I don't know about you, but Q1 is when I clean up my email subscriptions and feeds - when I minimize the noise in my life. It doesn't matter whether you are attempting to create a personal or professional connection with me, whether you are a retailer, blogger, service provider, tech vendor or media outlet, or whether I actually opted in previously -- all are candidates for the "opt-out."
On the personal front, as it turns out, anything home design, remodeling and renovation wins this year. Professionally, here are seven B2B sales and marketing related blogs that have kept me coming back year after year.
1. Sales Benchmark Index
@MakingTheNumber
http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/
About: Daily posting of tips, stories and execution frameworks for sales & marketing effectiveness, written by guys who have been-there-done-that.
Recommended Recent Posts:
How to Scrub the Pipeline to Make Sure you Hit Q1 Goals
Why Savvy CMOs are Staffing the Director of Marketing Operations Role
2. SiriusDecisions
@siriusdecisions
https://www.siriusdecisions.com/Blog.aspx
About: Actionable perspective on sales, marketing and product related topics written by SiriusDecisions analysts. (Product marketing and product management content is particularly good.)
Recommended Recent Posts:
Branding Your B2B Offerings
Top Challenges for Product Management in 2015
3. Hubspot
@HubSpot
http://blog.hubspot.com/
About: Written by thoughtleaders and happy Hubspotters, you don't have to be a Hubspot customer to appreciate these tips for creating compelling content and recommended practices for inbound sales and marketing success.
Recommended Recent Posts:
Do You Know What Your Sales Team is Doing on LinkedIn?
4 Mistakes People Make when Measuring Brand Awareness (and how to aviod them)
4. Content Marketing Institute
@cmicontent
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/blog/
About: All things related to building a successful content marketing strategy.
Recommended Recent Posts:
Content Strategists Can Follow Their Own Big Bang Theory
14 Checklists, Scorecards, and Worksheets to Set Up Content Marketing Success
5. Fill The Funnel
@milesaustin
https://www.fillthefunnel.com/blog/
About: All about tools, tips and techniques for sales & marketing professionals, written by sales & marketing technologist Miles Austin.
Recommended Recent Posts:
Tools Don't Make the Carpenter
Website Analytics Can Tell if You are Winning or Losing Future Customers
6. OpenView Labs
@OpenViewLabs
http://labs.openviewpartners.com/
About: Industry standards and functional expertise shared by skilled operating professionals (from OpenView's consulting arm) dedicated to building great companies.
Recommended Recent Posts:
Study Customer Behavior to Create More Sales
A Simple Playbook for Out-Innovating the Competition
7. Funnelholic
@funnelholic
http://www.funnelholic.com/
About: Craig Rosenberg and friends talk about all things revenue. Limited frequency, but high-value perspective.
Recommended Recent Posts:
Always Be Recruiting
"Let Me Know How I Can Help"
Let us know your favorites in the comments below, and if you have not already, subscribe to this blog and/or follow me on twitter at @KellyAFord.