Tag Archive for: Marketing Automation

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation and the Latest Google Update

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Marketing Automation and the Latest Google UpdateThe latest Google update change, Hummingbird, rocked the search engine world this week. What’s most interesting about this update is that most SEO experts didn’t even see it coming. The algorithm has actually been in effect for over a month, and is Google’s largest update in years.

Small businesses are particularly nervous about the change. The Panda and Penguin programs Google rolled out in the last few years significantly damaged rankings for many businesses, literally causing small businesses to go under in some cases. This is particularly true for those that were relying on organic rankings to provide search engine traffic. If your business relies on help from the search engines to get new customers, you don’t necessarily have to worry-you just have to make sure your site is set up to provide more contextual engagement with your potential client base.

Working With the Hummingbird Update

The latest Google update ensures that not just a few keywords will rank a site – all of the keywords in a search query are important for determining search engine position. For instance, before this update someone could type in Train fares in Nova Scotia. Sites with good keyword ranking for Nova Scotia or train fares might show up, rather then search engine results that actually match with the user is looking for.

With this latest update, Google puts an emphasis on the user’s actual intent. Now, the user typing in train fares in Nova Scotia is more likely to actually get train fares rather than just general information that’s irrelevant to the query.

You can get a better idea of how your particular site is affected by checking your URL’s analytics and other metrics.

How does this affect your small business?

If your site is already rich in information and you have fairly streamlined advertising campaigns and an SEO plan, you shouldn’t necessarily worry about the latest Google update. What you should worry about is continuing to make sure that your advertising campaigns are in line with your SEO, and that the content you’re putting on your site is relevant to your users.

Marketing automation can help you here because it can allow you to identify what users are coming to your site based on keyword searches, and how to look at information about how those searches changed over the past month. Real time search results will allow you to determine your best marketing path moving forward. Once you know your results, you can change your SEO strategy to address what users are looking for, and discover how you can better get them to your site.

Plus, with the ability to flag particular users who visit your site via IP tracking, you can give your users a customized experience that other tools just can’t. To get an idea of how those customized tools can better your business, set up a consultation with an expert at Lead Liaison today!

Lead Liaison

5 Marketing Automation Best Practices

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Best Practices for Marketing AutomationMarketing automation is here to stay. While we’re ecstatic that companies both large and small continue to adopt MA at a frenetic pace, we feel it is important to remember that effective marketing using an automation platform should follow some fundamental best practices. We’re delighted to present to you 5 marketing automation best practices.

1) Start small and build

Avoid deploying a huge campaign when you start out with MA. The temptation may be to run multiple campaigns as quickly as possible. But programmed marketing takes time to master – and you don’t want to risk alienating your markets. Develop a deployment strategy that includes all features but open with a few small campaigns and learn to master tactics before rolling out to a wider audience. You’ll minimize risk by starting small.

2) Create MA campaigns that build profiles and strengthen marketing practices

Effective automated marketing campaigns should qualify leads as they relate to a specific offer or opportunity, but deploying MA is also beneficial in discovering market behaviors through content consumption. The digital footprints your leads leave behind while engaged through marketing automation helps shape your customer persona. Use that data to develop stronger campaigns.

3) Don’t set to auto-pilot

It will be tempting to “set-it-and-forget-it” but campaign management is still required – especially early on. Though marketing automation creates efficiencies through automated functions, it’s important to stay on top of ongoing campaign results and tweak app settings, messaging, or other elements to maximize your results.

4) Create great content

Buyers are constantly getting targeted by content intended to attract and persuade. Having that content delivered routinely via MA is not going to instantly convert. Marketing automation, though an important and rapidly adopted technology, is but a tool. The key to effective MA campaigns is to provide content your markets want and need. A mix of formats is important. Deploy video, email, social posts, and other assets. Most importantly, project a consistent image across all your MA channels.

5) Test and test again

Not every MA campaign will achieve desired results. One of the strengths of MA is the ability to segment and target audiences. Prior to a general distribution, make sure messaging generates response for each market segment. Use A/B testing for each asset deployed through your MA platform to gauge click through, site time, conversion, and other KPIs. Marketing automation can reduce marketing costs and improve close rates but the effectiveness of the platform you use will depend on establishing best practices that work for your company. For more best practices, check out our other blog categories.

Lead Liaison

Why Marketing Automation is Essential for Lead Qualification

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Why Marketing Automation is Essential for Lead QualificationB2B lead qualification is a process of determining suitability for sales engagement, right? Actually, lead qual is just the opposite: it’s determining as quickly as possible if a lead is NOT interested in you at the moment and, furthermore, if you are NOT interested in that lead enough to devote sales resources to pursuing that lead. The way provide your sales team with the highest quality, most qualified leads is to manage leads through a marketing automation platform.

