Over the past few weeks, we’ve been publishing best practices to help you get the most out of your Dreamforce experience. Our mission has been to provide tactical takeaways that you can put to use at every stage of your marketing, from lead generation to optimization. If you’ve missed any of our posts since DF15, check them out below:
- 8 Ways to Improve Your B2B Marketing Strategy
- 3 Key Predictions for the Future of Sales and Marketing Alignment
- 8 Ways to Drastically Improve Your B2B Conversion Rates
- 3 Keys to Connecting with Buyers More Effectively
Today, we’d like to close out our mini-series on post-Dreamforce tips and tricks with one of the most important topics of all: optimizing your marketing efforts. This quote, commonly attributed (or misattributed) to Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and even Mark Twain, provides a relevant commentary on the importance of testing and iterating:
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Even though Einstein/Franklin/Twain probably wasn’t talking about B2B marketing, this quote is just as applicable to marketing as it is anything else. We all know that the B2B marketing industry moves fast, and the only way to ensure you’re always keeping up is to focus on constantly optimizing your efforts.
Let’s take a look at a few of the items that you should be constantly testing and improving, especially as you approach the end of the year:
1. Your landing pages, forms, and overall lead generation strategy.
As we’ve mentioned in some of the previous articles in this series, the quality of your landing pages and forms can have a huge impact on your conversion rates, and therefore, your lead flow. While A/B or multivariate testing can help you choose the most effective copy, images, and layout for your landing pages, there are some quick wins you can focus on to optimize your pages without having to test each time. Take a look at the following resources to learn more:
- Blog Post: Best Practices for A/B Testing Your Emails—Plus 3 Noteworthy Examples
- Blog Post: Improving B2B Lead Gen with Your Company’s Blog
- E-book: 8 Ways to Double B2B Landing Page Conversions
- SlideShare: B2B Landing Page Inspiration [#SlideShare]
2. Your pipeline.
Many people don’t think of their sales pipeline as something that can be optimized; however, there are small changes you can make to your lead management process that can have a significant impact on your pipeline. For example, establishing a lead qualification system can do wonders for your conversion rates, which in turn accelerates your pipeline. Additionally, automating lead qualification and putting a lead nurturing system in place can also speed up your pipeline and prevent leads from slipping through the cracks. Learn more about accelerating your pipeline by exploring the following resources:
- Blog Post: 5 Ways Marketers Can Shorten The Sales Cycle
- E-book: 10 Tips to Accelerate Your Pipeline
- Microsite: Understanding the Buyer’s Journey
- Blog Post: How to Get Started with Lead Nurturing
- Infographic: Lead Scoring 101: How to Build a Hierarchy
- Blog Post: 4 Lead Scoring and Grading Scenarios Explained
3. Your marketing automation tool.
As you approach the end of the year, it’s time to start thinking about whether or not you’re using your marketing automation tool to its full potential (or, if you don’t have a marketing automation tool, take a look at your other marketing technologies). Are there any marketing automation functionalities that you haven’t been using? Does your database need cleaning or de-duping before next year? Are there any nurture programs that you haven’t tried yet?
Fortunately, most marketing technology providers offer free resources, training programs, and webinars that can help you get the most out of your system. Take a look as you approach December and see which areas you might be able to improve. Here are a few resources to get you started:
- Blog Post: How to Set Yourself up for Success with Marketing Automation
- E-book: The Marketing Automation Success Kit
- Interview: How to Build the Perfect Campaign with Marketing Automation
Want a complete look at how you can optimize your B2B marketing strategy? Take a look at our Complete Guide to B2B Marketing — which covers email marketing, lead generation, social media, lead nurturing, ROI reporting, and more — by clicking on the banner below.
