Increasing Response to your B2B Email Marketing ProgramsA Marketo Best Practices eBook The Problem with Lead GenerationAs B2B marketers, we spend a lot of time and money generating leads to create a pipeline for sales. But as you know, sales isn’t always enamored of the leads passed to them. Why?Only 25% of new leads are sales-ready.25% are immediately disqualified.The remaining 50% needs to be nurtured.Source: “What’s Working in Lead Generation,” RainTodayTypical Lead Quality, Among All Leads Generated By Respondent Companies% Leads Considered Sales-Ready (N = 390)% Leads Requiring Further Nurturing (N = 390)% Leads Disqualified (N = 405)% Respondents© 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. Lead NurturingThe most common – and most effective – way to nurture these leads is through email marketing. Most companies, if they nurture at all, do it by sending newsletters to their entire database. Newsletters have a place in your marketing program, but they’re not sufficient by themselves. To effectively nurture leads, marketers need to follow email marketing best practices and take advantage of other types of email campaigns that may be more relevant.© 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 8 Tips for B2B Email Marketing SuccessFor a nurturing program to be effective, you need your email marketing skills to be top-notch. Some need a refresher, while others need basic information. To that end, here are 8 Tips for B2B Email Marketing Success:1. Content is King2. Consider Email Clients3. Best Content to Use4. Subject Lines and Titles5. The Right Target6. The Right Time7. Start a Dialog8. Automate© 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Content is KingContent is king, but only if you know what works. Studies by MarketingSherpa have shown that having fewer calls to action works better than multiple options. Other content tips:Focus on your top call to action to increase click through. Bullets are heavily read. Use them. Source: MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark 2008 & NextStage Evolution, February 2008. Decrease of 32% clickthroughfrom 1 to 2 calls to action; 90% decrease with 3.© 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 2. Consider Email ClientsEmail clients render HTML differently, so keep that in mind. Test in Outlook, Google, and others. And make your email top-heavy, content-wise. Many readers use the viewers in their email clients, and they use the top portion of the email to decide whether to read further. And 64% of decision makers view email on mobile devices, so optimize for Blackberry, Treo, iPhone, etc.Source: MarketingSherpa Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008 © 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 3. Best Content to UseContent that helps your targets do their jobs or shows them how your customers are using your product tend to be popular. These include:Tactical “how to” articlesCustomer case studiesBest practice lists, such as “Top 10 Ways…”Strategic articles and interviews with analysts and business leadersSource: MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007-08 © 2008 Marketo, Inc. All rights reserved. 4. Subject Lines & TitlesThe subject line of your email, along with the title inside the email, determines whether your email will be opened. Some tips:Use four to six words in your subject. Absolute max: nine wordsThe “from” line tells them who it’s from, so don’t waste space saying it againYou only have two seconds to get their attention, so use action words such as “Download” or “Watch”Test to learn what types of subject Stick To Your Purpose Stick To Your Purpose By: Joe Tye “Paul Paul! Wake up What’s the matter?” The screams were still echoing through the dark caverns of Paul’s fading subconscious mind His pajamas were soaked, he clutched his pillow like a lifeline The sensation of falling had stopped abruptly, but there was no impact Just the feel of Joan’s hand on his shoulder and her voice in his ear “It’s okay, Paul, it’s just a dream Just a bad dream.” Paul opened his eyes By what right was he back in his own bedroom? “What time is it?” “It’s not even six yet Try to get some more sleep, okay?” Paul tried to lurch out of bed, but Joan pressed him back down Too exhausted to fi ght, he closed his eyes and tried to put it all together It couldn’t have been a dream It was too real Maybe being in heaven was just lying in bed with Joan snuggled against his back, knowing he’d never fall again “Paul?” IF YOU’RE NOT ENJOYING THE JOURNEY, YOU’LL PROBABLY BE DISAPPOINTED IN THE DESTINATION “Hmmm?” “Who’s Rafe?” “What you mean, who’s Rafe?” “You were talking in your sleep and said that name a lot You were screaming it when I woke you up.” 1/3 Stick To Your Purpose Paul just groaned and tried to push himself up, but Joan pressed down against his shoulder as he tried to rise “Paul, it’s not even six o’clock yet You don’t have to get up Sometimes the most important thing you can is resist the temptation to something when it would be more valuable just to stop for a while.” Paul surrendered to Joan’s touch, sinking back into the bed Eyes closed, his mind teetered between consciousness and sleep “Rafe? Rafe?” No answer In the lonely darkness fear held him trapped as it all came back to him Today was the day he would lose it all The school, the bank, falling off the cliff; everything came back to him as powerfully as a memory of something that had already happened—a memory of the future He drifted off to sleep with the fear of falling again paralyzing his will even to crawl out of bed “Give what a name, Paul?” Joan shook Paul’s shoulder