Acquiring Minds: A B2B Lead Generation Blog

More Reasons that Small Businesses Excel at Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:29:00 +0000

After my last posting on small business and social media, Chris Brogan was kind enough to tweet my blog and attract some savvy writers.

At the same time, Ann Handley was a welcome visitor to ye old blog.

A surprise for me: all of the comments were positive and relevant (except for the guy trying to sell me on doing business on Costa Rica).

Before we take a closer look at some of the comments, I wanted to share with you the question that I asked during the Forrester webinar and Laura Ramos` interesting response.

Q: Robert Lesser: It appears that smaller B2B companies are more successful with their social media marketing than large B2B marketers. Is this showing up in the data? If yes, why?

A: Laura Ramos: We have not looked at the data from this perspective, but it is possible to do so if interested in exploring this further. Anecdotally, we have seen social media and online tactics favor smaller companies in general because small companies are more agile, less constrained by legacy, and able to "look bigger" than they are in the digital realm (emphasis provided).

So it seems that we all are in agreement, at least at a conceptual level, on why small businesses are excelling at social media.

And now let`s feature some of the top reasons submitted from those who read the blog:

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs
"Got passion? (Actually, this could be considered a part of the "megaphone" and "sweat equity" reasons, too.) But so many small business owners have real passion for what they are doing, and that converts into the energy and authenticity necessary to commit to doing social media right."

Ann Kingman, Blogger, Books on the Night Stand CEOs are the Public Face - "In most small businesses, the founder/CEO *is* the company, or there are a few key employees who play that role, and so it's much easier to put a human face on the organization than if it were a huge multinational corporation.

Giles Crouch, Partner & CEO, MediaBadger / Blogger, Webconomist
"Building Loyalty: Small biz can engage customers more directly, leading to product innovations and increased loyalty through conversations."

Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Excel at Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:17:00 +0000

Today I attended Forrester's Webinar "Defining Your B2B Social Media Strategy" with Vice President and Principal Analyst, Laura Ramos, and Vice President of Tech Industry Consulting, Dan Klein.

The seminar was chock full of interesting facts on social media usage by B2B marketers and by B2B decision-makers.

For both B2B vendors and the buyers of those solutions, social media is considered a second tier marketing medium.

Last month, Laura Ramos released a report entitled: How to Derive Value from B2B Blogging. A survey of 189 Forrester customers revealed the number of blogs started by these B2B organizations `plummeted` in 2007 from 2006 as the results from these blogs did not meet expectations.

Laura attributes part of this to using `warmed-over press releases` on blogs.

Another attendee and I leveraged the WebEx chat to ask questions on how the usage of social media varied by the size of the organization.

Anu Venkitaraman, Managing Partner of ReThink Marketing of Addison,TX and I, conducted a private chat discussing why small B2B marketers have embraced social media in a stronger way than their bigger B2B sisters and brothers.

Here are our top 10 (in no particular order and actually there are only 8):

Give me a Megaphone - For B2B start-ups evangelizing is a way of life to attract the attention of investors, partners and customers.
Talking about My Generation - Younger professionals are already well-versed in social networking and have a huge appetite for expressing themselves.
A Clean Slate - With little to no marketing infrastructure, a small B2B marketer can leapfrog to a web presence that includes social media. Witness the number of firms that use blogs as their website backbone.
The Big Squeeze - Hard dollars are in short supply for small firms. The cost of entry for social media in hard budget dollars is close to zero.
Sweat Equity - The greatest resource for a small firm is the hard labor that staff will invest to make their equity real. The production of relevant social media content requires this dedication and investment.
Risk / Reward - The small B2B marketer recognizes that the rewards associated with engaging in public customer dialog outweigh the risk of losing control of the marketing message.
Inverse Relationship of Press Releases - the number of parties who must approve a press release is inversely related to that organization`s embrace of social media. In other words, the more bureaucracy associated with marketing communications, the less likelihood that the wild west of social media will be approved by senior executives.
Let`s fail and try again - Smaller organizations are more likely to experiment with marketing media and social media is another option to test.

Are there any other reasons? Help me round off the number to 10!

