As 2012 comes to a close, we’d like to take the opportunity to reflect back on a year of monthly “faves” posts here on Get There. While we typically share a short list of recent posts that caught our attention at the end of each month, this month, we’d like to share our top 12 favorites from the year as a whole. Here they are, in no particular order:
Jargon and metaphor are commonplace in most industries, and B2B marketing is no exception. We’re loving this Slideshare from Velocity Partners that pulls apart common B2B marketing metaphors (think sales funnels and the customer journeys) and challenges us to rethink them.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Content marketing is tough. Effective content marketers are a unique breed. Chris Horton did a great job of summarizing the traits shared by the most successful content marketers — things like a willingness to commit resources, and a strong network of support. Read the full post to learn about the other three traits.
This is a great overview of the buyer personas for those who are less familiar with the concept (which, according to this post, is a lot of you). Filp through the SlideShare highlights from the recent #B2BChat to get a well-rounded perspective on the use of personas across our industry.
We all know that the B2B buyer is changing, and now we finally have a resource that will help us adapt. Learn how to reach a buyer that is “more connected, more impatient, more elusive, more impulsive, and more informed than its pre-millennium ancestors,” with this excellent e-book.
We believe that strategy and planning is a necessary ingredient of any successful marketing effort, but it’s especially essential in complex email marketing campaigns. That’s why this article, which focuses on the importance of defining goals, behavioral triggers, targets and messaging before embarking on an email marketing campaign, is right up our alley.
Some have been quick to dismiss content marketing as a passing trend, but we agree with Joe that it’s here to stay. We especially like his point that the industry is over 100 years old and began when John Deere put out its first publication in 1895. Doesn’t sound like a passing trend to us!
Limited manpower is no excuse for failing to engage in content marketing. Even if you don’t have the staff on hand to create a ton of original content, content curation can work wonders for your business. This post from BuyerZone has some great tips to get you started.
It’s no secret that content marketing is tough. But rather than complaining about the difficulties, this post presents each challenge along with a solution that should help marketers overcome various common content marketing hurdles.
Marketing automation and lead nurturing have been key priorities for many of our clients lately, so this article caught our attention right away. The post points out that, according to Forrester Research, companies that excel at lead nurturing are able to generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost per lead, which is a big push toward lead nurturing for companies that have been hesitant to adopt it into their marketing plans.
While it’s not strictly about B2B marketing, we think this post from Seth Godin (who some of us are seeing speak live next month!) takes an interesting look at how the “when” of marketing has changed from the Mad Men era to today. Do you agree that marketing should be the first thing today’s businesses do?
We all know that B2B lags behind B2C when it comes to social media, but we were still surprised to see that only 5% of B2B marketers say that social media marketing has become a “fairly mature and well-optimized” part of their marketing mix. This article asks an important question that many have ignored in their haste to complain about social media in the B2B space: Are B2B companies smart to adopt social media slowly and cautiously, or should they get with the times and make social media an integral part of their strategies?
Our industry is guiltier than most of overusing trendy buzzwords. Think “engagement,” “relevance” and “relationships.” Marketing Interactions tackles all these and then some in a recent series that aims to give meaning to the many buzzwords that get thrown around in B2B marketing. We found the discussion on conversation (especially on the contrast between a conversation and a dialogue) to be particularly insightful.
These highlights are just a tiny taste of the many of great posts that have been written about B2B marketing in 2012. What did you enjoy reading most this year? And what are you looking forward to seeing more of in 2013?
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