The First Integrated CRM / MA Offering

Just over a year ago, Oracle purchased the intellectual property of Market2Lead – a leading B2B marketing automation service. The result? Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing.

Released this past February, Oracle CRM On Demand Marketing features a similar but redesigned (read: “Oracle-ized”) version of Market2Lead, using Oracle’s original CRM’s look and feel, terminology, and 20-language access.

Benefits of the Marriage

The new data structure is unified, allowing for smooth, integrated management and reporting across the lead generation, prospect nurturing, and customer buying processes – and on into the post-sales customer relations realm. The product features flexible programs that adapt readily to customer behavior fluctuations, advanced web pages and forms, automatic content fulfillment, and multiple asset templates.

Overall, the intent of the program seems sound, and time (and careful analysis) will tell if its users benefit from the union.

How this Affects the Industry – If at All

Why is this significant, and what does it mean? Well, we at ApexTwo are excited to see significant movement in this direction because it underscores our standing position that this is where Marketing Automation and Customer Relationship Management are heading – straight down the aisle for a marriage made in Heaven. And we are perfectly poised to be a matchmaker in the process.

However, is an all-inclusive application the best vehicle for this marriage?  Perhaps there’s still something to be said for the hands-on, human approach that takes into account all the  intricacies of the unique needs of each business, its customer base, and its specific processes and goals.

ApexTwo is Leading the Way

As proven experts in both SugarCRM implementation and marketing automation, we’re already on the leading edge of this movement. And SugarCRM’s unparalleled flexibility in customization makes it the natural CRM choice for integrating a targeted, well plannd marketing automation program for any business, small or large –- and our experts are highly trained and experienced in making it happen. What’s more:  our business acumen provides the business intelligence that a single application is hard pressed to match.

At least so far.

B2B is contemporary shorthand for a longtime sales practice called business-to-business while B2C represents business-to-consumer. In essence, B2B deals primarily with other businesses, not the general public, and B2C provides products and services directly to the end user. The initial step in establishing marketing strategies for both B2B and B2C is somewhat similar. You have to identify first who your target customer is then figure out why this particular customer needs to hear your message. From there, the marketing activities diverge.

Below is the summary of the key differences between B2B marketing and B2C marketing. Your marketing plan has to take account and consider these differences to ensure you are developing the right types of activities intended for your particular market.

B2C – Businesses that Sell to Consumers

• Product driven
• Maximize the value of the transaction
• Large target market
• Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle
• Brand identity created through repetition and imagery
• Merchandising and point of purchase activities
• Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price

The B2C category has expanded greatly in the late 1990s with the growth of public access to the Internet. It largely equates to electronic retailing and its main objective is to aggressively convince prospective buyers to shop. B2C companies employ different  marketing campaigns for publicizing their goods and services. This would include coupons, vouchers, email blasts, banner ads, limited edition offers and the likes to entice their target market to buy. These campaigns are much shorter in duration thus the urgent need to secure the customer’s interest very quickly. The path to purchase must be short and simple – just a few clicks from email receipt to order confirmation. Any more than a couple of clicks and the customer is likely to abandon the shopping cart. The call to action must be obvious and the offer enticing. As such, email campaigns often highlight special deals and discount that can be used both online and in store. They can also be informative especially if the aim is to build the brand and enhance customer loyalty. Loyalty is an important aspect in B2C marketing. This proved very true for companies like Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples. They combine good customer service and education on their product and services thus their customers keep coming back.

B2B – Businesses that Sell to Businesses

• Relationship driven
• Maximize the value of the relationship
• Small, focused target market
• Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle
• Brand identity created on personal relationship
• Educational and awareness building activities
• Rational buying decision based on business value

The sales cycle in the B2B world is often much longer and more complex. It mainly maximizes on the value of relationships. A B2B company needs to focus on maintaining communication and building relationships. Marketing activities involving lead generation that can be nurtured during the sales cycle can be used to attain this goal. B2B features a multi-step buying process that needs more than one person to decide on the purchase thus B2B companies employ marketing to educate its target audience. Take for example in an email campaign, your objective is to drive prospects to your site to learn about your products and services. B2B newsletters therefore must be direct and professional and should encourage the audience to bite into your call to action. The content must be straight to the point, should have contact information for offline communications and the landing pages are easy to navigate and utilize. It must contain information on features, benefits, and possibly pricing. In the B2B sales cycle, email campaign is usually the first step towards a series of integrated touch campaign that may include telemarketing, direct mail, and personal follow-up by sales representatives who will thoroughly discuss business details and move the prospect on the next step of the sales cycle. In B2B, “content is king” for marketing paraphernalia. Media coverage of your products and services also helps in delivering your message across your target audience.

But of course the real test is taking one of these ideas and applying it to your own business. I think I’m going to take this one to heart and I’ll tell you more in a future post, but in the meantime, check this out…

I was first introduced to Ivan Levison by Software Publisher Magazine where Ivan was a regular contributor. If you’re like me, all it takes is a good idea every now and then to make it worth your while reading a magazine article or a newsletter and Ivan usually delivers.

