Best Free Online Marketing Guide For Online Entrepreneur

In the early 2000s, B2B marketers began using account-based marketing (ABM). It was a new approach to engaging and converting high-value prospect accounts. Today, ABM is a commonly-used tactic that many businesses leverage to close opportunities with prospects and upsell to existing customers. But what is ABM and how, when, and why should you use it?  Let’s start with the “why.” Recent survey data indicates that 91% of respondents claim accounts won through ABM have a larger average deal size. They also report that a quarter of those deals are at least 50% larger than non-ABM deals.(1) Moreover, as far back as 2016, companies using ABM were generating 208% more revenue for their marketing efforts.(2) That number is certainly higher today as ABM continues to grow.  What is account-based marketing? Instead of casting a broad net in hopes of capturing more leads, account-based marketers work with sales to identify and reach out to prospects that are the best possible fit for...

This article was originally published on Entrepreneur.com . As an entrepreneur, you spend a lot of time working on new ideas and business, solving problems, and creating something out of nothing. Sometimes the path is pretty straightforward. Other times it may feel like you are up against something no one has ever gone through or solved before. Regardless of where you are on your path, it’s always helpful to pick up some wisdom, practical information, or just a different perspective from your fellow entrepreneurs. With that in mind, here’s a shortlist of titles—a few familiar ones and some hidden gems—that offer timely insights and perspectives for entrepreneurs in 2020.  1.  The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work by Scott Berkun Its whimsical title notwithstanding, the book provides helpful insights on restructuring companies for completely remote work. It’s an easy read that takes you behind-the-scenes at WordPress.com (Automattic, Inc), as the comp...

Selecting the right CRM for your midsize business can seem like an overwhelming responsibility.  After all, you’ve grown beyond startup mode, which means you can’t just pick the first system that you come across. Your company has far too many stakeholders, departments, and moving parts. On the other hand, you’re not a massive enterprise with unlimited financial resources and in-house IT expertise. You’re somewhere in between.  Before going any further in the CRM selection process, ask yourself these four important questions. 1. Do other midsize companies use this CRM? Most software companies—CRM vendors included—are well aware of their ideal custom profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas. Marketers use these ICPs and personas to craft messaging that creates alignment throughout the buyer journey . Spend a few minutes on a vendor’s website with this in mind, and you’ll quickly learn if your company fits the mold.  For example, imagine that a vendor touts itself as the “CR...

Business-to-business (B2B) sale organizations started transitioning to digital business models years ago. A digital business model generates value for customers through the use of digital technology to drive business operations. This technology provides extensive, actionable insight that leverages data to drive better decision-making . At the center of digital transformation is customer relationship management (CRM) software. The proliferation of CRM software today illustrates this point. The value of the global CRM market grew from $15.4 billion (USD) in 2016 to $40.2 billion in 2019. That’s a dramatic 260% increase in three years. Experts predict that growth to continue at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% between 2020 and 2027.(1)   We’re now seeing “unified CRM platforms” emerge as early CRM technology evolves. Unified CRMs incorporate additional business functions, such marketing automation, into a CRM platform without the need to manually sync sales and mar...

Oftentimes C-level executives are the ones calling the shots on selecting a CRM, even though they’re rarely the ones who use the system on a daily basis. As a result, CRM decisions are frequently made based purely on vendor name recognition rather than business fit. As a CRM power user, this puts you in a difficult spot. On the one hand, you need the best CRM technology to successfully perform your job. On the other hand, disagreeing with your boss (or your boss’ boss) is not an enviable position. This article offers tips for using data and real-world evidence to challenge flawed assumptions about finding the right fit for your CRM tech stack, while recognizing the political dynamics of a company. Assumption 1: “Users just want leadership to make the decision” This assumption wrongly presupposes that staff do not possess the proper experiences or perspectives to participate in the CRM decision-making process. After all, selecting a CRM is a multifaceted endeavor that impacts numer...

