Keeping the Customers Happy in 2012

As 2011 draws to a close businesses are reflecting on the year’s achievements and downfalls to plan for a fruitful year ahead. To be successful a business primarily requires growth in some form of sales. But in conjunction with sales it is also crucial to retain current customers and their loyalty to the business.

As reported by MyCustomer.com, businesses find that engaging and retaining customers is one of their greatest challenges.  Loyalty 360, the US Loyalty Marketing Association, has outlined top loyalty trends to be aware of and act on in 2012, which the added support of lead generation software from Profunnel can help to accomplish.

Customer engagement is paramount to marketing and sales and a deeper level of engagement is needed to maintain customer loyalty into the next competitive year. Businesses should ensure they deliver a quality customer experience from an initial website visit right through to the final purchase and this is often achieved through a personal approach. Profunnel can track and monitor visitor activity to find interests in your business. This information provides marketers with a valuable insight to easily engage with a prospect. Current customers can receive targeted email marketing messages with new information about products or services they have previously purchased.

With the relevant data and preliminary contact established via email campaigns, sales teams have the tools and information to confidently approach a prospect while maintaining a high level of engagement with current customers.

Visit Profunnel for more information on lead generation and other online marketing solutions.

Marketing Merged with Sales to Improve Business

The chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) has published a report suggesting marketing and sales should be merged in order to protect the future of marketing.

As reported by Marketing Week, the Sales and Marketing Fusion report from the CIM believes a tighter bond combining the two departments within a company is necessary to stop the relegation of marketing which has become apparent during the recession. The report continues to suggest that by working in unison, efficiency improvements can be achieved through a mutual view of company objectives and customer satisfaction.

The report has sparked both negative and positive views from marketers across the industry, with some claiming this is an unnecessary move. However there is a common agreement that marketing and sales departments do need to work together more closely.

Profunnel realises the importance of a streamlined sales and marketing strategy – our demand generation platform can help you to improve company productivity through its various tools. Intelligent web forensics will identify warm leads to target by tracking visitor behaviour on a company’s website. This allows marketers to send emails tailored to particular interests via the available email marketing templates. The focus on warm leads develops B2B lead generation while relationships with high-value prospects allows sales to engage more effectively and build on their customer base.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation marketing.

Read our whitepaper The Sales and Marketing Coalition for more information.

Marketers Not Making The Most Of Lead Generation

Research by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has highlighted a lack of understanding surrounding lead generation within the marketing sector, as reported by The Drum.

The poll has found many of the 125 marketers questioned to lack a thorough understanding of lead generation and how it can be employed most effectively – 52% believe they are not taking full advantage of the marketing tool.

Chair of the Lead Generation Council, Trine Buus, identifies that “online lead generation is proven yet misunderstood”. He also suggests that the relationship between lead quality, conversion rates and ROI needs to be clearer.

Integrating a B2B lead generation platform such as Profunnel can assist in eradicating the current misunderstanding amongst marketers and focus on a successful campaign. The tool can track known and anonymous visitors on your website, monitor their actions and feed this information in real-time to marketers. The detail in this data allows marketers to send targeted emails to prospects, creating greater potential for new customers. Additionally, the lead generation software can be tailored for individual business requirements, providing a clearer ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on online lead generation.

How to grow your business in a slow recovering economy

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published the latest figures for UK economic growth, confirming a growth rate of just 0.5% during the Q3 period, July to September.

According to BBC Business News online, a Treasury spokesman said the UK economy was “not immune to the turbulence in the Eurozone and its impact on British businesses”, which has become clear from the slow economic recovery that we are experiencing.

With such an uninspiring financial forecast, businesses must now focus more effort on what they can do to drive their business through these difficult financial times, and understand what they should be doing in order to accomplish this. Many companies will already be using marketing and other promotional activities to support their business, but they may not be as efficient, or effective, as they would hope.

Profunnel looks within these activities and focuses on the smaller details, to help businesses tailor their approaches in order to see effective results for their efforts. Online marketing for example, is fast becoming the preferred approach for companies due to the advanced functionality and clearer ROI delivered by activities such as personalised email marketing, social media tracking and online lead generation. However, this can be time consuming and costly when using multiple software applications.

Profunnel offers all of these services and more from just one platform, allowing companies to economically optimise targeted email marketing solutions and online marketing activity through the latest demand generation technology.

For more information on marketing for business growth, contact Profunnel.

Have you got the balance right?

Companies. Customers. There is a fine line between delivering what suits the company and what customers actually want from a product or service.

After speaking with various marketers, editor of Marketing Week, Mark Choueke, reports on how to ensure customers remain loyal in a competitive market. He concludes that businesses need to re-think what they say to customers and what they can provide to make life easier for them; the more effort asked of customers, the less likely they are to remain loyal. Marketing needs to feel beneficial to the customer without appearing too promotional.

To create the balance between getting your message across while offering worthy information to current customers and prospects, a subtle approach with the help of marketing automation software could be the answer.

