To accurately target the right companies in your in-house database, first use what you already have ― your CRM data and your website visitor logs

With your CRM data –

• Profile your top-performing market segments. Where are you winning?
• Identify your best target markets. What kinds of deals close the fastest?
• Determine key qualifying company characteristics and buyer roles.

With your website visitor logs –

• Look for visitor patterns. For example, do you see any companies from your key markets or vertical industries that you haven’t already targeted?
• Are companies visiting that are already currently in your database? If so, are you recording these page visits?
• Your online marketing and PPC advertising is driving lookers, so track these visitors as well. Just because they don’t announce themselves doesn’t mean they aren’t potential leads.

This analysis will help you determine where to find your target market “sweet spot.” You should also follow these other steps as you find the right targets.

• Mark all records that are included in your current target market. You don’t necessarily want to delete the data you aren’t using, but you need the ability to pull your target market data easily.  It may be as simple as a field for industry or industry segment or as complex as a series of tags that indicate parcels within your target market.

• As you fill in gaps and build out contact data for new roles, consider other segmenting options.  Maybe segmenting based on employee size isn’t the way to go, can you use annual revenue as an indicator of opportunity size or maybe geography if you are targeting for a site specific event. Do this while you’re updating as well. This will help you better target your message at these prospects.

Dirty data costs companies billions every year in wasted resources and lost productivity. This is true whether the data is purchased, gathered via download offers or stored in a company’s internal database.

This problem is driven by several factors. Today’s mobile workforce is changing jobs faster than ever before. According to Gartner, 30 million of the 138 million workers in the US will switch jobs in the next 12 months. Now add that to the number of businesses that move or get acquired every month. It’s easy to see how they dirty data piles up and piles up fast.

To make matters even worse, feeding dirty contact data into a marketing automation or CRM system has a multiplier effect. This can quickly derail success by:

• Delivering multiple wrong messages to the wrong person or persons.
• Annoying customers and prospects with redundant messages.
• Losing credibility due to botched attempts at personalized communications.
• Failing to leverage multi-modal marketing capabilities.
• Misinterpreting campaign success metrics.
• Creating sales inefficiencies.

So how can a company address this problem? It’s not easy. Most marketers are overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of duplicate entries, old data, inaccurate contact details and countless records in different states of completion. This existing data has likely been gathered by many different individuals over multiple years.

The best way to start cleaning data is by targeting the right companies, along with the decision makers who actually determine the buying process.  Develop a profile of what your ideal customer would look like, working from there you should be able to weed out less-than ideal candidates or at least give some kind of prioritization to companies in your database.

To get more from your in-house data for lead generation, you need to keep it clean ― but that’s like hitting a moving target. With companies merging or going out of business and a workforce that is constantly changing, marketing databases get dirtier at an alarming rate.

In fact, 2.1% of data goes bad every month, according to MarketingSherpa. This means  over 25% of contact data goes bad per year.

The only problem is knowing which 25%.

The good news is that marketers can dramatically improve their campaign results by using the right strategies to consistently update, clean and refresh their lead-generation database. According to SiriusDecisions, “the company that markets with a healthy data-cleansing routine can realize nearly 70% more revenue than an ‘average’ organization, based purely on data quality.”

Lately, we’ve been talking about the best ways to start with data cleanup, what to consider when marketing to your in-house database, important signs that your database might need help, and more.

Armed with this information, you should be in a better position to optimize your in-house database, reduce wasted efforts, improve conversions and get more revenue from your marketing dollar.

Do you have some great tips for starting the clean up process?

Aberdeen recently released a great report on leveraging customer data to better serve your marketing efforts. Here are some of the take-away points we thought were worth sharing:

If your database is in the slow lane:

• Start by using data for activities that will have a positive impact on revenue. Demonstrate the value of your data to justify investment in its ongoing health.
• Develop timelines and processes for cleaning your data. The importance of good data hygiene can’t be understated. If you clean it once and walk away it will get dirty again. Only constant attention will yield golden results.
• Invest in tools to help analyze customer data. Data analysis and marketing automation technologies will help you improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

If your database is already on the right path but needs a boost to hit the fast lane:

• Implement a formal data hygiene strategy. Create repeatable processes for de-duping, cleaning, and appending data as well as documenting best practices for users of your data.
• Engage multiple departments for data analysis. Encourage collaboration between your sales, marketing, customer service, IT, and finance organizations.

