MarketingAutomation.net

Eat less. Don’t be a prospect glutton! Focus on the quality of your leads and, like the satisfaction that comes from eating a fine meal made of gourmet ingredients, you will be pleased with the results. Your sales cycle will be leaner and healthier, and your team will be more productive when they “cut out the fat” of unqualified leads.

Exercise more. This translates to staying nimble and keeping on top of trends. Social networking came seemingly out of nowhere to become the game-changer of 2009. Marketers who didn’t adopt quickly are getting left behind in 2010. It’s like surfing: You want to ride the waves, not chase after them.

Give up bad habits. Pestering prospects with unwanted emails is a bad habit that marketers need to break. Try to change your ways by focusing on permission-based marketing that provides useful information that potential customers want and find useful. Don’t waste time sending superfluous junk that gets deleted instantly.

Save money. The best way for marketers to keep this resolution is to find and implement a robust marketing automation solution. Not only will you save money, but you’ll also maximize ROI and increase efficiency. You can’t lose!

Make friends. Yes, that’s right: Make friends with your customers. Customers are wary of salespeople and marketers, but they trust friends. Aside from the obvious benefit of reducing their skepticism and building trust, you’ll also learn their wants and needs, their likes and dislikes, and so on — very valuable information for marketers!

Work smarter. Don’t just vow to work harder this year — work smarter. Marketing automation tools are one of the simplest and quickest ways for you to make this happen. It’s not about how many hours you work and how many leads you amass; it’s about how many quality leads you generate, and the effectiveness of your follow-up with these leads. A good marketing automation solution is key to ensuring that you pass only the most qualified leads on to your Sales team, allowing you to focus on lead nurturing with coordinated, automated processes such as drip campaigns.

Another off-label use of marketing automation was related to me by a salesguy at software company who had just gone through a rigorous RFP process like the kind described in the previous post (Part 1). The prospect had not yet announced the winning vendor, and although the salesguy knew his company was a finalist, he was becoming restless trying to figure out whether they’d won the contract or not. He turned to his marketing automation solution to do a little detective work and was ecstatic to find a particularly revealing tidbit: A wave of visitors to his company’s website had found it by clicking a link on the prospect’s website that announced it had chosen the software company as its vendor. Of course, the salesguy had to feign delighted surprise when the new client called with the great news, but armed with this valuable piece of information, he was able to resist requests for discounted pricing since he knew the client had already publicly committed to his solution.

This is a brilliantly out-of-the-box way to use marketing automation to your advantage. Stay tuned for Part 3.

Marketing automation tools are great when used as prescribed, but occasional off-label uses can be very rewarding. I’ve recently come across a few “wish-I’d-thought-of-that” ideas on some off-label uses of marketing automation tools. This is the first example in a three-part series of unconventional ways you can make marketing automation work for you.

Many software companies have long sales cycles that involve multiple decision makers and require Requests for Proposals (RFPs). The RFP process is a long one that typically includes a “quiet period” of 30 to 45 days, during which the potential client enters the evaluation phase and is supposed to have no communication whatsoever with the competing vendors. This can be frustrating for companies who want to know how they’re coming along in the deliberations. But what to do if you can’t touch base with the prospect? Marketing automation tools can show you who is visiting your website, how long they’re spending on it, and what they’re looking at while they’re there. If you suddenly see a spike in traffic from a potential client’s IP address, you can bet that your company is a serious contender. Even in a mandatory “quiet period”, you can get an edge over your competitors by using marketing automation tools to gauge a prospect’s level of interest in your product.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Thanksgiving is a time where many of us are reminded of all the things we’re thankful for. But take a moment to really think about your customers — where would you be without them? Let them know how much you value their business with one or more of these ten easy ways to thank your customers:

1. Send them a handwritten note telling them how much you appreciate them. We all know how quick and efficient email is, but go the extra mile and dust off your old pen and paper. Nothing communicates sincerity like a handwritten note, and your customers will appreciate the thoughtfulness. Print your logo or letterhead on blank correspondence cards for a professional touch.
2. Give them the recognition they deserve. Recognition is more or less a form of free publicity, and companies always appreciate publicity. You can mention them on your website or in a publication, or Tweet about what great customers they are.
3. Invite them to open houses and other special events. Make it clear that they are being invited because they are valued customers and you want to thank them by including them in these special events.
4. Value their feedback. Set up an idea exchange to solicit customer feedback. Then, make sure you show that you value their feedback not just by thanking them for it, but by implementing their ideas and suggestions into future product features and letting them know about it. Also, having a designated client advocate periodically check in with customers to see how they’re doing and if they have any problems you can help solve is a great way to make your customers feel included and valued.
5. Acknowledge when they are good to you, and apologize when they’re not. If your customers blog or Tweet about you, pay attention to what they are saying. If it is positive, thank them for the compliment. If it is negative, investigate the situation and be prepared to apologize and rectify whatever issue they might be having. Don’t think of negative comments as an assault on your company; rather, think of them as opportunities for improvement. Let your clients know that you hear their frustrations and are doing something about the situation.
6. Send them a little something nice. A birthday card or holiday greetings are time-tested customer appreciation strategies that have become par for the course. But what would your customers do if they received something more personalized, like a gift card for their neighborhood coffee shop or a paperback book by their favorite author? These are small gestures that communicate more than just appreciation for your customers — they’re evidence that you pay attention to conversational cues and clues about them as an individual, and that you see them as more than just a number.
7. Give them the inside scoop. One great way to thank clients that will also benefit your own company is by giving them the inside scoop about new features and products. Ask them to test your Beta releases so they’re the first to get to try your latest and greatest features. They feel valued, and you get crucial customer feedback while your product release is still in the developmental stages. It’s a win-win situation.
8. Offer special deals, discounts, and opportunities to your most valued customers. A lot of companies give their best offers only to new customers; once they’ve got you hooked, you don’t get any more special treatment. Turn this logic on its head and start thinking of what sorts of special deals or perks you can offer to your established customers. This strategy not only thanks your clients, but in many cases it will win their continued business.
9. Share helpful information with them. Best practices and white papers contain lots of valuable tips and information that most customers find quite useful. Share any and all information with clients if you feel they could benefit from it. They will appreciate it, and it’s a great excuse to touch base or stay in contact with your customer base.
10. Give them special access to the experts. Thought leadership webinars, when someone who is an expert in the field or at your company gives customers advice, are a great way to do this. Another way is to get an industry expert to periodically write guest blog posts.

Happy Thanksgiving from MarketingAutomation.net!

It’s trade show season again! You set up your snazzy booth and distributed all of your punchy handouts. You networked with tons of great people and collected scads of new leads. Now it’s time to go home.

But what to do with all those fresh leads you’ve amassed?

What better way to follow up with them than by taking advantage of the magic of marketing automation? Post-show lead nurturing is easy when you use your marketing automation system to:

• Create a “trade show” campaign to track leads by source
• Associate this campaign with a dollar amount so you can see immediate ROI
• Set up a drip campaign to take care of most lead nurturing functions
• Track how many of your trade show leads become opportunities and, ultimately, new customers

All you have to do is bring home your list of names, compose a handful of emails, and decide how frequently they are to be sent out. The marketing automation system will take care of the rest, leaving you free to follow up directly with the most promising leads while allowing you to automate the lead nurturing that normally takes up so much time. It’s a win-win setup that makes a good marketing automation solution a must-have for trade show season.

Take control of your email campaigns to ensure maximum deliverability. Don’t leave everything to your Email Service Provider (ESP); in fact, your ESP really only controls a small aspect of deliverability. The rest is up to you. You can and should exert a high degree of control over the content and configuration of your emails. Good content and smart design will in turn lead to higher deliverability rates. George Bilbrey of Return Path offers some excellent tips in a recent article:

1.  Get the fundamentals right. Poorly configured email servers reek of spam. This is the one area where your ESP does have a lot to do with deliverability. But it’s only what you make of it. Make sure your ESP is maintaining a good infrastructure that doesn’t render your outgoing emails spam-like. Bilbrey notes that ensuring that you have a dedicated IP address is the most crucial aspect here.

