Marketers who focused on ROI delivered 24% incremental customer demand in 2010 and generated business growth for their organizations.  One of the most memorable meetings I ever had during my tenure with the first software company I worked for was with my boss, the president of our division.  I remember walking into his office, and before I could sit down, he handed me a brochure and asked somewhat accusingly, “Did your team produce this?”  Luckily, I was able to answer, “No”, to which he replied, “Good, because if you had I was going to fire you.  With that the meeting was over. MORE >>

To quote  Tony Jaros of  SiriusDecisions at the 2010 Sirius Decisions Summit, “BANT are the four most dangerous letters in B2B marketing.”  Lead nurturing is a hot topic right now.  It seems that most of my recent conversations with prospects, customers and others in the B2B marketing industry are centered on lead nurturing.   The discussions usually revolve around issues such as how to nurture, the value of nurturing and what kind of content should be used in lead nurturing campaigns.  Define Your Buyer Profiles & Buying Cycle. For most companies, one buyer profile is not enough.  MORE >>

I have said over and over that there is no better time to be a B2B marketer.  And the more I speak with those in the field, the more I become convinced that this is not just my opinion, but it’s a collective truth many of us share.  So, in the spirit of the impending holiday (I’m speaking of Thanksgiving. m not one of those who skips right to Christmas), I have offered up four reasons that you should be thankful you’re a B2B marketer. Relevance. It seems that marketing’s role has always been similar to that of the unwanted stepchild that is played out in Disney movies.  MORE >>

Today we made the announcement that we have shifted our strategy when it comes to marketing automation vendor partnerships. What was once an exclusive strategy is now a neutral strategy.  Naturally whenever these decisions are made a variety of questions come up. So far, the biggest questions are “Why now?” and “Why the decision to move from an exclusive partnership with Silverpop to one of neutrality?”. We’ll certainly answer those questions, but first, we must call out to our friends at Silverpop and give them a huge thanks!  Now to answer the questions mentioned earlier. MORE >>

We are glad to have Steve Woods, CTO of  Eloqua as a guest contributor to The Annuitas Group blog.  Steve is a thought leader in the world of marketing automation and lead management and is also a prolific writer on topics related to demand generation and the current transitions within the marketing profession.  His book,  Digital Body Language explores these topics, and he is a regular writer on his  blog of the same name. Steve is also deeply involved with the Eloqua user community, with whom he regularly interacts through the discussions on his Eloqua Artisan blog. MORE >>