Moment of Truth in B2B Demand Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:19:00 +0000

As we consider the full breadth of our demand generation programs, there are weak links that can torpedo our efforts.

Great efforts are underway by our organizations to better align sales and marketing department in pursuit of the common goal of closing more sales.

Although it is clear that a core player in all complex sale demand generation programs is the sales person, I would like to pay specific attention to the hand off from marketing to sales.

This key `moment of truth` is realized when the prospect responds and then looks to the vendor for a live discussion or when the prospect expects the vendor to reach out to them.

As more and more responses move online, the buyer`s expectations have changed.

Have our sales teams modified their approach to engaging online responders?

In future postings, I would like to discuss a number of key areas for vendors to better address the needs of online buyers but two stand out today:

Responding to buyer inquiries in a timely and consistent manner.
Providing value to prospects.

Do you remember when companies started publishing an email address on their website and the first time that you sent an email to sales? Like most of us, you were probably dismayed when your inquiry remained unaddressed and reluctantly you returned to the telephone to get the job done.

In that same vein, let`s take a closer look at this moment of truth.

What to make of the new Oracle.

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:50:00 +0000

You may have caught Kate Maddox of BtoB Online covering the recent Business Marketing Association conference.

According to Kate, the candor of Judith Sim, VP-CMO of Oracle, during her keynote at the BMA conference was quite surprising. Judith stated that Oracle has increased its return on marketing despite declining budgets. That budget is 1.7% of revenue versus more than 5% a decade ago.

From my perspective, we have seen drastic changes to technology publications over the past year (e.g. CMP's elimination of some its print publications). However, it was startling to be exposed to the magnitude of Oracle's drop in print advertising: from 55% of of its ad budget last year to 9% in the upcoming year.

Conversely, online advertising has increased to 36% of Oracle's ad budget this year substantially up from 22% last year.

Judith Sim also discussed Oracle's use of social news releases that has helped cut Oracle's PR budget in half and the posting of videos, blogs and forums on the Oracle website.

I couldn't help but think of the impact on Oracle's messaging in this massive change from offline to online communications and lead generation.

How well will the hard-hitting and competitive print ads from Oracle make the transition to the world of online media and user-generated content?

In the spirit of online camaraderie, I would like to present to Oracle my recommendation.

Let's pit Oracle and against its arch-rival SAP and compare their core websites head-to-head on Web 2.0 media.

Employee Blogs - Oracle: 162, SAP:0 - The busy bees at Oracle win hands-down.
Non-Employee Blogs - both websites host many - Let's call this a tie.
Forums & Wikis - both websites offer robust forums and Wikis - Again a tie.
Corporate Podcast Shows - Oracle:8, SAP:0 - A slam for Oracle
Digg-style ranking site - Bonus points for Oracle on creating the Oracle Mix beta site

There you have it....even in the online world, Oracle can claim superiority!

P.S. I have recently moved my blog to Blogger. Check out the new blog and some of my coverage on the MarketingProfs B2B Forum and the SiriusDecisions Sales & Marketing Summit.

MarketingProfs Panel Discussion at B2B Forum

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:23:00 +0000

On the second day of the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to sit on a panel led by Roy Young, President of MarketingProfs and including online marketing experts Chris Brogan, VP Strategy & Technology of CrossTech Media and Joel Granoff, Co-founder and CEO of Be Greeted.

We presented highlights from our recent research on how B2B marketers were using online media.

We discussed how webinars, search and email were widely deployed by B2B marketers (see chart `Lead Generation Goal by Medium`).

Although Chris was somewhat surprised that 49% of respondents are using blogs for lead generation, I noted that this in sync with other surveys. B2B marketers have leveraged blogging to boost their organic or natural search rankings. Higher rankings translate to more web inquiries.

Traditional content such as newsletters, press releases and case studies ranked highly for lead generation.

This chart pertains to a question asking marketers about content residing on their website.

Although media such as blogs, video and podcasts are ranked much lower, their ranking is signifcant given their newness.

Although these results were similar to previous studies, some marketers were confused by the findings. See Mike Stelzner`s blog for some comments.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum Small World Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:54:00 +0000

Some of my random encounters in Boston had me shaking my head in disbelief at the hidden connections we have with acquaintances.

