This week, 90octane’s Jim Grinney, Sam Eidson and Brooke Caesar attended the Integrated Marketing Summit in Denver. Sam was a featured speaker on the topic of marketing automation and lead management, and we co-sponsored the event with Eloqua.

We took advantage of the many knowledge-sharing opportunities among top marketers to put together this quick list of hot topics and key learnings from IMS:

1. Marketing plans should start with the desired outcome for the organization. Once that’s established, you can outline the marketing objectives, strategy, programs and tactics (in that order).
2. Keep asking “why” throughout the course of your marketing programs. Asking why specific objectives are being set, for example, provides insight into bigger business goals.
3. Think performance management, not just campaign optimization, to demonstrate how you’re guiding your marketing programs to greater success.
4. Communicate how your marketing success is making a business impact to the C-Suite. They’re interested in customer acquisition, retention and growth, so change marketing reports from being tactically focused (CTR, open rate, impressions, etc.) to speaking the C-Suite language (market share, customer value, category growth rates, etc.).
5. Remember that, these days, consumers control your brand. From brand experiences to social media, viral content can help grow your company. Use these channels to your benefit.
6. Consider what it costs to lose a customer who becomes unhappy. Social networking designed for customer service can turn an angry customer into a brand advocate. And don’t forget to throw in some incentives on your social sites – most in your network are looking for discounts and promotions. Feeling a part of your brand is a secondary perk.
7. While there are many strong tools to help companies monitor social marketing (and as few as 16% are actually tracking and measuring social media), it’s more important to think about if/when/how to respond via social outlets.
8. Keep an eye out for increasingly sophisticated geo-targeting and location-specific marketing channels, as today’s consumers becomes more reliant on their mobile devices. Already 87% of consumers are equipped with them, and mobile marketing opportunities are on the rise, too.
9. When strategizing offers for your next marketing program, consider how you might repurpose quality content for efficiency. Take webinars, for example. Done well, they generate engaging content that can be used across YouTube, tips programs, blog posts and more.
10. Lead management automation is on a lot of marketers’ minds because it has the potential to improve both sides of the ROI equation. But true adoption of a comprehensive solution – including all the processes to realize its potential – is under 4%. Education is one of the keys to increasing adoption of these valuable toolsets.

We’ll keep you posted on any other great upcoming events, and you do the same!