The market is changing and customers are looking for their solution providers to do some homework. Account Based Marketing (ABM) implies that it’s all about the customer. The more companies can prove themselves to be relevant to the customer, the more accepting customers will be of what companies have to offer. ITSMA’s ABM model can help marketers change the conversation and make it all about the customer and their business.

Hear what Jeff Sands, Vice President and ABM Practice Lead at ITSMA, has to say about how ITSMA works with marketers to implement ABM successfully: http://youtu.be/o-M6tfvPHlw.

Top 10 B2B Marketing Ideas in 2011

By Jeanne Brown, ITSMA

In January, we take a look back so that we can plan the way forward. In 2011, we posted nearly 70 pieces of research, articles, and commentaries on our website. Based on the number of clickthroughs, downloads, retweets, and mentions, the ideas that resonated most with our readers centered on thought leadership, connecting with the buyer, marketing planning and strategy, lead generation, using data, and building brands. You can find all the research in ITSMA’s Online Library. Enjoy!

Read “Top B2B Marketing Ideas from 2011”

Ask ITSMA: How important is it to have research (primary or secondary) as part of your thought leadership?

By Chris Koch, ITSMA Associate VP of Research and Thought Leadership

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: How important is it to have research (primary or secondary) as part of your thought leadership?

A: Strong, original points of view are important to quality thought leadership. But without objective research data to back them up, those points of view are little more than opinions. And we all know that buyers don’t buy opinions; they buy proof.

B2B companies are making research part of their thought leadership programs in three broad ways.

• Secondary research . They are culling research from external sources (e.g., publications and independent research companies) and analyzing it for insight. This is valuable for shoring up thought leadership points of view and is generally fairly easy and inexpensive to do, whether it’s done in-house or by an external contractor.
• Outsourced primary research. Companies hire external research groups to carry out primary research (e.g., surveying customers and prospects directly) on an ad hoc basis so that the research data is exclusive and carries the brand name.
• In-house primary research. Some B2B companies are taking an extra step and building their own in-house research groups to put the proof behind their opinions. IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) is one of the leading providers of proof in B2B. Other examples include the McKinsey Global Institute and Deloitte Research.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

A cloud-based gaming company will use the cloud to make Windows desktop available on the iPad.

IBM makes yet another acquisition to build its analytics business—DemandTec.

Can Nokia win its bet on Microsoft’s mobile OS?

AT&T has corporate bloggers promote their stuff through personal social media channels.

SaaS, mobility, big data, and social media drive 2011 B2B acquisitions.

Lawsuit will test who owns Twitter accounts used on company time.

Startup tries to do an end run around big ERP players in big data.

Making the case for real-time web analytics.

Would you consider extending your internal social network to customers?

The biggest tech stories of 2011—and what will happen in 2012. Interesting predictions.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

Please download ITSMA’s 2012 agenda highlights here PDF (145KB)

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

Professional Services and Solutions, 2011 Brand Tracking Study

Strong brands are getting stronger; the rest are stagnating. 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. ITSMA’s Professional Services and Solutions, 2011 Brand Tracking Study helps services providers understand buyer attitudes and beliefs, their company’s brand equity, current and/or aspired market positions, and buyers’ perceptions of performance. ITSMA has been of conducting the Professional Services Brand Tracking study for more than a decade, and continues to see strong brands get stronger. While the 2011 study results reinforced the dominance of a few leading brands, it also revealed plenty of opportunities in the market.

Read “Professional Services and Solutions, 2011 Brand Tracking Study.”

IBM’s Institute for Business Value: How to Convert Thought Leadership Research Into Revenue

Thought leadership marketing strategy must be built around research. Without it, thought leadership is little more than opinions. IBM’s Global Business Services division has created the Institute for Business Value (IBV), an in-house research group that gathers the data proof for IBM’s thought leadership assertions. However, success in thought leadership requires more than experienced researchers. You must involve the rest of the organization—especially salespeople. How do you get them to support your thought leadership research efforts? In this ITSMA Case Study, we look at 10 ways that the IBV makes thought leadership research come alive for customers—and for employees.

Read “IBM’s Institute for Business Value: How to Convert Thought Leadership Research Into Revenue.”

Four Stages to Full ABM Adoption

Buyers want solution providers to do one thing above all else: Know me. Know my industry, my business, my role, my situation. Marketers have segmented their most important accounts and begun creating highly targeted marketing programs that demonstrate a full understanding of those select customers’ business and technology issues. We call this approach Account Based Marketing (ABM), also known as key account marketing or one-to-one marketing. In this ITSMA Update, we identify four steps for ABM adoption, based on ITSMA research and consulting and the experience of ITSMA’s ABM Council, a best-practices sharing group of some of B2B’s top ABM practitioner companies.

Read “Four Stages to Full ABM Adoption.”

How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity

In this web briefing, ITSMA’s Dave Munn and Senior Associate Kathy Macchi discuss ITSMA’s new Lead Management Roadmap, which outlines best practices through four stages of lead management:

• Defining the process
• Building the infrastructure
• Transforming marketing lead management
• Optimizing lead management processes

We go into details for each of these phases and highlight examples at each stage. Results from ITSMA’s latest survey, B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks, which include insights on the fundamental lead management practices underpinning the most successful providers, are also shared.

Watch “How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity.”

The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer:

Results from the ITSMA How Buyers Consume Information Survey, 2011

Where do buyers of large B2B solutions get information on solution providers? Read this report to find out how to most effectively reach and engage with today’s buyer. ITSMA conducted the 2011 version of its acclaimed How Customers Choose research across four continents. Specifically, the study answers questions such as:

• How are buyers using social media during the purchase process?
• When creating a short list of providers, what sources of information do they use?
• What is the most important criteria used to select solution providers?

Read “The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer: Results from the ITSMA How Buyers Consume Information Survey, 2011.”

By Kathy Macchi, ITSMA Associate

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: How do you suggest a marketing group start understanding its data if there is no business analyst assigned in marketing?

A: Most marketing automation tools allow you to do basic analytics. You can start by looking at your conversion rates or your lead drop-offs (when people start filling out forms on your site but don’t complete them). There are little things you can do in these areas to add some basic improvements to your program. From there, you can outsource your analytics. A big skill set that’s missing in most groups now is analytics. For a medium-sized company, there’s probably not enough work to make business analytics a full-time job, so it might be a good idea to outsource that.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

Good tips for encouraging your SMEs to blog.

Five good tips for keeping up with Google’s search algorithm changes.

How to write a good requirements document for lead management software.

Xerox on the future of documents (download a free e-book).

How Unisys is trying BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).

Microsoft has created an internal IT group within marketing.

