Secrets From the First Social Media Marketing World Conference

Last week we sent Carlton PR & Marketing social media manager Elise off to the Social Media Marketing World Conference.

Secrets from the First Social Media Marketing World Conference

By Elise V. Englander (@elise29)

The first Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW13) conference was held in San Diego last week. Imagine over 1100 social media enthusiasts from all over the world in one location. The place was buzzing! Read more

Marketing Automation Software – Using Product Data to Trigger Nurture Emails Can be Tricky

Guest Post by Kathy Lamphier, Marketing Programs Manager, Demand Generation

If you are using product data, for example, from a freemium or free trial, to trigger a lead nurture program, and you have a multi-step registration process, watch out for data delays. Check to see how long it takes for all of the required data to appear in the marketing automation software (MAS).

For example, say you have a two part registration process for a free tool that offers an assessment. Step one of the process is submitting your contact information. Step two involves attaching your Bing account to the free tool to run the assessment – and the larger your account, the longer the assessment will take. As a result, the prospect’s contact information will enter the MAS before the assessment data.

Now say you run a triggered nurture campaign that uses the assessment data as the trigger – if there’s no assessment data (the fields used to trigger the email are blank) then the prospect does not qualify for the nurture program.

If the nurture campaign does not have a wait step (the time the application waits before checking the prospect record to see if it qualifies for the nurture email) that is long enough for the assessment data to populate the prospect record then the prospect won’t qualify for the nurture campaign. But once the assessment data has been populated in the record, the prospect will look like they should have qualified for the nurture campaign.

And if the length of time it takes for the assessment data to populate the prospect’s record is not consistent (for example the time could be dependent on the size of the prospect’s Bing account) then some prospects could qualify for the nurture program and others might not – even though they ALL completed an assessment.

For example, if a prospect had a small Bing account (maybe 200 keywords) their assessment could run very quickly and the data would quickly be passed to the MAS – quickly enough that when the MAS checks for the assessment data it has been added to the prospect’s record. If the prospect had a large account (maybe 2,000 keywords) the assessment would take longer to run. In fact, it could take so long that when the MAS checks the prospect record for the assessment data it has not yet been added to the record so the prospect does not qualify for the nurture program.

Consider this. You’re not aware of this timing delay and you see that some prospects are qualifying for the nurture program and others are not – even though the entire group looks like they should qualify. Trying to figure the reason for this inconsistency can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Lead nurture is a great tool for moving leads through the conversion funnel. But make sure you know how the data you need gets into the MAS before you start programming the MAS to execute the nurture program.

Marketing Automation Software – What to Know Before You Buy

Guest Post by Kathy Lamphier, Marketing Programs Manager, Demand Generation

I’ve been talking to several marketing VPs and directors who’ve been using marketing automation software (MAS) – something like Marketo or Eloqua – and the consensus is that these tools are not easy to use and need a dedicated resource, like a marketing operations specialist or manager, and quite often ongoing consulting help from the MAS vendor. Read more

Are you part of the LinkedIn 1 Percent?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve received notice from both LinkedIn and Kred (it’s kind of like Klout)  that I am part of the top 1 percent of their users.  My LinkedIn profile was among the top 1 percent viewed.  I am a top 1 percent influencer on Kred.  Yeah me… Read more

Viral Ads and Coke’s Big Game Ad Campaign

I can’t tell you the number of marketing and business plans I’ve read that say something like “Insert viral video here.”  Viral is hard.  Even people who have had viral success may not have had it on the first try, or on subsequent tries.  One viral video does not another make. Viral is tough, nay impossible to plan for.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t add the elements of viral success to your marketing plans.  Let’s look at something like Coke’s new Big Game Ad Campaign — it’s got a lot of good elements to help it “go viral.” Read more

Standards

There are certain technology tools that “everyone” uses for a reason.  There are times you can wander off the reservation and times when you should stick with what you should know (or what others know.) Read more

When You Can’t Fix Your Website

It happened again this week.  A prospective client admitted they can’t make changes to their website.  Not without sending out the changes.  To a developer.  Who costs big bucks.  And who MIGHT get to the project before the end of the year. Read more

The Impact of Public Relations

When Peter Shankman sold Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to Vocus, I assumed we’d see more ads for Vocus in the three-times a day newsletter we get with reporter requests.  We do.  Overall, they seem to be good HARO “parents”.  The new editorial staff seems to be nice and funny and competent, giving Peter time to roam the earth, speaking at various functions.  (I ran into him, via FourSquare a couple weeks ago in Chicago.) But today’s ad in the early bird newsletter gave me a giggle. Read more

The World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship: The Ladies Room

The title was Applied Sciences, Applied Women.  Oh boy, a Woman’s session.  I hesitated. There were other breakout sessions.  Should I go to one of them instead? I’ve been avoiding most of the women’s business groups in Boston for years; should I take a smaller bite of the same apple? Read more

From the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship

I’m at the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship today.  So many different conversations.  I’m Tweeting some of the good points but others can’t be dealt with in 140 characters (#thewsie).  Read more