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Interview with Brian Hansford: 5 Tips on Lead Nurturing for the Complex Sale

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (0)

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

Z47 Note: This interview originally appeared in Manticore Technology’s Funnel Focus blog. We have posted here as well.

In the B2B market, long, complex sales cycles come with the territory and can last anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. Therefore, lead nurturing is a critical part of many organizations’ sales processes. In the Lead Nurturing Cookbook, we offer a recipe for building long-term lead nurturing processes marketers can implement using their marketing automation platform. Brian Hansford, Founder and CEO of Zephyr 47, an agency that specializes in helping organizations implement and improve their lead management processes, participated as an “Guest Chef” on this recipe offering marketers advice on how to successfully execute a long-term lead nurturing program.

I caught up with Brian and asked him to expand on the insight he offers in the Cookbook and help you understand what factors are important to consider when building a long-term lead nurturing program.

In an extended lead nurturing program where you might be engaging with buyers six months to a year before they are sales-ready, how do you ensure they are getting the right message, at the right time?

I like Rules of 3 when tackling an opportunity. There are three factors to help B2B marketers effectively engage with prospective buyers over an extended period and win the business. First, develop the profiles of the buyersand influencers involved in the buying process. Profiles or personas are incredibly important in lead nurturing success because they will help steer content and lead management. These profiles should outline the roles, responsibilities, points of pain, and messages that prospective buyers care about.

Secondly, develop a content strategy that provides the information for these contacts at the various stages of buying process. The buyer personas will help focus a content strategy on the right audience with the right information. In addition to the content focus, the content strategy should identify the channels to publish and serve the content. A buying process begins when buyers research the problems and the solutions, transitioning to vendor evaluation, purchase decision, decision validation, and ongoing loyalty. As buyers move further into their process, marketing automation solutions help marketers provide the right information to the right people over a given period of time.

Thirdly, B2B marketers should have their lead management strategy. This takes into account the workflow, contact cadence, campaign themes, and definitions that move leads through the buying process and a qualified handoff to Sales. Marketing automation systems integrated with a CRM solution are very important and enable this entire lead nurturing process.

What are some mistakes you’ve seen b2b marketers make in building a long-term nurturing program?

Many B2B marketers fly blind with their lead nurturing because of inadequate or poorly developed content. Actually, I think many still follow more of the old ‘drip marketing’ model where every database contact gets peppered with the same content at random intervals. Here we are in 2011 and I still get unfocused and irrelevant emails, calls and offers from various B2B companies!

Marketers must think long-term and cater nurture programs to potential and existing customers based on their stage in the buying process, their role, the need, and the timeframe. The spray and pray scattergun approach just doesn’t work anymore. Just as important as nurturing new business opportunities, B2B marketers should nurture their existing customers! This entire process requires heavy lifting in analyzing data, speaking with customers to profile what information helps them, testing campaigns, and involving Sales in the nurturing process.

Companies with extended product lines can improve nurturing performance with targeted messaging, relevant content and offers. Providing the same content in a random fashion for all potential contacts misses the mark.

A study by Gartner states that 45% of leads that enter your website will purchase from either you or a competitor within 12 months. What can b2b marketers do to help ensure these leads purchase from them not their competitors?

Statistics like Gartner’s show there are amazing opportunities for B2B marketers to engage buyers and drive revenue. B2B marketers can use marketing automation solutions to engage the gold in ‘Gartner’s 45%’ and minimize the risk of lost sales to competitors. Lead nurturing strategies that engage prospective buyers with content, timing, and workflow provide a tremendous competitive advantage. Just increasing the number of sales of those 45% can have a dramatic and incremental positive impact on revenue.

I may sound repetitive, but my message is consistent! A lead management and content strategy that helps B2B marketers engage prospective buyers with the right content at the right time can cause a dramatic increase in conversions. B2B marketers cannot solely rely on capturing contact information and sending random forms of content irrelevant to the recipient and sending generic messages solely through email. Nurturing with lead scoring provide focus and help deliver marketing qualified leads to Sales that should have an accelerated decision cycle. Without the nurturing by Marketing and Sales, supported by a marketing automation platform, the competition will win.

How does marketing automation help you track where leads are in their buying cycle and how should this impact your content offerings?

In my corporate experience and with clients now, I have seen time and again how marketing automation solutions enable B2B marketers to track activity-based behavior and user-provided information to help score prospective buyers as leads, or not. From there, leads can be guided through a nurturing process where the ultimate benefit is a shortened sales cycle and accelerated revenue generation. This is done by following a strategy that involves scoring leads and escalating them to Sales at the right time, based on previously agreed definitions. Scoring models implemented with marketing automation platforms are critical in helping B2B marketers deliver and serve the right content through the right channels at the right time. The beauty of this entire process is how Sales can be involved by serving content and passing leads back to Marketing for further nurturing if needed.

Marketing automation solutions enable nurturing programs by providing the right content to prospective buyers based on their scores which determine where they are in their buying process. Content throughout the nurturing process includes detailed white papers, case studies, performance tests, RFPs, entertaining videos, product demos, and more. Marketing automation solutions like Manticore enable the entire process of serving this content to the right people at the right time. B2B marketers will achieve strong conversion and revenue results with rich content that effectively addresses each stage of a buying process, delivered through multiple channels and formats.

In creating lead nurturing programs, one of the biggest challenges marketers face is creating enough valuable content. What are some techniques for repurposing existing content effectively?

This has to be one of the biggest areas of pain that I saw both in my corporate life and with clients or companies in the B2B realm. So many organizations struggle with this and it’s an ongoing battle to produce relevant, interesting content.

There are all kinds of different forms of content that can be targeted to audiences, depending on where they are in their buying cycle. It’s not just the job of the marketing manager to create all the content. All organizations is have subject matter expert in some area within their four walls that can help produce some content.

It’s important to look past just the marketing manager and the product manager. Maybe there’s a sales rep or an engineer that can provide expertise on a subject, which could then be turned into a three-paragraph blog, for example.

A technique that we’ve used successfully is actually working with partners to develop content, and jointly publishing offerings. If you have a channel organization, recruit their subject expertise to develop content.

There may already be even an existing library of content that can be updated or repurposed, or refreshed. Just because a white paper is three years old doesn’t always mean that it’s outdated. Many times they can be updated and refreshed pretty easily, and you can repurpose and incorporate them into some campaigns.

Categories : Demand Generation, Lead Definition, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Manticore Technology, Marketing Automation, Uncategorized

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12 Sources of Marketing Automation Content You’ve Already Written

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (2)

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Ed. Note - We are honored to have Matt Heinz provide this content for our Zephyr 47 Expert Blog Series. Matt is a recognized leader, author, and speaker on demand generation and sales acceleration.

12 Sources of Marketing Automation Content You’ve Already Written

Matt Heinz with Heinz Marketing

No matter how you’re approaching marketing automation strategies, the single-biggest hurdle for most organizations isn’t the software or the process or the sorting of prospects. It’s the content.

Effective marketing automation requires a constant stream of relevant, engaging and new content to work. That content needs to speak to current and prospective customer needs, well beyond what you’re directly selling.

For most organizations, this hurdle keeps them from implementing marketing automation programs and reaping the benefits. But I’d argue that those same organizations have already written most of the content they need to get started.

Below are 12 sources of content you already have. I’m guessing there are far more in your unique organization, but these should get you started.

Speeches & Presentations

You probably have a ton of these. Some may be primarily a set of slides, but there are (or were) talking points behind those. Check the “notes” section of your PowerPoint decks for pre-written copy. Avoid product-centric presentations and look instead of for places where you’ve shared a vision, or shared best practices and market expertise.

Customer Service Calls

Every day, you’re helping your customers become more successful. Every day, your front-line reps are hearing not just specific requests but context – where the problem came from, what it’s solving, what else is affecting the customer’s day and decisions. Much of this is ripe for translating into customer-centric marketing automation content. If your customer service team is regularly logging customer service calls in a CRM system, that’s a gold mine for content.

Discussion Forum Topics & Contributors

There’s no rule that says your content needs to be completely self-generated. If you regularly read or participate in customer discussion forums, find those who like to write the most and have the most to say. Take snippets of their content and ask permission to use it in your marketing. If positioned right, they’ll likely be excited you’ve chosen them and will help promote the republished content for you to other prospective customers.

Your Vendors & Suppliers

They’re addressing the same target audient and market, and many of them will have content as well. Tell them you want to help promote their brand and services via your marketing channels, and all you need is some of their pre-written content.

Customer Blogs & Newsletters

Why not feature other customers directly? Or even prospects? Helping prospective customers get access to the insights and expertise of their peers is a great way to fill your marketing channels with quality content, most of which is pre-written and ready to go. This is also a great way to build deeper relationships with those current customers, and potentially get access to their blogs, newsletters and channels to reach additional prospects down the road.

Trade Press

I don’t know about you, but I rarely have enough time to keep up with all of the trade publications I want to read. If someone could do the reading for me, and feature the best, most relevant articles for me, I’d be grateful. That’s your opportunity as well by publishing a regular “In The News” section as part of your marketing content. Third-party news is also a great way to feature more relevant content in Twitter and other social channel feeds.

