Archive for the ‘Landing Pages’ Category

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.

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Jeff Erramouspe

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Posted in Email Marketing, Landing Pages, Marketing Automation Software | No Comments

B2B Marketers Need Funnel Focus

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Over the past several months I've been thinking a lot about changes I've seen in the marketing automation space, primarily about purchaser buyer behavior.  Money has been pouring into the space and marketers are buying, buying, buying - which is great news.  With the influx of capital there's been a marked increase in demand, but with this interested, I've noticed an alarming trend.   Decisions about purchasing a marketing automation solution are being pushed to the bottom of the organization.  At most companies, marketers at this level are focused on execution.  They're worried about landing pages, emails, and day to day execution.

What's missing from the discussion when this happens is process.  While landing pages and email creation are important factors to consider, the reality is that implementing a marketing automation solution is about managing a business process, namely how leads enter and move through your marketing funnel.  This is the #1 reason for purchasing a MA solution.  Don't get me wrong, usability, landing pages, emails, etc are important to consider, but if a solution can't meet your business objective, then they just become a waste of time and money.

With this in mind we've actually re-launched the Manticore Technology blog with the name Funnel Focus.  In doing I hope to double-down our efforts in delivering valuable information and insights to help B2B marketers effectively generate demand through  a systematic approach to marketing.

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Christopher Doran

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Posted in B2B Marketing, Landing Pages, Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation Software | No Comments

Landing Pages that Work

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

As a demand generation provider, we are constantly helping our customers build and test landing pages.  We are often asked about best practices for boosting registration rates on forms.  While we offer tips on maximizing registration rates on the form itself, such as using pre-populated forms, drop-down menus and pick lists, you can also increase registration rates by following best practices on the content and layout of your landing pages.  Below we’ve listed a few best practices for optimizing landing pages for a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign that 360Partners shared with us.

1. Keep your layout simple: Use only elements necessary to convince the visitor to fill out your form.  Use images to communicate what the visitor receives when they register, where they are, and how it is relevant to what they are looking for.  For example, if you’re offering a whitepaper, you would want to include an image of the whitepaper, your company logo and colors, and a headline that includes the search term they used to get to your page. Other visuals should guide the visitor to where you want them to take action – e.g. an arrow pointing to the form.

Limit the amount of text, use phrases rather than full sentences, and use bullet points to communicate major points.  It is also a best practice to keep the information and the offer above the fold so the visitor does not have to scroll down.

2. Grab the Visitor’s Attention with the Page Title: One of the most important elements on the page the page title should immediately tell the visitor that a) they’re in the right place and b) you have something of interest to offer them.  For example, if a visitor arrived at our landing page by searching on demand generation, we might use a title tag such as, “What can demand generation do for you?  View online demo now”.

3. Have a Specific Call To Action: This tells the visitor what action you want them to take (e.g. “Fill out the form for a free quote”). The call to action should be the most prominent thing on the page and should be in the middle of the page rather than the very bottom.

4. Keep the Landing Page Customer Centric: Many marketers make the mistake of immediately launching into a pitch on their product in a landing page.  Remember to keep your content focused on meeting the needs of the visitor.  Unless the search term is brand-specific, information on your company should be toward the bottom.

5. Make the Call to Action Button Prominent and Specific: Use bright colors, outlining and shapes to make your call to action button stand out on the page.  It is also more effective to be specific.  Using a customized button like “Get Free Whitepaper” is more effective than using the standard “Submit” button.

6. Use Privacy and Security Assurances: Many people are hesitant to provide their contact information through an online form. It is best practice to provide some kind of privacy or security assurance close to the spot where you are collecting personal information.  This boosts registration rates and helps to ensure accuracy of the information submitted.

It is always a good idea to run A/B tests with landing page content and layouts.  Even when you follow best practices, landing pages are a work in progress and the best way to determine what works best is to try it.  Other good posts providing tips and best practices for creating landing pages are below:

Viget Engage: http://www.viget.com/engage/intro-and-landing-pages-best-practices
Be Relevant!: http://www.b2bemailmarketing.com/2008/11/landing-page-be.html

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Jeff Erramouspe

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Posted in Landing Pages, Marketing Automation | 1 Comment
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