In ultra-competitive industries where 80% of leads are not worth pursuing at the first touch point, an effective lead qualification strategy manages leads in a way that delivers the hottest leads to sales first, nurtures others who may be interested in your solution until they are ready to buy, and ignores leads that appear unqualified to purchase. This allows your sales team to focus on the most likely candidates.

One of the strengths of deploying marketing automation is that the application segments and nurtures leads without directly engaging the sales team. The system can quickly indicate which leads are worth pursuing and which are just curious. Traditional practices have sales determining whether a lead is suitable to be a prospect, now marketing automation enables that process.

Marketing automation platforms, including our Lead Management Automation™ application, are designed to score leads as they engage with your brand. A lead threshold can be set that marks when a lead becomes marketing-qualified and ready to migrate to a CRM for sales engagement. The process puts the most likely buyers in front of sales. During the qualification process, leads accumulate scoring based upon demographic attributes and digital behavior. A good platform will manage leads as they become qualified at different paces.

B2B qualification these days is achieved more often by inbound marketing techniques. This allows prospects to qualify themselves. The key to merging inbound marketing and automated qualification is to translate initial interest into actionable data that sales agents can use when they engage with leads. Through MA the sales team is typically more efficient because reps aren’t chasing unqualified leads.

Inbound marketing allows you to let the prospect indicate how ready to purchase he may be. Inquiries such as ad clicks, website visits, email messages, and webinar registrations qualify leads by indicating their level of interest in your solution.

But there are two important questions that must be answered that marketing automation cannot provide. These questions must be answered during sales engagements.

  • Do they NEED your solution? People search online often with the desire to buy but may not have the need. It can often be more challenging to sales to convince a prospect of need when she realizes that a purchase fulifills only a desire to acquire your solution. Typically, these cases involve frequent and repeated objections.
  • If they need your solution, can they USE it? Does yoru prospect have the capability of implementing your solution or will implementation require investment in other areas? Often, a purchase makes sense in a standalone situation but if there are capital requirements beyond the purchase, a sale may actually move the customer to hold your brand in a negative view if money was wasted because a solution cannot be implemented without costly investment.

Lead qualification can take weeks or months. Without a marketing automation platform, lead qual will continue to be costly if handled by your sales team.

Lead Liaison

Why Do I Need Marketing Automation for My Business?

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Why Do I Need Marketing Automation for My Business?Countless big businesses are now turning to marketing automation to generate more productive leads and more revenue. It is the evolution of online marketing and the most-efficient method for gathering, profiling, nurturing, and converting website visitors into consumers. It is not surprising that almost every business owner is now asking the question; why do I need marketing automation?

Marketing Automation Generates Revenue

Every online business can benefit from marketing automation. It generates quality leads that are nurtured to generate revenue. There are so many impressive success stories surrounding its effectiveness and it has been proven to convert 50% more leads than traditional marketing. In an earlier blog; Why Marketing Automation is Revenue Generating Software, I listed nine ways marketing automation will generate more revenue for your business. This article will cover a few other reasons businesses need marketing automation software. Why does your specific business need marketing automation? It doesn’t matter what industry you are in or how big your company might be. You need marketing automation for your business if you are trying to compete for customers online. You will also need marketing automation to ensure your business is not missing out on opportunities. It is estimated that 95% of visitors will lead your site unnoticed if you don’t use marketing automation’s website visitor tracking software.

Marketing Automation Generates Leads

Your business will need marketing automation if your sales team works with leads. Most sales professionals will blame their own poor performance on insufficient leads. Marketing automation captures every lead that comes across your site or related social network profiles. It then uses the website visitor tracking software to profile each lead and rank them based on their potential for conversion. Only the highest quality leads will be passed onto the sales department. Potential leads that are not ready for conversion are nurtured using helpful newsletters and email campaigns. A professional lead nurturing campaign will build brand authority and inspire the lead to make a purchase. Marketing automation software guides leads throughout their buying process.

More Benefits of Marketing Automation

Any business that wants a simplified method for coordinating and managing their marketing activities will benefit from marketing automation. Marketing automation software is able to organize various campaigns, applications, programs, and CRM platforms. Businesses that want a better system for monitoring ROI on their marketing efforts will also benefit greatly from using marketing automation. Marketing automation provides useful reports that analyze and calculate the marketing automation plan’s ROI. It can show what techniques are working and which ones need revamping. Are you still wondering why you need marketing automation for your business? The best way to realize the benefits of marketing automation software is to try it out. Once you see the impressive results, there will be no question in your mind as to why your business needs marketing automation software.

