B2B Marketing POSTs by Laura Ramos

I am a high technology marketing executive devoted to understanding and sharing marketing best practices in the negotiated, complex sale of products or services between businesses of 100 employees or more.

In April 2010, I joined Xerox Global Services as the Vice President of Industry Marketing for North America. At Xerox, I manage a team of industry marketers who plan and execute marketing programs that drive business with existing accounts and new logos firms in Education, Financial Services, Government, High-Technology/Telecom, Manufacturing, and Retail.

Prior to Xerox, I headed up business-to-business (B2B) marketing coverage as a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where my work focused primarily on developing demand, lead management maturity, sales and marketing integration, setting social media and Web 2.0 marketing strategy, and creating customer engagement. For 4 years at Forrester, I surveyed, interviewed, and wrote research to help B2B marketing executives in the high-technology, manufacturing, telecom, business services, and media industries excel.

Hundreds of conversations with CMOs, marketing VPs, directors, and Web practitioners of all types and thousands of survey responses fueled this research. It also gave me a broad view of what works – and what doesn’t – in marketing high-consideration, high-price-tag products through direct and indirect channels. As a result , I have a unique, cross-industry perspective on B2B marketing effectiveness, how to get the B2B marketing mix right, generating demand online and off, managing that demand through the purchase cycle, measuring marketing results, and explaining how technology enriches the online B2B customer experience. Before I left Forrester, my research expanded to understand how marketers use social media in the B2B marketing mix, whether business buyers engage in social activity while working, and what are the best practices for using blogging, video, online events, podcasting, and social networks in B2B marketing. I started blogging by contributing to Forrester’s Interactive Marketing and Marketing Leadership blogs. You can find me on Twitter at @lauraramos 

I came to Forrester as part of the Giga acquisition in 2002. Prior to becoming an analyst, I spent over 10 years in various product marketing and management positions. In total, I have more than 25 years of experience in the design, development, and marketing of computer hardware and software. Prior to joining Giga, I was the director of product marketing at Verity, a well-known search provider, and Stratify (now part of Iron Mountain) — an early-stage company producing legal discovery solutions for litigation. I have held marketing director positions at Vitria Technology, Sybase, and Tandem Computers, over the years where I helped to define, launch, and market a variety of software products.

I hold an M.B.A. from the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University, where I graduated Beta Gamma Sigma. My undergraduate degree is in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. I have been a keynote speaker at the Direct Marketing Association, Forrester’s Marketing and IT Forums among numerous other events. I have been named to B-to-B Magazine’s “Who’s Who“ list 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010.  In 2011, B-to-B Magazine named me one of their “Top 25 Digital Marketers“.

Personally, I am the mother of two. I have lived in Saratoga, California for over 14 years and, before that, in Northern California since I graduated from college. I enjoy golf with my husband and play it regularly. Doesn’t mean my handicap is any good, but I find golf great recreation and social fun.