Are You Using LinkedIn to Generate Leads?

March 20, 2012

LinkedIn has always been one of my best sources of activity to my blog. It also allows me to network with others who have the same interest in groups that I join, and I can always count on input from those who are linked with me if I need something or a question answered.

That’s why it wasn’t a big surprise to me when a recent study by HubSpot said that LinkedIn generated the highest visitor to lead conversion rate of 2.74%, almost 3 times higher than both Twitter and Facebook.


Social Media Conversion Rates

I guess that shows me that the people who are on LinkedIn are there for business purposes and are looking to network. So here are some tips on how to leverage LinkedIn:

  • Invest the time - develop and nurture your community. Don’t post something for the sake of posting. If you don’t have good content, wait until you do.
  • Focus content on what’s working - if blog posts are getting the most traffic, concentrate on doing more of them. If webinars or podcasts create more activity, focus on them.
  • Don’t forget lead generation content - call-to-action items need to be included in the mix so you’re continually inviting people to engage.
  • Keep learning - don’t take any success for granted. Keep working to improve your content.

Those are some of my thoughts. What are you doing to take advantage of LinkedIn?

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Four B-to-B Marketing Efforts That Can Improve Your Results

March 13, 2012

As B-to-B marketers, we are concerned about demand generation as our fundamental mission with lead generation being the primary way of measuring success. Here are four ways that will help you get better results.

I read an interesting article by Jim Leach, VP-Marketing, Harris Corp that outlines the CORE items you need to focus on. Here are some highlights:

  • Content - You have two challenges here for creating great content. One, the people who probably know the most about your product are probably terrible writers and two, your audience has no time to read. Jim suggests that a product engineer or possibly a customer service person might be the ones to tap to write content. His rules are simple: be brief, be brilliant, and be gone.
  • Outreach - Your best source of info is from your sales force. They are out in the trenches every day and know what the pain points are for customers and potentials. Take those insights and turn them into content nugget one pagers with common themes that might be used in a drip marketing program.
  • Response - Don’t lead your potential back to your home page on the web where they have to start the search over for the particular item that interested them in the first place. Create specific landing pages with tailored messages and the ability to collect info and download valuable info depending on where they are on the sales ladder – awareness, research, evaluation, selection or purchase – you should have items on that page that address each step in the process so the potential can find what they want easily.
  • Engagement – Most B-to-B sales have longer buying cycles so you need to keep your prospect engaged throughout the process. Make sure that when they come back at you with questions to be sure to ask them some as well so you can continually update their status.

CORE marketing can help you focus your efforts and close more sales. What are you doing to improve your marketing results?

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Are You Tweaking Your 2012 Social Media Plan?

March 7, 2012

Now that we’ve crossed over into another year, are you reviewing what you did last year and trying to make improvements?

I ran across a paper by Radian6 (you can download it when you click) that highlighted 30 ideas to think about to include in your planning. They included ideas on strategy, listening, engagement and measurement. I’ve always respected them and their content.

Here are some points that hit home to me:

  • Socialize your culture, not just your technology. Your whole organization needs to adapt to empowered customer model.
  • Cultivate long-term relationships. It’s 5-10 times cheaper than getting a new client.
  • Pay attention to people talking about your brand. Listen and tag both advocates and detractors.
  • Great leaders listen.
  • It’s not enough to listen in the shadows.Your fans expect you to respond and start conversations.

Those are some of the ideas I’m going to try to work on this year. What are you planning on doing to improve your social media plan?

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How Do You Share Content If You Don’t Have a Blog?

February 29, 2012

Doing a blog is a major commitment and lots of us haven’t pulled the trigger for just that reason. But I’m sure you’ve got good content to share, but how do you do it?

Jeffrey Cohen had an interesting post on socialmediab2b.com, 6 Ways to Create and Share B2B Social Media Content Without a Blog that I found to be interesting. You can house great content on your website and use links in social networks to bring them your info. Highlights from Jeff’s post include:

  • Email – When you’re at a trade show or industry conference, take notes of highlights and send them to your customer/client contact list.
  • YouTube – Shoot a quick video (use your phone) with a product manager highlighting one key feature of a product. Post on your YouTube channel and share a link on social sites.
  • LinkedIn – Post status updates. These will be visible to all those who follow you.
  • Google+ - Great place to have conversations and ask leading questions, not to mention the benefits of search results.

So you see, there are other ways to get your presence and expertise out in the marketplace. What are you doing to enhance your expertise?

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Should Google+ Be Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy?

