With more than 50 marketing and PR executives, the sixth annual Technology CMO Roundtable revealed best practices, learnings, questions and – most importantly – actionable insights. Attendees completed a survey about their marketing plans for 2013, and were asked, “How would you describe the process your organization uses to plan, execute and measure marketing and/or PR activities?”

The results were nearly split – 48 percent had a formal planning process in place while 45 percent follow an informal planning process. See the infographic below for more, and for all the results, download your free copy of The Outlook for Business-to-Business Technology in 2013.

The Wall Street Journal’s tech journalist, Walt Mossberg explains the thrill of writing about technology and how lucky he feels to be a journalist in this space. He describes the joy he gets out of writing about a new, innovative product/service that a small company or startup developed and the impact his pieces can have.

Although Mossberg mentions he has had the experience of writing about national security, international economics, the environment and energy — which he has enjoyed — he shares that he has chiefly loved being a tech writer. It has provided him the opportunity to meet people at companies large and small and introduce or explain their products/services to the world. For this, he touts, he feels lucky.

This video clip is from “Walt Mossberg: Live and Unplugged,” an event hosted by The MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta.

Here are the top 10 business-to-business PR and marketing articles from this week. Enjoy!

BtoB’s Outlook 2013: Marketers show robust optimism
from BtoB Magazine
Marketers plan to markedly increase spending this year and are as bullish as in 2011, according to a study by BtoB, which presented findings along with marketer reaction during a webcast Tuesday.

The Truth About Social Media
from Forbes.com
It’s about creating community, relationships and loyalty. So here’s a more realistic guide to social media, based on my own 11 years of blogging and nine years of working as a social media consultant.

Why Experts Think Twitter’s 6-Second Videos Could Be Huge
from WIRED
There’s big potential in Vine, say the two experts in online socialization we spoke to, but it’s unclear how, and how often, people will use the six-second video service.

How visual content is transforming social media
from PR Tactics
When communicating an idea, the perfect picture can make words obsolete. Images tell stories that even pages of text could never fully capture. Research shows that today’s world is infographic-obsessed and visually focused. If a picture really is worth a thousand words, as the old adage says, then we are saying more now than at any point in our history.

10 Steps for Small Businesses to Produce Killer Video Content
from Social Media Today
Video is a great addition to virtually any content mix. It’s highly engaging, a great way to humanize your brand, and can provide incredible value to your consumers, to list just a few benefits.

The Most Important Marketing Metrics
from B2B Marketing Insider by Michael Brenner
What marketing metrics do you use to run your business? Which metrics you chose to run your business and to report to your CEO is important because this will determine the size of your budget, the stability of your job and the influence your team will have on the strategy of the organization.

How to Avoid the 9 Pitfalls of Thought Leadership Marketing
from Business 2 Community
When done well, thought leadership marketing can elevate your brand, engage buyers at crucial stages in the sales cycle and help your company achieve a competitive advantage. But, if you’re an experienced marketer, you’ve probably been around long enough to see a thought leadership project go off the rails at least once. I certainly have.

8 Ways to Instantly Improve the Quality of Your Marketing Content
from HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
If you have a solid idea, and apply these additional measures before publishing, I think you’ll find readers impressed with the uptick in your content quality — and an uptick in traffic and leads should follow, too.

10 things you should know about social and tech this week
from Sarah’s Faves
Time for your FAVE recap and mine… It’s what’s hot in tech and social. If you read nothing else this week, this run down will keep your social and tech IQ above the rest. Rest easy, busy one, I’ve got your back.

Poll: Most PR Pros Wait One to Three Days to Call After an Email Pitch
from PR News
We’ve all seen enough romantic comedies to know that after a first date, there are plenty of conflicting opinions and theories about the follow-up phone call. For PR pros, when it comes to calling journalists after an initial pitch, we’ve also heard a range of tactics and strategies.

Earlier this year, International Data Corp. conducted its “2012 Buyer Experience Study,” in which the research firm polled nearly 200 BtoB technology buyers on the reasons why they buy. The survey asked respondents to rate how various information sources influence their technology purchase decisions. If the responses were to be summed up in a few words, they’d simply state that, “buyers need love too.”

Reach out and touch

Despite cuts in travel budgets and fewer mega industry conferences, respondents still prefer personal connections over technology touch points. In fact, respondents ranked in-person events, like trade shows and conferences, as the number one “influencer” in their buying decisions.

With this as a backdrop, it’s not surprising interactions with sales people and digital events, such as webinars and virtual trade shows, also ranked higher than less personal interactions such as social marketing and email.

By no means does this data indicate that online, traditional and social marketing are ineffective channels for reaching BtoB technology buyers. However, the findings do point to the importance of real, personal and ongoing engagement with prospects and customers.

While “closing the deal” is always the primary goal of any sales function, today’s marketers need to take a different approach to accomplishing this. Rather than focusing on one-off communications, today’s successful marketers are taking a buyer-centric approach that reaches prospects and customers early and often. This methodology helps organizations enhance the prospect/customer experience and, in turn, build long-term relationships that deliver more value and generate more revenue.

Time for “warm” calls

For many, the Stop Selling. Start Listening. method of reaching buyers is an extension of current marketing efforts, especially at organizations that strive to reach prospects and buyers with relevant and personalized messages throughout the buying cycle.

Other organizations may be surprised that this seemingly long-term approach actually simplifies the selling process by removing “impractical” prospects from the pipeline and making the conversations with potential buyers more meaningful. This virtually eliminates the cold call concept from sales efforts and makes the communication between organizations and their buyers easier and more worthwhile for both.

The lines were long – stretching for blocks and blocks in major cities from Singapore to San Francisco. In New York alone, several hundred people waited outside for hours for “their chance.” Oddly, I’m not writing about the latest round of auditions for American Idol or even a chance to meet the best American idol of our time – Justin Bieber.

No, the people standing, sleeping and sitting in lines for hours on hours were waiting to purchase the recently-released iPhone 5 which, according to reviews is thinner, lighter and even faster than the old, “so yesterday” iPhone 4.

Although this frenzy is slightly scary to me, (someone who admittedly has never owned, used or dreamed about an iPhone), I marvel at the PR buzz that Apple manages to generate with each product launch.

The iPhone 5 release was covered in almost every major news outlet from CNN to The Today Show. This coverage is even more impressive considering there’s a lot of real news going on in the world right now.

At least one public relations trade publication also was impressed by the Apple PR machine and decided to share some tips for building Apple-like awareness around product launches.

Of course, the tips, which originally appeared in a Vocus blog, may not work as well in the BtoB arena. However, just in case there are any lessons learned from the Apple way, then other public relations practitioners may want to take heed.

To read the full article from Ragan’s PR Daily headlined, How to create iPhone-style hype for your brand, click here.

While mobile marketing, in some basic forms, has been around for more than a decade, the speed at which the notable move to mobile is occurring has left many a BtoB marketer wondering how to tap this channel to reach customers and prospects. BtoB marketers must move past their procrastination and either create mobile marketing programs or look to expand existing ones that have not been central to marketing efforts.

Arketi Insights is a regular thought-leadership series of publications that examines top and emerging BtoB marketing topics, and what they mean for high-tech BtoB marketers. The first issue focuses on mobile marketing in the BtoB space.

Titled Time for Mobile Marketing to Go BtoB, this publication covers key considerations when looking to go mobile, such as:

• Approaching mobile as a long-term strategy,
• Mapping communication value with an audience-friendly cadence,
• Including calls-to-action that are mobile accessible, and
• Developing compelling mobile-ready video content.

Time for Mobile Marketing to Go BtoB is available for free download at www.arketi.com/2012mobileinsights.

To view a social media news release, visit here.

We’ve all read articles on marketing and client service comparing the cost of keeping an existing customer to the cost of acquiring a new one. Across almost every industry, new customers cost more than old ones – so customer satisfaction, as a means to retention, is “job one” for most businesses.

In recent years, the stakes have grown even higher as economic conditions and the growth of social media have given customer opinions more significance. In the “old days,” an oft-quoted rule of thumb was that a customer who has a good experience with a brand would tell two friends – while someone who had a bad experience would tell seven.

But today Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn make it easy for a customer to share a positive or negative brand story with hundreds or thousands of people as quickly as one can hit the submit button.

If customer retention is a goal, then customer advocacy – turning buyers into believers – is essential. Many consumer brands have long understood the role satisfied customers can play as advocates for their product. Smart BtoB marketers, increasingly, are turning happy customers into champions – in effect, empowering customers to serve as extensions of their marketing teams.

The Avenue to Advocacy
New techniques for measuring customer satisfaction, such as the Net Promoter Score, can help identify potential brand advocates or promoters. Many companies are using this approach to proactively encourage customers to become advocates. BtoB magazine recently cited one company that emails ‘promoter’ customers to ask them to write reviews of the company. Apparently, 36 percent of them say “yes,” with 22 percent of that group agreeing to share their reviews.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media outlets such as blogs, can also be used to identify happy customers who may be willing to promote your company.

If your company hasn’t rolled out a formal survey program such as Net Promoter Score, there are other ways to identify potential champions. For example, customer service teams can help connect marketing to customer advocates. If there is not an established connection between customer service and marketing, marketing should take the lead and build an interdepartmental approach for customer feedback.

The first step is to make sure there are easy channels in place by which customers can provide feedback – positive or otherwise. If it makes sense organizationally, marketing should be copied on customer feedback emails and comments. Alternatively, customer service can forward “kudos” emails so marketing can create a qualified customer list. Bear in mind it’s important to keep this “current” by making sure customers are still happy with your company before you approach them.

It’s important also to pay attention to customers who provide less-than-positive feedback or who feel they experienced inadequate support or service. At the very least, you’ll want to make sure issues are resolved to avoid unhappy customers turning into detractors. Even better, dissatisfied customers can become the most ardent champions if they see an honest and timely attempt to fix whatever was broken.

Happy Customer as Marketing Partner
In the BtoB arena, there are several ways to leverage happy customers as marketing champions. You’ll have to consider the customer’s availability and preferences to determine which tactics make sense.

One good approach is a webinar. Webinars remain an important vehicle for reaching prospects and sharing best practices and information. A happy customer can often provide more insightful, and more credible information to which the webinar audience can relate. Involving a customer also makes the webinar seem less “salesy” and more informational.

Happy customer stories also provide excellent and newsworthy fodder for press releases and case studies. Many publications will only cover your story or product if you can show demonstrable customer results. A customer who can discuss how they benefitted from your product is a more interesting and credible source than your own executives. Customers often relish the opportunity to speak at industry conferences. These events provide a venue for the customer to build their own thought leadership position and to network with their peers.

All of these tactics can incorporate social media elements by providing content for tweets or topics to “discuss” in a LinkedIn forum.

While securing customer advocates is crucial, the ultimate goal of customer retention is to form true partnerships. With that in mind, consider creating a customer advisory board – either for your entire company level, or for a specific product line or market. Advisory board members can provide “real deal” insight that can enhance the customer experience, improve customer retention – and expand your marketing team with an enthusiastic bunch of advocates.

Summer is the perfect time to celebrate our country’s independence and, for some of us, enjoy a family vacation at our favorite get-away spots. This summer, according to one recent survey, may also be a good time for us to take a vacation from our smartphones. See, it turns out that it isn’t really necessary to be connected 24-7.  Moreover, the constant checking on emails and texts may even be bad for personal relationships.

According to a study by Lookout, a mobile security company, 58 percent of U.S. smartphone owners check their phone at least once every hour, and 54 percent of study respondents said they check their phones while lying in bed before they go to sleep, or in the middle of the night.

The Lookout study also revealed that smartphones have negatively impacted users’ personal lives. Many respondents admitted they check their phones while sharing a meal with others. Even worse, (and far more dangerous), is the 24 percent of respondents who engage in risky behavior such as checking their phones while driving. Some of us can’t even detach when we attend our place of worship – with 10 percent of respondents checking their phones while participating in religious services.

On a recent trip out of the country, I turned off my smartphone for a whole week and didn’t turn it back on until I landed on the tarmac at Hartsfield-Jackson. (My desire to avoid exorbitant roaming charges far outweighed the need to be connected.) I suffered minor withdrawal symptoms – although the beach and pina coladas were wonderful replacements. But, much to my surprise, the world was still revolving and the news (good and bad) happened – without my up-to-the minute knowledge of it.

Once back, I reverted to my old habits of constantly checking emails and responding immediately to texts. But, the Lookout survey is a good reminder that unplugging from time to time is the only real smart choice. IJS

To read the full article, click here.

We all benefit from the wonders of technology. From being able to track a teenager’s whereabouts, (shh, don’t tell), to never missing an episode of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, (yeah, keep that a secret too); technology enables us to conduct our lives in real and meaningful ways. The problem is, the more technology we use, the more we become tethered to it. Moreover, the very tools that are designed to boost productivity often have the opposite result.

According to a recent article in the New York Times, written by a productivity consultant, these very tools are undermining our ability to get work done. The culprit: we have so many options that we are often in a state of inertia because we don’t know what tools to use.

For example, how often have you said, “I’m in so many meetings that I am never able to get my work done”? Or, the other busy person’s standard line, “There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done”?

If you resemble these statements, you may need to adopt a set of best practices or ways to make quick decisions, while staying focused.

According to the article, there are several sequential steps you can take to become more focused and, as a result, complete regular and even major tasks. Here are a few of them:

• Write it down. The article suggests that people jot down everything that has their attention, including work and personal tasks. This exercise helps people feel in control.
• Assign goals to each task. Decide what results you want to accomplish for each task and apply a two-minute rule — that any action that can be finished in two minutes should be done in the moment.
• Organize reminders of your remaining “to-dos,” including emails you need to send and follow up phone calls you need to make.

The article goes on to state that people should make everyday decisions on a more conscious level rather than reacting to the squeaky wheel. To read the full article, click here.

The growth of various forms of one and two-way communication, including text messaging and social media, is causing some to question the viability of email as an effective vehicle for marketing campaigns.

But reports of the death of email may have been greatly exaggerated – at least in the BtoB marketing arena. A recent article in BtoB Magazine states that email marketing is alive and well with open rates trending upwards. The article, which includes survey results from a study conducted by a marketing company and the Direct Marketing Association, states that email open rates increased by nearly 8 percent in Q3 2011 – a fairly significant jump in a mature market space.

The article also includes information from a second survey in which 60 percent of respondents stated they plan to increase email marketing budgets. In the same survey only 55 percent of respondents stated that they planned to boost social media marketing budgets.

Even with the increased popularity of email marketing campaigns, communications professionals need to know and exercise best practices to ensure campaigns are effective and successfully engaging with customers and prospects. To start, know your audience (preferably with specific industry data) and, moreover, the audience’s collective tolerance level for email. The mass move to mobile means many recipients are viewing emails on tablets and other devices and marketers need to keep this in mind when developing content and determining offers.

To see the complete BtoB article, headlined Email Trends: Spotlight on Strengths, Challenges, click here.