile marketing, according to Forrester Research.

People know to look for the gold padlock when transacting online. E-commerce stores know they need an SSL certificate to get the gold padlock. It's something consumers have been told numerous times whether it was from a pre-holiday news special about protecting yourself online or from the family member that thinks they know everything about technology.

The industry took a significant step in the behavioral targeting and privacy debate by releasing seven best practices principles for behavioral targeting on July 2.

A group of marketing associations introduced seven best practices principles for behavioral targeting on July 2. The principles - a significant step in the behavorial targeting and privacy debate - are designed to make behavioral targeting more transparent to consumers and to educate consumers on the practices of online advertising and how behavioral data is used.

Investment bank Petsky Prunier released a trend report highlighting M&A and investment activity in the second quarter of 2009. It reveals continued slowdown for marketing, information and digital media investment volume and value. Bright spots in interactive and digital advertising were driven primarily by venture capital and corporate investments in social media, online video, mobile marketing and software-as-a-service e-mail marketing.

While a recent Knowledge Networks study found that less than 5% of users regularly turn to social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter for guidance on purchase decisions, many marketers find blogs are an effective way to reach motivated buyers.

Black-out sales, free shipping days, search engine optimization, strategic link baiting—all are proven methods that can, when timed and executed well, ratchet up Web traffic. But if unprepared, dramatic traffic increases can lead to delays, hang-ups, outages, and even outright system failures that can negatively impact campaign success, as well as customer satisfaction and corporate revenue.

TruMedia Networks is launching TruFan today, a social media platform for sports fans built around local fan communities in 122 markets where a major professional sports team is located. The platform was designed to allow fans to post, share, vote on and aggregate timely, local sports media content in a fashion similar to what is done on Digg or Yahoo Buzz.

A solid e-mail database is the cornerstone for any successful e-mail campaign. David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian, and Blake Groves, online marketing consultant for Convio, share their top Dos and Don'ts for building the most valuable e-mail database.