Why are you investing in a mobile app? Will this one offering make a difference with your target audience? Maybe you are expecting too much.

E-books have been getting a lot of attention lately and rightly so. E-reading devices are big sellers. Amazon and Apple have both expanded their support of highly designed and interactive content. We're releasing an e-book  for Caterpillar that takes advantage of some of those things and takes product literature in a new direction.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month's collection of all things Social Media examines a collection of lesser known networks and the content that fuels our social habits.

More and more, we see B2B salespeople embracing social media to meet their personal sales targets. Marketing teams could learn a lot from salespeople (or their social media activities), just by asking a few questions (and spending some quality time surfing social media sites).

As a B2B communications professional, I’ve realized that being fully immersed in social media has taught me a valuable lesson: Less is more. One of the most important things we can take away from Twitter’s little blue birdie is the ability to write concisely.

In an interesting sequel to last year’s B2B research success story, primary research saves a client from a potentially damaging error in perceiving their audience.

After reading the excellent blog by my colleague Leanne Terpak on establishing KPIs, my thoughts returned to a topic I had raised earlier: If KPIs and the analytics they drive are so important, why aren’t we doing better with them? What is stopping us?

How do you know if your social media program is really resonating with your audience? Which tweets have resulted in conversions on your website? The following blog gives some tips on how to begin setting up an analytics strategy.

By now, you certainly have heard the term thought leadership around meetings or business dinners. It’s an up-and-coming concept in the marketing world, including B2B. It’s a radically different way of considering leadership – it doesn’t travel from top to bottom through the ranks, but outward to a whole industry— and it changes how people think.

Millennials are moving onto B2B buying teams and influencing product and service purchase decisions. Are you ready to communicate with them?

Google Analytics has long been a great free tool that has helped B2B marketers review, analyze, interpret and make website improvements. Find out how a recent Google privacy policy change is affecting keyword reports and how you should continue to manage your organic search program.

Customer Relationship Management has been around for quite a while now, and has been a key item in many B2B marketing strategies. It's lost a little of its sexy veneer— no longer the hot buzzword of a decade or so ago. Here are some tips on how to change your thinking, and your approach, to CRM.

How do companies go about creating a corporate social responsibility program? Here are a few simple steps.

With refreshed yearly budgets and objectives planned, now is a great time to establish new priorities and explore the possibility of thinking differently in your daily B2B work. I recently read a Fast Company blog post that discusses the notion of embracing the importance of accurate “small stuff”.

Last fall I had the opportunity to attend PR News’ Digital PR Summit in New York City. The one-day seminar was filled with information on social media platforms, how to include social media in B2B PR campaigns and how to maintain and build relationships with editors through social media.

Google just introduced “Search Plus Your World”. What does that mean for your B2B company?

To continue my series of blog posts on B2B web analytics basics, here we’re going to take a closer look at Key Performance Indicators and what you need to know about them.

Who is winning the smartphone wars? Apple? Android? Blackberry? With all the conflicting news about market shares of smartphones, what matters to marketers is what your customers and prospects are using and what they experience on your digital properties on their platform(s) of choice.

2011 was a whirlwind year for the world of digital marketing and communications. And through it all, B2B Insights was reporting live on the scene.

I had a healthy amount of skepticism when it came to eBooks. After working with a few of them, I’ve turned the page, so-to-speak, on the subject. If you’re a content creator or publisher, now’s a good time to look give them some thought.

There are some certainties to the typical January workday. There are no free treadmills at the gym, lots of leftover cookies floating around and my rationalizations such as "I'm not really breaking the resolution if I..." But I'm convinced there are a few B2B resolutions that are easier to keep.

The Public Relations Society of America recently unveiled their list of 12 trends that will change the PR industry in 2012. Noted on this list is the convergence of brand management and reputation management functions within organizations.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media sees new interfaces and functionality under the tree and we get all sentimental looking at the past year’s roundups.

Media interviews can be intimidating, however, there are several techniques that a spokesperson can implement which will allow them to succeed at any interview. There are several myths that spokespeople cannot afford to believe as well as tips and tricks to help the spokesperson stay on message.

You need a business website with a content management system (CMS). Where do you start?

One of the most discussed and challenging issues marketers face these days is measuring ROI.

Your company has invested a great deal in the development of a strong brand identity system including a logo, color palette and fonts that capture the tone of your brand's voice. Using limited, "platform-friendly" fonts can weaken your brand personality and standards. Start using your corporate fonts online today!

We know you’ve got lots of questions about social media. Here is one that you’re probably seeking answers to, but don’t need to be.

Looking back on last year’s holiday/year end post with equal parts amusement and disbelief that I could be that corny, I decided this year to focus more on what has gone right in the B2B digital world.

If I'm being completely honest, I'm probably the least "social" social media professional you know.

You can't create a custom digital solution for every new mobile device. But you can create one design that will respond to them all. Could responsive web design work for your B2B website?

Web page speed and performance is very important when it comes to user experience and search results, and should be part of your search engine optimization strategy.

 A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month's collection of all things Social Media sees Wall Street looking for a deal and examines big league tweets.

Part four of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how tos” of conducting, analyzing and reporting. This blog covers how to effectively analyze and report insights gleaned from depth interviews for B2B marketers.

Cheap digital readers and e-tablets are making it easier to consume content digitally, which means B2B marketers must consider the impact of the medium on their message – including branding and content strategy.

Creating effective surveys for B2B research is both a science and an art. The key is to engage the respondent, encourage well-thought-out answers, and – regardless of the medium used for the survey – keep respondents from “mailing it in.”