2.  Avoid complaints. Let recipients opt-in to receive mailings, and make sure those messages are relevant. You should be sending emails frequently enough to stay at the top of your customers’ minds, but not so much as to annoy them. Three emails per year is probably not enough; three per day is definitely too many. The bottom line? You don’t want recipients to grow so frustrated that they automatically hit the “This Is Spam” button every time they get an email from you.

3.  Bring out your dead! Practice good list hygiene and periodically weed out all of the dead or nonperforming email addresses on your list. When someone signs up for your list, send out a welcome email to check for bounces. As Bilbrey points out, a high proportion of emails sent to “unknown users” is strongly suggestive of a spammer. Make sure you don’t give the wrong impression by keeping your list free of bogus addresses.

4.  Resist the honey pot! Spam traps, also known as “honey pots”, are dormant email addresses used to apprehend spammers. These spam-trap addresses get mixed in with lists of legitimate recipients, usually when you’re emailing infrequently (and hence getting older, inactive addresses) or sending emails to a very old list that has not been updated. Sending to these spam-trap addresses can get you blacklisted; all the more reason for maintaining good list hygiene (see #3).

5.  Unclutter your content. Bilbrey cites content as a less common but still important factor in ensuring email deliverability. He emphasizes that, while reputation (as determined by the above factors) is absolutely key to deliverability, there are certainly systems that filter for content, so it is something to keep in mind as well. If the content of your emails is complicated, cluttered, or otherwise spammy-looking, you may encounter problems with deliverability.

Touching on this last point, we’ve all heard the phrase “Content is king.” Take this to heart. While Bilbrey and many others cite good content as less essential to deliverability than all the other factors discussed here, I would argue that it deserves perhaps the most attention, as it is the area where you have the most control. You control 100% of the content and design of your emails, so it follows that you can make the most impact by focusing your efforts on cleaning up your content, improving your design, and writing with your desired audience in mind. Go ahead, be a control freak!

With all the buzz about marketing automation lately, you may be wondering if this new technology is right for your company’s online marketing needs. Because marketing automation suites offer a many features in one central interface, most are flexible enough benefit a variety of companies. Here are a few questions to help you decide if marketing automation is a the right fit for you:

• Does your product or service have a long, multi-touch sales cycle?
  Marketing automation works well for companies who need to track prospect interaction over time since you can track all activity, even pre-conversion actions, throughout the sales cycle. Lead nurturing capabilities can automate the education process as prospects move through the sales funnel.
• Do you currently use your website for lead generation, or would you like to?
  Marketing automation tracks prospect activity on your website. It can also help you design and deploy forms and landing pages to convert visitors into prospects. Companies that see the most benefit are often those that have a variety of desirable content on their website, such as white papers, videos or other education materials, that will provide conversion opportunities. Contact forms to request further information or view a sales demo also work great for lead generation.
• Do you currently use email marketing, or would you like to?
  These days, most marketers are using some form of email marketing, whether its an internal program or third-party sponsorships. Marketing automation systems can help you design, build and send your emails, track the actions of your recipients and also provides statistics like click-through and open rates. You can use the system to send email blasts, set up automated drip marketing campaigns or trigger emails based on your prospect’s actions.
• Are you looking to improve the hand-off between the marketing and sales departments?
  In many companies, sales and marketing butt heads when they should be working together. Marketing automation can help bridge the gap between your sales and marketing team. Marketing benefits from easier campaign management, clear cut ROI data and the ability to nurture leads until the are sales ready. The result is more qualified leads being passed to the sales team. Not only are the leads more qualified, they also come complete with a prospect profile that gives the sales team valuable insight into the interests and intentions of their new lead. Gone are the days of junk-filled CRMs and disgruntled sales reps, the two departments can now work together with a common vision.

