[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

On January 24^th at 2:00pm ET, Neolane will kick off its 2012 webinar series with a doozy: Unraveling the Complexity of Cross-Channel Messaging – A Roadmap for Tearing Down the Silos and Adopting an Integrated, Customer-Centric Approach.

I’m excited to present alongside Shar VanBoskirk, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research.  Shar is a leading expert on interactive marketing and how businesses can leverage digital channels and technologies to drive sales and deepen customer relationships.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

What’s the difference between offering hope versus promising a cure?  If you are a digital marketer in a highly regulated industry like healthcare, understanding where that line is could mean the difference between a successful campaign, and a steep fine.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

This October, the city of lights will shine bright once again for Neolane Evolution, our annual worldwide customer and partner event.  Taking place October 20-21 in Paris, this invitation-only event will feature a stellar line up of keynotes from industry luminaries plus numerous case studies and break out sessions focused on the latest marketing strategies and best practices.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

“To automate, or not to automate, that is the question.”

Okay, not exactly as poetic or introspective as Hamlet, but a question plenty of marketers contemplate with almost as much internal conflict.  The topic of selecting the right marketing automation software, and determining if automation is even right for you in the first place, is one that is continuously debated -  and often with much angst.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

Earlier this week I had the chance to rub elbows with marketing executives during the Association of Travel Marketing Executives (ATME) Annual Travel Marketing Conference.  The conference, held in Boston, covered topics ranging from innovation and the economy to social media and customer loyalty.  Of course, the event was geared toward travel marketers, but many of the lessons are applicable to marketers in other industries.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

The SiriusDecisions Summit (#sds11) is an annual pilgrimage for top sales and marketing leaders from Fortune 500 companies and major SMBs. As is traditional each year, major event themes focus on how sales and marketing can improve collaboration, and together drive better business results.

This year was no different.  Attendees benefitted from in-depth analyst presentations focused on topics such as driving greater alignment and accountability, new approaches to lead nurturing, improving sales quality, next-generation product management and marketing, and B2B marketing technology.  Plenty of break-out sessions targeted timely social media, sales enablement and online marketing topics.  Popular case study-driven keynotes were heavy on providing proof of the benefits of sales and marketing alignment at work, with presentations from Iron Mountain, Kronos, F5 Networks, American Express Canada and Hexaware Technologies.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

Today marks the beginning of an exciting few weeks for Neolane.  Not only does the Gartner Customer 360 Summit kick off in Los Angeles, but we are also celebrating the unveiling of version 6 of our conversational marketing technology platform, featuring Neolane Social Marketing.

Neolane believes that social media represents a clear and present opportunity for marketers worldwide to turn their social media fans into loyal, profitable customers.  However, many organizations lack the right technology and marketing processes to make that opportunity a reality.

So what’s different about our approach to social marketing?

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

With the massive amounts of customer data marketers now have access to, it’s no wonder privacy has become a widespread concern.  In continuation my recent AMA Boston panel blog post, I thought this issue warranted some further discussion.

While we were discussing marketing automation’s ability to provide deep customer insight, a question was raised as to whether marketing automation promoted “stalking” and where the line was drawn in terms of the technology’s inherent benefits becoming a privacy concern.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

What is marketing automation technology? How does it work? Why has the adoption rate been so low historically?

These were just a few of the questions addressed during an AMA Boston (@amaboston) panel I participated on this week with Will Schnabel (@wschnabel) from Silverpop and Brian Kardon (@bkardon) from Eloqua focused on “The Future of Marketing Analytics and Automation Technologies.” As evidenced by the event’s strong attendance and the following Q&A session, it was a compelling topic.  One that I’m sure deserves even more contemplation and debate.

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[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Vice President Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

Our recent “Keys to B2B Marketing Automation Success” webinar was a great opportunity to discuss best practices in marketing automation implementation, standardizing critical customer data, and maximizing KPIs for marketing and sales alignment. Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek from Quaero and Gerry Murray, IDC’s CMO Advisory Service research manager, both contributed great perspectives on marketing automation adoption and keys to driving cross-channel campaign success.

Gerry kicked off the discussion, presenting both marketing and sales points of view on marketing automation adoption. It was interesting to see his representation of what the sales pipeline looks like before marketing automation and the vast improvements organizations experienced post- implementation, including increased pipeline performance, deal size and revenue.

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