We know you don’t want yet another platform to put your brand on, but Google+ isn’t going away anytime soon. Our Information Architect and Social Media Manager break down what you need to know about Google+ before you create a page for your B2B company.

Recently I launched my first Facebook advertising program. I’ll be honest: I was skeptical. After all, no one clicks on those little ads—or do they?

When Godfrey decided to produce our first e-book, it was quite the undertaking. Here are five tips I picked up along the way.

On the surface, it may not seem as though B2B social media and construction have much in common. But if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll realize that the practical processes of the construction industry are also quite relevant in B2B social media.

The situation: Your company is in the early stages of planning for a new product launch that is sure to be a hit with distribution and has the potential to shake up the competitive marketplace...

Part three of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews. This blog covers how to effectively plan and conduct in-depth interviews for B2B marketers.

Workhorse PR can reliably deliver good results year after year. With the rise in social media and other direct channels, is it time to implement more “racehorse” PR?

As 2012 B2B marketing planning should be in full-swing, I find myself internally rationalizing the necessity of early planning. A topical analogy seems evident as the 2012 Presidential Election is one year from today.

A recent announcement from B2B publisher Ziff Davis should not come as a big surprise – they are discontinuing the print editions of four magazines.

I recently came across a print ad in an industry publication that caught my attention. The ad was for Kleenex® brand tissues. It stated that Kleenex is a branded term that is often misused as a generic term for "tissues." The main image of the ad was a registered mark ® partially erased by an eraser. The last line of copy, "Just pretend it's in permanent marker."

A recent article in Ad Age presents the social media dilemma expressed by many large, global B2B companies: not knowing what to Tweet about.

We all want to know about our competitor’s web traffic, but are Compete and Quantcast accurate enough to make valid conclusions?

B2B marketers can learn a lesson from the story of the man who sold hot dogs.

While B2B journalists are using social media more than ever, they still rely heavily on company contacts and industry sources to research, report and write about breaking news and emerging trends in the B2B space.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media looks at the latest in the mobile landscape and a power player in hosted blogging solutions.

Are you willing to hear what your customers have to say, knowing some of it could be ugly? Does the way you interact with them reflect their needs – or your frustrations? And most importantly, are you prepared to respond – really respond – to the insight, and set your own milestones or benchmarks for improvement?

Big ideas are like sea turtles. About 1 in 100 make it out of the nest alive but only 1 in 40,000 survive to adulthood. That’s because truly original ideas sound strange at first. They are usually squashed as soon as they hatch. So, the success of a big idea depends on selling it from day one.

The recent Wisconsin-Michigan State game was a perfect analogy to marketing communications. While the game-winning play got all the attention, every other play and decision had a part in the final outcome.

If the objective is to appeal to the audience, then why do so many B2B companies approach communications like a bad first date--only talking about themselves? There is a better way.

Many companies don’t think twice about dropping tens (sometimes hundreds) of thousands on focus groups while simultaneously ignoring a golden opportunity staring them in the face with social media.

A recent survey of CEOs found a vast percentage were frustrated with their company’s marketers and felt they failed to provide useful information about the role marketing plays in achieving business success.

What does it cost to build a mobile app? It depends. Get the quick answers to common cost questions.

Part two of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews. This blog covers advantages of in-depth interview methodology over traditional focus group for B2B marketing research.

On its own, the Apple logo is really not that clever. The symbol is pretty obvious: an apple shape for a company named “Apple.” So why is the Apple logo one of the most recognizable in the world? Because a logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.

As marketers and professionals, our clients rely on us to be knowledgeable about of lot of subjects. It’s not surprising then, that many of us fall into the trap of feeling that we have to know everything. Here’s everything you wanted to know about questions, but were afraid to ask.

Part one of a four-part series to help B2B marketers understand more about this powerful qualitative research methodology and the “how to’s” of conducting in-depth interviews.

Successful brand communication should be able to evoke the same understanding across all cultures.  While this challenge may seem obvious, the realities of making this happen are far from simple.

As a parent and a marketer I’m always looking for the positives. Looking at my teens, it became clear to me that there are some basic lessons that span both areas of my life. 

One of the things I truly love about what I do is that what I do is never the same. As an art director, I have to remember all my training—not forget it, and then put that all aside. If you can’t do this, you can’t keep up with all the changes in technology, and you will box yourself in, becoming stagnant.

Have you been considering the need for a mobile app, or better yet, a mobile website? Here are some thoughts and statistics that could change the way you look at your audience and their interactions with mobile devices.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media plays politics while Google continues its quest for world domination.

Media monitoring should be used to gauge public opinion, track issues and warn us of pending crises. It should be comprehensive and include all things digital. No matter your budget, you can still start some monitoring now. 

In the wake of Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote presentation at the Facebook developer conference, f8, last week, there are a few new words you will need to add to your FB lexicon – real-time serendipity, open graph and timeline. In this article, we'll take a look at what each of these changes is and what it means for your business.

The changing landscape of interactive marketing, social media and digital technology challenges marketers to become proficient in these new areas of advertising in a relatively short time. But, as busy, working professionals, how do we find the time to learn about them?

Is there really any reason to wonder why Google would take this position in the rapid growing arena of mobile devices and mobile broadband access? The truth is that this has been in the works for a while at Google and they are just now putting some public movement behind it.

Today, decision-makers include Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (or Millennials) and now Gen U. Each demographic is unique. Delivering messages and information using appropriate channels is becoming more complex and challenging. Gaining insight into our audiences is critical if we hope to reach prime decision-makers.