The latest solution from Profunnel can assist marketers with their entire marketing activity from a single platform. By capturing data from website visitors and feeding this back to your team in real-time, marketers can approach prospects with information suited to their interests. This can be conducted by way of targeted email marketing created by the various email templates offered by the solution. Therefore news on your company is being delivered while customers receive personalised, relevant messages – keeping the balance just right.

Visit Profunnel for more information on marketing automation.

Tension Over Customer Data Reclaim

The new government scheme to be introduced at the beginning of 2012 will allow customers to access their personal information held by companies.

Midata is proposing to generate new services and to help customers make informed decisions, creating a two-way trust for businesses and their customers, with the hope of leading to growth in the economy.

As reported in Marketing Week, there could be doubt in this scheme from businesses as many companies find that data is a fundamental aspect in making their business successful and gives them an advantage over their competitors. Many businesses use the information as a marketing strategy – targeting products and services relevantly to customer interest. This is a useful and successful way to build trust with customers.

Profunnel’s B2B lead generation solution allows marketers to identify customer interest by monitoring their website activity. The technology will track which pages known and anonymous customers visit, how long for and how often. As real-time alerts are fed to sales and marketing, online lead generation is increased as the warmest leads are being highlighted. With email marketing solutions, sales people can send targeted messages containing information relevant to the prospects’ interests. The personalisation can increase engagement and trust with the recipient, leading to more sales and a clearer ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on lead generation

Growing Concerns Over Personal Data Security

UK consumers are increasingly worried about data protection, according to new research.

A survey conducted by OnePoll reveals 80 per cent of respondents have reservations over organisations protecting their information. When compared to a similar survey produced last year, there has been a 17% increase in consumer worries in 2011.

Data security is a major issue for organisations and their sales and marketing teams. If they are to retain customer loyalty, while building trust with prospects, businesses must be certain that the data they use to target customers is from a bonafide source while also ensuring they are contacting people who would be interested in their services.

Profunnel’s marketing solutions provide businesses with a means to engage with customers and to build that all-important trust needed to ultimately secure a sale. The demand generation platform assists sales and marketing people with their online and email marketing. Through intelligent web forensics visitors to your site can be monitored and tracked while the lead scoring system alerts sales and marketing of warm leads, improving B2B lead generation. Having such information means companies can be confident they are focussing on relevant customers and in turn these customers are more willing to engage with the brand.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

Marketing Budgets Increase for Q3 of 2011

For the first time since the second quarter of 2007, there has been a rise in marketing budgets across all sectors, according to the latest IPA Bellwether Report.

Although overall business optimism is at a low, the latest predictions for the third quarter of 2011 for marketing spending have ended a three-quarter episode of decline. 21% of the companies surveyed have reported an upward revision of their marketing budgets.

The largest increase at 16.6% has been accounted for online spending while sales promotion has also seen a rise – the first time in nearly four years.

The results show that businesses are attempting to override the negative financial period and realise that those companies who exert the greatest spend on their marketing, will be in a much stronger position than their competitors.

An investment in B2B lead generation and marketing automation can provide the winning formula for staying ahead in your industry - Profunnel offers a solution to strengthen marketing and sales productivity. The technology can track and monitor visitors on your website and focuses sales people on the warmest leads through real-time alerts, with the data integrated into the CRM. With the alerts regarding prospects’ interests, conversion rates and sales improve as sales people can react quickly to the information and approach prospects or current clients about their last website visit. Overall, the lead generation software streamlines marketing and sales activity and allows you to clearly identify your marketing ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on lead generation

Information Is Just As Important As The Technology

Business leaders need to receive more information about technology in order to understand the benefits for their company, according to the Financial Times.

A spokesperson for Gartner believes leaders need to ensure they are aware of how technology can be implemented in their business. Awareness of technological influences within the industry is important for businesses to stay ahead, Gartner says.

Although technology is an integral part of any business in the modern world, information on how technology can be useful and why, clearly remains an issue.

In sales and marketing, demand generation technology is proven to provide real advantages to businesses. Profunnel’s solution provides intelligent forensics for your website, tagging visitors and monitoring their activity. The system creates real-time alerts for marketers, illustrating the most interested prospects, developing your B2B lead generation. The platform also allows you to create targeted email marketing messages, tailored to the prospects’ interests. Receiving relevant information is more likely to increase their interest rather then a generic email. While the prospect builds a relationship with the brand and businesses are able to view the main appeal of their services, sale opportunities improve.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

Trusting Customers On The Rise

As reported on The Drum, this year’s Email Tracking Study by the Direct Marketing Association has revealed the level of customer trust in brands has increased, as a result of improved email marketing.

The DMA research recognises two key reasons for this rise – better email segmentation and improved targeted content. From 1,800 UK respondents, the study found more than half of consumers said the emails they have received in the last year have been of interest to them. Last year just 1 in 10 participants said this was the case, while the figure this year has jumped to 30%.

The results of this study bring positive news for brands that have focussed their email marketing campaigns to provide more tailored information to customers and prospects. For those businesses still looking to better their customer engagement, improving email marketing through integrated solutions could be the answer.

