July, 2012

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4 Reasons Google Bought Wildfire

Convince & Convert

Wildfire , a pioneering social media management software application that specialized in contests and promotions, announced today that it has been bought by Google for a smooth $250 million. (Happy day for Gary Vaynerchuk , who was an angel investor in Wildfire). It was just a matter of time, as given that Buddy Media, Vitrue, Involver, and Context Optional had already been snapped up, Wildfire was one of few remaining independent players with an enterprise client list.

Google 164
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Raab Report: B2B Marketing Automation Revenues to Hit $525 Million in 2012

Customer Experience Matrix

I’ve just released the latest edition of my B2B Marketing Automation Vendor Selection Tool (VEST), which contains detailed analysis of all 22 B2B marketing automation systems. Serious marketing of the new edition is yet to begin, but anyone considering purchase of a marketing automation system can buy the VEST now at the www.raabguide.com Web site. The new report contains a rich trove of industry information.

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7 reasons an internal slide share library is an imperative

Avitage

Where are slides created in your company? Marketing (marcom, product marketing, field marketing), multiple vendors or contractors, training, field sales and pre-sales, executives — almost everyone creates slides. How well are they shared? How easily can you find the slide(s) you need. Everyone manages PowerPoint. Most manage it poorly. PowerPoint is typically managed as a document.

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Sales Leads, Appointments and Granfalloons

ViewPoint

Generating sales leads that are actually followed up by sales is a basic business process that is broken in most companies. The reason is that marketing and sales are part of a Granfalloon. Kurt Vonnegut defined a Granfalloon as “a group of people who outwardly choose or claim to have a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is actually meaningless” I love this line from Neil Rackham (author of SPIN Selling) during his keynote address at the 2012 International BMA C

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Sales & Marketing Alignment: How to Synergize for Success

Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker

Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.

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Free 1 Hour Content Marketing Seminar

Tomorrow People

Date: 6th August 2012 (Monday). Time: 9:30am to 10:30am. Where: Zoober Digital Training, 101 Rhubarb, 25 Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, B9 4AE. 2012 has been the year that content/inbound marketing has forced itself into the mainstream consciousness of most B2B and B2C marketers. Many of the conferences and events I attend seem to be dominated by the topic, with particular reference to the holy grail for marketers. marketing return on investment (ROI).

More Trending

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Social Media Influencers versus Brand Advocates Infographic

Convince & Convert

Influencer outreach is a key element of many social media and modern public relations programs. But they often prove ineffective at driving behavior beyond social chatter. I wrote a post about why this is so, called “Why Online Influencer Outreach is Overrated and How to Fix It” The biggest issue is that we tend to confuse audience with influence.

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The Death of SEO? The Evolution of Search Engine Marketing

KoMarketing Associates

The Death of SEO. That is the title of the Forbes article forwarded to me this weekend proclaiming SEO will be dead in the near distant future. The sensationalism created by this title is repeated with almost every major Google update in the past half decade, yet SEO continues to be a significant tactic for driving leads in B2B marketing. I’m not going to link to the article; you can find it pretty easily on Forbes if interested.

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No Marketing Momentum? What Now?

Avitage

Competitive athletes know that momentum can make all the difference in winning games. You develop momentum by either executing a well thought out strategy or making a spectacular play that shakes up the competition. When you have momentum you play your game and emphasize your strengths. When you lose momentum, you have to figure out how to get it back by making adjustments.

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PowerViews with Tony Jaros: The New Demand Waterfall, Alignment & SLAs

ViewPoint

I'm pleased to have as my guest today Tony Jaros, SVP of Research at SiriusDecisions. Tony is a sales and marketing thought leader with nearly 20 years of experience. He has led the research function at SiriusDecisions for more than 10 years, overseeing the creation of content including demand creation, product marketing, marketing communications, general strategy, sales training, hiring and client service.

Demand 156
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WorkCast's Ultimate Webinar Handbook 2024

Elevate your webinar game with WorkCast's Ultimate Webinar Handbook! Packed with insights from our seasoned webinar experts, this comprehensive guide is your go-to resource for mastering the art of B2B webinars. Learn the fundamentals, from defining webinars to exploring their benefits and diverse use cases. Discover the key elements of running a successful webinar, avoiding common mistakes, and making your sessions more engaging.

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Free 25 Minute Content Marketing Webinar

Tomorrow People

Date: 31st July 2012 (Tuesday). Time: 9:30am - 10:00am. Where: On your PC! 2012 has been the year that content/inbound marketing has forced itself into the mainstream consciousness of most B2B and B2C marketers. Many of the conferences and events I attend seem to be dominated by the topic, with particular reference to the holy grail for marketers. marketing return on investment (ROI).

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From insight to action

Savanta

'Sometimes the biggest challenge with customer insight is not doing the research, but doing something with it. You start with determination to put the customer at the centre of decisions. You carefully design a robust survey. You intelligently analyse the findings to get to the heart of the issue. Then…. Well, nothing. The research becomes an academic exercise rather than a catalyst spurring action.

RSS 150
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Optimizing the Lead: A data-driven optimization process

markempa

Tweet Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to share the most exciting aspect of working at MECLABS – Research Partnerships that allow us to test and optimize lead generation processes. Spouting theory is easy, but it’s meaningless unless you know how it works in the real world with real companies. It’s thrilling for me to observe lead generation strategy transform into revenue for our Research Partners.

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Google Webmaster Tools Announces New “Index Status” Feature For Webmasters

KoMarketing Associates

Google’s Webmaster Central Blog announced yesterday that they will now feature an “Index Status” capability which will allow webmasters to track how many of their site’s pages are being indexed by Google. A graph will indicate how many pages of a site are currently part of the Google index and the amount of new content being viewed on a site. According to Google, the “ Index Status ” feature will be a resource for webmasters to continually track the progress of their site and fix any index-rela

Features 176
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The Top 3 Tips for Writing Successful White Papers

In the B2B marketing toolkit, white papers can be a powerful option for reaching decision-makers and experts, presenting them with interesting information that improves their perception of your organization's competence and thought leadership. That said, a poorly executed whitepaper will not only be unable to influence your desired audience but will also come with significant costs that other assets won't incur.

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Got content challenges? Apply the problem-cause model.

Avitage

Serious practitioners of content marketing inevitably face significant content challenges. A review of surveys and discussions of top content challenges reveals the operational nature of the underlying causes of many of these challenges. However, I seldom see content strategy guidelines address operational issues. This is a major shortcoming of current thinking.

Content 160
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“Tell Me Who Your Friends Are and I'll Tell You Who You Are."

ViewPoint

James Obermayer, Executive Director and CEO of the Sales Lead Management Association and President of Sales Leakage Consulting is a regular guest blogger with ViewPoint. Put another way, tell me with whom you associate professionally and I will know if you can prove the return on investment for marketing. More specifically, tell me how you manage your sales leads and I can tell how successful you will be in marketing.

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Zoober Digital Training to Launch with Summer Barbeque #OlympicsBBQ

Tomorrow People

What do you tend to do on a Friday afternoon? Friday afternoon. the work witching hour. Activities include throwing things at bins, making paper planes and watching the clock. But circle Friday, June 27, with a big red pen - because it could be the most productive afternoon you spend all year. Find our more on Twitter via #OlympicsBBQ. Zoober Digital Training and Tomorrow People , in partnership with NTI Birmingham (Birmingham City University), cordially invite you to our Summer Barbeque.

Training 211
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From insight to action

Savanta

Sometimes the biggest challenge with customer insight is not doing the research, but doing something with it. You start with determination to put the customer at the centre of decisions. You carefully design a robust survey. You intelligently analyse the findings to get to the heart of the issue. Then…. Well, nothing. The research becomes an academic exercise rather than a catalyst spurring action.

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21 Advanced ChatGPT Prompts To Take Your Social Media to the Next Level

Upgrade your social media game with our in-depth playbook: "21 advanced ChatGPT prompts for social media managers". These powerful prompts are tailored to supercharge your content creation, strategy development, and results analysis. Say goodbye to writer's block and hello to endless creativity as you effortlessly generate engaging posts, come up with original strategies, and optimize your social media performance - all in a fraction of the time.

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The Marketing Funnel Is Dead. Let's Have Dessert.

Customer Experience Matrix

Last week’s post on lead scoring attracted more positive attention than I expected. This was doubly surprising because first, I didn’t think lead scoring was such a hot topic and second, I don’t really agree with the approaches I described. To clarify that second point, I’m not saying what I wrote was wrong or insincere. Rather, I consider it an accurate description of an approach I find problematic.

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SEO & WP: Killing it in 2012 – WordCamp Boston

KoMarketing Associates

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to speak at WordCamp Boston. The event is one of my favorites to attend as the content is fantastic, the speakers are all extremely knowledgeable and the organizers do a great job. If you aren’t familiar, WordCamps are described as “informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you.

