by gabriel_sales | Oct 30, 2012
One question we keep hearing around the B2B sales world is, “Does blogging work for B to B?”. This is because recently, many B2B companies have started catching on to the trend of blogging. Forrester reported that in 2010, 49 percent of B2B companies kept a corporate blog and in 2011, 114 Fortune 500 companies were regularly updating their blogs. So, why are corporations taking part in this social media trend? Because it works!
Here are 12 reasons blogging works in B2B sales:
- Blogging Makes You Human. B2B customers like to interact on a personal level and blogging helps you seem more personable. Blogs can be less formal than e-newsletters or white papers and therefore give you the opportunity to express your humanness and unique personality. By putting out a public and personal face to your customers, you can interact with them on an individual level, motivating more people to purchase your product or service.
- Blogging Gets People to Your Website. In your blog, you should have links that go back to your main website. These links are one of the most effective ways you can drive traffic to your website.
- Blogging Generates Leads. HubSpot recently found that 57 percent of organizations with blogs report having gained new customers through their blogging efforts. Blogging is arguably more effective at generating leads than either Facebook or Twitter.
- Blogging Keeps Your Website Fresh and Relevant. The basic information on your website is likely pretty static. Mission statements and contact information do not change often. However, with a blog, you can give your potential customers a reason to come back repeatedly by mirroring all of your blogs on your website. If a potential leads find something new and fresh every time they visit your site, they are likely to think you are informed and up-to-date on market trends.
- Blogging Improves Search Engine Optimization. Blogs are great for SEO because, unlike your website, each individual blog you write can end up as a separate search result. Having multiple blogs with similar keywords increases the likelihood that you will show up multiple times on a search results page.
- Blogging Synergizes Social Media Efforts. Blogs should have links to your social media sites and vice versa. A recent study found that companies with blogs have two times as many followers on Twitter than companies without blogs. This shows that blogs are an effective means of driving people to your various social media sites.
- Blogging Improves Branding. With a blog, you are able to control the information that goes out to the public. Therefore, you can use a blog to exercise control over your brand image in a way that is impossible on other social media sites.
- Blogging Shows You Are an Expert. Informative or educational blogs can be used to position yourself as an industry expert. If you can demonstrate expertise to your readers, your product or service starts to look much more appealing.
- Blogging Captured Media Interest. If you are successful in positioning yourself as an expert and have something timely or interesting to say, your blog can become news. The media is always looking for the newest, greatest ideas and media coverage of blogs is a great way to expand brand awareness.
- Blogging Provides Feedback and Builds Community. Blogging creates a two-way communication model through the opportunity to leave comments. It is therefore an excellent tool for gaining understanding of your target audience. Comments let you have instant feedback on the blogs you write, allowing you to make constant adjustments to your message based on your readers’ reaction. These comments can then turn into lively conversations, which also can help you build a network of relationships with potential customers and other industry leaders.
- Blogging Distributes News & Information. This is one of the main ways a corporate blog is used. Blogging lets you share news about changes in corporate policy, a new location opening, or information about future seminars or trade shows. Pretty much anything you want your customers to know can go in a blog.
- Blogging Promotes Your Products/Services. You can also use blogging in a purely promotional manner. Similar to writing a press release, you can translate ad copy into a news style article and promote new products, services, promotions and more all through your corporate blog.
If you still need convincing that blogging works for B2B sales or would like to discuss a strategy for creating a corporate blog of your own, please feel free to request a review.
by gabriel_sales | Oct 25, 2012
Audience segmentation, also called market segmentation, is an important aspect of creating an effective sales or marketing strategy. Most basically, it is about finding better customers. In past decades, marketing has generally been directed at mass audiences, sending the same message to all potential customers. Audience segmentation works to divide your target audience into groups that have similar interests or buying behavior.
By dividing your audience into segments and crafting marketing messages targeted to each segment, you are able to reach each customer with marketing that is relevant to him or her. If your potential customer feels that your message is not relevant to them, you will most likely be ignored.
Segmentation also helps you build a better relationship with your potential customers because people are more likely to respond positively to messages they feel are directed to them personally. The more targeted your message, the more likely it becomes that your customer will engage with you.
With time, segmenting can also help you uncover potential market opportunities you might have otherwise missed, allowing you to create products and services better tailored around the specific needs and interests of your various customer segments.
What this means is that in today’s world, sending out a generic or mass message is no longer worth your time and could even end up costing you business. When you send out a mass-message that a customer has zero interest in, not only will you be ignored, but your customer may also see you as incompetent or uncaring.
What you want to do instead is give your customers information that is directly relevant to their personal needs and known buying behavior. If you do this correctly, audience segmentation can yield a substantial increase in response and engagement and, consequently, rates of conversion.
