80% of customers agree the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. That’s why enabling more human conversations through 1:1 personalized journeys drives loyalty and engagement for consumers, translating to growth and efficiency for your business.

But getting started on the personalization path is easier said than done, especially with competing priorities across your business’ teams.

Register today for “Crawl-Walk-Run to Real-Time Personalization,” presented by Salesforce and take your customer-centric approach to the next level.

The post Crawl, walk, run to real-time personalization appeared first on Search Engine Land.

What would it feel like if you could chat with your prospects here and now from this article – or better yet, a third-party article on your product or service? No sitting around waiting for intent signals. No banner ads with pesky redirects.

Well, it’s here – and not only is it the future of selling in saas, but sales teams are using it today to engage with prospects in the earliest stages of the dark funnel.

The dark funnel explained: Did you know 75% of buyers are already halfway through their buying journey before they even speak to a salesperson? At that point, they’ve already completed their pre-purchase process – checked reviews, browsed comparison sites, and perused articles on third-party sites – before even reaching your site. In other words, all of these activities have occurred anonymously in what marketers have coined the “Dark Funnel.” 

In fact, you can experience what it’s like to engage in the dark funnel simply by clicking the widget below.

Okay… but what is the dark funnel exactly? 

It’s the touchpoints a buyer experiences before they are tagged and identified in any marketing stack – whether through self-identification, or traditional methods like downloading a whitepaper, form fills or cookies. 

The problem lies in that the digitization of the sales environment has marketers falsely believing that they can accurately track a customer’s journey. The reality? Much of the customer journey happens offline and when activities occur online, they rarely follow a linear path. Instead, the modern consumer meanders along a path that bends and twists, leaving sales teams/marketers “in the dark” on intent. 

So, why isn’t intent data enough?

Intent data isn’t a lead, nor are most intent signals actionable for sales/marketing teams. Often, intent data comes in at the account level and not the contact level, making it challenging to action. In other words, intent data lets you know that someone at a particular company is possibly interested but isn’t detailed enough to identify who to reach out to. 

On the flip side, if a salesperson can discover who the contact is, they can reach out quickly. In a world where speed to lead is everything, intent decays almost instantly. The chance of the user biting on an email cadence, picking up calls, or clicking on retargeting ads diminishes every minute that a salesperson is not in contact. ​​  

Most marketers believe a form fill on a website indicates the highest moment of intent. This does not appear to be true with recent research. 

A study on 2000 B2B companies found that on average: it takes a sales rep 42 hours to contact a new lead, of which 38% will never respond. Additionally, 4.3 days go by before the first meeting ever takes place. In the simplest terms, timing is everything, and the longer you wait on opportunities, the fewer responses you will receive. 

In the modern-day age, convenience and quick response times are everything.  Studies show when businesses respond in under five minutes, they are 100x more likely to connect and convert opportunities. 

Imagine this process:

• Zero seconds: A prospect asks to chat on an article, review site, or 3rd party blog post.
• 3 seconds later: The prospect selects whether they’d like to talk now or schedule a call
• 1 second later: The prospect chooses to talk now
• 6 seconds later: The prospect is chatting with a BDR or SDR

This all occurs in 10 seconds, and the prospect hasn’t even reached a company’s website.

Buyer intent is highest at the beginning of the buying journey while solutions to the buyer’s problem are explored. If a prospect actively researches, discusses, and evaluates a company, they clearly express interest. At this point, many intent signals are collected by data aggregators to re-sell for marketing purposes. Naturally, consumers’ intent to buy decays as they move throughout their buying journey. When an intent signal is received and the prospect books a meeting/demo, leads are lost. It costs time, money, and resources to rumble over prospects with your competitors. 

The dark funnel is where the most advantageous opportunities can be won – where you can curate your brand and dominate sectors, all while creating demand. 

Sitting around waiting for intent signals is a passive approach. Actively engaging with prospects in real-time when they need you is much more effective. You are there first. Meet their needs, and they won’t compare you to anybody. Once ready to buy, they will simply choose you. 

And don’t we all want to be chosen?

