B2BCamp
We are proud to donate our time to a new event in the Atlanta area called B2BCamp.
I’ve been working with some peers in the industry to create the first B2BCamp here in Atlanta - b2bcamp.com. The ‘camp’ concept empowers the attendees to drive the agenda. First topics of presentations are submitted by any of the participants, those are voted on first online and the second in person. Finally, the top presentations will be on the agenda after the keynote.
Our keynote, Adam Needles who recently authored the book “Balancing the Demand Equation.”, will discuss how to frame an approach to modern demand generation.
The event is on March 10th from 8-4p, and food will be served and the entire event is complimentary! The event will be not only a great educational opportunity, but a rare and great way to meet a good concentration of B2B marketers in the Atlanta area.
Attend: b2bcamp.com/Attend
Propose/Vote Sessions: b2bcamp.com/Sessions
As this is our first event, I could use your help to spread the word. If you or your connections are not ready, they subscribe at the top of our home page to stay in touch for updates on this and future B2BCamps.
Twitter — @B2BcampATL
Hastags – #B2Bcamp #ATL
‘Popular’ Marketing Automation Vendor Study
Capterra, a software directory website, recently released the results of a research study comparing the popularity of various Marketing Automation vendors. The comparison focused on available stats from Alexa, Compete, Google and Twitter data as well as some user data. While top marks went to familiar companies such as Eloqua, Hubspot and Infusionsoft (all NeoMarketing Partners), I was concerned about the consistency of the metrics and the interpretation of the meaning behind ‘popularity’. Kudos to the Capterra team in bringing the data together, noting lack the potential holes and opening up to feedback on their study.
Popularity <> Quality
The strongest caution about any take away from this study is that popularity does not mean it’s the the right fit. Capterra has long stated that such rankings shouldn’t be used in making a decision. From their blog post on the study:
For Capterra’s entire 12 year history, we have always advised against this. “Ignore the rankings” we tell them. “It depends on the specific needs of your company.”
Here are a couple of issues with the study strongly worth considering:
- Audience: Infusionsoft & Hubspot serve different size and sophistication of marketing organizations from Aprimo & Eloqua solutions. So naturally, there is a difference in the number of customers.
- Verifiable Data: Nearly half of the vendors evaluated by the study did not have complete revenue, customer data or user data.
- Weighting: Like lead scoring, it’s so important to factor in what elements are more important than others. While we have a list, but each person will factor one attribute strong than others (B2B v. B2C, Large v. Small Co.)
Value / Benefit?
Regardless of the first version of such a study by Capterra, it’s worth looking at the individual measurements/rankings of the vendors. Some vendors in our space are excellent examples of how you can leverage social media and content creation to your advantage. Also, you know have a long list of vendors worth your considering. I agree with Capterra’s original charter… while there is many similar capabilites across all vendors, the time where marketing automation is a commodity product is not yet here. Continue to outline your needs and do your homework to match them to the right solution.
Silverpop Agent ROI Roadshow – ATL
It seems all that I’ve been posting lately have been about conferences, well, here’s another 
I wrote about other sponsored roadshows like this one which provide you the opportunity to receive strong thought leaders to you as well as offer an opportunity to network. KUDOS to 1) event planners for making this happen and 2) those on the road at each conference.
Silverpop, my former alma mater, hosted an informative event here in their hometown of Atlanta as the next to the last stop of the tour. Hosted at the Intercontinental Hotel, the meeting rooms where in close proximity to each other. It was nice to catchup with former colleagues who are new friends as well as new faces at Silverpop and Atlanta marketers.
I arrived a bit early and had the opportunity to reintroduce myself with Adam Stienberg (@adams472) co-founder of PlacePunch, Silverpop’s newest acquisition. The company offers a location-based loyalty program platform via the common social networks. This is a differentiating new social offering on top of social sign-in (via janrain) and the Share-to-Social feature introduced by the company in October 2008. Great offering for their B2C base. I was told that Adam’s preso on the usage of location-based marketing was one of the B2C crowd’s favorite. Congratulations Adam and Chris.
The session began with Silverpop’s power players Bryan Brown (@getvision) and Loren McDonald (@LorenMcDonald) on “mocial” and tips to engage with this audience. The term ‘mocial’ began with Mobile and Social, but has since been augmented to include email and location-based technologies. The presentation was long, but with lots of great content on justifying the additional cost to introduce mobile & social strategy into your marketing. If you can get your hands on the presentation, do so. One stunning stat showed that Smartphones began outselling personal computers in late 2010. Building relationships with great content… works in any medium.
The next session for all was Jay Jhun (@emailrocks) from Engague a digital marketing agency of 300 strong. As email remains to be a material channel for marketers, Jay’s presentation offered many great tips and examples maximize email in the new mobile world. One of the comments on a slide was that “Great email creative is not a solution to declining engagement”. Its a good message for brand marketers who feel that a only differing look to the same content will somehow make buyers engage again.
