aMarketForce Marketing Services

aMarketForce talks every day with clients looking to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Not to our surprise, many of them have the wrong perception about satisfaction and loyalty.  Let’s get real about some common myths around customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Myth 1: Customer satisfaction equals customer loyalty

Really?

Many companies use the words customer loyalty and customer satisfaction interchangeably. That is so wrong. It is hardly necessary that a satisfied customer must be loyal as well. A majority of your satisfied customers will switch to your competitors for relatively small incentives – unless you have taken that extra step to nurture your satisfied customers and increase their loyalty so they don’t even think of looking elsewhere.  Many clients who have used our survey services have observed that their customers, though dissatisfied by customer service, have been loyal for many years because of few driving forces such as ‘competitive pricing’ and ‘brand image’. Not that you should ignore customer service – far from it. The point to note is that one aspect which you think is really important to maintain loyalty might not be that important in reality, while other aspects that appear trivial might be key motivators of loyalty. The important thing is to be aware of is what your customers feel is important, and what is not.

Myth 2: Solving customer problems daily leads to increased customer satisfaction

If you have been receiving customer calls about the same problem every day and you are solving it every day, don’t think you are doing a good job. It’s time to step back. The same problem coming up day after day may not be a customer service problem – it’s something else. In any case, when a customer calls, what matters is resolving the issue on the first call. In the mind of the customer, it is ‘I called with a problem and they took care of it right away’, instead of ‘I had to call again and again and they had no clue’. Many times the problem is not actually a problem; the manual might not have been read, instructions not followed, etc. As well, the customer’s perception about problem resolution (through customer survey records) and the agent’s call recording can all be misleading. Therefore, assessing such calls into measuring customer satisfaction can give you wrong results. So what to do? Do more first call resolutions, and ask what the customer feels, after the ‘problem’ call is over. You will get more accurate answers.

Myth 3: High customer satisfaction only retains existing customers

Heads of Customer Service are always putting their minds into how to retain existing customers, whereas marketing and sales teams focus on acquiring new customers. However, it has been proved that with little effort you can achieve both.  A satisfied customer will always be happy to recommend your services/products. Customer satisfaction and refer-a-friend programmes that are backed by your customer service team will always show positive results.

Myth 4: Customer satisfaction is more important than customer loyalty

This myth has long been proven wrong. There still exist many companies who give more importance to customer satisfaction than to loyalty. Growing companies are more focused into understanding customer satisfaction and care less about measuring customer loyalty That’s a pity because measuring customer loyalty can actually help you in forecasting the next purchase, as well as get new customers. It also helps in understanding areas of improvement and how you can increase your customer’s loyalty (what matters most to your customer).

Myth 5: Customer loyalty programme is enough

Many companies feel that running a customer loyalty programme is enough to earn customer loyalty. Yes, right. And I have a bridge over the Sahara desert I can sell to you cheap. Fact is, your competitors are influencing your customers via the TV, the internet, offers, deals, discounts, and a plethora of other channels every minute. Customer loyalty programmes can be successful only when you, too, are in the game. How?

1. Keep your customers involved. Communicate better. Tell them about your new and upcoming products, new offers, and new ways of using your product. Better educating your customers about your products always helps. Send out periodic service or product bulletins. Offer learn-as-you-use and other ways to involve your customers in your company and your offerings. Bottom line: pay attention to them, and let them know you are paying attention.
2. Constantly reinforce their buying decision to buy your product – because your competitors are hammering away on the exact opposite, and nobody wants to feel they made a mistake. Make them feel good about buying your product.
3. Provide better customer services.
4. Every customer is different and so are their needs. Develop some personality models and use them – it’s called ‘mass customization’.

aMarketForce is a B2B market research company helping clients with B2B and B2C customer satisfaction and loyalty survey and market research services. To know more about customer satisfaction survey services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Every organization, before making the investment into a marketing automation solution has to answer the question: “How will it help the business?”

In our past blogs, we discussed What is Marketing Automation Software and Why Should I consider it? and Which Marketing Automation Solution is right for you?

