Great way to put all this into perspective; I like a good graphic when I can get one!
Would you put vendor-sponsored events or "Lunch'n'Learn" kinds of F2F events in the same ring as webinars or would they fall somewhere closer to the center?
Paul:
Great question. That kind of depends on how the lunch n' learn is set up (e.g. house list vs. rented list for the invites, thought leadership content vs. more "salesy," etc.) but I'd probably put it near banner ads and email marketing. High cost per lead, mix of lead gen (and/or lead nurturing) and branding value.
Hi Tom,
Great visual of how to look at B2B marketing. I do have the following comments:
1) Webinars - while sponsored webinars may be an outer ring due to cost, companies are creating and holding webinars themselves. For this content, I do think that it can be part of the inner ring akin to white paper syndication. You can conduct email marketing to drive people to the webinar and with services like our Insight24 network, you can also do guaranteed lead programs.
2) Tradeshow exhibiting: Unlike Paul's question, exhibiting has a low barrier for entry while requiring significant investment in staff time. I think that this can fall just below a webinar sponsorship in terms of a B2B marketing plan.
3) Tradeshow sponsorship: I did this separately due to the higher cost of securing these opportunities and I do agree that this belongs in the outer ring.
4) Virtual shows: I think this may add a new wrinkle to your circle. Most commonly applied to virtual conferences or tradeshows, the typical participation levels are exhibiting, sponsorship and webinar. Since this has a mix of lead generation and brand extension, this may be relegated to an outer ring as well.
What do you think?
Cece
All great points Cece. I purposely left tradeshows off my list as they aren't "web marketing" (yeah I know, print ads aren't either, but they do sometimes have a print-to-web component or digital edition so I included that).
I'd put webinars in the same bucket as white papers - as an incentive for response. I have a separate post planned on that soon - I was going to combine it with this one but it got too long.
Virtual shows are going to be very interesting (I'm counting on you to keep me up to speed on how adoption spreads!). I agree, that's an outer-ring of the circle activity.
Tom--Cool bulls-eye graphic!
I'd add directory-listings to the list, however. Probably at level 5 with Banner advertising.
(Incidentally, I don't do banners, but do directories...it may vary depending on industry and product.)
Dave -
Good point, though I'd include most directory listings as part of SEO -- in the bulls-eye. Paid directory listings are probably around level 5.
Nice Post. Thanks for sharing this information with us.
Great post Tom, big thumbs up on StumbleUpon. I really like how the plan works for both small and large companies, and that they can 'grow into it' as they mature and budgets increase. So often web marketing is daunting for small to mid-size companies as they try to do everything at once instead of starting with the 'inner core' tactics, testing, evaluating results, optimizing, and then move on once the foundation is solid.
Kim -
Thanks for the positive feedback. My clients range from small to reasonably large, so I've found the model helpful.
Love the Marcom Ink blog, too. Great stuff.
Great chart: a picture paints a thousand words.
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