Marketing White Belt: Basics For the Digital Marketer. One of the themes you have seen consistently here on {grow} is an emphasis on marketing fundamentals. This book fills a gaping need for solid marketing fundamentals. If you are just starting out and want to be a marketer, please read this book! By Mike Stelzner –  The title is a bit precocious for the book’s actual subject matter … which is really the importance and mindset of content marketing.  The book’s basic theme is that mass marketing and merchandising are dead.  MORE >>

We all know the increasing importance of ideas in B2B marketing. But idea marketing doesn’t start and stop with marketers. A (fairly old) study by Forbes and Google found that 80% of C-level executives perform at least three web searches per day. As buyers do more searching, they are stretching the buying process earlier and earlier, to the point where they may not have a specific product or service in mind when they search. So you’re saying there’s a part of the buying process that doesn’t involve salespeople? That was in 2009. MORE >>

Today, I want to look a very specific example of how this overall market transition affected us at Eloqua. It’s a very representative, specific, example of what’s going on in the market in general. Just hearing this likely makes everyone who has ever been a field sales rep cringe. Unfortunately, these arguments are based on an incorrect assumption that without talking to our sales team, buyers will not have the ability to form these perceptions of our price. The sales team is competing with Google as a source for information, and that is not an easy battle to win. MORE >>

One of the hardest questions I get all the time from friends and colleagues starting a small business is “how do I get started with my sales and marketing?”  and “should I hire sales people?”. And since each business is unique there isn’t a one-size fits all answer, but there are tips for bootstrapping your Sales and Marketing for a small business. I should check that out” to the product and price combo that actually gets them to buy.  Conde Nast?   (Who knows, maybe the best way for you to start your marketing is by running a good old print ad!). MORE >>

The more I talk to manufacturers and industrial companies, the more I’m convinced that RFQs and sales conversations are all that matter to them. get it that industrial marketing must be held accountable and I firmly believe that it should make a direct contribution to growing sales and revenues. However, ignoring industrial marketing’s role in creating sales opportunities is a fallacy in my opinion. have had many conversations where I have heard the other person tell me that they’ve never had to actively market their products and services before. MORE >>