B2B Marketing Blog

Marketing used to be only for the bigger companies. They were the only ones who could afford major marketing campaigns on buses, signs and in news print. These days, SMBs are getting a huge boost in everything. Even in the B2B market, SMBs are able to compete with the larger businesses. It all has to do with the ability to market their company online. The biggest key to the marketing online is the ability to properly use a few key marketing techniques. This way, they get the attention that they need as well as the revenue that they deserve.

There are three main components any business will need if it is to have any hopes of being able to get the kind of B2B business it is looking for. They need to be able to have a website which takes advantage of everything that SEO has to offer. It is necessary to have a working knowledge of the social media sites to use them correctly. It is also necessary to be able to market through means like email. If you have mastered these concepts, you will be assured of having a great business with a lot of success.

Using SEO for Marketing

Of all of the different online marketing techniques, one of the most important is the ability to draw people to your website without having to pay any money at all. By using SEO material, it is possible to make sure that those searching for the things you have to offer will be able to find your website. They will learn about your company through the kind of content that you have available so that they can see how your company will benefit theirs.

Using Social Media for Marketing

Purchasing managers spend just as much time online through social media sites as anyone else. They want to find out about the businesses that they are buying from before making a purchase. Make sure that all of the content which is on your social media site will properly represent your company to any possible clients. This way you will be able to build a loyal following of people who will receive every piece of marketing that you attach to Facebook posts as well as the posts that make to your Twitter account.

Using Email for Marketing

Email is still something which is checked every day by individuals and businesses alike. It is possible to gain the attention that your company needs by sending out different emails. This way you will be able to market everything from a digital security system to the services and products other businesses might want to purchase. Gathering email addresses is possible through your social media pages as well as through your website. Using them will help you to get the word out about the latest that your company has to offer.

Author: Matt Kraustrunk, Resource Nation.

Resource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from phone systems to credit card processing. Whether it’s connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on a VoIP service, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.

It is common for online marketing efforts to dilute into a race of numbers.  With efforts focused on driving visitors, impressions, etc, business marketers can forget that the point is to convert visitors into potential leads.  Below are 3 common conversion mistakes:

Billboard with No Directions

Online advertising and social media have made it incredibly simple to broadcast content to the online world.  It’s easy to forget to build content that points to the website where online exposure can be converted. This is particularly common with social media efforts such as: Twitter, Facebook and Blogs.  Remember, that advertising and posts are billboards that need to direct people to where you want them to go.

Please Take the Scenic Route

Too many websites still require visitors to watch through a flash animation, or click through several pages before the point of conversion.

The attention span for the online audience is short; almost anything put in their way will deter them from engaging.  Visitors do need information, but there is no sense in forcing them through the scenic route.

The ‘Contact Us’ Obstacle Course

Have you ever visited a website where the contact us form looks like an insurance application?  A fantastic online marketing campaign and an effective website can be ruined by an overly ambitious inquire form.

Keep forms short and don’t make visitors fill out unnecessary information to contact you.

Related articles

• Online Marketing Best Practices: Generate Sales-Ready Leads (b2b-marketingblog.com)
• Analysis of Online Marketing Campaigns Effectiveness from A to Z (searchenginejournal.com)

Now that your company uses social media to interact with current and potential clients, do you know if you are saying the right things, and whether you are using the correct tone to get your message across to the other side?

If you already use Twitter or Facebook personally, you know they can be a soapbox for everyone’s personal opinions, and flights of fancy. When tweeting for your business however, it is a good idea to have a plan in place for what you want to say about your company. You want your tone to be consistent, message to be clear and your intent be transparent.

Tips on doing it right

1. Always have something interesting and useful to share. Some ideas would be product updates, whitepaper announcements and general advice.  In the world of B2B, chances are your followers would want to hear what you have to say for the subject you are an expert in.
2. Give extra care to the grammar and the language, as that will indicate the image that you’d like to give to your company.

How to do it with limited resources?
While it may be tempting to hire a family friend, or delegate social networking to an intern, you should use caution when lending the voice of your company to someone who is not the CEO or the owner. Hiring a social media expert is an option that some companies have employed, and with many business owners being too busy to regularly update things like blogs, Facebook or Twitter. This option can be expensive for small to medium sized operations, but there are alternatives available as well.

Now that social media has been established as significant marketing medium,  software developers have stepped in to help out those senior executives and business owners who don’t have the time to be tweeting. Apps like Hootsuite can schedule and automate the process, so you can spend an hour or two on Friday afternoon to bank a week’s worth of tweets and updates. Be prepared to do this regularly and once a week at least.

The added advantage
On Twitter, other users will be able to find your account through your mutual followers. This means that following your competitors can be very beneficial to your business. You may get more followers by following some celebrity, but the chances of them interested in your product or services is very bleak. If your focus is more local then consider following prominent local politicians and charitable organizations, and showing your support for them can be a good PR engine as well.

Finally, have a plan
Tragically, all of this advice has its downside, and is subject to change rapidly. The main caveat of social networking is the social aspect. People can be unpredictable, and your actions may have dire consequences even if you make every attempt to be neutral and politically correct. This is why it is important above everything else to have a plan in place before diving into the social media shark tank.

