Study: B-to-B Marketers Lagging With Social Media. Data shows about 40 percent of b-to-b brands aren’t using social marketing. Of 548 b-to-b marketers surveyed by Eloqua, about 40 percent say they are not yet using social media marketing. MORE
Tweet As I talk to marketing and sales leaders, I hear this reoccurring theme: “I want to do something that really matters; I want to feel what I’m doing is really making a real difference.” ” I feel the same way, but I’ve painfully learned that it’s futile to make changes outside before we make changes inside. This requires a different kind of thinking to drive a different way of marketing. MORE
Have you noticed how so many B2B companies seem to be running their own proprietary conferences these days? In conversations with several marketers, I have identified six reasons to consider it. Who better to sell for you than happy current customers? MORE
Or, “Once this automation system is installed, it will take our marketing to the next level.” Déjà vu all over again, to echo Yogi Berra. Think about it: if their clients can’t get the value from the software, their revenues are going to be impacted. Three things come to mind. MORE
I’ve got to admit, when SiriusDecisions’ Jennifer Ross and Marisa Kopec opened their keynote session yesterday morning saying their presentation was going to be “provocative”, I was skeptical. So what does this mean for marketers who thought we were impossible to shock or provoke? MORE
Today, 89% of B-to-B marketers in the U.S. are using social media, says a study conducted by iTracks and the Business Marketing Association (BMA). In fact, B-to-B use of social media may have even eclipsed that of consumer marketers, according to another report from White Horse Productions. But the B-to-B marketers I talk to still sound confused. What you want to do is get out of the hype, get real, and get results. MORE
There’s a spirited debate in B-to-B marketing about whether it’s best to give away information (aka “content,” like white papers and research reports) to all comers, versus requiring web visitors to provide some information in exchange for a content download. In other words, to gate your content or not to gate. The underlying assumption there is that people buy from companies that they trust—a valid point, to be sure. MORE
B-to-B marketers are often guilty of laziness when it comes to testing their communications, whether it’s testing the copy approach, the layout, the offer or the target audience. Well, to call it laziness may not be entirely fair. Image via Wikipedia. MORE
One problem that plagues B-to-B sales and marketing is coming up with relevant, timely messages for nurturing customer relationships. I recently ran across a particularly compelling solution to this problem: Personalized email that links to entertaining, but useful, videos. MORE
If you’re a marketer in a medium-to large-sized B2B company, you’re almost certainly using customer relationship management (CRM) software to track your customers and prospects. I encourage you to restrain your enthusiasm. No social map is going to unearth these relationships. MORE
This is the first in a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners in the field of B-to-B demand generation. Today’s guest is Michael Damphousse , CEO/CMO of Green Leads, LLC , a firm that specializes in using the phone to get qualified appointments for its clients’ salespeople on a pay-per-performance basis. His blog, Smashmouth Marketing , has developed a wide following among B-to-B marketing professionals. MORE
Yesterday, in this very space, my friend Ruth Stevens made the case against “gating content” –placing your best stuff behind a registration or contact form so that you mine your Web visitors for those precious e-mail addresses and hand them off to your CRM system so they can be worked as “leads.” No, this is just an issue that I have a history with, going all the way back to my IBM days and with several clients since. Credit: Getty Images via @daylife. MORE
My book Social Marketing to the Business Customer with co-author Eric Schwartzman was released last month and is now available through Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Borders and other booksellers. It’s the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media , and the most comprehensive collection of best practices and case studies currently available in print. Everyone seems to be interested in the concept of using social media to reach a focused, select group of individuals. MORE
Business-to-business marketers are plagued by data problems. To shed some light on B2B data problems, Bernice Grossman and I compiled a working list of problems and solutions. Give them objective rules to follow. Test a few vendors to find the one that works best with your data. MORE
I listened to Michael Brenner recently give a keynote talk to B2B marketers at the MeritDirect Coop client conference, and picked up scads of great insights, tips, and strategic wisdom I’d like to share. Among them: Find out what your buyers are looking for, and give it to them. MORE
The other day, a marketing colleague told me she was feeling under pressure to move all her efforts to inbound, or “pull,” marketing. SEO and SEM, which will pull them to your site and your content when prospects are looking for particular information. MORE
