by Glen Springer | Oct 27, 2013
The following 7 underused B2B lead nurturing tactics are key areas where you can outwit your competition when nurturing leads (that your competitors are quite likely also nurturing). Don’t think you’re the only one a lead is talking to – even if you offer/service/product is the best in your industry – leads are going to leverage the angle of “talking to someone else, too”. So implement these following tactics to stay steps ahead of your competition while giving leads the best possible experience:
- Map your content to different stages in the buying cycle so that you know when to deliver content based on your lead’s activities.
- Analyze customers who you’ve recently transacted with and create a flowchart of how they moved through your content from initial interaction to purchase.
- Repurpose your content across various channels of consumption so your messaging is 1) consistent and 2) used to nurture your existing leads.
- Use remarketing to continually reach leads who have already visited your site.
- Test your first touch messaging (post-call follow-up emails, form auto-responders, etc.) to make sure that you are making the best first impression possible.
- Stay consistent with repetitive content offers e.g. your newsletter. Leads, if they are finding your content useful, will grow to expect things being delivered as promised, like a monthly newsletter or weekly video series – don’t disappoint.
- Don’t end a fresh lead’s visit prematurely. Make it easy after a new lead has transacted with your website (e.g. completed a form to request your whitepaper) to continue to consume your additional valuable content by sharing these resources on the conversion page/auto-responders. Or, leverage the newfound trust with an incentivized invite to connect on your primary social channels.
If you have any questions on lead nurturing, please feel free to contact us.
by Glen Springer | Oct 14, 2013
SEO as a topic is hotter than ever with Google’s updated overhaul of its search algorithm (see Google’s Hummingbird for more details) as well as Google’s announcement of encrypting all natural search data (search the dreaded “not provided”).
So, as a marketing firm that uses B2B SEO to help businesses attract leads, what are we recommending now that these changes are in place?
To start, make sure each of your pages, blog posts and other landing pages are uniquely optimized for a specific key phrase. Then, look at your Landing Pages report in Google to see how many unique pages are being visited via the Organic source. Comparing this data over time will show us if the optimization we are doing and the new content we are releasing is resulting in additional traffic to new landing pages. An increase in total landing page count is the indicator of improvement. By having uniquely optimized these pages, you can better assume that your unique keyword reach is also expanding (since all [Google]organic traffic is going to eventually say ‘not provided’).
Additionally, don’t be afraid to spend a little of your marketing budget on PPC, even if it’s not producing leads, it WILL still give you the keyword intelligence that will now be missing from the organic medium. Try to do as much phrase and exact match as you can and look not only at clicks but impression counts to better estimate actual volumes.
With the move to semantic/entity search, implementing semantic mark-up is a critical piece to this changing world of search. Some semantic mark-up you can use that serves the B2B space includes authorship/people, events, testimonials, and videos. This is a huge change and a rather significant undertaking for any organization to change the way they do SEO.
Lastly, review and apply the foundations that are outlined by the search engines themselves (Google and Bing both provide starter/best practice guides). They’re telling you what they want.
Ultimately we are excited about Google’s recent changes for some key reasons.
It appears Google is rewarding white hat tactics (and we are firm believer in authentically and honestly helping buyers to buy) where websites are providing quality content at a consistent frequency that readers find helpful as they are making buying decisions.
Also, Google seems to be penalizing blog farming, weak back links/paid links and other sketchy black hat approaches.
We hope this information gives you some newfound direction in your B2B SEO efforts.
If you would like a preliminary SEO assessment, please complete the form below so we can review your site.
by Glen Springer | Oct 9, 2013
If I were given 90 minutes to do a marketing automation audit, here would be my six areas of focus:
Segmentation:
- Find segments to dynamically create targeted lists
- Archive lists not in use
- Consolidate overlapping lists
- Make sure auto-tagging rules are enabled for simplified segmentation
Content automation triggers:
- Confirm that all forms have an active auto responder with related copy and an additional call to action
- Check that a drip sequence is in place and active (where applicable)
- See that rules are in place to send related follow-up pieces when a specific content asset is viewed
Lead scoring/grading:
- Examine pages by content stage and assign appropriate scores
- Review existing scoring to make sure score changes portray accurate interest/buying signals
- Inspect buyer persona profiles to make sure grading is correctly assigned
Integrations:
- Check all 3rd party integrations are properly setup and functioning
- Investigate CRM fields that need custom field mapping to the Marketing Automation software and could provide valuable data for enhanced segmentation
- Recommend additional integrations that enhance prospect experience and provide additional intelligence to sales and marketing
Reporting:
- Look at performance and respective content (e.g. email, social, landing pages) and suggest conversion optimization enhancements
Internal Automation:
- View all form actions to make sure sales and marketing are notified in real-time of hot prospects
- Survey sales team to make sure they’re using real-time tools to analyze prospects
Completing these sixteen steps during a marketing automation audit would absolutely enhance your experience with marketing automation software and better guarantee that you are effectively executing your lead generation, demand generation and sales efforts.