The days when all you needed for online marketing was a nice website have long passed.  In order to be effectively represented online, you’ll need effective campaigns on several critical platforms.  The platforms vary depending on the type of business you are in, but for those of you still finding your footing; here is a short checklist of platforms you should consider.

Stable Content

• Website: Since its 2010, you should have professional website.  If you don’t have one, get on it.
• Bonus Points Wikipedia Entry: Businesses haven’t fully embraced Wikipedia but it is the authority for information reference.  Having a Wikipedia entry will become increasingly important for online credibility and exposure.

Regularly Updated Content

• Blog: A critical platform for establishing credibility with the online community and search engines.  If your organization doesn’t have a blog, you are missing out on establishing yourself as an online authority in your industry.
• Bonus Points Periodical Press Releases: Press Releases still have their place online, particularly when pushed out with a service like PRWeb.com.  It can do more than just a blog posting or website update as it pushes to many channels, allowing for more exposure and credibility.

Social Networking

• Twitter/Facebook Fan Page: Twitter and Facebook are the kings of social networking and an increasingly important platform to promote dialog between companies and the online community.
• Bonus Points LinkedIn/Foursquare: LinkedIn and Foursquare aren’t for everyone, but depending on the kind of business you do, these maybe valuable platforms to reach potential customers.

Video Media

• YouTube: YouTube continues to be a predominately an entertainment focused community, but its reach is undeniable.  If you have how-to videos, or a business presentation, they are good candidates for YouTube.
• Bonus Points Webinar: Webinars are a great way to interact with customers and the community.  Webinars add great value for any customer base.

Search Engine Marketing

• Google AdWords: This isn’t a must but for those of you who are just starting out, or struggling in competitive markets, pay-per-click campaigns with Google can get you that exposure when you need it.
• Bonus Points Pay-per-click on Facebook/LinkedIn/Yahoo/Bing: Although Google is the most recognized player; pretty much every major platform (Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, Bing, etc) has a similar version of the pay-per-click program.  They may present a less competitive and more targeted environment to push marketing efforts.

Depending on your business and goals, the platforms mentioned may not be critical.  Also keep in mind that just because you are represented on these platforms doesn’t necessarily mean you are being represented well on each platform.  However, how to assess your effectiveness on the various online platforms is the topic for another post.

Do you have other platforms that are critical to your business’s online marketing strategy that you feel should be on this list?  Please share it with us in the comments.

You likely must have heard about social media by now.  Social media is not a personal communication tool any more, you can use it for your business as well. You may have noticed that large number of websites have the three most famous; Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn symbols on them so you can easily follow and broadcast websites that you like.  This has been quickly adopted by those in the ‘know’ because it makes it easy for your social networks to know about websites that you like.

In fact, you can now give the Facebook ‘thumbs up’ for websites, assuming the website has the Like button installed. On April 21, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook announced that there will be over 1 billion likes across the web in the just first 24 hours of the “Like” button. Over a million websites have added this feature to their websites and blogs in just 48 hours, and the number grows steadily each day.

So why should you care? You now have the ability to harness the power of other people’s virtual networks to bring visitors that might be interested in what you do – without spending a dime or pushing them to react! It also has instant credibility because it was passed by a friend or business associate. And don’t think it’s just about your small network of 100 friends, but also about those 100 people’s networks.

Besides the obvious referral your website might get, there are SEO factors at work in the background, making your website/blog come up more frequently on search engines, that will get search engine and ‘feed’ traffic as well.  You can get heard over the noise by letting your social network endorse your content. Google likes to rank content that is popular with real human beings, and this is an easy way to that.

For those that were still skeptical about social media for business, this should convince you and perhaps make you a believer. For an example of how the like it button works, go to FoundPages or ActiveConversion, to see how it has been implemented on these websites. And remember to click ‘Like’ if you like what you see!

There’s mounting evidence that the popularity of Twitter has hackers and phishers shifting focus to Twitter accounts.

According to researchers at Kaspersky Lab, cybercriminals are trying to sell hacked Twitter user names and passwords on-line for hundreds of dollars.

While this is an outgrowth of existing security problems…

[data-stealing malware is] popular because criminals are starting to realize that they can do better than simply swiping credit card numbers. Bestuzhev has seen Gmail accounts for sale on Russian hacker forums, (asking price 2,500 rubles, or $82) RapidShare accounts going for $5 per month, as well as Skype, instant messaging and Facebook credentials being offered.

…Twitter is being singled out because of the premium hackers and phishers can charge for them:

…one Twitter account, with just over 320 followers, was offered at $1,000 in an underground hacker forum. The user’s name was a simple three letter combination that Bestuzhev thought might make it more valuable to criminals.

The answer is to use the same vigilance with Twitter as you currently use with email. Evaluate the link you are about to click on (URL expander plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox that will show you the extended URLs without you having to click on them), use a strong and unique password, always check that you are at twitter.com before logging in, and select third party apps with care.  Learn more here.