Four Must-Have Metrics for Marketing Measurement

Summary: Four critical metrics tell you most of what you need to show the value of your marketing efforts and to optimize your results. And, here's a funny picture.There’s still time to sign up for my October 7 Webinar on stage-based marketing measurement (sponsored by Marketo and hosted by the American Marketing Association). During my extensive, um, research, I was very pleased to find the following picture to illustrate the concept of stages:I...

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Do Small Businesses Need Marketing Automation?

Summary: Vendors who target small businesses include provide functions beyond traditional marketing automation. This helps business owners who need to generate revenue as efficiently as possible. But larger firms need to be efficient too: so expect all marketing automation systems to eventually expand in similar ways.The replies are rolling in from the survey of vendor features that I mentioned last week. (Reminder: you can upload the 150+ questions for your own RFP from www.raabguide.com.)One interesting reaction has come from vendors serving...

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Webinar and White Paper on Marketing Measurement

Marketo yesterday released Winning the Marketing Measurement Marathon, a white paper that I wrote for them. This was timed to coincide release of their new Revenue Cycle Explorer, which adds advanced reporting to their Revenue Cycle Analytics line. (See my August 3 post for more details on Revenue Cycle Analytics.)I'll also be speaking with Marketo in an October 7 Webinar hosted by American Marketing Association. Please join ...

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150+ Questions for Your Marketing Automation RFP

Summary: I've posted a list of nearly 200 RFP questions that I hope many people will adopt to their own needs. If it's used widely, buyers and vendors both benefit.Death, taxes and RFPs. For business software vendors, all three are equally inevitable – and it's not clear which they dislike most. In my on-going humble efforts to serve the industry, I’ve posted nearly 200 detailed questions that could serve as the backbone for many RFPs. The list is available in the Resources section at www.raabguide.com; it’s free once you register.The thought...

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True Influence's LeadPAC Offers Pay-Per-Click Email. Think About It.

Summary: LeadPAC lets marketers pay for email responses as easily as they pay for search responses. It’s a major improvement over traditional lead generation.I can’t recall a vendor with the same business model as LeadPAC from marketing automation vendor True Influence. That's pretty rare in itself, but what really matters is that LeadPAC's model offers some powerful benefits. That's worth some excitement.So what, exactly, makes LeadPAC so special?LeadPAC lets marketers order prospect lists based on segmentation criteria such as title, industry...

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Hard Data to Justify Your Marketing Automation Investment

Summary: So you want some hard numbers to prove the value of marketing automation? Here's a bunch.A client asked yesterday if I had some benchmark information to justify the cost of her marketing automation project. This set off an hour-long scavenger hunt through my hard drive, followed by sporadic afterthoughts later in the day. Since this is a question that comes up pretty often, I figured I’d share some of the more useful results. If anyone else cares to expand on this list, even better.1. Neolane “Making the Business Case for Enterprise Marketing...

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