The DNA of a Top Performer—Are You Cut From the Same Cloth?

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Paige Musto | 21 Comments |

We recently surveyed 101 of our customers in the small and medium-sized business category about their online marketing practices. The questions we asked were taken from an Act-On and Forrester Consulting Report titled “Driving SMB Revenue in a Down Economy,” in which those initial results revealed a new model for successful companies, referred to as “Top Performers.”

As the Act-On customer base are all adopters of 21^st century marketing automation tools and the Forrester sample is not (only 33% adoption), we thought it would be interesting to conduct the same survey with marketing leaders in our SMB customer base to see how they would rank in comparison. The findings were compelling. Most interestingly, 1 in 5 Act-On customers reported exceeding revenue goals by 10% or more.

Act-On customers experienced better revenue performance, and didn’t cut or freeze budgets as readily during the recession in comparison to the SMBs surveyed by Forrester.

Act-On customers place a heavy emphasis on online marketing, using a variety of digital marketing activities to acquire new customers.
Act-On customers are sophisticated in their use of social media to acquire new customers and know how to measure its effectiveness.

That takes us to the question – what do the most elite marketers do that others don’t? The infographic at left paints a picture of the practices that top performing companies are employing to propel their businesses ahead of the game.

The common denominator for this better-than-expected performance is the adoption of marketing automation to create, execute and manage highly agile, integrated multi-channel programs. This has given these top performing companies a competitive advantage: new digital competence and advanced tools with which to deploy it, that helps drive them to the highest echelon of performers.

Want to know more about marketing automation and how it can benefit your business objectives? Schedule a demo today and set your marketing in motion with Act-On.

Tags: Act-On Software, Forrester Consulting, marketing automation

Categorized in: B2B Marketing, Marketing Automation, Marketing Metrics & Measurement, Small Marketing Teams, The B2B Marketer

http://twitter.com/Craft1Craft Thomas Craft

Increasing our budget and implementing new marketing automation has helped us grow during this period , when most in our industry are flat lining or cutting back. Having the platform (Act-On) , the budget, and the dedicated staff necessary has been crucial to this growth. I strongly advise anyone in a small to mid range B2B market to take a look at a multi functional marketing platform to help spur growth.
http://twitter.com/TimAsimos Tim Asimos

Its really amazing that more companies are not adopting marketing automation. I’m really surprised that automation is new territory for the agency world as well. In today’s world, you have to be agile and automation enables marketers to be so.
Bobby Holt

Email automation is huge weapon to add to any marketers arsenal. I’m really surprised that its not used by more people.
Sam Sims

As society changes with increasingly more messages being presented to our target markets (not a new concept), we must be smarter when we approach markets. I’ve seen the best results when messages are hyper-tailored to the individual; not just the market. Achieving this success without spending huge amounts of time and resources is absolutely through marketing automation. The added benefit is exceptional sophistication to marketing campaigns that truly produce results.
http://twitter.com/LisaLaura Lisa L

“1 in 5 Act-On customers reported exceeding revenue goals by 10% or more…” because we have Act-On to track and exceed on our goals. Marketing automation is a unique technology that will continue to thrive as we design responsive marketing.
http://twitter.com/capturehits CaptureHits

This reminds me of a tagline I once read, “Smart people get it.”

Act-on customers would certainly have better outcomes because they have Act-on and are just smarter than the average company that uses the “big boys” and pays a mint for less features.

Getting off my Act-on soap box, those who use lead gen and nurturing programs are always going to get better payoff and outcomes because they do more than scratch the surface. It takes time, but well worth the effort, especially if you pay attention to your metrics and always optimizing and working your leads. Add to that the mix of social listening and social signals and how can you fail?
http://twitter.com/mbrusyo Michelle Brusyo

I’m not surprised – I imagine managing marketing programs and measuring them without a platform like Act-on would be a big challenge. I definitely credit Act-on for giving me the analytics I need to show ROI.
http://twitter.com/pepper__shaker Todd Holbrook

