64 B 2 B Tools

When I started 2008, I started the year with a brand new laptop computer and a new way to managing my "stuff".

I decided to move more of my stuff to the on-line world and rely less and less on storing "stuff" on my computer. And with the advances in technology and security, it has been a very good move. You can click here for a page that lists and links some of the tools I use.

One word of caution though, as we see an economic slow down, some of the tech start ups will not be able to survive. Likewise, some of the giants will also crumble, so keep an eye out for these events so that you are not without your "stuff" if something happens to the company you are using.

Now, I have a list of 64 Business to Business Tools that you may find helpful. This list was complied by the folks at Marketo and comes from their blog, which I subscribe to, and you can too. Click on the underlined headings to get the goodies:

There is an amazing amount of great content about B2B marketing out there, ranging from trends in demand generation to best practices in lead nurturing, lead scoring, and landing page optimization to how to buy and select marketing automation systems.

To help you find the good stuff, we recently put together a new site with B2B marketing tools and resources that collects a whopping 64 eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, podcasts and blog posts to help you learn all these best practices and more. Many of these are authored by the team at Marketo, but certainly not all of them. As always, if you have an additional tool or resource you'd like to share, please let me know.

Seven Lead Nurturing Tools and Resources

Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with qualified prospects regardless of their timing to buy. Over 50% of leads are not yet sales ready, so nurturing those leads rather than throwing them away can help you maximize results. These blog posts, whitepapers, and podcasts can show you how to do it right.

1. Best Practices for Lead Nurturing — Blind Date to White Wedding (white paper)
2. Lead Nurturing 101 (blog post)
3. Lead Nurturing — Keeping your Prospects Engaged (MarketingSherpa podcast)
4. Lead Nurturing: Triggered Emails, Newsletters and Webinars (blog post)
5. How To Use Thought Leadership To Build Brands and Nurture Leads (blog post)
6. Lead Nurturing With Brian Carroll (blog post)
7. The YouTube Approach to Lead Nurturing (blog post)

Four Lead Scoring Tools and Resources

By tracking your prospect's behaviors and web activity, you can determine their level of interest in your solution (engagement) in addition to your interest in them (demographics targeting). Only by combining both factors can you send truly qualified leads to sales. Download these resources to learn why lead scoring matters and how to do it right.

1. Best Practices in Lead Scoring — Are They Hot or Not? (white paper)
2. Lead Scoring Best Practices (Buzz Marketing for Technology podcast)
3. Improving Lead Quality Can Improve Sales Productivity (blog post)
4. Measure Relationship Depth (blog post)

Nine Demand Generation Tools and Resources

Demand generation is the evolution of traditional lead generation. Unlike traditional programs that throw any lead over the wall to sales, demand generation is about qualifying and prioritizing prospects, nurturing a steady crop of qualified leads that want to engage with sales, coordinating ongoing activities with sales, and measuring and optimizing the results over time. These tools and resources will help you research demand generation and learn the latest best practices.

1. Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems (analyst report)
2. Supercharge Your Demand Generation with Personalization (Marketo on-demand webinar)
3. Demand Generation Quiz — How Good Are You? (blog post)
4. 7 Tips For Practical B-to-B Lead Generation (MarketingSherpa on-demand webinar)
5. 8 Ways The Internet Changed Software Marketing (blog post)
6. Insights for Marketing High Tech to Businesses (MarketingSherpa on-demand webinar)
7. Practical B2B Lead Generation (podcast with MarketingSherpa)
8. Using White Papers to Generate and Nurture B2B Leads (podcast with Michael Stelzner)
9. Top 5 Challenges for B2B Demand Generation Marketers (blog post)

Five Lead Management Tools and Resources

Lead management covers the entire process of modern sales lead generation, including acquiring new leads, scoring leads so you know who's ready for sales, nurturing the leads that aren't yet ready, passing leads to sales at the right time, and measuring and optimizing the process over time. These tools will help you get started improving your own lead management capabilities.

1. Optimizing Marketing and Sales Lead Management with Marketing Automation (workbook from the analysts at IDC)
2. Ten Tips for Best Practice Lead Management (eBook)
3. How Acteva and IDology Achieved Significant Results with Lead Management (on-demand case study webinar)
4. How Vindicia went from Zero to Lead Management Hero in One Day (on-demand case study webinar)
5. Lead Management Will Never Be The Same Again (blog post)

Six Landing Pages Tools and Resources

Relevant and optimized landing pages generate higher conversion rates, meaning you get more leads whenever someone clicks your ads or emails. Getting them performing at their best is one of the quickest ways you can improve your B2B marketing results. Download these best practices to get practical tips for optimizing your landing pages. There's even a free online calculator to tell you how long it will take your landing page test to return valid results.

