Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2016

If you're like most companies, the pressure to hit Q4 numbers is so high that it's hard to even think about 2017 yet. If your company has a 90 day sales cycle, Marketing had better be focused on the 2017 plan October 1st 2016! That's 25 leads per quarter. But when should the Marketing department's 2017 quota start?

Planning 179

Planning Sales Cycle Sales Qualified Leads Paid Search Agency 179

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

But how much of that exposure translated into leads and sales? It’s hard to say—we did grow the company, but not by a factor that justified the marketing expenditure. Less is more if there are more qualified leads for salespeople to follow up on. Generating leads requires creation of lots of quality, long-form content.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 14, 2018

In the not-so-distant past, scaling a B2B company meant hiring more sales people that were responsible for all their own business development. But there are two major problems with that model today: Quota-carrying, outside sales reps are an expensive resource to be putting on the phones to follow up on marketing qualified leads.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Content Marketing 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2016

If you're like most companies, the pressure to hit Q4 numbers is so high that it's hard to even think about 2017 yet. If your company has a 90 day sales cycle, Marketing had better be focused on the 2017 plan October 1st 2016! That's 25 leads per quarter. But when should the Marketing department's 2017 quota start?

Planning 120

Planning Sales Cycle Sales Qualified Leads Paid Search Agency 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

OCTOBER 2, 2015

For many companies, the pressure to hit Q4 numbers is so high they aren't even thinking about 2016 quotas yet. If the sales team has a cycle time of 90 days from opportunity create date to close, then they'd better be getting leads from marketing TODAY to impact Q1 of 2016. Marketing’s new role is to generate leads for salespeople.

B2B Sales 120

B2B Sales Paper Fulfillment B2B Marketing 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 13, 2015

In this episode Paul went over modern marketing, lead generation, and how important storytelling is for the buyer's journey. It's up to marketing to produce the marketing qualified leads to get turned over to sales. It really changes the mix of what companies want to stand on sales and what they want to spend on marketing.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Storytelling Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 7, 2016

In the not-so-distant past, scaling a B2B company meant hiring more sales people that were responsible for all their own business development. But there are two major problems with that model today: Quota-carrying, outside sales reps are an expensive resource to be putting on the phones to follow up on marketing qualified leads.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Content Marketing 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. Today, I think so many companies are trying to muscle their way to more productivity with content rather than reimagining how they use it.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MAY 11, 2016

For over ten years now, there’s been a gold rush in marketing automation technology with some fantastic features that make it a must-have for any B2B company engaged in content marketing. B2B lead generation is all about conversions. How do you build explosive growth with content marketing? Make no mistake—the webinar is a sales pitch.

Webinar Metrics 149

Webinar Metrics Sales Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 27, 2015

What’s the right way to follow up on content to turn leads into sales conversations? Before we get into best practices on content marketing follow-up, Marketing and Sales must be on the same page regarding their lead definitions. Once a conversation has been agreed to, you have a Sales Accepted Lead (SAL).

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 28, 2016

Marketing, on the other hand, often has a different definition of a qualified lead. In fact, according to Gleanster , 30 to 50 percent of leads in a pipeline are not ready to buy. What is a marketing-qualified lead (MQL)? What is a sales-accepted lead (SAL)? What is a sales-qualified lead (SQL)?

Marketing Qualified Leads 136

Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads MQL 136

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. have changed the way that B2B companies market their products and services. have changed the way that B2B companies market their products and services.

Demand Generation Agencies 168

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paid Search Agency Demand 168

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

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017

Savvy B2B marketers are recognizing the limits of today’s email marketing and web analytics applications for generating qualified sales leads and are switching to a demand generation solution to ensure a continuous stream of qualified leads.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Budget Demand Generation Demand 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 23, 2015

Both of these companies manipulated their publishing frequencies (both increasing and decreasing the total number of posts) with some interesting findings. They based their findings on overall number of page views, leads generated through form conversions, and new subscribers to their blog. So what’s the conclusion to post frequency?

Social Media 120

Social Media Media Long Tail Marketing Hubspot 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

MAY 24, 2016

And that’s where sales enablement in the form of lead intelligence comes in. How content provides lead intelligence Prospects tell you a lot about who they are and what problem they’re trying to solve by which content they choose to engage with. The sales conversation does not happen by itself, or in a vacuum.

Conversion 136

Conversion Forrester Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 136

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 21, 2015

Most companies realize that their best opportunity for growth is to commit to content marketing. In the B2B space, the number-one goal of most content marketers is to generate leads for their sales team. There is a really good reason why very few companies (not even big ones) assemble a fully staffed content development team.

