The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them
Download this free e-book now: The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes . . . and How to Avoid Them, a Crowdsourced E-book compiled by Dianna Huff
My colleague, Mac McIntosh, and I asked our respective networks to send us the top ten B2B marketing mistakes they see other marketers making. From email to social media, people expressed their opinions — and often quite passionately.
The Top Three Mistakes?
1. No marketing strategy
2. Website not optimized
3. Wasting lead opportunities
Are the results surprising? Yes and no. You can find reams of blog posts, reports, articles, etc. full of how-to-do-it-right information. Yet, despite all of this information, you can still find many B2B Websites that aren’t optimized and companies that throw their unqualified “leads” at sales.
The remaining seven mistakes include:
4. Wrong messaging
5. No offer
6. Not testing
7. Jargon
8. Not paying attention to details
9. Not taking advantage of how people process information
10. Not marketing the Website
I included a description of each mistake as well as information from top marketers on how to avoid each one. And since it’s a crowdsourced e-book, you’ll find many of the survey responses on each page. It was a fun book to compile and write — I hope you enjoy it. If you like it, please be sure to tell your social network about it.
Thank you to following contributors who filled out the survey or sent in email:
Ardath Albee
Bob Bly
C. Edward Brice
Katie Brown
Meghan Carmody
Kirstie Colledge
Sarah Farrer
Ed Gandia
Mark Gibson
Matt Heinz
Anne Holland
Adam Jacobson
Russell M. Kern
Rob Leavitt
Michele Linn
Jim Loadholt
Kim Cornwall Malseed
Barry D. Martin
Mac McIntosh
Raymond Ng
Mike Ortner
Ken Poray
John Rasco
Erica K. Rice
Geraldine Roy
Steven Sessions
Mark Schaefer
David Meerman Scott
Altaf Shaikh
Jim Somers
Kate Spiers
Jeremy Victor
Kurt Weisenberger
Ralf Weiser
Edited to add:
No stock photography was used in the development of this e-book (Mistake #8). The people you see are actual contributors. I originally wanted to use an image of a “crowd” on each page, but didn’t want to use a stock photograph. The designer tried to custom make one out of people’s Twitter photos, but they were too low res.
I tried connecting the mistakes with each contributor, but that was becoming time-consuming and not everyone sent me a photo. So, the designer and I made the executive decision to post pictures of contributors through out to illustrate that “real people” were used in the making of the e-book (i.e. “crowdsourced”).
If someone was quoted on particular page, he or she is placed on that page — i.e. Ardath Albee or Michele Linn. The result may seem confusing — as someone just emailed me said, “Who are these people?” But I believe it’s a small trade-off for pictures of real people. What do you think?
The e-book was designed by Sonora DesignWorks (for those of you who want to know).
About the author: Dianna Huff
A B2B web marketing expert, Dianna helps B2B companies grow through SEO, marketing writing, and social media. A frequent speaker, Dianna has been quoted in numerous blogs, books, and articles; her client list includes large and small B2B companies across the U.S. Follow her on Twitter @diannahuff. To receive her e-course on creating great B2B marketing content, subscribe to her newsletter, The MarCom Strategist.
December 21st, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Terrific eBook!
Bravo.
Looks great too.
December 21st, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Great eBook, Dianna! Your wonderful personality comes shining through, as always. Love that the eBook is packed full of practical advice. And was glad (but not surprised) to see that you included the wisdom of Michele Linn, one of my Savvy B2B Marketing sisters.You can be sure I’ll Tweet about this!
December 21st, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Doug — Thank you!
December 21st, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Stephanie — Thank you! I’m glad you like it. And thanks for the RT.
December 21st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Dianna,
Loved the eBook! It’s a quick read and a great roadmap for tactics to both avoid and incorporate. The conversational tone was great. It was as if we were sitting and chatting about what you found out.
I also loved that you used pictures of real people. I recognized many of the faces (although not all) and thought they were a better addition than stock photography. You never recognize stock faces (except to think you saw it lots of other places) so I liked seeing faces I knew, even if they were mixed in with others that I didn’t.
Kristina
December 21st, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Kristina — Thanks a bunch for the feedback. I’m really glad you enjoyed the book and that you like the “real people” photographs. I like them too.
December 21st, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Wow, great work Dianna! This document is brimming with great info. Thanks for letting me contribute a couple of ideas.
December 22nd, 2010 at 1:40 am
Ed, No, thank you!
December 22nd, 2010 at 5:28 pm
[...] just downloaded and read Diana Huff’s new E-book, The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes – And How To Avoid Them. It’s a free E-book chocked full of real-world examples of B2B marketing mistakes (and how to [...]
December 22nd, 2010 at 5:33 pm
Hi Dianna. Great E-book. I wrote a quick blog post promoting it and the idea of what you’ve done. Congrats.
December 22nd, 2010 at 10:27 pm
Greg — Awesome post! Thank you!
December 23rd, 2010 at 7:23 pm
[...] The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them by @diannahuff A great crowdsourced ebook compiled by Dianna Huff. It came from a simple question asked on Twitter. “What are the top B2B marketing mistakes you see other marketers make?” This book has the answers…as well as some good solutions. [...]
March 15th, 2011 at 12:51 am
[...] The Top 10 B2B Marketing Mistakes – And How to Avoid Them | DH Communications. [...]
April 20th, 2011 at 12:20 pm
[...] for branding your business, it is important that B2B businesses understand the hard realities of how social media networks operate and be patient to see results. What do you think? Share this with your network: This [...]
July 7th, 2011 at 3:58 am
I’ve noticed that a lot of people who I start working with don’t have a consumption and follow up strategy. Everything they do is dependent upon new sales, not considering the goldmine of opportunity being missed in repeat sales and referrals.