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Have you been repeating the same sales and marketing strategies and activities each year hoping for a better result? Kinda like that movie Groundhog Day? Plug into Apollo's First 100 Days program and make this year different. Here's what business leaders said who responded in the last 30 days: "I called Apollo because we need to take it to the next level in 2011." "We're tired of what is not working. We need a system for lead generation." How did the first 100 days go last year? Looking for better this year? Plug into a proven, systematic approach ensuring that you get off to a quick and sustainable start. * Did you know that less than 33% of the SMB market has a written business development plan * Of that 33%, more than 50% admit that they do not track performance against the plan more than quarterly. Any surprise that the grand plans most companies start out with are rarely achieved? What should my first 100 days look like? Apollo's First 100 Days Program will help you achieve your best start ever. * Transition from working a dozen to a hundred opportunities. * We create a qualified community of ideal prospects and qualified buyers using direct marketing, eMarketing and Social Networking tactics. * Build/clean/augment your database with hundreds of qualified opportunities. * Gather essential qualification criteria for your top prospects. * Build at least 3 marketing assets that drive brand recognition and improve sales conversion. * Launch your nurturing communication strategy so that prospective buyers recognize your brand and value your services. * Get in front of decision makers and close business. …all within 100 days. If you want more out of 2011, let's have a conversation. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com

Providing credentials is the 1st step for building trust with your target market. Click http://tinyurl.com/yd2plpb for other requirements.

Secret #1 to Auto-Pilot Marketing: "Unique Value Proposition." Visit http://tinyurl.com/yloj2m8 to read more.

Relate to the Audience (specifically)! At first glance, this may seem a lot like "Be Crystal Clear" or "Aim at the Right Target with the Right Message" or even "Provide Proof Points" and it most certainly is in the fact that all of these Secrets work together to create killer B2B marketing messaging for your Lead Generation and Lead Nurturing campaigns. So, specifically what do we mean here? We mean, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. More specifically, if you are marketing to Law Firms, use relevant messaging for law firms. Use client quotes or case studies from law firm customers. State pains and challenges that they would relate to. Bad Example: "We specialize in working with companies large and small to streamline their document management processes, saving them up to 30% in costs." Better Example: "We work with small to medium sized law firms helping them save up to 30% in document management while virtually eliminating the headaches associated with file document control and eDiscovery." The second example has references to the audience and the specific environment the law forms live in each day. It takes time to get these messages tuned for each of the vertical markets you serve and for each of the audiences in each market. If your company is working hard to figure out how to improve SEO lead conversion, this is one of those areas to focus on. I'm reminded of the old fitness club TV advertisement where the model was finished working out and said into the camera, "Let's face it, if a great body came in a bottle, everyone would have one." It is the same with great, impactful marketing messaging. You have to work at it over time, testing and measuring; tweaking and adjusting until you get it right. Then, you set it on auto-pilot and count the leads.

Be Consistent! Get started and don't stop. Let's assume for a minute that you have only been half as successful as you might have been working on your Secrets to Auto-Pilot Marketing. This still puts you miles down the road ahead of your competition. They, most probably, haven't even left the station, yet. (That's Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths in 2:24 in 1973) (His record still stands today) Keep pumping. Zig Ziglar gives the analogy of a water pump for a well when he talks about business development. He relates how all the hard work is done pumping the handle to get the water flow started. Once the water is flowing, all you have to do is maintain an even pace of pumping and you get all the water you want. But, as soon as you let up, the water stops flowing and you have to go back to pumping much harder to restore the water flow. This analogy will hold true for your B2B lead generation and lead nurturing too. In getting B2B sales leads, timing is everything. Be there with the right solution at the right time and you have a new customer. The buying cycles of your prospects cannot always be predicted or manufactured by visionary, consultative selling. How do you ensure that your message is in the right place at the right time? Be in a lot of places a lot of the time. If you let up and lose your consistency, your message will fall cold and your audience will cease to remember your company and your solution when their buying cycle starts. So, plan out a marketing calendar. Assign resources (internal, external - outsourced marketing, marketing consulting, marketing services) to accomplish each of the tasks involved. Find the right technology (CRM, SEO/SEM, marketing automation, email marketing, reporting, analytics, blogs, website) to execute and measure you success. That's it - 8 Secrets to Auto-Pilot Marketing. Best of Success!!!

