Marketing Clique

I think there might be an interesting opportunity for lead nurturing campaigns to eventually include daily deals into the marketing mix. Eventually, there may be room for marketing automation software companies like Eloqua and Marketo to integrate a daily deal platform into the software.

U.S. consumer spending on daily deals is forcasted to reach $3.9B by 2015. Although it's largely erupted as a retail consumer play with little activity in the B2B space, there may be an opportunity for B2B marketers. After all, we transform into retail consumers when we're on our lunch break, after we get home from work, and on the weekends. And we're increasingly interested in daily deals.

Lead nurturing software companies can take advantage of the exhileration consumers experience when they get a daily deal. Marketing automation software companies can partner with daily deal platform software providers to integrate daily deals into campaigns that promote exclusive, high quality content used for nurturing high-value B2B prospects.

The big difference would be that the content would still be free. B2B prospects would be discovering the lead nurturing content in yet another (familiar) way: via a daily deal that is targeted to them.

What do you think?

Waiting too long to follow up on a lead can drastically affect a sales opportunity.

A recent blog post from marketing automation software company Marketo comments on how sales responds to leads. As it turns out, it's not a pretty picture. Marketo's blog post cites data from an independent lead response management study that says if sales waits even an hour to follow up on a lead from marketing it can ruin a sales opportunity.

While somewhat dated (2008) there's another study from Omniture that highlights some alarming findings about how sales follows up on leads from marketing. Here are the key points:

• Only 4.6 percent of the businesses use a strategy involving both phone and email
• Less than 5 percent called within 24 hours
• 19 hours 31 minutes was the average sales response time by email
• 36 hours 57 minutes was the average sales response time by phone
• 45.2% of companies sales teams never responded at all

The message is clear: speed does matter

Choosing a CRM provider can be a daunting task. Fortunately, there is some very helpful CRM software advice out there.

Lauren Carlson from Software Advice recently wrote a guest blog post on some of the things you can do to mitigate risk, save time, and maintain sanity while going through the CRM software selection process.

Some of the key CRM software selection points Lauren offers are:

• Establishing realistic priorities and understanding that content is still king.
• How to start your CRM software research.
• How to prioritize vendors when you're scoring your RFP responses.
• Pricing expectations.
• CRM training.

I hope you take a moment to read the post. And let me know what you think!

Revenue Performance Management (RPM) has bubbled up as an important new acronym in the world of marketing automation.

The software world is rife with acronyms. In the late 90's, when I was in the IT market research and consulting world, we used to see so many new acronyms it would make our heads spin. Most of the new acronyms were a tech startup's attempt to coin a new, catch, three-letter "word" that would help boost its brand. Most of the new acronyms didn't stick.

One of the acronyms that did stick, however, was CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

Will RPM, as a coined acronym, survuve the test of time? Marketing automation leaders like Marketo (who I think coinced the term) and Eloqua (Marketo's top competitor) sure hope so. They're betting that the term will appeal to both sales and marketing. They're both evangelizing the idea that winning new business is a process, and not some sort of black magic rain that salespeople make.

Marketing automation competitors are singing out of the same hymn book. They envision a better world, where sales and marketing buddy up and sing kumbaya by the corporate campfire.

The dated view of sales professionals as lone wolfs (“islands”) and masters of their territories (“kings”) is actually a symptom of a much larger problem in how too many businesses – large and small – still view the revenue process. The real problem is that they don’t see revenue as a “process” at all. Generating review is still frequently viewed as a series of disconnected steps in a straight-line continuum – from the creation of awareness and leads by the marketing department, to the closing of the sale by the sales people. –Phil Fernandez, President & CEO, Marketo (read blog post)

Time Will Tell Whether RPM Will Survive

 We're still in the middle of a fierce bake off between the marketing automation players. The atttackers, defenders, and arm merchants are still being defined. Investment dollars and big-name customers make the niche real. But ultimately there will be brutal consolidation and acquisitions. Blood will be shed, and the victorious marketing automation companies will be left battle fatigued... and smiling. Stay tuned.

A Brief History of RPM

• Here's a concise whiteboard session from Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo, who suggests that RPM could lead to a re-roganization of your company and even a Chief Revenue Officer, in charge of an integrated sales and marketing team.
• And below is an entertaining video from Eloqua that briefly describes the evolution of RPM:
  

B2B marketing automation software company, Marketo, has partnered with marketing industry research leader MarketingSherpa to produce a marketing automation industry report entitled, CMO Perspectives On B2B Marketing Automation: Strategies for automating the marketing-sales pipeline.

• Download the report from the Marketo website for free (thru February 2011).

Marketing Automation Is About Generating Better Leads

According to this industry report on marketing automation, 76% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) agree that generating high quality leads is the most pertinent marketing challenge they face. The data was collected from nearly 300 respondants and is statistically significant.

While generating leads has always been marketing's charter, generating better leads has always been a challenge. That's one of marketing automation's strong suits: you can use slow-drip marketing tactics to help ensure the leads that finally make it "over the wall" to sales are as high quality and ripe as possible.