Despite the attention given to large enterprise marketing, it’s small and medium businesses (SMB) where the bulk of marketing investments go. SMB is where there’s enough volume to do plenty of testing. Here are the nuggets that were most revealing to me. MORE
On May 25, 2018, any company that is not compliance with the European Union’s new opt-in regulations is at risk of a fine of up to 20 million euros, or 4% of their global topline revenue. Furthermore, the reg requires businesses to buy only from firms who are compliant. MORE
But this is the one to acquire for your marketing library, for two reasons. First, it’s your one-stop shop on the entire subject, from strategy and planning, to thorny execution matters like measuring the ROI. I recommend Epic Content Marketing to everyone who sells to business buyers. MORE
In my view, the primary objective of B-to-B marketing is to drive leads and sales. Recommendation: Let your brand come along for the ride while you focus your marketing on convincing potential buyers to raise their hands and express interest in your products or services. MORE
In the B2B marketing world, content is used primarily to 1. Develop the relationship over time until the prospect is ready to see a salesperson, a process known as lead nurturing. For these two purposes, business marketers need to have on hand an array of very particular types of content assets. A good way to determine what’s available, and what additional content you need to create, is to perform a content audit. Photo credit: Wikipedia. MORE
Are you hounded by email pitches offering access to all kinds of prospective business targets? As a B2B marketer, I am always interested in new customer data sources, so I feel compelled to at least give them a listen. So, over time, I have come up with a 9-point assessment strategy to help marketers determine the likely legitimacy of a potential vendor, using approaches that can be replicated by anyone, at arm’s length. (Photo credit: Tim Morgan). MORE
In the old days—just a few years ago—when business buyers had a problem, they’d call in their vendors for advice on how to solve it. So a sales person was in a nifty position to educate—and influence—the buyer from the earliest stages of the process. Image via Wikipedia. MORE
Lessons from the B-to-B Dream Team Power Panel MORE
While preparing case studies for book, I had the fun of interviewing a bunch of very smart B2B marketers to learn how they were applying data and analytics to their marketing objectives. My new book, B2B Data-Driven Marketing: Sources, Uses, Results , is launching in a few weeks. MORE
In our fast-changing marketing world, a smart B2B practitioner keeps up to date by learning from thought leaders. While this used to mean reading business books and magazines, today it means blogs. Eric’s writing is always practical, action oriented, and a joy to read. MORE
I was delighted when B2B Marketing Zone – a website and newsletter that I devour – asked me to be one of 25 contributors to its “ B2B Marketing Trends for 2016 ” e-book. Clearly, we need to do better.” – Erika Goldwater. “If MORE
Finding new customers is a lot easier these days, what with innovative, digitally based ways to capture and collect data. New ways to find prospects continue to come on the scene—it seems like daily. Susceptible to hurricane damage? MORE
The best way to provoke discussion on LinkedIn is to ask questions. Rather than sharing a link to an article, use it to kick off a discussion. For example, instead of posting a headline and a link to an article about cloud security, formulate it into a question: “This article on Cloud Computing Path makes the case that the recent Dropbox security breach proves that the cloud is not yet secure enough for the enterprise. Think of the Benefit to Your Audience. MORE
It’s a platform for communications, for selling, for just about every element of the marketing arsenal, and it’s is forcing marketers to think more carefully about customer and prospect data. Most marketing technologies claim to make marketer’s lives simpler. MORE
Best of all, a number of new tools and tactics are now available to do the marketing job efficiently. These are the accounts we pay attention to.”. We need volume of at least 1,500 leads a month to serve a client efficiently,” says Jeff Feuer, CEO. MORE
I had the chance recently to catch up with Martyn Etherington , a marketing leader I’ve long admired. In a reflective mood, he was willing to field some questions about his successes there. Where did you direct them to focus their efforts, and why? MORE
It refers to the ascendance of content marketing (especially in B-to-B), and the differential between the current inventory of quality content that most B-to-B companies have, and the amount they need to have to market effectively. MORE
That’s a good thing, since marketers are under increasing pressure to manage, collect, and make use of data, according to a recent CMO Club/Gartner study. Most B2B marketers really struggle to get their arms around the reality of customer and prospect information. MORE
