Acteva and Marketing Automation Software

Acteva is an online ticketing, registration, and payment management solution. The service is available for no cost for free events and its management solutions, as well as solutions for events, meetings, webinars, fundraisers, conferences, tradeshows, classes and training programs. Acteva is used by more than 25,000 event organizers for more than 500,000 events. Its customers include Sears, Wine & Spirits Magazines, and the American Red Cross. The service integrates with Salesforce, for easy customer relationship management functionality.

Acteva provides a valuable service to their clients by managing events, however the company itself was not managing its own leads well until they partnered with Marketo, a marketing automation. Marketing automation is a relatively new and evolving concept in the field of marketing. Companies like Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot, and others have developed software to automate repetitive tasks and better manage leads. Below is an image that demonstrates all of the many components of the marketing automation puzzle. 

(“What is”, n.d.)

About the Features of Marketing Automation

Most marketing automation software programs include the following features;

· Integration with CRM tools to better align marketing and sales data

· Web analytics including activity of leads and prospects across a consumer-facing website

· Lead nurturing tools to automate responses to leads to increase customer engagement and turn prospects to customers quicker

· Lead scoring to identify and qualify potential customers

· Email Marketing

· List management tools to segment markets for customized campaigns

· Reporting to measure response rates (“What is”, n.d.)

About Marketo

Marketo’s marketing automation software helps to “generate more high-quality sales leads and win more business with less manual effort” by focusing on marketing techniques such as;

· Email and event marketing

· Lead nurturing and scoring

· CRM integration

· Data cleansing (“Marketing automation”, n.d.).

With lead scoring lead scoring companies can identify which prospects and leads are the most engaged and meet the criteria identified by a company as the appropriate target market. Scores for frequent website visits, downloading content, opening emails, and other activities will move leads up in rank as qualified prospects who are ready to convert. Scores may be based on demographics, behavior, product-specific scoring, or by individual sales reps allowing for flexibility and customization (“Lead scoring”, n.d.).

How Marketing Automation and Web Metrics Improved Acteva’s Business

“While it was developing leads for its customers, Acteva had been operating in the dark in terms of tracking leads for its own business” (Gaffney, n.d.). The company had not put any processes in place to track the selling process until it was very late in the process. By using Marketo the company could now identify leads earlier in the sales cycle and convert those leads to customers more effectively. Acteva has seen a significant increase in campaign output since using marketing automation. “Acteva’s Director of Marketing, Elias Terman, estimates the company has increased its marketing volume by 300%, through the ability to quickly create landing pages and email campaigns. By automating previously manual processes, Terman says the technology has acted as an extra arm in the marketing department” (Gaffney, n.d.). Since deploying the Marketo software, Actevo has been able to create lead nurturing campaigns with unique landing pages to track, score, and nurture leads that come to each landing page across its website. This has resulted in a significant increase in high-quality, sales-ready leads, due in large part to the landing pages and lead nurturing campaigns that Acteva created with Marketo. The company expects to see a 100% improvement in landing page conversion rates for the year (Gaffney, n.d.).

By using increasingly complex campaigns with marketing automation the company has been able to convert leads in a shorter amount of time and seen a significant return on investment. Marketing automation software has allowed Acteva to sign up five new partners per month (Gaffney, n.d.).


References 

Gaffney, A. (n.d.). DemandGen Honors Top 10 Firms Using Automation Tools To Fuel Business Growth. The DemangGen 10. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.amberroad.com/pdf/DemandGen%20Honors%20Top%2010% 20Firms.pdf

Lead Management Research & Best Practices. (n.d.). Marketo. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing- resources/best-practices/lead-management

Lead Scoring Will Increase Deals Won For SMB’s. (n.d.). Marketo. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.marketo.com/small-medium- business/marketing-automation/lead-scoring.php

Marketing Automation Solutions Bring SMB’s Quality Leads. (n.d.). Marketo. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.marketo.com/small- medium-business/marketing-automation/

What is Marketing Automation? (n.d.). LoopFuse. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.loopfuse.com/marketing-automation.php

Google Goals, Funnels, and Filters – Oh My!