Today, it seems that many companies think social media platforms are best used to broadcast commercials for their company or brand. The idea that social media can be used to sell! sell! sell! 24/7 is all over the place.

Question and Answer sites have been around a long time but there have been some new additions to this category, including ones that have social and search implications.

It all starts with a plan. Without it you can quickly find yourself careening down the rabbit hole with no bread crumb trail to help find your way out. Through my experience, I’m still amazed to see the number of companies that don’t value, or maybe appreciate, the power of well thought out and monitored analytics. 

We’ve all seen articles that say something like "Widgets will be worth $20 Zillion by year 2012." But how often are those predictions accurate? We checked 9 predictions from Forrester for 2010 to see how things turned out.

What is the relationship between profanity and marketing? Between profanity and business in general? Are there times when profanity is acceptable, and further, actually encouraged? This blog examines the power of those four to five-letter words.

Building a solid, lasting perception of your company depends on how well you align short-term marketing initiatives with larger brand objectives and common-sense brand stewardship. As you battle to defend and grow your brand, keep these five basic tips in mind...

A recent study released by the Pew Research Center found that 65 percent of adults who spend time on the Internet are using social networking sites. What does this mean for B2B marketers?

As of September 7, 2011, your company’s trademarks could become associated with an .xxx domain and website. There is opt-out period, but you must act quickly.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media takes a look at how far Social Media has come and how we keep up with it.

As hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said, there is no point in bothering to go where the action has been, but rather it is more important to go where the action will be. That concept, my friends, is true for so many things in life—not just hockey, but also to social media and measuring its success.

Thought leadership is a phrase that is thrown around a lot in strategy meetings and planning sessions, the idea being that you can build brand loyalty and active audience participation by sharing fresh insight that provides direction or even solutions to common challenges many of your customers face.

One of the staples of cause marketing is that in addition to doing good, the proposed cause marketing campaign should benefit the business. But I’d like to raise the bar.

We work in some competitive times. Regardless of industry, the pressure is on to be efficient, effective, and service-oriented while showing growth and staying ahead of the conversation. In all of the commotion and left-brain activity, it's hard sometimes to feel creative, much less produce truly innovative ideas.

The Google +1 button is often grouped with Like, Tweet, and other share functions, but until August 24 it wasn’t a share function at all. Will people start using the Google +1 button now that it shares?

Recently I stumbled upon an article about education in the New York Times online archives. It’s a wonderful resource for market research – a treasure trove of 13 million articles going back to 1851.

The article was entitled, "To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test".

Today may have been a record setting day: Earthquakes on the East Coast AND over 7,000 webinar attendees on 'The Science of Social Media'.

Very relevant Friday evening title right? But have you tried searching for a local pizza shop lately? This is relevant to your B2B business, I promise.

Is it a good marketing practice to request retweets or does merely asking the question have an adverse effect on your followers? I find there is an argument for both sides.

Customer intimacy is about trust. As B2B marketers, we need to be willing to make investments now that will help us become more intimate with our clients. And, as social media becomes more and more popular in B2B, we need to be aware of how it is changing the way that we interact with our customers.

It’s easy to think of metadata as some deeply encrypted line of code, tucked away in obscurity. But the truth is, a meta description may viewed more than any other copy on its corresponding page.

LinkedIn recently released their second quarter financial results, including the fact that there are now 11.5 million users. If you are looking to make the most of your company’s presence on LinkedIn, here are five suggestions for where to start.

How I learned to stop delaying and love the Chrome.

We’ve all seen the Forbes article and the studies that show us that nearly 80% of business decision-makers believe their company will experience a crisis in the next year.

Okay, so maybe you’ve actually met your CFO. Unless you are a close confidante, however, you may not know what keeps him, or her, awake at night.

It’s hard to come up with a strategy, or art direct, design, etc. without insight about the target audience. Insight is more than just knowing who your audience is — it's knowing and understanding who your audience really is.

Highly regulated companies inherently require more confidentiality/privacy than most. These companies often ask how they can confidently engage in social media, given all the red tape – or what seems like red tape. Here are five initial thoughts to consider.

Online secondary research can provide credible support to insight you may already have about your customers, markets and industries…and most of it is FREE!

Recently I’ve been testing the grounds with my twitter account and have started to follow the B2B trade publications and editors that I work with on a daily basis.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media explores bureaucracy’s move toward the instant media and we mix business with pleasure at BlackBerry’s expense.

Skewed survey results, due to preconceived ideas, can be built right into the wording of questions. Here are 6 tips for avoiding this pitfall.

There really is only one way to know. Test. We’ve been working with a number of clients conducting A/B testing and refining the best time to send their B2B campaign emails.  We have determined that certain times of day can, in fact, increase the open and response rate by a few percent. I’d tell you but it’s proprietary information. Actually, your audience will differ and our audience’s best time is not going to be your audience’s best time. So where do you start?

There’s good news and bad news in the survey BtoB magazine published on the use of marketing automation in support of events.

We’ve all heard life is like a box of chocolates, I’ve recently heard email marketing is like a restaurant, but I feel I can really relate a successful B2B marketing team to the workings of a renowned hospital.

After relying on advertising value equivalents (or AVE) for measuring media coverage, I've decided that it’s time to move on.

Content strategy — perhaps the latest buzzword — has taken the marketing world by storm. So what’s with all the hype?

Facebook, Twitter, and Google get most of the attention when it comes to tools for sharing content, but LinkedIn is the one delivering the highest level of engagement.

"If you could say it in words, there'd be no reason to paint." Speaking to the value of artistic expression, American realist painter Edward Hopper would have most certainly extended his candor to the field of illustration.

