My guest today is Stephanie Miller, email expert and co-author of Sign me up! A Marketer’s Guide To Email Newsletters That Build Relationships and Boost Sales.

Stephanie describes herself as a customer advocate who, through her work with email performance company Return Path, helps marketers reach the inbox and connect with prospects and customers via email and social marketing.

Recent research sponsored by Google and Forbes found that on average 27.6 percent – more than one in four email messages – never reach the businesspeople they were sent to. Stephanie, why is this happening and what should this blog’s readers do about it?

This study tracks with Return Path’s Deliverability Benchmark Report on the first half of 2009, which is based on the data Return Path manages for ISPs and corporate system administrators.

It found that about 28% of B2B marketing email never reaches the inbox, which is higher than B2C email (20% of that gets blocked). This is true for even the best of marketers.

Remember too that it is not always the same 28% – you will sometimes reach the inbox of a particular subscriber and sometimes not. So you can count on the fact that some portion of your audience is not seeing every email. Witness your own Junk folder. You will see lots of stuff in there you sometimes see in your inbox.

Why?

Put simply, email marketing messages get blocked because they are sent in bulk, which makes them look like spam. This is bad because marketers can get trapped by the same systems put in place to stop spam by the postmasters at ISPs like Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail, and by small business and corporate system administrators.

The way to avoid being blocked is to improve the reputation of your domain as well as the engagement of your subscribers.

The good news: This also optimizes response and revenue. Engage and delight your email recipients and they will respond with clicks, downloads, sharing to their networks and longer session lengths.

The bad news: It’s not about content – so changing words like "Free" or "Click here" won’t make much of a difference.

More bad news: There is a whole gauntlet of filters between "Send" and inbox. There is hardware at the receiving gateway; there is software on those machines; there are reputation-based filtering services like Postini and Cloudmark; and then there are filters in software such as Outlook 2007. Yikes!

What can B2B marketers do?

1. Track your sender reputation. Use a service like Return Path, directly or via your ESP. If you don’t see actual inbox placement data, then ask for it. Inbox placement is a new number – the number representing the difference between what gets reported as "delivered" or "accepted" by your service provider and the open rate. You can get a quick overview of your sender reputation free at www.senderscore.org or dnsstuff.com.
    
2. Map your domain footprint. Know which domains are most important to you. If you have a large percentage of web-based domains on your file or if you market to small businesses you will see a large number of Yahoo!, Gmail and Hotmail addresses in your file. That is good – because data on inbox placement to those ISPs is readily available and is a good proxy for how the corporate administrators handle your email. We have done this analysis for global marketers and identified the top 20 companies on their file – and then we reach out to each of those companies and find out what sort of filtering is happening and try to become whitelisted. This is a manual but very effective strategy.
    
3. Build your confidence. When a CEO or one of your brand managers says, "Our message went to Junk," or a subscriber says, "I’m not getting your event invites," many B2B marketers feel as if they have been hung out to dry. It’s hard to know how to address that. However, by tracking your ability to get past such filters as Postini, Cloudmark and Outlook 2007, you can say, "Yes, I know the message didn’t reach your particular inbox, but the data shows that we are reaching about xx% of all the inboxes at businesses we target."
    
4. Watch rendering. Be sure to know how your message renders – with and without images! – in the various versions of Outlook and on mobile devices. Lotus Notes breaks nearly everything, but it’s worth tracking that too, especially if you have a lot of subscribers at companies that use that system. Be sure to create versions specific to the email clients that are most important to you. A publisher may want to optimize for the lower capabilities of mobile, while a technology company might want to optimize for Outlook.

Stephanie, what tools are available for increasing the deliverability of email and which will make the most difference?

Tracking of inbox placement and rendering. Get this data directly, or ask your ESP to provide it. Also, lots of data can be gained when marketers become certified and placed on various whitelists. This last option is available to only the best senders who qualify.

Can you share some email best practices that B2B marketers should be following?

