Business to Business Marketing Solutions

The Harvard Business Review recently posted an article called "Act Like a Leader Before You Are One." It was perfect timing for ExactTarget and the theme of Connections 2013, "Lead from Within." The article gives great advice about showing leadership before reaching that level, and here are even more tips!

1. Set long-term plans: You probably write a to-do list for each day and week, but what about for this year? The next? Think about what you want to accomplish on individual, team, and company levels. Then break down the steps necessary to get there so you can make consistent progress towards...

Earlier this week, Gartner published a Magic Quadrant report and positioned ExactTarget’s Pardot marketing automation a “Visionary” in CRM lead management. This is a great accomplishment that we believe reinforces our position as the solution to help business streamline sales and accelerate revenue growth with a powerful, yet easy to use cloud-based application.

We believe this openness of our solution is essential to helping marketers unlock the power of data in their CRM, analytics and content management to power more effective marketing. We also believe that, as a part of ExactTarget, we are...

Content marketing, likely because of the term, is often viewed as a function of the marketing department. However, some of the best content marketing is produced by the president or CEO of a business.

The president of a company understands the business and product fully and has the end in mind in all activities. The end is serving customers. For those of you scared of the word “sales,” you actually have to make one to have a customer.

This doesn’t mean that content marketing is reserved for the president or CEO. What this means is that content marketers, their prospective customers, and their...

In my last post, "Are you Leaving Money on the Table by Manually Merchandising Your Site?", I explained how retailers can take a staggered approach to migrate from manually merchandising their ecommerce site to using automated recommendations.

Also in this last post, I mentioned the importance of not relying on “free” ecommerce platform add-ons. Today we’ll take this idea a step further and focus on how sophisticated product recommendations engines incorporate real-time customer insights with merchant rules to create a truly personalized experience for your customers. 

#5 Way Retail Marketers...

October 2012 was an exciting time for ExactTarget’s partner ecosystem. Not only was the Orange Partner Network program launched at Connections, but also in front of the 4,000+ attendees, ExactTarget was excited to present the Power of ONE Reseller Partner of the Year award to our Platinum partner, C.TRAC.

C.TRAC has taken ExactTarget’s passion and unwavering commitment to client success and worked it into their own daily business practices by truly embodying ExactTarget's core values. Combined with their innovative strategy, design, integration, database management, reporting services, and...

I was doing some consulting recently for a company and they asked a great question, so I wanted to share it (and the solution, of course).

We were discussing sales enablement drip programs, and how to help sales keep up with more prospects over a long sales cycle. We discussed putting in place some very specific drip programs which would come from the sales reps. They loved the concept, but wondered what would happen if a prospect got an automated email and a "real" email from the sales rep in the same day?

This is a great question, and one that not enough marketers ask themselves. If you don't...

While reading a recent article posted by Chris Penn called Which 3 Metrics Should You Pay Attention To?, I found myself thinking that his suggestions were great for a majority of companies... but what about those companies wanting to be agile with their marketing? Do those metrics work for agile marketing teams?

Agile marketers look at their campaigns, and their metrics, in a way that's slightly different from most. For instance, Chris' post says that the three most basic metrics for any business are audience, leads, and sales.

I would agree these are key areas to measure regardless of whether...

As a follow-up to the article I wrote for ClickZ the other day, I wanted to talk a bit more about the use of technology and the adoption of best practices in large B2B organizations.

My research for the ClickZ article looked at B2B companies on the Fortune 500* and their adoption of modern marketing tools. But when you look at the raw data, it becomes clear that there are three easy lessons for any B2B marketer.

Lesson 1: Technology is only the beginning

When adopting radical new technologies, the technology itself is often only part of the story. The other part is a shift in thinking or action....

Remember that rather Orange stand at eXtremeCRM in Rome? Yes, that was us--ExactTarget!

eXtremeCRM was an awesome opportunity for Microsoft CRM partners across EMEA to network, find out what is in the roadmap for Microsoft Dynamics this year, and just share some CRM Love!

Many of you had the opportunity to speak with us and the conversations around partnership opportunities are just kick-starting. We are looking forward to seeing what the aftermath of the event holds for us all.

My favourite part of the event was Bill Patterson's closing presentation, it was great to see Bill echo ExactTarget’s...

The Positive Coaching Alliance teamed up with High Five Marketing to fulfill the mission of providing a positive youth sports experience for thousands of kids across the United States. Their success led them to be recognized as a 2012 finalist for the ExactTarget Power of One Awards at Connections 2012.

