A great database helps you identify, profile and target the right people, at the right time.  So if your ability to communicate is only as good as your data, what should you be reviewing to make sure your database is healthy?

Start with the following metrics based on the Demand Lifecycle™ …

Then continue looking at metrics within the context of the following:

• Identify – which metrics help you identify your most qualified contacts.
• Profile – which metrics help you understand which values in your database you need completed in order to profile your contacts.
• Target – which metrics give you the ability to understand which segments in your database that you need to target.

A healthy database is the foundation for any campaign.  And it’s important to make sure you are always evaluating the database using the metrics and approach described above.

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Marketers (and demand generators) have to be good storytellers.  They have such a small window of opportunity to engage a person with an idea or message, they need to make it count every time.  A great book was written by Chris Heath and Dan Heath, called “Made to Stick“, and it is a book on why some ideas survive and some die.  They summarize this in six key principles that can be articulated in one sentence: Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story (or SUCCESs).

I thought it would be worthwhile to examine the six principles they discuss, and see how marketers could take advantage of these concepts to tell better stories.

Principle 1: Simplicity

It’s not good enough to be concise, you need to be concise and profound. “A one sentence statement that is so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning it”.  Marketers face this challenge every day – whether it is trying to develop your next brand platform or watching the available spaces countdown in your ad word editor.  How can you communicate your message so that it drives others to think,  and continue to be interested?  This is probably the toughest part of effective marketing.

Principle 2: Unexpectedness

To get people to pay attention to your ideas, “We need to violate people’s expectations. We need to be counterintuitive.”  And it isn’t enough that you just shock or surprise someone, you need to generate real interest or your idea won’t last.  Marketers are some of the best at coming up with creative ways to present their message – one of my favorite customer campaigns recently was Tanberg’s “I want my hour back“.  Which posed an interesting question on “what would you do if you could get 1 hour back?” And then tied it to Tandberg’s video conference solution as a way to get that hour.

Principle 3: Concreteness

We need to make our ideas clear, and to do that, we need to explain those ideas in terms that are real.  Although some analogies can be very successful – they can also be a crutch.  If you are a marketer who has a complex solution or service – try and speak in terms that your customers can relate to and understand.

Principle 4: Credibility

Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials.  Meaningless stats and calculations don’t always leave people convinced something is true.  A good example of this is the concept of email deliverability – no matter how data shows this is important, a much more compelling argument is “have you ever gotten a flaming email from the CEO that one of your campaigns ended up in a prospect’s junk mail?”  All of a sudden a story on bad email deliverability has more credibility than any number of stats you could present.

Principle 5: Emotions

“We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions”.  And we all know that people buy more on emotion than logical choice.  So how can a marketer create a connection with their prospects?  The importance of relevancy cannot be understated in marketing communications.  I believe there are four dimensions of relevancy (personalization): content, timing, delivery and sender. For more details on this concept – check out this article.

Principle 6: Stories

The best way to get people to act on your ideas, is to tell  stories.  By telling stories you mentally prepare yourself and others to deal with situations when they occur.  The best marketers and sales people in my organization, are the ones that have either lived through or learnt the key stories that make our customers great, and can tell them time and time again.

So there you have it, six principles to making your ideas stick.  So the next time you are tempted to rewrite all of your customer case studies into the same boring generic format (Pain, Solution, Results), think twice.  Maybe it is time to figure out how you can leverage the six principles on your stories and really “make it stick”.

Hey look kids, there's Big Ben, and there's Parliament! --Clark Griswold

Eloqua’s recent Customer Success tours have spawned good discussion around lead nurturing.  One question that stuck out to me was “When do you stop nurturing a lead?“

Let’s start by reviewing the basics of a good nurturing program…  First, the goal: to progress a lead from one lead stage to the next with the goal of acquiring a new customer or of retaining or developing an existing one.  To obtain a new customer though, you have to start by building a relationship.

