Demand Generation, Reputation Development, or Both?

16. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Digital Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Communications, Marketing Strategy
Marketing Tactics Quadrant Diagram

Demand Generation and Reputation Development in B2B Marketing

This post discusses a diagram that I first created a few years ago to visually illustrate the relationships between reputation development and demand generation activities in B2B marketing.  It's a classic 'quadrant-style' graphic, with Demand Generation value (e.g., return on investment / ROI) increasing to the right along the horizontal axis, and Reputation Development value increasing vertically.

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B2B Lead Generation, CRM, and Marketing Automation

29. June 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Digital Marketing, Market Research, Marketing, Marketing Communications, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Trends, Sales
Image: B2B Lead Generation Infographic

How do CRM and Marketing Automation impact B2B lead generation?

I recently saw the infographic below (via BuyerZone) about B2B lead generation, and thought it was worth highlighting here, along with a little commentary.  The results in the graphic come from a survey of '200+ BuyerZone clients and other B2B companies.' 

The key takeaways for me were:

  • CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platforms have become much more mainstream, and their use seems to also indicate a more sophisticated and well-rounded approach to marketing, and a small improvement (from 6.99 to 7.31) in overall sales/marketing alignment. 
  • Marketing Automation, however, is still relatively unused (and not well understood) by this group of respondents.  But for those using it, Marketing Automation is driving significantly increased satisfaction with overall lead volumes and lead quality.
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This is Not Your Father’s B2B Buying Cycle

22. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Customers, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Sales
Image - B2B Solution Discussion

There has been a fair amount of coverage in recent years about the changing relationships between B2B buyers and sellers.  In particular, the fact that B2B buyers today are much more knowledgeable about potential solutions long before they ever contact a solution vendor for further discussions.

Consider a typical scenario today, where the B2B buyer:

  • Has self-diagnosed his or her business problem, forming some preliminary ideas about potential solutions
  • Has used online resources to become educated about applicable solution categories and implementations
  • Has searched for examples of real-world case studies where this problem has been successfully addressed
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