ViewPoint

OCTOBER 27, 2011

I recently read Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman’s book: “Social Marketing to the Business Customer” I liked the book (so much so that I wrote an Amazon recommendation) for a number of reasons. First, I like the format. The book is broken down into three sections: Tools, Technology, Tactics. I also liked that it is a very readable book (about 240 pages, lots of statistics, pictures…).

Social Marketing 208

Social Marketing Amazon Business Social Media 208

Marketing Insider Group

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Every year I look forward to the amazing insights provided by Mary Meeker at the Web 2.0 Summit. Mary moved from Morgan Stanley to join the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. If you don’t know Kleiner Perkins, they’ve invested in some companies you may have heard of…like Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, LegalZoom and Groupon. So I think they know what they’re doing when it comes to future trends in the online world.

Web 2.0 185

Web 2.0 Trends Mobile Advertising Paid Search Agency 185

NuSpark Consulting

OCTOBER 28, 2011

The strategy of blogging, especially from a b2b perspective, can be somewhat misunderstood. What are your goals? Thought leadership, SEO, lead generation? How do I get people to read it? How to I build subscribers? Are my audiences really interested in my thoughts? So I thought I’d raise the question on the benefits of blogging to the NuSpark Marketing content alliance team, and get their reaction to the following question.

Business Blogging 182

Business Blogging Business Work Management B2B Thought Leadership 182

Writing on the Web

OCTOBER 25, 2011

I hate to be a purveyor of gloom, there’s too much of that around these days. But I’ve been thinking about this and want to share my thoughts with you. Here are some reasons content marketing is getting more challenging. There exists: A shift away from focusing on your products and services (what you know well). A shift towards the reader/customer and their needs (what you may not know very well).

Content Marketing 171

Content Marketing Content Marketing & Strategy Consulting 171

Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker

Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.

B2B Sales

ViewPoint

OCTOBER 24, 2011

An interesting post by SoftwareAdvice.com’s Derek Singleton— What Does Social Manufacturing Look Like? —noted the Dreamforce announcement of Salesforce.com’s support for Kenandy , a cloud-based manufacturing solution that incorporates the social tool, Chatter. Kenandy has been founded by Sandy Kurtzig, the former CEO of ASK Group and the creator of ManMan.

Lead Generation 191

Lead Generation PointClear Sales Qualified Leads Generation 191

NuSpark Consulting

OCTOBER 24, 2011

B2B buyers are time deprived and risk averse – and also enormously well informed. They resent and ignore interruptive marketing approaches such as advertising and cold calling. They do their own research online, and then contact vendors and service providers when they’re ready to talk price. From the B2B seller side, ‘beating the bushes’, ‘cold calling’, ‘hunting’… whatever you call it, is less and less effective.

Social Media 172

Social Media Cold Calling Peer-to-peer Media 172

Marketing Insider Group

OCTOBER 25, 2011

The first step to great marketing is having a great marketing plan. However, not everyone bothers to plan – even though most agree that it is the foundation to successfully achieving your marketing objectives. I’ve always liked these quotes on planning: “bad planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” and “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.” If you haven’t started your marketing plan exercise, now is the time!

Planning 161

Planning Marketing Plans Lead Ranking Inbound Marketing 161

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Image by Will Lion via Flickr. When formulating marketing, sales, demand generation, and content strategies, an important factor is that of understanding the choices buyers make.  Oftentimes, strategies are crafted with a singular focus on the purchase decision.  However, increasingly evident today is that buyers make purchase decisions that are a summation of several choices.  In today’s social world, buyers are confronted with making choices in more areas than ever that

Demand Generation 149

Demand Generation Internet Marketing Purchase Buy 149

Writing on the Web

OCTOBER 28, 2011

How do you write good blog posts that connect emotionally with readers and turn them into loyal fans? Oh, heck, that’s easy. All you have to do is: Grab their attention. Get them emotionally engaged. Make a memorable impact. There you go, right? Easy-peasy. This is what you need to do whenever you write any content designed to market your products and services.

