Twitter – An Emerging Sales Platform

Twitter – An Emerging Sales Platform.

6 Steps for lead conversion

Sales leads are the crucial success point to any business-to-business (B2B) industry.

 

If you know when someone is looking to buy a product or service that you offer, you can contact them directly, pitch your service, and spell out their return on investment to secure the sale.

However, too much focus is placed on these quick win sales. What about the potential customer who doesn’t know how you can help them yet? What about the potential customer who wants a bit more information on prices? Surely they are just as valuable in the long term.

Only 27% of business to business (B2B) leads are sales-ready when first generated. This makes lead conversion essential for capitalizing on the other 73%, but up to 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing campaigns.

This begs the question: Can I make my lead generation campaign nurture opportunities for the future? The answer is yes, and here is how…

Understand the Online Marketing Funnel

The traditional marketing funnel encompasses all marketing activity from PR to print advertising. However, from an online perspective, you can monitor and analyze anyone who is looking at your online activities and tailor your approach to reach them.

Essentially the four main elements of the online marketing funnel are:

Audit

Take a look at your current online traffic levels and conversion ratios. Do they match up? Some webmasters get obsessed with visitor levels, but having a lot of visitors without conversions to me only equals one thing: A leaky marketing funnel. Although people are interested in your product or service, you are losing them at the final hurdle.

This is where lead nurturing comes into play. By gaining information such as an email address, name, or phone number, you can continue to monitor and connect with them, ensuring they don’t fall off your radar and buy from a competitor.

Make sure you are monitoring online leads and conversions, but are finalizing sales by phone. The easiest way to do this is use a visitor level call tracking system. In the majority of B2B industries, a phone call is definitely a prerequisite before a sale is made.

Target, Target, Target!

After you have narrowed down what should be included in your online leads funnel, you need to put a plan in place to make sure you’re reaching the right people. Deciding how you judge which point of the sales process different customers are at is essentially deciding what it means to be sales ready. The more you can find out about a website visitor, the closer you can match their requirements with what you can offer them.

A study suggests that our brains help us to focus on one thing by allowing us to ignore everything else. This really puts emphasis on creating something that visitors really want to see; otherwise you simply become part of the white noise. Target quality leads over quantity, and use your strategy to nurture relationships with people who want to be targeted.

Leverage Existing Databases

Existing databases are an invaluable resource, especially for your lead nurturing efforts. When marketing budgets are tight, spending them on sourcing new leads will eat into your profits. Why go to that trouble when you have an entire list of past customers who may be looking to buy again?

One of the most important messages to take away from this is the more effort you put into creating a database and keeping it up to date, the more leverage you have to align them to you brand again.

Content Marketing on Steroids

Having a great product will be little use if no one knows about it, and social media is often the first stage of the online discovery process. To have a good social media campaign, you must first have some great content to share. To make the content work for you, you have to have a great website that offers a unique service. Content is what holds social media and product together.

Create some exciting content that will educate your potential buyers on exactly what you can do for them, testimonials on what you have done for others and establishing yourself as a thought leading brand in your industry is what you should be aiming for. This takes strategy and time to build up, but linking social to content is an absolute power house for lead attraction and conversion. High quality content that is contextually relevant sent to potential clients leads to a 208% higher conversion rate than batch and blast.

Hard selling is not needed and is often inappropriate in the first establishing steps to generating and nurturing a lead, but if you’re able to show how you can help a potential customer, using statistics and offering something of value to the reader or establishing your business as a thought leader, you’ll be able to get people thinking: “if they know this about my sector, and are giving it away for free… what else do they know and how can they help me?”

Decision Maker’s Needs

Although you are looking at your online marketing strategies, working closely with an offline sales team is essential. By understanding the buyer, you can understand their needs and wants and evaluate how best to nurture this lead. Targeting people around the decision maker in a business is likely to be useful and if you can schedule in-person meetings to get in front of the people they answer to, you’ll have a better chance at getting ball rolling and making the lead into a sale.

The average number of people involved in a decision is 6.8 — and that number goes as high as 21 individuals on buying committees at larger companies. Your nurturing content will need to speak to each of them individually and address their unique needs.

