March 10, 2009 February 17, 2009 February 16, 2009 February 10, 2009 February 9, 2009 February 9, 2009 Jason Stewart
Mr. Stewart leads demand generation programs for Demandbase and is a recognized thought leader in the B2B lead generation and lead management space. He founded and leads the Salesforce.com user group in Salesforce.com’s headquarters location (San Francisco) and was one of the first 500 people to complete the Salesforce.com Certified Administrator process. He has spent 10+ years in B2B telesales, demand generation, lead management and marketing operations with a variety of businesses including Maxager Technology, MarketLive, and Inference Corporation. Mr. Stewart has advised emerging software companies including Spoke and Kieden (acquired by Salesforce.com). He earned his BA in English from Rutgers University.
Chris Golec
Mr. Golec is CEO of Demandbase – a provider of On Demand Software and Services to improve demand generation at B2B companies. Prior to founding the company in 2005, he co-founded Supplybase in the mid-90’s. Supplybase was a successful supply chain software company that created significant customer value before being acquired by i2 Technologies in 2000 as part of the largest software merger in history. Before entering the software industry, Mr. Golec spent the previous 10 years of his career with GM, DuPont, and GE serving in engineering, sales and marketing roles. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an M.B.A.
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by Jason Stewart
So I got a "Happy Holidays" email just now from Microsoft adCenter, and was immediately struck by the irony of the fact that a Microsoft product prevented me from reading an email from Microsoft. Click on the image below to enlarge, and always remember to make sure your email templates don't rely too heavily on images. I have no incentive to view the images, so emails like this usually wind up in the trash...
One last recorded presentation from Dreamforce...Secrets to Email Campaign Success.
I was on a panel with Charlie McKinney from McKesson talking about email marketing and focusing on various topics like deliverability, targeting and audience, content, tracking, email marketing analytics and best practices for follow-up. Charlie was talking about ExactTarget, and I focused on Vertical Response, two email marketing partners of Salesforce.com.
Here is the abstract from Salesforce.com:
Don’t waste your marketing dollars -- or your
credibility -- on email campaigns that don’t produce results. Our panel of email marketing experts
shares the secrets of success and answers your questions on list-building techniques and email
marketing. Hear the latest trends, evolving opinions, and newest strategies -- and take home tips
for improving your email response rates today!
After my post about ActevaRSVP I was contacted by another Salesforce.com partner that is going to be at Dreamforce. Dave deBronkart, Marketing Analytics director for TimeTrade Systems called me for two reasons … he really likes to talk about marketing in general, but also thought I might be interested in their TimeDriver product and a promotion they have going on at Dreamforce. He left a message I didn’t get back to right away, but he also sent an email.
I was immediately fascinated by a single line nestled within his email signature…
To schedule time with me, click here: 15 min | 30 min | 60 min
Huh.
I had gotten that voicemail from Dave, and I halfway/kinda/sorta listened to it that first time but not enough to remember exactly what he said his company did. Sorry Dave, not your fault – I was having one of those days! But then I saw the email signature and remembered that he had mentioned something about having a time scheduling application I might like. So I did what any curious marketer would do. I clicked on the link to book 15 minutes with Dave.
I was taken to a landing page with some simple, clear messaging and Dave’s picture, asking me if I wanted to check Dave’s availability for a meeting. Yes, I do! I was greeted with a simple-to-navigate calendar view, complete with Time Zone preferences showing me when Dave was available to talk.
I picked my time, entered some information on how Dave could contact me and what I hoped to talk about, and was able to save it to my Outlook calendar (or Google calendar) right from the confirmation page.
How cool is that!
The immediate, obvious use is as a great addition to the email signature line of a salesperson who is looking to book appointments - but who may be frustrated with the back and forth it usually takes to find a time that works for everybody. But as a B2B marketer, I was also struck by how amazing it would have been to incorporate this simple link into an email campaign I had just sent out to 7000 members of my house list, hoping to drive appointments to our inside sales team. The email had performed well, but how many more appointments might I have booked with a simple scheduler like this, that synchronized with the calendars of choice for my whole sales team?
When I spoke to Dave (who called me promptly at the appointed 9am at the number I provided) we talked a bit about that. He mentioned an A/B test he ran to his house list, half with the link and half without. They booked 56% more appointments from the emails with the link.
Granted, this is Dave running an email campaign against his house list and not Marketing Sherpa running the analysis - but let's do that math on that with a hypothetical situation. Let's say you sell a product that costs $10,000. If it takes 100,000 emails to generate 15,000 opens (15% open rate) to generate 375 clicks (2.5% click-through) to book 20 appointments (5% conversion) of which 4 end up as sales (if you're lucky!) that's $40,000 in revenue. If you could increase the number of appointments booked by 50% with the same message, your new revenue number would be $60,000. Not bad at all.
Do you want to hear the best part? It costs less than $30 per user. Per Year. With a 90 day free trial. Subscribers can open up their calendars completely, or they can set specific availabilities for TimeDriver-fed meetings.
