markempa

MARCH 30, 2010

The purpose of B2B marketing and lead generation is to help the sales team sell; hpwever marketers can often get so wrapped up in driving campaign activity they seem to forget it's about driving sales conversion and helping the sales team achieve better results. Join me and Jeff Thull, author of Mastering the Complex Sale, Second Edition and President/CEO of Prime Resource Group, on Thursday, April 8 at 1:00 PM CST for a complimentary webinar where you'll learn how to help sales: Establish relev

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Webinar Metrics Generation Leads 120

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 29, 2010

Summary: thinkAnalytics provides a robust decision engine to help make optimal recommendations across channels. Too bad more people don't use it. As I mentioned in my post on PegaSystems’ acquisition of Chordiant , I’ve been planning for months to write about the thinkAnalytics recommendation system. The delay had nothing to do with any reservations about the product, which I find extremely impressive.

Enterprise Management 166

Enterprise Management Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management 166

WriteSpark

MARCH 16, 2010

In an ideal world, you would use a professional writer for every marketing or public relations document produced by your company. But limited budgets likely mean you can assign only the most high-value projects to a freelance copywriter. How can you justify the expense of a professional writer for other projects? These 10 signals can help build your case for budget approval: .

Copywriting 156

Copywriting Public Relations Education Marketing Prospects 156

Convince & Convert

MARCH 4, 2010

Skip to content Skip to navigation Skip to footer Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting Social Media Strategy Blog Social Media Consulting Blog Social Media Consulting Speaking Newsletter Free Social Media Tools Twitter Interviews About Lijit Search How to Match 10 Key Success Metrics to Your Blogging Strategy March 4th, 2010 |Written By: Jay Baer | View Comments Tweet If you’re blogging for business, rather than blogging about your cat, baby, fashion addic

Webinar Metrics 130

Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Paid Search Agency Blogger 130

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

Response Rate

Tony Zambito

MARCH 31, 2010

Image by Getty Images via Daylife. While much attention has been paid to the consumer use of the Apple iPad , lost in the noise has been the business user and buyer.   I noted with much interest an article distributed by Bloomberg News and authored by Olga Kharif entitled IPad Wins Following Among Business Users for Work Outside Office.   Covered and touted has been the iPad’s design for eBooks, video, web browsing, and Apple iPhone like capabilities for apps.   It looks like A

Buyer Personas 122

Buyer Personas Business Customer Surveys Segmentation 122

Buzz Marketing for Technology

MARCH 30, 2010

I am a big fan of David Meerman Scott’s work and I am in the middle of re-reading his book the New Rules of Marketing and PR 2nd edition ! In the book he stresses the importance of having a “buyer persona” and his definition a buyer persona is a “distinct group of potential customers expressed as an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach”.

Buyer Personas 170

Buyer Personas Facebook Advertisements Advertising 170

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 22, 2010

Summary: ClickSquared is marketing services agency that, unlike most of its peers, has built its own marketing automation system. The main advantage is tight integration of database build, campaign management and message delivery. The vendor has just officially launched its system, which should meet the needs of most mid-tier consumer marketers. In a post last week , I casually described ClickSquared as a vendor delivering multi-channel messages for external campaign management systems.

Enterprise Management 146

Enterprise Management Work Management Marketing Management Multi-Channel 146

WriteSpark

MARCH 2, 2010

Does your company produce a product that it uses internally? If so, have you written your own case study? Some of the largest technology companies are certainly users of their own products. And many have produced case studies, white papers, and other resources about the implementations, the value gained, and the lessons learned. The idea behind this content: Sharing realistic experience and advice that can be beneficial to customers.

Case Study 157

Case Study Case Studies Paper Studies 157

Convince & Convert

MARCH 3, 2010

Skip to content Skip to navigation Skip to footer Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting Social Media Strategy Blog Social Media Consulting Blog Social Media Consulting Speaking Newsletter Free Social Media Tools Twitter Interviews About Lijit Search 6 Critical Services Agencies Must Provide to Stay Relevant in Social Media March 3rd, 2010 |Written By: Jay Baer | View Comments Tweet Is there a future for agencies in a social media world?

Social Media 121

Social Media Paid Search Agency Media Advertising Agencies 121

Speaker: Carlos Hidalgo, Co-Founder & CEO of Digital Exhaust, Author, International Keynote & TEDx Speaker

Recent research shows that only 50% of B2B organizations state that they have good alignment between their marketing and sales teams. This lack of alignment tremendously impacts the ability to meet business goals, and is a limiting factor for building and maintaining customer relationships. While many B2B organizations continue to struggle with aligning their marketing and sales teams, they can take practical steps to unify both teams and simplify their overall approach.

