Thursday, March 13, 2014

Accounting Lead Drive Nets 80% Opens,133% ROI

A recent MarketingSherpa case study should convince financial businesses of the value of a lead nurturing program. Crowe Horwath, a public accounting and consulting firm, wanted to fill its sales funnel and increase ROI, so it set out to build a lead nurturing program focused on banking C-suite executives — such as chief financial officers, chief risk officers and chief officers of operations -- and large financial institutions with at least $1 billion in assets. Leads would be sent free offers for premium content via e-mail, with topics based on identified business drivers: Dodd-Frank, anti-money laundering, process improvement and core systems. A list of 4,000 executives was e-mailed an invitation offer for a piece of content once every four weeks, with the topics cycling through the four areas. Anyone who downloaded content from an invitation e-mail entered into one of the nurturing program's four tracks, one for each topic. Once in the program, leads stopped receiving invitation e-mails and received one e-mail every three weeks with an offer for free content in the chosen track (there was also the option to switch tracks). Using information gathered, the program developed a scoring system for sales-ready leads based on asset size, title, and behavior (such as whether the prospect downloaded three or more pieces, forwarded material, or switched tracks). Result? Although Crowe Horwath's sales cycle lasts from 12 to 18 months on average, the lead program hit 133% ROI after only seven months. The nurturing e-mails had a whopping 75% to 80% open rate, and 33% of invited executives entered the program! For case study details, see http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/b2b-email-lead-nurture-program

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Under 8% of Social Marketers Happy With Results

Less than 8% of social media marketers are satisfied with their social media results, reports Joseph Carrabis, founder and chief research officer for NextStage Evolution. The finding was based on a 2013 NextStage survey of 1,700 U.S.- and Canada-based businesses ranging from mom and pop shops to Fortune 100 companies. All interviewees were director level and above, and all qualified themselves as knowledgeable social managers with two or more years' experience in social media marketing. A good 21% of those surveyed labeled themselves "dissatisfied with social marketing" and ready to replace it with more traditional buys in 2014. And the biggest chunk, 54.75%, said they are taking a wait and see approach, with many classifying themselves as "social media agnostics." This largest group hasn't made any decisions about next moves in 2014. So, with more than half the businesses interviewed saying that the jury is out on social marketing's value and that they are prepared to sit out 2014 rather than continue to invest, Carrabis unsurprisingly suggests that, at best, "social marketing seems to be losing its pull." For more on the survey, go to http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/35711.asp?imcid=missedarticle#singleview