The Helium platform provides sales/marketing teams direct real-time access to chat with prospects on articles, review sites, and any third-party site whereby your company is mentioned. An entirely new channel, Helium lifts the veil on the dark funnel by creating new actionable touchpoints earlier in the buyer’s journey. 

Many mar-tech strategies have been created to uncover vital consumer information (intent data) within the dark funnel. However, these approaches still follow a linear sales/marketing funnel that doesn’t exist. This limits the ability to adapt to present-day buyer behavior. Buyers don’t want to complete forms, receive numerous email cadences or wait two weeks to speak to a sales rep. Simply put, they want to ask a quick question to qualify or disqualify a potential solution. 

Helium creates a direct line for organizations to engage in chat with prospects using new touchpoints in the dark funnel. During a prospect’s highest intent moments, sales reps are able to answer questions and book meetings immediately. 

The result?

• Beating competitors to prospects
• Accelerating your sales cycle
• Increasing conversion
• Expanding your audience
• Being the primary source of education for your prospects

While Helium does not eliminate a traditional lead gen workflow, it creates an accelerated path for prospects to progress through the funnel. If you are able to activate direct engagement in conversation, traditional marketing funnels and intent data can be bypassed. 

So, curious to learn more about how to engage with your prospects from third-party content? Click the button below now and experience the magic for yourself. 

The post Activate the ‘Dark Funnel’ and unlock fresh leads in this new channel appeared first on Search Engine Land.

The stakes are high for marketers today to adapt and scale their operations. Trends like the hybrid work shift and the looming metaverse have cemented our digital reality while workforce and customer demands continue to escalate and create new challenges. As a result, it’s never been more perplexing for CMOs to manage and grow their organizations effectively.

Yet, many do not realize there is one overlooked issue that’s seriously costing their organizations—one that, if addressed, could significantly enhance their business: poor communication.

That’s what new research by Grammarly and The Harris Poll found. The “State of Business Communication” survey of business leaders and knowledge workers reveals that poor workplace communication is a pervasive problem burdening businesses and employees alike. In fact, the study estimates a $1.2 trillion annual loss among U.S. businesses due to poor communication—or approximately $12,506 per employee every year.

The findings are especially relevant for communications-heavy teams like marketing as they engage with each other, buyers, and customers across new digital touchpoints and channels. And while the cost alone is staggering, the findings go much deeper—illuminating the far-ranging impacts of ineffective communication today and the need to fundamentally rethink productivity and engagement in the workplace.

Let’s take a closer look at what the research reveals and the implications for marketers to succeed in the next era.

Boost productivity and profitability with effective communication

Effective communication across teams, customers, and prospects is essential as workplace demands evolve. Nearly all business leaders surveyed (93%) acknowledge that effective communication is the backbone of their business. From emails to documents to pings, employees report spending almost 20 hours a week (19.93) on written communication alone—or half of the typical 40-hour workweek. 

At the same time, the research suggests poor communication is rampant in the workplace—with direct effects on business results. Nearly three in four business leaders (72%) say their team struggled with communicating effectively over the last year. Moreover, they estimate teams lose the equivalent of nearly an entire workday each week (7.47) due to poor communication issues such as resolving unclear communications or following up on asks.

That’s up to a fifth of employees’ time that they could reclaim with better communication. The consequences of not addressing the issue are significant: Over nine in 10 business leaders say poor communication impacts productivity, morale, and growth, citing impacts such as increased costs, missed or extended deadlines, and reputational erosion. One in five leaders even reported losing business or deals due to poor communication.

As CMOs look to scale, overcoming the impact of poor communication is pivotal to achieving growth and profitability.

Deliver an exceptional employee experience with better communication

Beyond the direct cost benefits, the indirect advantages of improving communication are just as critical to business success.

In particular, leaders have a new urgency to improve the employee experience as record numbers of workers continue leaving their jobs. The Grammarly and Harris Poll data shows most business leaders (57%) cited employee satisfaction and retention as a top priority this year, even ahead of team productivity and customer satisfaction.

