Marketing: 4 Things You Should Do for Sales Development that Aren’t MQLs

I’m lucky. Here at Marketo, I’ve had the pleasure of working with not one, but two (!) of the best sales development leaders out there. What makes them so great? Both are beloved captains who are awesome at finding talented people and developing them into great sellers. And, they’re just as skilled at cross-functional collaboration.

Bottom line: my sales development leaders totally get that somewhere between MQL and SQL, their teams become the face of the brand in a major way.

That means coaching and learning are a big part of their teams’ day-to-day so they can assume that role with confidence and agility. Because let’s be honest—every sales call is a different beast. I share this because leaders who care deeply about learning are the prerequisite to everything else I’m about to say. They WANT marketing involved as a partner to ensure the experience from nurture to hot lead to first sales call is a consistent, personalized experience.

So with a lot of guidance from strong sales leaders along the way, here are 4 specific things I’ve learned marketing can do to contribute to a learning culture in your SDR/BDR organization.

Flip the Script

Think contextually, not linear (script) when you create live conversation materials for inside sales teams. After all, that’s how conversations work. I’ve learned from the leadership here to deploy “open-ended questions” that get a thoughtful conversation flowing. Our battlecards are context on one side (topical details, when to use the battlecard, etc.) and on-call content on the other (those open-ended questions, with some proof points and talking points for smart responses.) This approach can work whether you’re making materials for competitors, industries, personas, or important industry topics.

Enable Enthusiastically and Often

We have a cadence—every time we release a new battlecard, we do a ‘lunch and learn’ that includes deeper enablement for the team. Why did we make this card? Who should you use it with? How will it help? What is the purpose of each open-ended question? Why do we recommend certain proof points? These answers should help the team look for cues so they can tailor and add value in conversation with a prospect.

Play the Part

If you have a pent-up theater kid inside of you, you’ll love what I’m about to say: roleplay is an incredible tool for honing the above (tailored, value-adding conversations) without risking anyone’s experience with your brand. And I take this seriously (ask Stacey Thornberry or Mike Madden.) Make a few fictional personas that correspond to your battlecards. Enlist SDR leadership, sales enablement, or other marketers to play the parts with you. And don’t forget to throw some curveballs. That’s real life, right?

Be a Partner

Don’t be hands off with your SDR/BDR team. Sit with them and listen. Invite their feedback and their questions. Take a closer look at the performance of the email cadences they use—just like you would any other campaign. Help with the content, to be sure the connection between their messages and yours are tight. Sales development teams can be great partners for testing new messaging and providing feedback on what works, especially when they’re outbounding. Don’t let that opportunity pass you!

So, marketers: it’s time to share the brand spotlight and ensure continuity with the stories we tell our prospects and customers. Our campaigns don’t just stop at MQL. If we do our job right, they get better at that point, because there’s a real, intelligent person ready to make a human connection. I’m excited to help them do that, aren’t you? (Ok, fine, if that’s a little lofty to you, how about this? You’ll also get more SQLs and the pipeline to go with them.)

The post Marketing: 4 Things You Should Do for Sales Development that Aren’t MQLs appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/marketing-4-things-sales-development-arent-mqls.html

How to Growth-Hack Your Way to Revenue Gains—Even if You’re Not A Startup

Have your marketing efforts hit a plateau? Are you looking for an innovative way to reach new markets and solve new problems?

If so, you may have considered growth hacking but run into snags if your company is beyond startup mode.

As you may already know, Sean Ellis, an experienced marketing leader, entrepreneur and angel investor, coined the term “growth hacker” to describe “a person whose true north is growth.” The initial concept was that budget-strapped startups needed to use unconventional tactics to achieve an ideal product/market fit and progress to driving mass user adoption.

Since then, several upstart companies, including Instagram, Airbnb, and Slack, have ridden the growth-hacking wave to stardom—attracting interest from established companies.

However, a cultural conflict has stopped many SMBs and enterprises from realizing the promise of growth hacking. Why? Inherent risk aversion and a focus on process are in opposition to the concept behind growth hacking—that failure is OK, as long as you can rapidly execute agile, measurable, out-of-the-box tactics.

This is unfortunate—and remediable. Growth hacking has an important place in larger, more evolved companies, too. If you’re willing to step out of your comfort zone, growth-hacking success stories can inspire new ideas that elevate your marketing and bolster ROI.

In this blog I’ll share three growth-hacking lessons and use cases that you can use to help generate ideas on how to use growth hacking for your organization and improve your results:

1. Use Your Best Customers as Your Research Lab

To achieve product/market fit, revamp your approach to innovation by using your best customers as your research laboratory.

Use case:

Instagram: In 2009, location-based mobile applications were skyrocketing. Mirroring the buzzworthy app at the time, Foursquare, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom developed a similar app, named Burbn. The app allowed users to check in to locations, post planned activities, and post pictures using filters.

Systrom secured a $500,000 round of funding and hired his first employee, Mike Krieger. Together, they examined how Burbn’s user base behaved within the app. It became abundantly clear that the photo-sharing capability was by far the most popular feature. The two studied the cluttered yet embryonic photo-sharing app marketplace and realized there was an opportunity to develop a filter-based app that also boasted a social network.

Based on this learning, they pivoted away from the original premise of Burbn, instead developing an easy-to-use app that eventually became Instagram.

Instagram grew by leaps and bounds—to 100,000 users in a week, 1 million in 2½ months, and 30 million just 30 months after its launch. Facebook eventually purchased Instagram for $1 billion.

The Instagram approach also can work if your company has been around for years. Deeply evaluating user behavior may lead you to decide to focus solely on a particular product feature, or to enhance and emphasize it to improve your company’s competitive edge.

2. Use “What If” Analysis to Create New Opportunities

To expand market share, use “what if” analysis to create new opportunities.

Use case:

Airbnb: If your company already has a viable product or service, growth hacking can help you drive awareness. Take a cue from Airbnb penetrating Craigslist’s marketplace.

Airbnb, which enables almost anyone to convert a spare bedroom into a hotel room available for rent, wanted to increase its market penetration. To do so, it reverse-engineered an application program interface (API), allowing its users to post listings on Craigslist.

Although Craigslist’s model prevented the hack and there were no guarantees that the API would work, Airbnb’s team went for it based on the potential payoff. The plan succeeded, and because Airbnb’s listings generally were better than traditional Craigslist ads, Airbnb drove more traffic to its application—at virtually no advertising cost.

You could accomplish a similar breakthrough to expand the market for an existing product.

3. Address Problems That Prospects Don’t Know They Have

To define a new market, strategically address problems that prospects don’t know they have.

