Qualified online leads increase by 451%

Posted by Katie Coombs on November 3,2017

17820069-colorful-musical-equalizer-and-silhouette-girl-runningSo, your existing ROCKSTAR marketing efforts aren’t having the same impact they once had? If you’re using the same marketing channels you’ve always used, but you’re just not achieving the desired results, perhaps it’s time to adjust not only your strategy, but the entire way you look at marketing as a whole.

A few stats to consider:*

  • Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451increase in qualified leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group).
     
  • 67% of Marketing Leaders currently use a Marketing Automation Platform. – Salesforce “State of Marketing” (2017)

  • Over the next two years, an additional 21% of Marketing Leaders plan to use a Marketing Automation Platform. – Salesforce “State of Marketing” (2017)
  • 91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels. – Marketo & Ascend2 “Marketing Automation Strategies for Sustaining Success” (2015)

  • There are nearly 11 times more B2B organizations using marketing automation now than in 2011. – SiriusDecisions“B-to-B Marketing Automation Study” (2014)
  • Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the “Very successful” use their marketing automation systems extensively, while more than a third (37%) achieved best-in-class status with limited use. – Three Deep & Ascend2 “Marketing Automation Trends for Success” (2016)

  • Of US businesses with 20 or more employees only about 4% are users of marketing automation software. – VentureBeat “Buyers and Users Marketing Automation Survey: Results, Analysis and Key Findings” (2014)

Let’s face it, folks.  Times, they are a-changin’.

Gone are the days of sitting patiently through the commercials until your TV show comes back from break. With the invention of the DVR, 86% of people now fast forward through commercials – I know I do.

Think of the ad space that was bought and paid for by the advertiser, the hours that went into developing the campaign, producing the ads.  The time, money and effort spent was largely, completely skipped over by the target buying public.  The same mentality applies to direct mail and print ads.  We’ve become so accustomed to screening out marketing messages that we no longer even acknowledge their presence on magazine pages and websites.  Most of the time, we throw that direct “junk” mail straight into the recycle bin. Even our email providers have taken steps to help weed out the ads so we never have to see them.

In the days of outbound marketing, the company was in the driver’s seat, but the power has shifted.

Today, the buyer is in control and thus, the birth of inbound marketing.

Now I know what you’re thinking…

"As part of my existing strategy, I have my social media channels in order, my website is optimized and I have a blog."

My questions to you are: do you know WHY you do these things?  Can you see, quantify and prove the return on your investment? Would you like to have these things work for you in a more efficient way?  That’s where inbound and marketing automation come into play.

According to Wikipedia: inbound marketing is promoting a company through blogs, podcasts, video, 

Wikipedia

eBooks, enewsletters, whitepapers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing which serve to bring customers closer to the brand, where they want to be. 

Inbound Marketing is a methodology, augmented by marketing automation software, to attract strangers using your blogs, keywords and social media channels. 

Once they’ve made it to your web page, they’re a visitor.  That’s when landing pages, calls to action and forms come into play to help you convert that visitor to a lead.  Now, the lead must be nurtured and that’s where the use of email and established workflows will assist with closing that lead into a customer.  Achieving great results using remarkable content is sure to delight your customers into becoming promoters of your brand, and let’s face it, we all want that!

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Today, inbound marketing has become synonymous with online lead generation, but that’s not all.  Marketing Automation will help you build a comprehensive strategy that connects the dots, taking what you’re already great at and giving you the tools you need to launch your efforts to the next level. 

So I will leave you with this…  Inbound marketing and marketing automation ARE the future of the industry.  I urge you to stay ahead of the curve, educate yourself, take a deep dive into what you’ve done in the past and what you’re doing today to create a plan that will leverage your experience, coupled with the inbound marketing methodology and marketing automation tools to create exponential growth in your future. 

Interested in how to make the inbound marketing methodology work for you?  Download our free eBook, The Inbound Primer An Essential Introduction and correlate successful bottom line business results to your specific marketing actions.

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Topics: Inbound Marketing