B2B Lead Generation Results, By Source

Visits and conversions by source for www.b2bcommunications.com Sept 7 to Oct 6 2009

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Here is a screenshot showing the sources of our website traffic that converted to leads over the last month. Looking at the chart, I answer:

• What does this chart tell you about lead sources?
• How much did you invest to get the site working this way?
• We need to generate leads – what’s the best way?

2010 Marketing Planning – Facts From MarketingSherpa

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Everyone is supposed to be nailing down their plans for 2010 marketing efforts. What will go in your 2010 marketing plan?

As I write this, MarketingSherpa’s 6th Annual B2B Marketing Summit 2009 in San Francisco is winding down. And I don’t want it to be over. Every session, every speaker, and every piece of content was focused on helping attendees conquer the challenges of B2B marketing.

Here are links to get some of the facts you need for smart 2010 marketing planning.

Picking a Marketing Consultant: Get What You Pay For

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You get what you pay for.” The truth is, sometimes you get a lot less than you pay for.

This is the first in a seven-part series of articles to help you get what you pay for when you choose a marketing agency. I’ll start today with a decision tree that shows the five key decision points. As the series progresses, I’ll show you a framework that CEOs can use to sort out the answers.  In later articles I touch on the various types of marketers in the industry. You’ll also find 11 questions to ask an agency – with an example of what counts as a good answer (“pass”), and what counts as baloney (“fail”), for each. And in my seventh article in this series I’ll give five warnings, each of which begins, “Why to watch out if you hear…“

Learn the social media secret handshake at IMU

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Vendors and job applicants pitch B2B Communications each week. So far in 2009, about 1 in 4 indicate familiarity with social media. About 1 in 100 have engaged with us first through social media.

How can busy professionals get a grasp on marketing 2.0 — and start to engage and contribute? I recommend Inbound Marketing University as a foundation. After that, social media mentoring or coaching might be in order.

B2B marketing ROI of a blog – with traffic and leads chart

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

I talked with Sacramento Business Journal senior reporter Kathy Robertson this week about the return on investment from the Red On Marketing Blog. Her questions got me thinking about why I do it, and this post is the result. 

To ground things in real world and tangible results, you’ll see a screenshot showing where our website traffic and leads came from this week.

Using social media: copying others doesn’t work

It’s no secret that social media have become part of the mainstream culture: blogs, YouTube, online forums, networking sites and so on. We’ve been writing about the topic for a while, such as the impact of social media on B2B marketing and tipping points for business participation.

The secret is how to master these new tools for B2B marketing. There are few success stories out there, and copying others doesn’t work, according to Forrester Research Inc.

Discuss The New Rules of Outsourcing B2B Marketing 2009 e-book and checklist

Today Cris Rominger and I published a free B2B marketing e-book (550KB PDF) called The New Rules of Outsourcing B2B Marketing: What Marketing Directors need in a B2B marketing consultant today.

In it we discuss how the shift to inbound marketing affects Marketing Directors; the 5 essential traits your B2B marketer needs and why each is important; 10 questions to ask a prospective B2B marketing consultant; how to cut ROI guesswork; what B2B buyers are looking for; and why B2B marketing differs from B2C.

We’re hoping to hear feedback. Please weigh in. (Tip: to comment, scroll down to the bottom of an article.)

Humor at work: 10 tweets that killed me

It was hard to pick just a few ‘best’ tweets from this fall. I started with dozens of favorites. Here are 10 that killed me.

Humor at work – 10 entertaining finds

Here’s a countdown of 10 toons, articles, and videos I can’t stop laughing over.

B2B Twitter: how Johnny Cash would tweet

It’s standard practice for marketers to plan their companies’ newsletter communications using an editorial calendar. Marketers should back off that sort of approach when it comes to a company wading into Twitter. In fact, Johnny Cash is great inspiration if you’re thinking of using Twitter for business. He’s authentic – ugly, even, up close. And his revelations are anything but boring.

B2B website design: can comments save websites?

I’m working on a list of action items I have for our main website. Meantime, a thought struck me: is my site obsolete?

My web team may kill me for writing this. And for good reason. They’ve got blood and sweat in that nav, content and tags. So am I nuts? And which articles on this am I overlooking? I’m sure there are many good ones.

B2B marketing’s future: the impact of social media

There were dynamite questions to Laura Ramos and me on today’s Forrester teleconference about  B2B Marketing Obsolete, Really? (Part III). Let’s continue the conversation!

Business ethics and the rise of business blogging

Yesterday I participated in the CSUS Symposium on Personal and Professional Integrity in Business. The event was excellent – it surpassed my expectations. 

B2B news: An interview with Ron Trujillo, Sacramento Business Journal

A couple of months ago, bizjournals.com rolled out a feature that lets readers comment on stories. Since then I’ve posted comments from time to time (example 1, example 2, example 3). I wondered about overall use of the online edition’s comments feature and other neat interactive elements I’ve seen rolling out.

I asked Ron Trujillo, editor of the Sacramento Business Journal, for an interview. He obliged. Here are the highlights.

Tipping point for business participation in social media

A recent post by Shandi on the Golden Capital Network blog alludes to the challenge of keeping up with the latest communications methods. He alludes to Twitter as an example of a new technology that’s reached a tipping point.

Business ethics discussions on deck

Two good sessions are coming up in Sacramento on business ethics — one on Oct 20th and one on Nov 18th. They’re listed from most to least important (Elisabeth’s talk will be twice as good as mine) – which turns out to be reverse chronological order. 

B2B marketing: when I grow up, I want to be a DMS

David Meerman Scott (aka DMS) had some great advice about B2B marketing in his March 24, 2008 article in BtoB magazine, “Quit Living in Yesterday’s World”.

Moving, with relief, to new business blogging platform

Red On Marketing blog followers, I owe you one.

I clung too long to a blogging platform that I could not get to work right for our business blog. You suffered through updates sans images — or even paragraph breaks.

Forrester: is B2B marketing going obsolete?

Some marketers I know sense, on a gut level, that the marketplace has experienced a significant shift in power. No longer are just vendors hunting prospects. Prospects, now, are experienced marksmen too.

Wanted: headshot with personality

The last time I had to send in a photo of myself, I automatically asked a coworker to grab the standard formal portrait. You know the kind, the head-and-shoulders photo also known as a mug shot.

Thumbs up on latest BtoBonline webcast

As the latest BtoB Magazine webcast,  “How to Leverage Online Communities for B2B Marketing,”got underway, I visited the launch page for a link to the webcast’s major sponsor, ITtoolbox .

The result? Nada.