Salesforce: The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing

The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing How to optimize your campaigns and drive more revenue.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………….......3 CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………….....32 Be a better B2B marketer. Be better at email marketing. Get a glimpse into the challenges of modern B2B Learn how to build a successful email program from marketing — plus a first look at the best practices, start to finish, and optimize your messages for the tips, and advice this e-book provides. inbox. CHAPTER ONE……………………………………………….......4 CHAPTER FIvE……………………………………………….......43 Be better at lead generation. Be better at content marketing. Learn how to generate high-quality leads with Learn to create and implement an effective strategy marketing automation features like landing pages, that promotes and tracks B2B marketing content. forms, and progressive profiling. CHAPTER SIx………………………………………………..........55 CHAPTER TwO……………………………………………………13 Be better at webinars and events. Be better at lead qualification. Make the most of your B2B marketing events Be able to distinguish between lead scoring and lead investment. grading, and learn why you need both. CHAPTER SEvEN………………………………………………...64 CHAPTER THREE………………………………………………22 Be better at social media. Be better at lead nurturing. Optimize your social media accounts by planning a Depending on your level of experience, this chapter social content strategy, building a following, and setting can help you lay the groundwork for successful (and reaching) goals. nurturing campaigns or help you improve the processes you already have in place. CHAPTER EIGHT……………………………………………….....72 Be better at ROI reporting. Get a quick overview of closed-loop reporting and a list of valuable ROI metrics to track. 2 / Pardot

INTRODUCTION intro Be a better B2B marketer. In early 2015, Salesforce conducted a survey of more than Whether you’re building a B2B marketing strategy from the 2,100 global marketers to better understand the current ground up or you’re working to perfect the strategy you state of B2B marketing. The results proved that B2B already have in place, you’ll find valuable insights on how to: marketers are as time-strapped as ever, and consistently grapple with three main challenges: new business • build effective and measurable lead generation development, lead quality, and lead generation. campaigns But that’s not all that B2B marketers have on their plates. • qualify and assign leads to sales — at the right time The emphasis on a more cohesive, personalized selling • increase the value of your database using targeted process is growing, leading many marketers to increase nurturing programs their investments in technologies that can help them • create engaging emails that resonate with your target create 1:1 buying experiences. Marketers now own more of audience the lead-to-revenue cycle than ever and are responsible • develop a content strategy that supports your overall for engaging with buyers throughout the entire customer business goals lifecycle. • build a webinar and event marketing strategy from In an increasingly digital and data-driven world, this the ground up means more than well-timed emails and the occasional • engage with your target audiences over social media clever Tweet. Marketers need to think bigger — and this in an authentic way e-book can help. • report on the success of your marketing initiatives The following chapters will guide B2B marketers through Start your journey to becoming an even better B2B marketer. the eight main pillars of digital marketing, with checklists Let’s dive in! and worksheets provided at the end of each chapter. 3 / Pardot

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CHAPTER ONE one Be better at lead generation. B2B marketers are facing an ever-increasing demand how marketing automation features like landing pages, for more high-quality leads. In fact, according to B2B forms, and progressive profiling can help marketers boost Technology Marketing Community, marketers’ lead the effectiveness of their lead generation programs. generation budgets have increased 50% since 2013, demonstrating the growing number of resources that CReATInG effeCTIve LAnDInG PAGeS marketers are investing in lead generation initiatives. Landing pages are a key ingredient in lead generation, In the B2C world, lead generation typically starts and but building the perfect landing page isn’t always easy. It ends in the same place: the purchase. On the other requires a great deal of testing and analyzing — combined hand, B2B marketers with long, complex sales cycles with eye-catching visuals and persuasive copy — to build look at conversion as getting a visitor to fill out a a landing page that will not only decrease bounce rates, form in exchange for something of value, such as a but will also increase conversions and the amount of time white paper, a product demo, or a free consultation. visitors spend interacting with you. The purchase may be months — or even years — away. Landing pages with hosted forms are often the Historically, landing pages were primarily used for basic de facto method for these conversions, which is why data collection, but today their usage has evolved. now, optimization is so crucial to the sales and marketing landing pages can be used as launch pads to drive process. visitors deeper into your site, directing them to more valuable content. With tools like marketing automation at According to a 2015 study by Regalix, 84% of your disposal, you can create landing pages, forms, copy, marketing executives indicate that lead generation is and calls-to-action that are optimized for that purpose: the number one benefit of a marketing automation to keep your visitors engaged on your site, even after tool. The first chapter of our guide takes a look at they’ve already converted. 4 / Pardot

So where do you begin? SIGHTLINES AND COPY It’s important to keep the following facts in mind when . Your buyers are Start with your value proposition designing your landing page for optimum engagement: faced with information overload and endless options, • Text is almost always scanned, and not read so their time is both limited and valuable. To break entirely. through the clutter and hold their attention, your offer needs to be both compelling and persuasive. • Greater focus is given to words in the top and Use strong calls-to-action and benefit-focused left side of the page. language to convey value, and be sure to keep the • Text is scanned in what’s called an f-pattern. focus on your buyers, not on you. According to nielsen norman Group, before a visitor To get more information about crafting the perfect leaves, they’ll read — at most — 28% of the words on a call-to-action, see the checklist at the end of this page. chapter. If you need more than a couple of short paragraphs of Create points of engagement. engagement on text on your landing page, make sure the first words in a landing page is a function of a few core items: those paragraphs give a clear indication of what they’re sightlines (where users look on the page), copy, about. If you can divide the content into sections, do so! calls-to-action, and images. Make sure you write concise headings to help scanning eyes find the information they’re searching for. 68% of B2B businesses use CALLS-TO-ACTION AND ImAGES landing pages to garner Placing your offer behind a form is an essential part of new sales leads for future generating leads, but it helps to include some value up conversion. front. experiment with calls-to-action and gated versus ungated content. Try gating your main offer behind a - MarketingSherpa form while still sharing an unprotected piece of content for free, like an infographic, video, or calculator. 5 / Pardot

This allows visitors to see the caliber of your content without having to give up any of their personal information first. You can (and should) still tease the downloadable asset using images on your landing pages. A good solution for this is to provide a small image of the white paper or demo that is being offered. This gives your visitors something tangible to look forward to and a much more compelling reason to convert. Check out our checklist at the end of this chapter to see what other elements you should include on your landing pages. Brag about your credibility. visitors who are not familiar with your company may be hesitant to enter their contact information, even in exchange for IMPROve COnveRSIOnS In 8 STePS. something of value. Including a few proof points can According to CMO Council, almost 80% of B2B go a long way toward establishing some credibility marketers aren’t satisfied with their current with your audience. examples you might use include: levels of customer conversions. Learn how to • Client testimonials join the 20%. • Client logos • Site security badges GET FREE E-BOOK • Ratings from Better Business Bureau and similar organizations • Awards and industry recognition

BUILDInG fUnCTIOnAL fORMS With landing pages, less is more. Companies that Follow best practices. Don’t just think about the number ask for more than a handful of data points in the of form fields; think about how they’re organized. Here first interaction with a visitor are encouraging form are some best practices for setting up and formatting abandonment. How can marketers use forms to collect your forms: prospect information without overwhelming their buyers? • If you have a short list of mutually exclusive options, use a radio button instead of a dropdown Decide what information to collect. One thing to keep menu. This helps users scan faster. in mind when it comes to forms: there is an inverse • Use checkboxes when users can select multiple relationship between the number of form fields and the values simultaneously or when giving a single form’s conversion rates. One of the biggest mistakes option that can be toggled on and off. that marketers make is asking too many questions on their forms. A general rule of thumb is to keep it to • When you need a single selection, but you have five fields or fewer, which means that you’ll need to more than a few options, use a dropdown menu. prioritize the most important information first. • Only select a default when you are confident that Because of the multi-touch nature of B2B sales, the vast majority of users will select that option, marketers shouldn’t panic if they can’t collect all of the and ensure it’s clearly labeled. information they want about a prospect during that first interaction. each touch point provides an opportunity • If your labels are beside your form fields, to collect more data and build up a prospect’s profile consider making them right-aligned for enhanced over time. If you have a marketing automation tool, you readability. If form length isn’t an issue, use top- can use progressive profiling to dynamically present alignment for even faster form-filling. users with new questions each time they access a form (while hiding fields that they’ve already completed). This lessens the burden on prospects, while still allowing you to collect the valuable information that the marketing and sales teams need to move forward. 7 / Pardot

GeT ReADY TO LAUnCH Once you’ve crafted your landing page copy, decided • Form fields: Try changing titles (like using on your offers, and added your form, it’s time to release department versus job title) or experimenting your landing page into the wild. However, the work with the formatting of your dropdown menus doesn’t stop there. It’s important to continually monitor and checkboxes your published landing page and optimize each element • Copy: Change up how your text is organized for greater success. (for example, using short paragraphs or bullet points) Test elements to improve conversions. The best way to measure landing page performance is to study data Fine-tune your thank you content. Remember, the compiled through A/B and multivariate testing. Using goal of a landing page is to continue to engage your a tool like marketing automation, you can test calls-to- leads and keep them on your site, even after they’ve action, offers, headlines, colors, and your teaser copy. already converted. Create a rich and engaging Keep in mind that users are voting with their mouse, experience after they submit the form. This thank giving you the insight needed to decide which landing you page can include additional content like videos, page will convert the best. case studies, and links to deeper resources on your site. Buyers will appreciate the fact that you still care At a loss for what to test? Try a few of the following: enough to provide them with additional information even after they’ve already converted — especially if • Headline: Keep it short and compelling; the you do so in a highly targeted way. headline should describe an immediate benefit to the reader. Take a look at the following pages for worksheets • Offer: experiment with white papers, demos, and checklists that can help you get the most out free consultations, and other content to see what of your lead generation efforts — then move onto prospects view as most valuable chapter two to learn more about qualifying the leads • Imagery: Try a picture of your white paper cover, that come in through your lead generation programs. a related illustration, or an image of your product • Form length: If you started with a lengthy form, try removing a few required fields and see if conversions improve. (Hint: They probably will.) 8 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Marketing Resources Library Use the chart below to keep track of all of your marketing collateral, including how it’s being used, the goal of each piece of content (brand awareness, product knowledge, or to support sales and help close deals), your call-to-action copy, and whether or not a landing page has been created. COnTenT nAMe GOAL Of COnTenT CTA COPY LAnDInG PAGe CReATeD? YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO YeS nO 9 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Landing Page Planning To keep track of all of your landing page efforts, use the worksheet below. fill out both versions A and B if you plan to conduct an A/B test for your landing page. veRSIOn A nAMe: CTA: IMAGe? LAnDInG PAGe COPY? AUTOReSPOnDeR? THAnK YOU PAGe? ReQUIReD fORM fIeLDS: veRSIOn B List the elements being tested and their alternative treatments. IMAGe: TeSTInG nOTeS: CTA: COPY: 10 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE The Landing Page Checklist Use the checklist below to make sure you’re not missing any steps when building your landing page. Communicate your value proposition. Your Create your form. Keep your forms short, using offer should be compelling, persuasive, and, no more than four fields where possible. You may most importantly, clear. Don’t confuse people also want to set up an autoresponder that will with multiple offers! deploy once the form is submitted. Clean up the clutter. Landing pages should Add an ungated piece of content. In addition be concise, easy to navigate, and free from to your gated content, consider adding a distractions. free item like a video or infographic to drive engagement. Limit scrolling. Scanning is common in today’s Leverage images and video. Your users will world, so you want your information and offer be overwhelmed by landing pages that are to be easy to find. If possible, keep your offer too text-heavy, so make sure you add in a few above the fold. images to hold their attention. Use your thank you page. Use your thank Add testimonials. This will lend your landing you page as an opportunity to upsell or page additional credibility while lessening the cross-sell other products, services, or hesitation that many users feel when handing content. This is a great chance to drive users over their personal information. deeper into your site. 11 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR The Call-to-Action Checklist Creating the right CTA can be tough, and there’s no set formula that will guarantee success. Here are a few general guidelines you can follow to keep yourself on the right track. Keep it short. Calls-to-action should be as Make CTAs obvious. Set your CTAs apart. They to-the-point as possible. should be easy to find, so consider differentiating via color or buttons. Don’t be bossy. Use commands, not Indicate urgency. Your users will be more demands. You want your CTAs to encourage tempted by offers they perceive to be available an action without sounding demanding. for a limited time only. Convey value. Tell users what they’re going to Test, test, test. Use A/B testing to decide which get, not what they need to do. CTAs perform the best, then optimize accordingly. 12 / Pardot

CHAPTER TwO two Be better at lead qualification. Today’s tracking tools and marketing technologies have When used properly together, automated lead scoring revealed one thing: cramming as many leads into the and grading can take the guesswork out of lead sales funnel as possible and hoping for the best is no qualification and assignment, streamlining your sales longer a viable approach to doing business. cycle and ensuring that your leads are better qualified and properly nurtured before they ever reach the sales Luckily, marketing automation uses a blended lead department. scoring and grading model to provide an elegant solution to lead qualification challenges. In this chapter, Let’s take a closer look at lead scoring and grading. In you’ll learn the basics and benefits of scoring and this chapter, we’ll examine how they differ, how they grading — and get several worksheets and checklists work, and why you need both. to help you build and optimize a scoring and grading model of your own. SCORING LEADS InTRODUCInG BLenDeD LeAD SCORInG A lead score, expressed as a numeric value, can tell AnD GRADInG you how interested a prospect is in your product. Leads are automatically assigned scores based on The process of sorting through incoming leads can their implicit buying signals (e.g., activity on your site be an immensely time-consuming task for marketing or their response to your online marketing), providing departments. Passing on the wrong leads to sales hard, objective data in an otherwise subjective sales wastes your sales reps’ time — plus, it puts a strain process. Prospects are assigned a score when they on the sales and marketing relationship. fortunately, respond to an offer and enter your database. They marketing automation offers a solution to the lead will continue to build on this score over time as they quality disagreements that often force these two teams interact with your brand. out of sync: blended lead scoring and grading. 13 / Pardot

for marketers, a lead score means that you can quickly A marketer must also measure explicit qualities before see the leads you have generated, prioritize them based passing leads on to sales or entering them into nurturing on score, and assign those that are most likely to become tracks to ensure that they fit the organization’s ideal opportunities to sales for follow-up. In order to ensure customer profile. Typical explicit parameters include: that leads don’t get passed on to sales prematurely, • Company size you can place any leads that do not pass a certain scoring threshold on a nurturing track before assigning • Industry them to sales reps. As these leads begin to respond to • Job title nurturing efforts and their scores increase, they can be • Department automatically assigned to sales for follow-up. (Read more • Other custom factors that shed light on a about this in the next chapter.) prospect’s profile for your sales reps, a lead score provides a concrete With marketing automation, marketers can set up a indication of lead engagement before they ever pick up customizable grading system that will tell them at a the phone, so your reps can feel confident that reaching glance if a lead fits their ideal prospect profile, allowing out will be well worth their time. Scoring can also go a them to consider prospect fit in conjunction with their long way toward relieving tensions between sales and accumulated score. marketing by establishing a concrete, objective system for lead qualification. PUTTInG LeAD QUALIfICATIOn TO WORK GRADING LEADS ON ExPLICIT FACTORS Despite being one of the most powerful features of While a lead’s score tells you how interested they are in marketing automation, the lead scoring and grading your company, their grade (expressed as a letter, A-f) model is also one of the most difficult topics to talk tells you how interested you should be. Measuring a lead’s about — simply because your ideal lead qualification interest based on implicit buying signals only tells half of model will ultimately depend on your product, industry, the story. What if your most active lead is just a curious and buyer personas. Many marketing automation intern and has no influence at all on purchase decisions? platforms provide an out-of-the-box scoring and grading model, but it’s important to customize this system to meet your needs in order to reap the full benefits. 14 / Pardot

even if you feel like you don’t have enough information for example — a better indication of intent to purchase? on your prospects yet, start with a guess and adjust your Assign higher point values to these pages so you model later. Here are a few items to consider as you can see which of your leads are taking “hand-raising” begin building a scoring and grading model of your own: actions at a glance. Get input from sales. It’s important to make sure your 40.7% of B2B marketers do not sales team is involved in the lead scoring and grading award higher lead scores to high- process from the very beginning. Sit down with sales stakeholders to discuss the following questions — before value web pages. your lead qualification system even gets off the ground. - Spear Marketing • What constitutes a qualified lead? Start assigning leads to sales — automatically. • What prospect actions typically signal sales According to a 2015 study by Spear Marketing, 46% of readiness? B2B marketers have not set up a lead scoring threshold • When would sales reps prefer that leads get that will automatically alert or route leads to sales. This assigned to them for follow-up? How will lead threshold is key because it ensures that leads are only follow-up be handled? assigned once they’ve met a qualification level that your • Can lead nurturing be used to supplement the sales team has agreed upon. This makes it easy for sales sales process if leads are not ready to talk to sales? to prioritize incoming leads and takes the guesswork out of lead assignment for the marketing team. Setting these expectations up front will prevent you Whether you’re a beginner setting up your system for from having to backtrack later. It can also give you the first time or a marketing automation pro looking valuable intel as you begin setting up your lead nurturing to fine-tune your scoring and grading system, the programs. worksheets provided on the next few pages will give you a helpful foundation to start from. Then, move on to Identify high-value actions and pages. When it comes to chapter three to learn more about setting up effective lead scoring, not all prospect activities are created equal. nurturing programs for the leads in your database that Are certain pages — a pricing page or contact us form, aren’t yet sales-ready. 15 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Building Your Model, Part I When it comes down to it, building a customized scoring and grading model is all about asking the right questions. Use the questions below to guide your conversation with your sales team and ensure you’re collaborating effectively to establish a lead qualification system that you’ll both agree upon. Who are you selling to? SMBs, enterprise, Healthcare, etc. Do these companies need to be a certain size or in a certain location? Who within a company is qualified to buy your product? Director, CeO, CTO, etc. What actions on your website indicate an interest in your product? 16 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Building Your Model, Part II Your scoring and grading model can (and should) always be improved upon. Once you’ve established a system, revisit it regularly to make sure you’re effectively qualifying incoming leads and passing them off at the right moment. Set a time to sit down with your sales team and discuss the following questions: Have you noticed an increase in the number of qualified leads since implementing the new scoring and grading model? Discuss your current quality of leads. Any common characteristics that can be used to further weed out unqualified or non- sales-ready leads? Discuss a recently closed deal. What actions indicated the lead was intending to buy and ready to talk? 17 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Grading Worksheet, Part I CHOOSe YOUR CATeGORIeS Choose a few categories that represent important qualities in your ideal customer profile. Prospects will be graded based on these criteria. See a few common options below, and remember to think about additional criteria that may be important for your specific product or industry. JOB TITLe InDUSTRY COMPAnY SIZe DePARTMenT LOCATIOn OTHeR CRITeRIA SPeCIfIC TO YOUR BUSIneSS now decide how different qualifications in each of these categories will raise or lower a prospect’s grade. for example, a job title of “Director” may add 2/3 of a letter grade, where “Manager” may only add 1/3. Just remember that if your base grade is a “D,” your adjustments across all categories should add up to at least 9/3 so that it’s possible for a lead to reach an “A” from the default grade. CATeGORY 1 CRITeRIA ADJUSTMenT vALUeS +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 (Continued on next page) 18 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Grading Worksheet, Part II CATeGORY 2 CRITeRIA ADJUSTMenT vALUeS +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 CATeGORY 3 CRITeRIA ADJUSTMenT vALUeS +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 CATeGORY 4 CRITeRIA ADJUSTMenT vALUeS +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 +/- __ /3 19 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE Lead Scoring Guide, Part I Looking to optimize your scoring model? After you’ve been using your marketing automation system for about a month, it’s a good idea to go back in and conduct a quick audit to make sure you’re on the right track with your scoring. Let’s take a look at how you can use the data you’ve collected to answer some scoring fAQs. WHAT IS A “GOOD” SCORe? Are you passing leads over to sales at the right moment? Have you set the threshold too low or too high when it comes to automated lead assignment? A sales-ready score will vary on a case-by-case basis and ultimately should be determined by historical data. Once you’ve collected prospect data, go back and pull your prospect scores for a closer look at how different scores correspond with different stages of the sales cycle. PeRCenTAGe Of PROSPeCTS AveRAGe SCORe SCORe RAnGe TOP 10% 11-25% 26-50% 20 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE Lead Scoring Guide, Part II Let’s take a closer look at these top 10% of prospects. Understanding which actions indicate sales readiness is an important part of setting up an effective scoring model, and your most sales-ready prospects are a great place to start. Take a group of your most qualified prospects or a deal that’s closed recently, and conduct a quick audit of their recent activities. This will give you a better idea of how heavily you should be scoring certain activities. ACTIvITIeS Of nOTe PROSPeCT One PROSPeCT TWO PROSPeCT THRee 21 / Pardot

CHAPTER THREE three Be better at lead nurturing. One of the most noteworthy developments in wHY LEAD NURTURING? marketing technology is lead nurturing (also referred effective sales and marketing is all about relationships. to as “drip marketing”), which allows marketers to Both departments need to be creating and sustaining automatically distribute targeted marketing content to meaningful communications that focus on providing leads over time. In fact, according to Regalix, 82% of value and support. Although this is a change from the B2B marketing executives indicate that lead nurturing is traditional sales and marketing playbooks, lead nurturing their number one marketing automation objective. makes this important aspect of the sales process easier and more effective. With the ability to achieve one-to-one personalization on a scalable level, many marketers are realizing 79% of marketing leads never how pivotal lead nurturing is to a customer-centric marketing strategy. Building and sustaining meaningful convert into sales. Lack of lead (and profitable!) relationships with buyers can create a nurturing is the most common substantial revenue stream from the leads you already have in your database without adding additional work cause of this poor performance. or responsibilities to your department. - MarketingSherpa Creating lead nurturing campaigns that work must start with the right processes. Depending on your level of experience, this chapter can help you lay the groundwork for successful nurturing campaigns or help you improve the processes you already have in place. 22 / Pardot

