Ten Practical Trends in B2B Marketing

Ten Practical Trends in B2B Marketing

What’s the latest thinking in B2B marketing? What techniques and trends are today’s best practice B2B marketers using to drive more revenue and demonstrate accountability?

Over the next 10 posts, I’ll share the top trends that are changing the practice of B2B marketing. I’ll discuss key best practices you should have on your radar, as well as practical tips for how to take advantage of the trend to improve your performance.

Update: Here are the Top 10 Practical Trends in B2B Marketing:

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.

Jon Miller is VP of Marketing for Marketo, a provider of affordable, easy-to use-marketing automation software that helps B2B marketing professionals drive revenue and improve accountability. Jon's blog, Modern B2B Marketing, explores best practices in business marketing, ranging from pay-per-click management to lead nurturing to marketing accountability. The Strictly Business column appears Wednesdays at Search Engine Land. For more information check out http://www.marketo.com or http://blog.marketo.com.