In everything we do we must plan with the end in mind and set goals for what we hope to achieve. For my blog I have identified a few goals 1) I would like for my visitors to spend a few minutes reading one or more posts 2) I hope that my visitors will find the information relevant and interesting so that they will want to read other posts and return to the blog in the future 3) As the posts are short, 1,000 words or less, I expect that the average visit duration would be relatively brief – but at least two minutes or more. Given that, this week I set up two goals for my blog which included visit duration greater than two minutes and thenumber of page visits greater than one. 

“Goals are a versatile way to measure how well your site or app fulfills your objectives” (“About Goals”, n.d.). Goals must be associated to a measurable action such as downloading a whitepaper or completing a form. Goals may be associated with several business objectives such as a building awareness, brand loyalty, generate leads, and increase sales. 

To start I solicited my friends and family through Facebook, text message, and email to please visit my blog so I may review the success or failure of my goals. For my first goal, based on visit duration, I had just one visitor who stayed for longer than two minutes and a 14.29% goal conversion rate. While I would have hoped visitors would stay longer, I am not surprised given that many of the people whom I asked to visit do not have any background in marketing or web metrics and the content may not be of particular interest to them. My second goal, having visitors visit more than one page, was slightly more successful with 4 conversions and 57.14% goal conversion rate. I had slightly skewed my own goal numbers by experimenting with filters. One filter I had used was a “Washington D.C. metro” filter which included visitors who lived in either Maryland, Virginia, or the Washington D.C. area. As a result, I eliminated a few friends and family in New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina who had told me that had visited my blog. It was informative to discover all of filter options available and consider how this might be better used in the future. 

While the number of visitors is less than I hoped for it led me to think how goals, filters, and funnels could be valuable in my daily work outside of school. 

Filters 

My colleagues and I spend a lot of time on our company’s website using the current content on the website to create new content based on existing marketing content. We are also frequently looking for updates and changes that need to be made. Given that, our website metrics are slightly skewed based on internal visits. By using Google profile filters I can remove the IP address of our internal offices and even those of our consultants who work about the country to give a better read of how our consumers are interacting with our website.

Goals and Funnels 

One key component to our marketing mix is our e-newsletters. We send out to monthly e-newsletters to about 17,000 subscribers. Given the vast audience, all of whom have opted in to this publication and the time spent creating them, I would like to evaluate whether our e-newsletters are resulting in conversions and ultimately sales. In order to accomplish this I would create a funnel with the anticipated outcome we would like our visitors to have when viewing our e-newsletter. For this past month’s newsletter this order would include: 

• Visiting the e-newsletter on our website, most likely via a direct referral from our e-mail announcement. The first goal would be a visit duration goal, for readers to spend between four and six minutes on the page, about the time it requires to read through the entire e-newsletter on our website.
• Setting up a funnel to identify the next steps we hope for our visitors to take upon viewing our e-newsletter. “A Funnel lets you specify a path you expect traffic to take to reach a Destination Goal. When you specify steps in a Funnel, Analytics can the track where visitors enter and exit the path on the way towards your Goal, giving you valuable insight about your site”(“About Goals”, n.d.) In this case, at the end of the e-newsletter we typically focus on one or two products which compliment the topic of the month, for example if we are writing about Response to Intervention, we would link to our book or Professional Learning Community (PLC) Pack for Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners. The goal would be to have readers click on this link and learn more about the product
• Once at the product page, they may read the product description or download a Sneak Peek of the product.
• The ultimate goal is to purchase the product. In order to do so there are several steps to completing an online purchase. 1st) They must add the item and desired quantity to their cart. 1.) Once they are ready to purchase they have to either login or create a new account. 3) Once their account is created they will enter their billing and shipping information, then payment information, and confirm their purchase.
• The last page, or goal destination page, is the confirmation page, which would be the end measure of success. Given that, there are several steps from the newsletter to the goal destination page, and many opportunities for distraction, I would be interested in seeing how my vision for the funnel would look versus actual process.
• There are possibly obstacles, for example many of our customers work with large school districts and district-wide purchases must go through the appropriate channels and often times are submitted via email or fax by way of a purchase order. In this case we find that our marketing automation software, Pardot, does a good job of tracking the conversion rates of identified users.

