InboundMarketer » Customer Relationship Management (CRM) http://blog.inboundmarketer.com B2B Marketing, CRM, Demand Generation Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:50:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Understanding your Marketing and Sales Systems to Ensure Proper Data Interpretation http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/understanding-your-marketing-and-sales-systems-to-ensure-proper-data-interpretation/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/understanding-your-marketing-and-sales-systems-to-ensure-proper-data-interpretation/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:48:55 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=404 Recently a vendor I used to work with told me that the lead programs I had run with him yielded no sales to my previous company, and asked me why I did them if they did not benefit my organization. He said that my old company was not continuing to run programs with his organization because of this and that they knew this because of reports run in their CRM system. I quickly corrected the vendor, and explained that they did yield sales, but that it was because of the way my old company was reviewing the data. He was curious, wondering how the new person and I could come up with different outcomes when looking at the same data in the same system.

Many marketers think because they run reports in their CRM or have canned reports ready for them in their marketing automation system that they are looking at the right data and are ready to make decisions. This is often an incorrect assumption. Data by itself is meaningless without context. Marketers must understand that data in a CRM is only as good as the information sales is entering, and if they are not working with sales to ensure the proper information is being entered that the data they pull from it is meaningless. They also must understand that a single report is often just one piece of a much larger puzzle. In the case above, the leads purchased from the vendor were not attached to the opportunity because they were not the final buyer in a long sales cycle. Instead, they were the initial contact and primary influencer of the purchase. Without these names the sales to many companies would not have occurred, but because of the simple canned report ran from the CRM, leads that would undoubtedly result in sales will not be purchased.

So how do marketers know when to rely on the data in a report, and when the report is not telling the whole story?

1.       Listen to your gut: If the report you are viewing doesn’t seem right or like it is missing data, it probably is. Try running the report a different way or look at a few individual records to make sure the right data is being captured.

2.    Audit: Don’t simply trust the data in your CRM. Monthly or quarterly audit the data in a report to ensure accuracy. For organizations that sell expensive products with long sales cycles, it is reasonable to review every sale to ensure the data in the record is correct and that you are properly capturing lead sources, search terms, and other pieces of information key to marketing.

3.      Clean out your CRM: Remove all fields that are never populated, make important fields mandatory- this will allow your sales team to focus on answering the important questions.

4.      Training: Be a champion of the CRM system. Work with sales so that it is clear what is expected and create dashboards that highlight data errors so that they can be fixed quickly.

5.      Automating: Try to capture as much information as possible from databases, the lead themselves, or other external sources. Then rely on sales to simply audit the data when speaking to a contact.

6.      Practice and Test: You must become familiar with the reporting features of the tools you are using. You can’t simply reply on the reports that others have created or utilize canned reports. Every company is different, so canned reports will often not apply to your business model and will need tweaking.

Not only will following the tips below ensure you are looking at better data, but by working regularly with sales and reviewing data you will understand how information is captured. This will result in better reports run, because you will understand what fields tell what story.

It’s important to use data to tell a story, and to do this you must understand all the different pieces that make it up. Don’t just run reports, focus on visualizing what you are trying to understand, and then find a way to capture data that answers your questions.

]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/understanding-your-marketing-and-sales-systems-to-ensure-proper-data-interpretation/feed/ 3085 Using Marketing Automation and CRM tools for Public Relations Management http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/using-marketing-automation-and-crm-tools-for-public-relations-management/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/using-marketing-automation-and-crm-tools-for-public-relations-management/#comments Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:05:07 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=355 Press and analyst contact lists tracked in your marketing automation system allow you to view when media is visiting your website, reading your emails, or clicking through on your social media links.  This can be a very valuable tool for corporate communications because it will help you priorities your press follow-ups and will help you optimize your marcom efforts. 

