Integrated B2B Marketing on a Lean Budget

The message I took away from yesterday’s B2B Magazine Netmarketing Breakfast was that B2B marketers can still market effectively–even with flat or reduced budgets. It’s all about optimizing the marcom mix that you already have.

Most of the marketers in the room agreed that trying something new–even on a frugal budget–will be part of their 2009 marcom mix. And trying something new doesn’t necessarily mean spending a lot of money. In fact, the three marketers at yesterday’s meeting dug deeper into their marketing communications mixes to tap more value from existing marcom tools.

Melinda Snow Welsh, director of Internet Marketing for consulting firm, Towers Perrin, mined their existing knowledge vault and quickly pieced togeher a microsite to help execs deal with the financial crisis. Their quick and comprehensive marcom mix, which included podcasts, white papers, banner ads within their own site, web 2.0style discussion boards with their thought leaders among other marcom tactics, gave their website and brand a significant boost.

Greg Richards, director of Online Global Strategy for Pitney Bowes, says he’s being “ruthless” about the way marketing dollars are being spent, ensuring that his marketing projects have a charter that makes sense and more importantly have a good ROI. Richards says his plan optimizes resources that are already trying to do more with less.

Stephan Heeke, head of Interactive Marketing for Siemens Corp., is taking a closer look at the metrics when it comes to the website. He says that time spent on the website isn’t indicative of engagement. It could be frustration in finding what you’re looking for. So his team is looking for further insights from the metrics to ensure a positive user experience for web visitors.

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