The Point

JULY 1, 2019

For the last decade or more, it’s been an accepted principle – almost a key tenet – of B2B demand generation that business buyers don’t want to talk to a sales rep until the last possible moment. It’s why, for example, we marketers have assumed control for more and more of the lead funnel. For example: * Lead Scoring.

B2B Sales 124

B2B Sales Demand Generation Agencies Top of Funnel Lead Scoring 124

The Point

MARCH 22, 2019

Lead scoring – as a fundamental part of a company’s lead management strategy – has officially fallen out of fashion. Two reasons I can think of: One is that lead scoring is routinely set up as part of an initial implementation of a marketing automation platform. So, is lead scoring a dying art?

Lead Ranking 113

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads Account Based Marketing 113

The Point

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A prospective client asks: “We’re just getting our demand generation programs ramped up, and I’m not sure I’m ready for marketing automation. Do I need it in order to do lead nurturing?”. Marketing automation simply takes nurturing to a whole new level. And therein lies the difference. Comments welcome.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 100

The Point

JUNE 5, 2018

Earlier this year, Forrester Research conducted a detailed survey of more than 150 B2B marketing decision-makers with the intent of benchmarking the maturity of B2B marketing best practices, focused on revenue marketing and marketing automation. for lead management to 3.35 for organization.

Lead Ranking 194

Lead Ranking Forrester Lead Scoring Paid Search Agency 194

The Point

MAY 19, 2020

It wasn’t that long ago, when marketing automation first burst on the scene, that the height of lead nurture sophistication was the simple, automated sending of multiple, sequential emails. Today, advances in marketing technology make such “automation” seem laughably basic. How does your current lead nurturing.

Lead Nurturing 299

Lead Nurturing Class Budget Programs Lead Scoring 299

The Point

SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

Sungard AS runs a highly successful demand generation program, an integrated mix of both online and offline campaigns, to generate a consistent flow of leads to the company’s sales force. Design, build and launch a “Welcome” email program designed to improve follow-up and response to new leads.

Conversion Rate 100

Conversion Rate Marketing Qualified Leads Demand Generation Agencies Lead Ranking 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

It’s a simple yet brilliant idea that could have broad consequences for email marketers. If (as is likely) the concept catches on and extends in one form or another to other email clients, notably Microsoft Outlook , Priority Inbox could sound the beginning of the end for email as a lead generation tool.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Generation 100

The Point

DECEMBER 11, 2018

I may not be a market analyst, but from what I see working with our agency’s B2B clients , it seems to me that, in the language of technology adoption lifecycles, Account-Based Marketing (ABM) stands at that pivotal junction – what Geoffrey Moore calls the “chasm” – between early adopters and early majority.

Account Based Marketing 157

Account Based Marketing ABM Ideal Customer Profiles Enterprise Management 157

The Point

AUGUST 8, 2011

A recent industry study on Lead Management Optimization, conducted by CSO Insights and conducted in partnership with SMEI and Marketo , sheds insight on the relative budget marketing organizations are investing in areas such as lead nurturing, social media, and lead generation.

Lead Generation 100

Lead Generation Social Media Allocation Marketing Qualified Leads 100

The Point

JANUARY 27, 2016

Demand Gen Report just published “ Top B2B Marketers Measure Lead Nurturing Effectiveness to Boost Performance ,” a special report in which they address the whys, whats, and how tos of measuring lead nurturing’s true impact. the company is generating the wrong type of leads.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads 100

The Point

AUGUST 1, 2013

Lead scoring has quickly become an integral part of a demand generation marketer’s arsenal. A well-planned, well-designed, and optimized lead scoring schema can be a key contributor to sales productivity, sales engagement, and the rate at which inbound leads convert to Sales Qualified Leads, opportunities, and deals.