Two years ago, Ruth Stevens conducted an interview with me on our research on LeadGen Tools. Ruth was kind enough to cite our research in her article in DIRECT Magazine. Ruth is an author, writer and consultant extraordinaire residing in New York. You may know her through her work with the DMA.

I was delighted to meet Ruth at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum and discuss some of her research initiatives.

As we were chatting, the conversation turned to the neighbourhood in Toronto where my family lives: the Beach.

Wham – Surprise #1! Not only does Ruth's best friend live on my street but her brother lived across from my house up until last year!

My office is on the second floor of a 100 year old brick & beam warehouse in old Toronto.

One of our neighbours is Idée who moved into their office across the street at about the same time as us in 2000.

Co-founders Leila Boujnane and Paul Bloore have developed a fascinating technology that identifies the fingerprint of an image and then identifies matches by crawling the web. Unlike Google or the other search engines which rely on image text tags, Idée uses hundreds of criteria to categorize and unique identify an image.

I ran into Leila and Paul in the cramped and run-down Air Canada terminal at Logan. They had just finished a round of meetings with the Boston VC Community looking for the $10M+ of expansion capital.

Think of the photographer who publishes her image on the web but wants to ensure that unscrupulous website owners disregard her rights to that image. This technology allows that photographer to troll the web for copycats.

Wham – Surprise #2! A member of Idée's board also hails from my hometown of Hamilton and whose father was the best friend of my father.

MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2008 - Day 1 Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:09:00 +0000

Here are a couple of highlights from the first day at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2008 in Boston:

Leveraging New Media – Greg Verdino
When I spoke with Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Office, Crayon, at the speakers` cocktail reception the night prior to the conference, I was surprised to find a very jovial Greg - quite the contrast to his sombre online persona.

I had met Greg Verdino twice prior to his presentation on leveraging new technology. I was suitably impressed with his choice of T-shirts and flip flops and wondered what thought leaders like Greg would wear for their presentation.

Greg`s choice of basic black worked well with his dry wit. A super presenter, Greg smoothly presented complex technologies in easy-to-understand choice phrases.

With a generation reared on social networks and online gaming, there are a host of technologies that businesses should explore to collaborate, communicate and build their business.

There were some interesting examples of B2B companies that were using new media. CDW, a reseller of technology products, offers a social network to its clients and uses this as an advisory board.

IBM engages prospects with a call, chat or should the prospect wish, a meeting in a virtual world.

Deloitte offers a deep selection of content through blogs and podcasts. In pursuing a thought leadership strategy, Deloitte has `greased the skids` by giving away valuable information.

Greg gave an example of how he leveraged his social networks including LinkedIn to prepare a presentation for Cisco. Senior marketers from IBM, Forrester and SAP came forth with suggestions.

Greg believes that knowledge is a commodity and connections are the differentiators. New ideas are often created when linked two existing ideas.

Unlocking Customer Behavior...How to Understand and Profit from Predictably Irrational Customers

The keynote was given by Dan Ariely, Alfred P. Sloan Profession of Behavioral Economics at MIT, Author of best-selling book Predictably Irrational.

Dan delivered a slam-dunk of a keynote drawing numerous examples of how we make irrational decisions.

Dan`s research indicates that we are susceptible to irrational behaviour and that our intuitions on behaviors are often wrong.

Dan made a very strong case for marketers to test. Marketers must conduct experiments rather than rely on our intuition. He added that it is only natural for a marketer to give an offer to everybody if the original offer worked.

SiriusDecisions produces a winning event

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Last week, I made the trip to Las Vegas and then to Henderson, NV for the SiriusDecisions Sales & Marketing Summit. Unlike most of the fliers on my plane, I had very different expectations for my trip. Similarly one of the attendees I met at the Summit was bemused to find himself seated next to an Elvis impersonator on his flight.

At the Summit, the brainpower on the podium and in the audience was in stark contrast to the barren, rocky hills and deserts of Nevada.

SiriusDecisions has created a unique event that draws both senior sales and marketing management to the latest research and lead practitioners in B2B sales and marketing.

