The overall database size should be growing in a healthy manner, although growth rates can vary depending on the growth rate of your company and your industry. Data is key to all your marketing efforts. Whether it is segmentation, personalization, lead scoring, lead routing, or marketing analysis, if you don’t have clean and consistent data, your efforts will be built on the shakiest of foundations. However, when thinking about your marketing automation efforts, data management can often be an afterthought. Current Database First, you need to understand your current database. MORE >>

At the earliest stages of the funnel, where buyers first begin to become aware of your company and its solutions is perhaps the most challenging. However, to calculate the total audience for earned awareness (mostly in the form of content sites that mention your company or solutions), it may be simpler to do this by assuming a known conversion rate and using that to calculate what the overall audience must be, based on traffic. This thinking needs to be applied to all areas of the revenue engine, and each has its own unique challenges. This view is instructive in two ways. MORE >>

Industry information can tell us whether they are likely to be experiencing pains we can solve, company size will give an indication of the resources they may have to tackle that pain and the size of a challenge it might be for them. Another great chart from MarketingSherpa shows very clearly what we as marketers have long known. Relevance is key. 58% of those who stop reading, disengage, or unsubscribe quote a lack of relevance as a key factor. The fact is that only some of your audience will unsubscribe. Relevance to their Role: Now it gets interesting. Are they a technical evaluator? MORE >>

4) Mentions Now, with these relationships understood and assessed, you can look at whether this effort is bearing fruit in terms of mentions of your company, your solutions, and your views on the market. This metric is only useful when viewed as a trend over time, as different publications with different niche focuses will naturally mention company and product names in a wide range of frequencies. One of the most important ways to "get the word out" and have your message discovered is to have good relationships with key market influencers. How are you approaching this challenge? MORE >>

However, the challenge we’ve all faced, as DM Scott puts so well, is that companies are not really “friendable”. David Meerman Scott had a great post the other day on “ I do not friend logos ”. Very well put, and I agree with him. As you know we’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with the best way to apply social media in the B2B marketing realm , and David’s post hit on one of the biggest challenges we’re all facing – what to do about Facebook as B2B marketers. The numbers are undeniable, the active population on Facebook is huge. Not something that would fly with a corporate logo. MORE >>