softly, dragging him back out of the nightmare confrontation with fear “You were talking again, saying ‘give it a name,’ like it was really urgent.” Paul stretched and looked at the clock It was nearly seven “I don’t know, just a bad dream, I guess.” “Don’t go to work yet, Paul Let’s take a walk, like we used to in the mornings It’s been too long since we really talked.” Paul pulled himself up and sat on the edge of the bed with his face buried in his palms “Sure, Joan Let’s take a walk.” As they walked, Paul’s breathing gradually untied the knots in his stomach DON’T BE IMPRISONED BY GOALS THAT YOU HAVE OUTGROWN How long had it been since he’d really heard the birds’ morning songs, smelled the fresh new air? Then, like an unwanted intruder, the familiar voice reminded him: Today is the day you lose everything “Joan, I haven’t really been honest with you.” “How so?” 2/3 Stick To Your Purpose “I’ve been keeping up a brave face for you and the kids, but I don’t see how we’re going to make it Today the bank’s going to take everything away from us I’m afraid the dream is over.” Joan stopped and looked out across the bay One of the reasons they had built their house in this area was the morning stillness of the woods “Paul, the dream ended a long time ago.” Paul stiffened, not sure whether to be annoyed or angered “What are you talking about? We turned that old warehouse into a real school, we’ve got nearly two hundred kids enrolled—and if it weren’t for running out of money, we could keep growing.” “Think back to those days in law school, Paul You weren’t dreaming of becoming an administrator, a fund-raiser, a bureaucrat Your dream was to spend time with kids who had problems, to help them cope in a hard world Sure, you’ve got the school now, and we’ve got a nice house, but you almost never spend time with the kids anymore Not our kids or the kids at the school You’re always in meetings or working on budgets.” “But that’s not the same What I’m doing –“ Joan’s raised hand cut him off “Your cause is noble, but anyone who looked at what you actually every day would scarcely be able to distinguish you from all your classmates with their jobs in law practices and corporate offi ces For the little contact you have with kids, you could just as well get some high-paying job and donate the money to hire a manager for the school Your dream is dead, Paul It’s been dead for a long time.” Paul looked down at the little picnic area where they used to take the school kids before classes got so big and budgets so tight “My God.” Paul sat on a park bench, cradling his head in his hands “How did I get so far off track?” Joan lifted his chin with her fi ngertips “That’s the wrong question The right question is how can we get you back on track?” “Okay, how can I get back on track?” “Your dream is to help kids, right?” Paul nodded “Well, how about instead of packing up your briefcase and rushing off to the offi ce, you go home ... TAKE ME TO YOUR HEART (Michael Learns To Rock) Hiding from The Rain and Snow * Trying to forget but I won't let go Looking at a crowded street Listening to my own heart beat So many people all around the world Tell me where do I find someone like you girl [Chorus:] Take me to your heart, take me to your soul Give me your hand before I'm old Show me what love is - haven't got a clue Show me that wonders can be true They say nothing lasts forever We're only here today Love is now or never Bring me far away Take me to your heart take me to your soul Give me your hand and hold me Show me what love is - be my guiding star It's easy take me to your heart Standing on a mountain high Looking at the moon through a clear blue sky I should go and see some friends But they don't really comprehend Don't need too much talking without saying anything All I need is someone who makes me wanna sing [Chorus:] Take me to your heart take me to your soul Give me your hand before I'm old Show me what love is - haven't got a clue Show me that wonders can be true Chapter 2. Preparing to Add FreeNAS to Your Network Like all system deployments, a NAS needs to be correctly planned to maximize success. In this chapter, we will look at the basic planning points including: Capacity planning Hardware requirements Planning for backup Redundancy needs Network infrastructure This chapter may seem to be less "hands on", but there are important decisions to be made and actions to be taken to successfully plan, and deploy your NAS. Planning Your NAS In my experience, there are two types of people in computing, those which plan meticulously before adding any new hardware or service to their networks and those who just add what they have and hope for the best. You can get busy and proper planning seems like an extra unnecessary step. But it is also equally true that fixing problems after your have deployed the system costs a lot more than resolving them before you "go live". For example let us imagine that you didn't plan your hard disk requirements correctly and that, in fact, the server you have can't hold any more hard disks? What do you do now? Buy another server? It would have been better to get the right server to start with. Capacity Planning Your plans to deploy FreeNAS are constrained by two major factors, the first is the resources you have available (meaning PC or servers you already have or money to buy new ones) and how much capacity you want in your NAS. Never underestimate your need for disk space. Video files, audio files, emails, software downloads; the list of types of data we store is forever growing. I remember when I bought my first 170MB hard drive for a 386 PC that I had. I