The latest email marketing solutions from Profunnel enable marketers to tailor their messages through various templates, ensuring customers receive information relevant to their interests. To find out such interests, Profunnel’s B2B lead generation software can track and monitor website visitor activity, capturing data such as which website pages are visited and how often. The intelligent lead scoring system alerts marketers of the hottest leads, allowing them to target these prospects with relevant information, which is proven to be successful in retaining interest in a company.

Visit Profunnel for more information on targeted email marketing.

Number of Marketing Jobs Higher Now than Pre-Recession

As reported on Marketing Week there has been a 20% increase in the number of marketing jobs created even when compared to before the recession hit in 2008.

A study complied by marketing recruiter EMR in conjunction with data from the Office of National Statistics, illustrates that 94,000 new marketing positions have been generated since 2007, signifying the 20% increase.

EMR suggests the report’s findings are a result of popularity in digital marketing, with 1 in 3 marketing roles now being digital-based compared to 1 in 6 in 2009. Social media is a key-contributing factor to the increase in the demand for digital marketers.

Businesses evidently see the potential of digital marketing but the extra marketing channels can make viewing a ROI more difficult. In addition, with more avenues for customers to connect with the company, more effort is required to engage with the customers.

Profunnel provides demand generation solutions that allow your company to adapt and grow in the digital marketing arena. Our social media software enables you to track inbound traffic from a multitude of social media applications while also giving the option of creating your blog within the system. This means you can closely analyse the impact of website traffic, so engagement with customers is more immediate and effective. From the same solution, the Multichannel Marketing Module facilitates the management of your campaigns, from the first click through to the final purchase, creating a clearer understanding of your ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

Get in Shape for the New B2B Season

It’s never too early to start planning for the turn of the year. Organisations need to consider all their options in order to optimise the time and effort spent on generating new business.

Many companies are aware that their website is the best source for new leads. However there are key areas where improvements through integrated marketing solutions can create major success for the new business process.

The latest white paper from Profunnel offers practical advice on preparing for the new selling season, which includes:

• Website Content – ensuring your website contains the right keywords to increase SEO and drive traffic to your site
• CRM Database – an up-to-date CRM is essential for the start of the sales process and a large amount of data is required to maximise the results of emails and e-shots sent out
• Awareness of Digital Conversation – digital conversations will already be taking place between prospects and your services. By implementing social media tools you can tag and track online conversations, allowing you to view and understand positive and negative conversions
• Targeted Email Marketing– segmented email campaigns for different sectors and audiences are more beneficial for gaining interest and achieving positive responses than generic ‘email blasting’
• Marketing Automation System – the engine can provide email templates to assist with the design of your targeted campaigns while the system will check and test emails to assure you that they won’t be received as spam

Download the full version of the white paper here

Visit Profunnel for more information on the products and services available.

Email Marketing is Evolving

The results from the annual Marketing Week ‘Email Attitudes Research’ survey indicate that email marketing remains a favoured method of communication for businesses. 70% of respondents said they sent more emails over the last 12 months than the previous year and 45% have seen greater click-through rates.

Consumers surveyed in 2010 found one of the biggest issues with email to be ‘information overload’, whereas this year consumers are more willing to receive email messages due to better targeting. Although for many marketers ‘targeting’ is still considered a big challenge, finding difficulties in obtaining data.

Email appears to be retaining its status as a preferred form of marketing as businesses begin to see the potential of integrating email with other marketing channels. 45% indicate they have seen traffic from other channels increase when integrated with email campaigns. However there is still concern from marketers over data capture, which would allow them to create more tailored emails.

As the results highlight, targeted email marketing is the underlying success factor for marketers and consumers. Profunnel provides integrated email marketing solutions to strengthen tailored campaigns for better results. Through web forensics, website visitor behaviour is captured and warm leads are selected and sent through to marketers, developing B2B lead generation. With this information, email messages can be composed with relevant content for individual prospects. Recipients are more likely to open these messages which will consequently create greater opportunity to generate new business.

Please visit Profunnel for more information on email marketing

Social Media Week – Is Your Business on Board?

Social media is never out of the spotlight and next week sees Social Media Week taking place around the world from 19^th-23^rd September. Social Media Week was established back in 2009 in New York. Now the event will be marked by 12 cities around the world, including Glasgow for the UK, with thousands of attendees – highlighting the surge in importance, popularity and usability of social media across all industries.

Clearly social media is now an integral factor in most businesses, particularly in terms of marketing. Although it’s easy to adopt this tool, it’s essential to use social media correctly and to ensure the applications are relevant to business identity in order to produce effective results.

Profunnel can provide social media marketing solutions to enhance your company’s productivity when using the applications. By integrating our demand generation platform, you can track your social media activities giving you a better understanding of your ROI. The solution also allows you to monitor inbound traffic from various social media sites, increasing your lead generation. These leads will be tracked through the sales cycle to illustrate the financial impact social media integration is achieving for your company.

Please visit Profunnel for more information on social media tracking

Solutions Required for Better Knowledge of Information

A recent Q&A conducted by Marketing Week with national and global brands, including Telefonica/o2, AXA Insurance and Toyota, shows how organisations are getting closer to their customers but marketers are still facing issues when obtaining information.

