Marketing Automation Weekly Wrap-up - 2009/08/07

There are so many great writers in the field of demand generation and marketing automation out there that create fresh and interesting content each week. Some are entertaining, some are practical, some are thought provoking, and they are all worth a read. Here are some of the posts I have enjoyed over the past week or so (in no particular order):





Tom Pick (@tompick) from Web Market Central questions the quest for "Return on Investment" in social media with the concept of "Return on NOT Investing". An interesting read and definitely another way of thinking about the opportunity costs involved:
http://webmarketcentral.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-media-roi-vs-roni.html





The Savvy B2B Sisters (@Savvy_B2B) provide a detailed guide on the how and the why of writing eBooks for B2B marketing and thought leadership: http://savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/194051/5-things-you-should-know-before-you-write-an-ebook





Robert Lesser from Acquiring Minds gives an entertaining (but surprisingly accurate) run-down of the Top 10 Signs that Sales & Marketing are Mis-Aligned:
http://www.directimpactnow.com/leadgentools/blog/2009/07/10-signs-that-sales-marketing-are-mis.html







Chad Horenfeldt (@ChadHorenfeldt) from Anything Goes Marketing posts a very comprehensive set of ways of using Twitter for B2B marketing and sales:
http://anythinggoesmarketing.blogspot.com/2009/08/tips-on-using-twitter-to-boost-your.html




Brian Carroll (@brianjcarroll) from Start with a Lead reviews the book “Professional Services Marketing” that talks about the marketing and selling of professional services, and why it is that clients buy:
http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/2009/08/good-advice-for-growing-your-company-from-industry-experts.html




Laura Ramos (@lauraramos) from B2B Marketing Posts dissects a stat that shows that social media use is soaring in B2B marketing, and makes some great comments on "use" vs "success" in social media for B2B marketing:
http://b2bmarketingpost.com/2009/08/04/social-media-use-soars-among-b2b-marketers-really/




Mike Damphousse (@damphoux) from Green Leads made a compelling argument for lead quality over lead quantity. Mike's coming at it from the appointment setting business, but the argument still holds water in regular demand generation circles. Quality will pretty much always trump quantity:
http://www.damphousse.org/2009/07/sales-ready-leads-quality-vs-quantity.html





Steve Kellogg (LinkedIn) from Crowds2Crowds wrote an entertaining obituary for batch & blast marketing. I can't agreee more, the sooner we move away from batch & blast campaigning towards truly understanding our prospects, the better we all do. RIP batch & blast: http://crowds2crowds.blogspot.com/2009/08/for-those-still-using-batch-blast.html






Britton Manasco (@brittonmanasco) from Illuminating the Future writes a very thought provoking post on whether the "Guidance Economy" is the next wave. Lends a new imperitive to thought leadership initiatives:
http://www.brittonmanasco.com/2009/07/confronting-the-guidance-imperative.html





Jep Castelein (@jepc) from Lead Sloth breaks apart the various types of "free trials" that are used in B2B marketing and discusses how they can best be used and what they are appropriate for. Worth thinking about before a mad rush to offer a free trial:
http://www.leadsloth.com/blog/free-trials-arent-what-they-used-to-be/






Mac McIntosh (@B2B_Sales_Leads) from Sales Lead Insights posts a comprehensive list of decision criteria for lead qualification from demographics and firmographics to activity and interest profiling. A good discussion starts in the comments:
http://www.sales-lead-insights.com/2009/a-list-of-b2b-lead-qualification-criteria-by-category/