The final session that I had attended was the lead management and marketing automation presentation by Jay Hidalgo (@jayhidalgo) president of “The Annuitas Group”. If you aren’t following this group, then you’re missing out. To do so, check out their newly formed “Marketing Automation Institute” community. The resources on the site are good especaily if the research by SiriusDecisions is a bit out of your budget.
Speaking of SiriusDecisions, I did have a chance to connect with their Marketing Ops rockstar Megan Heuer (@megheuer). A must follow for those looking for answers.
At this point, I had to rush to a client meeting, but did have a chance to connect with fellow marketers after the event. Their sentiment as is mine was that the ROI tour had a good mix of presenters and appreciated the split B2C and B2B tracks. Its worth stating again, these types of events, while sponsored by vendors, are great time investments to connect with birds of a feather and learn a few more tricks in marketing technology.
What was missing was more examples social “ROI” B2B side of the house… As I’m writing this post, I receive a tweet that Eric Holmen (@eholmen) SVP of Marketing, in his first Silverpop blog post writes about measuring social media in B2B.
To those that attended: I was bummed that I wasn’t able to attend the other sessions, what was your best take-away? What new questions do you have to ponder?
Pardot Users Conference
So I attended the Pardot Users Conference in Atlanta, GA. Users conferences, when well done as this one, can really boost confidence in the system and provide a great opportunity for face-to-face time. When I arrived, there were a sea of smiling Pardot folks in grey shirts guiding us around and answering questions. The W Hotels are trendy and the event venue for the conference here was no exception.
My knowledge of Pardot was limited, but engaging two new of our clients who are users, there was no greater motivation to get up to speed quickly. Also with the chance to get to know another marketing tech company and it’s product, I was very much looking forward to the event.
For those of you new to Pardot, their Marketing Automation platform has traditionally served small to medium businesses, however their more robust capabilities now serve clients of all sizes (large and small).
Kickoff / About Pardot
Founders – I met them after a tiring and rewarding time at Dreamforce 2010. They thoughtful and knowlegeable guys who just get this space from the inside out. @DavidCummings is quite the entrepenurer (check out his blog 10,000 start-up hours) and @AdamBlitzer, COO is a kindred spirit focused on operations and technology. They are also authors of Think Outside the Inbox: The B2B Marketing Automation Guide.
Culture – As they’ve had substantial growth in areas of revenue, employees and clients, they still maintain a great company culture that reflects in its dedicated service to its clients and the team at the event. In speaking with Adam, he helped me understand how key culture is in their hiring process and the successes that investment has brought them. Each employee I spoke with from customer service, development, marketing and sales endowed these traits.
Some of the New Features:
- Social Messages (post, track and analyze)
- Social Profiles (view additional details on prospects from social networks)
- Webinar connector – (WebEx, GoToMeeting, and ReadyTalk)
- Drip Options – Deeper CRM connections (campaigns… yeah!), email opens, etc…
Cool Event Feature – Pardot leveraged the use of a “Guidebook” app for mobile devices which hosted the event agenda, materials and information. Very practical. The reminder feature was nice to help me ensure I did not miss a session.
Day 1 – A good start
Data, Analytics, Reporting – One of the key areas that Pardot looked to improve upon was reporting. Leveraging GoodData, Pardot users will be able to connect data from different parts of the pipeline and create usable reports. Based on the session on Day 1, the value add was in some reporting on par with other systems with ease of use. I stepped by the GoodData booth to learn more. I was able to see more value especially for many stepping into the MA ecosystem to view top of the funnel results. Unfortunately the included functionality (there is also a premium GoodData service available) that will be released for Pardot users did not differentiate. Not to be disappointed though, there was more GoodNews later on.
Got Pardot, What’s Next? – Being new at Pardot, I was eager to attend the session on te “10 Things Pardot Services Wants You to Know”. Learned about Site Search, Lead Qualification, Automation Rules, Actions, Dynamic Lists, Tags, CRM integration, Progressive Profiling, Getting Help/Sharing Ideas and how/when not to panic. Good preso.
Been There, Doing That – Regardless of the topic, the best sessions are the lessons learned and how-to’s by other customers. So on to the Arketi, a local digital marketing group, panel. We learned about how two of Arketi’s clients (Cbeyond and Stonesoft) leveraged Pardot. The panelists did a nice job expanding on the issues ranging from selection, implementation and Sales alignment.
Social Selling, Don’t be Creepy! – The last session by Derek Grant, Pardot’s VP of Sales, was a great one to end the day. Just as marketing automation is helping get marketing push down the funnel, social selling offers sales a venue to push up the funnel. This humorous and practical advice from Derek provided good cautious guidelines on how sales teams should leveraging the advent of new social information they collect.
