B2B marketing professionals in today’s economy are always looking for new ways to do more with less and still gain a competitive advantage within the marketplace. As part of a new feature on this blog, I will be interviewing industry thought leaders to provide expert advice on lead generation, making the most of your current leads with effective lead management, and increasing your marketing ROI.

First up in our B2B Marketing interview series is Tom Pick of WebMarketCentral. Tom also writes for the WebMarketCentral Blog, providing resources and tools for the Interactive Marketer.

You’ve been a B2B marketer since 1992. Tell us about what you do and how you got into B2B marketing.

After 14 years on the client side of B2B marketing, primarily in enterprise software, I moved over to the agency side in 2006 as a Marketing & PR Executive with KC Associates.

What’s unique about KCA is that it’s the only PR/marketing firm in Minnesota, and one of few anywhere, that’s exclusively focused on working with B2B technology companies. I also write the WebMarketCentral B2B marketing blog, and manage WebMarketCentral.com, a site that connects web marketers with online resources and services.

From reading your blog, I see that you write a lot about marketing innovation. What are your top 3 tips to help business to business companies tackle the art of innovation?

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In the current economy, many Small Business, Small Enterprise, and Marketing professionals are watching their Web spend more closely than ever. I caught up with Stephen Oachs, CTO at VisiStat Inc, and got his take on how important Web analytics is today for effective online advertising and direct impact on a business’s bottom line.

What do you see as the most beneficial change in analytics for the SMB/SME sector?

Without doubt, the move to real-time data, the development of more intuitive and accessible reporting interfaces, and affordability. In the past, analytics services were out of reach from both a comprehension and a cost perspective. But, that has changed dramatically. Today’s services are moving toward a truly intuitive, easy to understand click-and-go delivery of data, which allows for a much wider use by everyone within a business’s structure, from the sales team to R&D, execs to potential clients, and even IT!
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