Sales Engine

OCTOBER 27, 2015

What’s the right way to follow up on content to turn leads into sales conversations? Remember, people at the beginning of the sales process don’t want to talk to a salesperson — and they don’t have to anymore. This of course will vary in every organization depending on your overall sales process. Nurture, nurture, nurture.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 11, 2017

As a marketing leader, have you been tasked with building a demand generation program designed to funnel leads to salespeople? For most B2B companies with a complex, relationship based selling process, a demand generation program that provides actionable sales intelligence is one of the best options at their disposal.

Demand Generation Agencies 136

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Budget Programs Demand 136

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

The good news is that as technology such as marketing automation advances, creating a more individualized marketing communications program that leads to sales conversations is becoming more real. So Before You Purchase Marketing Automation… Marketing automation systems have reached some maturity in the marketing landscape.

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Several years ago, we made some significant investments in marketing after we’d purchased a marketing automation system, and the idea was to gain as much market traction as possible. But how much of that exposure translated into leads and sales? Less is more if there are more qualified leads for salespeople to follow up on.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

The good news is that as technology such as marketing automation advances, creating a more individualized marketing communications program that leads to sales conversations is becoming more real. So Before You Purchase Marketing Automation… Marketing automation systems have reached some maturity in the marketing landscape.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 18, 2016

While we were pleased with the lead generation effort, the sales resulting from those leads were disappointingly low. So was it a quality of leads issue or a sales/opportunity conversion issue? During the evaluation timeframe, we generated almost 6,000 leads, for a Suspect-to-MQL conversion rate of 27.3%. Not bad, right?

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Cost per Lead 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 28, 2016

Many companies have focused on increasing their inbound traffic for new leads to combat tighter spam regulations and more concentrated email filters. But increasing web traffic without a thorough conversion strategy is just branding and awareness— that won’t supply enough leads to salespeople to hit your revenue growth targets.

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy A/B testing Broadcasting Content 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

For most companies, it likely started with marketing automation software, a website makeover, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-click advertising, and Customer Relationship Management software. Most of us remember a day when sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. So how do you go beyond lead generation to domination?

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. So, marketing’s new role as lead generators for sales requires more than just project management and stellar execution.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. So, marketing’s new role as lead generators for sales requires more than just project management and stellar execution.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 15, 2016

Therefore, sales prospecting with content requires a more complex process than it did even five years ago, largely because the buyer has a lot more control and salespeople are no longer the sole gatekeepers to the information they need. Enter the lead nurturer. Buying lead lists won’t cut it anymore, either.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 22, 2016

Because of the complexities of today’s buyer’s journey, and the ever-changing role of sales in this process, marketing must be involved more than ever before: More than branding and awareness More than demand generation More than just lead conversion Because each sales process has become unique. Enter the lead nurturer.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 6, 2016

Most B2B companies are realizing that, to hit their growth goals, they need to shift the focus of their marketing from branding and awareness to lead generation. Marketing automation is only 20% of the overall solution, and the result is that companies throw money away because they’re using a small fraction of their overall capabilities. #2

Demand Generation Agencies 168

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paid Search Agency Demand 168

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

That’s what a lead generation strategy is really all about. So what are the building blocks of a lead generation strategy? A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

That’s what a lead generation strategy is really all about. So what are the building blocks of a lead generation strategy? A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 5, 2016

These aggressive approaches to traditional lead-generation tactics are not as effective anymore because buyer behavior has changed, and therefore, breaking through plateaus requires changing your overall customer acquisition strategy. Sales reps used to be the only source of leads. High Customer-Acquisition Costs.

Work Management 149

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Budget Programs 149

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Feeding the content marketing machine is an endless process, because once you stop publishing, your conversations start drying up. If you’re in the 68%, however, and you plan to go outside your company for help in putting together a strategy, the outside firm must go through a strategic process before any content development can begin.

Advertising Agencies 120

Advertising Agencies Budget Programs High Quality Lead Content 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 17, 2016

Content marketing done correctly opens the door for salespeople not because of the brand recognition, but because the content piques some sort of curiosity with prospects or touches a nerve that leads a sales conversation. Of those who consumed a piece of your content: How many downloads turned into leads? Did it translate into a lead?

Budget Programs 168

Budget Programs Content Marketing Brand Identity Branding 168

Sales Engine

AUGUST 12, 2016

It seems like every disruptive Internet trend leads to predictions of the death of an old trend. It turns out that they needed process redefinition, more staff and more data to make that software work. Print is dead. Cold calls are dead. SEO is dead.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 136

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Hubspot cites direct and indisputable correlation between the number of Blog Posts that a company creates and the number of inbound leads that they receive. Leveraging marketing automation to convert this activity to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). But do you know what the prospects DO want?

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Hubspot cites direct and indisputable correlation between the number of Blog Posts that a company creates and the number of inbound leads that they receive. Leveraging marketing automation to convert this activity to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). But do you know what the prospects DO want?

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 19, 2015

I have a friend in sales who continuously argues with me over the definition of what a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). As a salesperson, he simply cannot understand how someone that’s not qualified, but demonstrates interest by clicking on a link or downloading a report, can be counted as a qualified lead by any means. I don’t know.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads MQL Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 16, 2016

What does a perfect world B2B sales process look like? For me, that looks like marketing generating enough qualified leads so that most of my time is spent having productive sales conversations. So, to compete with content marketing, what processes ARE repeatable and what processes are NOT?

Sales Management 120

Sales Management Top of Funnel Cold Calling Content 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 13, 2016

Just because B2B companies are investing heavily in content marketing doesn’t mean that they’re successful at generating the leads they need for business growth. Additionally, 85% of the companies surveyed indicate that lead generation and sales growth was their primary objective for greater investments.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 136

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 7, 2015

It seems like every disruptive Internet trend leads to predictions of the death of an old trend. It turns out that they needed process redefinition, more staff and more data to make that software work. Print is dead. Cold calls are dead. SEO is dead.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MAY 12, 2016

The main goal is qualified leads for sales people , which means that if you’re not converting anonymous traffic to your website, blogs and social media, you’re not generating leads—you’re just branding, and that turns your overall customer acquisition costs into a much more expensive proposition. Did it translate into a lead?

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Brand Identity Branding Budget Programs 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 9, 2016

Creating an end-to-end lead generation process with content marketing requires that your top-of-funnel content (the content that focuses on early stage buyers and is commonly found in blogs) is tied together with your premium conversion assets. But it can’t stop there. So what does the professionally trained sales rep do?

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Digital Marketing Funnels Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 3, 2015

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

That’s actually good news for small and midsize companies who could never afford to compete with the huge sales teams of market leaders, but the key to making content marketing work as a prospecting tool is that it must lead to sales conversations. Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Bottom of the Funnel Content.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

That’s actually good news for small and midsize companies who could never afford to compete with the huge sales teams of market leaders, but the key to making content marketing work as a prospecting tool is that it must lead to sales conversations. Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Bottom of the Funnel Content.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 120