How B2B buying has changed, and what marketers must do to change, too. A new kind of relationship marketing is required, one that focuses on identifying buying signals, launches and sustains relationships with prospects, all driven by a marketing database and new Internet tools, like social media and content. .

1. New Ways to Connect with
Business Customers
B2B marketing has
changed forever
Ruth P. Stevens
ruth@ruthstevens.com

2. Direct marketing in B2B
Database
management
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
Lead generation
E-commerce and
mail order
Customer retention
1.
4.
3.
2.

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The funnel
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4. Buyer behavior has changed.
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Buyers’ top 3
sources today
are online
Source: Understanding the Industrial Buy Cycle, GlobalSpec 2010

8. Buying groups are growing in size
25
20
15
10
5
Members of the 'Buying Committee' for a Purchase over $25k
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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21.0
13.5
6.8
0
Over 1,000 employees 501 - 1,000 employees 100 - 500 employees
Source: MarketingSherpa, Business Technology Buyers Survey, March 2007
Methodology: N = 478

9. What does this mean for
marketers?
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10. Direct marketing is the engine
that manages this process.
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11. A new kind of direct marketing
is required.
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12. Essential ingredients in B2B direct
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
marketing today
1. Clean, comprehensive data
2. Customer contact strategy, supported by
marketing automation
3. Social media outreach
4. Superb website
5. Content strategy
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13. 1/ Steps to clean, accurate data
1. Identify the data elements you need.
2. Append elements available from third-party
suppliers.
3. Fill in the gaps with “data discovery.”
– Outbound telephone to target accounts
– Probing on buying roles and contact info
– Fill in the blanks in your database
4. Ongoing data hygiene.
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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14. 2/ Contact strategy,
with marketing automation
Contact strategy
1. Segment inquirer base by
need or value
2. Assess the ideal contact
level and frequency
3. Test the contact sequence.
Continuously review and
refine over time.
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
Marketing automation
• Software specific to
campaign management,
lead nurturing, triggered
marketing communications.
• A large variety of vendors
available today.
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16. 3/Social media outreach (think PR)
Wrong: "How is this supposed to make me
money?"
Right: "How can I use social media to get my
ideal customer to choose me at any price?"
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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17. Case study: Maddock Douglas in conversation
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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19. Maddock Douglas LinkedIn profile
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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20. B2B social media to-do list
• Company profile at GetListed.org and Google Local
• Buy domain names in your category
• Keep your blog fresh and informative
• Company profile on LinkedIn
• Branded Twitter account
• YouTube for product videos and customer testimonials
• SlideShare for technical presentations
• Offer content, drive to landing page, collect data
• Invest in resources to respond, and start a dialogue20
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011

21. 4/ A superb website:
Essential site characteristics today
• Keyword-rich copy, tags, SEO basics
• Self-identifying segmentation of content and navigation
• External outreach via social media
• External validation at your site: Testimonials, case
studies
• Plenty of rich content to educate prospects
• Lead generation features
– Optimization on response-oriented pages
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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22. Motivate visitors to provide contact info
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011

23. Identify site visitors by IP address
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24. 5/ Develop a deliberate content strategy
• A library of content assets that can serve different
needs.
– Case studies
– White papers
– Archived webinars
– Podcasts
– Research reports
– Blog entries
• A new resource: the Content Marketing Institute
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25. The growing investment in
content development
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26. Buying behavior is changing.
Marketing behavior is changing.
Direct marketing drives B2B
relationships.
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Thank you.
ruth@ruthstevens.com

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Web-based resources for B2B
• MarketingProfs.com: library of articles, seminars, cases
• MarketingSherpa.com: weekly case studies and research
• RainToday.com: resources for marketers of professional
services
• CMI (ContentMarketingInstitute.com): thought leadership on
content development and usage
• WhichTestWon: Examples of split test results from real
campaigns

29. B-to-B direct marketing reading list
• The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, by Eric Gagnon
• Business-to-Business Direct Marketing, by Robert W. Bly
• The DMA Lead Generation Handbook, by Ruth P.
© Ruth P. Stevens 2011
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Stevens
• Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, by Brian J. Carroll
• Trade Show and Event Marketing, by Ruth P. Stevens
• Sales & Marketing 365, by Jim Obermayer
• Marketing Metrics in Action, by Laura Patterson