The Point

NOVEMBER 15, 2022

Very few organizations can rely exclusively on inbound channels, particularly those companies with solutions that buyers aren’t necessarily searching for. There’s no one approach to cold lists that works for every company and every audience. My response is a definitive: yes. Integrate social selling techniques (e.g.

Purchase 162

Purchase Paid Search Agency Paid Social Agency Outreach 162

The Point

DECEMBER 5, 2023

Yahoo has yet to define their rules in detail, but Google’s are published here and summarized as follows: The new Google rules affect companies sending 5,000+ emails per day to any Google users, including Gmail accounts but also (crucially) Google Workspace domains. House lists (customers, leads, and other opted-in contacts) are not immune.

Deliverability 162

Deliverability Rules Purchase Marketing Automation Services 162

The Point

JUNE 30, 2021

Alas, too many companies consider ABM to be synonymous with one-to-one, high-touch campaigns exclusively, in the belief that one-to-one marketing is the only “true” ABM. In customer campaigns, awareness and engagement are already baked in, so to speak, as is a deeper familiarity with the target accounts, and so risks are mitigated.

Account Based Marketing 162

Account Based Marketing ABM Planning Demand Generation Agencies 162

The Point

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

However, relying exclusively, or even primarily, on late-stage KPIs can be problematic, particularly because ABM is most typically employed by companies marketing complex, enterprise solutions with long sales cycles. The simple fact is that there is no, one KPI that works for every ABM strategy, company, or even group of accounts.

Account Based Marketing 290

Account Based Marketing ABM Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads 290

The Point

OCTOBER 8, 2020

For more companies than not, marketing success is rarely about convincing a given individual, on a given day, to buy what it is you’re selling. Rather, it’s a question of being the company that the buyer finds, or thinks of first, when the relevant need occurs. You can quibble with the percentage, but, overall, she had a point.

Demand Generation Agencies 173

Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies Marketing Agencies 1 173

The Point

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

Almost 5 years ago, our agency conducted a survey to determine whether B2B companies were getting maximum value from their investment in marketing automation. You’d assume, therefore, that marketing automation maturity – the level of sophistication at which companies employ the technology – has improved.

Marketing Automation Services 147

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Marketing Automation Automation 147

The Point

JUNE 20, 2018

In the marketplace, this disparity between, on the one hand, the appeal of ABM as a marketing strategy, and, on the other, the resources required to make it work, creates a conundrum for those companies eager to give ABM a try but unwilling to make the investment required as a first step. Cross-sell/upsell to existing customers.

Account Based Marketing 168

Account Based Marketing ABM Multi-Channel CPL 168

The Point

MAY 28, 2020

The current crisis reinforces why most B2B companies are best suited for a hybrid demand generation model that combines both ABM and more traditional, funnel-based tactics. I’ve written elsewhere in this space that one of the reasons ABM became so popular is because companies are just really bad at lead nurturing.). Absolutely.

Demand Generation Agencies 162

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Ideal Customer Profiles Lead Ranking 162

The Point

APRIL 16, 2019

Because costs per click in B2B search campaigns can often be extremely high when companies compete the for same keywords, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for B2B advertisers offers its own very unique challenges. Failure to Understand How Much You Can Pay to Acquire a Customer. Using an Inappropriate or Low-Quality Offer.

Cost per Acquisition 235

Cost per Acquisition Paid Search Agency Campaigns Cost Per Click 235

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. My answer: no, it doesn’t. Think about that for a moment. People Don’t Read Your White Papers.

Paper 193

Paper Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 193

The Point

JANUARY 23, 2018

Tech companies have short-term horizons for a number of reasons: * Many are private and depend on short term results to prove viability and therefore ensure their ongoing funding. Technology changes rapidly, and tech companies often have windows of opportunity to realize revenue from products or services before they become obsolete. .

Sales Management 253

Sales Management Sales Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring 253

The Point

JUNE 23, 2020

Email, as one example, plays a very different (and less dominant) role in the marketing mix than it did only a few years ago, having migrated from acquisition to nurture and customer marketing. But there are still 5+ billion email accounts worldwide. Email is very much alive.

Lead Ranking 264

Lead Ranking Enterprise Management Marketing Qualified Leads Account Based Marketing 264

The Point

JUNE 24, 2022

How should companies adapt their demand generation playbook to better serve the needs of the self-serve buyer? That doesn’t mean that vendor content is rendered irrelevant (particularly in later stages of the cycle, when technical specs, pricing, and customer stories come to the fore).

