I recently ran across some of my old text books from college while decorating my home office. Yes, I AM “that girl” who keeps her college textbooks—but only the ones from my marketing and advertising classes, I promise!

While reminiscing about the four “Ps,” the product life cycle, the consumer decision making process and other lessons I learned—I realized that while most of the marketing principles I learned in school remain true today—the world of marketing is evolving quickly before our eyes.

For one thing, consumers primarily use the Web to research products and services rather than relying on sales representatives for information. SEO and marketing automation software are invisible tools that help marketers track and predict behaviors of their customers and prospects. Brands are given faces and personalities with social media tools like Facebook and Twitter—I predict that in the next three years, having a company Facebook or Twitter page is going to be as expected as having a Web site.

As marketing professionals, it’s in our best interest to keep up with industry trends and continue our education. There are plenty of Webinars, luncheons and online tutorials happening everyday that are just as valuable as our dusty old textbooks.

What is the biggest marketing change you’ve seen during your career?

I’ve got to give it up to Steve Woods over at Eloqua. He just blogged about the definition of B2B marketing and had some excellent points.

Basically, he noted:

• B2B marketing has a longer sales cycle than B2C marketing
• Multiple decision-makers are involved
• There is a tremendous amount of information that needs to be exchanged
• Sales involvement is high

Sometimes marketers don’t always step back and take time to define and understand these key differences between B2B and B2C marketing and build their strategies with these distinctions in mind.

While I’m bowing down, I might as well point out that Eloqua put out what is, in my mind, the best Flash demo I’ve ever seen. Check it out when you have a few minutes. Really walks you through their marketing automation platform in a very entertaining and straightforward way and encourages some really intriguing interaction.

Do you have anything to add to his definition of B2B marketing? Do you agree or disagree with some of the comments that were posted? Really cool demo, huh?

On average, the cost of finding a new customer is five to six times more expensive than keeping a current one. So, what can a company do to ensure that their best customers stick around?

Create a customer loyalty program.

Most of us are familiar with customer loyalty programs—just look in your wallet or purse. I’m sure you have a slew of loyalty cards.

I’m personally a fan of DSW’s rewards program. This shoe retailer’s rewards program is so fantastic that I focus my shoe shopping solely (pun intended) at DSW. I actually feel GUILTY purchasing shoes elsewhere and have to put up blinders when I walk through department store shoe departments to avoid the temptation. Now that’s a powerful rewards program.

However, creating an effective loyalty program is more than just sending out punch cards. You must tailor your program to your customer base. Learn more about your valued customers—explore their demographics, behaviors and attitudes and you’ll be able to deliver rewards that resonate with them. Make sure your program recognizes, rewards and treats your customers in outstanding ways.

Don’t forget that rewarding your customers pays off for you in the long run—loyal customers spend more money and are more likely to recommend your business to others.

Do you find yourself frequenting businesses that offer rewards or incentives? What do they do to retain your business?

Suggesting a strategic marketing approach won’t surprise any who are reading this post, because you know that B2B marketers need to work harder and smarter to communicate in-depth information about complicated products and processes. You’re searching for hard-to-reach prospective customers that want to buy your not-so-glamorous products.

What you need is “smart marketing” from an agency that understands your business and can help you develop good strategic marketing direction, not just ads.

It’s not necessarily the vehicles or design that get you in front of new customers; it’s how they work together strategically that gets results.

Part of your “smarketing” strategy could include advertising, but a marketing assessment may point out that you could get better return on investment using other communication methods such as publicity, direct mail, outbound calling or online.

And lest we forget, your budget is limited too, so you have to do more with less. That’s where the right smarketing can help.

Have you managed successful campaigns that were ad-less? What’s the most unusual product you’ve smarketed? Call me to chat about it.