As a marketer, you might have noticed a certain ebb and flow in the requests you get from your sales department. "At the beginning of the year when the funnel is looking light and the end of the quarter or year seems far away, eager sales people see their friends ... more

With vast Web-based resources now available to evaluate products and services, tech buyers are no longer dependent on Sales for information about purchases. Buyers don't want or need to engage with sales people until far later in the buying cycle. "Information is power," writes Don Fornes, Founder & CEO of ... more

More than ever, your lead-generation program must include a strong nurturing component. A DemandGen survey, notes Cheryl Goldberg at the High-Tech Communicator blog, found that nurtured leads produce a 20-percent increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. And—realistically—many of your leads will require at least a little nurture. "According to Brian ... more

"If B2B sales teams reduce the amount of face-to-face selling time in favor of more efficient sales models using the Web and telephone, will B2B buyers be receptive?" asks Robert Lesser in a recent post at the Acquiring Minds blog. You bet they will, he answers: "In fact, B2B buyers ... more

LinkedIn is "one heck of a community for getting to know your prospects and customers," writes Ardath Albee at Marketing Interactions. "[But it] can also expose a lack of integrity and authenticity in a heartbeat." So if you're using LinkedIn as a lead-generation tool—or for any other purpose—consider this cautionary ... more

Despite dismal economic news overall, some business sectors are showing signs of improvement: Fully one-half of industrial-sector companies are expecting annual revenues in 2010 to be higher than they were in 2009, compared with the 24% of companies that reported the same a year earlier, according to a survey from ... more

B2B marketers continue to shift their marketing mix away from traditional marketing vehicles toward social media and digital channels: 67% plan to increase spending on social media over the next two to three years and 64% plan to increase spending on digital and online marketing over the same period, according ... more

In a post at HubSpot, Kipp Bodnar argues for the integration of your business blog and your corporate website. "Blogs are dynamic; they drive fresh content that prospects and search engines love," he explains. "Traditionally, corporate websites were static; they had traditionally served as digital brochures for businesses. By ... more

"Online lead generation requires you to erect just the right-sized barrier," writes Ian Lurie at Conversation Marketing. "Something [just] big enough to keep unqualified, unpromising leads out, while letting interested potential customers, voters or clients in." He offers a 10-point primer on building a solid lead-generation program, and here are ... more

"Reps selling into complex organizations need to be enabled with at least three levels of detail," Andy Hasselwander writes in a post at the B2B Marketing Confidential blog: "one for the business lead, one for [the lead's] researchers/support in the deal, and one for the technical folks that will [perform] ... more

Large reductions in marketing budgets contributed to dismal sales performance in 2009, but companies are fighting back: Over three-quarters (72.5%) say they are increasing their marketing budgets in 2010, and over 9 in 10 cite customer acquisition as their top marketing objective in the next 12 months, according to a ... more

Despite the proliferation of emerging media channels and ever-tightening marketing budgets, notes Chris McArdle at DemandGen Report, "fewer than 10 percent of B2C organizations are using proven techniques to effectively identify and target prospects." Why? According to McArdle, B2C companies are often daunted by lead-gen components, such as scoring. But, he ... more

US retailers are actively pursuing the mobile channel to enhance customer engagement and loyalty: 73% have some type of mobile initiative in place and 20% of are in the process of evaluating the mobile channel, according to a survey from Forbes Insights, in association with Research In Motion (RIM). more

"Marketing doesn't fully understand how buyers use content," warns Paul McKeon in a Pro article at MarketingProfs. "B2B marketing is no longer just in the business of brand management and lead generation," he states. "It must serve a huge demand for content that spans buyers' needs, from pre-awareness to post-sale." ... more

Salesforce.com has released a beta of Salesforce Chatter, its "real-time collaboration cloud" that offers sales teams "a brand-new way to collaborate with people at work." So what exactly does Chatter offer? "Updates on people, groups, documents, and your application data come straight to you in your real-time feeds," the Chatter ... more

Companies with strong alignment between marketing and sales departments have fared better during the economic recession, reporting higher levels of new customers, revenues, and customer retention than those with low alignment, according to a study by Miller Heiman and Northern Illinois University. more

As you nurture your leads, it's important to remember what "nurture" means. Because the last thing you want is to treat leads too aggressively, and so create a sense of alienation, before passing them along to Sales. In a helpful post at Marketo, Maria Pergolino identifies 10 faux pas to ... more

What's the easiest way to learn a tactical lesson about B2B marketing? By hearing it from someone who's already learned it the hard way. You gain the knowledge—but avoid the pain. That's the basic philosophy behind the MarketingProfs B2B Forum: It offers experiential case studies, best practices—you name it—to help ... more

Lead-gen alert: B2B prospects are "sick and tired of the sneaky ways being used to get their information so a salesperson can 'help' them," writes Dale Underwood in a post at the B2B Conversations Now blog. Prospects are skeptical of requesting information at B2B websites, says Underwood, because too many ... more

"Saving your budget (and keeping your team employed) in a down economy really boils down to one word: profit," writes Paul Stein in an article at MarketingProfs. "If you're not making money, you're losing money—and that's never good for business." As our recessionary hangover continues to linger, ROI matters more ... more

"One of today's hottest B2B marketing topics, along with social media, is content," writes Susan Fantle in a guest post at Marketfish. And if you want your content marketing program to generate and nurture the right kind of leads, she has advice like this:Tell them what they want to hear. ... more

You may be wondering about the evolution of SEO—and whether you'll get left behind as it grows in sophistication. Well, you're not alone. A recent interview with Nathan Thompson at the Inbound Internet Marketing blog yielded some takeaways that may help clarify SEO's development—and demonstrate how you can beef up your efforts ... more

"[L]et's assume that your current lead generation efforts cost $100,000 and generate 50,000 leads," says Pat McGraw at his blog. "[T]hat's a cost per lead of $2. But if your conversion rate is 10%, that means that 45,000 leads or $90,000 failed to produce your ultimate goal—a sale." So how can ... more

The best that most B2B companies achieve with their online marketing programs is "average performance through a favorite tactic and/or advertising partner," states Ben Hanna in a post at the B2B Online Marketing blog. But why are their results so blah when there's an abundance of phenomenal success stories at ... more

In an article at MarketingProfs, Dan Skeen writes that search-engine optimization provides several return-on-investment measures with a greater potential impact on a company's bottom line than many traditional tactics. However, he notes, because SEO is less tangible than some other areas of marketing investment, it's often harder to clearly show ... more