Best of B2B Marketing July 1, 2010 to July 31, 2010 Featured SourcesThe following are the top items from featured sources based on social signals.

  1. The 20 craziest things you can do on Twitter- grow - Practical Marketing Solutions, July 7, 2010
    OK, we’ve heard all the great business success stories about connecting and learning through Twitter. But the human race is made up of all kinds of people and some of them have more important things to do. Like hooking their toilet up to Twitter. Bloody great idea. The cows at a Buttermine Farms near Woodstock, Ont., doth protest. Tweet This!
  2. Marketing Dashboard: Active Discovery- Digital Body Language, July 27, 2010
    One of the most valuable areas to gain an understanding of is the current state of how your prospects actively discover your company and your solutions. The richness of insights that can be gained with a deep understanding of how buyers are using search is nearly without parallel. Are you Being Discovered? Paid vs. natural search efforts.
  3. True Confession: I Don’t Have a Social Media Strategy- Dianna Huff - B2B MarCom, July 22, 2010
    Social media gurus tell you to have a strategy. 8220;Not having a strategy&# was the #1 marketing mistake people listed on the survey Mac McIntosh and I did (the upcoming e-book will list the other nine). I’ve parroted this advice from the gurus. 8220;You must have a strategy before you begin social media,&# I say at my talks. Dead wrong.
  4. Best SEO Link Building Guides, Tips and Tools of 2010 (So Far)- Webbiquity, July 14, 2010
    Optimizing a website by incorporating keywords into page titles, headlines, text, page URLs, image alt tags and internal links will help improve the position of a site in the search engines—but it’s only half the battle. Search engines look at on-site factors to determine relevance, but at external links to gauge authority. Share this on Bebo.
  5. A Simple B2B Marketing Framework- Everything Technology Marketing, July 10, 2010
    We often discuss in this blog how B2B marketing is becoming more complex, and how to manage this complexity. Marketing is getting involved in many more areas that touch the customer along the buying process, multiplied by a dizzying variety of new tactics, online communications and engagement platforms. But that's content for another blog post.
  6. Dig Deep with B2B Buyer Personas- The Content Factor, July 6, 2010
    Every B2B marketer I talk to is on board with the concept of user personas to guide their web content strategy. Now our team is working with several clients to really drive this concept home, and apply personas more aggressively to the content they are creating. The results are paying off in content that truly speaks to the buyer. read more.
  7. Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing- Hubspot, July 7, 2010
    Editor's Note : An updated version of this article has been published here: " Inbound Marketing and the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web ". call these methods "outbound marketing" where a marketer pushes his message out far and wide hoping that it resonates with that needle in the haystack. Free Download: 2010 Online Marketing Blueprint.
  8. 12 Ways to Leverage Your LinkedIn Profile for a B2B Company- Social Media B2B, July 29, 2010
    LinkedIn is considered by many to be the professional social network, but since it is based around people and their individual profiles, many don’t realize the benefit their B2B company can get with a well-crafted, active personal profile. Descriptive Headline. The default for this field is your current position at your current company.
  9. How Much Should Brands Pay for Content Marketing?- Junta 42, July 29, 2010
    This cost of content marketing post was inspired by Kate Headen Waddell's post entitled Pay Peanuts Get Monkeys. At least one time per day, every day for three years, someone emails us at Junta42 or submits a project looking for a content vendor wondering how much content marketing (both print and web content) should cost them. What did I get?
  10. 5 Ways to Make A Better Analytics Presentation- Manhattan Marketing Maven, July 23, 2010
    Analytics are the new black. Everyone is scrambling to count, measure, monitor and calculate what’s going on in the hope of understanding why. The universal goal is to create learning mechanisms that make us smarter and smarter as we move forward. 0160; But collecting the numbers and making sense of them are two different things. Go Softly.
  11. Email Marketing Tips, Trends and Techniques with Return Path’s Stephanie Miller- Modern B2B Marketing, July 7, 2010
    For our latest B2B Thought Leader Interview , we had the chance to talk to Stephanie Miller, Return Path’s email marketing expert. With over 20 years of direct marketing experience, Stephanie Miller is an expert on email marketing best practices. Miller Your knowledge of email marketing is very impressive. m all about helping customers.
  12. Why B2B social media is about making love, not war- B2B Marketing Online, July 28, 2010
    Ever wondered why Facebook has a 'like' button, but not a 'dislike' button? was having a conversation with clients the other day about this and it seemed to underline a much wider point - what is possibly the biggest obstacle between B2B marketers and success in social media marketing.