With a tip of the hat to Barbara Walters , I’d like to introduce ten fascinating people who have brought new ideas and admirable energy to the B2B marketing world this year. It’s an eclectic list, culled from contacts I happened to make in 2015. We are lucky to have them. MORE
This is a draft of chapter 10 of Social Marketing to the Business Customer by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman. This chapter focuses on how to calculate ROI of social media and Internet marketing programs in general. ROI analysis enforces rigor that leads to better decisions. MORE
Here are 5 steps you can take to maintain data accuracy, a process known as “data hygiene.”. Harness customer-facing personnel to update the data. Leverage the access of customer-facing personnel to fresh contact information. MORE
But B2B marketers still struggle to get their full share of value from data. One reason is that they are missing some important ways to apply the data to marketing problems. Querying and performing “what-ifs” to stimulate marketing ideas and actions. Can anyone add to it? MORE
It’s no secret that the factors that motivate salespeople to change the way they work have to be pretty simple: Help them spend more time selling and less time scrounging for information and telling managers what they’re doing. MORE
Every time you turn around, a new “performance marketing” opportunity turns up for B-to-B marketers. But there are some potholes to consider. Let’s look at how marketers get value out of this approach to finding new customers. . So marketers need to do the math. MORE
In preparing my new book on the subject—to be published in June of 2015—I had a chance to speak to a variety of brilliant thinkers about where things are headed. So the outlook for talent to manage the new technologies in marketing is bright. MORE
If you’re selling to business buyers, data about your customers and prospects is essential to success. Even with the data on hand, many marketers are unsure of what to do with it. You need to get a grip on customer data, and figure out how to put it to work for your business. MORE
The most reliable and scalable approach to finding new B2B customers is outbound communications–whether one is using mail, phone, or email, or using rented or purchased lists. Links to LinkedIn profiles of company managers (Stirista). (Photo credit: Wikipedia). MORE
B to B Related Topics 
Biznology
JULY 5, 2012
Every time you turn around, a new “performance marketing” opportunity turns up for B-to-B marketers. But there are some potholes to consider. Let’s look at how marketers get value out of this approach to finding new customers. . So marketers need to do the math.
Biznology
MAY 30, 2012
There’s a spirited debate in B-to-B marketing about whether it’s best to give away information (aka “content,” like white papers and research reports) to all comers, versus requiring web visitors to provide some information in exchange for a content download. In other words, to gate your content or not to gate. The underlying assumption there is that people buy from companies that they trust—a valid point, to be sure.
Sales Lead Insights
APRIL 4, 2011
In my view, the primary objective of B-to-B marketing is to drive leads and sales. Recommendation: Let your brand come along for the ride while you focus your marketing on convincing potential buyers to raise their hands and express interest in your products or services.
Biznology
NOVEMBER 30, 2011
B-to-B marketers are often guilty of laziness when it comes to testing their communications, whether it’s testing the copy approach, the layout, the offer or the target audience. Well, to call it laziness may not be entirely fair. Image via Wikipedia.
Sales Lead Insights
JULY 14, 2011
It refers to the ascendance of content marketing (especially in B-to-B), and the differential between the current inventory of quality content that most B-to-B companies have, and the amount they need to have to market effectively.
Biznology
FEBRUARY 29, 2012
Today, 89% of B-to-B marketers in the U.S. are using social media, says a study conducted by iTracks and the Business Marketing Association (BMA). In fact, B-to-B use of social media may have even eclipsed that of consumer marketers, according to another report from White Horse Productions. But the B-to-B marketers I talk to still sound confused. What you want to do is get out of the hype, get real, and get results.
delicious b2bmarketing
NOVEMBER 28, 2012
Study: B-to-B Marketers Lagging With Social Media. Data shows about 40 percent of b-to-b brands aren’t using social marketing. Of 548 b-to-b marketers surveyed by Eloqua, about 40 percent say they are not yet using social media marketing.
Biznology
MAY 22, 2017
On May 25, 2018, any company that is not compliance with the European Union’s new opt-in regulations is at risk of a fine of up to 20 million euros, or 4% of their global topline revenue. Furthermore, the reg requires businesses to buy only from firms who are compliant.
Biznology
SEPTEMBER 3, 2015
Have you noticed how so many B2B companies seem to be running their own proprietary conferences these days? In conversations with several marketers, I have identified six reasons to consider it. Who better to sell for you than happy current customers?
