Sounds great, if all your ducks are lined up. You’ve probably been on the receiving end of lead nurturing campaigns, especially if you receive newsletters, blog post alerts, whitepapers, invitations to webinars, etc. This type of content influences your buying decision and hopefully sparking continued interest in a particular product or service. However, if your ducks aren’t in a row, then you’re not ready to implement nurturing campaigns yet.

According to Christopher Hosford’s article about the lead nurturing challenge in BtoB Magazine, “only 49% of marketers overall have a lead-nurturing process in place to support their lead-gen efforts” So creating lead nurturing campaigns remains a challenge for 51%.

Lead Nurturing Questions to Ask

If an effective lead nurturing plan is on your to-do list this year, consider these questions first:

1. Do you have enough content to support a nurture campaign? If not, start developing copy and relevant offers.
2. Does your sales team (or those who follow up with your leads) have time to contact prospects generated from events, webinars, batch and blast emails? In other words, can they handle the additional work that a lead nurturing campaigns will create? The upshot here is to map out who handles what leads and when.
3. Does your lead-gen staff (or outsourced resources) have the capability (both time or ability) to set it up and make the appropriate changes  after testing? There are plenty of online training resources to help fill in any knowledge gaps.
4. Have you tested other campaigns to find what works best for your marketing efforts? You want to test campaigns (or any major changes) before pulling the trigger.
5. Are your marketing automation program and CRM programs integrated? Does the process push leads back into your CRM so prospects are forwarded to the appropriate sales reps? Again, mapping the process will save you unnecessary headaches.
6. Have the Marketing and Sales teams discussed at what stage leads should be nurtured? It’s best to determine how lead nurturing will be applied. For example, agree upfront whether or not lead nurturing should be used for existing customers (to up-sell or cross-sell for a deeper relationship) or for prospects only.

So before jumping on the nurturing campaign bandwagon, I suggest doing an internal audit to see if the above questions have been answered. If it’s a go, then the fun, creative part of deciding who and how to nurture can begin.

Have additional questions to add to my list? What other elements need to be in place?

The post Right Time for Lead Nurturing Campaigns appeared first on Beth McCullough.

Regionalized Social Media Pros

Targeted Social Media Platforms

Let’s use an example of a company headquartered in China or one where you are targeting an audience in this country. Social media campaigns centering only around Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will miss the mark as these platforms are blocked in China (unless users have access to a VPN line). According to Mashable’s article on 5 Chinese Social Networks You Need to Watch, there are 513 million users on home grown social networks. There is an equivalent for Facebook; it’s called RenRen. My suggestion is to do your research and make sure the person who manages these platforms is knowledgeable and sensitive to cultural customs. China’s version of Twitter is Sina Weibo where 22% of the Chinese internet population are users (an impressive number based upon their population and the newness of this technology).

Targeted Messaging per Region

Using platforms that utilize the news, regional company releases, contests, etc., will help your company communicate with that market at a local level. Photos or how-to videos of your product is also a great way to show potential (local) buyers what current customers like. Capitalize on third-party posts, photos and videos, as they provide rich opportunities to engage actual satisfied customers to tell their stories.

Dividing the Workload

For a corporation with a global headquarters as well as a regional presence, each area can be tasked with supplying relevant local news, product updates, local contests, local events, etc. Designated staff members can also monitor and react in that region’s timezone to anything posted (positive or negative). Responsiveness and engagement on social media lets people know that your company is actively listening.

And The Cons

Bandwidth

If your company’s social media staff is limited, then it will be difficult to regionalize based on time and resources. If this is the case it might be better to start with one or two of the most popular social media sites in your company’s largest region and do a great job on that. Be sure to set up Google Alerts and other searches to find where your company is being talked about as a good best practice.

Too Many Options

If China, India, Europe, South America and the US are all your top target regions, there may be too many options to post to and provide content. Besides being overwhelming to manage, not all platforms will reach your target market. My suggestion is to research where your efforts can do the most good.

Slow Growth

Even if you post to your Global Facebook page and Twitter account, local followers are slow to “like” and “follow.” Often times, building a steady following on a platform takes time and consistency.

What’s Right for your company?