The heads of research and marketing discuss innovative research techniques which have impressed them, the majority of which are often related to online and digital methods.

These specialists are also concerned with hold-ups in the information retrieval process and how this is frustrating in terms of being able to deliver results. Issues for a number of the brands include targeting the right people and problems with measuring research and the data obtained. The problems highlighted here are apparent for both the B2C and B2B industries.

Profunnel’s marketing software can be integrated to assist marketers with numerous processes, overall contributing to better results. From the demand generation platform, marketers are able to track and monitor website visitors and their activity via web forensics. B2B lead generation is improved as automated personalised emails, created from valuable information, are sent relating to visitor interest. Such targeted email marketing will allow the sales team to build their engagement with prospects and increase interest in the company. Both these factors are crucial for turning prospects into customers.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

CRM at the Forefront of Business Recovery

As reported on Computing, a recent survey conducted by analyst group Gartner has revealed customer relationship management (CRM) is anticipated to see the largest investment of all the application software markets worldwide in 2011.

31% of respondents say they expect a rise in spending on CRM software. This result reflects Gartner’s prediction that as buyer confidence returns and businesses begin to refocus their attention on increasing revenue rather than reducing costs, the CRM market will start to recover.

For marketers CRM software is a vital component for successful customer retention and is necessary to enhance customer experience. Another key benefit is that marketing activity can be more accurately targeted.

Profunnel offers the only marketing automation solution which is built on a CRM database. This allows marketers to simply and affordably integrate their demand generation activity with the CRM. From the integrated platform, businesses can view client movements on the website incorporated with CRM and into the individual client profile. As a result, sales people can respond to visitor activity which will improve conversion rates and generated sales. Sales representatives are able to build stronger relationships with clients as they are aware of their interests – where and when they visit the website. Overall a streamlined marketing strategy can be implemented – facilitating lead management and ROI tracking.

Visit Profunnel for more information on CRM Integration

Strategy + Skills + Software = B2B Success

As reported on The Drum, a recent study conducted by ReThink Recruitment shows digital and social media specialists have seen their pay rise by up to 70% over the last three years.

The pay rise in this sector covers all levels but has mostly occurred at more senior positions - with job vacancies now offering salaries of up to £75,000 which is up from an average of £45,000 three years ago.

Mark Geraghty, head of ReThink Executive, comments on the findings, highlighting how the results are not surprising - as companies are continually increasing their online marketing budgets, it is logical to match this effort by investing in good marketing skills.

As these results indicate, investment in marketing professionals and strategy is important. However, assisting these two elements with the latest marketing automation technology can create a winning formula for business success

The demand generation platform from Profunnel offers solutions to the entire B2B lead generation process of a company. The marketing software incorporates web analytics which will monitor visitor activity to the website. Visitors are tracked and tagged so sales and marketing specialists can be informed of just warm leads, which eliminates the issue of wasting time on uninterested visitors. Through this lead scoring system and with crucial information relating to product interest, businesses can be confident that their efforts are being focussed on good, new business prospects and ultimately improve their ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

‘Loyalty’ and ‘Engagement’ found to be Key factors to Increase ROI

The Guardian Media Group (GMG) has recognised the potential of growth for its online publications and is aiming to become a digital-first company. The group already has the Guardian website in place, however it intends to shift its main focus from print newspapers to a web-based news service.

This strategic decision to drive the Guardian website forward comes from the media group’s desire for a ‘mutualised, collaborative and networked’ form of journalism. To achieve commercial success, GMG is aware that it needs to capture its digital audience and create an individual relationship with the Guardian reader, in order to retain their loyalty. The group intends to deliver customised content, tailored to specific reader interests, via new technology as part of an increased marketing campaign.

Loyalty and engagement are key requirements when building any business relationship. In B2B, companies must connect with prospects on a personal level to increase the chance of securing an affiliation, while current customers require communication and information following their purchase if they are to remain loyal to the company.

Profunnel offers intelligent marketing automation solutions conducted via a single platform – bringing financial benefits to organisations as the issue of implementing various software applications with limited functionality is eradicated, resulting in an improved ROI. The solution increases B2B lead generation and provides marketers with lead nurturing technology to take website visitors from their initial visit through the buying cycle to the final purchase. Additionally businesses can optimise their entire online marketing campaign by integrating email marketing solutions whereby messages can be modified to provide relevant information and increase customer engagement.

Visit Profunnel for more information on marketing automation

Businesses Focus More on the Customer Journey

As reported in Marketing Week, major businesses have discussed their drive to focus on the path customers take from initial research of a product through to the final purchase.

Global brands such as Kraft and O2 have implemented new marketing strategies to understand their customer buying process and their interaction with products. This allows the organisations to analyse the most effective point to develop investment. Making this a business focal point is hugely beneficial to companies wherever there is a product or service to market – whether in B2C or B2B.

