Tools for managing the content marketing process
In 2013, content marketing is receiving more attention than ever and there are a growing number of tools to manage it.
We thought this infographic by Content Amp provides a nice visualisation of different types of tools to help manage how content is accessed, shared and analysed.
Although it's a little overwhelming, we think the top-level groupings of technologies are useful if you're reviewing the tools and process you use to manage your content marketing.
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4 tools that give you a fuller view of your online marketing spend
If your business receives a high volume of inbound sales calls referred from your website, then tying your telesales function into your marketing metrics is absolutely crucial to ensure you understand the overall performance of your online marketing spend. This key marketing requirement has led to different call tracking measurement tools being created and made available to marketers which I'll introduce in this post.
Why integrate call tracking?
Call tracking measurement has often been something restricted to a sales manager giving them an understanding of volume of inbound calls and then looking at the conversion rate to sale, generally broken down by agent. However as marketers, we need to understand what made a customer call in the first place. When we understand this we can make (more) educated decisions on marketing spend.
Without call tracking in place, if we look purely…
Practical tips for pre-show event marketing
Exhibitions are a great way to get your company noticed in both business and consumer markets. Being able to meet and interact with dozens of potential new customers is a thrill in itself, never mind the long-term benefits of forging new business links in your sector. Generating interest in your company before a trade show is vital if you want to hit the ground running and gain new clients. Which means that your marketing team needs to be working like a well-oiled machine in the build up to the event.
You might be sceptical about the glitz and glamour of exhibitions, but there is real value to attending a trade show.
Face to face interaction is the best way to ensure that potential clients experience your company performing under pressure in a fast-paced environment. It is also a…
Three examples including the new Smart Insights digital marketing 'health check'
I've been meaning for some time to write about using interactive tools within your digital marketing. I think it's something that's hugely effective; I've used these for years and it still seem surprisingly uncommon given their potential.
[caption id="attachment_14593" align="alignleft" width="385" caption="The new Smart Insights Health Check"][/caption]
My reminder to talk about this is since we've just finished our new interactive, our digital marketing health check - which you can try it here.
It's designed to give you immediate ideas by helping you quickly evaluate areas to focus on within your digital marketing. Its core purpose is to signpost key content on our site that's going to be most relevant to you at that moment. It's simple, quick and focussed on defining your priorities.
That aside, we wanted to bring…
It's not all about you, you, you
Marketing offers, hooks, lead generation or calls-to-action, whatever language you use, are fundamentally not about you. Although there is a LOT of discussion of page layout and call-to-action testing, for me this is the biggest block to get over. What I've observed in many companies is a tendency to lean towards what are most often disguised sales promotion tactics (often believed to be marketing offers) that are only designed to entice transaction with buyers today.
Marketing offers on the other hand are designed to data capture in order the marketer earns permission to sell at the right time tomorrow, next month or even next year for large ticket items.
Three key differences between sales promotion and marketing offers
Sales promotion is about you incentivising me to buy something from you as soon as possible - they're effective…
Are you cultivating the leads who are not ready to buy today?
80% of the leads who don't buy from you will go to buy from someone else according to Eloqua, or more specifically Steve Woods, their CTO, in his excellent book Digital Body Language. It's shocking in one sense, since it means there's a big missed opportunity. The potential customer was interested enough to give us their details, but not enough to buy. But it's not surprising in another sense in that we (as marketers) are not inspiring the lead to buy, and many have a need which will be met by another company.
So what's the answer? Lead nurturing, part of the marketing automation software process. I read this great post by Baxter Denney on the Marketing Automation Guide last month and wanted to give you my take on it. It starts with the classic conversion funnel which shows…
My tips from practical experience
What is marketing automation (originally called email marketing automation)?
It's software platforms essentially, they enable marketing (and sales) departments to increase lead conversion by letting marketing teams leverage captured data to automate the execution of advanced segmentation and communication sequences. You've probably heard of many of the main marketing automation suppliers. Or more simply put, you can do more targeted lead based marketing for a lot less effort. You get to avoid the batch-and-blast approach to email marketing. Two forms of behavioural data are typically used to score and segment leads:
Implied - consumer site behaviour, i.e frequency of visit, looking at key pages, time on site, viewing product pages
Explicit - filling in forms, requesting information, online purchase, attempting online purchase
This data is used to then score (based on propensity to purchase - how "hot" a lead it) and segment (you segment on what you think). The…
Useful infographic from Marketing Sherpa to promote their forthcoming B2B Marketing Summit. Marketing Sherpa have a lot of data and significant expertise around integrated marketing in the B2B space. Their graphic focusses on key insights on a 5 stage marketing conversion funnel. Here's 3 take-aways that stand out to me:
Based on Sherpa's survey data, the average percentage of leads that buy is 20% - though remember Eloqua's research that 80% of your leads simply buy from someone else! Their lead nurturing presentation on SlideShare is worth a look
One third of B2B businesses have not identified their sales funnel, ouch. Have you!?
Brand reputation and awareness remain relatively low in the minds of B2B marketers when compared to focussing on lead generation or conversion, yet surely that should be hand-in-hand? Maybe building your B2B brand in the thought leadership space (for your market) represents a big opportunity to pull in…
21 tips to help you review your approach to getting value from your social media marketing
You hear this question a lot: can social media actually drive sales? It's a key question with all the ongoing interest in social media.
My answer, when asked, is that social media primarily grows permission through lead generation if you're approaching it as a "sales acquisition tactic". But it's actually often a more relevant tactic for customer re-engagement. Once you have permission then you can develop the relationship and earn the right to sell. With this in mind, Dave and I thought it would be good to give you a whole bunch of ideas to think about how you use social media to generate leads.
First, start with an evaluation of you current online lead generation process and figure out how well it’s working through your website. Also, consider where you're turning people off - and correct…
Web response time statistics summary
I was recently called by an email service provider following-up on a whitepaper I had downloaded. Nothing unusual there, it's a good B2B permission marketing practice and for high value consumer products or services too.
What stood out for me was that it was a full month after I had downloaded the document and they chastised me for not reading the paper when I said I hadn't had time to take a look. How about they followed-up sooner!
This got me thinking about when is the ideal time for a follow-up? Is immediate better or is this too "big-brother". Well I recalled some data on this from a while back and turned to my Google+ Email commentators circle who soon pointed me at the data I was thinking of from back in 2008. Thanks Brian Eisenberg and Riaz Kanani!
Here are the results... It's from a post on 5…
