Marketing

The “SoMo Zone”: Listening to a Social and Mobile Community for Engagement

“To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.” Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Traditional marketing has its place. Don’t worry. This post is not about that.

Social media is long past the early days when only a few adventurous types were maintaining their own blogs and playing around with Twitter accounts. Nowadays, it seems that every business leader I talk to claims their business has a social media presence. Unfortunately, many of these executives also complain that social media hasn’t lived up to its promises.

CRM: Sales and Marketing get hitched

With February 29th the traditional time for an unusual marriage proposal, we’ve got one of our own.

Many marketing specialists see themselves as the incisive, statistics-led brains of the operation and sales folk as the sometimes truculent operatives who won’t do as they’re told. Meanwhile, ask a salesperson for their opinion and they will tell you that they do the hard work which keeps a business alive, while marketers mainly play around doing fancy designs.

Quick note on the importance of Nurture Marketing

Many companies do a good job at generating leads - attracting prospects to a Web site or tradeshow booth, buying lists, etc.

The problem is that most new leads are not yet ready to engage with a sales person. If you aren't effectively managing every lead that you receive-especially those that aren't ready to engage-you aren't getting the most out of your marketing and may be losing prospects to competitors.

A Marketing Plan is not necessarily a Marketing Strategy…

...and one without the other is waste of time.

All of us recognise the ever increasing pressure to drive tangible return on marketing investments; and rightly so.  You should be able to link your marketing spending to the results or outcomes that it drives. Perhaps most importantly, you need to know if they were the desired outcomes.

Investing in marketing is about more than money

When it comes to getting the most out of marketing, it starts with ensuring the right level of investment. Whether that is an investment in people, of time or of budget; you only get out what you put in so getting it right is important.

Question:
You have distributed a marketing activity to list of people and now you want to send follow-up emails according to whether each member of your list has responded or not.

Answer:
So, let’s assume you have distributed your initial campaign activity, in this case I’ve distributed an email to five people titled ConsultCRM Jan 2012 Event.

Microsoft CRM and Social Technologies

This video will provide an overview of Social CRM and its relevance and business value to your organisation, discuss the social capabilities of Microsoft CRM and other Microsoft solutions that you can leverage today, and provide you an overview of the future social investments planned for Microsoft CRM over the next 3 to 24 months.

Marketing lists are one of the most valuable assets your company has, and keeping them in top shape is critical to your business and the success of your marketing efforts.

Good marketing lists deliver:
• Higher conversion rates
• An engaged community of prospects and customers
• Happy recipients

Bad marketing lists result in:
• Lower conversion ratios
• High bounce rates
• Higher costs

Marketing with Microsoft CRM: Ideas Book

If you're a marketer using Microsoft CRM, our Microsoft CRM Marketing Idea eBook is bound to fuel your creativity with 20+ ideas including: