The Funnelholic

I am speaking at a webinar on Thursday, November 13 at 4PM EST. The webinar centers on providing practical tips to help organizations actually use their CRM to do “marketing automation” and to do it quickly. As we enter into uncertain economic times, marketers need marketing automation more than ever. I hear the following all day: “I know we need marketing automation, I need to get on it.” TIME’S UP.

Hopefully, I can help marketers squeeze everything they can next year, even if they can’t get a off-the-shelf marketing automation system.

Look forward to seeing everyone there! Register here to watch me in action.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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The year 2009 is going to be painful for a lot of businesses, but it should also be really interesting to see what marketing departments do to adjust. Next year will be the year you earn the big bucks.

Here are the givens:

1. Sales cycles will increase
2. Your buyers’ budgets will be cut drastically
3. A lot of your current contacts will be fired or will move
4. You won’t have the money you did this year to get what you want to get done
5. You want have the same amount of people you did this year in your organization either.

So what do you do? The flight to quality has begun and a couple “old school” marketing techniques may be finally put to rest in 2009.  Here they are:

1. Direct mail: Admit it, do you really still do direct mail?  The direct mail business is a relic of the past, and 2009 may be its end.  My buddy does marketing for an online dating site and it works for him, but I can’t find any b2b buyers who can quantify or justify their direct mail spend. It’s finally time to make choices. That choice should be to move online.
2. Trade shows: Speaking of moving online, say good-bye to the trade show. People are not going to attend shows unless they are local. The cost of travel is unjustifiable when you can educate people online.  Old-school trade shows at the Mandalay = dead.  Online events such as virtual trade shows, webinars/webcasts, and moderator-led chat sessions will prevail.  Come on, it makes sense.  There’s little you can’t do on the Web. And that’s where your prospects are. Now I’ve stood by tradeshows over the past couple years because frankly they are great places to meet customers and partners, but not because they are quantifiable lead-generation vehicles.  I’m sorry to lose the networking opportunity, but organizations will adjust with webconferencing and potentially telepresence. I just sat through a presentation at MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Demand Generation Summit event and exhibitors are saying they are starting to see a 20 percent cancellation rate, up from single digits.
3. Print ad spends: Need I say more?  The size of tech rags has gradually shrunk and nuclear ’09 may finish them off.
4. Radio and TV ads: Leave those to the B2C guys.

The theme is the same, I believe that we will see a move online.  Yes, the online movement began years ago, but direct mail and trade shows refused to die.  Now, thanks to today’s unique economic environment, say goodbye to your old friends as they enter the history books.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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Want to connect directly? Email me at craig AT funnelholic.com<

Disclaimer: InsideCRM is one of the core websites of my company, TIppit. Either way, our CRM webinars with Microsoft have been really good. If you are looking into a new CRM system or you are in charge of the CRM system at your organization, this should be a great watch. Live version means you get to ask question. Sign up here

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Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
Sign up to receive emails when new articles are posted
Want to connect directly? Email me at craig AT funnelholic.com<