Ten years ago if you wanted to find out more about a company or learn about its products or services, you would pick up the telephone and dial a number. After a few rings a customer service representative would pick up the phone and say, “Hi, thank you for calling [insert company name, typically followed by their slogan or catch-phrase], how may I help you today?”

A recent study by the Pew Research Center reinforces the idea that for a growing number of people, there is no such thing as a mobile Internet.

In its most recent issue, BtoB magazine published a survey of B2B marketing analytics in which most respondents confess relatively minimal involvement in analyzing their web data for marketing insights.

Do you ever hear this around your office: “Research is too expensive. And anyway, we know who our customers are.” We recently completed a project that proved how, in B2B marketing, a little insight leads to a better strategy, which drives a better creative solution. And it isn’t as difficult, time-consuming or expensive as you might think. 

Do you own,  operate or plan on browsing a web site in the next 12 months? If you answered yes then there are some new privacy regulations coming out of the European Union which will affect you. We're still in the early stages of this but there are a few basic things you can do now to start preparing.

Many advertisers, mistakenly focuses solely on clicks. Yes, clicks are a performance metric to monitor but they are far from the only metric that matters.

Are website visitors adopting Google’s +1 button?  Study shows usage is stagnant.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media peeks behind the curtain at Google+ and starts to look at Facebook’s “awesome” announcement.

Ever been to a meeting where someone carries in a laptop, an iPad, a smartphone and a paper notepad?

B2B marketers can take a lesson from the Arab spring, your constituents are talking about you, are you listening?

Marketers today need to create maximum value with a minimum budget. And yes, marketing analytics can definitely help. Over my next few blog posts, I plan to discuss the basics of B2B analytics in a series, providing some primary education on this topic and taking a look at the actionable information that can come out of crunching the numbers.

How eliminating a $60 cable TV subscription leads to a B2B social media strategy.

When business gets tough, some turn to the shelter of professional publications, social media networks and even e-newsletters. This is especially true with architects who are toughing it out right now. This audience responds well to stories about spaces their peers have created. Here’s an example:

If you’re a B2B marketer and you haven’t jumped on the mobile marketing bandwagon, now would be a good time to hop onboard.

When your company CEO tells you to build an iPad app and your best customers want a web app, what's a B2B marketer to do?

An old-time baseball player once said, “If you have any questions, just go ahead and ask. Of course, be careful who you ask.”

A few scenarios outlining pros and cons of Groupon-like Daily Deals for B2B companies.

Jerry Thomas, CEO of Decision Analyst, a leading international research firm and friend of Godfrey, distilled some great guidelines about when and where it is appropriate to use qualitative research.

There’s a lot of buzz these days about B2B publishers offering more “marketing services” and thereby competing with agencies (including Godfrey) who are also traditional partners in planning and delivering marketing communications for mutual clients.

If “B2B Branding” was a company, it would have a branding problem. Too many business-to-business marketers and senior managements think branding means logos, taglines, business cards and letterhead. It’s a lot more than that today.

Help visitors find and understand your content with semantic tagging. With just a little bit of extra effort and added support from all the major search engines you have another tool to make sure your content is getting out in front of your audience.

Understanding your target audience and their goals is the first part of designing B2B mobile experiences. But even when users are at the center of your design, assumptions can weaken your approach.

How can you create a positive memory that is so strong that your top B2B prospects will never forget you or your company? How do you get your top prospects to drive to work each morning hoping that they’ll see your logo on a package?  The answer is suspense. Here are 9 tips for using 3D mail to create suspense and anticipation.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt
This month’s collection of all things Social Media advances the renaissance of offline social interaction and puts some price tags on this Social Media thing.

We asked our partner agencies via Worldwide Partners, "How do you see B2B social media evolving in your country?" Stephanie Bishop, Online Marketing Specialist at Brighton in St. Louis, reflects on this question and gives us her views.

The basic building block for co-creation in marketing or business endeavors is asking questions: i.e. research. Asking the right questions of ALL key stakeholders who will be involved or benefit from the solution.

The smallest gadget or advancement in consumer electronics has the potential to affect the B2B realm. Call it the “tech toy butterfly effect.”

We asked our partner agencies via Worldwide Partners, "How do you see B2B social media evolving in your country?" Chris Knopf, Chief Executive Officer at Mintz & Hoke in Avon, reflects on this question and gives us his views.

The public relations landscape has changed dramatically but there are some tried and true “rules” to follow when pitching to the media that will never change.

We asked our partner agencies via Worldwide Partners, "How do you see B2B social media evolving in your country?" Lee Gatchel, Director of User Experience at Carton Donofrio Partners in Baltimore, reflects on this question and gives us his views.

In the B2B market, should email and social media compete or complement your marketing strategy tactics?

Online shopping is the greatest. I find it most enjoyable when the weather starts warming up and I’m seated on my back porch with my dog, Louie, along with the smell of grilled burgers in the air.

You know you need to optimize your B2B website for mobile, but what exactly does that mean? And how do you start?

Apple Computer’s “Think Different” campaign demonstrates how a client and agency can collaborate to create a compelling and memorable campaign.

Learn what a QR code is, what the benefits are as well as the top eight best practices you should keep in mind before charging ahead.

Greetings, friends and fellow industry peers. As spring raises its leery head in Central Pennsylvania, I’m reminded of all the pleasant changes that accompany this time of year – shorts, sandals, outdoor basketball, barbecues, no longer having to scrape the ice off your windshield and so much more; it’s beautiful, really.

