<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891</id><updated>2012-02-16T12:49:29.976-08:00</updated><category term='Search Engine Marketing'/><category term='Landing Page Optimization'/><category term='Interruption Marketing'/><category term='Modern B2B Marketing'/><category term='Marketing Budgets'/><title type='text'>Modern B2B Marketing</title><subtitle type='html'>The focus of this blog is to discuss new ways of thinking about B2B marketing, from best practices in search engine marketing to lead nurturing to marketing accountability.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>9</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-6624993508055890802</id><published>2006-10-22T12:01:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-10-22T12:02:22.293-07:00</updated><title type='text'>This Blog has Moved!</title><content type='html'>The new location is at &lt;a href="http://blog.marketo.com/"&gt;blog.marketo.com&lt;/a&gt;. Please update your feeds, thank you!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-6624993508055890802?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/6624993508055890802/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=6624993508055890802' title='40 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/6624993508055890802'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/6624993508055890802'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/10/this-blog-has-moved.html' title='This Blog has Moved!'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>40</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-6027759531938729510</id><published>2006-10-07T19:45:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-10-07T19:46:15.225-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Highlights from 2006 CMO Council Summit</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I had the opportunity to attend this year’s CMO Council Summit in &lt;st1:place st="on"&gt;&lt;st1:city st="on"&gt;San Francisco&lt;/st1:city&gt;&lt;/st1:place&gt;, titled “&lt;a href="http://www.cmosummit.org/2006/sf/"&gt;The Power of Engagement: Gaining Customer Intimacy, Influence &amp; Inspiration&lt;/a&gt;”. The sessions were heavily focused on consumer marketing and brand building, so this summary will be a little off my normal topic of best practices in B2B marketing. If consumer marketing and brand building don’t interest you, feel free to skip this post.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;The Power of Engagement&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speakers: Christine Heckart, GM of Marketing for MicrosoftTV, and Martyn Enterington, VP of Marketing for Textronix.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;The      CMO Council &lt;a href="http://www.cmocouncil.org/SUBSECTIONS/programs_select.html"&gt;Select      and Connect&lt;/a&gt; study (of which I am on the Advisory Board) found that      marketing is suffering crisis of &lt;i style=""&gt;relevancy&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Marketers lack respect and relevance in      the executive suite, and they feel disconnected with the realities that      drive effective revenue. They let sales drive the conversations with      customers, not marketing. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;How      can marketers become more relevant? The speakers argued that it begins by      being relevant to customers, and that this requires a solid understanding      of customer needs and the buying process. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;More      generally, marketers should ask themselves, “How can marketing be more      relevant?” One way to think of this is to ask “What is the first thing my &lt;i style=""&gt;replacement&lt;/i&gt; would do?” And then, “What’s      the one big thing I’d like to accomplish in the next year, and what will I      stop doing to have the resources to get it done?”&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Martyn      argued that it is more important to measure “advocacy” than customer satisfaction.      Advocacy is a behavior, not an attitude, and is tied closely to growth. It      all comes down to the question, “would you recommend my product?”      Companies should calculate their “advocacy score” as the percent of      “advocates” minus the percent of “detractors”. For more, see “&lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591397839/bookstorenow600-20"&gt;The      Ultimate Question&lt;/a&gt;” by Fred Reichheld.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Measuring      “engagement” will matter more than other brand measures.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Brand Transformation Keynote&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speaker: Deepak Advani, Senior Vice President &amp; CMO, Lenovo Group Ltd.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Deepak went through the case study of how Lenovo built its brand after it bought IBM’s PC business.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;At      first, they had big branding challenges. People worried quality or      innovation would go down and that service and support would suffer. How      should Lenovo use the IBM brand and the ThinkPad sub-brand, while still      building the Lenovo brand? (People also worried about the security      implications of having a Chinese company making laptops – perhaps they      would use them to spy on the American people. To that, Lenovo responded      that “people are reading too much Tom Clancy not enough Tom Friedman”.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Lenovo      wanted to grow in emerging markets and small business, where IBM was not      strong, while keeping the ThinkPad brand in the large business market.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;They      explored different branding strategies. Option 1 - “Master brand” strategy      (i.e. Samsung or Nike), where all energy is invested in Lenovo. This was      rejected since they wanted to keep the powerful ThinkPad brand. Option 2 -      “Sub-brand”&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;strategy (i.e.      P&amp;G), where energy is invested only in the individual brand (i.e.      Tide, Crest). This was rejected it is too expensive and too diluting to      focus on many brands at once. Option 3 – “Dual brand” strategy (i.e. Toyota/Lexus),      where there are two distinct brand experiences. This was rejected since it      can go bad if the consumer experience is not totally distinct, which      limits their ability to reuse channels.