Here is a quick checklist. See how you rank on all these, and use the results to develop a plan to refresh and update your email program. You’ll quickly see higher results.
 

1. Focus on the subscriber. Mail less frequently but with more value in each message. Tailor messages to the behavior (e.g. recent download) or demographics.
    
2. Track your sender reputation and inbox placement rate. If you don’t get this data from your ESP today, ask for it.
    
3. Make it easy to see what the call to action is.
    
4. Keep it simple – no one has time to read a lengthy newsletter, even if the content is interesting. Break it up into shorter, pithier messages and guide subscribers to the website.
    
5. Get permission and actively engage to ensure that subscribers still want to be in your file.
    
6. Use a Preference Center to give subscribers choices, then communicate that they can visit the Preference Center frequently as their needs change.
    
7. Treat prospects differently from customers. Use unique content and a slower pace.
    
8. Highlight and nurture your most active and most socially networked subscribers. Email and social marketing are natural allies. Use them together to build relationships and encourage dialog.
    
9. Carefully vet the sources of your email file – e.g. are some partners sending data that turns out to be unresponsive?
    
10. Include links to your LinkedIn profile and other social network sites, and encourage subscribers to "Share this" by providing auto-status update links at each article or call to action.

Are there email practices that our readers should avoid?

Avoid high frequency. Avoid all image-HTML messages (your subscribers will see a big gray box instead of your call to action). Avoid lots of links and images if you think your audience is reading email on mobile devices. Avoid generic messages. Avoid sharing lists between brands or companies – treat the permission grant with respect.

The Golden Rule of email marketing is to treat your subscribers the way you would like to be treated – only sending them information that is relevant, timely and helpful.

Stephanie, is B2B lead generation a good application for email? How about lead nurturing and qualification?

Yes and yes. Email is the first and still most widely utilized dialog channel! Email is great for customizing the "storyboard” – aka: sending drip marketing campaigns. For prospecting, keep it very simple and offer a compelling call to action that has a low bar of commitment. “Download a whitepaper” is certainly simple, but may be too ordinary to break through. “Submit three questions to our expert and we’ll provide custom answers in two days” is more compelling.

Email is also great for moving prospects through a sales cycle. Again, customize. For free trial downloaders, send a series that guides them through getting started and then to exploring cool features that you know help close a deal. As the free trial ends, segment by those who have actually opened the software vs. those who did not. Later in the cycle, focus messaging around making a business case for the product purchase, since most B2B expenditures have to be approved by some committee or some executive.

If that sounds like a lot of work, remember that you create this series of messages once and then use it over and over again.

Are there any tips you can give for selecting the right email service provider?

There are so many providers, and it has become a commodity business so you won’t find many big differences between them all. (Note: My employer is NOT in this business, but we do partner with the best ESPs to provide inbox deliverability data.)

My recommendation is to start with an audit of your own needs – is segmentation the most important thing? Data integration? HTML templates? Then seek out four to five of the ESPs who best serve marketers with your size lists and ask them to show you how they would address that most important requirement. They need to be able to show you how they can do the whole service, too, but frankly, almost every one of them can check off every box in your RFP. If you focus on the one factor that drives your email marketing success, you will then have a point of differentiation.

Another deciding factor is to meet the person who will be your internal advocate – both account service and executive levels.

There is lots of buzz about video email. What are your thoughts about it?

I love the idea, but honestly, the only way video in email can be used for any significant reach is via an animated GIF that mimics video and links to a web page for the full experience. Technically, it’s not that cool, but it can be very effective if done well.

Don’t use video just to use it, however. Without it being central to the call to action, you will find that video can distract subscribers and actually reduce response. Instead, use it when it helps tell your story and close the conversion. Then it can be powerful.

To wrap things up Stephanie, are there any final thoughts about B2B email that you want to share with our readers?