Well he no longer writes for Software Business (the new title) but I have been getting his newsletter for going on 10 years now and I still open them with high expectations.

July, 2010

In my small town, the post office parking lot has just three crummy spaces.

Next door to it is a bank that has a big parking lot. Naturally, everyone who needs to visit the post office parks at the bank.

Because of all the extra cars parking on their property, you’d expect the bank to put up this kind of a warning sign at the entrance to its lot:

Parking For Bank Patrons Only!

All other vehicles will be towed
at owner’s expense.

But someone at the bank knew how to think outside the box. They didn’t settle for the obvious. Instead of being the town meanies, they put up this sign where everyone could see it:

Union Bank of California
Welcomes Post Office Patrons!

If you’re not banking with us, come on in
and see why we’re a great place to bank . . .
as well as very convenient!

What we have here is an example of guerrilla marketing at its best. The bank took a problem and, using a kind of marketing jujitsu, turned it into a plus. The funny, subversive sign says to potential customers that “we’re the kind of bright, responsive people you want to bank with.”

Examples of turning lemons into lemonade, like the one I’ve mentioned above, are all around us and are always instructive.

Remember the old Avis rent-a-car advertising campaign?

Years ago, Hertz was the market leader. Avis was in a distant second place. So their terrific ad agency came up with a campaign theme that acknowledged their second-place status and turned it into a virtue. The headline of one of their classic ads reads:

Avis is only No. 2
in rent-a-cars.
So why go with us?

We try harder.

The body copy explains that “we can’t take you for granted” and that when you’re No. 2, “you just can’t afford dirty ashtrays. Or half-empty gas tanks.”

Another ad in the campaign used the headline:

When you’re only No. 2
you try harder.
Or else.

Instead of being ashamed of their second-place status, Avis proudly (and humorously) proclaimed it and used it to explain why they try so hard to provide great service and value.

So what does this have to do with YOUR marketing efforts?

Plenty. It shows how you can take a problem and use it to your advantage. As the saying goes: “If all you have is lemons, make lemonade.”

Is your company’s “lemon” the fact that you’re tiny? No problem. Your “lemonade” is that you provide unbeatable, personal service.

Is your company’s product back-ordered so that you can’t deliver promptly? No sweat. The crush of orders is proof of tremendous product acceptance and
popularity.

Is your software product lacking a load of hot features? Nothing to worry about. Your software is perfect for people who want to get up-and-running quickly without having to wade through thick manuals.

You get the idea.

The take-away message this month? It always pays to think outside of the box and look for new ways to turn problems or challenges into moneymaking opportunities.

And there are LOTS of them!

And on another front, they spend more dollars executing email marketing campaigns. They’re using Constant Contact, Vertical Response, ExactTarget, or one of the other 50 email marketing programs to get the word out through their email campaigns. Again hoping that a visitor will convert by filling out a form and taking advantage of some new offer to become a hot lead.

“Be-Backs” and Website Window Shoppers

I first heard that term from my father, who by the way, was the quintessential salesman. Yes, he sold cars for a living. Used ones at that. And quite a few of them. I never saw him sporting the plaid sport coat and he hardly fit the stereotype but he did sell a lot of cars.

So who or what was a Be-Back? Well that was the guy who spent hours of time looking at a car and asking a lot of questions only to finish with “I’ll be back.” No name, no phone number, just I’ll be back. And in fact at the end of the day, the measure of success was oftentimes measured in the number, actually lack there of, of Be-Backs. And the problem with Be-Backs in the car business? More often than not, if that Be-Back did come back, you weren’t there.

So what is the point? Well most commercial websites have literally tons of Be-Backs. They’ll look today. Maybe again tomorrow, and even the day after. But they don’t fill out a form. They don’t become a “hot” lead. And without a lead, your sales rep has no one to call. And the part that’s tough to swallow is that you actually have a “warm” lead lurking out there. Lots of them.

Work The Math

Let’s say your website produces 100 hot leads per week. Or per month. Doesn’t matter. The average conversion rate for a well-oiled website optimized for conversions with a good offer supporting a strong value prop typically runs at about a 5-10% conversion rate. Other sites may run as low as 3-5%. Let’s further suppose that your close rate for those leads is, I don’t know, 30%? So that would mean 30 buyers.

Now what about that other 90+% of your website visitors? You know they’re looking for something you’ve got. And having a need is the strongest factor in qualifying any prospect. So for that 100 hot lead website, you also have 900 warm leads. Now they’re less qualified because that haven’t taken any other overt action than to just look and you still have to find some way to follow-up with them. But let’s say you have a way to contact half of them, and because they’re less qualified, your close rate is 3 times lower or just 10%. Multiply that out and you have the potential to increase your closed sales by 45 or 150%!!

