After reviewing the results of our recent survey of B2B marketers, I would like to share some good cheer.
For marketing, it has been a long time in coming: productivity improvement through automation. Marketing now benefits from a variety of lead generation tools more economical to use and more effective in automating marketing processes.
Unfortunately for us, marketing is one of the last corporate departments to be automated. In 1972, SAP launched an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that catered to the needs of finance and manufacturing.
Now over thirty years later, marketing is one of the last departments to benefit from automation and none too late – just in time to cut costs for this downturn.
Here are my top three reasons why B2B marketers can benefit as buyers of online lead generation tools:

1. Most Web 2.0 Tools are free or almost free – most blogging, micro-blogging, RSS and Wiki tools are free.
2. Many viable Web 1.0 Tools are priced aggressively- as categories like email and lead generation suites mature, some competitors are using price or lite versions as a competitive weapon.
3. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) lowers switching costs - buyers of lead generation tools that are offered as SaaS or in the Cloud, can minimize their risk by only renting tools for one year rather than buying a tool for perpetuity.

Whether you are looking to cut costs or innovate through experimentation, the proliferation of online lead generation tools present a bona fide opportunity for B2B marketers.
Credits & References
LeadGenTools Directory 2008
Interested in a copy of the Report “Top Tools for B2B Online Lead Generation & Prevalent Conversion Practices”? Drop me a line: robert (at) leadgentools (dot) com
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