But the findings also reveal links between poor communication and employee morale and turnover. The majority of employees (86%) experience communication issues at work, and they report increased stress as the top impact. Those experiencing miscommunications multiple times a day are more likely to feel stressed. Leaders reporting higher employee retention are also more likely to have better communication.

Any breakdowns in the communication process slow down and frustrate employees, with domino effects on productivity, engagement, and the customer experience. As workforce needs continue to evolve, improving communication with greater clarity and empathy and nurturing confidence among employees are imperative.

Harness new tools to underpin the digital workplace

Nearly two years into the shift to remote and hybrid work, teams still don’t have the tools they need for success in a digital environment. Despite all the time they spend communicating, the research shows leaders (88%) and employees (63%) alike wish they had better tools to communicate effectively.

In particular, written communication takes up much of employees’ day-to-day. Over half (57%) say they communicate in a written format most of the time, and email remains the most popular and preferred method, ahead of virtual video meetings and text-based chat. Teams may also be interacting more than leaders even know: They estimate their teams spend 29% of their time collaborating with others when employees say it’s nearly half their time (49%).

A more dispersed workplace creates more opportunities for misunderstanding, and CMOs must rethink technology investments to equip teams to stay in sync and productive. AI and automated technologies are available that can help augment and optimize teams’ communication in all the places they’re already working. Platform-agnostic solutions, like AI communication assistance from Grammarly Business, integrate into existing systems and channels to enhance the quality and efficiency of communication across the board.

By revisiting lagging technology, CMOs can recapture the time lost to poor communication while delivering more impactful engagement with customers and employees.

The bottom line

Now more than ever, effective communication is the linchpin of organizations that can determine their performance. CMOs can no longer afford to ignore the cost of poor communication—those that invest in building better practices, bridging communication gaps at every level, and empowering teams with the right tools will see their businesses reach new heights.

________

The “State of Business Communication” report is based on a survey conducted online by The Harris Poll in October 2021 among 1,001 knowledge workers and 251 business leaders in the U.S.

For complete methodology and more findings on the high cost and business impact of poor workplace communication, download the report, “The State of Business Communication: The Backbone of Business Is Broken,” and visit www.grammarly.com/business. 

This article was written by Dorian Stone, head of organizations revenue, Grammarly.

The post The cost of bad communication is skyrocketing — what CMOs need to know appeared first on Search Engine Land.

CallRail just released its 2022 Outlook for Digital Marketing Agencies. The good news: “2021 was a good year for agencies, and 2022 is looking even brighter,” said Mary Pat Donnellon, chief revenue officer at CallRail. 

“The report highlights the areas of success agencies saw last year and reveals what challenges they expect to face in 2022 and beyond. With client acquisition a key concern, agencies are utilizing — or plan to utilize in the near future — the latest marketing trends, like conversational marketing and artificial intelligence, to bring in new clients and keep their momentum going.” 

The study surveyed over 500 individuals employed full-time at U.S.-based marketing agencies to also determine how client expectations are projected to change in 2022 and which marketing trends agencies are currently implementing to bolster client acquisition. 

Key findings from the research include: 

2021 saw extensive growth for marketing agencies 

Marketing agencies made big gains in 2021. Respondents said their agencies experienced an average of 54% revenue growth in 2021, with 95% saying their agency met its 2021 revenue goals. 

Much of this success was due to accelerated client growth: 83% of respondents said their agency surpassed its 2021 goals for client growth. With more clients under their belts than ever before, agencies are feeling optimistic about what 2022 has in store for them. 

2022 will see even more growth – and new challenges

A whopping 99% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in revenue in 2022, and CallRail’s data shows agencies project to experience an average of 68% revenue growth this year. 

Revenue won’t be the only thing getting a boost, however: 85% of respondents said they expect their agency to grow in size in 2022, with hiring new employees emerging as a top priority to keep up with the influx of new clients. 

But this growth doesn’t come without its challenges. Respondents expect hiring and client retention to be more difficult in 2022 than in 2021, but the biggest emergent challenge will be client acquisition. 82% of respondents said this will be more challenging in 2022 than in 2021. 

Why is client acquisition keeping agencies up at night, and what can they do to rise to the challenge? 