 

The steps to do this are as follows:

  1. Import all press and media contact lists into your marketing automation system.  Alternatively, you can bring them into your CRM system and allow them to sync with your marketing automation system.  If you do not have a marketing automation system, you can do this only using your CRM system or using your CRM system in combination with an email marketing system, but you may have less data available to analyze after the public relations campaign (like their website activity). 
  2. Make sure that these contacts can be separated from the leads in your system.  This can be done by creating a lead source named media or by creating a new field that indicates which media list the contact originates from (i.e. analyst list, local press, etc)  You can also create a unique page layout for these in your CRM system so that you may capture information about the media representative, like their industry influence,  the publications they write for, or the strength of your relationship with them without having fields on your lead view that are not relevant to sales.
  3. Send company news to press prior to release distribution.    Include links to additional information, an email to contact, and additional company links of interest in the email.   Group all of these emails together with a parent campaign or list, which will allow for easier reporting and reporting on the entire group of PR campaigns. 
  4. Monitor which analysts or press representatives click through on links or send emails.  Follow-up with those that have taken interest to support their research efforts or send a follow-up email with additional information. 
  5. Record conversations with press representatives and analysts (outbound calls, voice mail left, inbound calls, in person meetings) and attach emails sent similar to how sales logs activities for prospects.  This will allow you to pull up a full record of your interactions so you are more prepared when speaking to press. 
  6. Review press that opts out of email notifications.  You may then choose to contact the press agent and discuss why you think your content is relevant to them.  You will also be able to see if certain types of announcements causes higher level of opt-outs. 

 

This can be taken one step further by utilizing your CRM to track press and analyst coverage of your company.  By monitoring this, you will see what causes the most press attention.  For example, if you pair the coverage received with the communications you sent to the press you will be able to run reports to see if analysts respond better to emails sent to them in the morning, or if they tend to give more coverage to emails that include pictures or videos, etc. 

 

You can also create workflow rules that notify your company’s communications specialist to follow-up with a press representative or analysts.  This can be based off of their online behavior, their reaction to an email (opens, clicks through) or on a lead scoring system that is augmented for media and analysts. 

 

I use Salesforce.com as my CRM system, and have also implemented PR Manager, a free tool by Force.com Labs, for additional tracking of communications efforts.   This can be downloaded from the Salesforce Appexchange in minutes and the fields can be customized to meet your company’s needs. 

 

And to help analyze all my marcom efforts, I have created a public relations management dashboard and scheduled reports to track the success of these efforts.  This allows management to see what is happening in corporate communications without me having to run and email extra reports. 

]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/04/using-marketing-automation-and-crm-tools-for-public-relations-management/feed/ 332 Heard on Twitter – Salesforce, SAAS, and CRM – March 27 http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-saas-and-crm-march-27/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-saas-and-crm-march-27/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:28:50 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=290 <!–[endif]–>

So there were so many Tweets about Salesforce and their new Service Cloud Product it was ridiculous. I tried to count all of them. No really, I did. In total, I came up with over 2000 Tweets on the topic. Seriously. Skip reading all the posts and check out the short video that explains what everyone is talking about…http://www.salesforce.com/servicecloud/tour.  This announcement happened in coordination with Cloudforce NYC on Monday.

There were also a bunch of Tweets on these current Salesforce hot topics:

Everyone wants to see what @Iddapps is doing with the appexchange. She launched a preview of it last night.  Hoping to see more this week.

Use @asksalesforce for Salesforce questions. They are also posting a tip of the day, though search for their tips (marked by ToD) instead of following them so you don’t have to read all the replies to questions.

From @Successforce and @Forcedotcom:

And here is the rest….

dschach: SAS: Software As A Services Makes Sense — For The Vendor http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/… And Amazon releases the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse: http://aws.amazon.com/eclipse/

mashable: Reading: “The Future of Twitter: Social CRM” http://tinyurl.com/chdftg

CRMTrainer: Model Metrics Helps African Aid Organization Automate Donations Using Force.com Platform and Salesforce.com http://ow.ly/1mSN

appirio_nara: good Cloudforce NYC highlights (from TechCrunch) http://bit.ly/19ceKD

CRMFY: Interesting – Jott for Salesforce released. Update your Salesforce data via a phone call. http://bit.ly/16t7V

WebObsessed: Internet Marketing – Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online challenges Salesforce.com http://tinyurl.com/4okqnv

aglue: Make sure to enable document indexing for your Documents tab in SFDC. Amazing how many folks don’t know it’s available.