Don’t put your email on autopilot. It’s too important to your revenue and customer engagement and nurturing efforts. Just because it’s easy to hit send and it’s cheap to broadcast, please, please, please don’t neglect your subscribers’ interests. These are your customers! Take the time to engage them. Help them be smarter and more productive, earn more revenue, and look good in front of their boss and they will reward you with more response and revenue.

Stephanie, thanks so much for taking the time to do this interview!

Thank you so much for having me as your guest! Please tell your readers to email me at stephanie DOT miller @ returnpath DOT net, or to reach out to me at @StephanieSAM on Twitter.

Readers, please share:

• Click the Comment link to add your thoughts or suggestions.  
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If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

The Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) announced today that it has opened the voting to determine the 50 most influential people in the field of sales lead management for 2009.

Both members and non-members can vote for up to five nominees each.

Use this link to vote. Or visit www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/top50_vote.htm

The results will be published on November 16, 2009.

-Mac

P.S. I’m honored to be included in the list of nominees and sure would appreciate your vote!

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Today’s guest is Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO of Green Leads, LLC, a firm that specializes in using the phone to get qualified appointments for its clients’ salespeople on a pay-per-performance basis. Mike is an experienced marketer, having served as CMO of two software companies before starting Green Leads. His blog, Smashmouth Marketing, has developed a wide following among B-to-B marketing professionals.

Mike, I’m hearing a lot of buzz about appointment setting as an approach to B-to-B lead generation. Please tell me more about it.

B-to-B appointment setting has been around forever, Mac. But it has evolved from a task that sales reps used to do for themselves into a program that inside sales teams and outsourced marketing vendors now predominantly provide.

The real appeal in having an executive-level meeting already set for sales as opposed to getting 20 raw leads sent over. Let’s face it, Mac, the real selling starts when a buyer and a seller get face to face.

Appointment setting can also be cost-effective. See for yourself by using my Appointment Setting ROI Calculator

I believe I’ve heard you say that to get the best results, B-to-B telemarketing should be part of an integrated marketing and sales program. Is that true?

Without a doubt. Especially today with the shift of the “selling process” to more of a “buying process.” With every executive’s ability to type a search phrase into Google, buyers are informed. Being there when they raise their hands for you to meet with them is one thing, but timing your outbound marketing efforts to ask for a meeting when they are ready and educated through lead nurturing—now that is the true benefit of “integrated.” In fact, we’ve studied the impact of lead nurturing combined with outbound efforts, and we’ve found that when B-to-B appointment setting and lead nurturing programs are implemented together, higher-quality appointments are set and better conversion rates occur.

Mike, I understand that one of the keys to success in telemarketing lead generation is the list. Who should supply the list, the client or the telemarketing company?

Lists are a double-edged sword that some marketers underestimate. A bad list can consume so much time and energy to work through that it can bring an outbound marketing program to a grinding halt. I have four tips on lists that should help:

1. Build your own list—Your own list is an asset that most companies don’t invest enough in. Think of the millions you’ve spent over years of marketing to gather those names. Use that investment.
2. Purchase lists—There are great resources out there today. We use three major online data providers, and they each have their sweet spot. Remember—downloading the name of the chairman of the board is not going to get you to the CTO.
3. Research lists—Invest in cleaning and maintaining your lists. There are services out there that will do list validation work. They take existing lists and, through manual research, return only data that is accurate. You can also have a list scrubbed by research and get back the names of prospects that are a better fit for your offering.
4. Capture lists—Inbound marketing is all the rage today, and the ultimate goal of all that Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, blogging and landing pages is to capture names. Once you have them, though, don’t just “follow up and forget.” Put them into active, nurturing campaigns, and as their lead score rises, hand them over to an outbound team for targeting.

How do you determine when it makes sense for a company to do its B-to-B telemarketing in-house, versus outsourcing it?

There really isn’t a black-and-white answer to this question. There are lots of variables to consider.

When I talk with demand generation experts, there is almost universal agreement that budget is a key contributor. Investing in building out the human assets of an inside team takes budget. With salaries, bonuses, benefits, training and overhead, an inside team can be a costly investment. That’s not to say that [in the] long term it can’t be the better investment.

Outsourcing, on the other hand, is usually easier to start and stop, and [outsourced staff] are typically already trained and specialized in lead gen or appointment setting techniques.

One other aspect of outsourcing that keeps vendors in line is that if they don’t perform, their client-vendor relationships will terminate.

I would also recommend that if a company is making this decision, it hire an expert to assist in the decision. There are many industry experts that specialize in evaluating outbound marketing and lead gen needs. (Editor’s note: I’m one of them!)

Mike, do you have any suggestions on what potential customers should look for in a B-to-B telemarketing company?

Other than the basics of client references, number of reps, measurement criteria, etc., these are some [pointers] from an insider’s perspective that should help vet the true quality vendors:

• Look on LinkedIn and see how many “current” and “past” employees there are. Look at the background of [the company’s] reps on LinkedIn and see if they match your expectations.
• Ask for copies of [the company’s] compensation plan. As it pertains to quality versus quantity lead gen, make sure the plan matches your goals, not theirs.
• Listen when [the rep] mentions client names off the cuff during conversations. Then check them out with your network. It’s a small world—find out whom you or your colleagues know at those companies (use LinkedIn), then make your own inquiries.

Lots of companies seem to be looking to engage their lead generation and marketing service suppliers on a pay-per-performance basis. What are your thoughts on the subject?

I obviously lean toward performance-based demand gen. When we deliver a meeting, that meeting is not billable until it occurs and is not rejected by the client. In fact, nothing we offer is priced by the hour or includes monthly fees or retainers. It’s all by the deliverable. There is significant money being invested in these programs, and if you don’t know exactly what you are going to receive for the dollar, you can’t have a predictable ROI.

That said, make sure the “performance” you are paying for is tangible and has no gray area where the vendor can bill for deliverables that didn’t meet your needs. Is the lead with the right title? Is it with a company that is a good fit for your offering? Is the buyer ready to talk to you? Be up front about your needs before signing the contract, and measure to those specs.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

I presented this webinar live on September 24, 2009, with Anne Holland. You probably already know Anne. She founded MarketingSherpa.

The webinar is full of ideas you can put to work right away to improve your B2B lead generation results.

In 46 minutes you’ll get:

• Case Studies of A/B tests run by B2B marketers to improve lead generation;
• Proven tactics for increasing the quantity and quality of leads you generate via online forms;
• Ideas on what to test (and what not to bother testing);

Here’s the URL: http://whichtestwon.com/?page_id=1778

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Although the majority expects their companies’ spending to remain flat or down, more than a third (36%) said they expect spending during the second half of 2009 will increase compared to the first half of year.

You can get the free white paper with complete survey results and analysis here.

So is this good news or bad news?

I believe it is good news that more than a third of companies in the industrial sector are expected to increase spending during this second half of 2009.

Some companies are going to get some leads and close some sales as a result of that increased buying. And maybe that expected increase in buying is also a sign that business in the industrial sector is finally starting to improve.

If you’re an industrial marketer I believe your challenge will be identifying the companies which are expected to increase spending. If you can identify them, you can target the recommenders, specifiers and buyers at those companies with marketing and lead generation campaigns designed to find the sales opportunities your salespeople, reps or distributors need.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Is the expected increase in spending during the second half of the year by a little more than a third of these companies good news? Or is it bad news because just under two thirds of the companies in the industrial marketplace are expected to spend the same or less than they did during the first half? And what do you think your industrial marketing, lead generation and sales peers should do about it?

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

To accomplish these objectives, consider leveraging your prospect’s five senses.

Sight: Many of your prospects process information best visually. To get your messages through to these visual people, use photos, illustrations or icons to help them "see" the benefits of your products or services.

I use Fotolia as a low-cost source of royalty-free photos, illustration and icons. When Garth Johnson, EVP North America for Fotolia, heard that I recommended his company, he offered to give my customers, readers, seminar attendees and business friends 5 free credits to give Fotolia a try, and 30 percent extra credits whenever you buy more.

