Tactics

How to build the case for an inbound marketing budget

Even though inbound marketing is now an essential part of most company’s marketing strategy, one question still persists in the minds of many business owners and executives: How much does it cost? It’s a valid question because inbound marketing is as much a change in process as it is an investment in digital marketing. What's the right level of spending? A recent Gartner survey showed that, on average, US companies spend 2.5 percent of their revenue purely on digital marketing activities and its expected to grow by 9% in 2013. So if your company generates, say, $5 million READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Strategy, Tactics|

Using PURLs in Direct Mail

What is a PURL and why would I use one? By Charlotte Mackenzie Well, the answer is pretty simple. PURL stands for ‘personalised URL’, which is exactly what it is; a fully-trackable online address that is exclusive to the individual buyer. When a person visits their PURL, it redirects to whatever URL you want it to. This could be any page on your site, a promotional offer, or a landing page generated for a specific campaign, such as a personal event invite and registration form. PURLs can be incorporated into your personalised direct mail and eDM communications READ MORE ›

By Charlotte Mackenzie|Tactics|

The 5 key ingredients for Twitter success

By Inka Wibowo As B2B marketers, everything we do comes down to one goal: creating buyers. To do this, we often need to start at the very beginning – even before buyers know who we are, what we do, and that they have a problem we can solve. We get buyers started on this journey by reaching out to them, and initiating a conversation – a conversation that we hope will one day create a troubled and qualified buyer. Social media is one way to start this conversation, but with so many different networks at our disposal, READ MORE ›

By Inka Wibowo|Tactics|

How to size your resource load

If a face-to-face sales call is the most effective tactic to progress buyers from one stage in their journey to the next, should you simply load up the top of your funnel to ensure your sales force is fully occupied? It's not quite that simple. This method is resource-intensive, and you will need to work out your likely outcome before committing your forces. There are two issues to consider in sizing the resource load: A face-to-face sales call is the preferred and most successful method of making a sale. But because it is also the most expensive READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

How to leverage surveys in B2B marketing

By Andrew Swan Your marketing strategy is only as good as the information used to build it, which is why smart marketers use surveys to gather key information about their buyers to help them not only build an effective strategy but also inform how best to execute it. When done right, surveys can help you better understand your market, uncover buying habits, attain product feedback, measure customer awareness, and most importantly they can help you progress buyers through their journey to purchase in the following ways: Find new names For your significant digital assets (eg. white papers), READ MORE ›

By Andrew Swan|Strategy, Tactics|

B2B Marketer’s guide: Building buyer personas that work

Content marketing is rightly undergoing a renaissance. It's seen as the key to engaging with your target audience when your buyers are (almost) all going online to commence their buying journey (over 80% of B2B buyers according to Forrester.) But here's the bad news. Most B2B Marketers just don't understand their target buyer's world and particularly their purchasing journey. How can B2B marketers generate effective content if they don't undertand the world of their reader, listener or viewer? How do you build messaging for your website, for your emails and newsletter? The key word here is READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Tactics|

How to measure lead effectiveness

Some businesses change their tactics with the same amount of science as they used to choose them in the first place - none. Others get themselves into such a state about how to decide whether to change or not, that they analyse themselves to death. So what makes sense to measure - and why? The answers lie in the detail - but only a little way in. Measure interest: What percentage of those who you first invited to act, took the first step? This first step is a great indicator of whether the topic holds interest READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

Leverage templates for identity, consistency & efficiency

By Charlotte Mackenzie At align.me, we communicate with many different businesses all around the world and, like everyone else, we like to look professional when we do it. It goes without saying that all written communication should contain well-written content that represents your company well. But how it looks visually is just as important, and often neglected. Essentially, every communication piece should instantly notify the recipient of who you are via a clear and consistent corporate identity. What’s the best way to establish and then maintain that corporate identity? By leveraging templates. Customised templates are an READ MORE ›

By Charlotte Mackenzie|Strategy, Tactics|

Is Google+ relevant to B2B marketing?

By Inka Wibowo When it comes to Google+, the B2B marketing community seems to be divided into three distinct camps. There are those who live and breathe it, hailing it as the next big thing in social media. There are those who understand that it may one day be a key part of their marketing mix, but for now can’t justify doing any more than setting up their profile and posting every once in a while. And then there are the cynics, who view it as Google’s adventurous yet ill-fated attempt to compete with the likes of READ MORE ›

By Inka Wibowo|Tactics|

Top 5 locations for CTA Buttons for lead generation

Converting site visitors to leads is a fundamental early step in making your site a lead generation machine. Call to action buttons are a key tool. This blog shares some ideas and experiences of what works. You can add your calls to action anywhere you like, however, there are five places that you cannot afford to ignore. Pretty much every page on your site is an opportunity to convert a visitor to a lead. 1. Bottom of a blog post The bottom of your blog posts is the ideal location to add a relevant call to READ MORE ›

By Chris Fell|Strategy, Tactics|