Atos dumps email in favor of collaboration: Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy.

Time chooses a B2B digital marketer as CEO.

Watch out for people putting up fake business pages for your brand on Google+.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

ITSMA’s 2012 State of the Marketing Profession Address

Online Briefing
January 25, 2012 (Also January 24, 2012 )
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

In this Online Briefing, Dave Munn and Julie Schwartz will share their views on marketing’s priorities, including new marketing skills, organizational alignment, and investments. Dave and Julie will also share trends and highlights from ITSMA’s 2012 Marketing Budgets & Trends Survey to give marketers insights and recommendations on how to take advantage of the changes that await in the year ahead.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity

In this web briefing, ITSMA’s Dave Munn and Senior Associate Kathy Macchi discuss ITSMA’s new Lead Management Roadmap, which outlines best practices through four stages of lead management:

• Defining the process
• Building the infrastructure
• Transforming marketing lead management
• Optimizing lead management processes

We go into details for each of these phases and highlight examples at each stage. Results from ITSMA’s latest survey, B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks, which include insights on the fundamental lead management practices underpinning the most successful providers, are also shared.

Read “How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity”

The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer:

Results from the ITSMA How Buyers Consume Information Survey, 2011

Where do buyers of large B2B solutions get information on solution providers? Read this report to find out how to most effectively reach and engage with today’s buyer. ITSMA conducted the 2011 version of its acclaimed How Customers Choose research across four continents. Specifically, the study answers questions such as:

• How are buyers using social media during the purchase process?
• When creating a short list of providers, what sources of information do they use?
• What is the most important criteria used to select solution providers?

Read “The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer: Results from the ITSMA How Buyers Consume Information Survey, 2011”

How Buyers Consume Information: The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer

Where do buyers of large B2B solutions get information on solution providers? For years, the answer was “my peers.” However, according to ITSMA’s How Buyers Consume Information Survey, peers are no longer the most influential source of information for buyers of large B2B solutions. We are seeing the rise of the B2B social buyer, who consumes information voraciously and from a variety of sources, including solution provider sites, online communities, and social media. Yet traditional buyers still look to their peers and even to print-based marketing materials first. What’s a marketer to do? In this briefing, we discuss how to market to today’s buyer and share highlights from ITSMA’s latest buyer survey.

Read “How Buyers Consume Information: The Rise of the B2B Social Buyer”

B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks

In the world of B2B services and solutions lead management, there are both laggards and leaders. But even the leaders are not up to snuff. While the leaders have a leg up when it comes to the infrastructure and processes to track leads from inception to close, they are not mining the data from their systems to optimize marketing’s performance. Furthermore, few companies are doing enough to align marketing with sales. In this online survey, ITSMA provides insights into best practices for lead qualification, scoring, routing and nurturing, marketing and sales alignment, performance measurement, and leveraging of marketing automation. Also included is ITSMA’s Lead Management Roadmap, which provides guidance on the steps you can take to fill in the gaps to improve marketing results and align with sales.

Read “B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks.”

Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale

Selling is getting more complex. Customers are demanding more holistic solutions to their needs rather than individual products and services, which can strain the relationship with partners, who may lack the consultative-selling skills needed to handle these deals. Providers need to respond not by pulling business from partners but by helping them gain the skills they need to succeed. In this ITSMA Case Study, we profile Cisco’s ambitious Accelerate channel partner training program, which is designed to help thousands of diverse partners better handle complex, consultative deals on their own.

Read “Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale.”

By Chris Koch, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: Does ITSMA have any thoughts on how case studies age, on who pays attention to them, etc? Personally, I think they are valuable but wonder if we marketers are telling ourselves that.

A: In our surveys with buyers, they say that case studies are effective marketing vehicles. Our experience with the case studies we write says that after the initial publication, case studies become part of the proverbial long tail. A few factors play into whether the tail looks like more like a rat’s or a T rex’s: Is the company profiled really well known and admired in its industry (and outside)? That gets more views. Second, is the issue covered in the case study relevant to a broad range of companies? That helps, too. Third, is the issue covered evergreen, meaning it’s a perennial challenge? That also helps case studies hang on to life. Finally, there are the issues of depth and quality. If the case study offers a bunch of best practices and lessons learned for tackling the issue, that helps them hang on.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

7 Reasons Why Recruiters Like Facebook More Than LinkedIn

Oracle acquires cloud provider RightNow. Analysts are puzzled why.

Many CIOs can’t afford to build the infrastructure for big data.

Few Twitter users follow brands but when they do they’re usually existing customers looking to stay ahead on trends.

Google’s “freshness update” means trending news (including negative) is more likely to rise to the top.

B2B use of social outpaces consumer side. B2B focus is less on brand control & ROI, more on connecting w/ customers.

Be careful in selecting your marketing automation system!

New SAP CMO wants at least 50% of content coming from customers, not marketing.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity

Online Briefing
December 1, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

In this Web briefing, ITSMA experts will discuss ITSMA’s new Lead Management Roadmap, which outlines best practices through four stages of lead management:

• Defining the process
• Building the infrastructure
• Transforming marketing lead management
• Optimizing lead management process

We will go into details for each of these phases and share the results from ITSMA’s latest survey, B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks, which includes insights on the fundamental lead management practices underpinning the most successful services and solution providers. You will come away from this briefing with the ideas, benchmarks, and best practices you need to improve your lead management plans and activities.

ITSMA’s 2012 State of the Marketing Profession Address

Online Briefing
January 25, 2011 (Also January 26, 2011)
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

In this Online Briefing, Dave Munn and Julie Schwartz will share their views on marketing’s priorities, including new marketing skills, organizational alignment, and investments. Dave and Julie will also share trends and highlights from ITSMA’s 2012 Marketing Budgets & Trends Survey to give marketers insights and recommendations on how to take advantage of the changes that await in the year ahead.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

How Buyers Consume Information

Where do buyers of large B2B solutions get information on solution providers? For years, the answer was “my peers.” However, according to ITSMA’s How Buyers Consume Information Survey, peers are no longer the most influential source of information for buyers of large B2B solutions. We are seeing the rise of the B2B social buyer, who consumes information voraciously and from a variety of sources, including solution provider sites, online communities and social media. Yet traditional buyers still look to their peers and even to print-based marketing materials first. What’s a marketer to do? In this briefing, we discuss how to market to today’s buyer and share highlights from ITSMA’s latest buyer survey.