So if you have a few minutes now, or next time you are looking for just the right image for an ad, brochure, email, website or presentation, visit www.fotolia.com/macmc to get your free credits. Then use the promo code "macmcintosh" to get your 30 percent bonus when buying additional credits.

Hearing: Other prospects are more receptive to words; both written and spoken.

My wife, Andrea, is one of these auditory people. It seems I’m always trying to show her something, as I process information best visually. Yet Andrea is always asking me to tell her instead. Why? Because she processes words better than pictures.

To communicate best with these auditory people, have a conversation with them; either out loud with spoken words or in their heads with written words.

A skilled writer can also use written or spoken words to paint mental pictures for those who are more receptive to visual information.

Touch: Does it make sense (no pun intended) to give your prospects a sample of your product that they can touch or play with? A client of mine, a manufacturer of drawer slides for the furniture industry, sends samples to qualified prospects so they can feel the quality and assess the durability of the company’s products firsthand.

Other products, software is a good example, lend themselves to "test drives" via Web demos, evaluations copies or free trials.

You can use also touch to communicate in more subtle ways too, like using the quality feel of your printed literature to reflect the quality of your products or services.

Smell and taste:

Have you ever had a pleasant smell trigger a pleasant memory? Or felt great after eating something tasty or sweet?

If your product can be associated with a pleasing fragrance, consider adding that fragrance to your lead generation materials. For example, a business catering company could add the smell of fresh baked apple pies to their postcards. Search on an industrial sourcing Website like GlobalSpec and you’ll find suppliers of fragrances (and flavors) like Carmi Flavors.

Or the catering company could leverage prospects’ taste buds by including a delicious cookie in its mailing, or giving them away at its trade show booth.

If you have additional tips about using the five senses to generate more leads, or have some related success stories you can share, please do!

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Are you looking for advice you can use to make your B2B lead generation programs as productive as they can be?

Get the 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study Report.

It provides metrics and best practices for B2B lead generation.

Please ask yourself these questions:

• Would it be useful to show senior management the big impact that lead generation has on the sales pipelines of other companies that sell their products and services to businesses, institutions or the government?
• Are you interested in knowing how your lead generation budget, tactics and results compare to those of other companies that sell products and servcicesto businesses, institutions or the government?
• Are you wondering what results your B2B lead generation peers are getting from telemarketing, email, their websites, online marketing, social media and other tactics?
• Do you know which lead generation activities your peers are now finding to be the most productive?
• Do you know how your B2B lead generation, follow up, nurturing and qualification processes compare to those of your peers?
• Would you pay only $159, with a money-back satisfaction guarantee, to get these answers and more?

If your answer to the last question was "Yes", click here to buy and immediately download the information-packed 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study Report.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this…

The 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study Report gives you the information you need to justify and improve your lead generation programs:

• It shares the lead generation best practices that are now getting the best results for your peers at other companies that sell products or services to businesses, institutions or the government.
• It also includes a detailed recommendations section written by two B2B lead generation experts. (Yes, I’m one of them!)

Please take a look at the Table of Contents.

2010 is just around the corner…

There are only a few months left to generate leads and close sales before the end of 2009. This report will help you figure out what you can do to boost your short term leads and sales results before the year is over.

And if you are starting to plan and budget for next year’s B2B lead generation programs and campaigns, the report will help guide your decisions on how to get the best results in 2010.

Also consider that you might pay thousands in consulting fees for the same advice. Or think about the wasted time, money and the risks you face trying to figure it all out using trial-and error approaches.

Instead you pay only $159 to get this essential information.

And don’t forget your money-back satisfaction guarantee!

If you are not fully satisfied with the B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Report all you have to do is return it within 30 days and we’ll give you full refund!

Click here to buy and download your copy of the 2009 B2B Lead Generation Benchmark Study Report today.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Who? B2B marketers responsible for lead generation.

