Marketing Pilgrim Published: "5 Essential Features Of A Marketing Automation Platform" plus 1 more

5 Essential Features Of A Marketing Automation Platform

Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:14 AM PDT

Marketing is undergoing a major change. Inbound marketing and the shift to online is forcing marketers make changes to their marketing infrastructure. This means a reduction in agency design fees and trade publication advertisements in favor of marketing software to boost lead generation and lead management.

Marketing Automation tools should be part or a larger inbound marketing tools set. When looking specifically at marketing automation features, marketers should keep these five key features top of mind.

5 Essential Features Of A Marketing Automation Platform

1. Click Tracking – It may seem simple but one of the core functions of a great marketing automation system is click tracking. As a marketer you need to understand the click-through rate for the links in your marketing automation campaigns. More importantly you need the conversion events attributed to marketing automation campaigns if they triggered the conversion as oppose to another source like direct traffic.

2. Landing Page Tool – A way to generate and reconvert leads is critical. The method for doing that today on the web is landing pages. As a marketer you must be able to easily create landing pages. having to depend on an agency or the IT department is not an option. Software that lets you easily create landing pages provides the opportunity for more targeted landing pages. When landing pages are hard to create and expensive it causes general landing pages that have lower conversion rates.

3. Closed Loop Analytics – Marketing strategies should be aligned with the entire marketing funnel. Knowing you visitor to lead rate is not enough. You need analytics for your entire marketing funnel from visitor to customer. Make sure that your marketing automation software system integrates with your customer relationship management software (CRM) to ensure that you can tie closed sales deals to marketing campaigns.

4. Behavior-Based Triggers – Context is king in an inbound marketing world. So much content exists on the web today that recipients of a marketing message instantly ask themselves "What is in it for me?". As a marketer you need to be able to send a targeted email to a lead the second they look at your product page. This is called behavior-based triggering. It uses the actions a lead takes a the trigger to send a specific message and it is critical for increasing conversion rates.

5. Custom Segmentation – Behavior-based triggers aren't the only way to have contextual communications. As a marketer you understand your target customer and have a significant amount of data about them. You marketing automation system you allow you to segment and organize your leads by any of the data fields that you have. Creating custom list for specific lead nurturing campaigns will help drive stronger lead to customer conversions.

What do you look for in an marketing automation platform? How would you like to see platform evolve in the future?

Yahoo Purchase Talk Attracts Only the Biggest Names

Posted: 24 Oct 2011 06:51 AM PDT

While the world awaits their copy of Steve Jobs' biography there is still business being done (barely).

Amongst the most interesting stories / rumors / areas of great speculation is the possible sale of Yahoo. Yahoo has been in a tailspin for quite some time now. Things have changed though as the Carol Bartz era ended with her firing by phone and subsequent whining about this and that. The Jerry Yang re-emerged as somewhat of a voice for the company although it is difficult to take that seriously considering it was he who let the property slip from its once high flier status to its current state of "still gets a tone of traffic but no one can really figure out why or what it does" standing.

Now we see the likes of Microsoft, Alibaba and Google (yes, Google) making noise about buying Yahoo. It's interesting to say the least since all would have very different reasons for taking such an action. The Wall Street Journal reports regarding Google

The swirl of potential deal activity around Yahoo Inc. is growing.

Google Inc. has talked to at least two private-equity firms about potentially helping them finance a deal to buy Yahoo's core business, according to a person familiar with the matter. Google and prospective partners have held early-stage discussions but haven't put together a formal proposal, the person said.

Then Alibaba

Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the China-based Internet company in which Yahoo owns a roughly 40% stake, recently said he was interested in buying Yahoo, but it was unclear whether he has made a serious move to do so.

Then Microsoft

Microsoft is now considering financing a potential joint bid for Yahoo by extending loans to its deal partners and buying preferred stock in Yahoo, said people familiar with the matter. The deal's structure would reflect Microsoft's desire to limit its risk.

The software company has been in discussions about a potential joint proposal for Yahoo with private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, people familiar with the matter have said. Microsoft's contribution would likely be several billion dollars, although the exact amount hasn't been decided, the people said.

It's all very interesting but the most interesting option appears to be Google. First, even without all the details one would have to believe that the regulatory scrutiny of a deal like that might squash the concept before it became reality. Then there is the little Bing and Yahoo search thing but let's not quibble about details :-) .

From another angle, this potential merger of Google and Yahoo could the one that Facebook would keep a close eye on because while Yahoo struggles to define itself it still has a very large and seemingly loyal following that could be perfect for Google to get more traction through Google+. Granted many Yahoo users likely are Facebookers currently but it could be a very powerful platform for Google to try to give Google+ the boost it needs to truly go mainstream.

Personally, I am rooting for Google because would be the most fun to watch. If Microsoft gets truly involved with Yahoo beyond the search agreement we would all just put the combined effort in our Internet dead pools and watch for the next massive screw-up. That gets old fast. As for Alibaba? Well, if a Chinese company takes control of a large web property like that it would be interesting for sure considering the censorship issues that it would likely stir up but China as a market is for another day in the Internet space until they play by the rest of the world's rules.

So what's your take on this? Would you like to see one of these companies perform corporate CPR on Yahoo? If so, which one and why?