Fortunately the Sirius folks mostly stick to standard industry lingo with only a few exceptions (e.g. waterfall vs. the sales funnel and demand creation vs. demand generation).

The speakers were all top notch, with the exception of one marketing executive who bored the audience with superficial content. A hallmark of the calibre of the presenters was that not one presenter stood behind the podium, but rather all walked the stage.

Go hear Don Friedman speak. Don is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at CA, who I previously met at the Frost & Sullivan Summit last summer.

Don can be given credit for turning around CA's marketing organization.

When he joined CA a few years ago, twelve former CA executives had been 'charged or wearing ankle bracelets'. There was no strategy, no budget process, 135 customer databases, multiple ERP systems and over 1,600 products - to name just a few challenges.

The customer insight that propelled Don's vision was that customers were overwhelmed by complexity.

Don knew that he had developed a compelling solution when the new product developed by CA elicited 'utopian' comments from customers.

After his presentation, I asked him if he was challenged by senior management and had to make compromises on his marketing plan. Don replied that this was a daily occurrence.

Prior to her presentation on the following day, I sat next to Heather Loisel, VP of Marketing Operations, SAP for dinner. We discussed why B2B marketers were struggling. Heather compared Tom Hanks in the movie `Big` to tech organizations. We had grown so fast that our infrastructure couldn`t keep up.

Heather`s can-do attitude was highighted in her presentation as she imparted such advice as:

Demonstrate value by providing insights that others don’t have and initial, don`t expect
Balance program mix with projects that don`t rely on IT
Create a dialogue of progress with regions & stakeholders
Ask yourself: who is responsible for the change that you advocate? If you don`t know, nothing will happen.

After two days of top notch presentations, I retired to the pool to play a fiercely contested battle of pool volleyball with Rich Eldh, Managing Director and Co-Founder of SiriusDecisions and his team. I call for a rematch in Arizona next year.....how about it Rich?

Is there no future for generating leads on Social Networks?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:30:00 +0000

I learned a good lesson on writing surveys. On last year’s Web 2.0 Tools Survey we asked B2B marketers what Web 2.0 media they had deployed in programs during the previous year.

It was only when I reviewed the compiled data did I realize that the marketers had responded from two perspectives: both as a B2B marketer and then in some cases, as a user.

How else could you explain the anomaly that the most favored wiki tool was Wikipedia and the most popular social network was LinkedIn despite no evidence that any B2B marketers use these media for lead generation?

Some social networks make their money on corporate recruitment. A year ago, the Economist reported that LinkedIn has over 350 corporate customers which pay up to $250,000 each.

In the March 22nd issue of the Economist, the unnamed reporter proffers a dismal view for the fortunes of social networks citing a couple of key examples:

- Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder stating that Google’s “’social networking inventory as a whole’ was proving problematic”. Google places ads on MySpace and owns Orkut.

- Facebook’s failed attempt to make money with its Beacon applet that announced the purchases of friends provoked a backlash and prompted an apology from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet the social networks continue to try to build a viable business model.

Today, MySpace announced a deal with three of the big four music labels (Universal, Sony and Warner) to sell music downloads, concert tickets and merchandise through a joint venture called MySpace Music.

John Murray of the Silicon Valley News is sceptical: “The idea sounds sensible in principle, but neither the labels nor MySpace has exactly been adept at climbing aboard the digital sales bandwagon, so we'll need to see the execution before deciding if Apple and Amazon have anything to worry about.”

Based on the research on Web 2.0 tools that we conducted last year and another study conducted by the ANA & B-to-B Magazine, social networks are amongst the least attractive media for lead generation.

So if you are looking to generate leads its best to focus on the top performing Web 2.0 media: blogs, podcasts, videocasts and RSS.

Its interesting to note that the Economist concludes the March 22nd article by noting that as social networks mature, the foundation for communication will move away from ‘walled gardens’ to open communications like email and RSS, thus rendering the early social networks obsolete.

Is Marketing in for a Soft Landing?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:42:00 +0000

Record high commodity prices, the subprime debacle, a bust in the US residential housing market, stockmarkets in a downward spiral - is this the harbinger for marketing cuts?

