B2B Demand Generation | The Marketing Fortune Cookie

Inbound Marketing Automation

If Jep Castelein's Blog - Leadsloth isn't on your radar - add it.   Jep has great insight into Marketing Automation and the impact it can have on your business.  He's done numerous implementations and has great expertise in this new field.  In his latest post, Jep writes about the integration of SEO or "Inbound" marketing tracking into a marketing automation platform - to integrate or not to integrate.  That is the question.

My take is that integration on some leve is critical.  Primarily b/c the SEO info that is driving traffic is invaluable to your sales team.  Check out this screen shot from our integration of Manticore Technology with Salesforce.com:

  

With this information, my sales team has instant insight into the lead/contract's interest.  They know what to talk to them about and what drove them to your sight.  You can imagine that the conversation would be quite different if the above search phrase was "free marketing automation".

The next obvious benefit from my perspective would be having all my marketing in tools in one place.

Michael Jackson - RIP A Great Marketer

The blogosphere is aflutter today with the untimely death of Michael Jackson yesterday.  The TV stations were in full swing last night, putting his biography on a continuous loop and providing non-stop commentary.  

Ann Curry on NBC totally sucked me into Michael's story - and what a story it was.  As I watched, it dawned on me that Michael Jackson and the folks behind him were a marketing machine!  We can all learn from him.  

1)  Product - Whether it's his albums (Thriller, Bad) or his renowned live performance, Michael had a product to deliver.  It was beyond the music - it was the entire package - the outfits, the dancing, the show, etc.  Michael Jackson was entertainment.  People around the world loved the product.

2)  Positioning - Quick - name the other members of the Jackson 5.  How far did you get?  I bet not very!  Michael was effectively positioned within the Jackson 5 (the small, cute one with an amazing voice and dance moves).  Then, when he went on his own, he took those skills - the singing, dancing, etc and made himself the king of pop.  Who else could dance like that little guy back in the 1970's?

3)  Place- Timing is everything.  Michael Jackson came into the right place at the right time.  In the early 70's the country was looking beyond Vietnam for a new beginning.  The Jackson 5 entered the scene from their Motown roots with their light-hearted songs, helping the country try to recover from the turbulent and war-torn 60's and early 70's.  When MJ went solo, he was able to capitalize on a new TV medium called MTV (that's Music Television for those not in the know).  Remember the Thriller video being on MTV every four hours or so?  This placement drove him to stardom

4) Pricing - I think the other three "P's" really drove this one.  The king of pop made oodles of money.  Thriller is still one of the top selling albums ever.  The man could see out a concert in a heartbeat.  Enough said.  He asked a reasonable price and made a ton of money.

Whether your selling marketing automation software (like myself), hamburgers (like the Burger King), we can all learn from MJ.  Its about the basics.  Nail your position in the market, create a solid product, ensure you're in the right place, and price for value.  If we can execute...we can hope to come close to Michael Jackson and his unimaginable stardom.  

RIP

Salesforce '09 Release

For those of you that use salesforce.com, you may have noticed some changes.  The company just launched their Summer '09 version of the product which provides several new enhancements that will provide value to those our you using a marketing automation solution.

 

Here’s enhancements that I thought were interesting:

 

Custom Fields

After July 2009, you can create custom fields on campaign member records. For example, you can create fields that track event-specific responses like RSVP status, the offer that was responded to, seating charts, or food preferences. Your organization can create up to 500 custom fields. You can also include campaign member custom fields in reports.

 

Campaign Member Detail Page

From the new Campaign Member detail page, you can view, edit, delete, or clone a campaign member record. Additionally, for a campaign member created from a lead, you can convert the lead to a new or existing account, contact, and optionally, opportunity. For a campaign member created from a contact, you can create an opportunity.

 

Campaign Member Detail Page Layout

You can edit the Campaign Member detail page layout using the page layout editor. You can customize the Campaign Member detail page to include standard fields derived from lead and contact records, and you can add or remove buttons.  Related lists and lookups to campaign member fields are not supported on the Campaign Member detail page layout.

 

As we continue to build out new marketing automation functionality, these new campaign enhancements will prove invaluable.

Is Demand Generation Just a Fancy Way of Saying Lead Generation?

What is Demand Generation exactly?  Is it just a sophisticated term for lead generation that produces the same result?  Amy Hawthorne examines this very issue in Lead Generation vs. Demand Generation Marketing – WTF?  She makes a very solid point that at the end of the day, sales wants leads.  So, where does demand generation fit in?