Automation improves the lead nurturing process in a LAY THE GROUNDwORK number of ways. Let’s look at a few examples: Whether you are just starting to use lead nurturing 1. It increases your reach. nurturing campaigns or you’re looking to give your strategy a tune- are designed to feel like one-to-one interactions up, proper preparation is the key to success. It’s between your company and a prospect, but they important to have a solid grasp on your sales cycle, can be applied to hundreds of leads, allowing your the key members of your target audience, the marketing and sales teams to be in multiple places content you already have in stock, and how that at once. content maps to the sales process. Without an understanding of these variables, you are just taking 2. It increases your effectiveness. According to shots in the dark and hoping your campaigns will be a recent study by forrester Research, 74% of relevant and valuable. business buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase. The planning worksheet included at the end of With such a large portion of the purchase process this chapter will walk you through the preparation in the hands of the buyer, you could find that leads process, from recording key stages in the buying have already chosen a competitor if you wait too cycle to mapping your content to the sales cycle. long to engage with them. nurturing allows you to CREATE PERFECT CAmPAIGNS stay in touch throughout a long sales cycle — and allows you to monitor your prospects’ responses An effective nurturing campaign needs to be so you can reach out the moment they show a well-planned and highly targeted to its intended buying signal. audience and their stage of the sales cycle. The content, timing, and messaging of your drip emails 3. It gives you more bandwidth. In modern all need to match up to the needs and priorities marketing departments, and especially at smaller of your prospects. With so many variables in companies, time and resources are precious flux, reporting on the success of a campaign and commodities. Marketers need to do more with less, tweaking it to have even greater success is also and nurturing is the perfect tool to outsource your crucial. most repetitive, time-consuming tasks. 23 / Pardot

We’ve outlined appropriate use cases, a suggested • Are there certain pages on your site, or certain cadence, and sample messaging to help you get started actions a prospect could take, that would with three popular types of campaigns. indicate that a prospect is ready to talk? What are these actions? • net new lead nurturing program • Sales nurturing program find a few resources that could be helpful for someone in the beginning stages of researching • Cold lead nurturing program your product, write up a few short emails, and build out a simple nurturing track with minimal branching. Additionally, the campaign worksheet included in Be sure to include calls-to-action and links that can this chapter can help you identify the key variables at indicate that a prospect is ready to take the next step, each stage of a nurturing campaign, making it easy so that you can get prospects in front of a rep the to understand how all the pieces fit together into one moment they’re ready to talk. coherent message. By placing colder leads on this nurturing track, you INvOLvE YOUR SALES TEAm — FROm THE ensure that leads are more educated by the time they START speak with a sales rep — and that your hard-earned If you’re just getting ramped up with lead nurturing, marketing-sourced leads don’t go to waste just start with basic campaigns and expand over time based because they aren’t yet sales-ready. on the results you see. This process should also start with input from your sales team. BUILD OUT A COMPLeTe nURTURInG Have a sales rep walk you through your typical buying PROGRAM cycle and common roadblocks they see, including: As you become more comfortable creating lead nurturing campaigns, you can begin to explore more • What questions are prospects asking as they use cases. Take a look at some of the options below learn about your product? to see if any are compatible with your business goals. (notice that many use cases extend beyond the sales • What are the pain points prospects wish to see process.) addressed? 24 / Pardot

1. Welcome Campaign 4. Product-Focused Campaign Welcome emails are highly anticipated, frequently As prospects progress through the sales process opened, and simple to automate. Keep in mind that and begin to seek out more product-focused new prospects in your database should be treated content, you’ll want to make sure they’re getting differently than the ones that have been with you for that information from you and not a competitor or weeks or months. By turning your welcome emails biased third party. focus on your prospects’ pain into a drip campaign, you can introduce these new points, how your product can address them, and the prospects to your company, product, or service at key features and benefits that can help. a comfortable pace instead of flooding them with information right off the bat. 5. Competitive Drips This campaign focuses on differentiating your 2. Top-of-Mind Campaign product or service from your competitors by The top-of-mind drip is designed to engage highlighting the advantages of using your product, with your not quite sales-ready leads at regular as well as the disadvantages of not using it. (note: intervals, preventing leads from forgetting about Refrain from bashing your competitors, since this your company and getting scooped up by your can come off as distasteful.) Tailor your content competitors. This drip takes place over a longer to your prospects’ priorities and the competitors period of time, providing sales with consistent touch that come up most frequently in deals with your points, and provides the prospect with valuable company. content. 6. Industry Expertise Drip 3. Re-Engagement Campaign As prospects move closer to the middle and bottom not all of your prospects will make it through of the funnel, it becomes more and more important the sales process and become a closed deal. At to reinforce that your company is the right choice. any given time, your database will likely contain Pass on any helpful press releases, industry reports, a number of leads who became inactive at some or high-traffic content as part of this drip to point during the sales process. Re-engagement establish your company’s authority. campaigns are targeted toward these inactive leads. The goal is to encourage leads to take a “hand- raising” action that will indicate that they are ready to reenter the sales process. 25 / Pardot

7. Promotional Drips 10. Renewal Campaign As your prospects near the purchase stage of the sales The renewal drip can be a convenient way to funnel, a well-timed promotion or special discount can remind your existing customers that it’s time to be just the catalyst they need to pull the trigger on a renew their contracts. This drip can be triggered purchase. Consider offering special pricing or additional a month (or more) before the renewal date, features based on their individual needs, especially if send multiple reminder emails over a specified you’re working with bigger accounts where closing the period of time, and notify the assigned user deal is critical to growing your business. in the marketing automation tool if no action takes place. This makes it far less likely that your 8. Onboarding Campaign clients will miss the renewals on their contracts, Onboarding a new client will always be a high-touch and it takes the tedium out of the process for and manual process, and rightly so. However, nurturing your service reps. campaigns allow you to automate some of the more repetitive tasks involved in onboarding, like providing Sales Enablement Drip introductory training resources, a list of next steps after Lead nurturing can be a critical tool for enabling your close, timelines for product kickoffs, and frequently internal sales teams. By dripping your sales team with asked questions. These helpful resources can help your new marketing content that they can use to help sell new clients get started on their own without having to your product, you can position marketing as a valuable wait on a customer service rep for assistance. resource to sales. This includes content like data sheets, new e-books, competitive one-sheeters, and even Take a look at a case study of our own efforts to build educational videos that provide selling tips from other an onboarding drip at Pardot. sales reps. However, consider making this drip opt-in for your sales team — you don’t want to risk becoming a 9. Upsell Drip nuisance by cluttering up their already busy inboxes. The upsell (or cross-sell) campaign is designed to capitalize on your existing pool of clients. By providing Check out this case study of our own efforts to build a your clients with information and incentives to expand sales enablement drip at Pardot. the list of products they are using, you can drive more revenue with little effort from your sales team. 26 / Pardot

Become a nurturing expert. As you begin to master the planning and implementation of nurturing campaigns, you can start to craft truly exceptional nurturing experiences. Just remember to stick to the following best practices. • Segment your audience for greater personalization. • Present a clear value proposition to facilitate action. • focus your message and offer to add value for your prospects at every touchpoint. Combining these advanced techniques with some of your own tricks will result in nurturing IMPROve eMAIL effICIenCY. campaigns that not only improve the customer experience, but contribute to your bottom line This e-book walks you through the entire as well. process of creating effective, targeted emails — from planning and designing to sending and The worksheets and checklists included in this optimizing — in six straightforward steps. chapter will help you identify the channels and strategies you need to get the most out of your nurturing programs. Skip ahead to chapter four GET FREE E-BOOK to learn more about supplementing your lead nurturing efforts with effective email marketing.

wORKSHEET ONE Campaign Planning Checklist Successfully implementing lead nurturing campaigns requires laying a stable groundwork of responsibilities, understanding, and processes. The checklist below will help ensure you start off on the right foot. Define your audience roles. Who is involved Understand timing. Know the length of your in the purchasing decision? What are their sales cycle and how often you can contact main concerns? prospects. Understand your sales cycle. Know Define your KPIs. Understand and track the the stages of your sales cycle and what metrics that will indicate the success of a defines each one. campaign. Have a library of content. Content is the key Determine responsibilities. Determine who to nurturing success, and you need to have is in charge of creating, monitoring, and plenty created. updating campaigns. Map content to sales cycle. Understand Test, test, test. You’ll never get it right the which pieces of content are best for each first time. Be prepared to track and iterate. buyer stage. 28 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Lead Nurturing Checklist Designing nurturing campaigns that effectively move prospects through the sales cycle is a learning process. following the tips below will help ensure your campaigns deliver maximum value and impact. Segment. Segmenting your prospects Present a value proposition. You need to state will show them right away that you the value proposition of each piece of content are focused on their particular needs, in order to demonstrate your expertise and the not simply spamming hundreds of value your company offers. Recipients should recipients on a list. never wonder why they received an email. Get personal. After you have segmented Link to additional resources. Where your lists, add some personalization. applicable, add links to additional content Customization can go well beyond to draw prospects to your site. You can then using a recipient’s name in the email’s track and record what they are searching for salutation. and what interests them. Lend a hand. It’s important that every Focus on your prospects. The most import- email you send provides value to your ant thing you can do to ensure the success readers. of your lead nurturing campaign is also the most obvious: focus on the prospects’ needs. 29 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Campaign Planning, Part I SALeS CYCLe STAGeS AUDIenCe ROLeS MAPPInG YOUR COnTenT Defining the stages of your sales Who are the major influencers in each stage should have content that cycle will help you tailor your a purchasing decision? Define and fits your audiences’ needs best. campaigns to a buyer’s journey. understand each one. STAGe AUDIenCe MAP YOUR COnTenT There may be more or fewer than six. There may be more or fewer than six. Choose the pieces of content that you would like to include in your nurture program. 1. ______________________ 1. _____________________ WeeK One: _______________________ 2. ______________________ 2. _____________________ WeeK TWO: _______________________ 3. ______________________ 3. _____________________ WeeK THRee: ______________________ 4. ______________________ 4. _____________________ WeeK fOUR: ______________________ 5. ______________________ 5. _____________________ WeeK fIve: _______________________ 6. ______________________ 6. ______________________ WeeK SIX: ________________________ 30 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Campaign Planning, Part II THe CAMPAIGn Define the steps of your nurturing campaign and how you will proceed if the prospect takes action. TITLe: TARGeT AUDIenCe: STAGe Of THe SALeS CYCLe: THe CAMPAIGn STePS Record the basics of your campaign. ACTIOn: ACTIOn: ACTIOn: PAUSe: DAYS PAUSe: DAYS PAUSe: DAYS ACTIOn TAKen? YeS nO ACTIOn TAKen? YeS nO ACTIOn TAKen? YeS nO fOLLOW- fOLLOW- fOLLOW- UP: UP: UP: 31 / Pardot