Budget Programs 120

Budget Programs Work Management Marketing Management Allocation 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 1, 2015

Many companies that have embraced content marketing are still using it as a branding and positioning function of their marketing department. It’s not that this approach is wrong, but it’s not the main reason that most successful companies have embraced content marketing. I’d be lying if I said it was an easy solution because it’s not.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Cold Calling Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Content is the soul of lead nurturing; it is the fodder of the conversation that drives conversion.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

As a marketer, you’re no doubt familiar with this ubiquitous image: contacts fall into the top and by some kind of magic become leads, then qualified leads, then sales-ready leads, and eventually, (you hope) closed sales. Content is the soul of lead nurturing; it is the fodder of the conversation that drives conversion.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 31, 2016

Contextualized marketing does not rely on differentiators or distinctions of the company, but rather it is firmly rooted in an understanding of who the target customers are and how their behavior indicates their preferences. These same brands are leading with product and brand rather than experience and utility.” It’s in the moment.

B2B Sales 120

B2B Sales Process B2B Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

SEPTEMBER 25, 2015

The differences are being caused by significant changes in the way a customer finds solutions to their problems, and most companies haven’t changed their internal sales and marketing processes to deal with them. But now, the internet is crushing a sales reps ability to generate their own leads.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Demand Generation Agencies 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2015

For many companies, the pressure to hit Q4 numbers is so high they aren't even thinking about 2016 quotas yet. If the sales team has a cycle time of 90 days from opportunity create date to close, then they'd better be getting leads from marketing TODAY to impact Q1 of 2016. But what about the B2B marketer? When does their quota start?

Paid Search Agency 120

Paid Search Agency B2B Sales Organic Leads Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 7, 2016

But if the function of content is to generate and nurture your leads through your sales funnel, how do you create content that is good enough to comply with the demands of your sales team? The creator gains increased brand awareness and (ideally) action on behalf of the consumer that will lead to a sales conversation.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Demand Generation Agencies Barriers 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 24, 2015

Everyone’s talking about content marketing , and companies are investing big dollars to jump on the bandwagon—but most are still thinking about it from yesterday’s marketing perspective where marketing’s primary role is branding and positioning. Prior to 2005, marketing pumped out literature, placed ads, and developed media connections.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies RFP Thought Leadership Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 7, 2016

The culture has shifted to where people just don’t want to talk to a sales person until they’re sure they have a problem you can solve (which is an issue for many B2B companies offering complex solutions while their prospects might not even know that they have a problem yet).

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Features B2B Thought Leadership Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 13, 2016

Like any product or service a company offers, content must be the result of deliberate organizational focus, infrastructure, research, and planning. If your organization is really small, one person can play more than one role—or you can outsource content creation, as 44% of companies do. You will have to build a content team.

Allocation 120

Allocation Content Demand Generation Agencies Work Management 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 2, 2016

Write some blogs and drive traffic to your site—then just convert them into leads. But most successful content marketers know that there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes—which is why less than 30 percent of companies that execute content marketing strategies are happy with the results.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Marketing & Strategy Paper Content 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 20, 2016

That was what we used to do before the emergence of a content-heavy internet, and it worked because sales people were the gatekeepers of information about products and services within a company. We may not have wanted to talk to sales reps, but that’s how we got the information we needed. The B2B sales process has changed. Probably not.

Lead Ranking 218

Lead Ranking Lead Gen Lead Scoring Leads 218

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

With companies increasing their expenditures on content marketing this year, many are wondering if it’s even worth going down this road in the first place. Many companies make the mistake of developing content like it’s just another marketing campaign. That means creating an experience for your audience and personalizing content.

Content 120

Content Thought Leadership Custom Publishing Segmentation 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

With companies increasing their expenditures on content marketing this year, many are wondering if it’s even worth going down this road in the first place. Many companies make the mistake of developing content like it’s just another marketing campaign. That means creating an experience for your audience and personalizing content.

Content 120

Content Thought Leadership Custom Publishing Segmentation 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Content marketing gurus all seem to be talking about the need to create experiences for marketing to engage with buyers, but what does that mean to the average B2B company? In other words, it’s not about you, it’s about them. You may even have one, but are you using it to its fullest potential?

Acquisitions 149

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 149

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Content marketing gurus all seem to be talking about the need to create experiences for marketing to engage with buyers, but what does that mean to the average B2B company? In other words, it’s not about you, it’s about them. You may even have one, but are you using it to its fullest potential?

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 15, 2016

Whether or not your prospects know they have a problem your company can solve or not is irrelevant--they don't want to talk to sales people. Enter the lead nurturer. In smaller companies, this role may be filled by just one person, whereas larger companies may have teams in place that share out the duties.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 24, 2018

3 Reasons to add pay-per-lead white paper syndication to your digital marketing plan There are three challenges every B2B marketer faces as they try to build a lead generating engine to feed their sales team: 1. Content marketing can be a long, expensive, and uncertain journey. Purchased lists can land you in hot water. NOT ANY MORE!

Paper 159

Paper Planning Marketing Plans Marketing Automation Services 159