8 Salesforce.com marketing automation tips

Picture this.  Your company is small- to medium-sized with a marketing budget to match.  The economy is stinkaroo and your company big cheeses have told you to keep up the lead generation efforts – and even gen more leads – at the same or less budget.

One of the things I love about Salesforce.com is how readily you can automate your marketing efforts -- and you don't have to be big to do it.  Via Salesforce, you can:

  • Automate lead data entry and follow up.
  • Determine what activities are contributing to your pipeline.
  • Determine your marketing ROI.
  • Provide consistent branding and messaging for your sales teams.
  • Make your company look bigger.

Let’s talk about some marketing automation tips and best practices for lead management.  This is kind of a list day for me so here are quick hits...

 

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Speaking of the cumulative power of blogging

Just two weeks ago, I blogged about the real value of B2B blogging and today I want to revisit the topic after seeing an interesting phenomenon in one of my blogs.

It’s one of my personal blogs but it still illustrates a point.  See, in the blog in question (not this one!), I’ve been stacked up this week and failed to post.  Imagine my surprise, though, to pop into my web statistics and discover a great week of visitations anyway.

Here's why...

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Bring back the love – advertiser vs consumer

Community Network’s normal stomping ground is the B2B arena but the video included in this article shines such a bright light on the misalignment that’s occurring between companies (advertisers) and consumers in many of today’s companies.

What the video highlights is just as relevant for the B2B market as it is for the B2C.  Check it out and see how much it resonates with you.

If by the end, you’re feeling like Claire Coffee, then you’ve got an intuitive understanding, if not a literal one, of what it means to want a good customer experience….that delightful sense of company/customer participation that extends beyond customer centricity.

The videos’ originator is bringbackthelove.com.

And now, Bring Back The Love videos…...

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Using a CRM is like eating broccoli

Why did I choose that article title?  Because using a CRM is exactly like eating broccoli…It’s. Just. No. Fun.

I’ve tried.  I’ve really tried but there’s just no way to make entering leads, accounts, contacts and such be fun.  It. Just. Isn’t.

So there…I said it.  Me, a partner in a firm that specializes in implementing relationship management solutions a la Salesforce.com and whose very same company uses Salesforce as the backbone of our operations.

If there’s anyone who disagrees with me, shout out -- while the rest of us agree to my above sentiments.  There’s no doubt either, that the more “creative” folks in “creative” functions – like sales and marketing – will rebel against using them because of the discipline required to create new records and maintain activity histories.

And guess what?

Use your CRM anyway for the same reason you should eat broccoli.  CRMs are good for you and will help you keep your business <erm> well-greased...

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Salesforce.com solutions – Intellicore Design’s value-add

The cool thing about the world we live in today is an abundance of choices.  It’s just as true when deciding on an IT service provider to implement a Salesforce.com solution as it is for anything else.

That begs the question then of why you should select Intellicore Design Consulting as your solution provider for Salesforce.com solutions.  The answer?  Choose us because we aren’t IT service providers.

Huh?

We the folks at Intellicore Design Consulting are business strategy experts who translate business processes and programs into on-demand business solutions we implement.

For and foremost, though, we’re business strategy experts...

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Internal corporate communities – making great music together

RainToday.com writers Mike Schultz, Publisher, and John Doerr, Contributing Editor attribute words of wisdom to Benjamin Zander, founder and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  In a conference for business leaders Zander said,

The job of the conductor is to get the best music out of the musicians. His role is to coach, encourage, support, and occasionally push. But the conductor never makes a sound.

That got me thinking about internal corporate communities. 

If handled correctly, internal corporate communities are one way for corporate executives foster communication, collaboration, and participation among employees....

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The real Value of B2B blogging

Last week, I had a pleasant exploratory chat with a potential blog service partner and they get the point of corporate or B2B blogging – and it’s not the same as B2C or personal blogging.  In the corporate world, using a blog to build community is only one benefit – and in my mind, it’s valuable but not the most important reason to blog.

Let’s talk today about the real value of B2B blogging and the reason behind that value.  From there, we’ll segue into a realistic overview of the time requirements needed to build a successful blog. 

The discussion will help you put your own company’s situation into perspective when considering whether blogging is the right avenue for your company to build community...

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It's all in the dance -- What's makes successful online communities

The numero uno factor contributing to community success  is the ability to connect with others, so say a little more than 50% of survey respondents of 100-ish companies who participated in the Deloitte-Beeline Labs 2008 Tribalization of Business study.  Another factor, scoring a little more than 40%, is the ability to help others.

Know what I immediately thought of when I first read the study results?  Dancing.

Let me tell you why because it gives a clear metaphor of the power of online communities...

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