PaulMiller: Publishing my podcast with Salesforce.com VP for Developer Marketing, Adam Gross. SaaS, PaaS, Cloud and more. http://bit.ly/qVFZJ

allgood: The Internet Industry Is on a Cloud http://ff.im/1JO2U Ellison’s real beef is the Salesforce.com brand is now synonymous with “cloud”

donthemic: Posted my tutorial (working demo and code) on Salesforce.com, Flex and BlazeDS. http://tinyurl.com/dnkdls #salesforce #blazeds

eo2hogan: CRM extending to more than just customer relationships: Microsoft with xRM, Salesforce.com with Force.com, and o.. http://tinyurl.com/czjexn

]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-saas-and-crm-march-27/feed/ 401 Growing with Social Networks and “The Service Cloud” http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/growing-with-social-networks-and-the-service-cloud/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/growing-with-social-networks-and-the-service-cloud/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:36:38 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=280 We are in the toddler years of what is happening with brands interacting with customers and prospects in social networks. In its infancy, companies were using RSS feeds to move data between websites and social networking sites to reach as large an audience as possible with minimal effort. Content was simply repurposed and available for consumption outside the core website.  All content was approved by marketing and felt ‘controlled.’

Now, as social network popularity is growing, customers and prospects have asked companies for more personal interactions on these sites. Because of this, we started seeing organizations make social network interactions directly by creating advocates for their brand to serve as representatives on these sites, the most well known of these being @comcastcares.

But, as social networks grow, it is becoming increasingly hard to have someone monitor each of these sites to interact. This becomes a larger struggle for B2B or technical companies, whose customers may be having conversations in less utilized social networks, like product or industry specific groups. Recently I tried to compile a list of places where people were having conversations about HP’s testing product, HP Loadrunner. I found hundreds of sites where people were talking, including wikis, user blogs, groups, social networks, etc. For a brand like HP, a team would be needed just to monitor all these sites and even more needed to respond to each question and request. And this for only one of their products.

In addition, it has been difficult for marketers to manage these social interactions, since often the conversations require more than their expertise, and a service or support representatives is required for a technical response. At many companies, Marketing has panicked, uncomfortable with service representatives searching the web to have conversations that may not represent ‘the brand’ or that may reflect poorly on the organization, especially since the conversations are hard to track. Also, because these conversations have happened outside of the service system, it has been hard to quantify the level of attention that is needed for these conversations to ensure the company is interacting enough.

The solution to this is the development of products that will harvest these conversations and bring them into a system where support can monitor, respond, and track these conversations. This is also a good solution for marketing, as they can see the interactions service is having.

As we move out of the toddler years, we are going to see is a shift from Marketing using products like Radian 6 and news alert products to track social media interactions with their brand to products that are built directly into the CRM systems. We are also going to see service helping customers directly in the CRM. This will not only allow the interactions to be measureable, but for it to be combined with current customer records, for the requests to be merged with requests from formal support channels, and for support to leverage preexisting knowledge bases when replying to these questions. Today we saw the most robust of these product launched by Salesforce called Service Cloud.

This means that a micro-blogging site like Twitter or social network like Facebook can plug into your CRM via multiple add-ins and mashups in multiple places viewable by different users of the CRM. Your marketing team may use the CRM to integrate directly with these sites to place PPC ads and monitor trends. Sales will pull data and news on specific prospects when making sales calls. Support will then tap into these same social networks to resolve support cases and answer product questions. All viewable 24 hours a day, via a desktop, laptop, or mobile device without searching networks, websites, or blogs.

Because all of this will happen inside the same CRM system everything will be measurable. Instead of seeing a decline in the amount of data available because it is happening off the website or outside our front doors, we will see an increase, with new metrics being created and more information collected on each customer. Marketing will be able to run reports on which social networks their customers prefer and will be able to place advertising dollars and run lead generation programs on these sites inside the CRM. Lead scoring will be able to be done on behavior outside the website. Support will know how customers prefer their responses and will be able to deliver solutions in these places. They will also be able to monitor conversations others are having about their product and interact at various points of the conversation when appropriate. Sales will be able to see a picture of the person they are speaking with and read news and blog/micro-blog posts done by that person to better understand pain points to shorten the selling process . Product management will be able to scan support logs captured from social sites to find defects or product upgrade requests.

All of this is happening fast. And It is important for organizations to adjust quickly. Just as the move from the toddler is happening now, the social networks will continue to mature, and marketers will have to grow through this change with them.

]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/growing-with-social-networks-and-the-service-cloud/feed/ 181 Heard on Twitter – Salesforce and CRM – March 20 http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-and-crm-march-20/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-and-crm-march-20/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:53:02 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=266

Here is my weekly post on what happened in CRM, Salesforce (+ a little SaaS) for the week ending March 20th. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything or any ways this could be improved.

Also, come over and say hi if you are at Cloudforce in NYC on Monday.  I’ll be there and then will be stopping by the user group immediately following.