CHAPTER FOUR four Be better at email marketing. email marketing encompasses so much more than • What should my email subject line say? creating an email and hitting “send.” It’s about building • How will my email look on different devices? eye-catching email templates, developing engaging email content targeted toward specific segments When it comes to designing email templates for the of your database, optimizing for deliverability and B2B audience, it can be tough to know where to responsiveness, testing, measuring, and more. start. A B2B marketer might develop any number of emails on any particular day, from nurturing emails Above all, email is about connection. That’s why 73% of to autoresponders and webinar invitations. factor in marketers believe that email marketing is core to their elements like images, calls-to-action, subject lines, and business (Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing). The tracked links, and you’re looking at quite a few factors following chapter will walk you through the process that need attention before an email ever lands in a of building a successful email program and optimizing single inbox. your messages for the inbox. Use the checklists and worksheets provided as you continue to refine your THE ImPORTANCE OF A GOOD TEmPLATE email strategy over time. One of the biggest considerations is your template. An BUILDInG effeCTIve eMAILS appealing, easy-to-read email template and an eye- catching subject line can make the difference between There are a lot of questions that go along with building your email being read, skimmed, or deleted. an email: Start by consulting the following list of questions for a • Is plain text or HTML a better fit for my email? few template design guidelines: • Where does the call-to-action go? 32 / Pardot

1. Is HTML or plain text better suited for your to-text ratio; emails with far more images than text email? Many emails, like newsletters and event can be a red flag to spam filters. invitations, lend themselves better to HTML, while drip emails and webinar follow-ups might 5. Did you include contact information, social be more effective as simple plain text emails. sharing buttons, and unsubscribe links? You’ll Consult our full email Design Lookbook to see want your email recipients to be able to share your examples of email templates that work for each. content and/or communicate with you should they have any concerns or wish to unsubscribe. 2. Does your email have an obvious call-to-action that’s set apart from the rest of the content? 6. Have you spiced up your template with a few If your call-to-action isn’t distinguished by color, colors? There’s nothing worse than opening an placement, or text treatment, it will be hard for email with an exciting and attention-grabbing your readers to understand the purpose of your subject line only to come face-to-face with a bland, email. even more importantly, it will make it that black and white email. much more difficult for them to act on it. 7. Is your email template clean and uncluttered? 3. Have you broken your email content into This is perhaps one of the most important items smaller sections and used bulleted text as to pay attention to when designing your email much as possible? Today’s buyers are pressed templates. Information in your emails should be as for time, meaning that they have a tendency easy-to-read as possible. to scan emails for any important points that pertain specifically to them. Use bulleted text 8. Is your email optimized for mobile? Cliff Seal, and short paragraphs as much as possible to Senior UX engineer at Pardot, urges marketers cater to these preferences. to think “mobile first” with email. That means considering “tappability” (keep in mind that the 4. Are you using images when possible? typical adult finger cover 45 pixels) and using a Including visuals in your emails can break up the single-column, responsive layout to ensure your monotony of text (especially if there’s a lot of design displays as intended across devices. it). Just be sure to keep an eye on your image- 33 / Pardot

9. Have you crafted an attention-grabbing subject line? There’s no secret that will guarantee you an open, but the checklist included at the end of this chapter can help you craft a subject line that will increase your open rates while still adhering to best practices. Pay attention to how your email template addresses these questions, and don’t be afraid to seek inspiration from other companies as you begin designing your emails. (Quick tip: Pinterest is a great tool for design inspiration.) GeTTInG TO THe InBOX email marketing is at the heart of your online marketing efforts, so you want to make sure that every aspect of your strategy is optimized. no aspect of your email GeT InSPIReD. marketing is quite as important as deliverability — after all, even a perfectly crafted email is rendered worthless view a collection of stellar email templates from if it never reaches its mark. Pardot clients — featuring examples ranging from newsletters to webinar follow-ups — in our When it comes to email marketing, your greatest full email Design Lookbook. enemy is the “Report as Spam” button. Having your emails marked as spam hurts your reputation and could result in your IP address being placed on a GET FREE E-BOOK blacklist — bringing your email marketing efforts to a screeching halt. In fact, we recommend that you keep spam complaints under .01%, or one complaint for every thousand people emailed. Sound like a lofty goal?

Luckily, the following tips can help you optimize your opt-in), where recipients confirm the opt-in via email deliverability right from the start. email after the initial form submission or contact. Confirmed opt-ins verify that email addresses are Start out right. If you’re just getting started with a valid, keeping bounce rates low and safeguarding new domain name, it’s important to warm up your against spam traps being added to your permanent IP address before sending high volume emails. All IP lists. addresses start out “cold.” They need to be warmed up by gradually increasing sending volume, usually over Make opt-outs easy and fast. even when recipients the course of two to six weeks. This is an important have explicitly given permission to receive emails, step in your email strategy. Sending an email to every they often forget that they have done so — and may prospect in your database right off the bat can raise turn to the spam button in a moment of frustration. some major red flags for spam monitors. Having clear and easy opt-outs is the number one way to ensure that you don’t get reported as spam. Begin by using only your best lists to build up your You’re not doing yourself any favors by continuing reputation, and try to send under 5,000 emails a day to send emails to people who don’t want to receive for the first week. Starting out at this rate allows you them. An opt-out won’t hurt your reputation, but to monitor for issues that may arise from initial sends being reported as spam will. With many marketing on cold IPs — without having all of your emails bounce. automation platforms, a recipient who opts out will from here, plan out a gradual and steady ramp-up to automatically be removed from your list, but if you final sending volume numbers. are not using a system that does this automatically, make sure you are regularly updating and quickly Use active opt-ins or confirmed opt-ins. When getting opt-outs off your lists. it comes to obtaining permission for email communication, it’s a good idea to go beyond CAn- Be clear. Be consistent. This may seem like common SPAM laws — meaning a passive opt-in doesn’t cut it. sense, but don’t go two weeks without sending an Whenever you’re collecting information for the purpose email and then send three in one day. If possible, let of sending an email, include a checkbox and clearly your recipients known upon sign-up what you will outline what type of communication can be expected. be sending them and when — and then stick to this To thoroughly cover your bases, consider using a schedule. (Better yet, let them choose how often confirmed opt-in process (also known as a double they receive your emails.) not only does this make 35 / Pardot

your business seem more organized and credible, it Watch your timing. There’s no “perfect time” to makes it far less likely that a recipient will get fed up send an email, but there are times that are better with an inbox clogged with your emails and hit the than others. As a general rule of thumb, avoid “Report as Spam” button. sending emails over the weekend or on Mondays, over major holidays or typical vacation times, first Choose your words carefully. Think of every thing in the morning, or at the end of the day. The obnoxious ad that you’ve ever received — and make worksheet at the end of this chapter can help you your emails sound as least like these as possible. find the optimal send time for your business. Phrases like “no commitment necessary!” and “for only $___!” are the best way to ensure that your Learn more Get the latest on email best practices. email is sent straight to the spam folder. for optimal about email sending best practices, optimization, deliverability, start emails with “Hello” or “Hi” rather and reporting in our Complete Guide to B2B than “Dear.” email Marketing, and get more information on deliverability best practices in the following articles: Keep your lists clean! High bounce rates caused by invalid or misspelled email addresses can hurt • 21 email Deliverability Terms You neeD to your email reputation, so make sure you’re regularly Know maintaining your lists. And if you’re buying lists, • 7 and a Half easy Ways to Improve Your stop. When you buy lists, you can easily end up sending emails to invalid email addresses, spam email Deliverability traps, and unsuspecting (read: unwilling) recipients • The Golden Rule of List Management — sending your odds of being reported as spam through the roof. even if these lists aren’t chock-full • So...What Is Blacklisting, Anyway? of invalid email (or spam trap) addresses, you’re still likely to end up with a high number of spam complaints. 36 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Email Template Checklist There’s a lot to think about when you start designing a new email template. Use this checklist to make sure you’re not skipping any vital steps. Decide between plain text Break text into bullets and Add social sharing buttons. and HTML. Drip emails and small paragraphs. Make your Allow readers to distribute webinar follow-ups work emails easy for readers to your message across their well as plain text, while other scan at a glance. networks with the click of a emails are great for HTML. button. Create a clean template Craft your CTA. Set your call- Include contact information. design. The information to-action apart using colors, a In case readers have questions, in your email should be button, or text treatments so include your contact info in the uncluttered and easy read. that readers will know what header or the footer. action is expected of them. Add some color. Including Use images. You can cut down Don’t forget unsubscribe links. a few splashes of color can on text if you have an image Your emails need to be CAn- really help your email stand that can say the same thing. SPAM compliant, so make sure out from the crowd. your unsubscribe links are easy to find. 37 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Subject Line Checklist Your subject line can make or break your email — which means there’s a lot at stake! Use the checklist below to help you craft the best subject line possible. Use questions. According to a study by Be specific. When recipients read your subject MailChimp, email subject lines phrased as lines, it should be obvious what your message is questions perform better than subject lines and why it’s relevant to them. phrased as statements. Reference location. If you’re targeting an email Be brief. Try to keep your subject lines under 50 blast by location, add a personal touch by characters. Shorter subject lines tend to perform referencing that location in your subject line. This better than longer ones, and they ensure that will make your recipients feel like your email is more of your copy will be viewable in the more relevant to them. subject line preview of an email client. Include a call-to-action. Make sure that you Be urgent. If your offer is only available for a clearly inform readers what their next step should limited amount of time, then your recipients will be. Otherwise, they may skim right over your be more persuaded to act before it’s too late. subject line without realizing that an action is Just remember to choose your words carefully required on their part. and avoid phrases that sound spammy. 38 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE The Pre-Flight Email Checklist Use this worksheet as a final check-through before sending off your email, both to organize your efforts and ensure that your email is optimized for content, deliverability, and rendering. SUBJeCT LIne: LIST: TYPe: (event, newsletter, etc.) CTA COPY: PLAIn TeXT OR HTML? DOeS YOUR eMAIL HAve ALL Of THe fOLLOWInG? BULLeTeD TeXT UnSUBSCRIBe LInKS COnTACT InfORMATIOn IMAGeS AnD COLOR SOCIAL SHARe BUTTOnS SHORT PARAGRAPHS 39 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Find Your Perfect Send Time STeP One: DAY Of THe WeeK Analyze send times and open rates from the email campaigns you’ve sent over the past six months and create a quick scatter plot to find the day of the week where your emails have historically seen the best open rates. Use the graph below. (%) __% e T RA __% en __% OP MOnDAY TUeSDAY WeDneSDAY THURSDAY fRIDAY SATURDAY SUnDAY STeP TWO: TIMe Of DAY STeP THRee: now that you’ve found your optimal day of the week to send emails, use this same data SeGMenT to find the best time of day by creating a scatter plot of open rates versus send time. now, try segmenting your lists by time of open (e.g., (%) __% opened between 10:00 e a.m. and 1:00 p.m. versus T RA __% opened between 1:00 p.m. en and 3:00 p.m.), and you’ll be OP __% surprised at how easy it is to determine the best send time for each grouping. 12 AM 4 AM 8 AM 12 PM 4 PM 8 PM 40 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE The Email Deliverability Checklist Sometimes, a small mistake is all it takes to send your email straight to the spam folder. Check out the common mistakes below and make sure you’re not committing any of these seven deadly sins of email deliverability. USING ALL CAPS. There’s no need to shout. If Sending several emails in a short amount you’re providing something of value, let your of time. Your recipients’ inboxes are full content speak for itself (and lay off the caps lock). enough. They don’t need three emails from you in a day. Stick to a schedule, and space Sending to (or from) sales@, info@, or communication out over time. webmaster@. This is a red flag for spam filters — and a good sign that someone is scrounging Multiple recipients with the same domain addresses off websites instead of obtaining name. This can be an honest mistake, but consent from recipients. be aware that this is a red flag for many spam monitors. Spammy greetings. The greeting “Dear” can often trigger spam filters — thanks to the Buying lists. If you buy lists, you’re highly prevalence of impersonal email greetings like likely to end up with a large number of invalid “Dear energy-Conscious Business.” or spam trap email addresses — as well as a high number of spam complaints. Remember: Spammy or misleading subject lines. Any CAn-SPAM laws dictate that people must opt email with a toll-free number, the words “for in to communication from you. only $__” or “click here,” or a misleading subject line is at a high risk of penalization. 41 / Pardot