Top of Funnel 130

Top of Funnel Cold Calling B2B Demand Generation 130

The Point

DECEMBER 13, 2019

B2B marketers need to be really intentional about creating well-integrated tech stacks that create seamless omnichannel experiences for today’s sophisticated customer.”. I expect the role of the CMO to evolve with the rise of revenue operations (the convergence of sales ops, marketing ops, and customer success).

Demand 222

Demand Ideal Customer Profiles Demand Generation Agencies Account Based Marketing 222

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. Use of very short-term metrics will almost certainly devalue those leads and the perceived ROI from the program.

Marketing Management 207

Marketing Management Paid Search Agency Buying Cycle Demand Generation Agencies 207

The Point

NOVEMBER 27, 2018

Just listen to marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk, perhaps the biggest champion for advertising on Facebook and other channels, who says that social media advertising is “grossly underpriced” and that companies have a window of opportunity to take advantage before big brands drive up the cost. All of which begs the question: what about organic?

Top of Funnel 203

Top of Funnel Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Lead Scoring 203

The Point

AUGUST 25, 2020

For some, it might be defining Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), buying personas and associated messages. To better help our clients plan, design, operationalize, and scale their ABM strategies , the team at Spear developed a workbook designed to assist companies in assessing their ABM readiness. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

Ideal Customer Profiles 147

Ideal Customer Profiles Account Based Marketing ABM Lead Ranking 147

The Point

JANUARY 19, 2021

Tactically, this will mean deeper audience segmentation (and more data), improved creative, and personalized content that maps better to buyer and customer interests.” For most B2B companies, ABM will be as much a part of the B2B demand generation landscape as paid search or lead nurturing.

Demand Generation Agencies 147

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Lead Ranking 147

The Point

APRIL 26, 2018

The lure of intent data is learning which companies are going to buy from you and when. CC) Intent data is looking at what an individual or a company has recently done to determine what may be of current interest to them. Where do B2B customers see the greatest ROI? (CC) But is that real?

Intent Data 209

Intent Data Intent Bombora Account Based Marketing 209

The Point

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019

While there’s little debate about the value of a well-planned, well-executed Account-Based Marketing (ABM) strategy, where many B2B companies struggle – and where ABM initiatives tend to stall – is in that phase between planning and execution, where strategy and account planning meet tactics, plays and content.

Account Based Marketing 170

Account Based Marketing ABM Planning Lead Ranking 170

The Point

AUGUST 29, 2017

What is the level of prior engagement (cold, warm, hot) and how aware is the audience of our brand, company, solution? Ex: cold outreach, warm outreach, account penetration, customer retention, cross-sell/upsell …). Send company swag (e.g. (For example: secure an appointment, gain an introduction …). Send high-cost gift (e.g.

Touchpoints 228

Touchpoints Account Based Marketing ABM Ideal Customer Profiles 228

The Point

MAY 16, 2018

There are many, legitimate reasons for why it may make sense to mount a concerted, integrated campaign to target a competitor’s customer base: A competitor gets acquired. The company suffered a data breach. But telling the customer that he/she bought the wrong product will almost always backfire. Big mistake.

Campaigns 191

Campaigns Tips Demand Generation Agencies Lead Scoring 191

The Point

FEBRUARY 27, 2018

Of these, GDPR is the most far-reaching in that it not only impacts email communication (the focus of CAN-SPAM and CASL) but also the way companies gather, store, protect, share, and utilize personal data. GDPR requires that companies who collect and manage personal data protect that data from any potential misuse and exploitation.

Privacy Policies 231

Privacy Policies Marketing Automation Services B2B Marketing Marketing Management 231

The Point

MAY 28, 2019

Like so many other trends that first take root in the consumer realm, B2B companies are starting to take note, to the point where chatbots – programs designed to simulate (and stimulate) conversation with online users – are being heralded as the “next big thing” in B2B marketing. in particular. They’re a complementary technology.

Demand Generation Agencies 127

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Top of Funnel 127

The Point

APRIL 29, 2021

Protecting your domain’s reputation can be particularly critical if your company sends emails to large consumer files or purchased lists. There’s also the argument that any address other than your main domain might look fake to potential recipients, especially customers. Should I Use a Separate Domain for Marketing Emails?

