B2B Marketing Trends: What are the biggest trends in B2B marketing to follow in 2011?

All good stuff. My shot:

1. The B2B search marketing game will change.
The on-page optimization stuff is just the price of entry. Now it's about quality backlinks that can only be earned with one thing: great content. Okay, two things: great content fueled by real engagement with market influencers.

2. Automation beds down.
The pioneers have had some time to discover what works. The generous ones are sharing their experiences so it's time to jump Moore's Chasm and go mainstream.

3. The return of the funnel.
The funnel got a bad name this year as B2B thinkers started to question its linearity in a multi-vector social world. But as revenue marketing takes hold, we'll return to this useful metaphor: lots of contacts at the top, some rich engagement on the way and a sale at the end.

4. Show me the money.
B2B marketers increasingly will be judged by the money they generate. All other metrics will be eclipsed as the best marketers feature dollar signs in their boardroom powerpoints.

Bring on 2011!

[And thanks Joe C for your kind words and for drawing me into the discussion -- may Eloqua continue to lead from the front!]

1. The top of the list is ROI. It's more measurable than ever. CFO's and the Board have taken note, so marketing dollars will be more scrutinized than ever. The plus side is that Marketing has stepped up it's game in the past few years and there's a new wave of solutions out there that were designed with your corporate bean counters in mind.

2. Automation becomes easier and less expensive. Once the purview of only a select few B2C firms doing internal builds, B2B marketing automation is becoming easier and simpler. Marketers will no longer need a team of Ph.D.'s in Data-ology to send out drip campaigns.

3. B2B marketers will realize that the real reason nobody can figure out how to measure ROI from social media is because it doesn't actually have an ROI. The dust will begin to settle in 2011 and marketers will see social media for what it really is (and is not); B2B marketers will spend less time proliferating truncated URL's into the Twitter echo-chamber and more time generating better leads for the sales team.

In the face of two economic downturns in the past decade, B2B buyers are more frugal than ever, and even with continued recovery predicted for 2011, a new “age of austerity” promises to keep buyers seeking proof of bottom-line impact and value from every investment. At the same time, B2B buyers are taking advantage of the wealth of information available via the Internet and social media to become more empowered, taking charge of the buying cycle.

These two market drivers are driving significant and permanent changes for 2011 and beyond :
1. Internet Fueled Buying Cycles on the Rise – In the B2C space, the consumer is now in charge: using the Internet to research specifications, configuring and customizing solutions, getting peer reviews and advice, comparing prices, and “buying now”. Now, in B2B, we have seen a similar dramatic shift towards prospects taking charge of the buying cycle. Savvy B2B marketers will recognize the “consumerization” of B2B and in 2011 proactively increase content marketing investments to deliver the right content and interactive decision support tools at the appropriate right step in the buying cycle.

2. The Death of a Salesman? At the same time, as buyers are becoming more empowered, sales professionals are seen by these buyers as less valuable in the decision making process, and as a result are being invited later and later in the buying cycle. In a recent survey by IDC, 24% of buyers indicated that the sales reps are not prepared for presentations at all, 30% indicate that they are somewhat prepared , and only 29% indicate that they are well prepared. An empowered buyer means that the role of sales will dramatically be impacted, requiring sales enablement and marketing to help redefine and drive a new breed of value selling professional.

3. It’s Only a Matter of Trust – B2B buyers will rely more and more on your on-line presence to make judgments as to whether they will do business with you, and this presence needs to overcome typical vendor skepticism, convey credibility and gain trust. Buyer survey results from sales and marketing research firm SiriusDecisions indicate that the most trusted sources of marketing content information through the buying lifecycle are industry analysts (cited by 31.4% of respondents), and peers (28.7%), especially early in the lifecycle. Savvy vendors will develop and deliver more content and tools in 2011 to create a “circle of trust” with skeptical buyers, including independent endorsements, peer and analyst reviews, success stories, and validation needed to create trust.

4. Information Overload –even though B2B buyers are relying more on the Internet to fuel purchase decisions, these buyers are being inundated with more marketing messages over more channels than ever before, leading to information overload, confusion, and stalled decision making cycles. According to SiriusDecisions, just looking at e-blasts alone, the typical buyer receives over 20 e-mail marketing messages a week, up 32% over the past 4 years. Better content targeting and personalization is required for 2011 to end “carpet bombing” B2B marketing techniques, evolving to create a dialogue with buyers to guide them through the decision making process and buying lifecycle with personalized one-to-one advice.

