01 Aug 2019
Best Practices, Content, Marvel Marketing Minute Permalink

Marvel Marketing Minute – For the Love of Superheroes, Add Some Excitement to Your Content!

August 1, 2019

Let’s take a quick trip back in time to 1986…

Remember Ben Stein’s character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? He was, quite possibly, the most boring teacher to ever exist on the planet. His students stared blankly into space, tried to fight off naps, and even drooled on their desks. 

Here in 2019, there’s plenty of digital content that evokes the same responses. But unlike high school students, prospects and customers aren’t forced to listen to you until the bell rings. Unless you grab attention right out of the gate, people are going to click the “Back” button faster than Ben Stein can say, “Anyone? Anyone?”

So how do you inject some much-needed excitement into your content—without being cheesy and over-the-top? 

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29 Jul 2019
Content, Marketing Automation, Optimization Permalink

Are They Ready to Buy? Breaking Down the 4 Pieces of the Engaged Intent Puzzle

July 29, 2019

Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew which visitors to your website, which subscribers on your email list, and which followers on your social media pages were most ready to do business with you? 

If you think you need a crystal ball to figure this out, think again. What you really need is a way to measure engaged intent.

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25 Jul 2019
Content, Marvel Marketing Minute Permalink

Marvel Marketing Minute – Your Transactional Emails Can Be a Powerful Relationship-Builder

July 25, 2019

If you’ve ever bought or signed up for anything online, you’ve received a transactional email. Things like order confirmations, account creation confirmations, and shipping confirmations are all vital responses to doing business on the web. They’re so vital, in fact, that they receive 8 times as many opens as “regular” marketing emails.

With all of those extra opens, wouldn’t it be nice to get some extra engagement out of them? 

Transactional emails can be a valuable tool for building relationships and boosting revenue, but most organizations overlook them. Here are 4 ways that you can buck the trend and take full advantage of them:

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22 Jul 2019
Brand Awareness, Lead Generation, Marketing Automation, Social Media Permalink

Marketing 2020 – A Superhero’s Guide to Strategizing for Tomorrow’s Success Today

July 22, 2019

It may be the dog days of summer, but 2020 should already be on your mind. It’s time to dig through their 2019 stats, read up on the latest trends, try to decipher the latest and greatest ideas from the marketing visionaries—all on a quest to figure out the perfect strategy. There are so many technologies emerging, so the challenge we face is looking at what worked last year, what is on it’s way out, and what new technology holds a promise of more demand.

As we move into 2020, marketers will continue to try to engage their prospects on more meaningful levels, building conversations geared toward gathering more data to empower them to push the right content at the right time. 

So how do we start a conversation and keep it going?  

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18 Jul 2019
Marketing Automation, Marvel Marketing Minute Permalink

Marvel Marketing Minute – Harness the Power of Real-Time Acquisition Channel Dashboards in SFDC by Using UTMs

July 18, 2019

Hoolicon, your company’s largest event, is coming back in 2020!  Your marketing team is going full force to promote this event through marketing emails, sales outreach, telemarketing, direct mail, and so much more.

With all of the various acquisition channels you’re using to promote this event, you’ll want to track them using UTMs (short for “Urchin Tracking Module”) in your URLs. Otherwise, you’ll have no idea which channels led to which signups.

But how do we capture all of that data onto one screen for an easy visual that’s ready to share with your company’s executive team?

The answer is simple! Create one “Acquisition Channels” SFDC dashboard.

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15 Jul 2019
Education, Marketing Automation Permalink

Want to Excel at Marketo? Get Marvel Marketers Bootcamp Certified!

July 15, 2019

Did you have a New Year resolution to learn something new? It may be July, but it’s never too late! In fact, a desire to keep learning is one of the basic traits of the very best marketers. 

Marketo can be incredibly difficult and frustrating when you are using it without any training. There are so many ways to set up smart campaigns and build programs, but if you don’t have the basic knowledge about the platform, you may be missing critical steps or missing out on all of the advanced reports that represent your hard work. I recommend doing what I did—going through the Professor M’s Academy Bootcamps to get yourself up to speed. 

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08 Jul 2019
Best Practices, Brand Awareness, Content, Lead Generation Permalink

Nope, Print Marketing Collateral Isn’t Extinct – Take Advantage of Its Distinct Benefits

July 8, 2019

Back in 2000, the average American spent 9.4 hours online each week. Now, that number has ballooned to 23.6 hours per week. A whopping 84% of people access the internet from their smartphone, and 62% of people believe that the internet is an important tool for maintaining social relationships.

But if you think this digital revolution has made print marketing collateral go the way of the Dodo Bird, think again.

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01 Jul 2019
Best Practices, Marketing Automation Permalink

Systems in Control Part 2 – Sync The Right Way

July 1, 2019

How long should salespeople wait for marketing-qualified leads to appear in their queues?  How long should marketers wait for CRM updates to reflect in Marketo? The answer varies from business to business, but most of them seek to bring this number to as close to zero as possible. Of course, the practical delay time may lie somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes.

The first blog post in my “Systems in Control” series listed some simple ways to keep your Marketo instance running with minimal or no delays. As the next installment in this series, today’s post explains the different Marketo best practices for synchronizing to CRMs. 

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27 Jun 2019
Best Practices, Marvel Marketing Minute, Optimization Permalink

Marvel Marketing Minute – Creating the Best Subject Line Split-Tests

June 27, 2019

Is there anything more groan-worthy than trying to come up with perfect subject line? This is your one chance to make the perfect first impression, but you only have a limited number of characters to work with and there are a million other emails competing for attention in your subscriber’s inbox. Without a great subject line, your emails will never get opened—and if they never get opened, they’ll never get clicks.

The best way to tackle all of this subject line stress? Split-testing. To create split-tests that generate actionable results, follow these 3 tips:

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