wORKSHEET SIx The Email Deliverability Checklist Many email deliverability best practices are common sense, but it helps to have an overview to review from time to time. Use the following checklist to make sure you’re continually following deliverability best practices. Warm up your IP address. If you start sending Choose your words carefully. Conduct some very high volume emails right off the bat from a simple research: go to your own spam folder and brand new domain address, you risk ending up look for words that reappear often in subject lines. on blacklists before you even get started. Start familiarize yourself with these spammy terms and small and gradually ramp up your efforts. steer clear of them in your own emails, or run tests on your emails to help identify problem areas. Use active and confirmed opt-ins. Having clear, Be clear. Be consistent. Make sure recipients active opt-ins is the best way to protect your understand what they will be receiving upon email reputation. furthermore, confirmed opt- subscribing, and stick to a consistent, defined ins help to ensure that your recipients don’t schedule. never use misleading subject lines. forget they subscribed and mark you as spam. Make opt-outs easy. An unsubscribe won’t hurt Clean your lists regularly. High bounce rates your deliverability score, but being reported as caused by invalid or misspelled email addresses spam will. Make your opt-outs clear, easy to find, can hurt your email reputation, so regularly and fast to protect your reputation. maintain your lists to remove these. 42 / Pardot

CHAPTER FIvE five Be better at content marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, content Saving time and money. Understanding how the content marketing is defined as “a strategic marketing approach you create relates to your overall business goals can help focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, you rule out projects that aren’t going to be beneficial, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly helping to save both marketing resources and budget. defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” Generating new business. Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately three times as many That’s quite the definition, but let’s be honest — it’s leads as traditional marketing (Demand Metric). Gating not news to the bulk of marketers who have already content behind a form has proven to be an invaluable had their introduction to content marketing. In fact, lead generation tactic for many businesses. CMI’s 2015 benchmark study revealed that 86% of B2B marketers are producing content; however, only 35% Improving the customer experience. As the B2B buyer’s have a documented content strategy, and 17% don’t journey evolves, buyers will only work with companies have a strategy in place at all. that can provide personalized selling experiences. This applies to marketing just as much as sales — and having Considering that 60% of those with a documented a content strategy to address each buyer’s pain points strategy rate themselves highly in terms of content can help meet these growing expectations. marketing effectiveness, this seems like a great starting point for marketers who are looking to optimize their Enabling sales. Your marketing content doesn’t just help content efforts. However, if you’re still not sold on the your customers. effective content can also help your importance of a content marketing strategy, here are a sales reps persuade a hesitant prospect or close a hard- few additional ways that companies are benefiting from won deal. getting a process down on paper. 43 / Pardot

Educating prospects. not every lead is ready to convert Get started by laying out the basic components of into a closed deal. Content is critical to the lead nurturing your business, product, and target audience. Use process and can help educate leads to a sales-ready state. the worksheet at the end of this chapter to organize this information and identify those important key for B2B marketers investing in content marketing, messages. “creating engaging content” remains the largest challenge. “Producing content consistently” and 2. Create your buyer personas. The average marketer “measuring content effectiveness” are the number two targets four separate audiences with their content. and number three challenges. This chapter will walk you One of the greatest challenges of marketing is through the steps needed to put a complete strategy making sure that each of these audiences is getting in place that can address these roadblocks and more the right content at the right time. and will provide a number of helpful worksheets and checklists to keep you on track. By having a concrete understanding of your ideal buyer, you can cater your content to their needs and PUTTInG An effeCTIve COnTenT preferences and distribute it among the appropriate STRATeGY In PLACe channels. This ensures that your marketing messages are always relevant. To make this a little bit easier, 1. Identify your goals. The key to effective content we’ve created the buyer persona template at the end of this chapter to help you identify concerns and is to make sure it meets your target customer’s questions for each of your buyer personas — across needs while simultaneously highlighting your every stage of the sales cycle. company’s strengths and positioning your brand as a helpful resource. Before you begin developing 3. Start developing your content — with your goals a content marketing plan, it’s important to identify in mind. Before you dive into content creation, it’s your overall business goals, map your marketing important to have an understanding of all of the goals to those business objectives, and think options at your fingertips. The types of content you critically about the key messages that will lead to can create may seem limitless, but it’s likely that more focused and effective content. some content will be better suited to your content 44 / Pardot

strategy than others. Keep in mind the goals identified during step one, along with what you • Video content: With video-hosting sites like Wistia and know about your buyers from step two (including vidyard, it’s becoming easier than ever to collect lead their channel preferences), and decide which data from videos and integrate it directly into your content best aligns with your objectives. CRM. not only is video good for lead generation, it’s also a great way to connect with buyers and current Here are some popular types of content that might be clients on a more personal level. appropriate to work into your content strategy: • Graphics, infographics, microsites, and interactive • A company blog: A blog is a great way to content: visual content has grown in popularity as the position your business as a thought leader, and marketplace becomes more saturated with content. it can be a helpful resource for those looking for Buyers are looking for content that is easy to absorb more information about your industry. not only and doesn’t require a large time commitment to digest. does this give you an SeO boost, it also helps build a community around your brand, bring in • Case studies: Case studies show potential buyers new prospects, and cultivate a following of brand exactly how others are using your product or service. evangelists. Since they’re conducted with client approval, they carry much more weight than generic marketing See the checklist at the end of this chapter for content, making them an extremely valuable piece of more details about optimizing your content for collateral for your sales team. SeO. We’ve also included a number of blogging worksheets and checklists to help you get a • Webinars: If your goal is to position your company as company blog off the ground. (Already heave a a thought leader, educational webinars are a great way company blog? no problem — we’ve included a to demonstrate your knowledge of industry trends and few blogging and optimization tips as well.) best practices. An added bonus: they’re also great for lead generation. • White papers and e-books: Creating long-form pieces allows you to offer high-value content that • Podcasts: The new York Times has dubbed this “The can be gated behind a form. This gives you the Great Podcast Renaissance.” Buyers are busy, and opportunity to deliver a valuable resource to your podcasts are the perfect way for them to learn from audience while also collecting lead data to support you while multitasking. your demand generation efforts. 45 / Pardot

Customer testimonials and 5. Distribute! even if you’ve put in weeks of planning case studies are considered to develop a content strategy targeted toward your specific personas, that content will go to waste the most effective content without a proper distribution plan. Remember to keep marketing tactics, identified by the channel preferences of your audience in mind and to leverage your networks. Take a look at the editorial 89% and 88%, respectively, of calendar at the end of this chapter to get a head start B2B marketers. on the planning process. - B2B Content Marketing Trends Reports 6. Start measuring. Measuring your content efforts is tricky. How do you take something qualitative like 4. Map your content to the sales cycle. Once you an e-book or blog post and turn it into something have identified your different buyer personas — as quantitative? well as the concerns that your personas may have at each stage — it’s time to map out the content Only 21% of B2B marketers that’s most appropriate for each stage of the sales say they are successful at cycle. Use the content mapping template included in this chapter to determine which content will tracking ROI. be sent to each persona and when. This can help - Content Marketing Institute you decide which content to incorporate into lead nurturing campaigns while also helping to identify areas where more content is needed. There are actually a number of KPIs that you can use to track your content depending on your goals. A general rule of thumb is to provide more Metrics range from unique page visits to cost per lead generic, topical content at the top of the funnel and annual contract value. Take a look at this blog post (think educational white papers, blog posts, and for a full list of 14 different KPIs that can be used to infographics) and more product-specific content track content success, or skip to the last chapter on toward the bottom of the funnel. Content like reporting for a helpful KPIs checklist. case studies and video testimonials are great for Ready to start fine-tuning your content strategy? Check out prospects in the middle of the funnel who are the worksheets and checklists on the following pages to beginning to dive deeper into the different vendors make sure you’re on the right track. that can meet their needs. 46 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Goal Identification Worksheet Identify your goals by answering the questions below to make sure that your content goals are always aligned with your overall business goals. QUeSTIOn 1 What is your overall goal/mission statement? QUeSTIOn 2 Describe your target customer(s) and their basic needs. QUeSTIOn 3 How does your product meet these needs? QUeSTIOn 4 Briefly describe your company culture and some of your greatest strengths. QUeSTIOn 5 What sets your product apart from competitors in your field? 47 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Basic Planning Worksheet When approaching a new content marketing initiative, use the questionnaire below to start mapping out your plan. Describe your objective in one sentence. Who is in charge of this initiative? How will this objective meet your business goals? Potential Costs: Anticipated Total Cost: Goal for Completion Date: Delegation of Tasks: Creation Launch Maintenance 48 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Buyer Personas Use this worksheet to identify concerns and questions that you need to address for each of your buyer personas at each stage of the sales cycle. Depending on how many buyer personas you will be working with (initiator, influencer, decision maker, etc.), you may need to print off several copies. STAGe QUeSTIOnS/COnCeRnS eARLY PeRSOnA 1 MIDDLe LATe STAGe QUeSTIOnS/COnCeRnS eARLY PeRSOnA 2 MIDDLe LATe 49 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Editorial Campaign Template WeeK Of: THeMe: DAY Of THe WeeK COnTenT TITLe AUTHOR PLAnS fOR PROMOTIOn MOnDAY TUeSDAY WeDneSDAY THURSDAY fRIDAY SATURDAY/SUnDAY 50 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE The Better Blogging Checklist There are thousands of pieces of content published each day, which makes cutting through the clutter a challenge. Provide takeaways. Writing for the sake of writing Get your title right. With so many pieces of just doesn’t cut it. Your blog posts need to excite, content competing for consumers’ attention, the inspire, and engage your audience. Provide real importance of your title can’t be understated. takeaways that a reader can put to use in all of Spend some time perfecting your titles so they your posts. pique a reader’s interest. Design for readers. The way we read content Do your research. A blog post’s topic may capture has changed. Readers no longer want to read your readers’ attention, but research and trustworthy your post from beginning to end. Provide short sources will add credibility to your writing. paragraphs, bold headings, lists, and images wherever possible. Be passionate. Passion is contagious. If you Optimize. no matter how the marketing landscape aren’t excited about a blog topic, your audience evolves, SeO will always be a key tactic in making won’t be either. Don’t be afraid to show your your content and company visible. Always take time enthusiasm in your writing. Your readers will to research and optimize for the right keywords. thank you for it. 51 / Pardot