With the advent of new technologies, businesses no longer have to guess which leads are worth pursuing and which leads have turned cold. In this post we discuss two kinds of lead scoring processes—traditional and predictive lead scoring—and how each can transform your business’s marketing and sales systems from the inside out.  A refresher on lead scoring The use of lead scoring in your business cannot be underestimated. Lead scoring simply means the process of assigning scores for each of your leads. The score is determined by several factors, such as demographics, the way leads interact with your business through various marketing channels, and the probability of their conversion into a paying customer.  The lead scores can fall on a negative or positive side of the scale, in other words, how more or less likely they are to convert. Once you identify the lead scores, you can identify the current top customers.  Your top customers are your net promoters, and they ar...

Companies switch CRMs for a variety of reasons. Boosting user adoption, eliminating data silos, accelerating growth, and saving overhead costs are just a few examples. Despite the compelling reasons to switch , organizations frequently settle for the status quo. The simple truth is that switching CRMs can feel risky and costly. And, without the right data, staying put usually feels like the safest choice. But is it the best choice?  Here are tips for using data to make an informed technology decision. Use data to establish a baseline value of your current CRM Before you can forecast the potential gains of switching CRMs, you must accurately assess the current situation. Your current CRM can be an excellent source of objective business intelligence.  User activity data Activity reports provide transparency into how staff actually use your CRM. Email volume and task completion reports are common examples. Ideally, each user should consistently use the system on a daily ba...

Evolving customer expectations are transforming how every brand interacts with customers and prospects. Nowadays, people aren’t just looking for what product or service to buy, but they also take into account the overall customer experience and engagement.  73% of customers say that a positive experience with one company raises their expectations of other companies.(1) In order to improve your customer engagement, you should first pay close attention to the social, economic, and cultural events and trends that are impacting customer behavior and expectations today. Here are five trends that are changing customer engagement today. 1. Call for brand authenticity & transparency Social media plays a big role in social movements. People are using the platform to fight for what they believe in, hoping to make a change. As they do, they expect brands to listen, be sensitive to current events, and ultimately participate and show their support.   A very recent example i...

This article was originally published on  Forbes .    In the new post-pandemic world, businesses have had to rethink operations, culture, and even customer relationships to ensure survival and continued growth. For many businesses this has meant a rapid digital transformation. Based on my experience as a tech CEO and business leader, here are a few insights to help you continue that digital transformation in three key areas of your business. Business operations Whether you had to introduce an online sales channel, transition your team to a fully remote work , or rethink your digital ad campaigns—you had to rely heavily on technology to implement changes.  Now you have to shift focus to better preparing your business for future disruptions and growth. Your new strategy should include careful consideration of how and where your valuable business data is stored, so you can better measure progress towards your goals, assess risks, and take a proactive data-driven a...

In today’s digital era, the web is saturated with content. From blogs and news sites to company websites, web content is produced at a staggering rate. Let’s look at WordPress to put this into perspective. WordPress users publish roughly 70 million new blog posts per month—that’s around 2.5 million new blog posts per day.(1) And WordPress accounts for less than 50% of site hosting. With that level of content volume, search engine optimization (SEO) is a necessary evil. But which content strategy should you use and why?   As writers, we have learned to write for people. It’s what we’ve done for millennia. We are inspired to tell interesting stories, pass knowledge, and/or entertain our readers. But content saturation complicates things, and when writing for business especially, we have to adapt our work (enter SEO content) to actually reach our target customers and broader audience.  So how do you find a balance between writing content that solves problems and provides v...

This article was originally published on Destination CRM . Now that we’re several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are settling into their new workdays at home and may even be getting into a routine at this point. While even health experts are unable to put a timetable on a return to “normal,” the day will come when the pandemic is a memory and we’re living in a business environment that might be “back to normal” in thought, if not in practice. It’s important to use some time now, before the shift happens, to think through the transition plan for what coming out of this phase looks like—taking all facets of your business into account. Revaluate culture & what “returning to work” looks like While you’ll likely have very little agency in the timetable of when you will be able to return to your office, you can, and should, take the time to figure out what that return looks like for your organization. When everyone is finally allowed back, it will look very different...