Setting a strategy

My first suggestion is to determine if there is a dedicated staff person or people in each region that are motivated. It takes focus on regionalizing social media platforms in order to build, grow and respond. Start with a plan, and staff accordingly. If internal staff is unavailable, perhaps outsourcing makes sense. In either case, start simple or delay jumping into social media for now… as unraveling mistakes can be costly in terms of man hours and brand reputation.

Keeping Information Current

Many companies struggle with having enough content or the right content to communicate to its markets. Some content can be re-purposed for multiple region sites. Keep in mind that companies who actively put new content on their social media platforms are the ones that continue to grow their social media reach.

Stay The Course

Once you’ve decided on the frequency of social media posts, be consistent. Your followers expect you to keep them up to speed on the industry trends, your company news and responding to questions, comments, compliments or complaints.

The post Social Media Regionalization: Pros & Cons appeared first on Beth McCullough.

Finishing up explaining the 6 functions Marketing Automation can do that CRM can’t, here are the remaining 3:

4. Online Behavior Tracking

The appropriate tracking codes need to be present on all web pages. Besides having  Web Analytics activated, Marketing Automation platforms use special coding to track online behaviors. For example, Marketo uses munchkin code as part of their lead scoring feature. When you set up your automation software, you’ll modify settings to help you track and score specific web activity.

For example, someone who visits one product page versus another who sticks around to view multiple pages including pricing, will be a stronger prospect. Conversely, those who visit your Careers page for job openings, can be assigned a negative score.

5. List Management

You can slice and dice your lists based upon various criteria like geography, decision making status, recent events, company size or earnings, etc. If a hot lead is currently being worked on by a sales rep, there’s also a way to suspend marketing messages to that lead. Sometimes, you need to allow the relationship to evolve and allow time for direct and personalized communication.

Additionally, it’s not uncommon for competitors to shop your website and marketing materials. Platforms like Marketo, HubSpot and Eloqua allow you to black list known competing company IP addresses. Of course this isn’t fool-proof, but it helps to keep the list clean and targeted.

6. Marketing Automation Measurement & Analytics

There are several standard performance measurement reports. You can review performance by time frame, campaign, email performance, landing page performance, and many others. Marketing automation can do advanced level analytics that can integrate with a CRM. This ties revenue performance directly to a campaign or multiple campaigns. You can then calculate much more than cost per lead. You can determine if specific campaigns are efficient lead generators or dead weight. Insights — particularly sales insights — provide  feedback on how to improve a campaign as well as help sales teams better prioritize and qualify leads through the sales process.

These are just six key differences between Marketing Automation and a CRM. You can probably tell I’m a fan. What’s been your experience? What are your favorite features?

The post Marketing Automation vs. CRM Part 2 appeared first on Beth McCullough.

Actually they both lose without each other. Many companies that focus on sales for the their bottom line put a lot of time and money in developing a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform. Until recently, marketing departments have had little opportunity to really track key measurements and Return on Investment (ROI). Programs like Marketo, Eloqua, and Hubspot can fill that gap.

In my experience, here are 6 functions that Marketing Automation software can do that a CRM simply can’t handle:

1. Lead Scoring

Basically lead scoring is the process that determines a prospect’s interest in your solution. It calculates several factors, including downloading a white paper, opening an email, webpage visits, traffic source (e.g., social media, special landing page, targeted email campaign). As a foundation, lead scoring requires defining your ideal target.

2. A Design Platform

Typically Marketing Automation software allows you to design landing pages, forms, emails, etc. with a WYSIWYG interface. That means you don’t need to be a HTML wizard when creating and managing elements of your marketing arsenal. Of course, you need to follow good design principles so landing pages and forms are intuitive, leading your prospect to take the next step.

3. Lead Nurturing

It takes multiple touches (anywhere from 7 to 20+) before a prospect becomes a customer. As the name implies, this process nurtures the prospect during the buying process.

For example, let’s say a prospect has been disqualified; that information is noted in a CRM. When CRM and Marketing Automation platforms are integrated, you don’t lose track of this prospect. Just because they aren’t qualified now, doesn’t mean they will remain unqualified. Marketing automation software allows you to systematically nurture the lead for the purpose of ultimately converting them.

Stay tuned for Marketing Automation vs. CRM Part 2 where I’ll explain the remaining three functions.

The post Marketing Automation vs. CRM Part 1 appeared first on Beth McCullough.

Using LinkedIn for event promotion starts with engaging with this social media tool daily. Professionals who get the most out of LinkedIn recommend logging in and updating your status once a day. You should also review your LinkedIn home page two times a day to learn the latest about your connections.