Lead nurturing is more than simply pressurizing people who are not ready to buy into purchasing. If done right, it can create a loyal customer base that trusts what you offer and believes in what you do. Taking a visitor from the initial website visit through to sale is a skill which will become increasingly valuable as the internet markets become increasingly wide and competitive. Get a head start today and begin formulating a lead nurturing plan for your business.

For more details contact me at contacttim82@gmail.com

 

Importance of Corporate Branding

Branding has its own importance and its very crucial for the growth of the company.

A company brand is something that often combines a trade name, logo, slogan, and certain colors.

With the right branding, A Company could be recognizable without the name even being visible. 

This is why businesses, including small businesses, cannot underestimate the power of creating, building, and developing a brand. Your company brand speaks volumes about your business both to other businesses and to the general public. Branding is, in short, one of the most effective methods of marketing and advertising around for a business.

Reasons why corporate branding is vital to any business

There are many reasons why branding is so important to both small and larger businesses. This is why it is never too early to start developing and building upon your company brand.

Here are just 5 of the reasons why branding is so important for your business:

Identity: Corporate branding gives your business an identity. Your slogan and logo become the face of your business, which is why a company with a strong enough brand can be recognized by any one of its branding elements even if the name of the company isn’t visible.

Customer relations: Customers find it far easier to relate to a brand, which means that you can build customer relationships far more easily when you have a strong brand identity.

Professionalism: Having a well developed, strong brand is something that will make your business come across as far more professional, polished, and even successful. This is something that will appeal to other companies you may be considering doing business with as well as to potential customers.

Trust: Your brand will speak volumes about your company and its values, and this is something that customers will come to put their trust in. Many consumers will only buy products from certain companies because their brand is one that they know and trust, so the power of branding when it comes to trust issues can be huge.

Sign of quality: As long as your business offers goods and services of a good quality, your branding can also become a mark of high quality. Customers will start to associate your high quality products or services with your brand, and pretty soon your brand alone will become synonymous with high quality.

Value: Solid corporate branding can help to add value to your business. If you decide to sell the business in years to come, you could improve both value and sale-ability with solid branding.

Do you need to build your brand? I can help. Contact me at contacttim82@gmail.com

15 Logo Inspiration That Works

15 Logo Inspiration That Works in 2014.

SEO Best Practices: Setting Up a Blog

One mistake many businesses still make is creating posts that consist of self-promotion with little “meat” to entice anyone to engage with the content, much less share the content.

Usually post should be relevant to the topic and to the point.

Setting Up Your Blog

Once you know you’re trying to achieve, you need to consider where the blog resides. Should you use a sub-directory, a sub-domain, a completely separate domain, or either WordPress or Blogger? Let’s look at all the options.

Blog on a Subdirectory

More often than not, this is how I recommend clients set up a blog. In my opinion adding fresh content to the root domain is a good thing. I also believe that having an RSS feed of “latest blog posts” to the home page of the website is a good thing.

I believe that promoting content that resides “on” the website is a good thing because you can earn links and provide balance to your link profile. And, I believe that having thought-leadership content that is closely associated with your brand  is a good thing.

Pros:

• Add fresh content to the root domain.
• Add deep links (from other websites)/social signals directly to root domain (assuming that you’ve promoted this content well).

Cons:

• Won’t provide an additional “brand” listing (in most cases) in the SERPs, so doesn’t serve well for reputation management.
• No direct ability to get links “from another website/sub-domain”.

 

Blog on a Subdomain

A good case can be made for why you might want to blog on a subdomain.

For example, perhaps you have issues with reputation management (perhaps someone posted to review complaint sites like Ripoff Report, Pissed Consumer, etc.) so you need to occupy additional real estate in the SERPs. By building your blog on a subdomain, you accomplish this by providing the search engines another “official web presence” (the search engines will treat this as a separate entity) for your company, that should rank when folks search your company name.

The nice thing about having a blog on a sub-domain is that it will also piggyback on the authority of your root website (hopefully you already have some authority on your root domain) and posts there can rank, without the need to build up the authority for a new website.

Pros:

• Get an additional brand presence in the SERPs that you control.
• Get links “from another website”; Ability to deep-link to specific pages within the root.
• Piggyback on the already “built” authority of the root domain.
• Can be hosted anywhere. Very important consideration for those on a content management system that does not provide a blogging platform.

Blog on WordPress.com or Blogger

Some pretty large companies have gone this route because – to them – it’s the easiest to execute. Mind you, a link from WordPress.com isn’t a bad thing, but how does this help with any of the aforementioned reasons why you might want to blog in the first place?

