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So you’ve been putting in the long hours on your new marketing campaign, fine-tuning the copy and jazzing up the graphics. Everyone agrees it couldn’t be more perfect – until it falls flat. What just happened here?
According to this interesting post by B2BMarketingSmarts.com’s Susan Fantle, there’s a simple reason for the failure of seemingly faultless copy: too much time spent creating, and not enough spent strategizing. Up to 80% of marketers’ efforts go toward creativity, leaving just 20% for strategy. If that’s really the case, we have to ask: Is it time to flip the equation?
We think so, and here’s why.
Three Ways Strategy Boosts Results
As we’ve said before, if you’re going to create content without a target audience in mind, you might as well not waste your time. Without suggesting you completely abandon creativity, here are three reasons to spend more time on strategy:
1. More Research = Less Waste. If you’re not clearly identifying your target audience, you’re wasting time and effort by contacting people who won’t care about your product or service. And nobody likes to squander their time making (or viewing) scattershot, fruitless copy.
2. Be Selective, But Don’t Employ Tunnel Vision. You also want to be sure that you are not leaving prospective clients or consumers out of the loop. Spending quality time analyzing who needs what your company has to offer and why they need it will help you uncover ‘hidden’ prospects that can turn into valuable leads.
3. Don’t Just Post, Broadcast. Your strategy shouldn’t be limited to defining your target audience; you also need to figure out the best way to reach them. This is especially true for online content, which can easily be lost in the informational ocean of the World Wide Web. Time invested in getting your content noticed by the right people is time well spent.
Your creative efforts demand a high price of talent, time and resources. Don’t waste them by coming up with perfect content that no one ever sees. Let research and strategy guide it to the right people at the right time
Photo via: Stefan Erschwendner
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Email marketing is one of the best ways to reach out to your customer base. It’s virtually instant, readily analyzable, and nobody has to pay for the postage. Fully 97% of small businesses use email marketing, according to eMarketer. Unfortunately, a recent study by the Email Institute found that the average open rate for a marketing email was only 27.2%. How can you improve your marketing email open rate?
We’re assuming that you’ve already weeded out the bad data – the false email address and blank fields we talked about in an earlier post. Now it’s time to put those leads into play. These three tips can help your message make it out of the inbox and onto your customers’ screens.
Tip 1: Give Them the Option
Nobody likes receiving unsolicited email. The same Epsilon-backed Email Institute study mentioned earlier indicates that email open rates nearly triple – skyrocketing from 27% to 75% – when recipients simply opt into an email list. So your simple first step: let them choose to be contacted.
Tip 2: Pay Attention to Your Subject Line
There are several reasons why you need to craft a strong subject line. First, you don’t want your message to be flagged as spam by the email program’s filters. Secondly, you don’t want to trigger the spam-alert in your recipients’ heads. So it’s a good idea to avoid catchphrases like “Free!!” and “Reminder!” in your subject line. And lay off the excessive use of exclamation points and symbols; at best, you’ll look untrustworthy and unprofessional. At worst, you’ll be back in the spam bin.
Tip 3: Test. Tweak. Test Again
Because emails are currently free, it’s easy to see them as throw-away marketing. This can lead to skimpy preparation. Bad idea. Take your marketing seriously; don’t forget to utilize A/B testing to sift out poorly-performing messages. If your customer base covers different industries or different segments within an industry, consider customizing your message and subject line. Then test again, using a small segment of your contact list as the proving ground. Whichever version gets the highest open rate will be the obvious choice for your large-scale attempts.
Your emails don’t have to languish unread in spam folders or be instantly deleted. Use these tips and a little forethought, and watch your open rate improve.
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We’ve already discussed the benefits of content curation, but let’s be realistic. Very few of us have the time to sift through the vastness of the Internet to come up with the best articles, blogs, videos, and pictures that tie into our brands.
Yet the hunt for ever more interesting and relevant content is the cornerstone of content curation. As long as the material sourced is properly credited and linked, most content creators are happy to share it. So how can you find the best content on the net for your brand?
The good news is that you don’t have to. There are many sites designed to make content curation as easy as clicking your mouse. In no particular order, here are five curation tools that we particularly like (and our thoughts on who might benefit the most from each).
1. Pinterest – Best for Visual Learners
Pinterest is, at its heart, a content curation tool. It’s easy to use and very, very popular. While it may seem like an obscure choice for B2B marketers, Pinterest can be a great place to showcase powerful visuals that relate toyour brand
2. CurationSoft – Best for Busy Marketers
CurationSoft is praised for its quick, easy search tools and its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. The most popular social media outlets – YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, etc – are supported, as are more traditional feeds, such as RSS. Use the free version to check it out, then decide whether to upgrade to the Pro version.
