My Takeaways from MarketingProfs B2B Forum

MarketingProfs B2B Forum just finished up.  Very well organized event, great network of colleagues as always, excellent keynotes, some good insights overall, but, honestly, I feel I only got some tangible value out of maybe half the presentations I attended (so, clearly, I did not choose wisely what sessions to go to).  My feedback for that: would it be possible for MarketingProfs to tag sessions with a bit more info so as to help people like me on what to attend (an example would be to call out the level of the sessions so as to be able to better know what to expect)?

Cinco de Mayo Fiesta.

In any case, it was time well spent in Boston and here are my key takeaways from the event!

Tue, May 4^th

Advanced Landing Pages that Improve Campaign ROI
Anna Telerico, ion interactive | Scott Brandt, SurePayroll | Michael Burgess, Moog

Advanced landing pages = part of plan, with specific goals & objectives, methodical (what/why), tested & optimized, managed

Results: 2-10x conversion rate increase, cost-per-acquisition decrease

Best practices:

• Segment landing pages to drive visitors (maybe different clicks or different tabs for visitors to self-segment)
• Consider asking specific questions (yes/no) before the lead capture form to engage visitors
• Consider 2-step landing page
• Provide assuring customer quote to establish trust
• Make sure you clearly direct visitors, don’t leave them with too many options to choose

Empirical data:

• Extra field in form asking visitors if they would like to subscribe to receive communications from vendor made no statistical difference in open rates or CTRs
• Test of two campaigns driving visitors to a landing page:
  - Roadblock ad: higher click-throughs to landing page, lower conversions
  - Text ad in newsletter: lower click-throughs to landing page, much higher conversions

Key points:

• Measure sales not just leads
• Innovate vs. iterate for landing page development
• Leverage existing content assets
• Remember: one size does not fit all
• Test, test, test
• Measure, measure, measure
• Be consistent: keep promises, don’t break them

 

Insights into 2010 B2B Marketing Budgets and Tactics Mix
Peter Burris, Forrester Research | Roy Young, MarketingProfs

#1 challenge in B2B marketing is still demand generation (top 3 challenges: generate more leads, reach decision makers, improve lead quality)

88% of business technology professionals are using social media to make decisions; 12% are not

Old marketing engagements:

 
New marketing engagements:

Advice:

• Shift demand from outbound campaigns to inbound dialogue creation
• Develop, not just generate demand
• Integrate physical and digital marketing
• Think POST = People => Objectives => Strategy => Tactics

 

Filing the Pipeline: Finding the Leads that Sales Needs
M.H. McIntosh, Mac McIntosh Inc. | Anne Marie Corbett, Globoforce

Use low-cost marketing activities at front of pipeline: acquire, nurture, qualify

Use high cost marketing activities at back of pipeline: demo, propose, close

The four “rights”:

1. Target the right prospects
2. Make the right offers
3. Use the right media
4. At the right timing

 

Marketing Challenge! Lead Management Automation Systems
Laura Ramos from Xerox (ex-Forrester) with Marketo, Eloqua, Genius.com, Neolane

Absolutely great session, but I did not keep notes

 

Wed, May 5^th

Why Email, CRM and Social Media have become the Tools of Modern B2B Marketing
Joel Book, ExactTarget | Sallie Anthony, Genworth Financial

Don’t think of email alone, think of email + CRM and of email + social media

66% of Fortune 100 companies use Twitter to engage their audience

Case study:

• Break email foundation, integrate with CRM, integrate with social media

Best practices:

• Send email from sales person’s address and include their photo to make more personable
• Create customized emails using dynamic content based on recipient profile (via email automation system and Salesforce.com) so as to consolidate different content offers into a single email

Results:

• 12% in sales with $420 investment
• Go from 4 to 2 marketers
• Enable advanced reporting within Salesforce.com

 

Lead Planning & Nurturing that Converts More Customers
Carlos Hidalgo, The Annuitas Group

Leads that are nurtured record 47% higher order value over those leads that were not nurtured (Aberdeen)

New leads: 15% are ready to buy, 15% have to be discarded, 70% need to nurture

Open rates for nurture email campaigns are twice that of one-off emails

Click rates for nurture email campaigns are three times that of one-off emails

We can have marketing nurture campaigns (for marketing qualified leads) and sales acceleration nurture campaigns (for sales qualified leads)

Key: involve sales in the process!

Also, check all the great tweets from the event, there are a lot of great lines there. Until next time, … A bientot!

Technorati Tags: B2B forum, B2B marketing, lead generation, lead management automation, MarketingProfs, social media marketing

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