Posts Tagged ‘inbound marketing’

Five Steps to Measuring the ROI of Social Media Marketing

Friday, July 1st, 2011

The question of how to measure the return on their investment in social media marketing has some CMOs mystified.

Not all of the benefits of using social media to promote your brand are easily quantifiable.

Perhaps that’s why a recent survey discovered that 84 percent of marketers do not currently measure their ROI from social media tools such as video sharing, Twitter, Facebook, blogging and podcasts.

While it’s true that some benefits such as increased brand awareness are not immediately measurable, tracking a few key factors and comparing your social media activity over a period of time against your sales for that period can give you a good idea of what is working and what is not.

  1. Clearly define your objectives. Is your goal to generate leads, reduce sales cycles, or increase conversion rates? Knowing what you want to accomplish is a vital first step in determining your ROI.
  2. Establish your baseline. Where are you at right now in relation to these goals?
  3. Do the same for your social media activity. What specific tools are you using and how often? Continue to document all such activity during this period.
  4. Track your results using the corresponding monitoring tool for each activity. Google Analytics, for example, will provide reports on how well your web site is converting, visitor contribution, and search engine traffic, to name just a few. Mashable recently posted a list of more than fifty web site and social media monitoring tools.
  5. Look for trends and trace them to their point of origin.

This last step, according to Mashable’s Christina Warren, is the key to measuring ROI. “Take the metrics from your monitoring tools and see how they correlate to higher sales, better customer retention, or whatever your primary markers for output are.

“If your ultimate measurement is sales for instance, look at your sales level. If it has increased, look at the number of referrers on your e-commerce site (assuming you can track this data) from your website or Twitter or the number of coupons used that were given away in a Facebook campaign to start calculating which sales stemmed from your social media campaigns.”

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Ways to Use Facebook to Market Your Business

Monday, June 6th, 2011

According to a recent survey regarding social media, 68 percent of Facebook fans stated they are highly likely to recommend products they like to their friends. In fact, Facebook users spend an average of $71.84 more each year than consumers who don’t use Facebook.

Another advantage of using Facebook for business is that it’s a form of inbound marketing; visitors to your page are probably already interested in what you have to offer.

Fan pages offer a number of tools to help you add content and customize the page to reflect your brand. It’s important to note that there is a difference between your Facebook profile page or “wall” and your Fan page, or business page.

After logging in to your Facebook account, follow these simple steps to create your Fan page:

  1. Click the link on the left side of the page that says “Ads and Pages.”
  2. On the page that appears, click the button that says “Add Page
  3. Choose the type of page you want to add. Most businesses will want to choose the option that reads “Brand, Product, or Organization.”
  4. Next, choose the type of page you plan to create. If your main goal is to direct visitors to your website, then select “Website.”
  5. Enter a name for your page. This can be the name of your business or website.
  6. Click “Create Page.”
  7. Add a photo by in the box in the upper left that has a question mark. Click “Change Picture” to upload your photo.
  8. Click “Edit Page” below the picture to start creating content for your page. Add a welcome message and a link to your website. Always provide useful information that your visitors would want to share with their friends. When you’re done, click “View Page,” and then “Publish Page” in the upper right corner when you’re ready to publish.

You can also add an opt-in form to your Facebook page by clicking on “Applications,” selecting “FBML” and pasting the code from your email provider into the FBML box.

Make your site engaging by adding videos (also in the “Applications” page). Start a discussion forum to help you get to know your potential customers. Post questions and encourage visitors to share their opinions. You can post updates to the “Notes” page, which functions essentially as a blog.

Businesses can also create a Facebook ad campaign. Facebook ads can be highly effective because you have the ability to target your campaign according to the expressed interests of Facebook users.

Once you’ve gained a level of familiarity with Facebook, you’ll be able to add content and post updates quickly and efficiently, keeping your Fan page fresh and appealing.

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Posted in B2B Lead Generation Tips | No Comments »

How to Get Better ROI from Inbound Marketing

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Embracing the latest online marketing strategies, businesses are spending countless hours and marketing dollars in an effort to keep their sales teams supplied with inbound leads.

Marketing teams are kept busy revising, perfecting and testing their inbound strategies using the myriad social media, content marketing, search marketing and public relations tools at their disposal.

Inbound marketing may seem like the latest trend but it is built on classic marketing principles. Closely related to the principle of “permission marketing,” a term coined by Seth Godin in the late ‘90s and now widely used by marketers, inbound marketing is an effective means of acquiring leads who are actively seeking your services.

A prospect’s permission to contact them is one of your most valuable marketing assets, especially since most people do not give out their information freely to just anyone who asks for it. It indicates that they are already interested in what you have to offer, so you don’t need to expend any effort convincing them on that count. The only thing that remains is to demonstrate that yours is the ideal company for their needs. And this brings us to the heart of successful inbound marketing.

Speak to your customer out of a genuine desire, not just to sell them on your solution, but to truly help their business succeed. Keep this motivation at the core of every piece of content you create and every interaction with your prospect.

Building a genuine rapport does take an investment of time, but the results will be solid and lasting. These are the same principles used by the best lead generation companies to generate warm leads who have demonstrated an interest in your services, supplied information about their specific needs, and are not only willing, but eager to hear about your solutions.

