Here are The Marketing Automation Alert’s best marketing automation-related articles curated today, Friday, 2/8/13. Receive a daily summary of The Marketing Automation Alert directly to your inbox. Subscribe here (your privacy is protected). If you find this valuable, please share by using the links below:
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Featured Marketing Automation Article
Marketers, Give Your Salespeople the Info They Need to Succeed – Profs
From www.mpdailyfix.com – Today, 7:46 AM
In Dan Pink’s new book, he says we’re in the age in which buyers and sellers are armed with the same info. However, I believe that sales needs info that’s even better than what sellers have and that marketing should provide that info.
Excerpt…
I am talking about arming the sales rep with the same or better information than the buyer has. And I contend that the responsibility of arming the sales rep falls in marketing’s lap. It’s the CMO that owns the responsibility for providing the sales reps with better information than the buyer has.
We understand that the buyer gathers information from a wide variety of sources (usually online). We can even find out where the buyer gets their information and how they perceive that information. Historically, marketing has been working on influencing the perceptions of buyers via engagement (often on various social media channels).
The new imperative for marketing is to share with the sales organization the same information that the buyer is gathering. In other words, marketing needs to take all the tools it is using to collect information about the company’s products and services, and the perceptions buyers and customers have about the company’s products and services, and then provide that information to sales.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
This article made us pause and consider, i.e., how it is incumbent on the marketer to deliver all the pertinent content to the buying audience so as to make their jobs a bit easier and further position you as a thought leader. NOTE: CONTENT CURATION WILL HELP WITH THIS TASK!
Anyone old enough to remember Sy Syms?: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”
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How to Capture More (and Better) Lead Intel With Progressive Profiling – HubSpot
From blog.hubspot.com – Today, 7:27 AM
Learn about progressive profiling, and how it helps you improve your lead intelligence and increase conversions.
Excerpt…
Progressive profiling technology, a feature that is usually an extension of dynamic form fields, allows you to set up iterative forms that enable you to designate which questions appear based on what you already know about a particular lead. That way, every time a lead fills out a form, you are progressively collecting valuable new information about them while keeping your forms short and easy to complete. This enables you to build up the amount of information, or intelligence, you collect about your individual leads without causing more friction in the conversion process. Ultimately, progressive profiling technology enables you to collect the right information from your leads — at the right times.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
We love progressive profiling, and the benefits (delineated in this article) are only attainable with a solid marketing automation platform (like HubSpot). The article is a good tutorial on progressive profiling.
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Perfect Timing for Lead Nurturing | Marketing Automation – Pardot
From www.pardot.com – Today, 7:12 AM
There’s one question that comes up over and over again with regards to lead nurturing, it’s this: what’s the perfect timing for lead nurturing emails? If you’ve ever wondered the answer to this question, listen up.
The number one factor in determining the timing of emails in a nurturing campaign is the use of the campaign. Let’s take a look at the three most common uses for lead nurturing, their goals, and the best practices for timing email communication in each.
The three common uses are:
1) Net New Lead Nurturing Program
2) Sales Nurturing Program
3) Cold Lead Nurturing Program
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
For the specifics to each program, please click through. A very useful article that gives you an outside opinion on the timing of lead nurturing efforts (often a question mark in the minds of introductory users of marketing automation!).
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Lead Nurturing and Marketing Automation: 15 Key Questions Answered (Questions 7 and 9) – Profs
From www.marketingprofs.com – Today, 6:55 AM
Sales – This week we answer two questions: When is a lead truly Sales-ready, and what are some best-practices of lead scoring? And we offer two tools you can use to help …
Article summary…
Question 7: When is a lead truly “Sales-ready”?
If Marketing and Sales have the identical definition of a “sales-ready lead” (some call it a Sales-qualified lead) you have a good start at getting Sales to follow up on leads. But when Marketing and Sales have different definitions of what’s Sales-ready, trouble rears its ugly head.
The key is to hit the agreed-upon minimum standard; then, if practical, tune your lead-scoring algorithm to the circumstances of the individual salesperson.
Essentially, meeting the BANT criteria means you’ve pinpointed a qualified prospect who is actively evaluating solutions for a business problem that you can solve, and within a time frame that makes sense.
Tool You Can Use
The “Simple” Sales-Ready Formula (PDF). How do you know whether a lead is Sales-ready? Play with that simple equation and test your leads against it. The higher the result, the more Sales-ready the lead.
Question 9: What are some lead scoring best-practices?
Lead scoring is a jointly defined process between Sales and Marketing that helps to identify which leads are ready to move to Sales and which leads require further nurturing.
1. Establish a clear and consistent scoring system
2. Use both demographic and behavioral scoring
3. Hold weekly review meetings with Sales
4. Add AND subtract from the lead score as necessary
Tool You Can Use
Check out this very handy Lead Scoring Checklist from Marketo (PDF).