wORKSHEET SIx The Blog Promotion Checklist Promoting your blog posts can be immensely time-consuming without a plan in place. follow the checklist below to get your posts the visibility they deserve without sacrificing your day! Share to social networks. Post to Twitter, Schedule posts. Schedule social posts over the next facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and your other two weeks to hit multiple audiences. social media accounts. Comment on relevant blogs. find blog posts on a Submit to sites. Use additional sites like similar subject and use your post to add value to the StumbleUpon and Digg to spread your content. conversation. Monitor keywords. Set up monitoring for keywords Share to visual sites. If your content has visual related to your post to find other opportunities. elements, make sure you are sharing to visual sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and visually. Share internally. Your content can be just as useful Monitor comments. Keep tabs on shares and blog within your organization. comments to keep the conversation going. 52 / Pardot

wORKSHEET SEvEN The SEO for Blogging Checklist Promoting your blog posts can be immensely time consuming without a plan in place. follow the checklist below to get your posts the visibility they deserve without sacrificing your day! Pick one to three keywords. Keep your keyword Create quality content. Content creation has or key phrase to three words or fewer. Keyword been ranked as the most effective SeO tactic phrases don’t always have to appear in order, but by MarketingSherpa. never underestimate the it does help your cause. value of quality content. Keep it short. Keep the title of your post under Go deeper. Covering topics in greater depth 79 characters to prevent Google from cutting can help you rank higher for long-tail, specific off your title. keywords. Use internal links. Once you write an article, link Remember to promote. Promote repeatedly. This to any other posts you have that are already ensures that your content has a longer shelf-life optimized for the same keyword(s). than content that has only been promoted once. 53 / Pardot

wORKSHEET EIGHT The SEO Checklist Ready to start optimizing your content for search? Take a look at the checklist below to make sure you’re not missing any important steps. Use the right title tag. Include your keyword(s) Populate your page content with keywords. focus in your title tag (the text that’s displayed in your on where the keyword falls on the page: the closer browser heading). to the beginning of your page content, the better. Perfect the page URL. Make sure your URL Don’t forget the metadata. Include keyword(s) includes your keyword or key phrase as close to in your meta description (the descriptive the beginning of the URL as possible. Remember, sentence that search engines pull for their use hyphens — not spaces or underscores. results page). ALT tag images. Include keywords in your image Curate quality content. Create helpful, relevant, ALT tags so that search engines understand what and high-quality content. The other steps on this the image is displaying. checklist will be worthless if the content isn’t good enough to gain you inbound links. Optimize file names. Similar to your image ALT tag, you should also include your keyword(s) in your image file name to reinforce your page content. 54 / Pardot

CHAPTER SIx six Be better at webinars and events. events have always been a crucial component of B2B eXeCUTInG SUCCeSSfUL WeBInARS marketing, and that certainly hasn’t changed in the AnD evenTS Internet age. In fact, Regalix reports that 91% of B2B marketers currently invest in event marketing. Instead 1. Plan your strategy. The types of events your of eclipsing traditional events, digital marketing has company invests in will differ depending on your opened up new opportunities for marketers, such as goals. for example, a small business hoping to webinars, virtual trade shows, and unique avenues for establish a foothold in their industry may want to event promotion. Whether you’re hosting a webinar, operate booths at popular trade shows. A company sponsoring a conference, or manning a booth at a struggling with customer training, on the other hand, trade show, the following chapter will help you make may want to host a series of educational webinars. the most of your B2B marketing events. While in-person events are ideal for face-to-face, personalized interactions, webinars and virtual WHY WeBInARS AnD evenTS? events give you the ability to reach a large audience According to the same study by Regalix, 96% of right from your desk. B2B marketers say that event marketing accelerates lead generation and grows the sales pipeline. If More than likely, your ideal strategy will include that’s not impressive enough, consider that events a combination of in-person and virtual events and webinars are excellent avenues for showcasing that focus on prospecting, training, and thought your thought leadership, nurturing relationships with leadership. Once you’ve determined which types of prospective and current customers, and enabling events are right for you, take a look at the planning customers to make the most out of your products worksheets at the end of this chapter to organize and services. your strategy and ensure that your events go seamlessly. 55 / Pardot

2. Promote your webinar or event. even the most highly organized and well-executed event will do you no good if nobody shows up. The promotion checklist at the end of this chapter will walk you through the different channels you can use to create buzz and drive attendance to your event, booth, or webinar. 3. Deliver an exceptional experience. Don’t be just one booth among many at a trade show, or yet another webinar invitation in an inbox. Set yourself apart from your competitors and leave your audience wanting more by delivering an unforgettable experience. • Practice, practice, practice. Make sure your event goes off without a hitch by running through any speeches, pitches, and slides ahead of time. If you’re GeT THe MOST OUT Of YOUR hosting a webinar, familiarize yourself with your evenT InveSTMenT. webinar platform so you don’t have any technical mix-ups. find out how marketing automation can help you streamline your event marketing efforts in • Stand out. If you know that your competitors nine straightforward steps. usually give out t-shirts at events, why not hand out branded power banks instead? Try doing something different, such as playing a game of cornhole near GET FREE E-BOOK your trade show booth or engaging your webinar audience with an interactive game of trivia. • Simplify lead tracking. CeIR found that a shocking 59% of companies are still using paper-based lead forms and business cards to collect information

from trade show attendees. This system can of your event presence. In addition, be sure to work, but it requires a lot of tedious, manual data record how well you performed against the goals entry that just isn’t necessary — not to mention you set in the planning process. the fact that it can make your company look out-of-touch. fortunately, marketing automation 5. Follow up with your leads. According to CeIR, makes it easy to set up a landing page to collect 80% of businesses don’t follow up with leads information from leads who visit booth. You can generated at trade shows. That’s an enormous then tie your in-person interactions with those missed opportunity! It doesn’t matter how many leads to their online activities. hands you shake if you’re not truly connecting with anyone. Use your marketing automation • Amplify the conversation. Live streaming platform to assign leads to your sales reps and posting on social media during an event for follow-up, and begin nurturing them with increases your reach and allows non-attendees relevant post-event information using drip to join in the fun. At the end of this chapter, campaigns. we’ve provided worksheets to help you get the most out of your live posting strategy. 6. Extend the impact of your event. “events are not just a moment in time; they are content that • Get real-time feedback. Your attendees’ can be used in lots of ways,” says Liz Bigham, feedback is your best resource for improving Senior vice President and Director of Marketing your event strategy — don’t miss this invaluable for Jack Morton Worldwide. Turn your event opportunity! Survey attendees during and after into multiple pieces of content, like blog posts your event to see how you can improve in the and slide decks, that will continue to generate future. engagement and leads for months to come. 4. Measure your success. Because prospects are Ready to start building buzz for your events, webinars, attached to campaigns within your marketing and other marketing campaigns? Check out the next automation system, it’s easy to attribute revenue chapter on social media to learn more about building to its source. With this insight, you can see an effective social outreach program. how many event-generated leads convert to customers and use this data to calculate the ROI 57 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Live Event Planning Checklist Hosting a live event is no small feat, but it will go much smoother if you plan all the details well in advance. follow the checklist below to map out your strategy. Choose a theme. Will your event have a Select sponsors. How will you secure sponsors specific theme or topic? for your event, and how will sponsorships be mutually beneficial? Pick a date and time. Make sure you’re giving Hire the right vendors. What kind of third-party your team (and your attendees) enough time vendors will you need for your event? Consider to plan for the event. Be sure to consider any ticketing, event planners, your set-up and competing events that may be taking place at breakdown crews, food and drink vendors, swag the same time. suppliers, and other specialty vendors. Find a location. Be sure it fits your budget and Aim high. Set goals for registration, has plenty of space. If you’re hosting a multi-day attendee satisfaction, and pipeline generated conference, make sure the location is close to from your event. enough hotels to accommodate your attendees. Choose the right speakers. If necessary, select internal company speakers or hire external ones to lead workshops and give presentations. 58 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Webinar Planning PRePARATIOn Create solid groundwork for your webinar. TOPIC: SPeAKeR: DATe: MUST LAnDInG fORM InvITATIOn THAnK YOU ReMInDeR HAveS: PAGe eMAIL eMAIL eMAIL PROMOTIOn Begin promoting 2-3 weeks before your event. BLOG InCLUDeS SenT SHAReD POST: A CTA? eMAIL? TO SOCIAL? PROMOTe TO eMAIL LISTS: PROMOTe WITHIn DRIP CAMPAIGnS: DATeS Of ReMInDeR eMAILS: (Day before webinar) (Day of webinar) 59 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Webinar and Events Promotion Checklist There are dozens of promotional channels you can use to get the word out about your event or webinar. Use the following tips to explore your options and determine which ones are right for your event. Create a landing page. Set up an online hub Blog about it. Publish a relevant blog post where attendees can go to register and learn with a call-to-action to register for the all the details they need to know about your upcoming event or webinar. event or webinar. Issue a press release. A big event calls for Create social buzz. Select a short, plenty of media coverage, so be sure to issue a memorable hashtag to promote your event, pre-event press release. and consider generating buzz with a social media contest. Send out email invitations. Invite clients, Advertise locally. If you’re hosting a local prospects, partners, people who attended last event, consider buying outdoor ads or local year, and industry influencers — just make sure radio spots to draw in a crowd. to follow all CAn-SPAM regulations. Go old school with direct mail. If you Send a reminder. email registrants again really want to stand out, send personalized before your event to remind them to attend invitations via snail mail. and give them any last-minute details they may need. Advertise online. Invest in social, search, and display advertising targeted at your audience. 60 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Live Posting Checklist Make sure you’re sticking to live posting best practices by following the advice listed below. Alert your followers. Be sure to tell your Hashtag and geotag. Make sure you’re reaching Twitter followers ahead of time to expect all attendees, including ones who aren’t following a high volume of Tweets so they aren’t you online. Include the event’s hashtag in all your unexpectedly bombarded. social posts and geotag the venue. Take notes. Keep track of any memorable Be visual. Instagram and vine are quick and quotes and moments that you don’t post easy ways to show off an event, especially if live so you can use them later. your company has an exciting booth. Know where to post. Don’t overpost to facebook, REALLY visual. You can also use Instagram Google+, or Linkedin. It’s okay to share one or two and vine to film short clips (15 and 6 seconds, standout photos or an update promoting your respectively) of attendees giving their best industry company’s booth, but more than that is overkill. tips or sharing their favorite part of the event. 61 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE Live Tweeting Events fill out this worksheet before you attend an event so you’re prepared to live-tweet the best quotes and most important moments. evenT SPeCIfICS evenT nAMe: DATeS: nUMBeR Of ATTenDeeS: LOCATIOn: HASHTAGS: SPOnSORS You don’t have to know every event sponsor, but it may be helpful to jot down some of the big names. SPOnSOR: SPOnSOR: SPOnSOR: TWITTeR TWITTeR TWITTeR HAnDLe: HAnDLe: HAnDLe: SPeAKeRS If you know all about the keynotes ahead of time, you’ll be able to seamlessly live-tweet their insights without scrambling to make sure you got their Twitter handles right. SPeAKeR: SPeAKeR: SPeAKeR: TITLe & TITLe & TITLe & COMPAnY: COMPAnY: COMPAnY: TWITTeR TWITTeR TWITTeR HAnDLe: HAnDLe: HAnDLe: 62 / Pardot