I will not be including the billion posts that @4CRM and @movamedia is doing on twitter about CRM and SaaS, unless it is retweeted or significant. I’m pretty sure no one has time to read everything they post; it is quite exhausting to even follow them. I think what they are posting is great, it’s just hard for me to follow. Check them out if interested.

From @successforce:

zdnett: SMBs to Salesforce: We want more SaaS http://tinyurl.com/czql7m

zdnett: Salesforce.com: Pondering the next 10 years zdnett: Salesforce.com: Pondering the next 10 years http://tinyurl.com/dcawkj

ReidCarlberg: BLOG 100% Native Force.com Salesforce to Salesforce Mashup. Query and update data in one org from another, dynamically. http://bit.ly/16eua

ModelMetricsInc: Salesforce-to-Salesforce Mashup: 100% Native Force.com Apex Solution: http://ow.ly/Z2h

LEADSExplorer: How much information can you retrieve from your CRM that you haven’t entered yourself? A some information or nothing? http://bit.ly/ZpwFq

4CRM: Four Cheap or Free CRM Tools for Marketers :: Xirincs Feeds Directory: More info about feeds.clickz.com/~r/Click.. http://tinyurl.com/clj55c

alexissmirnov: It is just me or billing for SaaS is too hard as it should be? Idea: A service for SaaS subscriptions. http://bit.ly/13Bj5o

Iconic88: New app deepens Salesforce-Facebook possibilities http://bit.ly/AakC2

WebBasedApps: Cloud Computing Is Becoming Mission-Critical | Search Journal: Examples of recent outages at Salesforce, Amazon .. http://twurl.nl/kr7g5u

CallEffect: Checking out the FREE 10th Anniversary gift from Salesforce: http://www.salesforce.com/10/

prnews: Salesforce.com to Host Financial Analyst Day in New York prnews: Salesforce.com to Host Financial Analyst Day in New York http://tinyurl.com/de9xhl

@salesforcewatch: Salesforce launches Mobile Lite: http://www.salesforce.com/mobile/lite/ <<FREE cut down version of sfdc mobile

tmcnet: Salesforce.com Introduces New Subscription-Based Training Model http://tmcnet.com/4070359.1

rssbus: SalesForce to SharePoint in 2 minutes: http://snurl.com/e0k7r

neil_s: new: Solutions & Applications For Salesforce CRM Data Cleansing http://bit.ly/19GE0v

techupdates: [News] Q&A: Ten questions with Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff http://tinyurl.com/c9pjre

richardknudson: The Truth is Out There, and it’s in 140 characters or less. CRM/Twitter mashup, part 2: http://tinyurl.com/ceyzk9

guidooswald: [#CRM 2.0] What is a “Conversation” ?: When it comes to Social CRM or CRM 2.0, we often talk about est.. http://tinyurl.com/d5al8h

kitson: Appirio has a killer cloud-comparison chart. RT @forcedotcom Cloud Computing: Evolution or the next dot-com? #sfdc http://sn.im/cloud0317

debdonston: Another slideshow built from eWEEK’s 25 years of covers–this one to mark Salesforce.com’s 10th anniversary: http://tinyurl.com/c7kjyv

]]> http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-and-crm-march-20/feed/ 180 Heard on Twitter – Salesforce and CRM – March 13 http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-and-crm-january-13-edition/ http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/2009/03/heard-on-twitter-salesforce-and-crm-january-13-edition/#comments Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:04:25 +0000 Maria Pergolino http://blog.inboundmarketer.com/?p=180

This week on twitter we had a bunch of great topics and posts. First, Successforce had some really great stuff, promoting new blog articles and apps by Salesforce Labs. In case you dind’5 know, this account is Managed by @kingsley2 & @erica_kuhl. We had some great info and tips from users of Salesforce and Developers. Some are just reminders and some include new content that should be reviewed by all Salesforce admins. Oh, and the most fun topic- selecting the Spring 09 logo for Salesforce. I like the coconut.

First, there was talk about the SaaS summit and still some buzz about the Salesforce Cloud computing video and the Salesforce Success Tour. A number of Tweeters including myself (@inboundmarketer) tweeted about the Spring 09 release certification exam to keep admin credentials up-to-date. I’m excited to announce I passed the update exam, and wish those who haven’t taken it yet lots of luck.