Another goal I would like to track in the future is downloads of product Sneak Peeks (a 10-15 page preview of our books) to better determine the effectiveness of these tools and if these downloads result in sales. One way we used to track this was by offering unique coupon codes on our Sneak Peeks which would help us to determine if users had purchased as a result of viewing the Sneak Peeks. However we recently decided we were offering too many discount codes and it was diminishing the perceived value of the product. I believe using Google Analytics goals will help us to effectively track the conversion rate without offering a discount code. 



About Goals - Analytics Help. (n.d.).Google Help. Retrieved December 4, 2012, from http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1012040

Trim the Fat - Improve Page Load Times

This week I installed Google Analytics to my blog. A week later I was eager to get back to my blog and see all of the metrics – or the lack thereof. Unfortunately, I had not properly marketed my blog to gain any substantial site traffic. Over the past week since Google Analytics has been installed on my blog, I have had one visitor. Here is what I know about my visitor:

• They visited my blog on Saturday, November 24 
• They are from Jaipur, India 
• They are using Google Chrome as their Internet browser on Windows operating system 
• They arrived on my blog from a Google organic search 

While my lack of metrics left me with little to discuss this week, I took some time looking at all of the metrics available that I had previously overlooked when using Google Analytics for my companies website because I had become enamored with all of the “sexy metrics” that were standing out like page views, traffic sources, etc. The metric that stood out to me was the page load time. What does this mean? Was my page quick to load, or slow? How could this affect my user’s experience on my blog.

First, average page load time refers to how long your site and its content takes to load for a visitor. Load time can affect your bounce rate and page abandonment, as users may become impatient and frustrated the longer they have to wait. According to KISSMetrics, “a 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in converstions” (Work, n.d.) How does that contribute to your bottom line? For an e-commerce site that brings in $100,000 each day, a one second page delay could equate to $2.5 million in lost sales annually (Work, n.d.). “79% of web shoppers who have trouble with web site performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again and around 44% of them would tell a friend if they had a poor experience shopping online” (Jacob, n.d.). This can have extremely damaging affects on your business’s reputation and sales.

Users expectations vary depending on whether they are using a desktop computer or a mobile device. Visitors are used to longer wait times on their mobile device, which is often dependent on cell service. 47% of users expect a web page to load within 2 seconds or less, which reflects poorly for my page 6.67 average load time. “40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load” (Work, n.d.). My lone visitor spent 0:00 time on my blog, after waiting for the page to load and immediately left.

KISSMetrics made some recommendations for “trimming the fat” and improving site load time including;

• Use GZip compression to reduce file size of images, video, and other content by up to 70% 
• Optimize images for the web so they load faster. Don’t just rely on HTML to resize the images, do this in Photoshop or another photo editor to save space on your server 
• Investigate plugins to use cache so your website isn’t forced to dynamically load with every page visit 
• Consider a Content Delivery Network for busy sites. A Content Delivery Network hosts pages on servers that are geographical nearby to your visitors 

First impressions are important, especially online. If a users first experience with a website is slow to load they will immediately have a bad impression of the website and the business before evening viewing the site.

Jacob, S. (n.d.). Speed Is A Killer - Why Decreasing Page Load Time Can Drastically Increase Conversions. The @KISSmetrics Marketing Blog. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/speed-is-a-killer/

Work, S. (n.d.). How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line. (n.d.). The @KISSmetrics Marketing Blog. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/

AdWords vs. Facebook Ads

When comparing Facebook advertising to Google ads there are many commonalities in the functionality of those ads including;

• No minimum budget requirements
• User targeting tools to reach specific demographics and psychographics
• Both platforms offer flexibility, adaptability, and quick access to metrics to make advertising decisions and shift marketing strategies

While the overall functionality offerings are similar the platforms are very different. According to the Google AdWords tutorial, 8 out 10 internet users view AdWords each month. With Google AdWords you are at the mercy of the user’s search terms. If your keywords do not match the terms you have selected your ad may never reach your intended market. With Facebook advertising your ads are targeted based on demographics and psychographics so you are able to more effectively reach your target market.
One of the other advantages of Facebook ads is the power of word-of-mouth marketing. With the Facebook ads platform you may choose to only target friends-of-friends which will show your ad to consumers who are more likely to be interested in your company because their friends have shown interest in your company.