B2B marketers know how important it is to optimize their websites for search. However, what they often fail to realize is that their search strategy must be expanded beyond their websites to be an integral part of all aspects of their comprehensive marketing strategy, including videos that are uploaded to YouTube.

How does public relations follow the motto of the Boy Scouts? When it comes to dealing with a crisis, you don’t know what may happen but you can take steps to be prepared for managing the communications.

As a marketing professional, I have learned over time that business is, unfortunately, not as simple and straight-forward as I may have perceived it to be when I was seven. Market dynamics, fierce competition and material pricing have a way of taking a fairly simple concept—selling product A to customer B—and adding just a few layers of complexity.

Back in March, Google announced the new version of Google Analytics, Version 5, as a closed beta to users who requested it. But on Wednesday, April 20th Google rolled out the update to all of their users.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media takes “Liking” offline and explores that other network...

Looking for a clever or interesting way to communicate your brand message? Consider taking some risks. Experiment with crazy solutions. Even if your ideas don’t make it all the way to the audience, there is value in asking the questions. But when the they do work out, it’s the icing on the cake.

I’ve been reading them my entire career to keep up with what’s going on the markets I need to follow.

Thank you enlightened business publishers for continuing to provide a valuable resource to your audiences and the marketers that want to reach them.

The term “public relations” means many things to many people.  Even in my own company, there’s a difference of opinion.

Done properly, primary B2B research can set up, not just a “win-win,” but a “win-win-win,” benefiting a company, their customers and their end users, the consumers.

It has been a few weeks since Google rolled out their +1 technology.

What is it?

In this time of complete digitalization, it can be assumed that there are many products on the market that will end up having multiple purposes and functions. The product that I find most promising is the Xbox Kinect.

Direct Mail – been there, done that.

E-mail/E-news – testing and tweaking.

Relationship Marketing – let’s get personal.

In the early days of the Internet, there was tremendous enthusiasm (“irrational exuberance” was a term bandied about) for the potential of the new medium.

It used to be good enough to say, “We know who our customers are.” But now, it is important to challenge assumptions and make the effort to find out more about your customers. Technology has changed the game completely.

When the major players in social media are named, twitter always makes the list. But should it really be classified as a "social" network?

We are in the business of communication. So what happens when we don’t clearly communicate?

“We have to develop an iPad App” and “how much does an iPad app cost” are two things I have heard frequently over the last few months.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt
This month’s collection of all things Social Media has Facebook asking questions and we are reminded to keep checking in.

Our marketing colleagues in B2B SEO use an interesting term, “link bait.” It’s usually described as something that makes people want to link to your site, thereby increasing your search-engine ranking.

I have a problem with that.

These statistics will convince you--and your B2B marketing stakeholders--that designing experiences for mobile is a must.

We’ve come a long way from PDAs. (Ok, I’m done with the acronyms, promise.) But have you seen some of the things people are doing with their cell phones lately? From faster networks to video conferencing and product research, the mobile world is moving fast and you have to keep up.

Actually you have a challenge. If you didn’t, then why would you have a project in the first place? Now that we have established you have a challenge you need help with, let’s figure out what the challenge is and the proper solution for it.

How do you make an impression on prospects that are bombarded with messaging and offers at every turn? How can you create a lasting memory for your message and your brand? In part two of this three part series I will look at selecting the right 3D giveaway item, one that not only gets in front of your target, but stays there.

Of course there is Wikipedia, the all-knowing Britannica killer whose crowd-sourced volumes we all cautiously adore. But clever developments in social media have opened the flood gates to the namesake of a humble Honolulu shuttle bus.

The audience information that media planners and buyers need in order to put together an effective media plan is a bit of a challenge when it comes to b2b online media channels.

Greetings, fellow rainmakers and marketing mavens. As the first quarter for many of you nears a finish, I hope this post finds you all doing very well with strong numbers and impressive ROIs at your backs.

I remember earlier in my ad career working on a national B2C account. I was new to this piece of business and responsible for in-store promotions and packaging. The client understood the value of research and was very thorough. Attending focus groups and reviewing research data with us was common.

The earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster in Japan may affect your B2B products or supply chain. Communicating with your customers and markets is essential during a time of high uncertainty. Hopefully you have a crisis communications plan in place.

Is your company using a dynamic approach to strategy? Are your marketing and communications programs keeping pace?

One of the greatest challenges that face anyone who works in advertising is staying current on the vast array of ever evolving media channels and platforms. There seem to be new and improved ways to connect with your audience emerging daily.  One event that accelerates this evolution is the annual South by Southwest Conference & Festival (SXSW) taking place in Austin this week.

“Computers excel at creating problems that take computers to solve.”*

That quote pretty much sums up the tendency of social media -- and really, any networked-based technology -- to expand like a supernova.

The iPad 2 is here and Apple apps are hotter than ever. Now B2B marketers are starting to want their own custom apps and are making room for these gems in their budgets. There are lots of facets to this issue. Here are five ways to rethink the iPad.

How do you break through the clutter and noise that appears in front of your top prospects? What makes them tick? What catches their attention? What would make them think highly, or think at all, of your company? In part one of this three part series I will look at how to micro-focus your 3D direct mail campaign as the first step in making a significant impression.

Ever have a salesperson talk your ear off, but never quite answer your questions? Don’t you hate that? So does Google.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz & Mike Wilt

This month’s collection of all things Social Media speaks to when the biz’s big names break, the B2B marketing version of Terminator and a unique approach to targeting you and I as B2B professionals.

Suggested tools to help you find relevant conversations in social media.

Secondary research can be very helpful. But do you know where the information comes from? If not, beware hidden agendas and biased results.

