We just finished up Eloqua Experience 2009, which was a spectacular event all around. Winners from the 2009 Markie Awards were first posted to this blog, pictures from the event will be streamed to Facebook, and videos from the event will continue to be presented on the YouTube channel. Marketers from around the world came to celebrate success, and we filled three days with great discussions, fabulous speakers, and new connections among the best marketers in the world. was asked many times what we did to have that much social media buzz at a live event. MORE >>

It’s been more than a week since I wrote my last weekly wrap-up, and that is more a reflection on me than on the writing this week. There are again a lot of great posts out there this week, and I enjoyed reading many more than I was able to highlight here. hope you enjoy some of this week’s highlights as much as I did Laura Ramos (B2B Marketing Posts) published her long awaited, and very well thought out Lead Management Market Overview. If you are thinking about an investment in marketing automation or lead management, this guide is well worth reading. link]. MORE >>

Another great chart from MarketingSherpa shows very clearly what we as marketers have long known. Relevance is key. 58% of those who stop reading, disengage, or unsubscribe quote a lack of relevance as a key factor. Too many people are still looking at unsubscribe rates as a relevant metric to determine whether marketing messages are connecting with an audience. The fact is that only some of your audience will unsubscribe. The rest will tune out, emotionally unsubscribe , or even report your message as spam if it loses relevance. Relevance to their Role: Now it gets interesting. MORE >>

The old adage of “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” is as true in marketing as in any other discipline, but in marketing there is often a challenge of defining what one wants to measure. Especially in B2B marketing, the length of the buying process leads to challenges in defining metrics that make sense for a marketing dashboard. Some metrics may seem too transient, being only relevant to a particular campaign. Some metrics may seem too tactical, not strategic enough to the business. From there, we can measure the marketing funnel using a balance sheet and income statement metaphor. MORE >>

In order to successfully move beyond the most basic drip marketing, it’s crucial for B2B marketers to effectively manage the data that they are working with. There are two main reasons that data has become more critical than ever before. First, it is with us for longer. As we engage with our prospective buyers earlier in the buying cycle, and nurture them throughout it, we are using the data for longer than ever before. When data is used by a marketing automation system for rules or automated systems, it needs to be clean and consistent. MORE >>