Marketing Automation Made Easy(er)

Had a chance to meet this week with Howard Sewell, Founder and President of Connect Direct, a demand generation agency with offices in Northern California and Seattle (Howard also writes a terrific blog called Direct Connections). Howard's agency has been providing outstanding demand gen and direct marketing services for tech companies since 1990.

We talked about a number of things, including the adoption of marketing automation tools like Marketo that help companies to better execute, manage, track and measure their lead flows. We both agreed that companies like Marketo have come a long way in creating tools that are considerably easier to deploy campaigns on and allow you to focus on getting campaigns out the door rather than spend all your time trying to figure out how a tool works.

If you have previously looked at these types of tools and threw up your hands in your frustration, the time might be right now to take another look and see what they can offer to you.

The First Offer You Should Build

Today MarketingSherpa talks about demos as offers in their article Product Demo With Voluntary Registration Results in 23% Conversion Rate. It underscores the need to have campaign offers that are relevant and targeted, and deliver information in a compelling and efficient way. In my experience in B2B lead gen, there are few offers as well-received, and which produce as high a conversion, as effective demos. Especially on a digital platform, when done correctly demos can succinctly and visually serve information on the target's terms, when, where and how s/he wants.

Online demos provide an opportunity for your target to see and hear how your solutions meet their needs. For software products especially, this gives your prospect a chance to see exactly how your products work in their native environment.

[NOTE: It's important to state that usually product demos are more down-funnel offers, and are used as the prospect has been previously assured that you understand their needs and are now at the stage where they want specific details and proof points as to how your solution satisfies their needs.]

There are a slew of static and rich media platforms available to you that enable you to build and serve up your demo. They can range from simple PowerPoint and Adobe Flash to more sophisticated rich media platforms (co's like EyeView, Articulate and Accela have especially strong solutions that are adept at serving content and increasing conversions). It's safe to say that price rises with the sophistication and robustness of the solution you choose, as well as adoption, dissemination and conversions. Check them out.

My New Blog on B2B Lead Generation

Hello all... today marks the first day of my new blog on B2b lead generation. I'm excited about sharing with you ideas, tips, strategies, secrets and cool things that I've learned or recently discovered about lead gen strategy, process improvements and campaign development. I hope to have frequent contributions and updates and do hope you'll stay in touch in the days, weeks and months to follow.