Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

Okay, the first rule is really to create great, relevant content that adds value, but getting it in front of the right people is right up there —if no one is reading it, it’s pretty much a waste. Many B2B marketing leaders have resisted Facebook and other social media platforms, believing that they can’t be successful in getting leads there.

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Facebook Lead Scoring Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

But how much of that exposure translated into leads and sales? But that’s just not enough—it has to translate into appointments with qualified prospects and sales conversations. Less is more if there are more qualified leads for salespeople to follow up on. Marketing works in tandem with sales on an ongoing basis.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 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

OCTOBER 27, 2015

What’s the right way to follow up on content to turn leads into sales conversations? Remember, people at the beginning of the sales process don’t want to talk to a salesperson — and they don’t have to anymore. This of course will vary in every organization depending on your overall sales process.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 7, 2016

How many car dealerships have had to change their sales approach because people are more informed about what the car should cost before they ever take a test drive? So how can you use content to generate more leads at the top of the funnel? The Internet has crushed a sales rep’s ability to get in front of enough prospects.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Features B2B Thought Leadership Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

We’re uniquely positioned because of our diversity in product offerings, but we compete with large firms that have more resources available to their marketing and sales team. Once the rebrand of the website was complete, First Rate implemented their content strategy in conjunction with Sales Engine and experienced immediate positive results.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

We’re uniquely positioned because of our diversity in product offerings, but we compete with large firms that have more resources available to their marketing and sales team. Once the rebrand of the website was complete, First Rate implemented their content strategy in conjunction with Sales Engine and experienced immediate positive results.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Demand Generation 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

Ah, the sales funnel. 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. Define your sales funnel. Now you can create the content.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JULY 13, 2016

Ah, the sales funnel. 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. Define your sales funnel. Now you can create the content.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Conversion Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

Most of us remember a day when sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. It's not that buyers ever wanted to talk to sales reps, but it was the only way they could learn about best practices and solutions available in the market. So how do you go beyond lead generation to domination? The game has changed.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 16, 2015

B2B content marketing today is really about generating leads for sales by replacing the one-to-one conversations that salespeople used to be able to get more predictably. They need to develop an intimate knowledge about the issues they care about so they can get their attention and add value. Go back and review point number 1.

Content Marketing 120

Content Marketing Lead Ranking Content Marketing & Strategy 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 21, 2015

In the B2B space, the number-one goal of most content marketers is to generate leads for their sales team. The message we should take away from Redbull is that, even when it comes to B2B lead generation , content marketing is not an event or a campaign. Do you see it? The focus needs to be on the buyer and not YOU.

Budget Programs 120

Budget Programs Work Management Marketing Management Allocation 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. Prior to 2005, B2B sales people were the gate keepers of information about the companies’ products and services.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 20, 2016

It’s time to face some hard truths about B2B sales. And most importantly, adding more sales people (or hiring calling firms) to prospect down a list won’t get you where you want to be either. 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.

Lead Ranking 218

Lead Ranking Lead Gen Lead Scoring Leads 218

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

When it’s all over, you ship the booth and collateral boxes home and collect the leads for sales. The world has changed, and the internet is now crushing a sales rep’s ability to generate their own leads. Prior to 2005, B2B sales people were the gate keepers of information about the companies’ products and services.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

JULY 5, 2016

For companies struggling to reach sales goals, doing more of the same (more cold-calls, adding more salespeople) won’t break through growth plateaus. Sales representatives used to be a prospect’s only source of product and industry knowledge, but now prospects largely research things online while ignoring reps’ calls.

Work Management 149

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Budget Programs 149

Sales Engine

AUGUST 19, 2015

I have a friend in sales who continuously argues with me over the definition of what a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). As a salesperson, he simply cannot understand how someone that’s not qualified, but demonstrates interest by clicking on a link or downloading a report, can be counted as a qualified lead by any means.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads MQL Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 23, 2016

Calculating Total Cost of Customer Acquisition Because buyers are engaged with both sales and marketing as they move through the sales funnel, it no longer makes sense to draw a hard line between sales and marketing expenditures. The next key performance indicator we must consider is the customer lifetime value (CLV).

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Top of Funnel 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Measuring content marketing’s return on investment in B2B companies can be a complex calculation, especially if your solution is expensive, requires committee-based decisions, and has long and unpredictable sales cycles. Sale intelligence includes information such as: Who is involved in the decision? Increased web traffic.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Sales Qualified Leads B2B Marketing Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 28, 2016

They recently set up an experiment where they adjusted their publishing volumes by half the amount of content and then doubled it, both for a two-week period against their normal benchmark, to see what would happen to engagement and lead generation. In other words, when I send out a campaign, how many leads did it generate?

Webinar Metrics 120

Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Content Paper 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 16, 2016

What does a perfect world B2B sales process look like? For me, that looks like marketing generating enough qualified leads so that most of my time is spent having productive sales conversations. People must find the value in the content to keep them coming back, or they won’t. Mass marketing is out, mass media is in.

