Modern B2B Marketing

September 1, 2010

CEO Perspective: Marketing as a Revenue Driver

Posted by Jon Miller

Marketo’s CEO, Phil Fernandez, was one of the inaugural speakers for SLMA Radio, the Sales Lead Management Association’s (SLMA’s) weekly show bringing you the voice of industry leaders.  He talked about the changing roles of marketing and sales in today’s modern revenue cycle, and shared tips for how CMOs can change use marketing analytics to earn a seat at the revenue table. Here are some of the highlights, or you can listen to the entire show, “CEO Insights about Sales and Marketing“.

Sales and Marketing: a quick history

In the past, marketing was seen as the one organization that got a ‘pass’ when it came to measuring results, since they lacked the ability to talk in business terms (dollars and cents). However, in the post-Enron age, executives now expect every part of the business to talk with authority on investments, and how those investments are impacting business. The CMO and marketing executive that is unable to talk in precise terms about their investments, why they’re making them, and other marketing activities, is going to be an “extinct CMO.” The trouble is, talking about marketing analytics is hard. You don’t learn some of these metrics in business school, so being able to talk with authority can be quite difficult.

When it comes to Sales, we know that the lifeblood of this organization includes the forecast and getting numbers on the board. This can sometimes be the source of deep-seated frustration and misalignment between sales and marketing. In the past, sales has been a hyper-measurable function and marketing has traditionally not been.

Here at Marketo, we believe all of this is changing. Our mission is to transform these commonly held ideas: Marketing can think, act and be held accountable on revenue terms and dollar amounts, ultimately unlocking higher productivity between both organizations. We believe the sales force can be retrained in their thinking, and start to see marketing not as something that happens on one side of the wall, but rather, as a important part of the sales process, helping the team to get fully nurtured and sales-ready leads.

“Sales people are the ultimate entrepreneurs”… Traditionally, sales people were the ones who went out, tracked prospects and dragged them across the finish line. However, this world is changing because buying is changing. For example, nobody nowadays would go to buy a television without researching online or finding reviews though various social media channels to serve as third party validation. The buyer expects to have power in the buying process. And he does. The sales person now needs to support the needs of the informed buyer and respond to the buyer when he is ready to buy. Although it’s harder for salespeople to sell because buyers have now put up barriers,  the buyer leaves behind digital fingerprints of what they’re doing. With the ability to inform salespeople of the interesting behavior using lead scoring, Sales is now seeing that Marketing is the team that can give them strategic insights into which prospects are hot. With these abilities, sales starts to treat marketing as a trusted ally in the sales process.

The Numbers Game

Question: A CFO of a B2B company comes to you with a problem. They have to either cut 10% of their lead generation budget or 10% out of the sales budget, what should you do? What would you tell them?

Look at the numbers. It’s an inherently unlevel playing field in most companies today because it’s a numbers discussion.  And the same discussion that takes place in Marketing over and over again is how the marketing executive is unable to quantify these numbers the same way as sales. There is no right answer at any given company, but if you’re able to understand your cost per lead, your cost per win, cost for the selling expense, etc., then you can make a dispassionate decision. Look at the numbers and make a right decision based on those numbers.

There are tremendous opportunities for companies to get this right. If you have that commitment to tracking and monitoring for marketing then you can do financial modeling.

Marketo does this through something called lead scoring.  Lead scoring is all about giving the sales team the information they need to decide who they should spend their precious time with. It’s about taking a look at the footprints the buyers leave behind. It could be a web visit, clicking on an email, tweeting, etc. All behaviors can be given a value. And while that may take some judgment from sales and marketing, it helps them to decide what matters most and gives them the rich analytics to see which behaviors signal buying. Through lead scoring you can start to attribute propensity to buy based on lead score, and the people who are most likely to buy are filtered to the top. Essentially, lead scoring is a systematic process to understand who’s most likely to buy and a way to deliver this information in a consumable way to the sales people.

Growth Scenario

Question: Let’s say a company president of a B2B medical device company sees that sales are off by 20%. What is the best way to boost sales in 90 to 120 days?

