WebProNews

Lesson's Learned from Podcasting

If you plan on entering the world of podcasting or want to make yours better, you can read what I’ve learned in my MarketingProfs article, "Lessons Learned from Podcasting." Similar to blogging, podcasting is a medium that B2B marketers remain on the fence about. Are they worth the time investment? Should you start a podcast to generate leads? I would say probably not, at least if that’s your only motivation.

Lead Generation & Management Strategies

Back In 2005, I did an 11 City speaking tour sponsored by GlobalSpec to teach manufacturers how to become better at lead generation, lead management and lead nurturing.  I traveled with Guy Maser VP of Marketing for GlobalSpec and I thought he had a great message about helping marketers get the most out of their internet lead generation investment. Today, his article in BtoB Magazine gives a great summary of his presentation from the roadshow and is worth a read.

Closed-Loop Marketers More Likely to Reach Goals

As I've written before, I'm a big proponent of using closed loop feedback to improve marketing and lead generation ROI.  I came across a recent report by Aberdeen Group entitled, "Creating a Customer-Centric Marketing Organization," that reinforces the point with broader empirical data. Aberdeen found, "Companies that adopt closed-loop marketing processes are more than three times as likely to report a greater than 50% return on marketing investment (ROMI) than those that do not.”

Drive Better Lead Generation ROI

Ask most executives and marketers what sales people need and they will say, "more leads." Your sales people don’t want more leads actually, what they want is "more effective selling time." Ultimately, the purpose of B2B marketing is to help the sales team sell. It's not about driving more activity. It's about helping the sales achieve better results. With that in mind, I’d like to see more marketers start thinking beyond the lead and focus more how they are supporting their sales teams.   

Giving Away Business Ideas

I had coffee with a potential partner and our conversation ebbed to a discussion about marketing philosophy.  He said something like, "I think companies [like yours] just give away many of their trade secrets on their website.  They provide too much information.  If I wanted to compete with you... all I would need to do is read your website or blog.  The purpose of a website is to solicit interest... you've got to get people to respond... to generate leads." My response...

Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way

It's been well documented that quality of collaboration between sales and marketing directly impacts ROI.

Email Newsletters and Blogs

So I finally got a chance to catch my breath a bit and read some of the content on my "blogs I read" list.

Don't Waste Your Pay-Per-Click Budget

Thanks to Jim Berkowitz and his CRM Mastery E-Journal for pointing me to the MarketingProfs article, Five Proven Ways to Waste Money With Pay-per-Click Advertising by John Grant.

E-mail And Phone Have High Response Rates

BtoB Magazine points out some interesting findings in the DMA 2006 Response Rate Trends Report which includes data for more than 1,500 campaigns received in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Target Marketing - Whats a Lead?

Many marketers believe generating more sales leads is the key to hitting revenue targets. That's not always true. In fact, most companies need to do a better job managing and qualifying the leads (or more likely the inquiries) they already have.