This must be the question I am asked most by many of my new clients.  And the simple answer is: “When your prospects are ready to read it” Sounds simple, but actually very difficult to achieve.  There are stats all over the internet telling you the different figures and metrics about “open rates” and “click through rates”, but those stats do not reflect sending targeted emails at the correct time, to the correct person.  How do you achieve this?  Read on….

Let’s stop the insanity that is happening in companies everywhere.  Branding is NOT Demand Generation.  Yes, branding does wonders to help your company image and sure, it makes everyone feel all nice and warm inside, but it is not the same thing as demand generation.  Yes, demand generation does contribute to your companies brand and a good brand can help your demand generation campaigns, but they are not the same thing.

When you ask a young child what they want to be when they grow up they may respond with “Doctor”, “Fireman”, “Pro Athlete”….you never hear them say, “I want to be a salesman.”  Let’s face it, sales is not an easy profession.  If it was, there would be more people doing it and those that do it would be getting paid far less.  However, there are ways that you can make sales easier.  One of the best ways is through lead nurturing.

It’s a simple statement, but it’s one  so that many companies seem to forget when developing their demand generation programs.  You see, instead of first getting a clear understanding of their buyers, companies are more concerned about what they want to sell.  The problem is, you need to clearly understand the who before you can even start to consider the what.  The who in this case is your buyer.

There is no question that in the digital world content is king.  Content is an essential part of any marketing strategy.  According to a Marketing Profs/Content Marketing Institute survey, 68 percent of marketers said they used content for brand awareness, 68 percent used content for customer acquisition and 66 percent used content for lead generation.  However, the stat that really catches our attention is that only 39% of marketers are using content marketing for lead management and nurturing.  That means that 61% of those companies are not leveraging content marketing to its fullest potential.

When done correctly email marketing is easy, fast, inexpensive, and, in most cases, yields the highest ROI.  However…before you send another email, consider this: the majority of email marketers have no idea how to use email marketing effectively.  Moreover, they’re losing out on thousands, even millions of dollars because of it.

While many marketers and executives would love to tell you what their brand statement is or what makes their company special or unique, in reality that is furthest from the truth.  In today’s day and age, your company is not what you say it is, it’s what Google says you are.  As David Meerman Scott points out “On the web you are what you publish… What are you?”

I’m about to say something that many marketing executives might not like, but most business leaders will understand when they think about it.  Business to business marketing is not about how pretty your company looks, or even how great your brand is (Read more: Your Marketing Ain’t Pretty…It Just Looks That Way).  It’s about the amount of revenue you help your company generate.  You are probably familiar with the quote, attributed to John Wannamaker, “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half.” That is because for most companies their marketing strategy is not connected to how their sales strategy.  Even more importantly, it’s not connected to how your ideal prospects buy.

How do you sell in a world where you no longer have an informational advantage over customers?  In 2013, many of your customers are likely as knowledgeable about your products as you are.  They know who your other customers are, who your competitors are, the product specs and how they compare to competitors - and they’re all talking about it.  Social selling gives you the resources to find high value customers, learn what they’re looking for, and sell to them more effectively than ever before.