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LEAD GENERATION AND MANAGEMENT For SMB Sales and Marketing SPONSORED CONTENT B2B Research Insights

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Page 1: B2B Research Insights LEAD GENERATION AND MANAGEMENTmktg.actonsoftware.com/acton/attachment/248/f-0b80... · B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

LEAD GENERATION ANDMANAGEMENT

ForSMBSalesandMarketing

SPONSORED CONTENT

B2B Research Insights

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

1 © 2014 Act-On Software

ALIGNMENT, INTEGRATION, METRICS, REVENUE

B2B sales and marketing teams share a big challenge: attracting and identifying well-qualified leads, and managing those contacts through the buying process to a successful close. Marketers need to communicate internally the importance of lead generation, cooperate closely with sales throughout the process, and generate well-qualified leads that sales can turn into revenue. And while the adoption of lead-gen programs is increasingly mainstream and growing yearly, it is making its most substantial inroads among small-to-midsized companies. “Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing” takes a look at the factors behind successful lead-generation strategies and tactics, with findings most pertinent to the SMB marketer and sales director: 60% of the respondents to this study represent companies of $100 million or less in annual revenue, and with fully 47% from companies with $25 million or less. Included are important trends among marketer-sales peers, including lead-gen techniques, cross-department cooperation, and metrics and technology, along with recommended action items revealed by the data.

CONTENTS

1. Essential action items

2. Adoption, yes … but success?

3. Working through the challenges

4. Getting the metrics right

5. Methods to boost lead generation

6. Pathways to progress

7. SMBs and better lead-gen practices

8. Notes & resources

✓ Methodology

✓ Contributors

✓ About the Ad Age Group

✓ About Act-On Software

In partnership with

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

2 © 2014 Act-On Software

ESSENTIAL ACTION ITEMS

Marketers and sales teams intent on success report four key action items: 1. Integration of lead-gen techniques. Integration between online and offline marketing

efforts is essential. Companies face multiple marketing channels and fragmented media. Best-of-breed marketers are using automation and strategic initiatives to make sense of the confusion, and gain control of their programs.

2. Sales-marketing cooperation. Three-quarters of companies are not working to improve cooperation between these two essential functions, and many don’t bother even trying. Those companies that encourage mutual cooperation between marketing and sales can gain significant competitive advantages. 3. Metrics and assessment. Marketers say it is essential to use analytics, employ closed-loop analysis, calculate and show ROI, and support accountability. Basic to this effort is improving database management and data hygiene – both important elements in the lead-gen process. Also key:

understanding buyer personas, the buyer’s journey, the nurturing process, engaging with buyers via multiple touch points, and defining criteria for the hand-off to sales.

4. The necessity of technology. Marketing teams, in particular at small-to-midsized

businesses, are generally as slim as their budgets. Here, technology increasingly is viewed as a necessity. Marketers can liaise with their technology vendor partners and IT colleagues to leverage the synergies that exist in technology, branding, and customer interaction.

Those companies that encourage mutual cooperation between marketing and sales can gain significant competitive advantages.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

3 © 2014 Act-On Software

ADOPTION, YES … BUT SUCCESS?

Marketers are well along in their adoption of lead-gen practices: 81% are at least moderate participants in some form, compared with 74% in a similar survey a year ago. Also, 47% are “very” or “fully” involved. It is clear that lead-generation processes, in some form, have entered the mainstream of B2B marketing (Figure 1). Figure 1 Current stage of lead generation adoption

Even as marketers’ use of lead-gen techniques is on the rise, so is marketer confidence. When asked to project their companies’ sales growth over the next 12 months, fully 59% said they expected growth to be “more” or “significantly more.” In this regard, it would be unreasonable to think that lead-gen adoption and sales growth are not linked. However, marketers to date are far from fully integrating online and offline marketing tactics. Just 18% of survey respondents indicate that they are “very” or “fully” integrated, indicative perhaps of the newness of many digital campaign efforts, and a lack of analytical tools to determine optimum points of integration (Figure 2).

