Marketing Automation has been around since the 1990s. Back then, the focus was on automating email marketing— managing the development and delivery of emails to target lists at scheduled times. Over the decades, software developers expanded the capabilities of Marketing Automation to meet the requirements of a variety of marketing functions and users.

Today, Marketing Automation refers to a broad range software technology for marketing and it is an important element of closed loop marketing. Its evolution has raised many questions about what it is, what it does, and whom it benefits.

Corporations with complex, high-consideration sales are often accused of Complex Sales Campaign Designfocusing on the short-term, which is inevitably reflected in their demand generation or campaign strategy. This generally means that marketing and sales are not aligned and operating to some degree as silos.  With short-term horizons, the campaign communications focus tends to be on sales driven, tactical programs designed to seek out “hot leads”.

In the highly competitive, complex B2B sales world with longer sales cycles, this is not fully sustainable.  There is a typically a sales team or committees of savvy buyers A short term focus may eke out some leads, but what about the other leads who may with some nurturing turn out to be qualified opportunities — but not yet “sales-ready.” The modern buyer knows your product or service from what is readily available on the web and related sources and will be considering any number of options before making a decision.

Studies show that 50% of leads are qualified but aren’t immediately ready to buy something from you [Source: Gleanster Research]With lead nurturing however, you can bring those leads through your sales funnel and garner 4-10 times the response rate compared to a regular email blast while doing it [Source: SilverPop/DemandGen Report].

So where do you start?

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Many consider writing a blog post a daunting task. The structure needs to be clear and the writing needs to be persuasive.

It does not need to be a daunting task! A blog post can be drafted quickly using a structured persuasive communications approach.

So, how can you write a blog post effectively…..quickly?

The answer is to use Persuasive Communications and Top-Down Thinking!

How?

Begin with a single persuasive message and follow a proven ‘top-down’ structure:  S-C-Q-A!

  • Situation
  • Complication
  • Question
  • Answer (single persuasive message)
+ supporting points or “key lines”

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