Why You Should Invest In Inbound Marketing Before CRM Implementation

Since the beginning of time, humanity has sought to answer unanswerable questions, like which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Recently, I’ve come across a question with increasing frequency, that may not be as significant, but is probably even more important if you’re looking to embark upon a journey of accelerated sales growth.

What should you focus on first, building an effective inbound marketing/lead generation process or implementing a CRM to manage your sales and customer acquisition process?  While both are important, the question is should you focus on one before the other? 

To be clear, both are very important to making growth predictable, sustainable and scalable. If you have the resources and bandwidth you should be pursuing and enhancing both of them simultaneously. However, if you must choose between them, the decision you make will have a significant impact on your growth outlook.

Before answering the question, let’s take a look at the fundamental purpose of each initiative.

The Purpose of CRM

There are several advantages of an effective CRM system with the primary purposes being:

• Building sales efficiency
• Providing management insight into the status and progress of the overall sales effort
• Ensuring compliance with the sales process
• Providing clear reporting
• Creating greater predictability throughout the entire sales process

The Purpose of an Inbound Marketing Program

Here too, there are lots of reasons you’d want to embark on an inbound marketing effort, with the primary purposes being:

• Generating greater awareness and engagement with your desired markets
• Standing out from your competition by creating and reinforcing relevant thought leadership
• Increasing lead velocity and generating more sales qualified opportunities for the organization

To reiterate, all of these results are very important, but I think it’s pretty clear which initiative should be focused on first. That is Inbound Marketing.

3 Reasons Why You Should Focus on Inbound Efforts First 

1) CRM Doesn’t Fix Bad Processes, But Inbound Can

An effective CRM system provides tremendous value in increasing the efficiency of a good process. However, it does nothing to address an average or poor process.

For more than 20 years I’ve been working with companies looking to improve their results through CRM utilization. All too frequently significant investments are made in software, time is spent training on the system and absolutely nothing changes. The initial reaction is to blame it on bad CRM, when the reality is that it’s bad process that is the real culprit. Designing a CRM system effectively requires that you have a clear and effective demand generation process that can be mapped to the CRM.

While working on the CRM does little to address bad sales process, the process of implementing an inbound marketing approach does a tremendous amount to improve your sales process (and thus your CRM efforts).

Inbound marketing requires that you start at the top of the funnel and work your way through to the bottom. It makes you view demand and revenue generation from a holistic viewpoint, to understand your market better and to align your sales efforts to how your market behaves today. All of these things drive greater revenue opportunities and create the path to gain the very efficiencies that CRMs promise to create.

2) Effective Inbound Methodology Creates Better CRM Application

I deal with a lot of companies that have been using CRM for years. It is a rare event for me to come across someone who has either designed or implemented their CRM effectively. The data is, to put it bluntly, 90% crap.

A tremendous amount of the value you get from using a CRM comes from the ability to slice and dice the data to segment effectively and increase personalization. However, if you haven’t done the basic work of defining your buyer personas, designing the message to enable you to personalize and to determine how you are going to effectively nurture, you won’t have the clarity to use your CRM effectively.

In my experience, effective CRM reinforces an effective inbound marketing and sales approach, it does not create one. I’ve lost count of the number of times a client has had to substantially change their CRM as a result of the creation of an effective inbound marketing strategy.

3) You Cannot Have Predictable Growth Without Predictable Lead Generation

If I were to summarize the two most valuable benefits of a CRM it would be predictability and efficiency. As I’ve shared, inbound marketing creates the environment for an efficient process, but what about creating predictability?

Simply put, you cannot have predictable sales results or predictable growth if you do not first have predictable lead generation. While creating an effective lead generation strategy certainly involves more than just inbound marketing, inbound is a crucial component.

