The amount of data available to marketers today can be overwhelming. Sifting through the information to siphon out the promising leads is less of an art than it is a science, said my latest guest on PowerViews, Ruth Stevens, who is an expert in customer acquisition and retention.
Ruth has held high level marketing positions at Time Warner, IBM and Ziff Davis. A business professor at Columbia University, Ruth is also the author of “Maximizing Lead Generation: The Complete Guide for B2B Marketers” and a guest blogger at Biznology and HBR.org.
Here is the full video of our entire chat and below that, some highlights.
The amount of data we can get from marketers these days is remarkable.
Click to start video at this point—Ruth recently collaborated on a study of B2B marketing. She reached out to 14 companies, some well-known, and received feedback from seven. In the past she had studied the breadth and the accuracy of marketing data, but with this study she focused on the depth. Some marketers had thousands of records pertaining to one account. She told me the amount of data we can get from marketers these days is remarkable.
Inbound marketing is tough to scale.
Click to start video at this point—In a recent blog post on Biznology, Ruth wrote, “The most reliable and scalable approach for reaching new B2B customers is outbound communications.” We talked about this issue and about the sustainable relevance of direct mail and cold calling. Social media and inbound sales are like the icing on the cake, she said. The cake still consists of the tried and true standby media channels.
How valuable are trade shows?
Click to start video at this point—Ever wonder how much value B2B companies derive from trade shows and events? They are staples of the industry and often the most expensive items on company budgets. Ruth and I discussed some of the key points of her book “Trade Show and Marketing,” in which she asked companies about the benefits of trade shows. For instance, how many qualified leads were created by attending? There’s a lot of buzz about trade shows, she said, but businesses need to focus more on the science of marketing and less on the art of the deal.
You can connect with Ruth and learn more about eMarketing Strategy via the following resources:
Website: www.ruthstevens.com
Email: ruth at ruth stevens dot com
Next PowerViews: The next PowerViews will be with Joanne Black,
author of “No More Cold Calling.” Stay Tuned.
