The Point

OCTOBER 22, 2020

A client asks: “I know the answer is probably “it depends” but curious if you think there’s a best practice for how many follow-up nurture emails to send TOFU content syndication leads before you stop due to non-engagement?”. Focus on information that delivers real value vs. emails that ask: “are you ready to buy yet?”.

Sales Qualified Leads 227

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Leads 227

The Point

JANUARY 27, 2022

ABM is best viewed as a strategic initiative, with a level of investment and planning appropriate for a fundamental shift in the way a company drives revenue. But these types of tactics are typically best reserved for accounts that have already shown engagement or intent, where the investment is more likely to pay dividends.

Account Based Marketing 204

Account Based Marketing ABM Campaigns Demand Generation Agencies 204

The Point

MARCH 23, 2023

Implemented consistently, CRO not only improves demand gen performance, but ensures that landing pages and other Web assets stay current with design trends and best practices, improving the overall user experience. In the ideal, CRO is an ongoing process of constantly testing new ideas and improvements. Offer Appeal 2. Building Trust 3.

Demand 130

Demand Landing Pages Conversion Rate Paid Social Agency 130

The Point

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Lastly, these new regulations only reinforce what should be email marketing best practices, regardless: * Focus on value, not volume * Strive for relevancy, at all costs (hint: segmentation) * Offer information that solves problems vs. pitches a product Note that I don’t mention personalization.

Deliverability 162

Deliverability Rules Purchase Marketing Automation Services 162

The Point

SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

delete the personal information that a business has collected about a consumer. provide the option to opt out of the sale of a consumer’s personal information. delete the personal information that a business has collected about a consumer. provide the option to opt out of the sale of a consumer’s personal information.

B2B Marketing 220

B2B Marketing Advertising Agencies Privacy Policies B2B 220

The Point

APRIL 19, 2023

If you’re aiming at the wrong companies, not even the best content or creative will save you. Enter Exegraphics, an entirely new way of looking at companies that allows marketers to more accurately define, and target, those organizations that are the best fit for a particular product or solution.

Ideal Customer Profiles 130

Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing AI Marketing Analytics Tools B2B Marketing 130

The Point

JANUARY 13, 2012

It’s not perfect by any stretch (the copy could use some improvement – more on that later) but many of the techniques on display are simple, straightforward best practices you can easily apply to your next lead generation campaign. The more specific and tangible the benefits of reading the information, the more likely people are to want it.

Email Campaigns 100

Email Campaigns Campaigns Practices Fulfillment 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

A Marketing Qualified Account, the ABM equivalent of a Marketing Qualified Lead, is an account that attains a certain threshold, normally measured by an account score informed by specific behaviors such as engagement and content consumption. Marketing Qualified Accounts (MQAs). Photo by William Warby on Unsplash.

Account Based Marketing 290

Account Based Marketing ABM Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads 290

The Point

APRIL 22, 2020

Here are some best practices that are often common factors when companies get the best return from their content syndication program: Set proper expectations. If your average sales cycle is 6 months, don’t expect content syndication leads to magically convert to opportunities in a matter of days. Photo by Tyler Franta on Unsplash.

Lead Scoring 162

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking CPL Cost per Lead 162

The Point

MARCH 8, 2018

By which I mean that most analyst reports – Gartner Magic Quadrants, Forrester Wave Reports, and the like – are marketed as press announcements vs. information of value that might attract prospects actively evaluating your type of solution. Now, these sentiments may be newsworthy. See what I mean? via @spearmktg. Click To Tweet.

Marketing Report 216

Marketing Report Planning Gartner Demand Generation Agencies 216

The Point

FEBRUARY 27, 2018

The Web is littered with articles, Webinars, and very extensive reports about the specific, detailed requirements of GDPR and how best to achieve compliance. We recommend all marketers consult with legal counsel on how best to fully comply with GDPR. This is not one of those articles. Let Visitors Opt-Out of Cookie Tracking.

Privacy Policies 231

Privacy Policies Marketing Automation Services B2B Marketing Marketing Management 231

The Point

AUGUST 27, 2019

Use text in your image to convey additional information or detail (e.g. Ad creative (headline, descriptive copy, image) is the obvious variable to test in LinkedIn, but it can be just as powerful to learn which audience segments respond best to a specific content offer. Be sure to include a clear and specific Call to Action (e.g.

