Marketing and sales alignment is a topic I’ve covered often in MarketingSherpa case studies and SherpaBlog posts. In fact, if you make it to one of the upcoming MarketingSherpa B2B Summits, you’ll likely get a dose or two of this topic. Because I enjoy the concept so much, I eagerly anticipated the breakout session at Dreamforce, “So Happy Together!: Bridging the Gap Between Sales & Marketing.” The presentation featured HubSpot’s Business Systems Manager Leah Norris (who represented the marketing side) and Nancy Kamerer, account executive and former senior director of sales development at Salesforce.com, who represented the sales side.

Nancy described some of the main challenges of getting Marketing and Sales to work in tandem:

The Sales Point of View: “We’re not getting enough leads, the leads we get are bad, and the data we’re using is bad, too.”

The Marketing Point of View: “Sales never follows up on the leads we send them, Sales doesn’t update the status of leads, and Marketing never gets enough credit for closed deals.”

Nancy also provided five actions that can improve this disconnect between the two departments:

1. Make an Agreement: Sales and Marketing should work together to define a common agreement on what constitutes “success.”

2. Agree on Certain Definitions: Sales and Marketing should have common definitions for terms used in their agreements. Two terms they should definitely agree on the meaning of include “lead” and “converted opportunity.”

3. Create Accessible Dashboards: Leave the guessing out of it. Dashboards provide accountability, visibility, credibility (by offering ROI figures), and can serve as a single source of truth for results that both teams can access. This eliminates the possibility for Sales to accuse Marketing of under-delivering on results, and vice versa (unless the data proves it!).

4. Use Collaborative Tools: The departments should use online tools to regularly collaborate and keep each other aware of various programs, progress, and results. Great tools for this include a corporate, internal wiki, and as we mentioned above, online report dashboards.

5. Improve Lead Quality: The sheer number of leads often isn’t enough to satisfy a company’s leads needs. Part of your sales and marketing agreement should also include requirements for lead quality, too. Quality leads result in better customers, and as a byproduct, more money.

“The biggest thing for us [at HubSpot],” said Leah, “is aligning Sales and Marketing so Marketing has specific goals and accountability and both teams can be successful.”

Leah added that one way to accomplish this is to create specific lead generation goals, such as lead volume by types of leads. For example, a qualified lead at HubSpot includes potential customers who request a demo or a free trial.

When Sales and Marketing are in agreement, there is more transparency and openness between the functions, which means everyone understands the common success they are aiming for.

How important is Marketing/Sales alignment at HubSpot? Leah said the concept is called “SMarketing” at the company. Holding regular meetings on understanding dashboard data, which are attended by both departments, is what leads to SMarketing harmony.

Furthermore, Sales operations and Marketing operations meet weekly — it might even be an informal lunch meeting — to review results. If the numbers aren’t getting reached, changes are made quickly to adjust the marketing budget or realign sales reps to ensure both teams are hitting their goals.

And what’s the most important takeaway for getting — and keeping — Marketing and Sales so happy together? “Addressing issues in real time leads to real time success,” said Leah.

How do you ensure your sales and marketing teams are living happily ever after? Do you have a so-called “SMarketing” agreement in place at your company?

Image credit: AForestFrolic

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This is a guest post written at Dreamforce by Jamie Turner, founder of the 60 Second Marketer. He is an in-demand marketing speaker and is currently writing a book entitled Go Mobile with Jeanne Hopkins, the director of marketing for HubSpot.

I’m here at the Dreamforce event in San Francisco to learn about some of the new tools and techniques Salesforce.com and other vendors are promoting to businesses like yours. Some of the information I’ve collected is about cutting-edge tools like Heroku, Radian6, and Chatter. But I’ve also collected information about some of the more traditional marketing tools, most notably email marketing.

While email marketing may not get the attention some of the newer tools get, it’s still a terrific way for you to generate leads and convert more prospects for your business. With that in mind, I wanted to share some email marketing best practices you can use to generate more leads for your business.

1. Use Incentives to Increase Open Rates: When you include an incentive in your subject line, you can increase open rates by as much as 50%. “Free shipping when you spend $25 or more” and “Receive a free iPod with demo” are examples of good, incentive-focused subject lines.

2. Stick to Fewer Than 3 Typefaces: The less clutter you have in your email, the more conversions you’ll experience. Don’t junk up your email with more than 2, or at maximum, 3 typefaces.

