B2B Lead Generation Articles on market research

• Thoughts on and Definition of Inbound Marketing (Listening)
  B2B Marketing Confidential | Sep 10, 2010 | Permalink
  Marketing is a word that has lost its meaning, and marketing is a discipline that has lost its way. When I say “marketing� to most people on the street, the first words that are mentioned are overwhelmingly negative. Marketing is thought of as “advertising�, “spam�, “pushy offers�, or “tricks�.Here's an ironic and unlikely hypothesis--marketing accountability has driven this trend. This is meant to be a controversial statement. Marketing accountability, otherwise known as “ROMI (return on marketing investment) measurement�, has forced the marketing function into a single role driven by a single metric—driving incremental, short-term revenue. Of course, this is an oversimplification. Many companies think “long-term� and do care about their long-term customer...
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• Segmenting Segmentation
  B2B Marketing Confidential | Sep 10, 2010 | Permalink
  The problem with the word "segmentation" is that it has lost its meaning. Like "analytics", a marketer saying "segmentation" can mean virtually anything. This isn't necessarily a problem, if we are simply using "segmentation" to mean "the parsing of customers in some way", but often people mean something very specific when they say the word, while the people listening interpret something very specific as well, but something specifically totally different.I've often tried to come up with ways to segment the word segmentation. And yes, I am guilty of the same sin the "Two Bobs" made in Office Space when they wrote "plan to plan" on the whiteboard, but I'm still going down this tautological road. "He's a real straight shooter, that Andy Hasselwander. He segments his segmentations"So, here ...
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• Measuring the Value of Relationship Marketing
  B2B Marketing Confidential | Sep 09, 2010 | Permalink
  Relationship marketing, unlike direct marketing, is about cultivating a customer (in the case of B2B, this could mean many different audiences inside one company) over the long-term, and ultimately driving loyalty. Customers’ attitudes change in a positive direction; they become satisfied with the brand; they ultimately perceive the brand to be high-quality, caring, etc. and will stay a customer for life. At least, that’s the idea. The problem with relationship marketing is that you can’t try too hard. The dangers of spamming, coming across false or fake, engaging in only one-way communication, or being too pushy have sunk many well intentioned relationship marketers.Measuring relationship marketing can be a good way to get a handle on how to do relationship marketing right. I’v...
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