We define demand generation as a holistic approach to increase sales through programmatic, automated marketing and enhanced cooperation between sales & marketing.  Lead Generation is not synonymous with Demand Generation.  Demand Generation is the step between generating leads and selling, and takes lead generation a step further.  Any marketer reading this knows that most sales people would prefer 10 qualified leads over 100 unqualified any day of the week.  Demand Generation is about nurturing and qualifying leads that marketing generates before passing them to sales.

Gone are the days of marketing generating thousands of leads and handing all of them over to sales – qualified or not.  Marketers are now being held accountable not only for leads and opportunities, but for revenue as well, forcing marketing and sales to work more cohesively.  It’s true sales cares about leads, not so much demand.  However, Sales – not to mention your CEO - cares about closing business and generating revenue.  That does not come from generating leads; it comes from generating demand. 

Thought Leadership Interview: Malcolm Friedberg on Successful Lead Nurturing

Instead of casting a wide net and spending more money to produce more leads to close more deals, many marketers are now using marketing automation to keep leads engaged and nurture them into qualified leads.  This makes much more sense considering 80% of un-worked leads buy from someone over the next 24 months according to a DemandGen Report.  However, in order to close more deals with the same number of leads or less, your lead nurturing campaigns must be effective.  Demand Generation Platforms give you the tools to implement the campaigns; however, you also need an effective strategy in order to be successful.  We get questions around strategy all the time, so I thought I would bring an expert to help shed some light on how to create a successful lead nurturing campaign. 

Malcolm Friedberg, president and owner of Lead Targets, specializes in designing and implementing customized lead nurturing campaigns for B2B companies.  Malcolm’s background includes 18 years in marketing and several CMO positions.  We caught up with him and were able to pick his brain a little on how to get the most out of your marketing automation system and create effective lead nurturing campaigns. 

What do you recommend as the first step in building a successful lead nurturing campaign?

First, you need to establish a goal. Before you build a nurture campaign, you need to clearly define what you would like it to accomplish.  For example, the goal of lead nurturing campaign following a collateral download could be designed to gain more information about your prospect in order to see if they are good fit for your service/product and worth pursuing.  By contrast, a lead nurturing campaign following a trial request would look drastically different because the goal would probably be focused on obtaining a signed contract. 

How do you determine what collateral piece or messages to send prospects during the process?

Again, this is really determined by establishing your goal.  Think of it as a multi-stage process where you are trying to provide the right information at the appropriate time. In the case of new leads, your communications need to move people from knowing little about your offering to becoming an educated prospect.

For example, if I were to create a lead nurturing campaign for selling marketing automation consulting services to companies that recently acquired a system, I might set it up as follows:

Step 1:  Send an email to the prospect establishing the difficulty of creating a successful lead nurturing        campaign without consulting services from an expert. 

Goal: Establish the need for a consultant

Step 2: Invite them to download a study/report on comparing the success rates of companies that hire a consultant to those that do not. 

Goal: Further qualify them and help them understand the consequences of going it alone

Step 3: Send an email educating them on Lead Targets and establish myself as an expert in building effective lead nurturing campaigns through a case study or customer testimonials. 

Goal: Establish myself as an expert and help them understand how my solution will solve their problem

How do you determine if a lead nurturing campaign is successful or unsuccessful?  What metrics do you look at?

Every sales process is different, but to determine the success of any campaign, you would need to look at your goal and measure how many people achieved that goal.  It’s difficult to generalize a “successful conversion rate” because it can involve different variables.  If your goal is to get prospects to sign up to attend a webinar, you would expect a higher conversion than if your goal is to get a prospect to sign a contract for services.   Measuring your success in a nurturing campaign is important is because it enables you to establish a baseline and evolve.  You should be closely monitoring your program and modifying it to increase conversion rates.  Look at each step of your process and see where you are experiencing the drop-offs and focus on improving that one step. 

What is a good/effective amount of time to wait between messages/touch points?

It depends on the purpose of the nurturing campaign.  If you’re taking a lead through an education process, two to four weeks between emails/touch points is usually effective. However, I would recommend more frequent communication toward the end of the nurturing campaign as you get closer to closing.  I would also recommend integrating phone calls, personal visits or direct mail into a nurturing campaign.  Don’t think of nurturing as strictly emails. 

In terms of technology, what features in a marketing automation solution do you think are important to nurture leads effectively?

Obviously nurturing is one key ingredient to fully use.