Use case:

Slack: Two weeks before launch, Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield sent a memo to his development team. Titled “We don’t sell saddles here,” the memo conveyed Slack’s mission, stating: “Despite the fact that there are a handful of direct competitors and a muddled history of superficially similar tools, we are setting out to define a new market. And that means we can’t limit ourselves to tweaking the product; we need to tweak the market too.”

Butterfield further explained that Slack was more than a chat system; it was the key to “organizational transformation.”

“We’re selling a reduction in information overload, relief from stress, and a new ability to extract the enormous value of hitherto useless corporate archives,” Butterfield wrote. “We’re selling better organizations, better teams. That’s a good thing for people to buy and it is a much better thing for us to sell in the long run.”

And the market proved him right. By articulating a value proposition to serve a broader, previously unknown need, Slack became a $1 billion company in a mere two years.

While there’s no right or wrong way to growth-hack, these three lessons offer a foundation for finding new pathways to accelerated revenue gains and higher ROI—whether your company is on the launch pad or well-established.

Do you have a great example of growth hacking—either in your organization or outside of it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

The post How to Growth-Hack Your Way to Revenue Gains—Even if You’re Not A Startup appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/growth-hack-way-revenue-gains-even-youre-not-startup.html

Videos for Lead Nurturing? They Can Do a Lot More Than You Think

According to SiriusDecisions, 80% of unqualified leads today—those understandably ignored by sales—will go on to buy from someone within the next 24 months. The solution is nurturing, but how do you do that?

Opportunistic Video

There are countless ways to put a brand in front of buyers, of course. But for B2B products and services, especially those with a long, complex buying process, the brand needs to be accompanied by information the buyer cares about.

Obviously, video is a good format for micro-learning, especially on mobile devices. But few companies produce videos that are ready to be inserted into automated nurturing campaigns. Why not? Because most marketers aren’t thinking about video opportunistically. Typically, they think about making traditional genres of video content—explainer, demo, webinar, etc. A more pointed way of putting it: they’re not thinking about making videos that match what prospects want to know. They’re thinking about video, not the customer experience.

Thinking opportunistically opens up a lot of new ways to generate targeted video content, not only for messaging but also for understanding buyers and their motivation.

Persona-Based Videos

Focusing on a buyer persona means you can make shorter videos, get to the point faster, take up less of the buyer’s time, and appeal to the special interests of each buying team member.

The table below is adapted from an excellent article, What’s a Successful ABM Strategy Without Killer Content?, by content marketing consultant Rebecca Smith of Heinz Marketing.

The table, by Terminus, is designed to help marketers develop a content strategy (not just video content) for account-based marketing. You could fill in the blanks here with all kinds of media—including killer video content.

According to Smith, content at the top of the funnel should be designed to help an audience who doesn’t know much about you and your solution—no hard sell. In the middle stage, you want to distinguish yourself from competitors—but still no hard sell. That doesn’t come until you’ve developed trust. At the bottom of the funnel, buyers want to be convinced. Illustrations of features, advantages, and benefits work here.

If this approach makes sense to you, it will also make sense to think a little differently about how you use video.

The FAQ Opportunity

In the course of interviewing subject matter experts for the videos we produce, we often hear about product features or use cases that seem to capture customers’ interest and generate questions. We always try to address these questions in the short videos we make, but when a topic is competing for 90-120 seconds of “air time” with other features and benefits, interesting angles and insights are bound to be missed.

Yet, if a question is truly “frequently asked,” it deserves to be answered in a concise, visually interesting video. Punchy FAQ videos can also work as promotional teasers in social media, as well as customer-friendly content in account-based marketing.

The Blog-To-Video Opportunity

Think about all the work that goes into most blog posts. Especially in technology companies, people who know a lot are writing about what they know. They’re writing for their peers, and they’re doing their best to make things clear. Here are five reasons to base short videos on blog posts:

1. A video can extend the life of an existing post, kindle new interest, and extend the reach to a wider audience
2. Video based on approved copy can be produced faster and with less hassle
3. Video makes the information more accessible
4. “Video” in the subject line can increase email opens (but always test this for your audience)
5. Videos are shared 7X more than links on Facebook

The Interactive Web Video Opportunity

eLearning experts know that users like to be in control of the learning experience. What’s different about responsive (or “interactive”) videos is that the exploration and interaction all takes place within the video window. So it feels more like a user-friendly app, and less like a promotional website.

Interactive video used to be specialist technology. It didn’t really scale and it didn’t work on iPhones. But, now it’s HTML5 and works in a browser, which provides instant scalability. Additionally, with the release of Apple’s iOS X, it works on iDevices, which is huge—opening the door for broader reaching access and consumption.

There are plenty of easy-to-use tools for making a video respond to input—almost like a chatbot. This can be as simple as adding chapter headings to a webinar, interview, or whiteboard talk. Or a video where you can click on objects to dive deeper into the subject. Or a video that branches to new content based on user input.

Let’s say your product has three major differentiators, X, Y, and Z, and you usually pitch them in that order. Some viewers are really interested in Y. Others care more about Z. With interactive video you can let viewers skip ahead to the differentiator that matters most to them—they’ll like that. And when you think about it, why do you care if they skipped X unless everyone skips it? If for example, they skip to Y, you can insert a pop-up button that offers to take the viewer to more information about Y. Now, you’re guiding the buyer’s journey.

The Customer Experience Opportunity

These video formats have a couple of things in common: they are more informational than promotional, and they present the information in short bursts. That’s in line with the trend that “micro-learning” eLearning experts recommend. More important, by focusing video content marketing on customers’ desire to learn, it puts the customer experience first, which will make your customers more engaged and your marketing more successful.

Are you implementing any of opportunistic video strategies? I’d love to know how you’re thinking about video content in your organization—please share in the comments below.

The post Videos for Lead Nurturing? They Can Do a Lot More Than You Think appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/videos-lead-nurturing-can-lot-think.html

Why Buying Stages Are Really Investment Stages

Let’s take a quick poll. When was the last time your boss asked you to do something and you didn’t question why you needed to do it a specific way? You see, sometimes we just assume that the old way of doing things is the right way. But every so often, we forget to test what’s right under our noses.

It all started with one simple question: What types of content resonate with what types of leads? In other words, does the early stage content you have work for early stage leads? Or would it work better for late stage leads? Or does the content even work at all?

In every database, there are three types of leads. You have the folks that are brand new and have yet to learn about you or your product. Then you have folks that have an idea of who you are but aren’t yet ready to buy. Lastly, you’ll have folks that are well-educated, interested in evaluating your product, and could potentially buy from you. Each of these stages maps to a content stage, which is often how marketers define and guide the buyer’s journey.