In Apollo's Flight Plan (The B2B Marketing and Lead Generation Playbook for Small-to-Medium Businesses), we have a comprehensive set of best practices checklists. One of the quickest checklists you can use for a litmus test on your latest B2B marketing campaign focuses on just three things: * List quality * Offer * Call to action It really goes without saying that your list must be accurate for your campaign to be successful. It also needs to be properly surveyed, qualified and targeted to ensure results. Your offer must be something compelling for your audience. Also, it should easily relate to your unique value proposition so that your sales cycle is properly positioned for progress and success. Your call to action should be crystal clear and you should only offer your prospect one call to action. While more than one offer can make it difficult to truly measure the effectiveness of the campaign relative to alternative offers, it also can confuse the prospect enough to keep them from taking any action at all. Apollo {Houston, TX - B2B Sales Leads, Marketing Campaign Development, e-marketing/eMarketing and Lead Generation Services} If you are interested in more, visit their website. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com

Marketing Challenges - The TOP 5 Marketing Sherpa recently published their 6th annual B2B Marketing Benchmark Report. In the report, there were many very interesting findings. Among those, here are the Top 5 challenges for B2B marketers responding to the research: * Generating high quality leads * Marketing to a lengthening sales cycle * Creating perceived value * Generating a high volume of leads * Marketing to a growing number of people in the buying process These top five challenges strongly endorse everyone to focus on the following items in their marketing: * Marketing strategy * Custom list building - having the right contacts, keeping your database clean * Meaningful marketing campaigns - plan an integrated approach * Lead generation offers - content development * Marketing messaging to each of the different buyers - address their pains and challenges * Lead nurturing * Multi-channel marketing to reach as many target prospects as possible If you are interested in more, visit their website. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com

The Most Interesting Stat in B2B Lead Management What is one of the most interesting stats in B2B lead generation? Of the prospects you connect with (conversation, in-bound lead, meeting, event, other direct response)… …15% are ready to engage with you regarding your solution to their need …70% are a confirmed fit for your solution, but not yet ready to engage with you …15% are not a good fit and are disqualified. We use these percentages which are an average from research from Miller Heiman, Sirius Decisions and our own findings at Apollo. Given that, on average, 70% of the prospects you spend soooooooo much time and money for the 1st contact are not yet ready to engage with you, it begs the question, "What is your lead nurturing or lead management strategy?". Are you using an e-marketing solution or an automated marketing solution? If your firm does not have the resources or expertise to execute an effective lead management strategy, do you know of a good partner that can help you with lead management/nurturing services? An outsourced marketing partner? The good news is that there are plenty of options and some very affordable and effective game plans that you can execute to nurture these leads over time to convert them into your pipeline. Some of our client campaigns find that after 4-6 months, as much as 50% of their pipeline is being produced by their B2B lead management strategy. Beats finding out they are engaged with a competitor after 6 months because you gave up on them. That's a sinking feeling. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com

So if the marketing assets in the previous post are the most valuable; how are they the valuable? Any B2B company serious about growth should be taking steps to increase their profit margin as they grow. One of the key ways to accomplish this is to reduce your cost of sale. If you can develop B2B marketing assets that will reduce your cost per lead over time and increase your close rate, you will earn more profit. Additionally, as with any asset, your net worth increases over time as you develop more assets. Studies show that 80% of sales people that fail in the fist year do so because they were not supported by effective marketing assets. Get more B2B sales leads over time and close a higher percentage - - not a bad deal. If you are interested in more, visit their website. Apollo's central hub for up-to-date B2B marketing, lead generation and nurturing information and best practices: http://blog.apollosmg.com Apollo Sales & Marketing Group http://www.apollosmg.com