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September 30, 2011: 6 Reasons Why B2B Companies Should Consider Marketing Automation

Earlier this month I answered the question “What is Marketing Automation.” Today I came across a great blog post that details 6 reasons why you as a B2B marketer might need a marketing automation solution. Merlin Francis documents the type of challenges that face you as a marketer and how an automation system.

September 23, 2011: B2B Marketers - Time to take notice of the Mobile Web

I attended a leading interactive marketing conference last week hosted by ExactTarget. One of the major themes of the event was the proliferation of mobile devices emerging and how we as marketers needed to be ready to adapt. But what does this mean for B2B marketers? Marketo put together an infograph to summarize the impact that mobile will soon have to your marketing strategy.

September 07, 2011: Happiness as an Indicator of Project Success

As a business analyst it is my goal to detail the business processes that are impacted when implementing new technologies.  Through the use of persona development, we often identify the key users of the new processes and how they will act and react when engaging in a new website or CRM solution. It is these personas that our creative and development teams use when they are creating the wire-frames and technology recommendations to ensure the goals of the project are consistent with the traits of each user. These personas look at the end customer.  There is a tone of accomplishment when developing these personas in that any solution we recommend should create a positive experience for each identified persona.

I read an article over the weekend about the aspect of employee happiness as a key contributor to productivity. It details how a happy employee is more productive, creative and generally more motivated. In the research from the article, I find it compelling that by adding the lens of happiness as it relates to employees that are impacted by our technology recommendations, we can drive success not only in the specific project we are working on, but throughout the organization.

September 02, 2011: What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is term that is gaining momentum within larger companies as well as marketing and advertising agencies. But what does it mean and how does it impact your marketing initiatives?

June 13, 2011: Do Stars (or top lead automation vendors) Partnering Equal On Court Success?

Many thought the trio of Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch would guarantee success on the court this season in the NBA. As history has proven, it takes more than just talent to win a team sport as the Miami Heat often struggled this season and failed to bring home the championship so many predicted when they joined forces last summer. Past activities do not forecast the future, so fully expect that Miami will be back strong again next year and will compete and win a championship in the next year or two as these amazing individual talents further mesh, and a deeper supporting team is built around them.

Today, leading marketing automation vendors, Marketo and ExactTarget, have announced a strategic partnership to integrate Marketo’s Revenue Performance Management solution with ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub. Combine these two vendors with their strong integrations to Salesforce CRM and I see a very simliar story developing. One with great promise and expectation of delivering amazing returns to your business and marketing objectives.

May 31, 2011: Facebook provides value for Non-profits

One of my passions in life is assisting small groups to get organized. Through my church, I provide support, mentorship and inspiration to 150+ orphaned teenage boys in Ethiopia. I am always trying to find opportunities to provide marketing and technology support such as the free offerings from Salesforce and Google. Facebook has also joined this party by providing some great tools for nonprofit organizations to better leverage their activities, fundraising and communications.
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January 31, 2011: Choosing a Lead Management Solution: Email Service Provider vs. Marketing Automation

Should you use tools such as an email service provider or a marketing automation solution when you are evaluating vendors to automate your lead management program? I realize this is not a fair comparison as they are each distinct marketing tools with a strong case being made for both. But what should you use?

November 30, 2010: Do Your Leads Have a Social Score?

It is becoming obvious that how we look at leads is evolving. Whether you are using a basic lead scoring system, or perhaps a sophisticated lead management program to score, age and route your leads to your sales team. Leads are no longer just names, they are assets that have a dynamic value tied to who they are, what they are looking to purchase and the interactions they have completed with your company.

October 29, 2010: Location-based promotions are almost in Place

I admit that I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon of using services such as Facebook Places or Foursquare to ‘check-in’ everywhere I go. I don’t feel I go to that many places here in Fargo, ND that would be considered interesting to others.  Now, if there was some other incentive available to give me a reason to check-in I may do so, and Facebook once again seems to be leading efforts to do just that.

September 30, 2010: Salesforce Chatter - A Case Study

With the upcoming Winter ’11 release for Salesforce.com, Chatter will be rolled out to all organizations bringing a fresh new look and the tools to change the collaboration within your organization. Here at Sundog, we have been using Chatter internally as part of our professional services application (PSA) and have experienced amazing results in team collaboration and work efficiency.

“Our Professional Services Automation tool with Chatter has centralized communications, improved project collaboration and increased efficiency.” Johnathon Rademacher – EVP, Technology

August 31, 2010: Are You Aging Your Leads?

Many companies have created a lead scoring model such as [A, B, C or Cold, Warm, Hot] to help determine how valuable prospects are to your company. But what happens to the value of that prospect as time goes by? Are they as valuable six months from now as they are today?

July 30, 2010: Product Review: Lead Scoring by Force.com Labs

You spend lots of time and resources developing leads for your sales team. Are you making the most of those efforts by making sure that sales is getting the hottest leads vs. those that still need to be nurtured and developed? Implementing a lead scoring model for your leads will enable you to prioritize them based on who they are and what they have done.

Force.com labs have recently made available a free application to allow you to apply value to your leads and separate the hot from the cold.  With a simple download from the Appexchange, you can now create hundreds of behavior and demographic rules in seconds using point and click tools.