Part two of this three part blog series is a review some of the key takeaways from our webinar, “Movin’ on Down: The Funnel,” and a deeper look at some additional best practices for optimizing your sales and marketing funnel.

Image source: LeadFormix http://bit.ly/q6TjzB

It can take a fair amount of planning to avoid confusion between sales and marketing teams after an event has taken place, whether it be a webinar or tradeshow. When you have taken the time to assess (and re-assess) your  marketing funnel after each of your campaigns, you will begin to notice a much smoother transition  from moving marketing-generated leads over to the sales team to further qualify and hopefully turn into new revenue.

One of the main takeaways of the joint webinar with MarketingSherpa and Eloqua was the importance of automation and integrated marketing campaigns. Without the power of automation, timely lead follow-up and precise campaign tracking is virtually impossible. Having numerous marketing campaigns funneling to the same call to action (new product demo, free trail, service discounts, etc.), makes it easier for the marketing team focus on putting out the most applicable content if leads are pushed toward one desired outcome. You don’t want to create distractions for your prospects by giving them a hundred different options. Push them to your desired outcome. You may capture their attention through different means – landing pages, banner ads, website copy, webinars, tradeshows, direct mail, PPC and SEO campaigns – that’s the point of integrated campaigns, but you don’t want to deter them from your main call to action. Each of these sources points to the same offer; you’re just ahead of the game because you know you are likely to capture your target audience in a number of different places.

So, we understand the integrated campaigns, but let’s chat a little more about the automation piece. How can we make all these great campaigns work more efficiently? As marketers we wear a hundred different hats. So how do we make efficient use of our time when it comes to managing all of these moving parts? We get something that manages it for us – marketing automation. This tool can help us to understand who these leads are that are continuously coming into the funnel from the various campaigns.  It helps hone in on the quality of the quantity that is being generated. Automation can help with:

Lead nurturing – that consistent dialog with a prospect as they move toward (or even away) from a purchasing decision.

Lead Scoring – qualifying prospects based on both implicit and behavioral criteria. Implicit being the right demographic (company size, title, role, etc.) and behavioral being the actions they have taken to show their level of interest (whitepaper download, attended and/or registered for a webinar, page visits on your website, etc.)

Generating Revenue – obviously the more leads being dumped in the funnel, the better chance there is for revenue. However, the right leads are the ones that matter. Quality trumps volume. But when you are able to capture the correct information with your integrated campaigns and begin to both nurture and score those leads, you will ultimately end up with your target prospect looking for your product at the right time. And that equals revenue.

All this talk about automation brings me to my last point for this post – integration. This is a crucial piece of the pie. You may have all your platforms in place to generate, track, score and nurture leads but if they can’t communicate with one another, you’re almost back at square one. Sure, there are workarounds, but not without having to implement lengthy manual processes which can ultimately hurt the overall success of your campaign due to the lack of timely follow-up.

ReadyTalk recently launched both CRM and marketing automation integrations designed to increase the accuracy of your campaign data, specifically those leads coming in through your webinar platform. This helps move leads through the sales pipeline faster and eliminate those time-consuming manual tasks. These integrations were designed to help marketers skip the tedious spreadsheet work and streamline the process, increasing data accuracy and speeding sales follow-up. If you’d like to learn more about our CRM integration specifically, check out the upcoming webinar on September 27 at 2:00ET featuring three progressive companies that have automated their webinar process by integrating their conferencing platform with their CRM. And stay tuned for the third and final part of our “Funnel” blog series!

Simone has been involved with both the sales and marketing teams at ReadyTalk and is currently the role Marketing Demand Manager and manages the monthly ReadyTalk Webinar Series, which is a free  forum for professionals to interact with their peers and other experts on topics ranging from sales and marketing to nonprofits and funding to leadership and professional development. Simone is an outdoor enthusiast – skiing, climbing, triathlons, and trail runs with her dog, Bucket, are just a few of the things she enjoys outside of the office.

Frost and Sullivan’s GIL (Growth, Innovation, Leadership) conference takes place next week in San Jose and is focused on connecting executives and engaging on topics that foster innovation, shape corporate strategy and help companies and individuals prepare for the future.

On Monday, I’ll be joining Melanie Turek of Frost and Sullivan and several other smart people for a discussion on Using Social Media to Get Closer to Your Customers. This is a topic that I’m extremely passionate about because I believe the best way to communicate with someone is to use the channels they prefer. Let customers contact you their way — not yours.

Social media is quickly becoming a favorite channel for customer communication. ReadyTalk staffs several official Twitter handles plus another two dozen handles used by employees to support communication efforts. You can find us on Twitter here:

@ReadyTalk – the latest news and updates from ReadyTalk. Plus, a ton of webinar tips and industry news.