The most crucial aspect of implementing b2b marketing audience segmentation effectively is coming to understand what types of information each segment likes to consume and how each segment likes to consume it. With this information, you can create and target messages using the forms of media most in line with a segment’s purchasing behavior. For instance, if you know that a particular segment likes their content via videos, you’ll want to provide them links to your YouTube channel. Similarly, if you know an audience segment prefers to read text, you send them text in the form of emails, blogs or white papers.
The overall goal of audience or market segmentation is to avoid sending irrelevant messages to unreceptive customers. By understanding that different people (and different businesses) have different needs and media-consumption preferences, you can set up a marketing strategy that operates more efficiently and much more effectively.
by Glen Springer | Oct 25, 2012
Defining Audience Segmentation
Audience segmentation, also called market segmentation, is an important aspect of creating an effective sales or marketing strategy. Most basically, it is about finding better customers. In past decades, marketing has generally been directed at mass audiences, sending the same message to all potential customers. Audience segmentation works to divide your target audience into groups that have similar interests or buying behavior.
By dividing your audience into segments and crafting marketing messages targeted to each segment, you are able to reach each customer with marketing that is relevant to him or her. If your potential customer feels that your message is not relevant to them, you will most likely be ignored.
Segmentation also helps you build a better relationship with your potential customers because people are more likely to respond positively to messages they feel are directed to them personally. The more targeted your message, the more likely it becomes that your customer will engage with you.
With time, segmenting can also help you uncover potential market opportunities you might have otherwise missed, allowing you to create products and services better tailored around the specific needs and interests of your various customer segments.
What this means is that in today’s world, sending out a generic or mass message is no longer worth your time and could even end up costing you business. When you send out a mass-message that a customer has zero interest in, not only will you be ignored, but your customer may also see you as incompetent or uncaring.
What you want to do instead is give your customers information that is directly relevant to their personal needs and known buying behavior. If you do this correctly, segmenting your audience can yield a substantial increase in response and engagement and, consequently, rates of conversion.
The most crucial aspect of implementing b2b marketing audience segmentation effectively is coming to understand what types of information each segment likes to consume and how each segment likes to consume it. With this information, you can create and target messages using the forms of media most in line with a segment’s purchasing behavior. For instance, if you know that a particular segment likes their content via videos, you’ll want to provide them links to your YouTube channel. Similarly, if you know an audience segment prefers to read text, you send them text in the form of emails, blogs or white papers according to that audience segmentation.
The overall goal of audience or market segmentation is to avoid sending irrelevant messages to unreceptive customers. By understanding that different people (and different businesses) have different needs and media-consumption preferences, you can set up a marketing strategy that operates more efficiently and much more effectively.
by gabriel_sales | Oct 23, 2012
In our last post, we discussed audience segmentation and why it is important for B2B marketing. To summarize, audience segmentation involves dividing your customers into groups based on their specific needs and purchasing behavior so that you can craft marketing messages to match each targeted group.
When executed successfully, here are the 5 benefits of audience segmentation:
- Less Negative Feedback. When you stop sending messages to people who do not want them, you are much less likely to annoy people to the point of complaint.
- Increased Rates of Response. People are much more willing to respond to something if it is relevant to their interests.
- Decreased Marketing Expenditures. When you know who your target audience is, you do not waste time and money marketing to those outside the group.
- Decreased Long-term Costs. Audience segmentation also saves money by decreasing the amount of time spent following up on less qualified leads.
- Higher Rates of Conversion. By providing your customers with relevant purchasing information, you are much more likely to close.
Overall, audience segmentation is a key aspect of a successful sales and marketing strategy. For more information on the benefits of audience segmentation, please feel free to request a review.
by Glen Springer | Oct 23, 2012
In our last post, we discussed audience segmentation and why it is important for B2B marketing. To summarize, the benefits of audience segmentation involves dividing your customers into groups based on their specific needs and purchasing behavior so that you can craft marketing messages to match each targeted group.
When executed successfully, here are the 5 benefits of audience segmentation:
- Less Negative Feedback. When you stop sending messages to people who do not want them, you are much less likely to annoy people to the point of complaint.
- Increased Rates of Response. People are much more willing to respond to something if it is relevant to their interests.
- Decreased Marketing Expenditures. When you know who your target audience is, you do not waste time and money marketing to those outside the group.
- Decreased Long-term Costs. Audience segmentation also saves money by decreasing the amount of time spent following up on less qualified leads.
- Higher Rates of Conversion. By providing your customers with relevant purchasing information, you are much more likely to close.
Overall, producing these benefits of audience segmentation is a key aspect of a successful sales and marketing strategy. For more information on the benefits of audience segmentation, please feel free to request a review.
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