By Ben Bradley Just launched free website that helps small business better measure and manage tactical marketing programs We are looking for beta testers for our new website called MarketingReportCard.com – a marketing measurement dashboard. Designed for small to mid-size businesses, companies can lo... Oct. 4, 2010 08:11 AM EDT Reads: 192 |
By Ben Bradley The Grateful Dead were light years ahead of the concept of lead nurturing. In one of their early albums, they inserted the following message: “DEAD FREAKS UNITE. Who are you? Where are you? How are you? Send us your name and address and we’ll keep you informed.” The street address of ... May. 28, 2010 08:24 AM EDT |
By Ben Bradley When did the job of selling get lumped in with everything else? Asking a great sales person to clean CRM data, lick envelopes and turn over rocks looking for prospects is about the same as asking your attorney to cut the grass – it could be fun but overall, it is not a good use [... Apr. 20, 2010 03:13 PM EDT Reads: 103 |
By Ben Bradley OUR PRACTICES FOR KEEPING DATA CLEAN IN YOUR CRM
During the execution of an outbound prospecting campaign, CRM data hygiene is important. I’m going to share one of the processes we use internally to make sure users have a good way to “flag” inaccurate contact records.
When we com... Apr. 14, 2010 12:08 PM EDT Reads: 172 |
By Ben Bradley http://zoominfoblogger.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/making-sure-your-data-doesn%e2%80%99t-curdle/
Data, like unrefrigerated milk, goes bad fast. In fact, by conservative estimates 25% of the database will sour within a year. Add poor import practices and other minor mistakes and bad thing... Feb. 5, 2010 05:54 PM EST Reads: 114 |
By Ben Bradley Mark your calendar for March 25, 2010. TedX is coming to Naperville.
TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxNaperville, where x=independently organized TED event. At our TEDxNaperville event,... Dec. 2, 2009 07:18 PM EST Reads: 332 |
By Ben Bradley Nov. 18, 2009 02:18 PM EST |
By Ben Bradley NOTE: Robert Hamilton and I collaborated on this article.
It seems every week we talk to just another IT services shop trying to kick-start their marketing and sales process. We sit down with the founder and ask the same question: “so how are you different from all the other firms out ... Sep. 28, 2009 10:10 PM EDT Reads: 126 |
By Ben Bradley The next Silicon Prairie Social is here – are you ready? Join us for a drink on September 24 from 6 to 9PM at Arrowhead in Wheaton.
Ben Bradley will be speaking to the Midwest Entrepreneur’s Forum on September 14 from 6 to 8PM. The topic is Using Trust to Bridge the Sales a... Sep. 9, 2009 05:21 PM EDT Reads: 127 |
By Ben Bradley These are my experiences. The answer to the headline question is “yes and no.” Let me explain by talking about a few different ways we’ve converted social media activity in new business. Later, when I have more time, I’ll talk briefly about a few things that didn’t work.
TWITTER FOR LE... Aug. 24, 2009 02:56 PM EDT Reads: 287 |
By Ben Bradley Ouch.
It hurts. Now what?
1) Ask why? What didn’t we do? It is important to ask the client for candid feedback. The candid feedback is an important opportunity to improve things going forward.
2) Ask “how were we being measured?” Did we both understand the measurement... Jun. 28, 2009 09:36 PM EDT Reads: 109 |
By Ben Bradley You reap what you sow.
We just signed a new statement of work with a client (now in a new job) that we once fired.
She appreciated the fact that we stuck to our guns.
Doing a bad deal with a customer is not worth it. Doing the right thing sometimes hurts. No sales person wants to say [... Jun. 28, 2009 09:26 PM EDT Reads: 118 |
By Ben Bradley by Robert van der Hooning and Ben Bradley
NOTE: Robert is a friend of mine who used to teach at Northwestern, University of Chicago and University of Illinois. He’s a former high-tech CEO and President of the International Bankers School in Zurich, NYC and Chicago. This articl... May. 30, 2009 01:58 PM EDT Reads: 120 |
By Ben Bradley In my 20 year career, I’ve used nearly every form of B2B lead generation available.
To properly evaluate the performance of your marketing campaigns, it is important to know your real cost of a lead.
Forrester Research recently revealed that about 50% of b-to-b marketers don’t us... May. 25, 2009 08:58 PM EDT Reads: 109 |
By Ben Bradley http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2009/05/10/i-am-sick-of-splogs-copying-our-content/
This is a good article from Mark Ghosh about splogs and Content Theft.
What Mark doesn’t talk about is the impact of plagiarism on corporate blog content. How is this content being poli... May. 12, 2009 02:05 PM EDT Reads: 178 |
By Ben Bradley The pressure is on.
How do you optimize your minimized dollars, eliminate stale marketing efforts, and expand your outreach to prospects?
Focusing on what can be achieved quickly and by leveraging your existing marketing assets. You might be surprised at the results if you focus your ... May. 7, 2009 11:23 AM EDT Reads: 120 |
By Ben Bradley As mentioned in our April newsletter, one of our clients recently asked us for a proposal for an email newsletter program. Instead of paying an hourly fee for our effort, the client wants to pay us for the for the “performance” of the newsletter. That means, they wan to pay for clicks,... Apr. 29, 2009 04:59 PM EDT Reads: 131 |
Known for wearing plaid and sweater vests before they were popular, Ben Bradley is managing director of Macon Raine, Inc. (www.maconraine.com) - a management consulting, marketing and demand generation firm for technology organizations. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa and was a member of the undergraduate Iowa Writer’s Workshop. His interests include the intersection of technology and marketing. Because he was never very good at sports and doesn’t have many hobbies, his primary interests include the role of marketing on internal technology adoption, micro-finance, military uses of technology and media, self-organizing networks, network and physical security, collaboration and groupware. He frequently lectures his children on a variety of topics. Bradley was raised in Wheaton, Illinois and currently resides in Glen Ellyn, Illinois with his wife, two children and a purebred Latvian Goathound named Stella.
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