With the all-new Drift Conversational Landing Pages, one of the greatest tools in direct marketing just got a whole lot more powerful. Most effect direct marketing efforts these days refer the recipient to one webpage or another. That's why Drift's new release is so significant – it allows you to integrate their conversion-driving bots into any direct marketing campaign. And we mean any. Did you know that one of the best ways to use this new tool to stand out from the competition is to drive traffic to bot-enabled landing pages from an offline source?

This blog post was originally featured on the Marketo blog, click here to view it on Marketo's site. If you’re reading this blog, that probably means that you keep up to date on the latest marketing trends and news. If so, you have probably heard of the GDPR, and are currently trying to figure out how to navigate this new regulatory environment and maintain an effective marketing strategy. Just in case, here’s a brief introduction. The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is a European law that came into effect across the EU on May 25th, 2018. It imposes much stricter regulations on how companies use consumer data. As a result, any company that does business in Europe has to drastically change the way that it collects, stores and uses consumer data.

It can be difficult to determine when a lead is ready to be handed over from the marketing team to the sales team in order to close the sale. There are no black and white distinctions that make it clear that a lead is a sales qualified lead (SQL), and this subjectivity can drive inter-team conflict and waste valuable resources.

In what can be a volatile business, generating new leads and sales is a great concern for many marketing agencies. Many of these firms stick to the same tactics without exploring different, potentially lucrative channels. It’s important to put resources into a number of different channels where future clients may be uncovered. An oft-untapped growth driver is strategic partnership with other agencies and technology partners.

For some time now, many of the most distinguished and successful brands have adapted to a new age of marketing. Companies like Nike and American Express – with some the biggest marketing budgets for grand TV commercials, massive online advertising and prominent sponsorships – started investing resources in conversational marketing.

There may by great emphasis on earning new customers, but the success of your company depends on more than new sales – It also depends on keeping your customers happy. Especially in the world of SaaS and subscription platforms, your customer success is indicative of your own success. Your customers’ experience in their first few months are essential to your long-term results.