Know, Act, Close: December 2012

Friday, December 14, 2012

Event Data: You Complete M...y Marketing Automation

One of Hubspot’s latest posts recently landed in my inbox called: 3 Ways You’re not Using Marketing Automation (But Should be). Immediately, my eyebrows rose in curiosity because at iLantern we have been thinking of so many ways that we could enhance the data within marketing automation. So I clicked. Getting nearly giddy when I saw what their recommendations are for improving marketing automation. We agree whole-heartedly, but wanted to add in some additional points. We want to make your marketing automation more complete. Does Jerry McGuire really ever get old? I think not. Repeat after me: ”You complete me.”

Here are Hubspot’s 3 additional usage tips for marketing automation:

“Categorize Leads by Persona and Lifecycle Stage on the Fly” *Read More

- This means set up nurturing campaigns and when we talk nurturing campaigns, we mean put your leads into the appropriate buckets dependent on their behaviors.

- Enter iLantern. Behavior is just one data point, knowing event data about the companies that those leads are affiliated with makes your lead even more dynamic and viable once they get scored and eventually passed on to sales.

“Control When Leads Get Sent to Your CRM System (And Your Sales Team)” *Read more

- This really means setting up lead scoring algorithms. When your lead has hit enough touch points they become qualified enough to push them through to your CRMs so your sales reps get notified of different actions to take.

- Enter iLantern. Our mission is to solve the sales and marketing divide. How do we do that; well, we provide irrefutable data that sales and marketing teams can share and decide on appropriate messages based on that real-time event data. It’s hard to argue with data, whether they have downloaded an ebook, listened to a webinar, and oh btw – they reported good earnings for that quarter, determines the messaging that you send to them. I bet your sales rep would love to know that info so they can shoot them off a quick congrats and get a more solid foot in the door.

“Notify a Sales Rep of a Hot Prospect Who Requires Immediate Follow-up” *Read More

- This means that the lead has hit all the necessary touch points and are ready to be contacted by a sales rep. Providing the most vital firmographic information will make it that much easier for the sales rep to act immediately.

- Enter iLantern – When we said diminish the divide we weren’t lying. When you make it so your sales reps can do less work because you’ve used data to do all the legwork and provided easy ways for the rep to dive in, you have a happy rep. You can provide real-time event data as well as firmographic data. As a marketer, data has made your job easier too. Event data is not only a boost to behavioral data, but a confirmation of what next steps should be in the nurturing process.

Hubspot’s suggestions for utilizing your marketing automation to its’ greatest potential is vital and will ultimately create a solid marketing and sales dynamic; but, our point is not just what to do, but what how to do it. And to achieve your automation’s greatest potential, means incorporating event data/triggers as a boost to the other data that your automation systems are already retrieving. The bottom line is let data be your agile guide through the marketing funnel and the sales pipeline. Let data be the mediator between sales and marketing, so you can be on the path to not just great communication, but to more revenue. Go team!

To learn more, visit: www.ilantern.com

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

How Do You Use Big Data Now; What are Your Big Data Plans for 2013?

Getting good data and then being able to turn it into something of value will require the ongoing dedication of attention and resources in order for marketers to benefit.

-emarketer , Nov 29, 2012

Every company is gearing up for 2013 to figure out how they can maximize results from Big Data. Recently, emarketer surveyed executives worldwide to see where they feel companies should focus on Big Data to improve performance. They measured where companies are currently with data implementation and ideally where they would like to be in 2013. Across the board, data acquisition and analytics are becoming the focal point for sales and marketing organization in 2013. So the questions are: How does your company measure up, and how are you going to achieve your goals?

First you need to determine what user category you fall into: Low-Level, Mid-Level or Power User. In order to do that, use emarketer’s guide to decide: if you aren’t yet using data to improve in these areas, if you are already using Big Data, but want to capitalize more on the data’s potential, or best-case scenario, you are exceeding the average current percentages for analyzing and implementing best data practices.

Customer insights, segmentation or targeting
Budgeting, forecasting or planning
Operations, service delivery or supply chain management
Customer service/support
Performance management and transparency in internal operations
New product strategies
Pricing
Automation of common or straightforward decisions
Improvements to R&D processes

Are you a Low-Level User? This means that you have limited engagement in Big Data. Here are some things to think about that can help elevate you to a Mid-Level User:

What areas do you want to see performance improvement through the use of data? Give yourself a percentage rating based on your current processes to help determine what your ideal goals are for 2013?
Are there areas that are missing from this list?
What are easy implementation solutions that can get you a higher engagement with your data?
What type of data do you need? POS? Behavior? Social? Event? All of the above?
Prioritize which data will give you the most return based on your resource.

Are you a Mid-Level user? You are engaged in data acquisition, but haven’t analyzed results to create a more comprehensive strategy. If you fall into this category the most important element is: Organization and Task Management.

Evaluate your current process for marketing automation and segmentation.
Are you reaching your desired audience and at the right time?
Do you need to augment your current process with technology add-ons that can help reduce the amount of data, but hone in on the best data for your sales and marketing teams?
This stage is about deciphering best practices and maximizing your team’s strengths to glean the most valuable information with the tools that you already have in place and at your disposal.
Decide if there are any amendments you need to make to those tools.

Are you a Power User? You have comprehensive systems and automation in place to hone in on relevant data that drives more sales. If you fall into this category, well, you are pretty much kickin’ butt! Way to go. You are early adopters who see the value of every type of data, but of course, there is room for refinement. So ask yourself:

Are there processes that you are leaving out?
Have you incorporated and accounted for all types of data that is best for your growth strategy – POS, Behavior, Social, Event?
Are your sales and marketing teams doing the best they can to capitalize on the analytics?

Data is only as good as the user. Start small and then grow. You don’t need to go from zero to 60 in 2.4 seconds like the 2010 Bugatti. Slowly accelerate through add-ons to your existing technology. Remember, knowing that a lead, both downloaded a white paper, attended a webinar and also signed up for a demo are all well and good, but if their company just reported bad Q3 earnings then maybe the deal isn’t going to be as big as you think, in which case you may have to dial back. The point is that all of this data matters it creating a seamless buying process that is custom fit to your buyer.

To learn more, visit: www.ilantern.com