Dynamic content is powerful because one of the most important aspects of a nurture campaign is that it’s relevant to people’s interests.  In order to establish yourself as a solution provider, you need to demonstrate that you know their business and understand their unique needs.  The more you are able to be specific and relevant, the more responsive they are going to be.  Dynamic content allows you to do this more easily.

 Lead Scoring is also an important functionality because it gives you the ability to rank leads.  The days of marketing handing over thousands of unqualified leads to sales will soon be done. Lead scoring will help you understand what criteria constitute a “qualified” or “sales ready” lead. Just be sure you get buy-in from your sales guys, so you’re both on the same page about that definition. When you get it right, your sales team will love you. Real-time sales alerts are a useful feature as well because they help sales reps gauge when they should be reaching out to prospects. If I’ve been all over a site and recently downloaded collateral, it’s probably a good time to ask if I have questions. Sales alerts triggered to certain events are another tool for arming your sales team. 

Do you have any one tip/piece of advice that marketers should always follow when creating a lead nurturing campaign?

Always keep your goal in mind when creating a campaign. Be sure to take time to understand and consider the customer life cycle, and tailor your campaigns accordingly. Once you implement version one, don’t be afraid to experiment. Nurturing is not a set it and forget it science. It’s more like an art form and the most effective campaigns are the result of adjustments and tweaks. 

Thought Leadership Interview 2: Measuring Return on Marketing Investment

Last week, we spoke with Aberdeen Group analyst & author Jeff Zabin about his Recessionary Marketing Report: How Best in Class Companies are Weathering the Storm.  He provided us with insight on how they’re changing their marketing initiatives to survive and prosper during an economic downturn.  This week, Zabin speaks to the importance of implementing the necessary technology to effectively measure the success of marketing programs and quality of inbound leads.

 

CD: How do you see the situation for smaller companies? Could the recommended actions regarding precision marketing and ROMI be adopted by companies under $1 billion and with limited resources?

 

JZ: We certainly see that larger companies have an advantage in terms of their marketing. Historically, they’ve been able to harness the power of analytics to drive precision marketing effectiveness. They’ve built databases and used technology to create a unified view of the customer across geographies, touch points and so forth. In the past, that level of marketing analysis required a fairly large capital investment on the front end. But for smaller companies, the good news is the advent of software as a service. SaaS now gives them the opportunity to leverage new analytic technologies. They can realize the benefits of sophisticated, precision marketing programs at a much lower cost.

 

CD: Can you speak to the importance of integrating sales and marketing efforts?

 

JZ: Capital spending constraints have a way of breaking down the traditional silos that exist in an organization. I think we’re seeing more alignment not only between sales and marketing but all parts of the organization. Sales and marketing are finding themselves working more together. Any significant degree of marketing waste is no longer an option, and the sales cycle is often much longer. This means that lead nurturing is more important, so marketing plays an even bigger role in the sales process.

 

CD: Looking ahead, do you feel that companies adopting the recommendations in the report will be better positioned when the economy improves?

 

JZ: Yes. I think that’s the case. A greater emphasis on precision marketing and ROMI, will help companies achieve their goals. I think we should also mention new areas like social media marketing that is becoming more important. Social media might require a leap of faith for some companies. It’s still early stage, experimental and somewhat nascent. But I think that companies are moving away from a marketing approach centered on what they have to say to one that’s focused more on what the customers have to say. So I’m seeing a greater emphasis on social media marketing and the tools that enable it. All kinds of interactive marketing, mobile marketing and customer-generated content will become more important.

 

CD: Any final comment, a takeaway from our discussion?

 

JZ: I think it all goes back to what Peter Drucker has been saying all along – that you can’t change what you can’t measure. Marketers are moving away from an intuitive approach to one that’s based more on quantification that shows you the linear process of sales. It was a trend that was happening anyway, and I think the recession is helping to accelerate the process.

 

As Jeff emphasizes in this interview, measuring marketing campaign effectiveness and ROI is key to being successful, especially in a recession.  A big question for marketers:  What metrics should be used to determine a successful program?  While the metrics may depend of the type of program/campaign and aspects specific to your product or industry, Craig Rosenberg’s post Memo to the CFO: 3 Lead Generation Metrics That Matter provides great recommendations for measuring b-to-b lead generation success.  It’s definitely worth checking out.

