Tag Archive for: Marketing Automation

Lead Liaison

QuestSoft Selects Lead Liaison as its Marketing Automation Vendor

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Allen, TX (PRWEB) May 1, 2013 – Marketing automation innovator Lead Liaison is providing its robust Lead Management Automation™ software to another financial services company, this time to Laguna Hills, CA-based QuestSoft, a leading mortgage compliance software development company serving over 1,700 banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies.

QuestSoft develops software that integrates with Loan Origination System (LOS) platforms. The company was recently recognized as one of the top 50 service providers by Mortgage Technology magazine. QuestSoft products check adherence to over 12,000 pages of mortgage lending laws and regulations.

Some of the company’s success comes from a demand to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Management wanted the same attention provided to QuestSoft from a marketing automation vendor. Lead Liaison was chosen because of its attention to seemingly insignificant details and thorough customer service and technical support.

“Because we are so sensitive about providing great customer support, when we find a vendor that provides similar service, that is a perfect fit”

Several other factors led to the selection of Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation platform for QuestSoft’s marketing automation practices. Earlier platforms’ pricing models did not match the company’s usage. According to executives, continued use would have “cost us a small fortune.”

The platform interface is more user-friendly. Creating emails, managing lists, customizing fields, and analyzing results are all performed in a more efficient and effective manner at QuestSoft. The company had been using marketing automation for several years, implementing platforms by more recognized providers. Management saw an opportunity to cut costs yet boost sales productivity in comparison to the platform they were using at the time. “(Lead Liaison) has an attractive pricing model,” said Madsen.

Since integrating the Lead Management Automation platform into QuestSoft’s digital marketing practices, the company has seen several improvements. For example, over 60% of its inside sales staff has improved productivity through more targeted contacts and more timely connections.

“It took us about a day to realize we had a goldmine”

QuestSoft inside sales agents have improved their calls-to-appointment ratio 22% over the last quarter.

According to Madsen, it wasn’t simply a cost issue to migrate to the Lead Management Automation platform. “One of the things that impresses me about Lead Liaison can be summed up in one word: listen. Lead Liaison listens to their clients. Representatives say ‘tell me more’. I feel cared about.”

For more information about Lead Liaison’s marketing automation products or its support services contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237 or sales(at)leadliaison(dot)com.

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Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
Phone: +1-888-895-3237
abrown[at]leadliaison[dot]com

Lead Liaison

Real Estate and Marketing Automation – Two Like Minds

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Real Estate and Marketing Automation - Two Like MindsIt’s no surprise that many businesses new to marketing automation have a hard time thinking about their sales cycle. When you start throwing words around like “Sales funnel” or refer to “top of the funnel” activities, some people immediately tune out.

Even large business executives need to know what their sales cycles look like. Taking back power over your sales process will allow you to not only bring in more leads, but to increase the productivity of your own business and keep you in the know about who’s buying what. Plus, customers who go through a streamlined funnel before they become a conversion know what to expect when they sign on with you – which makes it easier to deliver your services. Let’s look at how real estate and marketing automation are two like minds.

The Real Estate Comparison

The best way to think about multi-channel marketing and marketing automation is to consider the real estate business. Realty professionals, like all other business owners, struggle with keeping their prospects in line, finding new ways to market and keeping their message consistent. They also might struggle with segmenting their lists – as in, separating past prospects from current ones and knowing when is best to reach out to these audiences.

Because the segmentation of their customer lists and the diversity of their marketing channels, real estate professionals are great candidates for demonstrating the power of marketing automation.

Filling out the Funnel

For starters, there are a number of entry points real estate pros may have to their sales funnel. A brief list:

  • Yard signs
  • Local papers with “for rent” or “for sale” real estate classifieds
  • Online MLS and other listings
  • Word of mouth
  • Craigslist

There are many others, but you get the point. All of these entry level inquiries have the possibility of leading to a sale and they all result in a customer the real estate pro can add to his or her list for future marketing. However, each of the above entry points has a conversion rate over time – or, an average amount of times customers who find the Realtor using these methods becomes a sale.

It may not seem important at first, but here’s why understanding the funnel is crucial to the real estate pro in our example. Let’s say this Realtor is spending $500 monthly having an office assistant create Craigslist posts and $700 monthly to list on custom realty websites.

After getting marketing automation in place, the Realtor is able to see what rate of people in each entry point method actually closes. It turns out that over 40% of his customers come from past customer referrals, 2% come from Craigslist and 10% come from online listings.