It turns out that investments in marketing can often scale revenue better than investments in sales. For example:

• Try to understand what lead investments are actually paying dividends and start to do more of what works and less that doesn’t.
• Start to measure what works with a lead management system. In 30 days, that company can have insight into what efforts work best.
• Move dollars to what works. Marketo gives the decision maker this data to make higher-quality decisions on where to spend their marketing dollars.
• Focus on how to put numbers in context and make a methodology. Marketo focuses on helping people make sense of the numbers and makes it easy to guide the art of selling and art of marketing in the right direction.

You can listen to the entire recording of the Sales 2.0 radio program, and stay up to date with sales and marketing best practices by  subscribing to the Modern B2B sales Blog RSS feed or following Marketo on Twitter.

August 31, 2010

Lessons from the CSO Insights 2010 Lead Generation Optimization Study

Posted by Jon Miller

The CSO Insights 2010 Lead Generation Optimization Study identifies some of the best practices that companies are focusing on to optimize their lead generation performance. Here are five of the key success factors they found.

1. Measure Campaign ROI

For the first time in the history of the LGO study, over half the firms stated that they have processes in place to track campaign ROI. And a key part of delivering sales and marketing ROI is the ability to track the dispositions of all sales leads via a CRM system. With over 75% of all sales organizations leveraging these applications, marketing now has visibility into the entire revenue cycle, allowing them to measure success based on metrics and not in terms of ‘impressions’ or ‘awareness’. These new marketing metrics help further sales and marketing alignment.

2. Mine the Gold in Marketing Automation and CRM Systems

Effective lead generation teams that analyze the data accumulated in Marketing Automation and CRM systems not only have the insight to understand which prospects are most likely to buy, but they also have the ability to track the disposition of the leads they’ve been generating. This, in turn, provides clarity into the types of programs that are most effective and those that are not. For example, one medical firm, when looking at their key influencers, discovered unexpected win rates. The purchasing department’s win rate was less than 25% but the nursing team’s win rate was over 67%. They soon found that while the purchasing department thought the test was too expensive, the nursing team saw that the results were worth the cost. This insight enabled the firm’s sales team to focus their efforts and target more effectively.

3. Customized Messaging Increases Conversion 20%

Not all buyers are created equal. With this insight, marketers can develop more targeted messages, increasing the effectiveness of their lead generation efforts. One example includes a financial services firm. When looking at its past success, they discovered that prospects with certain characteristics responded more positively to messaging that involved a ‘problem’ and ’solution’ more than others. By using a web-based marketing approach, different segments of users received emails that offered solutions they were most likely to care about, and were then directed to educational landing pages about the topic of interest. This focus helped lead conversion rates increase by nearly 20%.

4. Optimize Data Quality and Quantity

Customer and prospect data continues to deteriorate. Only 8% of firms reported currency and correctness of prospect data was over 90%, an all-time low. Data quality directly impacts marketing’s ability to effectively execute lead generation campaigns. And the success of customized messaging depends on the lead generation team’s access to the appropriate data and the ability to segment prospects.  These tools supply offerings about prospects that go beyond the basics of name, address and phone number. While there is a cost associated with data management services, the cost of investment vastly outweighs the cost of doing nothing.

5. Implement Technology for Marketing and Sales

Execution of lead generation campaigns is enhanced when companies invest in Lead Generation Management solutions. Solutions like these not only help get the right message out to the right prospects, but effectively score the leads that are generated. It directly impacts the level of effort sales reps dedicate to lead follow-up and helps keep companies top-of-mind. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of firms using lead management. A year ago, less than one-third of firms were using a LGM system. Today, that number is almost 50%, with 85% using a commercial offering. (Most common including Marketo, Salesforce.com and Genius.com) When asked if they would recommend their LGM vendor to their peers, the number of firms who responded with “Absolutely” or “Very Likely” has increased to 66%.

Sales and Marketing 2.0

This portion of the study concludes with advice from Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power:

“He who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers in a well is not so apt to get the dollar as he who climbs a tree and hollers.”

Want to learn about how to achieve these five critical success factors?  Marketo is excited to sponsor the upcoming Sales and Marketing 2.0: Collaboration that Delivers Results Conference by Selling Power.

Not only is Selling Power known for high-quality events at great locations (Four Seasons, nice!), but Gerhard from Selling Power is a master mediator who knows how to get the inside scoop from those presenting.  In the coming weeks we will post some interviews from speakers who are going to be presenting at the event to get everyone excited for a great few days of learning.   Hope to see you there!

