We’ve curated over 3000 articles, and today is the best collection we’ve come across! Just tremendous information available to you: if you can’t read it now, then hold it for the weekend. And you’ll want to share today’s collection with colleagues.
Here are The Marketing Automation Alert’s best marketing automation-related articles curated today, Friday, 4/12/13. 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 #1 of 3
The Three Flaws with the Funnel | Marketing Automation – Pardot
From www.pardot.com – Today, 8:45 AM
Digest…
The “numbers game” approach to the sales funnel is flawed for two reasons. For one thing, this method implies that there is some sort of gravitational pull at work on the funnel, and a percentage of all leads subjected to this pull will result in closed deals. Obviously, no such force exists. In reality, if two million leads are fed into the sales funnel but none are a fit for your product, odds are that none will come out as closed deals.
Furthermore, today’s consumers don’t just appreciate smarter marketing, they’ve come to expect it. If you’re still blasting your message out to millions of unwilling and disinterested recipients, you’re not just risking your message being ignored — you’re risking giving your company a bad reputation.
As we mentioned before, more prospects doesn’t necessarily mean more clients, but the passivity of the traditional sales funnel is flawed for another reason. Prospects won’t just fall through the sales funnel, they need to be engaged — and increasingly so.
Forrester represents this phenomenon with an escalator rather than a funnel: a prospects’ engagement level must be elevated at each stage of the journey, as they move from awareness to interest, to consideration, to commitment, and (hopefully) to advocacy. The advent of inbound marketing and the increasingly informed buyer makes this continual engagement a necessity, and calls for a stronger emphasis on customer retention and client advocacy than ever before.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
What’s the best way to look at this change in philosophy? Instead of jamming stuff into the TOFU, you’re bringing stuff along through the FU, using a variety of techniques to do so.
If you’ve adopted MA, you know that, by definition, the technology changes your philosophy to the latter.
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Featured Marketing Automation Article #2 of 3
How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy – SEOmoz
From www.seomoz.org – Today, 8:31 AM
As successful link building tactics change, companies and clients alike are seeking to understand how certain forms of link building can be translated into long-term content marketing campaigns.
Summary…
Below is the content strategy framework that Adria and I have implemented together for our clients. We’ve learned that this process isn’t a quick win and that our most successful content marketing strategies have relied on dedicating at least 3 months to just research – market research, site audits, content audits, customer surveys, and customer interviews to name just a few.
Step 1: Researching the company
The first step in developing a content strategy framework is understanding the company.
Step 2: Data collection (and lots of it)
I believe in utilizing the data that we have available to make informed decisions. This applies specifically to content; the more we understand about the site and the customers, the more we are able to make informed and strategic decisions to the type(s) of content we want to produce. In order to do this, it’s important to gather relevant data.
Step 3: Preparation and assessment
Now that new data has been collected from various channels, it’s important to assess/analyze the data that has just been collected and see how it correlates with the data that you already have on-hand. During this stage, it’s also critical to take a step back and make sure that the goals for the content have been clearly defined.
Step 4: Prospecting
This phase of the process is identifying individuals/sites who would be interested in the type of content the company will produce and engaging them at multiple points with the goal to develop relationships with key influencers.
Step 5: Create and promote the content
In this step, the “go” is to now create the pieces of content and follow both the internal protocols and sign off processes that were established in step three of the process. Ensure that editorial standards are being followed and assess that the content being created is actually phenomenal.
Step 6: Assess content performance
After the content has been released and promoted, it’s time to assess how the content has performed and any other learnings that can be taken away from the process.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
In a word: BRILLIANT! One of the best posts we’ve seen regarding content marketing. This is a hands-on, step by step guide that provides you with the framework you need to either build a content marketing strategy or revise your existing strategy. At the very least, use it to audit that which you currently use! Another must click through.
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Featured Marketing Automation Article #3 of 3
Should Marketers Fear the Cookie Apocalypse? – ClickZ
From www.clickz.com – Today, 8:13 AM
Marketers have until June to get over cookies, a digital advertising executive said earlier this week.
Introduction…
Speaking on a panel at the Programmatic I/O conference in San Francisco, Brian O’Kelley, chief executive of AppNexus, said he thinks that do-not-track or privacy settings enabled in the latest versions of most browsers will destroy the ability to retarget consumers. “If browsers block cookies, a significant amount of money will go away,” he said. That’s not only for the ad exchanges and platforms like AppNexus; O’Kelley thinks publishers would take a hit, as well. For example, he estimates that over half of Yahoo’s premium impressions contain audience targeting characteristics.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
- We haven’t seen anything regarding the impact of Mozilla’s (Firefox) cookie restrictions as it relates to MA, i.e., how will this impact MA functionality, and what are the MAP companies doing to adjust their functionality. We think the impact is clear vis-a-vis anonymous site visitor tracking to digital properties, but we haven’t read anything on what will be done once cookies are in default block mode.