Agencies should adopt the latest marketing trends to meet changing expectations 

CallRail’s data reveals that client expectations when choosing an agency are changing. Over the next five years, 98% of respondents believe clients will want to see agencies offer more comprehensive services; 85% said clients will want to see more diverse clientele, and 82% said clients will want to see more specialization. 

To keep up with these new expectations, agencies must evolve with the times. Agencies have been quick to adopt the latest marketing trends and those who haven’t yet plan to do so in the future. Conversational marketing, artificial intelligence (AI), and zero-click searches have emerged as the latest and greatest ways for agencies to bring in new clients. 

The research found that 62% of responding agencies have already implemented conversational marketing. 44% of agencies have already implemented AI, and 39% have implemented zero-click searches. Of those who haven’t yet, 20% plan to utilize conversational marketing, 21% plan to introduce AI, and 30% plan to implement zero-click searches in the next year. 

Choosing not to take advantage of these trends appears to be a detriment to marketing agencies: those that did not meet their 2021 revenue goals were 27% less likely than average to have already implemented AI. Agencies that wish to succeed in 2022 and beyond must adapt and use every tool at their disposal to acquire new clients. 

Client relationships are changing too

Massive growth across the board will also change how agencies handle their client relationships. Right now, reporting is the name of the game. 86% of respondents said reporting is an essential part of client services, with agencies spending an average of 56 hours per week on reporting. 

CallRail’s data suggests reporting may be key to client growth, as those who didn’t meet their 2021 client growth goals were 15% less likely than average to say reporting is an essential part of their client services. 

But agencies that met and surpassed their client growth goals will have to adapt in order to accommodate their new client load. 95% of respondents said they believe how their agency handles client relationships will change in the next five years as they continue to grow. Of those, 89% said less time will be spent on reporting. 

“The marketplace is constantly changing, and so too are client expectations when choosing a marketing agency,” said Donnellon. 

“CallRail’s research shows that taking advantage of the latest marketing trends and rethinking how they approach client relationships will set agencies up for success in 2022 and the years to come.” 

To learn more about how CallRail’s platform can help marketing agencies and the clients they serve optimize their marketing spend, click here and try it free.

The post Secrets of marketing agency success appeared first on Search Engine Land.

It goes without saying that the past year has been a time of momentous change for marketers. In previous articles, I addressed how CMOs and leaders have had to navigate an array of emerging trends, from new digital demands and customer preferences to growing workforce dispersion and diversity. These shifts have undoubtedly reshaped the marketing landscape as we know it and led leaders to seek new operating models and digital solutions to keep pace.

Now, as ongoing global disruption ushers in a new digital and hybrid era, it’s time for leaders to embrace that there’s no turning back. According to McKinsey, the future of work is hybrid, and Forrester dubbed 2022 the “year to be bold” as demands only grow stronger. Strategic marketing leaders must reshape their agenda in line with these new realities to find success this year.

So, where should leaders focus as they reenvision their organizations for the road ahead? Let’s look at the top four areas leaders must prioritize to gain a competitive advantage in 2022:

1. The cost of ineffective communication: Overcome the growing business impact of poor communication to adapt and scale.

Success in a digital workplace requires agility to reinvent operations, but one essential—and overlooked—factor hinders marketers from driving growth: ineffective communication.

In fact, new data released by Grammarly and The Harris Poll estimates U.S. businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion annually due to poor workplace communication—or $12,506 per employee every year. This is especially true for communications-heavy functions like marketing. And now, evolving workforce and customer demands are continuing to amplify the impact of poor communication across organizations.

From the surge of e-commerce and omnichannel to the rapid adoption of new digital tools, brands and customers are showing up and interacting in more ways and places than ever before. In this landscape, achieving clear, compelling, and consistent communication—no matter the channel or context—is critical for both productivity and engagement.

By building a foundation of effective communication internally and externally, leaders will build resilience to grow faster, control costs, and create reimagined experiences for customers and employees alike.

2. CX as a growth driver: Address ongoing market disruptors by delivering exceptional experiences that balance quality and efficiency.