August 30, 2010

Seeking a World-Class CMO for Marketo

Posted by Jon Miller

Note: This post is more personal and Marketo-centric than the typical best practices and thought leadership I share in the Modern B2B Marketing blog.

It’s been a bit over three and a half years since Marketo started formal operations, and two and a half since we launched Marketo Lead Management. In that short time, we’ve transformed the marketing automation industry with our vision of powerful, revenue-focused software that’s also fast to implement and easy to use, and helped more than 650 companies accelerate their revenue growth. This has made us not only the fastest growing marketing automation vendor, but also one of the fastest growing SaaS companies of all time.

As co-founder and VP Marketing, I am extraordinarily proud of my role helping to drive that growth:

• Our revenue engine is one of the best I’ve ever seen, delivering $1.50 in first year bookings for every dollar we spend on sales and marketing (most SaaS companies settle for $0.75 or less). Our demand generation programs are a key factor driving that efficiency, directly responsible for 90% of our entire pipeline.
• We’ve been pioneers in the use of B2B social media and content marketing to generate awareness, organic traffic, and lead generation. As a result, almost half of Marketo’s customers can be directly attributed to our efforts with this blog, search engine optimization, and content.
• Our thought leadership has enabled us to create the industry’s most innovative products and positioned Marketo as the company to follow in our category.

Expanded Leadership to Accelerate Revenue Growth

All this growth comes with new responsibilities — and challenges. As Marketo has expanded past 100 employees, I find my time being stretched in multiple directions, making it hard to focus as much as I’d like on demand creation, innovation, and thought leadership.

Because of this, we have decided to expand the marketing leadership here at Marketo by hiring a Chief Marketing Officer. By hiring a world-class marketing mind, leader and brand builder, we will be able to refine our message, enhance our brand, expand the management bandwidth and talent on the team, and double down on our already successful marketing. Personally, I look forward to learning new skills and best practices from the new CMO, which in turn will make me a better manager and marketing leader.

The New Demand Center

Once we find the right CMO for this exciting but challenging job, I’ll be able to focus my efforts on leading Marketo’s “Demand Center” and on incorporating the best practices we develop into our products and our thought leadership.

The Demand Center is a new organizational design, originally promoted by SiriusDecisions. The increasing investment in demand generation – driven by the recognition that marketing can often scale revenue more efficiently than additional sales reps – is moving demand generation out of its semi-traditional home inside corporate marketing. At the same time, the expanding power of marketing technology and analytics, the rising importance of inbound marketing and content to drive leads, and the blurring of functional boundaries as marketing and sales work together as part of a single revenue cycle are all driving the need for the Demand Center.

Some of the key components of the modern Demand Center include:

• Content. Creating content to fuel inbound and outbound lead generation
• Lead Management. Optimizing lead nurturing and lead scoring to deliver high-quality sales leads
• Telemarketing. Coordinating lead qualification and sales development
• Infrastructure. Managing marketing infrastructure, including data and marketing automation
• Analytics. Using marketing analytics to measure and prove marketing’s impact on revenue

At large, global companies, the Demand Center also services as a “center of excellence” to coordinate leveraged programs and develop skills across the enterprise.

One of the most exciting parts of this role for me personally is the opportunity to use Marketo’s Demand Center as a laboratory to discover new marketing methods and test new ideas – and then to share our best practices with other B2B marketing and sales executives, and help incorporate them into Marketo’s products. I’ve found it increasingly hard to do this as Marketo has grown so explosively, and I truly look forward to spending more time on these functions.

Conclusion

Change can be scary sometimes, but it’s also exciting when it can help take the company (and my own skills) to the next level. Now, we just need to find and attract the right person – so if you’re interested or know someone who might be, please contact Peter Steinle, Managing Director at Kindred Partners: ps [at] kindredpartners.com.

