Make Your Marketing Automation Investment Count

Make your Marketing Automation Investment Count

Micky Long, Vice President and Practice Director, Lead Nurturing

Arketi Group

The good news…• Companies that excel at lead nurturing

generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Source: Forrester Research)

• Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (Source: Gartner Research)

• Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)

And the bad…• 79% of marketing leads never convert into

sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

• Up to 70% of Marketing – generated leads are never followed up by Sales

• 50% of survey respondents claim they have not realized the full value of their marketing automation investment…

• …less than 25% use their platforms to their full potential

How to get the greatest return

1 Data

2 Content

3 Process

Data

Who are you kidding?

Your data – How good is it?

What Jigsaw found

Incomplete Need Updates Dead Duplicate

90% 74% 21% 7%

“Lack of quality customer data is one of the top causes of CRM failure” -- Gartner

Source: Best Practices for Keeping Your Data Clean - Salesforce

Your data – How good is it?

Incomplete Need Updates Dead Duplicate

90% 74% 21% 7%

What Jigsaw found

“Lack of quality customer data is one of the top causes of CRM failure” -- Gartner

Source: Best Practices for Keeping Your Data Clean - Salesforce

How to practice good data hygiene

1. Build a plan

2. Agree on standardization

3. Invite everyone to participate

4. Be ruthless

Content

Building a whitepaper is NOT a strategy!

Why your content needs to get better

Given the above…if Sales doesn’t, who does? Marketing must make up the difference.

• Everyone’s solution promises the same value:• Make me money, save me money, make my

life easier

• Prospects are in control of the process• Up to 75% of buyers reach a decision on what

to buy before talking to Sales• 30% reach the decision before the “official”

sales process begins• By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their

relationship without talking to a human.

Completed buyer persona map“I have 3 concerns when I sit down at my desk: ‘what’s our cash flow?’ ‘what is revenue/customer?’ and ‘how efficient is our plant running?’”

Brad the CFOAge: 45Education: Bachelor’s (Finance) with most likely an MBA

CFO Message• “Our plant solutions can bring immediate ROI

through reduced inventory.”• “We enhance compliance through advanced

reporting.”

About Brad• Reports to CEO• Has financial responsibility for firm• Spends too much time on compliance/risk

mitigation/SOX• Must see fast ROI

Influencers• Peers• Case studies with

ROI• Current clients• Analyst firms

Goals• Efficiency• Less expenses• Proven ROI• Better financial

ratios

Proof Points• Avg.20% decrease

in inventory• 30% less waste

Words-phrases that resonate• ROI• Proven• Financially stable• Integrated

Objections• Cost too much• Burdensome

implementa-tion

Top Persona-building methods

Customer/prospect interviews

Sales interviews

Customer/prospect survey

Mining in-house database

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

64%

56%

47%

43%

Persona-building methods

Buyer-centric marketing

Develop Prove Close ServiceQualify Target

Advocate

Vet

Narrow

Evaluate

Research

Interest

Aware

Unaware

Purchase

Negotiate

AdvocateBuyer-centric marketing

Develop Prove Close ServiceQualify Target

Vet

Narrow

Evaluate

Research

Interest

Aware

Unaware

Purchase

Negotiate

Buyer-centric marketing

Decision makerAddresses pain Credibility Benefits Feature/function Trust Issue resolution

InfluencerEase workload Not overly complex Peer reference Easy training Support

Check signerCost/ROI Reputation Confirmation of decision

Advocate

Develop Prove Close ServiceQualify Target

VetNarrow

Evaluate

Research

Interest

Aware

Unaware

Purchase

Negotiate

Content to conversionAdvocate

Narrow

Evaluate

Research

Interest

Aware

Unaware

Purchase

Negotiate

Check signer

Decision maker

Influencer

Media coverageSocial mediaViral videoInfographicNews Release (thought leadership)

Curated listsSurvey campaignsOrganic searchPrint AdsNurture campaignsIndustry white papers

Bylined articles Trade showsRetargeted adseNewsletterNews release (product)eBooksGuides

WebinarsPPCWhite paper (product)News release (corporate)Quicktours3-D mailersFirst strike PPT

Data sheetFeature comparisonProduct comparisonCase studiesAnalyst reportsNews release (case study)ROI calculator