New market disruptions are driving a renewed focus on the brand and customer experience, at a time when it’s increasingly critical to business success.

As consumer spending continues to overwhelm supply chains, experts predict that inflation and higher prices will continue to worsen. This will lead to a far higher bar in customer expectations to pay those prices. In response, CX will reach a critical turning point this year as business and marketing leaders must double down on the customer experience to justify rising costs and keep pace with demands.

Success for brands will come down to a delicate balance of meeting customer expectations with both quality and efficiency—i.e., keeping up with high spending patterns while delivering a better, more consistent experience. Leaders must overcome unwanted brand variability across channels and equip teams with the right tools to quickly and consistently meet customer needs.

Those who deliver consistently compelling experiences will gain an advantage so that when supply chains normalize, they’ve cemented a loyal customer base.

3. The rise of employee empowerment: Engage employees—and customers—by building an empowered work environment that promotes confidence.

Marketers can no longer ignore that the employee and customer experience are inextricably linked. Successful CX depends on first building engaged, productive teams who effectively represent the brand.

But from the “Great Resignation” that shows no signs of slowing down to increasing globalization creating more cross-cultural teams, it’s never been more challenging to engage and retain all employees. In a world where employees have increasing choice, delivering exceptional employee experiences will become a foremost differentiator. In fact, research shows business leaders are prioritizing employee satisfaction and retention this year—ahead of team productivity and customer satisfaction. 

Leaders that deliver a new, location-agnostic approach to EX—i.e., reinventing experiences to be engaging and seamless, no matter the location or context—will come out ahead. Employee empowerment will be at the core of this approach as leaders must embrace new tools and strategies designed to enhance employees’ potential, grow their confidence, and help them be more productive wherever they are.

This focus on empowerment will underpin the digital workplace, lead to new customer and brand experiences, and redefine productivity with experience at the center. 

4. Empathy as an imperative: Prioritize the human connection to meet customer and employee needs.

In many ways, the constraints of the past two years often made interactions more impersonal and transactional. This lack of human connection has left customers and employees alike desiring more empathy and emotionally sensitive support from employers and brands.

But that’s a daunting task when paired with the shift to a hybrid workplace and influx of digital touchpoints that have cropped up in recent months. This leaves marketers with a dual challenge: Keep pace with the sheer amount of interactions happening across systems while delivering higher quality in all of those engagements.

In response, leaders must invest in empathy in the workplace as a strategic business priority. Human-centric technologies play a vital role in this process by helping teams move faster while maintaining the humanity of a brand. With automated and integrated solutions like communication augmentation platforms, leaders can infuse more of a human touch, strike the right tone, and create more genuine connections with employees and customers in all the places they’re already engaging.

___________

As we tread forward, CMOs and marketing leaders must embrace that uncertainty is the only constant they can expect. As Forrester emphasized, the time to be bold is now—and tremendous opportunity awaits for those who reimagine the status quo.

By focusing on the above areas—investing in effective communication, delicately balancing new customer and employee needs, and prioritizing empathy and human connection—marketers will be well-poised to adapt and grow this year and beyond.

___________

For more on how to reimagine success in the hybrid-work era and the business impact of poor communication, download the report, “The State of Business Communication: The Backbone of Business Is Broken,” and visit www.grammarly.com/business. 

This sponsored article was written by Dorian Stone, head of organizations revenue, Grammarly.

The post CMOs, put these 4 trends at the top of your agenda for success this year appeared first on Search Engine Land.

You’ve worked hard to turn the engagement from your recent marketing campaign into leads. Once your suspects have become prospects who’ve finally reached the scoring threshold, you toss the leads over the proverbial wall for sales to work. Later, you learn that after an initial push, your warm marketing leads have gone cold. This is because sales prioritized their list over the leads you sent to them. Moreover, sales doesn’t want you to do any marketing to their prioritized list because you lack the context of the relationships they are actively cultivating. This results in them not sharing data with you.

Misaligned goals. Poor execution due to a lack of communication. A dearth of shared, reliable data. All of it culminates in low trust between the two teams. It’s an illustration of the kind of scenario that can cause a deep divide between sales and marketing. And it impacts revenue.

