October 2010, Issue 80

• Take the Executive Benchmark Assessment to see how your demand-generation activities compare to recommended best practices.
• What 1.8 billion e-mails reveal about marketing automation trends, benchmarks and best practices
• Five tips for segmenting your prospect lists to drive more revenue
• A Q&A about how, if and when to implement marketing automation
• Five things your sales team can do to leverage social media in just minutes a day

Featured Article What Can You Learn from 10,000 Months of Data? Marketing automation leader Eloqua used the recent Eloqua Experience 2010 event to reveal a marketing trends and best practices report based on data aggregated from 1.8 billion client e-mails. At Bulldog Solutions, we're big fans of benchmarking to validate and drive decisions about budget, resources and process. So we’re pleased to present this new data. > Read a summary. > Download the report. > View our Eloqua Experience 2010 Album.

Demand-Generation Best Practices "Give Your Prospect a Break: Differentiate!" This catchy reminder from Lawson Abinanti is a perfect summation of what is at the heart of successful marketing: Aligning your messaging with the needs of your target market not only makes campaigns both relevant and effective—it also makes you look like a rock star. > Read more By Katie Martell, Director of Buzz, NetProspex

Marketing Evolution CRM vs. Marketing Automation: Whose Side Are You On? In a live Webinar earlier this month, IDC Research Manager Gerry Murray and Bulldog Solutions' Amy Bills explained how to quantify the need for alignment and covered the key points for marketing automation implementation. Here is the Q&A that took place at the end of the event, along with the answers to several bonus questions. > Read more Q&A from A Roadmap for Integrated Sales and Marketing Automation, originally presented October 5, 2010. View the on-demand Webinar.

Social Media Is Your Sales Team Social? There's been a lot of chatter about using social media to connect in a meaningful way with customers and prospects. But how do you get your sales team to buy in? Here are five things your sales team can do in just minutes a day to gain traction with prospects. > Download This social media checklist for Sales was co-produced by Bulldog Solutions and NetProspex.

Revising Our Demand-Generation Definition as BtoB Marketers
Time out folks: Let's clarify the definition of demand generation, and then talk about the challenges in delivering on this vision.
By Adam Needles, Director of Demand Generation, in the Left Brain Marketing blog, DemandGen (r)Evolution

Despite 1,500 New Customers, Analysts Say 2010 Adoption Curve Is Behind Expectations
When marketing automation vendors saw a significant spike in adoption during Q4 2009, many industry insiders predicted 2010 would be the "tipping point" where marketing automation took off. But it hasn't exploded in the way that experts have predicted. Here's why.
By Amanda Ferrante, in DemandGen Report

Five Resolutions for BtoB E-mail Marketers
As you are wrapping up the details of your 2011 planning, take a moment to make these resolutions for the new marketing year.
By Mike Hotz, Senior Strategic Consultant for Responsys, in ClickZ