A recent survey of marketers by IDC indicates a mild slowdown. IDC released its results of a survey of 40 tech marketers who figure an average marketing spend increase of 4.0% for this year vs. 6.1% a year ago. The advertising industry, ever so sensitive to economic downturns, maintains that there are no ill signs.

In February, BtotB Magazine interviewed executives from BBDO, HSR Business to Business, Doremus and Ogilvy New York who all attested to a buoyant market. In January, the Economist interviewed the heads of Publicis Groupe and WPP who are excited by the prospects of America`s presidential election, the Beijing Olympics and the European soccer championship driving ad growth.

Although there is not a consensus on how the weakening economy will impact marketing, it is clear that the marketing environment is very different today than in 2000 - 2002 when irrational exuberance in brand-building marketing spend was quickly followed by a massive 10% drop in advertising spend in America in 2000.

The lessons from the last recession do not seem lost on the B2B marketers today. Our organizations are much more lean and accountable. With a proliferation of online media options, CRM systems and tracking tools, we are in a much better position to justify our marketing budgets.

Like the financial planner shuffling their clients` portfolio into defensive industries like retail and consumer packaged goods, marketers are spending more on online marketing where ROI can be easily measured. Indeed we have less distance to fall than in 2000-2002.

However we also can control our destiny as savvy marketers.

Drinking wine leads to deep thoughts.

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:53:00 +0000

This past weekend, my wife and I held an informal wine tasting for our neighbors. We were joined by Simon Beck, Editor – Special Editions, The Globe and Mail.

Simon had become exhausted in completing his latest project: the University Report Card 2007. The Report compiles the results from a survey of 43,000 Canadian students on their schools. (Fortunately Simon summoned the energy to sample the wine.)

In the Report, Dr. Tim Blackmore a professor at the University of Western Ontario was quoted: This isn't the MTV generation we're talking about — this is the everything, all-the-time generation. It's difficult for a professor to compete with that. It's like trying to capture the attention of a cat." Dr. Blackmore struggles to keep students engaged but continues to achieve high student ratings as he incorporates video and audio in his lectures.

As one is often prone to do, I compare this to my days in university, when we had to jealously share PCs in a PC lab to complete our required assignments. My generation was grossly underwired and under-social networked in comparison.

Therein lies the rub, are all audiences equally attracted to Web 2.0 media? Is a blog (insert any Web 2.0 medium) required for my company?

In our pursuit of the next new thing, we sometimes forget that it all starts with the customer.

With a deep understanding of the customer, the path becomes clear. Yet , the low cost of entry for Web 2.0 makes these media ideal for testing.

So if your knowledge of your customer is limited, even a small scale test is probably worthwhile.

And like Dr. Blackmore, the level of your customer engagement is a key metric.

One fine day in Chicago

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:58:00 +0000

This afternoon I flew into Chicago from Toronto.

The weather was ideal for my plans before the MarketingProfs Conference began: sunny and warm with a nice breeze off of Lake Michigan.

With the blessing of my family, I flew in early today to take the Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River in picture perfect conditions.

My newfound knowledge of Chicago architecture came in handy at 6:00 pm during the speakers cocktail party. We stood on the third floor patio of the Renaissance Chicago and talked of the behemoths that lined the river.

It was great to meet and chat with the MarketingProfs team: Allen Weiss - Founder, Roy Young - President and Ann Handley - Chief Content Officer and employee #2. The MarketingProfs team was hyped about their first conference and the 300 attendees.

Ann Handley, Paul Dunay (my presentation partner) and I spoke on the patio, amongst other things, about blogging and Twitter. According to Paul, master blogger / podcaster Robert Scoble was surprised that he was not inundated with baby product pitches after covering the personal event online.

My response was that it seems odd that with rampant privacy concerns such as identity theft, bloggers are not more guarded about their private life. If Robert and his family are at the hospital, who is watching his house?

Would-be burglars no longer have to watch the newspapers and mail pile up. Its now as simple as subscribing to an RSS feed to know when no one is home.

Content takes center stage with Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:04:00 +0000

Through our research on Web 2.0 tools, B2B marketers are deploying these tools equally to target customers and prospects. The cost of entry is practically nothing. Most tools are free or next to free.