- Will budgets shift more towards outbound marketing? Conversion optimization?
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The Real Challenge for B2B Content Marketers – B2B Digital Marketing
From b2bdigital.net – Today, 8:17 AM
B2B content marketers are hiding behind false excuses for their content marketing challenges. The real issue will be much more difficult to address.
Key excerpt…
Here is the real problem: organizations are not on board with content marketing as a core B2B marketing initiative. All of the other content marketing challenges research continues to point to are merely symptoms.
How did we get here?
- We said content marketing was cheap. I’ve said before, if content marketing is really that cost effective today, it will become more expensive in the future. Your organization was on board when it was cheap, when you could drive results with thoughtless blog posts slammed out in 10 minutes or created by an offshore SEO company. Now that cheap content doesn’t work, the real lack of commitment is shining through.
- Content was a supporting element only. Content was part of SEO, social or a crazy skunkworks company blog experiment. It was necessary to feed your newsletter or nurture programs through your marketing automation platform. It supported your sales team. You never had to justify the investment in content for content marketing’s sake.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
We completely agree with Eric. Two thoughts: (1) we always sell content marketing on the basis of thought leadership value: it resonates with the senior level; (2) analytics are incredibly important to continue to justify content marketing, i.e., it’s what drove attention and prospects into the funnel.
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An App for Creating B2B Buyer Personas – MLT Creative
From www.mltcreative.com – Today, 7:44 AM
Summary…
And finally, the app has been such a success that [the developer plans] to launch a more advanced version in a few months with [their] development partners at LyntonWeb. So stay tuned for even more improvements in the 2.0 version coming soon! In the meantime, customers of HubSpot can install the free app directly in their HubSpot account at the HubSpot Services Marketplace, and the app is open to everyone here.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Struggling with developing personas? This is a great tool to use: a simple, step by step, fill in the blank wizard that makes the process of buyer persona development easy! Bookmark and use!
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Retargeting: 5 tactics from drip email to lead generation | MarketingSherpa
From article – Today, 7:55 AM
Overview…
What is retargeting?
At a very high level, retargeting is proactively reaching back out to prospects who have shown an interest in your company. Let’s take a closer look.
The first step is finding someone with interest in your company. This intent may be expressed as strongly as a “hand raise.” For example, this could mean the customer is registering for your list by providing an email address and then continuing to interact with your website. Or, it may be as subtle as a prospect visiting designated pages on your site containing a cookie or a tag that allows you “find” that person on other websites or search engine results pages.
The next step is to continue to interact with that person, even after they are no longer on your website, with targeted email, relevant online ads or paid search results.
This how-to article features five tactics on how to execute retargeting across a number of marketing channels. Next week, we’ll “retarget” you with five more tactics from our expert sources.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
This post focuses on the generalities associated with retargeting, and five associated tactics with retargeting. It is an overview article, not a hands-on, follow-this-blueprint type of article.
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The Definitive Guide to Influencer Targeting – KISSmetrics
From blog.kissmetrics.com – Today, 7:31 AM
Overview…
The term “influencer” is wiggling its way through the tangled web. And it’s a hard one to catch because no one knows for certain what it looks like. Personally, I think that’s where the biggest challenge lies, because an influencer is like a changeling. It has a different image for every brand and often for every campaign of a brand. Here is my own take on what an influencer is and a guide for where to find ideal influence to promote your business.
Part 1: What is an Influencer
Part 2: Where to Look for Your Ideal Influencer
Part 3: You Know What They Are and Found Them, Now What?
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Another TREMENDOUS article today! This is a great guide to assist you with the process of targeting influencers in your industry: a practical, hands-on roadmap for your use. A must click through.
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Guide to Finding The Right Social Influencers | Visual.ly
From visual.ly – Today, 7:33 AM
A guide to activating your social advocates and influencers.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Goes hand-in-hand with the adjacent scoop.
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Why You Need Marketing Automation Software – crmsearch
From www.crmsearch.com – Today, 7:10 AM
Here’s how marketing automation software can deliver more and better leads to the sales force and show impressive marketing ROI.
Key excerpt…
From a lead gen perspective, marketing is charged to bring segmentation, highly tested messaging, relevant and personalized content, and scale to demand generation campaigns in order to acquire the volume and quality of leads needed to achieve revenue objectives. But this is a tall order, and when the leads buying intent is unknown or sales harps for more leads, marketers too often throw all the leads over the fence which in turn incurs several ramifications.
- Good leads fall between the cracks when marketers also include unqualified leads in their lead distributions to sales. It’s an age old problem that both sacrifices the goods leads and grows the cultural divide between sales and marketing.
- Sales productivity falls when sales people become lead qualifiers rather than lead verifiers. Sales productivity falls even further if sales people are forced to become their own marketing shops.
