It seems like ages ago we were harping about the poor showing of B2B advertisements during Super Bowl XLV.   While there are plenty of talking heads out there commenting on the B2C ads, almost nobody talks about the scarce B2B ads.   As this prestigious event unites Americans of all stripes, we glue ourselves to the sofa to catch the ads most people ignore…

This year more than ever, the many popular B2C brands “leaked” their commercials to create some buzz.  It is our take that B2B organizations did not think they had the creativity or the clout to foster a word-of-mouth campaign prior to the big event.  And what this year’s herd of Super Bowl ads tells us is that the days of herding cats is long gone.

We don’t think the GoDaddy.com ad was really geared towards B2B, although the organization indeed sells domains to businesses.   Nor do we think the Careerbuilder.com ad. although designed for professionals who wish to improve their career, was truly B2B in the context of our blog analysis for the past few years.

The only advertisement run during the Super Bowl that came close to being B2B was one of two ads by the same company.  General Electric ran those two ads and they were more for branding than for promoting one of their many products or services.

GE’s first ad was the one that could actually be classified as related to B2B. It mentioned their design and manufacturing of turbines.  But the storyline ended up in a consumer like message of why GE helps beer drinkers.  Oh well…

While we are disappointed in the almost complete absence of B2B commercials this time around, we understand that businesses may no longer see the wisdom in running broadcast ads to the Super Bowl audience.  After all, many business buyers are doing research on the Internet, the planning of television ads may be considered obsolete in this day of mature content marketing theory and lead nurturing.  The branding that GE exercised may carry other objectives than just the marketing of steam turbines for electricity.

Does this mean that B2B television commercials are dead?  No, we’re not ready to proclaim that just yet, but it appears true more than ever that consumer products  automobiles, beer, soft drinks, and movies have better staying power in this expensive arena.

The Online Marketing Summit (OMS) in San Diego, to be held from Monday, February 6th to Thursday, February 9th is one of the best conferences for all level of Marketers looking to be more effective with the Internet.

Allinio’s president, Joe Zuccaro (@joezuc) will be speaking on a panel entitled “The Fundamentals of Online Marketing” on Thursday, February 8th at 2:00 p.m.  Check out the rest of the exciting schedule of leading Marketers here.

You can get a 30% discount to OMS, courtesy of Allinio, OR get a free expo pass, if you use the code “SPEAKER30” when you register by clicking here.

Hope to see you there!

Last year we featured two great infographics related to Marketing Automation.  We just stumbled upon another put out by those wild pals and gals over at HubSpot.  What’s interesting about this infographic is that it has some “unvarnished” facts and interpretations about what Marketing Automation is and should be.  Overall, we agree..Near the bottom of the infographic, there is a line we especially like:  ”Customer relationships should be based on real interaction with the assistance of marketing automation.”  We couldn’t agree more.  But what Marketing Automation can do is help you determine which of those customer relationships bring more long term revenue to your enterprise, so you know which ones to focus your limited, expensive human resources on.

So check it out and enjoy.  Thanks, HubSpot!

Creative Commons from http2007

Last week this we listed the major B2B events for the year, but failed to mention one at which Allinio’s President & CEO, Joe Zuccaro (@joezuc) has spoken and will be speaking again.  The Online Marketing Summit, to be held in San Diego, California from February 6th to 9th will be the best one yet.  We are flattered that Aaron Kahlow  (@AaronKahlow) asked Joe to sit on a panel on the 8th entitled “The Fundamentals of Online Marketing.”   This may be short notice, but here are five reasons why you should attend.

1.  If you’re on the East Coast, it will be a lot colder while Joe and all his hot air is in San Diego, so come west to warm up.

2.  It’s not a boondoggle, it will be a scientific, metrics-based observation of what happens when you get a large concentration of  Marketers near palm trees.

3.  Also, a large concentration of Marketers near the U.S. southern border will scare illegal immigrants away better than the U.S. Border Patrol can.

4.  It’s as far away as you can get from the Presidential Primary pundits  in the continental United States.

5.  If you have marketing automation doing your drip campaigns, who needs you back at the office?

OK, that was all in the name of fun and we hope nobody calls the PC police on us.  there are many good reasons to attend a conference of the caliber of OMS, but we had to put those in too.  The information shared about best practices, the networking, and the latest industry buzz will help you with your Marketing career.  It’s worth it.  Tell your boss.  BRING your boss!

