Marketing at trade shows

SUMMARY: There’s nothing like a 40% budget cut and staff reduction to make a marketing team focus on activities that have the biggest impact for the lowest cost.

Read how a team analyzed its marketing performance to determine which programs were really working – and which weren’t. Adjusting strategy based on those trends boosted total leads 12%, while increasing the value of opportunities in the pipeline by 65%. read the complete case study

SUMMARY: Launching new products and designing marketing campaigns that stand out would be much easier if you knew your competitors’ plans. While they are unlikely to send you a blueprint, there are ways you can gain insight.

Check out these five tactics we gleaned from a competitive intelligence expert with more than 15 years of experience. We include tactics for interviewing customers, listening at industry conferences, and monitoring public information. We also explain why you should keep your strategy honest. read the complete article

SUMMARY: "In the first half of 2008, b-to-b trade shows showed a minimal decline of 1%, while b-to-b magazines declined 6% during the same period." "While there was an overall decline of 6% in the magazine business during the first half of the year, 5 of the 21 BIN categories showed growth." "These categories include: Agriculture (6.08%), Architecture, Design, Lighting (1.99%), MFG, Processing (0.61%), Miscellaneous (1.53%), and Professional Services (1.82%)." view the complete research record

SUMMARY: Driven by economic circumstances, the buying process for large and complex purchases is changing. Marketers who are aware of changing buyer behaviors, such as the use of information resources, will be better able to align their selling process with the buying process to improve effectiveness. read the complete article

By Anne Holland, Content Director

Admittedly, our B-to-B Marketing Summit Brochure was brochure-from-hell from a proofing standpoint. The marketing department had to get 29 different speakers' names spelled properly (this must be very easy in places, such as Sweden, where you have a limited pool of names to deal with, but in multicultural America you always have to double-check.) And we had to make sure the right headshot went with the right speaker, which can be... read the complete blog post