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads Leads 100

The Point

JUNE 11, 2010

Just getting started with lead nurturing? Recently invested in marketing automation software? Concerned that your lead nurturing program isn’t everything it should be? Great lead nurturing starts with more than just software. Other topics on tap include: * Scrapping Traditional for Content Marketing. *

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Paper Marketing Automation Services Tips 100

The Point

NOVEMBER 22, 2016

For a long time, “ lead nurturing ” was thought of as something you did with the leads that sales didn’t want. The theory was: leads come in, the sales team gets the hot ones, and the rest go to lead nurturing. Today, of course, a comprehensive lead nurturing strategy is much more than that.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 100

The Point

JANUARY 27, 2010

Here’s the news: the blog has moved to a new location and re-launched with a new name because I’ve also moved, to a new agency: Spear Marketing Group. Most of our work is with high-tech companies, but we also have clients in real estate and property management, retail, and other sectors. Regards, Howard.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Advertising Agencies Demand Generation Work Management 100

The Point

OCTOBER 30, 2013

A client asks: “I notice that you’re recommending we gate our offer content behind landing pages as part of the lead nurturing campaign. It’s why click-to-lead conversion rates are never 100%, no matter how good your landing page. Why is that necessary when we already know who these people are? Here’s why: 1. A click is not a response.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Landing Pages 100

The Point

AUGUST 8, 2013

When a client says “We set up lead scoring but sales doesn’t pay any attention,” it’s a sure sign that something is amiss – and more likely the problem doesn’t rest with sales. Here’s Part 2 of our discussion of the most common B2B lead scoring mistakes. For Part 1 of this post, click here.).

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Sales Qualified Leads Marketo 100

The Point

OCTOBER 14, 2010

Earlier this week, Marketo , the marketing automation company, held its second ever user conference in San Francisco. Based on first-hand impressions, however, it’s not how the vast majority of clients are employing (or even thinking of) marketing automation. I’m just not sure the rest of us are quite there yet.

Marketo 100

Marketo Impressions Demand Generation Agencies Lead Nurturing 100

The Point

JUNE 26, 2009

Tags: B2B Marketing Demand Generation Landing Pages Lead Management Lead Nurturing Marketing Automation direct marketing lead generation b2b demand generation demandbase marketo.

DemandBase 100

DemandBase Landing Pages Leads Lead 100

The Point

JULY 28, 2009

There’s a great article (and not just because I’m quoted) in this week’s Demand Generation Report describing how marketers are actively seeking alternatives to the free trial offer.

SEM 100

SEM Landing Pages Demand Generation Search Engine Marketing 100

The Point

AUGUST 17, 2010

Yet many B2B marketers continue to be allergic to the idea of using direct mail, simply because it seems such a throwback in our mobile-social-online era. Old fashioned, yes, but used smartly and effectively, direct mail can play a vital role in a well-rounded, integrated marketing plan. Lead Nurturing. Target Account Programs.

Marketing Mix 100

Marketing Mix Planning Lead Nurturing Demand Generation 100

The Point

FEBRUARY 5, 2010

A couple of months ago, in a respected marketing Webzine, there appeared a case study detailing a software company that had gone to impressive lengths to make the most of their investment in marketing automation. Yes, you can tailor emails to fit every possible unique combination of demographic and behavioral criteria. Not really.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Rules Leads Lead 100

The Point

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Except awareness and thought leadership represent only a fraction of the potential return from social media, and in fact (I would argue) place well behind the windfall that social media makes possible in the areas of lead generation and lead nurturing. expand company’s leads database and community of followers.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies PR Social Media Paid Search Agency 100

The Point

APRIL 8, 2010

Fast-forward to today’s highly mobile workforce, where people change jobs like the proverbial underwear, throw in a volatile economy, and more than one-third of the email addresses in your marketing database could change each and every year*. The result: more hard bounces and unsubscribes. Has anyone seen more recent statistics?

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Marketo Lead Nurturing 100

The Point

APRIL 22, 2009

If part of your lead generation or lead nurturing strategy involves outbound sales calls, then you already know one of the key metrics critical to sales productivity is connection rate – i.e. the percentage of dials that result in live conversations. inside sales b2b lead generation lead generation telemarketing telesales.

Marketing Management 100

Marketing Management Efficiency Telemarketing Cold Calling 100

The Point

JUNE 29, 2009

Here’s an interesting post by Mike Damphousse of Green Leads that I found through Funnelholic (thanks Craig) on how lead nurturing impacts the effectiveness of calling campaigns designed to secure qualified sales appointments.