Written Responses to Customer Questions

Do you have a database of pre-written responses to customer questions? Is your customer service team writing custom responses to customers on a daily basis? Many of these are going to be tactical and not relevant to a wider audience, but you don’t need more than a couple good pieces a day to have a steady flow of great, already-written content that needs just some copyediting before it can be republished elsewhere.

Training Materials

How to use the product isn’t your best bet, but how often are you teaching your customers about broader themes and topics? If you’re selling marketing automation software, for example, your training probably includes basic overviews of how marketing automation works. Best practices from other clients. How marketing automation fits into a broader sales pipeline strategy. These topics and more are likely already written and packaged elsewhere in your organization. Find them.

White Papers, Buying Guides & Other Lead Generation Assets

If you’ve been marketing your product or service for awhile, you probably have lead generation offer assets that aren’t active anymore. White papers, presentations, buying guides – tools you perhaps don’t perform optimally from a response-rate standpoint but might be perfect to fill marketing automation content channels.

Sales Scripts

Your sales team has a ton of these. Different customer types, different industries, different approaches. These will likely need a bit more editing to be appropriate for a marketing channel, but the hard work of originating content will have already been done.

Case Studies

If your case-studies are written from a customer point of view, with your product or service as the enabler of a broader set of success achieved, these can be great. They’re proof of concept for what you’re doing in the field.

What other sources of content have you found around your business, already written or near ready to go?

About The Author

Matt Heinz is a national speaker and author, and his most recent book is Successful Selling. He is President of Heinz Marketing Inc, a Seattle area Marketing Agency focusing on Sales Acceleration. Matt’s career has focused on delivering measurable results for his employers and clients in the way of greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty.

Categories : Content, Content Marketing, Demand Generation, Expert Guest Blog, Marketing Automation

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7 Must-Have Lead Nurturing Recipes for B2B Marketers – Focus.com Marketing Expert Roundtable:

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (0)

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Zephyr 47′s Brian Hansford is honored to participate in a Focus Marketing Roundtable March 18.

Join us for our roundtable teleconference on March 18th, 2011 at 1pm PT/ 4pm ET with Ardath Albee, Brian Hansford, Craig Rosenberg, Emily Mayfield, Jeff Erramouspe, Michael Damphousse, and Tibor Shanto where we will discuss ingredients, techniques and timing b2b marketers need to effectively execute lead nurturing programs.

Based on Manticore Technology’s Lead Nurturing Cookbook, we will share our “recipes” for creating proven-effective nurturing programs that B2B marketers can implement in real-world scenarios.

Topics Include:

1) What 3 basic ingredients you need to successfully build and implement a lead nurturing process

2) The optimal number and timing of touches for different types of lead nurturing processes

3) How to integrate human touch points into lead nurturing and maximize call-connect rates

To follow the conversation and to submit your own questions use keyword FocusMarketingRT on Focus.com and #FocusRT on Twitter.

Moderator

Emily Mayfield, Director of Marketing, Manticore Technology

Panelists

Ardath Albee, CEO and B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions Inc.
Brian Hansford, President, Zephyr 47
Craig Rosenberg, Leader, Focus Expert Network, Focus.com
Jeff Erramouspe, President, Manticore Technology
Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO, Green Leads
Tibor Shanto, Sales/Marketing, Renbor Sales Solutions, Inc.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION HERE

Categories : Brian Hansford, Demand Generation, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Manticore Technology

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With Marketing Automation – Analyze the Data that Impacts Revenue

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (0)

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Marketing automation platforms help marketing professionals identify revenue opportunities based on interactions and behaviors with a prospective company. Using the right metrics in demand generation will show how a marketing automation strategy drives revenue and connects with customers.

Find the right data on the dials to measure marketing performance

With companies adopting Web 1.0 technologies in the 1990’s and the Internet reaching the masses, marketers struggled to learn how to measure their impact to the business. Email marketing reached a fever pitch with the promise of promoting e-commerce Web sites to consumers and businesses in the New Economy. Marketing teams still measure bullet point items like click-thrus, impressions, open rates, number of site visitors, and more. Even senior-level marketing executives could not connect the path between these activity metrics and impact to revenue. Even today marketing managers and executives just look for higher activity numbers – more site visitors, more webinar attendees, more tradeshow leads and on. This type of analytical behavior places higher values on quantity over quality.

Now it’s more important to have higher quality leads that are ready for sales to engage versus a bucket of thousands of contact names with no identified or qualified interest. Marketing automation can help marketers identify the campaigns that produce the highest quality leads that generate the most revenue with the lowest cost. This informational is powerful and empowering.

