May 2013
4 posts
7 tags
Billy Beane, Moneyball & Modern B2B Marketing
Earlier today, I sat through a surprisingly relevant keynote speech by Billy Beane. Beane, the General Manager of the Oakland A’s, spoke to the marketers gathered for Silverpop’s event in Atlanta.
If you’re a baseball fan, you know who Billy Beane is and why he’s important to the history of the game. If you’re not a fan (and haven’t read Michal Lewis’ Moneyball or seen the movie) then...
A (Hellish?) Vision Of The Future For B2B...
Earlier today at the SiriusDecisions Summit, Jonathan Block and Ross Graber offered a look at what they see as the future for the sales and marketing technology ecosystem. The presentation included a chart that I’ll do my best to reproduce here (forgive the low-rent photography job):
What you’re looking at is an ecosystem that includes more than two dozen technology components....
Quality Content: Helping Your Sales Team Help...
I’m in San Diego right now, catching the action at this year’s SiriusDecisions Summit. One of the big advantages of this event is the perspective it gives on sales and marketing alignment issues, and that’s exactly where SiriusDecisions Managing Director John Neeson took today’s first session.
Neeson presented some interesting research data on the needs and concerns of...
Email Is Dead? I Don't Think So
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been sharing the results of our 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey. Along the way, I’ve been pointing out some survey data that strikes me as particularly interesting.
This week, I want to use our data to address the notion that email is dead. It’s something you’re as likely to hear from grumpy get-off-my-lawn types like John Dvorak as...
April 2013
4 posts
Consistency: Your Content Marketing Secret Weapon
During his Content2Conversion session, Joe Pulizzi packed a lot of good ideas into the space of 15 minutes. But one particular point stuck out, because it’s something almost every content marketer can relate to.
Here’s the relevant data point Joe cited: 85% of all corporate blogs have published five posts or less.
Think about that. These companies spend thousands of dollars on content...
Email Benchmarks: Data-Quality Metrics Tell An...
Silverpop recently released its 2013 Email Marketing Metrics Survey. It’s a good resource for two reasons: The sample size (email sent from more than 2,700 brands in 40 countries) and its usefulness as a benchmarking tool.
My favorite part of the study has to be the comparison of what I call “fail-stats.” These are the numbers that tell you just how bad the consequences can be...
Why Embed Marketing Automation With CRM? One...
A few announcements about marketing automation systems being embedded in CRM systems have landed in my inbox recently, including one from INBOX25 about designing its marketing automation solution to operate within SugarCRM. And, of course, the jury is still out on how independent Eloqua will remain from Oracle’s CRM.
A chat with Ellen Valentine of Silverpop and Rhett Thompson of CoreMotives shed...
The Salesforce Marketing Automation Dilemma: Buy,...
Earlier this week, Marketo’s IPO announcement set off a round of intense speculation. But most of the talk isn’t about the company’s stock price or financial performance – it’s about Marketo’s prospects as an acquisition target.
Would SAP or Adobe be interested in buying Marketo once it’s public? How about SAS or Infor? Those are possibilities, but Salesforce.com remains the odds-on...
March 2013
6 posts
Can Software Really Change Your Life?
After covering retail technology for a number of years and now marketing automation, I can’t recall anyone ever telling me that software had significantly changed their life for the better. I can recollect plenty of people telling me it changed their lives for the worse. And, sure, I’ve interviewed a number of users who were happy with some new features or functions in a new release. But I had...
Provide Prospects With More Than A Sales Pitch
When someone downloads a white paper or attends a webinar, the knee jerk reaction can be to bombard them with every piece of product-related content you have in your arsenal. They like you! They really like you! You want them to buy!
But if that’s all you do, you’re sure to turn them off. In a Q&A earlier this week, Michael Brenner, VP of Global Marketing and Content Strategy for SAP and...
Will Firefox’s Tracking Block Thwart B2B...
My guess is that B2B marketers aren’t giving a lot of thought to Firefox’s tracking block, but maybe they should.
It may seem inconsequential, since Firefox only has 11% of global market share, as John Gaffney noted in his story about the company’s decision to no longer allow third-party tracking cookies. But as Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo pointed out in the article, it could reduce Firefox...
Using Social Channels to Fuel Successful SEO
By Paul Taylor, CEO of Webmarketing123
Most companies do a great job of engaging users via a rich tapestry of social channels. And most companies also have comprehensive SEO programs. What’s surprising, however, is how often the two aren’t connected. Using social to feed SEO is a no-brainer, and it can be done successfully by following a few simple community management techniques.
