The Death of the MQL: Why an E-book Download Isn’t Buying Intent
The standard B2B marketing process sounds almost like a religion. A visitor comes to your website and downloads a free PDF called “10 Trends in Logistics”. Your CRM ceremoniously awards them 50 points. The algorithm immediately tags them with the magic MQL label (marketing qualified lead – a contact that marketing considers qualified) and sends […]
B2B Referral Programs on Autopilot: Leads Without Awkward Begging
Any experienced B2B salesperson will confirm one essential thing: the fastest and easiest deal to close is with a client who came to you through a personal recommendation from another happy customer. Trust is already built, the sales cycle is much shorter, and there’s almost no pressure on price. Even so, most companies rely on […]
The End of E-books for Emails: Why Demand Generation Beats Lead Gen
Until recently, B2B marketing had an iron rule: “If you want our best know-how as a PDF or a webinar, you have to give us your email first.” That model worked, but today it’s dead for good. This picks up on our recent piece on the “dark funnel,” where we showed that the best buying […]
No More Boring Blogs: Why Micro-Tools Beat Another Article
A customer is looking for a solution to their problem and clicks through to your website. What do they find? Probably yet another endless, two-thousand-word article on how to calculate, design or set something up. In the best case, they skim it quickly and leave. In the worst case, they don’t even start reading, because […]