&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;So they chose Option 4 – “Synergy brand” strategy (i.e. Motorola      Razr or Apple iPod), where the master brand is strong as a sub-brand in      some case&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;They      used a phased execution.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Phase 1 –      Play down Lenovo, convey message that “things haven’t changed”. Phase 2 –      Now that people know Lenovo is not destroying ThinkPad, let people&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;know they’re making it better. The&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;motto was “ThinkPad unleashed”.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Phase 3 – Introduce new Lenovo products,      aimed at customers different from ThinkPad marketers. (For example, the Lenovo      3000 was launched to focus on small business with a message of “worry-free      computing”. They called the product “3000” to focus on the master Lenovo      brand.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;To      define the Lenovo brand, they used three criteria. The brand needs to be &lt;i style=""&gt;distinctive&lt;/i&gt; (can’t occupy same      space in people’s mind as a competitor).&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;Needs to be &lt;i style=""&gt;relevant&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;And needs to be &lt;i style=""&gt;true&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Lenovo chose to go      for “world’s best engineered PCs” and “global flat-world company”. &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;To communicate “best engineered PCs”,      Lenovo wanted a real &lt;a href="http://www.sethgodin.com/purple/"&gt;Purple Cow&lt;/a&gt;      idea that would stand out, so they released viral videos that appeared to      be tapes smuggled out of the Lenovo innovation labs, showing “advanced”      prototypes like flying laptops. This generated 3.5M downloads and got 800      blogs talking about &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;where the tapes      were real or just clever marketing.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Building a Brand Franchise&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speakers: Joe Gillespie, EVP, CNET Division; Dean Harris, CMO, Kayak.com; Shawn Gold, SVP, Marketing &amp; Content, MySpace.com; and Page Murray, VP Marketing, Palm.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;In this session, I was most interested in how MySpace uses their community for marketing purposes.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;MySpace      has118M users, 55M uniques/month, and 2M registrants a week. Their brand      is expression, creativity, individuality, and they continue to create cool      tools that aid in expression.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;They think      of their users as “ambassadors” of content.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Shawn      said that you need to engage with community in the way they want to talk      to you. Otherwise, they’ll ignore you since online they don’t have to talk      to you. This means you need insight on what works on your community.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;MySpace      gives users lots of opportunities for celebrity. For example, anyone who      registered as a friend of the movie “Clerks 2” got listed in the credits.      As a result, most of those users will likely see the movie and buy the DVD      – leading to additional revenue and buzz for the&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;movie. This is a way to do movie      marketing that’s never been done before, which is what marketing with      MySpace is all about.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;On      the topic of how a marketer can design a community that allows      participation without deviating from the brand, CNET likes the term      “architected participation”. For example, they found that CNET users      didn’t like reviews that just said “this product sucks” or “this product      rocks”. So they implemented a plan that forced reviews to be &gt;50 words.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Growing Customer Equity – Creating Converts and Champions&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speakers: John Ciacchella, Principal Tech., Media &amp; Telcom, Deloitte Consulting; Alicia Dietsch, VP, Business Segment Marketing, AT&amp;T; Jeff Hayzlett, CMO, Eastman Kodak; Chris Moloney, CMO, Scottrade.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;In      the complex sale, third party validation and customer referrals and      references are critical. How can marketers build that advocacy?&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Relationship networks; affinity groups;      customer councils, and advisory boards were suggested as options. (Note: I      was surprised that nobody discussed other techniques, like social-networks      and user-contributed content.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Chris      from Scotttrade explained how he tries to incent referral by offering free      trades for referrals. They reward both parties – the referrer and the      referee. Referrals tend to bring higher value customers than      advertising.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;They also found that      referrers become MORE valuable post referral, but don’t know why.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;New Channels of Engagement – Growing the Fan Faithful (NHL)&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speaker: Karen Durkin, EVP, Communications and Brand Strategy, National Hockey League&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Karen’s keynote discussed how they reinvigorated the NHL brand after last year’s lockout. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Fixed      fundamental economics of sport by moving talent around to level the playing      feel.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Changed      the product by adjusting rules which &lt;i style=""&gt;sped&lt;/i&gt;      up the game and allowed for my goals. This created more late game drama      and more come back from behind wins – which led to fan excitement.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Re-launched      the brand: “Warrior” commercials; my NHL; focus on fan appreciation (thank      you sign on ice; open practice; cheaper concessions). &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Tried      to build the brand of specific players.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Results:      Avid players returned; record attendance (92% capacity); merchandise sales      up; better TV ratings and more “Center Ice” subscriptions; more NHL.com      traffic.