Our first B2B Marketing Symposium for corporate B2B Marketers, has officially launched! Our first event is July 15th 2010, and you can access an invite from the link below. You can hear senior marketers from Google, Salesforce.com, Sterling Commerce and the Carbon Trust discuss their experiences, best practices and case studies around B2B marketing.

If you are a client side B2B Marketer, then this event will be invaluable (although of course I may be a little biased!). the symposium is designed to provide valuable resources such as Case Studies, Best Practice and guidance on how to run effective B2B marketing programmes.

Invite copy located here….

The microsite is under construction as we speak – so watch this space!

B2B Marketing · Events · Google · Ice Blue Sky · marketers · Salesforce.com; Carbon trust · Sterling Commerce

What makes an effective cross channel campaign?

Integrated lead generation – sounds good? Practical tips below to help integrate digital into your campaigns, feel free to add your own!

1. Create a URL for your campaign, or use your standard one – and make sure you include it prominently in all your collateral (Ads, Emails, etc). The more memorable the URL the better (think short and sweet) – even if it’s a masked URL that goes to your standard site – you should see hit rates increase.

2. Find a term or keyword that relates to your campaign that can be optimised on Google. Include in your outreach (i.e. Google “IceBlueSky” – try this one to see what happens) to drive traffic to your site – this will also help your Google rankings

3. Include unique URL’s in campaign content so that you can track responses from each channel

4. Use your website as more than an information source – create a “learnings” element to your website to encourage people to visit. This needs to be relevant to your campaigns but can be highly effective when done well

5. Link your different channels with a series of activities – create a natural journey between channels and activities so that target contacts come into contact with all of them. Create a story and strengthen the emotional engagement.

6. Make sure your look and feel is consistent – sounds obvious but you’d be surprised how often this is sacrificed for “looking cool and creative”! You can still create a strong and effective individual identity whilst retaining common look and feel.

7. Use channels that are appropriate – Facebook is typically NOT appropriate for B2B – LinkedIn and Twitter work well for B2B, but make sure you have a proper strategy in place – and adjust internal expectations accordingly in terms of return. There are plenty of tools around that can help you leverage these channels without risking sacrificing your brand’s reputation. Keep personal and business social media firmly segregated.

B2B Marketing · Campaign Management · Cross Channel · Digital Marketing · Ice Blue Sky · Lead Generation · Personalised URL