August 27, 2010

6 Rules for Content Marketing

Posted by Maria Pergolino

Marketers are working hard to create great content that can be used to create sales leads, drive website traffic, promote brand, and educate customers and prospects.  Unfortunately, not all content is created equal.  To ensure you get the most out of your content marketing efforts, you must follow these six rules:

1. It is not promotional – promotional materials will neither excite nor inspire, both critical com­ponents of content marketing.
2. It is relevant – generic materials that are not highly relevant to a reader will not result in increased success. When writing content you must make sure it will be useful to the reader, regardless of whether it supports your company message.
3. It closes a gap – content marketing should answer a business question or problem. Giving people information about topics where there is no need for information will be a wasted effort by the organization.  An added benefit of this useful information is its ability to be used in lead nurturing. 
4. It is well written – poorly written thought leader­ship may not only provide poor results, but may also hurt the company’s reputation. Take time to ensure content is presented in a thoughtful man­ner and is free of errors.
5. It is relevant to your company – if the content you create does not support business objectives in any way, it is a waste of resources to produce. Keep business goals in mind when creating content.
6. It gives proof  – since you write to support a business goal, your content may seem biased. Make sure that content you create gives proof either through quotes and testimonials or through actual metrics and statistics.

Keep this as a check list when you are creating new content, and review again for it goes live.  And this checklist isn’t just for white papers, content includes everything from webinars to articles to videos. 

For more on creating content that will support your business goals, check out the white paper Creating Content that Sells.

August 23, 2010

Creativity: The Missing, Yet Critical Element For B2B Marketers

Posted by Maria Pergolino

What’s the missing, yet critical element for successful B2B marketers? – Creativity.

It is a common fact that many B2B marketers stay the path of the traditional and in the box techniques. To create a competitive edge to your business marketing, add some creative thinking and opportunities to attract and engage prospects and customers.

Typical B2B marketing can be dry –Marketing business technologies or services typically don’t have much room for emotional interaction or social engagement. It’s not anyone’s fault, this is just how it’s always been.

Today, most B2B marketers still don’t embrace social engagement or online B2B marketing tools – they still stick with what they have always known and used. These marketers tend to stay in the box and not look outside of how they market their products and services.

Those willing to look outside of the box begin to understand how innovative thinking helps create new and expand existing opportunities with their customers.

Stand out with creativity – For B2B marketers that want to increase opportunities that will lead to sales, looking outside of the box is not enough – they need to stand outside of the box. Combining traditional B2B marketing and using new and creative options, business marketing becomes more than just dry marketing of the same old technologies and services.

Let’s look at a few areas it pays to be creative:

• Business Blogs – To traditional marketers, a business blog is not worth the time and effort. To others, this is a perfect way to not only attract new prospects, but also engage and convert them into paying customers. With a blog, you provide information that educates prospects. When they have the information they need, they are ready to engage and ask for more information about what you offer – this will lead to better sales leads.
• Social Engagement – It’s not enough to just wait for prospects to find you, you have to go to them. Look at social networks where your products and services would benefit those community members; engage prospects and give them places to look for more resources such as your blog or website.
• Content Creation and Sharing – Creating content doesn’t just mean writing; it could be text, audio, video or other types of content. When you create your content, you can put it on and off of your own sites. Examples could be posting a video to your blog, adding a podcast to a podcast directory or sharing content on your social networking channels.

Sharing content is a great way not only for you, but also your customers to spread the word about your product and services. When you post something on your blog, include ways for others to share it on their social networks. Encourage others to share the content you post to your Facebook page or on your YouTube channel.

Use creativity to improve metrics – Now that you understand some ways to add creativity to your B2B marketing, what does it do for your metrics and overall revenue? By engaging with prospects and current customers on multiple networks, you get the word out; increase search engine rankings to you through back links and also get others to spread your information on their networks for you.

Now look at your digital marketing metrics; what do you see? All of the creative ways you have marketed out are bringing back in targeted traffic, conversions and are helping you build lasting relationships with your customers.

To get more prospects, more conversions and more sales, look at adding some creativity to your B2B marketing.

For more ways to add some creativity to your B2B marketing, subscribe to the Modern B2B marketing Blog or follow Marketo on Twitter.

August 13, 2010

Unica Turns Blue: IBM’s Acquisition Further Proof of Marketing Automation & Analytics Growth

Posted by Phil Fernandez

Upon seeing the online media frenzy about the announcement of IBM’s intention to buy Unica, it was hard for me not to create a blog post of my own about the pending acquisition. If you have not yet heard, IBM has announced that they plan to purchase Unica, for $21 per share, or approximately $480 million, in Q410. Of particular note, this purchase price is a 120% premium to Unica’s recent market cap, which is a very high number and indicative of the value that marketing automation companies are able to create.

