Working in the software market, one has to be acutely aware of the technology adoption cycle and its implications on company’s strategy at any given stage. B2B software marketing has been Eran’s area of expertise for over ten years, most of them spent in senior management positions with companies in this space. He now runs the MarketCapture consulting practice, helping software companies combine this kind of strategic awareness with hands-on approach to tactical execution of marketing programs.

Following a previous article on marketing metrics, many of you raised the question of measuring marketing impact on the company bottom line. While the general consultant answer – “it depends” – would hold true here as well, my real answer to most of you in the enterprise software world is simple but disappointing: YOU CANNOT.

More and more, technical executives and managers are challenged to measure and improve the ROI on projects and infrastructure investments.

It used to be that increasing Web site traffic exponentially was the mark of success in search engine marketing (SEM). Today, that isn’t enough. Advertisers want to see an increase in conversions, requiring more accountability from marketing campaigns.

(Continued from Part 1 — an interview with Chris Genge about KeywordTool.)

Question: What if you have a lot of clients?

In the beginning, search engine marketers were only concerned about top 10 rankings. Do you remember those days? Then, as things progressed and we began to work “smarter,” we began to take note of how those top 10′s were actually converting to traffic and sales.