Top Story

• B2B marketing's role grows broader, more strategic
  Business-to-business marketers are taking a more human, emotional approach to selling to customers while telling their stories, writes Rance Crain. Using consumer-facing campaigns by GE and AT&T as examples, Crain writes that products "often serve both B2B users and consumers, so advertising often plays dual roles as well." The growth of organizations such as the Business Marketing Association reflects the growing need for B2B marketing's broader, strategic role. Advertising Age (tiered subscription model) (6/18)     

Eye on Marketing

• CMO tenures rise, despite persistent 23-month myth
  The recession has been good for the tenure of chief marketing officers, according to a Spencer Stuart study. Since hitting an all-time low of 23.2 months in 2006, CMO tenure has risen to an average of 43 months, with those in the industrial sector enjoying 99 months on the job. Though he credits other factors such as industry consolidation for the rise, Spencer Stuart consultant Greg Welch adds that "the biggest factor is that today's CMOs are being more thoughtful about how they win over the long haul." Forbes (6/14)     

• Easy content access unites speakers at new conference
  Removing the barriers from customer access to content emerged as a theme of the first B2B Marketing's Summit in London. With a unique design-your-own-curriculum shape, the conference featured "a great mix of client and agency, covering an excellent breadth of topics and issues that I identified with on many levels," says Renee Joyce, Tangent Snowball marketing manager. B2B Marketing (6/15)     

• Other News

• Certain Inc. focuses on "Event Productivity" at AIBTM
  NewsBlaze (Folsom, Calif.) (6/15)     

• Fighting back after the blow of a "no decision"
  B2B Lead Generation Blog (6/18)     

• Don't mess up the message during dynamic automation
  Marketo/Modern B2B blogs (6/15)     

• Webinar follow-up: E-mail marketing questions answered
  HubSpot.com/Inbound Internet Marketing Blog (6/15)     

• Walk in customer's shoes to avoid pedestrian mobile experience
  MarketingProfs (6/15)     

Tech Edge

• Microsoft's hardware/software combos challenge users
  Microsoft's pre-release version of Windows 8 may have a challenge ahead pleasing both mouse-oriented users and touchscreen lovers. The so-called "Metro" interface also makes switching between mobile and desktop applications difficult, writes Bill Rigby. This presents a marketing challenge to the mostly-software giant, on the verge of possibly launching a tablet competitor to Apple's iPad. Reuters (6/15), Bloomberg (6/18), TechCrunch (6/17)     

• TechTarget's new site reaches for the clouds
  TechTarget is sowing the growing field of cloud-based business-applications sites with its launch of SearchCloudApplications.com. TechTarget claims to already have 19,000 active members. BtoB (6/15), Business Wire/News release (6/14)     

• Twitter's "expanded tweets" tout content previews
  Twitter's "expanded tweets" permit users to preview content linked via tweets on desktop and mobile platforms, giving it the gloss of YouTube or Instagram, writes Mark Walsh. The New York Times, BET, WWE, Lifetime and Dailymotion are among the handful of early adopters. "It has a very Pinterest-esque look and will be great for sharing fresh visual content or previewing links we'd like users to visit," says Banyan Branch President Blake Cahill. MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (6/15)     

• Other News

• Facebook integrates with blogger favorite WordPress
  Forbes (6/15)     

• Constant Contact buys SinglePlatform to aid SMB discovery
  MarketingVOX (6/15)     

Innovation

• Agents find literary talent via Twitter
  Twitter's ability to demonstrate a creative talent's following and make connections via the social network is helping literary agents find new talent, writes Daniel Vehab. Authors have sent out more than 101,000 tweets regarding their literary properties just this year, according to Sheldon Levine of Sysomos, and all leads for literary agents looking for talent that isn't coming through the normal referral channels. Mashable (6/15)     

• Top bosses share their tips for avoiding burnout
  Google Vice President Marissa Mayer holds about 60 meetings during her typical 90-hour workweek -- but she avoids burnout by scheduling weeklong vacations every few months. Such tactics, along with smarter scheduling and simply learning to say no to people, increasingly are seen as crucial survival skills for overloaded modern executives, experts say. The Wall Street Journal (6/14)     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by Business Marketing SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Meet the B2B world's best digital marketers (BtoB)

• B2B corporations revealed as seeking new domain names (BtoB Magazine)

• Digital trade advertising to outpace print through 2016 (BtoB)

• Fortune 500 sites mostly reach out in English only (BtoB Magazine)

• Montblanc had to rewrite its story with marketing (The CMO Site)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Association News

• Overlooked opportunity: Building targeted awareness to create value
  B2B marketers often dismiss targeted awareness efforts in favor of content and direct marketing activities. While webinar and case study e-pushes demonstrate knowledge and results, awareness-building programs are often more successful in generating demand for products and services and ensuring your organization's place in your target audience's initial consideration set. Influencers and decision makers complete 60% of the purchase-decision process independently from sales people, according to the Corporate Executive Board. Both marketers and their agencies need to examine what takes place in the initial 60% of the buying cycle to develop relevant marketing activities that fill those gaps. This is a critical step in the direction of building and capturing a prospect's initial interest and, in turn, funneling him or her into the sales pipeline. Read more.     

• BMA Colorado -- Event -- Top 3 trends in Webinar Lead Generation: Using Integration, Audience Engagement, & Content Syndication to Drive Long-term ROI
  This morning roundtable event will be held Thurs., June 28, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., in Denver. A successful web event can help strengthen a company's brand awareness, increase market exposure, and generate qualified sales leads. If done right, it can elevate an organization's credibility and reinforce its position as an industry thought leader. However, running a high-profile web event can be intimidating and challenging. Learn best practices, tools and samples for planning and executing a webinar, while continuing to leverage content long after the event. Read more.     

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