How today's Global Digital Marketing Leaders can get closer to their customers
There’s really no better way for global digital marketing leaders to learn about marketing to a new international market, or emerging market than by living in one, or two, or by visiting. I noticed that Marc Benioff of Salesforce has recently kicked of a Company Customer Tour and last year visited hundreds of customers worldwide
Although The Internet, makes doing business in an international context far easier than ever before there is still a need for close customer understanding from personal contact. Having recently moved from Egypt, Cairo, to Qatar, Doha, previously having lived in the UK and working virtually with counties in Latin America, Russia, Central Eastern Europe and Asia, as part of a multinational marketing team, I have a few year’s experience of…
Marketing planning can be a long process. With the different steps involved, one area can often hold up another. This template is a quick way to get started as we know that companies that have a plan succeed better and faster than those without a plan.
And here’s a thing not many people know! It doesn’t matter whether it’s a marketing plan, business plan, company plan or HR plan. The key is having a plan.
A marketing plan is a little like a route map for a business. It shows where you’re headed and gives you a greater chance of achieving goals as there are built in mechanisms to measure progress.
The template laid out in this post shows you how to create your marketing plan in 7 steps. For full details on what's involved at each stage see my guide to…
Applying the Ebocube B2B Digital Marketing model for international market development
Emerging markets are countries experiencing relatively recent industrial, political and technological change resulting in rapid economic growth. Emerging markets cover more than the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), however; these countries are amongst the buoyant emerging giants.
Large populations generally characterise these markets, as is obvious with China and India. They tend to be dominated by young populations and rising middle classes.
As business revenues plateau in saturated, developed markets, expansion into emerging markets is a popular means for reaching new growth targets. Although these countries are affected by the global recession, many remain in robust growth positions. The endeavour of international business involves uncertainty and risk, however; this can be mitigated by the internet .
Bringing the Next Billion People Online
Developed countries have long defined the Internet, however, at least 500 million new users of the Internet are expected to come from emerging markets from…
Examples showing what is needed for a customer-centric B2B website
In a recent post, I talked about the importance of developing a solid B2B digital marketing strategy. A critical part of this is creating an enduring website presence that meets the needs of visitors while also achieving standout, leads and favourability for the business. Making their site more effective for visitors and the business should be a primary concern, but it often hasn't got sufficient attention in the past. But this seems to be changing; 2012 RWS/US research data suggests that marketing budgets are being invested more in websites and web development than anywhere else. Yet I still see a lot of basic requirements of an effective B2B site that are missing. In this post, I'll give examples showing some of the key features.
The seven essential features
Start by defining your requirements. Even…
This is a great infographic - communicating 5 principles of B2B lead generation, it's useful for any company marketing to business buyers.
There's some good basic reminders on here, here's our favourite in Mobile (principle #5) - click to call: have a clickable phone number as well as a form. It's these simple things that make the difference.
…
5 reasons why content is core to B2B digital strategy
The importance today of using digital marketing in organisational or business-to-business (B2B) marketing is highlighted by the latest Buyersphere report from Base One. Supplier websites, web searches and in most countries emails are now primary information sources for business buyers.
Online events and social media are also significant, more so if you drill down and look at their overall influence on purchase.
I've shown through my previous posts of examples of how companies use B2B marketing, that many companies have responded well to the opportunity from digital media. Many B2B organisations are already successfully using digital marketing in specialist sectors like financial and professional services, IT and software, manufacturing, engineering and science to name a few. But because they don't have a planned approach, they fail to make the most of…
A tutorial to check your LinkedIn Company Page works well with the latest LinkedIn updates
LinkedIn started in 2002 as a personal profile space where professionals could share their expertise, experience and connections.
Some people naturally wanted to showcase their business and wrongly used the personal profile as a business profile.
To address this need, LinkedIn created Company pages and September 2012 has seen an update in the look of company pages which more closely mirrors the Facebook company page, with a cover image at the top of the page, logo and company name above this (rather than below as on Facebook), followed by the latest news feed. Remember that the Company Activity status updates were introduced in October 2011 - are you using them yet if you're in B2B.
Here’s an example of the Dell company page with…
Models, tools and tips to help with content curation
Online spaces like your website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter accounts need recent and relevant content to retain readers.
To stay ahead, your social footprint needs a regular supply of content. You can create original material or you can ‘curate’ content.
What is content curation?
The definition of the art of content curation is where the publisher (in our case a business looking to use content curation as part of content marketing) researches and gathers the best content on a niche topic that is aimed at a certain audience, all of which is relevant to their business, and then adds to this content personal opinions and expertise thus enhancing it.
Note that curation is not just repeating earlier information, but it’s about re-interpreting, re-telling or re-shaping earlier stories or images.
The personalisation makes…
Using Google Analytics to review changes in mobile site usage by prospects and customers
As mobile device usage rapidly increases amongst buyers and influencers accessing content related to your products or services, it may be the perfect reason to start thinking about developing a mobile app or making your website mobile friendly as part of your sales and marketing toolbox.
A client of ours saw mobile traffic to their website increase by 284% in 2011 compared to 2010. Our client manufacturer of stainless steel reinforcement rods (not the most glamorous of products) saw the rate at which the site is accessed from a mobile device increase dramatically.
[caption id="attachment_11974" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Mobile visitor growth for B2B product manufacturer"][/caption]
After conducting many audits on websites, the biggest growth I have reported every single time for every single client is the growth in mobile traffic. It’s time B2B…
How to promote your company blog to reach a larger audience
Writing a blog doesn't end when you hit the publish button. Far from it. In this third part of our series on business blogging, René Power reviews the best approaches to seeding and distributing your blog content - giving it the best chance of being seen by the people you're targeting.
1. Promote it on your website
Add a snippet to your home page. It provides a sign post for visitors and also offers some additional search engine optimisation benefits if you have considered your keywords carefully.
2. Index your blog with major blog directories
Ensure your blog is listed in as many blog directories as possible, particularly those with specialist sections. Why? Backlinks to your blog are still one of the most important factors in determining how visible your blog (and…