- The cost per lead rises dramatically when sales people acquire their own leads one at a time, as opposed to marketing applying repeatable processes and scale to acquire leads in bulk.
- Leads acquired outside of marketing don’t benefit from nurture campaigns and other marketing programs, and have a much higher propensity to languish and be lost.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
Easy article for those thinking about marketing automation. Provides a simple case to defend the adoption of a MAP.
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How to build great b-to-b social content in three steps :: BtoB Magazine
From www.btobonline.com – Today, 7:14 AM
Digest…
Here’s my take on three steps to generating successful social content from and for your community of customers, partners and influencers:
- Discover. Use a mixture of listening tools like NetBase and Twitalyzer to conduct audience research (it usually takes more than one tool to get all you need). Always start by learning a) what is being talked about, b) who the most influential voices are, and c) where their virtual water coolers are found. You’ll learn the keywords of the conversation you want to join before you jump in, helping your message resonate with real customer pain points. Create a scoring mechanism to prioritize the influencers who are most valuable to you. Then, find ways to engage in conversations with them.
- Empower. The real task is to get your internal experts (product management, designers, etc.) to talk to customers and influencers about how products are designed to solve business problems. It can be hard to get your experts to be on the front lines of communication.
- Publish: Here’s something that IS in the realm of marketing’s role in social media marketing—finding ways to highlight the most engaging content on your channels. You can link to popular blogs or discussions in your hosted community, or via Facebook posts, or tweets/retweets or LinkedIn comments. Feature links to your most popular blogs in your next monthly newsletter.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
The author is responsible for SAP’s Community Network, so she speaks with authority. You’ll want to click through to gain a greater understanding of her pillars.
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73% of businesses carry out basic email segmentation: report – Econsultancy
From econsultancy.com – Today, 6:49 AM
Almost three-quarters (73%) of businesses carry out basic email segmentation while a further 16% are planning to implement it, according to the new Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
A few thoughts:
1) We zeroed in on the stats associated with lead nuturing and lead scoring, two MA features. They roughly correspond with the degree of MA penetration in the market. However, we’re scratching our heads on the percentage of businesses conducting lead nurturing vs. lead scoring.
2) The study does not differentiate between B2B and B2C.
3) There are other revealing charts in the post: click through to see.
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Creative Design Tools for Non-Designers – ‘Net Features – Website Magazine
From www.websitemagazine.com – Today, 7:01 AM
Face it; you’re not a Web designer. You may try your digital best, but hey, you’ve never been trained in the art of virtual aesthetics. But that’s okay, because we can’t all be Web Van Gogh’s. However, for those of us that run websites and don’t have a dedicated design team to allocate work to, it’s still necessary to participate in the design process, from wireframing to reviewing, and all those little tweaks along the way.
Luckily, there are plenty of great creative design tools available on the Web that are easy enough that any non-designer can use them. Check out the list below to see if there’s something that can help you look like you play a designer on the Web.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
GREAT collection of 19 design tools for the non-designer, from video to wireframing to banners. This is a must if you want to (occasionally) sidestep your designer. The 19 are linked with a brief description.
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Website competitive analysis and review: a guide for marketers – Econsultancy
From econsultancy.com – Today, 6:32 AM
Website competitive analysis is important, but it’s often done for the wrong reasons. In my opinion, there’s nothing better than measuring your progress against your own performance, plans or targets.
Excerpt…
What tools can you use for website competitive analysis?
- Search Metrics This tool allows you to see which keywords a competitor may be ranking for.
- Alexa. This tool provides estimations of traffic. However, take what you see with a handful of salt (yes a handful, not a pinch), the figures aren’t always accurate (mostly due to how the data is collected). However, you can use this to see relative performance against your own site. I recommend looking at the traffic ranking and the keywords information Alexa provides.
- PR Checker. I almost always include page rank in my competitive reviews. It’s a straightforward and easily understood measure. It’s also a pretty good reflection of potential website reach.
- Majestic SEO. This tool is great for seeing a sites link portfolio. I recommend recording the number of inbound links and the number of domains these links come from.
- Hubspot marketing grader. This tool is fantastic for gaining insights into a number of marketing elements that come together to make a successful site.
- Google page speed insights. This tool allows you to see how fast a site loads. Load speed is a good indication of how easy the site is to access. Site speed is also a ranking factor used by Google.
iNeoMarketing‘s insight:
This is a great, hands-on guide that provides practical guidance on HOW to conduct a web site competitive analysis, covering the 5Ws. The author made it very easy for you: just fill in the blanks (almost)!
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[INFOGRAPHIC] 7 Key Design Tips for High-Converting Landing Pages [+ Free Templates] – HubSpot
From blog.hubspot.com – Today, 6:25 AM
7 design-related best practices for creating landing pages that convert.
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[INFOGRAPHIC] Digital Marketing:The Digital Marketer’s Toolbox – Infosys
From www.infosysblogs.com – Today, 6:23 AM
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