B2B marketing

Yesterday, I described the important role that strong, risk-mitigating brands plays in inbound lead generation. This is where B2B social media marketing comes in, since it provides a way for any company, not just large multi-national corporations, to build strong brands that in turn generate quality inbound leads.

Here are four key ways that social media builds brands.

Guest Post by: Maria Pergolino

Marketing automation has the ability to benefit almost every B2B company and industry, but are there benefits specific to open source companies? In our newest B2B marketing thought leadership interview, Mark Fidelman is the EVP of Sales at MindTouch and author of "Open Source Best Practices 2009" talks about open source success and using marketing automation to achieve it.

Instead of scouring the web in search of the latest insight on B2B marketing tactics and trends, consult our list of 25 must-read B2B marketing posts. Find out what these influential marketing bloggers have to say about B2B social media, landing page optimization, search marketing, marketing ROI, and other B2B marketing techniques.

As a B2B marketer, thought leadership is one of the most valuable assets your brand — or you — can attain.

In down economies, prospects conduct even more research leading up to the purchase. This means B2B marketing professionals must help educate prospects in the early stages of the buying cycle; doing this well can help frame their buying process and establish your brand as a trusted advisor that understands their problems and knows how to solve them. Therefore it's more vital than ever for your organization to be viewed as an industry leader and trusted resource for all key stakeholders: customers, media, analysts, investors and everyone in between.

Guest Post by: Maria Pergolino

Yesterday’s Fall 2009 MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Virtual Conference was the perfect event to prepare for the planning of Q4 marketing programs. And I must not be the only person who thought so, as over 12,000 registered for the six hour virtual event that featured both B2C and B2B program tracks.I focused on the B2B sessions along with hosting a one hour chat session on Email Marketing and Lead Nurturing in the network lounge during the event. Here are my top takeaways from the event:

Guest Post by: Maria Pergolino

Last week I attended Search Engine Strategies in San Jose and joined in on a session about Duplicate Content. This session was very interesting, but since it was not part of their B2B track, was not focused specifically on how it affects B2B marketers.

Our latest interview is with Mike Damphousse. Mike is a leading sales and marketing executive, leading the growth of Green Leads while sharing b2b demand generationknowledge with others. His success with Green Leads and previously as CMO of two software companies combine with his thought leadership in social media lends to some great insight in this B2B Marketing thought leader interview.

Guest Post by: Maria Pergolino

The next interview in the B2B Marketing Thought Leader interview series is with David Taber. David is the author of the new Prentice-Hall book, "Salesforce.com Secrets of Success," which covers the people, policy, and process issues surrounding effective CRM solutions.