Customer Experience Matrix
MARCH 4, 2011
Summary: Is stressing the need for process change making marketing automation too complicated, or a recognition of what it really takes for success? There are vendors on both sides of the argument. Act-On Software officially relaunched its system earlier this week, offering a new interface and a new positioning. The interface is perfectly nice but the positioning is ultimately more important.
Chris Koch
MARCH 4, 2011
This cartoon making the rounds online captures the frustration journalists have with their online plight--and reveals the opportunity B2B marketers have to fill the content gap. Marketers always struggle with what to do next. There so many channels out there and so little time. But if you step back and think about where the real opportunity is for B2B marketers, it is idea marketing.
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ViewPoint
MARCH 2, 2011
Today's guest blogger, Jeff Molander, is adjunct professor of digital marketing at Loyola University business school, a content marketing speaker and author of the forthcoming book, Off the Hook Marketing: How to make social media sell. He blogs at [link]. Follow customers into social spaces. It's a smart idea. But incomplete without a means to capture demand and convert it to sales.
Marketing Insider Group
MARCH 3, 2011
This post originally appeared on the Savvy B2B Marketing Blog … Why is content marketing so important? I started my career in B2B sales and quickly grew frustrated with the content being produced by my marketing colleagues. I then took a field-marketing role because I knew it was crucial to have the right content for each customer situation. How hard can that be, right?
Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing
Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.
Writing on the Web
FEBRUARY 26, 2011
There’s been an important update to the way Google runs their search algorithms , designed to weed out the number of junk content farms. You and your pages shouldn’t be concerned, except if you’re trying to game the system. But you should always be alert for how such changes affect your site and make corrections when needed. If your search results have changed lately, this may explain why.
B2B Marketing Zone brings together the best content for marketers in the B2B industry from the widest variety of thought leaders.
Webbiquity
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Jeremiah Owyang recently published a fantastic List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2011 (Buyer/Brand Side) , an impressive compilation of individuals either holding the title or performing the role of corporate social strategist, defined by Jeremiah as “the business decision maker for social media programs – who provides leadership, roadmap definition, and governance; and directly influences the spending on technology vendors and service agencies.&#.
Marketing Insider Group
MARCH 1, 2011
Want to know what B2B marketing mistake makes me the craziest? When I see marketing content that adds an unnecessary or inappropriate qualifier to try and get a specific segment of people to read, register, or interact with the piece of content. For example, if I say this blog is only for “B2B marketers&# - will that focus the target audience of the blog?
Smashmouth Marketing
MARCH 1, 2011
You'd think that in today's economy, a steady paycheck would be enough motivation to get the best out of people, right? Not always the case, nor should it be. Part of any manager's role is to make the people around them better. Whether it's mentoring someone to take over your role when you ascend the corporate ladder, or taking a rep with just enough potential under your wing, ultimately, the job of a manager is to improve his or her team.
WriteSpark
MARCH 2, 2011
Whether they like it or not, whether they feel capable or not, many technical subject matter experts (SMEs) are now expected to be a white paper writer, a web content writer, and a blog post writer. However, in most cases, these writing assignments aren't getting done--which is frustrating to both the SMEs and the marcom managers who oversee these projects.
Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker
Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.
ANNUITAS
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
A recent article in Click-Z , by Mike Hotz, made the case for focusing your email nurturing primarily on the middle of the funnel. To support his point, Mr. Hotz offered up this statement: “….y ou should concentrate your efforts on the middle of the pyramid, on prospects that were referred to you by a trusted source – ideally your own satisfied customers – as well as prospects who have developed a relationship with your brand but have not yet purchased, and those who consider you to
Biznology
MARCH 1, 2011
Image by dolphinsdock via Flickr. I've been talking to some small business owners recently who are all complaining that they are getting squeezed out of social media, search marketing, and other forms of Internet marketing by the big guys--big companies with big budgets. At the same time, I've been hearing from frustrated large company marketers that they cannot break through the clutter and that their budgets don't seem to help.
Savanta
FEBRUARY 26, 2011
In my last post I put forward the idea that every business should measure its performance against a stakeholder ‘Happiness Index’ with a particular focus on customers. As the customer’s voice within the organisation, responsibility for this index lies at the marketer’s door. Before we go any further I’d like to challenge the received wisdom that it’s commercially sensible for every business to invest in enhancing customer happiness.
B2B Memes
MARCH 2, 2011
In an article on Min Online this week, Judy Franks of The Marketing Democracy suggests that traditional media companies are faltering because they don’t value content. Though at first it might seem odd to say that businesses built on content don’t value it, she has a point. As she explains, pure content businesses like magazines are just one of three types of media options for advertisers.
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In the B2B marketing toolkit, white papers can be a powerful option for reaching decision-makers and experts, presenting them with interesting information that improves their perception of your organization's competence and thought leadership. That said, a poorly executed whitepaper will not only be unable to influence your desired audience but will also come with significant costs that other assets won't incur.
Convince & Convert
MARCH 1, 2011
Guest post by Lori R Taylor , founder of REV Media Marketing llc , is a 20 year marketing veteran, dedicated to direct response metrics and firmly believes “if popularity is vanity then sales are sanity – it’s up to you to decide how crazy you can afford to be.”. Remember that first meeting between the prospective new client and your agency? It was thrilling – a blind date that went so well you were ready to get hitched!