@RTWebSem – Demand generation manager, Simone Verhulst, shares upcoming webinars and tons of knowledge. She’s got entertaining content to share.

@ReadyTalkGeeks – Find out what ReadyTalk’s engineers are hard at work on. Topics often include trends, AGILE, Scrum, Java and beer.

@ReadyTalkCare – ReadyTalk’s customer care team is standing by to answer customer questions and provide guidance.

Of course, ReadyTalk is also on Facebook. We don’t get a lot of customer support questions on Facebook but have found it to be a good venue to share best practices and tips with customers.

If you’re going to be at GIL next week, please be sure to say hello or share below;  I’d love to hear how your company is using social media to engage customers.

As the marketing communications and PR manager, Bo gets to wear many hats (but her favorite is a race car helmet). When she isn’t tackling branding, messaging, social media and collateral, she enjoys skiing with her husband, running with her dog and playing board games with friends. You can find her on Twitter @bo_knows_.

Kelly Valdes, our newest marketing intern, started just last week. She’s writing weekly to document her experience in working with Marketing and other departments at ReadyTalk. Stay tuned for further antics from Marketing and to experience our great culture through an intern’s eyes.

My name is Kelly Valdes and I am the new Marketing intern at ReadyTalk. I am excited for this new opportunity to join the web and audio conferencing world. I look forward to learning more about the dynamics of Business to Business Marketing and further expanding my industry experience here at ReadyTalk.

Here I am about to conclude my first week here at ReadyTalk, and it’s just in time for Marketing happy hour. Getting to know my co-workers and continually meeting new faces has been so much fun. Allison Wolfe [the other marketing intern] was so helpful on my first day. She was so nice and did a great job teaching me Salesforce and showing me the ropes, and not-to-mention where to find all the yummy snacks in the kitchen. I discovered on day 2, after spending $20 for parking, to never neglect checking the Rockies schedule for day games. Sarah, the awesome office manager, luckily hooked me up with a Light Rail pass which will be a life-savor.

I experienced my first meeting with the marketing team regarding Dreamforce and man am I jealous that everyone is at San Francisco! The meeting was filled with jokes and laughter, clearly signifying how closely knit the marketing team is, but bottom-line, I now understand all the dedication and teamwork it takes to plan a business trip and creating a booth at a conference. Melanie, the events coordinator, has done a great job with getting everything organized and ready to go.

It’s great having Mike McKinnon [senior demand generation manager] around who loves lacrosse as much as I do and played both collegiately and professionally. He is doing an excellent job incorporating me onto the marketing team and helping me with Salesforce. I did a few mini projects for Tracy [channel marketing manager] this week and have learned more about the research that goes into target marketing and sales.

It’s been fun catching up with old friends from high school and college randomly on the 16th Street Mall. I feel so grownup going to happy hour or dinner with my friends and family and telling them about ReadyTalk. I discovered last night that my neighbor across the street uses our audio and web conferencing software and loves it. Naturally, everyone is jealous of the fact that there are kegs in the kitchen and the great location of the office.

Being in an office with people who encompass such high energy and positive attitudes is refreshing and motivating. It is evident how much ReadyTalk employees enjoy their jobs and work environment. There’s a clear “work-hard, play-hard” aura in the building. Overall, I am extremely happy with this opportunity and first week at ReadyTalk. I am happy to have Teresa Lawlor [director of marketing] as my boss and to work with such an excellent team.

We’ve all been on a conference call with distracting background noises and colleagues who forget to use the mute option. This week, we polled our Twitter Followers and Facebook Fans to see what the most annoying things to hear on a conference call:

10. Someone eating
9. People typing (and clearly not paying attention)
8. ECHO…Echo…echo…
7. Wind noises / Calling from outdoors
6. Someone taking a call on other line and hearing their hold music
5. Heavy breathing
4. Food being unwrapped right next to speaker
3. Crying babies / Children screaming
2.  Barking dogs
1. A participant talking to another person in the room (but not on the call)

As a chairperson, you can avoid most of issues by muting noisy participants (learn more about Active Speaker) but you may also want to try using ReadyTalk’s integrated audio controls to manage the call; it gives the chairperson more flexibility. Encourage participants to mute/unmute their lines as needed(*6 on the audio keypad).

What else annoys you when you’re on an audio or web conference?

As the marketing communications and PR manager, Bo gets to wear many hats (but her favorite is a tiara). When she isn’t tackling branding, messaging, social media and collateral, she enjoys skiing with her husband, running with her dog and watching Formula One. You can find her on Twitter @bo_knows_.