What are your marketing nightmares?

With the emergence of social media and mobile advertising, some of you may be having nightmares about the type of marketing to use to win new business.

Well, look on the bright side! With the growing popularity of these channels, you now have more opportunity to create integrated marketing services and engage with both existing and potential clients.

The Econsultancy blog recently revealed that Twitter is being used by 87 per cent of B2B firms, while Facebook is being used by 82 per cent, 69 per cent are employing YouTube and 57 per cent are incorporating LinkedIn to their marketing campaigns.

Plenty of opportunity to run a social media campaign and attract new clients then, as this channel is great for posting a call to action, leading to offline sales.

But this platform could still be giving you nightmares as B2B buyers will only engage with your Facebook page if it is engaging!

This means writing blogs, posting interesting statuses and delivering content that engages your target audience, which is great if you have the time!

Luckily, Sophia Haynes, director of marketing and communications at the Internet Advertising Bureau, said: "Social [media] definitely is changing a lot of things, but it isn't the answer to everything.

"It can be over relied on and it needs to be part of a considered marketing strategy not sort of 'oh we don't need to spend money on media anymore, stick it all in social '."

Mobile may also be giving you a headache as marketing experts continuously say that this is a lucrative channel and if you aren't involved, you're missing out on leads and sales.

The main way you can get involved with this type of integrated marketing service is by creating a website optimised for use on mobiles.

All you need to do is analyse the amount of traffic visiting your website from mobiles to see if this is worth doing.

If it is worth doing, there are ways in which you can test your website to find out which parts work on mobiles and which bits don't, which can then be changed.

A simple way of incorporating mobile into your marketing activity is by creating email marketing campaigns that can be read on these devices.

The first step in running successful integrated marketing services is ensuring your B2B data and global lists are accurate - something that mardevdm2 specialises in.

So, are these your digital nightmares and how are you planning to overcome them?

Getting started with lead scoring

How to get started with lead scoring?

You may have heard of lead scoring on an increasing frequency recently as it is a new element for many B2B marketers.

Now, you may be wondering what lead scoring actually is, and all it means is assigning points to each new prospect.

Points are assigned based on criteria you set, such as the attributes you've decided are most often associated with serious prospective customers.

This can include seeing who visits your website, downloads your whitepapers and opens your email marketing messages. You can then do a bit of investigation or partner with a database marketing provider to learn the type of company they are from as well as their job title and geographic location.

The higher a prospect scores during this procedure the more likely they are to be actively engaged in the buying process. When leads reach the score agreed upon with sales, they should be sent to the appropriate sales rep, or better yet, automatically assigned in your contact management system.

What criteria do you find most effective for lead scoring?

Learn how mardevdm2 can accelerate your sales with your lead development.

Or simply, request a quote if you'd like to get started.

How do you use metrics to boost lead generation?

B2B marketers are becoming more metrics driven every day. The question is, which ones provide the greatest insight?

A question that quite often crosses the lips of B2B marketing and sales executives is how they can effectively use web and lead tracking metrics to boost their lead generation results and tie it to revenue.

There are plenty of key metrics that can be included in your marketing campaigns but you may be unsure which one is best for your needs?

A number of factors will affect which metrics system you choose, such as which one generates the most leads and revenue for your firm and which one will support your 'top of the pipeline' activities the best.

According to the Quarterly Digital Intelligence Marketing Briefing by Econsultancy and Adobe, the most popular metric appears to be web analytics with 93 percent of European businesses using this method to guide their marketing campaigns.

Join the conversation and share the metrics your business finds the most useful.

Learn about how to apply metrics, scoring and digital channels when you read this whitepaper: Effective Stages of Demand Generation, the rules of engagement:

http://tinyurl.com/6mqch85 

DMA 2011

What are your expectations for this year's DMA show? Did you know they added a B2B Symposium? What are the top 3 challenges you are bringing to the show?

Visit mardevdm2 at Booth #1011 and let's connect. In fact, you can set up a meeting in advance, simply click here.


Oh, and if you haven't registered yet, we invite you to use code AN61 and save $300!

Once you know who to talk to, how do you know what to say?

So, you've segmented your data and learned what you can from your analysis of it. Now what? According to the Sherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, the key to success for B2B organizations going forward will be to improve their marketing efficiencies in every stage of the buying cycle. 