If this is the case, the Realtor needs to put more budget into courting previous customers – holding happy hours, open houses and free events where past homeowners get VIP treatment – as opposed to shelling out big bucks for online listings. Once a professional can see where budget is going, it makes sense to only allocate budget to areas that he or she knows is working.

If you don’t have an understanding of what your company’s funnel is or how it works, marketing automation can help you! Talk to one of our Revenue Success Managers at Lead Liaison today to clearly define your funnel and put better conversion streams into practice.

Lead Liaison

Common Mistakes Made in Marketing Automation That Could Drive Away Business!

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Common Mistakes Made in Marketing Automation That Could Drive Away Business!The online world of commerce is constantly evolving and traditional marketing methods are not able to keep up with the new global business structure. Marketing automation was developed so that marketing campaigns could mimic the speed and efficiency of the internet and online business commerce.

It can be an incredibly valuable tool for generating and converting leads, if it is done correctly. Unfortunately, common mistakes made in marketing automation can have the exact opposite effect. Marketing automation can either convince a lead to trust in a business or lose the lead’s trust completely.

Here are seven common mistakes made in marketing automation that can drive away business:

1.       Strong Sales Pitches and Aggressive Calls-to-Action

One of the most common mistakes made in marketing automation that could drive away business is overly aggressive calls-to-action. Today’s consumers know they have plenty of options and they will not be bullied into rushing a decision. Coming on too strong can permanently turn off a customer.

2.       Not Involving Sales Dept. in the Process

Marketing and sales should combine their knowledge and experience to create the best lead scoring criteria and lead nurturing content possible. The sales department has in depth information about what leads want and need. They can help make sure the criteria and content is suitable for a typical buyer.

3.       Monitoring Only a Lead’s Activity

Too many businesses only focus on a lead’s current activity and they tend to stop monitoring leads that are not active. A lead’s inactivity should be tracked as well. If someone was on your site daily for four days in a row and they haven’t been back for weeks, they may be too busy investigating alternative options. This is the perfect time to reach out to them with some pertinent guidance or purchasing incentive.

4.       Getting Too Personal

A very common mistake made in marketing automation that could drive away business is asking too many questions. Questionnaires or surveys are great for gathering more data on potential leads, but too much of it will become overwhelming and annoying. Limit each questionnaire or survey to only 5 to 10 questions and don’t attach an online registry to all the quality content on your site.

5.       Not Focusing on the Consumer’s Needs

Every aspect of marketing automation should have the consumer’s needs at the forefront of the decision making process. What does the lead really need to know? How can I help the lead make an informed decision? What can I do to offer the lead greater value? These are all great consumer-focused questions, but it all boils down to what does the consumer really need? For example, if you sell fitness equipment, don’t focus on the equipment itself. Instead, focus on the lead’s need to get healthier and/or lose weight.

6.       Not providing Valuable Content

Articles, ebooks, and tutorials are meant to help potential leads make their decision. It is not an opportunity to brag about your product or service. Free online content should offer the reader real value as a method for building a trusting and lasting relationship. Useless or poorly written content can quickly drive business away.

7.       Not striving to Improve on the Marketing Automation Strategy

Not every lead nurturing campaign is going to work. Marketing automation strategies are based on solid research, but until they are implemented, it is hard to be certain about the response you will receive. The same goes for the relevancy of lead scoring criteria. As a company analyzes their conversion rate against their lead scoring profiles, they will notice different components that are not properly rated.  A common mistake in marketing automation that will drive away business is not striving to improve on your current strategies.

Lead Liaison

Financial Services Companies Without Marketing Automation are Losing to Competitors

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Financial Services Marketing Automation In the financial services space a chasm is forming. Progressive financial services companies are adopting marketing automation to deliver routine digital messages to prospective clients – called lead nurturing – while traditional firms are cultivating prospects using only old-fashioned methods. This is leading to a drop-off in client acquisition for those traditional firms when compared to the progressive firms that have automated their marketing practices. The problem for the traditional firms is, despite how effective those old-style tactics may be, some are losing ground to the progressive, digitally-marketed firms.

After all, plenty of statistics show most Americans use the Internet as a primary research tool when searching for products and services. That holds true in the financial services industry as well.

How can a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation™ platform make the difference between inefficient marketing/sales practices and streamlined client acquisition?