TrialLive eventInteractive demoDrip campaign

Customer support videos

Case studies candidate

Ease workload Not overly complex Peer reference Easy training Support

Cost/ROI Reputation Confirmation of decision

Addresses pain Credibility Benefits Feature/function Trust

Issue resolution

Vet

Customer experience Customer communication

User tipsUser enewsletterUser conferenceUser communityCross sell/Up sell campaigns

Customer testimonialReferencesTech specsNews release (award)

CSR efforts

PricingSupportSLAProposals

Target Qualify Develop Prove Service Close

Content preferences

White paper

Webinar

Case study

Blog post

E-book

Video

Infographic

Presentation

Podcast

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Content type utilized during business search

Source: DemandGen Report, Content Preference Survey

Embracing video as a channel

Embracing video as a channel

Must Haves

Call to action

Transcripts and keyword rich description on video server service

Use YouTube

Do

Scripted

Production quality

Enhanced

90 seconds to 3 minutes

Don’t

Free form

Gritty

Natural

60 minutes

Top content challenges

42%

20%

18%

12%

7% 1%

ChallengesEngaging contentEnough contentBudget Lack of exec buy-in

Don’t be afraid to be green -- recycle

Start with a white paper, run a podcast, create a video

Leverage all options

Partner with an analyst, run a webinar, highlight in a collateral piece

Borrow expertise

Content Curation - is a term that describes the act of finding, grouping, organizing or sharing the best and most relevant content on a specific issue. – Courtesy of Rohit Bhargava, Influential Marketing blog

Five Curation Models:1. Aggregation – “Top five tips for success”

2. Distillation – shorten and simplify

3. Elevation – spot trends from other material

4. Mashup – pulling together items to create new POV

5. Chronology – Pulling together timeline to show trends

Curate for credit

Industry White Paper

Technical White Paper

Vendor Video

Response

Response

ResponseProduct

Datasheet

Product Case Study

Industry Webinar

Response

Response

ResponseProduct

Case Study

Technical White Paper

Industry White Paper

Response

Response

Response

Industry Webinar

Industry Podcast

Response

Return to Pool

Offer/Sales

Y

N

NNN

N N N

N

Y Y

Y Y Y

Y Y Y

Awareness

Discovery

Validation

Response

NN

Y

Well-mapped content can feed highly effective drip marketing programs

Put it all into action

10% Response

20-30% Response

40+% Response

Process

Tame those loose cannons!

Why process?• 64% of CMOs lack a formal process for

managing marketing automation. – Annuitas Group

• Only 33% of execs using both marketing automation and CRM systems say they

integrate well – Experts Bench

• 66% of Marketing execs claim “Fixing broken processes” is a major challenge to effective

automation implementation – Gleanster survey

• 46% of marketers with mature lead management processes have sales teams that follow up on more than 75% of marketing-generated leads. – Forrester

Three steps to a better MA experience• Establish a plan with milestones

– Evaluate custom metrics– Don’t overlook basics– Be realistic– Don’t forget the talent– Do not implement in a vacuum

• Create a learning culture– Always be testing– Implement change– Don’t fear failure

• Make review a part of the process– Be relentless– Invite all stakeholders

Arketi Lead Nurture Healthcheck• Overall lead nurture goal

– Define the objectives identified at the start of the lead nurturing/automation initiative

• Last Quarter Goal Review– Review the 2 or 3 specific goals that were established for the previous quarter and

identify performance against expectations

• Next Quarter Goals– Identify 2 or 3 goals for next quarter and the metrics that will determine their success

• Campaign effectiveness– For each campaign conducted during the quarter, report on all key metrics

• Lead workflow– Review existing lead workflow, Sales handoff threshold and return to marketing points

Arketi Lead Nurture Healthcheck• Lead scoring model

– Review and adjust as necessary

• Content Development– Review content creation/curation strategy

• Website Activity– Review overall web traffic and identify correlation with lead nurture activities

• Thematics/Message– Review marketing campaign messages and proof points against system results from

past quarter

• Calls to Action– Review relevance and effectiveness of offers used in emails and drip programs

Arketi Lead Nurture Healthcheck• Prospect Database

– Review and adjust total prospect database

• System Maintenance– Review Automation tool to streamline and ensure proper functionality

• Next Quarter Campaigns– Review ongoing campaigns for viability and needed changes

• New Outreach Campaigns– Identify new Marketing campaigns/initiatives

Questions?Micky Long

Vice President and Practice Director, Lead Nurturing

mlong@arketi.com404-929-0091 ext. 214

www.arketi.com

Link to Buyer-centric content infographic:http://www2.arketi.com/buyercentric