Here are some general examples of data to analyze and build the complete picture of how a marketing automation strategy impacts revenue.

1. Inquiry conversions – Measure conversion performance from initial contact through nurturing, opportunity, win/loss.

2. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) – Leads that meet agreed on qualification criteria that move to sales for further qualification and prospecting

3. Sales Qualified Leads – Track the percentage of MQLs that develop into Sales Qualified Leads. Also track the percentage of leads that sales disqualifies.

4. Sales follow up – Track the percentage of MQLs that are contacted by sales

5. Fallout – Track the percentage of leads that drop out of each stage of the marketing funnel and sales cycle. Identify opportunities to minimize dropoff

6. Conversion to Revenue – What is the overall picture of revenue generation from demand generation. Revenue per month, quarter, year.

7. Revenue per Campaign – Analysis that combines qualitative and quantitative analysis. Too often the old school method of direct marketing permeates marketing that more is better. Revenue per campaign may show the most effective campaigns produce the fewest number of leads. But, those leads may produce the highest revenue.

8. Cost per Campaign – Again, the lowest cost campaign may produce the highest revenue or highest volume of qualified leads.

Using Web 1.0 metrics will focus on incomplete data and miss the whole story a strategic marketing function needs to tell. The list above provides ideas on the metrics to analyze to determine impact to revenue and the overall support of strategic marketing objectives. Focus on combining the quantitative data with qualitative over a period of time.~

Additional Resources

Zephyr 47 White Paper – Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment

Categories : Demand Generation, Key Performance Indicators, Lead Management, Marketing Automation, Strategic Marketing

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Social Media Marketing Does NOT Replace Demand Generation

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (1)

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

{Note: This entry was recently published by Zephyr 47′s CMO Brian Hansford on his personal blog here.}

Recently I had a very interesting meeting with a new B2B Zephyr 47 customer in the Puget Sound area. This company recently engaged with a pure social media consulting firm which revamped the company’s web presence and implemented a social media marketing strategy. I do believe the company’s web presence is nice and the social media tactics are manageable. As much as possible they build their blog and Twitter account which should ultimately help a bit with SEO.

Here’s the rub and our customer said it best.

“I’m not seeing the needle move.”

The agency who consulted and led the social media marketing engagement with this company didn’t set expectations properly and focused exclusively on inbound marketing. Additionally they didn’t implement a true demand generation program. Also, the agency created more work for the customer through the use of peripheral tools which took away from sales and operational details. The social media marketing effort appears to have been sold as a silver bullet solution to replace sound practices in demand generation and sales.

Social media emotions and swirl are redlined now. However business still operates on the principles of ”creating customers.” Social media marketing is NOT a silver bullet and does NOT replace focused sales efforts and demand generation marketing. For the right business in the right scenarios they are potentially complementary.

Now before the fanatics and activists get twisted panties, think about our new customer’s statement. THE NEEDLE HAS NOT MOVED. The web presence looks good but it has NOT made any difference in sales over the last 12 months. This is where the social media “guru’s” and “ninja’s” have fallen off the rails.

Yes, Zephyr 47 advocates the pragmatic use of social media and as an organization we utilize several social media channels including this blog, Twitter, CinchCast, Facebook, Gist and LinkedIn. etc. Social media provides interesting ways to learn, engage with old friends, connect with thought leaders and exchange ideas with industry experts.

Yes, I have developed many strong and special personal and professional relationships through social media.

No, I am not saying social media will die.

No, I do not care how many followers I get on Twitter. Sorry.

No, I do not believe all social media activity should be directly tied to or measured in revenue. (unless it’s sold that way.)

Social media marketing does NOT matter to a business if customers aren’t there. Remember, a business exists to create customers. It’s a simple as that.

Go to Where Your Customers Are

The bottom line is social media provides a “channel” for some businesses to engage with customers or potential customers. For some businesses social media may work well at moving customers through a buying cycle or bringing customers to the site or in the door. For others, it’s a waste of time, money and resources.

Where social media can help is providing high value content to customers at the right time and place. But outbound and targeted marketing efforts along with strong sales will ALWAYS be required to drive and build a business.

To execs, business owners and social media activist alike, keep your wits about you. Find the balance and avoid the snake oil.

Brian Hansford, President & CMO, Zephyr 47

Other Related Entries and Resources

Categories : Brian Hansford, Demand Generation, Social Media, Social Media Marketing

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BANT Lead Scoring With Marketing Automation

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (3)

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

In the Era of Stronger, Faster, Smarter Marketing with Automation, organizations need to understand how and when to engage with prospects and customers. Marketing automation tools integrated with CRM systems like Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Salesforce.com provide sophisticated resources to enable a workflow to score and prioritize leads for sales follow up and continued lead nurturing.

Lead Scoring Definition and Objectives

First, let’s define lead scoring. Not all leads are created equally. Depending where your leads are in their buying cycle (or lack thereof) and who they are, they require different types of engagement with various forms of high value content. In general, lead scoring is a method to assign value on marketing and sales leads based on profile and engagement behavior. Based on the values, or score, priority is given to the type of follow up activity either by marketing (nurturing) or sales (prospecting and engagement).

The objective of lead scoring ultimately is to help drive more revenue through sales in accelerated cycles. Lead scoring helps a marketing team rate the leads to nurture and the ones that need immediate follow up and engagement with sales or channel partners.

Benefits to Lead Scoring

Lead scoring when employed with a marketing automation system can provide multiple benefits that all impact revenue generation. Firstly lead scoring helps marketing evaluate and improve the effectiveness of a campaign and content strategy. Scoring helps sales focus on the priority opportunities that have the best chance of closing in the shortest period of time. Scoring impacts how effective sales forecasts are as well.

Scoring with BANT in Mind

Lead score models can be simple or grow sophisticated. As organizations grow more sophisticated in their lead scoring, different models can be applied to different categories of prospects, customers, accounts, companies, etc. Our recommendation is conducting a thorough preliminary analysis on the ideal customer profile. From there an organization can build lead score models against the BANT model of Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe. Lead scoring is all the rage right now, especially in the marketing automation community. Thought leaders and vendors are clamoring and debating their own models. Keep it simple to start. BANT is a perfect launch point for lead score models.

Determine a Threshold Value for a Marketing Qualified Lead

Marketing and sales both need to agree to the definition of a marketing qualified lead. Each organization will have different definitions. Marketing should not do this unilaterally in a vacuum. The BANT model can help here. Based on activity and engagement, a contact can provide different levels of profile information that help fill out their BANT profile. This information can be gathered using different forms, emails, events and programs. At a different stage in the buying cycle, more information may be asked for and provided. A contact may not provide as much information earlier in their buying cycle. But as they progress and consume more high value content, they can provide more information on their need and project. And frankly it is fair to ask for this information at the right time and for the right content. Each point of engagement and contact adds to a score. As the score builds, a threshold will trigger handoff to sales as a marketing qualified lead.

Budget

- Is budget available for project?

- If no budget, will budget be provided

- No budget

Authority

- What is the contact’s title?

- Are they a decision maker?

- Are they an influencer?

Need

- What problem are they trying to solve?

- Are they just researching?

- Are they job seekers?

- Are they college students?

- Are they trying to sell YOU something?

Timeframe

- When do they want to make a purchase decision?

Based on these basic questions you can easily see where a lead scoring model can place priority for some leads and lower priority for others. For example, a VP with final vendor selection authority and a million dollar budget who will decide in 3 months is better than some who is simply a job seeker but downloads tons of whitepapers and podcasts.

Establishing Lead Score Weight and Sizing Against Each BANT Criteria

Organizations may view and weigh each element on BANT differently. A BANT threshold model may have a a 100 point scale, or a letter scale with A,B,C, where the score levels fit within each letter grade. ut even then weights don’t tell the whole story.

Organizations can have a highly qualified BANT lead but the size of the opportunity may be relatively small. This is where simple sizing criteria can complete a scoring model such as qualitative scores such as 1, 2, 3.

Zephyr 47 works with a number of B2B enterprise software and serivces organizations. This is a scoring model commonly applied with these organizations. The X and Y axis can show qualitative and quantitative values, respectively. In this model, A leads have higher BANT ratings than C leads. Leads with 1 have a larger revenue opportunity than 4 leads. A1 leads are the premium rated leads. C4 leads would have the lowest rating.

Sample Lead Score Matrix Commonly Used in B2B Marketing

Treatment and Process

A lead score model like this is very simple to develop and adopt. Most importantly the sales organization can easily consume this model as long as the qualitative and quantitative criteria are agreed to with marketing. A marketing automation platform can manage escalation processes based on score thresholds.

Sample Scenario: the inside sales team directive may be to work with leads from B2 to A1. Everything else below B2 must either be nurtured using a campaign implemented with the marketing automation platform. As leads are nurtured to a minimum score of B2, they are automatically escalated to sales for direct engagement.

