DIY Microsites to the Rescue - a Q&A with Genoo's Kim Albee
I had the pleasure of chatting with Kim Albee recently about the launch of her new web-based microsite and lead nurturing system called Genoo. Genoo is an interesting concept, and really speaks to marketers about the need to not only communicate effectively and consistently with customers and prospects, but to nurture and track the conversation as well.
Joe with Junta42 - What does Genoo do?
Kim with Genoo - Genoo's online marketing tools enable marketers to affordably reach target audiences fast—with fresh, relevant information. They can create niche product and expertise microsites and landing pages in record time and launch campaigns without IT involvement.
All of Genoo’s tools are integrated so once an email communication is sent, all responses are tracked, and marketers can gain insight to lead interest levels. Then, they can use that lead intelligence to tune messaging to build better connections with the leads they’re nurturing. Genoo is an online campaign execution toolbox for interactive content marketing.
Joe - Why did you decide to launch it?
Kim - I worked with a lot of marketers who had difficulty implementing lead nurturing strategies. They had lengthy wait times for IT to load content, create landing pages and provide email templates. Whenever they learned anything about their leads that necessitated tuning their messaging, they went back to the IT queue. That dependence on IT hampers marketing’s efforts to be responsive in real-time and provide the interactive marketing dialog their prospective customers expect.
I knew if we could help marketers eliminate those technical challenges, plus give them a more integrated suite of tools that helps them remove silos and get a more comprehensive view of how their communications are being received and acted upon, Genoo would deliver a high-value solution. Increasingly, marketers need to optimize campaign outcomes and quantify their contribution to revenues. Ultimately, I want Genoo to revolutionize the way online marketing gets done by eliminating the technology barriers and cost structures that hinder optimizing ongoing dialog with customers and buyers.
Joe - What changes in marketing are you seeing where the microsite will continue to be important?
Kim - That’s a tough question. Much has changed in customer expectations and in who controls the sales cycle. Marketing Sherpa has done some definitive research in this area. Two notable findings are that 80% of our customers say they found us, where companies believe the opposite is true. The other is that persistent statistic that reports 79% of marketing leads never become opportunities.
Both of those changes have big ramifications for how companies market. In the first one, because prospects identify themselves later in the buying process, they may very well think they found you. The reality is that marketing needs to provide deep content for relevant focus areas to deliver high-value information designed to meet an urgent need. Microsites enable marketers to do that with ease.
The wasted leads issue results from a lack of insight about leads and the historical tendency for marketing to rely on sales to nurture them. Marketers are being tasked to nurture leads farther through the pipeline and need to take the effort to prove to salespeople that they can be trusted to deliver sales-ready leads. This pervasive lack of trust between marketing and sales is costing companies time, money and customers. Microsites with integrated lead nurturing tools can help bridge that gap between sales and marketing by generating better leads, validating interest levels and setting sales up to close more deals.
Joe - In your opinion, why are content microsites so important?
Kim - Important question Joe, and one many marketers are asking. Microsites are becoming a critical resource for customers and buyers to focus on specific expertise needs. The time constraints of today’s business don’t allow a lot of time for browsing vast websites and trolling through lots of unneeded or general one-size-fits-all information in search of insight about urgent priorities.
The more customer-focused companies become, the bigger the need for niche areas of interest that engage and sustain the interest of leads. And that’s exactly what a microsite provides. By delivering targeted high-value information, marketing can entice leads to identify themselves earlier in the process, as well as ensure that their company stays top of mind until the lead decides to move forward.
Additionally, the ability to easily insert keywords, page titles and meta descriptions to optimize the search results for each page of a microsite is critical to being found in the first place. Microsites allow you to claim an area of expertise and go after that search result territory. The more you learn about your leads’ behavior, the better able you’ll be to tune your keyword choices to accurately reflect how your target audience is searching for their information. And, marketing can take charge of being found on the Web without need of IT support.
Joe - How hard is it to use drip marketing…and why would you?
Kim - Without integrated tools that automate nurturing programs, drip marketing can become a tedious manual task that gets pushed aside for other projects. But, with Genoo, a marketer can go out and create their email messages, load and link their content and schedule the sends based on rules they set about lead activity.
The reason drip marketing is important goes back to both staying top of mind and building credibility that inspires the trust necessary for a lead to initiate a conversation with your company. By consistently delivering high-value, relevant content the lead receives information of value and establishes that comfort level with your company. Every time you send them something relevant to their priorities, you earn another good impression that bolsters your credibility as the ideal partner to help them solve their problems. One-way, one-off scatter-shot marketing communications won’t deliver those results for marketers.
Joe - Personalization is a big topic for marketing today. How does Genoo help marketers get closer that ideal?
Kim - The simple answer is intelligence. Because Genoo tracks every activity your leads undertake from opening, clicking through and visiting additional resources on your microsite, you know what they’re interested in. By segmenting and communicating with leads who share interests, marketers can maximize their ability to connect with their leads because their responsiveness is noticeable and appreciated.
When marketing communications are on target, marketers are saving their leads valuable time they’d otherwise spend searching for expertise they need to make competent decisions about how to solve problems. Genoo provides lead profiles and list management to help them easily accomplish higher levels of personalization.
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