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Engaging Partners and Customers in Co-Innovation&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speakers: Diane Hessan, President &amp; CEO, Communispace; Nam Vo, VP Marketing, Health Systems, Cardinal Health; Nancy Bhagat, VP Marketing, Intel; Philip Juliano, VP Global Brand Management &amp; Corporate, Novell.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;This session was intended to discuss how companies can engage with customers and partners to improve innovation. Most of the discussion focused on traditional methods for listening to customers, but I was interested in the following:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Novell      argued that customers will give you passionate opinions, but it’s not      their job to tell you how to innovate. It’s the marketer’s job to assimilate      the information and turn it into something useful.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Don’t just give people &lt;u&gt;exactly&lt;/u&gt;      what they say they want; marketing must make sense of all the inputs and      figure out something innovative and compelling. “Sometimes if you try to      make everyone happy you end up making nobody happy.”&lt;span style=""&gt;   &lt;/span&gt;You need to listen to everybody, but      ignore customers who are stuck in the past.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;3Rs of Customer Return: Retention, Renewal, Reactivation&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Speakers: Rebecca Lieb, Editor, ClickZ; Ann Marie Miller, SVP, Corporate Sales, CMP; Alan Scott, CMO, Factiva; Peter Karpas, SVP, CMO and Product Management Officer, Intuit; Liz Smith, SVP, VP Marketing &amp; Communications, Visa.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;“Retention      is like the weather, everyone is talking about it but nobody is doing it      that much.”&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;CMP:      Given that the average tenure of a CMO is only 23 months, it is hard for      marketers to focus on long-term trends like retention – CMOs need to show      fast results. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Factiva      is able to quantify the exact return on their marketing investment. He      claims his $10M budget generates $29.325+ incremental revenue. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Visa      provides lots of tools and services to their member banks to help them      keep customers. For example, they did an analysis with United / Chase to      analyze the health of their portfolio.&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;This helps keep the banks loyal as well.&lt;span style=""&gt;   &lt;/span&gt;Visa also pushes to build the category      of payment cards in general. &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Given      Intuit’s reputation for top-notch Product Manager, I found it very interesting      that their CMO also their head of Product Management.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Peter      from Intuit argued there is no such thing as pure awareness – when people      first hear from you, you are already starting down the path of them having      some propensity to buy.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;So the      marketer’s job is not just to get people to buy your product, you need to      do it in a way that defines trust. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;In      order to listen to the customer, Intuit has a culture of talking to      customers in person. The front-line employees know why people leave, so      the executives do “skip levels” (talking directly to frontline employees)      and use “listening posts” that feed into “Voice of the Customer” intelligence      / query program. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Producing Predictable Customer Experiences&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Julie Robertson, SVP, Marketing, Feld Entertainment, Inc. (Ringling Bros. and Barnum &amp; Bailey, Disney On Ice and Disney Live)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;The      final keynote focused on how Feld Entertainment builds their brand in a      world where the “circus” looks pretty old-school compared with video      games, MySpace, etc., and where there is little to remind consumers about      their product for most of the year when the circus is not in town.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;They      define their brand as: authentic, nostalgia/tradition, wholesome family      fun, something different. &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;You want      a consistent experience but also surprise and delight. Also, cheaper than      Cirque – the Walmart of live entertainment. &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;They      use PR and direct mail heavily to get their message to their target      customer (moms). &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Recently,      they changed the show, adding a story-line and dropping the three rings. By      billing it as the biggest change in 50 years, they were able to generate      significant PR.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Secure the Trust of your Brand&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;At dinner the night before, Marlene Williamson, VP Americas Marketing, Symantec Corporation spoke about the new CMO Council research, &lt;a href="http://www.cmocouncil.org/SUBSECTIONS/programs_secure.html"&gt;Secure the Trust of Your Brand&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Some of the key findings include: &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Nearly      2/3 of marketers polled believe that security and IT integrity impact      corporate and product brands, and 76% worry that security breaches      negatively impact the brands of the companies that suffer such failures. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;60%      believe that security and IT integrity provide an opportunity for brand      differentiation. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;However,      marketers are not acting on these beliefs: most companies have not made      security a bigger theme in their messaging, and only 29% of marketers have      a pre-defined communications plan to act in the case of a security      failure.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-6027759531938729510?