February 23, 2012

Some of you may have already jumped into Google+. According to recent stats, as of January 2012, there are over 90 million users (Twitter has 100 million active users). To put this in perspective, they launched Google+ by invitation in June of 2011 and opened it up to the public in September of 2011. Google is positioning Google+ as their Facebook for B-to-B.

Google+ is a great content sharing platform, and building an audience on it may be one of the smartest things you do as a content marketer according to a recent post by Brian Clark on copyblogger, Why Google+ is an Inevitable Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy. Here are two highlights on why:

  • Google+ is a part of Google – they do a good job integrating with Google docs, Chrome, Google Reader, Gmail and YouTube.
  • Search - Google is the king of search and now they announced the Search, plus your world which merges personalized search with social search.

Brian also discusses concerns about Google having a stranglehold on the market and what we might expect moving forward.

The key for those of us who write content is to understand the language of our audience and make sure we reflect that in our content. Search will do the rest.

If you like this post, you might want to read:

Suggestions on How to Make Sense of Google+

Google+ and B-to-B: How to Get Started

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What Are You Doing to Grow Your Email List of Professional Tradesmen?

February 22, 2012

I know we all know “CONTENT IS KING” and we focus on putting out good stuff. But we should be just as focused on building the list to whom we’ll be sending all this valuable info.

It’s a fact that if you have an engaged database of subscribers, you have a captive audience not only for them to read, but to share. I recently read a post on problogger.net by James Penn entitled, 10 Ways to Get More Email Subscribers For Your Blog that I thought brought home some key points.

Among them are:

  • Use multiple opt-in forms – have 3-4 in your newsletter template. The more you have, the better the chances of them signing up.
  • Offer a freebie for signing up - give them a report, industry trends or white paper for signing up.
  • Use your most popular posts – they will continue to bring in traffic.
  • Create special reports on industry issues - use already existing content to create.
  • Ask readers to join your email list – what better way to get people on board

These are some great tips. What are you doing to increase your email lists?

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Social Media Presents An Opportunity for Manufacturers: Are you Taking Advantage of It?

February 15, 2012

It’s good to see that others share my thoughts on social media as an asset to a manufacturer’s marketing plan.

Today we have a guest post from Derek Singleton from Software Advice. Software Advice is a free online resource that helps businesses with their software research and selection. In addition to providing reviews of enterprise software, they also cover relevant technology and trends in the markets that we work in. 

The manufacturing industry has been somewhat slow to accept social media as a marketing tool. This is largely because it can be difficult to see how social media plays into the larger business-to-business (B2B) marketing strategy. That, however, appears to be changing. According to a Forrester Report released in March of 2011, 30 percent of global manufacturers intended to increase social media investments in 2012.

As global manufacturers increase their social media spending, the case for small- to mid-sized manufacturers to invest in social media grows stronger. The opportunities are particularly attractive in the contract and job shop manufacturing segments, which have traditionally relied on word-of-mouth marketing to win new business. I’d like to share three ways that manufacturers can start using social media today to improve their brand visibility and win more business.

1. Create a Blog to Tell Your Story

Blogs give manufacturers an opportunity to do more than just promote their brand. Blogs allow manufacturers to communicate with their customers and prospects using a richer form of media with longer-form stories. They’re also a great avenue for sharing company information and providing industry knowledge. Manufacturers can use blogs to announce major company milestones, such as getting ISO 9001 certification, as well as share general industry trends and news. By striking a balance between promoting a brand and sharing useful information, manufacturers can gain a thought leadership position that will help win customers later down the road.

2. Start a YouTube Channel to Enrich Content

YouTube can be a great tool that educates buyers while subtly marketing through video. With the dramatically decreased cost of video production, creating a decent quality video is affordable and relatively easy today. Manufacturers should consider creating a YouTube video that provides a demonstration of products and processes, a tour of the factory, or showcases customer testimonials. Of course, the challenge is sticking to a video format that customers find relevant and engaging. As an example, one of my favorite YouTube videos produced by a manufacturer is this Carr Machine and Tool video. The video provides customers a walk-through of how their orders are handled while showing the company’s dedication to service.

3. Use LinkedIn to Help Fill the Sales Funnel

A final tool that I’d like to highlight here is LinkedIn. For manufacturers, getting the most out of LinkedIn requires more than just becoming a member of the social network. Manufacturers can use LinkedIn to prime to sales funnel by using their networks to gain access to sales prospects. Once you get a few hundred contacts, your typical network usually reaches in the millions. This network can be used to get an introduction to a potential sales contact – or at the very least to connect with someone who can help strategize on how to contact the prospect. LinkedIn can also be a great place to demonstrate industry expertise by participating in relevant community discussions. Answering a difficult question in a Q&A forum, for instance, could very well lead to an unexpected contract.