5. Fight Frugalnomics –B2B buyers are “doing-more-with-less” and are economic-focused, with over 90% of B2B buyers requiring quantifiable proof of bottom-line impact from significant investments. Even with a continued recovery and more financial optimism through 2011, the shift to frugality is fundamental and permanent. To fight Frugalnomics, savvy marketers will need to make even more investments in 2011 towards content and tools that help buyers assess and quantify the economic impact of implementing the proposed solutions, quantify the cost of “doing nothing”, and prove competitive cost advantages and value.

Looks like we are all in agreement on the major trends shaping B2B marketing in 2011. Instead of coming up with what I think is going to change in the B2B marketing world in 2011, I decided to tap into the collective wisdom of over 17,000 marketing professionals in the B2B Technology Marketing Community. I asked them to rank the marketing areas they think will become more important in 2011. The results are in - here is what B2B marketing professionals think is shaping B2B marketing in 2011.

Top-10 B2B Marketing Trends (part 1 of 2)

1 - Integration of social media into lead generation programs
2011 will be the year social media evolves from the experimental stage to become an established marketing tactic. This also means that more stringent demands for proof of ROI and revenue impact will be placed on social media investment. But that is not a bad thing, keeps us on our toes.

2 - Content marketing (content mapped to personas, buyer's journey, vertical, etc)
Content marketing is going mainstream in 2011. If you are not thinking about (and implementing) a strategy that puts your buyers (with their persona and industry driven pain points, preferences, and buying stages) in the center of your marketing efforts - and creates compelling content as the currency of your engagement with buyers - chances are you will get left behind by more content savvy competitors. With content moving into the center of attention, marketers struggle to create magnetic content in the right formats and quantities. Sophisticated marketers will apply systematic ways to re-purpose existing content, create bite-sized content for the short attention span executive, and design an efficient content waterfall that accelerates production times, quality, and content consistency (more on content strategy in one of my next posts).

3 - Focus on new business generation & revenue
With many markets making a modest recovery, which is expected to accelerate somewhat in 2011, marketing focus turns away from cost cutting and customer retention and towards growth and new customer wins. Marketing will be expected to show how it impacts new revenue generation. "Last click attribution" alone won’t cut it anymore and will need to make room for more comprehensive ways to show the combined impact of marketing tactics on buyer decisions.

4 - Focus on lead quality
In the past, marketing focus has often been on generating increasing quantities of leads. It was difficult to tell lead quality and impact on sales pipeline, so in the absence of real quality indicators, more was considered better. This flood of leads overwhelmed sales and distracted from the selling part of their jobs. And marketing received the blame for creating poor leads and wasting valuable selling time. Now, with the emergence of marketing automation tools and lead scoring technologies on one side, and tougher requirements for demonstrating program ROI on the other side, look for lead quality to become a critical performance metric in 2011.

(see next post for part 2 of the top-10 list)

Provocative question. I very much look forward to reading the responses. Will subscribe to this thread for certain. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Marketing will be held more accountable for revenue goals. Quotas in the areas of leads, logos and revenue will be hung on the marketing department. The sun will continue in to set on brand marketing.
2. The lines separating content / inbound marketing and demand gen will blur. Companies that have already begun to invest in content marketing efforts will look to attach conversion-related analytics to their efforts. While companies that have heretofore ignored these tactics will find that they are more measurable than initially thought, and that factor will draw them into the practice. In both cases, content marketing will fuse with demand gen.
3.) B2B marketers will look a lot more like consumer marketers. Many companies in many different B2B sectors are already starting to experiment with B2C-like campaigns -- viral videos, playful Facebook campaigns, innovative contests -- and these companies are getting noticed. Expect others to follow.
4.) There will be a high-profile social media crisis in the B2B sector. Consumer marketers have taken their lumps -- negative articles about unethical (or just naive) practices -- in the court of public opinion (and sometimes even with the FTC). As their B2B counterparts try their hand at B2C-like tactics, expect some missteps, and expect some of them to be high profile.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Doug Kessler for his ongoing, high value contribution to this community. If there is anyone who sparks thoughts such as the above, it's Doug.

Joe Chernov / @jchernov / Eloqua

Top-10 B2B Marketing Trends (part 2)

5 - Focus on sales enablement
The best leads and nurturing strategy, however, doesn’t help much if sales can't close the deal. Our B2B marketing community agrees that providing sales with not only the right leads, but compelling content, sales tools, and education is going to be more critical as a competitive weapon in 2011. Your competitors are catching up on the latest lead generation and nurturing tactics. And all other things being equal, an educated and motivated sales force and their consultative selling skills will be the ultimate differentiator. Tom Pisello contributed a great comment to our B2B Technology Marketing Community, highlighting that a recent survey by IDC found that 24% of B2B buyers found that the sales reps are not prepared for presentations at all, 30% indicate that they are somewhat prepared , and only 29% indicate that they are well prepared. An empowered buyer means that the role of sales will dramatically be impacted, requiring sales enablement and marketing to help redefine and drive a new breed of value selling professional in 2011.

