Posts Tagged ‘Marketing Performance’

Interview with DemandGen Report: How Financial Service Companies can Benefit from Marketing Automation

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

DemandGen Report recently added the quarterly “Vertical Deep Dive” section to explore how marketers in various industries can utilize automation tools to drive success. This quarter’s “Vertical Deep Dive” focuses on the Financial Services sector exploring the strategies relevant to the pain points, objectives and prospect profiles under the Financial Services umbrella. DemandGen Report interviewed me along with several other industry insiders to profile the key automation features that can help financial services marketers address the complex nature of the buying process and nurture prospect across their entire lifecycle. I encourage you to check out the full article and thought I would share my answers to their questions with you as well.

The Financial Services vertical bridges banks, mortgage brokers, insurance, etc. What are some of the common marketing challenges this vertical faces?

Most financial services segments focus on relationship-based marketing. Even in their most commodity-oriented segments, consumer credit cards for example, the financial institution wants to establish at least the impression of a 1:1 relationship with their customers. How and when these relationships are established varies by segment, but overall, this is the basis of the core relationship between the financial institution and their customers.

Compared to other sectors, what are some of the unique marketing issues that Financial Services marketers are focused on? How does marketing automation help to address these issues?

It is impossible to lump all the segments together to talk about their marketing issues as each segment has a unique set of challenges. Our solution focuses on B2B marketing so I’ll focus on the B2B segments of the financial services market with some specific examples. One segment where we see marketing automation being adopted is in Mutual Funds, which are distributed to consumers in a very traditional two-tier distribution model. The Mutual Fund Manager who creates and manages the actual product, works with a Wholesale Distribution Group who markets the funds to registered investment advisors (RIAs) and broker/dealers (B/Ds) who then sell the investment products to consumers. The process of getting an RIA or B/D to represent your products involved building relationships and ensuring that the RIA or B/D has the right information at the right time. Traditionally, this has involved many face-to-face meetings and the delivery of physical marketing collateral about the products. Today, Wholesale Distribution Groups want to automate this, and are doing so using nurturing processes managed by marketing automation platforms. We see similar marketing needs in other B2B financial services segments.

There are two very unique aspects of the B2B financial services segments. First, because financial services marketing has traditionally been relationship based, they have very mature relationship-marketing processes. This makes it easy to translate what had been a manual process into an automated one that can be supported by the lead nurturing capabilities of a marketing automation platform. Second, traditionally they have created and used a great deal of content in the marketing of their products. This is not only due to the fact that their products can be complicated and need clear explanations, but also because of the disclosure demands of regulators. This wealth of available content makes it easy to create a continuous flow of content-based programs that feed the overall relationship nurturing process. Given marketing automation platforms are designed for content delivery, there is a natural fit here and B2B financial services marketers are in an outstanding position to use the technology to great effect.

Given the recent economic uncertainty, customer acquisition and retention is a greater priority for Financial Services firms. What are some important elements of a firm’s acquisition/retention strategy and how can marketing automation help to answer this need?

As stated above, it’s all about the relationship. When a financial services institution gets you more entrenched with their products, it is harder for you to leave. Cross-sell and up-sell are very important, and marketing automation supports this well with capabilities such as content-based relationship nurturing (as described above) and lead scoring, which can determine how well other products might fit you and when you might be ready to purpose. Of course, this is more of a B2C application, and we see most of the uptake in the B2B segments.

This vertical has been historically dependent on word of mouth and in-person networking, what are the emerging touch points/components of to Financial Services buying process? How do they differ from that of other industries?

Like in all marketing segments, social media will become a more important part of their marketing process, as it is the current mechanism for “word of mouth”. I do not think this differs much from other industries – the social media channel must be actively managed and monitored. There are likely unique differences between the channels you watch depending on whether you are on the B2C or B2B side of financial services. Both need to track Twitter, but B2C is more likely to be focused around Facebook and B2B around LinkedIn.

From a content standpoint, what are some of the relevant calls-to-action that speak to the Financial Services buyer?

In the B2B segments where we focus, it’s all about staying “top of mind” with your prospects. For instance, a broker can only represent so many mutual funds at a time and if you’re not currently in their mix, you need to be prepared for the inflection points when they might want to change out some products. Monitoring the performance of the competitive products you know are in their portfolio and then hitting the broker with an e-mail when you see poor performance of one of those products is the type of call-to-action that can have significant results.

What are some the functions/features of automation platforms that can be most helpful to Financial Services marketers to communicate with prospects most effectively?

As stated above, the lead/relationship nurturing capabilities are key. Combining this with lead scoring and the ability to clearly identify what a prospect is interested in based on their website activity are all critical to B2B financial services marketers.

Because of the security/customer identity sensitivities of Financial Service transactions, what are some of the nuances of approaching marketing messaging and content offers?

Most of what a financial services marketer can say to a prospect is very clearly defined by regulatory agencies and all of the financial institutions have compliance departments which ensure that nothing goes out that shouldn’t. Furthermore, the marketing automation platforms must protect the uniquely identifiable customer information with the appropriate security standards. Fortunately, we’ve passed all of these tests with flying colors. One interesting nuance is that when it comes to launching the initial programs on a marketing automation platform, the process takes much longer than in other industries. This is because the compliance team is watching every step to ensure that no regulations are being violated. Once everything passes, however, new programs are launched at a rapid rate.

