Thursday, June 03, 2010 Who Do You Trust? Industry Analysts Reign Supreme A SiriusDecisions survey recently examined which b-to-b sources are trusted most by buyers during the buying lifecycle, and the results indicate not surprisingly that Industry Analysts and Peers are the most influential and trusted sources of information. Analysts are Most Trusted The most trusted sources of information overall are industry analysts (cited by 31.4% The influence of vendors as a trusted source of information has also increased, from only 3.3% Is Marketing Too Busy? MORE >>

A business blog is an important and integral component of inbound marketing. While there are plenty of business blogs from B2B marketing consultants (including this one), industry portals and vertical search engines, there aren’t too many from manufacturers and industrial companies. Manufacturing marketers do understand the value of a business blog for thought leadership, search engine optimization (SEO), lead generation and community building but proving its ROI has been a challenge. Do you know of other business blogs from industrial companies? Results: 2.7 MORE >>

The notion of using social media for business has gone from cutting edge to commonplace in an amazingly short time. How can an brand establish trust online? Practical Reasons Why Businesses Need Social Media by Social Media Today. Chris Tompkins supplies 10 methods to help “promote your social media profiles OUTSIDE of logging in to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter,” such as adding your social media profiles to company email signatures, business cards, advertising and all marketing collateral. Top social media platforms for businesses by iMedia Connection. MORE >>

B2B Lead Generation | Can Find New Customers help my business? Can we help YOUR business? Editor’s Note: Forrester Research found 3 out of 4 companies that invested in lead management software (Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Manticore, etc.) To learn if your business can benefit from Find New Customers , we have just 3 questions for you. Does your sale require trust – built over time? Let’s find out. Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers. Are your lead nurturing campaigns not working? If answers to those questions are yes, we might help. MORE >>

If you are in sales and marketing, there is another forecast that is just as promising, especially if you recognize the pending fertile business opportunity and prepare accordingly. It is not often we see so many thought leaders and pundits confluence around such significant observations: • At Forrester , sales enablement analyst Scott Santucci indicates that “We are in the middle of a major transformation in the B2B sales model, driven by customer’s enterprise-wide strategic procurement initiatives to buy only what they need at the lowest possible price”. MORE >>