Now when you plot out those leads on a curve to see where the bulk of people fall in the buyer’s journey, you’ll find that the database looks a little something like this:

The bulk of your database is most likely early stage leads because we tend to have more people that aren’t yet ready to buy from us than those that are pulling out their checkbooks. Sad but true.

Now let’s define how marketers tend to think about the stages of content.

• Early: Content that builds brand awareness —it’s fun, engaging, and doesn’t have a hard sales message for either your brand or product.
• Mid: At this stage, the content is focused on educating the audience. It introduces the product in the context of the market, explains why it’s the best product, and how it can provide a solution to your company.
• Late: At this stage, we assume that the lead has already been educated enough on the product to make an informed decision. This content helps sell the product by helping the buyer make a purchase decision.

Let me tell you a story of how I came to believe that marketers are missing something here. And like any good story, I will tell it in chapters.

Chapter 1: The Discovery

A couple months ago, I was preparing to speak on a webinar called 3 Hacks to Boost Email Open Rates. From my perspective, this was primarily an early-stage webinar but our normal process would be to promote it to all leads in the buyer’s journey (early-, mid-, and late-stage). After the first email invite deployed, I became curious to know what types of leads were registering for this webinar, particularly if they were, in fact, early-stage leads.

Here’s what I found when I looked at the registration list:

To my complete confusion, I found that even though this was an “early-stage” webinar, only 5 early stage leads registered. How many early-stage leads received the first invite email, you ask? Roughly 96,000. I know, you might want to take a seat for this…

Chapter 2: Is the Test Repeatable?

Feeling like my world had been turned upside down, I went back and reviewed the webinar program for the 8 Biggest Mistakes Social Media Marketers Make, which was another early-stage webinar that took place the month prior.

Here’s what I found:

The exact same pattern appeared! Despite this being what we believed to be another early-stage webinar, most registrants are late-stage leads. But what about the attendees? What happened to the attendance rates?

With this data, we uncovered the following insights:

• Late-stage leads are over 2x more likely to attend a webinar than an early stage lead
• We can send a high volume of emails to early-stage leads and yet only get 23 people to attend

Chapter 3: Back to the 3 Hacks Webinar

Armed with surprising new data about registrations, I thought I would break the data down further by looking at email performance by buying stage.

When comparing late-stage leads to early-stage leads, late-stage leads performed significantly better:

• 131% higher open rates
• 913% higher click-to-open rates
• 47% lower unsubscribe rates
• 9,588% higher conversion rates on the registration page

If it wasn’t clear before, it was now. Leads that are still early in the buying cycle are not ready for a webinar, no matter the topic. This was the perfect example of why we need to test everything. Only after this webinar analysis did I truly understand what content format is resonating with leads at each stage of the buying cycle.

Chapter 4: A New Day

I started this blog making the bold statement that what you thought about content marketing might not be true. How we, the marketers, define what is early-, mid-, and late-stage content may not actually hold up once it hits our target market. So, what are the lessons here?

1. Listen to your audience. No one knows your audience better than your audience. They will tell you what is working and what isn’t. Having strong intuition is a wonderful quality in a marketer, but pushing that intuition aside to humble yourself through data and make a shift in your marketing strategy is a better quality.
2. Buying stages should be called investment stages. An early-stage lead cannot invest in a webinar. They don’t know enough about your brand, your product, or your vision to give you 1 hour of their work day. You might as well be asking them for a credit card number while you’re at it. The leads that are willing to make the investment with you are the ones that are listening, which takes time and patience. Your marketing efforts need to open their ears first before you can push them heavy content, even if the topic is early stage. Also, this goes beyond webinars. At every stage of the buying cycle, think about how easy or difficult it is for a buyer to access your information. Your goal shouldn’t be to feed them content that you deem as early-stage but to feed them consumable content that will open their ears, hearts, and ultimately their wallets.
3. Raise your hand and ask questions. Just because “that’s the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t mean that it’s right for the business. Let the data be your single source of truth. Seek answers in numbers, not just in your gut.

The end. What does this make you think about your content strategy? Do you have any ideas how to make content more relevant for each stage of the buyer’s journey? Please share your thoughts below!

The post Why Buying Stages Are Really Investment Stages appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/buying-stages-really-investment-stages.html

How Technology is Creating More Opportunities for the Modern Marketer

The modern marketing landscape is not what it used to be. Creative thinkers and innovative “ideas people” are still at the heart of the department, but it has become a measurable, monitorable and data-driven discipline. To the most creative marketers this may sound like a negative thing; but in reality, it just means all of their ideas and innovations can be tracked, tweaked, improved and proven, making a real return on investment (ROI) demonstrable internally to the broader business (and especially up the food chain of decision makers).

To better understand the impact and opportunities of this marketing evolution, let’s explore two key developments that I think will impact marketing’s future.

For decades marketers have had to find ways to prove the need for their campaigns. The new methods they use, and the huge uplift in the volume of data available, makes this much easier than ever before. With so much data there are always new ways to grow, adapt, and change, to deliver the best possible results and answer executive concerns.

Marketing is no longer just about how creative you are. As customer experience becomes a key brand differentiator, marketers have to harness the data available to them to succeed. Part of the modern marketer’s role is knowing their customer—inside and out, personalizing their experience, and ensuring they come back for more.

Careers in marketing have never been more exciting, now they require a blend of creative skill backed by analytics expertise, data-driven research, and the ability to produce provable results. To make this shift, it’s critical that marketers understand and utilize the latest technologies, designed to aid marketer in every stage of their process, from targeting customers and analyzing their data, to automating content and engagements to suit the customer’s needs.

Creativity Fueled by Science

Data cannot be ignored. It has always played a role in marketing campaigns and decisions, but as we are now able to access more data more of the time it is a waste to not utilize it to deliver better customer experiences. Streamlining marketing strategies and processes in a way that embraces both data and technology falls under the coverall term ‘marketing operations‘.

Marketing operations is where all aspects of any marketing campaign come together and are organized effectively for success. Technology is a key driver of marketing operations. Why? MarTech has become so sophisticated that it is essential for marketers to incorporate the right applications and software into their marketing stack. The change in modern marketing is driven by technology, so while creativity is essential to such aspects as campaign planning or content creation, it should be controlled and informed by the insights found through their MarTech solutions, ideally with a foundation of an Engagement Platform that serves as the system of record.

87% of modern marketers already accept that technology is improving performance at their companies, and the scientific edge to their roles has meant a shift in expectation and the nature of their work. However, this shift is for the better as the right MarTech solutions and processes ensure that all work (creative or not) is measured and tested, allowing for more precise and targeted campaigns. In turn, this means the modern marketer can be even more creative as they deliver more ROI and tangible business value. It’s a win-win.