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/6027759531938729510/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=6027759531938729510' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/6027759531938729510'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/6027759531938729510'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/10/highlights-from-2006-cmo-council-summit.html' title='Highlights from 2006 CMO Council Summit'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-1702079775690787366</id><published>2006-10-06T11:55:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-10-06T15:56:23.154-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Marketing Budgets'/><title type='text'>Benchmarking Marketing Budgets</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Two of the most common questions I hear from fellow marketers is: “How much should I spend on marketing?” and “How much of my marketing budget should I spend online?” One way to look at this is through benchmarks. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Blackfriars Communications recently published the latest version of their “&lt;a href="http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2006/10/blackfriars-marketing-index-for-q3.html"&gt;Sizing US Marketing 2006&lt;/a&gt;” report, updated to include statistics from Q3, 2006. Among the findings of this report:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;B2B      companies plan to spend 4.3% of their 2006 revenue on marketing (compared      to 6.8% for their B2C counterparts). Although not explicitly stated, I      presume this number includes both staffing and program spending.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;B2B      companies spend 28% of their marketing budget on advertising (compared to 40%      for B2C companies). Not surprisingly, most of the gap is made up for by      B2B’s increased spending on events (17% of the budget). Other significant      categories include direct marketing at 12% and PR/AR at 8% of the budget.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;B2B      companies spend more of their marketing budget online than B2C companies      (17% for B2B versus 15% for B2C).&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;This primarily reflects a higher portion of advertising going      online, but also includes email and website expenses.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;(I should point out that this average      number masks a wide range, with some companies spending 100% of their marketing      programs online, and some companies spending nothing.)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sherpastore.com/Technology-marketing.html"&gt;MarketingSherpa’s Business Technology Benchmark&lt;/a&gt; for 2006 provides additional information for marketing spending at B2B technology companies in particular. A few highlights:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;B2B      technology companies spend anymore from 0.9% to 8.7% of revenue on      marketing, with the average company spending 3.6%. (This number includes      headcount and programs, but does not include any sales-related expenses.) &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Service      companies and ASPs tend to be at the higher end of the range, while      complex manufacturers and companies with fewer than 1,000 prospects tend      to be at the lower end of the range.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Young      companies (under 10 years old) tend to spend more than average. Brand-new      start-ups should use total cash in the bank as the baseline to set      marketing budgets, rather than revenue.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;B2B      technology companies on average spend a whopping 31% of their marketing      budget online, with smaller tech companies spending an even higher      percentage online (37% of the total). This reflects the fact that online      channels can be easier to get into and test at lower overall costs than      more traditional offline channels. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;IDC found similar numbers for IT vendor spend on marketing (as reported by Tom Pisello on &lt;a href="http://www.sandhill.com/opinion/daily_blog.php?id=29&amp;post=160"&gt;SandHill.com&lt;/a&gt;). Their findings included:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;IT      vendors spend an average of 3.6% percent of revenue on marketing. Software      vendors spend the most (6.5%), hardware makers spending 3.7%, and IT      service firms spend only 1.1%.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;IT      vendors spend 63.5% of their marketing budget on programs and 37.5% on      headcount.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;IT      vendors spend the biggest portion of their budget on advertising (23.2%). Other      significant budget items are events (19.3% of the marketing budget); sales tools such as case      studies, whitepaper, and interactive on-line tools (16.8%); direct      marketing (12.9%); PR (6.5%) and AR (2.3%); and collateral (5.1%).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;h2&gt;How much do you spend?&lt;/h2&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I hope you find these numbers useful. Please share (anonymously if you like) what you spend on marketing as a percent of revenue, and how you allocate that budget. I’ll compile the answers and share the results with everyone. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-1702079775690787366?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/1702079775690787366/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=1702079775690787366' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/1702079775690787366'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/1702079775690787366'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/10/benchmarking-marketing-budgets.html' title='Benchmarking Marketing Budgets'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-4612711634449012727</id><published>2006-09-08T19:29:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-10-11T07:49:55.675-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Search Engine Marketing'/><title type='text'>Optimize for B2B Search Marketing – Part 1</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;By almost any measure, B2B marketers are embracing search engine marketing. A few statistics:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;Roughly one-third of all commercial searches on Google are B2B in      nature&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;More than 50 percent of Google’s target advertisers are &lt;span class="st"&gt;B2B&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;span class="st"&gt;Almost 38 percent of Yahoo!’s target advertisers are      B2B&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;This means that B2B companies will spend somewhere on the order of $3 billion on paid search engine marketing this year. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Despite all this spending, many B2B marketers continue to find it difficult to find search marketing solutions that meet their needs. This is because most commercial solutions are designed for high-volume B2C clients, not the unique challenges of B2B companies. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Why? One reason is that B2B marketers tend to be more fragmented and smaller than large consumer advertisers, spending as little as a few hundred dollars a month on search. Most search marketing vendors find it unprofitable to work with any client spending under $25,000 a month on search.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The other reason is that B2C search marketing is very different from B2B search marketing, and vendors that specialize in B2C search find it difficult to serve B2B clients as well.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Stay tuned for my next post, in which I discuss the key differences&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;between B2B and B2C search marketing.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-4612711634449012727?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/4612711634449012727/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=4612711634449012727' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/4612711634449012727'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/4612711634449012727'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/09/optimize-for-b2b-search-marketing-part.html' title='Optimize for B2B Search Marketing – Part 1'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-7437059791901983861</id><published>2006-08-29T08:11:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-09-29T08:12:57.284-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Landing Page Optimization'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Search Engine Marketing'/><title type='text'>What You Say Is As Important as What You Pay</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;When the goal of search marketing is to generate leads, it is not good enough to take prospects to a generic home page when they click an ad. With less than a &lt;a href="http://www.sherpastore.com/Landing-Page-Handbook-Raise-Conversions.html"&gt;2% conversion rate&lt;/a&gt;, it's like throwing away 98% of your search budget. Instead, search marketers must focus on conversion optimization through targeted landing pages as much as traffic generation. In fact, companies that have optimized landing pages targeted to specific search terms can increase conversions by 400% or more. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Landing page optimization is important for many reasons. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;First,      prospects are using search to research your market and company, so      targeted landing pages can provide relevant, useful content matched to      their buying cycle. This can help your company become a trusted source      of information. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Second,      in exchange for a well designed offer, you can capture contact information and get permission to enter into a nurturing dialog with that prospect.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Third,      as keyword prices become more and more competitive, the companies do a better job converting traffic into leads will be able to invest more      in getting the clicks. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Fourth,      Google ranks search ads not just on the bid price, but also on the &lt;a href="https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=38197"&gt;relevancy      of the landing page&lt;/a&gt; to the search term – so a targeted landing page      will increase traffic without increasing cost. &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The challenge B2B marketers face is that landing page optimization requires building and maintaining dozens – or hundreds – of landing pages. Trying to add A/B split or other testing methodologies only compounds the problem. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;As a result, many marketing and IT departments quickly get overwhelmed and settle for a few, static landing pages. One CMO I spoke with wanted to put up just seven landing pages – but he had to wait so long (almost a year) for his IT department to get to the request that the company was acquired before they could finish. More generally, &lt;a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2006/09/social_search_c.html"&gt;Forrester Research&lt;/a&gt; found that only about a quarter of B2B search ads take buyers to keyword specific landing pages.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Fortunately, there are some great solutions out there to help B2B marketers build and test landing pages without IT support. (Disclosure: The company I work for, Marketo, provides landing page optimization as part of our suite of &lt;a href="http://www.marketo.com/"&gt;B2B marketing solutions&lt;/a&gt;.) Stay tuned for a future post on what features you should look for in a landing page optimization solution.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;In the meantime, please share any best practices you have used to create landing pages that work, and what kind of results you are seeing. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt; I'll post a summary of all the tips I receive in a future post.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-7437059791901983861?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/7437059791901983861/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=7437059791901983861' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/7437059791901983861'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/7437059791901983861'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/08/landing-page-optimization-what-you-say.html' title='What You Say Is As Important as What You Pay'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-8493316106381402318</id><published>2006-08-21T19:53:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-09-28T19:54:56.023-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Interruption Marketing'/><title type='text'>End of Interruption Marketing: B2B Marketing Response</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;In my last post, I wrote about the &lt;a href="http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/09/end-of-interruption-marketing.html"&gt;end of interruption marketing&lt;/a&gt;. Here are some strategies B2B marketers can use to practice “attention marketing” (the opposite of interruption marketing).