Investing in a customer journey tool will radically improve awareness of website activity and ensure businesses optimise their resources for the most interested prospects. Profunnel offers demand generation marketing software which can track and continually monitor visitor activity on a website – providing information on the trails they take and the products they’re interested in. The technology also combines a lead scoring system, ranking the most frequent visitors and sending this information to the sales and marketing team – increasing online lead generation.

With the relevant data and warmest leads to hand, sales representatives can create targeted email marketing messages to approach customers with significant information regarding their interests – allowing companies to build their client body and increase their ROI.

Visit Profunnel for more information on demand generation

Spend, Spend, Spend on New Technology

As reported on Fresh Business Thinking, a recent survey conducted by Netgear shows small businesses are planning to spend more money on innovative IT over the next 12 months.

The survey questioned 300 business owners and IT managers from SMEs and found 35% of the respondents plan to ‘make more strategic IT investments’ in comparison to last year.

Investing in new technology is crucial to businesses that want to remain current in their industry while making the company more time and cost efficient.

For businesses looking to improve the technology in their sales and marketing departments, Profunnel offers the latest lead generation software to maximise the production of new business opportunities. Profunnel’s demand generation solution integrates and automates the lead management process, meaning visitors to the website will be tracked and tagged. Sales and marketing teams are then provided with information on warm leads generated by the intelligent lead scoring system. The teams can then approach these warm leads through targeted email marketing – capitalising on the relationships they have started to build and increasing the new business brought into the company.

Visit Profunnel for more information on lead generation.

Businesses opt for B2B Email Marketing

Research conducted by Econsultancy has found that the chosen method for companies to communicate with their customers is through email marketing.

The findings indicate a wide range of areas for which email marketing is preferred for customer engagement. 86% of the businesses questioned choose this channel for corresponding offers, 80% for product and service news, 76% opt for email marketing when requesting feedback and 60% prefer this channel when offering customer service.

As illustrated by these statistics, the majority of companies consider email marketing to be most valuable. However it’s important to implement the correct strategy in order to generate successful communication and build relationships with customers.

By integrating email marketing solutions into their campaign, businesses can increase the effectiveness of their messages. From a single demand generation platform, Profunnel offers solutions which incorporate automatic tracking of visitors to the website and real-time alerts highlighting the interests of these visitors to the sales and marketing team. This process improves online lead generation as only warm leads are referred to the sales team. The information retrieved through Profunnel’s demand generation software can assist sales in creating tailored email messages to achieve successful engagement with customers.

Visit Profunnel for more information on email marketing.

The Death of Cold Calling OR The Advent of Perfect Timing - Profunnel's latest webinars

Profunnel's latest webinars

The Death of Cold Calling OR The Advent of Perfect Timing webinar featuring our guest speaker, Kevin Miller - VP of Sales & Marketing at SalesFusion.

To be successful in sales, perfect timing is absolutely key. We typically hear sales leaders and sales people across the country suggest that when in front of the right people they are successful but find the task of getting in front of the right people at the right time extremely difficult.

Our webinar will address the most difficult element of selling, that of getting in front of the right people at the right time. Joined by our guest speaker – Kevin Miller – VP Sales & Marketing at SalesFusion – we will look at shifting trends in the market place, how to adopt new approaches to lead generation and how to ensure you get your timing absolutely right.

Here is the agenda:
• The importance of timing
• The statistical failure of cold calling – in its traditional sense
• Where leads originate from in 2011 and beyond
• Generating sales ready leads
• Adapting your company to succeed in the modern day
• How to leverage technology to drive the new paradigm

Hurry, places for this exclusive webinar are limited. please visit http://www.profunnel.co.uk/webinars.php

Boost to Direct Marketing Spending

According to the latest Bellwether report, direct marketing budgets have grown. In keeping with Profunnel’s beliefs, it’s refreshing to see companies investing more in their marketing strategies.

As reported in Marketing Week, the second quarterly report from Bellwether shows that companies have increased their investment in direct marketing, including email marketing, which is one of only three channels to see a rise in spending. From April to the end of June, budgets have jumped by 2.5 per cent, compared with 1.8 per cent in the first quarter.

Mel Cruickshank, chairman of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s direct marketing group, says companies are “turning to direct marketing to provide return on investment against marketing spend”.

In order to be a good investment, successful direct marketing depends greatly on forward planning, accurate targeting and up-to-date data. Integrating intelligent marketing technology can ensure companies receive this good return on investment, which Profunnel has proven time and time again.

The latest email marketing solutions from Profunnel, allow sales and marketing professionals to tailor their messages – offering a personal approach to engage their visitors – making them more attractive to potential customers. Profunnel’s targeted email marketing software incorporates a level of personalisation and flexibility derived from the results of lead scoring, which are generated by visitor activity. Based on these findings messages will be sent containing relevant information to prospects, which improves email lead generation, directing warm leads into a company’s sales inbox.

Visit Profunnel for more information on email marketing.

What is the Key to Business Success?

The current economic climate has created some issues for businesses. However in recent financial findings, some organisations are making real progress. In the latest financial year businesses such as Sports Direct have reported a significant rise in profits – so the question arises as to why some companies are prospering despite others failing. In retail, the crucial factor is to deliver the right product, while in B2B the simple answer is ‘timing’ – targeting prospects and current customers at the right time and with the right information.

