Act-On

APRIL 26, 2024

Designing a lead scoring model seems like a complex proposition. And if you jump into it without a solid strategy in place, you aren’t going to see game-changing results (or a happy sales team). So let’s break it down. There are clear steps you need to take to build and implement a lead scoring model: Assemble your cross-functional squad As we mentioned earlier, lead scoring is a team sport.

Lead Ranking 194

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Marketing Qualified Leads Ideal Customer Profiles 194

Act-On

APRIL 10, 2024

Imagine going on a blind date. All you know about the person sitting across from you is their name, maybe what they do for a living, and that your cousin Susan thinks you might get along. But before you have a chance to ask any questions or get to know them better, they give you a big smile and say, “It’s so nice to meet you. I’d love to show you around my apartment.

Lead Ranking 186

Lead Ranking Lead Scoring Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads 186

Act-On

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

When it comes to email marketing tips, there are a few things that we have all been told to do. From using specific CTAs to sending at certain times of the day, but does some of that conventional wisdom really make a difference? After extensive tests, see what we uncovered. When’s the best time to send an email? What kind of personalization actually drives engagement?

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Act-On

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

Migrating to a new email marketing platform (aka marketing automation) can be intimidating. But it doesn’t need to be. Consider first whether you even need to perform a full migration. Changing providers offers a unique opportunity to take a look at your current programs and lists and determine what’s working, and what’s not. You might not need a full migration.

Marketing Automation Services 130

Marketing Automation Services Email Marketing Advertising Agencies Paid Search Agency 130

Act-On

MARCH 19, 2024

Rising ROI expectations, increased inflation, and decreased consumer spending all add up to a CMO role that is quickly evolving. “Surveys show CMOs are concerned about demonstrating ROI, with another significant challenge being the generation of leads,” says Jeff Day, SVP of Marketing at Act-On Software. As CMOs create strategies to solve these challenges in the coming months, their role is also evolving.

Marketing Automation Services 187

Marketing Automation Services Budget Programs Generation Cross-Selling 187

Act-On

MARCH 1, 2024

Shrinking budgets, rising expectations, and a growing disconnect between CEOs and CMOs about the “most important” marketing metrics lead to more questions than answers about how to expand pipeline. According to a recent report , the probability of CEOs and marketing leaders agreeing on top marketing metrics is like a flip of a coin (50/50). But despite a growing disconnect, most can agree on one important priority: revenue growth.

Lead Scoring 130

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking Paid Search Agency Marketing Automation Services 130

Act-On

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Getting started with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising—or any type of digital advertising—can be downright overwhelming. Advertising has its own special lingo and library of acronyms involved, and new tactics and technologies are constantly emerging. That’s why we created this glossary of digital advertising terms to help newcomers learn the lay of the land.

Paid Content 214

Paid Content Advertising Agencies Multi-Touch Attribution Cost Per Thousand 214

Act-On

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Pressure has been building around proving ROI. Sure, it’s always been there to some extent, but that pressure has recently increased, according to B2B marketers. And many say that while expectations for ROI are increasing, their budgets are not. Hardly seems fair, right? A recent survey found that: 41% of marketers report they’re feeling more pressure to achieve a high ROI. 27% say it’s getting overwhelming. 14% say that “it makes them want to pull their hair out.

Lead Nurturing 190

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Act-On

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Marketers often ask about the best practices for email sender names (also known as the email display name or “from” name). In email marketing, sender name refers to the visible name the recipient sees in their inbox. With 1-to-1 email, the “from” name is obvious: it’s the author of the email! But when you’re sending on behalf of a brand, you have a lot more options for the email display name.

Email Marketing 189

Email Marketing Practices Deliverability Best Practices 189

Act-On

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Considering a new marketing automation platform? You’re not alone. 23% of companies switched their provider in 2022! Unnecessary complexity and low utilization are driving the “Big Switch.” Marketing orgs only use 33% of their martech capabilities. Is it time to make a switch? Signs You Need to Consider a Switch Do any of these sound familiar? If so, you may need to join the 23% who switched.

Marketing Automation Services 206

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Planning 206

Act-On

DECEMBER 7, 2023

The cracks in your marketing automation platform may have been showing for some time. It’s difficult to use. Your team uses tricky workarounds to bypass processes that aren’t working. Or the solution includes so many features that getting the most basic tasks done is more complicated than it should be. Sound familiar? Yep, it’s time to switch. But switching can seem like a daunting task.

Marketing Automation Services 130

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Tips 130

Act-On

DECEMBER 9, 2023

When you set up nurturing sequences, it’s far too easy for them to get lost and forgotten, with staff turnover and programs continuing to run on autopilot. Revisiting your email marketing automation workflow and automation should happen regularly. We’ve been running automated programs for many years here at Act-On, and eventually ended up with 37 different sequences running.