Marketers are pressured every day for top-line growth and bottom-line results. You need to deliver measureable performance. Since the one constant we can all rely on is change, we need data-driven continuous feedback to design, execute and improve marketing campaigns to show that all-important ROI.  To do this properly, I recommend you develop an analytics strategy.  "A what?" you ask.

The numbers continue to build the case - mobile is growing. According Google CEO, Erick Schmidt, speaking recently at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual leadership meeting, mobile is growing much faster than predicted. He supported his call to “do mobile” with some interesting stats

You may be wondering how to integrate infographics with your B2B brand. Recently I stumbled upon an excellent example of a statistical infographic that is a perfect representation of what to do and what not to do all at the same time when creating a viral B2B campaign.

“Work smarter, not harder.” For brand managers caught between the time constraints and budgetary challenges of the present economic climate, this is sound advice. Another smart piece of advice is to revisit your marketing asset management (MAM) strategy.

I know email isn’t a trendy topic in comparison to all of the new developing technologies, but email shouldn’t be overlooked either. Utilizing your email lists can be a great tool to educate current clients on key brand and marcom strategy points.

I’ve traveled to enough trade shows to know that, without question, everyone has their own selling style. No, I’m not referring to little “tricks” of the game. You know, the classic (read: antiquated) techniques once taught in the sales books of decades past only to be sadly magnified by some phony salespeople who don’t know any better.

Does a social media program result in better search rankings? It's why many B2B marketers are allocating more resources to being social.

Over the past few years there has been a social media evolution taking place with Super Bowl commercials. Super Bowl advertisers are now leveraging social media to allow the audience to build a deeper relationship with the products and brands being advertised.

I got an e-news alert the other day informing me that a reputable consulting and research firm was identifying the four technologies that  B2B CMOs should be watching. I am not a CMO but I deal with them so I believe I should be paying attention to what they are watching.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by all the measurements that are available these days. Let's start the discussion about which are most actionable.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings
by Anna Gerz  & Mike Wilt
This month’s collection of all things Social Media takes us uber-local, international and deal hunting with some of the big names in the game.

By now you’ve heard that good content is key to successfully attracting, interacting and engaging with customers online. In fact, this concept is so important that some companies have established the COO - chief content officer.

B2B marketers know mobile matters. But how do you start creating mobile experiences as part of a B2B strategy? There's one thing you must know.

Facebook recently rolled out a new type of ad unit, called “sponsored stories” What is unique about these ads is that an advertiser is not controlling the message; it is the user or consumer.

I've read a lot of great social media books lately. Here are a few of my favorites (and I would love to hear your favorites, too!)...

I don’t know about you, but we are actively engaged in re-shaping our company for the future – with one eye on the near- to mid-term (1 to 5 years) and the other on the long-term (10 to 30 years).  The trick, of course, is to manage the present while creating the future, and there’s some pretty good advice on how to do that.

Stratifying can enhance the precision of a sample estimate without increasing the sample size. In other words, you can get the same level of precision by either drawing a larger random sample, or by using a well-thought-through stratified random sample of a smaller size.

Facebook may be catching on in B2B, but face-to-face still gets the lion’s share of funding and contributes more to the bottom line. While the news is dominated by the social media explosion, B2B marketers continue to find ROI in the “social” atmosphere provided by trade shows and conferences.

Three months after we helped one of our clients survive the upheaval of being acquired, I picked up The Wave by Susan Casey. In the book she explores the phenomenon of rogue waves. Still largely unexplained, there are at least two known causes:

Social media reached new heights in 2010, so what's in store for 2011?

You’ve heard some great predictions for the New Year, but let’s be honest, 2010 was just too good to let go. And that’s why we here at Godfrey have compiled a 5 track, 13 disk compilation of what, in our fast-paced marketing world, are already oldies but goodies.

The start of the new year is a great time to evaluate ongoing PPC campaigns to determine if they are still the efficient search traffic drivers envisioned when they launched.  Start by considering what marketing, market and advertising changes have taken place over the past year.

It was about ten years ago that we published an article in one of our printed B2B Insights magazines called “the Sales-Marketing Gap.”  In it we talked openly about exposing B2B marketing’s “dirty little secret” -- that leads from marketing aren’t really what a sales rep would call “sales-ready.”

This week, the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show provides a front-row seat to see how Foursquare is being used during a trade show promotion.

Based on what I think I know today, here’s what we can expect to see in the year ahead:

New York Yankees. Los Angeles Lakers. Dallas Cowboys.

When you hear those names, what comes to mind? Top-notch professional programs? Over-paid superstars with über-inflated egos? Collections of prima donnas that have altered senses of what $1 million can buy?

Regardless of your affinity for professional sports, there is a likely chance that you have some preconceived opinion of these brands.

You don’t have to guess whether your B2B email initiative will be a success.

Just give it a test drive—A/B multivariate split testing, that is.

Of course the first is being a Father, though then you have to put the needlessly complex things together. But along this same holiday-inspired theme, I find myself looking at all the gadgets, gizmos and whiz-bang things out there and immediately rationalizing how “I could really use one of those.”

Searching for a lesson in knowing when to clarify your position, do right by a wronged customer or let the venting permeate and eventually disperse.

I may be a bit late to the prediction party, I have been reading many blogs and articles relating to 2011 marketing prognostications for what seems like months, but here we are, truly on the eve of 2011 and thought now would be a good time to summarize and point out differences in some marketing spending/budget stats for 2011.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings

This month’s collection of all things Social Media sees another UI change at Facebook, proof Google cares what you think and putting blogs in the hands of the professionals.