• Democratize all customer data. Centralize your database to measure and optimize the performance of your multichannel campaigns.

As B2B Marketers we spend a lot of time, effort and resources on creating lead generation programs that drive prospect conversions.  But what happens next?

As we become more sophisticated marketers with more promising tools, we are now not only filling the top of the sales funnel but we are also helping move prospects through the sales funnel; one buying stage at a time.

We know it takes multiple interactions to turn a lead into a prospect and usually these interactions involve both Sales and Marketing.  This means both teams need to be armed and ready for the next follow up.

Here’s a checklist to go through to make sure you are set up for success before launching that next program.

• Do your sales and marketing teams know what to follow up with in response to different types of inquiries? If someone reaches out to you about Product A, your follow up should include more information about Product A that opens the door for a discussion.

• Are you emailing pdfs with your follow up emails? Remember attachments can get hung up in spam filters.  Consider putting your docs out on the web and link to them.  This also enables you to track who’s visiting this page.

• Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database or CRM for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts? It’s key that this information is stored in a place that both sales and marketing can access.  Marketing needs to know when and what kinds of nurturing campaigns to push these people through and sales needs to know what marketing programs prospects are interacting with.

• Have you agreed with sales on what a qualified lead looks like? This is 101, right?

• Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified? Getting in touch in a timely manner is key.  Make sure everyone is clear how leads are being routed.

• Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads? One and done doesn’t work in B2B so you need a plan for staying in touch.  Different mediums with different offers is key here.  Not everyone responds to the same things.

• Do you know how often to contact prospects with nurture messages? The jury is still out here, monitor your nurture marketing unsubscribe rates and adjust as needed.  Also be sure sales has a way to opt people out of further communications.

• Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready to buy today? Nurturing programs help build awareness, make sure you have the right kinds of offers in place to build on your prospect profile.

• Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales-lead generation, cultivation and sales follow-up programs? You need this.  How else do you know what’s working and what isn’t?

• And, in my opinion, the most important question – Do you know what new customers originated in marketing and what programs helped drive them to the finish line?

Being able to show real ROI from your marketing efforts is key.  It drives so many “what’s next”  decisions.

If you are anything like us, your resources page on your website is overflowing with whitepapers, eBooks, tearsheets and more.  How do you organize all that great content so your prospects can find what is relevant to them?

The most common way I have seen is to organize it by format:

• Whitepapers
• eBooks
• Podcasts
• Webcasts
• Videos
• Case Studies

This is a good way to go about it if you know your buyers want to go looking specifically for a certain format.  Like you know that those early in the buying cycle want to read whitepapers and that the final decision maker only wants to read case studies.

However, I have found that although my buyers may tend towards one type of format or another, it is the topic of the content that they really care about.  So instead of grouping, for example, all eBooks together, we have 6 different categories our buyers are interested in (obviously this is relevant to our buyers being marketers).  This is how our B2B Marketing Resources page is organized:

• Direct Marketing
• Database Clean-up
• Online Marketing
• Event Marketing
• Marketing and Sales Alignment
• General Marketing

In each category, there could be eBooks, a webcast and tearsheets.  We have found that our buyers care first about the topic of the content and then will choose from the formats available.  Ultimately you need to find the best way to make your content easy to find so that your buyers can consume it.

We know all know Content is King in B2B Marketing.  We use it for blogging, email campaign offers, sales support, website content, whitepapers/eBooks, social media teasers and webinars.  In a recent study by Kingfish Media they found that over 70% of marketers are using custom content to communicate with current customers and 70% use custom media to attract prospects.

We also know that it takes multiple touches to convert a lead into a prospect so using the right kinds of content in the right marketing vehicles is key.

We just recently got back from the MarketingSherpa B2B event where I sat in on a presentation by Bob Johnson from IDG Connect.  He presented some really interesting stats on using content for lead generation.  One that really stood out – “Prospects that engage in 2 touch points are 25% more likely to be in a buying cycle.”  This is huge!

Knowing that content is so important (and so often used), you’ve got to stay fresh.  Here are a few ideas to help get started on creating new enticing content to engage your prospects.

