Posts Tagged ‘Content Marketing’
The Two Core Elements of B2B Social Media Marketing Success
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012There have been numerous models proposed for social media and content marketing (including the Four C’s of Social Media Marketing model previously published here), but when all of the complexity is stripped away, social media marketing success comes down to two core elements: content and amplification.
Content is like singing a song. Amplification (done well) is like singing that song into a microphone. On American Idol. Late in the season.
Content can be produced in a wide variety of formats:
- • White papers
- • Case studies
- • Video
- • Podcasts
- • Presentations
- • Product data sheets / brochures
- • eBooks / digital magazines
- • Blog posts
- • Webinars / webcasts
- • Checklists
- • Infographics
- • Research reports / briefs
- • Product reviews
- • News releases
- • Newsletters
- • Online tools / apps
- • FAQs
- • Guides / toolkits
- • Tutorials
- • Microsites
- • Bylined articles
- • Virtual events
- • Buyer’s guides
- • Product comparison grids
- • ROI / TCO calculators
But regardless of the format, the first key to getting your content amplified by others is to produce high-quality, share-worthy content. Of course, in the B2B realm, your content should be targeted at addressing a specific question or concern of a specific type of buyer at a specific stage of the buying cycle (e.g. research reports at the top of the funnel; webinars at mid-funnel; product comparisons near the bottom).
Truly “social” content will go beyond those basics, and also be:
- • Optimized: content is more likely to be found and spread if it contains the words and phrases your buyers are using, rather than jargon or internal company terminology. These can be discovered by using keyword research tools or by talking to your customer-facing employees. The use of keywords in content should never be forced; content that’s truly written for your target prospects will incorporate these words and phrases in a natural manner.
- • Remarkable: ask yourself—if I were on a buying team that was evaluating my product or service, is this a piece of content that I would feel inspired to pass along to other members of the team? To my boss?
- • Unique: people are most likely to pass along content that is new or different—information, a point of view, or a collection / presentation of data that they haven’t seen before. According to Google, there have been 77,400 blog posts, articles and guides written that contain “SEO basics” in the title tag. The world probably doesn’t need another article on SEO basics, and such a piece would be unlikely to be shared, unless it somehow stood out from the previous 77,400 writeups on the topic. Not easy.
- • Compelling: to be shareworthy from your standpoint, the content should compel the reader to take some sort of next step—download a white paper, register for a webinar, subscribe to your newsletter, contact your sales team—some type of action that makes the effort of developing the content worthwhile. Otherwise, it’s just entertainment.
- • Easy to share: encourage sharing and make it easy by including social sharing buttons on your content whenever practical. Recent research shows that incorporating social sharing buttons increases email sharing by 115% (and helps with all sorts of other content as well).
Amplification is the process of getting influential voices in your market to share your content with their friends and followers. It is not about creating a “viral video” or some such thing. What kind of videos go viral? Funny videos. Videos featuring animals doing cute things tend to do well also. Create a funny video of animals doing cute things and you’ve got an almost sure-fire viral hit. But unless you sell pet supplies, the value of drawing that traffic to your site will be virtually zilch.
The amplification process has three essential steps:
1. Build a network of influencers. There are several ways to find the key influencers in any industry. On LinkedIn, search for relevant groups, then connect with members of those groups. On Twitter, search for hashtags relevant to your industry, or peruse Twitter directories like Twellow and WeFollow. Identify the top blogs in any segment using AllTop, then note who those bloggers include in their blogrolls. If you’ve got the budget, search for influencers using a social media monitoring or PR management tool.
2. Develop relationships with those influencers. Follow them on Twitter. “Like” their Facebook pages. Join the same groups on LinkedIn. Read their blogs and leave thoughtful, value-added comments. Tweet / retweet their posts and other content, and ask questions. Take an interest in them and they’ll be likely to take an interest in your content as well.
3. Produce content that those influencers will want to share with their friends, fans and followers. Key influencers get into that position by staying on top of trends in their industries, and sharing valuable, interesting, relevant content with their followers. Help them to do that and you’ll end up helping everyone involved: those influencers will become even more influential, they will amplify your content (because of its high quality), and—most importantly—your prospective buyers will be more likely to see and respond to your helpful and informative content.