Don’t Underestimate Data

Spending on big data technology is set to exceed $57 billion this year, which shows just how committed companies are to getting the most out of every aspect of data. Marketers need to take note—data is driving their careers: Used well, data can accelerate career paths; badly interpreted data can stunt career progression. Both real-time and historical data can be used to inform and develop effective campaigns.

Data makes tracking every marketing campaign easier and more convenient. Harnessing real-time data allows for adjustments in-campaign at any time, or even in the planning stage of the next campaign by leveraging the learnings and trends identified from previous campaigns. And as mentioned, proving the success of a marketing campaign to those at the top of a company is so much easier when you have hard evidence backing up your claims.

Alongside big data and data-driven marketing is the concept of The Internet of Things (IoT), which further proves the essential and integral nature of technology in the marketing world. The more IoT technology is integrated, wearables become more common, and beacon technology is used, the more data marketers have to feed on, making it increasingly important to not only have an Engagement Platform to orchestrate all these touchpoints, but one that has a robust ecosystem of complementary technology integrations (so your technology is ‘speaking the same language’).

The Ever-Evolving Role of the Marketer

The typical marketer of ten years ago, or even five years ago, may not have been able to predict how different their jobs would look in 2017. However, marketing has always been an evolving discipline, with the move from print to online, text to video, and now with the incorporation of data and in-depth analysis as key to their roles.

There is nothing ‘fluffy’ and ambiguous about the modern marketer’s role. Yes, creativity is used to push forward and capture the audience attention, but it should be measured, tested and released once it is sure to succeed according to the data and research available.

Embracing marketing technology is absolutely essential for the modern marketer. Building an effective marketing stack for each individual business takes time and energy. But, once in place, it can push the business in the right direction and increase marketing success. That’s not to even mention the benefits it can offer in terms of time and capital saving.

Marketing operations cannot function effectively without MarTech, and the modern marketer cannot perform their role properly without embracing both. A blend of creative talent and a technologist’s knowledge must be combined to effectively market for growth.

Marketing is not going to go backward. There won’t be a return to the idea that the marketing department is ‘winging it’ and just trying out any creative idea. Modern marketing will become more entrenched and driven by data and technology, and it is essential the professionals involved embrace and utilize the resources available to them. The data and technology are there, it comes down to marketers ability to make the most of them. This way, marketers will not just safe-guard their jobs, but maintain their seat at the table.

The post How Technology is Creating More Opportunities for the Modern Marketer appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/technology-creating-opportunities-modern-marketer.html

Marketing: 4 Things You Should Do for Sales Development that Aren’t MQLs

I’m lucky. Here at Marketo, I’ve had the pleasure of working with not one, but two (!) of the best sales development leaders out there. What makes them so great? Both are beloved captains who are awesome at finding talented people and developing them into great sellers. And, they’re just as skilled at cross-functional collaboration.

Bottom line: my sales development leaders totally get that somewhere between MQL and SQL, their teams become the face of the brand in a major way.

That means coaching and learning are a big part of their teams’ day-to-day so they can assume that role with confidence and agility. Because let’s be honest—every sales call is a different beast. I share this because leaders who care deeply about learning are the prerequisite to everything else I’m about to say. They WANT marketing involved as a partner to ensure the experience from nurture to hot lead to first sales call is a consistent, personalized experience.

So with a lot of guidance from strong sales leaders along the way, here are 4 specific things I’ve learned marketing can do to contribute to a learning culture in your SDR/BDR organization.

Flip the Script

Think contextually, not linear (script) when you create live conversation materials for inside sales teams. After all, that’s how conversations work. I’ve learned from the leadership here to deploy “open-ended questions” that get a thoughtful conversation flowing. Our battlecards are context on one side (topical details, when to use the battlecard, etc.) and on-call content on the other (those open-ended questions, with some proof points and talking points for smart responses.) This approach can work whether you’re making materials for competitors, industries, personas, or important industry topics.

Enable Enthusiastically and Often

We have a cadence—every time we release a new battlecard, we do a ‘lunch and learn’ that includes deeper enablement for the team. Why did we make this card? Who should you use it with? How will it help? What is the purpose of each open-ended question? Why do we recommend certain proof points? These answers should help the team look for cues so they can tailor and add value in conversation with a prospect.

Play the Part

If you have a pent-up theater kid inside of you, you’ll love what I’m about to say: roleplay is an incredible tool for honing the above (tailored, value-adding conversations) without risking anyone’s experience with your brand. And I take this seriously (ask Stacey Thornberry or Mike Madden.) Make a few fictional personas that correspond to your battlecards. Enlist SDR leadership, sales enablement, or other marketers to play the parts with you. And don’t forget to throw some curveballs. That’s real life, right?

Be a Partner

Don’t be hands off with your SDR/BDR team. Sit with them and listen. Invite their feedback and their questions. Take a closer look at the performance of the email cadences they use—just like you would any other campaign. Help with the content, to be sure the connection between their messages and yours are tight. Sales development teams can be great partners for testing new messaging and providing feedback on what works, especially when they’re outbounding. Don’t let that opportunity pass you!

So, marketers: it’s time to share the brand spotlight and ensure continuity with the stories we tell our prospects and customers. Our campaigns don’t just stop at MQL. If we do our job right, they get better at that point, because there’s a real, intelligent person ready to make a human connection. I’m excited to help them do that, aren’t you? (Ok, fine, if that’s a little lofty to you, how about this? You’ll also get more SQLs and the pipeline to go with them.)

The post Marketing: 4 Things You Should Do for Sales Development that Aren’t MQLs appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/marketing-4-things-sales-development-arent-mqls.html

Facebook Reaches a New Milestone — Two Billion Users!

Facebook has surpassed the two billion-user milestone, doubling their number of monthly active users in five years. The social media giant reached one billion monthly active users in October 2012, a few months after the company went public.

Facebook's new milestone makes its user base larger than the population of any single country. In fact, its users represent more than a quarter of the world's 7.5 billion people.

“As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people!” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

#AWANInews #AWANIpagi
Facebook hits 2 billion-user mark, doubling in size since 2012 https://t.co/kp1k6IukQ7 pic.twitter.com/K4oe15S5cb

— Astro AWANI (@501Awani) June 28, 2017

This new milestone marks Facebook’s growth from a college curiosity, which Zuckerberg started in 2004 in his dorm room, to the world's largest social media network. In March, the Menlo Park-based company's quarterly financial results reported that it had reached 1.94 billion monthly active users, a growth of 17 percent from a year earlier.

Each day, more than 800 million people “Like” something on the site. To celebrate the occasion, Facebook will start rolling out new features over the coming days that users will gain access to.