Social Media is all around us. Smart B2B marketers recognize that through social connections, information that is shared (good and bad), can impact the thoughts, attitudes and beliefs of individuals and groups.

You hear all sorts of jargon in B2B marketing.

But when you hear “drip marketing,” don’t think Chinese water torture -- although you may have been subjected to it if you’ve ever opted to receive email from Land’s End or Amazon.

B2B marketers often fail at successfully executing an effective online content strategy.  Avoid these common content missteps.

An integrated brand strategy is like a flock of geese. When flying in V-formation they cut through the wind, reduce drag and make more progress than when flying alone. It sounds simple but it requires hard choices.

Ben Wilver’s recent post about Facebook Places started me thinking about how B2B marketers can use Facebook.  More specifically, is it somewhere B2B companies should be advertising?

It seems that everywhere you look on the web, more and more statistics and studies about the use of social media arise – so much so, that you can find secondary research to support essentially any claim you want to make.

It is that time of year, summer is behind us, fall has arrived with pumpkin flavored everything, football, and 2011 planning. As we work with clients to help form marketing communications strategies or allocate marketing budgets, now is the time we recommend including research into the budget.

A Regular Roundup of Social Media Musings

In our inaugural aggregation of social media happenings we look at Facebook Places, the Facebook privacy debate and social network gaming.

You just released your b2b iPhone app, and now you’re ready to charge ahead with the iPad. You're excited, but first consider these tips on how designing for the iPad is different from the iPhone.

I love analyzing user behavior on websites and looking at outcomes through analytics. I think regularly about what does the user want to do when they get to a page on your site? And did they complete the task that they intended to do? Or more importantly, did they complete the task that YOU wanted them to do?

Recent research shows that the United States constitutes less than 20 percent of the overall online market. For a global company, that means that even with a 100-percent-successful domestic social media strategy, you are, at most, reaching 20 percent of your online audience.

Has your product or service offering changed or evolved? Does your new offerings appeal to a broader audience than your existing customer base? Do you know who your new prospects are? To reach new prospects, do you need to leverage new channels of distribution and communication? B2B Research may be the surest way to get answers to these questions.

There are four keys to TRICing prospects into opening and reading your email.

2D codes seem to be gaining popularity as of late – the “new” way to download information in a pretty quick fashion. I hadn’t noticed these little beauties until they started appearing in magazines, touting specialized offers.

In an interesting academic study titled: Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter, researchers at Northeastern University and Harvard University, studied over 300 million tweets (Sep 2006 - Aug 2009) collected  represented as density-preserving cartograms (nice graphics).

Many folks (me included) are not thrilled with AT&T iPhone service. Have I bashed AT&T? Yes. Did I buy into the general premise that there was general dissatisfaction with their service? Yes. Why?

Whether you have been blogging for years or are just getting started, these writing tips can instantly improve your B2B blog.

Foursquare can be fun and socially engaging for personal use. It is ideal for local businesses trying to generate foot traffic. But, what about  B2B marketing?

There is a new iPhone, Google is taking over the world and you just spent fifteen minutes updating your status, re-tweeting, checking in and getting a jump on your email before you got to the office. It shouldn’t be news that your marketing mix should consider mobile.

When someone says we need to do an "e-blast" I cringe. An e-blast is like throwing a long bomb in football. It sounds great in theory. A quick way to score. When it works you and your team look like heroes. But in practice it’s a low percentage play. When it doesn’t work the whole direct marketing effort can be put on pause...at least until the next e-blast.

In the 1994 movie, Babylon 5, one of the main characters, Ambassador Londo Mollari, makes the statement, "Only an idiot would fight a war on two fronts." (Blogger's note: I have never actually seen the movie.) This same notion - fighting a battle on multiple fronts - has also be attributed to the fall of the Germans in WW2, to the failure of the U.S. government of eliminating insurgents in rural Afghanistan, and - for the purposes of this post - to the ruination of many a reputation in the business community. If I may...

These days it’s so easy to generate information about which companies have visited your site. It’s also easy to purchase contact information for prospects from those companies, the real trick is figuring out how to use this information wisely and effectively.

I can't overemphasize the importance of writing good objectives for a successful research outcome. It is the cornerstone of tackling a research project.

Before you cut into your marketing budget or scrap all plans for conducting research, ask yourself this question:
Is insight into an industry’s perception of your company, competitors, prospects and clients something you can afford to pass up?

You may have noticed a change in sponsored ads that appear in the Google results.  Google AdWords can now include additional links, images or a map showing where a business is located. Google calls this feature “Ad Extenstions”. When used appropriately ad extensions can help searchers connect to your business.

I recently attended a web-conference that discussed how to improve the effectiveness of online advertising.  Several people mention using retargeting ad technology and mentioned Google’s Remarketing program specifically.  I identified retargeting as one of the top emerging B2B in a past post

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While this new "follow company" function can be a great prospecting, and job seeking tool, for some companies that like to keep a tight rein on corporate communications, this could be somewhat worrisome.

It's easy to find resources to help when you need to come up with a creative idea. But what about those times when you have the perfect idea but aren't sure what to do next?

Let’s face it – it sometimes feels like a tangled world wide web. It can be daunting to try to keep up with the ever-changing social media technologies and platforms. But, it doesn't have to feel that way...

Online marketing continues to increase in popularity and % of marketing budgets spent. In this post, I will look at Online Lead Generation, which is essentially tracking the more than 97% of visitors who come to a site and leave without identifying themselves – the ones that got away… for now.