Hope to see you there!

This year there are a multitude of conferences available to B2B Markters for networking and professional development.   We plotted out the leading ones for you in a chronological table; some are repeat events at different venues, while others are unique and interesting also.  Of the entire list, there are a few you should definitely try to attend…
While “virtual trade shows” are growing in scope and popularity, there’s nothing like going to a “meat space” event, pressing palms, gathering SWAG, and finding out what’s really going on.

The Online Marketing Summit 2012 and DemandCon stand out as some of the best we’ve been to; These are “must go tos.”  We also heard that Content Marketing World was fantastic for its inaugural year and would probably be worth going to.  There are many others on this list, all worthy of someone from your department attending depending on the discipline.

Of course, if you have a Marketing Automation platform (It’s 2012, what are you waiting for???), you should definitely go to your vendor’s user conference if they host one.

Know of a good national B2B Marketing event not on this list?  Contact Allinio and let us know!

Creative Commons mashup from work of bfishadow

This year there were many in the Marketing Automation sector; vendors have had more money and as a result really began flexing their marketing muscle.  There has been adoption of Marketing Automation platforms by customers not only in the tech market segment, but in “old line” sectors such as financial services and manufacturing.  Obviously, much has  been happening in the past few years.  IBM acquired Unica; Teradata bought Aprimo.  Oracle obtained control of the IP of Market2Lead.  Rumors have been flying about  Salesforce.com and it’s acquisition of Radian6, surely a sign that it was moving towards Marketing Automation. But there is one proceeding of 2011 that is of utmost significance to Marketers…

This past August, Eloqua filed an S-1 with the the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and the buzz was instantaneous.  Commentary by thought leaders in the Marketing Automation space ranging from competitors like David Cummings of Pardot, to more neutral observers such as Focus.com and  David Raab of Raab Associates was generally on the mark.

While the window of opportunity is precarious in this economy, it is still an overall positive thing that Eloqua was in the position to even file in the first place.  As probably the oldest Marketing Automation vendor at 10+ years, they have had a slow road to this point, compared to other technologies and platforms that have seemed to come out of “nowhere.”  Perhaps the IPO will not happen due to the window (or bubble) closing/bursting.  Perhaps the IPO is just a springboard to a more lucrative (and hopefully short-term) exit such as an aquisition.  Good for Joe Payne (@JoePayne) and his hard working team.  But none of that really matters to the rest of us Marketers- what matters is the technology has finally matured to the point where you as marketers have no choice but to seriously look at Eloqua and its competitors’ offerings.  The scale at which their solutions can help you gather, stores, analyze, share and act upon data makes a compelling proposition.

Now this is our last blogpost of the year, and we wish to end it on a positive note; however, there is something from the S-1 we need to point out because it made us cringe.  Clearly we are in the camp that supports the IPO and roots for all the Marketing Automation vendors.  But on page 14 of the S-1 we cringed when we read one line in the standard section entitled “Risk Factors” upon which all filing companies must elaborate respective to their situation:

“If we fail to forecast our revenue accurately, or if we fail to match our expenditures with corresponding revenue, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.”

Now, don’t get us wrong – we blame a cadre of receding-hairlined attorneys for cramming a bunch of scary boilerplate into an S-1; we’ve seen it before and it’s all “CYA” kind of stuff.  What is ironic is that Eloqua’s solution facilitates “Revenue Performance Management” (RPM), a methodology which increases the ability for a firm to forecast revenue accurately.  It is not incorrect to assume that Eloqua is using its own platform and therefore “eating its own dogfood.”  Marketo, Eloqua’s main competitor, constantly preaches the RPM gospel and shows how they have forecasting down to a science using their own platform.  We just think that there could have been a better way to mitigate that one caveat in the S-1.  Silly lawyers…

Have a FANTASTIC and GROWTH ORIENTED 2012!

Creative Commons mashup from works of nannetteturner and Chris Heiler

Sung to the tune of “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen“

God rest you Content Marketers,
Creating stuff to view;
Remember, make it relevant
To those personas who
Are part of that buying center
Whom your sales must pursue,

Oh, content that you must syndicate, must syndicate,
Oh, content that you must syndicate!