wORKSHEET SIx Post-Event Checklist Your work isn’t over just because your event is. follow these steps to wow your attendees and get the most out of your event investment. Stay in touch. Create Twitter lists of people and Follow up promptly. Send relevant materials, like businesses you connected with during the event the recorded webinar or slide deck, within 24 and through the event hashtag. hours after the event. Leverage video content. Post videos of speakers Pass leads on to sales. Assign event leads to or other event highlights on YouTube, vine, your sales reps for follow-up. note that leads Instagram, and SlideShare. (Make sure you have who spoke to specific sales reps at a live event permission before posting.) should be assigned to those same reps. Recap. Recap the event highlights on your blog, Set up drip campaigns. Add your leads to drip and promote the post on your social media programs that will nurture them with post-event accounts. information and relevant content. Advertise. Consider targeting attendees who Calculate ROI. Use your marketing automation tweeted the event’s hashtag in your digital tool to determine how many event-generated advertising campaigns. leads were converted into customers and to calculate the ROI of your event. 63 / Pardot

CHAPTER SEvEN seven Be better at social media. A 2015 study from the Content Marketing Institute uses six social media platforms — but keep in mind and MarketingProfs found that 92% of B2B that whichever platforms you choose to leverage, it’s companies are using social media — but most crucial to remain active. You’re better off using a couple struggle with measuring its value for their business. different channels very effectively than spreading your Of course, there are plenty of qualitative benefits of resources too thin across every social media platform social media. for example, it enables companies to out there. receive instant feedback about their products and services, source content ideas, gain competitive PLAn YOUR STRATeGY insight, and, most importantly, show their customers Consider your capabilities. Do you have one (or more) they care by quickly responding to their ideas and employees who can dedicate themselves full-time concerns. to social media? If not, how will you delegate social But how can you be sure you’re making the most responsibilities? Consider your budget as well. Do you of social media and getting a measurable return on plan on investing in paid social in addition to organic your investment? In this chapter, we’ll give you the posts? Would it benefit you to purchase a robust social resources you need to build a successful social media media tool, or will free tools get the job done? strategy from the ground up, or to improve the Create a schedule. Test a few different posting cadences strategy you already have in place. to determine the optimal posting frequency for your PICK YOUR PLATfORMS audience, and make sure you’re scheduling posts (through a marketing automation platform, from within It’s important to understand who your audience the social platform itself, or using another social tool) to is and what they expect from each social media go out even when you’re not in the office. channel. CMI found that the average B2B company 64 / Pardot

Source your content. Decide what kind of content you’ll be posting. You’ll likely want to post ungated content (like infographics and blog posts) to drive engagement as well as gated content (such as a white paper behind a form) to generate leads. It’s also important to post content from other sources so you don’t come across as overly promotional. Implement social listening. Social listening is simply monitoring social media to stay up-to-date with your industry and your client base. Choose a social listening tool (like Salesforce Social Studio or TweetDeck) and set up streams of Tweets that mention specific keywords relevant to your company, your competitors, and your industry. The social listening worksheet at the end of this chapter will help you brainstorm which keywords to monitor so you can follow a steady, focused stream of GeT MORe vALUe OUT conversations that matter to you. Of SOCIAL. Stay on brand. Create a documented social media Learn more about social media tactics policy that aligns with your branding and your specifically for B2B businesses in our Best content strategy to maintain a consistent online Practices Guide to Social Media. presence. An official policy gives you more control over your company’s public image, and defining what is and isn’t appropriate can make your employees feel more confident about social sharing. GET FREE E-BOOK BUILD A fOLLOWInG Your audience is already using social media; it’s just a matter of connecting with them. You can do this in several different ways:

Use your website. Link to your social media profiles Invest in ads. The extensive data gathered by social in the header or footer of your website and on your media platforms allows marketers to run highly Contact Us page. targeted ad campaigns that can help you grow your audience and generate leads. Activate your employees. Ask your employees to link to your company’s social profiles in their email Engage with influencers. By engaging industry signatures and Twitter bios, and encourage them to influencers on social media, you have the opportunity join the conversation! Jay Baer, President of Convince to connect with their networks in addition to your & Convert, sees employees as a valuable distribution own. not sure how to identify influencers? Try channel for content, especially for B2B: “employees monitoring relevant keywords on Twitter to see who’s have more engagement and trust than company influential in those topics, searching Twitter lists for channels ever do. Get your employees to participate industry experts, or browsing topic experts on Klout. in social media, and you’ll get a powerful distribution channel in return.” Once you’ve identified your influencers, it’s time to engage them. Keep the first two weeks strictly Cross-post. If you already have a large following on one to passive engagement. Retweet them and share social network, use it as a platform to promote your their content so they recognize you as a consistent other profiles. Just be sure to do this sparingly; you follower. Then, make your pitch. Ask them to share don’t want to spam your followers with too much self- something of yours that their followers will enjoy, promotion. and be sure to thank them when they do. Use the influencer worksheets at the end of this chapter to Join communities. Join — or better yet, create — active coordinate your strategy. communities on social media that your ideal buyers are likely to be part of. LinkedIn groups, Google+ SeT (AnD ReACH!) GOALS communities, facebook Groups, Pinterest group Take the time to sit down and map out some social boards, and online message boards are all great places media goals so you can prove that your strategy is to connect with your audience. In fact, Oktopost found successful — or learn what isn’t successful and work that 86% of social media conversions occur within to improve it. social media communities rather than on company or personal profiles. 66 / Pardot

Determine what matters. It may be nice to know Outline actionable steps. What steps will you take to how many favorites your Tweets receive each month, reach your goals? Mapping out specific, actionable but that’s not a very useful metric when it comes to stepping stones to success will help you avoid the proving that social media is valuable for your company. dreaded procrastination bug. While it’s fine to look at vanity metrics to make sure you’re on track, they aren’t enough to show your CMO Implement change. now that you’ve set your goals that social marketing is having a tangible impact. and outlined the steps you’ll take to achieve them, it’s Take a look at metrics like your follower growth rate, time to put them into action. how many leads you’re generating, and levels of engagement. need help deciding what really matters? Track your success. Use the goal tracking worksheet Check out our beginner’s guide to making social at the end of this chapter to track your success and media measurable. prove the results of your social media efforts. Audit your social accounts and past performance. Modify your goals if necessary. now, we’re not Use an analytics tool to see how you’ve performed in suggesting that you drastically alter your goals the past. This can give you insight into which areas so it looks like you met them when you didn’t. need improvement and help you set a benchmark for But if you’re consistently falling short, you might future performance. consider modifying your long-term goals to be more Analyze your competitors. Take some time to peruse reasonable — and rethinking the steps you can take your competitors’ social profiles. note what they’re to meet them. Maybe you realize that growing your doing well or poorly, and take a look at how their followers isn’t as important as engaging the followers metrics compare to yours. you already have. That’s fine; just modify your goals to reflect that. Set goals. Based on your past performance and Get more specific with goal-tracking and reporting your competitors’ performance, it’s time to set some in the next chapter in our guide, which focuses on reasonable — but still ambitious — goals for your overall KPI reporting. brand. Be sure to set both short-term and long-term goals for the metrics you choose to measure. 67 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Social Listening A successful social media strategy is just as much about listening to relevant conversations as it is about posting content. Use this worksheet to brainstorm keywords to monitor in your social listening feeds. COMPAnY KeYWORDS SOCIAL HAnDLeS PRODUCTS nAMe vARIATIOnS WORDS TO eXCLUDe & USeRnAMeS & COMMOn TYPOS InDUSTRY KeYWORDS ReLevAnT HASHTAGS ReQUeSTS fOR ADvICe WORDS TO eXCLUDe COMPeTITOR KeYWORDS COMPAnY nAMeS SOCIAL HAnDLeS nAMe vARIATIOnS WORDS TO eXCLUDe & USeRnAMeS & COMMOn TYPOS 68 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Influencer Tracking InfLUenCeR InfORMATIOn Let’s capture some basic information for your records. nAMe: eMAIL: TWITTeR: @ WHAT DO THeY HOW MAnY fOLLOWeRS TWeeT ABOUT? DO THeY HAve? BUILD THe ReLATIOnSHIP Time to start engaging. Try to share or comment on their content at least six times over two weeks. enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? YeS nO YeS nO enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? YeS nO YeS nO enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? enGAGeMenT DATe: ReCIPROCATeD? YeS nO YeS nO 69 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Pitching Influencers Checklist After you’ve spent some time engaging with your influencers, it’s time to make the pitch and ask them to share some of your content. Use these best practices when you make your request. DATe: COnTenT PITCHeD: SUCCeSSfUL? YeS nO If YOUR PITCH WAS SUCCeSSfUL, HOW WILL YOU nURTURe THe ReLATIOnSHIP MOvInG fORWARD? Personalize. everyone enjoys hearing their Personalize. Your message should sound own name! Start off your message with a personal and reference some of their recent personal address. posts. Demonstrate value. Use a phrase like Be concise. Provide a simple request in “Thought you might be interested” to show order to show you’ve thought this contact you’ve tailored your link. through. Link to your content. Don’t forget to Have a CTA. Don’t forget to tell the include a link to the content you want them influencer what you would like them to do to share! after they read your email. Subject line. Your subject line should be End on a high note. end your message clear and concise. Make sure it doesn’t with “Would love to get your thoughts!” or sound spammy! simply “Thanks!” to end positively. 70 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Social Media Goals Use this worksheet to track your goal progress. We recommend filling out at least two versions of this worksheet: one for long-term goals and one for short-term goals. GOAL PROGReSS GOAL: GOAL: GOAL: GOAL: DATe RAnGe DATe RAnGe DATe RAnGe DATe RAnGe nOTeS: 71 / Pardot