Read “How Buyers Consume Information”

B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks

In the world of B2B services and solutions lead management, there are both laggards and leaders. But even the leaders are not up to snuff. While the leaders have a leg up when it comes to the infrastructure and processes to track leads from inception to close, they are not mining the data from their systems to optimize marketing’s performance. Furthermore, few companies are doing enough to align marketing with sales. In this online survey, ITSMA provides insights into best practices for lead qualification, scoring, routing and nurturing, marketing and sales alignment, performance measurement, and leveraging of marketing automation. Also included is ITSMA’s Lead Management Roadmap, which provides guidance on the steps you can take to fill in the gaps to improve marketing results and align with sales.

Read “B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks.”

Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale

Selling is getting more complex. Customers are demanding more holistic solutions to their needs rather than individual products and services, which can strain the relationship with partners, who may lack the consultative-selling skills needed to handle these deals. Providers need to respond not by pulling business from partners but by helping them gain the skills they need to succeed. In this ITSMA Case Study, we profile Cisco’s ambitious Accelerate channel partner training program, which is designed to help thousands of diverse partners better handle complex, consultative deals on their own.

Read “Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale.”

The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization

Marketers continually find themselves in the precarious position of trying to prove marketing’s worth. But even if marketers have the data they need, reporting results is merely a necessary first step. Marketers must use the data to make decisions that have greater business impact. In this Update, we establish the link between data-savvy marketing and business impact and outline in detail the five essential practices of data-savvy marketers, based on ITSMA survey research as well as interviews with ITSMA members.

Read “The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization.”

ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011

Here are the big ideas we’ve hatched at ITSMA for 2011. They are all based on recent ITSMA research (with citations and links to the relevant research inside) for your free PDF download pleasure.

Read “ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011.”

How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process

It’s all well and good to be able to track leads and their activity, but what marketers really need is to be able to predict how behavior leads to a sale. Putting analytics behind the lead process gives marketers the objective information they need to improve the quality of leads going to sales, to accelerate the speed of the pipeline, and to make lead management more efficient. In this ITSMA Update, we will show you how to do it.

Read “How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process.”

By Dave Munn, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: We know reputation is important and use the line all the time, but we don’t really measure it in any meaningful way. What are some ideas or best practices on building a reputation index? What should I be measuring? How, and how often?

A: ITSMA developed a Brand Equity Index as part of our annual IT Professional Services Brand Tracking studies. This index includes five components: unaided awareness, aided awareness, top-of-mind recall, familiarity, and favorability. Each component has a different weighting (the components or individual weightings could be changed, of course).

We also developed a client loyalty index, which includes three components: overall satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and likelihood to continue doing business. We have conducted a number of customer relationship assessments that have dealt with those components, among others, by client type (segment), prospect, geography, internal staff, and so forth. The middle component, likelihood to recommend, helps companies develop a Net Promoter Score® (NPS), as well. We have increasingly included NPS questions in these types of studies to help companies establish benchmarks, from company-wide down to the account level, and to understand why clients are willing to recommend them or not. The exploratory questions ask things like how we are doing at delivering on our promises, what our reputation is, what services you would or would not consider us for and why, and changes in the client company that could impact changes in buying from us.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

Websites with tweet buttons get tons more traffic.

IBM’s Watson becomes Dr. Watson at Wellpoint.

More evidence of the rise of data-driven marketing: the data scientist.

Pharma companies flee Facebook rather than face consumer comments.

Social media will steal attention from traditional search.

Tips for how B2B companies should handle Twitter handles.

How to know whether you should build a private online community.

Should your brand follow everyone who follows it?

A few lonely CIOs taking leadership roles in social media; most are still resisting or ignoring it.

New SAP CMO wants at least 50% of content coming from customers, not marketing.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

ITSMA’s 18th Annual Marketing Conference: Getting Passionate About Customer Intimacy

In-person Event

October 26–27, 2011

Cambridge, MA

ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference is designed for senior- and executive-level marketing and business development professionals who want to learn from industry peers, stay at the top of their game, bring their marketing strategy to the next level, and network with like-minded business leaders. We will also announce the winners of our Marketing Excellence Awards during the conference.

How Buyers Consume Information

Online Briefing

November 15, 2011

8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Marketing and sales are faced with a new buyer paradox. Buyers don’t want to be bothered by salespeople early in the process—but they do want expert information, when and where they want it, targeted specifically to them. This is inexorably linked with the whole issue of mobility. Where are buyers going to be when they consume your content? How are their consumption habits changing? Marketers need to rethink, rather than fine-tune, their marketing mixes in an era when mobility reigns and buyers are experts. We will look at the impact of behavioral science on marketing and the dramatic generational shifts in buyers and behavior.

How to Successfully Navigate the Four Stages of Lead Management Maturity

Online Briefing

December 1, 2011

8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

In this Web briefing, ITSMA experts will discuss ITSMA’s new Lead Management Roadmap, which outlines best practices through four stages of lead management:

• Defining the process
• Building the infrastructure
• Transforming marketing lead management
• Optimizing lead management process

We will go into details for each of these phases and share the results from ITSMA’s latest survey, B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks, which includes insights on the fundamental lead management practices underpinning the most successful services and solution providers. You will come away from this briefing with the ideas, benchmarks, and best practices you need to improve your lead management plans and activities.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks

In the world of B2B services and solutions lead management, there are both laggards and leaders. But even the leaders are not up to snuff. While the leaders have a leg up when it comes to the infrastructure and processes to track leads from inception to close, they are not mining the data from their systems to optimize marketing’s performance. Furthermore, few companies are doing enough to align marketing with sales. In this online survey, ITSMA provides insights into best practices for lead qualification, scoring, routing and nurturing, marketing and sales alignment, performance measurement, and leveraging of marketing automation. Also included is ITSMA’s Lead Management Roadmap, which provides guidance on the steps you can take to fill in the gaps to improve marketing results and align with sales.

Read “B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks.”

Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale

Selling is getting more complex. Customers are demanding more holistic solutions to their needs rather than individual products and services, which can strain the relationship with partners, who may lack the consultative-selling skills needed to handle these deals. Providers need to respond not by pulling business from partners but by helping them gain the skills they need to succeed. In this ITSMA Case Study, we profile Cisco’s ambitious Accelerate channel partner training program, which is designed to help thousands of diverse partners better handle complex, consultative deals on their own.

Read “Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale.”

The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization

Marketers continually find themselves in the precarious position of trying to prove marketing’s worth. But even if marketers have the data they need, reporting results is merely a necessary first step. Marketers must use the data to make decisions that have greater business impact. In this Update, we establish the link between data-savvy marketing and business impact and outline in detail the five essential practices of data-savvy marketers, based on ITSMA survey research as well as interviews with ITSMA members.

Read “The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization.”

ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011

Here are the big ideas we’ve hatched at ITSMA for 2011. They are all based on recent ITSMA research (with citations and links to the relevant research inside) for your free PDF download pleasure.

Read “ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011.”

How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process

It’s all well and good to be able to track leads and their activity, but what marketers really need is to be able to predict how behavior leads to a sale. Putting analytics behind the lead process gives marketers the objective information they need to improve the quality of leads going to sales, to accelerate the speed of the pipeline, and to make lead management more efficient. In this ITSMA Update, we will show you how to do it.

Read “How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process.”

By Anna Whiting, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: In looking at different companies’ Websites, I see case studies shown in all different ways. Can you recommend some best practice techniques that I can use to improve how this content is presented on my own company’s site?

A: ITSMA recently reviewed the Websites of several companies for a custom research project. There were a few things that impressed us most about the case studies, which we believe are best practices. First, the best sites had dynamic content and a variety of formats. Rather than being published on static Web pages, the best online case studies offered the reader the flexibility to opt for a brief summary or a lengthier version with photos, tables, and charts, or even a video or multimedia slideshow. In some cases, the content changed as the viewer interacted with the Web page. Another best practice was quick links, or tabs, to provide quick access to specific information of interest to the reader. Personalized views also make it easy for viewers to find exactly what they are looking for with filters, such as view by date, industry, solution, challenge, client, partner, etc. Finally, case studies that highlight stories told by the customers themselves were some of the best we found. In many cases the companies used videos with the customers describing their situations, challenges, solutions, and outcomes. The videos were excellent—very engaging and professional. Others co-authored the case studies with their customers, which is a surefire way to write an educational proof point rather than a sales pitch.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

What are legitimate objections to a sale in B2B?

Followers for sale: buying your way to Twitter fame. Not a good B2B tactic.

Are you using keywords too often on a page? Google might penalize you.

Healthcare is the fastest growing vertical in IT.

Marketers are measuring the impact of listening and engaging customers.

Here’s a brand that sees negative comments in social media as an opportunity.

Want to know how cloud complicates your relationship with partners? Read this profile of VMware.

Does your company offer pro-social incentives?

Simply amazing what IBM is doing internally with social media.

Some good tips on how to demonstrate thought leadership on Twitter.

Deloitte builds up its internal social media networking abilities.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

Anatomy of Successful Lead Management & Nurturing
In-person Event

Santa Clara, CA
September 22, 2011

Basking Ridge, NJ
September 28, 2011

(Both events are free for ITSMA members)

Marketing must align with sales to increase sales productivity and accelerate pipeline progression through lead management and nurturing. There are five key elements to doing this well: registration and qualification, segmentation, content, governance, and performance measurement. In this in-person briefing, ITSMA experts will provide insights into best practices for lead generation qualification, scoring routing and nurturing, marketing and sales alignment, performance measurement, and leveraging marketing automation. We will also share the results from ITSMA’s latest survey, B2B Services and Solutions Lead Management Benchmarks, including the three fundamental lead management practices underpinning the most successful services and solution providers.

ITSMA’s 18th Annual Marketing Conference: Getting Passionate About Customer Intimacy
In-person Event
October 26–27, 2011
Cambridge, MA

ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference is designed for senior- and executive-level marketing and business development professionals who want to learn from industry peers, stay at the top of their game, bring their marketing strategy to the next level, and network with like-minded business leaders. We will also announce the winners of our Marketing Excellence Awards during the conference.

How Buyers Consume Information
Online Briefing
November 15, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Marketing and sales are faced with a new buyer paradox. Buyers don’t want to be bothered by salespeople early in the process—but they do want expert information, when and where they want it, targeted specifically to them. This is inexorably linked with the whole issue of mobility. Where are buyers going to be when they consume your content? How are their consumption habits changing? Marketers need to rethink, rather than fine-tune, their marketing mixes in an era when mobility reigns and buyers are experts. We will look at the impact of behavioral science on marketing and the dramatic generational shifts in buyers and behavior.

New Thinking on Channel Enablement
Online Briefing
December 6, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Many marketers are faced with this question: how do we help our partners grow their own service business? This topic will explore what some companies are doing differently—and more innovatively—with their channels.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale

Selling is getting more complex. Customers are demanding more holistic solutions to their needs rather than individual products and services, which can strain the relationship with partners, who may lack the consultative-selling skills needed to handle these deals. Providers need to respond not by pulling business from partners but by helping them gain the skills they need to succeed. In this ITSMA Case Study, we profile Cisco’s ambitious Accelerate channel partner training program, which is designed to help thousands of diverse partners better handle complex, consultative deals on their own.

Read “Cisco: How to Train Partners in the Complex Solutions Sale.”

The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization

Marketers continually find themselves in the precarious position of trying to prove marketing’s worth. But even if marketers have the data they need, reporting results is merely a necessary first step. Marketers must use the data to make decisions that have greater business impact. In this Update, we establish the link between data-savvy marketing and business impact and outline in detail the five essential practices of data-savvy marketers, based on ITSMA survey research as well as interviews with ITSMA members.

Read “The Five Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Organization.”

ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011

Here are the big ideas we’ve hatched at ITSMA for 2011. They are all based on recent ITSMA research (with citations and links to the relevant research inside) for your free PDF download pleasure.

Read “ITSMA’s Eight Big B2B Marketing Trends for 2011.”

How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process

It’s all well and good to be able to track leads and their activity, but what marketers really need is to be able to predict how behavior leads to a sale. Putting analytics behind the lead process gives marketers the objective information they need to improve the quality of leads going to sales, to accelerate the speed of the pipeline, and to make lead management more efficient. In this ITSMA Update, we will show you how to do it.

Read “How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process.”

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media

ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz calls on three years of research and interviews with practitioners to show companies how they should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. In this online briefing, she also highlights the keys to making social media work in your organization: building competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring impact. Julie is joined by Alan Alper, Editorial Director at Cognizant, who provides an in-depth case study of how Cognizant is moving to the next stage of social media success.

Listen to “Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media.”

By Chris Koch, ITSMA

In the Marketing Strategist, we’ve talked about a few of the big ideas we’ve hatched at ITSMA so far this year. Here are all of them, including some trends we haven’t written about, all based on recent ITSMA research (with citations and links to the relevant research inside) for your pleasure. Download this free PDF.

Ask ITSMA: Are events really the best way to generate new leads for new or complex solutions, or are they most effective when selling products and when you’re a well-known company?

By Julie Schwartz, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: Are events really the best way to generate new leads for new or complex solutions, or are they most effective when selling products and when you’re a well-known company?

A: To quote the forward from the ITSMA and RainToday.com’s Lead Generation Benchmark Report: How the Best Firms Fill the Pipeline, April 2010:

As we compiled the results from our survey of more than 850 respondents at professional and technology services companies, one observation stood out: not all lead generation tactics work for everyone, yet every tactic (even television advertising) works for some companies, although sometimes only for a select few. Moreover, the chosen tactics will only be effective if there is thoughtful strategy behind them, as well as relevant content, based on deep knowledge of the target audience.

There are certainly people in the study who would agree that events are really only effective when selling products or for well-known companies. But for the majority, they rated events as their most effective lead generation offer/tactic for professional services. Keep in mind that when these people talk about events, they don’t mean trade shows and exhibit halls. These are professional services providers. They are talking about conferences and seminars that are content rich. They are talking about presentations at these events that showcase their capabilities. The most effective way to showcase a company’s knowledge and insight is through live experiences with the company. We think of live experiences (presentations and consultative sales calls) as the equivalent of a product’s “free sample.”

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

Only 5% of CIOs can authorize IT investments alone.

Infosys branches out with prepackaged services and products.

Is this comparing apples to apples? Twitter’s Bad Idea by Forrester CEO.

All marketers are geniuses: how to leverage data for marketing success.

Like all tactics, case studies need to evolve as the technology and customers mature.

Survey says social media strategy not valued highly by execs. Stop thinking of social media as a silo.

We’ve done this for a while with mixed results. Live tweeting: A waste of time or a silver bullet?

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b .

Upcoming ITSMA Events

ITSMA’s 18th Annual Marketing Conference: Getting Passionate About Customer Intimacy

In-person Event
October 26-27, 2011
Cambridge, MA

ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference is designed for senior- and executive-level marketing and business development professionals who want to learn from industry peers, stay at the top of their game, bring their marketing strategy to the next level, and network with like-minded business leaders. We will also announce the winners of our Marketing Excellence Awards during the Conference.

How Buyers Consume Information

Online Briefing
November 15, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Marketing and sales are faced with a new buyer paradox. Buyers don’t want to be bothered by salespeople early in the process—but they do want expert information, when and where they want it, targeted specifically to them. This is inexorably linked with the whole issue of mobility. Where are buyers going to be when they consume your content? How are their consumption habits changing? Marketers need to rethink, rather than fine-tune, their marketing mixes in an era when mobility reigns and buyers are experts. We will look at the impact of behavioral science on marketing and the dramatic generational shifts in buyers and behavior.

New Thinking on Channel Enablement

Online Briefing
December 6, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Many marketers are faced with this question: how do we help our partners grow their own service business? This topic will explore what some companies are doing differently—and more innovatively—with their channels.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process

It’s all well and good to be able to track leads and their activity, but what marketers really need is to be able to predict how behavior leads to a sale. Putting analytics behind the lead process gives marketers the objective information they need to improve the quality of leads going to sales, accelerate the speed of the pipeline, and make lead management more efficient. In this ITSMA Update, we will show you how to do it.

Read “How to Create a Predictive Lead Management Process.”

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media

ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz calls on three years of research and interviews with practitioners to show companies how they should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. In this online briefing, she also highlights the keys to making social media work in your organization: building the competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring the impact. Julie is joined by Lyn Fariello, Head of Influencer Relations at Fujitsu, who presents a real-world example of how her company is getting its thought leaders actively involved in social media marketing.

Listen to “Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media.”

How Business Themes Help Drive Revenue

Business themes give thought leadership campaigns a deeper level of connection to target audiences’ needs and goals and give employees a clear, simple way to understand the strategy of the company. But business themes are not taglines hatched in isolation or with an agency; they are a careful blending of traditional branding, deep research focused on customer needs, and the ability to deliver on the theme with offerings.

Read “How Business Themes Help Drive Revenue.”

Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap

In this Web briefing, ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Patricia Seybold Group’s Sue McKittrick highlight results from ITSMA’s most recent online member survey on data- driven marketing and share the key trends and best practices you need to move beyond proving marketing’s worth to using data to improve marketing performance and value to the business. We also have an in-depth case study on how ArcSight, an HP company, has evolved its data- driven marketing capability from marketing metrics to business metrics. Meagen Eisenberg, Director WW Programs, Marketing Automation, Operations and Field Marketing, shares the company’s three-year journey and lessons learned.

Listen to “Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap.”

ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing

The path to marketing accountability and business impact is lined with data. If you have a data-driven marketing organization, you will see business benefits that fall directly to the bottom line. But becoming data driven isn’t easy and takes time. This survey report, based on a Web survey of 107 representatives from 71 companies and 17 follow-up interviews, looks at how marketers are using data to report marketing performance, inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast tends. It provides detail on the current state of data-driven marketing, as well as what it takes to become a data-savvy marketing organization.

Read the “ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing.”

By Kathy Macchi, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: Does ITSMA have any stats on what constitutes good readership/open rates for newsletters/email communications?

A: If you just want open rates for external communications, between 10% and 20% is considered a good average range for B2B companies. Open rates are not a very accurate measurement; however, tracking open rates is a good way to determine whether your rates are increasing or decreasing over time.

If your goal is to increase open rates, two key things to focus on are the “from” and “subject” lines.  People will decide within approximately three seconds to open or delete your message by scanning those two items. Remember, the goal of the “from” and “subject” lines is to get someone to open your email—nothing more, nothing less. I would suggest putting a good deal of thought into your subject line because of its importance. It doesn’t matter how good your content is if no one opens your email to even see it.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

If you can get people to follow your company, they will take action on your behalf.

Cisco gets into the social media cloud business.

Are you doing blogger relations? Looks like you should start.

Eloqua is the latest to develop an iTunes-like application marketplace. Interoperability is always good.

10 things CEOs expect from marketing.

This is why marketers need real data: 73% of CEOs say marketers lack business credibility.

Good starter guide to lead nurturing for B2B.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

ITSMA’s 18th Annual Marketing Conference: Getting Passionate About Customer Intimacy

In-person Event
October 26–27, 2011
Cambridge, MA

ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference is designed for senior- and executive-level marketing and business development professionals who want to learn from industry peers, stay at the top of their game, bring their marketing strategy to the next level, and network with like-minded business leaders. We will also announce the winners of our Marketing Excellence Awards during the Conference.

How Buyers Consume Information

Online Briefing
November 15, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Marketing and sales are faced with a new buyer paradox. Buyers don’t want to be bothered by salespeople early in the process—but they do want expert information, when and where they want it, targeted specifically to them. This is inexorably linked with the whole issue of mobility. Where are buyers going to be when they consume your content? How are their consumption habits changing? Marketers need to rethink, rather than fine-tune, their marketing mixes in an era when mobility reigns and buyers are experts. We will look at the impact of behavioral science on marketing and the dramatic generational shifts in buyers and behavior.