In order to get the timing right, it is important for organisations to research and gather data about customer activity on their website. Often perceived as time consuming, with the right technology in place, marketing and sales teams can benefit greatly, leading to an overall improved revenue for the company.

You can read more about this here

By integrating Profunnel’s intelligent software, businesses can track visitor activity on their website – from the initial visit right through to their final purchase click – tracking when and where they access the site. The system will also improve your lead generation with real-time email alerts being sent to the sales team enabling them to spend their time on warm leads. From here, the sales team can create and deliver personally targeted email marketing campaigns – confidently aware that the prospect will receive relevant information, which is more likely to attract them to the company and keep them coming back.

Visit Profunnel to find out more information about Web Forensics.

Businesses Must Build Trust with Customers for Successful Marketing

As reported on Fourth Source, a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association, (DMA), shows how there has been a significant drop in the number of consumers willing to offer personal details about themselves when interacting with online businesses.

The poll of over 1,000 consumers found that more than 1 in 3 are choosing to withhold identifying information, resulting in real problems for marketers and consumer data capture.

For example, in the last six months there has been a drop by approximately one third in the number of people prepared to give out their name, address or email.

Executive Director of the DMA, Chris Combemale, suggests that marketers must find alternatives in their methods to capture consumer data. 54% of the respondents believed trust in a company is paramount in deciding to disclose personal details, therefore marketers need to build trust with the customer first before proceeding to contact them for further information.

Profunnel has developed intelligent marketing software to aid marketers with trust and engagement with customers. Our demand generation software will help you to easily track and analyse visitor activity from a single platform. The tracking device will follow your visitors, highlight their interests and alert you of when and where they access your site – improving your lead generation. This information will allow you to tailor email marketing campaigns to suit these interests, forming a trusting relationship which can ultimately turn visitors into customers.

For more information on demand generation, visit Profunnel.

Rise in Sales and Marketing Recruitment

As reported in The Drum, recent research conducted by Financial News shows more companies are planning recruitment in sales and marketing than any other area.

The survey found that 83% of company chief executives are prioritising hiring sales and marketing professionals for their businesses over any other profession. Interestingly, this figure is up by 69% in comparison to the same survey carried out last year.

However, it’s one thing to ensure your company has a strong, effective sales and marketing team, but another to implement the right tools to drive business success.

The assistance of tailored online marketing solutions can make a real difference to generating new business and maintaining current customers. Profunnel’s demand generation software can enable your team to manage a range of marketing techniques from a single platform. The technology allows you to easily integrate all of your marketing and sales efforts into your CRM. Additionally it can improve your lead generation by tracking visitor activity on your site and alerting the sales team with relevant information regarding their interests in order to maximise new business generation.

For more information on demand generation, please visit Profunnel.

Companies See the Social Side to Generating New Business

As reported in The Telegraph, a study by Regus shows an increasing number of UK businesses are attracting more customers since adopting social media marketing.

The research based on responses from 17,000 managers from around the world, including 4,000 from the UK, illustrates how more than one third of companies in the UK are successfully generating new customers since incorporating social media into their business strategy.

The study highlighted a significant rise with the overall figure increasing from 33% of UK companies in 2010, to 41% this year as more and more companies employ social media as a creative way to interact with their customers. 66% of the respondents agreed that their marketing plans would not be successful without social media.

While these results underline the benefits of integrating social media into your marketing activity, it is essential to use the right strategy, in order to maximise the customer interest you receive. We have addressed this and developed intelligent B2B marketing software to assist your social media campaign.

Our social media tracking platform allows you to direct all inbound traffic from the various social media sites to one single dashboard – the system will support your lead generation by tracking any warm leads from the sites and delivering their interests to your sales team. You can also create blogs within the software, which will enable you to observe their effectiveness and help you to tailor the blogs to your target market.

Find out more about our social media services and how we can help your organisation.

More Focus on Targeted Marketing with Inflation Rates Remaining High

It has been reported in The Telegraph that inflation rates for May have remained at a two-year high of 4.5 pc.

As the economy remains highly competitive, a strong focus should be placed on maintaining the customers you have as well as bringing in new business in order to drive your company forward. To achieve this you need to understand those you are selling to and establish the most effective way of communicating with them.

For marketing and sales this is a key aspect of the role– being able to identify customers’ interests and target prospects with relevant information. Our demand generation software enables visitor activity to your website to be monitored – delivering a valuable insight into what attracts your customers and indicates when and where they visit. The behaviour of visitors activates personalised email marketing – only sending out information relevant to your customers, ultimately improving your lead generation.

Visit Profunnel to find out more about demand generation

Relevant Email Marketing is Central to Success

In an ever-changing online world, a recent report has discovered B2B email marketing still has a dominating presence, despite social media playing a major part in many companies’ campaigns.

The report analysed over seven billion email messages and found email open rates to reach 23.3% in the first quarter of 2011, as a result of the email messages being more relevant to the recipient.