 

 

Thought Leadership Interview: Aberdeen Group’s Jeff Zabin on Email and Online Marketing in a Recession

After reading the Aberdeen study “Recessionary Marketing: How Best in Class Companies are Weathering the Storm”, I caught up with author of the study Jeff Zabin, a widely recognized thought leader in e-business transformation, and customer centricity, to chat with him specifically about online marketing, email marketing and marketing automation trends he saw among the Best-in-Class Companies included in his study.  In this two-part interview series, Jeff provides insight for improving marketing activity and ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) by using online marketing and marketing automation effectively.  Please enjoy…

CD: I was thinking about the effects of the recession on these companies, and I noticed that 76% of them have shifted their marketing spend from one area to another.

JZ: That’s right. I was actually surprised at that finding. I expected to see more companies curtailing their marketing in this economy. But what we’re finding is that a lot of companies are reallocating their marketing spend from high-cost channels and programs to programs like email and online marketing. The email and online programs are more cost-effective in terms of reaching prospects and customers, especially those customers who might be likely to respond to an email or make a purchasing decision. Manticore Technology is certainly relevant to this trend with the tools that they offer.

CD: That means lead generation and lead management?

JZ: Yes. When you think about the value and cost-effectiveness of email marketing, you can understand the greater return on marketing investment --  the ROMI --  that email offers. That’s why it often makes sense for companies to shift funds away from expensive levers like 30-second TV spots and print ads. It also makes sense because broadcast and print are harder to measure in terms of effectiveness. We can talk about gross ratings points or frequency of reach, but nowadays, it’s more about context sensibility and relevance – the kinds of metrics that email marketing is in a better position to track.

CD: Are any specific vertical industries using marketing analytics more than others?

JZ: Certainly in terms of advanced analytics, we’ve seen the financial services industry using Recency, Frequency, Monetary analytics, but I would say that consumer/retail is catching up quickly. Retailers are using predictive analytics and data mining. These data tools are really some of the key enablers for any company today -- being able to harness the power of analytics to drive the effectiveness of precision marketing and therefore reach the right customer at the right time.

CD: Many of the best practices mentioned in the report, such as such as lead generation and lead management, would be applicable at any time. Why do present economic conditions add an additional level of urgency? Would, for example, liquidity be a prime driver?

JZ: Liquidity is always critical. perhaps more so in a downturn, but we focused on the marketing strategies that helped drive that liquidity.

CD: You describe two key performance criteria: Precision marketing effectiveness and ROMI. Why are these two especially appropriate for today? How can technology enable these measurements?

JZ: Technology can basically level the playing field for both precision marketing and ROMI. To give an example, marketing dashboards can help marketers get the numbers in front of them to keep fine-tuning the system. This is especially important during a downturn, since the sales cycle becomes longer, and lead nurturing becomes more critical. That’s when analytics really becomes a competitive advantage.

Please visit our blog next week for Part 2 of Jeff’s interview.  If you would like to hear more about marketing automation and why it is more relevant now than ever before, please visit our resource center and view our latest webinar The Urgency of Marketing Automation.

Measuring Soft Marketing with Lead Scoring

With the growing adoption of blogging and social media as legitimate, necessary marketing initiatives, comes the growing demand for the need to track their effectiveness and prove they contribute to driving revenue.  Obviously, this is a lot more challenging than tracking the results of a tradeshow, email campaign or webinar.  When marketers request budget for social media and other soft marketing initiatives, many executives ask, “How do these initiatives drive revenue, and how can you track it?”

Marketing Strategist Ardath Albee offers insight on tracking soft marketing initiatives and their impact on the bottom line in her post Marketing Metrics: The Hard and The Soft.  She does a great job differentiating between hard and soft marketing and explains how combining the two is what ultimately drives revenue and transforms leads into buyers. 

In her post, she explains that she is a big fan of marketing automation technology and the ability to score leads based on online behavior and demographics.  This enables marketers to measure soft marketing initiatives and determine the quality of a lead based on the responses to those initiatives.   Her point being, if you are able to track a lead’s conversations and interactions with your brand and put metrics to those, you can determine if soft initiatives increase the quality of a lead.  Once a pattern is established, you can decide if soft marketing drives revenue. 

Here is an example of what a lead scoring model would look integrating soft marketing initiatives: Joe Prospect is interested lead nurturing, he sets up a google alert for the term “lead nurturing”.  You publish a “Best Practices in Lead Nurturing” post on your blog.  Joe visits your blog, posts a comment, you send him an email inviting him to download a whitepaper on lead nurturing.  He downloads the whitepaper, you send him a follow-up email, and he reads it.  He then takes an online demo.