B2B Sales

Smashmouth Marketing

MARCH 29, 2010

Over the past four months Green Leads has been starting new reps on the first Monday of each month. Inside sales seems to be like that, growth and replenishment. In our case, we have pretty stringent criteria for success since we are a performance-based appointment setting company. We have to have our reps deliver. So here is what typically happens if we hire four reps, train them, get them on the floor and keep coaching them.

Training 138

Training Demand Generation Demand B2B Sales 138

Webbiquity

MARCH 29, 2010

With the tidal wave of how-to articles , jargon and self-proclaimed “social media experts&# hitting the online world, it’s easy for marketers and business executives to view social media as something akin to the unexplored regions of the earth as presented on medieval maps—&# here be dragons.&# Potentially fascinating, but dangerous, mysterious and scary.

Social Media 193

Social Media Media Social Networks Network Marketing 193

Tony Zambito

MARCH 28, 2010

Image by Emmanuele Contini via Flickr. Every once in a while, we come across an article that just seems to nail it on the head ever so profoundly.   Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto authored such an article in the Harvard Business Review entitled The Secret to Meaningful Customer Relationships.   For quite some time, in fact the last ten years, I have made the point about buyer personas being based on qualitative insights that lead to

Buyer Personas 126

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Analysis Validation 126

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 19, 2010

Summary: some published examples of "hard" ROI from social media. As part of the preparation for next Tuesday’s Webinar with 1to1 Media and Neolane (register here ), I poked around for some concrete examples of ROI from social media. Here’s what I found. Socialnomics blog by Erik Qualman offers a dynamic video with 33 “salient examples and data points” about social media ROI.

Social Media 146

Social Media ROI Examples Media 146

Advertisement

In the B2B marketing toolkit, white papers can be a powerful option for reaching decision-makers and experts, presenting them with interesting information that improves their perception of your organization's competence and thought leadership. That said, a poorly executed whitepaper will not only be unable to influence your desired audience but will also come with significant costs that other assets won't incur.

Paper

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 26, 2010

Tweet. People buy from people they know, like and trust. Using Twitter can help B2B marketers reduce “time-to-trust” with prospective customers. When prospective customers follow you on Twitter, you are increasing your touch points with them. You may have met them face-to-face, talked on the phone, and exchanged email. Twitter extends your reach and puts you in front of prospects with value-add statements that support their buying cycle on a regular basis.

Trust Marketing 102

Trust Marketing Twitter Buying Cycle Paid Search Agency 102

Everything Technology Marketing

MARCH 27, 2010

By Laura Patterson Peter Drucker is attributed to having said, “the purpose of business is to create a customer.” Delving deeper into what matters to your customers is the key to growing revenue. Focusing on the profitable sources of revenue takes ensuring your organization, especially your marketing team, has the data mining tools, customer research, marketing automation software, and the ability to perform customer analytics.

Allocation 102

Allocation Marketing Automation Services Psychographics Cross-Selling 102

B2B Memes

MARCH 26, 2010

Earlier this month, after writing his final column for Inc. magazine, Joel Spolsky blogged about his experience in the magazine world. His feelings, clearly, were mixed: “Writing for Inc. was an enormous honor, but it was very different than writing on my own website. Every article I submitted was extensively rewritten in the house style by a very talented editor, Mike Hofman.

Social Media 104

Social Media SIC Media Wiki 104

Chris Koch

MARCH 26, 2010

One of the biggest challenges for B2B social media marketers isn’t creating content, it’s helping others create content. Marketing is the default head of social media management in most companies. And while marketers can create some social media content, they can (and should) rely on their subject matter experts (SMEs) to create most of the stuff that’s going to build trust and relationships with customers.

B2B Thought Leadership 168

B2B Thought Leadership RSS Enterprise Management Thought Leadership 168

Advertisement

Upgrade your social media game with our in-depth playbook: "21 advanced ChatGPT prompts for social media managers". These powerful prompts are tailored to supercharge your content creation, strategy development, and results analysis. Say goodbye to writer's block and hello to endless creativity as you effortlessly generate engaging posts, come up with original strategies, and optimize your social media performance - all in a fraction of the time.

Social Media

The Point

MARCH 26, 2010

This is a very belated review of a book that has been in my reading pile since December 09. But I’m glad I found the time. Published by the folks at marketing automation software company Genius.com , and authored by respected consultant, author, and blogger Ardath Albee , this is a valuable primer that would serve as a useful resource to anyone just getting started with a marketing automation system.

Marketing Automation Services 130

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Lead Scoring 130

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 18, 2010

Summary: Pegasystems purchased Chordiant last week, adding a sophisticated cross-channel decision engine to its stable. It's been hard for independent decision engines to survive, even though it seems an independent product should make it easier for marketers to unify their customer treatments. Business process technology vendor Pegasystems announced on Monday that it was purchasing Chordiant , which offers a central decision engine for customer interactions.

