I find that staying 'fit' to do sound b2b marketing planning takes learning 'workouts'
I've been a MarketingSherpa fan since I purchased my first handbook in 2004 (alas, after they were famous). Now hideous with coffee stains, spagetti sauce, yellow highlighting, and so much circling that the circling is not even useful, that handbook's still got shelf space in an otherwise paperless office.
You know why? Because even after developing dozens of marketing plans over 16 years, being trusted to guide a company's marketing investments weighs on me. When a company asks how to invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing, they are trusting that the answer is well-informed. Not based on hunches, or biases, but grounded in empirical data about what works.
There are real consequences and real people affected by how marketing investments perform.
So I do what I can to stay plugged into data, examples, and best practices shared by other B2B marketing experts -- especially those at MarketingSherpa. Doing so has helped us turn B2B websites into lead machines. But staying 'fit' do to effective b2b marketing planning requires frequent 'workouts.'
That is why I am excited about the upcoming MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Summit '10. It is a chance to meet with others who share my challenges. I can learn how they make time between client jobs to keep their own marketing house in order - doing more with less. They inspire me every time. And the stories … it’s worth the price of admission just to hear what other marketers tried that didn't work, before hitting on solutions.
Plus, the speakers are really top-notch. These aren’t vendors trying to sell me the next big thing. These are real B2B experts sharing their personal stories. I’m really looking forward to hearing Brian Carroll from InTouch and Susan Zykoski, Marketing Business Analyst at Citrix, among others. MarketingSherpa experts are there to explain the new benchmark data on spending, tactics and conversion rates. It’s a great way to dive deeper into the trends that are shaping the industry. I always furiously take notes and bring home tips that I can put to work right away. Some of the sessions I am looking forward to include:
- Lead nurturing (I want to finetune my process)
- Social marketing strategies (I’m sure there will be lots of talk about real-time search)
- Content creation (a challenge all inbound marketers grapple with)
There are two MarketingSherpa summits. One is in San Francisco, on Oct. 4 and 5; the other one is in Boston on Oct. 25 and 26. See you there? Get a ticket:
