Which sites work best? Lead generating focused sites foster growth, but branding focused sites have their place
Lead generating vs branding websites: Which is right for you? With the web well past the 20-year mark and it's presence continuing to dominate, companies and organisations must continue to upgrade their online presence in order to survive.
Among professional services firms, the need for better websites is often tied to business development and presents the challenge of how to best support those efforts. The answer increasingly lies in one of two areas: the lead generating website and the more basic 'branding' website.
How much does your website facilitate sales?
A first step for deciding the type of website is to evaluate how sales are made. Are they mostly referral-based, or do they rely on repeat customers? What role does the website play and when do prospects visit most?
For some companies, the answers point to existing relationships…
Tools for managing the content marketing process
In 2013, content marketing is receiving more attention than ever and there are a growing number of tools to manage it.
We thought this infographic by Content Amp provides a nice visualisation of different types of tools to help manage how content is accessed, shared and analysed.
Although it's a little overwhelming, we think the top-level groupings of technologies are useful if you're reviewing the tools and process you use to manage your content marketing.
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Practical tips for pre-show event marketing
Exhibitions are a great way to get your company noticed in both business and consumer markets. Being able to meet and interact with dozens of potential new customers is a thrill in itself, never mind the long-term benefits of forging new business links in your sector. Generating interest in your company before a trade show is vital if you want to hit the ground running and gain new clients. Which means that your marketing team needs to be working like a well-oiled machine in the build up to the event.
You might be sceptical about the glitz and glamour of exhibitions, but there is real value to attending a trade show.
Face to face interaction is the best way to ensure that potential clients experience your company performing under pressure in a fast-paced environment. It is also a…
Are you cultivating the leads who are not ready to buy today?
80% of the leads who don't buy from you will go to buy from someone else according to Eloqua, or more specifically Steve Woods, their CTO, in his excellent book Digital Body Language. It's shocking in one sense, since it means there's a big missed opportunity. The potential customer was interested enough to give us their details, but not enough to buy. But it's not surprising in another sense in that we (as marketers) are not inspiring the lead to buy, and many have a need which will be met by another company.
So what's the answer? Lead nurturing, part of the marketing automation software process. I read this great post by Baxter Denney on the Marketing Automation Guide last month and wanted to give you my take on it. It starts with the classic conversion funnel which shows…
Useful infographic from Marketing Sherpa to promote their forthcoming B2B Marketing Summit. Marketing Sherpa have a lot of data and significant expertise around integrated marketing in the B2B space. Their graphic focusses on key insights on a 5 stage marketing conversion funnel. Here's 3 take-aways that stand out to me:
Based on Sherpa's survey data, the average percentage of leads that buy is 20% - though remember Eloqua's research that 80% of your leads simply buy from someone else! Their lead nurturing presentation on SlideShare is worth a look
One third of B2B businesses have not identified their sales funnel, ouch. Have you!?
Brand reputation and awareness remain relatively low in the minds of B2B marketers when compared to focussing on lead generation or conversion, yet surely that should be hand-in-hand? Maybe building your B2B brand in the thought leadership space (for your market) represents a big opportunity to pull in…
21 tips to help you review your approach to getting value from your social media marketing
You hear this question a lot: can social media actually drive sales? It's a key question with all the ongoing interest in social media.
My answer, when asked, is that social media primarily grows permission through lead generation if you're approaching it as a "sales acquisition tactic". But it's actually often a more relevant tactic for customer re-engagement. Once you have permission then you can develop the relationship and earn the right to sell. With this in mind, Dave and I thought it would be good to give you a whole bunch of ideas to think about how you use social media to generate leads.
First, start with an evaluation of you current online lead generation process and figure out how well it’s working through your website. Also, consider where you're turning people off - and correct…
We're big fans of using the web for qualitative feedback using the many types of website visitor feedback software. These tools really enable you to find out what web users think and feel about your site and your brand online, while the web analytics are more about the how and when web users interact with your brand.
Around a year ago we did an interview with Kampyle where I asked Eran Savir, their co-founder about how their online customer feedback tool could be used for feedback. We've been using Kampyle since we launched Smart Insights and have found it really useful for feedback. We get around 30-40 pieces of feedback each week and average around 4 out of 5 which we're pleased with - thank you for telling us what you think. What we find most useful though are the occasional negative comment which really make us sit…