For more marketing automation tips, click here. If you are interested in learning about the marketing automation consulting we provide, you can check our our services page.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
by Glen Springer | Oct 2, 2013
Photo of green plant between male hands on a black background[/caption]B2B marketers today face a complex landscape.
Old marketing tactics have dropped in effectiveness (cold calling, trade shows) while technological innovations have created an entire new way of buying and selling (digital content marketing, customer relationship management). Buyers now control the sales process and selling to them now requires the ability to reach and interact with prospects in an entirely new way.
Evidence of this shift can be seen in the findings of a February 2013 eMarketer report that lists the top challenges from B2B marketers today. Apart from not having enough budget (59%), marketers largest struggle is the ability to “reach the right target at the right time in the buying decision” (39%). This shows that B2B marketers have started to recognize that the buyer needs to be the main focus of all marketing efforts.
This also helps to explain why from 2011 to 2012, there was a 233% increase in the portion of marketing budgets allocated to marketing automation solutions (eMarketer).
Marketing automation platforms allow marketers to manage of all of their prospects from one database and track their prospects digital behaviors to help understand where each prospect is at in their buying decision at any given time. Within the platform, you can assign different numerical scores to each piece of marketing content you create—with lower scores assigned to early stage content and high scores assigned to late stage content like pricing pages or product comparisons. By looking at prospects consumption of all marketing efforts (website, blogs, email marketing, social), you can determine what “next step” is going to be most appropriate for each prospect.
This is why using marketing automation for B2B lead nurturing is so effective, as some of the prospects that come into your pipe are not ready to buy right away. You will know this because your marketing automation solution will tell you that the prospect is not engaging with any high-scoring digital content that signals he or she is near a purchase decision, which tells you the prospect needs to go into a lead nurturing stage.
B2B lead nurturing consists of sending your ‘not-yet-ready-to-buy’ prospects marketing content that educates them on your solution and industry in a non-threatening way. A quarterly company newsletter or educational email campaign are good examples of this. By tracking consumption of your nurturing efforts using your marketing automation platform, you will know when a prospect moves out of the nurturing phase and is ready to be engaged by sales.
When done correctly, lead nurturing helps to build trust and keep your company top of mind when your prospect is finally ready to make a buying decision.
To learn more about the importance of B2B lead nurturing, click here. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
by Glen Springer | Sep 24, 2013
We believe successful lead generation programs come second to pipeline development.
For B2B companies, the search for new sales leads seems to be an endless task. As a B2B sales and marketing outsourcing company, we believe many companies have difficulty with this because they try to approach their lead generation programs by starting with lead generation.
As a metaphor, think of your sales process like a roadmap. There is an obvious destination in mind (closing), and you have to follow a clearly defined path to get there (discovery, education, verification, consideration of alternatives). The path is your sales pipeline. You need to do the groundwork laying pavement and putting up street signs, so when someone crosses your path, they won’t get lost or change directions.
Using this metaphor, if you try to generate leads without first developing your pipe, you are essentially throwing your prospects out into the middle of the desert and telling them to find their own way. The flaw in this strategy should be obvious.
By taking the time to develop your pipeline, you make the entire buying process easy for your prospects, which will help you earn their trust.
To develop your sales pipe, you need to clone your sales process by developing digital marketing content that helps guide your prospects through their buying process. This means creating content that demonstrates your status as an industry thought-leader to help build credibility. It also means creating marketing content to address any objections that commonly come up during the sales process—allowing your prospects to educate themselves digitally.
With your pipeline in place, you lead generation programs are dramatically simplified. Your prospects can now see the path you wish them to take clearly laid out tin front of them and are appreciative of your help along the way.
Summary: By developing your pipeline, you pave the way for your prospects to become leads.
For more educational content on B2B lead generation, click here. If you are interested in learning more about the pipeline development or lead generation programs we provide, you can visit our services page.
