Expert insights. Personalized for you.
One of the themes for marketers in 2009 is “doing more with less”. While some marketing teams are facing cut backs and spending freezes or reductions, they still need to hit their goals which may include generating X number of leads, Y amount of influenced pipeline and/or Z amount of influenced sales. A key part of “doing more with less” is automating your email marketing campaigns. While many may label this as “lead nurturing”, it goes well beyond lead nurturing. MORE
Next month is Sales 2.0 in Boston. May 21 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. It should be another great day of insights, interraction and networking from the industry's 2.0 pundits. Why, you ask, is Smashmouth Marketing interested in Sales 2.0? With the crossover of sales and marketing, the Sales 2.0 event is relevant to marketers too. MORE
If you have a great B2B story to tell, think about sharing it with other B2B marketers at MarketingSherpa’s 6th Annual B2B Demand Generation Summit 2009. MarketingSherpa is looking for speakers for the events which will be held September 23-25 in San Francisco and October 23-25 in Boston. These summits feature case studies based on real-life marketers’ actual lessons learned about what is working at this moment in advanced business marketing. MORE
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have high turnover (average tenure is 18 months), and good ones are hard to find. What makes a good CMO in today's challenging B2B environment? The answer is that a good CMO has the ability to change and MORE
webinars or webcasts, as they are sometimes called, have increased in popularity and in effectiveness within the past 5 years or so. a common tool for today's marketer they provide a great way to reach a large number of people with your MORE
We’re always hearing that marketing and sales should be better aligned (whatever that means), but I see little practical advice about how to do that beyond the usual change management stuff. I don’t discount the importance of change management, but sometimes you need something more concrete—something that marketing and sales can do together that gets them working closer together without people noticing it so much. Our research shows that we may have found something: account planning. MORE
On this blog I primarily write about integrated Lead Management systems , rather than small tools. However, in a previous post I wrote about a project in which I’m replacing a full-blown Marketing Automation system with tools that add on to Salesforce.com. One of the key tools is a form builder: and that is exactly what FormAssembly provides. I was impressed with FormAssembly: they have a cool-looking form builder that has lots of advanced features in a user-friendly package. MORE
A couple of people recently asked me which blogs I’m frequently reading. So here’s the list. Please send me your favorite blogs, because there must be lots of great Marketing Automation blogs that I haven’t found yet! BTW 1: Some of these blogs are more about lead generation, demand generation or inbound marketing, so maybe the title of this blog post is not ideal. But regardless of the terminology, these are the blogs that I enjoy most :- ). MORE
if you want to see how you (or your new boss) stack against top technology ceo's, check out glassdoor.com for an interesting ranking. the site not only lists top executives based on approval ratings but also shows you reviews that give MORE
In my previous post I listed the Top-10 Demand Generation blog by marketers and consultants. Today I’ve put together a list of vendor blogs. Most of these vendors blogs really get ‘online marketing’, so they talk about best practices rather then just touting their products, and they post regularly. In alphabetical order: ActiveConversion B2B Marketing Blog. This is my new discovery. Recently, they are writing more posts, and some good ones too! MORE
I’m probably biased, but I believe the primary objective of business-to-business marketing is driving sales of the company’s products and services. Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales. MORE
The challenge today is not in generating leads, but truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. This is why I found this post by my friend Ardath Albee titled, " Strategy Beyond the Send " helpful. Ardath's post gives some useful ideas on how we can better connect by thinking, "like your prospects do when they set out to solve a problem. One step leads to another.and another." " I agree. MORE
Please participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmarking Study by taking this fast and easy online survey. It will take you less than 10 minutes to complete, and you will automatically qualify to receive a free executive summary of the study results. If your answer is yes to any of the following questions, you will want to participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study. MORE
Like many of you, I’m using LinkedIn to connect with work friends and colleagues. But I’ve been intrigued by how LinkedIn has quietly developed into a useful lead generation tool for marketers and sales people to build relationships with potential customers. I’ve discovered that it’s a pretty simple process if you’re willing to invest the time to freely share your expertise and thought leadership with others. MORE
Customer success stories or case studies are powerful promotional tools for a high-tech product or service. Yet, as a long-time success story writer, I know that convincing customers to participate in a case study can be a long and frustrating effort. It can be equally difficult to motivate a customer to review and approve the story once it is written. MORE
