Seth’s recent post titled “Senior Management” got me thinking about how experience can backfire when it gets us in a rut. As a “free agent,” I find myself on either side of the experience paradox, depending on the gig.

In the corporate marketing departments where I've worked, a bone of contention has been, "What's the Lead Source?" For any given suspect/prospect/lead/opportunity in the funnel, what or who gets credit for bringing it in?

The title of this blog post by Dianna Huff caught my attention: "DIY Marketing No Longer Cuts the Mustard." (DIY=do it yourself.) She makes a convincing case that the tools and techniques of marketing, like the computer-enhanced motors of cars, are no longer the domain of the shade tree mechanic. Read More

Every B2B marketer I talk to is on board with the concept of user personas to guide their web content strategy. Now our team is working with several clients to really drive this concept home, and apply personas more aggressively to the content they are creating. The results are paying off in content that truly speaks to the buyer.

I'm enjoying Steve Woods's post today on Digital Body Language, on the ways Marketing departments can and should be "doing" social media. Read More

I'm frequently approached by writers looking for work, and the first thing they want me to see is a sample of their writing. In ten seconds, I can tell whether a writer can put a decent paragraph together. But writing is only the first of many skills needed to produce content for an enterprise.

Two major events make a trend. Now that Yahoo has purchased Associated Content, in the wake of AOL launching Seed.com, it is official that the major Internet portals see big profits in the ads they can sell on pages of cheap content.

Marketing expert David Meerman Scott blogged last week about Boeing's new web site as a stellar example of brand journalism--a term he defines thus:

Brand Journalism is not a product pitch. It is not an advertorial. It is not an egotistical spewing of gobbledygook-laden corporate drivel.

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The toughest part of a B2B marketer's job? 73% say: doing more with less. A new survey from Genius.com and BtoB Magazine is quoted in MarketingProfs ("B2B Marketers Struggle with Changing Roles"). Read More

Have you ever been solicited by a company that you already do business with? It happens to me all the time. Don’t these companies know that I am already part of their value chain? So, why are they spamming and cold calling me? I feel like I am being taken for granted, and I look for an excuse to “escape” through the bottom of their sales funnel. Don’t let this happen to your customers by neglecting their content.