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Marketing automation starves without a Content Marketing strategy
| Guest post by: Jeff Ogden |
Article Overview: Marketing Automation without great content is a like a Ferrari sitting in the garage. It has no fuel. If you’ve invested in Eloqua, Marketo, Silverpop, Pardot or the like, this post is for you. (Find New Customers is a Gold partner for Silverpop and closely aligned with Eloqua and Marketo.)
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Free Download - Marketing Made Simple TV is looking for a few good sponsors By Jeff Ogden |
Marketing automation starves without a Content Marketing strategy
I’m the President of Find New Customers and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jim Burns, CEO of Avitage,
in a podcast. (Jim is currently recovering from major surgery and we
wish him the best.) I asked Jim for an example of why great content is
so important in B2B lead generation.
“Can you share an example, Jim?”
Jim said ”Content the bait on the your hook. Or the gas in your
sports car. Without it you catch no fish and your sports car won’t
move.”
Jim’s well-crafted response makes a key point. Great, compelling and remarkable content is much more important for B2B lead generation
than which marketing automation platform you choose. The quality of
your content plays a very important role in the success of your
marketing automation project – regardless of vendor.
JB: Sure. This is a specific example, but frankly it’s so universal I think it’s extremely relevant.
Most people think that the marketing automation technology itself
is going to start to address the problems of generating leads and
tracking that lead activity.
Working with a company that implemented this almost two years
ago, but they did not have a defined program in place. They didn’t
define what a lead was, for example. They didn’t define a nurturing
plan, they did not define even a scoring plan. In fact, what they said
was when we send something out if a buyer clicks that’s a lead. And
that lead was instantly dumped into salesforce.com and the little bell
rang for the salesperson, you’ve got a lead, and as you can imagine
salesperson came to realize that those were not what we would call sales
ready leads. As a result, a little over 14 months later they had
virtually no pipeline for new business.
In the last six months we’ve been helping them with a series of
efforts around producing content — first defining what leads are and
what it means to be a sales ready lead, secondly defining a nurturing
process that also involved inserting a telesales group in the middle
between the click from some campaign and the hand-off to sales, but also
mapping out a seven-step nurturing process and building out the
content. And now they’re starting to get to a point where they’ll have
10 to 12 marketing qualified leads a week and building. So this is a
dramatic change from just a few months ago after 14 months of — really
of drought despite the investment. And I think that’s very, very
common.
We think the technology’s going to solve the problem and it
isn’t. It requires a process, it requires a program, and that I think
of marketing automation and fishing with a hook, but the content is the
bait. And that’s the key. Without the content, you’re not going to get
people clicking on your various links to give you the information you
need.
Lead Generation & Marketing Automation How-To Guide
Why Sales needs Content Marketing and Marketing Automation
Greatest Challenge Facing CMOs Today – Generating High-Quality Sales Leads
The Real Need of Sales Today - Fewer, better sales leads
Speed may be the biggest Determent to your Marketing Success
Top Internet Marketing Strategies for Business Owners
Automated Reporting: Five Benefits for Your Market Research Firm
What is Lead Nurturing?
Mad Marketing TV featuring Steve Gershik of 28Marketing
Content Strategy: Your Online Site
7 Reasons Why Your Small Business Must Have A Content Management Strategy
Find New Customer Announces Demand Generation using the SCORE Methodology
HubSpot Expands into Voice-Based Marketing Automation
The business process that no longer works
How to Select a B2B Marketing Agency
Content Creators vs. Editors in B2B Marketing Today
B2B Lead Generation | Where Are You Today?
How Automated Social Media Actions May Be Costing You Sales and Referrals
Proven Marketing Strategies For Content Distribution
M is for Marketing Strategy
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About the Author: Jeff Ogden RSS for Jeff's articles - Visit Jeff's website With 8 out of 10 companies saying the lack of quality sales leads is their biggest problem, they need help. SiriusDecisions also found that fewer than 1 out of 10 companies that implement lead management software went beyond the basics. They need help. We help companies implement world class lead generation programs. Companies need quality sales leads, so they need sales lead generation programs including social media marketing. They need to implement lead nurturing programs. We are considered one of the best leads generation companies in business today. Click here to visit Jeff's website   7 Keys to B2B Marketing Succes 7 Keys to Lead Nurturing How to Find New Customers Definitive Guide Making Quota |
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