Everyone loves lists, consider creating one of these –

• Compile the top blog posts on a specific industry topic (related to what you are promoting)
• Promote five blogs in your industry (be sure to let them know, you want to make sure they know you are out there too)
• Create lists of your own; things like Top 10 things to consider when choosing a XYZ solution or Top 5 things to avoid when implementing XYZ service (give your prospects a helpful tip and chances are higher that they remember you next time you reach out)
• Create a list of interesting industry stats

Get people to act, try one of these –

• Start a contest and ask for submissions
• Create a survey and commit to sharing the results with everyone that participates
• Start a discussion in your LinkedIn groups.  (Relevance is very important here.)
• Ask a question on Twitter and blog the answers

Think TIPs, everyone is interested in information that will help them –

• Explain industry terms for either the novice or the industry veteran
• Review a recent trade show or conference
• Interview industry leaders asking the tough questions and share their responses.

Remember you can repurpose all of your content.  Here at ReachForce we take our blog tips like this one and roll them into eBooks.  These tip-based eBooks are our most popular pieces of content and for us, writing them in bite size pieces (blog posts) makes the task of creating a new eBook a breeze.

We also use these blog posts for our monthly newsletter, it’s a compilation of our best posts from the previous month.  The newsletter typically gets about a 40% open rate.  It takes us no time to put together and it’s a crowd favorite.

Got any other content ideas, please jump in and share.

David Meerman Scott is sort of the Godfather of eBooks.  Case and point, his eBook, The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free has been downloaded more than 600,000 times.  David had a great post on his blog, Web Ink Now, back in June called So you want to write an ebook? 30 tips for success

Here are some of the best tips David had to offer (be sure to read his entire article before you write your next eBook):

• You should write to solve a problem that people have.
• The ebook should be authored by a person. Don’t make it by your company. You need the personal connection with readers. An ebook by “Premium Landscape Company” will not do as well as an ebook by “Mary Smith, chief landscape architect at Premium Landscape Company.”
• Have a definite point of view.
• Do not sell your products or services in the body of the ebook.
• At the end, in the biography section, have a place where people can learn more and can contact you if they want to work with you.
• You will need a great title that intrigues people.
• Use a subtitle to say what the ebook is about.
• Add a Creative Commons license to encourage people to share.
• Tell people about the ebook, especially those in a position to talk it up.
• Invest in a great design
• Focus on the cover – the first thing people see
• You should have a permanent place to point people. It could be on your blog or site or you could even make a micro site with a unique URL

Here are some of my tips based on the success we have seen with our own eBooks:

• You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  Our most successful eBooks are a collection of blog posts by topic.
• Take out the formality.  Add some personality.
• People love valuable content so put it out there where your customers are – could include: LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter, monthly newsletter, advertising, etc.

Whether or not to have a form in front of your eBook  is highly debatable.  David would tell you to let your content go free and he has some very interesting stats to back this up.  I have yet to convince the higher ups to do this, so we will continue to require registration for our eBooks.  If you are going to put a form in front, try to limit the number of questions.  Also, I have seen some forms where you can choose if you want follow-up from a sales rep or not which could increase downloads.

The success of any business endeavor is dependent on one thing; execution. Even the best marketing strategy will fail if the organization is incapable of executing. In the context of marketing effectiveness, execution has to do with the tactics and processes an organization utilizes to market a product or service. With limited resources and finite budget, marketers need to make sure that all marketing activities are both influencing and driving demand. While it’s critical to have access to a robust centralized marketing database, the database is of little value unless marketers use the data to increase revenue.

In order to improve marketing effectiveness, marketers need to start using the data to build more intimate relationships with prospects and customers. Research proves that mass untargeted email blasts yield an average 1-2% conversion rate.

The following questions will help determine steps your organization can take to improve marketing execution. Remember to check out the marketing automation category for more about marketing automation vendors that can help you here.

Read each question and write down the appropriate points based on an honest assessment of the current state of your marketing operations.

Do you have clearly defined segments and targets?

