The Top Line

By Barbara Bix

B2B marketers will welcome Paul Gillin’s and Eric Schwartzman’s latest book, Social Marketing to the Business Customer. As the authors note in the preface, most discussions about social media marketing, focus on consumer marketing–even on occasions when B2b marketers make up the majority of the audience.

Great overview of B2B marketing

While the book centers on social media marketing, it is really an excellent overview of B2B marketing in the 21st century.  In addition to a description of all things social, readers will also find sections on search and content strategy–and examples of how to combine them with conventional activities such as public relations, direct mail, and sales collateral creation for maximum impact.  Perhaps the only innovations the authors don’t go into in detail are those of a physical nature (e.g. SaaS and mobile).