I very much enjoyed the networking breakfast in Boston last week hosted by B2B Magazine. The featured speakers were great. I particularly liked Frank Days of Novell’s presentation on agile marketing (www.agilemarketing.com) which is consistent with our advice to our clients that in addition to an annual marketing plan, we need to be focused on the tactical marketing strategies within a 2-3 month framework. With today’s web analytics you can launch a campaign, analyze the results, and respond with a follow up or edited campaign.

I also liked Elizabeth Williams of Rogers Communications presentation. Rogers new marketing focus is on small businesses. They actually created a website dedicated to small businesses (http://www.celebratesmallbusiness.ca/)  From their research they learned that while small businesses are experts in their own field, when sourcing partners or vendors in services where they are not experts, they search for companies that are knowledgeable in that field and that can make their jobs easier.

When it comes to B2B marketing, there is a great deal of marketing communication clutter for small businesses to deal with. We at Grant Marketing try to make it easy for a company to navigate through the clutter and make sound, creditable, and traceable marketing decisions.

According to a recent survey of senior marketing executives, 2010 CMO Survey, conducted by the Fugua School of Business at Duke University and the American Marketing Association, marketing budgets are expected to grow by 9.2% over the next year. Not surprisingly budgets for Internet marketing are expected to rise an average of 13.6% followed by brand building at 8.3% and CRM spending at 8.3%.  The survey notes that social media spending is expected to grow from 9.9% of total marketing budgets to 17.7% over the next five years.

As a brand consultant I am pleased to see the uptick on brand building. Since Internet marketing bandwidth and marketing opportunities are vast it will be important for companies to focus on their brand differentiation. Not only does a company need to deliver a strong message in its marketplace, the company also needs to be certain that the brand is backed up by company employees and executives who need to deliver on that brand promise.

The CMO survey noted that while CMO’s were optimistic about their own companies, they were less optimistic about the US economy. With worries about the economy, strong brands supported by strong brand advocates within the company will be even more important to compete in a shrinking economy.