How to Harvest Your Warm Leads

The trick here is being able to tie that visitor behavior to their identity and then alert your sales rep that they’ve gone warm. Clearly this doesn’t work if you have absolutely no previous identity information on the visitor or a way to find it but maybe you do…

So here’s the approach we take for our clients at ApexTwo. The solution hubs around something we call our Lead Capture Solution. This is a database-driven application that sit between the client’s website and their CRM that continually monitors visitor activity, notifying the CRM system at appropriate points in time.

What website platform do you have to be on? Doesn’t matter. What CRM? Doesn’t matter. We call this a “solution” because it is about 70% common platform (the database engine) and 30% customization to the client environment. We can usually integrate it with whatever you have – well assuming it’s something built within the last 10 year and has an Application Programming Interface (API). Salesforce, SugarCRM, NetSuite, SAP, Zoho, all have APIs.

Here’s How it Works

Here’s one example of how it works with an email campaign… You start with the list of emails you intend to campaign against. Could be your “house” list of prospects, something you’ve gotten from JigSaw, a partner mailing list swap? Just something where you have email addresses and contact information, maybe even a phone number.

We then set up your email program to tag the emails that go out. This means we need to use an email package that supports this but most all of them do. But here is where the magic comes in.

We place a little snippet of javascript on each of your web pages. Just like Google Analytics. But what happens with this is that when the visitor comes to the site, our Lead Capture Solution intercepts the click and logs the information. We then set “triggers” based on actions taken, pages visited, etc., that generate an alert to the sales rep.

From there, the Sales Rep goes to their CRM and immediately sees some initial campaign information (campaign name, search keywords, landing page, etc.), but then they can also click a link to see not only all of the pages the visitor actually looked at, but even their location, domain name and oftentimes the company they are with (even if you don’t already have that in their record). Now the Sales Rep can pick up the phone or email that prospect and suddenly they have the opportunity for a “warm” conversation.

No, It’s Not Rocket Science

Is this something only we could invent? Well, no. Is it unique in the market? Well not the concept. But maybe in the implementation. Meaning? You’ll find many “products” out there that address parts of the solution. Or products that address more of the solution but only for a few environments (e.g., Salesforce.com only). But what we do think is unique is our semi-custom approach. It keeps the cost down, but more than that, it provides you with unlimited flexibility for tailoring campaigns, landing pages, calls-to-action, special offers, you name it, all to your specification.

You can go here to learn more about our Lead Capture Solution or give us a shout and we’ll give you a short demo. Or if you’re doing something similar, or something very different, please shout it out for discussion in the comment box below.

Why Should I Care About Them?

• Field reports are substantiating vendor claims on effectiveness
• New, lower-cost options coming online every day
• Limited initial cost to participate
• Adoption rates are soaring

How Can I Learn More About Demand Generation Systems?

ApexTwo has partnered with industry expert David Raab to provide you with an Intro to Demand Generation Systems which will give you a basic understanding of capabilities of the products and services that are currently available.

Additionally, ApexTwo will be providing a stream of practical, actionable information for businesses that are interested in how they might take advantage of this exciting new technology.

Download your free copy of Introduction to Demand Generation Systems.

According to SearchEngineWatch and John Cecil, they do! In fact, over they claim that over 90% of their clients achieve some uplift in conversions.

Recent tests on companies using Innovative Media Group’s video spokespeople suggest that dramatic gains can be realized:

- ClosetWorld added embedded video to their landing page and then a video spokesperson as well. This increased conversion rates from 0.5% to 1.0% and 2.2% respectively.

- Tanberg increased the conversion on their lead-generation page from 0.75% to 2.2% by adding a spokesperson.

Big companies are piling onto the bandwagon as well. Other recent successes include Napster, Service Magic, and Rhapsody. And according to a recent interview of John Cecil, CEO of Innovate Media, one of the leaders in the space, the following are also tr Research shows that over 90% of people like video spokespersons on their landing page.

video for delivery over the web and most of our videos fall into some sort of marketing or solicitation of sales pod where we’re using the videos to sort of make movements on the web.

Who Are the Players

In addition to Innovate, here are a couple of other shops that focus on this new market. Warning: Be ready to be talked at when clicking these links…

• www.WebsiteTalkingHeads.com
• www.YakkingHeads.com
• www.ispeakvideo.com

What Does it Cost?

You’ll find some companies leading with price point of $99-199.

How Do They Do It?

1. Talent - Client chooses talent that we offer them and we hire that talent on their behalf.
2. Script - Typically the clients will write the scripts working with our copywriters.
3. Studio - We take their chosen talent and their scripts. We go into the studio, put the script into a teleprompter and we shoot that video in front of a green screen. The talent meets with the client. There’s lights, camera, action. There’s make-up. There’s a full production crew and we produce the video.
4. Action - We then take the video.
5. Post Production – We go back into our post house and we eventually produce a line of code. We give you that line of code and you put the line of code where you want the video to appear on your page and then we give you a log-in and password to the backend, our backend system where you get reporting information and can track the effectiveness of your video.

The Secrets to Success

• Keep it short
• Cut the fluff
• Have a close