Resources and Third Party Information

Zephyr 47 White Paper – Maximize Your Marketing Automation Investment

Wikipedia – Lead Scoring Definition

Manticore Technology – Three Components to Lead Scoring

Eloqua Grande Guide to Lead Scoring

Gartner Podcast: Setting Priorities with Lead Scoring

Categories : Customer Marketing, Demand Generation, Lead Definition, Lead Management, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Salesforce.com

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Teamsource to Meet Content Marketing Challenge

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (2)

Monday, January 24th, 2011

Developing content for for demand generation and marketing campaigns presents one of the largest challenges our clients face. Marketing automation platforms provide a shiny fast and luxurious jet to deliver powerful messages in style. But without any fuel the jet can’t take off.

One of the more popular terms to emerge lately is “Crowdsourcing” which openly calls for a group of people to help meet a challenge and solve a problem. In the past these tasks and objectives may have been limited to employees. Crowdsourcing is an excellent approach to developing content for demand generation and customer engagement programs. Especially when employing a marketing automation platform. (Without getting into semantic debates, Crowdsourcing almost has chaotic connotations, especially when developing high value content for demand generation and customer engagement campaigns. Teamsourcing seems better coordinated!)

We recommend a Teamsource Approach for developing content. Their are two areas marketing managers and marketing operations experts can source content. Inter-sources and Intra-sources.

The bottom line is marketing departments are slimmer with fewer personnel. Yet the demands are higher than ever before to produce a high quality lead flow through the funnel. (versus high quantity) Where can these marketing managers develop and marketing the content required to launch their marketing campaigns?

Content is The Fuel for Your Marketing Campaigns

Jet Fuel Depot #1: Intra-Teamsource

Internal subject experts such as product marketing and product managers
CxO and VP executives (no ivory tower mentality allowed with the big shots. They SHOULD contribute content.)
Product support and engineering

Jet Fuel Depot #2: Inter-Teamsource

Channel partners – many B2B companies have channel, VAR and distribution partners. These firms are staffed and run by subject experts in their particular industry or segment. These experts are ripe sources for providing high value content from papers, presentations, case studies, deployment guides, podcasts, and more. The channel partners benefit from the exposure and credibility.

Customers - The power of strong relationships with customers provide opportunities for sources of high value content. Customers can provide testimonials, presentations, case studies, white papers, interviews, and more. Get creative!

The days of a single marketing communications writer or manager producing all content for an organization are over. Teams from inside and outside an organization must all contribute high value content to help connect with customers.

Categories : Content Marketing, Content Publishing, Content Strategies, Crowdsource, Demand Generation, Teamsource

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Q4 Funnel Fiber – 4 Steps to Accelerate End of Year Revenue

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (0)

Friday, November 12th, 2010

The fourth quarter of a fiscal year for any organization is commonly the best performing in terms of sales and revenue generation. It doesn’t matter if the fiscal year follows a calendar year or a variation like Microsoft’s that ends in June.

The challenge for marketing and sales is filling and clearing the funnel with the most qualified opportunities to meet sales expectations. If managed properly, this process should begin proactively early in the annual planning process with a campaign schedule. Sadly, too many organizations still operate with a sense of panic in the last fiscal quarter, when a sense of focused urgency is better.

So how can an organization work to nurture the best opportunities in the shortest period of time and clear the funnel for end of year success? Here are four ideas to consider.

1. Focus on Accelerating Evaluation Cycles and Validating Purchase Decisions

Well designed demand generation strategies should include ongoing lead nurturing campaigns. Statistically however prospects in the early awareness stage may not bring the accelerated sales for some B2B organizations in the fourth quarter. Of course this depends on the length of the buying/sales cycle. The demand generation team should collaborate with the sales teams to focus efforts on the leads that are further into the sales funnel where an evaluation is fully underway and a purchase decision is pending. The tipping point for these opportunities may be high value content that helps conclude an evaluation and validates the purchase decision as the right one. This leads to the second point….

2. Re-purpose & Re-use Existing Content

Q4 may not always be the best time to kick off major content development projects such as white papers, new development of flash demos, etc. However there may be existing high value content that can easily be re-purposed and re-used in multiple formats. For example, re-purpose, edit and reformat white paper content into blog posts, webinar, podcasts, simple YouTube videos or Slideshare presentations. This content can be targeted to the leads further in an evaluation stage or a purchase validation stage. Don’t reinvent the wheel or kick off major content projects if the time, people, and money don’t allow for it.

3. Reporting and Analysis

The saying “if you can’t measure, you can’t manage” applies here. Proper reporting should be an ongoing practice but it is especially important in the fourth quarter. Demand generation teams and sales management can both benefit from increased reporting frequency in the fourth quarter. Reports from marketing automation and CRM systems can identify bottlenecks in forecasts and funnels. Additionally, reporting can highlight performance issues with individual sales representatives and channel partners. (I do not mean to imply Big Brother monitoring. Reporting can identify positive opportunities for performance coaching and improvement.) Focus on the right data. Click-throughs and impressions are meaningless unless presented with an explicit direct correlation to how they impact revenue.