Lead Liaison

4 Ways Marketing Automation Shortens Sales Cycles

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4 ways marketing automation shortens sales cyclesHow long is your company’s sales cycle? Two weeks? Six Months? A year? Brand leaders in the B2B space constantly seek ways to shorten their sales cycles. Many have found that a marketing automation platform helps to reduce the number of days to close. Why? Here are four of the most popular feedback points we get when we talk with our markets.

“Some leads are deeper in the funnel.” Not all leads are at the same stage of the buying cycle. Some come to your brand fully educated about the solutions they seek; others just starting to explore their options. Through consistent, automated outbound messaging, your brand’s presence is continuously in the market. Marketing messages can be varied – and personalized. Automated personalization is one way to connect faster so qualification can move swiftly, shortening the “get to know you” phase. Using marketing automation, marketers are able to manage leads at different stages of the buying cycle, which provides the sales team with a continuous pipeline of leads.

“You can fire on all cylinders.” Marketing automation allows marketers to easily connect through more channels simultaneously. Email, social, PPC, and search can be integrated under one campaign, which increases the ability to “flood” your leads by connecting channels and delivering escalating engagements. Response rates can be quickly analyzed so agile companies can adjust practices quickly. Multi-channel campaigns that offer incrementally higher value can be deployed alongside campaigns that simply introduce your solution.

“Makes our sales agents hungry.” Sales likes quality leads. It’s the same in every organization. Marketing automation allows sales agents to focus on the hottest prospects in the pipeline. This usually means the ones that are most qualified to buy and most knowledgeable about your solutions. Nurturing campaigns and scoring features qualify how ready prospects are so sales people aren’t wasting valuable time chasing leads that aren’t ready to buy. Less waste leads to shorter buying cycles.

“Leads are going to the right people.” Let’s face it – not every sales rep is good for every lead. Marketing automation distributes leads effectively assigning ownership to the most appropriate sales person who can respond quickly and close fast. Lead assignment can be set upon first touch or somewhere during the qualification period. Getting the leads into the right rep’s hands can shorten the cycle by several days to several weeks.

Lead Liaison

Why is SEO Necessary for a Marketing Automation Strategy?

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Why SEO is Necessary for a Marketing Automation StrategyI was reading this great article on What B2B SEO Professionals need to know about Marketing Automation and it got me thinking about how closely related search engine optimization (SEO) is to marketing automation. SEO is used to draw more leads to your website. Marketing automation software is used to capture, profile, nurture, and convert leads after they have landed on your site. On the other side of the coin, an effective marketing automation strategy will enhance your SEO efforts. An important aspect of marketing automation is developing personalized and informative lead nurturing content. Posting and promoting relevant content will help to boost your search engine ranking, which in turn will send even more qualified leads to your website.

Higher Ranking = More Traffic

It is estimated that over 15 billion people conduct product searches online each month and that 70% of the world starts their buying process by researching their options online. There has never been a larger audience gathered in one place; there has also never been so much competition in one place. A high search engine ranking is the only way to keep your company ahead of your competitors. Think about the last time you conducted an online search. Did you look at any websites on the second or third page of the results? Unless someone is doing extensive comparison shopping, they will only look at the first few websites on the list. It pays to be on the first page of the results.

SEO + Marketing Automation = Success

Companies need to focus on SEO before they employ marketing automation software. This will increase the number of leads the software is able to track. The software will then profile the leads and rank each one based on their likelihood for conversion. Leads that are showing signs of conversion will be immediately past onto the sales team. A marketing automation strategy should also involve nurturing any leads that are not ready to be passed onto sales. This could be done using customized email campaigns, newsletters, or helpful how-to articles. To continue the flow of new traffic, lead nurturing efforts must take SEO into consideration. Any content connected to your website is an opportunity to improve your search engine ranking using relevant and strategically placed keywords and meta-tags.

Comprehensive Marketing Strategy

In today’s competitive marketplace, businesses need to employ any and every marketing technique that will give them a competitive advantage online. Their marketing strategy should always include SEO, social media marketing, and a complete marketing automation strategy. All of these strategic components will complement each other and enhance one another’s campaign results. They can even double or triple a company’s existing sales when they are effectively combined. That is why SEO is so necessary to the success of your marketing automation strategy.