3. Keep the Main Message and Call-to-Action Above the Fold: If your main call-to-action falls below the fold, then as many as 70% of recipients won’t see it. Also, any call-to-action should be repeated at least 3 times throughout the email.

4. Keep Your Email 500-650 Pixels Wide: If you go wider than 650 pixels, then you’re asking users to scroll horizontally to read your entire message. That’s a no-no.

5. Put Your Logo in the Upper Left-Hand Side of the Email: Eye tracking studies have found that people instinctively look for logos in the upper left-hand side of emails. Put your logo in the upper left-hand side to ensure it gets the most visibility.

6. Write Compelling Subject Lines: A good subject line should contain no more than 30 to 50 characters. It should also create a sense of urgency, and it should give readers some indication of what to expect once they open the email.

7. Use Auto-Responders for Opt-Ins: Be prepared for your readers to forget they opted in. Set up an auto-responder that reminds people they opted in to your email database. The auto-responder should be sent out 1 day, 5 days, and 10 days after the person registers. Each auto-responder email should include additional content or bonus material to reward the reader for opting in.

8. Closely Tie Emails to Landing Pages: Your landing page should match the email in terms of headline, copy, and content. The look and feel of your landing page should also match the email. And make sure you’re utilizing tracking tools to see which emails and landing pages performed the best.

9. Conduct a 5-Second Test: Send a copy of the email to a friend or business associate. Can they quickly tell what your call-to-action is? If so, you’re golden. If not, keep working.

There are a lot of new tools in a marketer’s tool chest that are getting a good amount of attention these days. But don’t forget about old, yet reliable and faithful tools that can still really help you get the most out of your marketing initiatives.

What are your experiences with email marketing? Do you have any tips you’d like to share?

Image Credit: Jonathon Narvey

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The following article is an adapted excerpt from our new ebook, How to Generate Leads Using LinkedIn. Grab your free copy here.

So you’re a LinkedIn user. You’ve populated your profile and joined groups. Maybe you’ve even started discussions and been answering some questions. Your primary goal is simple — to use LinkedIn to stay connected with existing customers and generate new leads and customers.

Yesterday, we published an article about several different ways to use LinkedIn for lead generation. But, specifically, how should you go about executing those tactics?

Here’s a detailed, 7-step program to get you going. Each of the steps discussed below is designed to be very specific, so do your best to follow the plan.

Step #1: Commit that each Wednesday, you’ll connect with 5 current or former business associates. When you connect with people, you and your business jump to the top of their mind. When that happens, they may remember you when someone they know needs the product or service you provide. Connecting = Top of Mind = Leads.

Step #2: Over the course of the next 30 days, join 17 Groups. Why 17? Because it’s not 2 or 3, which is the number most people join. Your goal is to spread your visibility online, and the best way to do that is by joining many Groups, not just 2 or 3.

Step #3: Start a discussion in each new Group every day for 5 days after you join them. After doing it for 5 days, you’ll have made a few new friends in the group. If possible and appropriate, your discussion should include a link back to your website or a specific piece of content so people can download a whitepaper or sign up for your e-newsletter. When they download your whitepaper or sign up for your e-newsletter, you’ve captured their data so you can re-market to them in the future.

Step #4: Go to LinkedIn’s Answers section, and answer 2 questions a week. The trick here isn’t to answer a ton of questions all at once. The trick is to answer 2 a week…consistently. Similar to your strategy for LinkedIn Groups, include links back to content when possible to help you generate leads. Also, keep in mind that turning Answers into leads is a long-term strategy. It may take 5 Answers to generate a lead, or it may take 25 or 50. The key is to stay at it consistently over the long haul.

Step #5: Create a DirectAd. The key here is to have a landing page on your website where you can sell something directly or collect people’s contact information when they sign up for something you’re offering, like free content. If you’ve already got a landing page on your site, go into the DirectAd function and create an ad for it. It’s surprisingly simple, and it might only take you about 30 minutes to an hour to write.

Step #6: Add applications on your Profile Page. If you’re interested in making your Profile Page as engaging as it can possibly be, then applications are the way to go. The ReadingList app by Amazon and the WordPress application are two of the best and most popular. But don’t stop there — take a look around and add your favorites.

