How To Avoid the Biggest Pitfall of Progressive Profiling

Questionaire from Focus GroupAccording to Google, progressive profiling is “a method of asking questions incrementally, gathering more information about a prospect over time.”

With progressive profiling, instead of putting a 15 field form in front of your next potential prospect, use progressive profiling and only ask for the first couple pieces of information. Then, as they come back over time, continue to gather a little bit more.

And then it all falls apart. [Read more…]

Understanding Intent Behind Content Consumption

Content Marketing Crystal BallYou know millions of people saw your content. But do you know the answer to the more important question: why did they take the time to read it or watch it?

  • It isn’t because it was widely shared on Twitter or LinkedIn.
  • Your SEO program didn’t make them read it.
  • A content promotion program didn’t make it suddenly appealing.
  • Triggered emails gave them a link but didn’t make them click or spend their time with it.

These are ways people find your content, and without them your content marketing would fail.

But these are not the reasons someone chose to spend their time with your content. [Read more…]

5 Steps To Improve B2B Lead Generation Program Results

B2B Lead Generation StepsYou are easily spending thousands on lead generation media programs each month. You have carefully chosen your partners, negotiated an effective cost per lead and are diligently measuring your results.

But you are still leaving money on the table. You can increase the value you get by changing how you run each of your programs.

From content to process to branding, here are five steps you can take to improve the results from your publisher lead generation programs. [Read more…]

7 Nurture Programs You Need To Have

Nurture ProgramsDespite the capabilities of modern marketing automation platforms, many B2B marketers still approach nurture with a short term mindset.

Your primary goal is to increase engagement, raise lead scores and pass a more active “lead” to sales as quickly as possible.

The result is often a series of short term “nurture” programs combined with campaign blasts sent sporadically to a huge list of inactive contacts.

Yes, it may be an improvement from when all you had were batch email blasts, but you can and should do so much more today. [Read more…]

When Marketing Automation Is the Wrong Solution

Chainsaw PumpkinYou wouldn’t jump in your car to go from the living room to the kitchen or pull out the chainsaw to cut a stick of butter.

Just because it is a more more powerful solution doesn’t mean it is necessary or advisable.

Marketing automation is quickly becoming like the self-driving car for B2B marketing. Led by Eloqua (now part of Oracle) and Marketo (with a very successful IPO last week), today marketing automation companies are collectively worth billions. [Read more…]

Marketing Automation’s Next Frontier: Madison Avenue

Marketers have invested in marketing automation, content and, in many cases, creating complex business rules to determine what content and message to deliver when.

This represents a significant investment but, for many companies, the application has been limited to emails and landing pages.

The real value is in the rules and logic used to deliver the right message at the right time. The next evolution in marketing automation will be extending the application of these rules across the full spectrum of digital and addressable marketing channels. [Read more…]

Three Requirements as Marketers, Agencies and Publishers Converge

In April Crain Communications, the publisher of BtoB Magazine, announced the creation of CrainsSocial, a new marketing services group offering social media solutions to marketers. This is one more introduction in a long line of changes that are blurring traditional roles in the marketing landscape.

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3 Ways to Fuel Your Marketing Automation Cycle with Data

Marketing automation is built on the premise of delivering the right communication to the right person at the right time.

Successfully delivering the right content at the right time hinges on data. Data that is provided explicitly by prospects, and more importantly, data that is provided implicitly through their engagement with your communications and content.

This is the virtuous cycle behind the communications in marketing automation. When any element of the cycle falls short, the entire cycle breaks. [Read more…]

Marketers Ruin Good Marketing Opportunities

Innovative marketers constantly put new ideas into practice, and some of the most effective new ideas quickly become marketing best practices or emerging trends.

However, when marketing ideas initially move from early adopters to the majority of marketers, they tend to lose their luster. The incredible results the early adopters reported are not repeated.

This happens for two primary reasons: [Read more…]

12 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2012

B2B Marketing Prediction PostI was recently informed that every marketing blogger must publish their predictions for the year ahead. So to claim my status as a blogger and not put my right to use WordPress at risk, here are my 12 serious predictions for B2B marketing in 2012.

Content Marketing

1. Name recognition will rule. Flooded with content, audiences will turn to recognized sources. High quality editorial, analysts and recognized thought leaders will rise above the clutter based on their names and reputations. [Read more…]