  13. The clash of the social media know-nothings- grow - Practical Marketing Solutions, July 25, 2010
    The know-nothings. You know who I’m talking about right? Social media “marketers&# who have never practiced marketing. Maybe have never even had a sales job or a college-level marketing class. But they’ve created a Facebook page and have 500 followers on Twitter so somehow that makes them a guru. billion. Every Cash flow. Maybe.
  14. Oracle’s Social Media Policy- Paul Gillin, July 8, 2010
    With the acquisition of Sun complete, Oracle distributed its social media policy to employees this week, and I was forwarded a copy. version from six months ago can be found here. This is a nice, concise document that covers all the bases I can think of. It’s particularly useful in its approach to copyright and permissions. REQUIREMENTS.
  15. Do You Plan For The Content Experience?- Marketing Interactions, July 11, 2010
    As the business environment becomes more interactive and "social," content must follow step and become more experiential. was working on a project over the weekend and thinking about the entire experience we were building for prospects with content. Content is not just about an email send, or a blog post, or a white paper, or a Tweet.
  16. The Sweet Spot: We’re all ‘smarketers’ now- Follow the Lead, July 8, 2010
    Sam Zales. Smarketer. Sure, it sounds weird at first, but “simulcast” – a portmanteau of “simultaneous and broadcast” – probably sounded funny when it first hit the national lexicon in the late 1940s. Smarketer, ZoomInfo: In light of the ongoing upheaval in b-to-b sales, what are your biggest challenges for the remainder of the year?
  17. Blog to Generate Leads- Lead Views, July 16, 2010
    The importance of Corporate blogging is known to all, but few companies are able to use this medium as a lead generation tool. Yes, corporate blogs are an excellent resource for Lead generation. Talk of any online brand building exercise and Corporate blogs will emerge as the cheapest, most effective and easily manageable solution. Name your blog.
  18. 3 Great B2B Demand Gen Articles from Last Week- Smashmouth Marketing, July 29, 2010
    It's amazing that there's so much great content out there surrounding demand generation and B2B sales and marketing! Here are a few that stand out to the Smashmouth crowd from last week: Are Your Inside Sales Reps Good Detectives? The author likens his approach to that of Columbo and collects as much detail from his prospects as he can.
  19. Ben & Jerry's Drops Email Marketing In Favor of Social Media- Hubspot, July 14, 2010
    Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream of Vermont announced in an email to their subscribers last week that they will be discontinuing their regular email marketing campaigns, in favor of social media. However, Ben & Jerry's clearly feels otherwise and that their customers prefer contact through social media sites to email in their inbox.
  20. Updated B2B Facebook Page Examples with Data- Social Media B2B, July 23, 2010
    This short post is to let you know that we updated the 10 Examples of B2B Facebook Pages post. As that has been one of the most popular posts on this site, and still generates regular traffic, we wanted to make sure the information was updated where readers are still going. That was just a tip I hope you caught. Dec 2009. July 2010. Increase. Cisco.
  21. Sales Is the Reason Your Content Exists - Content Marketing ROI- Junta 42, July 26, 2010
    Before I launched my business, I read the Bootstrapper's Bible by Seth Godin. 0160;It was and is invaluable. Every year or so, I dig it out of the file folders and re-read it. 0160;I always find something new.something I didn't realize the last time through. But every time, this is the statement that resonates the most.
  22. What Does It Take to Be a Thought Leader?- Illuminating the Future, July 20, 2010
    It's probably clear by now that an individual's compensation or an enterprise's growth is tied to what sets it apart. You won't succeed in this marketplace if you don't specialize and offer something that is truly distinctive. But it's not enough to provide distinctive value. You win by being the one that owns an issue. Should I be paying attention?
  23. Tell a Memorable and Relevant Story to Make Your Content Marketing Positively Viral- Content Marketing Today, July 29, 2010
    Geico’s Drill Sergeant Therapist Gets It Just Right. Mayflower Marionette Gets It All Wrong. Even though they spend plenty of money on television advertising, Geico doesn’t need to spend much money at all for this incredibly effective commercial which is one of a series that are similarly effective. That makes them even more memorable.
  24. Ben & Jerry's email marketing bluff: The calm after the storm in a teacup?- B2B Marketing Online, July 26, 2010
    Ben & Jerry’s seemingly knee-jerk decision to drop email marketing made waves across the marketing industry last week. As it turns out the rumours were hugely exaggerated and far from cutting email communication altogether, the ice-cream giant had simply switched off its monthly newsletter to UK fans in favour of social media.