Lead Liaison

How Marketing Automation Redefines Deadlines

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How Marketing Automation Redefines DeadlinesMarketing automation is all about making the sales-to-closing and general advertising practices of your business easier while allowing you to put everything on a timetable or deadline. If you haven’t really explored the world of marketing automation and how it can change your business, now is a good time to take a look.

When you’re creating a new brand for your company (and it may well be time to do that) you might find a messy affair ahead. This is particularly true if you’re the principal in your business. Who has time to handle customers, work on your website and new graphics materials and keep the business running? With marketing automation, you do.

Marketing Automation Makes Rebranding Easier

Putting a new website in place gives users an opportunity to interact with you in an organic way. Users who previously visited your site have brand new materials to look at. Hopefully by the time your new site is up, you’ve made it more interactive with contact forms, a good trail of information that will allow users to spend more time to your site, and other methods to contact you like phone or email.

Marketing automation allows you to identify specific users who visit your site. Once you have this information, deadlines start to come together. Advertising campaigns can go out at a particular date based on the way you see visitors using your site. You also have the ability to tailor specific advertising campaigns to particular groups of users.

Advertising on a Deadline

Once you have this type of business intelligence information, it becomes much easier to set up more accurate sales funnels and campaign management using your site’s data. One action should trigger another very specific reaction – for instance, if a known user fills out a form and you know this customer likes to be called, your sales team should receive a prioritized note letting them know the customer should be called within a specific timeframe. Marketing automation then allows your sales team to create new deadlines to ensure that customer’s needs are serviced – and future sales will happen as a result.

You can also use marketing automation to determine when the best time to send out campaigns might be, then build deadlines based on those new campaign dates. If you find most of your customers open emails on a Tuesday – but certain customers buy more on a Thursday – you can change your marketing messaging to go out to different customers on different days as needed.

Analyzing the data to determine the best deadlines for marketing actions is advanced technology that traditional analytics methods just won’t give you. To learn more about how marketing automation can benefit your business, visit leadliaison.com.

Lead Liaison

Using Marketing Automation to Enhance Customer Engagement

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Using Marketing Automation to Enhance Customer EngagementI was reading an article on Unlocking the Power of Retail Marketing Automation to gather new ideas for enhancing the techniques used at Lead Liaison and I was particularly impressed by how they approached the importance of customer engagement. In today’s competitive world-wide markets customer engagement is the key to conversion and marketing automation makes it significantly easier.

It also made me realize just how intertwined marketing automation really is to customer engagement. Marketing automation doesn’t just nurture leads, but it taps into their buying process and allows you to connect with them on a more personal level. It has the ability to build real and lasting relationship with potential leads prior to them making a purchase. In summary, it’s a good idea to start using marketing automation to enhance customer engagement.

Website Visitor Tracking

Marketing automation begins with website visitor tracking. Every lead that is captured on your website is monitored as they move from page to page. It also records any demographic information that is volunteered through online registries and feedback forms. Their online activity and characteristics are used to create a comprehensive lead profile.

Marketing automation strategists compare the information received during website visitor tracking with the behavior and attributes of existing customers to identify trends and determine their purchasing potential. This ranking and qualification process gives marketers a better understanding of a lead’s pre-purchasing behavior, which will improve their chances of creating a real connection. This will also make it easier to identify triggers and customize nurturing content.

Customized Lead Nurturing

Leads that are not ready to make a decision are given further nurturing using informative and relevant email and newsletter campaigns. A customized nurturing approach that is based on their personal profile and interests will strengthen the emotional connection between the content and the customer. Customized lead nurturing content is one of the most effective ways to inspire greater customer engagement.

Most marketing automation professionals will first segment leads into groups before they create the customized content. Marketing automation software captures an abundance of leads and it is too difficult to cater a unique approach to every single lead in your database. Lead segmenting will group together similar leads, so content can be directed at segments of leads who share the same needs.

Faster Response to Customer Concerns

Marketing automation immediately notifies your sales and marketing teams whenever there is a question or concern from a potential customer. Customers will sincerely appreciate the fast response and personal attention they receive. Your sales team will also be sent a notice the moment a lead shows any signs of conversion. Responding to customer’s issues as they occur or when they are ready to make a purchase will significantly increase customer engagement and sales.

Today’s savvy consumers have high expectations from online businesses and they expect to be engaged. Fortunately, marketing automation uses website visitor tracking, customized lead nurturing, and faster response times to develop greater customer relations from the initial interaction to final sales transaction.

