What’s the missing, yet critical element for successful B2B marketers? – Creativity.
It is a common fact that many B2B marketers stay the path of the traditional and in the box techniques. To create a competitive edge to your business marketing, add some creative thinking and opportunities to attract and engage prospects and customers.
Typical B2B marketing can be dry –Marketing business technologies or services typically don’t have much room for emotional interaction or social engagement. It’s not anyone’s fault, this is just how it’s always been.
Today, most B2B marketers still don’t embrace social engagement or online B2B marketing tools – they still stick with what they have always known and used. These marketers tend to stay in the box and not look outside of how they market their products and services.
Those willing to look outside of the box begin to understand how innovative thinking helps create new and expand existing opportunities with their customers.
Stand out with creativity – For B2B marketers that want to increase opportunities that will lead to sales, looking outside of the box is not enough – they need to stand outside of the box. Combining traditional B2B marketing and using new and creative options, business marketing becomes more than just dry marketing of the same old technologies and services.
Let’s look at a few areas it pays to be creative:
Business Blogs – To traditional marketers, a business blog is not worth the time and effort. To others, this is a perfect way to not only attract new prospects, but also engage and convert them into paying customers. With a blog, you provide information that educates prospects. When they have the information they need, they are ready to engage and ask for more information about what you offer – this will lead to better sales leads.
Social Engagement – It’s not enough to just wait for prospects to find you, you have to go to them. Look at social networks where your products and services would benefit those community members; engage prospects and give them places to look for more resources such as your blog or website.
Content Creation and Sharing – Creating content doesn’t just mean writing; it could be text, audio, video or other types of content. When you create your content, you can put it on and off of your own sites. Examples could be posting a video to your blog, adding a podcast to a podcast directory or sharing content on your social networking channels.
Sharing content is a great way not only for you, but also your customers to spread the word about your product and services. When you post something on your blog, include ways for others to share it on their social networks. Encourage others to share the content you post to your Facebook page or on your YouTube channel.
Use creativity to improve metrics – Now that you understand some ways to add creativity to your B2B marketing, what does it do for your metrics and overall revenue? By engaging with prospects and current customers on multiple networks, you get the word out; increase search engine rankings to you through back links and also get others to spread your information on their networks for you.
Now look at your digital marketing metrics; what do you see? All of the creative ways you have marketed out are bringing back in targeted traffic, conversions and are helping you build lasting relationships with your customers.
To get more prospects, more conversions and more sales, look at adding some creativity to your B2B marketing.
This was originally posted by Maria Pergolino
Monday, August 23, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Getting to scale: direct marketing vs. mass market thinking
A mass marketer needs to reach the masses, and to do it in many ways, simultaneously. The mass marketer needs retail outlets and fliers and a website and public relations and tv ads and more more more and then... bam... critical mass is reached and success occurs.
Best Buy is a mass marketer, but so are Microsoft and the Red Cross. Ubiquity, once achieved, brings them revenue, which advances the cycle and they reach scale.
The direct marketer, on the other hand, must get it right in the small. That pitch letter can be tested on 100 houses and if it gets a 2% response rate, then it can be mailed to 100,000 houses with confidence. That business-to-business sales pitch can be honed on one or two or three prospects, and then when it works, can be taught to dozens or hundreds of other salespeople.
The key distinction is when you know it's going to work. The mass marketer doesn't know until the end. The direct marketer knows in the beginning.
The mass marketer is betting on thousands of tiny cues, little clues, and unrecorded (but vital) conversations. The direct marketer is measuring conversion rates from the first day.
That's the reason we often default to acting like mass marketers. We're putting off the day of reckoning, betting on the miracle around the corner, spending our time and energy on the early steps without the downside of admitting failure to the boss.
Of course, just because it's our default doesn't mean it's right. Business to business marketing is almost always better if you treat it like direct marketing. Most websites that do conversion as well. Same with non-profit fundraising. As well as marketing goods and services to the bottom of the pyramid, people who live in villages where mass media and mass distribution are difficult and have little impact.
Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. It's far less romantic than spending money at the start, but it's the reliable, proven way to get to scale if you care enough to do the work.
