Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
On the surface, implementing a marketing automation tool appears fairly simple. The problem though, is in not knowing what you don’t know. Implementing a tool isn’t that hard, but getting it setup in a way, with the processes to match, to produce business value is another matter. This is not an effort you want to go alone. Like a tile floor, if it’s done wrong you have to rip and replace.
Someone that knows a thing or two about marketing automation, having installed and trained some of the earliest implementation of said tools is Don Dalrymple, President of AscendWorks. Beyond his deep knowledge of the inner workings of many marketing automation tools, Don is also extremely well versed in training marketing organizations to focus on the customer rather than the process.
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Tags: AscendWorks, Marketing Automation
Posted in Marketing, Marketing Automation, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
To get big you’ve got to start small. In business, as in many places in life the old adage rings true. When you are first getting started you need to figure out how to successfully solve problems. Take on too much, or problems too large and you may not have a runway long enough to discover the right formula.
This becomes a central key to messaging. Within your target market you want to start identifying niches where you can isolate common needs. The smaller the audience, the more likely you are to find a relevant point of view. Geography? Company size? You don’t need to get too cute, or overly complicated here just look for some obvious ways to segment your audience. Begin with the understanding you will need to iterate your groupings to come up with the right formula.
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Tags: Customer Acquisition
Posted in Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
Or… at least until some critical thresholds have been exceeded (like leaving the seat up one too many times)! Seriously though, opening a new market requires considerable time and energy and if you aren’t committed to getting yourself across the Dip, as Seth Godin defines, then your first steps are better laid in another direction.
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Tags: Seth Godin, the Dip
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Monday, November 1st, 2010
When I originally had the idea to write this post, I decided to focus on our new marketing automation platform release and how the menu system had changed. I soon realized that the real story was not product-specific, but the underlying reason for the change; To align a menu system with how business-leaders today think about online marketing and sales.
So how is it that today’s B2B Marketing professionals think? Enter the 4Cs:
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Tags: Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Lead Management, Marketing Channels
Posted in Inbound Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Social Media, eMail Marketing | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
As Sun Tzu, historical author of the Art of War, once said, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” When considering any marketplace it’s critical to understand the competitive landscape. You need to know not only who the competitors are, but also the axes of competition and relative positioning along them.
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Tags: Competitive Assessment
Posted in Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Monday, October 18th, 2010
Yes, there is a successful formula for transforming your approach to the marketplace by arming your marketing, social, and pr teams with a sales mindset that can give you unfair competitive advantage. That doesn’t mean, however, that you should be targeting all marketplaces.
Before you make that commitment you need to make sure the marketplace in question is financially viable. One of the first questions you need to answer is how big the proposed market for your offering is. Keep in mind this isn’t a mathematical proof you are trying to solve. You just need to develop a rough estimate that justifies the costs and time associated with targeting a new space.
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Tags: Market Sustainability
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
Just because a market is big does not mean it’s desirable. When evaluating entering a new market it’s important to try and assess the space’s future prospects. Clearly, there is a lot of masked complexity here. What you really want to be looking for, however, is the obvious problems.
Technology innovation is often a predictive indicator. From typewriters to answering machines, or floppy disks to CD’s there are countless markets that have faded away due to technology. You need to ask yourself if the market is going the way of the dinosaur.
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Tags: Customer Acquisition, Demand Generation
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
When you are fairly unfamiliar with your new target segment one mandatory step is to begin an online research program. In our ubiquitously digital world there is an enormous amount of content that is easily available that can give you a head start. The objective here is to arm yourself with a thorough understanding of the current terms and trends and a high level outlook on the market.
If you are totally new to the space and don’t even know where to start you should try setting up a social monitoring program. Plug in the names of potential customers and competitors in the space, which you should have identified in the sizing exercise, and start to analyze the terminology, sites, and authors that are being used.
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Tags: Customer Acquisition, Demand Generation, lead nurturing
Posted in Customer Acquisition, Marketing, Thought Leadership | No Comments »
Monday, October 4th, 2010
With the highly successful launch of our Loopfuse Freeview offering in June and our innovative Partnership program in August, we have had several requests to share information amongst our community. So today, I would like to informally introduce the Loopfuse Exchange. The goal for the Loopfuse Exchange is to share the best practices from some of the best sales and marketing professionals in the business who give their companies a competitive edge. The Loopfuse Exchange will be the place to visit for the most up to date sales and marketing best practices, and central to the Exchange will be a series of articles on various marketing functions — contributed by Loopfuse customers, partners and friends — that will help new and experienced marketers alike increase their effectiveness generating market awareness and demand. Topics will include Website construction and design, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, Lead Nurturing and Scoring, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay per click (PPC) advertising, Social Media and Networking, E-mail marketing, Event marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Reporting and more.
Later this afternoon, we will have our first guest blog post for the Loopfuse Exchange by one of our partners, Greg Malpass of Traction Sales and Marketing. Stay tuned for more exciting information on the Loopfuse Exchange.
Posted in CRM Integration, Customer Acquisition, Lead Nurturing, LoopFuse, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
If you want to know what’s happening with your customers, start with your sales team. Nobody should have a better perspective than sales. They are in constant contact with the customer and are highly compensated for their ability to establish and grow relationships.
Success in sales is tied to the ability to understand a client’s problem and translate that into a solution that can be delivered. As it so happens, that’s exactly what’s also needed for truly effective marketing. As a starting point, therefore, you need to get out there and talk to your sales team.
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Tags: Marketing, Sales
Posted in Marketing, Sales | No Comments »