This post is from a real query I received from a client this week. The questions display a healthy distrust for accepted wisdom, which I like, and provide a good test of the thinking behind thought leadership marketing. See what you think of my answers: How did thought leadership initiatives in companies begin? Thought leadership marketing is based on the academic research publishing model, in which academics created journals built around a peer review process. MORE
Next month is Sales 2.0 in Boston. May 21 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. It should be another great day of insights, interraction and networking from the industry's 2.0 pundits. Why, you ask, is Smashmouth Marketing interested in Sales 2.0? With the crossover of sales and marketing, the Sales 2.0 event is relevant to marketers too. MORE
There are so many tools that help marketers with their search marketing but marketers have to know how to use the analytics in order to focus on the right things to generate leads and sales. So often I find that marketers are only looking at conversion rates of how specific phrases or banners perform and are ignoring other valuable information. While conversion rate is one way to measure the effectiveness a search phrase, it can be extremely misleading. MORE
If part of your lead generation or lead nurturing strategy involves outbound sales calls, then you already know one of the key metrics critical to sales productivity is connection rate – i.e. the percentage of dials that result in live conversations. Typical B2B connection rates range from 15 to 30 percent, which means that [.]. inside sales b2b lead generation lead generation telemarketing telesales MORE
Sometimes it pays to look outside your normal circle of peers for inspiration. Here’s a postcard I received recently from the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife. What do fishing licenses have to do with B2B demand generation? Not much. But the very fundamental direct marketing principles on display here [.]. MORE
DM News, the venerable tabloid that I remember reading while cutting my direct marketing teeth back at Oracle in the late 1980s, is switching from a weekly to bi-weekly publication schedule. This prompted a discussion on LinkedIn wondering if the change augured tougher times ahead for direct marketers. On the contrary: after almost 20 years [.]. MORE
Have you considered that helping your customers market the value of your products to their customers might be way to increase your company's sales? This strategy goes beyond creating materials for dealers, resellers, and system integrators that may also be appropriate to your product. Instead, the idea is to present key information and messages to consumers or business customers who are beneficiaries -- but not necessarily users -- of your technology. MORE
I’m probably biased, but I believe the primary objective of business-to-business marketing is driving sales of the company’s products and services. Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales. MORE
Please participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmarking Study by taking this fast and easy online survey. It will take you less than 10 minutes to complete, and you will automatically qualify to receive a free executive summary of the study results. If your answer is yes to any of the following questions, you will want to participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study. MORE
I am officially up and running now in my 6th week here at Avaya and loving my new role. And what has been really interesting for me to see was the difference between organizations when it comes to things like social media. One of the things I was pleasantly surprised to find in the first few days was that Avaya has their own Yammer account within their firewall. So naturally I signed up and started sharing. MORE
Via [link]. 16:14 The challenge today is not in generating leads, but more in truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. #. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter MORE
Sales Lead Insights
APRIL 13, 2009
I’m probably biased, but I believe the primary objective of business-to-business marketing is driving sales of the company’s products and services. Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales.
B2B Lead Generation
APRIL 21, 2009
Like many of you, I’m using LinkedIn to connect with work friends and colleagues. But I’ve been intrigued by how LinkedIn has quietly developed into a useful lead generation tool for marketers and sales people to build relationships with potential customers. I’ve discovered that it’s a pretty simple process if you’re willing to invest the time to freely share your expertise and thought leadership with others.
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WriteSpark
APRIL 7, 2009
Customer success stories or case studies are powerful promotional tools for a high-tech product or service. Yet, as a long-time success story writer, I know that convincing customers to participate in a case study can be a long and frustrating effort. It can be equally difficult to motivate a customer to review and approve the story once it is written.
The Point
APRIL 30, 2009
Sometimes it pays to look outside your normal circle of peers for inspiration. Here’s a postcard I received recently from the Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife. What do fishing licenses have to do with B2B demand generation? Not much. But the very fundamental direct marketing principles on display here [.].
Speaker: Matthew Hawk, President of B2bTrainers
The term “sales enablement” applies to a dizzying array of best practices and technologies. In addition, there is tremendous competitive pressure not to fall behind. No matter where you are in your current sales enablement strategy, one thing is key: success ultimately rides on the habits of your sales managers & marketers. In this webinar, Matthew Hawk will lay out an in-depth schematic for your next-level sales coaching, demonstrate the key activities that comprise success, and walk you through several examples of sales coaching cadences that apply to all salesforce sizes.