&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Market when customers give their attention.&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;There are points in every buying cycle whenhe customer is actively seeking information. From typing something into Google to begin research to putting together a short list to building an ROI justification, buyers want trusted information to help them. This is why &lt;a href="http://www.marketo.com/"&gt;search engine marketing&lt;/a&gt; is so critical. Because the buyer is searching for information, the company that provides it is in the best position to be considered a trusted partner. The implication is that B2B marketers need search terms and landing pages designed to provide useful information to each stage of the customer buying cycles.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h4 style=""&gt;Build trusting relationships.&lt;span style=""&gt;                                                                      &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;If a marketer calls me in the middle of my day, I feel interrupted.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;If a good friend calls me, I pay attention to what he has to say. The difference is trust, built over time. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;B2B marketers can build trust with their prospects in the same way that trusted relationships are built “in the real world”. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="1" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;u&gt;Expert      advice.&lt;/u&gt; B2B purchases are, by their nature, complex. Buyers often need      help to see possibilities and issues they wouldn’t think about on their      own.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;If you can help frame the      discussion, you will be seen as a trusted advisor and &lt;a href="http://www.brittonmanasco.com/2006/09/it_pays_to_be_a.html"&gt;thought      leader&lt;/a&gt;. This will help buyers believe that your company understands      their problems and knows how to solve them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;u&gt;Not      self-serving. &lt;/u&gt;You need to have the buyer’s best interests in mind. Marketing      messages that are self-serving will be painfully apparent and could damage      rather than build trust.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;u&gt;Long-term      view.&lt;/u&gt; Trust is built over time, and needs to be nurtured across a      series of interactions. This requires a long-term view of your marketing investments.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;Nurture a community where people can discuss your solutions. &lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Customers trust other customers more than they trust marketers. This is as true in B2B are it is in consumer marketing. MarketingSherpa’s recent &lt;a href="http://www.sherpastore.com/Technology-marketing.html"&gt;Business Technology Buyer’s Survey&lt;/a&gt; found that word of mouth is by far the most common factor influencing purchasing decisions (48.3% mentioning they were impacted by the tactic, as opposed to webinars which came in at 18.4% and cold calls which came in at 2.8%). &lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;So what can B2B marketers do to take advantage of social media-based marketing techniques? The answer is to engage in and nurture the online communities, conferences, discussion groups, and blogs that your customers, prospects, partners, and influencers are already using.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Doing this successfully requires changing the traditional marketing mindset. B2B marketers are used to thinking they have control over the message, but with community-based marketing this is no longer the case. Put another way, marketing is no longer about putting on a show in which the audience (your community) watches passively; it is more like throwing a party and encouraging the attendees to interact. &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;In this world, marketing’s job is not to control the message but to ensure that their “party” is the most interesting and useful one around.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h4 style=""&gt;What do you think?&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;a name="_Toc145386003"&gt;How is the role of the B2B marketer changing in a world where traditional marketing messages are ignored and buyers talk to each other to get their information.  What strategies and tactics have you found that work?&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-8493316106381402318?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/8493316106381402318/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=8493316106381402318' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/8493316106381402318'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/8493316106381402318'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/07/end-of-interruption-marketing-how-b2b.html' title='End of Interruption Marketing: B2B Marketing Response'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-3982170282602703183</id><published>2006-08-14T10:15:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-09-14T10:18:28.364-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Interruption Marketing'/><title type='text'>The End of Interruption Marketing</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="color:blue;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/"&gt;Seth Godin&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;coined the term Interruption Marketing to describe tactics that work only if they interrupt you to get your attention. Classic B2B examples include the cold call that interrupts you working on a proposal, the print ad in your morning newspaper, or the flashy booth at a tradeshow. In each example, the marketer – who knows the buyer doesn’t want to pay attention to the advertisement – thinks his job is to create a call script, ad copy, or booth gimmick that will make people pay attention.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Of course, all the other marketers are also fighting to get the buyer’s attention, and so the battle escalates. The result is a “tragedy of the commons” – when everyone tries to get the customer’s attention, the customer tunes it all out and nobody wins. Just look at what happened with credit card direct mail: from 1990-2002, direct mail volumes went up 5X while response rates dropped to below 0.5%.