Day 2 – It gets better
Breakfast Feedback – Arriving early the next day, I had the opportunity to meet/reconnect with four marketers at breakfast. The general consensus was the event was energetic, but there was a desire for more workshop/demo opportunities for the new users. Not a bad feedback considering the nearly half of the attendees were joined up in the last year.
Zach “Morris” Bailey - Recall earlier I mentioned there was some good news about reporting on top of the GoodData announcement? Well, the new VP of Products, Zach Bailey, had a great list of roadmap features that gained appaluse and chatter from the crowd. I do not wish to list them all here, however one of the upcoming “lifecycles” reporting to be release will provide the transparency and analysis power needed to optimize their pipeline and improve dialogue with sales.
THE Revenue Report – Pitney-Bowes along with BrainRider rep offered a great presentation on how they achieved a new level of reporting leveraging Pardot and their CRM. The climax of the meeting was a spreadsheet that illustrated channels of marketing and attribution across the pipeline. Also, EpiCom provided another great presentation on how they went from zero to significant growth by leveraging not only automation, but many best practices in B2B marketing such as A/B testing, content creation and other tactics.
Jedi Mind Tricks – I have been very fortunate in a couple of ways: 1) finding that Marketing Technology is now my lifes passion and 2) the opportunity to work with Scott Voigt. The final presentation by my former manager (so my comments are longer flattery) discusses the analytical methods in viewing and transforming a marketing organization. The discussion on bookings, revenue, opportunites and sales cycles help get marketers to think like executives and excutives thinking like entrepenuers. Career changing material.
Conclusion
If it wasn’t obvious, the Pardot folks have done a great job putting together an energizing event. I look forward to more deep dives in to Pardot’s capabilites and applying them to our clients needs. If you have the chance, slide over to my previous post on Subtle Factors in Selecting a Marketing Automation Vendor and you’ll find that Pardot meets these factors and their capabilities are more robust than I had studied and expected. Also check out blog.pardot.com for a Pardot perspective on the event.
For next time, two suggestions came out of the event were to have more workshop like opportunities and more Q&A time for client/customer speakers.
Great event Pardot and enjoyed getting to know you and the family.
New Perspectives Pt.1 – MIS and Marketing Alignment
New Perspectives
There are lots on-going about marketing and sales alignment. However, as marketing begins to recapture the role as an operational center of an organization, marketing will need to look beyond the revenue silo to increasingly learn and leverage support from other parts of the organization. In this “new perspectives” series, we’ll explore how marketing operations will impact other parts of the organization:
- Are we too early to think about such things or are they impacting an organization more than we realize?
- How can marketing ops learn from other mature areas in an organization to prevent reinventing the wheel?
- What does the merge of marketing and technology offer to other areas struggling with technology?
- Barry, What are your thoughts about the role MIS plays in Marketing and Sales? And the role of alignment between the two?As Marketing and Sales departments become even more automated, a partnership with MIS is even more critical than ever. MIS should act as a business and technology partner that provides consultative, business analysis, and software implementation expertise to Marketing and Sales. As with any functional department, MIS should be a resource that enables Marketing and Sales to achieve their strategic goals. With the proliferation of marketing automation and mobile and social technologies, the need for alignment and partnership increases significantly. Staying abreast of these changes in the very dynamic marketplace of marketing technology is a significant challenge. Either group working in traditional silos is detrimental toward achieving their combined goals.
- What should marketing and sales (operations) keep in mind when working with MIS? As MIS and IT groups have wisdom of solving many of the problems that marketing and sales ops are currently overcoming, what can marketing and sales (operations) learn from MIS’ methodology and/or approach?Good MIS organizations are built to understand and adapt to different functions and dynamic needs. They also typically have a disciplined approach which marketing and sales can benefit from. MIS organizations can help Marketing and Sales step back from their own organizations, ensure that business goals have been identified, and that business requirements are effectively established. Of course working with Marketing in 2011, MIS needs to perform this function in a rapid and flexible way.
- What other MIS synergies or types of resources should marketing and sales leverage?Oftentimes, MIS, by virtue of its role, has a broad vision across what are siloed functional areas in many companies. Marketing and Sales should leverage the fact that MIS has insights into other functional departments in the company and can help bridge many gaps. For example, Sales and Marketing need to work closely with Finance and have a reasonable understanding of downstream impacts associated with Sales and Marketing activities. Typically, MIS can help the business understand and enhance these cross departmental flows.
We, and many of our clients, leveraged Barry’s advice in technology and process alignment. We found a great deal of synergy between our respective groups. While our systems are becoming SaaS oriented, implementation of process, cloud integration and operational best practices are areas where MIS/IT can provide a noticeable impact.
How have you been able to work with your MIS/IT department? Let us know.