Are you tying in the “thought leadership” to the brand? Are you adding fresh content to the domain? Are you aiding your abilities to provide an additional “official brand presence” to the SERPs? (Perhaps, but you’re better off with subdomain).

Pros:

• You could create some very aggressive link building tactics or “test” things without burning the domain.
• You would gain a link that is coming from an authority domain (remember, a quality link profile is about gaining links from many different/authoritative/relevant websites/domains; not many links on one domain)
• Easy. Just about anyone can get engaged and start blogging today.

Cons:

• Limitations as to how you can design/template to fit your brand.
• Any content promoted (linked to) won’t provide direct value to your main company website/domain.
• Inability to utilize plugins.
• Cheesy. It is what it is. Not gonna be a great representation for your company.

 

Blog on a Separate Domain

Some people like to create a “non-official” blog presence, to have control over a website that isn’t directly tied to the brand. They want to have an “unbiased” voice and probably use this to occasionally link to their main website.

I typically discourage these types of initiatives, for many reasons – not the least of which is the amount of effort that would need to go into making this new web presence gain any amount of trust/traction or authority.

Pros:

• Can create an “unbiased” resource (that just happens to link to your corporate website, on occasion).
• If the content is good, and it becomes respected in your industry, the blog can gain authority that can then be passed through to your corporate website through “unbiased” linking.

Cons:

• There’s a better than average chance that gaining good authority/ability for posts to rank is going to take considerable time.
• Does little to really show thought-leadership for your company.
• If you really do drop links to the corporate website, there’s a good chance that it’ll be seen for what it is: a paid advertisement, not an official unbiased reference. The backlash from this could be (should be) huge.

Cons:

• Not as much freshness on the domain.
• Content that “hits” (gets good promotion/links) doesn’t add as much link value to the root.

Best Ways To Improve Client Interaction

Client interaction is very crucial start before project management and securing leads.

Here are the few ways to improve client interaction

Engage With the Client

Engaging with the client means being personable. That doesn’t mean you have to go to his son’s baseball games and daughter’s wedding but show a genuine interest in what they have to say. Actively listen to the client and make small talk when not talking about the project. Your goal in this part of the game is become the client’s personal freelancer. You want to be his freelancer. You want the client to feel as if you care about them and hopefully you really do.

Empathize With the Client

By putting yourself in your client’s shoes, you’ll be able to identify problems and engage more with the client. Start thinking of them as humans instead of the means by which you feed your Apple addiction. When clients see you truly care they become more receptive, making it easier on you to make suggestions that get discussed instead of looked over.

Ask Questions

Any way you cut it, freelancers don’t ask enough questions. By asking questions, actively listening to the client, and empathizing or empathizing with client you gain buy-in and acceptance. The more intriguing and thought provoking your questions the more you will learn about your client and project. Of course, that will only lead to a great project, a happy client, and repeat business.

Be Humble

Practicing humility will set you apart from other freelancers without this valuable trait. The hardest part about being humble is if you think you are being humble, sadly you are not.

Be an Effective Problem Solver

When a client comes to us they have a problem. It could be that they need a website, search engine optimization, or branding. They have the problem and it becomes our job to solve it, effectively. By design we are a creative lot, so problem solving comes very easy for us. Strive for the simplest solution to the problem, as those have the highest success rate of client integration. As long as the problem is solved with the client’s well-being in mind, then the problem has been solved effectively.

Educate the Client

Does the client need to know how to call a php hook from within the loop in wordpress? No, but they will need to understand what they are paying for. Educate the client on the look of the design, explain some of the science behind end user psychology, or explain the major differences between the content management systems that you are trying to decide on. Like before, if the client can mentally invest into the project and design then less objections rise during the revision process. Don’t go into geek overload and explain color theory, even I can only handle that after a cup or two of coffee.

Million Dollar Treatment

If you have a great client on your hands or even if its a so-so client, it’s still miles beyond a “client from hell”. Let them know you appreciate them. During the project, give them a custom Twitter background that matches their final design, and early payment discount, or some other little freebie. It’s virtually no cost and clients love it! Also, giving them a shout-out on their social network of choice, sending them a thank you card after the project is over, or during the holidays goes a long way with clients. Who doesn’t like to be appreciated?