Content Marketing 148

Content Marketing Content Trigger Marketing Marketing 148

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Webinar Metrics

NuSpark Consulting

OCTOBER 24, 2011

B2B buyers are time deprived and risk averse – and also enormously well informed. They resent and ignore interruptive marketing approaches such as advertising and cold calling. They do their own research online, and then contact vendors and service providers when they’re ready to talk price. From the B2B seller side, ‘beating the bushes’, ‘cold calling’, ‘hunting’… whatever you call it, is less and less effective.

Social Media 172

Social Media Marketing Management Cold Calling Peer-to-peer 172

Tomorrow People

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Have you read the press release from Steve Jobs on his resignation? If not, I suggest you do. It’s simple, straightforward and honest, and a great example for others to emulate. Here’s why we like it: 1) It Answers Questions without Added Fluff. Without going into unnecessary details, the release succinctly fulfills its purpose by answering the two most important questions: why Jobs is resigning and what happens next.

Press 146

Press Fulfillment Creativity Optimization 146

Savanta

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Many years ago now, whilst I was working at, newly privatised, British Airways, our research team was challenged to understand what it meant to be “branded British” in each of its key markets. What does the power of national identification bring to the airline in each market it serves, and how could that knowledge be leveraged to help position the airline and its service to best effect?

Paper 139

Paper Conference Advertisements Advertising 139

B2B Memes

OCTOBER 28, 2011

There’s been a minor buzz this week in B2B circles about recent survey results suggesting that paper magazines and newsletters remain extremely important to business professionals. I’m sure it’s true. I’m also sure it’s not very meaningful. Just because you like something doesn’t mean it’s not dead. The findings are from Readex Research , and are based on a series of media usage surveys conducted over the last year or so.

Buzz 139

Buzz Comparison Custom Publishing Newsletter 139

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Social Media

Biznology

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. The search engines have evolved a great deal in the last fifteen years. They’ve gotten a lot smarter, meaning that it’s not easy for a website to get a good search ranking. Back in the day, website owners would cram lots of keywords into the meta title, description, and keyword tags in the code and get noticed by the search engines.

SEO 119

SEO Tagging Wikipedia Keywords 119

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 28, 2011

I hate fear-based selling. You know, the kind where the seller lets you know one way or another that if you don’t buy their product or service you’re going to lose out. Fear-based selling gives me a horrible, irrational feeling that puts up my guard and reduces my trust level with the seller. I started my career in sales in the ERP software industry and went through some sales training – Xerox’ Personal Selling System and Solution Selling.

Cost 118

Cost Consulting Training Pricing 118

Marketing Craftmanship

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Whale Abuse: Exhibit A for Shamu, the Plaintiff. In the first case of its kind, PETA , three marine-mammal experts, and two former orca trainers are filing a lawsuit asking a federal court to declare that “five wild-caught orcas forced to perform at SeaWorld are being held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” The filing—the first ever seeking to apply the 13th Amendment to animals—names the five orcas as plaintiffs and also seeks their release to

Public Relations 109

Public Relations PR Advertising Agencies Profiling 109

Ambal's Amusings

OCTOBER 26, 2011

There have been many blogs, books and other resources that discuss all aspects of content marketing… from the why to the what to the where…but oddly enough, rarely the how. Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi have partenered to bring us the one and only Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand.

Work Management 109

Work Management Marketing Management Content Marketing Planning 109

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Brand Identity

Biznology

OCTOBER 28, 2011

Image by Kerri-Jo via Flickr. You know that I talk a lot about local marketing. But more and more what I am noticing is that huge changes occur for local websites so quickly in this industry that itself is not very old. Speaking of old, I hate to admit that I know this song, but it’s more because I was a big Bugs Bunny fan growing up rather than me simply being old enough to know the tune and the words to “The Old Gray Mare.” But I do know the song, and it’s got me to thi

Marketing Websites 108

Marketing Websites Internet Marketing Wikipedia Opinions 108

B2B Marketing Traction

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Tweet. In today’s economy, every dollar you spend on marketing must produce results. Are you sure that the marketing you spend money on is working? As a new year approaches, this is a perfect time for a marketing audit. A marketing audit is a cost-effective review process where an expert looks at your marketing strategy, tactics, and results to make sure you are getting the best results possible without wasting money.