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

4 © 2014 Act-On Software

Figure 2 Stage of integration of online and offline marketing tactics

WORKING THROUGH THE CHALLENGES

Marketers are clear about the efforts and challenges required to improve their lead-generation processes and successes. No. 1 is having more and better content that demonstrates their company’s expertise. This is followed by a stronger website, as well as better segmenting, scoring, and qualification (Figure 3). Figure 3 Methods of improving lead / demand generation

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

Marketers are far from fully integrating online and offline marketing tactics, perhaps due to the newness of many digital campaign efforts.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

5 © 2014 Act-On Software

What else holds marketers back from fuller adoption of lead-generation techniques and the nurturing required to hand well-prepared, strong leads off to sales? Not surprisingly, lack of resources often is cited, but it’s more complex than mere allocation of funds. For almost half, the depth and accuracy of the database are significant obstacles (Figure 4). Figure 4 Obstacles to being better at lead generation

GETTING THE SALES METRICS RIGHT Measurement is the key to understanding both process and success. Without understanding what produces (or fails to produce) success, there is little chance of altering approaches for the better. More than three-quarters of marketers view a prospect’s request for a sales contact to be the No. 1 indicator of what constitutes a lead (Figure 5). This hard metric, an indication of serious interest, is far and away more appreciated as a signal of a hot lead than a prospect-initiated call (59%), a prospect who contacted the organization through multiple channels (49%), a request for a white paper (43%), or other indicators.

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

6 © 2014 Act-On Software

Interestingly, on average some seemingly more sophisticated lead-scoring indicators are given short shrift: For example, just 41% of marketers said a “lead” is one that is accepted by sales. The telemarketing team’s opinion is valued less (35%), and even achieving a pre-determined lead score doesn’t make the grade with many marketers (25%). Overall, marketers place the least value on being followed or “liked” on social media as a minimum lead indicator. Figure 5 The minimum criteria for a lead

METHODS TO BOOST LEAD GEN Marketers also are clear about the methods they believe are most effective in nurturing leads: There is a strong confluence of opinion around sales calls, webinars, newsletters, thought leadership, and white papers. Marketers are also deploying webinars to a much greater extent as a means of acquiring and nurturing leads, as well as social media, blog posts, and videos. Given that sales calls are considered the most effective method of nurturing leads (57%), followed closely by newsletters (53%) and white papers (50%), a productive nurturing scheme would be sales and marketing working together to plan the timing and cadence of both sales and marketing touches within one campaign.

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

Lead nurturing is more dependent on content marketing, with newsletters and white papers leading the way.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

7 © 2014 Act-On Software

For marketing’s part, clearly content is paramount in the lead-nurturing process (Figure 6). Figure 6 Most effective methods of nurturing leads

PATHWAYS TO PROGRESS

While there is a strong commitment to content marketing in general, there is little attempt to ensure that the content is targeted and pertinent to the buyer’s stage in the journey.

When marketers were asked where in the sales funnel their lead-nurturing efforts are deployed, 59% said they make no attempt to consider any stage where buyers are considering their purchase (Figure 7). When marketers do cite a specific stage employing lead nurturing, most cite the mid-funnel (21%). Only 6% use nurturing at the bottom of the funnel on behalf of sales acceleration.

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

The most productive nurturing scheme will likely be one in which sales and marketing work together to plan the timing and cadence of both sales and marketing touches within one campaign.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

8 © 2014 Act-On Software

Figure 7 Where in the sales funnel do you use lead nurturing?

The current state of lead nurturing might be viewed as relatively unsophisticated overall, since B2B marketers often still defer to the sales department and its reps to “warm up”

customers and prospects with sales calls. However, subtle types of nurturing approaches are gaining favor, with an emphasis on educational materials that address problem solving.

Lead Generation: Optimum Management of Lead-Gen Campaigns N=282, 2013 Source: Ad Age | BtoB

Competitive advantages may be gained with lead nurturing tailored to where buyers are in the sales funnel.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

9 © 2014 Act-On Software

SMBs AND BETTER LEAD-GEN PRACTICES The views of marketers from small-to-midsized business, as revealed by this study, sometimes contrast significantly from their enterprise-size colleagues. While these differences often are strengths for SMBs, they also indicate areas where SMBs can learn from large-company marketers. ■ It is not surprising that SMB marketers view their vendor partners as extensions of

their team and marketing staff. This is contingent on the professionalism of the vendor: its ability to communicate the metrics that produce strong ROI, whether it offers easy-to-use software, and how easy it is to do business with. It’s telling that the vendor is perceived as a team member—not merely a vendor.