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
We’ve been following this series, and you can find the other summaries by going to the Filter box above and doing a keyword or tag search. BTW: what the hell happened to question 8?
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Mobile Is Maturing [Infographic] – Profs
From www.marketingprofs.com – Today, 6:45 AM
Mobile – More chief technology officers are making mobile a priority and dedicating greater resources to it. The following infographic from MutualMobile details how CTOs are thinking about mobile and why it …
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Content Marketing The Most Popular Digital Area Slated For A Budget Hike This Year – MarketingCharts
From www.marketingcharts.com – Today, 7:00 AM
Add it to the list of research (such as this and this) heralding the increasing priority of content marketing. This latest piece of research, from Econsultancy and Responsys, finds that 70% of company marketers – who hail mostly from the UK (46%) and other European countries (19%) – plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year, while another 29% will keep them at current levels. Content marketing edges SEO (65%) and email marketing for engagement/retention (also 65%) as the most popular digital channel tabbed for a budget increase.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Still useful although it doesn’t differentiate between B2B and B2C. Search above using the Filter function to find similar supporting stats. However, we keep thinking about the forthcoming “deluge of crap”: http://sco.lt/6SgwSn
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3 in 4 US Senior Execs Strongly Believe Customer Experience Impacts Loyalty – MarketingCharts
From www.marketingcharts.com – Today, 7:03 AM
74% of American senior executives surveyed by Oracle strongly agree that customers’ experiences impact their willingness to be loyal advocates, according to a new report.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Perhaps Forrester is on to something…
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Marketing as (is) Art – Gartner
From blogs.gartner.com – Today, 7:20 AM
Excerpt…
The upshot is that marketing, while always a form of persuasion driven by a commercial agenda, is evolving from overt blunt-instrument manipulation to a more subtle form of influence that seeks true emotional involvement through artful content and experiences. The former is marketing as science and the latter is marketing as art.
In the age of Big Data, we’re tempted to predict the rise of the machines that replace human instinct with empirical insight. But, as I say in that rant, the best marketing is a blend of both head and heart—marketing as science + marketing as art.
The social web has taught us that audiences seek out authentic, artistic expression and summarily reject hackneyed, brand-centric pulp that serves to remind you that you’re on the receiving end of a sales pitch. It’s this changing expectation that has ushered in the age of marketing as art.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
B2C maybe, but NOT B2B. B2B marketers need to deliver valuable information, and deliver it using smart, science-based methods. We’re not going backwards to the age of Mad Men. The days of marketing as pseudo-art are over.
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Forrester’s Top 15 Emerging Technologies To Watch: Now To 2018 | Forrester Blogs
From blogs.forrester.com – Today, 7:24 AM
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Forrester digs into a bit more detail for each of the 15 emerging technologies, many of which impact your marketing infrastructure. Click through to receive a quick description of each.
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Best Free Marketing Tools – Eloqua
From blog.eloqua.com – Today, 7:51 AM
Check out these 13 marketing tools that will help you and your teams manage your content, engagement, and measurement efforts — without breaking the bank.
- StumbleUpon
- Zamzar
- Google Alerts
- Survey Monkey
- Google Keyword
- Broken Link Checker
- Followeronk
- Bit.ly
- EventBrite
- PlaceIt
- YouTube
- SlideShare
- Tumblr
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
As a digital marketing agency, we’re cheap…WE DON’T LIKE PARTING WITH OUR MONEY! And we know we’re not alone out there: our clients feel the same way. Here are tools that are obvious but must-haves.
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5 Steps To Creating A Successful Retargeting Campaign | Business 2 Community
From www.business2community.com – Today, 7:58 AM
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is usually divided into one of two types: search retargeting and site retargeting. Both types are usually used together in order to maximize business opportunities, despite the differing techniques and customer bases sought. Search retargeting refers to identifying new customers who have never visited a business’s webpage. They are pointed in the direction of the given business based upon specific words or phrases they’ve typed into one of many search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. On the other hand, site retargeting refers to a business’s ability via a cookie to follow a prospective customer’s web surfing after that person leaves the business site without completing whatever task is considered a successful conversion: completing a contact form, making a purchase or ordering information. As the potential but unconverted customer moves from one website to another, specially designed ads appear in order to influence a click and a return to the original business’s webpage.
So how can you capitalize on this emerging trend? Read on to find out.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
An excellent and quick primer on retargeting. If you and/or members of your team are not familiar with retargeting, this is an excellent starting point. Retargeting should be a part of your marketing.
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6 Key Skillsets B2B Marketing Managers Need in Their Team | Business 2 Community
From www.business2community.com – Today, 8:04 AM
With the shift to inbound or pull marketing well underway, there is also a shift in the marketing skillsets required to get the job done. B2B marketing
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
A quick and helpful checklist. Check out the free “health check” tool in the article.
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