Four marketing trends that should END in 2012

If you're the kind of person that appreciates professional honesty, read on. If not, read on anyway because you might need to hear this. Most of the time we are a really friendly bunch around here and our clients are pretty awesome if you ask me. But, every once in a while there are things that just drive us crazy so I thought I would share a little inside info.

In this month's NurtureNotes, we give our Top 5 marketing trends to watch in 2012. But, we didn't have space for everything, so our editors cut out these four marketing trends I would love to see END in 2012.

1. Questions like, "What works?" (Translation: There must be one thing I can do for more sales – and I really only want to do/have the budget for this one thing – so what is it?)

Just like a physical trainer would tell you if you asked him what latest diet you follow or pill you should take to drop 50 pounds this month - there is no magic potion! Consistent, integrated, professional and PERSONAL marketing (to human beings) works. Yeah, it’s boring, unsexy and we’ve heard it before – but there’s a reason for that.

Make this the year you worry less about the latest fad and more about what’s proven. The answer to what works is what everyone knows and no one wants to hear – consistent, integrated touches that provide value and build a “relationship” with the prospect.

2. Shotgun Marketing (a/k/a: I need leads like yesterday, how fast can we get a campaign in market?)

Hmmm... so let’s get this straight. You have no pipeline, you haven’t done any consistent marketing (or any marketing for that matter) for quite awhile and your sales team is clamoring for leads. Shocking! If your answer is to buy a list and drop some emails – you are shotgun marketing. 

Consider that the average person is touched by about 2,000 messages per day. Add the fact that it can take 10-15 touches to get the attention of a contact in a B2B sale and you’ll see that the numbers just don’t add up. Save your dollars, take a step BACK and think about how many times you’ve been in this situation. You don’t need a campaign – you need a change in “behavior” and a marketing plan to back it up.  

3. Sales people, students, your cousin doing your marketing.

By all means you should bring all hands to deck to help with your marketing - but make sure the leader of the ship knows how to steer. Watching your budget? We get that. Use a consultant to build the plan and then use outsourced resources for specialized tasks (like writing and web design). Save the unskilled labor for the execution only.

4. A $5 million revenue goal with a $10,000 marketing budget.

We often find the lack of correlation between revenue goals and marketing budget starts with not knowing how to really measure marketing impact. You can offset your budget needs with lower cost activities such as social marketing but there’s no free ride: Lower cost activities can still require a much higher investment of time.

Although it varies by industry, B2B marketers should be spending 2-7% of their total revenue on marketing – not including marketing salaries. You may even need more than 7% depending on how strong (or weak) your foundation is such as your website, case studies, lists, etc.

On behalf of all the marketing professionals in the world, thanks for listening. Got your own marketing trends you want to see end in 2012? Sound off below!

Happy New Year to all

~ Barbara