In this blog, we will help you to understand some key differences between marketing automation and email campaign solutions. This will help you make the important decision.

Confused between email marketing software and marketing automation solution?

Marketing automation solution is far more comprehensive. It helps you streamline:

• Marketing campaigns
• Communication with prospect
• Lead management

Here are the some key differences:

1. Website analytics and monitoring

   A marketing automation solution will monitor your website visitors, tracks their activities such as pages visited and time spent on each. A spike in visits from a particular company can be indicative of business interest or competitor activity. A  MA solution can track the source from where the visitor got to your website, helping you in Marcom budget allocation. E-mail marketing solutions do not do this.

2. CRM to marketing automation solution two-way integration

   A marketing automation solution updates leads, contacts and other fields directly into your CRM System. Lead and campaigns are effectively managed and updated in CRM to make it a lot easier for the sales team to act sooner. It is important to make sure that the MA solution you are considering is compatible to your CRM. E-mail marketing solutions do not do this.

3. Lead generation and lead management

   A MA solution helps in converting online traffic into quality leads using targeted lead scoring and nurturing process. Cold inquiries/leads are nurtured by sending relevant communications to prospects to help develop these into qualified leads. E-mail marketing solutions do not do this.

4. Automated, action-driven lead scoring and nurturing

   A marketing automation solution helps you automate your lead scoring and nurturing process. You can create multi-layered, automated, trigger-driven marketing programs to manage lead nurturing activities, which help in nurturing leads as well as filter out dead-ends. E-mail marketing solutions do not do this.

So what do you need – simple email marketing or a comprehensive marketing solution?

Coming back to our question, “How will it help the business?” – You should consider many more factors that we previously discussed in our blog Which Marketing Automation Solution is right for you?

Comments? We are listening!

aMarketForce is a B2B marketing consulting company partnering with clients who require prospect list development, database validation, email campaign management and lead generation.  We provide small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with marketing automation services – marketing automation, consulting and campaign management services. To know more about aMarketforce’s  Marketing Automation Services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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In our last post What is Marketing Automation Software and Why Should I consider it? , we had discussed how a marketing automation solution is helpful to a business.

In this blog post we will discuss how to evaluate and the right marketing automation software for your company.

Before you choose a marketing automation solution, review the questions below with your marketing group:

1.  Are you confusing marketing automation with email campaign management solutions?

2.  Are you clear on your strategic marketing goals, (both short term and long term)? Will these strategic goals be fully supported by the capabilities of a marketing automation tool you are considering?

3.  Is your company ready to go for this transition?

a. Is the time right?

b. Do you have enough resources – Budget, technical expertise, management champion?

4. Are your databases clean enough to execute sophisticated multi-channel campaigns using the marketing automation tool you will implement?

The moment you buy the solution, the ROI clock starts ticking. If there are no processes set in advance, it will be harder for you to take full advantage of the MA solution and deliver results to your marketing and sales team.

5.  Do you have a process

a. Lead generation
b. Lead nurturing and scoring

6. Do you have the list of all marketing automation solution vendors?

Choosing between the solutions:

7. Is the marketing automation solution compatible with your CRM? It’s more than integration that your team has to manage after implementation like leads, campaigns and more.

8. Does the solution offer data/campaigns export and migration facilities?

9. Do they offer on-demand training? Is the training detailed enough to ensure management of the solution internally?

10. How good is the customer service? Do you get a dedicated account manager who is responsive enough?

11.  Which one is the most cost-effective?

These are few preliminary questions you can discuss internally before buying a marketing automation solution. If you are still not sure which one is right for you then it’s time to call a marketing automation consulting company.

aMarketForce is a B2B marketing services company partnering with clients who require prospect list development, database validation, campaign management and phone follow up.  We provide small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with marketing automation consulting and campaign management services. To know more about aMarketforce’s Marketing Automation Services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Email marketing was an integral part of effective marketing strategies. Companies realized that targeted email marketing was one of the most efficient ways to reach their target prospects. When done right, email marketing campaigns almost eliminated the need of cold calling. So why is email marketing dying?