LeadSloth
APRIL 24, 2009
A couple of people recently asked me which blogs I’m frequently reading. So here’s the list. Please send me your favorite blogs, because there must be lots of great Marketing Automation blogs that I haven’t found yet! BTW 1: Some of these blogs are more about lead generation, demand generation or inbound marketing, so maybe the title of this blog post is not ideal. But regardless of the terminology, these are the blogs that I enjoy most :- ).
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B2B Marketing Zone brings together the best content for marketers in the B2B industry from the widest variety of thought leaders.
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Sales Lead Insights
APRIL 20, 2009
Please participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmarking Study by taking this fast and easy online survey. It will take you less than 10 minutes to complete, and you will automatically qualify to receive a free executive summary of the study results. If your answer is yes to any of the following questions, you will want to participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study.
B2B Lead Generation
APRIL 28, 2009
There are so many tools that help marketers with their search marketing but marketers have to know how to use the analytics in order to focus on the right things to generate leads and sales. So often I find that marketers are only looking at conversion rates of how specific phrases or banners perform and are ignoring other valuable information. While conversion rate is one way to measure the effectiveness a search phrase, it can be extremely misleading.
WriteSpark
APRIL 23, 2009
Have you considered that helping your customers market the value of your products to their customers might be way to increase your company's sales? This strategy goes beyond creating materials for dealers, resellers, and system integrators that may also be appropriate to your product. Instead, the idea is to present key information and messages to consumers or business customers who are beneficiaries -- but not necessarily users -- of your technology.
The Effective Marketer
APRIL 29, 2009
webinars or webcasts, as they are sometimes called, have increased in popularity and in effectiveness within the past 5 years or so. a common tool for today's marketer they provide a great way to reach a large number of people with your
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Every sales forecasting model has a different strength and predictability method. It’s recommended to test out which one is best for your team. This way, you’ll be able to further enhance – and optimize – your newly-developed pipeline. Your future sales forecast? Sunny skies (and success) are just ahead!
LeadSloth
APRIL 29, 2009
In my previous post I listed the Top-10 Demand Generation blog by marketers and consultants. Today I’ve put together a list of vendor blogs. Most of these vendors blogs really get ‘online marketing’, so they talk about best practices rather then just touting their products, and they post regularly. In alphabetical order: ActiveConversion B2B Marketing Blog. This is my new discovery. Recently, they are writing more posts, and some good ones too!
Smashmouth Marketing
APRIL 25, 2009
Next month is Sales 2.0 in Boston. May 21 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. It should be another great day of insights, interraction and networking from the industry's 2.0 pundits. Why, you ask, is Smashmouth Marketing interested in Sales 2.0? With the crossover of sales and marketing, the Sales 2.0 event is relevant to marketers too.
The Point
APRIL 22, 2009
If part of your lead generation or lead nurturing strategy involves outbound sales calls, then you already know one of the key metrics critical to sales productivity is connection rate – i.e. the percentage of dials that result in live conversations. Typical B2B connection rates range from 15 to 30 percent, which means that [.]. inside sales b2b lead generation lead generation telemarketing telesales
B2B Lead Generation
APRIL 24, 2009
If you have a great B2B story to tell, think about sharing it with other B2B marketers at MarketingSherpa’s 6th Annual B2B Demand Generation Summit 2009. MarketingSherpa is looking for speakers for the events which will be held September 23-25 in San Francisco and October 23-25 in Boston. These summits feature case studies based on real-life marketers’ actual lessons learned about what is working at this moment in advanced business marketing.
Speaker: Christopher Ryan, Founder and CEO of Fusion Marketing Partners
Sales & Marketing departments that work together guarantee higher acquisition, better nurturing, and more effective sales. Join Christopher Ryan for this insightful webinar, presenting the wide funnel lead nurturing model. Don't miss out on this opportunity to get your teams working together and your revenue performance optimized.
B2B Marketing Traction
APRIL 21, 2009
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have high turnover (average tenure is 18 months), and good ones are hard to find. What makes a good CMO in today's challenging B2B environment? The answer is that a good CMO has the ability to change and
Sales Lead Insights
APRIL 20, 2009
Please participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmarking Study by taking this fast and easy online survey. It will take you less than 10 minutes to complete, and you will automatically qualify to receive a free executive summary of the study results. If your answer is yes to any of the following questions, you will want to participate in this important B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study.