Step #7: Rinse and repeat the above steps. The key to making LinkedIn work is consistency. Don’t believe anyone who tells you it’s easy or that you can get rich quick doing it. The secret is to be there regularly so you can build a following and an audience. Once that happens, you’ll generate a steady stream of inbound leads.

These 7 steps are designed to help you get started with LinkedIn lead generation. As you take a deeper dive into this platform, you’ll find hidden LinkedIn nooks and crannies that can help you improve your results. The key is to execute these fundamentals over and over again. As you do, your results will start to snowball, and that’s what it’s all about.

Do you have a plan for generating leads from LinkedIn? For more information and advice on using LinkedIn for lead generation, download a free copy of our new ebook, How to Generate Leads Using LinkedIn.

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According to the survey, 65 percent of adult Internet users say they use a social networking site, up from 61 percent last year. Pew Internet notes that this year’s figure is more than double the 29 percent response observed in 2008. The report also notes that this is the first time in Pew Internet surveys that more than half of all U.S. adults say they use social networking sites.

“The pace with which new users have flocked to social networking sites has been staggering; when we first asked about social networking sites in February of 2005, just 8% of internet users — or 5% of all adults — said they used them,” write Mary Madden, senior research specialist at Pew Internet; and Kathryn Zickuhr, research specialist.

When respondents were asked to describe their experiences using these social networking sites, “good” was the most common response, with positive responses easily overshadowing negative and neutral words. “Fun,” “great,” “interesting” and “convenient” were also popular responses. Less common words used included “astounding,” “necessity” and “empowering.”

Negative responses were heard from about one out of five respondents who offered their input. These negative words exhibited more diversity, with “annoying,” “overwhelming,” “boring,” “confusing” and “overrated” among the more popular negative terms used.

The survey also found that 43 percent of online adults use social networking on a typical day, up from 38 percent a year ago, and up from just 13 percent in 2008. Of all the daily online activities that were asked about in the survey, only email (61 percent) and search engines (59 percent) are used more often than social networking tools on a typical day.

Social networking sites are most popular with women and young adults under age 30, according to Pew Internet. Young adult women ages 18-29 are called the “power users of social networking,” with 89 percent of those who are online using social networking sites – 69 percent on an average day.

Sixty percent of male Internet users use social networking sites, compared with 69 percent of women. When broken down by age, 83 percent of Internet users ages 18-29 use social networking sites, compared with 70 percent of users ages 30-49, 51 percent of users ages 50-64 and 33 percent of users 65+.

According to separate data from Experian Hitwise, for the week ending Aug. 27, the top social networking site was Facebook with 65.24 percent of visits to the industry “Computers and Internet – Social Networking and Forums.” YouTube was second with 19.60 percent, followed by Twitter with 1.32 percent.

Sources:

http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2011/PIP-SNS-Update-2011.pdf

http://www.hitwise.com/us/datacenter/main/dashboard-10133.html

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Paid-search spending is expected to reach $34 billion worldwide in 2011, according to KISSmetrics. Using this estimate, paid search will be bigger than radio advertising ($29.5 billion), outdoor advertising ($23.6 billion) and cinema advertising ($2.9 billion).

The money spent on search marketing is also shown to be gaining on paid-TV advertising. Back in 2006, paid search attracted $13.6 billion, while paid-TV ads attracted $28.9 billion. This reflected a 112 percent difference between the two mediums.

In 2011, paid search is expected to rake in $34.9 billion, while paid-TV ads is expected to attract $43.5 billion. This would reflect a 24 percent spending difference.

These numbers also show that since 2006, the amount of money spent on paid search has risen 250 percent.

By 2016, paid search is expected to grow 75 percent and become a $61.1 billion industry.

Google owns 79.1 percent of spending in the paid-search market, leaving Bing with 20.9 percent. Google’s share is up 6 percent year-over-year, while Bing’s share is up 197 percent year-over-year, thanks to its partnership with Yahoo.

In the auto sector, 77.8 percent of all search volume is generated by Google, while 22.2 percent is generated by Bing.

The split in the financial sector is 77.7 percent Google and 22.3 percent Bing, while the split in the retail sector is 84.8 percent Google and 15.2 percent Bing. In the travel sector, the split is 83.9 percent Google and 16.1 percent Bing.

KISSmetrics also notes that the average cost per click rose 11 percent year-over-year for Google and 4 percent for Bing. Meanwhile, Google’s return on investment (ROI) fell 12 percent, while Bing’s ROI rose 10 percent.