This announcement is exciting although not surprising to me.  Marketing automation and enterprise marketing software have long been undervalued in the marketplace.  Four years ago, when we were first raising money to found Marketo, many prospective investors expressed the opinion that marketing automation was a “failed category”, or was unnecessary, or was just something that the big CRM vendors would get around to some day.  We persevered, and found believers in our idea.  Now, 600 customers later, Marketo is a proof point that marketing automation is most definitely alive and well as a category. Although Unica is not a direct competitor to us at Marketo, we think this acquisition move by IBM is another key vote of confidence that this category is on the rise.

While Unica is often considered a B2C marketing automation company, it is important to note its recent focus on marketing analytics to augment their historical strengths in campaign execution.  This is surely one of the reasons IBM is interested in this acquisition.  Outside of web analytics, marketing analytics is a huge untapped area of the software market.  Marketo knows that marketing automation is just a piece of the puzzle. It takes powerful analytics and exceptional methodology to create a sustainably successful business. This is why Marketo has released its new Revenue Cycle Analytics family of products – a way to keep marketers leading their companies’ revenue growth through meaningful measurement, forecasting and accountability.

I am excited for Unica and wish them the best through this next stage of their journey.

August 12, 2010

The Salesforce.com AppExchange – A Time Saving Resource for Marketers

Posted by Maria Pergolino

Marketers frequently need to review and choose new tools to help improve or streamline their marketing programs.  This can be time consuming and may lead to many dead ends.  Because of this, some marketers make the wrong choice because they just pick software based on a salesperson’s promise or friend’s suggestion.  Other marketers take time to do product trials which saves them from selecting the wrong solution, but again, this process may be time consuming. 

I had accepted this as part of the job of being a marketer, until I started using the Salesforce.com AppExchange.  The Salesforce.com AppExchange is a collection of cloud computing applications, all of which are pre-integrated with Salesforce.com.  On this site you can easily find, test drive and install hundreds of pre-integrated applications from Salesforce.com partners and customer community.   While some of the software in the AppExchange is relevant to support, human resources, and administrators, others have been created specifically for marketers- everything from lead nurturing and lead scoring to dashboards to email tools. 

Of the over 800 applications on the site there are currently 180 applications listed under the Marketing category.  These software programs include tools for marketing automation, product management, survey creation, event management, and more.  Plus, over 70 of them are free. 

Benefits for marketers of finding programs in the AppExchange include:

• Pre-integrated with and tested by Salesforce.com
• Easy to find the solution you need
• Reviews by other marketers
• Easy to compare different solutions
• Demos and screenshots of solutions
• Free test drives
• Easy to install

So how do you get started using a program from the AppExchange? 

• Go to www.AppExchange.com
• Either search by keyword (lead management, survey, etc) or click on Browse by Categories and select Marketing to view all the applications relevant to you. 
• Watch short demos, take test drives, and see reviews of the relevant applications and select the one that is right for you

Email your administrator with the link of the solution so they can download it into Salesforce.com.

I suggest starting with a free application developed by the Force.com Labs.  One that is useful to many marketers is the Marketing Metrics Dashboard.

Next time you are considering new software, forget searching hundreds of websites to find your new vendor and instead save time by turn to the AppExchange where you can find a tested and rated solution perfect for your organization.

August 9, 2010

5 Must Watch B2B Videos

Posted by Maria Pergolino

What resources do you use to learn more about improving your B2B marketing, increase leads and boost sales revenue? Likely whitepapers, blogs and presentations.

But don’t forget the importance of videos.  Smart videos matter to B2B marketers and provide vital information to raise the bar for your programs in an exciting and dynamic format.

Here are 5 videos which apply to B2B marketers you shouldn’t miss:

1.  The State of the Internet

What’s the state of the Internet? Why do you care? At the time this B2B video was created, it points out information like the number of Internet users in the world and other statistics for marketers. As a B2B marketer, knowing where and what’s happening throughout the online world gives you insight into marketing for your prospective customers.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

2.  Vital Statistics for B2B Marketers

Do you think B2B social media is not worth it? You will change your tune after you look at this video. This video specifically gives detailed information on how things like Twitter and how word of mouth is important for generating leads in B2B business.

