Blog

In part 1, “What Every CMO Should Add to the Marketing Plan“, we talked about what the marketing automation plan (MAP) was.  But why is it important to the CEO that the CMO have one? CEOs are constantly reading, and many CEOs will expect you to be doing the things they’ve just read about. ButRead more

Recently I helped the CMO of a client of ours produce their marketing plan and I quickly came to a realization. The marketing plans we used just a short while ago are out of date. The mainstays of these plans, including target markets, market size, market niche, channels, segments, budgets, lead projections and more areRead more

Marketers have struggled to keep data clean since the first crumpled business card changed hands.Technology solutions may help, but you need more. Processes must be put in place, and people must be trained to handle data issues proactively. A sustainable clean-data environment requires a methodical and vigilant approach to data management.   This white paperRead more

I read an article this morning entitled “What is a Sales-Ready Lead, and Why You Need to Know” by David Dodd that takes a decent shot at defining a sales ready lead. Here’s the criteria he puts forward: These criteria are a great place start, but there are two essential questions to consider when creatingRead more

Of course every client is unique. But we see a typical recurring pattern in how “Lead Scoring” and more specifically “Lead Gating” is absorbed into an organization and specifically into the marketing-sales relationship. These 3 stages consider the political realities of evolving from Marketing/Sales 1.0 to 2.0 and recognizes that going to a fully evolvedRead more

Once your team has created a scoring algorithm, how do you determine if the scores are meaningful as you intended, and if they are not, how do you improve the algorithm so they are?  While adjusting your algorithm may seem to be the obvious and simple choice, it is not without its complexities.  First youRead more

Modern Marketers recognize the importance of scoring leads; providing your Sales team with a clear way to identify which leads are “Hot” is critical to shortening the Sales Cycle. But how do you ensure that scores are valid and mean something to both the Marketing and Sales teams? You cannot create your lead scoring algorithmRead more

As content marketing becomes more important to companies in the era of marketing automation, and as the white paper continues to be one of the pillars of content marketing, all kinds of “how to” questions are popping up. And one of these is, “what’s the right length for a white paper?” Not long ago, white papersRead more