Work Management 120

Work Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Buy 120

Tony Zambito

MARCH 25, 2010

Image by Getty Images via Daylife. You have to love the rebound Starbucks has been able to achieve over the past couple of years.   Even more impressive in the midst of the economic environment that plagues us still.   The return of Howard Schultz as CEO has led to the announcement that Starbucks will pay out it’s first-ever dividend.   Troy Alstead, Chief Financial Officer for Starbucks, was quoted in the New York Times Dealbook blog as saying: “From what we can see, and also

Buyer Personas 126

Buyer Personas B2B Marketing B2B Advertising Agencies 126

Buzz Marketing for Technology

MARCH 25, 2010

Customers have been adopting Social Media for the last few years and I think it is fair to say that we Social Media has gone mainstream especially after last year. Companies too have gotten on the bandwagon of Social Media and become more social themselves and again I think it is fair to say that ones that have adopted social aren’t going to switch back to being “antisocial” tomorrow it’s a state of being now for them.

Service 147

Service WOM RSS Digg 147

Advertisement

Whether your organization is at the start of its sustainability and impact journey or years into it, many brands share a common concern: the uncertainty of whether they are sending stakeholders mixed messages. Creating content that speaks to your audience's “love language” can be a tricky dance. But, worry not! 3BL has put together tips to ensure that your content not only finds its rhythm but also resonates with your target audiences.

Content

Webbiquity

MARCH 24, 2010

Guest post by Beth Hrusch. As you may know by now, article marketing is an effective way to gain credibility and establish yourself as an expert in your field. By writing articles about topics of interest to your readers, and distributing them on article directories, you can give your content the kind of exposure that would be hard to get anywhere else.

Social Media 168

Social Media Digg Social Marketing Marketing & Strategy 168

LeadSloth

MARCH 24, 2010

GUEST POST: this is a guest post by Saad Hameed ( @KaizenSaad ), an experienced marketing operations manager and founder of the Marketing Automation Association LinkedIn Group. The CEO/CFO of your organization may be asking you to measure Marketing Campaign ROI to determine marketing’s contribution to revenue. The question is straight forward, yet what you may have already discovered is that the answer on what to measure and how to measure is not simple.

ROI 122

ROI Campaigns Marketing Management SEM 122

B2B Memes

MARCH 22, 2010

Last month, I wrote about a discussion on an episode of This Week in Google (TWiG) featuring Google’s Matt Cutts. I noted that Cutts seemed to say that Google was aware of the rise of so-called content farms like Demand Media and that it would adjust its search algorithm so that low-quality commodity content didn’t overwhelm better material.

SEO 104

SEO Google High Quality Lead Tagging 104

Customer Experience Matrix

MARCH 12, 2010

Summary: Marketers face so many choices that just deciding which to explore is a major challenge in itself. Here are some ways to match social media to your business objectives and resources. I’ll be giving a Webinar on March 23 ( register here ) with Neolane about cross channel marketing. At least that’s the official topic. In my mind, it’s really about helping marketers choose among the ever-increasing media options available today and in the future.

Social Media 173

Social Media Resources Wiki Media 173

Advertiser: ZoomInfo

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

B2B Marketing

Tony Zambito

MARCH 24, 2010

In conclusion of the Buyer 2.0 series , what must be examined is the glue that binds the previous tenets that have been reviewed.   Otherwise, we can end up what may be viewed as disparate and disconnected uses for buyer personas.   Thus, diluting the essence of how they can help an organization receive the game-changing affects from investing in Buyer Persona 2.0 best practices.    Buyer Personas Inform Strategy and Innovation.

Buyer Personas 130

Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Buying Cycle Forecasting 130

B2B Marketing Traction

MARCH 19, 2010

Tweet. As a B2B marketing consultant, I’m often asked what day of the week is the best day to send promotional email. In earlier days of B2B email campaigns, the school of thought was that the best days were Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. On Mondays business people are overwhelmed and had a email inbox full of spam from the weekend. On Fridays people have their mind on the weekend and didn’t have as much time to read email.

Email Marketing 109

Email Marketing B2B Marketing Campaigns B2B 109

Webbiquity

MARCH 23, 2010

There’s no doubt that Twitter is a phenomenon. It’s now the third-largest social network (behind Facebook and MySpace), the fastest-growing , and used by 75% of b2b companies. How can you optimize your organization’s use of Twitter? What are the best ways to search on this platform? How can you measure results? What are the best tools for increasing your effectiveness and efficiency on Twitter?

Twitter 159

Twitter Best Practices Digg PR 159