Effective marketing is about generating sales. Sure, leads and nurturing and all of that are all good but the reality is that unless a sale is made, all that money was spent without any return. Part of the challenge is reaching enough people with your message so that at least a significant number of them decide to buy. We send it along to the sales reps so tat they can chase these “leads&# like eagles diving for their prey. m not saying that it will be sales pitch university, but I am skeptical. Reply Kaila Woodie says: February 5, 2010 at 10:18 am Hi. MORE >>

2009 was the first year of Connect the Docs. Enjoy the following collated list of best blog posts from Connect the Docs in 2009. If you were a car sales man would you recommend a soccer mom to test drive a 2 door, fast and flashy convertible? Do you want your readers to buy your product? Go ahead and blaze many trials in 2010! big thank you to all our readers, guest bloggers and interviewees for helping us build Connect the Docs. Top 5 Blog Posts. Content Marketing - The Ultimate Cheat Sheet. What is Content Marketing? Where do I get started? Purpose. Content. MORE >>

Source: Business.com – 2009 B2B Social Media Benchmarking Study ( [link] ). And that’s because the B2B buying process is fundamentally changing. out of 10 buyers say that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you. More than 8 out of 10 IT decision-makers said word of mouth recommendations are the most important source when making buying decisions. Source: Forrester Research, How to take B2B relationships from Indifferent to Engaged: Jan 2009. Yet there are differing opinions as to where search comes into play in the buy cycle. Versus. MORE >>

50 (of the) Best Twitter Guides, Stats, Tips and Tools of 2010 (So Far) , October 5, 2010 While a dwindling number of business executives still dismiss Twitter as a waste of time, recent research suggests it is one of the most valuable social networks for business. Awareness of Twitter has exploded; 87% of Americans said they were “familiar with” Twitter in a poll taken earlier this year, versus just 5% in 2008 and 26% in 2009. October 10, 2010 I’ve been asked about my perspective on Malcom Gladwell’s article, “ Small change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted.&# MORE >>

Data junkies, stats addicts, web trivia buffs rejoice — here are a deluge of social media, search and other marketing research facts and figures from 50 articles and blog posts published so far in 2010. Despite the fact that more than half of marketers responding to an ExactTarget survey planned to to either reduce their overall marketing budget for 2010 or keep it flat, 54% planned to increase spending on email marketing and 66% planned to increase expenditures for social media “even though about 80% of those acknowledged the difficulty in tracking ROI in the medium.&#. MORE >>