4. Chicago ‘Voting Style’ Communication – Early and Often

One of the single biggest causes of collaboration and relationship breakdown between sales and marketing teams is poor communication. The marketing and demand generation teams should always prepare sales for upcoming promotions, campaigns, supporting content and tools. The communication should reflect up to minute reporting and analysis of funnel flow should be reported frequently as well as the sales forecast. Don’t rely exclusively on email or portals for these communication sessions. With the right frequency, these session can be brief and (ideally) should be in person or on conference calls. (And sales managers, don’t blow off these meetings without notice. Sorry to typecast, but I have to call that out because it happens a lot.) With the proper focus on influential and purchase-validating content, the funnel and forecast should reflect progression.

Let us know your thoughts on these 4 Steps to Accelerate End of Year Revenue. What practices does your organization use? What are your lessons learned?

Categories : Content Marketing, Content Strategies, Demand Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, Metrics

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Expert Guest Blog: Marketing to the “Demand Generation”

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (0)

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

I am pleased on honored to have this guest contribution from demand generation marketing expert, John Muehling. (Twitter @JohnMuehling) John’s bio and LinkedIn profile link are included at the end of his article. Enjoy!

-Cheers, Brian Hansford with Zephyr 47

Let’s face it; we live in the Demand Generation. The Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers have all become accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it, and often in real-time. Today’s businesspeople demand information about your company, your product or services, and your solutions. But here’s the rub, if you don’t give it to them, they will find it elsewhere, and that place could be your competition.

For B2B marketers, the new challenge is meeting that demand, or better still, creating it! Many of today’s marketing experts agree that, if your marketing efforts are creating demand for your resources or engagement by a salesperson, you are on the right track. The question is, how do you create demand? What works, what doesn’t? Without the key elements of a solid demand generation program, you may find yourself frustrated by the process. So what are some of those key elements?

Integration

Before you launch your demand gen program, you should ensure it is integrated; integrated with your company’s channels of communication, integrated with your CRM system and, thus, integrated with your sales team.

It is important to recognize that people have a preferred way to communicate, whether it’s face-to-face, by telephone, through the US Mail, via email or SMS, within social media or anonymously on the Internet. If you start by asking your prospect, “what channel do you prefer”, then tailor your content to reach them in that channel, the prospect will likely gain a sense that you “get them” and it will feel more natural for them engage you. Companies with unlimited budgets can afford to deliver their messages across many or all channels. But for those companies, with limited resources, communicating in a prospect’s preferred channel is a more economical way to go, and you will find that it creates a stronger relationship.

I recently posted a question on Focus.com, asking simply “Are the lines that separate marketing and sales becoming increasingly blurred?” Within a few days, there were almost 40 experts who had voiced their opinion on the subject – a productive debate had been sparked. The relevancy to demand gen is that any good program requires marketing to be aligned with sales, at least in some capacity. As several experts pointed out during the debate, a marketer’s job is to provide qualified leads to sales; it is sales’ job to close those leads. That is true. However, if there is no interaction between the two teams, further defining the request for information and sharing the resulting dialogue between prospect and salesperson, the success of your program could be diminished. This is where integration with CRM and sales plays a crucial role. Feedback that is recorded can be segmented into future communications, communications that “magically” answer a question posed or guide a prospect down the path they have defined. When this is accomplished by a marketing automation system, it allows your marketing team to nurture larger quantities of leads, scoring them and then releasing only those deemed “sales-ready”.

Content

Once you have an integrated program, the focus should be on offering relevant and timely content. There is a reason why companies are shifting more and more of their resources into content development; content is critical. This is also a central concept in marketing to the Demand Generation. Search engines like Google have made finding the answer to a question or accessing information about a specific topic, easier than ever. And because we now have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, competition for positioning content is evermore intense. Want to “win the battle”? Here are three easy steps that will get you started:

Find out what your prospect is seeking (use landing pages, surveys, polls, etc.)
Identify the “path” that has led to successful lead conversion in the past and duplicate it (use lead scoring)
Create content that is insightful and useful to your prospect (come from their point-of-view)

The last point may be the most important. The old days of “boilerplate” and self-serving pages of your company’s history are just that, history! People don’t want to buy your product; they want you to solve their problem. And if you provide the content that speaks to them about your solution to their problem, you’ve opened up a dialogue that is more likely to end with a new client and new revenue.

