This article from BtoB magazine is certainly good news for PR and marketing firms (ahem!). But what’s really interesting to me is in the last paragraph –which I’ve bolded – and that’s what the budget will be spent on. Who’d have thunk it? No mention of search, social media or lead nurturing.

Gartner: Nearly half of IT, telecom companies plan to boost marketing spending
by Kate Maddox
Story posted: April 22, 2010 – 12:40 pm EDT

Stamford, Conn.—A survey by Gartner found that 44% of high-tech and telecommunications companies plan to increase their marketing budgets this year.

The report was based on an online survey of 206 global high-tech and telecommunications providers conducted in December.

Forty-one percent of executives surveyed said they would keep marketing budgets flat this year, while only 15% said they plan to decrease them.

Among those companies planning marketing budget increases this year, 30% expect to boost budgets between 1% and 15%, and 13% of respondents plan budget increases of between 16% and 30%.

When asked how they will allocate their marketing budgets this year, 22% of respondents said events will receive the highest portion of spending, followed by advertising (16%) and direct mail (11%).

via Gartner: Nearly half of IT, telecom companies plan to boost marketing spending :: BtoB Magazine.

An interesting article ran this week from eMarketer about a recent Silverpop survey (a solid Atlanta based marketing technology company). We are glad to see the discussion is moving away from “what is the best day to send emails” to questions that truly drive BtoB prospects through the sales funnel.

The idea of “gathering recipient information” is key for most BtoB marketers. While some like David Meerman Scott have challenged those ideas, and with reasonable arguments, it remains to be seen which school of thought is correct in the BtoB marketing world — maybe both!

Regardless, good info…take a read and let us know what you think.

B2B and B2C E-Mail Tactics

I recently attended a Hubspot webinar entitled “The Science of Retweets” that shed some light on a handful of factors that comprise a retweetable tweet (try saying that five time fast).

Some of the tips promised to help your retweetability rate included:

• Incorporate a link (preferably a bit.ly, which provides tracking and analytic capabilities)
• Politely ask to be retweeted
• Limit your tweets to around 115-120 characters
• Share interesting and compelling content

One of the more interesting tidbits of information shared in the webinar came in the form of a “Top 20 Most Retweetable Words” list. I know, try and contain your excitement. As most serious Twitterer’s know, a retweet (often denoted by an “RT”) is the sincerest form of flattery on the popular social media network.

However, getting retweeted also significantly increases your visibility, syndicating your tweet across a slew of various networks that you may never had access to before. So, without any further ado, here are the 20 Most Retweetable Words:

1) You 2) Twitter 3) Please 4) Retweet 5) Post 6) Blog 7) Social 8) Free 9) Media 10) Help 11) Please Retweet 12) Great 13) Social Media 14) 10 15) Follow 16) How to 17) Top 18) Blog post 19) Check out 20) New blog post

Happy Tweeting and Good Luck!