New Thinking on Channel Enablement

Online Briefing
December 6, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Many marketers are faced with this question: how do we help our partners grow their own service business? This topic will explore what some companies are doing differently—and more innovatively—with their channels.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media

ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz calls on three years of research and interviews with practitioners to show companies how they should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. In this online briefing, she also highlights the keys to making social media work in your organization: building the competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring the impact. Julie is joined by Lyn Fariello, Head of Influencer Relations at Fujitsu, who presents a real-world example of how her company is getting its thought leaders actively involved in social media marketing.

Listen to “Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media.”

How Business Themes Help Drive Revenue

Business themes give thought leadership campaigns a deeper level of connection to target audiences’ needs and goals and give employees a clear, simple way to understand the strategy of the company. But business themes are not taglines hatched in isolation or with an agency; they are a careful blending of traditional branding, deep research focused on customer needs, and the ability to deliver on the theme with offerings.

Read “How Business Themes Help Drive Revenue.”

Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap

In this Web briefing, ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Patricia Seybold Group’s Sue McKittrick highlight results from ITSMA’s most recent online member survey on data- driven marketing and share the key trends and best practices you need to move beyond proving marketing’s worth to using data to improve marketing performance and value to the business. We also have an in-depth case study on how ArcSight, an HP company, has evolved its data- driven marketing capability from marketing metrics to business metrics. Meagen Eisenberg, Director WW Programs, Marketing Automation, Operations and Field Marketing, shares the company’s three-year journey and lessons learned.

Listen to “Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap.”

ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing

The path to marketing accountability and business impact is lined with data. If you have a data-driven marketing organization, you will see business benefits that fall directly to the bottom line. But becoming data driven isn’t easy and takes time. This survey report, based on a Web survey of 107 representatives from 71 companies and 17 follow-up interviews, looks at how marketers are using data to report marketing performance, inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast tends. It provides detail on the current state of data-driven marketing, as well as what it takes to become a data-savvy marketing organization.

Read the “ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing.”

Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?

As cloud-based software and social media increase the technology intensity of marketing, new skills are needed. Marketing needs to master analytics and systems thinking, as well as become more agile. And now that almost every aspect of marketing is entangled in new software and platforms, marketers need a more holistic integration of the technology into their world. If they outsource the technology to the IT department or a third party, will they lose something in the translation? Has the time come for marketing to have its own chief marketing technologist?

Read “Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?”

On May 24 and 25, ITSMA held its Marketing Leadership Forum in Chicago. The theme was Driving Customer Relevance and Intimacy, and we had a great group of speakers and attendees. Based on the feedback we’ve received, this Forum was among our best. We tweeted our notes as well as our observations about the speakers and their content. To get a glimpse of the discussion at the Forum, search for #ITSMAMLF11 on Twitter, or read our Twitter transcript (PDF).

Ask ITSMA: What percentage of revenue should a product and services company spend on marketing?

By Julie Schwartz, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: What percentage of revenue should a product and services company spend on marketing?

A: This question is a difficult one to answer because there is no “should” when it comes to the size of the budget. It really does depend upon how smartly a company uses its budget. It goes with the old adage from Wannamaker: “I know that half of my marketing budget is wasted, but I don’t know which half.” (Of course this is no longer true for marketing—I just conducted an online seminar on data-driven marketing! With data-driven marketing, marketers have the info they need to optimize their marketing budgets and programs.)

The size of the marketing budget will depend on the go-to-market strategy. Companies that sell through channels have different marketing needs than those that sell direct. Companies selling through channels typically spend more on marketing, as a percentage of revenue.

Further, in the 15-plus years that we have been doing research, we have never seen a correlation between size of budget and best practice/high performance. It goes back to my first comment. It is not the size of the budget that matters, but what you do with it.

That said, most services marketers at product companies will spend on average between 1% and 1.5% of revenue on services marketing. Product businesses spend more on marketing than do their services counterparts. Taking into account both the product and services marketing budgets, the marketing budget as a percentage of revenue is likely between 3% and 6%.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

Why develop your personal brand online?

Study: Site redesigns, analytics top marketers’ agenda.

Another reason for B2B marketers to embrace and own data: Executive micro-management mentality.

Your access to the Web is being filtered without your knowledge. Is it too much?

CA successfully navigates the change to cloud for R&D.

Five myths of lead management.

49% of Indians only access web through mobile.

Most companies still getting by on gut feel rather than analytics.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b.

Upcoming ITSMA Events

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media

Online Briefing
June 27, 2011, 7:00 am Eastern – 12:00 pm London – 4:30 pm India
or
June 28, 2011, 8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London

(Duration: One hour)

Building competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring impact: these are the keys to making social media work in your organization. For the last few years, marketers have been told why they should be using social media, but now it’s time to tell them how they should be doing it. For example, we will look at how companies should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. We will also delve into the question of just how companies are measuring the impact of social media.

ITSMA’s 18th Annual Marketing Conference

In-person Event

October 26-27, 2011

Cambridge, MA

ITSMA’s Annual Marketing Conference is designed for senior- and executive-level marketing and business development professionals who want to learn from industry peers, stay at the top of their game, bring their marketing strategy to the next level, and network with like-minded business leaders. We will also announce the winners of our Marketing Excellence Awards during the Conference.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap

In this Web briefing, ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Patricia Seybold Group’s Sue McKittrick highlight results from ITSMA’s most recent online member survey on data driven marketing and share the key trends and best practices you need to move beyond proving marketing’s worth to using data to improve marketing performance and value to the business. We also have an in-depth case study on how ArcSight, an HP company, has evolved its data driven marketing capability from marketing metrics to business metrics. Meagen Eisenberg, Director WW Programs, Marketing Automation, Operations and Field Marketing, shares the company’s three-year journey and lessons learned.

Listen to “Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap”

ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing

The path to marketing accountability and business impact is lined with data. If you have a data-driven marketing organization, you will see business benefits that fall directly to the bottom line. But becoming data driven isn’t easy and takes time. This survey report, based on a web survey of 107 representatives from 71 companies and 17 follow-up interviews, looks at how marketers are using data to report marketing performance, inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast trends. It provides detail on the current state of data-driven marketing, as well as what it takes to become a data-savvy marketing organization.

Read the “ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing”

Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?

As cloud-based software and social media increase the technology intensity of marketing, new skills are needed. Marketing needs to master analytics and systems thinking, as well as become more agile. And now that almost every aspect of marketing is entangled in new software and platforms and creative technology, marketers need a more holistic integration of the technology into their world. If they outsource the technology to the IT department or a third-party, will they lose something in the translation? Has the time come for marketing to have its own chief marketing technologist?

