What did b2b marketers learn in 2011?

It what proved to be a year that continued to be under the cloud of uncertainty, B2B Marketers learned:

1. Knowledge of existing customers and prospective buyers continues to be elusive. While we've seen a rise in analytics and data, they in of themselves have not been able to offer the deep insights about buyer behaviors that continue to transform. In 2012, more companies will be seeking the deeper insights that offer knowledge on how and why buyers make purchase decisions - Customer and Buyer Insight 2.0.

2. A rise in what can be called content proliferation is occuring. Customers and buyers are being overwhelmed with content that continues to employ push messaging. In 2012, you will see more emphasis on putting the brakes on mass content marketing and a shift towards Intelligent Content and Intelligent Engagement that help buyers to further their intelligence on challenges and specific goals.

3. Existing customers and prospectives buyers are adopting new buyer decision models that are drastically affecting how and why decisions are made. In 2011, B2B marketers learned that reliance on the generic understanding of the buying process or what has been called the buyer's journey has not been enough. Both decision-models and buying processes are changing rapidly - meaning businesses are playing a otugh game of hit or miss without the understanding of decision-making models.

4. The tumultuous global economy plus four continuous years of uncertainty are beginning to have long-lasting affects on B2B business. A high percentage of the changes put in place - for example authority levels - will become permanent even if the economy begins to resurge. It will alter significantly how business is conducted and how decision-making takes place in organizations.

5. Social Media began its migration to mainstream and to be thought of as one component of an overall marketing strategy. The post-hype Social Media era will lead to more careful looks on how Social Media can improve customer and buyer engagement.

6. A real separation is beginning to occur between the behaviors of social buyers (younger) vs. traditional buyers (older). Causing companies to learn how to become more adept at distinguishing between the two groups and planning marketing efforts that suits each. This development will cause companies also to question the competencies of their workforce to adapt as well.

Tony Zambito
@tonyzambito

1) B2B marketers must give Sales any excuse to talk to clients.
There are a million things to do as a B2B marketer. If you prioritize those things that create an opportunity for your account managers to check in with a client -- or your sales reps to reach out to a prospect -- you will do more to align marketing activity with sales outcomes and increase marketing's value to the business. As you put together marketing programs and campaigns, always ask "where does Sales engage the customer in this process?"

2) Time spent on segmentation and targeting is invaluable.
B2B marketers are learning to understand buyers better, but the lesson isn't complete. Knowing your buyer intimately -- having the ability to define a buying persona precisely-- lets B2B marketers develop the content that engages buyers and put it where buyers will find it. You also have to understand who Sales considers a target, because if you develop leads that aren't in anyone's territory or too small to sustain your average deal size, no one will pick them up and work on them.

3) The pressure to move from lead generation to demand management will continue to increase.
Sales can't pursue every "lead" that marketing uncovers because sales need to focus on those prospects that offer the best immediate opportunity. B2B marketers who think beyond the current event, campaign, or quarter-end will better create programs that develop demand, qualify it over time, and deliver those "ripe" opportunities to sales -- within the territory and opportunity criteria that sales wants to pursue. This is the best way to scale the pipeline and put the revenue generation engine of your firm into high gear.

4) The value of marketing content must be measured in the buyer's eye, not yours.
This is a tough one for B2B marketers to learn because they believe their products and services are so special -- and require such obscure, tedious description -- that they find it hard to talk about much else with authority. In 2012, top marketers learned that hiring people who know how to write, who can tell a compelling story, and who can make content interesting to watch is the best way to leave the meaningless blather and inside-out perspective behind.

5) Learn how to extend the life of your content assets and events.
B2B marketers focus a lot of activity around events like tradeshows, sporting events, dinner meetings, or webinars. While these events help tell your story or make executive-to-executive connections, the activity also presents many opportunities to capture an asset and use it to engage those who could not be there live. Whether it is slides, photos, video recordings, interviews, tweets, or blog posts, every event creates artifacts that smart marketers can use to help sales keep client conversations going -- or to engage new prospects -- while demonstrating your unique point of view, expertise, and commitment to building deeper customer relationships.

1. Lead nurturing may be more important than lead generation
Countless examples of nurturing existing, past or "dead" leads have led to significant new sales for B2B organizations. Many established companies are finding that nurturing their existing leads is more effective, less costly and more fruitful than spending more money on new leads. This is requiring new skill sets, new technology and new resources - but it's delivering results far more efficiently.

2. Customer buying habits and motivations are still a mystery to most of us
We're getting better at mapping our sales process to the way our customers buy, but we have a long way to go. Many B2B marketers are finally understanding this and investing time and effort to better understand the earlier motivations, needs and symptoms of taking action. This understanding leads to compelling new content, better product strategy and frictionless sales processes. We have much more to learn, but we're making progress.