■ Small to mid-size companies are much more likely than large companies to characterize a request for a sales contact as a potent criterion for a lead. This may explain why SMBs tend to rely more on the sales team versus the marketing team to qualify a lead. Relying more on the marketing function, in vigorous cooperation with sales expertise, can help SMBs better identify lead stages in order to be more competitive.

■ SMBs tend to rely on case studies and anecdotes as marketing content, which then is

used to engage prospects in their problem-solving process. SMBs also prefer videos and blogs for the same purpose. Expanding this to include white papers and research-based thought leadership, already used effectively by larger companies, can help establish smaller companies as category leaders, in the same vein that enterprise companies are striving to do. This could be particularly effective in the branding effort, which SMBs tend to ignore.

■ Smaller companies sometimes underestimate their competitive advantages against larger companies. While all marketers have to deal with a lack of resources, larger-company marketers feel it more acutely than do SMB marketers, and also tend to be concerned about the depth and accuracy of their customer databases, poor communications between marketing and sales, and their inability to respond adequately to buyer behaviors. The SMB attention to detail—and in particular the ability to “start small” with a strong understanding of databases and buyer behaviors, and then scale from there—may help SMBs grow and succeed, and compete successfully with larger companies.

■ In evaluating success, SMB marketers say “generating revenue” is key, to a greater extent than marketers from large companies. Smaller companies can gain a keener understanding of marketing metrics with more sophistication here, in particular by seeking an understanding of ROI as a main criterion for marketing success.

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

10 © 2014 Act-On Software

NOTES & RESOURCES

Methodology Ad Age | BtoB’s study is based on a survey of 282 business marketers conducted in June and July 2013. Of those, 60% were from companies with less than $100 million in annual revenue, although 18% reported annual revenue of $1 billion and more. Technology companies predominated, at 32% of all respondents, with financial services, consulting, nontechnical, and medical/pharmaceutical companies also represented.

About The Ad Age Group

The Ad Age Group is the leading source of news, intelligence and conversation for the global marketing and media community. Ongoing coverage of strategic topics like CMO strategies and data-driven marketing is complemented by breaking news on digital, social media and more. The 83-year-old media group incorporates premium content from Advertising Age, Creativity and BtoB, produces more than 15 original rankings each year, holds exclusive conferences and other gatherings, and offers the most in-depth, comprehensive data and insight services in the marketing and media industry. Advertising and editorial offices—685 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 • 212-210-0100 • website: http://adage.com Corporate headquarters—1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207 • 313-446-6000 • website: www.crain.com

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B2B Research Insights Lead Generation and Management for SMB Sales & Marketing

11 © 2014 Act-On Software

About Act-On Software

Act-On Software is a leading provider of cloud-based integrated marketing automation software. Organizations of all sizes and industry verticals benefit from Act-On’s powerful and integrated marketing suite. Marketers can manage all their online marketing efforts, including email, Web, mobile and social from a single dashboard that can be seamlessly integrated with CRM, so that sales can have access to various marketing functions. Act-On’s technology features an Instant-On™ database for accelerated campaign implementation; an easy, highly intuitive user interface; and a comprehensive, feature-rich solution set. This includes a best-in-class email engine with one-click integration to leading Web conferencing and CRM solutions; tools for website visitor tracking, lead scoring, lead nurturing and social media prospecting; design tools for Web forms, landing pages and emails; inbound tools for advanced SEO, Google AdWord tracking and blog integration; and more. Act-On is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, with offices in Roseville and San Mateo, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Spokane, Washington; Reading, United Kingdom; and Bangalore, India. Corporate headquarters—8300 SW Creekside Place, Suite 250, Beaverton, Oregon 97008 • 503-530-1555 • website: www.act-on.com • email: [email protected]