No Lead Left Behind!

If you ask any marketer who has recently invested in marketing automation, being able to launch all kinds of lead nurturing programs was probably one of the top reasons they invested. I recently spoke to Jim Kanir and Heather Bennett at M5 and they have 16 different lead nurturing programs that they are running. AND, they just implemented Eloqua in March! So, can it be done? Yes! Can it be done quickly? Yes! Can it be done effectively? Yes! Listen on Sept 3 at 1:00 EDT as we talk to Jim and Heather for the Demand Generation Essentials Series.

In the meanwhile, here are 5 Best Practices for improving your lead nurturing programs:

1. Map out the Life of a Lead
- Go to a white board and map out the path of every type of lead in your company
- Map it our from inquiry to close
- Identify all the places where you have "lead leakage" (What does not convert
to the next step.)
- These are an ideal set of leads to nurture
- Examples might include:
- All prospects that received a demo but did not convert
- All leads passed to sales that did not move to the next stage after 30 days

2. Set up lead nurturing based on behavior
- Identify a set of online behaviors that indicate specific interest, but not
yet ready for a sales call
- Set up a program that places that prospect into a specific lead nurturing
program based on that online behavior
- Examples might include:
- A visit to your pricing page
- Multiple pages visited in a solution section

3. Set up lead nurturing based on demographics and a form
- Create a form and ask a question like - "What is your number one initiative
for 2010?
- Give several options and force one answer
- Based on that answer, place that prospect into a nurturing campaign on that
top initiative

4. Set up a lead nurturing program post a trade show
- Number one lead complaint is about trade show leads - you typically get a lot
but the quality is not good.
- Take the leads from the trade show and place into a nurturing program to help
qualify

5. Set up a lead nurturing program to re-awaken a database or a list
- Create a high level thought leadership campaign or a series of offers
- Drip to the identified list
- Examples might include:
- Old leads
- Old contacts

What have you seen work?

Social Media and the Boston Bruins Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT today, as I talk with Laura Zexter of the TD Garden and Boston Bruins on BlogTalkRadio.  Laura will  share with us how TD Garden and the Boston Bruins go to market using multiple channels, how they integrate social media, and how they implemented their most recent campaign - The Golden Ticket. If you haven't registered yet, sign up now: The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results.  Why Register? It's a simple, one time process Once registered, you have access to all 12 DG broadcasts, including past shows You will also have access to the entire Demand Generation Toolkit, which includes podcasts, white papers, worksheets, and Q&A script from the broadcasts Instructions to Access Internet Broadcast Once you click on the Blog Talk Radio link here, click the Play/Chat button (this option will appear immediately before the show begins) and have your computer speakers turned on - you'll hear the live interview streaming over the internet. You do not dial the phone number in order to hear the interview. Instructions to Participate During the Show Live questions - dial the Call In Number shown at the top of your screen: 646-478-5604 Chat Room - to comment in the chat room, you must first be registered and logged into BTR. If you haven't registered for BTR yet, click here. Please register for BTR before the show. After you have logged in, you must refresh the page, then your display name will appear, and you will be able to make comments. During the show you will be prompted to ask your questions, either through chat or call-in. Instructions will also be given throughout the show for how to ask questions. Looking forward to your participation, Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Social Media Food for Thought

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. Flex your social media muscle  Tweet this  Share this DG Definitions of the WEEK: Subscription Management also known as Preference Management is a process that a list builder uses to add and/or remove members from their lists. It can be used for multiple list building purposes such as direct mail, but is often more associated with email and telemarketing.

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

Social Media Food for Thought

How well do you know your social media channels as they pertain to your prospects? What the heck does that mean? Many marketers will bundle Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into one clump of “social media” when there is much more opportunity to act upon. Each of these channels offers a different behavioral outlet for prospects. As online marketers, it is our responsibility to understand how our prospects behave through these media of social expression.

Each of these social media channels offer a different means of expression and interaction between members. Twitter allows for thought leaders and influences to share snippets of wisdom under 140 characters mostly through observation. “What are you doing?” asks the infamous site, which is slightly different and will elicit different answers than Facebook’s “What’s on your mind”. Who are those thought leaders and how do they influence your prospects? Facebook provides not only profile pages of individuals but also groups and fan pages where discussions are held. What is said in these discussions and what does that tell you about your market? LinkedIn has a similar pattern of groups and profile pages, but on average is updated less frequently. The hesitation of what to add on these pages loses candid thought that the instantaneous social media outlets of Facebook and Twitter provide.

Many of us feel that we know our prospects from a face to face value, but do we know their online behavior? How often do your prospects check Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn? What groups or fan pages do they actively participate in on Facebook? Finding these answers can be tedious, but rewarding. In a Web 2.0 world where active participation keeps you up to date with your prospects, why would you waste a goldmine of opportunity offered through these various channels?