Too often, leads are contacted by sales too early, too often, or the prospect simply isn't the right fit. The process of implementing and using marketing automation helps to alleviate this conundrum.

Key Marketing Automation Insights From The Report

This report offers some strong data points to help support the marketing automation industry niche - a market that some people suggest is floundering.

• 70% of the CMOs interviewed are in the process of, or have implemeted marketing automation software.
• 76% of CMOs say that they need higher quality leads.
• 84% of CMOs indicated that there are three to four decision-makers involved in the buying process of their product.
• 89% report that their product's buying cycle spans over more than one month.

Research Methodology

This report was published as a cooperative effort between MarketingSherpa and Marketo. MarketingSherpa has an objective Partnered Research Program that makes these types of reports possible. MarketingSherpa's involvement means they are getting a sufficient demand for this type of marketing automation industry research. And Marketo's willingess to participate reflects their commitment to supporting the industry segment as a whole, and not solely beating their own chest. Kudos to both Marketo and MarketingSherpa!

To preface my argument I want to start with three points:

1. Growing companies face many online marketing struggles. And one of the challenges is on whom they should be focusing their marketing and sales efforts.
2. Most companies think their baby their product is very, very important is strategic. But that's rarely the case. Most of the time it's tactical. Occasionally it's both strategic and tactical.
3. One of the cliché recommendations that management likes to chirp is, "We need to be selling higher in our prospect organizations. We need to get more sales meetings with the C-level." The trouble is that most products aren't sold at the C-level. They may require sign off from the C-level, but the decision making is happening at other levels. Decision-making happens over time. And many people are in on the decision-making process. Actually, this is a fundamental reason why marketing automation works.

A recent blog post from Marketing Automation Software entitled, Why the Marketing Automation Market Is Floundering & 5 Fixes to Fuel It is another example of a strategic thinker making a recommendation that doesn't quite fit. The author, Jeff Pedowitz' first recommendation for fixing what he describes as a "floundering" market is to sell over the marketing department because they don't have the budget.

I don't agree that the marketing automation market is floundering. The fact is that the top two marketing automation leaders (Marketo and Eloqua) are experiencing impressive growth and attracting real investment. Ancillary companies, like ReachForce, are also experience growth on the coat tails of marketing automation.

And secondly, I think Pedowitz' recommendation to sell beyond or over marketing is incomplete logic. As an example, everyone is interested in their computer working, it's mission-critical, and affects core revenue-generating departments within a company. But that doesn't mean you sell to the CEO. Instead, you sell to the IT Director and make additional resources available to the other parts of the organization, people in charge of due diligence, IT steering committees, or whatever.

One of the positive, yet sometime unanticipated outcomes of installing marketing automation software is more alignment between sales and marketing. Marketing and sales have always enjoyed a love-hate relationship, but now marketing is increasingly being held accountable for helping to drive revenue. Sales recognizes why this is important. And that's why both marketing and sales are involved with the decision to implement a revenue performance management system.

Marketing automation salespeople need to keep selling to the marketing executive. And marketing automation is clearing not "floundering."

Ultimately, both sales and marketing will get pulled into the decision-making process. And the CEO will sit up and take notice if the investment of budget and time is noteworthy. But I can practically guarantee you that it will be both the marketing and sales leaders that will continue to be the most influential people in the marketing automation purchase process.

You've heard the buzz about marketing automation. And you've even started to consider which marketing automation vendor you should be considering. But is this all just a fad? Is marketing automation just sophisticated email marketing?

The answer is that no, it's not just a fad. And last month's Teradata-Aprimo acquisition announcement adds further credibility to this growing marketing automation niche market.

Lauren Carlson over at Marketing Automation Software Guide wrote up an informative synopsis:

Expectations aside, there is still much to be said about the implications of this deal. Does this signal a move by Teradata into the B2B market? What does this mean for the marketing automation market in 2011? What additional M&A activity can we expect to see? (read the article...)

The Take-Away For Sales & Marketing

Marketing automation continues to get validated. Big companies are starting to invest big dollars. The Teradata-Aprimo acquisition announcement proves this. And Marketo's recent $25 million in additional venture capital funding is another indicator. In all, an estimated $150 million has been invested in the leading marketing automation vendor companies.

Consider whether your organization could benefit from lead scoring and marketing automation. The effectiveness of marketing automation boils down to your organization's ability to feature engaging, authoritative content that educates and entertains your prospects and customers. This, in turn, will help guide your prospects to purchase, and your clients to upgrade and continue buying from you.

Step one is realizing that your organization will benefit from marketing automation software. But getting past step one can be a daunting task, especially when you are trying to distill your vendor choices down to a short list.

This handy interactive graphic from Marketing Automation Software Guide helps the savvy online marketer quickly categorize who's who in the marketing automation world. While it's not exhaustive it's certainly a great place to start and features most of the leading marketing automation companies:

Doing Your Due Diligence - Avoid The Traps

Cogent marketers will realize that selecting a marketing automation vendor requires due diligence. It's an important decision and requires a significant investment of company resources.

