Hot Trends in Business to Business Marketing

The DIY Marketing Trends is a hot hot hot topic these days -- in fact, if you want to make sure that you're on top of what's going on in the world of DIY Marketing, it would make sense to take a look at what trends are driving business-to-business marketing overall.

In full self-disclosure, this list comes from a series of conversations that I'm following over at www.Focus.com. a wonderful community of small business experts who ask and answer small business questions.

The first question I'm going to summarize is about what topics will be hot on the marketing blogosphere.  When I looked at the answers, I realized that these topics were really broader trends that will affect the world of Market Research.  Also notice how these question and answer formats are basically research in and of themselves that can be analyzed as "social media chatter." If you want to learn more -- you'd better register for Wednesday's Webinar NOW.

Trend: In Bound Marketing: If you're not familiar with the term, it means using marketing strategies and methods that attract your ideal customer to your web site and get them to register or purchase what you are offering.    Pushing your marketing message with an obvious in-your-face-advertising campaign isn't very popular these days.  Consumers are savvy searchers and only want to receive information from companies and products that they are interested in.

Research Tip: Get to Know Your Ideal Customer Put your research focus on getting to know your respondents and providing them with the information that will help them get educated on how to choose .  Make sure that the "Why they should choose YOU" is highly linked to what your ideal customer values.

Trend: Right Place Right Time.  As if profiling wasn't enough - you've got to hit the right person at exactly the time when they are most likely to be open to what you're offering.  This is the equivalent of becoming a genie in a bottle hanging off your customers' key chain.  The company, product, person or offer that is THERE in front of them at the exact time that they are ready to purchase will get the sale.

Research Tip: Find out what triggers your customer's need for your product. A really great way to do this is to interview your ideal customers and get to the root of what events got them to start searching for your product, how they got choose you and why they choose you.  Once you have that profile set - you can easily put together a survey instrument that takes a snapshot of your target market and identifies those people who are experiencing the trigger event that signals the need for your product.

Trend: Word of Mouth Marketing Evolves. Word of mouth marketing is how busy buyers weed through the myriad options that they are bombarded with daily.  It takes too long to evaluate hundreds of products via the web.  It might just be easier to ask your LinkedIn group or Focus.com expert communities what they would recommend.

Market Research Tip: Provide Data. There is an opportunity for savvy market researchers to use their skills and resources to profile and research the communities that they know best.  Maybe you can do research on specific market segments and create a public data set (register for the  DIYMarketing Research Trends webinar to learn about this one)

These are just a few trends that smart people are chatting about.  I hope that you'll join us tomorrow at 9am Pacific and 12pm Eastern to learn about more DIY Marketing Research Trends