So in this model, Joe is getting scored not only on his response to hard marketing initiatives, such as filling out prospect pages and viewing an online demo, but also on his interactions with sales reps, blog visits and comments.  His score would, in turn, be higher than a prospect who simply registered for a whitepaper and then later viewed an online demo.  This progression also shows how soft marketing, such as online conversations, interactions and brand awareness, can be used to move a prospect through the process and make them more sales ready.  If leads with higher scores under this model exhibit higher closing ratios, you prove the value of soft marketing initiatives.

Landing Pages that Work

As a demand generation provider, we are constantly helping our customers build and test landing pages.  We are often asked about best practices for boosting registration rates on forms.  While we offer tips on maximizing registration rates on the form itself, such as using pre-populated forms, drop-down menus and pick lists, you can also increase registration rates by following best practices on the content and layout of your landing pages.  Below we’ve listed a few best practices for optimizing landing pages for a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign that 360Partners shared with us.

1. Keep your layout simple: Use only elements necessary to convince the visitor to fill out your form.  Use images to communicate what the visitor receives when they register, where they are, and how it is relevant to what they are looking for.  For example, if you’re offering a whitepaper, you would want to include an image of the whitepaper, your company logo and colors, and a headline that includes the search term they used to get to your page. Other visuals should guide the visitor to where you want them to take action – e.g. an arrow pointing to the form.

Limit the amount of text, use phrases rather than full sentences, and use bullet points to communicate major points.  It is also a best practice to keep the information and the offer above the fold so the visitor does not have to scroll down.

2. Grab the Visitor’s Attention with the Page Title: One of the most important elements on the page the page title should immediately tell the visitor that a) they’re in the right place and b) you have something of interest to offer them.  For example, if a visitor arrived at our landing page by searching on demand generation, we might use a title tag such as, “What can demand generation do for you?  View online demo now”. 

3. Have a Specific Call To Action: This tells the visitor what action you want them to take (e.g. “Fill out the form for a free quote”). The call to action should be the most prominent thing on the page and should be in the middle of the page rather than the very bottom.

4. Keep the Landing Page Customer Centric: Many marketers make the mistake of immediately launching into a pitch on their product in a landing page.  Remember to keep your content focused on meeting the needs of the visitor.  Unless the search term is brand-specific, information on your company should be toward the bottom.

5. Make the Call to Action Button Prominent and Specific: Use bright colors, outlining and shapes to make your call to action button stand out on the page.  It is also more effective to be specific.  Using a customized button like “Get Free Whitepaper” is more effective than using the standard “Submit” button.

6. Use Privacy and Security Assurances: Many people are hesitant to provide their contact information through an online form. It is best practice to provide some kind of privacy or security assurance close to the spot where you are collecting personal information.  This boosts registration rates and helps to ensure accuracy of the information submitted. 

It is always a good idea to run A/B tests with landing page content and layouts.  Even when you follow best practices, landing pages are a work in progress and the best way to determine what works best is to try it.  Other good posts providing tips and best practices for creating landing pages are below:

Viget Engage: http://www.viget.com/engage/intro-and-landing-pages-best-practices
Be Relevant!: http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2008/11/landing-page-be.html

Marketing Blogs: Fave 50

1. Ask Justin Hitt Blog - Justin Hitt provides insight on technology that can improve your lead generation as well as practical techniques that marketers can implement quickly and with a small budget.

2. Marketing Business & Consumer - James Warholic offers practical tips for b2b & b2c marketing and discusses the differences between the two.

3. B2B Marketing Confidential - Andy Hasselwander brings over 10 years of marketing experience in the B2B Space.  The blog gives insightful recommendations for improving your marketing strategy and offers interesting commentary on marketing-related news and current events.

4. B2B Marketing - Uk-based Peter Jakob shares ideas about practical ways of improving the ROI on B2B marketing campaigns.

5. The Big Fat Marketing Blog – Grant Johnson offers tips to making your marketing efforts measurable and simple.

6. The B2B Lead - This blog offers practical marketing and sales tips for your daily marketing activities with articles, case studies and examples. 

7. Start with a Lead – Brian Carroll gives useful B2B lead generation ideas, tips and resources.

8. Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals – Offers great thought leadership and practical tips for improving your overall marketing strategy.

9. Brand DNA – Australia-based Stan Lee examines companies’ techniques and focuses on the creative side of branding and how it affects the product/company.

10. Buzz Marketing for Technology – Paul Dunlay offers his insight on everything from lead nurturing to personal branding.

