SMB Marketing Blog

This is the fourth of ActiveConversion’s very popular “How To” guides.  This one deals with using Marketing Automation to score the behavior of website visitors, and those who click through on emails, so that they can be automatically sorted for prioritization.  From the summary:

Identify online behaviors that indicate interest or sales-readiness

Not all leads are created equally. A lead scoring system acknowledges this by assigning values to leads based on objective criteria. The lead score determines the appropriate action for that lead.

In establishing your system you should;

• Identify online behaviors that indicate interest or sales-readiness
• Assign point values to each of those behaviors
• Establish a score that defines “Sales-Ready”

With a contemporary marketing automation solution like ActiveConversion, today’s B2B marketers can reduce costs and increase revenue through prioritization with lead scoring.

To download this eHow To Guide on why, when, and how to implement an automatic lead scoring plan for your business, click on the image!

Wellesley, Mass. - January 25, 2010. THINKstrategies, Inc., the leading strategic consulting company focused on the business implications of the on-demand services market, announced today that ActiveConversion has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards program was announced in January 2009 by THINKstrategies as an initiative aimed at bringing greater attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

The folks at Forrester Research have updated their Interactive Marketing Forecast out to 2014. 

The table of contents has some predictable headlines:

• Interactive Will Cannibalize Traditional Media
• Interactive Marketing Spend Will Near $55 Billion By 2014
• Search Marketing Still Leads Interactive Spend
• Display Advertising Rebounds
• Email Marketing Continues Healthy Growth
• Social Media Fixes Itself In The Interactive Mix
• Mobile Marketing Matters – Post Recession
• WHAT IT MEANS – Interactive Trends Will Redefine Your Business

It’s a very good read, and a few points jumped out for me.

When faced with budget cuts or the need for immediate sales, these marketers find that interactive tools are less expensive, more measurable, and better for direct response than traditional media.

Empowered consumers today expect a customized, interactive brand experience that goes way beyond a 30-second television spot or two-dimensional print ad. Forty-two percent of online adults and 55% of online youth want to engage with their favorite brands through social applications.

And last, even laggard industries feel that they have enough experience and data to prove interactive marketing’s worth. Online display spending by telecom companies in Q1 2009 grew 50% over Q1 2008.

What was also interesting was the the potential for more growth; interactive marketing ad spend is still under represented and laggard compared to how much of sample media time is spend online.

You can sign up for a copy of the full report here, courtesy of  DemandGen Report. Check it out. Your marketing future may depend on it!

ActiveConversion recently published a lead nurturing guide that we at the SMB Marketing Blog would like to share with you (link, or click on the image at right).

From the landing page for the guide:

Lead nurturing is the process of communicating with prospects who are not yet ready to buy.

Only 10 to 25 percent of all leads are sales-ready. A similar percentage of leads are not qualified at all. This means 50 to 80 percent of all leads generated are potentially wasted if no appropriate action is taken.

With lead nurturing B2B marketers can realize significant benefits. Leads that are not sales-ready are not lost and significant online lead generation effort is not wasted. Automation of lead nurturing increases the ROI of all online marketing activities.

To download this whitepaper on why, when, and how to implement an automatic lead nurturing plan for your business, follow this link or click on the image to the right.

(eHow To Guides)

Thought leadership marketing is a trendy concept in B2B marketing.  The term thought leadership was first used by Strategy & Business magazine as a quality attributed to interview subjects who had contributed new thoughts to business.  The term has come to mean people or companies who revitalize mature processes with new ideas.  More generally it refers to companies that are recognized as deeply understanding their business, the needs of its customers and the wider economic environment in which the company operates.
Thought leadership marketing has established a following with marketers of services, especially professional services since customers cannot directly examine the product and chose vendors based on real or perceived expertise.  In other words, reputation.

The five second prescription for thought leadership marketing success is to write a bestselling book, make speeches and have authoritative third parties review your ideas.  A more pragmatic plan would include submitting articles to trade journals, speaking at trade shows and conferences, participating on panels and engaging reviewers and others known to write on your industry.  Most trade journals (print or online) welcome article submissions that are on-topic.  Keep in mind that your mission is to establish yourself as a trusted expert not a hard sell.  An article that reads like a warmed over product brochure won’t cut it.

Those third party reviewers need to be cultivated.  Keep in mind that their currency is information and just like other media, “exclusives” are coveted.  Consider offering an exclusive on your next product launch.  You may not make it into print every time but each encounter will strengthen your share of mind with that reviewer.

Remember that Internet age customers research potential vendors long before buying.  Part of the process is reducing the field of potential vendors to a select few.  This makes the process more manageable and allows the customer to look at each short-listed offering in greater depth.  Your marketing plans should include content that speaks to your position as a thought leader.  Your marketing automation system will capture those leads.  They may be early in the cycle but you will be well-positioned to be present at the end.