The bottom line? “Build it and they will come” only worked in Field of Dreams. Success in social media marketing requires both “building” it (creating great content that showcases your unique expertise and compels buyers to act) and amplifying it through a network of the key influencers in your particular industry segment or market niche.
Real-World Results from Web Presence Optimization
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011My last post, What is Web Presence Optimization, and Why Should I Care?, laid out the definition of and rationale for a web presence optimization (WPO) strategy. But what do the real-world results look like? Here are four case studies demonstrating how WPO does more than get a company or individual onto the first page of results in search—it helps them own the first page of search results.
(Keep in mind that search results change constantly; all of these examples were accurate at the time of the search screen captures.)
TAB Products – “Hybrid Records Management”
TAB Products is a provider of records management software, file folders and other filing supplies, mobile shelving, and health records management products through its AMES division. As shown below, the company dominates search results for hybrid records management (managing paper and electronic files together in a single system). The company has integrated its SEO and online PR efforts for WPO.
Jill Konrath – “Selling to Big Companies”
Author and sales trainer Jill Konrath combines her website and blog with content marketing, online PR, social media and AdWords to dominate both sides of the front page of Google for the phrase “selling to big companies.” If you were struggling with how to effectively sell to large organizations, who would you call?
Kinetic Data – “Extend the Value of BMC Remedy”
Business service management software developer Kinetic Data builds products that extend the value of one of the top IT management platforms, and the company dominates search for that phrase by combining an optimized website with blogging, social media, online PR and content marketing activities.
Workface – “Realtime Customer Engagement Platform”
Through a combination of SEO, online PR and social media, customer engagement platform vendor Workface dominates the first page of Google for that term along with “realtime.” Turning customers into fans always helps with WPO.
Obviously, dominating the first page of Google in this manner is affected by factors (including Google’s ongoing changes to its algorithms). But being strategic about web presence optimization—utilizing SEO, online PR, SEM, content marketing and social media in a coordinated manner—can pay significant dividends in terms of search visibility.
Best Web Presence Optimization Guides and Tips of 2010
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011Web presence optimization (WPO)—using tactics like SEO, PPC, online PR, social media, content marketing and reputation management in a coordinated fashion to maximize your online visibility and business results—is the core theme of this blog. It’s also frequently written about in popular blogs and online publications, though strangely almost no one uses the term. It’s almost like a big game of Taboo, Catch Phrase, Password, or even Red Green’s Possum Lodge Word Game; all of these writers are describing the concept of WPO, but are apparently forbidden by some cosmic rule book from using the actual phrase.
Or maybe it just hasn’t caught on. Yet. Whatever.
But fundamentally, 1) there are now far more online venues than just your website or blog where you and/or your company be found (social media pages and profiles, articles, videos, etc.), and 2) there are more ways for people to search than just Google and Yah-Bing (YouTube is now the second-largest search engine and Facebook SEO is its own emerging discipline). WPO is about capitalizing on these trends, so learn how to integrate your social media, search, SEM, content marketing and other interactive marketing and PR efforts to optimize your web presence here in some of the best articles and blog posts on (shhh! Don’t say those words!) of the past year.
Web Presence Optimization Tips and Tactics (Though They Don’t Call Them That)
4 tips for higher rankings through better links by iMedia Connection
Great content naturally attracts links, but Matt Malden points out ways to go beyond that by blogging, sending a regular email newsletter, using Twitter, social networks, YouTube and other sites to expand your online presence.
Social Media Affecting BtoB Buying Behavior by The Proactive Report
Sally Falkow reports research on new influences in the B2B buying process (e.g., 59% of b2b buyers engage online with peers who have addressed similar challenges; 48% follow industry conversations on the topic; and 37% have posed questions on social networking sites), then emphasizes that your “content must be visible as your prospective customer moves through all the possible sources of content” including social bookmarking sites, forums, blogs, your website and in the industry press.
How to use search to shield your brand from negativity by iMedia Connection
Eric Papczun delves into three key components of online reputation management: SEO (long-term promotion of content in search), paid search (SEM—addresses immediate needs), and social media (message distribution and brand engagement).
Don’t let your social media presence crush your brand’s future by iMedia Connection
Eric Papczun follows up on his post above with more guidance to help “dominate search engine results pages” including leveraging alternate domains, creating a corporate presence on social networking and content-sharing sites, and search-optimizing your press releases. He also lists several tools to help track and monitor your brand reputation online.
