Q: “Do you draw distinction between B2B and B2C marketing?"
A: Yes, absolutely. There’s a big difference in how the two types of brands manifest. For B2C, you can be very aspirational, whereas B2B is more focused on risk reduction, which is demonstrated by content and thought leadership.
Additionally, the kind of marketing you do for each type of sale is quite different. For B2C you typically have a shorter sales cycle, so you can be punchy, fun, and to-the-point. In B2B there’s usually longer sales cycles and very large, extensive decision-making processes to boot, so marketing must roll up their sleeves and be “in it for the long haul.” This means more lead nurturing, more resources, more content, and education and more patience.
In fact, lead management is overall a different beast for B2B marketing. It’s more important, for example, to properly score your leads to ensure you’re spending the right amount of time and effort on the right prospects. It also means that your sales team be equipped with the right resources to take those leads, nurture them, and build strong relationships with them; all marketing and sales challenges many B2C companies don’t need to worry about.
In short, for B2B sometimes the risks are greater, but so are the rewards. Miller states that B2B sales numbers are generally far higher than B2C, and can make or break a company’s survival. It can also be a huge investment for companies who may only look to spend in that area every few years or so. That’s why positioning your brand as an industry leader, year after year, is so crucial.
Q: “What Content Works Best for B2B vs. B2C Marketing?”
A: We mention how thought leadership, education and content are so important in B2B marketing efforts earlier in the presentation. Why? Because it’s harder to get someone passionate about a printer or router versus a consumer brand. It’s a different type of brand, which needs altered messages. Companies often see some of the fun things B2C companies are doing online, and want to replicate that in their B2B marketing efforts, with limited success. What your audience is really look for isn’t pizzazz or spunk (although having a little of that never hurts, right?) but stellar content. This means white papers that are written with your audience, not your bottom line, in mind. It means hosting educational webinars, and investing in long-term content efforts. Other successful content vehicles are company blogs, which have seen a significant rise in the past few years in popularity, and links to sales. By focusing on content quality, and in large numbers, your B2B company will be better positioned to meet those sales goals, nurture leads, and position yourself as an industry leader.
Connect with us and join the conversation: What are your experiences with differences between B2B and B2C marketing? Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter
]]>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
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That’s right. Dell, Aflac, SAP, Whole Foods and Cisco were some of just a few companies who spoke about their experiences developing, deploying and measuring effective social media campaigns. And the more case studies I heard, the further I realized how similar companies of all sizes are when dealing with online marketing and social media, as the questions echoed what we at TMC hear from our clients regularly: What works best? How do you measure results? How do you get your C-suite to buy-in?
Here are some lessons I learned
1) Figure out your strategy and figure out a way to measure it
Most companies have social media accounts, but the biggest takeaway from this week’s Summit for me was that the most successful campaigns were ones that started out with a clearly defined and measurable purpose. For the WWE, it was to get a community of all their fans to go to an open forum and “like”, “dislike”, comment, post pictures and be truly passionate “fans” of their wrestling stars (who also Tweet across dozens of accounts. Yes, the wrestlers tweet.) But for Marriott, their approach is quite different as they host a closed community for certain members of a status club and use that as a way to keep that group of customers engaged. All the companies who had a clearly defined objective were clear that the vision needed to be vetted with leadership and approved so when results or ROI were requested, everyone was clear on just how successful the campaign was.
By establishing up-front what the objective of the community was, the easier it was to deploy those initiatives and know what to measure. Was number of “likes” and “fans” for the WWE important? Yes. But, for Whole Foods social media is more than likes and friends- their objective is to have a number of fans who are interactive and contribute to the site, even if in smaller quantities.
Plus, as a speaker from Adobe pointed out, the CEO might not care about how many tweets or “likes” you have. They want to know what all these activities are doing for the bottom line – and the sooner you figure out what your goal is, the sooner you can measure.
2) Use communities to serve your customers better
The TurboTax approach for social media is a great one. Get retired CPA’s engaged online and have them answer customer questions during tax season. This not only saves money on the company’s side in reducing how many people need to be hired during that busy time, but also creates an open community of people with a common interest. Whole Foods has a corporate Facebook page, but encourages each individual location to have sites, run promotions and get involved in their local community charities and events. Using social media to actually generate leads and sales is quite difficult to achieve and even measure, but using social media for customer engagement and retention is a lot easier. Answer customer questions online and ask them how satisfied they are. Take polls, give them exclusive offers and make them feel valued and important to your company. This creates a tribe of loyal followers which is one of the most important things a company can have.
