New Report Confirms Immaturity of Most Marketing Automation Deployments

May 14, 2012 – 12:35 pm

A new report from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by marketing automation provider Silverpop, offers little in the way of groundbreaking insights, but does provide plenty of data confirming what most already know: that many companies are failing to realize the true potential from their investments in marketing automation.

In the report, “Automation: Redefining Marketing’s Game Plan,” Forrester details the results of a survey of 155 US-based senior marketing professionals on their use of, results from, and attitudes towards marketing automation. To those of us who work in and around marketing automation every day, none of the results are startling. However, in sum, they do reinforce some key facts, namely:

• Most companies who employ marketing automation are realizing only a fraction of its potential because they tend to focus the technology on improving efficiency and addressing tactical needs

• The keys to marketing automation ROI lie not in features but in strategy, collaboration, metrics, and the development of more sophisticated, multi-touch, triggered campaigns

Forrester maintains that most marketers invest in marketing automation with the goal of increasing marketing efficiency – i.e. doing more with less. However, the study also finds that this focus on efficiency can blind marketers to marketing automation’s true strategic value, what Forrester describes as: “improving lifetime value, building dialog with customers, and increasing collaboration.” Read More »

By Howard Sewell | Posted in B2B Marketing, Campaign Measurement, Campaign Planning, Campaign Strategy, email marketing, Installed Base Marketing, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

How Much Copy Do I Need On My Landing Page?

May 8, 2012 – 11:27 am

An effective landing page does two things, I would argue: 1) it validates the viewer’s decision to click on whatever ad it was that led him or her to the page in the first place, and 2) it closes the deal. The amount of copy that it takes to accomplish these tasks: make the reader feel good about the decision to respond, and drive him or her to complete the required form, varies widely. However, as a rule, copy length depends primarily on two factors: the type of campaign, and the type of offer.

The degree to which you still need to “sell” the offer at hand once your reader is at the landing page is influenced in large part by the amount of information he or she received on the front end of the campaign. Online display ads, text links, and PPC (search) ads impart very little information. The reader may be intrigued, but not yet know much about your company, your product or service, or what he or she will learn/save/gain by accepting your offer. Landing pages intended to serve as the back end for online ad campaigns typically require more copy because there’s still work to be done.

Conversely, if someone clicks on a link in an email, or enters a URL in response to a direct mail campaign, there’s a high likelihood that individual will know virtually all he or she needs to about the offer. In these situations, the landing page should simply reinforce the key selling message and get out of the way. Short and sweet is the way to go. Read More »

By Howard Sewell | Posted in B2B Marketing, Content marketing, Copywriting, Creative, Demand Generation, Landing Pages | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

How to Reduce Unsubscribes Using Subscription Management

April 30, 2012 – 4:00 pm

I’ve written previously in this space about how to reduce unsubscribes by giving prospects and customers the option to update their contact information rather than forcing them to opt out of email entirely.

A further strategy for minimizing unsubscribes is to employ subscription management, a technique in which you, as the publisher, give the wannabe unsubscriber the option to choose which types of messages he/she wants to receive (or not receive, as the case may be.) This can be a useful option if some individuals want to continue to receive your newsletter, for example, but not Webinar invitations. Or if customers want to receive critical product updates, but not information on training classes.

Subscription management turns the act of unsubscribing from a simple Yes/No question to one of: “Which types of communication would you like to receive from us?” It prevents situations in which you may lose forever the ability to market to an individual because he/she happened to dislike one particular email. And it does so under the cloak of customer service, i.e. giving the subscriber the opportunity to choose the type of email communication most relevant to his/her interests. Read More »

By Howard Sewell | Posted in B2B Marketing, Campaign Strategy, CRM, Database Marketing, Demand Generation, email marketing, Email Newsletters, Installed Base Marketing, Interactive Design, Landing Pages, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation, Marketo | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

How Big is Too Big? One Email Offer That’s Tough to Ignore.

April 19, 2012 – 1:09 pm

As any regular reader of this space will know, I am a fierce evangelist for the “sell the offer, not the product” approach to B2B email creative. That approach rests on the assumption that by selling the value of whatever it is you’re offering the reader (a white paper, a Webinar, an ebook), and not your product or service, you’re more likely to generate response from interested prospects.

On that score, there’s a lot to like about the email campaign below from CallidusCloud, a leading provider of cloud-based business software solutions. Most notably, it’s to the writer’s credit that not once in the email is there any mention of the CallidusCloud solution, or even what the company does. Every ounce of copy is dedicated to selling the value of the content on offer, in this case: an analyst report from the Aberdeen Group.

So kudos to the marketers at CallidusCloud for not succumbing to the temptation of explaining how their technology can help companies attain the very same industry standards that the report describes. Instead, the email is selling information of value, and moreover, that information is positioned in a way that would appeal to prospects suffering the very business problems that (presumably) can be addressed by CallidusCloud software. Read More »

By Howard Sewell | Posted in B2B Marketing, Content marketing, Copywriting, Creative, Demand Generation, E-mail, email design, email marketing, Graphic Design, lead generation, Offer Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

“Fortune 500 CIO” is Not a Target Market – A Conversation with Bob Wright

April 13, 2012 – 7:35 am

I’ve had the pleasure of watching Bob Wright conduct messaging workshops with clients, and there is no-one better in my view at helping companies hone their message and strategy. Bob has worked with more than 100 technology companies during his career, and is currently Managing Director at Firebrick Consulting, a firm devoted to helping technology companies drive revenue growth.

Recently Firebrick released a white paper: “”Fortune 500 CIO” is Not a Target Market” that offers a unique perspective and insight on what Bob and his team perceive to be a common mistake made by technology companies seeking to target top IT executives as part of their demand generation and go to market strategies. In a recent conversation, I asked him to share some of his thoughts on the topic.

(HS) Why is it a mistake to treat CIOs as one homogeneous group?

(BW) For many B2B tech companies, the CIO has moved to the forefront as the important buyer or gatekeeper for IT spend. In our experience successfully positioning a number of high-profile tech companies to this buyer, we believe the market is looking at this situation through the wrong lens. Treating CIOs as if they are a single, homogenous market is a ridiculously expensive and inefficient way to build relationships and market/sell tech solutions to this audience. For example, the way you message and sell a “Change Agent” CIO versus a “Cost-Cutting” CIO is very different. Read More »

By Howard Sewell | Posted in B2B Marketing, Campaign Strategy, Demand Generation | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)