Successful email marketing relies heavily on ‘relevance’. Profunnel offers intelligent email marketing solutions to ensure businesses offer tailored and relevant communications with potential customers. Our solutions are conducted from one platform that manages your campaign from start to finish. Our lead generation software will track the behaviour of visitors to your site and pinpoint warm leads, allowing you to approach such prospects at the optimum time, with supporting, relevant information to maximise your company’s productivity.

Visit Profunnel’s website to find out more about email lead generation.

Time is of the Essence for SME’s

It has been suggested by knowthenet.org.uk that small businesses must re-evaluate their communication strategies with prospects in order to maximise engagement.

The internet advice site believes that integrated email and social marketing is paramount to interacting with prospective clients, and has highlighted that ‘timing’ is a crucial element to encourage and retain loyalty to the company. Online marketing is vital for small businesses, but it is all too easy to go unrecognised on the web - losing out to larger organisations - if online marketing is not fully-integrated. Additionally, acting on client activity at the right time is greatly beneficial to small companies but can often be viewed as being too time consuming.

Profunnel offers a wide range of intelligent online marketing services available from just one platform. Our tailored B2B lead generation products, incorporating email marketing and social media, will follow your website visitors from their first visit - keeping track of how often they visit and the course of their time spent on the site. The information will allow you to engage with warm leads on a deeper level and, as a result, will optimise your demand generation and increase your company’s productivity.

Visit Profunnel’s website for more information on B2B lead generation and the importance of timing.

The Right Sales Team – Essential To Success

Profunnel have recently expanded the business with two new additions to the sales team. The new members will help to support the growing sales force, taking on responsibility for new business across the UK.

Generating new business is crucial for any organisation and having the right sales team is key in supporting this growth. It is also important to integrate a system whereby the sales team can work alongside the marketing department to optimise potential opportunities.

Profunnel offers B2B lead generation technology that minimises the challenges of cold calling while enabling companies to improve the quality and increase the amount of warm leads. The intelligent email marketing solutions are implemented to target potential customers by identifying and alerting the sales team of their specific interests when visiting a company’s website. This then provides companies with the ability to focus resources on the most attractive prospects, significantly increasing business growth and ROI.

Please visit Profunnel’s website for more information on email marketing and lead generation.

Email Marketing a Must

The Centre for Economic and Business Research (cebr) has discovered how small businesses are failing to realise the potential of email marketing.

The study illustrates how online channels generate just 2.4 per cent of small organisations’ turnover, suggesting that they are not taking advantage of the web and need to integrate email marketing more readily into their marketing strategies.

According to cebr, companies with fifty employees or less together shared a total Internet revenue of £36 billion in 2010. Comparatively, companies with 250 employees or more turned over a cumulative online income of £394 billion. The figures conclude that larger organisations are more conscious of online benefits including email marketing.

Presence on the web is paramount to maximising your company’s possibilities of profit. Profunnel offer email marketing solutions, tailored to your specific requirements - ensuring that you capitalise on your investment. Our software will increase your B2B lead generation by directing more people into your sales inbox. Additionally our demand generation solution will allow you to conduct your marketing processes simply via a single platform, increasing the efficiency of your business and your ROI.

Find out more about our targeted email marketing services and how we can help your organisation.

Turning Data Into Business

The recent “The state of Marketing 2011” survey by IBM has highlighted how the marketing industry needs better analytics to turn data into business.

Representing 300 online and direct marketing organisations, the key priority for marketers appears to be a call for more in-depth analytical tools to help increase results. Although they acknowledge that social and mobile marketing are growing – the popularity does not match business productivity.

Additionally, almost 90% of respondents showed interest in integrating technology into their marketing strategy, believing that it is a vital factor in establishing a successful output.

We at Profunnel deliver services that identify and target these issues through our lead generation software. Offering the latest products in demand generation, you can efficiently track online visitor activity allowing your sales people to focus on warm leads. By this, they can observe the interests of potential customers and tailor communication through effective targeted email marketing.

More information on our demand generation software can be found at www.profunnel.co.uk

Social Media Leads the Way

It is no revelation that social media networking has become a major ingredient in business marketing. The development of various networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, are now usually incorporated in any business strategy – creating opportunity to seek online lead generation and to generate prospects.

However, social media marketing must be carried out in the correct way in order to be effective. It is crucial to interact and engage with social networkers – tailoring your approach by providing expert knowledge that is relevant to the target audience. People will value this knowledge, forming respect, which will effectively generate positive interest, build connections and aid your lead generation.

Having developed a unique ‘Social Media Tracking’ software package, Profunnel can support your business, offering a helpful link between monitoring your B2B lead generation and identifying your ROI with the latest marketing software.

Why not find out more about the demand generation services Profunnel offers.

Email Marketing – Lost in Cyber-Space?

A recent study by GI Insight has revealed how over half of the UK public believe the emails they receive from companies are irrelevant.

Although having previously been customers to the companies and signing up to their email lists, 53% of the 2,000 consumers surveyed declared that the missives they now receive are unrelated to their interests. This new information highlights how email marketing is not necessarily being used to its greatest potential – indicating that some companies are still not devoting enough resources to ‘personalisation’ within their marketing strategy.