True or False: Anyone can set up a social media account using your brand name. 

The answer is TRUE! We had our quarterly “Hot Topic” lunch discussion at Godfrey today. The discussion was focused on managing your online brand identity in this social media era.

The current vast array of media channels can be overwhelming. It seems there is a new platform, channel or application with advertising potential appearing daily. The difficulty comes in figuring out how B2B advertising can harness the new application. Or more aptly, is this media channel being embraced by your audience? Will it allow B2B advertisers to connect with their audience.

Based on smartphone market growth it’s clear that B2B marketing needs to include mobile. You may be thinking about a mobile web site, app, or both. But with limited budgets and resources, maybe you are feeling pressure to pick one. But which?

As Direct Marketing continues to advance, it is clear that new technologies are making it easier to pinpoint targets and prospects. In an earlier post I discussed the ability to purchase one name at a time, in this post I will look at co-registration AKA Co-Reg in the B2B market space.

I've been a huge fan of The Karate Kid series for my entire life. Seriously.

My favorite memory to stem from the trilogy (yes, trilogy, for I do not count Hilary Swank's 1994 blasphemous disaster as part of the series) takes place when I was a child.

When developing marketing plans and strategies, you can no longer just think local – just about all marketing has some global component attached, and Direct Marketing is no exception. Direct marketers must learn to be sensitive to cultural differences.

As the B2B world wades or dives into the deep end of the social media pool I am reminded of a meeting with a new client several years ago. The subject of the meeting was the development of an integrated marketing communications program, their very first.

If you’re considering a quantitative B2B research study, there are two key areas to keep in mind when determining sample size: desired reliability of the results and the budget. Obtaining a good sample can be a the single largest line item cost in a B2B marketing study.

“Don't say the old lady screamed—bring her on and let her scream.” In his advice on storytelling, Mark Twain’s timeless wit and wisdom holds true in the discussion of online video.

A recent Business Week article reports that AOL plans to create the "newsroom of the future" by using high-powered technology to revolutionize the business of gathering and presenting news.

I have really enjoyed the Winter Olympics this year. Perhaps it is because of the especially cold and snowy winter we have endured – or perhaps it is that I am truly in awe of the athletes who can spin, jump and fly on skis.

Social media has become a basic requirement for marketing communications programs. While B2B marketers may feel pressured to immediately be a part of popular communities and outlets, slapping Linked In and Facebook features on a web site and getting a few enthusiastic employees to tweet, isn’t a strategic way to begin participating.

I remember taking a journalism class back in college where the professor harped on using the same adjectives more than once in a story. He urged us to be more creative to come up with different adjectives, and would even dock points if we duplicated words.

So, you are getting ready for an old fashioned B2B direct mail campaign. Don’t be ashamed, according to BtoB Magazine’s 2009 Marketing Priorities and Plans survey, 74% of B2B marketers are planning to maintain or increase their direct marketing budget in 2009.

Being connected to customer needs and desires should be a key aspect of shaping your B2B brand. But the engine of growth needs to include creativity, something many B2B executives don't spend much time on.

There is a running joke around the office about my "love" of twitter. So, it was not surprising when my colleagues asked if I will run out and buy a Ford after the news that twitter will be incorporated into future Ford Motor Co. vehicles. (And, the answer is no, by the way.)

In my last two installments on Creating and Maintaining a B2B Blog, I offered suggestions on who should write your company blog, how often you should post and how to develop a content strategy for your blog.

Case studies of leading companies effectively using corporate social media, and the high adoption rates of business professionals using social media in the workplace, have helped squelch questions of whether B2B marketers should participate in social media. But how?

I didn't mean to be anti-social. Really, I didn't. 

I shut down my Twitter and Facebook accounts recently because I was failing to maintain these on-line representations of me, a B2B marketing and PR professional, in a way that was adding value.

What if you were a B2B marketing manager and a media rep called on you and said, "I have just the circulation you need. Every one of our subscribers is in the industries you serve.

All eyes seem to be on Big Ben these days.

No, I'm not talking about Ben Roethlisberger, starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers (although I keep getting requests to trade Kurt Warner for him in my fantasy football league - thoughts anyone?).

Identifying upgrades and additions to your web site is a critical part of 2010 planning. Perhaps you are considering a complete re-design, or you’ve been told you need a “Web 2.0” version of your web site. If you’ve already added engagement and sharing elements to your b2b site and are participating in social media, you may be wondering what the rumblings about Web 3.0 mean to b2b marketers.

I have been neglecting my blog. I’m not the only one. About 95% of blogs are abandoned—a number from Technorati based on the fact that only 7.4 million of the 133 million blogs have been updated in the past 120 days.

Tired of Twitter talk yet? Wondering why the micro-blogging service with a 140 character limit is getting so much text? The latest Twitter Talley shows there’s good reason b-to-b marketers are twittering. Twitter is the fastest growing member-based community site on the Web.

B-to-B marketers are looking for the most efficient ways to use dwindling marketing dollars. As the economic situation worsens and marketing budget cuts continue, the tactics to survive are the ones that are highly measurable.

I'm a big fan of Mad Men, the television drama series on AMC that depicts the advertising business in the 1960s. I've seen every episode. In fact, I even have my favorites saved on the home DVR. Therefore, it should likely come as no surprise that I'm including it as the introduction to my latest post.

BtoB Magazine reported that the popularity of B-to-B corporate blogging was waning, drawing on new information from Forrester Research’s report "How to Derive Value from B2B Blogging.”  53% of marketers surveyed said that blogs were irrelevant or marginal in their current marketing strategy.