Marketing For Nerds

Da Sales Lead Insights

“When it Comes to Generating Sales Leads, Do Virtual Events Make Sense for B-to-B Marketers?”

These virtual events can benefit all parties. Attendees don’t have to travel, or even leave their offices. Neither do the speakers and exhibitors. This saves everyone time and money.
And the convenience of attending via their computer can boost the number of attendees significantly.

Se ne parla anche sul forum della community di marketing fieristico di Xing/Neurona.

EComXpo Marks First Sale of a Virtual Show (tradeshowweek.com)

Paul Dunay su Buzz Marketing for Technology si chiede Is Social Media more difficult in B2B than B2C?

” … My point is that out in social media land if you know exact who your audience is, what will resonate with them and how to tap into it, you are home free. B2B audiences are more fragmented, with internal employees, external partners, channel partners, third party vendors, and, oh yeah, customers and prospects …>> “

Io sono d’accordo con Andy Sernovitz di damniwish.com :

With BtoB you know your audience, you know what they care about, and it’s easier to connect them.
You’re dealing with an existing community instead of unknown masses.

Chip Heath, già autore del libro “Made To Stick” intervistato da ITSMA :

“ITSMA: How can B2B marketers create memorable stories about their products and services?

Heath: Most of us make claims rather than telling stories that illustrate our claims.
We say, “We have excellent customer service,” or “We have partners that will tell you how good we are.
Instead, we should be telling stories that will imprint those claims with customers in a memorable way.
… >> “

Via B2B Lead Generation Blog, che commenta :

” … the reality is that most of our business language is far from concrete.
I’ve summarized the 6 themes that Heath covers in his book that are consistent with sticky ideas:

1. Simple - get to the essential idea, the most important idea should leap out
2. Unexpected -blast preconceived notions causes people to stop, think and remember
3. Concrete - use real-world analogies to simplify complex ideas
4. Credible - do you have a trust worthy reputation? If not, people will ignore you.
5. Emotional - people often decide based on emotion and backfill with logic
6. Stories - we’re wired to pay attention to stories and stories can be retold … “

“Getting the most out of your Online Video” di Glen Bentley su godfrey.com

With the explosion of video on the web — videoblogging, vidcaps, vodcasts, and mash-ups — any B2B marketing program should consider greater use of these new media tools to help tell the story. To help guide you with your new media videos, I offer these thoughts …

—

Su mktg4nerds “B2B marketing - video e nuove piattaforme media“

Sono disponibili i materiali del convegno “Le medie imprese industriali italiane”, che si è tenuto il 15 febbraio 2008 a Milano. Durante il convegno è stata presentata l’indagine condotta dal Centro Studi di Unioncamere e dall’Ufficio Studi di Mediobanca, con l’obiettivo di produrre un Rapporto annuale sulla media impresa italiana.

Il comunicato stampa [.pdf]

via: pmiblog.it

b2blog.com: Why not allow user reviews on your B2B website?

” [...] 1. Fear. Your team, CEO, and salespeople will ‘what if’ you till you scream and give up.
2. No alternative products: We aren’t distributors with multiple brands to select from. At Amazon, I can jump from Canon to HP products. If shopping at Agilent, a bad review may drive me to Tektronix’s website.
3. Its personal. These are my products and I don’t want anyone dissing them publicly on my website!
4. Cases vary. Successful application of many B2B products depends on the skill of the user and the actual usage.
5. Customized products. The reviewer may have a unit with a modification that they may praise in a review, but others may not know is extra.
6. Loss of control. Related to fear–how do we control who posts reviews? What do you do when a salesperson calls saying he lost a sale due to what a review said?

Well, I could go on, but those are enough to stop any B2B marketer from allowing reviews on their website. What do you think? Are these just excuses, or reasonable reasons? Are there other issues at hand? Is it worth allowing reviews anyway?[...] “

Da BtoB Online:
“While the majority of b-to-b marketers are not revising their marketing budgets in response to concerns about the economy, others are tightening their belts and making adjustments in their strategies this year, according to an exclusive survey by BtoB.”

“According to the online survey of 684 b-to-b marketers conducted during the last week of January and the first week of February, 58.3% of marketers have not revised their original 2008 marketing budgets in response to recent concerns about a possible recession in the U.S.”
Via Marketing Charts

Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession di Josh Bernoff su Forrester.com

10 Ways Digital Can Help You Thrive in a Recession di David Armano su Experience Matters

Schneider Associates ha pubblicato i risultati [.pdf] di un sondaggio che “profiles the ten key lessons B2B companies can use to improve their odds for product launch success“.

via Marcom Writer Blog

Most B2B marketers (some 60%) plan to increase their 2008 marketing budgets - but fully 79% plan to increase their online marketing budgets, according to BtoB magazine’s “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” study… B2B Online

via Marketing Charts

Arketi Group pubblica i risultati della ricerca “Inside B-to-B Media Usage of Web 2.0″ che esamina le tecnologie e le fonti usate usate dai giornalisti del B2B per reperire informazioni.

Per quanto riguarda il web:

“… Sixty percent of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet. When asked how journalists use the Internet:

• 98 percent say reading news
• 97 percent say emailing
• 93 percent say finding news sources
• 89 percent say finding story ideas
• 72 percent say reading blogs
• 67 percent say watching webinars or webcasts

Clearly this survey shows that business journalists are embracing user-generated content like blogs, webinars and podcasts as useful in their day-to-day reporting,” said Dr. Kaye Sweetser, APR, assistant professor of public relations at the University of Georgia’s Grady College. “Savvy companies know this and are looking for ways to legitimately increase their participation in creating and growing online content using Web 2.0 methods. …”

La ricerca è disponibile gratuitamente.

Via Marketing Charts