  25. Creating a content marketing plan — without any content- grow - Practical Marketing Solutions, July 6, 2010
    When somebody talks about “content marketing,&# they’re really talking about “content engineering&# — scientifically optimizing documents such as blogs, case studies and white papers to create search engine results and sales leads. This can be an extremely complicated, time-consuming and expensive proposition! Twitter.
  26. To Auto Tweet or Not to Auto Tweet?- MI6 Marketing Agency, July 21, 2010
    Author: Chris Herbert, B2B Specialist & Founder of mi6. Audience: Business Executives and Marketing Leaders. For the past few days I’ve been conducting a Twitter experiment. do these in order to test theories and satisfy my curiosity. It can be a bit risky but better me than Mi6 clients. The Experiment. What Happened. Was it any good?
  27. Using Editorial Calendars in B2B Content Marketing- Marketing Interactions, July 1, 2010
    This post is due to a Twitter exchange that ended a bit badly because I misunderstood the person's intentions. He was using Twitter to fire rapid questions at me after I completed my session at the Lead Management Summit on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. Many roads to Oz, as they say. The context can get skewed. finally asked him to stop.
  28. The Best Email Subject Line For Teleprospecting I've Seen Yet.- Sales Prospecting Perspectives, July 28, 2010
    The best email subject line I've seen in my career came through my Inbox this week. Brad G, one of our inside sales reps shared an email he had received from a prospect praising his persistence in prospecting him. Love to see that. As I was closing out the email I glanced at the subject line that Brad had sent to the prospect. or "do I know Pete"?
  29. Blog Checklist: 10 Items BEFORE You Publish…- Writing on the Web, July 14, 2010
    What is a good checklist before you publish on your blog? I’m preparing some learning modules for a content marketing presentation and came up with this checklist of 10 items. Tell me what you think. Here’s what happens, usually. Write 350-600 words ( educate, entertain, engage, enrich readers). Format post (bulleted lists, etc.).
  30. Improve Your Tweets Using HootSuite’s Twitter Stats- Sazbean, July 19, 2010
    An important part of any strategy is measurement — so you know what’s working and what’s not and where to improve. Using Twitter to have conversations and provide useful information to your intended audience can be a valuable part of your online strategy. But how do you know what your audience likes or dislikes? Daily Clicks.
  31. How to Use Creative Commons to Add Images to Your Blog- Hubspot, July 22, 2010
    Adding images to your blog posts helps readers and search engines better understand what your post is about. But where can a conscientious business blogger find free, legal images to use on their blog? Many beginning bloggers turn to the image search in Google. But pictures found in this way are almost always subject to restrictive copyright terms.
  32. Mobile Sites for B2B BlackBerry Users- Social Media B2B, July 12, 2010
    In previous posts, I explored BlackBerry apps that help B2B marketers , B2B public relations professionals and B2B sales teams better communicate, travel, organize and share information. Mobile web usage is expected to overtake desktop usage by 2015 , and companies are beginning to make sure their websites provide a comparable experience. Video.
  33. Marketers Act Like Publishers, with One Exception- Junta 42, July 22, 2010
    Jeremy Victor just published two excellent articles on how to think and act like a publisher ( part 1 and part 2 ). 0160; It's strange, all this talk about being a publisher today. Who would want to be a publisher today? So why all this talk about thinking and acting like a publisher? Engagement has never been a problem for publishers.
  34. B2B Social Media – 10 Tips From The Definitive Guide To Social Media- Modern B2B Marketing, July 15, 2010
    As B2B marketers, we know the growing importance of B2B social media. We know it’s a necessary tool for seed nurturing and demand generation , but in many cases, B2B marketers are still not sure where to begin. 1. Develop a plan – Ask yourself these three questions: WHO – Who is your target audience? Do you have a buyer persona? Vimeo.
  35. Take 5 Minutes to Understand How Google Search Works- Content Marketing Today, July 2, 2010
    Another Excellent Infographic Offers Content Marketers a First Baby Step to Findability. Courtesy of PPCBlog.com. If you’re in business today, you have to be on the Internet. But, being there is barely a beginning. That’s what SEO is all about. Before Fretting about SEO, First Get a Clue About How Google Works from PPCBLOG’s Infographic.