wondered how I could ever fill 170MB. Today, a short video clip is 170MB! The more resources you have, the more capacity you can have, it is a simple relationship. FreeNAS, of course, helps this situation in a number of ways, first it is free. There are no licensing costs to pay. If you want 2 users or 20 users, the cost is the same . $0. Also, FreeNAS is on the lighter side of system requirements, you aren't going to need 4GB of memory to run this server. So the big first question is how many users are going to use this server? If you are a home user, then the answer is probably less then 5 people. Maybe, you want the FreeNAS to act as a simple repository for multimedia files that can be accessed from any PC in your home. If you work in a small office environment then the answer is probably less than 15, and large offices less than 25. For any kind of corporate deployment, the number could be 25 and upwards. Having established this number, you need to consider how many of these users will be writing to the NAS or in other words, will be adding files to the NAS, and how many will be just read as what is already there. We will refer to these as write users and read users. Again, in the home environment, maybe only 1 person will be actually copying files over to the NAS while 2 or 3 others maybe using them. In the office environment, it is more difficult to say, it all depends on your planned use for the FreeNAS. Now, there is one final question for this section. How much space will each write user need on the server? Now you just need to multiply: number of write users X gigabytes needed So, if we have 2 write users who need 5GB, each, then you need to start with 10GB of disk space. If you have 25 write users who each need 10GB of disk space, then you need 250BG of disk space and so on. For the home user, maybe it is only 1 write user but you want 500GB, so 1 X 500GB is 500GB!!! Now double it Whatever figure you have now, double it. Somewhere you have underestimated, you Vision and Mission: The Two Key Anchors That Add Passion and Purpose to Your Story T his chapter defines the heart of your story. To build an effective plan you begin by putting two stakes in the ground. The first of these is the vision statement and the second one is the mission statement (see Figure 4-1). This chapter deals in detail with both elements. Here I tackle controversial issues such as top-down versus bottom-up visioning. Because they are often confused and consid- ered the same thing, I clearly separate the definitions and purposes of vision and mission by describing the roles and functions that 85 CHAPTER 4 each has in developing your plan. I go further by explaining how to look at your mission in a new light. This new concept is called mis- sion analysis and gives you a detailed review of what is required by the mission statement. Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan 86 Figure 4-1. The mission and vision serve as the two end points for the path of your plan. Putting stakes in the ground gives you anchor points for your plan and creates stability by defining start points and end points of your planning. One stake defines where you are now and the other defines where you want to be in the future. Neither can be absent from your story since they are the originators of your plan’s purpose and passion. By knowing the two end points of your plan, you can add pieces and parts of the planning process. From these anchor points you build an integrated model of many critical items, which combine to form your story. T HE T WO C RUCIAL P ARTS OF THE V ISIONING P ROCESS Let’s put the first stake in place. The vision stake contains two parts (see Figure 4-2): 1. The vision itself 2. The vision statement These two parts are different but so closely integrated and interdependent that they cannot be separated. Both must be pres- ent in your thinking and should be developed at one time in the process. Vision and Mission 87 Figure 4-2. The vision and the vision statement together provide the direction of the plan. One part, the vision statement, is short and to the point, whereas the vision itself can be lengthy and somewhat vague. As you build your plan, these two parts must be discussed. The vision statement becomes part of your written documentation in the business plan itself. The longer vision may be captured in narrative as part of the company’s recorded history. T ECHNIQUES T HAT C AN H ELP Y OU C REATE A P OWERFUL C OMPANY V ISION The vision is the guiding focus of the company’s direction. Without a direction the company is lost, wandering around the landscape of the business environment. Employees are disillusioned with the sit- uation because they cannot see an end game. I believe that people come to work each day expecting to move toward some goal. That means they need direction to their existence. Companies without this fundamental element are doomed to exist from day to day, act only in a reactive mode, and be forever chained to the present. Scenario Writing: Where Are You Heading? .. .Stick To Your Purpose Paul just groaned and tried to push himself up, but Joan pressed down against his shoulder as he tried to rise “Paul, it’s not even six o’clock yet You don’t have to. .. thing you can is resist the temptation to something when it would be more valuable just to stop for a while.” Paul surrendered to Joan’s touch, sinking back into the bed Eyes closed, his mind teetered... intruder, the familiar voice reminded him: Today is the day you lose everything “Joan, I haven’t really been honest with you.” “How so?” 2/3 Stick To Your Purpose “I’ve been keeping up a brave face