B-to-B TechMarketing Blog moves to B2B Marketing Solutions - and FREE report

This will be my final post in this location as I have a brand new WordPress site that is connected to my company, B2B Marketing Solutions, located here. It is much easier to sign-up and keep abreast of my ramblings by signing up to my RSS feed which you'll find on my Blog. That way you can receive the content in whatever is the easiest way for you to consume it.

I'm also providing a link to a free eConsultancy report on Internet Marketing Strategy. Go and check it out for information on five key current trends: customer centricity, channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

I have set up B2B Marketing Solutions to provide UK and overseas companies who need marketing strategy and execution, particularly around demand generation and pipeline management, but who can not yet justify investment in staff, with flexible access to marketing knowledge and skills.

We plan neither to be Consultants, nor an agency, but maybe a little of both, as needed, to support business generation aligned to the needs of Sales and Sales targets. If you want to know more, then check out the new site and get in touch.

I will continue to Blog on matters that affect the lives of B2B technology marketers from my new location, so check it out here.

Process and Objectives - then programs and tactics!

When I engage with a new client or lead a new marketing team, I'm often struck by how the drive to 'get things done' in Marketing, often with little budget and with immense time pressure - usually from Sales who are chasing quarterly numbers - takes over from thinking about planned outcomes. Everyone is busy. But do we stop long enough to determine if we are busy doing the right things?

Many marketing managers seem isolated from the sharp end of closing business and delivering revenue, with metrics, where they exist, still focused on opens, clicks and downloads rather than closed opportunities driven by Marketing activity. In a complex, long sales cycle, this is even more the case. So how does activity get associated with key business KPIs?

For those companies embracing marketing automation that by necessity drives a focus on process, data and measurement of outcomes, the automation project may for the first time encourage an explicit look at Marketing as more than a set of disparate activities. However a recent report suggests this is not always successful. 'Walk before you can run' was the key message of a recent DemandGen Report article on best practice for automation new adopters.

“Many companies rush to make an automation purchase before taking the time to define their internal requirements, such as what will they need from the automation solution,” said Carlos Hidalgo, President,  The Annuitas Group. “It is best to approach the purchase of automation in a cross-functional manner that includes groups beyond marketing including sales, operations, customer service and finance as these decisions will have an impact on each of these functional areas.”

This multi-functional, but marketing-led, approach to implementing what is effectively 'ERP for Marketing' introduces a fundamental change to the way marketing is practised in most B-to-B organisations. It produces a focus on outcomes rather than on activity. It requires Marketing to integrate at a process level with other functions and departments and demonstrate the link between what Marketing is doing and its impact on business performance. This is important stuff and it won't happen overnight.

I have yet to see many UK case studies of successful implementation and shows attended by many Marketing Managers continue to promote individual tactics, such as SEO and viral. Is this likely to change now that business is harder to come by and every dollar is being scrutinised?

Content is King in B2B Demand Generation

Personalised, Relevant Content
Things have moved on considerably in the last 10 years and creating 'stickiness' on your site is about delivering content relevant to the visitor and personalised to his/ her needs. Its form - interactive/static; flash video; Pdf; web text and graphics; - needs to be pertinent to the delivery of the content and not just 'whizzy' for its own sake.

In B2B demand generation is embracing the concept of marketers as publishers and the need to put content at the heart of your customer engagement strategy, because relevant content is now tied into the nurturing process that marketing automation platforms like Eloqua and Genius support. Companies such as Avitage are at the forefront of recognising the need,and providing support for, a content publishing strategy. Ardath Albee writes extensively about this in her Blog and I'd recommend both sites for background on the subject.

By combining unique visitor data, which tracks pages visited, with great content and savvy form design, you can now create a triggered program of interaction with visitors, which increases click-through rates and hence engagement. Marketing Sherpa provide an example here. There are also some great tips  on MarketingProfs (need to be a member).

Key to Complex Sales
As marketing inevitably moves more and more on-line, and both passive and dynamic digital channels drive people to your site(s), the range of skills required of marketing executives must keep up. Good content is integral to the complex B2B sales cycle and drives the capture-nurture-convert-close loop which marketing must effectively support to drive revenue and align with Sales.

Is B2B Marketing Changing Fast Enough?

'Despite the rapid, decade-long growth of Google and other digital forms of advertising, traditional channels still commanded 66% of b2b marketing budgets this year, according to the “2011 B2B Marketing Outlook” study.'

I was struck by this headline in BtoB magazine. What does this say about the state of Marketing? Either we are kidding ourselves about the impact of the Web, Email, Search marketing and social networking on our businesses or we are simply not putting our money where our mouths are! How can it be that in B2B, where budgets are comparatively small and market segments easier to target directly, we are not spending more on digital marketing? Do we think it's a passing fad?

Trade Shows Rule, Ok!
This article goes on to say that the top three areas of expenditure are 'trade shows and events (28%), magazines/trade publications (13%) and direct mail (9%). Apart from direct mail - which frequently could be replaced by email and eNewsletters - this off-line expenditure is in areas in which it is often hard to show any ROI. In my experience, Sales love events because it gives them an excuse to meet people (often people they already know). But ask what happened to the leads and things go very quiet! I'm not saying there isn't a place for target seminars and events - but 28% of budget...?

Decisions Must Be Data-Driven
80% of B2B marketers are using some form of digital marketing (what are the other 20% doing then..?) which is a relief, and it is even mentioned that through-the-line (digital plus off-line) campaigns are working, but, reading between the lines, this article suggests to me that many B2B marketers are still running campaigns from within their comfort zones and adding digital activity at the margins ('Yes, we're doing SEO'). How many marketers are looking at integrated, channel-neutral campaigns aligned to the sales pipeline and targeted at key stages of the buying cycle? How many are making decisions based on data, not just what they've always done or what Sales have asked for?

Not enough I would wager.