Read: “Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?”

Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best

Lead generation has become a top priority for marketers lately, but their results have been mixed. In this online briefing, you will find out what the lead generation high performers are doing and what the latest lead generation trends are, as well as hear from two companies who are excelling in their lead generation activities. ITSMA President & CEO Dave Munn highlights seven high performance practices identified in the Lead Generation Benchmark Report: How the Best Firms Fill the Pipeline, a 2010 ITSMA and RainToday.com Lead Generation Survey. Kathy Macchi, ITSMA Senior Associate, gives an overview of five current lead generation trends, and then Erin Cresta, director of Americas campaigns for HP Software, and Denise Giacoia, director of interactive marketing at TriZetto, share their programs and insights on lead nurturing, integrated marketing and sales campaigns, and lead tracking and measurement.

Read: “Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best”

Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends

ITSMA’s research has shown that marketers face a new buyer paradox that is challenging them to improve relevancy in the early stages of the buying process and to build more client intimacy at the back end. Marketers have an opportunity to create an advantageous cycle of epiphanies for existing clients—and break through to become trusted advisors. The Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends report delivers a detailed look at the state of the services marketing profession as it exists in early 2011 and provides data on services marketing budgets, budget allocations, and marketing priorities from a range of companies across the technology and consulting industries.

Read “Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends”

In 2010, ITSMA posted nearly 70 pieces of research, articles, and commentaries on our website. We thought they were all gold, but some even went platinum. Based on the number of clickthroughs and downloads, the ideas that were the most popular with our readers are outlined in this free SlideShare summary of the Readers’ Choice Awards: Top 10 B2B Marketing Stories.

Ask ITSMA: What is the standard percentage of responsibility between sales and marketing for lead generation?

By Julie Schwartz, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: We’re building the case for more sophisticated CRM automation and we need to level set that marketing is only partly responsible for lead generation—sales must cold-call to a certain extent. What is the standard percentage of responsibility between sales and marketing for lead generation?

A: ITSMA has done both qualitative and quantitative research on this topic. In general, marketing can be expected to contribute approximately 15% to 25%, on average, to the pipeline. I am referring to sales-accepted leads, not all leads. It is important to make the distinction between types of leads when you are establishing benchmarks. Each company has its own taxonomy and definitions. At ITSMA, we have developed a taxonomy that includes contacts, leads, marketing-qualified leads, sales-accepted leads, opportunities, and orders.

As for cold-calling: it’s not a great approach. However, calling warm prospects certainly works and is quite effective. A warm prospect is one that has been touched and nurtured by marketing. You might want to take a look at ITSMA’s report, Lead Generation Benchmark Report: How the Best Firms Fill the Pipeline.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

Will cloud remove some of the intimacy that providers have traditionally had with IT customers?

Sure there are kinks in Google +1, but it may change SEO marketing and get B2B marketers to take social seriously.

An exhaustive list of social media policy examples.

More data that validate customer loyalty as key to marketing/brand strategy.

Why you’re no longer qualified to be a B2B marketer, via Chief Content Officer magazine.

B2B marketers should worry more about developing, presenting, and syndicating content than “managing” it.

B2B focuses a lot on getting better at selling, but does it also need to improve the way it buys?

Would a productivity improvement of 5%–6% convince your company to focus on analytics?

SAP uses follow-the-sun programming to serve customers with just-in-time software.

Report from Forrester on marketing technology adoption.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b .

Upcoming ITSMA Events

Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap
Online Briefing
May 17, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

It’s time to stop measuring marketing and start measuring marketing’s impact on the business. Rather than trying to quantify marketing’s influence on the pipeline, instead focus on time to revenue and other measures of business health, such as customer retention, loyalty, and growth. With the right marketing and sales automation systems, your organization will be able to move beyond traditional marketing metrics, better align with sales, and even take the leap to predictive analytics.

Marketing Leadership Forum
In Person Event
May 24-25, 2011, Chicago, IL

ITSMA’s 2011 Marketing Leadership Forum is designed specifically for senior marketing and sales executives at director-level and above. We will explore the topics shaping marketing, and B2B marketing experts will share their experiences, mini-case studies, practical tips, future trends, and well-grounded research insights. The forum will provide ample learning in a peer-sharing environment conducive to sharing new ideas and proven approaches.

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media
Online Briefing
June 28, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Building the competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring the impact: these are the keys to making social media work in your organization. For the last few years, marketers have been told why they should be using social media, but now it’s time to tell them how they should be doing it. For example, we will look at how companies should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. We will also delve into the question of just how companies are measuring the impact of social media.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing

The path to marketing accountability and business impact is lined with data. If you have a data-driven marketing organization, you will see business benefits that fall directly to the bottom line. But becoming data driven isn’t easy and takes time. This survey report, based on a web survey of 107 representatives from 71 companies and 17 follow-up interviews, looks at how marketers are using data to report marketing performance, inform decisions, predict buyer behavior, and forecast trends. It provides detail on the current state of data-driven marketing, as well as what it takes to become a data-savvy marketing organization.

Read the “ITSMA Online Survey: Data Driven Marketing”

Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?

As cloud-based software and social media increase the technology intensity of marketing, new skills are needed. Marketing needs to master analytics and systems thinking, as well as become more agile. And now that almost every aspect of marketing is entangled in new software and platforms and creative technology, marketers need a more holistic integration of the technology into their world. If they outsource the technology to the IT department or a third-party, will they lose something in the translation? Has the time come for marketing to have its own chief marketing technologist?

Read: “Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?”

Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best

Lead generation has become a top priority for marketers lately, but their results have been mixed. In this online briefing, you will find out what the lead generation high performers are doing and what the latest lead generation trends are, as well as hear from two companies who are excelling in their lead generation activities. ITSMA President & CEO Dave Munn highlights seven high performance practices identified in the Lead Generation Benchmark Report: How the Best Firms Fill the Pipeline, a 2010 ITSMA and RainToday.com Lead Generation Survey. Kathy Macchi, ITSMA Senior Associate, gives an overview of five current lead generation trends, and then Erin Cresta, director of Americas campaigns for HP Software, and Denise Giacoia, director of interactive marketing at TriZetto, share their programs and insights on lead nurturing, integrated marketing and sales campaigns, and lead tracking and measurement.

Read: “Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best”

Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends

ITSMA’s research has shown that marketers face a new buyer paradox that is challenging them to improve relevancy in the early stages of the buying process and to build more client intimacy at the back end. Marketers have an opportunity to create an advantageous cycle of epiphanies for existing clients—and break through to become trusted advisors. The Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends report delivers a detailed look at the state of the services marketing profession as it exists in early 2011 and provides data on services marketing budgets, budget allocations, and marketing priorities from a range of companies across the technology and consulting industries.