This blog was originally posted on Seth Godin's Blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Best Buy is a mass marketer, but so are Microsoft and the Red Cross. Ubiquity, once achieved, brings them revenue, which advances the cycle and they reach scale.
The direct marketer, on the other hand, must get it right in the small. That pitch letter can be tested on 100 houses and if it gets a 2% response rate, then it can be mailed to 100,000 houses with confidence. That business-to-business sales pitch can be honed on one or two or three prospects, and then when it works, can be taught to dozens or hundreds of other salespeople.
The key distinction is when you know it's going to work. The mass marketer doesn't know until the end. The direct marketer knows in the beginning.
The mass marketer is betting on thousands of tiny cues, little clues, and unrecorded (but vital) conversations. The direct marketer is measuring conversion rates from the first day.
That's the reason we often default to acting like mass marketers. We're putting off the day of reckoning, betting on the miracle around the corner, spending our time and energy on the early steps without the downside of admitting failure to the boss.
Of course, just because it's our default doesn't mean it's right. Business to business marketing is almost always better if you treat it like direct marketing. Most websites that do conversion as well. Same with non-profit fundraising. As well as marketing goods and services to the bottom of the pyramid, people who live in villages where mass media and mass distribution are difficult and have little impact.
Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. It's far less romantic than spending money at the start, but it's the reliable, proven way to get to scale if you care enough to do the work.
This blog was originally posted on Seth Godin's Blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Sunday, August 1, 2010
B2B Social Media – 10 Tips From The Definitive Guide To Social Media
As B2B marketers, we know the growing importance of B2B social media. We know it’s a necessary tool for seed nurturing and demand generation, but in many cases, B2B marketers are still not sure where to begin. The following 10 tips from the Definitive Guide to Social Media will help you understand what components are essential to grasp, use and focus on.
1. Develop a plan – Ask yourself these three questions:
WHO – Who is your target audience? Do you have a buyer persona?
HOW – How can you deploy social media tactics for measurable success? What KPIs are important to your brand?
WHAT – What goals or objectives do you want to accomplish? Increase brand awareness? Improve engagement?
2. Blog – This plays a key role in lead nurturing and educating prospects. Therefore, its pertinent that you:
Update often
Create thought leadership content
Add a human touch
Provide insight into company & products/services
Develop linkbait & use anchor text links
3. Twitter 101
Create a full account – Always create your account with a full profile: picture, bio, link to company website and customized background.
Follow with relevance – Connect to significant people, thought leaders, industry experts and encourage others to follow you.
Tweet daily, multiple times daily – Include links, RT followers, be interesting.
4. Facebook 101
DON’T friend people you don’t know. DO ask people if you can friend them, particularly if you’ve only spoken to them on the phone.
DO take advantage of privacy settings to manage personal and business content separately
DO use Facebook status updates to include powerful tidbits of information, similar to Tweets. DON’T update what you had for breakfast unless it’s somehow relevant to your audience.
DO add a picture.
DO create a Facebook page for your business, especially if you aren’t comfortable with a personal profile.
DO post events and create groups. This will help develop your following.
5. LinkedIn 101
Connections – Connect only to those who are relevant. You can actually be banned for trying to connect with people you don’t know. However, it’s fine to connect with those whom you do know but only in a professional capacity without a personal connection.
Timeliness – Send connections shortly after meeting with someone so he/she remembers you.
Complete profile – Provide as much detail as possible, what you’re looking for out of the site and include a picture to ‘humanize’ the profile.
Recommendations – Request from individuals that can leave positive feedback and comments about your company.
6. Online Video Sites – These are great B2B marketing tools.
These sites include mainly YouTube but also Vimeo and Viddler. This provides a great opportunity to build awareness, demonstrate thought leadership and drive business. It also offers the chance to improve SEO, creating a greater likelihood your company will appear in search engines. Sites to test for your marketing include:
YouTube
Vimeo
Viddler
7. Bookmarking Sites – These allow users to share websites and content they find interesting. Sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon house lists of websites, blog and articles categorized by tags and topics. Use these sites to:
Gain referrals
Build a community
Increase brand awareness
8. Leverage widgets – Widgets are stand-alone tools or applications that provide dynamic content.
It’s very important widgets are relevant and useful, as it’s easy to get lost amongst the masses. Widgets make great viral marketing for companies by offering unique, easy-to-use content that’s visually appealing.
