Category Archives: Marketing Technology

18 Common Features of a Best-in-Class Lead Nurture Program

It wasn’t that long ago, when marketing automation first burst on the scene, that the height of lead nurture sophistication was the simple, automated sending of multiple, sequential emails. Today, advances in marketing technology make such “automation” seem laughably basic. Modern, best-in-class lead nurture programs focus less on automation, and… Read More

marketing automation

Why Is Marketing Automation Maturity Still Woeful?

Almost 5 years ago, our agency conducted a survey to determine whether B2B companies were getting maximum value from their investment in marketing automation.  The conclusion: most B2B companies were failing to follow even the most basic lead management best practices, even in areas that one would assume were a… Read More

embedded forms

Hosted Landing Pages vs. Embedded Forms

A client asks: “Should we be hosting our campaign landing pages in Marketo?  We’ve always hosted them on our main site and simply embedded Marketo forms.  Is there a big advantage to hosting them separately?” This question comes up all the time in client work, and not just with Marketo… Read More

demand gen predictions

6 B2B Demand Gen Predictions for 2020

The rate of change in B2B marketing and marketing technology continues to accelerate, and 2020 promises to be no different. I asked the best subject matter experts I know, my colleagues at Spear Marketing Group, what trends they think will highlight the next 12 months in B2B demand generation. Here’s… Read More

third-party intent data

Do You Want Intent Data with That?

If you could layer third-party intent data into every lead gen program you run, would you do it?  In other words, would you only ever want marketing leads from prospects pre-determined to be actively researching your category, solution, use case, etc.?  My argument: no, you wouldn’t.  I was part of… Read More

email bots

Email Bots: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Stop Them

Congratulations: your last email campaign generated a really high click-through rate.  Or did it? It’s an issue that B2B marketers are experiencing with increasing frequency: open rates and click-through rates that don’t quite match up, typically in the form of an abnormally high “click to open” (CTO) rate.  The culprit?… Read More