Uncategorized

Marketing automation craziness — Oh boy, here we go.

June 13, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 15 Comments

Yesterday and today were busy in the world of marketing technology twitterverse. Now, keep in mind, I am not a reporter…I am posting Tweets and articles.In other words, I am happy to post up any clarifications, etc…just put them in the comments field. A lot of these people are my friends so I am not taking sides…but boy there is a scrum happening right now.

Hold on to your hats folks..because here we go:

I will start with this article on Business Insider, the title should tell you everything: Fresh Off A Hot IPO, Marketo’s Biggest Partner, Salesforce.com, Is Now Its Biggest Threat [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Marketing Automation, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized

Customers buy from people not companies: Madlibs with Aseem Badshah

June 13, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 2 Comments

The sales, social, and marketing technology revolution makes life so much fun.I love meeting young upstarts creating value. Aseem Badshah is one of those young guns building cool stuff. He is the founder of Socedo. He is bright, fun to talk to and doing great things. I am very excited to have him as this weeks participant in the Funneholic Madlibs game.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Sales, Madlibs with the Funnelholic, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Selling, SocialCRM, Startups, Uncategorized

Salesforce.com acquires Exact Target – Is the end of the marketer’s golden age looming?

June 12, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 2 Comments

My post on the Exact Target acquisition by Salesforce.com actually was one of the most visited posts in the history of the Funnelholic.

I didn’t get the chance to give my personal take on the acquisition so here we go. First I will start with some random notes on a scoreboard:

1. The Salesforce Marketing Cloud wasn’t really a good Marketing Cloud as far as Marketing Clouds go. A lot of analysts have talked about the acquisition in terms of why it was good for Salesforce.com. In the context of the Marketing Cloud, I agree. The Marketing Cloud probably needed email and marketing automation pieces. Considering all that was happening in marketing technology, Salesforce had a truly incomplete offering – this helps.

2. What’s my take on the overall acquisition from a market perspective? Bunch of dudes from Indiana made fat stacks - that’s my analysis. Maybe I am just not that smart but I don’t feel like speech making on this one. Organizations will still choose to buy marketing automation and email marketing from other vendors. There is no evidence that Salesforce would put their customer relationships at risk by messing with the API or the AppExchange. I think we move on. As a matter of fact, one week later and it feels like no one is talking about it anymore.

P.S. Congrats to the “dudes from Indiana” – I am very happy for them. (I wanted to make this point in case the annoying commentor “ihate@you” comes on again and accuses me of being jealous.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Marketing Automation, Uncategorized

Competitive content, Twitter pix, and mobile marketing: This week on Twitter

June 7, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg Leave a Comment

Tweets of the Week is back! What a crazy week on the Funnelholic. My post on the SFDC acquisition of Exact Target had record traffic and my Friday post from last week had a TON of traffic..including some dudes who misinterpreted what I was trying to do and ripped me.

We have a couple tweets on content marketing:

Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog…it works. If you are one of those people who doubt the need for a blog, don’t worry – I was once with you. I was into content marketing, but just didn’t see the whole blog thing. Now that I have seen real-world examples of blogs driving real inbound marketing results and now that I am blogging regularly and generating leads — I can tell you: IT WORKS. On the other hand, I am increasingly start to think that if you can’t blog regularly – then you should not even have a blog.

RT @socialmedia2day: Once blogs index 52+ posts, they enjoy 77% higher lead generation than #blogs with 0-23 posts. ow.ly/kRXdb …

— Shelly Kramer (@ShellyKramer) May 14, 2013

— Shelly Kramer (@ShellyKramer) May 14, 2013

This number seems high. If it’s real, I am very encouraged. [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Content Marketing, mobile marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, SocialCRM, Tweet of the Week, Uncategorized

B2B Marketing is starting to resemble B2C Marketing: Madlibs with @jchernov

June 6, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 2 Comments

Joe Chernov – If they write books on b2b marketing from 2006 on, he will be in it. In the book that will be written on marketing automation, Joe will be in there. His public battles with Marketo were classic but he was really one of the faces of Eloqua and his role of thought leader was important to their brand. He will be featured in the b2b content marketing book as well. He was pioneer in bringing design, readability, and cadence to the b2b content game. He also was part of the team that hired a journalist, Jesse Noyes, to run the blog. Now, you see that recommendation all the time. With that, here he is – -Joe Chernov: [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, Content Marketing, Direct Marketing, Great campaigns, Madlibs with the Funnelholic, Marketing Automation, Uncategorized

The Impact of Salesforce.com’s acquisition of Exact Target: The Experts Weigh In

June 4, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 15 Comments

Well, that is big news! If you haven’t been following, Salesforce.com just bought Exact Target for $2.4 bill. Once you are done picking your self off the floor, read this post. I asked some of the people I respect their opinions on the acquisition.
Please note: I plan to continue to update this post as people “roll in” with their opinion. Put your opinion in the comments box too..

Here we go!

Brian Vellmure
Independent Analyst

It took about 18 months longer than expected, but Salesforce finally filled a hole in its marketing cloud with marketing automation capabilities. I didn’t necessarily see ExactTarget coming as Marketo was was being mentioned in most circles once Oracle scooped up Eloqua.

With ExactTarget, Salesforce picks up a company with a large install base with at least twice the revenue of Marketo and for likely less than twice the multiple of trailing twelve months revenue. In short, it was simply a better deal. [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, CRM, Marketing Automation, SocialCRM, Uncategorized

Cold calling is broken not dead: Madlibs w/ @bridgegroupinc

May 28, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 7 Comments

I love Trish’s quote below: “I am a card-carrying member of the outbound mafia.” Actually, Trish Bertuzzi is not just a member but the Godmother of the Outbound Mafia and an unchallenged authority on b2b inside sales. She is also the Godmother of the”Tells-it-how-she-sees-it” Mafia. It’s a great combination because she likely to tell you something you didn’t know but should know – even if it hurts. I love that. Her Madlibs are classic. Enjoy!

1. The b2b buyer is way too busy to be bored by you. If you can’t invest enough time, or worse yet, find anything interesting to share with them then leave them alone.

2. The biggest innovation in sales is that there is no big innovation in sales – it just gives us something to talk about. Great sales skills and process have been around since the beginning of time. The tools of the trade have changed – heck the wheel changed transportation – but moving the ball forward in a meaningful way still requires the same level of thought and execution.

3. The coolest thing happening in b2b sales is that Inside Sales has finally arrived. I feel like an overnight success thirty years later! [Read more...]

Filed Under: b2b Marketing, b2b Sales, Inside Sales and Tele-selling, Lead Development, Lead Qualification, sales, Uncategorized

Don’t let the ‘cold calling is dead’ crew drag you down: Madlibs with @srichardv

May 20, 2013 by Craig Rosenberg 4 Comments

I say it time and time again: The best people to pick up prospecting tips from are the appointment setting guys. Steve Richard from Vorsight is one of those guys. I personally learn a lot from the tips and tactics they are willing to share. If you are in the business, you should too. Here are his Madlibs:

The b2b buyer is overwhelmed and, as a result, more unaware of their needs than ever. How do you help someone realize they have a need that they didn’t know they had five minutes ago?