We thought we'd get together a simple guide to help event marketers out there looking to boost their marketing exposure at no extra cost. That's most of you right?

We all know that direct marketing is a very effective marketing channel, if you do it correctly of course! This post is inspired by an uninspiring mailing I received in the post recently that completely fails the basic principles of DM whilst also totally failing to make me feel like a valued customer - in fact it achieved the exact opposite! My objective isn't to name and shame necessarily but to share the inexcusable mistakes.

In the business world in North America the name Brian Solis is everywhere. A serial entrepreneur and business visionary he is a very well respected source of opinion when it comes to social media and marketing.

According to a recent survey of 840 B2B marketers by Holger Schulze, 25% don’t know their lead coversion rates and 41% don’t know the average cost per marketing qualified lead (MQLs). 

There has been a very interesting discussion going on in the "B2B Marketing" LinkedIn group around the topic of how many times to email or call a lead before it's considered dead.

Marketo recently launched their "definitive guide to event marketing" - a 122 page document covering pretty much everything you need to know about event marketing.

Here's a round up of what's been an interesting read for us from the B2B marketing and event marketing world this week. 

Going through the vast amount of content available in our industry, here is what's sparked our interest in our inbox and tweeter feeds relevant to our B2B marketing and event marketing industry this week.

At this time of year most B2B marketing directors are creating their strategies for the year ahead, working on the aggressive growth plans set by senior management and figuring out how far their budgets will stretch this time around.

With a little effort, LinkedIn Events can become a powerful tool in your events marketing strategy. If you have an event to market, make sure you cover the following basics to create a listing that works and generates new leads.

If you are selling a product or service, you have a huge commitment to your existing and potential customers. You have to deliver.

If you are selling Marketing Automation services, you have a big commitment to your existing and potential customers. You have to lead by example.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been conducting a review of marketing automation software for ourselves and also a couple of our clients.

I’m left especially disappointed with three of those marketing automation providers (which will remain anonymous) and the way in which they have managed my journey through their “lead nurturing programme”.

I’m always keeping an eye out for interesting and quirky marketing campaigns and tactics. Not to sound geeky but it really gives me a sense of purpose and a buzz – just always being aware of whats around me and what you can learn.

Developments in technology have been keeping us on our BrightBull toes. A consensus among other fellow marketers is that keeping up with technology is becoming one of their biggest challenges. So it’s exciting news like this acquisition that makes us very happy – in fact it should make any B2B social media marketer very happy.

Last week I attended Nimbus Partners’ “Inspiring Performance” event at the Brewery – a Business Process Management event. As you can imagine I’ve been to many events, but this one really stood out for me and really set out to impress. The detail and thought behind the event concept and format was excellent and in my opinion they got all the elements of the event mix right – from the venue, the style of presentations, the catering, the after party - sorry, ‘networking’ – and of course the outstanding entertainment by Naturally 7.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Google analytics recently, setting up goal trackings. It was very timely that this excellent blog from Anna Lewis featured in eConsultancy – I just wanted to shared it with everyone.

Found this interesting infographic from Marketing Sherpa about lead generation tactics.

After much anticipation within the conference world, the ‘Conference for Conference Professionals‘ finally took place last Friday 1st April 2011.

This week has been a busy one but I managed to read something quite interesting from Jamie Turner from the 60 Second marketeer. (Quite appropriate for the moment – literally 60 seconds short)