One of my favorite series of posts on the early Marketo blog was called Ten Practical Trends in B2B Marketing. In it, I compiled some of the key ideas on modern marketing that I'd had up until that date. Here are links to the 10 final articles:
- Embrace online channels: The internet has transformed best-practices in B2B marketing. As a result, spending on online advertising at B2B companies is growing at 25% a year.
- Landing pages, landing pages, landing pages: Sending traffic to a landing page can improve conversions by 2X, and following best practices can raise them another 40%.
- Test everything – but don’t over test: Testing is the best way to discover what works, but don’t test too many variables or you won’t get significant results.
- Practice attention marketing – and make it measurable: Customers are adept at tuning out unwanted marketing. Leverage the internet and word of mouth to break through the attention barrier.
- Help buyers research early in the sales cycle: Buyers use the internet to research before they engage with sales. By helping to educate the customer, you can establish your company as a trusted advisor that understands their problems.
- Manage leads – don’t generate demand: Marketers who excel at managing leads (i.e. acquiring, scoring, nurturing, and routing leads) can more than double the number of marketing leads that turn into a sale.
- Lead nurturing 101: 95% of the prospects on your site are not ready to speak with sales. Leads that are nurtured before going to sales buy more, require less discounting, and have shorter sales cycles.
- Measure relationship depth: Track the number and quality of marketing interactions with each prospect company, so you know the next best marketing action to take.
- Stop being a cost center: Help the CEO and CFO think of marketing as asset that drives revenue, not a liability that needs to be reduced, by framing the issue of marketing spending in terms of revenue and growth.
- Invest in marketing automation: As marketing operations are become increasingly complex, marketers will need to find ways to automate key processes through technology.