As an advertising and marketing executive, I have difficulty finding time for continuing education. However, the proposed topics of the BtoB’s Leading Edge: Demand Generation in the Digital Age online virtual conference motivated me to make time to attend.

This webinar had five tracks. Below is a summary of the key learnings and my personal review of each track.

Track 1: Social Communities and the Future of B-to-B Marketing

Patrick Crane, Vice President of Marketing, LinkedIn

• There are professional social networks and networks geared toward fun and entertainment. As you think about participating in a social network for professional purposes, consider the intentions of its community members. Both Xing and LinkedIn have a professional intent, whereas websites like MySpace and Facebook are more for socialization purposes.
• If you are an HR director or a job seeker, LinkedIn is tailored to fit your needs.

Review: Although not relevant to B2B or B2C lead generation, this track did open my eyes to how LinkedIn is emerging as the most important professional networking site for those seeking traditional employment or contract/consulting work. LinkedIn is also becoming a go-to resource for HR professionals.

Track 2: B-to-B Offer Strategies That Keep Your Sales Pipeline Filled with Qualified Leads

Russell Kern, President, The Kern Organization

• Your offer is the key driver for e-mail campaigns.
• When it comes to B-to-B demand generation, 13% of leads buy in the first 90 days. The other 87% buy within 91 days to 2 years.
• For B-to-B transactions, approximately 6–21 people are involved in purchasing decisions.
• In today’s economy, buyers do not want to talk to salespeople. Rather, they go to trusted advisors. Therefore, you should focus your time and energy networking with consultants and top advisors.
• Try to position yourself as a trusted advisor. 70% of B-to-B deals go to companies that are positioned as trusted advisors.
• B2B buyers are afraid to make mistakes, so they take a longer time than B-to-C buyers to make a purchase decision and have a longer sales cycle.
• When setting up an offer, the call-to-action needs to spark motivation in customers to engage.
• A compelling offer is
  • Valuable
  • Exclusive
  • Tangible
  • Relevant
  • Easy to deliver
  • Engaging/entertaining to the client
• Make offers simple.
• The title of the offer affects consumer response by 35%. Free information is the most powerful offer, and items like free brochures, whitepapers, DVDs, etc., outperform all other offers.
• The biggest snafu on offers for e-campaigns is not having the right offer for the proper sales cycle stage. If a sales cycle stage is more than 30 days and you have a plan of 20 touches, try to consolidate over six months instead of one year.

Review: I found the last tip to be the most insightful and relevant because it described the psychology of delivering compelling call-to-action offers.

Track 3: Lead Scoring: The Foundation of World-Class Lead-Management Programs

Loren McDonald, Vice President of Industry Relations, Silverpop Engage B2B

• 70% of leads generation during an e-campaign are considered to be long-term sales cycle (3–18 months). The other 30% consist of: 10–12% short-term buyers, 15–20% not qualified, mystery shoppers, or freebie-seekers
• Today, the biggest gap in CRM is failure to provide a lead-scoring mechanism.
• As marketers, we need to be lead-developers who score and route leads.
• Every sales and marketing organization should meet and collaborate to create a lead-scoring mechanism.
• Factors to consider and evaluate a grade to a lead include:
  • Time-frame for buying
  • Ability to make a decision
  • Purchasing power
  • Profile and demographic information
• Without lead scoring, you compromise your sales team’s ability to prioritize follow-ups based on highest probability to buy.

Review: Currently I am assessing the design of a lead-scoring mechanism into our CRM, so I found this information meaningful and right on target. The presentation was objective and insightful.

Track 4: Following the Leads: Identifying and Targeting Small Business Prospects

Denise Hopkins, Vice President of Marketing & Product Development, Experian Marketing Services

• We still require multiple channels to reach small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) as prospects. E-mail and search are the top tools Experian utilizes.
• Experian has developed profile information and provides specific messages and tones for each profile, expecting that some categories will perform better than others.

Review: When considering marketing to SMBs, look up the Experian profile categories, and the deck will suggest the tone and message to use toward your target.

Track 5: Lead Generation, the Cisco Way

Jere King, VP Field Marketing, Cisco

• Jere reiterated that when you start developing a campaign, you must know who you are marketing to. Then, position yourself accordingly.

Review: This specific track was pre-recorded and staged. This was the model for relentless self-promotion. The thirty minutes focused on sharing four video commercials that they thought were well done and represented the concept of understanding and knowing your customer.

Top Ten Takeaways

Thanks go to fellow attendee, Maria Pergolino, who organized a list of the top ten tips from the webinar.

1. Website visitors need clear directions on what to do when they arrive at your website.
2. You can do a lot even with a small budget.
3. Social media is not going away and needs to be embraced by ALL marketers.
4. Direct mail may not be dead.
5. Offers need to be relevant AND appropriate for the prospect’s place in the buying cycle.
6. Testing can allow you to enter a new market with little risk.
7. Incentives can work really well.
8. It’s okay if people who will never buy your product consume your content.
9. An event doesn’t need to have to trend on Twitter to be great.
10. Demand generation is just a piece of the entire Marketing puzzle.

Overall Review

The webinar started with 5,000 registrations and 1,200 participants. By the final track, 650 people were still watching. I walked out with great insights from three of the five tracks, which made it worth my while. From a technology standpoint, the team that organized the event and logistics did an amazing job, with an interactive flash website that enabled you to feel like you were at a virtual trade show. See the Attendee Guide (PDF) for a complete rundown of the website’s features.

Instead of walking away with a bag of koozies, pens and pencils, I was able to download about 20 presentations and whitepapers that I can read at my leisure and share with my team. These supplementary materials will serve as “IV drips” of continuing education.

A Final Word on Webinars as Continuing Ed for Marketing Professionals

Webinars can be a truly great avenue for continuing education, but my advice is to always read the subject and curriculum a couple of times before attending. Make sure the information is relevant to the knowledge you are seeking. Furthermore, if your time is especially valuable, consider searching for reviews and ratings on the speakers and the companies speaking.