B2B and B2C Marketers Approach Counteracting Tight Economy Differently

ATLANTA, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- A Silverpop survey found that while 51 percent of B2B marketers want to move prospects through the sales pipeline faster, 45 percent of B2C email marketers see increasing customer loyalty as a top goal this year.

Silverpop, an on-demand provider of an email marketing and marketing automation platform serving the needs of sophisticated, self-service B2C and B2B marketers, conducted the online survey in mid-March. A total of 1,805 marketers responded.

"I think this speaks to the struggles both B2B and B2C marketers have faced under the tight economy, and their differing approaches to overcoming tight corporate budgets or pocketbooks," said Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey. "While consumer marketers are focusing on keeping the customers they have happy, B2B marketers are more focused on closing deals faster. Under both scenarios, a comprehensive communications program that fully engages with prospects and customers can drive the kind of results that benefit both B2B and B2C organizations."

Silverpop client LeanLogistics, a global provider of on-demand transportation management technology and supply-chain services, drops sales leads into a nurturing campaign, which automatically sends each prospect a series of integrated communications, including invitations to view Webinars, white papers, case studies and analyst reports. The company uses Silverpop's marketing automation solution to help improve lead quality and pipeline performance by performing comprehensive suspect profiling and qualifying of leads before turning them over to sales.

As a result, LeanLogistics has seen significant improvement in lead quality and pipeline performance. In fact, the company sees regular email open rates of 20 to 25 percent and experienced a 400 percent increase in the number of warm leads being passed to sales since implementing a nurturing program.

Silverpop recently launched a new digital marketing platform that combines sophisticated email marketing tools with its top-ranked marketing automation and lead management applications. Silverpop Engage is now uniquely able to provide both B2C and B2B marketers the sophisticated on-demand solutions previously unavailable in one powerful platform. The new platform moves marketers from a "list-centric" to a "behavioral-centric" marketing approach, making it easier to develop campaigns that respond to individual interests and needs.

Among the many marketing technologies found in Silverpop Engage 8, key features include:

• Sophisticated Email Marketing tools to create and automate campaigns that drive conversions and more deeply engage both current and prospective customers.
• Lead Management capabilities that help marketers gain prospect insight at every stage of the buying cycle. B2C and B2B marketers supporting a direct sales force will know exactly when a lead has been qualified by marketing, accepted by sales and converted.
• Share-to-Social technology that enables email recipients to share messages on their favorite social sites and provides valuable insight and reporting data on recipient sharing activity.
• Silverpop's proprietary Send Time Optimization technology that automatically sends emails to recipients when they're most likely to open them.
• Nurture campaigns that monitor buyer behavior and serve up timely and relevant content, keeping a brand top of mind and helping move buyers toward a purchase.
• Campaign Automation, featuring the industry's premier drag-and-drop visual campaign builder, reduces manual processes and builds intelligent, automated, buyer-driven campaigns that save time and free up marketing resources.
• CRM and Web Analytics integration that leverages point-and-click integration between Silverpop Engage, Salesforce.com, Web analytics providers and virtually any other application, giving marketers the power to improve relevance and boost marketing results.

"I'm really excited about the launch of this next generation of our marketing platform that combines the powerful tools used by B2B and B2C marketers, giving them the best of both worlds," Nussey said. "I believe it's the most powerful digital messaging tool the industry has ever seen, and has already been a tremendous benefit to marketers using it to better engage with customers and prospects."

To learn more about the findings of the Silverpop Survey of B2B and B2C marketers, click here to download the free white paper, "Exploring the Differences and Similarities of B2C and B2B Tactics."

About Silverpop

Silverpop's on-demand marketing platform helps marketers succeed in turning prospects into customers—and customers into fans—through the creation, automation and delivery of relevant, multichannel digital messaging.  Companies rely on the Silverpop Engage platform to create and manage sophisticated email marketing campaigns that reach millions of individuals—one at a time—engaging prospective customers and enhancing lifetime customer value and brand loyalty. Silverpop's marketing automation capabilities enable B2B marketers to efficiently manage leads and drive qualified sales opportunities through scoring and by nurturing campaigns that move prospects from interest to conversion.

Silverpop's industry-leading thought capital, strategic counsel, service and support helps B2C and B2B customers with the precise level of training and advice needed to quickly improve campaign results and ROI. With offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, Silverpop's marketing technologies are used by industry-leading brands around the globe. Best practices and white papers are available at www.silverpop.com.

SOURCE Silverpop