by tradesmeninsights | Dec 10, 2013 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
Smaller B-to-B companies (under 100 employees) seem to be doing a better job maximizing their content marketing efforts according to Content Marketing and Marketing Prof’s B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmark, Budgets and Trends Research.
Heidi Cohen does a good job highlighting important nuggets from the report. Among them:
- Over 90% of B2B marketers are using some sort of content marketing.
- 42% of marketers think their content is effective and 20% thinks theirs isn’t.
- 48% of smaller B2B organizations have a documented content strategy compared to 41% of bigger organizations.
- 78% of smaller companies have someone specific overseeing content marketing as opposed to 58% of larger companies.
More people are planning on spending more of their budget on content marketing. If you’re like the rest of us, budgets aren’t getting any larger next year and we have to do more with less. Heidi suggests looking in other people’s budgets to help the cause.
The biggest challenge still is producing good relevant content no matter what your budget is. That’s why a content marketing strategy is the most important thing you can do to ensure good content on a regular basis.
Are these findings consistent with what’s happening in your world?
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 14, 2013 | Public Relations, Social Marketing
Today we have a guest post from Rachel Kerstetter, our PR Engineer, about the evolution of social media and SEO.
In our B2T niche, as well as in the general B2B market, we use the word “relevant” frequently.
When it comes to B2T social media, quantity does not equal quality. Quality social media engagement can’t be measured in simple number of followers or likes. The relevance of those follows and likes is where we find the quality.
It can be hard to keep up with current SEO tactics that will land you on the first page of Google search results since the algorithms change every day, but as social media continues to grow, SEO is getting easier because it’s no longer optimizing for search engines that will land you on page one of Google.
Social engagement is becoming the new SEO. One of the many benefits of being involved in social media that I explain when we create social strategies is improving search visibility.
I was reading, “6 Reasons Social Media is Critical to Your SEO” on Social Media Today and Stephanie Frasco explained the concept so well when she wrote about the old SEO strategy of link building,
“Think about it – why did Google ever allow links to determine which websites ranked above all the others? The answer is simple: links were like “votes” for your website. The more votes you get, the better off you are. So SEO companies started building links (aka “votes”) manually[…]The idea behind links as a ranking factor is a very good idea, but since it’s become so easy to manipulate, Google has been forced to turn to social media channels which do the same thing but are much harder to manipulate. Link building was always about social proofing.”
The shift toward social search is an excellent opportunity to market more efficiently. Connecting with people (even in business-to-business social media, the decision-makers are still people) won’t have constantly changing algorithms because people have been communicating in similar ways basically forever. Social media is simply taking the natural, conversational form of communication that history shows taking place in the gathering places (think the Greek agora or the city coffee shop) and put it online, where it’s easier to be involved with the conversations that are relevant to you.
You can read the rest of Stephanie’s article here.
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 12, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
B2B prospects tend to be well on their way through the buying process before they even identify a company. Don’t you want to be one of those they contact?
In the 3 years that I’ve been doing a blog, I’ve seen more and more interest and yes, business that has originated because of what folks read on my blog. In many cases, by the time they identified themselves, we’re already talking strategy and have won the business. It’s a nice position to be in.
I recently read a post by Heidi Cohen, How to Make Your B2B Blog Your Content Marketing Tool that outlines 10 steps that will help you get there.
Here are some key takeaways:
- Understand your audience.
- Do an editorial calendar that ties in with your other promotional activities/events.
- Optimize content for findability via search engines.
- Distribute content by building regular readership either by RSS or e-newsletters.
- Use other social platforms to promote your content.
Blogs are time-consuming to do,but if you’re going to do it, then do it right. It’s a great way to stay in front of prospects on an ongoing basis, builds your credibility in the space you’re in and ultimately generates new business.
If you like this post, you may want to read:
Blogs that Reach the Professional Tradesman
by tradesmeninsights | Nov 5, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
As we start planning for 2014, ask yourself this question:
When was the last time you took a hard look at where your marketing budget is going?
B-to-B budgets, while on the mend from the last few years, are not growing at the same rate as the tasks we are being asked to do. We all are creatures of habit and tend to go and support things that we’ve used in the past and have been successful.
Do this simple exercise. Pull out a spread sheet from 3 years ago where you have all your line items. I’ll bet you didn’t have things like lead nurturing, responsive websites, mobile apps, mobile marketing or content marketing as part of your radar a few years ago.
Yes, over the past few years you may have dabbled in a new tactic, but have you done enough to see if there has been any impact on your brand? I’m not saying you should abandon your current tactics, just make sure you’re not missing any opportunities that might help you sell more. You go to the doctor for your annual visit, don’t you? Why not put your marketing budget through the same type of process?
You may even want to get someone outside your organization who is familiar with your markets to review line items and make suggestions as to what you might want to try or include moving forward.
By using an outsider, you’re not worrying about someone trying to sell you something, and for some reason, outside consultants somehow get the ear of the C suite easier than you or I would.
Good luck in your planning process and at least set aside a portion of your budget to try new things.
by tradesmeninsights | Oct 2, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
We’ve talked many times about the importance of having a mobile strategy when wanting to reach the professional contractors. Their office is a jobsite and they need to be and stay connected. Mobile is changing the way we reach these important people.
A recent article by Bob Oord in marketingprofs outlines the explosion in this market and ways we can maximize our efforts there. An amazing stat is that their usage has doubled in just 1 year! The integration of mobile apps with CRM and business intelligence has changed user expectations.
TOP MOBILE TACTICS TO CONSIDER:
- Responsive website – so it can be read on any device
- Mobile-friendly campaigns – optimize landing pages.
- Mobile advertising – can be tailored by location, time and device so take advantage of them.
- Mobile email – make sure your HTML can be read properly on these devices.
- Mobile apps – apps let you secure a prominent presence on your customer’s device.
Please note that a recent report by Forrester, “Don’t Confuse Tablet And Mobile Marketing,” a B2B marketer needs to differentiate between smart phones and tablets. Smart phones have a much smaller screen for content experiences and is used “on the go,” while tablets are used more at home and in the office offering rich content opportunities.
If you liked this article, you might want to read:
Mobile Marketing to the Professional Tradesman: What are you Doing?
Why Mobile Marketing is Important for the Professional Tradesman.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 4, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
The professional trades are no different from normal consumers when it comes to using mobile. There have been a few articles in eMarketing.com about both time spent on mobile devices and what’s being used to open and read emails. Both are significant when it comes to reaching contractors with your messages.
Email remains one of the most critical marketing channels—if not the most exciting. And as more consumers access on mobile, there is a growing imperative to make sure emails are smartphone- and tablet-optimized. However, that doesn’t mean marketers can forget about the desktop just yet according to a recent article in emarketer.com. That coupled with the fact that the US now spends more time on mobile devices than desktop should send up a red flag for those of us who haven’t addressed the mobile market.
The shift includes watching video, checking social media and reading emails. So what does this mean to the B-to-B market? It means if we want to effectively communicate with our audiences, we need to be doing it in a format that is easily read.
Matt Sonnhalter, in another post on mobile, indicated that by 2015, mobile will be the first screen that people will use. That’s not that far away!
A recent survey by Equipment World Magazine on those contractors that had smartphones:
- 85% view emails
- 81% use it to text
- 71% connect to the internet
- 52% use apps
- 24% visit social sites
- 20% watch videos
- 4% don’t use it for any of the above
Bottom line is, if you don’t have your website optimized for mobile, you’re going to miss lots of opportunities.
