With the holiday break approaching, there are four resources I thought you might find useful to help you think about what you’d like to improve and add to your B2B marketing plans for the coming year.
Pour yourself a glass of egg nog and settle in with this:
The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes – created by Dianna Huff
This eBook compiles and share insights collected from 34 marketers, crossing a wide swath of expertise within the industry. What I love about this eBook, is the conversational style Dianna employed and the way she weaved together the massive amount of input she and Mac McIntosh received to create a very useful resource. Not only does the guide clearly explain the mistakes, but it provides tips on how to correct them.
Because there’s so much meaty information in the eBook (Go Download it Now), I know you won’t want to miss them, so here’s a countdown of the top 10 along with my witty comments:
10. Not Marketing the Website (Being invisible is not the goal)
9. Not Taking Advantage of How People Process Information (Love this one!)
8. Not Paying Attention to the Details (Oops isn’t good enough)
7. Jargon (Yes, it still persists)
6. Not Testing (Your gut won’t cut it)
5. No Offer (You definitely need to correct this)
4. Wrong Messaging (Can you say Delete?)
3. Wasting Lead Opportunities (Go toss money down a hole!)
2. Website Not Optimized (if you don’t care, who will?)
DRUM ROLL…
1. No Marketing Strategy (Don’t waste a minute – fix this first!)
Next Up: The Definitive Guide to Lead Scoring by Marketo
Marketo puts out some great content and this guide presents you with more than 50 pages of “how to” information covering lead scoring from what it is to using it to improve your revenue cycles and align marketing and sales.
If you’ve been thinking about lead scoring, but stumped about where to start, this is your chance to get a jump on it for the new year. Not only does it tell you what to do, but also what to avoid. It even discusses how to make scores useful for sales and it even takes a stab at helping you integrate social media activities into lead scoring.
There are plenty of charts and worksheets to help you get started in mapping out your lead scoring model.
I suggest a nice mug of Hard Rocker Cider for your deep dive into lead scoring. Get Your Copy.
The 3rd Treat in Your Stocking:
Now that you know what you’d like to accomplish with lead scoring, you may want to take a gander at a the B2B Marketing Automation Active Market Map created by Software Advice for their Marketing Automation Guide. Here’s a pic, but go see it live to roll your mouse over the vendor logos and get the low down on each platform.
You may wish to swill a Cuppa Good Cheer while perusing your options…
Don’t overlook the Toe of Your Stocking:
And, finally, take a listen to Joe Payne, CEO of Eloqua, discuss what’s needed for a new breed of marketer in his interview with the folks at Software Advice.
In the video, Joe discusses the need for marketers to become analytical thinkers, why the marketing trifecta includes technology, process and creativity (for those of you who were wondering) and how revenue performance management can impact marketing accountability. Lauren Carlson wrote a great post on the takeaways.
Shake up a Candy Cane Swirl to accompany this thought leadership discussion.
