Our Most Popular Posts of 2018

This will be my last post of 2018, and I want to thank everyone who has spent some of his or her valuable time reading this blog. My goal for this blog has always been to provide content that readers will find to be informative, thought-provoking, and useful, and I've been immensely gratified by the...

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Research Demonstrates the Financial Impact of Trust

Astute business leaders have long recognized that trust is a vital element of competitive success. But traditionally, trust has been viewed as a "soft" issue - one of those things we know is important, but find difficult to measure. New research by Accenture Strategy quantifies the impact of trust on...

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The Unfinished Business of Sales-Marketing Alignment

Since launching this blog in 2010, I've written about various aspects of sales-marketing alignment 26 times. And I certainly wasn't the first person to address this topic. For more than a decade, most B2B marketing and sales professionals have recognized the need to forge a more productive relationship...

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The Most Critical Skill for Tomorrow's CMO

A recent article at the Harvard Business Review website argues that many chief marketing officers are at a career crossroads and face four possible futures, some more attractive than others.The authors contend that customer expectations have risen to exceptionally high levels, and that meeting those...

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What Distinguishes Top-Performing Marketing Organizations

A recent survey by B2B Marketing and The Mx Group identified several differences between top-performing and poorly-performing B2B marketers. Not surprisingly, the research revealed that the best-performing marketing organizations excel at maintaining accurate data and integrating data systems, fully...

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Where Account-Based Marketing Stands in 2018

Account-based marketing was one of the most significant trends in B2B marketing in 2018. It has been the primary focus of numerous conferences and webinars, and the subject of dozens of articles and blog posts. ABM was also addressed in several research studies during 2018, and with less than two ...

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Why Buying Scenarios Should Be Part of Your Planning for 2019

The stereotypical image we have of B2B buying is that it involves expensive and/or complex products or services, large buying groups, and long buying cycles. But in reality, many B2B companies derive substantial revenue and profit from other types of sales. That's why defining relevant buying scenarios...

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Focus on Impact - Not ROI - for Better Marketing Measurement

Demand Gen Report's 2018 Marketing Measurement and Attribution Benchmark Survey makes one point abundantly clear:  Measuring marketing performance is both a top priority and an ongoing challenge for most B2B marketers. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents said that measuring marketing performance...

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Do Marketers Have a Clear Picture of Buyer Trust?

Earlier this month, the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs published the findings of their latest B2B content marketing survey. The B2B Content Marketing 2019:  Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends-North America report presents findings from 771 North American respondents who indicated their...

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The Role of Marketing Has Grown, But Maybe Not Enough

Most marketing leaders agree that the role of marketing has grown significantly over the past few years. Much of the recent conversation about the expanding scope of responsibility has focused on marketing's role in managing customer experiences and driving business growth.Numerous research studies...

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Why You Need a Chief Revenue Officer in 2019

By now, many B2B companies are already planning for 2019. and part of that planning will involve establishing revenue growth goals for the coming year. Growing revenues has never been easy, but producing consistent revenue growth has become more challenging because of fundamental changes in the B2B...

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Getting Thought Leadership Right in 2019

There's no longer any doubt that thought leadership content is having a major impact on B2B buying decisions. Research studies have confirmed that business buyers are consuming more thought leadership content, and that it affects decisions at every stage of the buying process. Research also shows, however,...

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How Marketers Are Addressing the Technology Tsunami

Earlier this year, Scott Brinker unveiled the latest version of his now famous marketing technology landscape supergraphic. To no one's surprise, the new graphic showed that the number of marketing technology solutions has continued to grow at a rapid pace.The 2018 landscape includes 6,829 technology...

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The Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing That Still Matter

In a recent column published at The Drum, Samuel Scott argued that the marketing industry has split into two distinct camps that have adopted and now advocate two very different approaches to the practice of marketing.According to Samuel, the divide is between "online B2B marketers" who "want to gain...

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New Insights from The CMO Survey on Major Marketing Trends

With the beginning of the fourth quarter less than a month away, many B2B companies have already started planning for 2019. Over the next several weeks, marketing leaders will be evaluating how well their existing marketing programs have performed and developing plans for the coming year.To plan effectively...

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