Treat these inbound leads like gold. Be the company who provides value before your prospect has even committed to using your service. Answer their questions and build their trust. Make sure your company’s message is aligned with your prospective customers’ needs. You will be building a loyal customer base while you strengthen your reputation and your brand.

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Posted in B2B Lead Generation Tips, Lead Management | No Comments »

More B2B Marketers are Migrating to Mobile

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Increasingly businesses are leveraging the power of mobile media to keep their brand in front of buyers. And business-to-business marketers are no exception. New research by Forrester reports that B2B mobile marketing spending will quadruple over the next five years, rising from $26 million in 2009 to $106 million in 2014.

According to CNET News, by the year 2013 mobile phones could easily outrank PCs as the way most people search the Internet. And research firm Gartner indicates that Web-enabled phones will shoot past 1.82 billion units by 2013. As reported by Business Week magazine, “More than half the people surveyed recently by Zogby International said they would use a tablet device such as the iPad for working outside the office.”

Since the introduction of the iPhone, there has been a dramatic shift toward the use of smartphones for business purposes. Proving that the iPhone is not a mere consumer-oriented trend, more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies have recently deployed iPhones to their workforce. The use of mobile media by business is really not surprising considering the fact that text messages have a 97 percent open rate, a fact that marketers cannot ignore.

Going mobile with your marketing does require a measure of finesse. You need to consider how your web content will appear on the smaller screen, and as always, you will need to provide engaging and useful content if you want your prospects to stay connected.

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Posted in B2B Lead Generation Tips, B2B Marketing | 5 Comments »

Make the Most of Your Leads with a Lead Management System

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

New research by the Aberdeen Group, in conjunction with SmartLead reveals how top companies are achieving better sales conversion from their leads. The January, 2010 study reports that 63 percent of the businesses who have reached the highest levels of annual growth in lead to sales revenue and customer acquisition have done so as a result of investing in lead management technology. These companies indicated that they are seeing measurable ROI after implementing the new lead management systems.

The report, Crossing the Chasm with Automated Lead Management, details the results these companies are seeing after adopting a lead management system:

  • 79 percent improved their company-wide annual revenue growth, increasing average performance by 59 percent.
  • 75 percent improved their current lead-to-sales conversion, reporting an average of 23 percent improvement.
  • 86 percent noted an increase in lead-to-sales conversion over the past year (versus 39 percent for all other companies).

The organizations in the study cited the need to increase their new customer acquisition revenue as the number one reason for acquiring the technology.

How Does a Lead Management System Help Businesses Improve ROI?

Utilizing lead management solutions such as CRM (Customer Relations Management) in conjunction with best practices in lead management, can streamline sales administrative processes, and allow your sales team to focus that much more of their time and efforts doing what they do best–converting your sales leads into revenue for your business. While most larger corporations are already making full use of a lead management system, many small businesses have yet to realize the advantages it can offer.

This technology has numerous benefits such as lead data tracking that lets you easily calculate ROI on a regular basis, so you can adjust your focus on the leads that are generating the best income stream. It also maintains easy access to data on every single customer, which can help your sales team to shorten the sales cycle, and also ensure that you never lose a lead within the system.

If you decide to invest in lead management technology for your company, take the time with your sales department to learn how to use the system to your company’s best advantage, and maintain open communication between management and sales regarding the new strategies and practices involved.

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Posted in Lead Management | 1 Comment »

Inbound Marketing—Why it’s Less Expensive and More Effective

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

imboundIt seems you can’t go online, turn on the television, or even step outside without being bombarded with advertising by companies desperately trying to convince you of their superiority. Most people, however, are so accustomed to these ads, they simply tune them out. Which is bad news for the B2B marketers who are still spending much of their budget on these outbound lead generation methods.

That is exactly why many businesses, especially small and medium sized ones, are gravitating toward inbound marketing methods. Unlike outbound marketing, where companies cast their advertising “net” out on the waters along with every other business, and hope it lands in the right spot, inbound marketing draws customers by offering valuable information, and the opportunity to find out more about your company via online interaction.

Inbound marketing is more effective in establishing a relationship with your prospective customers, giving you the chance to become a reliable resource for business advice in your area of expertise. Once you have established this kind of trust with people, your company will be the natural choice when they need to make a purchase.

Another key reason for this shift in marketing focus is that, according to a new survey by Hubspot, the average cost per lead generated through inbound marketing is sixty percent lower than that of leads obtained through outbound marketing. The survey found that marketers spend an average of $332 on outbound marketing to generate one lead, whereas inbound marketing produces leads at an average cost of $134 each.

Inbound marketing does, however, take a commitment. You will need to not only establish your company’s blogs and other social media channels, but also cultivate and nurture them. But in time, if you consistently serve up information your customers find useful, you will begin to develop a loyal following, and your efforts will be rewarded.

In the meantime, you can jump-start your inbound marketing campaign by purchasing leads from a lead generation company that uses inbound marketing methods and allows you to interact with your prospects, learn about their business needs, and even give quotes for your services. Your cost for these leads will most likely be even less than what you will spend on your own inbound marketing efforts, and will be of the same, or superior quality.

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Posted in B2B Lead Generation Tips | 2 Comments »