12 Jul

Uniting Sales and Marketing Under One Umbrella

Sales and marketing must work together to convert lead generation activities into a loyal customer base Almost everyone’s complaining that business is tough. But a closer analysis of the low sales volume experienced by many businesses today shows a strong disconnect between their sales and marketing initiatives. The gap between B2B lead generation, conversion and CRM occurs because sales and marketing departments function as independent units (often at odds with each other). Instead, they should be working together to close the deal and cement the relationship. Companies that have aligned marketing and sales goals are the ones that get results. There is no definite point at which marketing stops and sales begins. Simply stated, sales and marketing must work hand-in-hand from end-to-end! How do you get sales and marketing to join forces? Integrated marketing: This involves integrating all marketing and sales tools, activities and resources to convert leads into customers. Online or offline marketing and sales efforts must convey the same message and level of intensity in order to be effective. In other words, lead generation, sales promotion and lead management must share

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08 Jul

Strategic Planning for Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing must be integrated into the overall strategic plan In some of my recent blog posts I wrote about how planting a seed, turning it into a lead, nurturing it and helping the lead progress towards purchase are all important steps in the B2B lead generation process. When organizations take on inbound marketing, it requires an integrated marketing approach to ensure that every initiative is part of a strategic plan. In order to deliver the overall marketing and CRM goals, inbound marketing can be broken down into distinct programs, each with a specific objective. Not only does this makes monitoring and measurement easier, it offers clear insights to help change what’s not working and leverage what is bringing results. How can your business develop a strategy for planning and implementation of inbound marketing? Reputation Management: This is the stage where your B2B lead generation efforts are geared towards planting the seed. It’s all about creating awareness, branding and giving a boost to customer loyalty. Social media is very useful at this stage. Demand Generation: Once the grounds are “fertile” you set to work on creating a demand for your goods by

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05 Jul

Following inbound marketing trends enables adoption of best practices for lead generation

Inbound marketing is the strategic use of tools and techniques that draw the attention of a qualified target audience through relevant content and interactive engagement. That’s a simple definition of Inbound Marketing. The keyword here is “qualified audience” which means potential buyers who are closer to the buying decision. Well, at least in expressing their need for the type of product or service you offer. A prospect starts to look for you when they are getting ready to buy, and begin the process of searching for the best solution. Inbound marketing helps your business be found easily, both online and offline. Drawing people in to your CRM goes beyond B2B lead generation and takes on a multi-pronged approach to integrated marketing. Your deliverables become: (a) relevant content and (b) interactive engagement. Let’s look at some leading trends in inbound marketing to understand how organizations are adopting best practices: Ratio of Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing: Market trends show a shift in budget spending from outbound to inbound marketing. However, smart B2B marketers focus on leveraging the inbound spend rather than increasing it. What this means is

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