Engage...
B2B Marketers Get A Fatter Share Of Their...
B2B companies aren’t just showing their marketing teams the love; they’re also showing them the money. That’s a good thing, but it’s also a very big responsibility.
I’ve been looking at the preliminary results of our 2013 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey. It’s probably not surprising that 86% of the B2B marketers surveyed to date told us that demand generation became a higher priority for their...
February 2013
4 posts
Dirty Data
I’ve thought a lot – some friends say too much – about data integrity lately. They’re a little tired of the topic as dinner conversation.
I’ve asked them if they have ever used a phony email to sign up for coupons or promotions or other offers from retailers. A unanimous “yes” – no shocker there.
A little more surprising was that some of my friends who are responsible for making purchasing...
Is The Fortune 500 Dropping The Ball On Marketing...
Pardot marketing evangelist Mathew Sweezey recently did some research on marketing practices at Fortune 500 B2B companies. The results are fascinating.
You can read Mathew’s blog post here – it’s well worth your time.
He focused on Fortune 500 companies with a clear B2B focus and excluded firms with highly specialized marketing niches (e.g. aerospace and financial services). This narrowed his...
Is The Funnel Outdated?
Having spent many years covering retail, I’m now acquainting myself with the marketing automation space. As I learn a new industry, I have been reading a lot about the “funnel” that represents the progression of leads into revenue. Makes sense.
Along the way I’ve discovered that some marketers and other industry insiders are declaring the funnel passé. Some, like Lori Wizdo at Forrester, are...
Nasim Nicholas Taleb's 'Antifragile': Challenging...
It is a time of global extremes. The weather is extreme, politics are increasingly extremist (judgment withheld), economies are in extreme trouble in many areas, and many areas of business are facing markets and bottom lines that strain their margins.
You could argue that predictive analytics have been humbled by global events and demographic shifts. You could also argue, to paraphrase Pat...
January 2013
4 posts
Small Firms Love Content Marketing. They Just...
Most small businesses now use content marketing, and most say they’re getting good results from it. Yet there’s also evidence that some of these firms aren’t setting themselves up for long-term success with content.
A new survey from BusinessBolts found that 74% of the small businesses surveyed said they use content marketing to promote their businesses. (The survey included a...
5 tags
Email And Mobile: The Glass Is Still Half Empty
More than 50% of email marketers now optimize or plan to optimize their email offers for mobile viewers. That’s a key result from a recent Experian Marketing Services study, and it raises one big question: Is that number encouraging or exasperating?
I think it’s more the latter. Maybe I’m a pessimist, but this is a case where the glass is half empty rather than half full....
5 tags
DemandGen's David Lewis: What's Ahead For...
Editor’s Note: As part of our forthcoming Marketing Automation Technology Forecast project, we recently caught up with David Lewis, Founder and CEO of DemandGen International, Inc. David offered a number of insights during that conversation, and we’re excited to share some of these today. Enjoy!
DGR: What major trends do you see in terms of new and emerging technologies, or new...
2 tags
Applying B2C Concepts To B2B Marketing: Making The...
Last January, Demand Gen Report published a story that highlighted the trend of bringing B2C tactics into B2B marketing organizations. It’s now a pretty common theme, but it’s also a theme that rarely gets explored beyond a series of very basic guidelines.
That’s why a recent DestinationCRM blog post from Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD, caught my attention. Justin does a great job of...
December 2012
4 posts
6 tags
Oracle And Eloqua: Making Sense Of The Marriage
By now, you’ve seen the news that Oracle shelled out $871 million to buy Eloqua. We have already shared a few thoughts about what the deal means for the marketing automation and CRM industries, but here’s some additional color commentary.
Oracle Got A Great Deal
First, this is a big deal, but why isn’t it even bigger? As Brian Hansford pointed out in an insightful Twitter post,...
3 tags
Why Your Smiling Face Makes You A More Likely B2B...
Mintigo is a company that analyzes unstructured information, freely available on the web, to identify likely buyers for B2B sales and marketing organizations. The company recently turned its analytical firepower on an unusual source of buyer information: facial expressions.
Mintigo teamed with Face.com, a facial recognition platform, to match the results of one of its clients’ email...
4 tags
Marketers As IT Buyers: The Big Shift Has Already...