Before you go crazy with marketing automation, let’s think about the journey.  First, recognize where your lead is in your funnel.  Is your intended audience comprised of suspects that you know little about? Are they sales rejects – not yet ready to purchase? Are they pure responses – someone who has responded to a campaign, but who doesn’t yet meet the qualification criteria necessary to send them to Sales for follow up?

Tailor the campaign content, frequency of communication, and messaging vehicle to funnel stage.  Many clients shared successes around their welcome programs.  This early-stage opportunity allows frequent communication and can often yield high conversion.  For sales rejects, less frequent but more personalized content that relates to your original interaction may be more appropriate.

But back to the question at hand:  just how long is this journey?  Sirius Decisions reports that the leads in your database will likely make a purchase within 24 months – either from you or from your competitors.  By process of elimination, the journey may be short for two groups within your target audience – those that convert on to the next stage – and into another phase of the relationship – and non-responders.  (If someone hasn’t clicked or been prompted to visit your site following your communication, it’s just not working.  Remove them, set their status to inactive and try a different tactic to re-engage them.) 

The most challenging group is like an annoying ex-boyfriend – they show occasional interest but just can’t commit.  They click but don’t convert.  They’re active, just not active enough for our pipeline-loving taste. 

Depending on the length of your sales cycle, you may consider several scenarios.  Try mixing up the channels - introduce new tactics such as direct mail, phone outreach, or social media if you’ve not previously.  If your benefit-focused campaign has exhausted all enticement, invite them to subscribe to your e-newsletter or some less-specific content in order to preserve the relationship without the burden of creating additional content.  Conversely, a polite but bold campaign that requests the user to bluntly signal their intention gets to the heart of the matter. 

“We noticed that you’d not responded to our recent emails. We don’t want to continue to fill your inbox if you’re not interested.  If you’d like us to continue to periodically send you information, please click here. Otherwise, we’ll remove you from our regular communications.” 

Bottom line:  There’s no exact answer to how long your nurturing program should last.  Above all, remember, this is a relationship you’re building.  Even if frequency and format change, it’s worth it to stay in touch.

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In the post Driving Demand for Your Online Events, we covered 4 key areas to focus on in order to not only get people to register for your webinar, but also to drive attendance. But it doesn’t stop there. The success of your webinar continues past the day of the event. Here are a few tips on maximizing the investment of your successful online event.

Click image to watch this 2 minute video!

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As we begin 2010, think of ways you can create points of reference within your organization where you can create standards.  Then evaluate and compare against past performance to ensure you are improving your overall marketing effectiveness.

Standards should be created in each of the four disciplines of the Demand Lifecycle™ – lead management, contact management, campaign management and marketing effectiveness. 

To get you started, Eloqua Best Practice recommends the following standards for measurement to create a baseline for evaluation and comparison.

Demand Lifecycle(TM) Recommended Metrics for Benchmarking

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I was thinking that there are many parallels between how you run a successful fantasy football season, and what it takes to run a successful Demand Generation organization. Indulge me…here we go.

It’s All About How You Matchup Against the Competition

Fantasy football is all about knowing your players and how they matchup against their opposing teams that week.  Even though you may have a great QB, if he is facing the no. 1 pass defense, maybe you should sit him that week. Well the same goes for marketing campaigns.  Many marketers today are using tools that allow them to see how prospects are visiting their website, and what they searched on to get there (great blog on search queries here).  This is becoming a new way of targeting follow-up campaigns or driving lead scores.  The reason search queries are so powerful, is that you know exactly what the prospect was thinking when they came to your site, how deep they are in their buying process, and are they evaluating any of your competition (“us vs. them”)?  By understanding who you are up against, you can zero-in on the strengths to highlight, and weaknesses to defend.

It’s Hard to Know Everything, So Rely on Others for Advice

There are so many things that go on during an NFL week, that it near impossible to stay on top of everything.  I heavily rely on data and advice provided to me by ESPN and other sites.  This allows me to stay on top of key trends and changes during the week.

