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Are you looking at e-mail open rates as a success metric? Well, it’s time to get past that. While this measure does provide some indication of interest in your newsletter, it still doesn’t get the recipient into the sales cycle … and that’s what matters most! Of course, there is still some value to open rate, as it helps gauge interest in your message, but it’s only a first step, and you need to track the entire set of results.

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Long sales cycles are frustrating not only because it delays revenue but because they also introduce the risk that you won’t. The longer it takes to bring a prospect from the mouth of the funnel to a closed deal, the greater the likelihood is that you either won’t finalize the relationship or that it will come in at a much lower amount than you expected.

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B2B social media marketers are in the early and middle stages of their efforts, according to a study by MarketingSherpa. The survey finds that, almost independent of social media marketing category, trial programs and transitions (to strategic roles) are most common, with relatively few companies using these tools strategically.

Overall, 33 percent of companies are in the Trial Phase, with 40 percent in the Transition Phase. While this constitutes an overwhelming majority, the fact that 23 percent of social media marketers have moved into the Strategic Phase is actually promising. Businesses are moving into this advanced state – and they are using social media to drive returns.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

How do you handle social media marketing? Is it integrated into your overall marketing plan, or do you treat it separately?

If you go with the latter, you’re in the minority, according to a new study by MarketingSherpa. The research indicates that 52 percent of respondents integrate social media with both online and offline marketing tactics. Meanwhile, 31 percent integrate social media marketing efforts with online tactics only, with 1 percent integrating with offline only. Sixteen percent of the respondents integrate social media with any other marketing tactics.

These findings suggest that social media marketing is moving beyond the experimentation stage. Marketing departments realize that the environment can’t be ignored – and that it actually requires a substantial commitment.

Social media marketing is no longer a differentiator: it’s part of the price of admission to your market.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

A year ago, the results of this MarketingSherpa survey would have looked a lot different. Nearly half of respondents indicated that “social media is a promising tactic and will eventually produce ROI” and are increasing budget conservatively. This may not seem exciting, but a “cautious” commitment is a commitment nonetheless. Only 17 percent replied that they aren’t going to invest in social media marketing.

Of course, the group of respondents increasing budget “liberally” is small, but that’s to be expected for a relatively new approach to marketing that many are still exploring. For 7 percent to invest fairly heavily in social media marketing is impressive, especially this early in the innovation cycle. The remaining 27 percent is neither increasing nor decreasing, responding, “Social media value is unknown and something we do only as time permits. Why invest more?”

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Has your faith in e-mail marketing been shaken? It’s tough, to say the least. You’re competing for eyeballs in the inbox — and a lot of companies are, too. E-mail is easy to develop, cheap to execute and fantastic for tracking, but the crowds realizing this have led to degraded results — and frustrated IT solution provider marketers. The problem isn’t in the medium … it’s in the method. As with any other marketing technique, how you execute plays a significant role in the results you realize.

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Most companies could be much more aggressive with their e-mail marketing initiatives. A new report from MarketingSherpa shows that customer retention is by far the top priority, with objectives around new opportunities not gaining nearly as much attention. Listen to this message from the market, and you’ll hear the whisper: “It’s time to make your move.”

When I saw the latest chart published by MarketingSherpa, I was shocked. Eighty-eight percent of respondents called “retain[ing] existing customers” a very important objective for e-mail marketing. Only 78 percent ascribed this level of importance to “generat[ing] new sales leads,” and “increase web traffic,” “build brand and educate market” and “drive offline sales” each was considered “very important” by only 56 percent of respondents.

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Generating high-quality leads is the top challenge for B2B marketers … by a mile. The latest research from MarketingSherpa shows that 69 percent of respondents see this as a significant challenge. The next one — marketing to a lengthening sales cycle – came in at a distant 39 percent. Even generating a high volume of leads only attracted the attention of 35 percent of the survey’s respondents. Competing for leads across multiple media environments ranked last at 27 percent.

What does this mean for you?

Quality matters. Period. The top priority for solution providers needs to be lead quality — there’s no substitute for delivering a qualified, interested prospect on which you have plenty of intelligence to your sales team.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

If you have budget to burn on search engine marketing (SEM), analyzing site log files for highly converting keywords is the most popular approach to research. It’s also favored by companies with thinner budgets. Sifting through the same log files for frequent keywords is a favorite, as well.

The latest research from MarketingSherpa shows that 85 percent of companies with SEM budgets of above $25,000 a year look for highly converting keywords in their log files, with 54 percent of companies with SEM budgets of $10,000 and down using the same method. Fifty-four percent of both the big and small companies looked for frequent keywords in log files, and both chose internal site search analysis (46 percent and 30 percent, respectively) as the #3 technique.

Competitor site analysis and competitive tools were considerably less popular, particularly with companies that didn’t have large SEM budgets. And, social semantic mining is still in its infancy.

How do you do keyword research? Leave a comment, and let us know!

[Source: MarketingSherpa]

Okay, maybe it’s not that easy. There are some serious benefits to paid search advertising with search engines, such as predictability and control. And, it’s easier to measure your paid search marketing ROI. But, the quality of the leads that come to you this way aren’t nearly as high as those that come via search engine optimization (SEO).

According to the latest study by MarketingSherpa, SEO was responsible for both the highest quality and quantity of search engine-driven leads, with shares of 30 percent and 37 percent, respectively. Paid search on Google did post a noticeable 32 percent of leads by quantity, but it was only good for 16 percent by quality. Meanwhile, paid search on the other major search engines resulted in only 6 percent of leads by quality, compared to a similarly meager 9 percent of high-quantity leads.

Commit to a solid SEO strategy (which can be helped along considerably by blogging), and you’ll earn stronger leads in greater quantity.

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[Source: MarketingSherpa]