Why B2B Marketers Should Leverage Flickr by Search Engine Land
Andy Komack explains why business marketers should use Flickr, the social photo-sharing platform, what types of images to upload (e.g., product photos, diagrams, infographics, trade show pics etc.), and how to leverage Flickr through blogs, articles, Facebook and other tools.
Tools to Include in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy by CompuKol Connection
Michael Cohn supplies an excellent list of “useful and effective tools that will help you create a buzz for your business,” from social networks and photo-sharing sites to wikis and review sites.
Social referrals: How to attract this vital currency by iMedia Connection
Noting that, for an increasing number of websites, “referral traffic is as significant from social networks as it is from search engines, making social the next search,” Liza Hausman details three components of what she terms “an effective on-site social optimization strategy:” social connectivity, the connected experience (e.g., making it as simply as possible for visitors to share your site content across multiple social networks), and social analytics.
The best 159 social websites by Populair
Social media profiles and content promotion are key elements of WPO, and here is an excellent list of social sites across various categories including social networks, answers and knowledge, social travel, local social, social phone apps, business social, events and more.
Social Media and Search
Social Media and Search Optimization Integration by SEO Wizardry
Frequent best-of contributor Pete Hollier details the social media optimization (SMO) process, explains how a corporate website and blog integrate with social bookmarking and social networking, and shows how SMO and SEO efforts support each other.
Titles, Tags & Tweets: the Role of Search in Social Media Marketing by PR-Squared
Todd Defren emphasizes quite properly that when it comes to titles, headings and tags for blog posts or other social media content, descriptive words (i.e., what your audience is likely to be searching for) are far better than “clever” titles. He also advises, “many brands will supplement their blogging with Blogger Relations, YouTube videos, Twitter, Facebook, etc…the content created for one outlet, e.g., a YouTube video, ought to be promoted across any other frequently-used channels. Tweet about the video. Post it to the Facebook Wall. When appropriate, let key bloggers know about it.” Hmm, sounds a lot like WPO.
How search can boost your social media campaigns by iMedia Connection
Vanessa Newkirk shows how insights gained about your prospective customers and the search keywords they use from social media, SEO and SEM efforts can be applied across all of these online marketing activities to make each one more effective.
B2Bs Tap Social to Boost Search by eMarketer
In a recent survey, 44% of B2B marketers said that their social media activities have had a positive effect on search performance for their websites (a figure that is likely much higher in reality, as another 27% respondents admitted they “don’t know” what effect social has on their search results). This makes sense, as SEO success is driven by links, and social media sites can be a rich source of relevant links. The top two goals B2B marketers identified for social media are building brand awareness and increasing website traffic.
How to adapt to the evolving search landscape by iMedia Connection
Jonathan Shapiro shares some thoughtful, strategic insights on how search is evolving, how social media impacts search, how social+SEO+PPC efforts can work in tandem, and how to utilize off-site content, (e.g., YouTube) to enhance your brand presence online.
Why Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers by eMarketer
“Is 2011 set to be the ‘year of Facebook,’ even among search marketers?” That’s the opening question here, and recent research indicates the answer is a clear “yes.” SEO and social media program integration is the top organic search priority, while social media advertising is the paid search priority; at 46%, it’s ranked well ahead of tactics like local search advertising (18%) and mobile search ads (11%).
Online Reputation Management
20 Common LinkedIn Mistakes Online Job Seekers Make by New Grad Life
Though aimed at job seekers, this post provides an excellent checklist for anyone on LinkedIn to review. Among the common mistakes to avoid: not creating a personalized public profile URL, not making your headline (and profile summary, and specialties) searchable by including key search words, not proofreading your profile for typos and grammatical errors (ouch!), not personalizing your invitation-to-connect messages, and more.
5 Ways to Weave LinkedIn Into Your Marketing Mix by TopRank Online Marketing Blog
Noting that LinkedIn has more than 60 million members, including executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies, Michelle Bowles presents five excellent techniques for optimizing your personal marketing through LinkedIn, such as optimizing your profile, leveraging third-party apps such as Slideshare, and promoting your LinkedIn profile through other channels (your blog, email signature and business cards, for example).
