It's this disconnect that needs to be corrected before B2B marketers will begin to generate the results that social media--used well--can help them to achieve. Sometimes I become a bit skeptical when I see the huge uptake in social media by B2B marketers. In fact, recent research by Junta42 and Marketing Profs finds that use of social media is the top B2B tactic in use as identified by 79% of 985 marketers. Unfortunately, only 31% of those marketers said they found it effective. So what's the biggest question to ask when using B2B social media in marketing? Will it blend? MORE >>

In the report, we looked at two sides of the coin; Salespeople who could attribute lots of sales opportunities to LinkedIn (Top Performers) and the others who generated a few—or none at all. Jill Konrath and I recently released a report, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code , that details what we learned from a survey of 3,094 salespeople about their use of LinkedIn as a sales tool. As a marketing professional, I found the responses fascinating and began thinking about how the data crosses boundaries to inform the marketing side. Establishing a Professional Presence. MORE >>

Judging by the amount of online noise being generated, the idea of publishing content is no longer considered to be an "edgy" proposition for many vendors. Your ability to look beyond yourself and recognize greatness in others draws your audience in and may just generate conversations you wouldn't otherwise have. But noise isn't going to help you meet your goals. The thing about noise is that we've all become adept at tuning it out. There's just so much of it that we've had to develop the survival skill of discernment. It needs to be exceptional. MORE >>

A new study on an often overlooked subject is fresh off the presses: Demandbase and Focus.com 2011 National Website Demand Generation Study. Ardath: What prompted the choice of the topic of website demand generation as the focus of the survey?   Marketo generates 1000’s of leads a month from their website and guess what: they don’t even ask for phone number on the registration form.  Ardath: In your opinion, what is the biggest reason that B2B websites fail to generate demand?   Isn’t that interesting?  Craig: There are two reasons.  MORE >>

One of my clients has a mandate from the C-level this year to turn marketing into a demand generation engine. The way marketing has always been done will not produce the results B2B marketers need to grow their businesses today. You know it, you've heard it — haven't we all? The question that remains is often about how to get executive buy-in and support to shift dollars? Many channels and methods that have historically good performance may be slowing, but executives presented with new and unproven channels (for your company) can be hard to convince. Use that as your proof case. MORE >>