Inbound marketing enables you to build a true funnel that allows you to build a predictable pipeline for growth.  Consider the following:

• The Content Marketing Institute reports that 80% of decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus in an advertisement (and by extension a sales call).
• Inbound leads cost 60% less than outbound leads. (source:  State of Inbound Marketing Report)
• Companies that excel at lead nurturing (a core part of the inbound methodology) generate 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower costs (source: Forrester Research).
• Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (source: The Annuitas Group)
• SEO driven leads have a have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% closing rate. (source: Search Engine World)

The natural focus of building engagement that is created by fully adopting an inbound marketing approach builds a more efficient and effective sales process and make CRM adoption a much easier, more profitable effort.

Additionally, a major benefit of inbound marketing is that it creates revenue. No matter how you slice it, CRM is a cost (a valuable one, but a cost nonetheless). Building an effective revenue generation process creates the environment that allows efficiency and predictability to be sustainable.

Investing the time, money and energy into inbound marketing first, puts you in a stronger position to both implement an effective CRM initiative and to accelerate growth.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/why-invest-in-inbound-before-crm
Via http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/why-invest-in-inbound-before-crm

Get to Know Women in Tech: 33 Facts About Female Leaders in the Tech Industry [Infographic]

For a long time, the tech industry was heavily dominated by men. Nowadays, though, more and more women are entering both regular and high-level positions in tech. In fact, the eight largest tech companies are hiring women 238% faster than they are men, including Google, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Who are these women? How about Sandra Kurtzig, the first female entrepreneur to take a Silicon Valley company public? Or Stephanie Hannon, the first woman to manage technology for a U.S. presidential campaign?

Coupofy aggregated data from 30 trusted sources and looked at the most successful women in the industry and their roles as founders, leaders, and venture capitalists. Check out the results of their research in the infographic below.

from HubSpot Marketing Blog http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/women-in-tech
Via http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/women-in-tech

Overwhelmed by Email? Here Are 11 Great Tools for Organizing Your Inbox

Most people have a love-hate relationship with their email inbox. On the one hand, email can be exciting -- whether you're making progress with a client, replacing a meeting with a (much more efficient) email thread, or receiving an invitation to a fun social gathering.

On the other hand, though, email can be overwhelming -- especially if you lose control.

And boy is it easy to lose control. After all, email is one of the top ways we communicate with a lot of the people in our lives, from our best friends to people we've never spoken with before. Many of us get bombarded by new emails on a regular basis, and it's stressful to know that we might be missing out on the truly important stuff amid the flood of less pertinent stuff.

Luckily, there are a lot of tools out there that can help us get more organized. In this post, we'll go through 11 of our favorite tools for organizing your inbox. Try 'em out, and help pave your own way to a more productive and less stressful email experience.

11 Tools for Organizing Your Inbox

1) Unroll.me

Price: Free

The first step to relieving your inbox from all that email is to unsubscribe from all the newsletters you've subscribed to over the years. But unsubscribing manually from tens, maybe hundreds of newsletters would take forever.

Enter Unroll.me, a free tool that lets you mass unsubscribe from all the newsletters you don't read. You can either wipe the slate clean and unsubscribe from everything at once, or you can pick and choose. Read this blog post to learn more about how it works.

2) The Email Game

Price: Free

If you're overwhelmed by the amount of email in your inbox but dread the thought of clearing it out, and you're a competitive person, The Email Game might be right up your alley. This free tool for Gmail and Google apps gamifies the act of clearing out your inbox.

All you have to do is enter your email address, and the game will begin. It gives you five seconds per email to decide what to do with it: reply, "boomerang" (i.e. archive now and resurface in your inbox at a later, specified time), archive, delete, or skip. You get a certain number of points for each action and you're penalized if you go over time. If you click "reply," then you're given three minutes by default to respond. You can always add time if you really need to, but speed is in your best interest here.

3) FollowUpThen

Price: Free; Paid Versions Available

Here's another simple but useful tool, this time for reminding you -- and even your clients, if you want -- to follow up on specific emails.

