B2BMarketingSmarts

Where B2B marketing personas meet the road.

Susan Fantle — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:45:08 +0000

Knowledgeable B2B marketers know that the better lead generation or nurturing content and messaging focuses on the needs and interests of targeted individuals, the more successful it will be. That understanding has produced the need to create prospect personas. As defined on Wikipedia, “A user persona is a representation of the goals and behavior of [...]

B2B marketing SEO meets the keyword monster.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:39:57 +0000

Back in the old days (like childhood), being found was not a good thing. It involved the game of “Hide and Seek” and required finding imaginative hiding places that would confound your fellow gamers. Today, the game has turned into “Find Me, Find Me, Pleeeeease” or Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s a lot harder to [...]

Take your B2B trade show booth from boring to spectacular.

Susan Fantle — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:25:33 +0000

Guest Post by Daniel Frank A while back in her post “Four quick B2B marketing ideas for a short week,” Susan reported on adding a photo opportunity at trade show booths to get prospects to interact with the booth sales staff and keep visitors around the booth longer. As someone who works with an exhibition [...]

B2B marketing shalt not speak in strange tongues.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:38:13 +0000

It’s always nice to read someone else’s very solid argument in favor of some B2B marketing position I advocate. I had this experience last week when reading the words of Peter Helmer on the MENG Blend blog. His post “For an Effective Elevator Speech, Obey the Ten Commandments” discussed one of my favorite topics — [...]

Policies that put B2B marketing and sales on the same page.

Susan Fantle — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:45:58 +0000

Recently I saw Christopher Ryan’s post on Great B2B Marketing, “B2B Lead Management — 6 Best Practices.” As an advocate of best practices it caught my eye since it presents a valuable list well worth reviewing. His number-one point, “Follow up every inbound inquiry within 48 hours — preferably 24 hours,” reminded me of two [...]

Mini-quiz on how to avoid a B2B marketing iceberg.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:16:14 +0000

It’s a sad piece of history we are remembering this week with the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. When there are public tragedies, there’s an immediate call for who or what to blame. In the case of the Titanic, however, there was only one cause — human [...]

Lift B2B marketing response by putting time on your side.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:48:10 +0000

It’s never a good idea for B2B marketers to project our own personal opinions and practices on the B2B audience to which we market. How we like to receive information, our work patterns, and our preferences are not likely to mirror the people who buy our company’s B2B products or services. But there is one [...]

Learning smart B2B marketing from an industry event invite.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:59:43 +0000

It may seem strange for me write about a B2B marketing event I haven’t yet attended. But the invite was so informative, I have to share. The upcoming event is sponsored by the San Diego Software Industry Council (SDSIC) and features Reid Carr, CEO of Red Door Interactive, and Harley Orion, CEO of Orion Creative [...]

B2B Marketing Automation: Is it really worth the effort?

Susan Fantle — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:06:15 +0000

There’s nothing nicer when writing B2B marketing copy than to be able to talk about the fact that a product or service has “automated” some process. Automation typically removes one or more steps that have to be done manually by one or more human beings. Automation can mean completely releasing labor from one task so [...]

True B2B marketing success depends on what you don’t see.

Susan Fantle — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:55:25 +0000

As a B2B marketing copywriting specialist, my readers might think I’d lay it on thick about the importance of the copy and design in B2B marketing messages — emails, content, direct mail, landing pages, product brochures and more. Copy and design are both important elements in B2B marketing. They’re physical parts that B2B marketers can [...]