B2B Marketing Predictions: Six Things That Won’t Happen In 2011

Predictions. Predictions. And More Predictions. It’s that time of year for endless optimism and lists of b2b marketing predictions for what is going to shape the upcoming year. In this article I take a slightly different approach. It’s my assessment of what won’t happen in B2B marketing in 2011.

1. The ROI of B2B social media will not be proven in a report
   Stop reading reports and start taking action. Sure reading is vital to learning, but attempting to translate a report’s findings on B2B social media ROI to your circumstance is virtually impossible. Test, iterate, and measure your own return on investment. Remember, best practices for B2B social media don’t exist yet, Experimentation Is The New Best Practice.

   If you are unsure where to start, invest in the area that will have the most benefit to your business, a corporate blog.

2. Sales and marketing will not align
   On June 12, 1987, President Reagan spoke the famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It wasn’t until more than two years later, November 9th, 1989, that the wall officially came down and East Germans were allowed to freely cross the border.

   Just because the drum beat of the marketing automation industry is that sales and marketing must align, that won’t make it true. The cold war that persists between sales and marketing will take years of working together and checking egos at the door to reach mutually beneficial goals, one view of the truth, and a wall that is officially gone forever.

3. B2B Marketers will not suddenly stop talking about their products
   Why? Old ways of doing things die hard. Change takes courage, knowledge, and willingness. It is much easier to repurpose old existing marketing collateral than it is to invest in content strategy, buyer personas, and developing a team’s skills.
4. The next Facebook will not be launched
   Facebook is the next Facebook. What will happen though is that more and more businesses will be created and enabled by the facebook platform.
5. Print advertising will not die
   As a marketer, more often than not the lens we view the world through is our own. The problem with this is that what we think and believe doesn’t matter, even a little bit. The only voice (and lens of the world) that matters is the customer’s. The majority of markets today have thriving publications with circulation’s of interested readers. Your message must be in all the channels your customers use, and for most B2B markets printed trade publications remains one of them.
6. Marketing Automation vendors will not stop duking it out in the blogosphere
   Throughout 2010, Marketo, Eloqua, Genius, Loopfuse, et al have been openly dueling with each other on their blogs, on other’s people’s blogs, social networks, and in the press. While it makes for interesting reading, I haven’t quite figured out the benefits of doing so. Now sure, if one company says something that is libelous and the other feels it necessary to respond, that I can  understand.

   I just wonder if this is seen as cat fighting and if it is doing more harm than good to reputations of the participants.

There are plenty of other things that won’t happen in 2011… like Cliff Lee pitching for the Yankees (I’m a smiling Phillies fan).

What do you predict won’t happen in B2B Marketing in 2011?

Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons By KrsytalChu

Author: Jeremy Victor | Website | Twitter

Jeremy's the founder of Make Good Media and Editor In Chief of B2Bbloggers.com. B2Bbloggers.com is a B2B Marketing online magazine discussing the evolution of B2B marketing. Topics include content marketing, B2B social media, demand generation, marketing automation, and more. Sign up. Get all the articles via email.