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Summary of 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

And to summarize from my original post in January: The rules of engagement are changing, but the rules of marketing accountability are changing more quickly. Measurement and analytics bring job security to the marketing function; particularly when traditional antiquated thinking and manual systems are failing to deliver a competitive advantage in any economy.

Marketing automation tools can help automate the process of optimizing marketing effectiveness and more importantly help marketers demonstrate their impact on top and bottom line results. The question every marketer should be asking is “How do I maximize my value to the organization?” If the answer involves demonstrating results or linking performance to top or bottom line organizational objectives, then it might be time to start embracing a marketing automation initiative. Don’t wait much longer to get started… it could cost you your job. Instead, adopt marketing automation within your organization and ask your boss for a bonus based on qualified leads.

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Tags: Job Security, Marketing Automation
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Sales | Comments Off

Identify exactly how marketing can reduce the sales-cycle time and nurture prospects to action

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

We are now up to fourth way marketing automation provides job security for marketers from 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers. Below is the excerpt from the white paper:

“4. Identify exactly how marketing can reduce the sales-cycle time and nurture prospects to action.

When was the last time you sat down and mapped your marketing collateral to your prospects buying cycle? Funnel analysis provides marketers with quantifiable data, reflecting the rate at which prospects are advancing through your sales process. This report answers the most important question a marketer has to answer – “At what rate are my prospects moving along the lead funnel?” Marketing automation can transform this analysis and benchmark it over time delivering key metrics, such as the rate of conversion between first contact-to-conversion or lead-to-opportunity. This analysis can help marketers beef up nurturing and campaign initiatives accordingly.

Funnel analysis gives marketers visibility into the sales cycle and helps identify how marketing can do a better job educating prospects from lead to sale. Marketers can use funnel analysis as the basis for collaborating with sales by working together to build programs more efficiently at each stage of the pipeline. Marketers can then support the sales process with thought leadership or specific campaigns while sales may be able to provide key insight about the customers’ buying triggers.

Did you ever want to know how many days it takes for your prospects to move from one step of your sales process to the next? Marketing automation can empower marketers with dashboard analytics on marketing and sales cycles. Insight into the funnel progress enables marketers to know exactly how long it’s taking for prospects to move along every stage of the sales cycle and lead funnel. The ability to benchmark this metric over time further extends the power of this reporting tool. This information can be used to build better budget forecasts for finance and help the marketing department become more responsive to unpredictable market conditions. A sudden change in the sales cycle could alert marketing to changes in the competitive landscape or macroeconomic environment. The quicker marketing can take advantage of these changes, the more valuable they are to the organization.

Job Security Scorecard:

Benchmark the lead-to-sales conversion rate over time. Identify when campaigns or initiatives drive above average close rates.
Forecast more accurately by benchmarking the total number of leads it takes to drive revenue targets at the bottom of the funnel. Set realistic achievable targets for marketing and sales during strategic planning sessions with the CFO and CEO.
Identify what roles are most likely to evaluate products and services and how to meet the unique needs of these individuals based on role, region, or industry.
Identify how long it will take for prospects to convert to revenue based on historical averages.
Identify bottlenecks in the sales cycle. Are sales reps incapable of addressing specific objectives? Does marketing material address all of the buyers core needs?”

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Tags: Funnel Analysis, Marketing Automation, Sales Cycle
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Sales | Comments Off

Identify which marketing channels, or combination of marketing channels, have the greatest impact on lead conversion and revenue

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Following up on my blog post last week, we are now up to third way marketing automation provides job security for marketers from 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers. Below is the excerpt from the white paper:

“3. Identify which marketing channels, or combination of marketing channels, have the greatest impact on lead conversion and revenue.

With so many marketing channels, it’s difficult to tell which combination of channels to build into the marketing mix and how much budget to allocate to each of them. By measuring customer acquisition across marketing channels, the CMO can determine which channels are more likely to impact top-line revenue and allocate budget more effectively based on tangible results. Conversations with the CFO become much more meaningful when the cost per customer acquired can be linked to expected revenue targets and to the marketing spend. It’s difficult for finance to reduce overall marketing budget without also reducing revenue targets when marketers can demonstrate the relationship between cost per acquisition and revenue.