Marketing automation is a sophisticated tool with many customization options, so there are plenty of additional ways it can benefit your company. Considering the questions above will help you begin to determine if you’re ready to jump in and get started with a marketing automation program.

Gone are the days of taking prospects golfing, in are the days of nurturing through marketing automation.  Sales reps used to spend most of their time out of the office, building relationships over fun activities.  From long lunches to sporting events, it seemed like a win-win situation for sales reps and buyers.  In fact this is usually a longer process and definitely more expensive.  Besides, today interested buyers perform their research online.

Instead of spending massive amounts of money wining and dining potential clients, marketing automation allows sales and marketing teams to reach out to customers in their new location.  Buyers are online searching for the perfect product for their needs so why not go to them.

Today the buying process is mainly virtual, with buyers accessing information from white papers, demos, webinars, etc.  Marketing automation will allow you to not only cater to your prospects, but also save money in the process.

Marketing automation:

• Gives prospects the information they want via white papers, demos, etc while obtaining contact information
• Saves money by nurturing prospects online
• Integrates social media sites such as Linkedin and Jigsaw, to quickly learn more about a prospect
• Puts prospects on automated drip nurturing schedules
• Syncs to a CRM system automatically
• Scores and grades prospects depending on their activities as well as how they fit your ideal customer profile

Marketing automation takes the prospect-to-client nurturing process down an even better path.  With marketing automation, you can get to know your prospects just as well, if not better, and save your time and money for something else.

These days in the marketing world, there is a lot of buzz around social media and marketing automation.  Fortunately, these two marketing trends can work together, creating one super-charged online marketing tool. Many marketing automation solutions now offer the ability to connect with sites such as Jigsaw and LinkedIn.

Together marketing automation and social media combine to improve your lead triaging process.  Prospect profiles are integrated with links to LinkedIn and Jigsaw.  Click on either one of the connectors and you will be automatically directed to the search results for a prospect or a prospect’s company in either network.

The feature will come in handy from the perspective of both a marketer and a sales representative.  Features such as this add an extra element to make researching and segmenting leads even easier.  Both Jigsaw and LinkedIn are popular social networking sites used by most professionals.  Each site provides another source of information on your lead including their job title, industry, location, and company background.  Using this component of marketing automation you can research prospects much faster.  You also can cater to the prospect and how you decide to nurture them on their track from lead to customer.

After patiently waiting, your social media and online marketing campaigns are starting to pay off, and the leads are starting to roll in. So many you don’t even know what to do with all of them. This is where marketing automation comes in. The most important thing to remember about leads is that they need to be nurtured, and marketing automation software is the best way to do it. They offer many different features that are helpful when nurturing potential clients.

Activity Tracking - A key part in developing a prospect is finding out what they are really interested in which makes this feature so great. Being able to see what they have looked at and how long they spent looking at it is a great way to gauge a leads potential and position your campaign accordingly. It also allows you to send them information on certain aspects of your company that they seem to be interested in which will put your company’s name back in their head, even if they are not ready to buy.

Drip Marketing – This is another great element that gives companies the ability to automate their nurturing programs. With this feature you are able to set up a series of automated emails, check for prospects who take action, automatically assign them to a sales rep, or for those who don’t, trigger a new series of targeted messages to try and encourage interest. Drip marketing also makes it easy to keep in contact with prospects who are not yet ready to purchase. The best part of this is that prospects are continuously engaged with hardly any time spent on the company side.

Autoresponder E-mails - These e-mails are great because they give prospects the idea that they are receiving personalized e-mails from someone at the company, when in reality it is automated. This feature saves time, and will give you a lot of brownie points with the prospect, who will think you took time out of your busy day to write them an e-mail.

Marketing automation software offers so many benefits, but the value of its lead nurturing capabilities alone makes it worth it. Those who have been in B2B sales know that nurturing prospects and current clients is a big part of the job. It can be very time consuming, something that can be changed with the use of a marketing automation system.