What? A live webinar, B2B Marketing Tests: How to Improve Results & Fight for Your Budget, presented by Anne Holland with her special guest, B2B lead generation expert Mac McIntosh. (Yes, I’m honored to say that’s me!)

• Discover the top 7 web page and registration form tests to increase your site’s leads by 40%;
• Get invaluable office politics tips for testing success;
• Ask questions and get expert answers during the Q&A portion of the webinar;
• And, if you’re quick, you may get the opportunity to have your lead generation page evaluated live on air during the webinar!

When? On Thursday, Sept 24, 2009 at 2pm Eastern (1 hour)

Where? From any handy computer with broadband Internet access.

Why? Because getting better results from your B2B marketing and lead generation is your key to bigger budgets, more staff and maybe even a promotion and a raise!

How? Register for free here or visit www.whichtestwon.com

NOTE: Attendance is limited to 100 people.

I look forward to having you join us on Thursday, Sept 24, 2009 at 2pm Eastern!

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Sept. 23-24 in San Francisco

Oct. 5-6 in Boston

Join America’s top B2B marketers to learn, apply and share the latest advancements in marketing while honing your traditional B2B marketing skills in parallel. 

With over 26 speakers, 16 real life case studies and countless, practical marketing ideas, you’ll be certain to take home multiple strategies and tactics you can apply tomorrow. Subjects include:

• The latest research on what working right NOW in B2B marketing
• Leveraging white papers, webinars, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Proven tactics for lead generation, scoring, nurturing and closed-loop measurement
• Finding and building your social communities
• Taking advantage of PPC, SEO, email creative & landing pages
• Managing multi-channel campaigns
• Marketing to drive leads and sales from Fortune 500 companies 
• Using Web 2.0 to cost-effectively reach SMBs
• More details here.

Please don’t miss the session I’ll be co-presenting on Tuesday, October 6th in Boston.

Chris Chariton, GlobalSpec’s Vice President of Marketing Services & Product Management, and I will be presenting a case study entitled, Taking Lead Generation to the Next Level: One B2B Company’s Success Story.

We’ll share how Chris and her team at GlobalSpec (with my help) embarked on a major initiative to increase the volume, value and velocity of its marketing-driven sales lead programs, and succeeded big time. Summit attendees will learn how they did it with a smaller marketing budget in this lousy economy. 

We’re planning to give lots of how-to information and share some key lessons learned that you can use to cost-effectively improve your company’s lead generation, despite today’s tough business environment.

Take advantage of my special presenter’s discount to save $400.

Here’s some more about what will be presented at this information-packed, two-day B2B marketing conference:

• Multiple Case Studies, war stories and lessons learned presented by B2B peers and mentors (past speakers include marketers from Oracle, Siemens, Cisco Systems, and more).
• Practical advice on B2B search, podcasting, registration form tests, email, lead generation & nurturing and telemarketing.
• Countless hours of face-to-face networking with seasoned professionals, trainers and peers over breakfast, breaks, lunch and receptions
• Proven lead generation strategies, campaigns and tactics you can apply now to get more done with less people, time and budgets
• Interaction with colleagues sharing successful campaigns and tactics to inspire and hone your marketing skills

The bottom line?  You’ll come away armed with practical, new B2B marketing tactics, knowledge and expertise you can use to get better results from your marketing and stay ahead of your competition. 

Here’s where to learn more and take advantage of my special presenter’s discount.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

Capterra: The Conference
Empowering Software Marketing Leaders

September 13-15 in Washington DC

Make the absolute most out of your marketing efforts across the board. That’s the goal of this first-ever business software marketing conference.

You’ll learn cutting-edge strategies for improving everything from your online marketing to your lead generation efforts from top industry experts (including yours truly).

Confirmed speakers include Ramon Ray, Bryan Eisenberg, Wil Reynolds, Robert Wright, David Meerman Scott, Ruth Stevens, Ashish Vij, Stephanie Miller, and Gord Hotchkiss. Learn more about them here.

