B2B Aware: This Week in B2B Marketing – Advice & Resolutions

WEEK OF DECEMBER 12-16, 2011

December brings forecasts, advice and resolutions to improve in the new year. This week in B2B marketing we’re sharing our choices for the most interesting content for B2B marketers’ 2012 plans.

Kudos to the content contributors who keep the B2B marketing community informed with your reports, thoughts and observations.

b2b aware: This Week In B2B Marketing

Bold moves marketers can make to pull ahead in 2012

Systematically measuring marketing effectiveness, seeking fruitful and creative alliances, and developing better content to market are among eight New Year’s resolutions for marketers offered by Drew Neisser. FastCompany

For great innovation we must build things

The best innovations are born when people actually build things, writes John B. Rogers. It’s experimentation and iteration, rather than mere brainstorming, that generates the best ideas — and that’s the reason that the wane of American manufacturing is such a big deal. “We don’t make the stuff and we don’t make the people who make the stuff — and until we do, we are going to have a crisis of innovation on a national scale,” Rogers writes. Inc.com

Better LPO equals improves ROI

Landing-page optimization is an efficient way marketers can improve their performance, writes Daniel Burstein. Concentrate on increased conversion rates by scientifically testing the changes you make, learning from the results. MarketingExperiments.com

Systematic steps for content-marketing newbies

Generating more awareness in a product or service through content marketing can be achieved through several logical steps, advises Lee Odden. Tell stories that compel conversation, establish goals for content marketing and measure the results. Put your customers before the keywords. TopRankBlog.com

Lighten trade-show loads with QR codes

Using QR codes instead of bulky info packets can help you market better at trade shows, writes Sarah Baker. Take advantage of smartphone propularity by having booth visitors scan a QR with business card information. MarketingProfs

In 2012, marketing automation will rise with social

 

Marketers are in for another eventful year for technology, predicts Anthony Joseph. Expect marketing automation to boom as search and social media marketers seek better metrics. iMedia Connection

Look below the surface to overcome resistance to new ideas

Resistance to change isn’t always overt, Ron Ashkenas writes. Sometimes, team members push back indirectly by asking questions or looking for reasons to delay a project. Managers who see signs of passive resistance should try to understand the root causes and encourage movement by tapping into consensus. Harvard Business Review online

Social data can improve B2B e-mail marketing

E-mail marketing can be vastly improved by mining data from social networks, writes Kara Trivunovic. Besides the aerial view of what interests your customers and when, the granular study reveals interesting and sometimes counter-intuitive demographic data that can help refine B2B e-mail messaging. BtoB Magazine

 

What happened in your B2B marketing week that you’d like to share?