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brant ryan

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owner, b2b-marketer

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Sept. 29, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

What are the three metrics every b2b marketing organization must track?

I think the must have list is more than 3, but if I had to pick only 3:
Inquiries MQL's by source
Conversion of MQL's SAL's SQL's
Revenue per campaign source (and deducting from this cost per) more

May 20, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Mac McConnell

What are the first things that you should do when you implement a marketing automation system?

I can’t agree more with the other experts. Process, buy-in and data quality are super critical to a successful implementation. I would like to add a couple tactical, in the app, things to consider.
Asset Inventory – Get rid of the junk
Assuming you are not ... more

May 20, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Carlos Hidalgo

What are the top ways to align marketing and sales?

Great question and in complete agreement with the second point of direction.
Further to this I think one of the ways to achieve alignment is to understand that mis-alignment itself is not the core issue, but rather a symptom of greater issues within organizations. If ... more

May 20, 2011

brant ryan is now following Justin England and 1 other person

May 19, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Is "easy to use" a real selling point or misleading for marketing automation?

I think it is a selling point and one that has been used successfully for quite some time. It can be misleading without the proper context though. Taking David's example, he stated "Easily navigating through MA software is one thing... constructing an efficient/effective sales & ... more

May 12, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

How does marketing automation help you connect with your customers?

In my experience, many marketers have a laser-focus on using MA from a leadgen standpoint - and only a leadgen standpoint. And many, until we suggested it to them, had never considered using it for other purposes. Sales and customer success teams should get just ... more

Marketing Automation

May 12, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

How can marketing automation improve the one-on-one interactions during the lead nurturing process?

To answer the question directly: There is a direct correlation between one-to-one interactions improving and the strength of a relationship, and a relationship can be strengthened with proper use of MA.
Here is an example: I engage with people on a regular basis in the ... more

May 12, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

How can sales help with making marketing automation work?

Cliff is right on in terms of sales helping to define an MQL. They can also help by:
1. Helping to define and refine lead scoring models
2. Give feedback on what kind of data they want synced into their CRM (their data in their sections and ... more

Marketing Automation

May 12, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

What are some other good resources to find information on marketing automation?

Aside from great sites like David's, Jep's and others (can't mention everyone), I do believe that you can get great info from the vendors themselves. Vendors know that in marketing automation content is key. Therefore, many of them will provide info on best practices that ... more

Focusmarketing0311

May 12, 2011

brant ryan recommends this answer by Matthias Rothkoegel

How do marketing automation projects typically crash and burn?

With all due respect, Peter, but are you on a "copy & paste"-mission to bash marketing automation?
I personally don't find it very respectful towards the questioners to paste the same reply to everybody. So far I counted 5 discussions where you posted exactly the same ... more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Solution

Dec. 30, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

B2B Sales Trends: What are the biggest trends in B2B sales to follow in 2011?

1. The heavy "push" sale continues its demise
2. Training begins to ramp again
3. Better alignment between sales and marketing starts to move beyond talk
4. Selling mapped to buying processes is explored by more and more businesses
5. Leveraging technology in the sales process will grow significantly more

Dec. 30, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Does marketing automation work if I only have a cold list of records?

To answer your question directly, Marketing Automation can work with a cold list. With a cold list, one of the things you want to do is warm the list up and help identify valuable and active subscribers. If you want to do that you need ... more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Best Practices

Marketing Automation Campaign

Dec. 17, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Exactly how much of a relationship can I build through email marketing?

I don't know if you are talking about customers or prospects but you can build a relationship with both audiences through email. As Alicia stated, personal interaction is always important; however, quality email communications can add a ton of value. It's easier to keep you ... more

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Campaign

Email Marketing Strategies

Dec. 17, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Do we need people's permission to put them on our email marketing list?

If you want to build a meaningful and lasting relationship over email with your prospects and customers then this is something that you should do. Like Loren said, for every person that does not mind there will be tons that do. Furthermore, you will eventually ... more

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Campaign

Email Marketing Database

Nov. 8, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

How reliable are hosted applications?

I'm a SaaS vendor and can tell you that the reliability is not realted to the delivery model in general but the vendor delivering it. You could host and manage something on your own and run into all of the same issues a vendor may ... more

Nov. 5, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

What is the best way to start an email marketing campaign?

What is the best way to go about starting up an email marketing campaign?
Here are a few things:
- Start your subscription list by offering relevant, valuable content
- Don't ask for a lot of info on your form. Get extra data over time as you build ... more

Email Marketing

Email Marketing Campaing

Marketing Automation

Nov. 5, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

When will the marketing automation industry consolidate?

Yep, it has already started. Next 12-18 months will see a lot of change in my opinion. Still suprised that Oracle is the only CRM to jump in thus far. more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Industry

Marketing Automation Market

Oct. 22, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

What are the benefits of having an internal recruiting department vs. outsourcing?

I think both play an important role. In my opinion most hiring should be done by internal recruiters who know the culture and hiring managers the best. External recruiters can get to know their clients well, but recruiters that work in-house live the culture and ... more

General Management

Human Resources

Hiring Best Practices

Hiring Strategies

Sept. 28, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Which missing feature(s) do you wish your marketing automation solution had?

Based on the answers here it seems as if there is some confusion as to what a Marketing Automation system is. Based on the way the question was asked, I have to assume that it is NOT a CRM or an email tool. The question ... more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Features

Marketing Automation Solution

Sept. 24, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

CRM vs. Marketing Automation

I would fight until I could get both. CRM is primarily for sales and service and MA is primarliy for marketing (using a broad brush). The integration between the 2 bridges the gap. MA systems were not designed to be customer service and sales databases, ... more

Marketing Automation

Sept. 22, 2010

brant ryan recommends this answer by Justin England

Is marketing automation really about automation or is it about visibility?

This is why you should buy Marketing Automation (in no particular order):
1. Do more with fewer resources
2. Get the right message to the right person at the right time
3. Better manage the funnel
4. Better nurture those not yet ready to buy ... more

Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Features

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