Among the many interesting ideas thrown around at ITSMA’s annual conference this week was that the era of PR is over. As in dead. Don’t do it anymore. First, let’s define what PR means from the perspective of the customer (i.e., a journalist) and the customer’s customer (i.e., the readers of the journalists’ publications). Looked at this way, there are only two types of PR: Guard dog PR and placement PR. Let’s look at each in more detail. Guard dog PR. These are the internal corporate PR representatives. Then they get plenty of the wrong kinds of attention. It’s called being human. It’s a myth. MORE >>

In October, TechTarget released A Profile of TechTarget’s Hyper-active IT Researchers , a report providing insight into the media consumption habits of the media publisher’s most active users. These users are the folks conducting research about technology products and services they might purchase. TechTarget sent a survey to its most active users (those in the top 30%), and 1,765 submitted their answers. TechTarget followed up with select interviews of a subset of the respondents. This insight is critical as marketers plan their content strategy. MORE >>

Kenyon Blunt. recently called on a client and he described his vision of lead generation as “frosting and cherries.” Let me explain.  His view is that the current state of lead generation is dead.  Salespeople in the “Internet world” have relied on leads from marketing which are neither good nor productive.  In his opinion, salespeople need to do a 180 and get back to the basics of generating their own leads.  Any leads from marketing would just be a bonus (and hence the frosting and cherries analogy). The Demise of Lead Generation. Marketing and sales are frequently working at cross-purposes.  MORE >>

I've had several readers ask me to include audio in my slideshows and here goes! This important piece, which answers the "Why Mobile For B2Bs?,  provides 10 Key Arguments to Turn Mobile Skeptics Into Mobile Supporters. and it's new and improved with audio  (thanks to my new friends at Brainshark ).    And if you prefer the slideshow without audio? No problem! The slideshow is located here. Look for a lot more slideshows updated with audio coming your way soon, as well as many other B2B marketing goodies in innovative new formats. MORE >>

Don't get me wrong, content marketing strategy is critical to the success of a content marketing project. Not having a content strategy is like playing baseball without the bases (envision people running everywhere.not a pretty site). That said, I've seen a multitude of content strategies die for the following reasons. Lack of support from the executive team. They fail to understand why they can't talk about themselves all the time.  They don't "get" the idea content marketing. Lack of setting success criteria. This happens more often that you think. Painful. MORE >>