Let’s face it – we live in a world that is increasingly technologically savvy as well as social. It’s only proper that marketers combine the two to get effective results. If you have a B2B or even a B2C company that drives content online, then Act-on is the way to go. And nowadays, that’s just about everybody. Marketing automation is newest and best (and not-so-expensive) tool for marketers today – it’s the battle of the fittest!
http://twitter.com/chrismbi Chris Kiersch

As it becomes more difficult to get attention, it also becomes more important to have scheduled messaging based on behavior and market segments. Act-ON has figured out how to make something that was complicated, into something that is now simple. I can see why Act-ON is getting such positive feedback.
http://twitter.com/RonMcRondaldson Ron

Prior to moving to Act-On, we didn’t make good use of email templates and email marketing. We are now. Interesting enough, a lot of people in our industry are saying that direct mail is making a comback.
Zachary Winnie

I’d agree with all points in the infographic, and is definitely a point for using Act-On.
http://twitter.com/LizChasse Liz Chasse

Our digital marketing programs and content marketing strategy have contributed to a large part of our firm’s marketing success.
http://www.jacobcurtis.co/ Jacob Curtis

This is a wicked infographic detailing what savvy marketers do compared to others. Today’s marketers need to be more pro-active than ever!
Marshall Welch

It’s interesting – I think the first bullet is a function of the second two. Our world is rapidly evolving into an exclusively digital one. Marketers who haven’t figured out how to effectively incorporate digital and social marketing are either getting left in the dust or are quickly headed that way. I know that we wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are today without having made the switch several years ago.
Craig Dykstra

Marketing automation has made the traditional “make it pretty” department more relevant in business. Companies like Act-On on driving relevancy in this field because they are leveraging the tools and technology to add ROI to the equation. In the marketplace where there is so much noise, marketers need the best tools in order to gain relevancy. I know that Act-On is the right choice because while they are one of the smaller companies in comparison to an Elloqua or Marketo, they are passionate individuals that are constantly innovating and driving towards success.
http://twitter.com/BradMiller06 Brad Miller

I’ll open with this: love the infographic. As for the content, I bet the stats would be similar when comparing customer bases across many platforms similar to ActOn. Companies that pay for this type of service generally prioritize email marketing somewhat higher than ones who don’t adopt it. I think that is really the key in why ActOn’s subset outperforms Forrester’s.
http://twitter.com/matthewmilad Matt A

Marketing automation has been great for reducing time necessary to manage leads. It’s a lot quicker and easier to push leads to Salesforce. Act-On doesn’t always seem to show the lead source for leads though – but it is incredibly useful when the information is present.
http://twitter.com/kdelucia22 Kristen DeLucia

The discrepancy in content strategy is so surprising. Our marketing strategy is so content driven that it’s hard to imagine not focusing our efforts there. That’s where we get the most return!
disqus_Mc5S8QIxv8

So cool to see the statistics and see how much Act-On helps! very compelling inforgraphic!
Sarah

Impressive numbers! When I think of Act-On, I think of “less is more” because I don’t have to put in a lot of my time to see a large return. Everybody knows that when times are hard financially every man takes on every tasks. Act-On allows me to do that without sacrificing a strong campaign.
bri44any

I appreciate infographics and would love to see more accompanying your articles in the future. It’s a great way to help out those of us who emphasize online marketing as you mentioned in this article.

About Paige Musto

Paige Musto is Sr. Manager, Public Relations and Social Media at Act-On Software. She brings 8+ years’ experience in public relations and social media for high technology companies in the IT Security and SaaS industries. In this position she heads up all PR/AR and Social Media programs, driving the company’s brand and product awareness as well as leveraging social media to optimize lead generation. Prior to joining Act-On, Paige was Manager, Public Relations at NetSuite (NYSE: N) where she drove corporate, channel and partner PR and thought leadership programs, as well as established the company’s social media program. Paige has held various communication roles at companies including VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN), Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP), and RSA, the security division of EMC (NYSE: EMC). Paige holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Communication from the University of California at Davis and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with an emphasis in Marketing Management from California State University-East Bay. In her spare time, Paige enjoys shopping, reading and watching sports—Go Niners!

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