2) Re-focus messaging from product to buyer While more direct access to the decision maker and buying authority may simplify the decision process to some extent, it requires marketing to better understand the underlying business problem the cloud solution is solving. The cloud is all the rage these days. Saugatuck Technology's Bruce Guptill released some interesting market research predicting that by 2014 the majority of new corporate B2B software purchases will be in the form of cloud software solutions (SaaS) rather than traditional on-premise software. Here is why. MORE >>

They educate themselves on the nature of their business problem, possible solution options, available vendors and products. Today's prospects filter out most attempts by companies to interrupt them with vendor and product focused marketing messages and sales pitches. 2 - Buyer Persona After establishing your target segments at the macro level, and defining your ideal customer profile, let's look at the people within those target organizations that influence and make buying decisions for the type of products or services you offer. Your B2B markets are changing rapidly. MORE >>

The top response was product line (25.1%), followed by customer segment (19.6%), solution (16.4%), campaign or theme (16.0%), industry (15.8%), job role (5.8%) and other (1.3%). MarketingSherpa asked more than 900 B2B marketers how they expect their marketing budgets to change for 2011. The results are in: The majority of B2B organizations are increasing marketing budgets for inbound marketing tactics, including social media, virtual events and webinars, SEO and PPC. this year over 2009. This year, IDC says, tech companies will allocate 19.3% last year. last year. last year. last year. MORE >>

36) I hope you had a successful and productive 2010. With 2010 coming to an end, it is time for a quick review of the most popular B2B marketing posts on the Everything Technology Marketing blog. The 10 Most Popular Blog Posts (by number of re-tweets) 1 - 5 Steps to B2B Marketing Success (100) 2 - The Brave New World of B2B Marketing - Are You Ready? 98) 3 - Is Traditional B2B Marketing Dead? 87) 4 - What B2B Marekting tactics are Up, Down, Flat? 44) 8 - Is the In-House B2B Marketing Department Going Away? See you in 2011 MORE >>

No surprises here: 67 percent of content marketing strategies are owned by corporate marketing, followed at a distant 41 percent for product marketing, and 20 percent for field marketing. Very few respondents rely on product management (16 percent) or external agencies (8 percent) for content strategy. Content marketing is one of the most popular strategies deployed by today's B2B marketers to attract and engage prospects, and guide them through the buying process. But how do marketers measure content marketing success? Who owns content marketing strategy? MORE >>