Sales lead generation

SUMMARY: Creating direct mail campaigns that get noticed -- and get prospects to respond -- often means more than a basic postcard. But you don’t always need to go with a big, fancy dimensional mailer or expensive gift to cut through the clutter.

See how the marketing team behind a web-conferencing platform tested a direct mail strategy to wow the discriminating creative professional segment. The combination of a mysterious one-line letter, a pair of 3-D glasses, and an interactive PURL generated a 31.11% response rate and other impressive metrics. read the complete case study

SUMMARY: Marketers frequently cite LinkedIn as one of the most valuable social networks to incorporate in a marketing strategy. But even marketers who have LinkedIn on their radar screens still wonder how to participate. What works, what doesn’t, and what should you expect?

We asked a marketer who is using LinkedIn for lead generation, to share his lessons on joining groups, sharing marketing collateral, and qualifying the leads that come through the channel. read the complete article

SUMMARY: Not all contests and awards programs are created equal.

Dawn Brister, Manager, Integrated Marketing Communications, Cisco, says choosing the right contest or awards program can generate leads and boost brand awareness. Get Brister’s tips on fighting list fatigue while increasing the quantity and quality of contest entries.

Brister will be presenting the Case Study, “Boosting Demand Generation by Revamping Your Awards Program: How Cisco Increased Entries by 59%,” next month at MarketingSherpa’s B-to-B Demand Generation... read the complete interview

SUMMARY: Marketers face lengthy time spans as they progress from lead generation to conversion, making it difficult to nurture prospects while moving them through the pipeline. This chart highlights the percentages of leads in each stage of the pipeline that are likely to advance to the next stage. read the complete article

By Anne Holland, Founder

Thanks for all of your questions before and after our teleseminar, 'B-to-B Marketing: Top 10 Quick Fixes', last week. More than 100 Sherpa readers wrote in, and I and our senior reporter Sean Donahue are preparing answers to post with our compliments on Sherpa by next week.

In the meantime, I wanted to address one particular query which came up a few times: "Where specifically did Sherpa get that B-to-B marketing data?"

Here's... read the complete blog post