3.  Social Media Revolution

Ready for the social media revolution? If you aren’t using things like blogs and social networks to communicate with prospects, you need to check out the statistics in this video. After seeing the statistics in this video, you will understand how B2B social media changes business and how you communicate with your customers.

4.  Social Media ROI

How is ROI tracked with B2B social media? Continued from the previous video, this one gives details of how other companies measure ROI with social media. This is valuable information for many marketers since many are always on the lookout for ways to measure ROI with social media.

5.  B2B and Branding

Even the simplest thing could lead to great business ideas. This is the premise behind this B2B video. See how one brand not only increased buyers, but also increased brand awareness. By expanding on a simple idea and adding that as part of your demand generation plan, you could improve your lead generation and increase your sales revenue.

For more on B2B marketing, subscribe to the Modern B2B marketing Blog or follow Marketo on Twitter.

August 5, 2010

Is Sunday the New Tuesday for Email Marketing?

Posted by Caroline Ruggiero

There have always been “rules” around what day you should send email marketing messages . I’ve heard numerous timing strategies that all make logical arguments for their method.  One rule I’ve been hearing a lot lately is “Never email on Fridays. Always email on Tuesday nights.” The theory behind the rule of thumb makes sense: email too early in the week and people are too busy with their actual work to open or focus on your message. Email end of the week and your message will get buried in a barrage of messages everyone has to dig out of come Monday morning.

But I’d like to question that theory. I know that I personally do not wait for Monday morning to receive a flood of emails when I get into the office. I’ll admit it, I check work email on Sundays and I enjoy it. I’m not a workaholic and it is not expected by my team or my boss. I enjoy unplugging on the weekends mentally from work so I can come back on Monday refreshed.

But for me, it’s also a time to catch up on newsletters, lower priority messages, and feeds without the distraction of, well, work.  I am absolutely more open to reading marketing messages in this quieter, more relaxed setting. An AOL survey in 2008 found that 62% of people check work email on the weekends. As reported on MarketingVox, the Pew Research Center for Internet and American Life project found that half of workers reported checking work email from home and two thirds do work related research from home. A casual survey of colleagues and friends confirm that I’m not alone in this.

So is Sunday the new Tuesday? Maybe. Maybe not. In the end, the best way to find out is to A/B test on content and timing, review performance stats, iterate, and repeat. Review email marketing best practices. See what works for you. Find the optimum time for your newsletters; it may differ greatly from your alerts or your lead nurturing messages.

To reach the Sunday work email reader, you still want to avoid sending your email message on Friday.  But why not schedule it for a Sunday morning release so your message will be at the top of their inbox, sitting there like a Sunday newspaper on their front steps just waiting to be opened? Perhaps your key target might be guilty of indulging in some Sunday work email, just like me.

July 27, 2010

Revenue Stage Analytics: The Marketo Model

Posted by Jon Miller

In the past couple of posts, I have explained the methodology behind revenue cycle analytics, including the best practices and the importance of defining your revenue stages. In this post, I give a sample revenue stage model and dive into a more detail about the Marketo methodology.

Marketo’s revenue stage model first defines the “success path,” i.e. the traditional funnel that leads linearly from new lead to closed, won business.

This sample model has few opportunity stages; many companies may want to add additional Sales stages, and even model additional stages after Closed Won, to model the customer lifecycle.

Next, recognizing that not all leads follow a linear “success path,” the model also defines “detour stages” to capture leads that are not qualified, or that require a few rounds of nurturing before becoming ready. For example:

The final step in defining the revenue stage model is specifying the business rules (“transitions”) that determine when a prospect moves from one stage to the next (including how leads move from Detour Stages back to the Success Path). For example:

• A person may move from “Engaged” to “Prospect” if their company has revenue above $10 million a year and is in one of the target industries
• A “Prospect” may move to “Lead” when the lead score goes above 100 points
• A “Prospect” may move to “Inactive” if they have not responded to any campaigns or visited the website in more than six months
• Leads in “Inactive” may move back to “Prospect” if they respond to a new program