Google on Manipulating Search for ORM by Outspoken Media
***** 5 Stars
It can happen—negative commentary about you or your company gets posted online. Maybe it’s valid (e.g. an instance of less-than-optimal product or service delivery; no organization or person is perfect) or maybe not (e.g. a disgruntled ex-employee seeks online revenge), but either way, it’s potentially damaging, particularly if it appears prominently in search results. Rhea Drysdale walks through several steps you can take to push the bad stuff off the front page of Google by creating and promoting positive content—profiles, blog posts, news, favorable reviews, and other items.
Lead Nurturing – How to Develop a Solid Process for B2B Lead Management
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010Guest post by Alexandre Sagala.
Effective lead nurturing is crucial to successful b2b marketing. “Lead nurturing can help you improve your lead conversions over time.” “Lead nurturing will generate an increase in sale opportunities up to 20%.” “Lead nurturing can help you build a trusted relationship with your economic buyer.” Understanding that not every lead is ready to buy right away, but that it’s less costly to convert an existing lead than to generate a new one, you may be asking yourself, “I need to do lead nurturing right—where do I start?”
Here is a process to get you started on the right track.
Planning
Before starting with the execution of lead nurturing campaigns, you need to spend time planning. Ask yourself and answer these questions:
- Do I understand my buyers’ buying cycle? This is extremely important. You need to be able to map out your typical buyer’s buying cycle. It is the basis of any good nurturing campaign since you will building your nurturing campaign content and messages on each step of the buying cycle. Involving sales at this time is a good idea. Confirm your thoughts on the buying cycle with them. They understand it since they deal with buyers all the time.
- Do I have enough quality content for each stage of the buying cycle? Ensure you have content and the different means to deliver that content at the appropriate time to the appropriate buyer. You can have the best buying cycle map but if you don’t have content you won’t be able to nurture your prospects correctly. To make sure you have the right content consider what goes through a potential customer’s mind as he or she makes a buying decision. Are they looking for more information on the product? Do they need more explanations on the value proposition?
- How will I measure my results? Will it be by tracking number of closed sales? Will it be by percentage of buyers moving from one stage to another in my buying map? Make sure you know this before you start so you can measure the results of your nurturing campaigns accordingly.
- What do I plan to achieve? Do you want to see an increase in the numbers of sales closed? Do you want to build a trusted relationship with your economic buyer? There are different objectives possible from a lead nurturing campaign. Make sure you know why you are doing it and then communicate it internally. This will set the right expectations with everyone in your business and make it easier to interpret campaign results.
Execution
Typically, a lead nurturing program uses these communication mechanisms: emails, case studies, articles, events, podcasts, white papers, social media messages and webinars. Use the map that you built during your planning stage and map content pieces (emails, case studies on product successes, invitation to a webinar) to each step. Think about what type of information the potential buyer is looking for at each stage. What questions will the buyer want answers to? Provide those answers using the mechanisms listed above.
Good practice dictates that mechanism be mixed and matched at each step since different buyers’ prefer different means of communication (written vs. audio vs. video). You should also ensure you are trying to move the potential buyer to the next stage of the buying cycle with your communications. Providing a way to get in contact with sales during the later phases is also a good practice.
An example of simple lead nurturing campaign could be:
- Day 1: Visitor downloads whitepaper on “Effective lead nurturing” (capture visitor information so we can communicate with him).
- Day 3: Lead is sent email thanking him for the download and inviting him to a webinar on lead nurturing.
- Day 7: Lead attends webinar. Send follow-up email asking if he would be interested in learning more how your product can help with lead nurturing.
- If “yes,” schedule a demo with sales. (qualified lead!)
- If “no,” continue nurturing.
- Day 15: Email recent customer success story, in related industry if possible.
- Day 21: Email “touching base” note. Offer other valuable information (case study, new blog post etc..)
- Day 30: Prospect calls up sales (qualified lead!)
Spacing and number of communications should be based on the length of your average sales cycle and complexity of product/services being sold. The more complex and the longer the sales cycle is, the more widely spaced the communications should be.
With this plan and information in place, you should be ready to start your nurturing your leads. If you start a lead nurturing campaign after reading this article l would be interested in knowing how it went. Let me know by email (contact information is on website listed below.)