Email marketing holds great value for companies in terms of communication with customers and it is crucial to use email marketing correctly in order to produce maximum lead generation.

Profunnel provides a system which tailors your company’s needs offering a flexible and personalised approach to your email marketing solutions. The software enables you to easily track customers’ activity on your site, which can be adapted to create more precise, directed emails, ultimately delivering greater results.

Why not find out more about the importance of tailored email marketing and how the technology can help grow your business by downloading our latest white paper - Email Marketing is Dead... Unless it's Intelligent.

Online Marketing Prospers

The latest report by IPA/BDO Bellweather has shown a significant increase in companies turning to internet marketing and predicts a 2.9 per cent boost in online advertising and social media spending.

Online marketing is fast becoming the preferred approach for companies due to the advanced functionality and clearer ROI delivered by activities such as email marketing, social media tracking and online lead generation. However, this can be time consuming and costly when using multiple software applications. Profunnel offers all of these services and more from just one platform, allowing companies to economically optimise targeted email marketing solutions and online marketing activity through the latest demand generation technology.

For more information on B2B lead generation from Profunnel, please click here

LinkedIn Favourite Social Media Channel For Marketers

According to a recent research report by BtoB, LinkedIn is the favourite social media channel among marketers.

The study revealed that out of all of the social media channels 26% of respondents preferred LinkedIn, followed by Facebook with 20%, blogging (19%) and customer communities (14%). Surprisingly, Twitter was favoured by only 13% of marketers.

Whatever the channel, social media has become an integral part of B2B marketing and is most effective when used in collaboration with other marketing activities. Social media tracking is an effective method for companies to employ to ensure they get the most out of social media activity.

Profunnel offers a social media marketing package, which incorporates various systems to optimise your use of Social Media channels. The software offers services on; creating marketing campaigns, tracking the impact of blogs and building pages to track and capture incoming traffic.

For more information on the technology available click here.

Online Journey – Key to Marketing Success

Web forensics enables marketers to track the activity of individuals and companies that visit their web site and to direct them to information that relates to their area of interest. The technology monitors visitors, collating information that builds knowledge on customer interests.

These details are essential for online marketing, but what turns a visit into a sale is the identification and recording of the customers’ online journey - not just the information required to hit a person’s mailbox.

With lead generation technology, businesses are able to understand their customers’ behaviour and respond with targeted actions. Companies can create campaigns and nurture leads, building relationships and developing trust with potential buyers, which in turn leads to more successful outcomes.

For more information on the technology available click here.

Growth of Online Advertising Highlights Importance of Internet to Business

According to the BBC, online advertising has broken through the £4bn barrier– growing by 12.8% in 2010.

The Internet now accounts for a quarter of all advertising spending in the UK, according to figures, highlighting the importance of the Internet for both consumers and business alike.

But for businesses in both the B2B and B2C sectors it is building increased understanding of customers that is becoming key – this is what will help not just plan advertising, but it will also drive lead generation and improve conversion rates. Your website is key to this customer insight – who is visiting your website, where they have come from, what they are interested in on your site, where they are in the buying cycle and more – to give you the knowledge you need to maximise sales and marketing performance.

For companies to achieve this, lead generation software through Profunnel can help you nurture for the future, allowing companies to really understand potential business, communicate more effectively with individuals, and manage relationships.

Click here for more information on our marketing automation technology.

Growth of Online Advertising Highlights Importance of Internet to Business

According to the BBC, online advertising has broken through the £4bn barrier– growing by 12.8% in 2010.

The Internet now accounts for a quarter of all advertising spending in the UK, according to figures, highlighting the importance of the Internet for both consumers and business alike.

But for businesses in both the B2B and B2C sectors it is building increased understanding of customers that is becoming key – this is what will help not just plan advertising, but it will also drive lead generation and improve conversion rates. Your website is key to this customer insight – who is visiting your website, where they have come from, what they are interested in on your site, where they are in the buying cycle and more – to give you the knowledge you need to maximise sales and marketing performance.

For companies to achieve this, lead generation software through Profunnel can help you nurture for the future, allowing companies to really understand potential business, communicate more effectively with individuals, and manage relationships.

For more information on the technology available click here.

Planning for the Future

The confidence of business was restored a little this week with George Osborne’s budget - the Telegraph reported that the new measures will encourage investment and boost the amount of funds for companies keen to capitalise on growth opportunities.

This boost should pave the way for further development and success, and for sales and marketing it means making the most of the opportunities being opened up.

By integrating lead generation technology into your plans, business can not only improve the understanding it has about the behaviour of its customers, but it can also quickly respond to their needs. This information allows organisations to improve their targeting, conversions, and ultimately ROI.

As the days of Labour rule have vanished so has email blasting. Sales and marketing needs to understand its online customer is vital to the company’s sustained growth - from responses to e-letters and social media activity, businesses can develop a digital fingerprint to tailor its communication and focus on hot prospects.

Find out how lead generation technology needs to be on every company’s budget this financial year.