6 - Focus on Pull/inbound marketing tactics
This reflects the continued power shift of buyers moving firmly into the driver’s seat, initiating, and controlling the buying process. As traditional interruption style marketing techniques are being blocked and filtered out by buyers, marketers need to shift to inbound tactics using magnetic content that enables buyers to educate themselves about the nature of their problem, available solutions, vendors, and products long before the first personal engagement with a vendor takes place. You want to be the source buyers are flocking to for this high-value content.

7 - Focus on customer retention
Customer retention has provided the revenue stream that enabled many companies to survive the recession as new customer wins dried up. While the economy is slowly improving, many markets are still anemic and it remains critical in 2011 to nurture and grow existing customer relationships.

8 - Marketing intelligence
Marketing automation, online marketing, and CRM systems create tons of data that is revealing buying patterns, customer preferences, and insight into what is working and what is not. Let's put this data into insight and action with better marketing intelligence in 2011.

9 - Marketing automation
Marketing automation is going mainstream in 2011 as companies are taking their online campaigns, lead scoring, and email automation to the next level and integrate social media with traditional tactics. It will be interesting to watch how the decline of email usage and conversion rates will impact marketing automation effectiveness going forward.

10 - Focus on branding and awareness
Branding and awareness tactics took a backseat to marketing programs that could demonstrate an immediate and direct impact on revenue. This is slowly changing as budgets are improving and a long term view is taking hold again in 2011, recognizing the importance of a strong brand to influence buyer preference.

As telling as the areas of increased focus are the areas B2B marketers consider less important in 2011:
- Focus on marketing cost reduction (is there much more to squeeze out of marketing without cutting into substance and choking off growth?)
- Outsourcing (along the same lines as cost reduction, and can we afford to outsource even more without losing core competencies?)
- Focus on lead quantity (see increased focus on lead quality in the top 10 list)
- Focus on push marketing tactics (see focus on pull marketing in the top 10 list)
- Marketing asset management (while still important, many marketers have solved this problem with asset and content management tools)

What are your thoughts? Does this reflect the reality in your organization going into 2011? What of these focus areas match your priorities, which don’t?

1. Multichannel – More B2B companies will add new channels to their marketing strategy. Mobile, social, email, ecommerce, and direct marketing will be expected to work together to generate leads, retain customers, and deliver ROI.

2. Direct to Consumer – The consumer business will become increasingly appealing as increased competition shrinks B2B markets. Watch for smart companies to create strategies that increase revenue without directly competing with their customers.

3. Customer Focus – Watch for increased awareness of lifetime value, lifespan, and segmentation to marketing effectiveness. This focus on the customer includes targeted marketing designed to keep customers happy from point of sale through consumption so they will be ready to buy again.

4. Social Media – The combination new member growth and search benefits will entice more B2B companies into the social media world. Expect them to focus on conversion more than conversation.

5. Efficiency and Accountability – Automation and cost management will continue to be key factors in marketing management as B2B companies work to solidify their business. Marketing that doesn't deliver ROI will be hard to sell.

I myself expect in 2011 further evolution in the following areas:

1. Improved responsibility split among sales, marketing and other organizations. Marketing leading in:
a. Definition/identification of opportunity, (meaning MI) going down to individual customer names
b. Opportunity identification enablement - enable all relevant sales channels to identify opportunity. (meaning content, communications (internal and external - including Web, social media, etc.), as well as education - f2f and online)
c. Awareness, thought leadership, demand generation - continue creating opportunity for all sales channels to meet customers and generate opportunity - f2f and online
d. Control the future pipeline - make sure there are actions in place to generate enough pipeline. Marketing would coordinate the effort. (some actions would be marketing led, some others sales led.... and here belongs the most of the focus on revenue, return, etc...)

2. Focus - continue aligning investment (HC and program $$ with the opportunity)
a. portfolio - instead of promoting all - focus on those parts that represent the biggest market opportunity (size and growth) and where the local organization has (or can build) the strongest capabilities
b. geography, region, industry, individual customers

3. The first 2 points are about making the plan. The point #3 is about delivering the plan.... for me personally, rather than trying to demonstrate "the total marketing contribution to the business", I'll make sure that the individual actions (focused as per my previous point) deliver results.