3. Storify – Best for Avoiding Content Source Issues
According to its website, Storify aims to meld “updates from social networks into new, interactive story formats.” Like most content curation tools, it’s dynamic and supremely shareable. You can search content from a wide range of voices, from everyday folks posting on social sites to professional journalists. One thing that sets Storify apart is the fact that it avoids potentially sticky content issues by simply linking to (rather than copying) the original source material.
4. Scoop.it – Best for Combining Social and Search Engine Intelligence
Scoop.it takes the online magazine format and puts you in the editor’s seat. You can curate content based on their search engine results or based on user suggestions, adding a desirable human element into the mix. You can also follow other Scoop.it users, reScoop content, and share content; premium memberships give you the ability to schedule when your ‘magazine’ comes out and provide analytics for each issue.
5. Paper.li – Best Bells and Whistles
If Scoop.it is an online mag, then Paper.li is your own personal online newspaper, complete with a traditional three-column design. You’ll need a Twitter or Facebook account to join. Like many other content curation tools, you can choose from a free or a pro membership; the pro membership is ad-free. There’s also the welcome option of scheduling when your paper updates and when it is “published.”
Instead of sticking with Facebook and Twitter – and endless Likes and retweets – consider using one of these specialized content curation tools. You’ll add value to your content without spending valuable time searching the web for it.
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You probably get a physical every year – or at least you plan to. And your car gets its yearly tuneup, right? So why not your data?
Data is an integral part of the marketing game. Without it, B2B marketing is just a practice exercise. So why waste time chasing leads based on bad data? Underperforming data ups your frustration level and lowers your net results. The first step in avoiding it is identifying what makes good data go bad.
Good Data vs Bad Data
The best data types are those highly-specific leads that every marketer loves to have. Good data is simply complete data; bad data is the stuff that clutters up your database. You know it already: incomplete information, duplicate records, false email addresses, disconnected phone numbers.
If you’re experiencing the draining effect of bad data, you’re not alone. A recent study estimates that more than 50% of all companies have data-accuracy issues. The same study indicates that data degrades – changes and becomes inaccurate – at the rate of almost 25% each year.
Get Your Annual Data Checkup
Fortunately, you don’t have to be stuck with the onerous task of sorting through each line of your database by hand. NetProspex, the company who commissioned the study referenced above, offers marketers a comprehensive solution: the NetProspex Data HealthScan Report.
And here’s a word B2B marketers love to use (and hear): it’s free.
Simply enter your targeting criteria and a sample of your existing database and NetProspex will tell you:
- Percentage of deliverable emails
- Percentage of connectable phone numbers
- Percentage of duplicate records
- Percentage of incomplete records (records where fields are left blank)
You’ll also get a summary of popular trends in your data, including business titles, company names and location, key industries, and the most prevalent profile in your contact list.
So make February the month your data gets its annual checkup, and quit wasting time on unprofitable, incomplete leads.
Note: We have not been compensated by Netprospex for this post in any way. We just really like their tools!
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A recent study by MarketingSherpa pointed out that 74% of the professionals surveyed admitted that they were having difficulty generating high-quality leads.
Ouch. Nearly three-quarters of businesses are struggling to effectively attract their target audiences and convert all that time and energy into sales.
If your business is struggling to meet its goals – financial or marketing – consider whether you might be running into one of these common barriers:
Over-Focusing on One Medium.
While paid searches, TV commercials, and print advertisements are all great ways to get the word out about your business, they are not the only means available. Nor should you focus on, say, search engine optimization to the exclusion of all other forms of marketing. Some of the most effective means of online advertising can also be the cheapest – email campaigns, for example, can help you reach targeted consumers for a very cost-effective price. The lesson: diversify the media you use to reach your prospective customers mix things up to figure out what works best.
Under-analyzing your potential audience.
Don’t fall victim to the common mistake of forgetting your intended audience. Who is likely to need your expertise or product? Why? What will get their attention? What will move them to act? Do a little research, spend a little time in the planning process, and save a lot of wasted effort.
Choosing quantity over quality.
This is a major misstep. If one print ad is good, 100 are better, right? Wrong – especially if all 100 are shoddily produced, inaccurate, or scattershot.
Once again, examine your planning process. Identify your key demographic and take the time to craft what will interest them. Only then should you worry about upping your visibility without sacrificing your credibility.
If you’re losing money, energy, and clientele with a faulty marketing plan, you’re not alone. Analyze, plan, and proceed, focusing on attracting a targeted audience with diversified media and high quality messaging.
Photo credit: lordorica
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This January, Facebook announced it was launching Graph Search, an improvement over the social network’s current search engine. This move has everyone’s attention, from social media marketers to privacy-rights watchdogs. What is Facebook Graph Search, and what difference is it likely to make in B2B marketing?
