Over the past ten years, as online options have increased 100 fold,the world of B2B
marketing has reinvented itself—several
times. Inorder to be competitive, particularly in the Web 2.0 environment,businesses have to be ahead of the trends. According to the DirectMarketing Association, by 2008 online
Marketing efforts will be thedominant media for business-to-business initiatives. Think aboutthat: traditional direct mail, industry print, and events and promotionswill take a back seat to more efficient and sophisticated onlineefforts. A Forrester Research study in 2005 indicates that by 2008,online marketing will be more ubiquitous than anything except inpersonevents (including sales calls).A quick look at business buying behavior underscores the importanceof online marketing efforts. According to CMO Council/KnowledgeStorm, more than 45% of all B2B decision makers spendfive or more hours every week researching product and serviceinformation. They’re attracted by the ease of access and availability,and breadth and depth of the information they can consumealmost instantaneously. For most of them, their online researchbegins with a search engine. Perhaps most telling of all, 89% ofbusiness users and IT professionals state that online content has amoderate to major impact on their vendor preference and selection.Clearly, for B2B marketers, the ability to provide easily accessible,relevant, and in-depth information has never been greater.But along with the opportunities come the
challenges. For mostmarketers, those challenges are centered on lead generation, customerrelationships, and measuring results more accurately.top b b marketing chaLLengesb b trends—marketing tacticsb b key performance indictors