B2B Marketing 116

B2B Marketing Planning B2B Marketing & Strategy 116

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Ever wonder how much traffic social media A-listers and publishers drive with their own Twitter stream? Using bit.ly , you can often see this as well as a wealth of other information, such as what content someone shares and even what accounts they manage. If you know me, you probably know that I am part analyst, part geek, and looking to peel back one more layer of the onion whenever I have time.

Social Media 108

Social Media Traffic Media Twitter 108

Convince & Convert

OCTOBER 24, 2011

One of the great modern mysteries is how so many people legitimately believe that social media is “killing email” when nothing could be further from the truth. Social media and email are complementary tools, and it’s no accident that you can’t even SIGN UP for a social network without an email address. There’s been a lot written about the folly of this “email is dead” conviction, and in fact I’ll soon be publishing here at Convince & Convert m

Social Networks 131

Social Networks Social Media Facebook Media 131

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Deliverability

Adobe Experience Cloud Blog

OCTOBER 26, 2011

by Maria Pergolino You’ve heard all press is good press—but how good? It depends how good you make it. Here’s an amazing example of how you can transform press into celebrity with effective, multi-channel marketing. And of course, this means revenue. Recently, Oracle hosted their annual user conference, Oracle OpenWorld. More than 40K attend this software technology conference, and many expect to hear each year from Marc Benioff, CEO and chairman of salesforce.com.

PR 105

PR Salesforce.com Multi-Channel Planning 105

Biznology

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Image by music2work2 via Flickr. My monthly Biznology® Webinar Tuesday was called “Optimize Your Web Site Search.” I talked for 30 minutes about how to help searchers find what they want on your Web site. Did a frustrated searcher just ask again why your site search engine stinks? Site search foments frustration because you can’t deliver on the implied promise: “Type in anything and we’ll find it.

Optimization 104

Optimization Blast Campaigns Webinar Metrics Search Marketing 104

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Ever wonder how much traffic social media A-listers and publishers drive with their own Twitter stream? Using bit.ly, you can often see this as well as a wealth of other information, such as what content someone shares and even what accounts they manage. If you know me, you probably know that I am part analyst, [.].

Social Media 108

Social Media Traffic Media Twitter 108

Convince & Convert

OCTOBER 23, 2011

(at least on weekdays). On Thursday October 27, join me and my friends at Argyle Social for a valuable (yet free) Webinar that puts some of the big questions about social media timing under the experimental microscope. Register here. We’ll cover a lot of ground about when’s the best time for Twitter and Facebook communication in different scenarios.

B2B 117

B2B Correlation Social Media Case Studies 117

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

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Account Based Marketing

Adobe Experience Cloud Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2011

by Maria Pergolino Back on August 18 th , MarketingSherpa posted a chart highlighting which social networks, according to their research, were the most successful when it came to inbound marketing. What is both interesting and useful about this chart is that not only does it give percentages, but it sections these percentages off according to their focus: B2B, B2C, or both.

Social Media 102

Social Media Social Marketing B2B Marketing Planning 102

Biznology

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. In the quaint old offline world, things move slowly. If you have a good name for your business or your product, you know exactly what to do. You do a trademark search to make sure that no one else is using the name (at least within your industry), you add a the trademark symbol™ to your name, and if you really want to go the extra mile, you register your trademark so you can use the registered trademark symbol®.

Domain 104

Domain Privacy Policies Paid Search Agency Terms and Conditions 104

Digital B2B Marketing

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Why should companies invest in thought leadership? And just what does thought leadership mean anyways? These and other questions were debated during a Twitter #B2Bchat on Thought Leadership in B2B Marketing on October 13, and I had the privilege of moderating the discussion. Here are the key takeaways I took from the discussion. Thought Leadership Starts with Individuals Individuals drive thought leadership, and many in the discussion posit companies cannot truly be thought leaders , only their

B2B Thought Leadership 105

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership B2B Marketing B2B 105