November, 2011

Features, Tips, & Announcements / Search Marketing — No Comments
15
Nov 11

How Well Do You Know Your Prospects?

The way in which consumers research and buy products has changed. The driving force behind this movement has been the explosion of web, mobile and social networking. This change is important enough to be recognized by marketers and business leaders alike. In this post, we’ll touch on some of the industry’s best insights and tips on succeeding in marketing for the new buying process. In addition, we will share our perspective and provide key takeaways for your business.

In her book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, Ardath Albee tells us that creating an e-marketing strategy to reach, attract and engage buyers through digital content and communication is critical to building trust with today’s buyer.  Why should we believe her? For starters, Econsultancy claims 70% of B2B buyers use search engines at the start of the B2B buying process. If you aren’t capturing the attention of your prospects through digital content, chances are, they won’t find you. Once you have their attention, you need to make sure it is relevant to their needs. Pushing out content just to grab someone’s attention won’t work for gaining new business. Albee mentions in her book that we must engage buyers; make them feel as if you are talking only to them. Personalize your content by better understanding your prospects.

Another key in today’s buying process is that time is of the essence; the shift in the buying process has shortened our ability to focus. Marketers used to have 30 seconds to grab the attention of their prospects. Research shows that span has whittled away to less than 10 seconds. Today, marketers need to focus more on capturing interest, where before, the focus was soley on awareness.

As Sally Hogshead outlines in her book, Facsination, there are seven fascination triggers at your disposal to capture your prospect’s interest. These triggers will help jumpstart the buying process and aid in addressing common sales objections. We have taken our own spin on these attention triggers, and define them in greater detail below.

Power – Take command. This is about being confident and being in control. Leaders have power and in order to be better than your competition, you need to become a leader in your industry.

Passion – Invoke emotion. Let your audience feel the desire to want your product or service.

Mystique – Arouse curiosity. You always want a call to action, a chance to provide as much information to your prospects as possible. Pose questions to them; don’t reveal all your secrets and curiosity will prevail.

Prestige – Earn respect. If your prospects and customers envy you and see you as a model for success, your respect and admiration will quickly appeal to the masses.

Alarm – Change urgency. If your buyer feels their time is running out, or the deal won’t last long, they’ll be more likely to buy.

Rebellion—Change the game. Help your prospects think outside the box and challenge their standards. If we never took chances, life would be boring. Your prospects want something new and different.

Trust— Build loyalty. Once your buyer understands your intentions and learns enough about you, trust will follow. People like to feel confident in their choices, especially their purchases. With you as their trusted advisor, they’ll feel better about their decision and most likely keep coming back.

As Jeff Korhan states in his blog, content marketing is “creating useful or desirable content, distributing it to those that can benefit most from it, and personalizing it to encourage engagement.”

Once you have crafted your message to reflect an attention trigger, the content will work for you. A prospect reads your engaging content, feels the need to act upon it, and calls your company for more information. Ta-da! You have just exercised the power of content to convert a prospect to a customer in the new buying process.

Key takeaways

  • Know your audience – research your buyers. Invest content where your prospects spend time.
  • Create content that appeals to all seven triggers. Make sure you convey the proper emotions for the right buyer persona.
  • Focus your content around customer needs, not selling your product. Content without value is considered spam.
  • Build trust and add value through your content and interactions. Respond to Twitter messages, Facebook updates and blog comments. You’ll be surprised who’s listening.

For more information on marketing for the new buying process, download our eBook here. Watch for our webinar date to be announced soon!

Examples / Features, Tips, & Announcements / Mobile Marketing / Search Marketing / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
1
Nov 11

Three Key Elements You Should Know About Social + Mobile

I noticed a surprising trend while attending a local social media event a few weeks ago. There are many marketers with questions pertaining to the social and mobile marketing space. As marketers, some of us are conflicted with which social networks to dedicate our time to. We’re also curious to learn and understand where mobile marketing is headed. We can certainly make assumptions…but wouldn’t it be better to feel confident in your choices?

After some research, I have compiled three insights on the marriage of social + mobile, which are highlighted below:

1. Create Compelling Evidence That Proves Social is Working (aka Content)

One of the questions asked at the social media meeting was, “How do you convince a client that they need a Facebook page?” First, we know that in order to convince someone to do anything – you need to convince them. Creating quality content is a great way to communicate the benefits of whatever it is you’re trying to get across. Within that great content, sprinkle statistics and value targeted to your audience. People are resistant to change by nature – especially if the materials being presented to them are from 2001. Be in the know with your audience and prospects on where they’re spending time and what they like. Invest part of your day reading news articles and comments in blog posts on what is relevant to them. Keeping your content fresh, new and exciting will not only help sway an opinion – but will also demonstrate your knowledge on the subject. This content can be in a proposal you present, your own Facebook page or Twitter feed and blogs on your website.

Sometimes convincing your client to change requires you having to make that first step. Once you open those lines of communication and have reasonable data to back-up your claims, the road to transition will be smoother. Instead of just telling a client they should be social – show them why.

2. Be Where Your Clients Are

What are consumers doing on their mobile phones? The answer is – consuming content. Not just via search but with social as well. Content isn’t going away. Neither is mobile technology. According to a recent study, the number of mobile users in the U.S. who accessed a social networking or blog site has grown 37% in the past year.  In addition, half of these users are accessing social networking sites on a daily basis via their mobile phones.

Here’s some food for thought, these mobile users aren’t just looking around and logging out. They are engaging with each other and sharing content multiple times a day. Even if that content is a status update or a post to a link, they’re becoming comfortable in the social space for mobile. Why should you, as a marketer, care to know how they’re spending their time on these sites? The more comfortable and engaged your audience is on a social networking site, the more likely they’ll interact with you.  Since they’re already doing it and expanding into the mobile space, all you have to do is be there. The data speaks for itself. Millions of mobile users are reading social posts from brands and companies, sharing coupons or deals, and clicking on ads. Mobile and social are newlyweds, so integrating your current marketing efforts with this new couple can be challenging. As long as you create a social and mobile strategy that aligns with your buyer personas, you’ll quickly see the benefits.

3.  Use the Right Social Site

Today’s marketing world is full of terms like SEO, mobile sites, social marketing – but the key to walking the walk is understanding these terms. Most business aren’t sure what social networks to join, so they do as many as they can. Then they write blogs and compute keywords that might interest a few customers to their site. This is not the way to successful networking, branding or marketing.

Choosing the right approach is different for every business – not everyone benefits from the same social sites. To be successful you need to be in sync with your customer. If your customers don’t use Foursquare, don’t invest in it. It sounds simple, but it is a common misconception that having a presence on every social site is good for business. Remember the saying, “quality not quantity?” This couldn’t reign truer than in the social and mobile worlds. Social sites are tools for your marketing strategy to aid in moving your customer along in the buying process. Once you realize where your efforts have the most impact, dedicate more time and effort to those sites.

My perspective on social media is as follows: At the end of the day, it’s about keeping it simple. Don’t overload your audience with information. Make sure you’re being social and active where it makes sense for your business. Lastly, create compelling content that speaks to your buyers at specific points in the buying process. Understanding your prospect’s needs and wants is the key to creating valuable content that will get them to notice you and continue to engage with you.