CHAPTER EIGHT eight Be better at ROI reporting. Many marketing leaders still feel like they’re under THe BenefITS Of CLOSeD-LOOP the microscope when it comes to proving the worth RePORTInG of their entire department — and unfortunately, If you have a marketing automation system with closed- they probably are. You may remember the following loop reporting capabilities, you can solve a common statistic from 2012: 80% of CeOs don’t trust the work issue among B2B organizations: revenue attribution. done by their marketers (to put this in perspective, Closed-loop reporting allows you to tie closed deals 90% of those same CeOs trust and value their CIOs back to the campaigns that originally sourced them, and CfOs). giving you the ability to attribute revenue to specific Although it’s been three years since that statistic marketing campaigns, prioritize your marketing went mainstream, marketers are still having a difficult programs, see where your best leads are coming from, time demonstrating their ROI. In fact, Omobono and forecast for future initiatives. conducted a recent study that found that almost half Here’s how it works: of respondents (48%) feel they lack the analytics and reporting skills to measure their return on investment. 1. A prospect visits your site for the first time. 2. The prospect is assigned a unique identifying fortunately, with the widening adoption of closed- tracking cookie. loop reporting systems like marketing automation, it’s getting easier to track and provide the numbers that 3. The anonymous visitors takes various actions on the C-suite actually cares about. This chapter will walk your website. through a quick overview of closed-loop reporting 4. The activity is tracked and recorded. and provide B2B marketers with a list of valuable ROI metrics to track. 72 / Pardot

5. The visitor eventually converts and provides 5 IMPORTAnT ROI MeTRICS their information, typically via a form submission. Access to powerful closed-loop reporting technologies 6. The visitor’s previous activity is retroactively has left one question on many marketers’ minds: which assigned to their new lead profile. metrics should be prioritized to showcase success? 7. When that visitor becomes a customer, the Start by reviewing the Better B2B Metrics chart linked original point of contact is credited. to on the following page to see which vanity metrics you can trade for more meaningful ROI metrics. Then, 70% of B2B marketers cite a take a look at the list below for an overview of a few lack of resources metrics that the C-suite actually wants to see — and to execute as how to calculate them. Keep in mind that some of these the biggest obstacle to investing metrics may be better suited to your business and in analytics. marketing program structure than others. - Regalix 2015 for a look at more specific email and content marketing This type of reporting makes it possible to distinguish metrics, refer to the checklists at the end of this marketing-sourced deals from sales-sourced deals, chapter. helping marketers prove their accountability to the rest of the organization. 86% of B2B marketers feel that marketing analytics are very important to the success of their marketing programs. - Regalix 2015 73 / Pardot

1. Your Revenue or Annual Contract Value How much in revenue or annual contract value (ACV) resulted from direct marketing sources? Your revenue is a great measure of how marketing is contributing to the business. To get this number, you’ll want to look at the contract value or total dollar amount of all opportunities generated by marketing within a given time period. for example, for the month of January, monthly pipeline would show that marketing sourced X number of new opportunities, worth $X. Multiply this number by 12 to see the yearly amount. This dollar amount can prove to upper management that marketing is directly responsible for that amount of revenue. fOLLOW THe MARKeTInG 2. The Percent of Customers Directly Sourced by MeTRICS THAT MATTeR. Marketing See some common vanity metrics (and some What percentage of new customers were better alternatives) in our Marketing Metrics sourced by marketing initiatives? That Matter infographic. If you would rather look at things as a percentage, this metric will show what percentage of new business was sourced by VIEW INFOGRAPHIC marketing in a given time period. Take all of the new customers acquired in a month/quarter/

year, and see what percentage of them started as contributes to your overall sales and marketing a marketing-sourced lead. This is a great indicator costs. Then, divide that by the number of new of how marketing is impacting overall customer customers in that time period. acquisition. 5. The Percent of Customers Influenced by 3. The Ratio of Pipeline to Spend Marketing For every dollar spent by marketing, how much What percentage of acquired customers interacted pipe was created? with your marketing programs? The pipeline-to-spend ratio compares the cost The percentage of customers directly sourced of each campaign to the opportunities that were by marketing is a great metric to have, but some sourced by that campaign. To get this metric, sum people are equally or more interested in marketing up the ACv of all of the opportunities sourced by a influence. The percentage of customers influenced specific campaign and compare that number with by marketing instead looks at how many the total spend. In order to say that the campaign customers were touched by marketing at any was a success, you’ll want at least a one-to-one point during the sales process. These leads don’t ratio. need to be sourced by marketing, just influenced by a marketing program at some point during the 4. Customer Acquisition Cost customer acquisition process. How much does it cost you to acquire a customer? each of these five metrics will give your CeO a much While you typically want all of the metrics on this more accurate (and meaningful) picture of marketing list to trend upward, the same doesn’t apply to performance. Take a look at the KPI calculations your customer acquisition cost — which means worksheets at the end of this chapter for help calculating this metric is definitely worth monitoring. A rise in these metrics, and refer to the reporting checklists on the the cost to acquire customers should be a red flag. following pages to get some ideas for additional metrics To calculate your customer acquisition cost for a to track for your various marketing efforts. Good luck! certain time period, add up all of the campaign spending, advertising costs, sales and marketing salaries (or commissions) — anything that 75 / Pardot

wORKSHEET ONE Calculating Five KPIs, Part I Prove to upper management that your marketing efforts are impacting the bottom line. Use this worksheet to calculate five important KPIs. RevenUe/AnnUAL COnTRACT vALUe How much revenue resulted from direct marketing sources? TOTAL DOLLAR AMOUnT $ Of ALL OPPORTUnITIeS X 12 MOnTHS = GeneRATeD PeR MOnTH RevenUe DIReCTLY fROM DIReCT MARKeTInG SOURCeS PeRCenT Of CUSTOMeRS DIReCTLY SOURCeD BY MARKeTInG What percentage of new customers were sourced by marketing initiatives? nUMBeR Of MARKeTInG- SOURCeD CLOSeD DeALS In A (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) = = % nUMBeR Of neT neW PeRCenT Of CUSTOMeRS CUSTOMeRS ACQUIReD In DIReCTLY SOURCeD BY A (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) MARKeTInG 76 / Pardot

wORKSHEET TwO Calculating Five KPIs, Part II PIPeLIne TO SPenD RATIO for every dollar spent by marketing, how much pipe was created? RevenUe SOURCeD BY CAMPAIGn = = % TOTAL CAMPAIGn SPenD CUSTOMeR ACQUISITIOn COST How much does it cost you to acquire a customer? + + + + = $ CAMPAIGn ADveRTISInG SALARIeS COMMISSIOnS OTHeR MARKeTInG AnD SALeS SPenD COSTS COSTS PeR (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) MARKeTInG AnD SALeS COSTS PeR (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) = = $ nUMBeR Of neW CUSTOMeRS PeR MARKeTInG AnD SALeS (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) COSTS PeR (MOnTH/QUARTeR/YeAR) 77 / Pardot

wORKSHEET THREE Google AdWords KPIs Checklist If you’re company is using Google AdWords to run targeted paid search campaigns, use the checklist below to make sure you’re measuring metrics beyond clicks and impressions. Quality Score: Google uses this score to Cost Per Lead: This is the cost to get a determine the relevance, quality, and user qualified lead from a paid search campaign. satisfaction of your ads and landing pages. Click-Through Rate: The ratio of ad clicks to Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Understand overall ad impressions is an indication of your how much it costs you to acquire a net ad’s effectiveness. new customer. Conversion Rate: This is measured by Total Spend: Your total spend is the dividing the number of leads generated by cumulative amount spend on your ads. your offer by the total number of visitors. Return on Ad Spend: for every dollar spent on paid advertising, what is the return after all expenses? 78 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FOUR Content Marketing KPIs Checklist Turn qualitative content items like white papers and blog posts into quantitative measurements using the metrics on this list. Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Acquisition Unique Page Visit: This is the traffic your content (CPA): See the Pay Per Click KPIs Checklist to is receiving on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. see how you can measure content promotions via online advertising. Downloads: The number of people downloading Lead Generation: This is the number of leads a piece of your content is a good indication of sourced by a piece of marketing content. your content’s popularity. Time on Page: This is the amount of time a visitor Influence: Understand the number of leads, is spending viewing your content; time on page is a opportunities, or closed deals that have been good measurement of visitor engagement. “influenced” by your content Inbound Links: This is the number of other sites Conversion Rates: Track the percentage of users linking back to your content; the greater your that take a desired action; i.e downloading your inbound links, the greater your credibility. content via a form submission. Shares: This shows how often your content is being Followers and/or Subscribers: Keep an eye on the shared across networks. It is worth tracking to see number of followers and subscribers you have on which channels your content is resonating on. your various channels (social media, blog, etc); a good indication of brand awareness. Comments and Interactions: Is your content Growth: follow the percentage of change over time; sparking conversations and making an impact on by what percent is your subscriber base increasing? your readers? Have you seen a spike in content downloads? 79 / Pardot

wORKSHEET FIvE Email Marketing KPIs Checklist Go beyond email opens. Use the KPIs described below to measure the effectiveness of your email efforts. Click-through Rate (CTR): This is calculated by Forward and Print Count: How many of your dividing the total number of clicks by the total emails are being printed or forwarded? number of impressions; if an email offer was delivered 100 times, but the included link was clicked only once, this would result in a 1% CTR. Bounces: These can be either hard (permanent) or soft (transient). In the case of a hard bounce, you Email Clients and Devices: Understand which likely have a bad or invalid email address that needs email clients, browsers, and devices your to be scrubbed from your lists. A soft bounce, on recipients are using to open your emails; use this the other hand, may indicate that a mailbox is full information to optimize your emails based on or that you’re sending a file that’s too large. your audience’s preferences. Glanced or Unread Percentage: This tracks the Delivery Rate: The amount of emails sent percentage of people who did not open your versus the amount of emails delivered is a good email or had it open for less than two seconds. indication of the quality of your lists. Skimmed Percentage: How many people List Growth: Is your number of email opened your email for between two and ten subscribers growing? seconds? Read Percentage: How many people opened your email for longer than ten seconds? 80 / Pardot

wANT mORE INFORmATION? Pardot is B2B marketing automation by Salesforce. Your customers are smarter, more capable, and better- informed than ever before. This new breed of consumer demands a better breed of marketing, and the Pardot platform has the capabilities to get you there. LeARn MORe f