One of the urban legends surrounding B2B marketing is that Sales and Marketing exist in some sort of permanent cease-fire, interrupted only by flashes of open warfare.

Not so, says an email survey conducted by BtoB and Genius.com in March and April, and neatly summarized in a recent post by Ellis Booker.  In fact, 39% of the survey’s respondents rated “working with the Sales team” toward the “not difficult at all” end of a 1-to-5 scale.  By contrast, [Read more...]

I’ll confess, I had to stifle a yawn on first reading Christina CK Kerley’s post on the B2B Marketing blog declaring this “The Year of Mobile.”  I mean, this is at least the 3rd or 4th year to be so anointed …and the year’s almost half over, already.

Some of her argument is based on sheer numbers, like the stunning fact of 4.6 billion global subscribers and an unprecedented growth rate, headed for ubiquitous adoption.  Within that, the fastest-growing segment is Web-enabled smart phones.  And she warns us against assuming that this is all about tweens texting or teens hustling up a prom date …or even a solely consumer phenomenon.  In fact, today’s businesspeople are never without their mobile devices …because [Read more...]

For awhile now – maybe since eMagine’s founding, along with the Web’s – I’ve noticed a trend among some in this industry to be obsessed with The Latest (bright & shiny) New Thing.  In the past, you pretty much had to go to conferences or read journals to hear their pontifications;  but since the rise of blogging and social networks, there’s no escape… it’s everywhere you turn.

It’s almost like there is a small coterie of folks – sadly, mostly consultants, no doubt very bright indeed – who feel that their careers are best advanced by uncritically pointing out and hyping The Latest (bright & shiny) New Thing, regardless of whether or not it has demonstrated any redeeming social or business value.  I really don’t want to use the term “snake-oil peddlers”, but… [Read more...]