I’ve had a great opportunity recently to learn what B2B customers want in content by – shock of shocks – asking them. The impetus is a competitive analysis I’m helping do for a publisher, which includes asking readers about everything from what they read, how they get it (print or online) to how they use content to do their jobs better. m saving the best stuff for my client, of course, but some initial findings that might help you decide what and how to publish for your customers. Paper is NOT dead. At least one, yes, still has his secretary print it out for him. Social networking? by writing. MORE >>

Ask anyone selling marketing software or services what their “cost per lead” is and you’ll get a different, and self-serving, answer. ve seen estimates ranging from single dollars to tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. The cost is always the highest for whatever mechanism (trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail, marketing automation software) the competing vendor is hoping to trash.   Of course, everyone cooks the underlying cost numbers to make their approach look best. But you’re actually asking to be bamboozled because you haven’t defined a “lead.” MORE >>

Software consultancy Software Advice has a good business model: Give away a certain amount of information about software, then charge for more detailed counseling. Market analyst Lauren Carlson also had an interesting recent post about the major trends pushing customers towards marketing automation software , which tracks prospect behavior to determine which products they’re most likely to consider. agree with her drivers, and would add another one: The decline of the trade press which used to be a source of trusted analysis and objectivity for customers. MORE >>

Some customers are pushing back on software maintenance agreements, threatening vendors with the loss of their most predictable, profitable continuing revenue stream.   Priced at 15% or 18% (or more) of the up-front purchase price of the software, maintenance agreements provide customers with updates and enhancements as well as support. For   endors, they generate profit margins as high as 85%. Several consultants who help customers negotiate software contracts told me, as part of a story I reported for InfoWorld , that a growing number of customers are ditching maintenance. MORE >>

A story in the current Newsweek says that interest in amateur (non-profit) blogging and contributing to Wikipedia is falling off rapidly as, frankly, people get tired of working for free. The story mentions, in passing, that according to Technorati , professional bloggers are “a rising class.”.   Welcome to reality, or, rather, back to reality. People don’t do things for very long if they don’t get a payback, whether it be emotional, entertainment, financial, etc. The story also notes that “citizen journalism,” in which everyday people cover the local news, is also in decline. MORE >>