Here's how it works: Compose an email, and then include [any time]@followupthen.com in the "Bcc," "Cc," or "To" fields of your email. The "any time" wording here is pretty flexible: It can be "tomorrow@followupthen.com," "nextwednesday@followupthen.com," "3hours@followupthen.com," "everyday@followupthen.com," "every3rdwednesday@followupthen.com," and so on.

What happens to that email when you click "send" depends where you put that @followupthen.com email address:

• Bcc: You'll get a follow-up regarding the email (without bothering the original recipient).
• Cc: The tool will schedule a reminder for you and the recipient.
• To: The tool will send an email to your future self.

It works for every email client, and it's free for up to 50 follow-ups per month. You can increase the number of follow-ups and add features like calendar integration for between $2–$9 per month.

4) Boomerang 

Price: Free

Boomerang is a powerful tool I've been using for years to manage my Gmail inbox. This Chrome extension for Gmail users does two things really well:

1. It lets you schedule emails to be sent later.
2. It lets you archive emails that will reemerge in your inbox later as an unread message.

The second concept here is similar to that of FollowUpThen, except you have a lot more control over tracking and changing the times at which emails reemerge in your inbox. It's free and works on desktop and mobile, including Android.

5) Sidekick

Price: Free; Paid Versions Available

Ever wanted to know who opens your emails and when, how many times, and from where? When you download the Sidekick Chrome extension, you can opt in to get live notifications whenever someone opens or clicks on the links in your emails.

Another cool feature is the contact information sidebar that pops up when you open an email thread. It includes all the relevant information about the person you're emailing, including past contact history (kind of like LinkedIn's "relationship tab" function), social media content, mutual connections, and so on. Soon, the extension will let you schedule emails to send later.

Image Credit: Sidekick

The free version gets you 200 open/click notifications per month and unlimited email profiles. For unlimited open/click notifications, you can upgrade for $10 per month. There's also a version created for sales teams that includes email templates, document sharing, and other functionalities you can learn about here.

6) SaneBox

Price: $2/month

If you're looking to automate prioritizing each email as it comes in, you may want to give SaneBox a try. There's nothing to install here: Basically, it works with any email client to create three new folders: SaneTop, SaneLater, and SaneNews. When a new email comes in to your inbox, SaneBox quickly analyzes it to determine how important it is. This analysis is based on your past interaction with your inbox. If SaneBox finds the new email important, it'll keep it in your inbox. If not, it'll send it to one of those three folders.

Later, you'll get a digest of the emails that were sent to those three folders so you can decide whether any of them need your attention when you have the time. Over time, you "train" SaneBox to filter certain types of emails into each of these folders.

Image Credit: SaneBox

SaneBlackHole is a fourth folder that'll help you delete emails and unsubscribe from them in one fell swoop. When you manually drag an email into your SaneBlackHole folder, it'll delete the email and unsubscribe from the source automatically.

There are other cool features in here too, like the "attachments" feature that automatically sends all email attachments into a Dropbox folder.

You can try SaneBox for free for two weeks, but after that, it's $2 per month.

7) Checker Plus 

Price: Free

Checker Plus is a Chrome extension for Gmail that helps you manage multiple Gmail accounts at once so you don't have to flip through multiple inboxes. One of the main features is instant email notifications even when Gmail isn't open. So if you're a fan of notifications, then you'll like this one.

Without opening Gmail in your browser, Checker Plus will give you desktop notifications when you get a new email, along with the option to read, listen to, or delete emails.

I'm a big fan of the extension's voice notification feature. If I get an email while I'm busy cooking dinner or something, I can choose to have the extension read the email out loud to me, even if Gmail isn't open. (Just remember to shut this off when you head into the office.)

It's worth noting, by the way, that Checker Plus has pretty extensive online support and documentation. If you're having an issue with the extension, it's not hard to find a solution.