What have you seen or experienced?

Reminder - 3rd DG Essentials Series Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT, today on The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. I will be discussing lead scoring with Pam O'Neal, Vice President of Marketing at BreakingPoint on Blog Talk Radio. Lead Scoring is such a "hot topic" today and Pam will share with us how she implemented lead scoring at BreakingPoint. I'm sure you will find the show very informative, as she describes how she got started with lead scoring, how she learned to experiment to get it right, and the wins and challenges she had along the way. Here's how you can hear this interview on Blog Talk Radio: Once you click on the Blog Talk Radio link from this email, the click Play/Chat option will appear as soon as the show begins. Click "Play" and have your computer speakers turned on to hear the live interview streaming over the internet.  Note:  You do not dial a telephone number to hear the radio show. You will hear the audio 'STREAMING LIVE' over the INTERNET via your computer speakers. This interview is part of the 12 Week DG Essentials Series and includes top Demand Generation Marketers talking about topics that are influencing today's business. Topics include:   Using social media for demand generation  Improving lead quantity and quality  Using marketing automation and other Web 2.0 technologies  Aligning sales and marketing  Tracking and reporting on measurable results The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. is a virtual, free, and live educational series!   Join us, today! Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Lead Scoring De-Mystified

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. DG Definitions of the WEEK: Lead Scoring – is a process using a marketing automation system that allows you to assign points to demographic data ( a C level title might get 10 points while a Director title might get 8 points) and implicit behavior ( visiting 10 pages on a specific solution on your website).  This point system is designed to identify when a prospect "raises their virtual hand" letting you know they would welcome a call from sales.  This is an MQL. Demographic data - hard data that is pulled from CRM (title) or a form (# of emplpyees).  Part of the total lead score.   Behavioral data - online behavior such as number of pages visited or the visit of a key web page.  Part of the total lead score.

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

B2B Thought Leadership with Debbie Qaqish

SilverPop interviewed me for a blog post. Check it out here: B2B Thought Leadership with Debbie Qaqish

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The Taxi-Cab Driver, The Day Laborer and The Marketer

As a consultant, I often travel around the country to visit clients.  Usually, I take a cab from the airport to the client location.  Taxi drivers are a hard-working group of people.  Typically they log 12 hour days and often wait hours at a time at a 'premium spot', like the airport, where they know there will be lots of travelers and hopefully long drives where the fare and tip will be high.   Every 1 in 10 drivers is different though, and you can spot them right away.  Their cabs are cleaner, their step is livelier.  But what really makes them different is they make an effort to get to know you and what your plans are for the week.  These drivers realize it is not about this fare, but all the future fares.   They often offer to drive you for the week and give you their card so you will call them the next time you are in town.  These drivers never wait in line.  They have clients and they set and manage a schedule.

When I am at home, there always seems to be something to do around the yard.  For the bigger jobs that are labor intensive, I can drive a few miles down the road and hit a couple of spots where the day laborers hang out.  As soon as I pull the truck in, they swarm in.  First person(s) that get in the truck wins the job for the day.  Once in the truck, we negotiate the pay rate and they are paid in cash when the job is complete.  The other laborers who weren't so lucky sit around and hope another truck will pull up soon.  Every day they repeat this process.  Every so often, I will notice that some of the workers are smarter than the others.  When the job is complete, they take a few extra minutes and walk the neighborhood, handing out cards and referring them to the work they just did.  This typically leads to more business for them and before long they are managing their own crews and they don't wait on corners any more.

Most marketers I know work very hard and they spend hours per day working on their website, sending out email campaigns, working events.  They can't always measure the impact of their efforts, but know if they work hard enough, some of their activity will produce leads and help the sales team bring in more revenue.    Then there are the smarketers.  These are the people that realize it is not how hard you work, but how smart you work.  They leverage social media, marketing automation and tools to create conversations all over the web, not just on their website.  They do not wait for prospects to come to them, they take the conversation to the masses, but focus their efforts through key channels.  They use technology to drive more activity with no additional labor.    They are driving revenue while everyone else is managing costs.

Every field has workers that toil for their keep.  Every field also has intelligent game changers.  They don't follow the same trail as everyone else.  They forge ahead and find new paths and create new opportunities.  Which one are you?