Prioritizing the Best Leads

Our marketing automation platform provides a powerful way to focus your sales staff on leads that show the highest degree of interest in your services. Through a lead nurturing process that sends messages and information at scheduled intervals, the system can determine which prospects are advancing through your sales pipeline to become the hottest leads. Firms with no marketing automation platform must rely on poorly managed buying signals.

For smaller firms, scoring leads is a proven way to prioritize your prospects so the limited sales resources available can be focused on leads most likely to commit to you soon. Without lead scoring it can be difficult to determine which leads are the hottest.

Big Impression

Another benefit of marketing automation for smaller firms is that a well-managed marketing campaign presents a larger image to your prospects. By allowing your marketing staff to automate activities, your prospects “see” a company that appears to have a fully-staffed marketing department, which may be received more favorably than a small firm image.

Efficiency

Marketing automation delivers messages to more prospects more efficiently so your marketing staff can spend more time developing your brand. Once a prospect becomes a lead, the system can manage the lead development process by automatically delivering progressively engaging material until the lead passes a scoring threshold that moves him to the point where your firm’s salespeople should initiate contact. While this lead moves through the sales pipeline other leads are also being advanced to a sales-ready stage.

Build Credibility

By using a marketing automation platform financial services firms can develop a disciplined approach to client acquisition that builds credibility through a defined series of engagements. Firms can execute email campaigns, digital advertising strategies, online surveys, and other marketing practices in a way that cultivates prospects. Leads become familiar with your firm and trust is built through a process of consistent messaging that shows interest in their well-being.

More Opportunities

One of the most profitable revenue generation advantages financial firms have is in their ability to up-sell and cross-sell current clients. Without a marketing automation platform firms must devote personnel to contacting clients one-to-one to uncover additional sales opportunities. By using a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation platform your firm gains visibility into existing clients’ interests or needs through their digital footprints and your sales personnel can be alerted when up-sell or cross-sell opportunities present themselves.

There are several more common marketing automation benefits for financial services firms. To learn about additional common benefits, and to determine how our Lead Management Automation platform will specifically benefit your financial services firm, contact our sales department at sales@leadliaison.com or 888 895 3237.

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation for Financial Services

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Marketing Automation for Financial ServicesAs our marketing automation solutions are being adopted by companies in more industries, we thought it would be helpful to explain how marketing automation for financial services companies such as accounting firms or financial advisors will help them. Many firms lack fully staffed marketing departments; typically one or two individuals are responsible for the multitude of marketing activities required to compete in the financial services space. The Lead Management Automation (LMA) platform allows financial services firms to execute robust marketing campaigns and manage leads that enter the sales pipeline more efficiently.

Marketing practices involve creating digital assets like email messages and display ads, delivering marketing assets to target markets, capturing lead information from inquiries, and preparing leads for initial contact. Fostering relationships can be accelerated when staff has the ability to examine lead information, determine the most likely customers, and manage leads through a sales pipeline. Because financial services often have limited marketing resources to perform these tasks, this technology becomes more attractive.

Some of the benefits of our Lead Management Automation platform for financial services companies include:

  • Delivering digital marketing content through automated schedules
  • Identifying lead sources from financial services networks and third-party referrers and Web publishers
  • Gaining visibility into clients specific pain points and interest drivers
  • Alerting staff to up-sell and cross-sell opportunities
  • Automatically qualifying leads for sales-readiness through parameters set within the platform (grading, scoring, buy signals, etc.)
  • Cultivating (nurturing) leads through progressively engaging messages that educate and engage the market
  • Dynamic prospect list segmentation which automatically organizes and prioritizes leads
  • Devoting limited resources to the hottest leads based upon their online behaviors and demographic attributes

Although many financial services companies use traditional marketing and personal relationship tactics such as client and business partner referrals, hosting seminars, and other non-digital means, today’s financial services company is likely using the Internet to research potential firms. Financial services companies looking to stay competitive should find out how easy our Lead Management Automation platform is to implement and how the rich features can boost your revenue rate and target the best leads.

While it is true that the financial services industry is more heavily regulated than other industries, automated marketing practices can nonetheless be implemented. To find out how our Lead Management Automation platform can streamline time-consuming marketing activities and help prioritize and manage leads, contact our sales department at sales@leadliaison.com or call 888 895 3237.

Lead Liaison

Does Your Marketing Automation Company Help Drive Revenue Generation?

