B2B Marketing Predictions For 2011
Whenever I start to see Thanksgiving turkeys flying out of the grocery store and Black Friday ads start to appear, I know it’s that time of year to prognosticate. So here is my list of B2B Marketing Insider predictions for 2011.
2010 was the year social media moved from cutting edge to mainstream (right?). And what a wild ride it has been. While some have predicted the consolidation of Twitter and Facebook or the demise of Foursquare, I am sticking to the practical topics most B2B Marketers I know are talking about:
Marketing, Death and Taxes
So Marketing may not be as unavoidable as death and taxes, but lately it is becoming harder and harder to escape. As a marketing professional, I am not proud of our reputation as SPAM-ers. It seems as if the lower our outbound marketing response rates get, the greater the number of emails, phone calls, pop-up ads and other interruptions we throw at our weary populace.
As a consumer, I’m fed up. I refuse to answer cold calls at work or home. I can only watch TV shows on my DVR. If I’m forced to watch live TV like the news or sports, I pause it for 20 minutes so I can fast forward through the commercials or I multi-task and catch up on email or surf the web during commercials.
What Is Marketing Acceleration?
What is marketing acceleration and why is it even worth discussing? In the larger context, acceleration refers to the increasing pace of change. In B2B Marketing, we are experiencing an unprecedented amount of upheaval in what defines our success. We not only need to be fast, we need to get faster. We need to be speed racers.
While we are being impacted by the rapid rise of social networks and the use of mobile technologies to connect business professionals, we are also being asked to produce more with less. More leads. More sales. Greater awareness. Less money. Less People. Fewer tools.
Why Do You Tweet? Social Media And Your Personal Brand
I am an advocate for social media marketing and personal branding which I believe can help to benefit both your company and your career. And so I am often asked why I tweet, why I blog and why I participate in both online and offline social communities and events.
Despite the huge press coverage around social media, I am still surprised at how many marketers and other market-facing professionals resist the call to participate in social media and to be brand ambassadors. To me, social media is all about personal branding. Grow your personal brand, with respect and proper attribution to your company as an ambassador, and the company benefits through the greater exposure of a positive voice out to the market it serves.
Why Social Media Will Help Us All Get Along (Better)
It is one of the biggest questions you will hear in any open forum on Social Media: Which department owns social media? I wanted to outline my thoughts here and summarize some of the key sides of the debate.
The #1 Way to Improve Customer Loyalty and Satisfaction
I have stated many times that the role of marketing is to help our companies gain and keep customers. This is a unifying principle for both marketing and sales teams and should act as the starting point for all of our discussions. Next the question becomes- how do we do it? And who does which piece?
In B2B marketing organizations, the single most important way to keep customers is to build satisfaction and loyalty. The best way to get new customers is through positive referrals from existing customers. So, how do we build customer satisfaction and loyalty? By cultivating satisfied and engaged employees.
This is not my idea. It is not highly complex. It makes sense to anyone who hears it. Yet, how many of us measure it, take steps to improve it, and hold ourselves accountable for ensuring this feedback loop is active, constructive and ultimately effective?
Why am I in Marketing?
As I traveled the course of my career, often times in unexpected directions, I have found myself asking the question of why I do what I do. Since most of us have found ourselves in a position or a company that is not exactly on the path we imagined when we were younger, it makes sense to ponder what exactly has delivered us to the place we stand.