Facebook Graph Search: Search Meets Social
Facebook has reached a point where it is an internet within the internet; a vast cosmos of information that seemingly never ends and may never really be deleted (more on that later). Why not have a way to search through all that information? A way that allows one to search using locations, reviews, and your friends’ likes as factors?
And thus Graph Search was born.
The idea of Graph Search is that you can use Facebook information as search data. While a Google search of your friends’ recommendations for London restaurants will be pretty much useless, Facebook takes the phrase ‘restaurants in London that my friends like’ and gives you whatever restaurants liked by your London-going friends. (Note: A major difference between Graph Search and Google is that the Facebook engine is designed to use near-complete sentences as search queries.)
To combine its top-tier social status with the functionality of an online search engine seems like a matter of course. But don’t get too excited; Graph Search is still in beta testing.
The Impact of Facebook Graph Search on B2B Marketing
Initially, the idea of Graph Search seems like a marketers dream: type in ‘people in Chicago who own dogs’ and voila! an instant list of targeted leads for a dog-grooming business. For business-to-business marketers, the outlook is similar, but with a slight twist. Impossibly broad searches can still be narrowed. Recommendation-based leads can still be found.
What keys will lead B2B marketers to success?
Key 1: Keep Your Page Relevant.
First and foremost, the Graph Search improvement should highlight the need to keep your Facebook page current. This simply cannot be stressed enough: update your page frequently. Why? Because now your business page isn’t just your community outreach; it’s part of your search marketing strategy. Make sure it gives an accurate picture to people who are trying to find ‘businesses in my neighborhood that {your service/product here}’.
Key 2: Keep it Professional (and Your Life Private).
This speaks to the privacy – publicity angle. If you or your employees have personal pages, any information that you provide Facebook for public use is fair game for Graph Search. So don’t post anything publicly that you don’t want tied to your professional image. And it might be a good idea to review what you posted – even years ago – to avoid any potentially embarrassing search results. (One site referenced an actual test search of ‘employers of people who liked racism’. Panic button time for the unaware employers.)
Key 3: Keep the Person in Mind.
B2B marketers should remember that they’re not dealing with faceless entities. We’re actually trying to get the attention of people who run companies – people who most likely have a Facebook account. So don’t forget to keep the real, individual human beings within the company in mind when you’re engaging in marketing, or even just reaching out to the community.
While Facebook Graph Search is a potentially exciting tool for business-to-customer marketers, it can also be useful in business-to-business marketing strategy. Many of its current kinks should be worked out in beta testing. Currently it is in what Facebook calls a ‘very limited’ release; no word yet on when it will be fully operational and widely available. But it’s definitely one to keep on the radar.
Photo via: Facebook
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Now that 2013 is well under way, it’s time to start thinking about our how we can keep improving from a marketing perspective as the year draws on. What is working in your marketing efforts? What needs to be tweaked? What needs to be totally overhauled? This month, we’re focusing on social media and collaboration. Check out these social-centric webinars during February to catch up on the latest ideas in business collaboration and marketing.
Presented by Ginger Clay, CompTIA Faculty and Marketing and Channel Strategy, 4-Profit
The curriculum: In the business world, social media has moved from an employee time-waster to a valuable company asset. Can social technology increase your productivity? What is a social business, and how can it be leveraged? Learn the answers to these questions, plus get a free copy of CompTIA Quick Start Guide to Social Strategies for Business Use at the end of the webinar.
February 6, 2013, 1:00 p.m. (CT)
Moderated by Ginger Conlon, Editorial Director, 1to1 Media
The curriculum: Learn how organizations can work together to develop a unique and customer-centered experience. Understand how technology, research, and marketing intersect to hone in on core audience preferences, improve processes, and boost financial outcomes.
Note: This webinar is available on demand.
Presented by Citrix Online LLC via Constant Contact
The curriculum: Many businesses use Facebook as a means to increase customer interaction and online visibility, but the efforts from their social media marketing campaigns are flatlining. Learn how to engage your target audience on Facebook, how to run a good social media campaign, and how to quantify your results.
Wednesday, Feb 20, 2013 11am-12pm EST
Attend any or all of these to boost your understanding of the intersection between business and social technology. We’d love to hear about your experiences!
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It’s time for our monthly roundup of must-read B2B marketing blog posts from around the web! Read on to stay up-to-date and in-the-know:
Savvy B2B Marketing: 3 Quick Ideas to Improve B2B Blogging Productivity
Maintaining a blog takes time and planning. These three tips help streamline the process while boosting traffic and social sharing at the same time.
{grow}: 6 Marketing Lessons Learned at the 2013 New Media Expo
Get an inside look at the New Media Expo and some of the key trends that keynote speakers addressed—touching on both overarching marketing strategy and effective tactics.
Social News Daily: Getting Started with Social Media for Small Businesses [infographic]
While the article addresses small businesses, this infographic maps out a 12-month plan that would be useful for any company dipping its toe into the social media pool. By breaking down tasks by quarter and month, the idea of exploring social media seems a lot less intimidating.