Read “Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends”

The Analytics Checklist

ITSMA’s survey on marketing analytics found that there are major stumbling blocks to achieving analytics success. Some companies lack data. Others have too much or disparate data from multiple sources. Frequently, the integrity of the data is suspect. What’s more, many companies, even those with the right data, are using the data to look backward rather than to predict future outcomes. Companies need to take a broader look at the ways that decisions are made—and acted upon—and use analytics to inform that process. One way to do this is by using iKnowtion’s simple four-box framework The Analytics Checklist.

Read “The Analytics Checklist“

By Chris Koch, ITSMA

Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.

Q: Do you think B2B enterprises are hesitant in engaging in the social media space, as opposed to monitoring and analytics?

A: B2B organizations have been slower to engage in social media than B2C, but that is changing. Participation is crucial for B2B, especially services companies, because we are selling our people. We’re seeing B2B companies starting to create well-rounded personal brands around their chosen thought leaders that include (but are by no means limited to) social media. The foundation for kick-starting engagement is creating a company-wide social media policy. It shows that the company is serious about engaging and it demonstrates that employees will not be punished simply for participating. Education, though, is key. The most successful B2B companies have training for employees who will engage in social media.

	Do you have a sales or marketing question? Visit Ask ITSMA to access our experience, insight, and research results.

Services Marketing News

BMW shows how mobile is about much more than just delivering marketing content.

CMOs see marriage of marketing and sales, importance of tech.

“Eighty percent of success is showing up” —Woody Allen.

Good recommendations for increasing the relevancy of thought leadership.

Deloitte’s technology trends 2011: Capability clouds.

Marketing SaaS and software in the cloud: eight tips for success.

Collaboration and hiring the right people are key in building your next-gen marketing team.

How IBM connects Watson to its offerings.

SAP puts its CRM in Verizon’s cloud.

An app store for CIOs? HP says it’s working on it.

For up-to-the-minute services marketing news, follow ITSMA on Twitter: @itsma_b2b .

Upcoming ITSMA Events

Marketing Metrics to Business Metrics: Taking the Leap
Online Briefing
May 17, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

It’s time to stop measuring marketing and start measuring marketing’s impact on the business. Rather than trying to quantify marketing’s influence on the pipeline, instead focus on time to revenue and other measures of business health, such as customer retention, loyalty, and growth. With the right marketing and sales automation systems, your organization will be able to move beyond traditional marketing metrics, better align with sales, and even take the leap to predictive analytics.

Marketing Leadership Forum
In Person Event
May 24-25, 2011, Chicago, IL

ITSMA’s 2011 Marketing Leadership Forum is designed specifically for senior marketing and sales executives at director-level and above. We will explore the topics shaping marketing, and B2B marketing experts will share their experiences, mini-case studies, practical tips, future trends, and well-grounded research insights. The forum will provide ample learning in a peer-sharing environment conducive to sharing new ideas and proven approaches.

Fulfilling the Promise of Integrated Marketing with Social Media
Online Briefing
June 28, 2011
8:00 am Pacific – 11:00 am Eastern – 16:00 London (Duration: One hour)

Building the competence, accelerating adoption, and measuring the impact: these are the keys to making social media work in your organization. For the last few years, marketers have been told why they should be using social media, but now it’s time to tell them how they should be doing it. For example, we will look at how companies should structure themselves for social media, the skills needed, and the processes for integrating social media into the overall marketing mix. We will also delve into the question of just how companies are measuring the impact of social media.

To view all events, please see our online events calendar.

Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership

Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?

As cloud-based software and social media increase the technology intensity of marketing, new skills are needed. Marketing needs to master analytics and systems thinking, as well as become more agile. And now that almost every aspect of marketing is entangled in new software and platforms and creative technology, marketers need a more holistic integration of the technology into their world. If they outsource the technology to the IT department or a third-party, will they lose something in the translation? Has the time come for marketing to have its own chief marketing technologist?

Read: “Do You Need a Chief Marketing Technologist?”

Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best

Lead generation has become a top priority for marketers lately, but their results have been mixed. In this online briefing, you will find out what the lead generation high performers are doing, what the latest lead generation trends are, as well as hear from two companies who are excelling in their lead generation activities. ITSMA President & CEO Dave Munn highlights seven high performance practices identified in the Lead Generation Benchmark Report: How the Best Firms Fill the Pipeline, a 2010 ITSMA and RainToday.com Lead Generation Survey. Kathy Macchi, ITSMA Senior Associate, gives an overview of five current lead generation trends, and then Erin Cresta, director of Americas campaigns for HP Software, and Denise Giacoia, director of interactive marketing at TriZetto, share their programs and insights on lead nurturing, integrated marketing and sales campaigns, and lead tracking and measurement.

Read: “Lead Generation High Performers: Lessons from the Best”

Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends

ITSMA’s research has shown that marketers face a new buyer paradox that is challenging them to improve relevancy in the early stages of the buying process and to build more client intimacy at the back end. Marketers have an opportunity to create an advantageous cycle of epiphanies for existing clients—and break through to become trusted advisors. The Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends report delivers a detailed look at the state of the services marketing profession as it exists in early 2011 and provides data on services marketing budgets, budget allocations, and marketing priorities from a range of companies across the technology and consulting industries.

Read “Services Marketing Budgets and Benchmarks: 2011 Budget Allocations and Trends”

The Analytics Checklist

ITSMA’s survey on marketing analytics found that there are major stumbling blocks to achieving analytics success. Some companies lack data. Others have too much or disparate data from multiple sources. Frequently, the integrity of the data is suspect. What’s more, many companies, even those with the right data, are using the data to look backward rather than to predict future outcomes. Companies need to take a broader look at the ways that decisions are made—and acted upon—and use analytics to inform that process. One way to do this is by using iKnowtion’s simple four-box framework The Analytics Checklist.

Read “The Analytics Checklist”

The Eight Critical Success Factors for Customer Engagement Programs

A company’s most profitable source of revenue is its existing customers. Focusing on these customers allows companies to form stronger relationships, gain deeper insight into customers’ needs, and obtain guidance on the company’s strategy and offerings. To do all of this effectively, companies must put in place formal customer engagement strategies and programs, not one-off activities. In this Update, ITSMA outlines in detail the eight critical elements of successful customer engagement, based on ITSMA survey research as well as interviews with ITSMA members and their clients.

Read “The Eight Critical Success Factors for Customer Engagement Programs”