While Google’s lead in the market is obvious, KISSmetrics points to the upward trends for Bing. “If Bing can succeed in expanding their network while keeping click costs down and ROI up relative to Google, they could prove to be a serious paid search contender in the coming years,” the infographic concludes.

According to separate numbers from Forrester Research, search will claim $18 billion in 2011 and more than $33 billion by 2016. However, it will see its share of the interactive pie shrink from 55 percent today to 44 percent in 2016, as marketers move more of their search budgets to mobile and social networks.

Sources:

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/future-of-paid-search/

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=157514

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“Consumers have become an integral part of the process and are having fun with it,” according to the study. “This has lead to a new shopping mindset that is analogous to playing a game. The result for advertisers is a shopping landscape that is more complicated but provides a wealth of opportunities. How can marketers influence purchase behavior in this new shopping paradigm and where in the purchase path they can leverage new tools?”

The study surveyed 2,485 purchasers or intenders across six categories: electronics, automobile, personal care, retailers, finance and OTC medicine. Yahoo and UM also conducted qualitative interviews with marketers to better understand their digital marketing needs and pressing questions. The two companies also spoke with 45 tech-savvy consumers in the U.S. who used digital tools and resources in recent purchase processes.

Yahoo and UM found that 69 percent of shoppers said they trusted the Internet for information on products and services, followed by 43 percent who said magazines and 35 percent who said TV.

The study also found that consumers have become less impulsive thanks to the Internet, as 55 percent of respondent said the Internet has made them less impulsive, 28 percent noted no change and 17 percent said the Internet has made them more impulsive. The Internet, it seems, has given shoppers tools to use to conduct research and take their time before making their decisions.

“Social networks, user reviews and smartphones instantly facilitate the sharing of consumer expertise and experience,” according to the report, and as a result shopping has become more of a social affair. According to the study, 49 percent of consumers give advice to others, “motivated by a feeling of solidarity with other shoppers.” This results in consumers collaborating and competing with each other, adding to the “gamesmanship aspect of shopping,” according to Yahoo and UM.

The quickly growing presence of coupon sites and price-comparison sites has led consumers to see finding great deals as “cool.” Eighty-two percent of respondents said that finding a great deal on a product contributed most to the feeling of winning, while 60 percent said the same for the competitive aspect of shopping (getting a better price than others). Meanwhile, 69 percent of shoppers said they now seek deals and coupons online, and 49 percent said they use coupons now because of the Internet.

Yahoo and UM highlight five implications for marketers:

Marketers should contribute to the social ecosystem by jumping into the conversation and creating more personal and authentic relationships with their customers.

Marketers should create reward systems that deliver the “consumer win” by making them feel special.

Marketers don’t need to be considered a consumer’s friend, but they should use the right media to help consumers. Trusted sites perform better.

Online sources are as, if not more, influential as offline sources.

Your presence online can and should be emotionally delightful and not just purely rational.

Source:

http://advertising.yahoo.com/industry-knowledge/gamesmanship-of-shopping-insight.html

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Check it out!

When you are invited to testify before Congress, visual aids can provide impact and enhance your testimony. Even so, certain guidelines should be followed to make the most of the use and design of visual aids.

First and foremost, make certain you obtain approval to use any intended visual aids prior to the hearing. Arrangements for aids such as slide projectors, easels, monitors and other equipment should always be made in advance. In addition, it is important to ensure there are no objections to dimming the lights during the use of such aides, if necessary.

When it comes to the design of visual aids, make a point to keep everything simple. You should include only information that is vital. A viewer should need only to glance at a visual aid in order to gain an understanding of its meaning. When graphs and tables are complicated they tend to defeat the entire purpose of the visual aid.

Do not wait until the last moment to prepare your aids. Allow sufficient time for preparation and revision of all graphics. Along the same lines, ensure you have allowed plenty of time to preview your aids. Make arrangements with the committee staff for a practice set-up of your aids in the actual committee room. Consider such questions as where you will place easels, which furniture needs to be moved, where electrical outlets are located and how lights are dimmed. Taking such matters into consideration in advance will help to ensure everything runs much more smoothly during the actual hearing.

You should also spend some time planning the introduction of your visual aids. For instance, will you display your aids throughout the entirety of your testimony? It is often better to have mounted charts displayed on an easel in the order in which they will be presented.