1. Building Effective Landing Pages (eBook)
2. Practical Tips to Raise your Landing Page Conversions (MarketingSherpa on-demand webinar)
3. Landing Page Testing Calculator — How many test versions can you have? How long will it take to get results? (online calculator)
4. Landing Page Testing: How Much Is Too Much? (blog post)
5. Ten Tips for Lead Generation Landing Pages (TopRank blog post)
6. Two Practical Landing Page Tips That Will Save You Money (blog post)

Eight Marketing Automation Tools and Resources

Marketing automation tools help increase operational efficiency, drive revenue, and demonstrate marketing's impact on revenue. Since the space is changing and evolving so rapidly, it can be hard to know what features you need to look for and what other factors you need to consider. These tools and resources can help you understand the marketing automation space and learn how to make the right decision.

1. 5 Questions to Ask Before Buying Marketing Automation (white paper)
2. The Big Easy Guidebook to Marketing Automation (eBook)
3. Marketing Automation Glossary of Terms (analyst report)
4. Marketing Automation Market Trends 2008 (analyst report)
5. Marketing's World of Hurt: How Marketing Automation Mistakes Prevent Organizations from Measuring Up (analyst report)
6. Buying and Using Marketing Automation Systems (podcast)
7. Three Strikes and You're Out: Why Marketing Automation Failed the First Time, and Why This Time Is Different (whitepaper)
8. Why Invest in Marketing Automation (blog post)

Six Email Marketing Tools and Resources

Because of the complex sales cycles, B2B companies have unique email marketing needs that are not served by most email service providers. Get these best practices, webinars, and podcasts to learn how to optimize email campaigns and maximize email deliverability.

1. 20 Quick Tips for Improving Your Email Programs (StrongMail white paper)
2. Optimizing your Email Marketing Lead Nurturing Programs (eBook)
3. Email Marketing for Lead Generation (MarketingSherpa on-demand webinar)
4. Mastering Your Email Reputation: Seven Strategies for Improving Deliverability (StrongMail white paper)
5. How to Drive Revenue by Improving E-mail Deliverability (eWeek article)
6. Email Measurement: Opens or Clicks? (MarketingSherpa podcast)

Eleven Marketing ROI and Marketing Budget Tools and Resources

Marketers are under growing pressure to measure ROI and demonstrate their impact on revenue. Among other things, this makes it difficult to set and justify your B2B marketing budget. Download these tools and resources to learn how to increase marketing accountability, justify your marketing budget, and demonstrate marketing's impact on revenue.

1. Trends, Forecasts, Benchmarks — Key Metrics from IDC's CMO Advisory Practice (IDC on-demand webinar)
2. Earn a Seat at the Revenue Table — Why Marketing Needs to Be As Accountable for Revenue as Sales (blog post)
3. Marketing Performance Measurement: Areas Where Marketers Want to Improve (analyst report)
4. Selling your Marketing Budget to your CFO (benchmarks and white paper)
5. 7 Strategies for B2B Marketing during a Recession: The Definitive Guide (blog post)
6. The Five Stages of Marketing Accountability (blog post)
7. Building Power and Respect through Marketing Accountability (podcast)
8. Better Marketing Accountability without Better Performance Won’t Improve Job Security (blog post)
9. Proving Marketing’s Value: Tangible Tools and Metrics for the 21st Century (podcast)
10. Are You a CMO or a VP of Marketing? (blog post)
11. So You Want to Survey Business Executives? Executives Speak Out on What Works to Gain Their Participation (analyst report)

Six Sales and Marketing Alignment Tools and Resources

The disconnect between marketing and sales departments is the largest opportunity for improving business performance today. When marketing and sales teams align around a single revenue cycle, they can create dramatic improvements in marketing ROI, sales productivity, and most importantly top-line growth.

1. Coordinating Marketing and Sales across the Entire Revenue Cycle (IDC Analyst Connection)
2. Ten Easy Ways to Close Deals Faster: The Salesperson’s Guide to Aligning Marketing and Sales (white paper)
3. The Revenue Cycle: A New Model for Explosive Revenue Growth (blog post)
4. Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus (Buzz Marketing for Technology podcast)
5. Sales is from Mars, Marketing is from Venus — The Sales Perspective (Buzz Marketing for Technology podcast)
6. Ten Tips for Marketing and Sales Alignment (eBook from The B2B Lead)

Two Social Media Marketing Tools and Resources

Social media is one of the biggest forces driving change in B2B marketing today. Download these podcasts to learn how to use video and Web 2.0 tactics to boost B2B marketing results.

1. Using Digital, Web 2.0 Tactics To Boost B2B Marketing Results (podcast with Laura Ramos, Forrester Research)
2. Viral Video: Spark the Imagination (podcast with MarketingSherpa)

Do you find these tools helpful? Do you disagree with anything? Please share your comments, tips, and links to make this resource as useful as possible.

Sphere: Related Content