What if I told you, the key to success in marketing these days is a series of letters? No, it isn’t ROI, CMS or SOS (for days when a deadline is looming). These days, the key to successful marketing is B.A.N.T.

B.A.N.T. is a lead qualification criteria that stands for:

Budget

Authority

Need

Timing

You may be asking why B.A.N.T is important to you as a B2B marketer. The answer is that B.A.N.T. should be considered whenever you’re creating a project, communications piece or concept. B.A.N.T. helps determine the audiences you should cater your communications to, what ROI will come from your campaigns and it helps sales and marketing departments integrate more seamlessly. It’s more important than ever to justify marketing budgets with clear ROI, and sales and marketing alignment is a vital part of this.

Here are some important questions to ask yourself to ensure you’re keeping B.A.N.T in mind:

Budget: Will this marketing effort help us determine if the audience has the budget to invest/purchase/engage in what we’re selling?

Authority: Is this marketing communications piece going to the correct person? Can they make a direct decision regarding what we’re selling or are they an influencer?

Need: Does this marketing effort help us determine if our audience has a need for our solution? How quickly does this need have to be filled?

Timing: Can we determine if this audience is ready to purchase/invest in what we’re selling? Can we create urgency to act?

If you answered YES to at least three of the above questions, you’re on your way to creating a near-perfect marketing communications piece that will lead to sales opportunities. Congratulations!

To find out what B.A.N.T. marketing means for marketing and sales team alignment, check back for part 2 of this blog.

Despite theories that direct mail will one day cease to exist, I’m still a firm believer that print – when properly executed – is far better than using digital media alone. I was recently forwarded this article from the Wall Street Journal that echoes the same feelings.

Marketers are discovering the value in coupling print with digital media. While digital media may be less expensive, it lacks the personal touch that can be added to a printed piece. When combining the two, they can compliment each other and prove to be a more effective solution.

We have used this approach for our “Name that Super” campaign currently running for our client Phoenix Environmental Care. We found that combining a website with several e-blasts and direct mail has resulted in a great response we might not achieve by just e-mail or direct mail alone.

What do you think? Is snail mail on the endangered species list or will it always have a place in the marketing mix?

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?