Well the same goes with Demand Generation.  I am lucky at Eloqua to be involved with hundreds of successful customers, but not everyone has that luxury.  Get engaged with a community, read blogs (such as this one), and spend time with other demand generation professionals (see Eloqua Customer Success Tours).  Many marketers admit that they “don’t know what they don’t know”, but by spending time learning from others, you can at least “know more about what you don’t know”.

Time Kills All Deals (Inquiries)

In Fantasy Football timeliness of action is so critical.  Whether it is picking up a player on the waiver wire, or accepting a trade offer from another team.  You need be ready to take action, every day, every hour, every minute.  Well the same goes for Demand Generation.  You have heard the phrase “time kills all deals”, but how about “time kills all inquiries”?  In a study completed by M.I.T., they showcased that hours matter when following up to inquiries.  In fact, the chances of converting an inquiry to a qualified lead, is increased by 600% if you call in the first hour vs. the second hour. 600%!  That is really unbelievable.

Well there you have it.  If you are reading this article and won your fantasy football season, perhaps you should consider a career in Demand Generation.  Either that or you were just lucky enough to grab Chris Johnson or Aaron Rogers this year.  See you at the Superbowl.

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How did you get to where you are today?
I was groomed for it from an early age. My Mom is a Realtor, so I grew up assembling direct mail pieces and promotional flyers at the dining room table. My Dad is a dentist in private practice, and I spent my afternoons after school watching his business in operation (and playing with his office supplies and dental equipment.)

What is interesting in Marketing in your space right now?
It’s probably not new to many of you, but I am very interested in Data and Customer Profiling right now. I am also drawn to NeuroMarketing, which I think is pure brilliance.

How do you get good ideas and inspiration?
From my community, from trusted sources, the world around me.

What campaign have you seen recently that really blew you away?
The way indie movies are hitting the scene, in a peer-to-peer, private screening format, is genius. The combination of Word-Of-Mouth/Product Review aspect with the Hyperlocality and Community aspect yields the root of Marketing – a win/win for product and consumer through effective distribution of a message.

If you were a font, which font would you be?
Helvetica

Please share a nugget of Marketing Wisdom with our readers?
Experiment. Test. Listen to your gut. Trust yourself.

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VP Sales: You marketers are all the same!  Your campaigns always look so slick.  You always are producing lots of “stuff”. But, when it comes to the tough questions, you never have answers!

Marketer: You want answers?

VP Sales: I think we are entitled to them.

Marketer: You want answers?

VP Sales: We want THE TRUTH!

Marketer: Pshh…You can’t handle the truth.  We live in a world that requires interest in our products and solutions and that interest must be strategically generated by people with elite skills. We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You scoff at the marketing team, you curse our big budgets; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know – that while the cost of business results may seem excessive, it builds customer loyalty and scales revenue. My very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, allows us to create a revenue-producing machine. You don’t want to know the truth because deep down in places that you don’t talk about at your pipeline forecast meetings you want me on that call; you need me on that call.  We use words like engagement, relevance, and calls-to-action.  We use these words as the backbone of a life spent building long-term relationships and creating demand. And you use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of genuine interest that I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said “thank you for finding that deal” and went on your way. Otherwise, might I suggest that you stop questioning me and close the deal I just sent to you, either way; I don’t care what you think you’re entitled to.

VP Sales: Can you prove how much revenue you impacted last year?

Marketer: I did the job I was hired to do.

VP Sales: Can you actually prove how much revenue you impacted last year?

Marketer: You’re darn right I can.

———————————–

Can you handle the truth? The truth is I see organizations continuing to FAIL in 2010. Fail in understanding what mix of marketing and sales strategies actually drive the business to its revenue and growth targets. I believe this is because we all continue to isolate sales and marketing instead of evaluating performance within context of the entire integrated sales and marketing funnel. We continue to judge the effectiveness of marketing by eyeballs that hit our website – and NOT revenue. We look at sales efficiencies without the context of inbound demand and how it is currently managed. We aren’t putting in service-level agreements and holding both functions accountable for the greater short-term and longer-term objectives.