Biznology
MAY 28, 2014
Here are 5 steps you can take to maintain data accuracy, a process known as “data hygiene.”. Harness customer-facing personnel to update the data. Leverage the access of customer-facing personnel to fresh contact information.
B2B Lead Generation Blog
AUGUST 18, 2014
Tweet As I talk to marketing and sales leaders, I hear this reoccurring theme: “I want to do something that really matters; I want to feel what I’m doing is really making a real difference.” ” I feel the same way, but I’ve painfully learned that it’s futile to make changes outside before we make changes inside. This requires a different kind of thinking to drive a different way of marketing.
Biznology
JANUARY 30, 2015
Business-to-business marketers are plagued by data problems. To shed some light on B2B data problems, Bernice Grossman and I compiled a working list of problems and solutions. Give them objective rules to follow. Test a few vendors to find the one that works best with your data.
Biznology
DECEMBER 31, 2014
Finding new customers is a lot easier these days, what with innovative, digitally based ways to capture and collect data. New ways to find prospects continue to come on the scene—it seems like daily. Susceptible to hurricane damage?
Biznology
APRIL 2, 2015
In preparing my new book on the subject—to be published in June of 2015—I had a chance to speak to a variety of brilliant thinkers about where things are headed. So the outlook for talent to manage the new technologies in marketing is bright.
Biznology
JANUARY 6, 2016
With a tip of the hat to Barbara Walters , I’d like to introduce ten fascinating people who have brought new ideas and admirable energy to the B2B marketing world this year. It’s an eclectic list, culled from contacts I happened to make in 2015. We are lucky to have them.
Biznology
SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
I had the chance recently to catch up with Martyn Etherington , a marketing leader I’ve long admired. In a reflective mood, he was willing to field some questions about his successes there. Where did you direct them to focus their efforts, and why?
Biznology
SEPTEMBER 24, 2014
In our fast-changing marketing world, a smart B2B practitioner keeps up to date by learning from thought leaders. While this used to mean reading business books and magazines, today it means blogs. Eric’s writing is always practical, action oriented, and a joy to read.
Biznology
NOVEMBER 27, 2013
The most reliable and scalable approach to finding new B2B customers is outbound communications–whether one is using mail, phone, or email, or using rented or purchased lists. Links to LinkedIn profiles of company managers (Stirista). (Photo credit: Wikipedia).
Biznology
DECEMBER 5, 2014
Best of all, a number of new tools and tactics are now available to do the marketing job efficiently. These are the accounts we pay attention to.”. We need volume of at least 1,500 leads a month to serve a client efficiently,” says Jeff Feuer, CEO.
Biznology
MAY 28, 2015
That’s a good thing, since marketers are under increasing pressure to manage, collect, and make use of data, according to a recent CMO Club/Gartner study. Most B2B marketers really struggle to get their arms around the reality of customer and prospect information.
Biznology
OCTOBER 28, 2013
But this is the one to acquire for your marketing library, for two reasons. First, it’s your one-stop shop on the entire subject, from strategy and planning, to thorny execution matters like measuring the ROI. I recommend Epic Content Marketing to everyone who sells to business buyers.
Biznology
MARCH 28, 2013
The other day, a marketing colleague told me she was feeling under pressure to move all her efforts to inbound, or “pull,” marketing. SEO and SEM, which will pull them to your site and your content when prospects are looking for particular information.
Biznology
JANUARY 29, 2014
Or, “Once this automation system is installed, it will take our marketing to the next level.” Déjà vu all over again, to echo Yogi Berra. Think about it: if their clients can’t get the value from the software, their revenues are going to be impacted. Three things come to mind.
Biznology
AUGUST 6, 2015
It’s a platform for communications, for selling, for just about every element of the marketing arsenal, and it’s is forcing marketers to think more carefully about customer and prospect data. Most marketing technologies claim to make marketer’s lives simpler.
Biznology
OCTOBER 14, 2015
If you’re selling to business buyers, data about your customers and prospects is essential to success. Even with the data on hand, many marketers are unsure of what to do with it. You need to get a grip on customer data, and figure out how to put it to work for your business.
Paul Gillin
OCTOBER 11, 2012
The best way to provoke discussion on LinkedIn is to ask questions. Rather than sharing a link to an article, use it to kick off a discussion. For example, instead of posting a headline and a link to an article about cloud security, formulate it into a question: “This article on Cloud Computing Path makes the case that the recent Dropbox security breach proves that the cloud is not yet secure enough for the enterprise. Think of the Benefit to Your Audience.