Domain 173

Domain Email Marketing CAN-SPAM Marketing Management 173

The Point

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Now, not only was I not ready, I barely remember what his company does. That’s because I haven’t had any communication from him or his company in the last 6 months that wasn’t a direct solicitation to do business with the firm. His message today was, in summary: “Are you ready to engage with us yet?”. Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash.

Lead Nurturing 224

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 224

The Point

AUGUST 27, 2019

If your ad links to a custom landing page, make sure that page is fully responsive and that the form is easy to complete on a mobile device. Poor Company Page. Expect that some percentage of people who view your Sponsored Content will opt to click through to your company page. “What you’ll learn”, “3 reasons to attend”).

Paid Content 241

Paid Content Advertising Agencies Linkedin Advertisements 241

The Point

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

Marketers can’t know what laws are coming down the legislative pike, but there are ways to be prepared, and to minimize the wholesale disruption and process upheaval many companies faced in May of 2018, when GDPR went into effect. Not quite ready to wipe your database clean and start over? Set up a subscription center.

Trust Marketing 133

Trust Marketing Privacy Opt-out Opt-in 133

The Point

DECEMBER 11, 2018

Is ABM a fit for our company, our product, and our audience? In the giddy, early days when solutions like Marketo first arrived on the scene, the reigning view was that the technology was all a company needed to solve their lead management and email marketing woes. Look at your own customer data. These are not impulse purchases.

Account Based Marketing 157

Account Based Marketing ABM Ideal Customer Profiles Enterprise Management 157

The Point

MARCH 7, 2019

HS) Despite what you might hear in some circles, email still has a major role to play in most companies’ demand gen strategies. DGR) What other channels/tools are companies using to augment their email marketing strategies? These have particular application in lead nurturing and customer marketing. Direct mail? Chat bots?). (HS)

Deliverability 150

Deliverability Account Based Marketing ABM Demand Generation Agencies 150

The Point

FEBRUARY 28, 2023

What is the value-add that makes you distinct from other partners in a way that customers would want to work with you? Weaving that story into content, ads, and other campaign assets will help your company stand out. What’s your unique selling proposition (USP) in the context of your partnership with this particular vendor?

Demand Generation Agencies 147

Demand Generation Agencies Advertising Agencies CMS Development Work Management 147

The Point

JUNE 30, 2017

In the headlong rush to Account-Based Marketing , many B2B companies are, quite naturally, looking to implement ABM in a manner that allows them to dip their toes in the proverbial water. In the agency business, such as ours , this has led in turn to a notable uptick of interest in what are often called (by the client): “ABM Campaigns.”

Account Based Marketing 235

Account Based Marketing ABM Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation 235

The Point

JULY 17, 2017

IMPACT : Find creative ways to source, and leverage, reviews and recommendations for your product; for example: TechValidate , a “customer content creation platform” that helps companies generate fact-based case studies and other customer evidence for use in marketing.

Paid Search Agency 241

Paid Search Agency Demand Marketing Automation Services Peer-to-peer 241

The Point

SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

Work for a big company. You’ll almost certainly work harder, and earn less, than you would at a large company, but the nature of the agency business means you’ll get exposed to a much broader range of (client) companies, industries, and product categories. But you’ll get to take risks that you wouldn’t in a larger company.

Demand Generation Agencies 165

Demand Generation Agencies Paid Search Agency Advertising Agencies Work Management 165

The Point

JANUARY 21, 2020

This question comes up all the time in client work, and not just with Marketo customers. This is beneficial for companies that might be handling sensitive personal data (e.g. But those companies are in the minority, especially within B2B. We’ve always hosted them on our main site and simply embedded Marketo forms.

Landing Pages 147

Landing Pages Industry CMS Marketing Automation Services Marketo 147

The Point

APRIL 26, 2017

The event has transformed since 2009, when the customer party fit (literally) onto a suburban restaurant patio. CEO Lucas made a compelling argument in the opening keynote that prospective customers want “quality, not volume” in the content and messaging they see from vendors. Email may be losing its B2B dominance. Again, look at ABM.

Marketo 154

Marketo Account Based Marketing Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 154

The Point

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Marketers plan to increase spending on analytics by more than 300% over the next 3 years in order to, according to Deloitte, “improve customer experience.” Yet many of the same companies madly adopting these bright shiny new objects fail to measure their campaigns in a way that effectively optimizes investment, creative, and, ultimately, ROI.

CMO 218

CMO Customer Surveys Analytics Planning 218