With the widespread adoption of Web 2.0 tools, it's interesting to juxtapose Web 2.0 to direct mail. You may remember hearing the debates on the key success factors for direct mail. Most experts speak of the 40:40:20 rule. The success of a direct mail program is based on 40% list, 40% offer and 20% creative.

For Web 2.0 media, the formula for success is very different: 100% content. You could also argue that SEO (Search Engine Optimization or Organic Search) is critical to your audience finding you, so a strong linking strategy is vital. Content creation has now been turned on its head. With direct mail, the creation of copy and offer is mostly outsourced to professional copywriters.

Not so with Web 2.0 as the content creation is the domain of amateurs (i.e. blogs are usually not ghost-written).

For those B2B marketers with a need to stretch their budgets and a do-it-yourself attitude, Web 2.0 provides a golden opportunity.

P.S. Please join Paul Dunay and me at the Marketing Profs BtoB Forum in Chicago Oct. 1 - 2, 2007 for a presentation on Leveraging New Channels to Create Marketing Buzz. We will present how to include these new channels into your marketing mix along with insight from our research. To save $200 on the registration, use promo code ESPK07.

B2B marketers ahead of B2C on New Media Adoption

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 02:30:00 +0000

On August 13, BtoB Magazine announced the results of their research on new media conducted with the Association of National Advertisers.

In June, BtoB and the ANA interviewed 326 B2B and B2C marketers from their respective house files.

The research confirmed a number of tiers of new media tools. The top tier includes proprietary Web sites, e-mail marketing, online ads, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and webinars. The middle tier includes blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts and video on demand. The bottom tier consists of wikis, mobile, viral video, social networks and Second Life.

It was found that B2B marketers allocate a significantly higher proportion of their budget to new media than B2C marketers. While B2C marketers view new media as best suited for brand building, B2B marketers look to new media for demand generation.

As far as I see it, the irony for B2B marketers is that although their solutions require extensive communication (often through a sales force), the budgets and tools at their disposal for marketing are often inadequate. The opposite is true for B2C: humongous budgets to communicate simple messages.

With new media tools and in particular Web 2.0 tools, B2B marketers are bolstered by tools where the cost of entry is the development of content, rather than price of the tools or cost of the marketing medium.

For more details and a PowerPoint summary of the BtoB/ANA research, follow this link to the BtoB website.

Blogging - the new team demonstration sport at the Olympics?

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 23:40:00 +0000

What if we had a team of expert bloggers at our disposal?

KnowledgeStorm has recently launched a team blog at FindTechBlogs.com.

Matt Lohman, director of business development at KnowledgeStorm spoke with Paul Dunay and me after completing the our survey on Web 2.0 Tools.

The podcast from our discussion can be found on Paul's blog. Listen in and find out why KnowledgeStorm is a contender in team blogging and with other Web 2.0 tools.

A new category of LeadGen Tools materializes

noreply@blogger.com (Robert Lesser) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:09:00 +0000

In our research on LeadGen Tools, collaborative and dialog marketing tools made a prominent showing with email marketing, blogging and web conferencing tools leading the way.

Although our research was not scientific in a statistical sense, it does illustrate a trend of B2B marketers to deploy more ‘engaging’ tools. In a consumer-driven world, this only makes sense.

I suspect that these tools, as well as the Web 2.0 tools (e.g. blogging, wikis and social networking) will coalesce to form a new category of tools available to the B2B marketer. Let’s call these tools, LeadCom Tools, a name appropriate given the tools’ positioning between MarCom and Direct Marketing.

Unlike traditional direct marketing such as direct mail or telesales, the linkage to revenue is not as strong for LeadCom tools. And unlike mass media or MarCom options, LeadCom Tools do not amplify the message to the same extent as traditional MarCom but share some of the broadcast quality but to a narrower audience.

Taking the best from both ends of the spectrum, LeadCom tools are measurable, by level of engagement and scalable to niche audiences.

One of the most promising segments for LeadCom are nurture leads who expect a higher level of engagement with more relevant content balanced by a low-cost content delivery model.

As adoption of Web 2.0 tools increase, the use of these tools for LeadCom will be a very encouraging development.