Whether you call it one-to-one marketing, key account marketing, or (what we call it) Account Based Marketing, marketers are tempted to dismiss it as a tactic – the same sauce with a fancy new name. That would be a mistake. It’s a long-term strategy with four stages of adoption.

Sure, most B2B companies are doing social media, but few are able to create and sustain true dialogue with customers. In his book, ‘Everywhere: Comprehensive Digital Business Strategy for the Social Media Era,’ Larry Weber offers a model that can help marketers transform their social media channels from broadcast media to tools for true customer engagement.

Strong brands are getting stronger. Yet there remains plenty of opportunity for services and solutions providers in the middle of the pack to gain ground in terms of brand equity and market positioning. It just takes consistent and persistent marketing.

The annual ITSMA Research Agenda seems to start with a dinner—a nice catered dinner with good (no, really good) wine—where all-star marketers from ITSMA member companies (aka the ITSMA Board of Advisors) get together to talk about what’s going to happen in marketing in the coming year. But there’s more to it than that.

We’ve been hearing about globalization and cross-cultural differences for so long that we’ve become impervious to their meaning and importance. Anja Langbein-Park knows how to pierce that indifference and show why these issues matter to marketers. She has also identified two ways B2B marketers can build their cultural competence and create value for their customers.

Tomato, Tomahto – what’s the difference? In creating a strong brand, the difference between what you say and what others say can make or break your reputation.

Marketers are jumping the gun in creating a social media strategy by focusing on social media. There’s a lot of other stuff that has to happen before you can have that conversation.

Solution provider thought leadership is becoming more important to buyers, who rely upon this information during the purchase process. But how did solution providers become so credible? And why do buyers believe them?

Why was Getting Passionate About Customer Intimacy the theme of ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference? Because this is the way B2B marketers can have a real impact on the business.

An international jury of marketing executives and experts selected the 2011 ITSMA Marketing Excellence Award winners based on distinction in situation analysis, innovation, program execution, and business results.

To most salespeople, time spent not selling is time wasted. Here are three ways to get them to invest time in training.

For the past 10 or so years, buyers have taken the initiative early in the buying process, relying on Website search, industry influencers, social media, and especially their peers to find out information on solution providers. They didn’t want to talk to salespeople and they didn’t trust marketers. Now the tide is turning.

Last year, marketers left ITSMA’s Annual Conference saying, “It was a great use of two days for new ideas and peer group discussions.” This year will be even better.

CFOs expect the numbers, but they don’t want to be cops. A little collaboration makes all the difference. Find out why in this Q&A with Mike Sullivan, CFO of eIQnetworks Inc.

Like it or not, a handful of top customers control the destiny of your company. Here’s how to build lasting relationships with the customer executives that matter most.

The majority of B2B companies are in the early stages of planning and implementing their lead management processes. Many have taken the first step by adopting a common definition of and taxonomy for lead tracking, but there is still a long way to go.

Why do we always think that buying a system will solve our problems? Marketing automation systems are helpful in lead management for sure, but they’re missing a key ingredient: analytics.

Data-driven marketing is hard. But when B2B marketers face the obstacles to become data-savvy head on, the results are worth the effort.

Handheld cameras and Flip Cam recorders may be great for home movies, quick vlogs, or YouTube, but B2B marketers should consider what a home movie says about their products, services, and, ultimately, their brands.

Lead nurturing via social media is a best practice. So why isn’t everybody doing it?

There’s no way we’re going to be able to prove the value of social media in isolation as a standalone channel for marketers. Only by integrating social media into the larger marketing strategy can we be successful. Here are the five pillars for doing it.

When we think of cutting-edge marketing, we think of B2C companies: Apple, Tesco, Ikea, Pepsi . These companies are great at generating buzz, but can their marketing techniques hold up in the B2B space?

If content is king, then process is parliament. When parliament is inefficient, it weakens the king. That’s why a strong lead management process is just as important as content.

Good ideas are good – actually, great – but in B2B marketing, context is important. Your ideas must relate to what customers need and what the company does.

Customer intimacy may sound esoteric – just another term thrown around by branding teams. But as we discovered at ITSMA’s Marketing Leadership Forum, customer intimacy is very real … as are the programs that many ITSMA members are implementing.