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Does Your Marketing Automation Company Help Drive Revenue GenerationAs marketing automation becomes more embedded in mainstream marketing practices, some marketing automation companies are more focused on raising capital than focusing on customer needs. At Lead Liaison, we continue to maintain a customer-centric focus. To further support companies that are trying to improve their revenue generation practices we offer a free Revenue Consultation. Ask yourself, does a marketing automation company drive revenue? They can, especially when both companies partner up.

During the consultation we explore current lead management, content marketing, and customer relationship practices. The goal is to determine gaps in the lead management process, suggest an appropriate lead scoring model, and offer recommendations on how to implement marketing automation to streamline repetitive marketing activities, and align sales and marketing functions.

At a time when several leading MA companies are outsourcing consultation and other ancillary services for their customers, we’re keeping support services in-house. Lead Liaison feels it is important to devote resources to supporting the needs of our clients for two reasons:

  1. We want to provide a better connection with our clients so we can ensure that we fully understand the unique needs that each company (and industry) has when it comes to lead generation and management practices.
  2. By directly supporting our clients, the Lead Liaison development team can better configure each platform to suit those unique needs.
  3. Management can design future platform iterations to more fully serve the needs of our entire client base by analyzing the information collected during consultation engagements.

Although some marketing functions that can be automated are standard, there are others that operate more effectively when we understand how our Lead Management Automation™ product will be used by our clients. So we ask targeted questions about sales prospecting, content delivery, lead capture, and CRM integration needs.

We believe offering our Revenue Consultation as a part of our standard operating procedure sets Lead Liaison apart from our competitors. Our approach provides a more effective client relationship and helps you get the most out of your digital marketing and lead management practices. If you’re looking for a company that truly wants to know you and support your marketing endeavors, call one of our knowledgeable sales representatives to set up your free Revenue Consultation today!

Lead Liaison

Understanding and Automating Your Marketing Funnel

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Understanding and Automating Your Marketing FunnelWhen you’re getting ready to work out your marketing automation plan, understanding and automating your marketing funnel is one of the most important things you can do. Many companies see ads for larger marketing automation companies and get excited, expecting a miracle solution to come in that will completely revitalize their business.

Is a marketing automation company capable of some miracle work? Absolutely. You’ll be able to track signs that customers are ready to buy and spend time on leads that truly hold the promise of closing. But at the end of the day, if you aren’t ready to nail down what your sales process actually is, marketing automation isn’t going to work as well as you’d like it to – no matter which company you go with or what methodology you put into place.

Identifying Your Sales Funnel and Sales Cycle

A sales funnel isn’t a finite thing – every business has its own process and sales cycle – but any business that identifies prospects and sells goods or services has a sales cycle, and therefore a sales funnel. Just like your common hardware-store funnel, the top of the sales funnel is wide – meaning, leads get to you in a variety of ways.

As you engage leads through your funnel, the way you focus them on your products and services tends to become sharper. You want leads to understand your true value, to think about you when an opportunity for purchase comes along, and to refer you to friends and family for future sales of your products and services. For that reason, your sales funnel doesn’t actually have an end if you have the types of products that can be re-purchased.

The length of your sales cycle determines how you set up your marketing automation. If you’re selling a larger ticket item, it’s possible that clients could spend weeks or months in your sales funnel as opposed to just a few days. It’s common sense – a new home is a lifetime purchase, but a product you see on an infomercial is something you might buy in just a few seconds. A Realtor doesn’t necessarily advertise on television – they put themselves out there via word of mouth, billboards, magazine and internet ads and signs put up in front of houses because a house is an infrequent purchase. A Realtor relies on the fact that most families will purchase only once or twice in their lifetimes, so it’s important to get their name out there rather than to encourage a quick sale.

Automating the Funnel

Take the time to determine what the different steps are in your funnel. See one of our top articles on Sales Pipeline Stages to learn more about typical stages in the funnel. How do people get to your brand and therefore into your funnel? Once they’re in there, how do you manage leads and identify which ones have true potential to close? For customers who aren’t read to buy, how can you further engage to get them to buy, and how can you track the results of your engagement? Do you reach out to customers once they’ve been sold to, or do they leave your radar – and therefore your funnel?

Marketing automation software like Lead Liaison helps you not only automate the above process, but you can also track metrics to get an idea of your overall marketing effectiveness. Marketing automation can definitely change the way your company closes leads and engages leads in your funnel.

