The MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Summit ’10 hit San Francisco last week with two days of data-driven presentations, tactical training and – of course – networking galore.
B2B marketers representing corporate, agency and boutique shops, got down in the tastefully-decorated Parc 55 Hotel weeds to learn how to improve search marketing return on investment using advanced analytics, create more effective content and optimize the all-important sales funnel.
Here is a sample of the lessons learned from the field.
Social Media is Big
Sue Watkins (@susankwatkins), director of marketing with Meridian Systems stayed for the two days and participated in the Social Marketing Roadmap training session the following day. “The challenge to marketers that social media seems to exacerbate is how important it is to keep generating new, relevant content,” Watkins shared after returning to her office in Sacramento. “We do this a lot at Meridian, but with more content and communication channels available to prospects and customers, the ability to create content is more important that ever.”
Metrics, Analytics and Sales
Jennifer Melwani at Salesify (@salesify) shared on her Marketing Intelligence Blog the adage that “Metrics tell us where we’ve been, analytics tell us where we’re going.” At the same time, she cautioned, “Lead scoring is not a substitute for the human touch. The score indicates they are phone ready, then use the phone to determine if they are sales ready. In short, if you have a complex sale, the phone is still the best way to qualify leads.”
Lead the Way
Andrew Spoeth (@andrewspoeth) of Marketo shared these nuggets on the Modern B2B Blogs blog: On social media, he cautioned that while the blog is replacing the website as the center of many social media strategies, be sure it outlives changes in technology. I have heard many caution the identification of microblogging as a way to reach customers rather than focusing exclusively on one application such as Twitter.
On email marketing, he suggested segmented, targeted drip nurturing campaigns that are light on the images. He also wisely suggested that landing pages answer three questions:
- Where am I?
- What can I do here?
- And Why should I do it?
I love that. “Make it easy for them,” he adds. Why do we so often we trip over ourselves to be creative when a prospective customer doesn’t know where to step next?
Did you go to the Summit? Are you attending the one in Boston on Oct. 25 and 26? What are your tips for making the most of statistics and social media to make the sale?