One of these features is Good Adds Up, a personalized video, featuring "inspiring stories of people using Facebook to bring communities together.” Another is Celebrating The Good People Do. "After someone reacts to a friend’s post with Love, wishes someone happy birthday or creates a group, they will see a message in News Feed thanking them," says the site.

While Facebook has been making it a mission to get people to join more groups and communities on the site, Zuckerberg intends to raise that figure to a billion. According to him, 100 million users are currently part of "meaningful communities.”

Facebook defines an active user as a registered user who has logged in and visited Facebook through its website or mobile application, or used their Messenger program in the past 30 days. It does not, however, include users of the Instagram or WhatsApp networks but not Facebook. According to an estimate from last year, duplicate accounts may have represented some six percent of its worldwide user base.

Facebook now has 2 billion monthly users․.․and responsibility https://t.co/wFH1h71Wce by @joshconstine

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 27, 2017

Facebook has a bigger user population than other similar companies combined. In April, Twitter reported their monthly active users at 328 million. Snapchat estimated it had 166 million daily users by the end of the first quarter. WeChat, a service widely used in China, said in May that it had 938 million monthly active users in the first quarter.

Facebook has gained popularity outside the United States, Canada, and Europe. Those regions accounted for 38 percent of users three years ago, compared with about 30 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The company has rolled out optimized versions of its mobile applications, which use fewer data to increase usage rates in developing nations. It has been developing solar-powered drones that aim to extend internet connectivity around the planet.

The company uses its huge size advantage to lure advertisers, which topped five million in April, offering highly targeted marketing capabilities to advertisers based on data collected from their users.

The post Facebook Reaches a New Milestone — Two Billion Users! appeared first on WebProNews.

from
http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-reaches-new-milestone-two-billion-users-2017-06/

Videos for Lead Nurturing? They Can Do a Lot More Than You Think

According to SiriusDecisions, 80% of unqualified leads today—those understandably ignored by sales—will go on to buy from someone within the next 24 months. The solution is nurturing, but how do you do that?

Opportunistic Video

There are countless ways to put a brand in front of buyers, of course. But for B2B products and services, especially those with a long, complex buying process, the brand needs to be accompanied by information the buyer cares about.

Obviously, video is a good format for micro-learning, especially on mobile devices. But few companies produce videos that are ready to be inserted into automated nurturing campaigns. Why not? Because most marketers aren’t thinking about video opportunistically. Typically, they think about making traditional genres of video content—explainer, demo, webinar, etc. A more pointed way of putting it: they’re not thinking about making videos that match what prospects want to know. They’re thinking about video, not the customer experience.

Thinking opportunistically opens up a lot of new ways to generate targeted video content, not only for messaging but also for understanding buyers and their motivation.

Persona-Based Videos

Focusing on a buyer persona means you can make shorter videos, get to the point faster, take up less of the buyer’s time, and appeal to the special interests of each buying team member.

The table below is adapted from an excellent article, What’s a Successful ABM Strategy Without Killer Content?, by content marketing consultant Rebecca Smith of Heinz Marketing.

The table, by Terminus, is designed to help marketers develop a content strategy (not just video content) for account-based marketing. You could fill in the blanks here with all kinds of media—including killer video content.

According to Smith, content at the top of the funnel should be designed to help an audience who doesn’t know much about you and your solution—no hard sell. In the middle stage, you want to distinguish yourself from competitors—but still no hard sell. That doesn’t come until you’ve developed trust. At the bottom of the funnel, buyers want to be convinced. Illustrations of features, advantages, and benefits work here.

If this approach makes sense to you, it will also make sense to think a little differently about how you use video.

The FAQ Opportunity

In the course of interviewing subject matter experts for the videos we produce, we often hear about product features or use cases that seem to capture customers’ interest and generate questions. We always try to address these questions in the short videos we make, but when a topic is competing for 90-120 seconds of “air time” with other features and benefits, interesting angles and insights are bound to be missed.

Yet, if a question is truly “frequently asked,” it deserves to be answered in a concise, visually interesting video. Punchy FAQ videos can also work as promotional teasers in social media, as well as customer-friendly content in account-based marketing.

The Blog-To-Video Opportunity

Think about all the work that goes into most blog posts. Especially in technology companies, people who know a lot are writing about what they know. They’re writing for their peers, and they’re doing their best to make things clear. Here are five reasons to base short videos on blog posts:

1. A video can extend the life of an existing post, kindle new interest, and extend the reach to a wider audience
2. Video based on approved copy can be produced faster and with less hassle
3. Video makes the information more accessible
4. “Video” in the subject line can increase email opens (but always test this for your audience)
5. Videos are shared 7X more than links on Facebook

The Interactive Web Video Opportunity

eLearning experts know that users like to be in control of the learning experience. What’s different about responsive (or “interactive”) videos is that the exploration and interaction all takes place within the video window. So it feels more like a user-friendly app, and less like a promotional website.

Interactive video used to be specialist technology. It didn’t really scale and it didn’t work on iPhones. But, now it’s HTML5 and works in a browser, which provides instant scalability. Additionally, with the release of Apple’s iOS X, it works on iDevices, which is huge—opening the door for broader reaching access and consumption.

There are plenty of easy-to-use tools for making a video respond to input—almost like a chatbot. This can be as simple as adding chapter headings to a webinar, interview, or whiteboard talk. Or a video where you can click on objects to dive deeper into the subject. Or a video that branches to new content based on user input.

Let’s say your product has three major differentiators, X, Y, and Z, and you usually pitch them in that order. Some viewers are really interested in Y. Others care more about Z. With interactive video you can let viewers skip ahead to the differentiator that matters most to them—they’ll like that. And when you think about it, why do you care if they skipped X unless everyone skips it? If for example, they skip to Y, you can insert a pop-up button that offers to take the viewer to more information about Y. Now, you’re guiding the buyer’s journey.

The Customer Experience Opportunity

These video formats have a couple of things in common: they are more informational than promotional, and they present the information in short bursts. That’s in line with the trend that “micro-learning” eLearning experts recommend. More important, by focusing video content marketing on customers’ desire to learn, it puts the customer experience first, which will make your customers more engaged and your marketing more successful.

Are you implementing any of opportunistic video strategies? I’d love to know how you’re thinking about video content in your organization—please share in the comments below.

The post Videos for Lead Nurturing? They Can Do a Lot More Than You Think appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/videos-lead-nurturing-can-lot-think.html

Why Buying Stages Are Really Investment Stages

Let’s take a quick poll. When was the last time your boss asked you to do something and you didn’t question why you needed to do it a specific way? You see, sometimes we just assume that the old way of doing things is the right way. But every so often, we forget to test what’s right under our noses.

It all started with one simple question: What types of content resonate with what types of leads? In other words, does the early stage content you have work for early stage leads? Or would it work better for late stage leads? Or does the content even work at all?

