The Best Infographics on Lead generation

Lead generation is one of the major stake that are facing B2B marketers. It is the first step of the customer buying cycle that its ultimate goal is to close the sale and generate revenues.
With the increase of social media uses, the development of new channels, and the explosion of content marketing and inbound marketing strategies, the process of finding leads has evolved. Here are some good infographics that explain what is lead generation and how it works.

Interesting statistics about B2B Social media marketing

Sometimes, the benefits of social media strategies for B2B companies do not seem so obvious. There is a persistent cliché that social media is for B2C companies and not for B2B. Even if in some cases, this statement is true, B2B marketers are far more concerned and involved in social media strategies than B2C marketers.
This video, even if it is a bit dated (2010) demonstrates why B2B companies have an interest to be on social media.


Elements that worth to be reminded:
 - 81% of B2B companies maintain an account on social media websites. 75% participate in microblogging. For B2C companies, those figures fall respectively to 67% and 49%.
 - 93% of B2B buyers think companies should have a social media presence and 85% want this interact directly.
 - 70% of purchases are done with an established vendors or depend to the word of mouth recommendations. B2B professionals are known to talk with their peers. 48% of the buyers participate or follow industry conversations and 59% seek reviews from peers. Finally, 37% of B2B buyers ask questions on social media websites.
 - The B2B buying process is changing: buyers use search to start the process. Therefore, it is critical to be present on social media, even if the ROI is not easily calculable. 

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What is strategy? by Michael Porter

Strategy is a term that is easy to understand. However, some people are still confusing strategy, tactic and goal.

This video of Michael Porter clarifies the situation and is a must see for anyone aiming to succeed in business. Enjoy!

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Is Instagram useful for B2B marketing?

Recently, Marketo has published this infographic about how to use Instagram in a B2B marketing campaign:

A few month ago, I was really sceptical about the interest that this platform could represent for B2B marketing, because I was only see from the "lead generation" generation point of niew, which is the one of the main reason why a B2B company would consider by going social (for more information, just check my previous article on this subject).

However, after having read this infographic, I now recognize that Instagram is powerful to connect people and brands emotionally. When the main advantage for a B2B company using a social network like Facebook is according to me, to be closer to people, Instagram is a powerful tool to convey brand values and philosophy in a different manner. 

However, B2B companies are not as big as Oracle, Cisco, SAP and so on. I recognize that for huge and global firms admired by tons of people, Instagram is a good gadget for them to show another face. For classic B2B companies, which are often niche specialists with a limited number of customers and are unknown by the majority of the people, Instagram is just uninteresting. And I think it is the same conclusion for Pinterest. There are some articles published on the web that try to demonstrate the benefits for a B2B company to be on this media, but I don't see the point. 

According to me, going to such platforms without having enough information about what the real ROI they could have is yielding to the novelty.

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