THE POSITIVE COACHING ALLIANCE STORY
Seventy percent of kids lose interest in youth sports by the time they reach age 13. Volunteer coaches often don’t know how to teach beyond the Xs and the Os of the game to keep kids motivated and engaged.

That’s where the Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA)...

As the first cross-channel platform of its kind, ExactTarget's Interactive Marketing Hub has redfined software innovation and helped draw an unmistakable line in the sand between "us" and "them." We have one of the most externsive sales teams in the industry—and we want you! We're looking for Business Development Managers in Dallas, Chicago, AND Southern Florida.

As a member of the ExactTarget Sales Team, you'll:

• Hit the ground running with our proven solution-selling process and methodology
• Be supported by seasoned sales leadership as you work to hit your monthly goals
• Enjoy competitive,...

Are you monitoring and engaging customers on Facebook and Twitter? Do you include an email address in the contact section of your brochure site? Then why are you telling your email subscribers not to reply?  

I am always surprised at the number of messages--and not just transactional--that include "Do Not Reply" in the from name, reply address, or both.  You have worked too hard to grow your list and create relevant content to stifle the conversation now!

A primary benefit of the email channel is to create a one-on-one dialogue with your subscriber. If the first thing your readers see is an...

During a game of trivia the other night, I decided to cheat! I pulled out my phone, and was able to find out “Silent Bob’s” real name in less than 10 seconds.

This availability of information has programmed our society to have very high expectations when it comes to the question-and-answer process. If we have a hard time finding the answer to a question, we often get frustrated and build a negative connotation with brands that make it difficult to find information we seek.  This is not a new concept, so when I went to check out some of the most prolific B2B brands, I was surprised to see how...

If Client Experience (CX) experts are right, companies that use surveys heavily to monitor the opinions of their customers will find their effectiveness wanes over time. This “Decline of Surveys” was highlighted as the number one CX trend to watch for 2013 in a recent blog post by the Temkin Group.

As they point out, “As more companies thirst for customer feedback, the number of surveys has escalated. But there is a limit to customers’ willingness to complete surveys. As completion rates get more difficult to maintain, companies will become more efficient with the questions they ask, target...

The margin for error in Marketing has become razor thin. Here are five "MegaTrends" that underscore why marketing professionals need to be at the top of their game in 2013.    

MegaTrend #1: Customers are More Informed, More Influential, and Less Patient

Today’s customers are better connected, more informed, and more technically savvy than even 3-5 years ago. They have considerably more access to information to make smarter purchase decisions. They are much less patient with brands that do not deliver the information and offers they want. And they are much more vocal in expressing satisfaction –...

At Connections this year we recognized over 30 companies as finalists for our Power of One Awards. The marketing team from Blinds.com, a leading retailer in the window blinds and shade business, was recognized as a finalist for their "Entice and Engage" campaign that generated 175% growth to their email list. Featured below is a summary of how Blinds.com went about achieving these phenomenal business results.

THE BLINDS.COM STORY

The Blinds.com team wanted to grow their email list with engaged prospects that could be reached across a number of platforms—not just email. The team knew that...

The United States Postal Service is encouraging marketers to integrate mobile campaigns with direct mail in an upcoming promotion that will offer businesses a two percent discount on qualified pieces. From March 1 through April 30, the USPS will let marketers place SMS calls-to-action, mobile bar codes, and digital watermarks on direct mail.

There are two ways that marketers can receive a discount—by including a mobile coupon or a click-to-call feature directly on the mail. For the mobile coupon, mail can be marked with an SMS short code, QR code, or digital watermark. For click-to-call offers,...

ExactTarget has a larger-than-ever team focused on leading the market in our Voice of Customer efforts. A major initiative this year is to further enhance how we "close the loop" with clients after they fill out our annual Client Success Survey. 

As a company with roots in email marketing, it may not be surprising that a large part of this strategy involves triggering targeted emails to teams across our organization when survey responses come in. These emails have proven to be instrumental in not only quickly informing about what are clients are saying, but also spurring action.

Here are some of...

In this #InspiredMarketing blog series, we are sharing predictions on the future of marketing from 25 industry thought leaders. These predictions have been compiled in our new whitepaper, Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013. In today’s post, blogger, author, and business consultant Mark Schaefer shares his thoughts.

2013: The Year of Instagram!

One of the biggest social media trends is the emphasis on visual content, and new research from The Social Habit seems to confirm that the photo-sharing site is poised for a breakout.

Of the Americans surveyed who currently use a social media platform,...