Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

The good news is that as technology such as marketing automation advances, creating a more individualized marketing communications program that leads to sales conversations is becoming more real. So Before You Purchase Marketing Automation… Marketing automation systems have reached some maturity in the marketing landscape.

Acquisitions 120

Acquisitions Webinar Metrics Marketing & Strategy Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 2, 2015

In fact, there’s not even a series of projects that can be assigned to marketing that’s going to work predictably because not every prospect is going to follow a predetermined, automated sales process—it’s a continuous process that requires shifting on the fly by providing more content to the prospect when they need it.

B2B Sales 120

B2B Sales Paper Fulfillment B2B Marketing 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 11, 2017

For most B2B companies with a complex, relationship based selling process, a demand generation program that provides actionable sales intelligence is one of the best options at their disposal. A word of caution—this process falls apart all over the place. Do we need a better follow-up and nurturing process for our BDRs?

Demand Generation Agencies 136

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Budget Programs Demand 136

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 27, 2015

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. But the magic of content marketing really happens in the process of nurturing MQLs into SALs. That’s nurturing.

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Sales Qualified Leads Buy 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 18, 2016

We focused next on evaluating the sales pursuit process deeply—and identified the sales metrics that would be needed in order for them to turn this situation around. Unless they made changes to their MQL pursuit process, and the SQL-to-close rates, they would never get anything out oftheir demand generation investment.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads Cost per Lead 120

Sales Engine

NOVEMBER 9, 2015

Several years ago, we made some significant investments in marketing after we’d purchased a marketing automation system, and the idea was to gain as much market traction as possible. We were able to achieve over 15,000 hits to our website, and we were being featured in some big national publications.

Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Qualified Leads High Quality Lead Conversion Paid Search Agency 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 23, 2016

They realize that engaging with prospects through the internet is a process and not a series of projects—and marketing’s job is to generate leads that create actionable sales intelligence. In fact, Forrester says that as much as 90 percent of the buying process is complete before the prospect engages with a vendor.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 28, 2016

From your viewpoint, where are companies getting stuck with this process? The most important strategy of any content marketing program is a really smart search engine optimization process. When we started this process, we had identified over 100 categories. Ideally that’s what we’re all trying to get to. We are now very focused.

Marketing & Strategy 120

Marketing & Strategy A/B testing Broadcasting Content 120

Sales Engine

OCTOBER 8, 2015

They realize that engaging with prospects through the internet is a process and not a series of projects—and marketing’s job is to generate leads that create actionable sales intelligence. In fact, Forrester says that as much as 90 percent of the buying process is complete before the prospect engages with a vendor.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Process B2B Thought Leadership Work Management 120

Sales Engine

JANUARY 25, 2016

For most companies, it likely started with marketing automation software, a website makeover, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-per-click advertising, and Customer Relationship Management software. It’s a continuous process of finding, engaging, and building an audience that you can later monetize. But, it hasn’t happened overnight.

Enterprise Management 120

Enterprise Management Marketing Management Marketing Automation Services Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 6, 2016

In our experience, here are the top 5 mistakes B2B companies make when trying to build their demand generation engine: #1 Starting with marketing automation Without question, marketing automation tools such as Hubspot, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua, etc., The times have changed, and so should your follow-up processes.

Demand Generation Agencies 168

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Paid Search Agency Demand 168

Sales Engine

JULY 5, 2016

The Solution: Integrating Content Marketing into the Process The solution is shifting the old paradigm of one-to-one initial sales engagement to a digital format. The answer: automation. By automating online campaigns based on prospect behavior, marketing automation engages and nurtures early-stage buyers until they are sales-ready.

Work Management 149

Work Management Marketing Automation Services Marketing Management Budget Programs 149

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 16, 2015

Feeding the content marketing machine is an endless process, because once you stop publishing, your conversations start drying up. If you’re in the 68%, however, and you plan to go outside your company for help in putting together a strategy, the outside firm must go through a strategic process before any content development can begin.

Advertising Agencies 120

Advertising Agencies Budget Programs High Quality Lead Content 120

Sales Engine

MAY 31, 2016

Feeding Sales is a Process , Not a Series of Projects Every department within a company has ongoing projects they try to maintain, but the challenges and emergencies that pop up every day require immediate response, and it can be very easy to divert all of your time and resources to addressing them.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 15, 2016

Therefore, sales prospecting with content requires a more complex process than it did even five years ago, largely because the buyer has a lot more control and salespeople are no longer the sole gatekeepers to the information they need. Much of today’s content has been automated and collected in CRMs such as Salesforce.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 17, 2016

Of course, gathering those insights requires tools like marketing automation software and website analytics, but if you’re using those tools properly, you can have an unprecedented level of visibility into how prospects are engaging with your brand. If you don’t know, then your answer is: Yes, you’re wasting money on branding.