Have you read any interesting B2B marketing posts this month? What are some of your favorite B2B marketing blogs?
Photo Credit: Paul Downey
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By now, you know that content marketing is a powerful tool for B2B companies. But many are still focused on traditional formats like case studies and white papers. While those forms of content are valuable in the right place and time, be sure to explore the many other options available for sharing content.
To get your creative juices flowing, here are a few other content formats you can use to spice up your content marketing programs:
SlideShare presentations
It’s not the same old PowerPoint slideshow, PDF document, or video. With SlideShare, your presentation is easily accessible and shareable. The online slide hosting service allows users to upload presentation content, store it publicly or privately, embed it on blogs or websites, and share it on social networks. With a PRO account, users receive additional benefits such as analytics and ad-free pages.
YouTube videos
In our visual world, video-sharing is a growing area for marketers. Rather than simply reading a report, audiences experience your content through sight, sound, and motion. Demonstrations and testimonials are two of the many types of content that are compelling on video.
Interactive microsites
As long as there are traffic-drivers in place to build an audience, microsites allow companies to provide a large amount of information in one space. Interactivity takes the typical microsite up a notch. Engage visitors with an interactive model, personalization options, or even a customized quiz—all things they can’t do with a straightforward white paper.
Blogs
Blogging allows you to build relationships and establish credibility. By sharing regular content, you’ll reach new audiences with shareable information and help your site’s status with the search engines. While blogs require consistent updates, they are a great way to position your company as a thought leader.
Podcasts
In certain cases, an audio format might be a perfect channel for sharing content. A podcast is an audio clip that is typically 5-30 minutes in length and available for download onto a computer, MP3 player, or mobile device. The essential ingredients for this content format include: a regular series on an interesting topic, expert speakers or interview subjects, and an audience that is receptive to podcasts.
Which of these content marketing formats would you like to explore?
Photo Credit: Nazmus Khandaker
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Interested in the social media space but unsure if it’s right for your company? While most B2B companies have begun to pay some attention to social media, many are still not utilizing it for one reason or another.
We want to help break down some common barriers that keep B2B companies from engaging in social media or reaching their full potential in this area. Here are some suggestions for overcoming five common obstacles.
Barrier: Privacy and confidentiality concerns
Solution: Many companies face questions regarding privacy and confidentiality, especially those in the healthcare and financial services industries. To alleviate concerns, work internally to craft a set of guidelines and policies for what kinds of content are appropriate for social media, as well as hot buttons to avoid. Anyone responsible for posting online content or interacting with followers would be trained on these guidelines. It’s also a good idea to outline a system for monitoring social media pages on a regular basis to reduce the chance that any questionable content is shared.
Barrier: Lack of internal resources
Solution: Time and talent is not always available for additional marketing projects. For a company who’s looking to expand its efforts into social media, this means stretching the current team’s capacity—just a little bit.
Get creative by looking at content that is already produced or could be easily customized for social media. Integrate social media into larger marketing plans so it becomes an organic extension, rather than a separate to-do. Designate key team members who are interested and experienced in social media to update your company pages in order to tap into their expertise and share the responsibility.
Barrier: Not knowing what to share
Solution: While social media may seem very different from other forms of marketing (and in some ways, it is!), there’s no need to be intimidated. Think of it as a channel for engaging directly with your target audience. To start, take a look at other B2B companies who are in the social media space and see what types of content they are sharing. Who’s doing a good job? What kinds of posts seem to generate responses? A benefit of the social media space is its potential for two-way communication.
On your page, share news, updates, product/service information, employee profiles, or any of your current marketing messages. Feel free to include relevant content from credible outside sources too. But remember to keep things short and sweet, interesting and informative. And mix it up! A constant stream of sales-y posts is a turn-off, so be authentic and consider what your followers want to know or learn.
Barrier: Belief that customers don’t care about social media
Solution: The first step is to determine which social media networks your target audience is using and how they are using them. If you find that they are active members and in the right mindset while on a specific site, you have a great opportunity to build a dedicated audience of followers. Even better, as followers, these people have raised their hand as supporters of your brand, and they are open to receiving information. Here’s your chance to interact with them!
Barrier: Skepticism that social media generates leads and conversions
Solution: It takes some time and effort, but social media is a unique channel for reaching an audience of “opt-in” followers and engaging in a two-way conversation. Tap into that potential by building a relationship, providing valuable content, and answering questions promptly. When the time comes that your followers are in the market to work with your company, they will already feel connected through your ongoing communications. To sell in social media marketing to skeptical members of management, check out some recent data and case studies or look into how past spikes in social media buzz have contributed to sales and revenue.
What barriers does your company face when it comes to social media? How do you overcome them?
Photo Credit: Jennifer C.
