by tradesmeninsights | Jan 4, 2012 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
It’s not like social media just came out. The B-to-C space has been using it successfully for the last 3-5 years. So why are B-to-B practitioners slow to adapt?
I think it’s because they don’t know where to start. You should probably start by developing a strategy that is included in your overall marketing plans. If you use social media to help build better relationships with your customers, I think you’ll find that it can help with more than just brand building.
I read a post recently in emarketer.com on why B-to-B was still unsure about social media strategies. Some highlights include:
- 66% of marketing executives view social media as extremely or very important, but only 7% were leveraging it heavily.
- 9% of B-to-B marketers weren’t using social at all.
Nearly 50% said that new tools and technology would make their social efforts more effective.
So if you’re a B-to-B marketer, what’s holding you back? Is it a resource issue?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 21, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
For those of us who do blog, we do it because in the big picture, it’s the hub of the marketing wheel and everything else we do should revolve around and integrate with the blog.
So here are some quick tips that I’ve come up with since I started blogging three years ago that will help you gain readership and credibility.
- Give your readers what they want – give them solutions to their problems.
- Get to the point – do a good detailed headline and then deliver on the message.
- Keep it simple – don’t try to impress people with fancy words, get to the solution and do it in a conversational tone.
- Keep it on point – don’t ramble onto other topics.
- Give examples – show what other people are doing and ask for feedback.
So how did I do?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 20, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Twitter
I can’t believe that many marketers still ignore customers who are dissatisfied. Especially since most of the complaints make their way to social sites.
Ignoring them won’t make the problem go away, and if the non-responsiveness continues, you may get a tweet with #FAIL attached to it and you’ll be part of an elite group (where you don’t want to be in) who have failed their customers. This is more of a problem for B-to-C companies than B-to-B, but none the less, you still shouldn’t ignore people. Fear and lack of resources are cited as the two most reasons why companies don’t respond. You probably should rethink your priorities.
According to a recent survey done by eMarketer.com, only 34% used social media to respond.
Another study by Maritz and Evolve24 showed that only 29% of the tweet gripes were responded to. As Jay Baer says, these channels are the social telephone. You’re missing the boat for several reasons. One is that 83% of those who complain online want to be answered there. Secondly, those who complain on Twitter are already disproportionately upset and ignoring them will only add gas to the fire.
People complain on Twitter because they have already went through traditional means with no resolution. I can attest to this as I’m still fighting with Travelers Insurance on a hail claim on my roof. After getting nowhere with the local adjusters, I was venting on Twitter about it and lo and behold, I got a Tweet back asking me to call an advocacy number. While it didn’t solve my problem (they sent my complaint back to the local adjuster and now I’m one of his favorite people), at least I thought they tried to defuse the situation.
Research has shown that social media users want to be responded to even if a company wants to take the conversation offline. At least they acknowledged you.
So what are you doing to handle complaints on social media?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 8, 2011 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Leads no matter where they come from are an important part of starting the sales cycle. I’m used to dealing with Manufacturers who make stuff and are trying to sell it and I thought they would have better success identifying online leads than service companies. Evidently that’s not the case.
I recently read a post on the PRSA Newswire about a study that was just completed by Hinge Marketing on 500 service companies that used online leads as part of their lead generation strategy.
What was particularly interesting was that high growth firms got 64% of their leads online and grew 4 times faster than their counterparts. That’s an amazing stat and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Other highlights from the study include:
- The greater a company’s online generation, the greater the total firm’s profitability.
- 66% plan on spending more online next year as a result of this.
- 77% of firms that participated in the survey generated online leads.
- SEO, blogging and web analytics were considered the most effective online tools.
A copy of the study can be downloaded free.
So what kind of results are you getting from your online activity?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 7, 2011 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs second annual research report is out and as usual, both CMI and MarketingProfs have a great handle on what’s happening in the B-to-B space. It’s worth the read.
Highlights include:
- Content marketing remains a top priority for marketers in 2012.
- Article posting and social media (excluding blogs) are the most popular tactics.
- Blogs, white papers and videos are seeing an increased adoption.
- Content marketing spending is increasing as well as outsourcing.
You can download the report here.
