Sean Parnell
B2B Marketing Automation Software: The Case For & Against
Thanks to aggressive sales reps from HubSpot, Zoho, Pardot, Act-On, Marketo, SharpSpring, and others, many businesses get excited about B2B marketing automation software. It’s the definition of the proverbial “shiny object.”
However, the vast majority of businesses, especially SMBs, are not ready to take advantage of marketing automation software and its myriad features. Why?
When Marketing Automation Makes Perfect Sense
- You have a written marketing plan at least for this year that connects the dots between your financial goals and marketing activities
- You have a website that already generates good search engine rankings for keywords and subsequent lead generation
- You have good website content and some higher-level marketing collateral (e.g.
How Content Can Accelerate Prospects Through the Sales Funnel
Learn how your content mirrors your sales funnel, with mid and bottom funnel content generating leads and accelerating prospects to become customers in the buyer’s journey.
If there’s anything that gets a website reader’s heart racing and eyes moving down the page in anticipation, it’s marketing-speak. All those high-quality products and services for achieving things in more ways, faster and more cost-effectively than ever before!
It’s riveting stuff, (yawn) pulling the reader into a thicket of abstract nouns as they search for a signpost, a detail, something – anything solid they can use to satisfy the need that brought them to the website in the first place.
... Continue Reading >>Are You Happy with the Results of Your Marketing?
As you think about strategic marketing planning and budgeting for the coming year, I have three questions for you:
- Are you happy with the results of your marketing efforts this year and how they have fueled your new customer acquisition and revenue growth this year?
- Are you confident in your ability to execute your marketing plan for next year with your current internal and external resources?
- Are you on top of digital and content marketing best practices?
If not, we should talk.
Strategic Marketing Execution in the New Year
We know it’s difficult to outsource your marketing for the first time or to change marketing agencies,
... Continue Reading >>10 Pitfalls of Flawed B2B Agency Marketing & How to Avoid Them
Having navigated the B2B market as a marketing consulting agency since 2007, the Innovaxis team has seen thousands of companies like yours struggle with marketing that does not fuel their growth, even when they spend a lot of time and money in the effort – it’s an epidemic that needs to end.
Why does this happen – and what can you do about it?
Though well-meaning, many marketing agencies have a flawed approach to B2B marketing. Here are the 10 pitfalls of working with an agency that is not going to fuel your growth.
1. Creative Over Strategy
One of the most common mistakes made by marketing agencies is prioritizing a creative,
... Continue Reading >>How Effective B2B Marketing Increases Business Value
If you’re a business owner, you don’t need to hear that you need a marketing plan.
What you may not know or not had a reason to believe until now: if your marketing strategy is developed by people that understand your business and executed effectively, marketing can take you much farther than even the best salespeople – though marketing is meant to align with the sales team and make selling easier. The result: maximum business value when it comes time to sell or pass your business on to the next generation of owners.
Marketing is a way to increase the value of your business – often more so than your sales team,
... Continue Reading >>B2B Marketing KPI Guide: Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
All businesses want more leads and sales, which are critical key performance indicators (KPIs), but they can’t tell you much about where your marketing efforts are falling short. They are lagging indicators.
To generate leads and sales, a lot of other things have to happen first. What are they and how can we measure them? These are the leading indicators that preview the lead generation and sales to follow.
Here is an overview of some of the most useful leading indicators:
Keyword Rankings
Once you’ve conducted comprehensive keyword research using the Google Ads Keywords Tool, you need to track keyword rankings. Neither Google Analytics nor Google Search Console will share this information with you.
... Continue Reading >>8 Best Practices for B2B Email Marketing
B2B email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to connect with prospective clients and nurture leads, but it doesn’t work without a focused strategy and the right tools.
Too many email campaigns are launched into a void of wishful thinking, without a clear target or messaging that can break through the flood of other in-box demands competing for attention. Some are even worse.
But when you take the time to tailor your strategies and your message to a targeted audience, email marketing can drive leads and sales with an outbound reach that is hard to match.
It starts with knowing exactly who you want to reach, and tailoring your message to the specific challenges they face.
... Continue Reading >>Marketing for Distributors: 3 Examples of 40% Revenue Growth
Some of the most successful distributors and rep firms work closely with their customers in a consultative relationship built on expertise and trust.
That kind of credibility can deliver a steady flow of repeat business and referrals, but it’s not enough to ensure the kind of growth that can be achieved with the right B2B marketing. The right B2B marketing strategy can fuel double-digit revenue growth.
When you work with a B2B-focused marketing partner experienced in working with distributors, manufacturers, and who understands your business, you can reap a blue ocean of new opportunities to market the value of the solutions and expertise you provide – and grow the value of your business.
... Continue Reading >>Why Website Development Projects Fail
Learn how to develop a website that drives sustainable, double-digit growth instead of a sharply designed digital brochure
A new website is an exciting step for any business, whether it’s a build-from-scratch project or more of a renovation.
Why then are so many marketing leaders and business owners unhappy with their website? Why do so many well-meaning website developers and marketing agencies go wrong?
Based on our experience, which includes creating our first web page in 1995, most website projects fail because they are done backwards: they start as creative endeavors instead of being a strategic demand generation engine and end up serving as a digital brochure that doesn’t increase demand or generate leads.
... Continue Reading >>Ensure Compliance with Streamlined & Automated Privacy Policy Management
In 2019, the FTC issued a whopping $5 billion fine to Facebook over its mismanagement of data from approximately 87 million profiles. The fine – the largest imposed on a company for “violating consumer privacy” according to the Commission – capped a yearslong saga that (among other things) kickstarted a reckoning about how consumer data is used and how that use is disclosed.
If you own or lead marketing for a small or medium-sized business, your website doesn’t handle Facebook-levels of consumer data. But that doesn’t mean you should neglect your website’s approach to data – it’s likely top of mind for visitors as well as the State of California and the European Union.
... Continue Reading >>
