Ian Michiels
Ian Michiels
Ian Michiels is a Principal & CEO at Gleanster Research, a globally known IT Market Research firm covering marketing, sales, voice of the customer, and BI. Michiels is a seasoned analyst, consultant, and speaker responsible for over 350 published analyst reports. He maintains ongoing relationships with hundreds of software executives each year and surveys tens of thousands of industry professionals to keep a finger on the pulse of the market. Michiels has also worked with some of the world's biggest brands including Nike, Sears Holdings, Wells Fargo, Franklin Templeton, and Ceasars.
How Top Performing B2B Marketers Target Buyers Using Social Media
Yes, social media can be a source of lead generation for B2B marketers. In fact, 85% of Top Performers indicated social media is a...
The 2013 Lead Nurturing Best Practices Checklist
It's easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees when embarking on lead nurturing initiatives. Research suggests that even Top Performing B2B...
What is Progressive Profiling? Asking questions, but not too many at one time.
"Hi, how are you? What's your name? Where are you from? Where do you work? What industry is that? What brings you here? What...
The Age of Agile Everything
Sometime between the creation of the Knorad Zuse K1 computer and Justin Bieber's 37 millionth follower on Twitter, using the word agile in business...
The Secret to Justifying Marketing Automation to C-Suite Executives (Outside of Marketing)
Research from a January 2013 Gleanster survey captured trends on the top challenges of marketing automation adoption. A simple data pivot provided a window...
Inspiring B2B Trends & Best Practices from DemandCon SF 2013
After attending DemandCon 2013, I thought I would share a few of the notable best practices and key takeaways from the event. Here are...
What’s Wrong with Marketing Automation Today
Over the last decade, research has consistently shown two undeniable truths about marketing automation: Superior performing organizations are more likely to invest in marketing automation...
Why Value Trumps Selling in the Complex B2B Sales Cycle
In 2011 the Marketing Leadership Council surveyed 1900 customers to uncover insight regarding B2B purchasing behavior. It turns out, that on average (and with...
Oracle Acquires Eloqua! – An Analyst Perspective
Bada bing bada boom; more movement in the Marketing Automation space. Today Oracle announced plans to acquire Eloqua for approximately $871M. Eloqua,...
10 Things Every Marketer Should Know About Big Data
Unless you have been living under a rock the last few years, you probably came across the term big data at some point. ...
What the Eloqua IPO Means for Marketing Automation
Here's an excerpt from my recently published Market Insight: What the Eloqua IPO Means to Marketing Automation. "After years of anticipation and speculation, it's finally...
Measuring Social Media ROI for B2B Marketers
Social media return on investment (ROI) is a tricky subject for marketers. But, for B2B marketers it's especially difficult given the nuances of a...
Best Practices for Creating a Social Media Engaged Sales Function
In the age of social media, salespeople must learn to embrace new and emerging channels and use them to gain a competitive advantage. ...
Lead Lifecycle Analytics: 15 Essential Metrics for Maximizing Revenue (INFOGRAPHIC)
Remind me again what those quarterly targets are really after… oh yeah, REVENUE! It's inevitable, at some point the success of Marketing...
Return on Marketing Objectives – ROMI Gets a Makeover
Let's start by pointing out the elephant in the room. As much as we like to talk about Return on Marketing Investments (ROMI)...
SMB’s Crossing the Chasm with Marketing Automation
For over a decade, email marketing has been the de facto channel for outbound marketing. An estimated 250 billion plus emails are sent...
Drip Marketing vs. Trigger Marketing Campaigns… Is One Better Than The Other?
Drip campaigns are delivered based on pre-determined time intervals while trigger marketing campaigns are initiated based on prospect behavior. There are two primary tactics for...
Top 3 Ways to Increase Your Organizations Social Intelligence
A few weeks ago, Gleanster published a new Gleansight report on Social Intelligence. The findings outline how Top Performing organizations have developed...
Dreamforce 2011 Analyst Perspective
Last month Salesforce.com hosted its annual Dreamforce Conference in San Francisco. As usual, vendors and customers came out in force. Just 2 years ago,...
How Your Closed Prospects Are Like The Vintage On A Fine Wine
In wine-making a vintage wine is one that is made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single year. The...