I believe the timing of content delivery is as important as the content itself. Take for example the concept of “real-time communication”. As David Meerman Scott pointed out on a recent webinar, “it used to be that if you had a big budget, you could control your marketplace. I am now convinced that speed and agility are the decisive competitive advantages.” By spending an equal or greater amount of time listening to the marketplace, companies are able to deliver messages and content relevant to current events, real-time inquiries or even in response to negative PR. Social media channels, such as Twitter and Facebook, can provide tremendous insight into the psyche of your prospects and the marketplace, making them great door openers to opportunity.

Longevity / Evolution

We all know that successful marketing, the creation of demand and the evolution of relationships all take time. Ensure that this is taken into consideration when developing your program. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It will take time to find the best path; it will take failure to find out what doesn’t work; it will take team work, starting with the executive suite on down through your marketers, your sales team and the CSRs, to evolve your program into something that generates ongoing revenue. As the Demand Generation continues to evolve, so should your marketing efforts. New channels of communication will open, content will become more interactive and prospects will become more educated.

The question is, will you be the one educating them?

About John Muehling:

John is an accomplished, 14-year marketing veteran who possesses a solid command of traditional and progressive marketing strategies and tactics. His strong background in sales, combined with his knowledge and passion for marketing has helped him master techniques for aligning marketing with sales. As a consummate CRM and data analytics expert, he is able to identify market and buying trends which lead to more successful targeting and higher conversion rates.

John also embraces the close relationship between marketing/sales and information technology and feels we are on the cusp of a great convergence between human intelligence and automation.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmuehling

Categories : CRM, Demand Generation, Expert Guest Blog, Marketing Operations

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Email Contact Governance with Marketing Automation

Posted by: Brian Hansford | Comments (1)

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

I recently wrote about the importance of Contact Cadence when developing and implementing a customer marketing campaign strategy. The benefits of contact cadence ensure a database of customers will receive the right information at the right time without being exhausted by excessive and uncoordinated communications.

Complementary to cadence is Email Contact Governance. This is the series of people and policies that determine who, how, what and when customers and prospects can be contacted using marketing automation systems. (Please note: Governance is not intended to restrict sales contact! Sales managers and reps may initially interpret this means they can’t make calls or appointments. Not so!!)

Email Contact Governance is especially critical for companies that have multiple business units that run independent campaigns. In the era of confederated business units and executives who desire to “cross-sell” and “up-sell” to other business unit customers, companies head into the dangerous territory of uncoordinated spamming and damaged customer relationships. (In some countries and U.S. states this may even be illegal email contact which is another topic in itself.) An effective Email Contact Governance Policy and Team can actually help strengthen customer relationships and support contact cadence with a campaign strategy.

Who – The Team

Corporate Executive Sponsor
Corporate Governance Lead – the one throat to choke!
Assigned Marketing Automation Pros (in the necessary business units)
Business Unit Lead/Manager
Sales Operations Lead
Legal
Channel Partner Leads
THE CUSTOMER – provide a symbolic seat at the table to keep the focus on how to best communicate with the customer!!

When – The Coordination Plan

Corporate Communications Calendar coordinated with Business Unit Marketing Automation Pros
Campaign Calendar Coordination
Authorized Communications – who can send information and how often
Team Communication – The team lead should keep everyone on the same plan and regularly review changes

What – The Content

Opt-In or Opt-Out Profiles: Give your leads and customers the information they want.
Don’t send emails to contacts who specifically opt-out of the options provided.
Send consistently planned and remarkably executed email to those that Opt-In.

Worst-Case Scenario: Mojito Manufacturer, Inc. conducts a strategically important annual customer event. The corporate communications team promotes each event up to a year in advance beginning at the current event. Communication frequency via email increases as the date approaches. Business units also run their own event communications independent of corporate often duplicating or triplicating the emails sent to customer contacts. This is where the worlds collide! Combine this activity with planned email campaigns and throw in 3rd party channel and chaos ensues! Sales managers scream at marketing managers that customers are complaining of too many emails. Believe it or not this is quite common!

Ideas to Consider:

Corporate teams should provide content for business units to include in their planned communications and vice versa.
Authorizations – limit who can send campaign or corporate email using authorizations in marketing automation systems. (This should NOT limit direct 1:1 email from sales reps, support, etc.)
Send the right corporate/campaign information to the right contacts at the right time based on profiles and opt-in information.
Don’t rely on email alone for customer communications
Use multiple channels, including social media
Customer Perspective: Think about how you would want to be contacted!

What are your experiences, lessons learned and best practices?

Categories : Contact Governance, Demand Generation, Marketing Automation, Marketing Campaigns, Marketing Communications, Marketing Operations

Comments (1)

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