  36. Should B2B brands be excited by the marketing opportunities the iPad presents?- B2B Marketing Online, July 13, 2010
    Image via CrunchBase. NO - More than excitement, the iPad in the B2B arena needs specialisation and broadening horizons. Lau, Moyano, digital planner at Publicis Modem. The iPad is not a revolutionary new channel, but just a new component of the marketing mix. don't think that B2B brands should necessarily. channels. adapt to this new channel.
  37. Twitter time-savers: Tweet success in just 20 minutes a day- grow - Practical Marketing Solutions, July 18, 2010
    “How much time should I spend on Twitter?&# is a question I get asked repeatedly. And last week one person upped the game by asking, “But what if I only have 20 minutes a day?&#. OK, I accept the challenge! Here are my thoughts on being an effective Twitter-er in only 20 minutes a day. The 20-minute challenge for beginners. No way.
  38. The Quintessential Marketing Automation Guidebook Spotlight: Andrew Gaffney Scoops on Marketing Metrics- Funnel Focus, July 12, 2010
    Andrew Gaffney is Editor and Publisher of DemandGen Report, a leading e-media publication spotlighting the strategies that help companies better align their sales and marketing organizations - a key component of their coverage being on sales and marketing automation tools. Pipeline Conversions. Revenue Impact.
  39. Find New Customers releases new white paper on email marketing- Fearless Competitor, July 21, 2010
    Very exciting to finally announce the release a new white paper from Find New Customers , a leading demand generation company. Moving from Transactional to Conversational Email: New ways to engage prospective buyers and win business. Even with the rapid growth of social networks, email marketing remains the lynchpin of communications.
  40. Time to Kill the Press Release?- What Works - What Doesn't, July 8, 2010
    While writing a press release for a client the other day, I got to thinking about what I was doing. Dangerous idea, thinking too much. 0160; More importantly, your target audience of prospects, analysts and, yes, the occasional surviving editor, wants a lot more candor, insight and context than they’ll find in a press release.
  41. 3 Tips for Building an Effective Landing Page- Hubspot, July 19, 2010
    What is considered an effective landing page ? Landing pages are where a business captures leads. An effective landing page is capable of getting a high proportion of site visitors to provide their contact information for future lead cultivation. This is no easy task, however. This tip carries one implication. Utilize this consumer mentality well.
  42. 5 B2B Social Media Lessons from Presentation Planning- Social Media B2B, July 8, 2010
    Any B2B social media endeavor requires planning, whether it is a short term campaign or a long term approach. It is unlikely you will succeed in meeting your goals without some degree of planning. also recently moderated a panel for a local interactive marketing association and I wanted to share some lessons learned from my planning process.
  43. Be the same as everyone else but different - Savvy B2B Marketing, July 28, 2010
    You must be the same as everyone else, but different. Isn't that just the way it always is? And isn't that why the not so creative as well as the overly creative kids always ate their own lunch tables? The ends of the bell curve are recognized and sometimes even rewarded but let's face it, they're not embraced by the many. to a degree. Then what?
  44. Strengthening thought leadership marketing: Five steps to excellence- Reputation to Revenue, July 27, 2010
    I've just had the privilege of helping judge ITSMA's Marketing Excellence Awards , and was impressed in particular with the submissions in the Thought Leadership Marketing category. As recently as five years ago, thought leadership marketing was mainly the province of the top consulting firms. Few other B2B firms took it seriously. They go deep.
  45. 5 Email Marketing Thought Leaders- Marketing Genius Blog, July 14, 2010
    Wrapping up my series on email marketing I wanted to leave you with my list of individuals who are defining the space with leading edge thinking and practices. While not exhaustive, here are five folks that I look to as leaders: Mark Brownlow ( @MarkatEMR ). Simms Jenkins ( @SimmsJenkins ). Tamara Gielen ( @tamaragielen ). Tweet This! Digg this!
  46. There’s No Such Thing as B2B Social Media- B2B Voices, July 23, 2010
    A group of us here in the office have been having some discussions lately about our digital and social media capabilities in the B2B social media space. If you work in an agency, you know how it goes – the big, splashy, sexy B2C stuff tends to get all the attention. After all, they have Ashton Kutcher. We have engineers, analysts and ROI models.
  47. Marketing Leader’s Perspective: No cogs allowed in social media and content marketing- B2B Lead Generation Blog, July 26, 2010
    If you lead a team of marketers, you likely have a creative bunch. People who, ideally, have a lot of passion about what they do – the key ingredient for successful social media and content marketing. But that natural passion can easily get buried under layers of indiscernible corporate fiat. Daniel Burstein: “Passion” and “heart.” BC: That’s true.

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