You’ve certainly heard by now the Gartner prediction that CMOs will spend more on IT than CIOs by the year 2017. Yet while predictions are fun (and often wrong), what’s happening here and now can have a much bigger impact.
That’s why I want to share a slide from a Gartner webinar that profiles how the typical marketing organization functions as a technology buyer (click the image...
2 tags
CMOs: Under-Performing Agency Partners Are Living...
Earlier this week, the CMO Council released the results of its State of Marketing 2012 study. There are some interesting trends here both for marketing organizations and for CMOs.
But here’s a finding that stands out: Very few CMOs view outside agencies as strategic partners, and many are downright unhappy with their agency relationships.
According to coverage published in Direct Marketing...
November 2012
9 posts
3 tags
Marketing Analytics Drive Big Benefits For Fortune...
A recently published academic study offers strong support for companies looking to step up their investments in marketing analytics.
The Penn State Study included responses from 212 senior executives at Fortune 1000 companies. Those that increase their use of marketing analytics see an average 8% improvement in their return on assets, and the most aggressive analytics initiatives show a return of...
3 tags
Email Marketers Paying Less For B2B Lists In 2012
The cost of renting email lists got a little cheaper this year. Unless you’re a B2C marketer, however, you may not notice much of a difference.
The Worldata Fall 2012 List Price Index tracks the cost of renting or purchasing a variety of list categories. While a number of list categories got cheaper this year, the biggest change was a 8.6% decrease in the cost of permission-based B2C email...
3 tags
3 Reasons To Ramp Up Your Holiday-Season B2B...
‘Tis the season to be marketing…or is it?
Actually, we notice that a lot of companies cut back on their B2B marketing activities this time of year. It’s an understandable trend: Team members scatter, Q4 budgets begin to wind down and executives focus on the year ahead.
But are there some missed opportunities here? I think so. Here’s why.
First, consider that a time of year when...
5 tags
What is the Difference Between Email Marketing and...
By Jon Miller, VP Content Marketing and Strategy
What is the difference between email marketing and marketing automation? And how do you know if your company is ready to make the switch? Here’s a quick primer on the key differences, and a handy-checklist to help you know when it’s time to graduate.
Feature Comparison
There are many differences between email marketing provider and a marketing...
2 tags
Technical Skills For Marketing: How Much Is...
Here’s a fascinating question: How much technical knowledge does a B2B marketer really need to get the job done?
A recent article on BostInno.com covered a debate on this topic. On one side, uTest CMO Matt Johnston asserts that marketing needs “to have ownership over its own tech stack” – to the point where engineers are actually a core part of the marketing team.
On the other...
5 tags
Social Media Now Plays A Decisive Role In IT...
Earlier this year, a Demand Gen Report study found that social media played a role in at least half of all B2B buying decisions. Now, new research suggests that number is much higher among IT firms.
The study, conducted by Forrester and LinkedIn, included 400 North American IT decision-makers. It found that 73% of these buyers have engaged with IT vendors on a social network.
Perhaps more...
3 tags
IDC: Marketing Automation Continues Double-Digit...
The latest market research from IDC continues to show a strong market for both marketing automation and sales automation solutions.
IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Software Tracker for the first half of 2012 showed overall software market growth of 4.7% year over year. This marks the beginning of what IDC says will be a period of slower single-digit growth for the market.
Drilling into the...
5 tags
Infographic: The Best Times To Share Content On...
Wondering when your social media posts will generate the biggest bang for the (virtual) buck? This week’s infographic, created by digital agency Raka using data from Bitly, offers a quick and very informative visual guide to timing your posts on Twitter and Facebook.
5 tags
Revenue Performance Management: Theory And Reality
Hitting the first day of a vendor event is always an interesting experience. This is usually the time when vendors host their continuing education and training events; the crowds are smaller, the users are more focused, and there’s a lot to learn if you know where to look.
That’s definitely true here at Eloqua Experience 2012. This morning, I sat in on a three-hour session built around Revenue...
October 2012
14 posts
6 tags
Bloomberg: Oracle Considering ExactTarget...
Could ExactTarget be a takeover target for Oracle? That’s the gist of a news analysis piece published on Bloomberg a few days ago.
From the article:
With this month’s purchases of an online-shopping analysis firm and a provider of marketing management products, ExactTarget has a more complete package of Web-based marketing tools that may entice software makers to offer at least a 50 percent...
3 tags
Return Path Acquires Context.IO For Email Data...