In every database, there are three types of leads. You have the folks that are brand new and have yet to learn about you or your product. Then you have folks that have an idea of who you are but aren’t yet ready to buy. Lastly, you’ll have folks that are well-educated, interested in evaluating your product, and could potentially buy from you. Each of these stages maps to a content stage, which is often how marketers define and guide the buyer’s journey.

Now when you plot out those leads on a curve to see where the bulk of people fall in the buyer’s journey, you’ll find that the database looks a little something like this:

The bulk of your database is most likely early stage leads because we tend to have more people that aren’t yet ready to buy from us than those that are pulling out their checkbooks. Sad but true.

Now let’s define how marketers tend to think about the stages of content.

• Early: Content that builds brand awareness —it’s fun, engaging, and doesn’t have a hard sales message for either your brand or product.
• Mid: At this stage, the content is focused on educating the audience. It introduces the product in the context of the market, explains why it’s the best product, and how it can provide a solution to your company.
• Late: At this stage, we assume that the lead has already been educated enough on the product to make an informed decision. This content helps sell the product by helping the buyer make a purchase decision.

Let me tell you a story of how I came to believe that marketers are missing something here. And like any good story, I will tell it in chapters.

Chapter 1: The Discovery

A couple months ago, I was preparing to speak on a webinar called 3 Hacks to Boost Email Open Rates. From my perspective, this was primarily an early-stage webinar but our normal process would be to promote it to all leads in the buyer’s journey (early-, mid-, and late-stage). After the first email invite deployed, I became curious to know what types of leads were registering for this webinar, particularly if they were, in fact, early-stage leads.

Here’s what I found when I looked at the registration list:

To my complete confusion, I found that even though this was an “early-stage” webinar, only 5 early stage leads registered. How many early-stage leads received the first invite email, you ask? Roughly 96,000. I know, you might want to take a seat for this…

Chapter 2: Is the Test Repeatable?

Feeling like my world had been turned upside down, I went back and reviewed the webinar program for the 8 Biggest Mistakes Social Media Marketers Make, which was another early-stage webinar that took place the month prior.

Here’s what I found:

The exact same pattern appeared! Despite this being what we believed to be another early-stage webinar, most registrants are late-stage leads. But what about the attendees? What happened to the attendance rates?

With this data, we uncovered the following insights:

• Late-stage leads are over 2x more likely to attend a webinar than an early stage lead
• We can send a high volume of emails to early-stage leads and yet only get 23 people to attend

Chapter 3: Back to the 3 Hacks Webinar

Armed with surprising new data about registrations, I thought I would break the data down further by looking at email performance by buying stage.

When comparing late-stage leads to early-stage leads, late-stage leads performed significantly better:

• 131% higher open rates
• 913% higher click-to-open rates
• 47% lower unsubscribe rates
• 9,588% higher conversion rates on the registration page

If it wasn’t clear before, it was now. Leads that are still early in the buying cycle are not ready for a webinar, no matter the topic. This was the perfect example of why we need to test everything. Only after this webinar analysis did I truly understand what content format is resonating with leads at each stage of the buying cycle.

Chapter 4: A New Day

I started this blog making the bold statement that what you thought about content marketing might not be true. How we, the marketers, define what is early-, mid-, and late-stage content may not actually hold up once it hits our target market. So, what are the lessons here?

1. Listen to your audience. No one knows your audience better than your audience. They will tell you what is working and what isn’t. Having strong intuition is a wonderful quality in a marketer, but pushing that intuition aside to humble yourself through data and make a shift in your marketing strategy is a better quality.
2. Buying stages should be called investment stages. An early-stage lead cannot invest in a webinar. They don’t know enough about your brand, your product, or your vision to give you 1 hour of their work day. You might as well be asking them for a credit card number while you’re at it. The leads that are willing to make the investment with you are the ones that are listening, which takes time and patience. Your marketing efforts need to open their ears first before you can push them heavy content, even if the topic is early stage. Also, this goes beyond webinars. At every stage of the buying cycle, think about how easy or difficult it is for a buyer to access your information. Your goal shouldn’t be to feed them content that you deem as early-stage but to feed them consumable content that will open their ears, hearts, and ultimately their wallets.
3. Raise your hand and ask questions. Just because “that’s the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t mean that it’s right for the business. Let the data be your single source of truth. Seek answers in numbers, not just in your gut.

The end. What does this make you think about your content strategy? Do you have any ideas how to make content more relevant for each stage of the buyer’s journey? Please share your thoughts below!

The post Why Buying Stages Are Really Investment Stages appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/buying-stages-really-investment-stages.html

Instagram’s New 'Favorites' Feature Aims to Eliminate the Need for 'Finstagram'

Instagram had been testing a new feature with which users can now create a list of friends. Called Favorites, users can now share posts with a smaller group of people rather than all of their followers. The feature is an upgrade to old social network friend lists.

Users had been trying to make a more private Instagram version for themselves. They would post pictures publicly and delete them after being liked by their friends, or create a separate account known as a “Finstagram.” Usually set up by teens, these secret accounts are used to share their unedited photos with a select group of people. These accounts usually have a high following, and as a result, they either tend to use it more than their Instagram account or quit using Instagram entirely due to social pressure.

Robby Stein, Instagram’s product lead, recognizes that people are trying to “hack” Instagram to create smaller audiences. “The best version of Instagram is one where you feel closer to the people you are connected to,” he says.

New 'favorites' feature on Instagram lets you only share photos with your REAL friendshttps://t.co/WLTWiapScd

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 26, 2017

The new Favorites feature could have a significant impact on the way people are currently using the platform. It would reshape the social dynamics of Instagram and create a sense of intimacy among followers.

If a user marks a friend as one of their favorites, it will likely encourage their friend to follow and like their posts. Getting an increased number of likes will, in turn, encourage users to share more pictures to their favorites on the platform. Their favorites are more likely to mark the user as their own favorite, which goes on to increase more private groups.

This feature works for both regular pictures and Instagram Story posts, where users will see new options to share them to their favorites.Users concerned with their privacy would have greater control over who gets to see their pictures. Favorites won’t be notified if a user adds or remove them to their personal list. The new feature would allow users to create a group of selected friends who can view certain posts and there would be no option for someone to request to be on that list.

Every profile will get a new Favorites tab denoted by a star. Posts that are shared only with Favorites will appear in this tab so that users can keep track of which posts are private. If someone is on the user’s Favorite list, they would be able to view the user’s favorite post on the Favorite tab. Pictures shared with them will be denoted by a green Favorites badge at the top of posts.

If a user removes someone from their list, they won’t be able to access the user’s private photos anymore, even those which were shared while they were on the list. If they visit the Favorites tab, it will be empty.