Put simply, it is dying because everyone and his brother jumped on the bandwagon without thinking for a moment about what they wanted to do. Email marketing went from email to spam – in one quick, easy, thoughtless step.

That is good. Why? Because the junk fell off the bandwagon – which has led to resurgence in intelligently executed email campaigns done right.

Why has email marketing surged again?

1. When done right, email marketing is efficient, easy and cost-effective
   Email marketing is an efficient and cost effective outbound marketing channel. There are smart and cost-effective email marketing solutions that offer good email campaign design tools, contact management, campaign execution and real-time reporting.
2. When done right, email marketing is direct and targeted
   You can reach your precise prospects through targeted email marketing campaigns. The message, the subject line, and the email list can be customized for your target prospects. Marketing to targeted email recipients has a great ROI, since the cost is very small while still reaching exactly those prospects you really want to reach.
3. When done right, email marketing is result-specific and measurable
   You can measure the results and ROI for all your email marketing campaigns.Marketing automation and analytics tools have made this very easy.You set campaign goals and your tools can give you accurate metrics for every email campaign you execute: opening ratio, click rate, form-fill or inquiry. Email marketing goals can now be set and measured.
4. When done right, email marketing has the exact reach you need
   Of all outbound marketing methods, email marketing gives you the best opportunity to reach all prospects at the same time. Naturally, only a targeted prospect list is worth using for such focused marketing campaigns.
5. When done right, email marketing plays a major part in the lead scoring and nurturing process
   Marketing automation solutions have made lead scoring and nurturing easy. Based on how your prospect reacts to your email campaigns, prospects/leads are scored and further nurtured by sending only relevant information. Email marketing becomes a major part of the lead nurturing process.

There are many more advantages of email marketing which we will discuss in our forthcoming blog posts. Keep reading!

To know more about aMarketforce’s email campaign services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Your sales team needs a quality prospect list to maximize their call effectiveness. Bad lists are waste of time and money. Creating and growing prospect list is one of the key responsibilities of your marketing team. There are many ways to grow your B2B prospect list. Here are some best practices we have that work for sure:

1. Developing a Custom B2B prospect list
   A custom prospect list can be developed in-house or by using a prospect list vendor.  It is important for B2B companies to have a clear idea about their target market and the role of the prospect in that market, such as industry, geography, revenue, decision level/titles/roles. The prospects identified are worth the effort as the focus shifts from shotgun to pinpoint accuracy.
2. Events
   Successfully promoting your events at the right level and the right place will help you get better prospects.Obviously, it is very important that you manage and nurture this high quality list. Click here to know how to successfully manage event marketing and event recruitment.
3. e-Newsletters
   Well created content increases subscriptions to your e-Newsletter, and grows your opt-in prospect list.
4. Tracking your website visitors/website lead intelligence
   Tracking your website visitors using marketing automation tools can help you shortlist prospective companies, after which you can work harder to findthe right decision makers in that company.
5. Email nurturing campaign
   Nurturing campaigns help you grow your prospect list. But it’s always recommended that you use a target prospect list for email marketing.

Growing the B2B prospect list is as important as keeping it updated. aMarketForce recommends database cleansing once a quarter to keep your lists clean, deduped and up-to-date.

There are many more ways to build powerful prospect lists. Can you add some?

Please share your thoughts.

Did you miss our blog post? A Bigger Prospect List Is Better Than A Small List. Really?

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Online marketing via email is complicated. While it is a very effective means of internet marketing, it can be prone to unexpected errors. You should experiment with your email campaigns and assess the effect of changes in several dimensions. Here are some tips on what and what not to experiment with.

Email Campaign – How to experiment?