Does your solution offer any unique features/functionality that are well suited or targeted for the Financial Services vertical?

Our ability to easily create and manage complex relationship/lead nurturing programs is well received by Financial Services marketers. As stated above, their current processes are complex and they need a tool that can easily translate the manual processes into something that is automated. In addition, our outstanding integration with various CRM platforms is critical to this market. Allowing a sales/marketing rep to easily drop prospects into the appropriate nurture program based on their previous activity has been a big selling point.

Can you share any case studies/examples of how your solution has been deployed within the Financial Services vertical?

The example I gave about mutual fund wholesaling above is from a real customer, but they view what they are doing with us as a competitive advantage and are reluctant to go public. We have another customer in ShareBuilder 401K, which is a subsidiary of ING Direct. They sell and manage 401K programs for businesses. Take a look at their case study for details on how they’ve used the Manticore Platform and the impact it’s had on their business.

Jeff Erramouspe

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Marketing Automation | Comments Off

Brent Mellow Helps You Choose the Right Marketing Solution

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Despite the proliferation of spam, email marketing continues to be one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reach your audience. Because email is such a key tool for most marketers, there are literally thousands of solutions available that include an email marketing component. Many prospective customers ask what a marketing automation platform enables them to do that a CRM system and email marketing solution do not. To determine if marketing automation is a good fit for you, it’s important to identify your goals and understand the difference between each type of solution.

Brent Mellow, Manticore Technology partner and owner of akaCRM, a professional services firm which provides comprehensive services for salesforce.com and the Force.com cloud platform, provides a high-level look at the difference between using the native capabilities of Salesforce CRM vs. using a specialized email marketing or marketing automation application in Email Marketing Solutions for Salesforce.com.

He offers a detailed list of what each solution enables you to do, the varying levels of sophistication, and the cost and choices among them. Mellow discusses the functionality and limitations of using Salesforce CRM email – pointing out that for some organizations, its functionality may be sufficient. He then discusses what ad-on marketing applications enable you to do and provides a detailed list of the differences and capabilities of each.

Regarding marketing automation, Mellow sums it up pretty well, when he states, “The differentiating feature of a marketing automation application vs. an email marketing application, is automation as the name implies.” He lists several features that provide advanced capabilities, such as:

  • Campaign Automation - replicate successful multi-step marketing campaigns and have them run on auto-pilot. For example, set-up a campaign that will automatically send a save-a-date email 180 days before the event, invitation 90 days before event, reminder 30 days and 5 days before event, and sorry-we-missed-you and thanks for attending messages 1 day after the event. Campaign automation is the core functionality that differentiates Marketing Automation applications from Email Marketing applications.
  • Dynamic Content - automatically provide alternative content based on segmentation parameters. For example, a recipient in California could receive content on events in California while a New York recipient could receive events in New York all through a single automated emailing.
  • Lead Nurturing - ability to manage leads overtime that aren't ready to buy today and monitor for changes in interest.
  • Lead Scoring - ability to apply formulas to leads based on behavior and visit patterns.
  • Website Monitoring - enable your teams to see individual companies visiting the website, often in real-time. This is not the same thing as website analytics like Google Analytics. Some vendors refer to this as website caller ID.

In addition to providing a detailed list of capabilities for each category, Mellow also lists vendors, costs and other aspects to consider before a purchase. For marketers who need to think through which technology best supports their processes and marketing needs, the complete post is a must-read.

Brent Mellow, founder and principal of akaCRM, has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, partner management, business finance and infrastructure. Brent completed his initial salesforce.com partner training in 2003 after having been a customer of salesforce.com for the two prior years. Brent is a certified salesforce.com administrator with nearly a decade of experience with salesforce.com and the Force.com cloud platform.

Jeff Erramouspe

Tags: , ,
Posted in Marketing Automation | Comments Off

Interview: Mac McIntosh Shares How Marketing Automation Can Impact Your Bottom Line

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

In the new era of marketing accountability, it is critical for marketers to adjust their marketing processes to reach farther across the funnel and help drive revenues. Marketing automation plays a critical role in helping marketers accomplish this. To help you gain some insight on what it enables you to do and how to use it effectively, I've invited BtoB Sales Lead Expert Mac McIntosh to answer a few questions about the value marketing automation can bring to your business.

How can marketing automation help marketers stay in tune with the multiple channels buyers use to make buying decisions?

One of the exciting benefits of marketing automation is its ability to help marketers communicate with buyers across multiple channels.  For example, you can:

  • Email via your marketing automation system with links that allow recipients to “tell a friend” or “tweet” about it;
  • Send direct mail using the same messages, offers and links as you emailed about, and then drive responders to the same landing pages with some hidden code that allows you to track the source of those visitors and form completers;
  • Blog, post in LinkedIn or tweet about the same content you are offering in your marketing automation campaigns to extend its reach;
  • Have all the forms on your website, blog, email landing pages bring responders into your marketing automation campaigns automatically;
  • You can enter all leads from your trade shows into your marketing automation system and create an automated follow-up campaign to further qualify those leads;
  • You can leverage your content and events as online “offers” in your marketing campaigns and track response rates;
  • And much more.

