Pressure is mounting on companies to maximize marketing ROI (return on investment). In other words, the money spent on lead generation should show a strong return related to sales revenue. This money should be evaluated so it is continually applied to the highest yielding program(s). To do this, marketers must gain visibility into individual programs [...]
Marketers often tell us that they feel challenged to effectively nurture their leads because they don’t have enough content – or the time and resources to create it. The fact is that you have more content than you think, and you don’t have to recreate the wheel. See my five tips below on where you [...]
It’s no surprise that these days, we have lots of conversations with people about ROI. Marketers, CFOs, and CEOs alike are struggling to figure out the best approach to tracking and computing a return on their marketing and sales investments. But what is interesting is that while there are so many variations of ROI discussions, [...]
Now more than ever, it is essential that money spent on lead generation shows a solid return related to sales revenue or ROI. To this end, the success of marketing activities must be continually evaluated so that dollars are properly applied to the highest-yielding programs. Today’s lead management systems track all interactions of a lead [...]
In actuality, lead generation should not be just the initial creation of interest, but the full slate of nurturing activities growing the lead into a genuine prospect. Marketing’s role must include taking responsibility for moving sales-ready leads to sales, instead of simply handing over cold inquiries and then attempting to match back the revenue won [...]
Tracking metrics throughout the lead lifecycle is important to most companies, and it is especially trying for those with long sales cycles. Having to wait 12-18 months before revenue is generated to learn which, if any, of your marketing campaigns are working can be a long time. Not to mention the process is further complicated [...]
Yesterday, I was reading Aberdeen’s new industry analyst report, which discusses the best practices of lead nurturing by exploring the tactics and strategies of top performing organizations. I found it quite interesting that 56% of all respondents surveyed indicated that they lack a formal lead nurturing process. With 80% of sales closing after the 5th [...]
Over the past several weeks I’ve had some interesting conversations with marketers and it seems to me that some company’s allow status quo to outweigh ROI – why is that? Most of my discussions have been with marketers that are seeing the value in lead management – especially from a behavior tracking and lead nurturing [...]
I found The Case Against Cold Calling published in Softletter to be a very powerful wake-up call to re-evaluate the way we all communicate with prospects. The way we communicate has changed dramatically over the last decade. The role of call centers has shifted from lead generation to lead nurturing for prospects who have responded to [...]
Anne Holland of MarketingSherpa says shorter email Subject Lines are the trend and that Sherpa’s testing indicates shorter is better. We agree. We’ve been using two- and three-word Subject Lines for some time now with satisfying results. We believe it’s not just white space or the element of the unusual, but the brevity itself and leaving something to [...]