It is no surprise that, as digital marketing takes a marked turn toward harnessing ‘big data’ and providing a personalised user journey across media channels, there is a lot of buzz around marketing automation.
A single integrated platform where marketers can simultaneously glean user insights, test, perform and analyse, and sales teams can easily identify what stage of the buying cycle a prospect as at – the idea is certainly appealing so no wonder marketing automation is now enjoying increased adoption in the B2B world. (more…)
A recent study by Aberdeen Research Report Group found that despite the growing need for marketing and sales alignment, few UK companies are focused on building a sales pipeline. Even though the overwhelming majority (85%) recognises the value of measuring marketing performance, 63% of those companies are using conversion rate metrics.
What is more alarming, however, is that only 58% of the respondents rate marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline as being valuable, with a mere 43% actually measuring it. What do these figures indicate? (more…)
My previous blog focused on marketing automation and social media, particularly on how the two combined are a perfect fit for your digital marketing strategy. This week I will look to cover how marketing automation, combined with a solid e-commerce strategy, can also streamline and improve efficiency for your organisation. (more…)
Recently I was describing inbound marketing to a sales person from a high technology company. As I began to outline the benefits of using valuable content as a way to engage with prospects to help them make an informed buying decision, he interrupted me and said that in his experience the leads that came from their website were ‘rubbish’.
The process he described to me was the opposite of what inbound marketing was designed to achieve. He explained that their site had a wealth of information about their products and in some cases site visitors would leave their contact details in exchange for the most valuable content.
These prospect details were emailed directly to the sales team who called them up to find out whether they were likely to buy in time to help them meet their sales quota for the quarter. In 99.9% of the cases the prospects were simply looking to inform themselves about the products and were nowhere near ready for a sales conversation.
Econsultancy’s Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing found that even though companies are generally happy to embrace content marketing, the majority are still learning the ropes. Nearly half of the survey respondents admit they have not quite mastered the art of digital marketing, with only 21% saying they are “excellent” or “good” at it.
What is the reason behind these statistics? Why are you not converting leads to clients when you tweet every day, blog three times a week and regularly update your Facebook Business Page?
According to the report, while some companies have reaped the benefits of a ‘just do it’ attitude to social media engagement, many have held back from it due to the challenges of measuring the effect of social media interaction on brand sentiment.
While it is understandable that CFOs in general would still be reluctant to fork out money on activities that lack tangible value, there are in fact tools that can precisely gauge the impact of company blogs and social media engagement on brand awareness and sentiment.
As HubSpot reaches the grand old age of 5 years old it is incredible to look back at how much they have achieved. HubSpot have revolutionised the face of internet marketing, enabling businesses across the world to grow their audience, generate leads automatically and close more sales. Their Inbound Marketing solutions offer a long term formula for successful internet marketing in the digital age. After securing $32million funding in March 2011 from Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Salesforce.com, it went on to win nine awards during June alone. It is easy to understand why HubSpot’s customer following grows each day.
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