Anyone looking at the hefty slate of new business-to-business initiatives the DMA has cooking might think the association was making a calculated play to cater to that segment.
They’d be right.
“My philosophy was we couldn’t go into the B-to-B world and recruit members in a big way until we had the products and services that would serve them,” says David Smith, senior vice president, marketing and business development.
The DMA did an extensive amount of research to see what B-to-B members needed, he says. Not surprisingly, what they wanted was information on what other companies are doing and how they can run their own businesses more effectively.
To that end, a series of new publications and educational programs were created. The B-to-B Marketing Conference debuted this September in Phoenix. As opposed to the association’s traditional Direct Marketing to Business event, the new conference not only covers direct marketing but a number of other elements B-to-B marketers must learn about, like the integration of sales and marketing, public relations and trade shows, as well as general advertising.
Two new B-to-B seminars were also launched this year. “Fundamentals of B-to-B Direct Marketing” focused on issues such as integrating direct and database marketing, while “Advanced Techniques in Lead Generation” discussed driving sales leads for overall success and using the Web to attract and retain customers.
Summer 2002 marked the debut of the DMA Lead Generation Handbook, which Smith describes as a “comprehensive, benchmark publication” to help B-to-B marketers develop and manage lead generation programs. Consultant Ruth P. Stevens authored the “how to” section of the tome, which covers the tools and techniques used in lead generation. The book also includes an appendix with B-to-B statistics compiled from several DMA research projects and a directory of over 600 suppliers that specifically serve the B-to-B marketplace.
The association has plans to take B-to-B information from ongoing research projects such as the economic impact and e-commerce studies and create targeted publications catering to the B-to-B-focused membership, says Smith. Likewise, a B-to-B abstract from this fall’s postal and e-mail trend study is also planned.
Smith — who oversees marketing for the association — helped launch a quarterly B-to-B newsletter last year to help keep members up to date on these and other developments of interest. “In Case You Missed It” features articles written by speakers at DMA B-to-B conferences and events. The newsletter is also available online at www.the-dma.org.
“It’s been well received,” says Smith.
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