I am looking for MORE than a few good marketers in 2010. I am looking for the elite sales and marketing professionals that are driving change in their organization and developing a CORE COMPETENCY in Demand Generation for their business. And, when I say core competency, I mean those organizations that have established a revenue machine. Stay tuned as I track them down and share insights from the front lines of those that are adopting the principles of The Demand Lifecycle and dominating their markets.

A Few Good Marketers will succeed in 2010. Will you be one of them?

**And, thank you to Alex Shootman and the clever Eloqua team for letting me steal the movie reenactment idea.

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1.        Benchmark and assess for improvement in marketing effectiveness

2.        Review the health of your database

3.        Lead stage definitions – get in alignment with sales and implement in CRM and Eloqua

4.        Implement lead scoring and make sure you are monitoring results

5.        Identify manual processes and automate where appropriate

6.        Track everything you possibly can, but only report on actionable data

7.        Have fun with your campaigns

8.        Identify MBOs that are jointly shared with sales

9.        Document your marketing processes

10.      Take inventory of your campaigns, update where appropriate

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Question: if a lead inquires on a campaign in Q1 2010 and counts towards your marketing metrics for conversion; when is that prospect eligible to be counted again as another inquiry?

The Miriam-Webster definition for inquiry is as follows:
Main Entry: in·qui·ry; date: 15th century
1 : examination into facts or principles : research
2 : a request for information
3 : a systematic investigation often of a matter of public interest

The marketing definition of an inquiry is still not as well defined as it needs to be.  Some say it is when a prospect “raises their hand” as a point of interest, and many marketers define that action as a campaign form submission in a given period of time. However as long as you stay consistent with how you define an inquiry, ongoing analysis should provide actionable  insight.  One question that is unclear as you look across longer periods of time, is when can you count that inquiry again?

Multiple Funnel Theory

A funnel represents a buying process that is initiated by a lead.  As that lead expresses more and more interest it will move further down the funnel, eventually being passed to sales and if all goes well turn into a customer.  I would say it is best practice to measure multiple funnels with a time frame that is easily aligned to marketing activities or campaigns (i.e. months, quarters).  The reason is if you are performing analysis on a funnel, you can better correlate the conversion and results to what you did from a marketing perspective.

Your “Dead Pool of Leads”

But what if the interest of that lead goes completely away to zero?  Does the lead really stay part of that Q1 2010 funnel…FOREVER?  I believe the answer is no.  Because on top of all of your quarterly funnels is a “Dead Pool of Leads” that have zero interest, and don’t belong to any “buying process at all” (another interesting article on inactive leads).

Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring Again?

So if you have multiple funnels, and a dead pool of leads on top of these funnels – how can you accurately determine when a lead is back in the deal pool and available to inquire on a future funnel?  The answer is Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring.  If you recall Codynamic^TM Lead Scoring tracks both the profile fit (company and contact data) and level of engagement (online activity and interest) of a lead.  It is best practice today to have your lead scoring program decay the level of engagement over time when there is no activity.  So if a lead inquires in Q1 2010, but then has no activity over a period of time, that lead will eventually fall to “zero interest” and should be  in your “dead pool of leads”.  So if at some point in the future you were to target them with a campaign, and the lead inquires on that campaign – they should count in a new funnel (Q3 2010).

How Do You Get to Zero Interest?

A common thought is that the rate of decay should be related to the length of your sales cycle, however I would disagree as sales cycle is much deeper in the funnel, where a lead has more commitment to the buying process. To find out more, check out Part 3 on lead scoring decay coming soon.

For more on how to target leads in your dead pool – check out this post by Steve Woods on how VFA re-engaged their dead leads.

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