The way we sell has changed.

Sales used to be ruled by people who were seen as being naturally good with people. People who were good at schmoozing and getting their prospects to like them in order to buy their product or service. The way reps prospected for clients was totally different. There were much more prevalent direct marketing and sales methods, such as door-to-door and cold calling. And after a sale, there might not be much interaction besides the occasional "checking in." To quote Roger Sterling from Mad Men, the series based on the advertising industry in the 1960s, "The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them." That was the old mentality.

Smarketing meetings are regular meetings between sales and marketing departments, often held monthly. The meetings are a time for the two teams come together to review conversion rate and activity level goals, celebrate successes, and discuss next steps to improve.

Welcome back to our series on smarketing (sales + marketing). In our first post we explained what smarketing is and then we shared a Q&A with Hubspot sales rep, MJ, on how inbound marketing campaigns help her sell. This week we want to touch on some system set up items that should be done before your first smarketing meeting, to make sure it's productive.

Enter, "closed-loop marketing."

Connected Systems

What is closed-loop marketing, in non-jargon speak? It means we can easily see who is a visitor, lead, or customer in your online marketing database.

In the first post in our Smarketing series, we gave a general overview of what Smarketing is and some tips for building buy-in with your staff. This week, we have a Q&A with our HubSpot partner sales rep, Mae Joyce Gay. Now you can hear straight from someone at the company pioneering these new ways of marketing and selling what works for them—specifically her, as a sales rep. Here it is: 

In the previous blog, Are You Planning for Failure, I discussed some conversion rates to consider when determining whether your business is doing enough marketing to generate enough leads—to generate enough sales—and to hit its profit and revenue goals for the year.

This week, I want to introduce the concept of Smarketing, which is a fairly new concept just like inbound marketing, that can help guarantee you're getting the best quality leads and that those leads are turning into sales.

Smarketing stands for sales and marketing. The key shift here by smashing the two words together is *alignment.* Traditionally, sales and marketing teams have mostly been at odds. Sales thinks marketing is out of touch and marketing thinks sales doesn't follow up enough on leads.

Well the first quarter of 2015 is over. Tax liabilities are rolling in and Q1 reports are being analyzed. Are you on track to meet your 2015 goals? Revenue and profit aren't the only factors to consider here. So are leads and conversion rates.

Look at Conversion Rates

The average Hubspot conversion rate from visit to lead is 5% and from lead to customer is 2%. So if your goal is to get one customer per month, your website would typically need 1,000 visits in order to reach that goal.

Other numbers to consider are average revenue per client, in relation to your company's revenue goals. If one of your goals is to get $500,000 more in revenue this year and your average monthly revenue per customer is $10,000, then you would need about five to ten new clients, assuming they don't all sign up January 1.

How many leads would it take to get there? About 500 with a conversion rate for lead to customer of 2%. Obviously referrals have a higher close rate, which is why they're so sought-after, but if you're just counting on referrals alone are you really going to grow as fast as you'd like? 

When I originally planned this post, I had more of a marketing angle in mind. We usually blog about content marketing and are always trying to provide useful and relevant information to business owners. Keeping this in mind, I also know that it’s crucial to write about not only what you're knowledgeable about, but also what you're interested in. While I'm definitely a marketer first and foremost, I'm also a business owner. That’s why I decided to focus this post on my business goals for 2015 as a co-founder of DMD.

Even if you don’t own a business these should still be highly relevant to someone in the workforce, and—while I may not be an official expert—I’ve learned a lot since starting DMD. Above all else, I have learned that no one has all the answers in running a business because industries and best practices are forever changing.

By Jackie Clews and Lacey Williams | DMD

We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our boutique agency. Read the short Q&A below with our new digital marketing manager, Lacey Williams, to learn more about her and the multifacted skills she brings to our growing team.

1. Where are you from?

Longview, Texas. It’s a relatively small town close to Tyler.

2. What drew you to Dallas (besides our great shopping, food, entertainment...)?
 
Dallas has been my home away from home since I was a toddler. My favorite aunt and uncle live here, so I grew up staying at their house and doing my annual school shopping at Northpark Center. It has a great atmosphere that’s uniquely ‘Dallas.’ Austin and Houston just can’t compare!

By Micah Iriye | Webity

In our last blog, we took you through 9 essential rules to help you create emails that keep their good looks across mobile devices — the very devices that are used today by 4 out of 5 customers for shopping, and which Americans switch back and forth between on any given day.

But once your email campaign is ready to go, what's next?

In the first two posts in this three-part series about inbound marketing, we explained how buyer personas and campaigns work. Once you've conquered those methodologies and practices, it's time to take your inbound marketing to the next level with automated workflows.