The marketing mix can be analyzed based on the tangible impact specific marketing channels have on cultivating prospects. This allows the CMO to make better decisions about where to allocate budget based on tangible metrics, not gut feel. At the same time, marketing automation tools become a central database with marketing campaign information and sales information allowing organizations to calculate return on marketing investment by campaign, period, or marketing channel.

Job Security Scorecard:

Justify marketing budget by demonstrating exactly which marketing channels drive the highest conversion rates.
Calculate customer acquisition by marketing channel
Forecast more accurately by linking customer acquisition rates to overall marketing budget. “If we spend this much money in the following channels, history tells us we can achieve the following revenue.”

Download a free copy of 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers

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Tags: CMO Tools, Customer Acquisition, Marketing Automation, Marketing Channels
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Automate the distribution of leads to sales and identify how many resulted in a closed sale

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Building off my last post, we are now on the second way marketing automation provides job security for marketers from 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers. Below is the excerpt from the white paper:

“2. Automate the distribution of leads to sales and identify how many resulted in a closed sale:

One of the biggest challenges for B2B marketers is articulating marketing’s impact on closed deals. Marketing automation gives the CMO visibility into the entire prospect pipeline from unqualified leads to each closed sale. This allows both marketing and sales to run win-loss analysis by marketing mix, or campaign, for a coveted return-on-investment analysis. Most marketing automation solutions tightly integrate with CRM solutions such as Salesforce.com to close the loop between marketing and sales. This dispels the myth that field sales organizations are the sole source of new prospects, not marketing. Both organizations can have a clear view of each lead, where it was generated and the close potential.

Marketing automation solutions also deliver a tangible impact on sales efficiency. Sales can focus their finite time on real qualified opportunities (based on the internal sales definition of a qualified lead). Marketing automation helps shift the burden of prospect nurturing and cultivation to marketing, which is where it should be. Marketers and sales functions can collaborate in lockstep to optimize the entire lead lifecycle process with joint accountability and real tangible metrics to measure success.

Job Security Scorecard:

Win-Loss analysis from one centralized tool

Identify which marketing messages had the best influence on close rates

Marketing becomes an advocate instead of an adversary to sales — delivering true “sales-ready” opportunities to the hands of sales reps

Demonstrate exactly how many prospects engaged in a call-to action and how many of these converted on a periodic basis”

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Tags: Marketing Automation
Posted in Marketing, Marketing Automation, Sales | Comments Off

Track customer engagements and qualify the best leads for sales

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Last week, we released 5 Ways Marketing Automation Provides Job Security for Marketers, and we have received very positive feedback from B2B marketers. So, I’ve decided to share more sections of the white paper to help marketers be more effective within their organizations. Here is an excerpt of the first way marketing automation provides job security for marketers:

“1. Track customer engagements and qualify the best leads for sales:

The process of engaging with customers and prospects across one or more channels is complex, and marketers simply can not realistically build relevant, timely, personalized relationships with every prospect unless they can automate this engagement. Marketers need to realize, it’s not about the quantity of leads, rather it’s about quality of leads. Marketing automation can help marketers review their pipeline and find out the attributes of the best opportunities and then automate prospect nurturing so only the most qualified and educated prospects are passed to sales as “sales-ready” leads backed by qualified and verified data.

Marketing automation tools integrate email marketing, web analytics, landing page creation, and other marketing channels for a comprehensive account-by-account view of the customer engagement. By tracking the number of “sales-ready” leads that are passed to sales over time, marketers can literally demonstrate how effective marketing collateral has been at converting prospects into qualified opportunities. Marketers gain credibility with sales and executive stakeholders when they can demonstrate exactly how the marketing budget translated into top-line opportunities for the organization.

Job Security Scorecard: