Jude Fischer's blog

If you’re like a lot of other B2B marketing professionals, lead generation remains a top business objective this year. Business remains tight, and everybody is struggling to keep their sales funnel full of engaged prospects. But what are the best offer strategies to garner the attention of prospective customers and entice them inquire? What will make them raise their hand and open the door for future communication and personal follow-up?

In a rather abrupt conclusion to the divestment of its U.S.

After years of speculation on how it will make money, Twitter has finally answered with a new ad program called “Promoted Tweets.”  Announced today by COO Dick Costolo at the AdAge Digital Conference, Promoted Tweets is Twitter’s version of keyword-based ad programs like Google AdWords, although they make the distinction that these aren’t ads at all.  They are simply organic Tweets that an advertiser has paid to have shuffled to the top of the search results page.  Initial

According to figures released today by American Business Media and reported by BtoB Media Business, B2B ad pages declined 27.94% in December 2009 compared to December ’08.  Year-end totals fell 28.56% from 2008.  Should we be surprised by this news?  I can’t imagine why we would.  Our clients’ programs certainly reflected the trend.  Virtually all the media we placed on their beha

To say the past year has been challenging is a bit of an understatement, wouldn’t you say?  A tough economy caused us all to tighten our belts and scramble for every opportunity we found.  Budgets were cut to the bone, and programs that were approved needed to be justified before, during and after their implementation.  We’ve all had to work harder and smarter than ever before.

GlobalSpec just released a new white paper centered on a research study they conducted on Industrial Buying Cycles.  Among other things, the report covers the various stages and length of a typical buying cycle, the number of decision makers that get involved, the manner and frequency with which suppliers are exposed to buyers, the sources and types of information they use and the amount of content they review. It provides some good insight for B2B marketers as we continue to navigate the growing number of traditional and interactive communications tools available to us all.

We all have them.  Those business clichés that drive us absolutely nuts.  The ones that make us cringe and want to scream out, “Oh will you just shut up!” every time our ever-so-hip boss or co-worker says them.  We don’t know where they begin or how they become popular, but there they are, in every meeting and conference call we attend.  So I stand before you with a petition to develop the Master List of Business Clichés and issue a moratorium on their use.  I’ll start with my Top Five List in the hope that you will use the “Add New Comment” link below to add yours.

For as long as I’ve been developing and implementing marcom program for clients, lead generation has always ranked among the top client objectives. With business conditions being what they are, the demand for leads has never been greater.

I came across two interesting pieces of research this week that at first glance would seem to indicate there is still a gap between perception and reality when it comes to social media and its viability as an effective communications tool.

Not entirely sold on the merits of social media as a marcom tool? You certainly aren’t alone. Despite the press it’s getting, a lot of B2B marketers are still searching for meaningful ways to integrate social media activities into their marcom programs. Like any new medium, it will take a period of trial and error, wins and losses, to determine which marketing objectives are well served by social media tactics and which aren’t.  In the meantime, there is one area where the use of social media is a bit of a no-brainer; competitive research and tracking.