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?

Thoughts on Business-to-Business High-Tech Marketing

As a B-to-B Marketeer for over 25 years, 19 of which have been in high-tech, I have been involved at the sharp end of integrating marketing and business strategies, aligning sales and marketing and implementing campaigns to execute strategy at an EMEA and worldwide level. I have seen a lot of change in the marketing tools available, the demand to 'cut through the noise' and the challenge to deliver more and higher quality leads with fewer resources and in shorter timescales.

I thought I'd use this Blog to ruminate on the state of B-to-B marketing and provide some insight into the challenges we all face day to day in trying to deliver on the expectations of the businesses we work for. If this inspires some interaction and sharing of best practice then that can only be a good thing. If nothing else it will help to get some things of my chest which bug me, which possibly no one else, other than those of you out there facing the same challenges, is interested in.

I have primarily worked in Enterprise software and services with a strong direct channel orientation, but a lot of the challenges I face will be familiar whether you rely on direct Sales, systems integrators, resellers or channel distribution models.

The primary things I want to talk about are:

- Aligning sales and Marketing: how to get everyone 'singing from the same hymn sheet' or working off the same playbook
- Sales and Marketing automation: how to ensure Salesforce, Eloqua, or your SFA/ automation system 'de jour' help the practice of driving growth and don't just get in the way
- Performance measurement: closely aligned with the above - how do you measure both the short term lead generation and long term brand development aspects of Marketing? What are the correct metrics and how can you reliably collect actionable data?
- Digital marketing and Social networking - how do we build Web 2.0 into marketing strategy and not just get hung up on the new tools
- Human resources, MRM etc.: how do marketing organizations need to plan and organize to execute effectively in today's fast-moving environment
- Change management: how to align process, people, systems and metrics in a pragmatic way that doesn't involve putting the company on hold for 6 months...

I'm sure there's more but these things are on my mind at the moment (and that's probably enough for now).

Lots of other people are bombarding us with 'best practice' everyday - MarketingProfs, MarketingSherpa, BtoB Marketing, Sirius all have good things to say - these are just my thoughts. Hopefully I can find time to share them.

I'm looking forward to the debate.