With 2009 quickly coming to a close, it’s a perfect time for marketing professionals to evaluate this past year and see where they can best focus their efforts in 2010. If we’re only as strong as our weakest link, shouldn’t we find that faulty link fast and bring it up to par? What was a weak link in your marketing program? wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of B2B companies felt they didn’t invest as much time or energy as they would have liked to in social media. I came across an interesting post from ReadWriteWeb that predicts how social media will continue to evolve in 2010. MORE >>

have invited our Panel of B2B Marketing Experts to reflect on 2009 and answer the following question: What was your aha moment in 2009 ? B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study 2009. My 2009 aha moment was when I realized the target market I was aiming for basically ceased to exist, and publishers, content creators and VP of sales and marketing were fast becoming “social media experts” At the same time, implementations of marketing and sales information portals were strong, despite the sluggish economy. What was your "Aha" moment in 2009? MORE >>

5) Brand Promise/Reality Gap Reduction: The trend that social media kicked into high gear in 2009 will continue into 2010; any organization that has a significant gap between their brand promise, and their brand reality will have that gap mercilessly exposed through social media and community-created content. It’s coming around to that time of year again when we all offer up predictions for what the coming year will offer. As with any of these, it’s a guess, and entirely my own opinion. Here are some of the trends and changes I think we’ll see in the coming year. Sort of. MORE >>

Summary: marketing has shifted steadily over time from passive to active consumer engagement. Social media is the latest stage in this evolution. Marketers need to master new skills at each stage; as they do, advertising budgets will shift to take advantage of the new medium's increased effectiveness. Of all that research I mentioned last week , two pairs of facts stood out. One was the disparity between the time people spend on online activities (20% to 30% of total media time) and the share of advertising expenditures spent online (10% to 15%). Today it is represented primarily by television. MORE >>

Sometimes it’s What’s Missing That Counts I was reading MarketingSherpa’s 2009 Email Marketing Benchmarking Guide looking for useful metrics and tips. common theme in 2009 is that marketers need to prove the value of their marketing spend in even greater detail. If you weren’t aware, Canada (Vancouver specifically) will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. was inspired to write this post by a group of brave Canadian ski jumpers that are have been denied permission to compete in the upcoming games. We’ll come back to this story – let’s focus back on email marketing. Tweet This! MORE >>