This feature had reportedly been tested over a “small percentage” of users for over a year before a full rollout in the coming months. It's not clear when the feature would be implemented, but nearly every portion of the app will be tweaked to accommodate it. Robby Stein, Instagram’s product lead, added that they “really want to get this right.”

The post Instagram’s New 'Favorites' Feature Aims to Eliminate the Need for 'Finstagram' appeared first on WebProNews.

from
http://www.webpronews.com/instagrams-new-favorites-feature-aims-eliminate-need-finstagram-2017-06/

New Feature on Apple’s iPhone 8 Might Delay Its Release

Apple has a history of being secretive about their products until they are launched. However, that does not stop leakers from revealing some details about them.

Followers of the mobile phone industry expect the company to release their flagship phones in September, as they do every year. But recent details have emerged indicating that the launch of the upcoming iPhone 8 could be delayed by a few months due to one of its new features.

The iPhone 8’s Touch ID sensor will supposedly be embedded into its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display. This means that you could unlock your phone just by touching its screen. However, it has been reported that Apple has been having issues with this new feature.

The iPhone 8’s signature feature might also cause months of delays, analyst claims https://t.co/JIBcLK46Zc pic.twitter.com/eLSQh0eTyl

— BGR.com (@BGR) June 21, 2017

Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at the investment firm Cowen and Co.'s writes in a newly published research note that significant technical challenges remain. He claims that the shipment of the OLED model could be delayed. This delay could take from one to two months, as the company actively tries to come up with a workable solution for its sensor.

Arcuri highlights in his research the three strategies Apple is choosing from on how to implement an embedded Touch ID:

"1) thinning the cover glass for the fingerprint area (cover glass cutout), 2) creating a pin hole through the glass for optical or ultrasonic fingerprint sensing, and 3) replacing the AuthenTec Touch ID with a "film" fingerprint sensor that is integrated with the display."

He goes on to say that the model has an “edge-to-edge bezel-free design with no physical home button.” These predictions involve the fingerprint sensor being located on the front of the phone, which contradicts other rumors based on alleged factory renders.

“While the exact implementation is not finalized, we can now say that the fingerprint sensor is unlikely to be on the back of the phone,” said Arcuri.

It is unclear if the technical challenges Apple are facing is based solely on production output or the functionality of the Touch ID sensor itself. There were some earlier rumors claiming that Apple was experiencing extremely poor yields on some early designs for the iPhone 7’s successor.

According to CNET, Cowen and Co. has a mixed track record of predicting Apple products. However, this isn’t the first time that the delay has been reported. Last month, reputable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted that Apple may not get a handle on the production of the iPhone 8 until September, adding that “severe supply shortages may persist for a while after the new models are launched.”

Arcuri predicts that the iPhone 8 delays could stretch out over many months. Even if the new model could be unveiled and launched in September or October, it could take Apple several weeks to increase the supply to meet what is expected to be a staggering demand.

Tech analysts speculate that Apple could stock up to 90 million iPhones in the holiday quarter as opposed to the upcoming September quarter to make up for the delay. With their previous record sales for the iPhone 7, Apple could break a new sales record despite the delay.

The post New Feature on Apple’s iPhone 8 Might Delay Its Release appeared first on WebProNews.

from
http://www.webpronews.com/new-feature-apples-iphone-8-might-delay-release-2017-06/

How Technology is Creating More Opportunities for the Modern Marketer

The modern marketing landscape is not what it used to be. Creative thinkers and innovative “ideas people” are still at the heart of the department, but it has become a measurable, monitorable and data-driven discipline. To the most creative marketers this may sound like a negative thing; but in reality, it just means all of their ideas and innovations can be tracked, tweaked, improved and proven, making a real return on investment (ROI) demonstrable internally to the broader business (and especially up the food chain of decision makers).

To better understand the impact and opportunities of this marketing evolution, let’s explore two key developments that I think will impact marketing’s future.

For decades marketers have had to find ways to prove the need for their campaigns. The new methods they use, and the huge uplift in the volume of data available, makes this much easier than ever before. With so much data there are always new ways to grow, adapt, and change, to deliver the best possible results and answer executive concerns.

Marketing is no longer just about how creative you are. As customer experience becomes a key brand differentiator, marketers have to harness the data available to them to succeed. Part of the modern marketer’s role is knowing their customer—inside and out, personalizing their experience, and ensuring they come back for more.

Careers in marketing have never been more exciting, now they require a blend of creative skill backed by analytics expertise, data-driven research, and the ability to produce provable results. To make this shift, it’s critical that marketers understand and utilize the latest technologies, designed to aid marketer in every stage of their process, from targeting customers and analyzing their data, to automating content and engagements to suit the customer’s needs.

Creativity Fueled by Science

Data cannot be ignored. It has always played a role in marketing campaigns and decisions, but as we are now able to access more data more of the time it is a waste to not utilize it to deliver better customer experiences. Streamlining marketing strategies and processes in a way that embraces both data and technology falls under the coverall term ‘marketing operations‘.

Marketing operations is where all aspects of any marketing campaign come together and are organized effectively for success. Technology is a key driver of marketing operations. Why? MarTech has become so sophisticated that it is essential for marketers to incorporate the right applications and software into their marketing stack. The change in modern marketing is driven by technology, so while creativity is essential to such aspects as campaign planning or content creation, it should be controlled and informed by the insights found through their MarTech solutions, ideally with a foundation of an Engagement Platform that serves as the system of record.

87% of modern marketers already accept that technology is improving performance at their companies, and the scientific edge to their roles has meant a shift in expectation and the nature of their work. However, this shift is for the better as the right MarTech solutions and processes ensure that all work (creative or not) is measured and tested, allowing for more precise and targeted campaigns. In turn, this means the modern marketer can be even more creative as they deliver more ROI and tangible business value. It’s a win-win.

Don’t Underestimate Data

Spending on big data technology is set to exceed $57 billion this year, which shows just how committed companies are to getting the most out of every aspect of data. Marketers need to take note—data is driving their careers: Used well, data can accelerate career paths; badly interpreted data can stunt career progression. Both real-time and historical data can be used to inform and develop effective campaigns.

Data makes tracking every marketing campaign easier and more convenient. Harnessing real-time data allows for adjustments in-campaign at any time, or even in the planning stage of the next campaign by leveraging the learnings and trends identified from previous campaigns. And as mentioned, proving the success of a marketing campaign to those at the top of a company is so much easier when you have hard evidence backing up your claims.