Return Path, a provider of email delivery and intelligence services, announced last week that it had acquired Montreal-based firm Context.IO. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Context.IO develops API interfaces between email data stores and business applications. Return Path will use the acquisition to give enterprise developers better access to email for data-mining and marketing...
3 tags
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Gets Yammer Integration
Microsoft has been busy lately beefing up the technology supporting its Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform. That was the motive behind the company’s recent purchase of MarketingPilot, and it’s the reason why it’s now announcing native integration with its Yammer enterprise social networking solution.
Yammer, which is part of Microsoft’s Office division, was itself acquired...
5 tags
Stupid CRM Tricks And What Marketers Can Learn...
What’s better than learning from your mistakes? Learning from some other poor slob’s mistakes. In that spirit, I highly recommend a recent CIO.com article: Top 10 CRM Tricks Guaranteed To Lose Customers.
As the article points out, when it comes to rolling out technology that impacts customer service and support, the devil is in the details. Cutting corners, limiting options or making...
3 tags
Survey: Successful SMBs More Likely To Use Social...
According to a recent AMEX Open Forum study, the most successful small businesses are more likely to embrace social media.
The semi-annual study included more than 800 firms with 100 or fewer employees. Looking specifically at high-achieving SMBs – about 6% of the total – the study found that:
7 in 10 use social media, compared to 49% of all SMBs surveyed;
Nearly 80% of the high-achievers use...
8 tags
Infographic: 10 Mobile Landing Page Best Practices
According to eMarketer, there are now more than 115 million smartphone users in the United States alone. That includes tens of millions of businesspeople who research their B2B buying decisions using phones, tablets and other mobile devices.
This week’s infographic, provided courtesy of ION Interactive, offers 10 best practices for crafting practical and effective mobile landing pages....
3 tags
Social Messaging: Surprising Advice On What Works...
One of the most interesting infographics that I’ve seen in a while offers some really useful insights into what works and what doesn’t for social sharing.
The infographic compiles data from over 200 companies’ social sharing statistics, comparing B2B and B2C content. Here’s my favorite finding: Social messages that use question marks are significantly less likely to attract...
4 tags
Pedowitz Group Takes B2B Marketing Execs Back To...
The Pedowitz Group this week will launch an online educational program for B2B marketing executives. It’s called Revenue Marketing University, and it begins tomorrow afternoon (Oct. 17):
The Pedowitz Group’s new educational series takes students through the six key controls of Revenue Marketing Transformation. Coined RM6, the six controls work holistically to transform marketing from a cost...
7 tags
Infographic: For Email Marketing, Timing Is The...
This week’s infographic, provided courtesy of StrongMail, features the results of a survey of more than 700 marketing professionals. It offers some interesting insights into timing a company’s email marketing campaigns, and the impact that proper timing can have on response rates – an issue with implications for both B2B and B2C marketers.
4 tags
ExactTarget and Pardot: Where Do SMBs Fit In This...
We’ve been spilling quite a bit of ink today over the Pardot/ExactTarget merger and what it means for marketing automation. SiriusDecisions’ Jonathan Block just published a blog post on the deal, and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re interested in the topic.
Block says he sees at least three areas where ExactTarget can benefit from Pardot’s technology. In terms...
7 tags
Marketing Automation Predictions For 2013
The marketing automation platform (MAP) space has evolved during the last 12 months. Noting this trend, SiriusDecisions highlighted six ways the MAP market has evolved and broke it down into three broad categories: Marketplace Dynamics, MAP Technology and Customer Usage. The Marketplace Dynamics SiriusDecisions predicts that the MAP market will continue to consolidate, mainly those catering to...
10 tags
3 tags
Sales & Marketing Pros Might Love Their iPads A...
I’ve been sitting for a while on the results of a study, sponsored by Brainshark, that asked 1,300 iPad users to share their thoughts about life with – and without – everybody’s favorite tablet.
We should have blogged this sooner, because it’s a fun, interesting and slightly unsettling piece of research.
Here’s the executive summary: Some of you, actually a lot of you,...
7 tags
September 2012
20 posts
4 tags
Study: Midsized Firms Get A Firm Grip On Marketing...
An interesting study almost slipped past us late last month: A Techaisle study with a focus on marketing automation adoption within midsized companies.
Techaisle defines “midsized” firms as those with 100-999 employees. Based on a survey of 1,200 respondents in this market segment, some of the usual suspects – email marketing, personalization and SEO – are right where you’d...
