Networking through social events, social media sites and business associations is key to developing and maintaining business relationships.

Last week, the Arizona Technology Council and Business Marketing Association (BMA) joined forces to put on the Marketing Technology Summit in Phoenix. We participated in this event with our strategic partner, Loop Demand Gen.

This regional, summit-style event allowed Loop to network with marketing professionals in the tech industry, and learn more about their pain points. In comparison to a larger, all-out national tradeshow, the Marketing Technology Summit provided an inexpensive alternative and enabled us to showcase Loop’s services to a very targeted niche audience. Plus, we learned a thing or two by talking face-to-face with the attendees. There’s certainly demand for qualifying, nurturing, scoring and developing high-quality business leads.

Be sure to look out for the 2010 Marketing Technology Summit next year and remember, you can never network enough and you certainly never stop learning.

What trends have you noticed when attending networking events?

It’s been an exhausting month of traveling all over the country for business. However, I feel strangely re-energized from attending one of our clients’ events, Avnet Compass 2009.

This is an annual event that Avnet puts on for its value-added resellers of Sun Microsystems and other solutions. Now, my inner geek loved the event simply from a technology standpoint. I’m definitely a fan of open source and I like how Sun goes to market. It will be interesting to see how the Oracle acquisition will affect its business, but it seems like everyone is in wait-and-see mode.

Avnet also unveiled its SolutionsPath playbooks, which are really nifty tools for its resellers to use to immerse themselves in their customers’ businesses and provide valuable solutions.

The other thing I loved about the event was the format. In addition to the physical event in Denver, Avnet also held a virtual tradeshow. 

Please take a look at our booth and let me know what you think (free registration required.) Oh, and check out my preso on sales and marketing alignment.

Virtual tradeshows allow you to provide information to your target audience without spending a lot on a booth, shipping, travel, etc.

However, I’m glad it wasn’t all virtual because I really think face-to-face interaction is the only way to build a quality business relationship with someone. You can establish it or augment it online, but there’s nothing quite like talking to someone in person.

What do you think of virtual tradeshows? Do you ever think these events will go all virtual? Have you built a great relationship with someone exclusively online?

Focus groups are not a new topic for the b2b Fishbowl by any means—our Think Tank recently posted about this and other ways to uncover qualitative information. The fact is: the information you gather from a focus group is only as good as the individuals that are recruited. You can’t just recruit warm bodies to increase focus group attendance.

photo courtesy of ihtatho http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihtatho/627226315/

I have conducted many focus group recruitment campaigns for various b2b clients at Canyon. When taking on a new focus group recruitment campaign, I constantly remind myself that recruiting qualified individuals is crucial for success. The only way to get accurate, valuable input is to recruit the person that would be most familiar with the product/service.

Recruitment 101:

• Explain to the participant how they will benefit
• Attending a focus group should never be about incentives, but rather about what a person can learn and how they can contribute
• Be able to explain what a participant will learn by attending
• A participant will be providing valuable input on ways to improve customer service, products, services and marketing campaigns
• Play up to their ego and remind them that they will have an affect on the strategy behind a marketing program
• Assume the contact is NOT qualified for the focus group until they meet the requirements on the qualifying screener
• Last but not least, be honest!

If you want to learn more about focus groups and market research, download the “Find New Prospects with Market Research” white paper from our partners at Loop Demand Gen.

Happy recruiting!

Spending on print advertising is down. Companies are slashing travel budgets and cutting out tradeshows. Printing and postage costs are continuously rising. What’s a B2B marketer to do?

Take a look in your pocket, or purse, or that leather thingy strapped to your belt. That’s right: it’s your mobile phone.

I’m of the opinion that the most efficient and effective way for B2B marketers to reach their target audience will soon be through their smart phones and MIDs (that’s Mobile Internet Devices, for you non-geeks. You geeks can go here).

As those who know anything about me will attest, I am an iPhone junkie. I’m talking JUNKIE!!!! I’m always on it. Mapping out routes. Looking up movie times. Booking flights. Solving factual arguments. Searching for solutions to my business problems.

Wait. Back that one up. ‘Searching for solutions to my business problems?’ Why on earth would I do that?

Because with the wealth of information on the Internet, you can find educational content on any topic you choose with a few taps and maybe a swipe. And with web browsers for mobile phones becoming more technologically advanced, people can search for your solutions any time, anywhere. Plus, it’s getting easier and easier to deploy lead-capturing tools on mobile devices.

Here are a few quick tips for B2B marketers to make sure your prospective customers find you when they’re tapping away on their smart phones and MIDs:

Go Mobile: Please make absolutely sure your website and e-mail marketing campaigns are smart phone and iPhone accessible and include a phone number, as most smart phones have a click-to-dial feature. Or, you could always create a dedicated mobile site.

Get Out There: Optimize your website with ‘solutionizing’ key words and phrases by cramming it chock-full of meaty, educational content. When your prospective customer types or taps their problem into Google, you want to come up first (or at least on the first page).

Be Social: Develop (and frequently update) a blog and use social media tools. Then, make sure to promote this in everything you do. That’s a surefire way to build up your street (er, web) cred.

Get Wired: Send newsworthy press releases to online trade media outlets and post them to the wire.

Don’t Worry. Be Appy: Create an App that your prospective customers will benefit from using.

Texter Beware: I recommend limiting SMS campaigns unless it’s a reminder to attend an event someone has registered for or something like that and they have specifically agreed to receive text messages from you. Otherwise, it just reeks of intrusiveness to me.

Don’t just take it from me. Check out the results of this research study, which found that SEO, PPC and e-mail had the highest influence on conversions. Adapting these strategies to mobile devices is a surefire way to cost-effectively reach your target audiences.

What do you think? Are texting campaigns the best thing since sliced sashimi? Are you reading this blog post from a mobile device? Can you refer me to a 12-step program for iPhone addiction? Let me know.