Alongside big data and data-driven marketing is the concept of The Internet of Things (IoT), which further proves the essential and integral nature of technology in the marketing world. The more IoT technology is integrated, wearables become more common, and beacon technology is used, the more data marketers have to feed on, making it increasingly important to not only have an Engagement Platform to orchestrate all these touchpoints, but one that has a robust ecosystem of complementary technology integrations (so your technology is ‘speaking the same language’).

The Ever-Evolving Role of the Marketer

The typical marketer of ten years ago, or even five years ago, may not have been able to predict how different their jobs would look in 2017. However, marketing has always been an evolving discipline, with the move from print to online, text to video, and now with the incorporation of data and in-depth analysis as key to their roles.

There is nothing ‘fluffy’ and ambiguous about the modern marketer’s role. Yes, creativity is used to push forward and capture the audience attention, but it should be measured, tested and released once it is sure to succeed according to the data and research available.

Embracing marketing technology is absolutely essential for the modern marketer. Building an effective marketing stack for each individual business takes time and energy. But, once in place, it can push the business in the right direction and increase marketing success. That’s not to even mention the benefits it can offer in terms of time and capital saving.

Marketing operations cannot function effectively without MarTech, and the modern marketer cannot perform their role properly without embracing both. A blend of creative talent and a technologist’s knowledge must be combined to effectively market for growth.

Marketing is not going to go backward. There won’t be a return to the idea that the marketing department is ‘winging it’ and just trying out any creative idea. Modern marketing will become more entrenched and driven by data and technology, and it is essential the professionals involved embrace and utilize the resources available to them. The data and technology are there, it comes down to marketers ability to make the most of them. This way, marketers will not just safe-guard their jobs, but maintain their seat at the table.

The post How Technology is Creating More Opportunities for the Modern Marketer appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/technology-creating-opportunities-modern-marketer.html

How to Tap into the Power of Influencers

Influencer marketing has become a bit of a buzzword in the marketing industry as of late. Merriam-Webster defines influence as “the power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect ways.”  From my perspective, influence, as it relates to marketing, is someone who resonates with an audience, makes an impact and provides value.

Why Should Marketers Invest in Influencer Marketing?

A recent study conducted by Content Marketing Institute found marketing campaigns that include influencers show a 10x increase in conversion rates. Think about that in terms of return on investment (ROI). That’s a potential return of over $9 for every dollar invested. Why wouldn’t you make a sound investment like that? And according to McKinsey, those customers who do convert have a tendency to stick around. They’ve reported that influencer campaigns achieve, on average, a 37% increase in retention. The numbers don’t lie. Marketers should explore how to engage influencers throughout the year. In this blog, we’ll examine what it takes to get and influencer engagement strategy started. 

Things to Consider

What should brands consider when building an influencer engagement strategy?

• Resources: Determine what it will cost to implement and integrate a new influencer engagement program. And in addition, what it will cost if you don’t secure relationships with the top influencers in your industry—and the competition does.
• Targeting: Research the top influencers you want to engage with and how you want to collaborate. Outline the where and when, types of engagements (webinars, speaking engagements, tweet chats, live streams, podcasts, etc.)
• Sustainability: Think about how you can continue building the relationship beyond a single engagement. Create a long-term strategy that outlines future engagements to maintain consistent touch-points and a cadence of collaborations.
• ROI: Identify what you’ll get by investing in an influencer program. Clearly define the impact an influencer program will have on your marketing, brand, and business.

Get Your Targeting Right

One mistake I often see marketers make is thinking of influencer engagements as a one and done strategy. However, in a digitally connected world, where individuals are following and engaging with influencers on a daily basis, aligning your brand with those influencers consistently is becoming more important than ever. Let’s dig a little deeper into how to determine the best fit for your brand.

How should brands start to identify influencers?

• Observation: Look at who your target audience is following. This is a quick and easy way to identify who your audience is listening to and engaging with.
• Understand Impact: Determine who will be impactful and provide the most value to your audience. Most influencers are creating and publishing new content on a regular basis. Research and review their top content to determine if what they’re creating is relevant, consistent, and helpful.
• Understand their Voice: Ensure their tone and style matches, or complements the brand.
• Credibility: There are a plethora of qualified, knowledgeable professionals out there who would be happy to work with your brand. Why waste your time on somebody who isn’t genuinely knowledgeable and engaging?

Who Runs the Program?

Once you’ve developed a strategy and identified who you’re looking to build a relationship with, you’ll need to think about how to collaborate with the key stakeholders involved in managing an influencer engagement program. These roles will differ from company to company, but you may want to consider:

• Social media managers will be on the front lines interacting daily. Involving the influencers in tweet chats, live streaming, quotation templates, live tweets at events.
• Content marketing managers to create content that incorporates influencer responses and views in blogs, ebooks, etc.
• Corporate communication managers to negotiate contracts for event appearances, videos, commercials, 3^rd party publications, etc.
• Analyst Relations interact with a decidedly different set of influencers, but they still fit the definition and should have a plan for ongoing engagement and relevant touchpoints.
• Customer marketing should always be involved. Your biggest, most impactful influencers are your very own customers. Sure maybe they don’t have 170,o00 followers on Twitter, but they do have first-hand experience to share with their peers—who are often your target audience.
• Employee advocacy to include your own internal influencers in the program and amplify the activities that you are doing with external influencers.
• A single point of contact that continues to build the personal relationship.

Make Your Program Sustainable

According to the report Influencer 2.0: The Future of Influencer Marketing by Traackr and TopRank Marketing, 55% of marketers plan to spend more on influencer marketing next year, and for those companies that already spend more than $250,000 on influencer marketing, that percentage jumps to 67%. But whether you have a big, small, or non-existent budget, it still makes sense to start influencer marketing now.

If you have a team of influencer stakeholders like I listed above, work with them to map out your big initiatives as anchors throughout the year, then craft activities and engagement points across the year. Don’t be afraid to be scrappy! Focus on making sure there is a value exchange and not simply continual asks of your influencers. You will find that as you gain momentum and success you can argue for more resources.

Measure the Impact

Let’s dig into how to measure the ROI of an influencer marketing campaign. Early stage metrics would include an increase in social media reach and impressions. You can also take a look at mentions, share of voice and new followers during the duration of your campaign. Later stage metrics can include UTM parameters that allow you to keep track of how many users are visiting your website from influencer referrals, and then further down the line convert. Another way to track the effectiveness of an influencer campaign is using a unique discount or coupon codes and then track how many of each are redeemed or submitted.

Ultimately, influencer marketing will boil down to one thing at the end of the day, relationships. Getting the ball rolling can be as simple as reaching out, introducing yourself and your product, meeting them face to face, shaking their hand and chatting about how you can create alignment between your business goals and their goals.

The post How to Tap into the Power of Influencers appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

from
http://blog.marketo.com/2017/06/tap-power-influencers.html