Check out the TimeDriver Dreamforce offer here (start by clicking on the "Click to Schedule" Button), and stop by their booth to learn how it integrates with Salesforce.com.
Thanks, Dave!
Demandbase CEO Chris Golec has written an article for www.destinationcrm.com called 5 Key Elements of Microtargeting...here's an excerpt:
"B2B marketers are increasingly adopting microtargeting to get superior results. AG Salesworks, a rapidly growing marketing services firm needed to boost the effectiveness of its client's sales and marketing programs. AG Saleworks knew that the greatest leverage would come from improving the relevancy and accuracy of the contact data it used in their campaigns. The company set out to improve the quality of the contacts in its marketing lists, and to segment the contacts based on their interests, behavior, response rates and demographic information."
Check it out here.
Two great sources for more details on the CAN-SPAM changes that went into effect on July 7th:
Total Compliance -- What Do the Changes in CAN-SPAM Mean for You? (by John Engler,VP and GM of UnsubCentral and posted at eMarketing and Commerce).
Duct Tape Marketing podcast interview with Janine Popick, CEO from Vertical Response about the changes...listen to it or download it here.
And Speaking of Vertical Response, the webinar I did with them a few weeks back is now up and available for viewing in their community education section, "How to Do Everything." Advanced Tracking and Reporting, From Your Email Campaigns to Dollars in the Bank. Jeremy Engler from VR spoke about some advanced reporting and tracking capabilities within Vertical Response, while I focused on a tour of Google Analytics. check that out here.
One of the sales guys here forwarded this great article to me about deliverability and avoiding spam filters with your opt-in email campaigns. Check it out.
20 Ways Opt-in E-Mailers Can Outsmart Spam Filters by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson.
I'm doing a webinar recap of the presentation I gave at the Vertical Response Spring Marketing Event a few weeks back. Jeremy's portion is perfect for Vertical Response customers interested in getting their reporting capabilities up to the next level, while I focus more on general "how-to" stuff with regard website analytics using the free Google Analytics tool.
It's free, but registration is required. Here's the link...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM PDT
You've created and sent a great looking email - now the fun begins. Start using advanced tracking with the Vertical Response "Click to Sale" feature and the Vertical Response Google Analytics integration. Join Jeremy Engler and Jason Stewart of Demandbase to learn:
About the Speakers:
Jason Stewart leads the demand generation programs for Demandbase, Inc. and is also the lead contributor for Demandblog, dedicated to best practices in B2B demand generation. Mr. Stewart is a recognized thought leader in the B2B lead generation and lead management space, and is the founding leader of the Salesforce.com San Francisco user group.
Jeremy Engler is a Product Manager at Vertical Response who brings 9 years of technology experience to the VerticalResponse team. He was previously the Operations Manager for Salesforce.com's AppExchange, and no one has a better understanding of the advanced reporting tools provided by VR.
Register HERE.
Continue reading " Advanced Tracking & Reporting: From Your Email to Dollars in the Bank" »
I did an interview with Selling Power for their Salesforce.com newsletter, talking a little bit about Demandbase, Vertical Response, and general ease of use and the depth and breadth of partner applications available for Salesforce.com users. Registration is required, but it's free. Here is the desciption from the newsletter:
CUSTOMER INTERVIEW: How Demandbase Uses AppExchange to Increase Lead Generation Efficiency
Customer: Jason Stewart Title: Senior Manager, Demand Generation
--
SP: What is Demandbase all about?
JS: Demandbase is an online, pay-as-you-go marketplace for business contact information. We've partnered with some leading data providers, such as Hoovers, D&B, Business Watch Network, and LexisNexis to create a place where B2B salespeople can purchase business contact information (often including email address) without a subscription and without a minimum purchase....read more.
I just came across this article at eMarketing and Commerce about "transactional emails." The headline, Five Best Practices for Adding Transactional E-mail to Your Marketing Mix (by Tricia Robinson-Pridemore) caught my eye because - I'm ashamed to admit - I didn't know what she meant by "transactional email." Turns out they are what I was calling "autoresponders" or automated emails generated when a customer or prospect completes a transaction of some type.
The article goes on to talk about how these are the emails that your customers and prospects are actually going to open. They are expecting them, and they open them because people like to get confirmation that you have served their needs.
Wow. This is is really one of those thing I knew in the back of my mind, but just kept pushing to the bottom of the to-do list. No longer. I need to go log in to Salesforce.com and update all my email templates. I need to make sure all the messaging is up to date, and maybe even include some sort of offer or incentive for people to share Demandbase with their colleagues.
By Jason Stewart - March 24, 2008
Vertical Response has their Spring Marketing Conference coming up on April 23rd.
Check out the full agenda here.
I'll be presenting with Vertical Response's Jeremy Engler in a track called Advanced Tracking & Reporting From Your Email Campaigns to Dollars in the Bank. Here's the description:
You’ve created and sent a great looking email, now the fun begins. Hook up to advanced tracking with the VerticalResponse Click to Sale feature OR use our integration with Google Analytics. In this session you’ll learn"
Register here.