9. Share – The age old lesson of giving to others.
But in this instance we aren’t referring to cookies in the lunch room, instead we’re referencing document or presentation sharing. Encouraging sharing from those researching your content by providing presentations and documents via sites like SlideShare and Scribd. This increases the propensity that visitors re-share this information on their own blogs.
10. Photos – Pictures are great tools to give your company personality and life.
Prospects researching company events, conferences and offices love visual elements, as well. Tell a story through photos deliver dynamic content.
These 10 tips make a great start to help you ease into B2B social media. By downloading The Definitive Guide to Social Media from Marketo, you can learn even more about implementation and analysis. Discover the ROI of social media and how to implement tactics throughout each stage of the revenue cycle.
This content was originally posted by Maria Pergolino on http://blog.marketo.com/
1. Develop a plan – Ask yourself these three questions:
WHO – Who is your target audience? Do you have a buyer persona?
HOW – How can you deploy social media tactics for measurable success? What KPIs are important to your brand?
WHAT – What goals or objectives do you want to accomplish? Increase brand awareness? Improve engagement?
2. Blog – This plays a key role in lead nurturing and educating prospects. Therefore, its pertinent that you:
Update often
Create thought leadership content
Add a human touch
Provide insight into company & products/services
Develop linkbait & use anchor text links
3. Twitter 101
Create a full account – Always create your account with a full profile: picture, bio, link to company website and customized background.
Follow with relevance – Connect to significant people, thought leaders, industry experts and encourage others to follow you.
Tweet daily, multiple times daily – Include links, RT followers, be interesting.
4. Facebook 101
DON’T friend people you don’t know. DO ask people if you can friend them, particularly if you’ve only spoken to them on the phone.
DO take advantage of privacy settings to manage personal and business content separately
DO use Facebook status updates to include powerful tidbits of information, similar to Tweets. DON’T update what you had for breakfast unless it’s somehow relevant to your audience.
DO add a picture.
DO create a Facebook page for your business, especially if you aren’t comfortable with a personal profile.
DO post events and create groups. This will help develop your following.
5. LinkedIn 101
Connections – Connect only to those who are relevant. You can actually be banned for trying to connect with people you don’t know. However, it’s fine to connect with those whom you do know but only in a professional capacity without a personal connection.
Timeliness – Send connections shortly after meeting with someone so he/she remembers you.
Complete profile – Provide as much detail as possible, what you’re looking for out of the site and include a picture to ‘humanize’ the profile.
Recommendations – Request from individuals that can leave positive feedback and comments about your company.
6. Online Video Sites – These are great B2B marketing tools.
These sites include mainly YouTube but also Vimeo and Viddler. This provides a great opportunity to build awareness, demonstrate thought leadership and drive business. It also offers the chance to improve SEO, creating a greater likelihood your company will appear in search engines. Sites to test for your marketing include:
YouTube
Vimeo
Viddler
7. Bookmarking Sites – These allow users to share websites and content they find interesting. Sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon house lists of websites, blog and articles categorized by tags and topics. Use these sites to:
Gain referrals
Build a community
Increase brand awareness
8. Leverage widgets – Widgets are stand-alone tools or applications that provide dynamic content.
It’s very important widgets are relevant and useful, as it’s easy to get lost amongst the masses. Widgets make great viral marketing for companies by offering unique, easy-to-use content that’s visually appealing.
9. Share – The age old lesson of giving to others.
But in this instance we aren’t referring to cookies in the lunch room, instead we’re referencing document or presentation sharing. Encouraging sharing from those researching your content by providing presentations and documents via sites like SlideShare and Scribd. This increases the propensity that visitors re-share this information on their own blogs.
10. Photos – Pictures are great tools to give your company personality and life.
Prospects researching company events, conferences and offices love visual elements, as well. Tell a story through photos deliver dynamic content.
These 10 tips make a great start to help you ease into B2B social media. By downloading The Definitive Guide to Social Media from Marketo, you can learn even more about implementation and analysis. Discover the ROI of social media and how to implement tactics throughout each stage of the revenue cycle.
This content was originally posted by Maria Pergolino on http://blog.marketo.com/
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