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
]]>Jonathan Allen, Director of Search Engine Watch, teamed up with TMCnet’s CEO Rich Tehrani to discuss the latest research and best practices for boosting your company’s SEO, and ways to use online communities to do so. Even though many companies are utilizing smart SEO practices to boost their search engine ranking (hopefully many have learned from recent SEO-punishments as a result of the Panda update) there are still 3 myths which came up during yesterday’s session that I think yesterday’s webinar dispelled, and would like to gather additional reactions to.
1) You need to rank on page 1 of search engines
2) Social Media doesn’t contribute to your bottom line
3) B2B companies can’t get passionate community followers
1) This is a little misleading by categorizing it as a myth, but I think yesterday’s speakers brought up two interesting points to consider for people who think that ranking on page 1 of a major search engine means you’ve hit SEO-gold.
To start, you don’t need to be on page 1. You need to be number one (no pressure!) Let me explain. With the rise of mobile and tablet usage, a smaller screen means companies really need to rank in the top positions of a search engine results page (check out Search Engine Watch’s statistics on just how much time people are spending on these devices). But don’t let this scare you, because there are ways to achieve a place at the top. Companies need to get very targeted with their keyword usage, and really look for long tail opportunities and combinations, since many people will re-search again and again using different variations of terms to get the information they want, rather than scroll through a long list of results (example: Dog Kennel might be a hard to rank term, but “Dog Kennel with outside play area in the Bronx” – well that, probably not so much).
If you’re not on page 1, there still might be an opportunity for you to rank on the Google News page, meaning you’ll get picked up in Google news alerts and rank on that page rather than the main search results page. Why is this important? People searching to buy a product might go to the News page for recent press releases, reviews, and articles on your company. By getting your content funneled through a major media source that gets up on these pages, you’ll have an opportunity to still rank high on major search engines and be linked with the latest industry news as well – a win-win if you ask me.
2) LinkedIn rocks, and can contribute to your bottom line.
Even though many companies struggle with how to use Twitter and Facebook to actually make their company money (without paying for sponsored ads), Jonathan Allen brought up the great point that LinkedIn has become an amazing resource and even lead generation tool. With the professional, credible structure of LinkedIn, and the ability to join networks with people who have similar interests as you (example, I’m part of the Creative Product Managers group) it’s more likely that your content, if relevant and credible, will be linked to and shared by your fellow group members. For example, Search Engine watch saw an increase of 600% in traffic to their website from LinkedIn in the last month. Yes, you read that right. An increase in traffic, combined with aggressive content marketing and lead capture process, can mean real results for your company in a relatively small amount of time.
3) It’s possible to be passionate about printers!
Many people speculate that it’s almost impossible to get a B2B audience passionate on social networks. But, as Rich and Jonathan advised during the webinar, don’t let these assumptions deter you from trying it out! If you use the right methods, it actually IS possible to get a community involved about your product- yes even a printer. How? Get in a dialogue with your audience, and get them to contribute topics they want to learn from you. Give them valuable, educational content, and give them the answers to their questions. By interacting with your audience, you’re not only giving them a reason to talk about your services and products, but also getting content ideas from them.
What are your thoughts on these 3 myths? Join the conversation online: Twitter|Facebook|LinkedIn
Led by Adam Sherk of Define Media Group, the session covered a few SEO tips I found relevant for not only company websites, but Online Communities as well. Here are a few highlights:
Site Auditing
Site auditing should be standard practice for website and Online Community owners, and what I would argue to be one of the top things you should invest in if you don’t have the resources in-house to manage it (interestingly, for the large session size, almost no participants had dedicated SEO experts managing their company website for them). Auditing means that you’re looking at your content, design, click performance, keyword visibility and action items to ensure that every single piece is optimized and that the site is fresh and engaging (see “Keeping Content Fresh” for some tips on maintaining fresh content). This is even more important if you have an Online Community, as the purpose of these sites is to promote exactly that – Community – and without new, interesting content, readers won’t feel compelled to return to your site or discuss and share the content on your site, negatively affecting your SEO.
Site Triage
After your audit comes decision-making time. What are you going to improve on your site? Few companies have the time or resources to completely overhaul a Community once the potential flaws or gaps are identified, so Sherk presented a three-category “triage” system where companies should determine what their highest, medium and lowest priority “Action Items” are. What’s High Priority? Problems with your redirects, duplicate content, error reports and URL structure are a few examples. Things like internal linking, SEO style guides, image optimization and social might take a “Medium” level of urgency, and so on. Every company is unique, though, and we often find that since every Online Community sponsor has different objectives for their site, they have different priorities during a site enhancement as well. We encourage anyone who manages an Online Community to think through the site’s original objectives in the audit process to make sure they are being met, but also be flexible to incorporate changes based on new company directions or initiatives.
Making Content a Priority
Sherk concluded the session with a subject I feel very passionate about: Content should be a top priority on your website and Online Community. We’ve written about this subject numerous times, so I won’t duplicate myself too much here (For articles on optimizing content, read “I have the Content…now what?” or “The Need for Quality Content is Clear”) but I strongly feel that without a strong CMS and high-quality SEO-friendly content, that no matter how much time and effort you put into an Online Community, chances are that it won’t be as successful as it can be. Things like duplicate content, dead links, overly salesy-language or unstructured-content can be detrimental to an Online Community. And once the content is up, audit and track and measure and audit again. Always be looking to make improvements, incorporate new ideas and refresh the site to keep visitors coming back for more.
“End Scene”
Sherk spoke of the need for “Good Exits” on a site. This is a great concept for Online Communities; make sure the reader leaves the site with something valuable or interesting that will make them want to come back again. A “thank you for visiting” pop-up, perhaps? Coupon? Really solid research? The possibilities are vast.
Tell us what you think. Performed site triage? Have a Community that works well? Know a great example of a “Good Exit”? Let us know!
Follow us on twitter @ConnectinCloud or email us!
To learn more about maintaining content on an Online Community, join us for our upcoming educational Webinar “Using Credible Content to Promote Thought Leadership and Drive Sales”
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.
]]>