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When Marketing Automation Is the Wrong Solution

May 21, 2013 by 11 Comments

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...]

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Filed Under: Marketing Technology Tagged With: , ,

Marketing Automation’s Next Frontier: Madison Avenue

November 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

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...]

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Filed Under: Marketing Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

Three Requirements as Marketers, Agencies and Publishers Converge

April 30, 2012 by 3 Comments

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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Filed Under: Business, Strategy Tagged With: , , , ,

3 Ways to Fuel Your Marketing Automation Cycle with Data

April 5, 2012 by 6 Comments

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...]

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Filed Under: Content, Email Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketers Ruin Good Marketing Opportunities

January 3, 2012 by 5 Comments

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...]

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Filed Under: Branding, Strategy Tagged With: , , , , ,

12 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2012

December 22, 2011 by 10 Comments

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...]

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Filed Under: Content, In Theory, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Content Will Not Be King

October 11, 2011 by 28 Comments

Coronation crown of Louis XVNearly every marketer in every industry has heard the cry “Content is King“. Even the cover of Ad Age was emblazoned with Content is King last month, complete with a crown. Once a call for change and recognition of a new marketplace reality, Content is King has become conventional marketing wisdom.

The problem is, conventional wisdom is average. Following conventional marketing wisdom will not differentiate you.

Why is content king today:

  • Being customer-centric required moving away from creative executions as the primary way to deliver a message. Focusing on the customer requires providing something that meets their need, and content perfectly fits the bill.
  • Content marketing was not the norm. Companies embracing content marketing were able to provide unique value to clients and prospects.

Today, the situation has changed. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Content, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Your Lead Scoring Blind Spot: The Internet

October 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

Marketers have a huge blind spot when it comes to nurturing and lead scoring. It does not matter if you have built a sophisticated lead management and nurturing system, driven by content consumption, engagement and response. Your blind spot is there.

The problem is, you only see how people respond to your content and your offers. You only see what is happening on your own properties. Your blind spot is all the time potential prospects spend on competitor sites, on editorial properties, on topical blogs or discussing with peers.

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Filed Under: Demand Generation Tagged With: , , , ,

Not Just Automation, Marketing Needs REAL Conversation

July 19, 2011 by 10 Comments

Create a personalized dialogue with each prospect at every point in the sales process!

This sounds like a pitch for marketing automation. While the result is valuable, it is not a dialogue. Here are some of the characteristics of this “dialogue” marketing has created with automation:

  • Most of the audience response is a click and inferred consumption. In mass it is a valuable indicator but it isn’t a valuable individual response (Scott Brinker discussed this at Insights from the explosion of marketing touchpoints)
  • It is based on well educated guesses about what information someone needs next, not answering a specific question or need.
  • It is designed to replace the conversation that once happened directly between sales and a potential new prospect.

Real conversations need to come back into marketing communications. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Content, Demand Generation, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,