Hugh Macfarlane, Author at align.me

Top of Funnel data strategies for B2B marketing – choosing demand generation technology

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... What value does demand generation technology add to B2B marketing? There are so many complex technology solutions out there that it can become overwhelming to think about which fit your needs well (and that’s once you know what you need). B2B marketing professionals can be forgiven for holding back, but risk seeing their competitors stride ahead, taking early advantage from new technologies. So how do you choose the right platforms for your company? At DemandCon in San Francisco next week, Michael Bird, Chief Revenue Officer of Netprospex will READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Tactics, Velocity|

B2B Marketing in the Lower Funnel – Sales Readiness

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... What use is a B2B Marketing lead that isn’t followed up? Or worse, one that is followed up badly? B2B Marketing professionals rely on sales representatives to turn leads into opportunities, and ultimately into clients, but all-too-often the expectations between marketing and sales is blocked. The effect is to reinforce the stock response from both departments. So sales people must know how to handle leads well, which means their companies need to be able to prepare them. But how? James Rogers will be talking about the best practices for preparing sales READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

B2B marketing nirvana might just be the DemandCon Expert Panel

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... I’m a self-confessed B2B marketing geek, so naturally I can’t wait to hear the luminaries of B2B marketing share their experiences at DemandCon in just a few short weeks. I’m giving a keynote on aligning the whole team (See far, Go fast), and am joined by no fewer than 60 top notch speakers sharing their wisdom. So how do you make sure you get answers to your questions while these B2B marketers are all available in the one spot? On the morning of day 2, B2B marketers can sate their READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

B2B marketing levers: Using revenue performance management to grow your business

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... If it’s the customers who are in control in B2B marketing, who’s watching them? With all the free information available, and all the savvy buyers sorting through it, B2B marketers need the right business processes to create behaviour (and track it) if they want to drive revenue. Today’s B2B marketer needs a strategy to manage how companies interact with buyers. This strategy must follow the customer through their entire purchase-process. Get this right and you will see dramatic changes: more predictable, rapid and profitable revenue growth. So what kind READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

B2B Marketing Aligns with Sales: Quelling Clash of titans

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... In B2B marketing, goal-setting is used to incite progressive behaviour. B2B Marketing 101 teaches us to: Know what’s happening in the market; and Set the right goals to keep on top of (or lead) market trends. Piece of cake, right? Well, actually, it’s only one piece in the bigger B2B cake, which is precisely why fellow DemandCon keynote Christine Crandell believes B2B marketing departments disconnect with their cousins from Sales. So why are Sales and Marketing agendas often so disparate, and how can you use this understanding to broach alignment? READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Alignment|

B2B marketing keynote – See Far, Go Fast!

Hugh Macfarlane, Founder & CEO of align.me, writes... B2B marketing is my passion, and one of the biggest challenges for B2B marketers is alignment. While we're all busy trying to get Sales and Marketing on the same page, the goals often go and shift on us. And this can be even before most of us have reached the half-way mark! The crucial thing is that the need for alignment has broadened. It's now about getting the whole business and your partners pointing in the same direction. Sounds logical. So how do you do it? If you’ve been reading READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Strategy, Tactics|

Creating Convergence between sales and B2B marketing using Social Media

B2B marketing can be a thankless task. There is a moment in every business where marketing hands off to sales. Planned or not, B2B marketing has created an opportunity, and sales is getting its chance to create a customer. At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Did marketing create enough interest? Can sales create enough curiosity and trust? Did they both do their part in getting the prospect to “tell me more?” I’ll be speaking at the DemandCon conference in San Francisco in May this year, and am joined by some luminaries of the industry. Amongst them, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Webinars for B2B Marketing: Lead Gen to Closed/Won

Webinars are now a popular tool for most of us in B2B marketing. At align.me, we began with live webinars about 4 years ago, but found the grind of supporting US, Asia and Europe to be gruelling. Most of our B2B marketing audience used to listen to the webinars after the fact anyway, so we bit the bullet and took the recorded route. Since then, we have learned how much richer you can make the experience if you have the luxury of post-production time and resources. At Demand Con in San Francisco in September this year, READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

How to avoid a B2B marketing-automation train-wreck

David M Raab believes that marketers everywhere will agree that they need automation systems for their B2B marketing – even if they’re not exactly sure why. But even the best technology won’t guarantee success. Automating a bad B2B marketing process will only bring the failure on faster. So what marketing automation works? David M. Raab is a Principal Consultant at Raab & Associates Inc and has managed an impressive list of clients, including AARP, CitiCorp, The Gap, First Union Bank and many others. He will be taking the stage at DemandCon in San Francisco this May to READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

How do you automate the buyers journey in B2B marketing using social media?

In B2B marketing we can learn a lot from our consumer cousins. But there are some tactics that while working well for B2C, just don’t work in the complex sales environment of B2B. One such tactic is still being hotly debated; and that's social media. what is its role for B2B marketing and what is the best practice for social media? The general notion is that if you’re putting your business out there by Tweeting and using Facebook you can cross ‘social media’ off your to-do list. Climbing numbers fo ‘followers’, ‘friends’ and click-throughs are surely testament READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

About Hugh Macfarlane