Open Rate 213

Open Rate Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing Automation Services Top of Funnel 213

Act-On

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Migrating to a new marketing automation platform can be intimidating. But it doesn’t need to be. Consider first whether you even need to perform a full migration. Changing providers offers a unique opportunity to take a look at your current programs and lists and determine what’s working, and what’s not. You might not need a full migration.

Marketing Automation Services 222

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation Advertising Agencies 222

Act-On

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Email marketing is a constantly shifting landscape. Service providers like Google and Yahoo regularly update guidelines and evolve their standards to protect their email account holders. If you’re using email as a marketing channel, you need to stay abreast of these 2024 email deliverability compliance changes to avoid a negative impact on your campaigns.

Deliverability 167

Deliverability Phishing Guidelines CAN-SPAM 167

Act-On

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Marketing automation is a tool that promises to help streamline workflows, scale with ease, and get better results. But as with any tool, it’s only as good as the strategies behind it, right? Yet creating better strategies requires better data, and this is where many marketers get stuck. According to our State of Marketing Automation report conducted in partnership with London Research, 49% of marketers cite being unable to measure ROI as a key barrier, and 36% note that a lack of internal knowl

Marketing Automation Services 210

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation Automation B2B Marketing 210

Act-On

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

To paraphrase an old saying: You can lead a prospect to your website, but you can’t make them buy. On the other hand, you can improve your chances considerably with a lead nurturing campaign, helping your prospects every step of the way. Almost two-thirds of leads aren’t sales ready. But rather than ignoring the ones that aren’t ready yet, you can strategically nurture them to grow your haul of sales-qualified leads.

Sales Qualified Leads 181

Sales Qualified Leads Practices Marketing Automation Services Campaigns 181

Act-On

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

Marketing automation is all about results, isn’t it? Sure, you need content that resonates with the target audience and strategically guides them along their journey , but it’s impossible to know if you’re on the right track without understanding marketing automation roi statistics and potential results. And that’s likely why marketers want to know more about marketing automation ROI.

Marketing Automation Services 219

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Automation ROI Automation 219

Act-On

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

In a perfect world, sales and marketing would be tightly aligned , working toward the same goals and achieving the best possible results. But marketers and sales teams know this isn’t always easy. And sometimes, it feels downright impossible. From this challenge, sales enablement was born. Sales enablement is an ongoing strategic process that supports sales teams with the right tools, resources, and skills to improve efficiency and drive higher revenue.

Sales Cycle 228

Sales Cycle Practices Marketing Automation Services Buyer Personas 228

Act-On

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Fact: Content marketers could be doing much more with their content. Way too many of us just publish, promote our content only briefly (if at all), and then move on to the next piece. We don’t republish our content. We don’t repurpose our content. Do you even repost your content on social media? We know that less than half of us do. 34% of us, to be exact.

Social Media 175

Social Media Top of Funnel Media Marketing Automation Services 175

Act-On

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Part 1: Mission Inbox-able Email deliverability isn’t yet a buzzword on the lips of every digital marketer out there. But it needs to be. Think about it. You work hard on your email marketing programs: developing copy, selecting supporting content, finding the right visuals, making sure the right people on your team have reviewed and approved.

Deliverability 181

Deliverability Top of Funnel Best Practices CAN-SPAM 181

Act-On

OCTOBER 11, 2023

Like the unhappy families of Anna Karenina , no two B2B marketing teams are exactly alike. Every company has its own history, values, strategies, and quirks that impact how marketing happens on a day-to-day basis. And the hallmark of a good marketing department is simply that it works. When your team is structured well, everyone knows who’s accountable for what responsibilities and which roles.

Paid Search Agency 177

Paid Search Agency B2B Marketing Demand Generation Agencies Marketing Analytics Tools 177

Act-On

OCTOBER 3, 2023

How many CTAs should I use? It’s a simple question that reveals some sticky issues in your approach to marketing. Should you include multiple and frequent calls-to-action (CTA) on a web page? What about in an email? Should you use more CTAs in some channels than others? It’s one of the oldest and most heavily disputed questions in digital marketing.

Top of Funnel 130

Top of Funnel Landing Pages Digital Marketing Funnels B2B Thought Leadership 130

Act-On

OCTOBER 6, 2023

SMS (Short Messaging Services) is a daily communication channel for nearly 65% of the global population. Though many people have now grown up with SMS technology at their fingertips, it is only recently evolving as a key part of marketing and communication strategies for both B2B and B2C businesses. Widespread use of text messaging, coupled with modern technologies like marketing automation makes SMS marketing a smart and effective way to connect with leads and customers throughout the buyer’s j

SMS 181

SMS Advertising Mediums Work Management Marketing Management 181

Act-On

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Financial industry marketers face unique challenges: Balancing creativity with strict regulatory requirements. Navigating digital transformation in a slow-moving industry. Generating growth even as the larger economy falters.With the Fed actively waging war against inflation, and the rate increases that come with it, it’s enough for any financial industry marketer to cry for “help!