3. Content is the new currency that drives customer and sales acceleration
We used to spend most of our money on media placements and lists. Now that we can effectively create our own channels via our Web sites, blogs and social media, the content that fills those channels (and therefore drives engaged prospective customers) is extremely important. Investments in content development and leverage is accelerating at B2B companies worldwide.

4. Current customers can't be neglected any longer
For years, B2B marketers have invested the vast majority of their resources on acquiring new customers. But the realities of fixed markets and new customer acquisition costs is driving more focus, resources and success with customer and retention marketing initiatives. This focus is increasing lifetime value, decreasing cost of service and improving margins.

5. Social media is required to have a positive ROI (and we have the tools to prove it)
It's OK for new media to have a certain period of exploration before it's measured in black-and-white ROI terms. Social media had that day, and now is required to have a measurable, positive ROI just like every other marketing initiative in a company's toolbox. The proliferation of social media measurement tools continues, making it easier to measure the leading and lagging indicators of social media success on increased sales, market share and customer retention.

6. Sales, marketing and customer support need to tell the same story to be effective
Executing on this mandate is difficult, especially in large organizations. Most companies are still struggling with not only operationalizing this requirement, but making it work over time. Despite these difficulties, more B2B sales, marketing and customer service teams are (finally), proactively getting together to tell one story, work in the same customer lifecycle, and collaborate to deliver better results at a lower cost.

7. Old school marketing still works
Despite all of the innovations in content marketing, lead nurturing, technology-driven marketing and more, many of the same marketing strategies, channels and tactics are still working. Direct mail, telesales, trade shows - with the right strategy and execution they all still work. Many of today's marketers are "relearning" this to the benefit of their organizations and sales pipelines.

I learned that content marketing will no longer be a way to leap out of the competitive pack; it will be a way of staying with the pack. But doing content marketing brilliantly will still give you an edge.

I also learned how time-consuming social media can be – and the the return on each hour invested is going down. So we'll all have to either give it more time or find out how to make the time we invest work harder.

For me, social media relationships are turning out to be a lot like relationships in 'meatspace' -- you get out what you put in.

So far a number of things...

a. We went from the information age to the social media age, and now the content marketing age. Still, it's about relationship building. Take advantage of the tools and the platforms, and remember it's about the value you offer.
b. As Michael said, keep an eye on Google. Anything that Google does will affect your brand and your search rankings. Learn to use Google+ strategically- it's still evolving.
c. Tactics don't drive leads- it's three things- message strategy, conversion strategy, and pipeline performance via nurturing. B2B firms are getting better; but much more education needs to be done to transform a digital destination from brochureware to a lead generation engine.

1. The world has gone mobile.

Tablets have become a primary computing device. Over time, we'll all be consuming B2B content from a tablet or smartphone (NOT a desktop or laptop). If your B2B content is not formatted for consumption on mobile, you lose.

2. Adapt time/resources/priorities to social platform proliferation.

At first, everything was about your blog. Then came your Facebook page and your Twitter account. Then your flickr and YouTube channels. Now it's your Google+ brand page. B2B marketers are learning how to spread their time across these platforms and which ones "matter most" to their brands.

3. Pay attention to Google+.

This may end up being a learning for 2012, instead of 2011. But, I believe that Google+ will be a critical social presence for B2B brands - if, for nothing else than it's "SEO" impact into Google search engine results pages. Your brand's SEO could suffer if you're NOT on Google+.

4. Despite social platform proliferation, fundamentals still matter.

Content strategy, engagement strategy and simply producing really good content. These things matter far more than the particular social platforms you publish them on. Marketers have learned to focus on fundamentals first.

Great thread here. I'll add just one sentiment:

B2B marketers are learning that their corporate websites could work harder to support outbound engagement with closer collaboration between demand gen and digital marketing teams. Self-guided buyer are navigating fluidly between content and the site but the two experiences are frequently discombobulated. Aligning the two will allow brands to reap the full reward of hefty content investments.

Mobile is mainstream, even in B2B. Everyone in marketing needs to worry about mobile as it becomes the way more and more people interact with your marketing.

Social media is no longer hype and no longer special. It is just like email, blogging, and phone - a tool to be used alongside all other marketing tools.

We have experienced several things in the B2B market for complex sales (solutions beyond 50,000 in United States currency).

1) Relationship Selling is a key element - you must have a relevance and a value-add upon engaging with decision-makers. Their time is scarce and spam is so high that if you do not engage in multiple mediums and frequency your chances of success deminish quickly.

2) Personal Messaging is a must - our experience shows it is imperative to establish a relationship during the early stages of engagement with prospects. The results are at least 2.5 times more effective if the digital correspondence is from a real person and the outbound calls are from the same person who is knowledgeable in the product/service.

3) Sales Cycles are becoming longer on the average - many of the highly qualified leads and appointments extend or "push out" the expected purchase date (averaging 25+% of total qualified leads produced for our clients http://www.minecorinc.com/clients/our-clients/).

Steve Cunningham
CMO
Minecor