Image Credit: PC World

8) Hiver 

Price: Free; Paid Versions Available

If your team (or heck, even your family) uses Gmail as their main email client, then this could be a useful app for collaboration. Hiver lets you share Gmail labels with other users to streamline collaboration. That way, you can share emails with other people -- even if they weren't an original recipient -- by adding a shared Gmail label to that email. A great way to use these labels is by assigning tasks, delegating emails, and tracking their status.

Hiver also lets you create and share email templates with your team, as well as share notes on emails that help you summarize or explain what's going on in an email thread. This can be helpful for anyone working on proposals, tasks, or support tickets.

Hiver's free version lets you share labels, notes, and so on with three other users, and lets you share three labels and ten email templates. For added features and functionality, paid versions range from $6–$18 per user per month.

Image Credit: Hiver

9) Mailbird

Price: Free; Paid Versions Available

There are other email clients out there, like Mailbox, Boxer, and CloudMagic, but Mailbird manages to stand out.

While it only works for Windows users, this email client unifies your inbox with your apps by rolling your email and all your calendar, task, and messaging apps into an all-in-one interface. And it's a simple user interface, which you can customize in different colors and layouts.

Here's an example of what one layout looks like with email and WhatsApp integration:

Image Credit: IT World

Other popular choices for app integration include Google Calendar and a video conferencing app called Veeting rooms.

Mailbird works for Windows users on desktop and mobile. The Lite version is free and will allow you to sync three email accounts. If you want to sync more than that and want other, more advanced functionalities -- like the ability to "snooze" your email, Boomerang-style -- then you'll have to get the paid version for $9 per year.

10) SimplyFile 

Price: Free

While Outlook doesn't have nearly as many organization tools as other email clients, here's one for Outlook users only that'll help you spend less time filing your email. The tool adds a toolbar (or "ribbon tab") to your inbox, with different, customizable files, which is easily accessible so you can file new emails quickly.

When an email comes in, simply drag it into the appropriate folder. You can organize both messages you're receiving in your inbox, as well as messages you're sending -- which you can file as you send them.

Image Credit: SimplyFile

11) Gmail Special Stars

Price: Free

I couldn't write a blog post about inbox organization without including my go-to strategy for getting to -- and maintaining -- inbox zero. This tool isn't an add-on, but rather it uses a built-in feature in Gmail called "special stars," which is just a slightly fancier labeling system than Gmail labels. Read this blog post to for step-by-step instructions for enabling special stars and using the methodology to get to inbox zero in a few hours.

 

Which tools do you use to organize your inbox? Share them with us in the comments.

 

from HubSpot Marketing Blog http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inbox-organization-tools
Via http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inbox-organization-tools

Outstanding interview with the head of Social Media

We have a very special treat for our readers today, An exclusive interview with Nicole Limberios the head Social at Digital Marketing Agency PurpleFruit

Let’s start with you then Nicole, Whats your background?

I started out as a humble linkbuilder at a small digital marketing agency, before I new​ it​ the internet had me hooked​. I sucked into the world of digital marketing, before I knew it​ ​I had created ​my very own Britney Spears Fan Page on Facebook that has almost 27​,000​ likes including the official Britney Spears herself!​ When I’m not on the internet ​I enjoy going to football matches and I’m​ extremely passionate about music​ and live concerts.

Technical Questions:

How do you apply social media as a tool when it comes to customer service?

Social media is a remarkable way of keeping in touch directly with the customers. Through it you can have direct conversations, influence them, network with them and get to see how they are reacting to content. It puts out everything out there for you to see and analyse.

Creating a power conversation is very vital in social media. It has the ability of influencing your audience and turning them into customers. Generally social media is a great reflection of a company’s analytics and vitality.

How is social return on investment (ROI) measured?

You can do this by using tools such as Facebook’s Conversion Measurement and Optimized CPM. Your website will also have analytics that can measure thus. Platforms such as LinkedIn also have their own analytics. The central measurements include clicks, likes, shares, change in attitude and amount of purchases.

What benefits do platforms such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck offer?

These platforms come with plenty of benefits. In most scenarios you will be asked to list one or two but it’s good to be armed with a good number.