You can never be sure about which subject line, offers, and template design will attract your prospects’ interest and prompt them to respond (click on links or pick up the phone). Experimentation is a key to this problem where you can experiment and assess the effect of changes that might bring good results for your email campaigns. Next time you do an email campaign, experiment with these:

1. Target contacts
2. The message
3. The email subject line
4. Link placements, button colors and usage
5. Email graphic design
6. Offers
7. Email campaign execution date/day/time, both from a calendar as well as a holiday/other events point-of-view.

What not to experiment with?

Just like you are never certain what would attract your prospect’s interest, you are never sure what would irritate them. Here are few elements of email etiquette that you need to follow.

1. Don’t forget to add the unsubscribe link option
2. Don’t use spammy words like FREE !, Discount, $$$ and other similar text
3. Don’t overuse CAPS in the subject line
4. Don’t confuse prospects – Create a single, clear call-to-action

aMarketForce provides email campaign services for our clients. We offer end-to-end execution and follow-through for any email campaign including lead generation, awareness building, press releases, event announcements, special offers and newsletter delivery. We can also help you with lead nurturing and scoring services.

To know more about aMarketforce’s email campaign services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Marketing Automation software is a set of computer applications that automate and streamline sales and marketing activities by replacing high-touch, repetitive manual processes, as well as enable certain complicated marketing activities that would be very difficult if done manually. Marketing Automation applications simplify the development, management, implementation and analysis of multiple inter-related, performance-based marketing campaigns. A typical marketing automation solution can streamline demand generation, lead generation and qualification; lead nurturing and scoring, campaign analysis and website monitoring, as well as customer database management.

While most small and medium-sized businesses still prioritize CRM or email campaign management applications before marketing automation (MA) solutions, it is important that your MA selection should be based on strategic business goals and marketing needs, not simply an answer to an immediate problem.

Here are some well-known few marketing automation solutions you can consider. Please note that we have not rated the solutions in this article.

• Act-On
• Active Conversion
• Eloqua
• Genius
• LeadFormix
• Marketo
• Pardot
• SilverPop

Let us know if we missed any!

In Part – II we will discuss how to choose the marketing automation solution that is right for you.

aMarketForce is a B2B marketing services company partnering with clients who require prospect list development, database validation, campaign management and phone follow up.  We provide small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with marketing automation consulting and campaign management services. To know more about aMarketforce’s Marketing Automation Services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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2011 saw many ups and downs in the market. The global economy in 2011 was all about recovery. And as the global economy was recovering, businesses planned their marketing budgets -smartly.

Here are the top 4 marketing trends we saw in 2011:

1. Social Media at its Best (Tweets-to-FB )

   Social media marketing was strategic in 2011. B2B, B2C, small and big companies, all upped their social media priorities. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were the top social networking sites where businesses made heavy dollar investments.

2. Strategic Integrated Marketing

   End-to-end, integrated marketing was the mantra in 2011. Companies adopted a customer-centric integrated marketing approach (online and offline) to target customers with consistent messaging across all touch points. Online marketing strategies included email, SEO, PPC, blogs, social media, digital advertising and more. Offline marketing strategies included print, PR and TV. All integrated.

3. The Boom in Mobile Marketing

   Smartphones, tablets and mobile advertising were the buzz words in the mobile world in 2011. More and more eCommerce websites, optimized for mobile devices, were introduced to better serve customers. Mobile marketing became an integral part of marketing strategy, especially for B2C companies. Mobile social media played a key role in this shift.

4. One-shot to Lead Nurturing

   Companies have realized the benefits of continuous touches, nurturing and developing prospects intelligently. 2011 saw the most usage of marketing automation solutions for lead development, capturing, nurturing and scoring.

Did we miss any? Share your thoughts!

To know more about aMarketForce’s marketing services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Producing clear and high-quality documentation requires specialized tools, as well as writers who understand technical material and can convert it into customer-centric documentation.

aMarketForce offers highly skilled technical writing and content multi-purposing services. With our documentation systems, writers do not need specialized authoring tools to create content. They create content in Microsoft Word templates, which is parsed by our software to deliver the content into various formats at appropriate levels of detail, automatically. Our technology makes it simple to integrate new documentation with existing content and deliver it in appropriate formats to varied audiences. , to streamline the documentation process. Our areas of specialization are Information Technology, Finance and Banking and Marketing Communication.