Have a Good Contract

Believe it or not, having the details of the project laid out in a clear and easy to understand format not only makes it easier on you, but also for the client. Contracts give the client a sense of security and give you an aire of professionalism. It takes some of the guess work out of the project. The client knows what’s expected of them and what’s expected of the designer. Plus, if for one reason or another, the whole project goes belly up then both you and the client have a course of action

Don’t Be Afraid to State Your Opinion

The hardest freelance lesson to learn is learning when to state your opinion. If the client is wrong about something say so. They will appreciate the honesty. Just be ready to point out the error and have a solution ready to go. There’s no sense in pointing out an error only to not have an effective plan of action. Don’t shoot holes in an idea, only to have nothing to patch it up with. Also be ready to admit when you are wrong should the client call you on something too.

Communicate

The best way to ensure client interaction is to communicate effectively. Following some of the suggestions given above will definitely put one on the straight-and-narrow. Be sincere. If you’ve done your job correctly then the little things that you have done (the suggestions of this article) will add up. In the end, its all about value added to the client and the project.

8 Strategies For B2B Marketing Success

Now is a great time to get your team thinking about both short-term goals and long-term activity. Here are eight concepts to focus them on.

 

 

1. Play The Volume Game: Do your team members know exactly what they need to do to hit your marketing team goals? High-performing marketing teams understand the volume of marketing activity and precise actions they require to hit their targets. In fact, the best marketing cultures rally around these numbers, which are closely tracked and understood throughout the marketing department.

2. Assess The Quality Situation: Imagine the net impact on marketing programs of a database that is only 75 percent marketable. A short-term fix is to assign someone on your team stewardship of the data. Having that person get a handle on the current state of the database and understand how to fix it quickly will prevent negative impacts of incorrect data on your campaigns. Be forewarned, however, that databases grow and change quickly, so your data quality efforts cannot be a point-in-time fix. High-performing marketing departments have assigned owners of the data, often part of the marketing operations function, and an ongoing plan for assessing and repairing data quality. Make this part of your long-term core strategy, and you’ll see positive results over time.

3. Take An Extra Step In Qualifying Your Leads: Are all of your marketing leads going directly to sales? Fully qualifying your marketing leads into sales-ready opportunities with the help of teleprospecting could dramatically improve the quality and conversion of leads that end up in your sales pipeline. Studies show that marketing leads sent directly to sales may not receive follow-up  because sales folks responsible for closing business may not have the cycles to fully qualify and convert marketing leads. Employing a teleprospecting effort, with a dedicated calling team, ensures no marketing lead is left behind. This approach requires agreement with sales leadership on the specific definition of a fully qualified sales-ready lead and can be a great boost to help everyone meet their goals.

4. Get Feedback: In addition to reviewing metrics from the sales automation tool, make sure your team members are constantly engaging with sales to discuss their perception on leads passed and opportunities created.

5. Assess The Targeting Situation: Ensure that you have crossed the “T” in targeting. With a large volume of marketing activity, both inbound and outbound, happening in your department, it can be easy to lose resolution on the target. To ensure you have all of the right target buyers in your database, encourage your team to analyze historical purchase data.

6. Personal Research: The emerging trend of B2B buyers decreasing their engagement with salespeople until they’ve narrowed their options to just a few solutions is not going away.

Now more than ever before, your company’s success requires content that is grounded in deep insight about buyers’ decision to choose you over a competitor, or to do nothing at all. Marketers on your team need to become experts in their target buyers, how they buy, and what is important to them in order to be successful.

7. Messaging Alignment: Marketing creates a lot of stuff. And it is easy to get in the habit of creating unnecessary new stuff to support new demand gen activity. One way to combat that is through planning. Once your team is aligned around the target buyer, conduct an inventory of the content you currently have. Have team members review all content, checking to ensure it maps to the messaging themes of the persona and establishing how the buyer expects to use that content in his buying process. The results can be captured in a simple matrix that will easily the identify gaps that exists and allow you to plan for content creation.

8. Measure, Analyze, And Hold Accountable: With the tools available today, there is no excuse for not being nimble and adapting in real time, yet busy marketers can easily lose sight of tracking the effectiveness of campaigns in real-time and miss the opportunity to adjust to hit goals.

For more details and consultation contact me on contacttim82@gmail.com