What's the #1 mistake you see companies making with marketing automation and what can we do to fix that?

Good question.  I’m thinking it is buying marketing automation then only using it for batch-and- blast emails. One-size fits all communications, especially emails, don’t get the job done anymore.  Segmented, well-targeted and relevant communications get much better results.

The real benefit of marketing automation is exactly that: the ability to deliver the right message with the right offer to the right prospect at the right time.  In other words, true one-to-one marketing to many--something that we couldn’t do to any scale before marketing automation came along.

What does sales struggle with that marketing automation can simplify?

If you consider the steps in the B2B buying process as described in Robert Jollies’ book, Customer Centered Selling (illustration below), you’ll see that sales spends almost all their time where buyers are spending only a small percentage of their time.  Marketing automation is an ideal vehicle for communicating with and engaging prospects throughout their buying process.

Marketing automation can also help sales overcome additional challenges, such as:

  • Staying in-sight and in-mind with lots of prospects at once, including those not yet ready or receptive to being contacted by sales;
  • Keeping in touch between sales calls;
  • Touching the multiple influencers and decision makers that are involved in the buying process;
  • Automatically scheduling the next touch or step in the sales process;
  • Delivering relevant information as prospects move forward in their buying process.

How does marketing automation help lower the cost of sales?

Research on the cost of sales calls by Reed Business found that the average cost of a business-to-business in-person sales call was $392 in 2001. (This is the most recent research I could find on the subject, so the cost of a sales call is probably much higher now.) The same research said that it took an average of 5.1 in-person sales calls to close a B2B sale. So the total cost of sales visits required to close an average B2B sale was just a hair under $2,000.

Want to lower your cost of sales?  Simply replace a couple of those expensive, in-person sales calls with lower cost-per-contact marketing-automation driven contacts, then do the math again, replacing two of the $392 sales calls with five marketing contacts at as much as $30 each for the prospecting and qualifying steps. The result? You've invested only $150 to complete the first two steps that otherwise would have cost your company $784 to accomplish with in-person sales calls, saving $634 and lowering your cost of sales by more than 30 percent.

Here are some other numbers to consider:

The research I referenced earlier also showed that the average salesperson spent less than a fifth of his or her time meeting with new prospects. This works out to be approximately one day of every business week. When you consider vacations and other time off, that works out to less than 50 days of new business development a year!

How many prospects do you think your salespeople can visit during a given week? Unless their territory is limited to the immediate neighborhood, I'd say they'll probably be able to schedule a maximum of four meetings a day and only be meeting with prospective clients one or two days a week. The rest of the time is used for things like telemarketing, sales meetings, training, paperwork, travel, writing proposals, entering orders and problem-solving for existing clients.

Assume eight meetings a week and you'll find that your average salesperson can complete 400 in-person sales visits a year at most (100 days multiplied by four visits). Divide the 400 visits by 5.1 (the average number of in-person sales calls required to close a sale, as mentioned earlier), and you'll find that if they close 100 percent of the sales to prospects they visit, they'll close a maximum of 79 sales a year. However, my experience says that average B2B close rates are closer to 30 percent, meaning that the average salespeople will only close around 24 sales from their 400 in-person sales calls!

How much more productive would they be if they only had to make an average of three sales visits to close a qualified prospect that was generated for them by marketing? The answer is 40 percent more productive at closing sales.  In this case closing 34 sales instead of 24. So instead of adding more salespeople to knock on more doors, use marketing automation campaigns to cost-effectively contact your prospects and fill the sales pipeline with qualified leads. Doing so will result in more sales-ready opportunities that your salespeople, reps, resellers or distributors can turn into new business, meaning greater sales revenue and profits for your company.

How can marketers use social media in conjunction with marketing automation to improve lead generation?

I’ve found that social media, as a stand-alone tactic, doesn’t results in lots of leads for B2B marketers. However, as an integrated component of your B2B marketing campaigns, it can help with initial awareness of, and preference for, your company and its products or services.  And, as I mentioned in my answer to your first question, it can be used to extend the reach of your marketing automation campaigns, content and influence.

What are some sources of ROI delivered by marketing automation systems that help marketers do more with less?

As I see it, these are the big ones:

  • Lower marketing costs (once it is up and running);
  • More qualified, sales-ready leads;
  • Lower cost of sales;
  • Increased sales efficiency;
  • More closed sales.

Mac McIntosh is a b-to-b marketing and sales consultant and writer of the popular blog Sales Lead Insights. With 20 years of advertising, marketing and sales experience, Mac specializes in helping companies get more high-quality B2B sales leads, turn them into sales, track and measure results, and prove a favorable return on investment. He has earned a enviable reputation for getting results for his clients.

Jeff Erramouspe

Tags: , ,
Posted in Marketing Automation | Comments Off
« Older Entries