The Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) is predicting a sell-out for the first intake of its Certificate in B2B Marketing, as well as healthy demand for the higher-level Diploma qualification.

As B2B Marketing went to press, Amanda Rogers, qualifications director at the IDM, commented that the Certificate course was on target to sell out all 30 places, with applications due to close in mid-March. “There could very well be a waiting list for this course,” she said. “We're very pleased – the certificate has done very well.”

Rogers says there has also been plenty of interest in the dissertation-based Diploma in B2B Marketing, although the structuring of work required around the individual's experience and needs made final numbers more difficult to estimate at this time. Approximately a dozen students are expected to enrol for the first Diploma intake.

Uptake of these qualifications confirms what Rogers calls the “latent demand” for more education and training amongst B2B marketers, which was highlighted in the B2B Marketing Insight report (see www.b2bm.biz/insight), and belies the IDM's initial cautious expectations (see B2BM Jan 07 p16).

Rogers says the Certificate in B2B Marketing has outstripped the IDM's generic Certificate in Direct & Interactive Marketing in terms of popularity, but adds, “The B2B course is not cannibalising our other products – it's a new type of person who is booking onto this course.” She says the intake is a mixture of client-side and agency marketers, as well as graduate level personnel and other marketers who have already taken more generic Certificate products.

The Certificate in B2B Marketing runs over six months and tutors include Shane Redding, chair of the IDM B2B Council and Richard Bush, MD of Base One.

Business data specialist Experian has launched a B2B-specific email marketing solution, utilising technology owned by subsidiary company and email marketing provider CheetahMail.

The solution allows marketers to create, send and track their own email marketing campaigns, as well as manage and develop an email contacts database online. It also offers access to Thomson Directories' B2B email database of 500,000 business contacts, the largest such file in the UK, for prospecting purposes. However, it is primarily intended for use as a relationship marketing tool.

There are two service level packages for Experian's new solution: Start, aimed at companies with little previous experience of email marketing; and Art, for more advanced users, who typically already have an email marketing database established. Associated email marketing services to be offered alongside include strategic planning, data hygiene, system training and an automated system to manage bounce-backs and unsubscribe notices.

Nick Frazer, director of Experian's B2B marketing division, comments, “Email is a very powerful and effective medium, but the majority of B2B businesses still need support to make sure they make the most out of their activity. We will be helping companies use e-mail marketing more effectively such as minimising churn.”

CheetahMail was acquired by Experian in 2005, but historically its services had been priced to appeal to B2C volume email marketers and consequently had made little inroads into the B2B sector with its more limited volumes.

The new solution provides B2B marketers with access to CheetahMail technology, but at a more appropriate price-point.

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