Each presentation will be tailored specifically for the business software industry, and will deliver highly practical ideas designed for immediate results. Topics will include:

• Always Be Testing: Marketing Optimization in Challenging Times
• SEO Tools You Can Use Today To Improve Your Rankings
• Winning Positioning Strategies For Software Category Leadership
• Visitors Come and Visitors Go: Why Aren’t They Becoming Customers?
• How To Motivate Action Online
• Using The New Rules of Marketing and PR to Reach Software Buyers Directly
• The latest tools and features in Google Analytics to help optimize your website lead pipeline
• Successfully Measuring Email Marketing Success
• The BuyerSphere — A Different Perspective on B2B Buying

The agenda shows my session, A Lead-Driven Approach to Increasing Business Software Sales, is scheduled for Monday, September 14th at 10:00 am.

My presentation will address proven ways to use sales leads to find more short-term sales opportunities that your sales team and channel partners can close before the end of the year.

I’ll also be facilitating a breakout session on Monday afternoon entitled, Lead Generation: A Group Idea Exchange. It will be your opportunity to swap ideas about lead generation with some of the best in the business: your business software marketing peers. This idea exchange will be an open forum where you’ll have a chance to share both your successes, and your challenges, with generating, nurturing and qualifying sales leads.

Will I see you at Capterra: The Conference?

If you are planning to attend, please be sure to take advantage of my special presenter’s discount code capcon09mm when registering. It will save you $100!

Learn more and register here.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

What I like best about being a B2B lead generation consultant is I get to work with some of the best people at the best companies in the business.

The rewarding part is I get to see first-hand what works best (and what doesn’t) when it comes to generating, nurturing and identifying the qualified, sales-ready leads that salespeople, reps, resellers and distributors need.

Speaking of what works best, here are 22 tips for getting better results from your B2B lead generation programs:

1. Aim where your prospects are
2. Be there when they are thinking about the problem (right media, right frequency)
3. Make it easy to find (in the search engine results, on your website, in their email inbox, etc.)
4. Focus on generating response
5. Get right to the point
6. Be relevant (to their job, industry, application, problem, pain, etc.)
7. Communicate with words and pictures (or word pictures)
8. Choose your words carefully (use powerful words and avoid clichés)
9. Talk second-person (lead with you and your instead of we and our)
10. Invoke a positive emotional response (pride, happiness, etc.)
11. Talk about pain-relief or solving problems
12. Show them the before and after
13. Make it easy to skim (subheads, bullets, bold fonts, links, captions, etc.)
14. Back up your claim (prove it)
15. Use testimonials (real people at real companies)
16. Offer ways to learn more
17. Make multiple offers (calls-to-action)
18. Make offers that appeal at different stages of their buying cycle
19. Merchandise your offers (borders, color, bold, buttons, links, etc.)
20. Ask for the order (tell them what to do next)
21. Give a compelling reason to respond right now
22. Make it easy to respond (by phone, e-mail, website, coupon, reply card, etc.)

What are some of the secrets to your B2B lead generation success?

Hopefully you’ll share some of them with us.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

• Firmographics (Industry, company size, location)
• Demographics (Contact’s title, job function)
• Contactability (Phone number, email address)
• Action taken (Attended webinar, downloaded whitepaper, requested pricing, spent time on certain Web pages)
• Need for your product or service
• Fit (Your products or services meet or exceed their technical, performance, reliability requirements)
• Competition (What other competitors are involved and can you win against them? )
• Contact’s role in the purchase decision process (Recommender, influencer, decision maker)
• Timing (Purchase decision timing, implementation timing)
• Availability of funding for the purchase (Has budget, can get budget)
• Size of the opportunity (Quantity needed, revenue potential)

What criteria do you use to determine that leads are qualified as being ready for sales follow up?

How do those criteria fall into the categories above? Are there additional categories of criteria I should add to the list? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.