B2B Marketing Blog
September 2009 Archives

B2B – more relevant but less sexy?

September 28, 2009 2:14 PM | By Francesca Brosan
Before starting to write this blog I took a bit of advice, from two of the girls (Ladies?Women? - why don't we have such good collective nouns for more than one woman? Guys and chaps are so much better) who constitute The Travelling Geeks (see www.tg2009.com for more details of their recent visit to the UK) - Susan Bratton and Renee Bloggett (I promise that really is her name). Both said the same thing. Be yourself. Be transparent (I think that means don't try to slip in stuff about how brilliant I am or my company is). Find a 'voice'....
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Resurgence of traditional marketing techniques

September 25, 2009 4:27 PM | By Julie Clare
The growth of online and web 2.0 has had an interesting side effect in marketing terms; that traditional forms of marketing are now resurgent. Take direct mail for example. So much of this has now moved to email marketing, that clever, creative direct mail has become a rarity. Which has greatly increased its impact. Creative direct mail has always stood out, but even more so now as a welcome distraction from the choked inbox. Also, as the effectiveness of spam filtering increases, many emails never see the light of day. Most busy decision makers work quite hard at ensuring that...
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Late Payment Amnesty

September 24, 2009 10:46 AM | By Richard Lloyd
According to the latest economic survey issued by the Forum of Private Business, poor payment tops the list of business owners’ concerns with late payment causing small businesses the biggest headaches.There are certainly no surprises in these findings or nothing new – either in the extent of the problem itself or the same old solutions put forward to address the issue:•    Charging interest on late payment – isn’t this just a potentially great way to lose a customer?•    Naming and shaming the worst offenders – so you’re going to stop supplying Carlsberg UK because they’re on the list…no didn’t think...
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Faster than a speeding bullet...

September 23, 2009 2:14 PM | By Joel Harrison
Many years ago, superheroes were a relatively obscure cult. You were only likely to be interested in them if you were a child or a strangely malformed adult.These days, however, in the wake of numerous big budget Hollywood remakes of 1960s classics – including not one but two reinventions of Batman – superheroes are everywhere. Just as ‘Lord of the Rings’ turned us all into geeks, these days we all have a superpower fantasy… or is that just me?Anyway; so mainsteam have superheroes become these days that they’re even being used in the obscure world of B2B marketing – shock,...
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Traditional marketing is dead, long live cheap digital marketing - not that old chestnut again!

September 22, 2009 5:51 PM | By James Farmer
I was just on our B2B Marketing LinkedIn Group (a plug already!) and I read a response to a question I have heard a lot lately. “Where do I put my marketing spend in 2010?” Do I keep a good mix or bin traditional marketing in favour of digital, as it’s cheaper. The thing is, in today’s market I think this general talk of shifting away from traditional spend to digital is already outdated. “Digital” is not new anymore, I know we’re not yet hanging out with Star Trek's Captain Picard but come on; we’re online most of the day...
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SaaS, social media and the economics of smart buyers

September 8, 2009 1:46 PM | By Stuart Wheldon
There are a few trends in the industry that are worth commenting on in that they relate in a very interesting way. Economics shifts towards renewal/retention: Software-as-a-Service and subscription-based revenue models in other industries have shifted the economic weight away from the upfront sale and towards the renewal in those businesses. Information access becomes free: The information resources available on the Internet have put buyer education in the hands of buyers, allowing them to educate themselves more easily than ever before. Brand reputation control shifts to the audience: Social media has taken brand reputation out of the control of marketers...
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Back to the future with influencer marketing

September 8, 2009 8:31 AM | By Joel Harrison
They say in life that the best ideas are the ones that seem blindingly obvious; so obvious, in fact, that you can’t understand why no-one’s thought of them before. For me, one such idea is ‘influencer marketing’. It’s a term that’s been increasingly bandied about this year, and is consequently being recognised as a highly potent tactic by B2B brands, although paradoxically, it refers to something that is as old as the hills. Something else in life that ‘they’ say, is that there’s nothing new under the sun – this too is certainly the case for influencer marketing. People have...
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Hate something, change something, make something better...

September 1, 2009 11:31 AM | By Scot McKee
Our heartbeat quickens, our pulse races, our palms and brow sweat a little… that’s the change we experience when we’re buying a new car. According to Ian Armstrong, manager of customer communications at Honda UK, the science of car buying is every bit as important as the art. Ian was the guest speaker at a recent ‘Brand on the Run’ event, and I was interested to speak to him about the day-to-day marketing activities that happen behind the scenes of the more glamorous Honda TV advertising. I think Honda has been delivering great television advertising for years now. They’ve had...
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