SEO 176
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To lower video costs while volume grows, change your process

Avitage

Over the past year we have had the privilege of working with two large software companies: SAP and PTC. I’ve heard a common refrain from each that is applicable to organizations that want to lower their cost of video, even as their requirements scale. The refrain is: true value and productivity gains come from redesigning the workflow processes that software enables.

Cost 120
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PowerViews with Brian Carroll: The State of B2B Lead Gen & 2012 Recommendations

ViewPoint

My guest today is Brian Carroll. Brian is Executive Director of Revenue Optimization at MECLABS where he leads business units that include Applied Research, Strategy Group, Conversion Group, Leads Group, Agency Group, Technology Group and Training Group. Brian is also CEO of InTouch and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale. Below, you can read highlights from our discussion or use the links to start the video from different parts of the conversation.

Lead Gen 156
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What Regulations Will Impact Sustainability Comms in 2024?

Navigating the waters of sustainability reporting disclosures and regulations can be intimidating, to say the least. With various measures set in motion in 2023 to keep companies accountable, there is a lot in store for brands’ impact communication in the upcoming year. 3BL is kicking off this January with our Navigating ESG Comms Through the Cosmos - Capricorn Edition by highlighting the impact of: The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Climate disclosure rules The European Commission

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No Such Thing As a Free Burger? #OlympicsBBQ

Tomorrow People

Free Burger Alert. Zoober Digital Training and Tomorrow People , in partnership with NTI Birmingham (Birmingham City University), invite you to our Summer Barbeque. This marketing technology event will celebrate the launch of Zoober Digital Training on the eve of the Olympics. There will be plenty of opportunities to network with key digital influencers in the Birmingham area and find out about the latest developments in the city’s creative sector.

Domain 242
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Case Studies: Does Your Team Know What Makes a Good Success Story?

WriteSpark

One of your sales reps sends a breathless e-mail: "XYZ company just signed a contract. They'd make a great success story!" Or, you're preparing to launch a new product and you know that a strong customer case study would be very helpful for substantiating your marketing messages. So, you ask the product manager whether any of the customers involved in beta testing or early product release would be good candidates.

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Not Tracking Social Media ROI is Your Fault

Convince & Convert

Last week, Susan Etlinger from Altimeter Group published the Social Media ROI Cookbook. It contains significant quantities of solid thinking, and provides a useful framework of six primary ways to measure social media effectiveness. (click here to view and download the Social Media ROI Cookbook on Slideshare). There’s no question that the social media ROI question continues to befuddle business – 41% of respondents to an eConsultancy survey of 1,000 companies and agencies in late 201

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Please Don’t Read This Blog

Marketing Insider Group

Do not read this blog post. Really! In fact, don’t read any blog posts. Blogs are a waste of time. People who write blogs have too much time on their hands, have nothing unique to say and probably do not have a job. You will not learn anything from this blog or anyone else’s blog. So if you read this far, you are wasting your time. Other people have nothing to teach you.

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How to Improve Email Deliverability and Optimize Each Send

Learn how to optimize email deliverability and drive greater email ROI. What lands your email in the customer’s inbox? Understanding those factors, otherwise known as email deliverability, is critical to getting the most return on your campaign investments. But the “rules” around which factors land you in the spam folder aren’t always easy to keep up with.

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Three B2B Marketing Fundamentals to Master

Digital B2B Marketing

B2B marketing is complex. Sales cycles are long, measurement can be convoluted, and segmentation, lead scoring and sales and marketing alignment take traditional marketers into uncomfortable spaces. Amid the details and uncomfortable spaces, the bigger marketing picture is often lost. Take a step back and consider the three bigger picture items below.

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Which is better in B2B Lead Generation? A $1,000 inbound lead or a $1,000 outbound lead?

ViewPoint

I asked this question on Focus.com a few weeks ago and got answers that surprised me. Knowing the B2B lead generation market like I do, here is what I expected to see : “The inbound lead is better because outbound is dead.” “Inbound rules. Stop interruption marketing.” I expected these types of responses because all you read these days are article after article and blog after blog saying that “70% of the buyer’s journey is done before a sales rep needs to get

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No Such Thing As a Free Burger?

Tomorrow People

Free Burger Alert. Zoober Digital Training and Tomorrow People , in partnership with NTI Birmingham (Birmingham City University), invite you to our Summer Barbeque. This marketing technology event will celebrate the launch of Zoober Digital Training on the eve of the Olympics. There will be plenty of opportunities to network with key digital influencers in the Birmingham area and find out about the latest developments in the city’s creative sector.

Domain 235