Budget Programs 168

Budget Programs Content Marketing Branding Brand Identity 168

Sales Engine

JANUARY 22, 2016

Because of the complexities of today’s buyer’s journey, and the ever-changing role of sales in this process, marketing must be involved more than ever before: More than branding and awareness More than demand generation More than just lead conversion Because each sales process has become unique. An understanding of the sales process.

Lead Nurturing 120

Lead Nurturing Sales Qualified Leads Leads Lead 120

Sales Engine

MARCH 15, 2017

As long as you have one strong manager type who understands the process from end to end and can ensure rigor in execution, you will be able to run a demand gen program with a relatively small team. The Second Challenge: Of course, to get the technology and headcount you need, you have to carve out a place in your budget for demand generation.

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation Resources Demand 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 12, 2016

Now with the rise of content marketing , we’re wondering if salespeople will be replaced—or, in other words, will we be able to automate marketing processes to the point where we can lead people all the way through their buying journey, eliminating the need for sales reps? Cold calls are dead. SEO is dead.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 136

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

These facts cited above speak to the fundamental changes in the customer and prospect buying process—prospects are avoiding the interaction with your professional selling team until the very end of their buying process. Leveraging marketing automation to convert this activity to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

FEBRUARY 11, 2016

These facts cited above speak to the fundamental changes in the customer and prospect buying process—prospects are avoiding the interaction with your professional selling team until the very end of their buying process. Leveraging marketing automation to convert this activity to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs).

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking Thought Leadership Marketing Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 16, 2016

What does a perfect world B2B sales process look like? But the reality is that some of this process can be automated, and some can't, and one of the biggest reasons for this is that when we do find something that works predictably, others jump on the bandwagon and muddy the waters—much like what we’re seeing now with content marketing.

Sales Management 120

Sales Management Top of Funnel Cold Calling Content 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 7, 2015

Now with the rise of content marketing , we’re wondering if salespeople will be replaced—or, in other words, will we be able to automate marketing processes to the point where we can lead people all the way through their buying journey, eliminating the need for sales reps? Cold calls are dead. SEO is dead.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Cold Calling Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

APRIL 13, 2016

B2B Sales cannot live on inbound alone , and without a thorough conversion strategy and process for lead nurturing, it’s all just branding and awareness. Your content production isn’t integrated with your sales process. Therefore, content must be developed for each stage of the sales process to plug holes in the sales cycle.

Top of Funnel 136

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Lead Ranking Digital Marketing Funnels 136

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process. If you don’t have a sales process (because you rely solely on referrals), start there. The next step is nurturing. How do I evaluate vendors?

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

JULY 21, 2016

A demand generation strategy must map directly to the sales funnel to be effective, which is why most B2B content marketing initiatives miss the mark—they don’t understand sales process. If you don’t have a sales process (because you rely solely on referrals), start there. The next step is nurturing. How do I evaluate vendors?

Lead Generation 120

Lead Generation Top of Funnel Generation Ad Building 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 19, 2015

Many companies try to solve this problem by purchasing marketing automation systems and retrofitting their marketing departments to generate demand. But as marketers we must use this standard definition of MQL to make adjustments to our process. Salespeople need leads, and it’s marketing’s job to generate them. How did they find us?

Lead Ranking 120

Lead Ranking Marketing Qualified Leads MQL Sales Qualified Leads 120

Sales Engine

MAY 12, 2016

If this sounds familiar to the process that a consultative sales person uses to get in front of prospects, you’re right— the process is the same. Its role is to position your company as a trusted resource and problem-solver for your potential buyers—so they’ll think of you when purchasing time rolls around.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Branding Brand Identity Budget Programs 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. But it can’t stop there.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Content Marketing Digital Marketing Funnels Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 14, 2015

You’ve been writing some blogs and white papers, using marketing automation to assist in your distribution, and you’re getting some traction—but it’s not enough. Effectively is defined as over 50 percent of your total sales pipeline coming from this process.). So what are your options? For example, will you need: Writers?

Demand Generation Agencies 120

Demand Generation Agencies Demand Demand Generation Marketing Automation Services 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 22, 2016

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

DECEMBER 3, 2015

Most B2B companies have stuck a toe in the content marketing water by shifting some of their resources to generate white papers, thought-leadership articles, infographics, and video— primarily for use in the marketing automation systems that they’ve purchased.

B2B Thought Leadership 120

B2B Thought Leadership Thought Leadership Content Blogger 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Some if it can be automated, and some requires a very soft push in the right direction—It’s called nurturing and that doesn’t mean you should push for an appointment yet. So make sure that they can do just that. Bottom of the Funnel Content. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120

Sales Engine

AUGUST 4, 2016

Attribute #1 Content maps tightly to the sales process. Some if it can be automated, and some requires a very soft push in the right direction—It’s called nurturing and that doesn’t mean you should push for an appointment yet. So make sure that they can do just that. Bottom of the Funnel Content. Not really.

Top of Funnel 120

Top of Funnel Lead Generation Sales Qualified Leads Lead Ranking 120