• Yes- Award yourself 2 points if you currently customize marketing campaigns for unique segments of prospects/customers
• Yes, but we could do a better job- Award yourself 1 point if you segment your database, but you feel you could do a better job creating customized marketing messages for these segments
• No- Award yourself 0 points if you do not currently segment or target unique segments of prospects/customers

Do you currently use any personalization in outbound marketing campaigns? Award points for each applicable answer then add up all the points at the bottom (this question could award a total of 21 points)

• Mass Email (1 Point): _______

• Segmentation and Targeting (2 Points): _______

• Personalized- Name in Salutation (4 Points): _______

• Personalized- Using other database criteria: purchase date, product purchased, etc.

(6 Points): _______

• Event Triggered- Marketing interactions are triggered by customer behavior (8 Points): _______

• Total Points:_________ (Enter in b.)

Do you have one or more lead nurturing campaigns that are designed to educate potential buyers that are not yet ready to make a purchase?

• Yes- Award yourself 2 points if you have exclusive marketing campaigns designed to nurture and educate prospects
• No- Award yourself 0 points if you do not use lead nurturing

Do you know which marketing channels result in (or influence) the highest number of leads?

• Yes- Award yourself 2 points
• No- 0 points

Can you name 3 companies that visited your website this week?

• Yes- Award yourself 2 points
• No- 0 points

Final Score

a._____+ b._____+ c._____+ d._____ +e._____ = ______

How did you score?

With the right tools and processes in place, marketing execution can be quick and painless. Without those tools and processes, it can be painful and yield poor results, possible causing you or your programs to get the ax.

• 0-6 Points: You don’t quite have the hang of it - A final score between 0 and 6 indicates you could increase marketing effectiveness considerably by increasing the use of personalized email campaigns or even basic segmentation of your marketing database. Consider lead nurturing campaigns to increase the number of sales-ready leads that are passed on to sales.
• 7-18 Points: You’re getting there, keep on hacking away - A final score between 7 and18 indicates you are using a moderate level of personalization or segmentation and probably achieve average conversion rates on outbound campaigns. Consider tracking prospect performance across multiple channels (the web, email, landing pages, keywords, etc.) By tracking prospect behavior you can more accurately predict propensity to purchase and relevant materials that will have the biggest impact on driving revenue. Automation can help deliver highly relevant marketing interactions that are triggered by prospect behavior. This increases the likelihood of delivering the right message to the right prospect at the right time.
• 19-29 Points: You’re killing it - A final score between 19 and 29 points indicates your taking full advantage of your marketing database to build more intimate, relevant, personalized relationships with prospects and customers. The question is, are you measuring performance over time to constantly improve marketing execution?

What is Marketing Effectiveness?

We’ve spent the last few weeks getting to know our marketing automation partners and friends.   They all share the goal of increasing marketing effectiveness.  This got me thinking, really what IS marketing effectiveness.

Wikipedia defines marketing effectiveness as the quality of how marketers go to market with the goal of optimizing their spending to achieve good results for both the short-term and long-term.  So essentially, effective marketing must grow top line revenue while minimizing the impact on bottom line cost.

There are three fundamental ways marketers can influence marketing effectiveness:

• Marketing Strategy: How you will engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market.  This includes the marketing mix, product development, positioning and segmentation / targeting.
• Marketing Execution: The people, process and technology that enable effective execution of marketing strategy and highly impactful creative.  Successful execution of a superior marketing strategy increases marketing effectiveness.
• Marketing Measurement: Good marketers are expected to understand marketing analytics and use marketing performance as the basis for allocating budget effectively.  As a result, marketers must measure metrics that matter; metrics that can translate to strategic actions and drive accountability.

At its core, marketing effectiveness is about increasing revenue.    Higher returns on marketing investments are a byproduct of effective marketing. However, calculating a true return on marketing investment is no easy task.  With today’s multi-channel marketing strategies, it’s difficult to accurately allocate measurable returns to marketing spend.

By scoring best practices across these three areas, organizations can rapidly measure and identify immediate opportunities to improve marketing effectiveness.  But, remember the effectiveness of marketing is tied to marketing and sales agreeing on WHAT is handed off and at what stage. If this definition and agreement are NOT in place, marketing effectiveness and overall marketing ROI can go quickly to zero.

Interested in how you measure up?

Be sure to stop back here next week for a few quick assessment quizzes to identify areas of improvement and the overall ability for your organization to maximize marketing effectiveness.