@Successforce posted the following:

Blog post “A Geeky Field Trip Into The Guts of Multitenancy” http://tinyurl.com/c4529z

Blog post “Cloud computing in Pi minutes” http://tinyurl.com/cl6m6f

Blog post “Lead Scoring & Design Patterns” http://tinyurl.com/dk5gq2

Blog post “Your Keen Aesthetic Judgement, In Demand” http://tinyurl.com/be5xaa

New App “Data Manipulation Tool” http://tinyurl.com/bzrv5m

New App “Duplicate Contact Blocker” http://tinyurl.com/bcqw4t

Blog post “Cloudforce2009 events coming to a town near you!” http://tinyurl.com/bszpbl

Blog post “Video FAQs on SaaS and PaaS” http://tinyurl.com/ace7ng

4CRM Salesforce.com Smells Blood, Hunts Bigger CRM Prey: Enterprise …: Salesforce.com Smells Blood, Hunts Bigger CR.. http://tinyurl.com/dec4zl

a_sinclair something SFDC administrators should keep in mind with Salesforce – the system is only as smart as the people using it http://bit.ly/BpdGK

abenamer Check out these Salesforce.com vs. CiviCRM comparisons at http://bit.ly/3A3nJ7 and @pearlbear’s blog at http://bit.ly/JsoDh

alightheart #idc #cloudcomputing Peter Coffee: Cloud computing is not bleeding edge – Salesforce.com is the same age as Google (10 years) (Clever)

appirio Pondering cloud computing at the SaaS Summit | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com http://tinyurl.com/afk3bn

arrowpointe TIP: if you are migrating a new record type for an object using Eclipse, create it first in the destination and UPDATE it with Eclipse. TIP CONT’D: Otherwise, you need to go through every profile and apply it manually to them.

dschach Twitter preview: X-Squared #salesforce AppEx product Mass Update Contact Addresses to be released tomorrow. Get It Now! http://bit.ly/eKgKo (and) Tonight I wrote the first part of #Salesforce integration with @dropio. Very cool stuff! (Really should pack for DC trip now.) (and) Awesome feature: @dropio puts GoogleAnalytics code on premium drops – I can see which drops are accessed, just like a website!

forcedotcom cloud computing – what’s different for developers: http://tinyurl.com/cl2usl (props to @johnbarnes from Model Metrics for being mentioned)

galvingp If you using #SalesForce and you come across whitepapers or URLs for future need store it in the documents section and add tags.

IdaApps http://twitpic.com/1yj5k – #Salesforce, AppExchange, Marc Benioff – News & blogs Alert comparison

InitialCall Celebrating whitepaper is finally finished! 7 Reasons Not to Manage Complex Sale in Salesforce.com Leads http://tinyurl.com/cuqcx2

john_t_doyle Article from CIO on Salesforce.com going after enterprise. More on Saas from CIO but they still seem conservative http://tinyurl.com/d74d58

klrichardson Launched internal Salesforce.com Ideas site for cost savings ideas. 4 hrs live and 16 ideas between 40 users

lucidera How Social Media is Changing CRM: http://bit.ly/Hrawv Do people really now have “Twitter listening” in their job description?

mikegerholdt Just installed Duplicate Contact Blocker for #salesforce, be sure to click on ‘ignore errors’ then it works perfect! (And )Has anyone had problems with Duplicate Contact Blocker when the last name contains ‘ like O’donnell? #salesforce

mktquestions What are your biggest pain points using SalesForce.com? (Looking for input): Good Morning; In an effort to .. http://tinyurl.com/cfptdk

OpenAirPSA OpenAir, NetSuite and salesforce.com integration. A PSA/CRM link up. http://blogs.zdnet.com/somm…

SFCnMore New Blog Post: Logging Deleted Records in SalesForce.com http://www.sfcnmore.com/

sinlung Risks of Cloud Computing: At Calyptix we use Salesforce.com for a lot of our customer relationship management, f.. http://tinyurl.com/b5cy3z

And hey, in the comments you may want to try to answer these questions for tweeters looking for a hand:

BruceViaPost Why can’t I create a new lead in salesforce just by forwarding a mail into the dropbox? Really, how hard could it be to parse out the name?

salesforceIUS finding real problems using Vertical Response and Salesforce. It eats up all our storage. Anyone have good workarounds??

Finally, I just wanted to mention that one of my favorite Salesforce developers has joined Twitter. @michaelforce. His first tweet was a great one:

@michaelforce I’m confirmed as a panelist for the cloudforce event in NYC on the 23rd… Marc is supposed to make a big announcement… any guesses?

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