Paid Content 241

Paid Content Advertising Agencies Linkedin Advertisements 241

The Point

DECEMBER 15, 2020

What best practices should we put in place? A client asks: How long should a lead be chronically non-responsive before they’re marked as “marketing suspended”? High bounce rates and low open rates can damage your email reputation, which in turn may impact overall deliverability.

Lead Scoring 162

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Leads Lead 162

The Point

JANUARY 21, 2020

As a matter of best practice, at our agency , we always recommend that clients host campaign landing pages on their marketing automation platform (MAP), but the advantages gained by going that route vary between systems, so the pros and cons differ also. This is beneficial for companies that might be handling sensitive personal data (e.g.

Landing Pages 147

Landing Pages Industry CMS Marketing Automation Services Marketo 147

The Point

APRIL 19, 2017

The best demand generation campaigns start with content that your prospects want. Even the best data, and sparkling creative, can’t save you or your campaign if your content and offer isn’t up to scratch. Sounds obvious, but the best content provides information of value, information that the reader doesn’t already have.

Top of Funnel 214

Top of Funnel Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paper 214

The Point

JUNE 25, 2019

The reasons for this are varied, but many of them center on the quality of the underlying data, and the degree to which information about a particular lead, or opportunity, or closed deal is captured and tracked accurately. Are all of your technologies passing information effectively? How is your lead management process working?

Marketing Attribution 242

Marketing Attribution Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services 242

The Point

APRIL 16, 2019

When beginning a new B2B paid search campaign, it’s impossible to tell which keywords will ultimately convert the best over time and generate the lowest cost per conversion. However, these kinds of data points enable much more informed and intelligent bidding decisions versus the simple CPA numbers that many advertisers use.

Cost per Acquisition 235

Cost per Acquisition Paid Search Agency Campaigns Cost Per Click 235

The Point

JANUARY 17, 2019

I’ve written previously in this space about how automated lead nurturing works best, not as a dumping ground for unqualified leads, but as something that works in parallel with sales development to increase lead conversions and maximize SDR productivity.

Sales Qualified Leads 168

Sales Qualified Leads Tips Lead Nurturing Multi-Channel 168

The Point

OCTOBER 15, 2019

In fact, ABM works best in combination with more traditional, funnel-based demand generation, and integrating ABM into the overall demand generation mix (focused on high-value, high-propensity accounts, say) can pay real dividends for most companies. strategy, but “good content” is more than just well-written and informative.

Sales Qualified Leads 138

Sales Qualified Leads Work Management Marketing Management Account Based Marketing 138

The Point

MAY 17, 2021

That’s not simply because prospective customers will engage more readily with content that better aligns with whether they’re researching best practices, actively evaluating potential vendors, or somewhere in between. In fact, a failure to align offers with ad groups can be a prime culprit in poor conversion (click-to-lead) rates.

Marketing Management 207

Marketing Management Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle Demand Generation Agencies 207

The Point

AUGUST 16, 2019

For the reader, preview text provides another layer of information that helps that individual determine which emails to open and which to ignore (or mark as spam.) If written as wholly independent messages, no matter how compelling individually, the effect to the reader will be confusing at best.

Effectiveness 157

Effectiveness Tips Forrester CAN-SPAM 157

The Point

JULY 30, 2020

There are two primary ways to do this: one is to include a link to relevant content at the end of the post, as in “For more information on this topic, check out our free white paper …” (This is also something that can be done retroactively, to older posts that might be generating a good volume of organic traffic.)

Demand 221

Demand Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Budget 221

The Point

JUNE 24, 2022

Key Finding 2: Buyers leverage sales reps for information less (and later) than ever. Buyers are not only contacting sales reps less often (in this year’s survey, they dropped out of the top five most commonly used resources), but sales engagement is also being pushed later and later down the funnel.

Top of Funnel 130

Top of Funnel Cold Calling B2B Demand Generation 130

The Point

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Engaging earlier in the buying cycle also puts you in a position to build brand credibility, inform buying criteria, and educate the buyer before he/she even decides to start looking for solutions. Furthermore, even the best third-party intent data only ever delivers a subset of the total number of hot leads out there. Click To Tweet.