Biznology
MARCH 2, 2011
Image via CrunchBase. Today's interview is with Ted Ulle, the Senior Search Analyst for Converseon, and an administrator at Webmaster World ( tedster ), one of the foremost online forums for organic search optimization. He is a pioneer in search marketing, having entered this emerging field in 1996 on a foundation of twenty years as a turn-around specialist in multi-channel retail marketing.
Adobe Experience Cloud Blog
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
by Andrew Spoeth The phenomenal rise of social media has, without a doubt, created a wave of excitement in the online marketing industry. It has never been as easy to share information online and to connect with like-minded individuals as it is today. Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are changing the way we as individuals, and as businesses, communicate.
Industrial Marketing Today
MARCH 1, 2011
Plenty has been written about the importance of lead nurturing in B2B and industrial marketing. If you need a quick primer, read my earlier post, “ B2B Lead Generation without Lead Nurturing is Doomed to Fail. ”. Most of the lead nurturing best practices guides and articles that I’ve read are from a marketing perspective. Let’s switch gears for a moment and think of it from a sales point of view.
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Convince & Convert
FEBRUARY 27, 2011
It’s an exciting day, and the lineup for the 2011 edition of Social Media Success Summit has been announced. As a presenter, I am of course biased, but this may be the best combination of social media thinking in one virtual conference ever assembled. Do you agree? For a limited time, for $297 you get 22 social media live Webinars (that you can listen to again and again for one year).
Biznology
MARCH 3, 2011
Image via Wikipedia. by Frank Reed. The SMB space is the biggest puzzle that the online world has been trying to solve and, with just a few exceptions, it has failed miserably to this point. We could sit and wonder why this is the case, with all kinds of neat theories and thoughts on models and processes and all other things that wreak of the Internet space.
Paul Gillin
MARCH 1, 2011
It’s tough raising nickels and dimes. In even the most prosperous times. One new course of action. That might get some traction. Is pitching nonprofits in rhymes. OK, so I didn’t miss my calling as a poet. But if you’re a nonprofit organization in the U.S., U.K. or Canada, and if you can tell your story poetically, you can win up to $10,000 from the CTK Foundation’s Heart and Soul Grant Competition.
Adobe Experience Cloud Blog
MARCH 3, 2011
by Maria Pergolino It’s one thing to generate leads. It’s another to close them. The industry wide statistic of 70% of leads never receiving effective sales follow-up is astounding. With the mass amount of resources devoted to lead generation, the act of following up on leads has to be improved to experience growth in conversion rates. The key to generating, nurturing and closing leads is communication.
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Whether your organization is at the start of its sustainability and impact journey or years into it, many brands share a common concern: the uncertainty of whether they are sending stakeholders mixed messages. Creating content that speaks to your audience's “love language” can be a tricky dance. But, worry not! 3BL has put together tips to ensure that your content not only finds its rhythm but also resonates with your target audiences.
MLT Creative
MARCH 3, 2011
Guest Post by blogger and author, Mark W. Schaefer. Our recent webinar "Elevating Your B2B Blog: Content, Conversations & Conversions" resulted in more questions than we had time to answer so we'll provide a personal reply on our blog to each question over the next few days. We received this great question from Josh Cantrell, a B2B blogger. Who is my audience?
Biznology
MARCH 3, 2011
Image via Wikipedia. This might have happened to you. You are all fired up about the possibilities of search marketing, but you just haven't figured out how to get the executive support that you need. You know that you have to get approvals for budgets, the go-ahead for resources, and most importantly, commitments for other key people in the organization to do their parts.
Hubspot
MARCH 4, 2011
Marketers are becoming more and more interested in measuring the ROI of social media. According to eMarketer four out of five US businesses with at least 100 employees will be using social media for their marketing efforts this year. This makes measuring the effects of these marketing efforts even more important. Up to this point the top metric for social marketing success was site traffic, but more and more focus has been given to other values such as fans / followers and positive buzz.
Adobe Experience Cloud Blog
MARCH 2, 2011
by Caroline Ruggiero I recently heard Dr. TR Rao of Market Probe speak at a Market Research Bulletin webinar. He posed an interesting question – Does customer advocacy exist in the B2B world? He believes that, yes, there is. However, what was also enlightening to me was the discussion of just how crucial it is in today’s business world. Why is it important?
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr
EMagine B2B Blog
MARCH 3, 2011
Despite a fair level of continuing skepticism about social media, we’ve heard voices from the polar-opposite camp suggesting that businesses embrace social to the extent of actually abandoning their websites! We think that’s a really bad idea, and now we’ve found a well-reasoned supporting analysis in an excerpt from Shama Kabani’s new book, “The Zen [.].
Biznology
FEBRUARY 28, 2011
Image via CrunchBase. Amidst the blizzard of announcements by search engines or which social media sites they are now checking to rank your search results, it leaves a question unanswered: "Just what do you do about it all?" Most of us have only a limited amount of time to spend on search marketing, and now there seems to be one more thing to add to our busy to-do lists.
MLT Creative
MARCH 4, 2011
I recently read a study that clearly demonstrated the relevance of research in any B2B marketing campaign. Though it was actually for a health campaign, it told a lesson that holds true in B2B, and is thus worthy of discussion. The study’s focus was an organization attempting to motivate women for breast screenings. Data had shown that a particular community was not getting annual screenings, so a team created a communication campaign urging them to do so.
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