You can listen to the complete Podcast here, which features insights on how marketers aren’t spending enough time, or budget, on proper branding initiative, even though it’s one of the most important things a company can invest in. By building trust with your target audience, your sales efforts will see radical improvement as people don’t buy from companies they don’t trust.
Consistency is another vital component of online marketing and lead gen discussed during the Podcast, and also covered by TMCnet Managing Editor Juliana Kenny in a recent article about the event.
It all comes down to making your content, and your brand, valuable to your target audience, and giving them enough to build trust in you so that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll come to you.
How are you positioning your online lead gen and advertising/branding efforts for 2012? Join the conversation @connectincloud.
]]>So the biggest ticket item for marketers is also the biggest challenge. No surprise here. As marketers struggle to navigate the new world of online lead gen and advertising, more and more are turning to social media and online communities to help them not only build brand awareness, but nurture and capture those prospects who visit their sites.
Content is out there, and being created by the second. So now, more than ever, it’s important that your company be viewed as a thought leader, which can be established through multiple online content and branding activities. But, this is a delicate practice that requires a balance of your company voice with that of your audience and the broader industry –and requires more educational messages than promotional ones. Without this balance it’s impossible to build trust with potential customers who will find your company while seeking educational information, not a sales pitch.
Here are 5 ways to achieve this balance on your social media and online community sites. Here are 5 ways to achieve this balance on your social media and online community sites. For more ideas and best practices, join the upcoming free webinar happening October 17, 2012. The webinar will cover how companies are using specific lead gen and branding initiatives online to achieve success and be viewed as a thought leader; no small feat, for sure.
1) Open your content ‘gates’: If you’re new to the social media or online community-game, you need to build trust with your audience before asking them for ANYTHING. This means free white papers, videos, case studies. A free consultation, perhaps, or incentive. Build that relationship before you ask for anything from them, because this will be the key to them offering up their personal information to you in the future.
2) Answer questions and establish a personality: Just as you need to establish your content “voice”- you need to have personality shine through your sites so your audience feels connected with you. Use your online community as a place to become “real”. Implement a live chat feature, or show some cool things your company is doing unrelated to your products or services. Finally, take the time to respond to customer inquiries on your social sites. These connections points will be crucial, and top-of-mind, when ready to buy.
3) Provide content as a nurture technique, tailored for different audiences. This is a great way to reach all your different audiences. For example, have a section on your site or content pieces that are tailored for different job functions. Or, provide industry analysis and reports for each of your verticals. Finally, allow your audience to sign up for updates that are relevant to them by developing targeted eNewsletters. By giving your audience exactly what they want, and listening to their needs, you’ll be better equipped to establish yourself as a trustworthy and educational resource (as opposed to a sales center).
4) Use surveys to see what your audience wants to know from you. Plain and simple, nothing’s clearer than a poll. You may need to provide incentives for people to complete them, but the direct input from your audience is invaluable.
5) Give industry news for free, but offer an eNews for consolidation of the ‘latest and greatest’ for your audience. This allows you to build your database of people who have requested to hear from you on an ongoing basis (i.e., marketing gold).
How do you balance lead gen with online advertising on your social media sites or online community? Join the conversation. Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter
]]>
For one, the first and most important part of your online marketing strategy must be brand control. Now, this is really difficult to do with all the sites you probably manage. Even if you are still in the “follower-building” phase of your social media strategy, it’s likely you maintain some combination of a company website, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile and Twitter account (don’t even get me started on Google +…). Dell addresses this issue by doing two things: 1) Nurture major influencers to your community and 2) Get involvement from in-house experts.
For starters, Dell identifies “major influencers who have their own blog-driven communities or participants in important ones” and brings them to Dell headquarters to speak with founder Michael Dell. This not only gives these influencers a positive perception of the company, but also includes them in important corporate conversations. The result is that their perception and subsequent communications about, the Dell brand will be positive and consistent with that of the company.
Second, as we’ve outlined in past articles, using content contributors from within your company is a great way to build your online community and make more connections with your visitors. Dell not only brings in-house experts (from all levels in the company) to targeted communities (based on their skills/subject matter expertise) but also makes “employees rock stars” so that they can feel ownership over community engagement and the relationships which result.
By putting ‘skin-in-the-game’ for your employees, they will not only become more involved and empowered, but will feel responsible for the success of the business, helping reach a large audience in relatively shorter periods of time than before. As a way to maintain company standards via social interactions, Dell holds an “internal social media training program that encourages social participation.”
Now, as you know, every online community has its dark side, and Dell doesn’t shy away from sharing some of the potential ‘dangers’ of social media and community interactions. For starters, it can be harmful to your brand if you build an online community and no one visits. Secondly, if a large amount of “negative” visitors come to the site, or people come who aren’t interested in nurturing the broader community as much as talking poorly about your brand.
To avoid having a site that no-one visits, it’s important to build a site that’s not only educational and nurturing, but SEO-friendly. This means having a clean design, easy-to-navigate sections and relatively little company branding: The online community should be industry-focused, not all about your company, to establish your brand as the true thought leader in that space. It’s also important to keep the design fresh (change ads, banners, images and videos often) with a constant churn of new, relevant and educational content for visitors to want to bookmark the page to return later. Finally, content should always be written in an SEO-friendly way. As long as the content isn’t “all about you” but carries through your keywords, has proper links and no black-hat practices, it will be set up to rank highly, organically, on major search engines – making it easier for your target audience to find you.
To get the “right” visitors to your site, establish clearly on the page (maybe in an “introduction” email) what the purpose of the site is, and how community members are expected to ‘behave’. Dell goes so far as to “Screen community members” and personally engage with unhappy ones to alter their perception of the brand. Regardless of how far you want to go with your site, you should at the least establish some ground rules for discussions and participation for community members to follow.
Do any of these Dell lessons resonate with you? What questions would you have about building successful online communities if you could pose them to the Dell team?
Connect with Us and Join the Conversation: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter
]]>