Also, be sure your visual aids are self-explanatory. One of the most common mistakes many witnesses make is preparing aids that take too long to explain. Finally, be sure you have a plan for charts and aids to be removed from sight when they are no longer needed.

To learn more about preparing to testify before Congress, consider attending our workshop Preparing and Delivering Congressional Testimony, also available for custom, on-site training.

Reference: Testifying Before Congress, by William LaForge, Section 5.71 Use of Visual Aids

For more information about presentation and testifying training from TheCapitol.Net, see these resources:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For over 30 years, TheCapitol.Net and its predecessor, Congressional Quarterly Executive Conferences, have been training professionals from government, military, business, and NGOs on the dynamics and operations of the legislative and executive branches and how to work with them.

Our training courses, publications, and audio courses include congressional operations, legislative and budget process, communication and advocacy, media and public relations, testifying before Congress, research skills, legislative drafting, critical thinking and writing, and more.

TheCapitol.Net is a non-partisan firm.

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Most of us think that what difference does it makes from where you buy after all it is just shopping? Well, not always. There was a time when to shop you have to get out of your house and go to the store. However, with the revolution of the internet nowadays there are many methods by which we can spend money. Now the question arises, how it comes to comparison with the traditional way to shop? For this we need to judge them both and see how they contrast to one other.

If we take a look at the traditional manner, you have to walk or drive in your vehicle to your beloved store and purchase what you need or want to have. You can choose to pay by cash or credit card and sometimes even by check. Furthermore, you get a chance to see the product before you pay for it and also can keep a track of your credit card if you wish to pay by that way. Although, all of this looks so good, but still there are some good and bad things that are attached to it.

If we talk about the negative face sometimes it happens that you might enter into a store that does not have the thing you want or they have it, but the price is more expensive than what you thought and just when you think to go to other stores you get the news that the other store is also out of the stock as they sell them at a cheaper price. Not only this, there are chances that you may not be allowed to use the payment way of your wish. Moving towards the good face there are some unavoidable facts for which you have to use traditional way of shopping such if you need something urgent such as milk or vegetables you have to visit the store to buy them. Furthermore, you might not find what you want, or you do find it but it is more expensive than what you thought. You know that there is another store, which keeps it, but they are washed out of it as they sell it at a cheaper cost. On the other hand, there are some things for which you should go for the traditional way of shopping. Sometimes you want something immediately, which is the fact in the case of groceries, suppose you need milk or baby food so, you have to go to the store right away to buy it.

Let’s look at online shopping now. With this way of shopping you don’t have to leave your house. Simply sit in front of the computer and search for what you want and buy it. However, with online shopping you cannot use cash. You have to use a credit card or a paypal account. Some sites do allow online checks. The drawbacks, you are exposing your credit card info to a website where it’s possible it can be stolen. However, to make sure you are on a secured site. You can look at the url and if it has https:// instead of http://, you are on a secured site. The biggest drawback besides waiting for it to be delivered is you cannot look at what you are buying, you only have pictures. Though, mostly they allow only one way of payment, which is via credit However, however there are some sites that offer you the option to use your PayPal account or to use a check to make the payment before they make the delivery. If we look for the drawbacks, you will not be able to keep a track of your credit card numbers as you can when it is used in personal transactions. However, you can make sure that the website is secured by looking https://, and also you look over the internet to find out about the site with which you are doing business. Most importantly you don’t get a chance to see the product.

Now looking at the other side of the coin, there are advantages also such as if you cannot seek the item in one store you can find it in other. Mostly, everything can be found at the online stores. If you don’t want to go for the groceries from the online stores, but you definitely purchase the clothes, gifts, shoes and many other things that can be shopped and shipped to you, this is a great option. Always make sure that you are doing business with a site with good return policies so that if you don’t like what you ordered or if there is any damage during the shipping then you can return the item back.

If I ask you, which looks good to you? Will you prefer the good old fashioned way or the new technological way? Well, when it’s come to it, it is a personal choice, but all you need to do is to shop as you feel comfortable, although it is a fact you won’t get some of the great offers offline which you might see online.
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An online shopper since 1993, Terrie Schmar enjoys keeping up with the latest trends in gift giving and online shopping. She helps customers find the latest gift ideas including her favorite money clips , personalized gifts and groomsmen gifts from A Perfect Wallet.com