People have no patience for things that don’t impact their right-now reality. If a flood is happening across the world, they may spare a compassionate moment, but are soon refocused on their daily priorities. If that flood is 2 miles away—and closing—they're riveted, intent on learning more about how their reality may change. bit dramatic, perhaps, but very true. The biggest challenge for marketers today is determining how to create relevant, fresh content that catches and keeps potential buyers’ attention as well as that impending flood. Often, it’s a matter of focus. Related articles. MORE >>

A new study on an often overlooked subject is fresh off the presses: Demandbase and Focus.com 2011 National Website Demand Generation Study. The B2B company website is growing in importance as buyers spend more time researching and selecting the information they use during a complex buying process. Regardless of its origin--social media or e-mail, banners or search—traffic driven from online marketing initiatives always intersects at the website. Ardath: What prompted the choice of the topic of website demand generation as the focus of the survey?   Isn’t that interesting?  MORE >>

As marketers, we like to think we know what our buyers need and want and that we give it to them across the course of their buying process. But, do we really? If we're only listening to what they say and not watching their behavior, we may miss a few critical nuances. ITSMA recently conducted 486 telephone interviews with a pretty even split of business and technology decision makers involved in tech purchases across a variety of industries and discovered what they call the New Buyer Paradox. Buyers admit they're short on time but want relevant content — lots of it. Oh, and thanks! MORE >>

The two top challenges to B2B content marketers are producing engaging content and producing enough of it to fuel their marketing programs. This means, for many, that they'll need to hire freelance writers to develop at least some of the content they need. help many of my clients learn how to work with writers—as well as to hire the right ones whether freelance or in-house. It's tough. Much harder than it needs to be sometimes. Content Assignment Template includes: Target market and how to refer to them within the content. Format and length of content. Style and tone. MORE >>

We've all read the reports and research that shows B2B sales win rates are in an overall decline. But, it's not just losing the sale to a competitor that companies need to reverse, but the growth in "no decision" being made. CSO Insights finds that "no decision" being made in relation to a purchase has grown from 20% to nearly 25%. In a B2B complex buying process, companies are often still focused on only one decision maker, if they have even developed a thorough understanding of the motivators, priorities, and responsibilities of that person. Never. What if. MORE >>