Biznology
JULY 2, 2015
But B2B marketers still struggle to get their full share of value from data. One reason is that they are missing some important ways to apply the data to marketing problems. Querying and performing “what-ifs” to stimulate marketing ideas and actions. Can anyone add to it?
Paul Gillin
APRIL 27, 2012
It’s no secret that the factors that motivate salespeople to change the way they work have to be pretty simple: Help them spend more time selling and less time scrounging for information and telling managers what they’re doing.
Biznology
JANUARY 23, 2012
One problem that plagues B-to-B sales and marketing is coming up with relevant, timely messages for nurturing customer relationships. I recently ran across a particularly compelling solution to this problem: Personalized email that links to entertaining, but useful, videos.
Paul Gillin
JANUARY 26, 2016
I was delighted when B2B Marketing Zone – a website and newsletter that I devour – asked me to be one of 25 contributors to its “ B2B Marketing Trends for 2016 ” e-book. Clearly, we need to do better.” – Erika Goldwater. “If
Biznology
JULY 23, 2014
Despite the attention given to large enterprise marketing, it’s small and medium businesses (SMB) where the bulk of marketing investments go. SMB is where there’s enough volume to do plenty of testing. Here are the nuggets that were most revealing to me.
Biznology
FEBRUARY 28, 2014
Are you hounded by email pitches offering access to all kinds of prospective business targets? As a B2B marketer, I am always interested in new customer data sources, so I feel compelled to at least give them a listen. So, over time, I have come up with a 9-point assessment strategy to help marketers determine the likely legitimacy of a potential vendor, using approaches that can be replicated by anyone, at arm’s length. (Photo credit: Tim Morgan).
Paul Gillin
JUNE 24, 2010
This is a draft of chapter 10 of Social Marketing to the Business Customer by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman. This chapter focuses on how to calculate ROI of social media and Internet marketing programs in general. ROI analysis enforces rigor that leads to better decisions.
Biznology
APRIL 24, 2015
While preparing case studies for book, I had the fun of interviewing a bunch of very smart B2B marketers to learn how they were applying data and analytics to their marketing objectives. My new book, B2B Data-Driven Marketing: Sources, Uses, Results , is launching in a few weeks.
Biznology
MAY 31, 2012
Yesterday, in this very space, my friend Ruth Stevens made the case against “gating content” –placing your best stuff behind a registration or contact form so that you mine your Web visitors for those precious e-mail addresses and hand them off to your CRM system so they can be worked as “leads.” No, this is just an issue that I have a history with, going all the way back to my IBM days and with several clients since. Credit: Getty Images via @daylife.
Sales Lead Insights
SEPTEMBER 28, 2009
This is the first in a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners in the field of B-to-B demand generation. Today’s guest is Michael Damphousse , CEO/CMO of Green Leads, LLC , a firm that specializes in using the phone to get qualified appointments for its clients’ salespeople on a pay-per-performance basis. His blog, Smashmouth Marketing , has developed a wide following among B-to-B marketing professionals.
Biznology
JULY 25, 2013
In the B2B marketing world, content is used primarily to 1. Develop the relationship over time until the prospect is ready to see a salesperson, a process known as lead nurturing. For these two purposes, business marketers need to have on hand an array of very particular types of content assets. A good way to determine what’s available, and what additional content you need to create, is to perform a content audit. Photo credit: Wikipedia.
Experience Marketing Insights
MAY 9, 2017
Lessons from the B-to-B Dream Team Power Panel
Paul Gillin
OCTOBER 7, 2010
If you’re a marketer in a medium-to large-sized B2B company, you’re almost certainly using customer relationship management (CRM) software to track your customers and prospects. I encourage you to restrain your enthusiasm. No social map is going to unearth these relationships.
Paul Gillin
FEBRUARY 22, 2011
My book Social Marketing to the Business Customer with co-author Eric Schwartzman was released last month and is now available through Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Borders and other booksellers. It’s the first book devoted exclusively to B2B social media , and the most comprehensive collection of best practices and case studies currently available in print. Everyone seems to be interested in the concept of using social media to reach a focused, select group of individuals.
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