Chris Koch
APRIL 17, 2009
We’re always hearing that marketing and sales should be better aligned (whatever that means), but I see little practical advice about how to do that beyond the usual change management stuff. I don’t discount the importance of change management, but sometimes you need something more concrete—something that marketing and sales can do together that gets them working closer together without people noticing it so much. Our research shows that we may have found something: account planning.
LeadSloth
APRIL 15, 2009
On this blog I primarily write about integrated Lead Management systems , rather than small tools. However, in a previous post I wrote about a project in which I’m replacing a full-blown Marketing Automation system with tools that add on to Salesforce.com. One of the key tools is a form builder: and that is exactly what FormAssembly provides. I was impressed with FormAssembly: they have a cool-looking form builder that has lots of advanced features in a user-friendly package.
Speaker: Jay McBain, Principal Analyst – Channels, Partnerships & Ecosystems
We are in the middle of a major transformation of how companies go to market – in fact, 76% of global CEOs feel that their current business models will be unrecognizable in the next 3 years. Join Jay McBain from Forrester as he unpacks these future trends.
The Point
APRIL 20, 2009
DM News, the venerable tabloid that I remember reading while cutting my direct marketing teeth back at Oracle in the late 1980s, is switching from a weekly to bi-weekly publication schedule. This prompted a discussion on LinkedIn wondering if the change augured tougher times ahead for direct marketers. On the contrary: after almost 20 years [.].
B2B Lead Generation
APRIL 22, 2009
The challenge today is not in generating leads, but truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. This is why I found this post by my friend Ardath Albee titled, " Strategy Beyond the Send " helpful. Ardath's post gives some useful ideas on how we can better connect by thinking, "like your prospects do when they set out to solve a problem. One step leads to another.and another." " I agree.
The Effective Marketer
APRIL 9, 2009
if you want to see how you (or your new boss) stack against top technology ceo's, check out glassdoor.com for an interesting ranking. the site not only lists top executives based on approval ratings but also shows you reviews that give
Sales Lead Insights
APRIL 13, 2009
I’m probably biased, but I believe the primary objective of business-to-business marketing is driving sales of the company’s products and services. Of course branding and awareness are also roles that can be played effectively by B2B marketing, but from my point of view these are only supporting roles—secondary to the primary objective of helping drive sales.
Advertiser: ZoomInfo
Sales enablement is the strategic process of providing sales teams with the content, guidance, and mentorship needed to engage targeted buyers. It’s all about equipping sales professionals with the tools they need to put their best-selling foot forward. And if sales teams want to continuously sell better -- and faster -- their sales enablement process must have a game-winning strategy. It's time for you to start selling smarter - and hitting your sales number - with the best B2B database in the market. Get started today.
Chris Koch
APRIL 10, 2009
This post is from a real query I received from a client this week. The questions display a healthy distrust for accepted wisdom, which I like, and provide a good test of the thinking behind thought leadership marketing. See what you think of my answers: How did thought leadership initiatives in companies begin? Thought leadership marketing is based on the academic research publishing model, in which academics created journals built around a peer review process.
Smashmouth Marketing
APRIL 2, 2009
Next month is Sales 2.0 in Boston. May 21 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza. It should be another great day of insights, interraction and networking from the industry's 2.0 pundits. Why, you ask, is Smashmouth Marketing interested in Sales 2.0? With the crossover of sales and marketing, the Sales 2.0 event is relevant to marketers too.
Buzz Marketing for Technology
APRIL 7, 2009
I am officially up and running now in my 6th week here at Avaya and loving my new role. And what has been really interesting for me to see was the difference between organizations when it comes to things like social media. One of the things I was pleasantly surprised to find in the first few days was that Avaya has their own Yammer account within their firewall. So naturally I signed up and started sharing.
B2B Lead Generation
APRIL 17, 2009
Via [link]. 16:14 The challenge today is not in generating leads, but more in truly connecting with them. That's why lead nurturing matters. #. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter
Speaker: Ruth Stevens, President of eMarketing Strategy
In a pandemic, it’s more important than ever to focus on retaining and expanding current customers. So, how can sales and marketing support the retention effort? Join Ruth Stevens as she dives into this fast-paced session and reviews the 7 key strategies for current customer marketing, to enable sales and expand customer value.
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