Once you've selected a vendor you can learn from understanding some of the common traps into which many of the pioneer marketing automation users have fallen. Following are three of the traps that Jeff Ernst, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, highlights in a recent blog post:

• The process trap. They don't get buy-in and support from the sales organization, so they generate more leads without changes to how sales works those leads.
• The content trap. They don't anticipate that effective, targeted lead nurturing greatly increases the content requirements.
• The skills trap. They don't have people with the skill sets to define their customer buying cycles and information needs at each stage.

Ask For Help

Before you take the next step, regardless of where you are in the selection/installation process ask for support from your vendor, get advice on marketing software choices, consult with other marketing professionals, and consider outsourcing parts to a consulting organization that has experience developing and automating lead flow.

Sometimes we become overly dependent on one leg of our online marketing plan. We become reliant on that one online marketing campaign to the point that it's unhealthy. We begin to ignore other opportunities because we're obsessing over one tactic in our overall marketing strategy. This obsession becomes unhealthy. We become myopic and we're unable to consider additional opportunities.

Online Codependency Defined

Online Codependency (OC) is the dysfunctional relationship that a marketer can develop with one of his/her online marketing tactics. The marketer begins to obsess over one particular online marketing campaign. This may result in an exaggerated sense of responsibility for the campaign, and the marketer may even display an inability to maintain healthy boundaries, letting the campaign become too controlling over the his/her life in the office. The unfortunate result is that the marketer becomes overly stressed, suffers from anxiety, guilt, depression, and even resentment for more successful marketing campaigns happening around him/her.

The Cure

While OC is a potentially destructive disease there are ways to cure it. In fact, there are ways to prevent it.

• Make sure you've got a balanced marketing plan. Over reliance on only one leg of the online marketing campaign is a recipe for OC.
• If you're already suffering from OC, take a step back and analyze what's working, and what's not. Many times there are missing parts. For example, if you're addicted to search marketing perhaps you should try some email marketing for awhile.
• Try bringing in some additional help. Considering hiring an outside consultant to take a look at your SEO plan. Ask for help on additional online lead generation ideas.
• If you feel yourself feeling like you need the campaign to need you seek help immediately. There are professionals who can help.

Should Marketing Automation be re-named Email Automation? Isn't it true that so-called lead management automation is really just a dressed up autoresponder?

Automated lead nurturing is one of the reasons companies invest in a marketing automation platform. The lure of slow drip marketing is that salespeople don't get bogged down working immature leads. Instead, the prospect is teased with a series of emails that maintain contact and offer different goodies [bait] along the way: invitations to free webinars; invitations to download free whitepapers (eBooks), case studies; invitations for free product demos; invitations to visit salespeople at upcoming conferences. Then, once the lead has been nurtured and is ripe for the picking, the salesperson is unleashed to lap up the new business.

Is it really that easy?

Yes, because when it's implemented correctly, lead management can translate into an increase in sales. Furthermore, the volume of leads your company can now handle increases dramatically. And sales still is, in part, a numbers game.

No, it's not that easy because success of the campaign hinges on the ability of marketing and sales to work together as a team. What's more, there is a pesky little thing called content that has to be of exceptional quality, value, well-thought-out and accessible.

What should be the goal of lead nurturing?

We ultimately want the lead we're nurturing to take the desired action, right? Right! But remember, the desired action might not be a purchase, per se. The interaction may not be solely with a prospect. And our reaction may not necessarily be an email:

• Use marketing automation to stay in touch with high value mavens. Maybe you've identified bloggers for whom you want to provide high quality and special content about your products and services.
• Put your new customers on a slow drip enrichment campaign and introduce them to the wonderful new features and benefits of doing business with you. Introduce certain types of stuff to certain types of customers.
• Before they sign on as customers, use lead nurturing to encourage prospects to interact with people at your company and begin feeling like they're part of your community. The value of community is strong. It's a powerful way to make your company more cult-like.
• Make some of the lead nurturing triggers result in something other than email! For example, one of the triggers can result in a call from a human being outside of the sales department. Use old-fashioned marketing tactics like sending the prospect a hand-written note from the VP of Marketing thanking them for attending the latest webinar. Send the prospect a FedEx package. Everyone opens an overnight FedEx envelope that's sent to them.
• If your product is distributed through the channel, set up a routine for sending the reseller special kudos when they meet certain criteria. Maybe it's an email, but maybe it's a quick congrats call from your CEO.

However you slice or dice it, there's no getting around the fact that marketing automation and lead nurturing has wiggled its way into the world of marketing and sales. The following infographic is from Forrester Research analyst, Laura Ramos, and it's useful for visualizing where lead nurturing can "plug the leak."

What's the takeaway for marketing and sales?

Be creative and avoid becoming myopic about your new marketing automation campaign. It's not only for creating autoresponder email messages to prospects!