Some marketing automation companies leave you to figure out your sales cycle and sales funnel yourself. At Lead Liaison, we’re happy to look over your processes to find out how best to automate your sales and marketing funnel. For more information, contact us today!

Lead Liaison

What to Expect From Your Marketing Automation Platform

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Marketing Automation PlatformToday’s marketers are relying more and more on automated marketing systems to execute and monitor marketing practices. With a number of marketing automation platforms (MAPs) available in the marketplace, how do you know which system will provide you with all the tools you need? Following years of platform development, we have found there are several components that you should seek when searching for the right system for your B2B company. Here are some functionality areas that should be addressed in your decision.

System integration

Outbound and inbound marketing tools should be fully integrated into the MAP and delivered through a single user interface. An integrated system allows users to launch email campaigns and other communication channels from one platform. Your MAP should automate most common functions and provide scheduling for multiple simultaneous campaigns. And a good system will seamlessly integrate with popular CRM platforms.

Content management

The MAP system you select should provide the capability to easily create, re-purpose  or reuse web forms, landing pages, and other assets. Does it have an organized library for documents, templates, forms, etc.? Your content should be easily managed and the platform should allow permission-based access by employees and partners.

Program management

Drip campaigns, display ad routing, and trigger marketing tactics should all be achievable through a robust system. Lead nurturing practices will require message creation, a delivery schedule, exit conditions, and in-campaign updating. Your marketing automation platform should provide all these functions across multiple campaigns.

Database capabilities

Your lists are your lifeblood. A good MAP system allows for easy list creation, import and export functions, and list prioritization. Of high importance is the capability to integrate your marketing databases with a CRM system, allowing for dynamic exchange between each platform. List segmentation is also an important function because such features provide sharper targeting.

Lead generation and management

Your marketing automation platform’s primary goal is to streamline and enhance lead generation, management, and distribution. Therefore, you should expect your system to be able to manage inbound leads and send autoresponders based on website visits and other online activities. And CRM-integration should provide seamless transition between the platforms for leads that must be returned to marketing for nurturing.

Lead scoring

The system should score leads based on explicit (location, industry, etc.) and implicit (behavioral traits) data. The scoring matrix should be adjustable to allow for new parameters and modified weighting. Once a lead has received a score, the platform should automatically place new leads in the appropriate pipeline stage and responsively transition leads through the pipeline as additional engagements take place.

Reporting and analytics

An automated marketing platform should provide reporting capabilities. Robust platforms will deliver granular reports and the individual and group levels. The analytics functions should return data from disconnected marketing tools such as social media and user forms. Check for real-time tracking of online behaviors.

Channel integration

Whether your marketing practices include webinars, social media, email, or display ads, your MAP should allow posting, auto response, CAN-SPAM compliance, and personalized capabilities. Better MAPs also provide visitor alerts, behavior tracking, and prospect tagging.

There are many more functions that you should expect from your marketing automation platform. The bottom line is that the MAP system you select should provide you with a broad set of message creation, lead management, reporting, and channel integration tools. If you would like to learn how our Lead Management Automation™ supports your automated marketing practices contact one of our account representatives at 888 895 3237 or sales@leadliaison.com.

Lead Liaison

How Lead Nurturing Content Fuels the Marketing Automation Engine

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How Lead Nurturing Content Fuels the Marketing Automation EngineAn effective marketing automation program will be able to draw in an endless supply of quality leads. Almost every lead has the potential for conversion, but it takes strategic and informative lead nurturing content to earn their trust and eventually their business.

Most people visit a specific website in search of information. They want to learn more about a product or service to determine whether or not it is something they are truly interested in buying. Static webpages are a start, but they don’t have the same impact as lead nurturing content. Leads have a harder time trusting the material displayed on the website, since it is obviously designed to be boastful promotional ad copy geared at landing new business.

Subtle Sales Tool

Lead nurturing content is more subtle. From the reader’s perspective, it should sound like an educational guide designed to help the lead make an informed decision. It should brand a company as being an expert and offer the potential customers reliable answers to their most commonly asked questions. It should never sound like a sales pitch.

Customized Lead Nurturing Content

It also should be customized to cater to each lead based on their online profile. The marketing automation process starts with generating leads and then defines each lead’s individual potential using a ranking method referred to as lead scoring. The lead scoring process gathers their demographic and behavioral characteristics and creates a profile.

The next aspect of marketing automation is breaking these leads into more manageable segments (groups), so content can be developed for lead’s that share similar needs. Although each lead has a different profile, many will be searching for the same information.