So what do you do? Let’s take a look at how to fix the funnel.

Use a Buying Group Marketing strategy

According to Forrester, 94% of B2B purchasing decisions are made by buying groups and not individuals. Using a traditional Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach these days is not enough. You have to go more granular to reach the right contacts. You have to go to the buying group.

Buying Group Marketing (BGM) focuses on engaging the key decision-makers inside your target accounts. This approach is about continually monitoring sentiment and engagement with buying groups within your target accounts to curate marketing and sales experiences accordingly. For instance, a finance buying group member likely has different concerns than an IT buying group member. Your content, creative, and delivery should be designed around that.

While traditional solutions have not been sophisticated enough to reliably identify and engage with buying groups, new technologies are emerging that measure probabilities of conversion for the group. Influ2’s Person-Based Advertising solution is a BGM enabler. Person-Based Advertising allows you not only to capture buyer engagement at an individual and buying group level. The score indicates how ripe the individuals are for outreach. This data can then be operationalized through the funnel and in existing workflows through platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and Outreach. This allows marketers to notify sales about the engagement activity of the contacts they care most about.

Rethink the MQL

In the life of a lead, the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is typically the link where ‘ownership’ passes from the hands of marketing into the hands of sales. Marketing and sales often work independently on either side of the MQL wall.

Marketing casts the content net wide into the sea of possible prospects. Sales goes narrow, addressing specific needs and hot buttons of individuals. When the lead is qualified by marketing, it passes from one world to the next—broad to narrow.

If the MQL is the main KPI you report on as a marketer, it’s not enough. Imagine a world where sales and marketing could work together throughout the entire life cycle of the lead—from initial awareness to closed deal. Getting rid of the MQL would unify the funnel into one holistic buyer’s journey where sales and marketing activities are not separate concepts but rather a well-coordinated effort targeting the entire buying group. It uses all the tools in the toolbox with surgical precision. A holistic effort such as this focuses on the buyer’s experience. A Buying Group Engagement score is a sales and marketing shared metric that could help to better align the teams and provide valuable insight to push the entire account across the finish line.

Our data shows that engaged buying groups get approximately a 2.5x boost in conversion rates on average versus non-engaged buying groups. Marketing that results in engagement at the sales development stage is priceless. In fact, one of our clients who targeted advertising at buying groups even deep in the funnel had great results. Buying groups that engaged with their advertising at the ‘demo stage’ had a 1.5x increase in conversion and at the ‘evaluation stage’ had a 2x increase in conversion.

This is a whole new way of working!

Sales and marketing teams working together

In many companies marketing and sales alignment begins and ends with a joint meeting to define an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) so that teams target the right prospects. While BGM requires sales and marketing collaboration through the entire funnel, it’s also especially important messaging is aligned through each stage of the journey.

Without an MQL, the sales development team can prioritize the buying group engagement to hold warm conversations. But keep in mind that while priority goes to buying group engagement, any engagement with marketing effort is a sign of interest. If a target clicks on your ad, there is interest, so salespeople should be aware of every click.

At a high level, working together includes:

• Aligning on strategy, covering areas such as buying group architecture and approaches, personas, personalization, and privacy.
• Creating a relevant experience: from copy to creative from awareness to closed deals, handcrafting buyer experiences to reach prospects as individuals and not types.
• Shared metrics: aligning marketing and sales metrics to end results and each other.

In the end, fixing the broken sales-marketing funnel will drive a different way of working.

It will require a much closer orchestration of activities through the funnel, one where everyone has a clear understanding and agreement about strategy, target audience, and the ideal customer profile. One where operationally, your systems are aligned to your strategy to keep the data flowing. You must define what types of data are critical to your business and what parts of the process you can automate. And you must have regular communication between sales and marketing teams to ensure that you carefully design and administer around the journey, putting the customer where they should be—in the center.

If you would like to learn more about how to implement a Buying Group Marketing strategy, please contact us.

The post How to fix the broken sales-marketing lead funnel appeared first on Search Engine Land.