3) Nurture your community of followers
We all know what Lead Nurturing is: Take your leads and instead of bombarding them with sales pitches, slowly over time engage with them, feed them relevant information and nurture their needs until you’ve formed a trustworthy bond with them. Communities and social sites also must be nurtured to grow over time and take collaboration, openness (too much monitoring or cutting off conversations restricts people from doing what’s in their nature: discussing openly). Nurture your groups by asking them questions, giving them special deals (Aflac ran a great campaign that was a competition asking people to submit videos explaining what Aflac was- which was extremely successful) and give them relevant content that will make them interested in what you’re going to share with them next.
One of the best quotes I heard during the summit was “track, listen and learn what your customers and prospects want – and give it to them.” A simple formula that any company, big or small, B2B and B2C can use and be successful with.
What are your biggest challenges with social media? What are some ways you’re overcoming them?
Connect with Us and Join the Conversation:
Rich Tehrani, CEO of TMCnet, recently sat down with Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO for the second installment of their Online Communities Podcast series. When the conversation turned to the importance of branding, I was immediately reminded of many of the challenges many of our Online Community sponsors face: How to balance the desire to advertise with the need to be perceived as a thought leader. Here’s what I gleaned from the Webinar:
1) That it’s Important to Invest in Building Your Brand Consistently and Frequently
In order to be considered a credible, trust-worthy company, you must first have a recognizable brand that you promote consistency and frequently. This is very important in an industry that’s not “impulse-oriented”, meaning purchases are usually more expensive and take a long time to purchase. By getting your logo and company name in front of a potential customer over and over again, you will be subliminally speaking to your prospects and differentiating your product in the marketplace, almost guaranteeing that when the customer is ready to buy, they will consider your company.
The key words to focus on here are consistency and frequency: A short-term “Brand boost” effort doesn’t really make an impact, as a brand needs to be reinforced over time to be considered credible. Just think of how many customers you miss if you only brand for one quarter. And, if your message varies your credibility will also suffer, as consumers typically react more favorably to brands they feel they can recognize, and trust.
2) That Thought Leadership Takes Trust to the Next Level
Thought Leadership works in a similar way to branding, but it often takes a much longer time to build a reputation as a thought-leader than it does to promote a brand. Typically, the decision to position a company as a thought-leader must come from the top so all corporate initiatives are aligned and focused on the same goal. The marketing plan must be aligned with this vision also, so that all projects and messages are aligned and focused on presenting a company as a thought leader. And, to be a thought leader you need to cover the news surrounding your entire industry, even if it mentions your competitors. Many companies that build Online Communities deter from publishing a competitor’s information on their site; however this can only boost your brand, as your messages and brand will surround your competitor’s news, giving your company the position as true industry leader. People will want to return to your Online Community over and over again, because they’ll know it’s where they can get the widest range of relevant information – fast.
3) That Companies Need to Do More of Both
Many companies don’t do enough in either of Branding or Thought Leadership areas. Why? Because it’s difficult to measure the ROI of such activities if you’re not immediately gaining leads and closing sales from them. It’s important, however, to think about the long term goals of your company and think about the consistency/frequency focus we just touched on with the following “hammer and nail” analogy. If you hit a nail three times with a hammer, you may get it to stick a little bit, but it may also easily wiggle out and become loose. But, if you hit it over and over again, for a long period of time, your nail, or “brand” will be “stuck” in the minds of the consumers, and the sales that will generate from those firmly-built relationships will be invaluable.
An Online Community that displays your brand and messaging along with industry-related content is one of the most powerful ways you can achieve these two top marketing objectives. For example, if your company publishes a white paper on your Online Community, you will be boosting your thought-leadership initiatives but also your brand, since the research is distributed by your company and decorated with your logo. And, if you gate this content, you will likely generate leads who are interested in your industry or products and willing to learn more. White Papers are just the beginning, too. eBooks, Webinars, product reviews and videos are just some of the many ways you can build your brand, boost thought leadership and generate leads , all the while continually building trust with your audience – and a bond that will be hard to break.
To learn more:
- Listen the full Podcast, click here.
- Listen to Part 1 in the Online Community Podcast Series,”9 Minutes of SEO”, click here.
-Register for the upcoming FREE educational Webinar about how to build a successful Online Community that boosts your sales, search and social initiatives
Or, Contact Anna Ritchie for more information.
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