Intent Data 149

Intent Data Demand Generation Agencies Intent Paid Social Agency 149

The Point

MARCH 22, 2017

To be information of value, that same content needs to be useful, and at a very fundamental level it needs to tell the reader something he or she doesn’t already know. To be successful in driving engagement from business buyers, it’s not enough that marketing content simply be relevant to the individual reader. Sounds obvious, right?

Account Based Marketing 210

Account Based Marketing SIC ABM Demand Generation Agencies 210

The Point

JUNE 18, 2019

You generate engagement by convincing the reader of the value of the information on offer, whether that information is a white paper, a Webinar, or a demo. Instead, incite the reader to take action by selling the value of the information on offer. Sell the Offer, Not the Product. The goal of any email is to generate engagement.

Creativity 164

Creativity B2B Webinar Metrics Email Marketing 164

The Point

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

The ebook on offer could well offer insights and information of value, but from this email, you’d never know it. Content Marketing 2016: Staffing, Measurement and Effectiveness Across the Industry ” may describe the content but it doesn’t communicate uniqueness or information that’s anything more than a broad summary.

Content 100

Content Promotion Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 100

The Point

APRIL 23, 2015

Generally speaking, it’s a principle of advertising design that suggests that advertisers, in order to engage the reader and drive that individual to act, should present key selling information in a location within the ad that is immediately visible at first glance, one that doesn’t force that reader to take additional action (i.e.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Design Advertising Agencies B2B 100

The Point

APRIL 8, 2015

Spear Marketing Group has published an informative report detailing results of a survey designed to gauge the maturity of marketing automation deployments within the B2B community. Respondents were then assigned a grade based on how many of their responses aligned with those best practices.

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation 100

The Point

JANUARY 24, 2017

Link to a custom landing page that includes more information (what, where, when) and “add to calendar” links for any scheduled demos, presentations, and networking events at the show. Tip: math challenges work best vs. general knowledge because the answer can’t be googled.).

Trade Show 100

Trade Show Traffic Demand Creativity 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

A few weeks ago I gave an informational interview to a local university student looking for advice on the best way to jump start his marketing career. The best marketers I know also know how to sell. If marketing software is a merit badge, be an eagle scout. Career Advice for a Young Marketer via @spearmktg. Click To Tweet.

Demand Generation Agencies 165

Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies Work Management 165

The Point

JULY 20, 2018

When a reader arrives at a landing page from an email campaign, he or she has already received a critical mass of information about you and the offer – whether that offer is a white paper, Webinar, demo, or whatever. Is it a search ad and you know that the reader is looking for information a specific topic? via @spearmktg.

Landing Pages 113

Landing Pages Paid Search Agency Ads Cost Per Click 113

The Point

JULY 14, 2015

Most B2B marketers take for granted that content marketing will, by default, generate a wide spectrum of leads – some of them qualified, perhaps, but most just conducting informal research (the proverbial “tire kickers”). There is a better way. Sending these two emails accomplishes two main goals: 1.

Sales Qualified Leads 100

Sales Qualified Leads Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Top of Funnel 100

The Point

FEBRUARY 14, 2018

Just to be clear – to the extent that customers and prospective customers DO actually read your content, gain valuable information from that content, and think more highly of you and your company because of it, all the better. So, does it matter if your white papers or ebooks or case studies are downloaded but not actually consumed?

Paper 193

Paper Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 193

The Point

JULY 8, 2014

Even under the best of circumstances, it usually takes a compelling business message, and information of significant value, to coax a response from an audience that is constantly bombarded with promotional emails. In this case, there was no offer per se, no white paper or Webinar or other information of value.

Case Study 100

Case Study Case Studies Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency 100

The Point

DECEMBER 12, 2014

Testimonials of this type can detract from the primary offer and create the aura of a sales pitch for your company that runs counter to the information of value the reader is searching for.”. Include complete contact information for your company. (I’d Include a brief description of your company.

Landing Pages 100

Landing Pages Lead Scoring Lead Ranking PPC 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

But what’s the best way to get the most from your Facebook advertising investment?”. They just offer free information on how to be successful. Learning benefits are best when they’re concrete and specific. So, for example, BounceX could have led their email with something along the lines of: “At 1.4 But they didn’t.

Email Campaigns 100

Email Campaigns Campaigns B2B Advertising Agencies 100