Lead Gen 100

Lead Gen Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 100

The Point

JUNE 27, 2012

For today’s B2B marketer, content is the fuel that feeds the demand generation engine. But when lead generation, lead nurturing , customer marketing and social media programs all require a constant feeding of new, compelling content, what do you do when the pace of new programs outstrips your ability to generate that content?

Campaigns 100

Campaigns Peer-to-peer Lead Nurturing Paper 100

The Point

MAY 6, 2010

A couple of weeks ago our firm prepared a detailed ROI analysis for a client helping them substantiate to their management the investment in a marketing automation platform. For other companies, the decision of whether or not to take the plunge into marketing automation is less of a slam-dunk.

Marketing Automation Services 100

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Marketing Management Automation 100

The Point

NOVEMBER 24, 2009

A client asks: “Now that we have our marketing automation system in place, is it really necessary to use registration forms in our lead nurturing (follow-up) campaigns? After all, we already know who these people are, correct?

Landing Pages 100

Landing Pages Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Lead Nurturing 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

When sales teams need marketing to help them make their numbers, the natural response is to go fishing for hot leads. This requires a constant re-loading of the sales funnel with new, expensive leads. In contrast, for Marketo, the proportion of sales derived from slow leads is an astounding 50 percent.

Sales Qualified Leads 100

Sales Qualified Leads Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Leads 100

The Point

SEPTEMBER 6, 2011

When marketers embark on a formal lead nurturing strategy, opportunities for process improvement can arise in unexpected ways. That was the experience for iDirect , a leading provider of satellite IP communications based in Herndon, Virginia. All this presents real challenges for both demand generation and lead management.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Lead Scoring Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 100

The Point

JULY 15, 2010

Salesforce.com is a dominant player in the CRM category and an integral part of many companies’ lead management, database marketing, and demand generation programs. DT: Well, the biggest misconception about Salesforce is that it’s something Sales reps like and Marketing folks don’t.

Salesforce.com 100

Salesforce.com Marketing Automation Services Budget Programs Work Management 100

The Point

JULY 23, 2012

In an ideal world, all B2B sales leads would be pre-qualified and ready to buy. Of course, in the real world – a world of sales quotas, quarterly revenue goals, and impatient investors – not all stake-holders, especially salespeople, are interested in the notion that the most effective lead generation strategy is a long-term proposition.

Demand Generation Agencies 100

Demand Generation Agencies Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 100

The Point

MARCH 3, 2010

In a recent article (member access only), Marketing Sherpa offers up some intriguing research into how prospective tech buyers view email offer content, and how those views can differ dramatically from common assumptions held by marketers. It’s the working assumption of B2B marketers that prospects don’t want to be sold to.

Lead Scoring 100

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Lead Nurturing Webcast 100

The Point

MARCH 18, 2011

Late last year at the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco I was fortunate enough to chat with Maria Pergolino , Marketing Director at Marketo (and renowned all-around Content Marketing Queen.) ideas for weaving social media into lead generation and lead nurturing programs.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Conversion Marketo Demand Generation 100

The Point

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

On Focus.com , Craig Rosenberg asks: “What are the top benefits of adopting marketing automation?” My response: Based on our firm’s experience , the most common benefits of marketing automation are these: 1. Improved consistency of follow-up to all new leads independent of sales bandwidth.

Marketing Automation 100

Marketing Automation Automation Bandwidth Cost per Lead 100

The Point

JUNE 8, 2016

Email may still be the workhorse in how B2B companies build relationships, maintain awareness, qualify leads and nudge prospects along the sales cycle, but these days, it pays to think about “lead nurturing” as more just an email campaign. The post 5 Ways to Expand Lead Nurturing Beyond the Inbox appeared first on The Point.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Account Based Marketing Leads 100

The Point

AUGUST 4, 2009

Do a quick Web search on “lead nurturing” these days, and you’ll find plenty of high-level, strategic content on the “whys” – how nurturing can improve demand generation ROI, increase conversion rates, accelerate sales cycles, recycle long-discarded prospects, etc.

Lead Nurturing 100

Lead Nurturing Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 100