If you don’t get around to logging in that frequently, you still may have the LinkedIn updates emailed to you once a week. At the bottom of those updates, it shows what events your connections are attending. Even easier is to go to the bottom right hand column of your LinkedIn homepage and click the link.

See events your connections are attending

If for any reason you don’t have the LinkedIn Event application on your profile, it can be found and added under the Applications Folder. This Applications Directory can be found under the More Tab at the top right.

The LinkedIn Event feature makes it easy for individuals to let their network know which events they are attending. I have often found new events to attend just by seeing what my connections are attending. In this application, you can also go to the Find Events Tab you can search events by keyword, timeframe, and location.

Promoting Your Event

To add and promote your event on LinkedIn, go to the Events section at the bottom right and click on:  Browse events for you.

• Click on the tab Add an Event. Enter the event information and click the Publish button. Be sure to add important, searchable keywords in the keywords section to help with the Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Also important is to add your registration link to the website section.
• Invite up to 50 connections in your network that are in the target audience. The connections can be filtered by location and industry. Invite them to join you at the event and ask them to forward the information to others who may be interested. The SirLinkedAlot Blog suggests that you share and recommend the event on your status page once a day
• Encourage those who cannot attend to click on the Interested button to keep the event in the front of their network. Everyone can see the RSVPs!
• If the budget allows for it, consider doing a targeted LinkedIn ad campaign to promote the event
• Create a LinkedIn Group for your event, invite members and post the latest status for the event, industry news and discussions, as well as encourage members to post their own news and discussions to keep the group dynamic and interactive
• Post discussions related to your event to other Linkedin Groups with related interests
• Blog about the event and use the WordPress or Blog Link application to have blog posts show up in your Linkedin Profile
• Add a SlideShare application to your profile and create a SlideShare presentation about the benefits of attending the event
• If you have video clips from past events, upload them to YouTube and then add that YouTube video to your LinkedIn profile through the Google Presentation application.
• Feed occasional key event-related tweets from your Twitter account to your LinkedIn status. Just be careful not to feed tweets too frequently to LinkedIn, as it will overcrowd the status updates for your connections

Please share your favorite ways that you have used LinkedIn for event promotion.

The post Using LinkedIn for Event Promotion appeared first on Beth McCullough.

For a virtual event, will I need to create an avatar and move around in strange, computer world?

These are thoughts that I had before participating in a few virtual events. I am fascinated by virtual events and love learning new information through virtual platforms, especially in the events that are targeted toward event professionals.

Having marketed and planned live events for over twelve years, I recently learned at the Virtual Edge Summit that there are some big misconceptions when planning a virtual event. Below are five common misconceptions about virtual events that I learned:

1. Virtual Events are Easier to Plan

The experts in the virtual events arena talked about how it takes as much strategy, often more planning, and a larger, more technical team to plan a virtual event. Speakers will need a rehearsal, using the exact equipment to make sure all is running properly before the event. Frequent and strategic promotions are critical. Educational materials for exhibitors, sponsors, and attendees need to be prepared to describe how to best to leverage their participation in a virtual forum.

2. Virtual Events are Less Expensive to Plan

Depending on the size and complexity of the event, this may or not be true. With virtual events, the catering, venue rental, attrition, and transportation costs are eliminated; however, it can be expensive to pay for the vendor(s) to provide a top-notch platform and internal team to keep it all running smoothly.

3. Virtual Events will Replace Live Events

Virtual events make it possible for a more global and diverse audience to participate, as well as help attendees cut travel costs, but face-to-face connection and networking cannot be replaced.

4. Hybrid Events will Reduce Attendance at the Live Event

A hybrid event is a live event in conjunction with a virtual event. It is said that using hybrid events can help build attendance overall. The live and virtual platforms can complement each other. A few case studies have shown that many attendees who are first-time virtual attendees are driven to attend in person the following year.

5. Virtual Events Require an Avatar and Technical Knowledge

For events that take place on a 3D platform or virtual world like Second Life, this is true. However, most virtual event platforms are still 2D and require only computer internet navigation skills.

I have not yet ventured into a virtual world event, but I will be sure to blog about it and let you know how it goes.

The post Virtual Events: 5 Common Misconceptions appeared first on Beth McCullough.