Lead Liaison

Overlooked Features of Marketing Automation

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Overlooked Features of Marketing AutomationMarketing automation is a complex strategy that has been proven to capture and convert more leads than traditional marketing. The main feature of using marketing automation software is greater lead conversion however there are countless other benefits that will come from using it. This article will discuss the many valuable features of marketing automation that are often overlooked.

Lead Tracking and Profiling

Website visitor tracking is one of the most valuable features of marketing automation because it provides a greater insight into each potential lead. The overlooked feature associated with website visitor tracking is lead profiling. Website visitor tracking develops a comprehensive profile of each leads’ behavioral characteristics. It also allows for demographic characteristics to be captured and retain using online registrations. Sales is inherently based on relationship building and lead profiling gives you a synopsis of how the lead thinks, what they are researching, where they are in their buying process, and ultimately, how interested they are in making a purchase. It is easier to connect and build a relationship with a lead once you are able to understand how they think and what they need.

Lead Segmenting and Nurturing

The information gathered in profiling creates two other overlooked feature of marketing automation; lead segmentation and lead nurturing. Marketing automation strategists will use this information to divide leads into groups based on similar characteristics. Once leads are grouped into segments, customized content can be created to address the needs of each lead segment. The ability to customize and personalize content based on the lead’s profile will strengthen the relationship by creating an even stronger connection. Consumers feel that someone real is listening and responding to their concerns when they receive relevant and informative content.

Lead Qualification and Quick Conversion

Another overlooked feature of marketing automation that also comes from lead profiling is lead qualification. Once a profile is established it can be instantly ranked and compared against profiles of existing clients to determine the likelihood of conversion. Although a higher conversion rate is the most known feature of marketing automation, the speed at which it can be accomplished is the last overlooked feature. Your sales staff will be notified the moment a lead is qualified and they can respond while the potential customers is actively researching your website. This will allow your sales team to catch customers before they move onto a competitor. Marketing automation has numerous features and benefits, but they all work towards the same goal; lead conversion. It provides the tools for understanding and nurturing your leads, and then notifies your sales team the moment that the lead is ready to make a purchase.

Lead Liaison

When Should Sales Contact Marketing Automation Leads?

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When Should Sales Contact Marketing Automation Leads?Automated marketing is making it easier to attract and nurture leads prior to a sales engagement. But when should a sales agent contact a lead from a marketing automation platform? Today’s B2B companies are adapting their marketing to the customer-is-in-control environment, and marketing automation platforms enable sales teams to monitor inbound behavior and nurture leads through the marketing funnel. So at what times should sales be in touch with marketing automation leads? We’ve got three that work.

Following Initial Inquiry

This may seem counterintuitive to the automated marketing paradigm, but early introduction of a dedicated sales agent can be effective as a method to deepen the relationship with a lead. A simple “Hello. How are you? Can I help answer a question?” with an agent’s contact details provides a lead with a human connection to your company.

Some MA vendors recommend repeated outbound calls following the initial inquiry. We don’t advise an aggressive policy but companies that ignore opportunities to introduce sales early in the engagement process may be missing out on potential conversions. Sending a simple introductory message via email when possible can provide assistance to your leads, an opportunity to accelerate the relationship, and a way to qualify leads early in the process.

(Chat plug-ins are effective but all too often we see chat pop-ups appearing within seconds of a page display. Timing is essential when setting chat enablement. Page visitors should be allowed to digest content before a chat is offered.)

Following a Specific Inquiry

Once you’ve discovered that a lead has engaged with your brand through a specific marketing asset, there is an opportunity to address needs, questions, etc. A robust marketing automation platform will allow you to deliver a message that is specific to a lead’s interest at the moment. This provides a great opportunity to provide value to the relationship.

For example, when a lead arrives on a landing page through an organic search for ‘marketing automation prices’ your MA platform should send an alert to the sales rep who “owns” the account. The rep will know that the lead is focused on pricing and can take the opportunity to engage by following up on the message that was delivered.

At a Lead Score Benchmark

Your MA platform should have a lead scoring feature that allows you to define scoring parameters. Determine a scoring threshold that will be used to deliver the lead record to your CRM and use that threshold as an opportunity to immediately send an automated message.

Once a lead has achieved a score, which is a combination of explicit (attributes) and implicit (behavioral) data, a message with a time-sensitive offer can be effective. At this point, the lead will be marketing-qualified and ready for sales engagement. Your sales rep can then follow up on the message to try to convert early in the sales pipeline.

Automated marketing is recognized as being a powerful B2B sales tool. To make it even more effective, deploy sales engagements at times that will be recognized as helpful but not intrusive. For more thoughts on using marketing automation effectively, visit our blog.