Sales Management 120

Sales Management Top of Funnel Cold Calling Content 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 16, 2015

So how do you compete with content marketing and sales follow-up when the waters have been muddied? As buyers, we don’t need to talk to sales people to get the information we need—therefore, we don’t take phone calls (and get upset when we feel tricked). People must find the value in the content to keep them coming back, or they won’t.

Sales Management 120

Sales Management Top of Funnel Cold Calling Content 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 9, 2015

When it comes to B2B marketing—whether it be social media, email marketing, blogs, white papers or attending trade shows—it has to be about lead generation. Not that there isn’t branding and awareness value in these projects. That usually requires an expensive, highly trained sales rep to get the deal closed.

Demand 120

Demand B2B Marketing B2B Trade Show 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 3, 2016

This is why it’s important to have great content available that supports every stage of the buying process in a complex sale. A recent client evaluation of their data revealed that, when content marketing was used in tandem with sales, the closing rates went up, the deal sizes were larger, and the cycle times were shorter.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Purchase 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 3, 2016

This is why it’s important to have great content available that supports every stage of the buying process in a complex sale. A recent client evaluation of their data revealed that, when content marketing was used in tandem with sales, the closing rates went up, the deal sizes were larger, and the cycle times were shorter.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Purchase 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 28, 2015

Lead by Example and Start Small Even though 88% of B2B marketers are using content marketing (with 42% increasing their budgets for 2016), it doesn't mean that they’re doing it well—or are going to do so in the future (and I’m sure many companies that post to their blog once a month have been included in this statistic). How can you do that?

Budget Programs 120

Budget Programs Top of Funnel Marketing Budget Webinar Metrics 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 13, 2016

Just because B2B companies are investing heavily in content marketing doesn’t mean that they’re successful at generating the leads they need for business growth. Additionally, 85% of the companies surveyed indicate that lead generation and sales growth was their primary objective for greater investments.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 136

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 22, 2015

But eventually you will cap out, and the only way to generate more leads for your sales team is to grow your database —and that comes with its own set of challenges: deliverability, segmentation, acquisition, and so on. This looks exactly like the sales funnel, which is why top-of-funnel has largely shifted to marketing.)

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Marketing & Strategy Marketing Strategy Funnel Advertising 120

Sales Engine

MAY 5, 2016

times more leads, and you’ve been burned outsourcing content production in the past, that number looks pretty scary. Content for Lead Generation Should Focus on Business Problems, Not Solutions. If you’ve been watching Hubspot’s statistics about publishing frequencies where they suggest that 16 posts per month (4/week) yields 5.3

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel B2B Thought Leadership B2B Business 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 16, 2015

And to make it even more complicated, content development must be high-quality and add value or it will go unnoticed, regardless of how often you post. To fully close the loop, a lead record’s digital behavior must be recorded and stored in a CRM and be viewable at any time.

Advertising Agencies 120

Advertising Agencies Budget Programs High Quality Lead Content 120

Sales Engine

JUNE 9, 2016

Creating an end-to-end lead generation process with content marketing requires that your top-of-funnel content (the content that focuses on early stage buyers and is commonly found in blogs) is tied together with your premium conversion assets. So what does the professionally trained sales rep do? But it can’t stop there.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Digital Marketing Funnels Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 14, 2016

A newspaper editor, a digital producer and a content marketer walk into a bar…and they discovered that great stories and brand communications are no joke—it takes all of their combined skills to engage an audience and generate leads. Good stories lead to future good stories or blog posts. Did the white paper goose sales?

Planning 120

Planning Content Marketing Best Practices Content 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 12, 2016

Sreenivasan leads their content marketing arm like it’s a full-blown media company, running a 70-person “newsroom” that focuses on topics he loves: digital, web, social, mobile, video, apps, data, geolocation, email, and more.

B2B Marketing 120

B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency B2B Storytelling 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 12, 2016

Sreenivasan leads their content marketing arm like it’s a full-blown media company, running a 70-person “newsroom” that focuses on topics he loves: digital, web, social, mobile, video, apps, data, geolocation, email, and more.

B2B Marketing 120

B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency B2B Storytelling 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

Team A would score and then immediately retreat to its own end of the court. When marketing provided “air cover”, sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. It's not that buyers ever wanted to talk to sales reps, but it was the only way they could learn about best practices and solutions available in the market.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Team A would score and then immediately retreat to its own end of the court. When marketing provided “air cover”, sales reps used to be able to generate their own leads. It's not that buyers ever wanted to talk to sales reps, but it was the only way they could learn about best practices and solutions available in the market.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Digital Marketing Funnels 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

When you decide to update, the title of the content should stay the same, and so should its URL; changing that information removes some of the value of the link. Repurposing content is an essential to greasing the content marketing gears and keep the leads cranking in.

Content 120

Content Youtube Statistics Social Media 120