11. Cadence Blog – Written with a personal touch, this blog offers analysis of online marketing and high tech b2b marketing.

12. Best Practices in BtoB Demand Generation - Offers great case studies and articles on B2B lead generation.

13. Market Capture Blog - Blog discusses strategies for aligning sales & marketing to maximize ROI.

14. Marketing Blog Today - Focuses on internet and online media for Fortune 500 companies and larger.

15. The Viral Garden - Offers great tips ramping up visibility through social media and blogs.

16. NxtEra Markeitng Blog – Provides tips and insight to keep marketing customer-centric.

17. Online Fluency - Provides "how to's" on effectively integrating social media into your marketing strategy regardless of company size.

18. Influential Marketing Blog – Provides insight on everything from PR to stats and analytics.

19. The Scrappy Software Marketer - Lead generation and branding tips and tricks for small to mid-size businesses with a limited marketing budget.

20. Todd & Marketing & Media – Entertaining blog on marketing and media.

21. B2B Marketing - Writer uses the “Good, the Bad and the Ugly” to evaluate marketing techniques and initiatives providing specific examples of each.

22. Marketing& Innovation - Posts short articles providing thought leadership for internet marketing and innovation.

23. The Web Market Central Blog – Blog covers b2b lead generation, social media, web marketing and interactive PR offering case studies, evaluations and “How Tos”.

24. Accelerating IT Sales – Barry Harrigan, founder of the Ziff Davis Enterprise Web Buyer’s Guide, discusses how to use online strategies to shorten your sales cycle.

25. Achieve Market Leadership - Crimson Consulting Group provides insight on marketing strategy, operations and executions, as well as discussing trends in the interactive market.

26. Be Relevant! – Covers email marketing best practices.

27. B2B Growth Marketing - New B2B Revenue & Profit: Gives tips on high-tech marketing and making it more customer-focused.

28. Brian Solis’s PR 2.0 - Brian Solis offers his insight and experience on creating successful PR and social media for high tech companies.

29. Drew’s Marketing Minute - Drew McClellan examines marketing tactics from companies and marketing professionals that he encounters.

30. Duct Tape Marketing - John Janstch provides practical and proven marketing strategies for small businesses. 

31. The Funnelholic - Blogs about B2B Demand Generation, lead generation and online media.  Interviews, Best Practices and Case Studies for marketing professionals that work at the "top end" of the "b2b funnel".

32. B2B Insights Blog - Godfrey professionals offer insight in their area of expertise and weigh in on topics like media, interactive technology, measurement, and accountability.

33. The Lonely Marketer – Written for the “one-man shop” marketing department, this blog offers tips for juggling all aspects of marketing.

34. Made To Stick - Authors of popular marketing book "Made to Stick" comment on other books and publications that could help your business and marketing strategy.

35. The Marketing Fish Bowl - Offers "How Tos" and Best Practices for all aspects of marketing.

36. MarketingProfs Daily Fix - Covers a variety of marketing related topics with a main focus on internet/online marketing.

37. Out of My Gord - Author and SEO agency owner Gord gives his thoughts on b2b marketing and innovations.

38. Problogger - Dedicated to helping bloggers drive traffic to their blog and web site, get linked to by other bloggers and provide value for their readers.

39. The Social Media Marketing Blog - Dedicated to helping readers develop an effective social media strategy at their company.

40. Prescott Shibles:B2B Digital Media - Blog covers search engine optimization, email marketing, online content, strategy, writing for the web, online advertising sales and vertical search. 

41. Stuart Bruce -  Focuses on public relations and social media.

42. Velocity Blog - Focuses on B2B Marketing in the high tech space.

43. Web Strategy by Jeremiah – Forrester Research Analyst Jeremiah Owyang offers his industry expertise on how to connect with customers using web tools. 

44. SiriusDecisions Blog – SiriusDecisions research team discusses b2b lead generation and insight into effective marketing and sales alignment.

45. Customer Experience Matrix - David Raab presents information about technology and business issues to improve customer interactions.

46. Beagle Research Blog - Denis Pombriant provides thought leadership and advice on CRM selection and integration, lead management and marketing tools.

47. Marketing Automation Blog - Shares best practices on marketing automation and related topics.

48. Search Engine Land - Provides tips and updates on search engine optimization and online marketing.

49. Matt Cutts - Matt Cutts, software engineer at Google, provides tips and answers questions about webmasters and SEO on his personal blog.

50. MPM Tool Kit - Offers advice for how to create and implement an effective system for measuring marketing performance.