This article is adapted from an original piece by Software Advice, an online resource MRP systems and other manufacturing applications. You can access the original article at: HowManufacturersCanUseSocialMediatoWinBusiness.

So what are you doing to utilize Social media?

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How Do You Get Your Readers To Share Your Blog?

February 9, 2012

Let’s face it, the reason we all blog is because we want to share something that is relevant and might be useful in our readers’ day-to-day business. But how do we motivate you to share my info with your peer group?

I recently read an interesting post on problogger.net by Dan Zarrella, What Motivates Readers to Share. He’s done studies on what people share and why. He even has his “Top 10 Lists” of both the best and worst words to share or not to on Twitter and Facebook. Some pretty interesting stuff. He’s written a book, Zarrella’s Hierarchy on Contagiousness if you’re interested in learning more.

We obviously need to get you exposed to my content,whether it’s following me on Twitter, liking me on Facebook, be LinkedIn with me or having you subscribe to my RSS feed. Then I have to be sure you are aware of the content and read it. Lastly, how can we motivate you to share my thoughts with your peer groups?

All three of these  elements are important if your blog is to be successful. It really becomes a numbers game. The more followers you have, the more sharing they are apt to do. So what do you have to do to insure success?

  • Increase followers, fans, friends on your social networks as well as increasing your email list.
  • Create good content that’s worth sharing.
  • Include a powerful call to action.

The key is if you have good content and are listening to your audience, you will get your messages shared and that’s what it’s really all about. So we all have to do our homework to insure our messages are getting out.

What are you doing?

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Are You Using Landing Pages? If Not, Maybe You Should Be.

February 8, 2012

No matter what kind of promotion you’re doing, when going after the professional tradesmen, the bottom line is you want them to ask for more info and ultimately a sale. You can’t do that in an ad(print or digital) by itself. You need those that are interested in whatever it is you’re selling to go somewhere to get more info.

A landing page is ideal for a next step in the lead process. A good landing page will target a particular audience using a unique page that allows visitors to download the appropriate content (you wouldn’t have the same offer for say a tradesman and for a design engineer). They also help you track and monitor activity by offers so you know what works and what doesn’t.

I recently downloaded an e-book, Optimizing Landing Pages by Sarah Goliger from Hubspot that outlines the basics on what needs to be included, how to get them shared, using them as a lead nurturing tool and thanking them for responding.

Here are some highlights:

  • By directing them to a specific page with an offer and the appropriate form to fill out, it makes it more likely that they will complete the form and convert to a lead.
  • If your visitors decide to download your offer, why not invite them to share your content?
  • Lead nurturing is a very important part of the process. 50% of those who respond aren’t ready to buy just yet.
  • 78% of sales that start with a web inquiry get won by the first company that responds.
  • By sending a follow-up thank you to those that downloaded material, you have the opportunity to offer them additional info and downloads, as well as asking them to share this with others via social media.

So if you’re not using landing pages, you may want to give them a try. I think you’ll see that you’ll not only get more leads, but better quality ones.

If you like this post you might like:

Product Landing Pages: Tips on How to Improve their Performance

The Best Way to Reach Professional Tradesmen: Drip or Closed Loop Marketing?

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Trends for B-to-B Marketers to Focus Their Efforts in 2012

February 2, 2012

Today’s Internet-enabled customer has made it clear that they decide what content looks like and how it should be distributed. Content Marketing has emerged as the primary mode of engaging business prospects. This holds true especially in the technology sector where Eccolo Media, in the fall of 2011, released a report on the trends in marketing collateral. The survey, Eccolo Media 2011 B2B technology Collateral Survey Report is available free.

Customers expect that your collateral material will provide them with info they can use – not info on a particular product. Highlights of the survey include:

  • Users are consuming more content, but from a greater number of resources.
  • Social sharing buttons influence all type of content – 77% said if they had an easy way to share, they do.
  • Collateral goes Mobile – 37% consume content on tablets or smartphones.
  • Collateral goes interactive like embedded videos – 92% of users say it positively affected overall influence.

About the survey. This is the fourth year Eccolo Media has done it. They surveyed C-level executives and the survey represents 501 usable respondents.

One of the key take aways from this is that those of us who are developing content  should be considering a library of suitable content  for their marketing efforts.

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