For starters let’s talk about Hootsuite.

Its dashboard analytics make it easy for you to manage all your channels in one place. It also enables you to schedule tweets, find potential customers, collaborate with team members and track analytics.

TweetDeck is basically the same as Hootsuite only that it is only used in twitter. It makes your work easier by making it possible for you to customize your twitter experience and manage multiple accounts.

Sproutsocial is another excellent platform. With it you can create an inbox-style way of managing all messages and interactions at once. This management tool is perfect for helping a business find new customers and increase its customer presence.

Such platforms are in plenty hence there is a possibility you won’t be able to do a comprehensive research on all of them. If you are asked about one that you are not familiar with, simply admit that you don’t know about it but are willing to learn and should be able to do so easily thanks to your experience with other similar platforms. Confidence will always make it easy for to sail through unfamiliar territories.

What are the benefits of a LinkedIn group compared to a LinkedIn page?

A LinkedIn group functions like an exclusive version of Reddit or Quora. It has a wider reach and therefore presents a more valuable place for sharing content. It also offers an excellent platform where you can engage with customers and other businesses, increase interests in your company and stress on keywords.

A LinkedIn Page on the other hand is where people go when they have already expressed interest in the company. It therefore has to be informative and carry a bit of SEO value.

Questions about you:

What are some of the social media campaigns you have managed or produced? Can you tell me a bit about them?

When asked this question remember to put emphasis on conversation, engagement and storytelling. For instance give an example of how you held meaningful conversations with customers, captivated them with interesting stories that in the long run increased measures of engagement such as likes, clicks and reach. Always talk about these 3 elements in the campaigns you mention. Don’t forget to show them the dashboards and results of your campaigns.

Which social media platforms are you excellent at using and why?

Answer this question by talking about the platform you have most experience and skills. But don’t ignore mentioning other platforms and their strengths. This shows that you are versatile with all social media platforms. Talk about how twitter is ideal for conversations; how Facebook is perfect for advertising and LinkedIn is great for recruitment and sharing career related articles.

What’s your level of knowledge and experience in SEO?

All marketers and in particular social media marketers must possess an in in-depth knowledge of SEO. This is because companies want their websites to rank highly on Google search results.

Talk about how social media makes this happen through boosting of Key Performance Indicators,quality content that can go viral stressing of keywords and increasing the amount of content talking about a business. Go and further talk about how you always consider SEO in all your social media strategy. Don’t be afraid to discuss in detail how you once did this in the past and the success achieved.

What are some of your favorite social media blogs?

Whatever your choices are be ready to explain why you picked the sites. If you don’t follow any blogs, look up a few online. Just be prepared for this question.

What can you say are some of the best practices on Twitter?

Talk about mentions and hashtags. Say how these two make it possible for more people to see your tweets and retweet. Some of the people who retweet might have a huge audience that will bring more traffic for your business. Twitter is a good conversation too. Always make sure to rely to ever single tweet and se hashtags to engage more with people talking about the same topic.

What are your sentiments on Google+ and how should it be applied as a social media strategy?

Google+ might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it will add more value to your business for free. The people interviewing you will want someone who is ready to integrate it into an overall strategy. Talk about how it is perfect for community building since it is highly moderated and curated. A vibrant community translates to more people talking about your company and sharing more content. In the end it also increases SEO, a very important aspect of social media.

What are our competitors up to on social media?

If the competitors are doing well praise them a little but don’t go overboard. You wouldn’t want to make the interviewers think that you’d rather work for the competitors. However be as honest as you can explaining what strategies they are using and how the company can adopt the same strategies. Explain why what they are doing is/not working. Present a few social media campaigns if you can.

 

from Slick Social Media Job's http://www.slicksocialmediajobs.com/outstanding-interview-with-the-head-of-social-media/
Via http://www.slicksocialmediajobs.com/outstanding-interview-with-the-head-of-social-media/