Posts Tagged ‘b2b’

The B2B Marketing Technology Adoption Curve

Monday, September 30th, 2013

We spend a great deal of time looking at the market, evaluating adoption trends, and otherwise looking at the key inhibitors and accelerators of continued adoption of advanced marketing technology.  Marketing automation takes a platform approach in linking up lead capture, prospect tracking, lead scoring, email marketing, social marketing, and advanced analytics all in one package. This often is too much for a marketing team to digest out of the gate leading to under-utilized systems and, at times, frustration.

As we look towards the future, we mapped out our version of the “B2B Marketing Technology Adoption Curve.”  This leans on research conducted by awesome Aberdeen Group analyst Trip Kucera along with our own quantitative and qualitative input.  We chose a technology adoption curve as the best way to present this information so it resembles a bell curve with innovators on the left and laggards on the right – so it is not a cumulative curve but more a representation of where marketers are on the adoption journey.

Key takeaways:

1. Most marketers, at this point, understand that email marketing must be part of their playbook. Newsletters, bulk email campaigns, etc.

2. As you work from right to left, capabilities become more advanced and adoption becomes less so. This is the land of lead nurturing (rules based email campaigns), lead scoring, and dipping into the land of social media.

3. Innovators are trying and seeking tools that allow them to better identifies “signals” of demand and want to used advanced analytics to tap the promise of predictive data.

4. We cover this curve from end to end including our ability to do email campaigns to our Nearstream social campaigns pieced designed to identify and engage around social demand signals.  We are doing some additional things around activity streams and predictive analytics that will see the light of day soon as preview features.

B2B Speed Dating – How to qualify and convert trade show leads [Infographic]

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

[This is a guest post by Caffeine Performance Management, a LoopFuse partner & Calgary-based business development agency that helps B2B businesses by increasing pipeline velocity]

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever worked a trade show before that attendee behavior affects the quality of leads generated.

Ever been stuck in a dead-end corner?

How about next to a coffee area?

Exhibit Surveys published interesting data that showed, when combined with an average number of booths per show of 312, that the average amount of time per trade show attendee per exhibit is just under 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Center for Exhibition Industry Research notes that only 30% of firms collect detailed data from their visitors – with just under 2 minutes per visitor – is it any wonder why?  Conversation quality will by necessity be low, and the expectation of collecting detailed demographics and purchase-cycle qualification data at he show is slim.

Realistic objectives are critical, supported by clear instructions to the exhibit team.

Trade-offs that might be considered include:

1. Speed of follow-up vs data thoroughness. Would you rather have your follow-up package delivered to your prospect, or detailed demographics and purchase-qualification data pre-entered for the convenience of your sales team?   Data will be collected at some point in the future (pre-contract) anyway – is the busy show floor the best place to collect it? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.  Software is available to help you maximize this process at either stage.

2. Evaluating the use of the show management’s lead retrieval system could reduce ‘collection-pressure’ on booth staff, and free them up to ask the one, two, or three qualification questions that you’ve smartly designed, and trained your exhibit staff to ask of their visitors.

3. Beating the competition to the lead.  CEIR’s data shows an average post-show follow-up time of 2 weeks. If your firm plans to collect business cards, transpose them manually into a CRM system, and still get fulfillment and follow-up information out the door to get onto the desk of your prospect before your competition, you must have a huge support staff.  Challenge your system – look for efficiencies within existing processes – consider smartphone apps to move your data fulfillment to real time.

4.  If the context of the show is viewed as ‘B2B speed dating’, the focus changes from ‘must-collect’ to ‘must-ask enough questions to develop a meaningful relationship with high-likelihood targets at a later date’.  With effective exhibit-team training on your key-question set, you may just find that the shackles of the exhibit team are removed.

The Loopfuse platform provides an affordable, robust engine to assure follow-up from your trade show investment is timely.  Additionally, the platform provides an excellent method to qualify your leads before turning them over to your sales team.

The infographic below outlines the average sales productivity from trade show attendance, and suggests ideas to maximize sales productivity from these event (click the image to download as a .pdf).

Four Ways to Improve Your Marketing Efforts with Automation

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Traditional Marketing Management courses talk about the “Marketing Mix” and how different elements come together to form a marketing plan. Each company has a different corporate culture and approach to doing business so knowing how to balance these different marketing pieces is essential to creating a successful image that reflects the company’s goals. The well-known “Four Ps” model of marketing (price, promotion, product, and place) has been updated with the more customer focused “Four Cs” model (cost, communication, consumer, and convenience) but either way, marketing automation can make your company more successful by giving a power boost to your marketing mix. This is how LoopFuse can help you do better in each of these four areas. (more…)

3 Tips for Lovers (of Marketing Automation)

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

It really can go either way, you know. Either you come off looking like a hero, the greatest person in the world…or you come off looking like someone who just doesn’t really have a clue as to what’s really going on. It’s that time of year again when people look at their lives and decide how they are going to celebrate that significant other in their lives. Or is it time when you look at your marketing automation solution and give it some of the attention it deserves? I forget. Either way, they following points are important to remember when treading the paths of love or marketing automation. (more…)

Loopfuse and Bluebird Strategies Present Free Lead Nurturing Webinar

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

More than an automated email drip campaign, lead nurturing is a coordinated set of planned messages, content and tactics that guide a lead through the buying cycle. Poorly constructed and planned lead nurturing programs can do a great deal of harm, from alienating leads by giving them the wrong information or being annoying by contacting them too often.

Join us as Mac McConnell, MBA, and partner and founder of BlueBird Strategies, presents “Lead Nurturing: How Not to Screw It Up.”  McConnell teaches you how to design a lead nurturing program that provides leads with the content they want and you with increased sales.

We will cover:

  • Motivating the B2B buyer
  • Preparing a lead for a sale
  • Developing quality content
  • Scoring leads to track progress
  • Review real life examples that worked

Click here to REGISTER NOW!