The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing: New Tactics, Tools, and Techniques to Compete in the Digital Economy

Book description

To succeed at B2B marketing today, you must excel across all areas: from getting your message out, to generating demand, to enabling sales teams. New technologies and new techniques make excellence possible. Now, top B2B marketer Kim Ann King brings together all the best practices and tools you need to make excellence real.

In The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing, King helps you succeed by focusing on the three pillars of cutting-edge B2B marketing: automation, personalization, and experimentation. Drawing on her pioneering experience at companies like Akamai and Open Market, King shows how to:

  • Systematically assess your context and customer, via personas, profiles, and other powerful techniques

  • Choose among today's panoply of marketing options, tools, and techniques

  • Build a more agile B2B marketing organization, and link its goals more tightly to strategy

  • More accurately estimate marketing spend and ROI

  • Systematically optimize demand generation and many other key functions

  • Leverage higher-value approaches to web/mobile, SEO, and customer community-building

  • Gain more value from corporate standards and your creative services vendors

  • Discover what worked and what didn't, and use this knowledge to improve more quickly

  • You'll find comprehensive, actionable resources, including best-practices checklists for every tactic, vendor checklists for evaluating new marketing technologies, a complete corporate marketing plan outline, and a start-to-finish marketing communications case study. If you're a B2B marketer, you'll find The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing invaluable – whatever your company's size, product, service, or industry.

    Table of contents

    1. About This eBook
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Dedication Page
    5. Contents
    6. Foreword
    7. Acknowledgments
    8. About the Author
    9. Preface
      1. Endnote
    10. Introduction
      1. Endnote
    11. Part I: Trends
      1. 1. The Evolving Marketing Landscape
        1. A Rapidly Changing Buyer
        2. An Exponential Growth in Data
        3. More Channels and Platforms
        4. More Revenue Responsibility
        5. Doing More with Less
        6. Need for Speed and Agility
        7. New Tools and Technologies
          1. Analytics
          2. Experimentation and Optimization
          3. Marketing Automation
          4. Targeting and Personalization
        8. Key Highlights
    12. Part II: Tools and Technologies
      1. 2. Strategy and Evaluation
        1. Strategy First
        2. How to Evaluate Marketing Tools and Technologies
          1. Phase 1: Awareness
          2. Phase 2: Research
          3. Phase 3: Evaluation
          4. Phase 4: Deciding and Selecting a Tool
          5. Phase 5: Implementation and Usage
        3. Examining Four Technologies That Transform B2B Marketing
        4. Key Highlights
      2. 3. Analytics
        1. Web Analytics
          1. Audience
          2. Acquisition
          3. Behavior
          4. Conversions
        2. Marketing Analytics
          1. Campaign and Program Metrics
          2. Marketing ROI and Revenue Attribution
        3. Customer Analytics
        4. Predictive Analytics
        5. Putting Analytics into Practice
        6. Analytics Best Practices
        7. Key Highlights
        8. Recommended Reading
        9. Endnotes
      3. 4. Experimentation and Optimization
        1. The Psychology of Conversion
        2. Building the Testing Team
        3. Different Vendor Approaches to Experimentation
        4. How to Evaluate an Experimentation Platform
          1. Types of Experimentation
          2. Targeting Capabilities
          3. Content Types
          4. Mobile Web and Apps
          5. Features and Functionality
          6. Technology Integration
          7. Deployment Options
          8. Other Factors to Consider
        5. Defining Experimentation Goals
        6. Where to Start: Process and Program
          1. Step 1: Idea Sourcing
          2. Step 2: Idea Intake
          3. Step 3: Prioritization and Planning
          4. Step 4: Test Campaign Creation and Execution
          5. Step 5: Analysis and Reporting
          6. Step 6: Taking Action
        7. Experimentation Best Practices
        8. Key Highlights
        9. Recommended Reading
        10. Online Resources
        11. Endnotes
      4. 5. Marketing Automation
        1. Barriers to Success
        2. How to Evaluate a Marketing Automation Platform
        3. Campaign Creation and Management
          1. Automated Campaigns
          2. Segmented Lists
          3. Capability to Host Content
          4. Landing Pages and Forms
        4. E-mail Marketing
        5. Analytics and Reporting
        6. Lead Management
          1. Scoring and Grading
          2. Anonymous Visitor Identification
          3. Lead Activity Insight
          4. Bi-synchronous Integration with CRM
        7. Infrastructure
          1. Database
          2. Website Integration
          3. User Management
          4. E-mail Deliverability
          5. Testing
          6. Automation Functionality
        8. Implementation
        9. Measuring Effectiveness
        10. Marketing Automation Best Practices
          1. Practice Database Hygiene
          2. Validate/Verify Your Data
          3. Align Your Sales Team
          4. Don’t Overreact
          5. Be Transparent
          6. Be Careful
          7. Strengthen Review Processes
          8. Put Strategy First
          9. Continually Educate Yourself
        11. Key Highlights
        12. Recommended Reading
        13. Endnotes
      5. 6. Targeting and Personalization
        1. About That Data
        2. Segmentation Strategies
        3. Website Targeting and Personalization
        4. Targeting Previous Website Visitors
        5. E-mail Personalization
        6. Advertising Targeting and Personalization
        7. Targeted Advertising on Social Networks
        8. Targeting and Personalization Best Practices
        9. Key Highlights
    13. Part III: Tactics and Techniques
      1. 7. Planning
        1. Whom to Involve in Planning
        2. The Marketing Planning Cycle
        3. Analyzing the Situation
          1. Step One: Understand and Align with Corporate Goals
          2. Step Two: Describe Your Target Markets, Accounts, and Buyers
          3. Step Three: SWOT Analysis
          4. Step Four: PPPPlease Plan
          5. Step Five: Positioning, Messaging, and Naming
        4. Creating Marketing Goals
        5. Defining Marketing Strategies
        6. Key Highlights
        7. Recommending Reading
        8. Online Resources
        9. Endnotes
      2. 8. Programming, Part 1: Brand Awareness
        1. Media Relations
          1. Developing News Releases
          2. On Writing Well
          3. Pitching News
          4. Other Media Relations Responsibilities
          5. Identifying and Training Your Spokespeople (and Those Who Aren’t)
          6. Briefing the Media
          7. Knowing the Ground Rules for Attribution
          8. Getting Help
        2. Analyst Relations
          1. About Vendor Briefings
          2. Analyst Research
          3. Advisory Sessions
          4. Goals for an Analyst Advisory Session
          5. Analyst Advice from the Analysts
        3. Public Relations Programs
          1. Awards Submission
          2. Byline Submission
          3. Speaking Opportunities/Speakers Bureau
          4. Industry Sponsorship
          5. Customer Advocacy
          6. Thought Leadership
        4. Social Media
          1. Social Media Promotion
          2. Social Media Participation
          3. Social Media Listening
          4. Challenges and Pitfalls
          5. Preferred Platforms
          6. Tips for Optimizing Your Social Media Presence
        5. Measurement and Reporting of Brand Awareness Initiatives
        6. Key Highlights
        7. Recommended Reading
        8. Online Resources
        9. Endnotes
      3. 9. Programming, Part 2: Demand Generation
        1. Demand Generation Goals
        2. Managing Leads
        3. Understanding the Buyer Journey
        4. A Little Nomenclature
        5. The Buyer Journey
          1. Step 1: Awareness of a Problem
          2. Step 2: Researching Solutions
          3. Step 3: Evaluation of Vendors
          4. Step 4: Decision to Purchase
        6. Developing Content to Support the Buyer Journey
        7. How to Tell Your Story Through Content
        8. Selecting the Right Marketing Channels
        9. Websites
          1. Design Considerations
          2. Blogging
          3. Landing Pages
          4. Being Found
          5. Minimizing Friction and Anxiety
          6. Establishing Authority
        10. Mobile
        11. E-mail Marketing
          1. 1) In-House E-mail Marketing
          2. 2) E-mail Marketing to a Rented List
          3. 3) E-mail Marketing Through a Third-Party Publisher
          4. How to Build an E-mail List
          5. E-mail Marketing Best Practices
        12. Content Marketing
          1. As Always, Strategy First
          2. So Many Types of Content, So Little Time
          3. Content Marketing Best Practices
        13. Trade Shows and Events
          1. Before the Show
          2. During the Show
          3. After the Show
          4. Events
          5. Trade Show Best Practices
        14. Direct Mail
          1. Offer
          2. Packaging
          3. Creative Treatment and Production
          4. Lists
          5. Test Your Direct Mail
        15. Advertising
          1. Paid Search (Google AdWords)
          2. Paid Search Best Practices
          3. Targeted Display
          4. Retargeting/Remarketing
          5. Social Advertising
          6. Content Syndication
          7. Print Display
        16. Lead Nurturing
        17. Ongoing Funnel Optimization
        18. Key Highlights
        19. Recommended Reading
        20. Online Resources
        21. Endnote
      4. 10. Programming, Part 3: Organizational Enablement
        1. Sales Enablement
          1. Work Together
          2. Give Them Useful Information
          3. Follow Key Accounts
          4. Provide Training and Support
          5. Offer Services
          6. Partner on Technology
        2. Customer Retention and Loyalty
        3. Creative and Editorial Services
        4. Key Highlights
      5. 11. Budgeting
        1. Approaches to Budgeting
        2. Key Highlights
        3. Endnote
      6. 12. Staffing
        1. Where to Start
          1. Basic Skills Needed in Today’s Marketing Profession
          2. But That’s Not All
          3. Aptitude and Attitude
        2. Managing the Marketing Team: Six Key Ingredients
        3. A Day in the Life
        4. Training as a Competitive Advantage
        5. Key Highlights
        6. Recommended Reading
      7. 13. Measuring
        1. Program Metrics
        2. Measuring Total Return on Investment
        3. A Word About Marketing Attribution
        4. Key Highlights
      8. 14. Conversations with B2B Marketing Experts
        1. Jane Buck
        2. Stefanie Lightman
        3. Alex MacAaron
        4. John Matera
        5. Hans Riemer
        6. Heidi Unruh
        7. Endnote
      9. 15. Summary
        1. Final Words
        2. For More Information
        3. Publications and Blogs
        4. Advisory and Research Firms
    14. Part IV: Appendices
      1. A. Marketing Plan Outline
      2. B. An Examination of the Marketing Communications Tools and Techniques Used by Akamai Technologies During Its Sponsorship of NetAid
        1. Strategic Communications Planning
        2. Timeline
        3. Marketing Communications Tools and Tactics
          1. Press Releases
          2. Press Conferences
          3. Online Marketing
          4. Partner Marketing
          5. Collateral
          6. Special Events
        4. Results
        5. Postscript
        6. Key Highlights
        7. Endnotes
    15. Index

    Product information

    • Title: The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing: New Tactics, Tools, and Techniques to Compete in the Digital Economy
    • Author(s): Kim Ann King
    • Release date: April 2015
    • Publisher(s): Pearson
    • ISBN: 9780134084664