The last 12-18 months have proved to be a rough time for the proverbial “sales funnel”.  At the 2011, DemandCon conference, Forrester analyst Jeff Ernst declared in his keynote that “the funnel is dead.” Needless to say this was fuel for quite a bit of conversation in the days that followed.  And since then many have jumped on the “death to the funnel” bandwagon.  The last salvo came from Tony Zambito , Founder and Principal of Buyerology, in his article Slow Death of the Funnel: Why Buyer Choice Matters to Revenue. . The point here is well taken. Lead Management Process Lead Planning MORE >>

A database is a beautiful thing — especially if it's built from contacts who've opted in rather than purchased lists. But, the problem I see repeatedly is that once a contact goes in, the database doors swing shut like a steel trap, with B2B marketers never exercising their visitation rights. With the rate of change in the business environment, this can be a risky practice. When is the last time you actually looked at the contacts in your database? And when I say looked at them, I don't mean scanned the list, but actually took the time to look into and validate the contacts? or 10%. MORE >>

Image via Wikipedia. When businesses evaluate social media marketing initiatives, they want to know how many new customers social media will attract to their businesses. But, social media marketing is all about relationships. So perhaps evaluating an investment in social media marketing by looking at new customers is the wrong metric. Lifetime customer value is a financial measure based on the long-term relationship and may offer another way to evaluate social media investments. While many big brands have dived into social media marketing with gusto, smaller businesses are more apprehensive. MORE >>

Last week, I made the case for a new definition of inbound marketing , or as Michael Brenner ( @brennermichael ) called it in the comments, a “call to arms” for inbound marketers. The new definition: Inbound marketing is marketing focused on being found through the recommendation of others and delighting everyone that finds you. As inbound marketing evolves, the components also need to change. Traditionally, inbound marketing has been functionally defined as the combination of search, social and content. Your content is what makes finding you valuable. It is what others recommend. MORE >>

I’ve made the case previously in this space how one of the easiest way to gain a quick return from any investment in marketing automation is to apply the technology towards more efficient and systematic follow-up to inbound leads. And yet, I’m finding in the course of our firm’s work that many companies don’t consider lead follow-up a priority. Big mistake. In a ground-breaking report back in 2007, the people at InsideSales.com reported some startling statistics about just how quickly companies should follow up on Web leads, and the repercussions of not doing so. What’s the solution? MORE >>