How can aMarketForce help your technical documentation team?

• Creating high quality documents in sync with development, avoiding version chaos
• Shortening the documentation review cycle
• Reducing repetitive work; repurpose content to meet the needs of various end-users

How can aMarketForce help your engineering team?

• Saving 30-40% of engineers’ time in creating market quality documents
• Re-purposing existing documents for various needs, from sales to marketing and tech support
• Managing content in a repository that can easily propagate changes to downstream content to ensure version consistency

How can aMarketForce help your marketing team?

• Creating and formatting all your product marketing documents from technical and engineering source materials, including charts, images and text
• Storing and version-tracking of all your product documents

aMarketForce technical writing and documentation offerings include:

• Product Documentation
• Installation Manuals
• Training materials, including instructor and student content
• Flash-based content
• E-books for tablet reading
• Online Help

To know more about our technical writing services, please email us at info@amarketforce.com.

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Are you trying to manage documentation costs but have doubts about outsourcing technical writing?

aMarketForce surveyed a number of Documentation Managers (DM) to understand their needs and concerns. We asked questions on project management, competence, communication in addition to costs.

The responses were interesting. The survey indicated that between 60% to 70% of DMs were reluctant to outsource their technical documentation work for some or all of the issues listed below:

1. The outsourced writer may lack sufficient domain and subject matter understanding
2. How do I manage this writer, who is not in my office and not even in my time zone?
3. The engineering team tried outsourcing; the outside team was skilled, but there were significant cultural differences. Why will my situation be any different?

These are real issues, and aMarketForce set about addressing each point before coming back with solution that were more than just ‘talk’.

1. Domain knowledge: This is a critical issue. Writer selection must be based on proven understanding of the technology with samples to substantiate claims.
2. Project management: Communication is vital. If your outsourced writer is not in your time zone or close, you can have potential problems. One way to alleviate the problem is to ensure that the vendor rep is always accessible on the phone – and the rep can reach the writer as needed. This step takes care of the critical issue, and is beneficial in some ways in that the local rep has visibility into the bigger picture and can therefore anticipate and deal with issues even before they get to you.

In today’s world, multicultural workplaces are a fact of life. Despite that, it is easier to work with people who understand local culture. Your vendor’s local rep becomes crucial here. Good communication between the rep and the Documentation manager can make the difference between an OK project and an outstanding one. Make sure you can work with the local rep; he/she is responsive and appreciates your priorities.

In addition to these issues, there are some more aspects you should consider while thinking about outsourcing documentation work.

When does outsourcing make sense?

• Do you need a team of writers 24/365?

Your technical documentation team may not have work year-round. Having writers available as needed is more efficient and cost-effective.  This is when outsourcing makes sense.

• Turnover: you train writers, and a year later, they leave.

Companies prefer to hire and train technical writers who know the business. Such resources are valuable. It hurts the company every time a highly trained resource leaves, and you have to start over. In such cases, having an outsourced resource mitigates the loss.

Cost-effectiveness

• Use resources only as needed

When you outsource your technical writing work, you pay only for the work and no FTE overhead.  You contract the work only when there is a requirement.

• Get multiple skills at one person’s price

A professional technical writing company has team of skilled people on staff. While you pay for one resource, you still get the skills and experience of a number of other resources who the writer can call on for spot-help if needed.

• Scale your team as needed

Your outsourced technical writing team can always flex to deal with changing workloads. You can scale up or down your writing team as your needs change.

• Get advanced multi-purposing technology without investing in software

Technical writing software, especially an application that has archiving and multi-purposing capabilities, is quite expensive. aMarketForce, your outsourced technical writing services partner, will provide you the technical writing software for multi-purposing and other necessary tools required for efficient technical writing project management and delivery.

To know more about our technical writing services,  please email me at  dsharma@amarketforce.com.

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