Lead Scoring De-Mystified

As I was designing the 12 Demand Generation Essentials for our current educational series on BlogTalk Radio, Lead Scoring became DG Essential #3. It's important and effective. Yet, when I went to find a marketing practitioner who had deep experience in this area, I came up very short. They just did not exist. In talking to some of my friends and colleagues in the industry, the reason for lack of Lead Scoring implementation had little to do with technology and everything to do with process. Here are some of the reasons why and what you can do about it:

1. Sales and marketing don't often speak the same language. - Yet, when you do lead scoring, you have to do it with sales. A good lead scoring system produces high quality leads for sales and who knows better than sales which questions to ask for qualifying and propensity to buy?
2. Lead scoring creates "fear." - "What do you mean I (sales) don't get to see everything?" Even though sales people complain about lead quality, they still feel like they have to see everything so if you slow down the lead flow, this can create tension with sales.
3. Change, change, change. - Since lead scoring is an activity that has a big impact on sales, it often creates a lot of change and when was the last time marketing lead a change that effected sales? Lead scoring forces a discussion, a common set of lead definitions and direct responsibility for marketing in producing quality leads and sales in following up on these leads.

So, how do you address the above issues?

1. Involve sales from Day 1
2. Keep is simple, simple, simple
3. Turn something on - Like I tell my clients - "No small animals will be harmed in the process"
4. Implement, review (get feedback from sales) and tweak - Think about it. The chances of you getting this absolutely right the first time is very small.

What have you seen that works?

Reminder - 2nd DG Essentials Series Interview Today!

Dear Fellow Marketer: Remember to join me, Debbie Qaqish, at 1pm EDT, today as I talk with Edwin Thompson, Director of Marketing Programs at Brainshark on BLOGTALK RADIO.   If you haven't registered yet, sign up now: The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. On today's show, we will be talking about one of the hottest topics in marketing:  "How to Better Align Sales and Marketing".  You will hear Edwin Thompson talk about his strategies and tactics for successfully integrating sales and marketing both prior to, and after, implementing a Marketing Automation System. You will hear how this alignment made a major impact on revenues at Brainshark. HERE'S HOW BLOGTALK RADIO WORKS: YOU DO NOT DIAL A TELEPHONE NUMBER TO HEAR THE RADIO SHOW. You will hear the audio 'STREAMING LIVE' over the INTERNET via your computer speakers. Once you click on BlogTalk Radio, click Play/Chat (this option will appear immediately before the show begins). Be sure to have your computer speakers turned on to HEAR THE LIVE INTERVIEW STREAMING OVER THE INTERNET. During the show, you will be prompted to ask your questions. I will give you instructions on how to ask questions, during the show. This interview is part of the 12 Week DG Essentials Series and includes top Demand Generation Marketers talking about topics that are influencing today's business. Topics include:   Using social media for demand generation  Improving lead quantity and quality  Using marketing automation and other Web 2.0 technologies  Aligning sales and marketing  Tracking and reporting on measurable results The DG Essentials Series - Real Live Stories. Real Life Results. is a virtual, free, and live educational series!   Join us, today! Debbie Qaqish CRO The Pedowitz Group, The Demand Generation Agency Follow me on Twitter: DebbieQaqish Today's Blog: Why is achieving sales & marketing alignment so hard?

The Demand Generation Essentials Series – Real Live Stories.  – Real Life Results. DG Definitions of the WEEK: Service Level Agreement (or 'SLA' for short) is a document which captures the roles and responsibilities of sales and marketing through the Lead Management process.  It also includes the lead language and criteria established between sales and marketing for the proper follow up and disposition of leads supplied to sales from marketing. Marketing Qualified Lead (or 'MQL' for short) means a lead is ready for sales.  It meets the jointly agreed upon criteria established by sales and marketing and has been through a lead scoring program.  The lead scoring program looks at both the quantitative data (i.e. title/ role, number of employees, etc.) and the online behavior (i.e. number of visits to the site, number of pages viewed, number of people from one company visiting the site in a period of time, etc), to ascertain:  How qualified is this lead?  What is their propensity to buy?

Manage your subscriptions here The Pedowitz Group 14162 Seabiscuit Alpharetta, GA  30004 USA

Why is achieving sales & marketing alignment so hard?

I love everything about selling (having been a VP of Sales for many years) so when I became a full time VP of Marketing, aligning the two teams to help improve lead generation just made sense to me. In addition, we bought a marketing automation system and this technology gave me a concrete way to involve sales and to help improve key aspects of their pospecting and sales cycles. I think it has been my experience and understanding of sales that helped me knit all this together. This does not seem to be the norm and this is the crux of the problem for the mis-alignment between sales and marketing.

I was talking to a Marketing Director recently and we were doing a Life of a Lead process flow - a key process to map for implementing marketing automation - and I was stunned to find out they knew next to nothing about sales or the sales process in their company. This is analogous to not knowing the profile of your target audience. How do you message them? How do you interact with them? What kind of high value offers do you make?

Whether you have sales in your background or not, the lesson learned is to get to know sales and your company's sales process and remember that the sales team is your ultimate customer. You produce Marketing Qualified Leads and they consume them. Once you have this sales savviness as a foundation, take a look at this post from Steve Woods of Eloqua which presents some great ideas for how to better align sales and marketing beginning with the impact you can help them make on revenue.

What has worked for you?