Marketing Automation Services 189

Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Marketing Automation Service 189

Act-On

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Your marketing automation platform houses crucial marketing data that drives your business. But what good is all that data if you can’t view and parse it in the formats and reports that make sense to you and your team? That’s where marketing analytics software comes in. Most of the major marketing automation platforms have some form of analytics built into the user experience.

Marketing Automation Services 146

Marketing Automation Services Analytics Software Deliverability 146

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Growth marketing has been around for awhile now. Wondering “What is growth marketing?” Don’t panic. Like many buzzwords, the core concepts are more important than the name itself. The truth? You’re probably already doing some version of it. So congratulations, growth marketer. So let’s take a look at the definition of growth marketing, and where the term came from.

Growth Marketing 130

Growth Marketing Planning Paid Search Agency Marketing & Strategy 130

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

There’s nothing like a great team up to find new solutions to sticky business problems. When Act-On set out to build audience insights functionality into our marketing automation platform, we knew we needed the right partner. For us, it had to be Intel. Intel has been at the forefront of democratizing AI and making it accessible across industries. Their AI & Machine Learning Software Portfolio provides a modular and user-friendly environment to harness the power of AI for various application

Act-On 100

Act-On Segmentation Ideal Customer Profiles Marketing Automation Services 100

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

LinkedIn groups are, in fact, still a thing. And if you know what to look for, some of them are even pretty good. Especially if you’re looking to build connections and have conversations with your fellow B2B marketers. Because for folks like us, LinkedIn is a must. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn — it’s the most effective platform to reach business audiences, and we tend to spend time where our audiences are.

Linkedin 130

Linkedin Paid Search Agency Work Management Peer-to-peer 130

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

Hitting the #1 position in search results is every SEO marketer’s dream. With higher traffic and more page views, it’s only reasonable to expect a bump in conversions and sales. However, when that doesn’t happen, it leaves you asking: What went wrong? The answer is simple … not all traffic is good traffic. We’ll give you an example. Lower funnel keywords are an often neglected SEO strategy for marketers.

Top of Funnel 130

Top of Funnel Marketing Funnels Keywords Marketing Automation Services 130

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 24, 2023

Easy wins. Everybody wants them, right? Especially when it’s your job to attract more traffic through search engines and you’re working to improve search engine optimization (SEO). The challenge is that algorithms are a moving goalpost – and hey, let’s not sugarcoat it: SEO is hard. Just when you think you have it all figured out, the algorithm does an inconvenient reshuffle.

Lead Scoring 130

Lead Scoring Lead Ranking SEO Top of Funnel 130

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Marketing and sales teams are famously frenemies. They share common goals— driving revenue for their company —but poor communication regularly gets in the way of these two teams working together. Sales and marketing alignment is no small task, but it’s not a mystery. We know what causes misalignment: No shared understanding around who we’re trying to reach.

Work Management 147

Work Management Planning Marketing Management Paid Search Agency 147

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

In our last piece in this series, we talked about the downsides of sales and marketing misalignment. Enough of that! Let’s talk about how to align sales and marketing on a common strategy. We’ll cover topics like defining a target audience, setting shared metrics and definitions, and buttoning up technology and processes. Read on to learn how working together for a common goal can align sales and marketing teams.

Ideal Customer Profiles 130

Ideal Customer Profiles Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Lead Scoring 130

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Technology can’t solve every problem between sales and marketing. But once you get aligned on the principles , sales and marketing software integrations can bring shared processes to life much easier. Use software as a tool to align sales and marketing departments. Integrating your CRM and MAP Sales teams live and die by their CRM. And marketing teams depend on a solid marketing automation platform (MAP) to deliver personalized content at scale.

Marketing Automation Services 143

Marketing Automation Services Software Top of Funnel Process 143

Act-On

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

Link building. They say it’s important for SEO, but is it really ? Despite constant search engine algorithm updates, the answer is still … yes. And since big search engines – such as Google – frown on “link building” strategies, we like to focus on link earning. What’s the difference? SEO FAQ: Your Most Common Search Engine Optimization Questions Answered Link building is typically associated with shady practices.

SME 140

SME FAQ Domain Link Building 140

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

Marketers are creative, constantly looking for new ways to reach their target market and get results. But we’d argue that small marketing teams like yours must be even more creative … because you don’t have a huge internal team to back you up. Yep, you’re doing more with less. But expectations for results don’t really reflect that, do they? Nope. But hey, every challenge also has a solution, right?

Paid Search Agency 194

Paid Search Agency Work Management Marketing Automation Services Planning 194

Act-On

NOVEMBER 6, 2018

Do you have a documented marketing plan and budget? It's not too late to create one. Here are six tips for preparing your 2019 marketing plan and budget.

Planning 103

Planning Marketing Plans Marketing & Strategy Marketing 103

Act-On

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Marketing 100

Marketing Marketing Automation Automation 100