by Carol Springer | Jun 30, 2016
If you missed it, the 2016 Digital Summit in Denver took place June 15-16, and it was great! The vendors told me this was the largest Digital Summit on the west side of the Mississippi (yes, larger than the Los Angeles event). #DSDEN16 brought together hundreds of companies to share ideas and discuss the trends in digital marketing. After a bit of reflection, here are a few major takeaways worth sharing.
Community
Denver is a booming area for the Millennial generation, and the success of businesses here was epitomized at the Digital Summit. It was perfect weather, everyone was ecstatic, and the flow of ideas and discussions brought important strategies to the forefront of everyone’s mind. Several attendees stated of all the Digital Summit’s they’ve attended, this was one of the largest. Relative to where you are, anyone in this field should invest in going to the Digital Summit next year.
Mediums for Marketing
The big takeaways were video and social – as one “socialite”, @kirill_kniazev, stated in 140: #snapchat – do, #email – still good, #seo – great ROI, #mobile – more important than ever, create experiences, stories.
Snapchat is currently the hot social media app, and there was plenty of discussion around how to implement it within marketing strategies. This app is the catalyst for a shift in video marketing, making the norm quantity over quality. Snapchat allows for instant video, which means instant marketing. Now anyone can record and quickly watch videos from their phones. So while the quality is not on a professional level, sharing it is much quicker since the content has to be efficiently put into ten seconds. We see this as a must for targeting Millennials in the consumer space. In the B2B Marketing world, however, it may be awhile. The social winners for B2B sales and marketing are still LinkedIn and Twitter.
Marketing Automation
There was some surprise at the conference – the acceptance of marketing automation and how few in the sales team actually use the tools. Even when talking to sales reps from the marketing automation vendors, they do not use the tools themselves for sending emails. It is an underutilization of the amazing technology that many companies are paying 1000’s of dollars for every month. For implementation of marketing automation for sales, take a look at our recent post.
The Denver Digital Summit was educational, fun and entertaining. Thank you #AskGaryVee for inspiring my team, and see you there next year!
by Carol Springer | Jun 20, 2016
No matter the business, marketing is always present. Even your logo or your business card alone shares your brand to customers, colleagues, and competitors. When marketing is optimally used, it results in better relationships with customers and a reduction in wasted time and resources.
One of the biggest trends in marketing today is the use of marketing automation systems. This movement to automate sales and marketing is gaining momentum more and more every year. Whether you use Pardot, Marketo, Act-on, Hubspot, Infusionsoft or other tools; the key to success is to take advantage of the automated processes, scoring and real time notifications. These features, often passed over by sales teams, allow reps to know when to take action and results in moving leads through the sales funnel.
More Exact
Through the use of automation, the level of interest for future business is clear and simple. Concrete data will be generated and available for analysis, which saves time for your sales team. The distinction between qualified and unqualified leads is shown quickly, allowing for an instant decision for where to focus your efforts, and how to keep track of prospects. The nurtured leads become sales opportunities, which are best found through the data that is produced from the marketing automation tools. Generic marketing, like email blasts, is effective when compared to no marketing, however this is not the most effective. With a marketing automation in place, personalized information about leads are at your fingertips instantly.
More Personal
Leads that are generated from content marketing and nurturing using tools like Pardot, Silverpop or Net-Results allow for companies to know exactly who is interested, and by how much. The customer experience is an important factor in measuring success, and gaining more buyers. It’s simple: the nurtured leads have a better experience because the marketing they are receiving is what they are interested in. This allows for your staff to go in and make them feel like people. While it is a simple idea, treating your customers like people can be forgotten and the business transaction is unsuccessful.
More Success
One of the biggest reasons to automate some of your sales and embrace marketing automation is the time saved of senior sales execs. Repetitive tasks are now automated, allowing for marketers and sales teams to focus their energy on more important assignments. Marketing automation implementations are on the rise and the data exhibits how powerful the potential is when used correctly. Take a look at our implementation checklist to get started on the right path.
The future of business relies on adapting to the trends, which are constantly changing. Marketing automation allows for your business to save time, generate revenue, and create stronger relationships with customers. This can be an intimidating concept, especially to a small business owner, however the results speak volumes to the effectiveness.
For any questions on marketing automation implementation or about the overall process, please feel free to reach out to us.