Take for example a business that specializes in acupuncture. Some leads may be looking to treat back pain, others may be interested in trying acupuncture to quit smoking, and some many want to use it to lose weight. Depending on the website pages these leads choose to read (click on), marketers can determine what need they are looking to satisfy with acupuncture.

Answer the Lead’s Needs

Once these leads are grouped based on information that they are currently reviewing, content can be generated that answers their needs. Using the above example, if someone has spent considerable time on webpages that address how acupuncture can help you quit smoking, the marketing automation program can be setup to send them an article on the benefits of quitting smoking.

The article itself does not need to promote how acupuncture can help you quit smoking. A lead will trust the information more if it is solely focused on educating the lead on why they should quit. This shows concern for the lead’s health and ultimately builds trust.

Use Registrations to Gain Information  

A company can also attach featured content to visitor registries to gain further insight into a lead’s demographic characteristics. If a person is truly interested in reading more about why they should quit smoking, they will be willing to fill in their basic information to secure access to the article or tutorial. This information is they added to their profile and used for lead scoring.

Lead nurturing content fuels the marketing automation engine by developing trust as it guides leads through the buying process. It is an opportunity for a business to speak directly to the potential buyer and convince them a product or service is necessary for their well-being. It can be powerful fuel for the marketing automation engine when it is used as a customized, subtle sales tool.

Lead Liaison

Why Your Sales Pipeline Needs Marketing Automation

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Why Your Sales Pipeline Needs Marketing AutomationHave you thought about why your sales pipeline needs marketing automation? We came across an old post the other day that got us talking about marketing automation and the sales lead pipeline. One of Lead Liaison Revenue Performance Specialists commented that B2B lead management has been completely changed because of marketing automation. How, you ask?

1. Redefines Early Pipeline Stages

In the past, a B2B sales pipeline has typically included four primary stages: Inquiry, Lead, Opportunity, and Customer. Thanks to marketing automation sales managers can have a more well-defined view of activity leading up to a sales close. There are four newly recognized phases in today’s sales lead pipeline:  Prospecting, Awareness, Qualification, and Nurturing. These new stages have become recognized as important contributors to the sales cycle.

2. Provides Lead Scoring

B2B marketing automation provides measurements that score leads as they become more familiar with your solutions and company. The commonly quoted industry standard of 80% of first contact B2B leads are not ready to buy means that leads require deeper connections through consistent, progressively-staged messaging. During the lead nurturing process leads can be digitally scored  for sales-readiness within an MA system, which allows salespeople to focus on the hottest leads.

3. Gives Sales Agents Better Information

Sales agents have a greater understanding of sales prospects before they make contact because of the data collected through marketing automation. For example, activities such as webinar attendance and infographic views can be captured in a MA system and reveal how informed a lead is about your products. A savvy sales agent can incorporate that information into her sales approach with that lead. Often B2B prospects must be educated about business solutions. Moving leads through a sales pipeline using a marketing automation system also provides a focused product education process. Automated messaging helps lessen the educational responsibility for your salespeople.

4. Gets Marketers More Involved in the Game

In the past, marketers have had little accountability when it came to moving a prospect to a customer. With marketing automation, marketers now have more “skin in the game” when it comes to moving leads through the sales pipeline. The newly-added sales pipeline stages we mentioned earlier are, for the most part, marketing-related. Prospecting, creating awareness, and lead nurturing rely on digital messaging, social media and search engine strategies, and other marketing-related activities. And now management can see how effective digital marketing campaigns are at bringing in qualified leads through the use of an automated marketing system.

5. Provides Consistent Message Scheduling

Marketing automation uses staged release mechanisms to contact leads on a regular basis. Marketing campaigns used to rely on a lot of leg work to distribute messages; with MA that is no longer the case. From emails to blog posts to articles to press releases, digital marketing assets can be deployed at scheduled intervals using a streamlined process provided by a marketing automation system.

6. Allows Managers to Manage Better

With the incredible level of analytics an automated marketing system provides, marketing and sales directors can now analyze critical details about marketing activities. From page views to click-throughs, MA systems provide data and information that can be used to either improve good marketing campaigns or scrap ineffective ones. Some marketing automation systems require a sizeable investment and may not be appropriate for every company, but those that invest in a marketing automation system to manage their sales lead pipeline find their marketing and sales effectiveness improves. To learn more about how marketing automation can help your company contact a Lead Liaison representative.