Another value added of Facebook marketing is the ability to share unique content and images. With Google AdWord’s you are limited to a certain number of characters and a hyperlink, while Facebook has continued to expand its advertising options for companies to enhance their marketing and gain more exposure. Facebook’s new mobile marketing functionality has drastically improved CTR for ads. “With the highest click through rate (CTR) 1.037%, and the second highest conversion rate (CVR) of 65.76%, Facebook’s mobile ads are the best bang for your buck” (Constine, 2012).

Facebook is also the preferred platform for conversation. If you want to get consumers talking about your brand, Facebook is the place to be. Google AdWord’s will help users discover your brand but it does little to promote engagement. Facebook is also the place to be for building brand awareness, as users tend to spend more time on Facebook then on Google search. It is also a good place to get across a specific message. Larry Kim, CTO of online marketing firm WordStream says “That's even more true if that message is intended for a very specific audience, such as a university alumni group or people that like True Blood. Such specific, people-oriented messages would be more difficult to do with AdWords, Kim said, though not impossible” (Casey, 2011).

Both platforms offer unique advantages and depending on your companies goals, one may be better than another for your business. Deciding your goals first and then choosing the right platform will help companies to maximize their ad dollars online.

References

Casey, K. (2011, September 28). How To Choose Between Google AdWords And Facebook Ads - Smb - .InformationWeek. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from http://www.informationweek.com/smb/services/how-to-choose-between-google-adwords-and/231602311


Constine, J. (2012, September 27). Facebook Mobile News Feed Ads Are Popular And The Best Way To Buy Fans, Ad Tech CEOs Confirm. TechCrunch. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/27/cheapest-way-to-buy-facebook-fans/

Give Them Something To Talk About

Who wins the battle for King - content or conversation? Catherine Novak and Michael Greenberg indirectly debate this question in their articles. Novak makes the case that content is just what is talked about on social media platforms, and the conversation is truly what is important. Greenberg, however, argues that without good content there is no conversation. In an effort to be bipartisan, I believe there is something to be gained from both arguments.

Before a conversation can be started, marketers have to give the consumers something to talk about, and good content is where it is at. According to Brian Davies, Managing Partner with Movéo Integrated Branding there are five laws of content marketing.

First, The Law of Consumption, which is that consumers want the latest and greatest content. “There is now more information to read, watch, analyze and share than at any time in history. Yet, for many, simply consuming these vast tides of information is not enough. We now place a very high premium on the currency of information (Davies, n.d.).

The Law of Complexity, is the second law, and states, “The amount of chaos in a system tends to increase with the complexity of the system” (Davies, n.d.). The more complex content is, the more challenging it becomes to manage the content. For example, one a company embarks on an e-newsletter, readers come to expect it and will have expectations about the type of content, how and when it is delivered, the length, and other variables, as they become accustomed to receiving the information. Given that, Greenberg shares that companies must create and adhere to a publication schedule in order to live up to consumer’s expectations. It is important to be timely and provide regular content.

The third law is The Law of Reputation. Consumers have learned that while information is readily available online, finding credible sources is of the utmost importance, particularly as even reputable news sources race to be the first to “break the news.” Given the race to report, news sources are making more errors and such errors can easily damage a source’s reputation, on and offline.

Fourth, is the law of evolution, and the ongoing race to keep pace with technology. According to the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs study, “41% of those queried found that producing the kind of content that engages prospects/customers was their biggest challenge. This percentage will likely go up as technology — and the production value of content — continue to advance” (Davies, n.d.).

The last and arguably most important of the five laws is The Law of Exchange. “’Thought leadership’ has been defined by Gartner as ‘the giving — for free or at a nominal charge — of information or advice that a client will value so as to create awareness of the outcome that a company’s product or service can deliver, in order to position and differentiate that offering and stimulate demand for it’” (Davies, n.d.). If companies are providing valuable content that positions themselves as the answer to consumer’s needs than have successfully mastered content marketing.

Once a company has mastered these laws on content marketing the conversation should come naturally as a result of the content. As a result of the conversation, the content will reach more consumers and become more popular, creating more demand for great content and the cycle is repeated.

References

Davies, B. (n.d.). The 5 new Laws of content and what they mean to your organization. Moveo. Retrieved November 12, 2012, from www.moveo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/MoveoWhitePape

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved November 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king