&lt;span style="color:red;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1555/4158/1600/Interruption%20Marketing%20image.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/1555/4158/400/Interruption%20Marketing%20image.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Seth and others have done an excellent job describing why this approach doesn’t work anymore in consumer-marketing: TiVo lets people screen out TV ads; spam filters block unwanted e-mails; the national do-not-call list prevents unwanted telemarketing. (It is even less effective with younger consumers who are used to multi-tasking and “snacking” on content in YouTube-length snippets.)&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The same people who buy TiVos and spam filters don’t suddenly embrace interruptions when they get to the office. They’re just as good at blocking unwanted B2B advertising. &lt;a href="http://sellingtobigcompanies.blogs.com/"&gt;Jill Konrath&lt;/a&gt; writes that it is virtually impossible today to cold call a C-level executive without going straight to voicemail. Direct mail goes to a box in the mailroom which gets checked rarely or never. Even webinars – which the customer has actively decided to attend – are watched while simultaneously checking email or reading websites.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Stay tuned for my next post: “The End of Interruption Marketing: How B2B Marketers Should Respond.” &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-3982170282602703183?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/3982170282602703183/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=3982170282602703183' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/3982170282602703183'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/3982170282602703183'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/09/end-of-interruption-marketing.html' title='The End of Interruption Marketing'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-1207832424162637738</id><published>2006-08-11T09:10:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-09-08T06:02:30.238-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Modern B2B Marketing'/><title type='text'>Does Modern Marketing Apply to B2B Marketing?</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;In an earlier post, I described the key principles of &lt;a href="http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/08/modern-b2b-marketing-defined.html"&gt;Modern B2B Marketing&lt;/a&gt;, namely that Modern Marketers:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;Know that customers      control their attention and that marketers should engage when and how the      customer wants&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;Create leverage by      enabling and nurturing a community of customers, prospects, partners, and      other influencers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;Are left-brained (math      and science over creativity and art)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Are      accountable – and more influential as a result&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Many others have discussed how marketing is being reinvented in a world where buyers can ignore a marketer’s messages and instead choose to talk to each other, where traditional methods of “spray and pray” marketing are being replaced by highly targetable, highly measurable, and highly accountable techniques. For example:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.emergencemarketing.com/"&gt;Emergence Marketing&lt;/a&gt; by Francois      Gossieaux and Gabe D'Annunzio&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/"&gt;The Viral Garden&lt;/a&gt; by Mack      Collier&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://ana.blogs.com/liodice/2006/01/reinventing_mar.html"&gt;ANA      Marketing Musings&lt;/a&gt; by Bob Liodice at the Association of National      Advertisers&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.podtech.net/?cat=58"&gt;Marketing Voices Podcast&lt;/a&gt; from      Jennifer Jones at Podtech.net&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://smlxtralarge.com/archives/000121.php"&gt;Communities Dominate      Brands&lt;/a&gt; by Tomi T Ahonen and Alan Moore&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;And      the aptly named &lt;a href="http://www.collaboratemarketing.com/modernmarketing/"&gt;Modern      Marketing Blog&lt;/a&gt; by James Cherkoff&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Notably, these authors tend to use B2C examples like Lost’s “Inside the Experience” online campaign, the Washington Post, P&amp;amp;G’s Tremor viral-marketing division, and of course “Snakes on a Plane”, and they tend to talk about the transformation of marketing channels that are primarily consumer-oriented – especially the decline TV advertising and the rise of social media sites like MySpace.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;h4&gt;B2B Marketers Can Gain From Modern Marketing as Well&lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I believe that B2B buyers are as in control of their attention and buying process as B2C consumers are – if not more so. I believe B2B marketers can (and should) take advantage of online techniques and that they need to be just as left-brained and accountable as their B2C counterparts. In other words, B2B marketers have as much to gain from Modern Marketing as B2C marketers do.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;So, the focus of this blog is to discuss new ways of thinking about B2B marketing, from best practices in lead acquisition and nurturing to accountability to community-based marketing.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;What do you think? Do the principles of Modern Marketing apply to B2B? How do they need to change to handle the unique challenges of B2B marketing? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-1207832424162637738?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/1207832424162637738/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=1207832424162637738' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/1207832424162637738'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/1207832424162637738'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/09/does-modern-marketing-apply-to-b2b.html' title='Does Modern Marketing Apply to B2B Marketing?'