Alexandre Sagala is the co-founder of Alsamarketing, a provider of marketing automation software that helps marketers convert and nurture online visitors into customers.
Best Marketing Strategy Insights of 2009
Monday, April 26th, 2010What strategies and tactics should you employ to maximize business results online? What are the leading marketing thought leaders saying about marketing strategies in 2010? How effective is demand generation software? How do you select the right market research to support your goals? Why is content marketing becoming critical? What key trends on the horizon do you need to be aware of? Can you fire your sales force?
Get the answers to these questions and more here in the best blog posts and articles of the past year on marketing strategy.
12 Marketing Minds, One Free eBook by Search Engine Guide
Jennifer Laycock previews a free eBook from Valeria Maltoni featuring thoughts on marketing strategy and tactics from 12 online pros including Beth Harte, Christina Kerley and Matt Dickman.
Don’t Forget the Brand in SEO, PPC and Social Media by Search Engine Journal
Garrett Pierson advises marketers to capitalize on their brands in all areas of online marketing, such as by search-optimizing for all common variants of company and product names, and presenting consistent brand images and messages across all areas of the firm’s social media presence.
Peter Guber’s magic formula for marketing success by iMedia Connection
Jodi Harris summarizes highlights from Mandalay Entertainment Founder and CEO Peter Guber’s keynote speech at the 2009 Entertainment Marketing Summit advising marketers to overcome resistance to change, create memorable stories and great content in order to motivate prospects.
101 Tips from 50 Small Business Bloggers by Open Forum
Glen Stansberry supplies a wealth of strategic guidance packed into short nuggets from a wide range of business thought leaders like Seth Godin, Anita Campbell, Mark Cuban, Jared Reitzin and Matt McGee.
The Marketing Automation & Lead Nurturing Myth by Nurture
A brief but insightful post contending that there is no such thing as “demand creation,” only demand identification and lead nurturing–and counseling marketers to undertake the right kinds of programs, then have patience.
Web Strategy in 2010 by baekdal.com
Thomas Baekdal offers a 22-point checklist for maximizing the way the web works today, from content generation and social media to calls to action.
A CMO’s guide to picking the right market research by iMedia Connection
Michael Estrin advises companies on how to find the most meaningful data for their tactics and brand, including using aggregators help you figure out which data are best for your needs.
What made the Digital Marketing World-Go-Round? 10 Takeaways from the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing World Virtual Conference by Modern B2B Marketing
Maria Pergolino wraps up the key takeaways from this virtual conference, covering areas from social media integration and landing page optimization to relationship-building and sales-marketing alignment.
Content Marketing / Custom Publishing Research – Marketers Telling the Story by Junta42
Joe Pulizzi reviews research from King Fish Media on the state of content marketing and provides some interesting statistics on the scope and ROI of custom content creation. His conclusion: “We are all publishers now.”
7 Free or Cheap Ways to Effectively Promote Your Business Online by Dumb Little Man
Actually, this post presents eight strategies for online promotion ranging from social networking and video to PR and local portal sites. It also includes links to additional resources to dig deeper into each area.
5 marketing megatrends you can’t ignore by iMedia Connection
The brilliant Adam Kleinberg expounds on five megatrends–including mass collaboration, constant connectivity and globalization–and details their impacts on marketing strategies.
Why Content Strategy is So Important by Acsellerant
Bob Leonard argues that marketers must become publishers, then details the seven components of a successful content strategy.
In Social Media, It’s Not Just Business, It’s Business-To-Business by Brian Solis
***** 5 Stars
Social media thought leader Brian Solis disects shifts in b2b marketing spending, making extensive use of data from eMarketer on metrics such as changing budget allocations, objectives of using social networks and other social media sites, ROI measurements and more.
Preparing for a world without salespeople by iMedia Connection
Reid Carr muses about how the rapid increase of online information and spread of social media are changing the sales process, particularly for younger consumers. Making the case that “companies need to adapt to the changing environment, in which the next generation of consumers doesn’t want to talk to your salespeople,” Reid provides guidance on how different types of firms can adapt to this shift.
5 Social Media Myths by Digital Tonto
A thought-provoking post on the true impact (smaller than you may think?) social media will have on other, more traditional form of media and information distribution. Well worth a read.