I think one of the issues is that our natural response to that is, "sell more". Yet, many of the sales and marketing conversations we have with new prospects, in this age of technology and advanced nurturing techniques, happen when we aren't selling at all. This may involve an activity-based or trigger-email nurture cycle, or sending innovative case studies or white papers to your new leads. Then, their response determines how relevant your information is to them. Also according to Sherpa, 92% of buyers are open to cold calls if the information is relevant. 

This sounds like the answer to the "now what?" question is to listen to and monitor your prospects' response to your nurturing program so you can make the sales lead process more efficient. In other words, only send the buyers who respond to your relevant messages to your sales reps. It will save time in the sales process, and they will likely even thank you for the leads.

Need help getting started with your lead nurturing program? Learn how mardevdm2 can help. 

Data marketing goes way beyond data - 5 questions to consider

We are exhibiting at and attending the Data Marketing Show in London, 29-30 June (check out the show and register) and the primary focus of the event is data-driven marketing. In my experience, data-driven marketing goes way beyond data. The questions that come to mind, for example, are:

1. what do you know about your current marketing data that helps you better target your audience?
2. are there segments that your data naturally aligns with so you can create unique messages for each one?
3. how can you keep your data current so you are continually adding new contacts to the primary market segments for your business?
4. what do you do to keep those audience segments engaged with your brand or message?
5. how do you know which marketing channels are most effective in converting each audience segment into business for your company?

So, to me, data is just the beginning. It's also the foundation for analysis. And it is the conversion metric by which your success is measured.

If you'll be at the Data Marketing Show, stop by and have a chat with @mardevdm2 on Stand E124. Oh, and play our interactive marketing game while you're there for a chance to win a fun prize.

Not going to be at the show? Learn more about our data marketing services when you visit mardevdm2.com/DatabaseMktg.

ROI-based social media

I attended a webinar yesterday produced by Sherpa sponsored by Facebook. The topic was  Strategic Social Media Marketing - getting your business or agency started with an ROI-based approach.

The greatest thing I learned is that, while currently the majority of marketers are able to track only 10% of their marketing investment in social media directly to the bottom line, there is a tremendous adoption rate for social as a relevant channel - for B2B and B2C companies. The additional benefits, while many, specifically include the cost savings as compared to many other channels and the ability to easily integrate social with channels like email and your website. There was significant agreement about building a quality audience through "like" and "share" requests as compared to asking a large, broad audience to register for a competition or prize to build an audience who are only in it for the prize, not because they are likely to engage with your brand.

The bottom line? The same strategic approach is necessary to see ROI in social as it is in any other marketing channel: segment and target your audience, build a community with relevant content and messages, and maintain ongoing communications with them to establish relationships.

View the event recap on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23sherpawebinar 

To register and receive the event recording, visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/339798849

Demand generation metrics

Our customers' demand generation programs are proving to provide some very valuable metrics, such as:

• Cost of leads by marketing channel
• ROI by channel and lead source
• Reduction in sales cycle  time

What metrics do you track in your demand generation campaigns? How effective are they in helping you plan future marketing budget and plans?

Just a little data

A little data goes a long way. This is especially true in the context of business-to-business (B2B) customer data. For example, even in non-recession times, the average monthly employee turnover in the United States alone is 2.1 million people, and the average turnover rate in the United Kingdom is greater than 13%. As sales and marketing professionals, we rely on the contact information of the decision makers who actively work for companies in our target markets. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time to update the contact details of millions of people each month. 

The change volume and pace that takes place in business requires that you have a consistent, reliable data source for your customers and prospects. The cost of data updates, appends, enhancements (choose your favorite wording) is far less than the amount you spend in production and mailing costs only to have it wasted because the person is no longer with the company. Make sure you keep your marketing database current and only obtain data from sources that are fresh and validated on a regular basis.

Find out how mardevdm2 can deliver new data and keep you in touch with the right B2B contacts.  http://www.mardevdm2.com/DatabaseMktg.asp 

mardevdm2 Splash!

Read and post to this blog your experiences, ideas and tips about effective direct marketing, demand generation, strategic marketing, database appending and enhancement, and anything else you have done to accelerate sales. 

What's working for you as you work to align your sales and marketing teams, come to a common understanding of the definition of a lead, and bridging the gap between marketing and revenue/ROI.

We look forward to sharing our examples, client experiences and results with you here.