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34063891.post-115771915168915265</id><published>2006-08-08T08:35:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2006-09-08T05:39:11.706-07:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='Modern B2B Marketing'/><title type='text'>Modern B2B Marketing Defined</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"&gt;The focus of this blog is to discuss new ways of thinking about B2B marketing, from best practices in lead acquisition and nurturing to marketing accountability to community-based marketing.&lt;/span&gt;  &lt;p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal"&gt;It is clear that traditional marketing approaches are no longer acceptable. Some reasons why:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" start="1" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b&gt;Customers DON’T want to be interrupted.&lt;/b&gt;      They DON’T want to be marketed to. And they’ll let you know by finding      ways to &lt;a href="http://www.crmproject.com/documents.asp?d_ID=2867"&gt;screen      out, throw out, and tune out&lt;/a&gt; your unwanted marketing messages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;     &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;There are no more mass channels.&lt;/b&gt; Buyers      (especially the young and tech-savvy) are harder than ever to reach using traditional      channels and media outlets. At the same time, new technologies (especially      broadband and mobile) combined with social computing have created a “Cambrian      explosion” in experimentation with media and marketing channels. This      fragmentation diminishes the effectiveness of traditional marketing      channels while simultaneously creating opportunities to reach customers in      new ways.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;Marketing can’t get away with not      being accountable. &lt;/b&gt;New channels (like PPC search engine marketing)      have raised expectations for marketing accountability.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;It is no longer acceptable to say “&lt;a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/1992.html"&gt;half the money I spend      on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.&lt;/a&gt;”&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Marketers must adapt to these changes. CMOs that don’t &lt;a href="http://www.btobonline.com/article.cms?articleId=28525"&gt;will not last long&lt;/a&gt;. Those who do will survive by practicing Modern B2B Marketing. Some principles of Modern B2B Marketing:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" start="1" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;Attention marketing.&lt;/b&gt; Buyers are in      control of what information they want and their &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy"&gt;attention is a valuable,      scare commodity&lt;/a&gt;. Marketing needs to engage with customers when and how      they want to engage. This is why search engine marketing is so powerful –      the customer is attentively seeking information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;   &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;Community marketing.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;In a world where we can no longer push our      message TO the marketplace, marketing need to finds ways to communicate WITH the marketplace. The best way to do this to enable and nurture &lt;a href="http://www.collaboratemarketing.com/open_source_marketing/"&gt;open source      style communities&lt;/a&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt; &lt;/b&gt;of customers,      prospects, partners, and other influencers. In other words, join the      conversations that customers are already having, online and offline.     &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;Left brain marketing.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;Because many of the new marketing channels      are measurable and targetable, marketing is rapidly shifting towards science      and away from art. Forrester Research aptly calls the rise of analytics      over creativity in marketing “&lt;a href="http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,33961,00.html"&gt;Left      Brain Marketing&lt;/a&gt;”. New marketing skills will include segmentation and      targeting, testing and optimization, and quantitative planning and      measurement. (This is not to say creativity has no place in marketing,      just that the balance will incorporate more math and science than in the      past. And that creativity will take a different form, i.e. thinking of      creative new things to test.)     &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;&lt;b style=""&gt;Accountable marketing. &lt;/b&gt;Certain      parts of the marketing budget are already very accountable – most notably      pay-per-click advertising. As testing becomes predominant and budget      shifts towards measurable channels, CMOs will be able to measure the      bottom-line impact of every marketing activity. Aided by &lt;a href="http://www.marketo.com/home.html"&gt;tools to aid with marketing      planning, measurement and execution&lt;/a&gt;, they will also be able to      quantify the impact of changes to their budget and to predict pipeline and      revenue as well as sales can. Over time, this will raise marketing’s power      and influence across the organization.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3683/3748/1600/Modern%20Marketing.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3683/3748/400/Modern%20Marketing.jpg" alt="" border="0" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class="MsoNormal"&gt;Of course, there are many other forces driving the transformation of marketing today, including the changing role of the marketing organization and new marketing automation technologies. What factors do you think are most affecting B2B marketing?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/34063891-115771915168915265?l=modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/feeds/115771915168915265/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34063891&amp;postID=115771915168915265' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/115771915168915265'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/34063891/posts/default/115771915168915265'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://modernb2bmarketing.blogspot.com/2006/08/modern-b2b-marketing-defined.html' title='Modern B2B Marketing Defined'/><author><name>Jon Miller</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01261492668776192735</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='22' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u9c8nbdFSi0/SSyFJ5-7F3I/AAAAAAAAAAM/HNjzrLnQkQQ/s1600-R/jon-miller-vp-marketing-marketo.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