Make sure that every newsletter
Has links back to your site;
And every blog you go to post
Gives very good insight!
And your thought leadership pieces
Become papers o’ white,

Oh, content that you must syndicate, must syndicate,
Oh, content that you must syndicate!

And when it comes to video,
They must be short and sweet.
Because you’re o’er worked audience
Has Adult A-D-D!
Infographics may do the trick
And spread through those that tweet,

Oh, content that you must syndicate, must syndicate,
Oh, content that you must syndicate!

You’ve repurposed old literature
And made it look anew;
And tagged ev’ry piece that you’ve writ
So Search rankings come through!
You’ve now become a publisher,
With deadlines always due!

Oh, content that you must syndicate, must syndicate,
Oh, content that you must syndicate!

This holiday carol is dedicated to Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe) and Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs)

Creative Commons by Jim, the Photographer

Sung to the tune of “Up On The Housetop“

You get the prospect to opt-in,
So you’ll commit no spamming sin,
Send them an invite from afar
To attend your webinar!

Drip, drip, drip!
Ask for their zip!
Clicks, clicks, clicks!
Analytics!
Out from your email,
Slick, slick, slick,
Down thru’ the funnel
Comes revenue thick!

White papers flying o’er the Net,
Download the content with no sweat!
See where they go on your website,
Consuming lots of megabytes!

Drip, drip, drip!
Ask for their zip!
Clicks, clicks, clicks!
Analytics!
Out from your email,
Slick, slick, slick,
Down thru’ the funnel
Comes revenue thick!

Get them to sign for a demo,
Then email them the preso.
Score them so they’re B.A.N.T. qualifed
To talk to sales and buy, buy, buy!

Drip, drip, drip!
Ask for their zip!
Clicks, clicks, clicks!
Analytics!
Out from your email,
Slick, slick, slick,
Down thru’ the funnel
Comes revenue thick!

Creative Commons by Tulane Public Relations

The following infographic was put together by Capterra and InfoNewt.  On one hand, we think it’s great that Capterra has illustrated what is going on in an increasing market for Marketing Automation.  On the other hand…

…we wonder how useful to Marketers this infographic really is.  At the bottom of it, Capterra briefly explains the methodology for measuring “popularity.”    It apparently “aggregates publicly provided resources to identify the following six attributes:  Number of Customers, Number of Users, Revenue, Google Searches, Twitter Followers, and Alexa/Compete Ratings.

What about LinkedIn followings?  Bing searches?  Actually, that’s just more junk data.  We’d like to know what churn rates are; where customers are going when they leave one vendor, and how much the platforms are actually being used.  But we are glad that more people are paying attention to this space.

Creative Commons by Accidental Hedonist

Once again, we are posting holiday carols for the tech/marketing/social crowd. With such hits as Carol of the Marketing Metrics, Get Yourself Marketing Automation, The Twelve Days of Foursquare,  O Little Town of Twitterville, Talking In A Mobile Wonderland, S-E-O, S-E-O, S-E-O!, and Eloqua Fideles, we are continuing this tradition into its third year with some lyrics that will hopefully put a smile on your weary Marketing face.

Sung to the tune of “Here We Come A-Wassailing“

Here we come a-nurturing
Among the leads so green;
Here we come to qualify
And information glean!

REFRAIN:
Our sales folks won’t say boo,
‘Til you’ve scored all the way to
A threshold that means you’ll buy
What we want to sell to you
Then they’ll call
And won’t seem like a yahoo.

And when you’ve finally registered
For that next webinar,
We’ll know we’ve gotten ROI
For spending like a czar!

REFRAIN:
Our sales folks won’t say boo,
‘Til you’ve scored all the way to
A threshold that means you’ll buy
What we want to sell to you
Then they’ll call
And won’t seem like a yahoo.

You’ve been in our database
For what seems years and years
But we will keep emailing you
‘Cause we are marketeers!

REFRAIN:
Our sales folks won’t say boo,
‘Til you’ve scored all the way to
A threshold that means you’ll buy
What we want to sell to you
Then they’ll call
And won’t seem like a yahoo.