After several years of making cuts, B2B marketing leaders are increasing their budgets 6.7% in 2011 over 2010 levels, with tech-services companies driving much of the expansion, according to a report by Forrester Research. more

Nearly one in four visitors to B2B websites referred by LinkedIn are enterprise visitors—those arriving at sites via corporate IP addresses—according to a report by LeadFormix. Among such leads, those referred by LinkedIn "groups" are the most likely to complete a form-fill, or convert. more

One out of ten presentations is now viewed via mobile device, up 640% over 2010 levels, with Apple devices the top choice for viewing such presentations, according to a report by SlideRocket. more

"A drip campaign is a series of emails that are sent in a specific order at predefined intervals," writes Liz McInnis at BuyerZone. You might use campaigns to educate, nurture new leads or cross-sell to customers. Whatever your goal, her bits of advice, like the following, are likely to be ... more

Does your business spend time and money generating leads that languish neglected in a pipeline? "The industry wide statistic of 70% of leads never receiving effective sales follow-up is astounding," writes Maria Pergolino at Marketo. "With the mass amount of resources devoted to lead generation, the act of following up ... more

In a post at the Lunch Pail blog, bride-to-be Casey Barto recounts a visit to a bridal expo. "On the day of the show with pen in hand, I scribbled my email address and name on the contact lists of vendors who interested me most," she says. What happened next ... more

With sales growth the biggest challenge for business leaders in 2011, many say they are planning to deploy cloud technologies this year, hoping to shorten sales cycles and acquire new business, according to a survey from Hatsize. more

Mobile Web traffic to high-traffic e-commerce sites grew more than 300% during the 2010 online holiday shopping season over levels registered during the same period a year earlier, according to a report by Conductor. more

Any successful B2B marketing strategy "involves the integration of email marketing," Maria Pergolino asserts in a post at the Marketo blog. Whether designed for lead generation or nurturing leads and repeat buyers, carefully crafted email campaigns and messages can still achieve optimal results, she notes. To help B2B marketers keep email as a ... more

In anticipation of stronger business conditions, more than one-half (52%) of digital and direct marketing executives plan to increase hiring in the first quarter of 2011, up from the 41% who said so in the previous quarter, according to a survey from Bernhart Associates. more

"In today's economic climate, content syndication is one of the lowest risk lead generation vehicles there is," writes Howard J. Sewell at The Point. "At our agency, the programs we negotiate for our clients are almost all performance-based," he says; that is, "they guarantee a minimum number of leads at ... more

Though B2B marketers report most of their new sales coming from current customers, only one-half (55.4%) say their companies have departments that focus primarily on customer retention, according to a survey by Loyalty 360 and SAS. Among those with formal loyalty programs, most are using traditional channels such as surveys ... more

"As a seller, when you approach a big company, you are most likely more concerned about your fears than theirs," writes Barbara Weaver Smith in an article at Selling to Big Companies. But big-company buyers are often fearful of their own decisions, she argues—especially the decision to do business with ... more

"Let's face it, buying today is different than it used to be," says Ardath Albee in a recent post at the Marketing Interactions blog. Products and solutions are growing in complexity, she notes, but buyers have far less time to consider their options. How can B2B marketers better meet the needs ... more

"Most corporate blogs are ghost towns, in terms of both content and reader engagement," writes Ian Greenleigh at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog. "Abandoned blogs litter the web, making the businesses that own them look lazy, uncommitted and anything but current." A well-executed blog sets your content marketing apart from ... more

Nearly one-half of sales professionals worldwide (49%) say social media is important to their success, and among top-performing salespeople, more than two-thirds (65%) say social media is integral to their success, according to a survey from OgilvyOne. more

With most companies focusing their social media marketing efforts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, over one-third (36.1%) say they've been able to make a conversion from initial connection to sale via such social channels, according to a new survey from R2integrated. more

Different customers shop for products and services in different ways—even when they're looking for the same thing. And that's why your lead-generation efforts should address various buyer personas. "A buyer persona [represents a] distinct group potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach," writes David Meerman ... more

As marketers focus on creative development and campaign execution, they often overlook the operational aspects of their go-to-market processes, resulting in the inefficient delivery of marketing materials to intended audiences and, ultimately, weaker frontline performance, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. more

In a post at his eponymous blog, Tom Trush tells the story of a client who asked for help after a direct-mail lead-generation campaign failed to yield a single response. His prospects, insisted the exasperated client, were different. "Every time I hear this claim my ear drums rattle," says Trush. ... more

In a brief Take 10 online tutorial at MarketingProfs, Jim Lenskold, president of Lenskold Group, spells out clear guidelines for creating targeted lead-nurturing programs that can help you boost conversions, reduce sales-cycle times and create more profitable and enduring customer relationships. Granted, that's a tall order for a 10-minute presentation, but ... more

"If you're like many professional service providers, you get a lot of business from referrals," writes Barbara Bix at MarketingProfs. But you may not realize how closely the referral process parallels the buying process. "[J]ust as you can accelerate the buying process," she notes, "you can accelerate referrals by anticipating ... more

Though the recession is over and the economy is in recovery, most IT managers are still holding back on their spending—adding even more stress to an already lengthy sales cycle. Some of the stress can be avoided with an effective sales system and a strong game for each stage of ... more

"The Web makes it too easy for your competitor to lure away interested buyers before your people have had a chance to contact them," warns Steven Woods in a post at the Harvard Business Review blog. And that reality, he argues, demands some fundamental changes in the B2B sales process. ... more

With the near ubiquity of online social networks, you might think they're just the thing for your lead generation and nurturing programs. But before you take a spontaneous Facebook plunge, Ardath Albee of Marketing Interactions offers a few caveats. "The problem I find most prevalent is that companies have no realistic ... more