Archive for the ‘Get Found Online’ Category
05/08/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Marketing Automation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Brand Massaging, Real-Time Marketing and PR, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads.
Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?
Inbound marketing offers you a strategic and smart approach to be and to stay several steps ahead of your competition.
Inbound marketing is the marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services your business also has to offer.
With inbound marketing businesses “earn” their way to the customer and his loyalty, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.
Inbound marketing includes: Content creation like blogging, video, photo, whitepapers, eBooks, podcasts, press releases, comments in social media and other blogs and forums, Social media two way communication, lead generation, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.
How can Inbound Marketing help you?
A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales
Infographic: Inbound Marketing Rising
TOP 42 Reasons to Jumstart your Inbound Marketing NOW!
1. 60% of companies will execute an inbound marketing strategy in 2013.
2. Marketers dedicate 34% of their department budgets to inbound tactics, but only 11% to outbound.
3. 48% of marketers will increase spend on inbound marketing in 2013.
4. 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.
5. Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound leads.
6. 17% of marketers say traditional advertising and direct mail are less important than they were 6 months ago.
7. Traditional advertising and PPC deliver the least leads of any form of marketing.
8. Only 6% of marketing leads originate from advertising or PPC campaigns.
9. 34% of businesses cannot or don’t calculate overall inbound ROI in 2013.
10. Adopting a marketing/sales agreement saves companies with more than 200 employees $195.84 per new customer.
11. Only 24% of companies have a formal process for marketing/sales handoffs.
12. Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for inbound marketing.
13. Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.
14. The average website conversion rate is 10%.
15. 81% of companies integrate inbound marketing with larger marketing goals.
16. Marketers spend 55% more of their time than their money on blogging.
17. 82% of marketers who blog on a daily basis have acquired a customer through blog content.
18. 57% of marketers who only blog once a month have acquired a customer through blogging.
19. Inbound marketers plan to hire an average of 9.3 people this year.
20. Only 18% of marketers are purely focused on developing quality content in 2013.
21. 25% of marketers cite reaching the right audience as their top priority for 2013.
22. Only 5% of marketers have no integration between inbound marketing and overall marketing goals.
23. 50% of marketers consider their companies primarily customer-focused.
24. 17% of sales teams and 11% of executives fully support inbound marketing efforts.
25. 73% of marketing agencies are implementing inbound strategies.
26. Only 41% of nonprofits report adopting inbound tactics for 2013.
27. Just 21% of enterprises assimilate inbound marketing with their overall marketing strategy.
28. 47% of CEOs and CMOs ignore formal marketing/sales agreement development.
29. Marketing is 125% more likely than sales to provide inbound resources.
30. Increasing total lead volume is the top priority for 21% of marketers.
31. Customers average a total of 9,100 leads after 1.5 years of inbound marketing.
32. 67% of marketers produced a blog last year.
33. Only 20% of marketers without a blog reported a positive ROI for 2012.
34. 27% of marketers report that both social media and email marketing produce the lowest total average lead costs.
35. 15% of marketers say SEO leads have the highest sales conversions.
36. Social media delivers 14% of all leads and 13% of all customers.
37. 52% of all marketers have found a customer via Facebook.
38. 43% of marketers have found a customer on LinkedIn.
39. 36% of marketers have found a customer on Twitter.
40. 41% of marketers have adjusted their budget due to the success of inbound marketing.
41. 41% of CEOs report inbound delivered measurable ROI.
42. Marketers with more than 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 leads per month.
Source: HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report. FREE Executive Report on Inbound Tactics and Strategy – Insight from 3,339 Marketers
04/25/13 by Christian Arno | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, Lead Generation, Local Marketing, Online Reputation | No Comments »
Wh
en creating content, it pays to think big. Publishing online gives us access to a readership that’s almost too large to imagine. Do it right and your words could be read by people in places you might never even have heard of.
While a global readership might seem like something most of us dream of, with a little know-how it’s something that you too can achieve.
Decide Who You Are Talking To
When you write for the web, you aren’t just pushing out content at random. You are engaging with others, convincing them to buy into your idea or product. With this in mind, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and which parts of the world you want to expand to.
For example, your ideal reader could be a female entrepreneur, or you might want to address a young music lover. Going global makes your pool of readers much larger, so your female entrepreneurs might include women in Brazil, and your music loving youth could be reading in East Asia.
Keeping a tight focus on your target demographic as you go global will let you reach more of the kind of people that interest you. It also helps your budget go further. Are you looking to connect with female entrepreneurs in South America but less so with similar women in China? Then make your content culturally and linguistically suited to the South American readers, instead of spending time and money trying to reach everyone.
Embrace the Multilingual Web
Forget the idea that everyone online speaks English. Although English is often used in the corporate world as a linguistic go-between, internet users are a far more diverse crowd. The web is also more informal and driven by social connections.
Even people in countries who have strong English skills as a second language will prefer to engage with others in their native tongue. In fact, a 2011 survey by the European Commission found that although 48% of non-English speaking Europeans occasionally read English-language content, 9 out of 10 users preferred to visit sites in their own language.
This makes translation of your content a priority. Make good use of your budget by first figuring out which languages need to be top of your list. In our South American example, Spanish and Portuguese would be essential for getting your message across. If Europe is your key market, you’re likely to find German or French better languages to start with.
Take Languages Seriously
If you don’t get serious about translation, your foreign-language readers won’t get serious about your content. They will be too busy laughing at your language slips, if they stick around at all.
We all know of corporate giants who managed to offend or became a laughing stock thanks to poorly-translated slogans. The rest of us needn’t think we will do any better. Unless you are genuinely bilingual and up to date with current usage, you will miss hidden meanings. It’s also easy to opt for what seems the right word choice, when in fact it means something entirely different (for example, in German the word Gift means poison).
Native speaker knowledge will make sure you don’t sound out of touch or leave readers confused. Accurate linguistic choices will also help your SEO by keeping your keywords relevant. Cutting corners here, on the other hand, could leave search engines as confused as your foreign-language readers.
Understand Cultural Differences
The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that while people worldwide are becoming less trusting of what they read, ‘a person like yourself’ has become the most trusted source of information. Your job is to be that trusted person to your reader, no matter where in the world he or she is.
Localization is an essential part of becoming ‘one of us’ in another culture. Using words and expressions that local people use makes your content more accessible. Being in touch with important cultural events or hot topics can be useful too. Of course, offending people is never a good idea and cultural knowledge also can guide us around dangerous topics or inappropriate language.
Show You Care
Now that you’ve opened up your content to overseas readers, make them feel welcome. Avoid anything that places your English speaking crowd above foreign-language speakers. For example, aim to respond to all comments, not just those in English. If you offer a way for people to contact you, make sure it doesn’t exclude certain time zones or languages. Showing you care about all your readers helps you to build a good online reputation.
Write with other cultures and languages in mind and you’ll be saying Wilkommen, bienvenido and yōkoso to international readers in no time!
About the author:
Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, Inc., one of the world’s fastest growing translation services. Launched in 2001, Lingo24, Inc. now has over 180 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over 60 million words for businesses in every industry sector, including the likes of MTV, World Bank and American Express. Follow Lingo24, Inc. on Twitter: @Lingo24.
02/09/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Closed-Loop Marketing, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Local Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) | No Comments »
In the past years Pay per click marketing has been a quick and easy solution for businesses to generate leads. But to do paid advertisements is no long-lasting and holistic marketing strategy to depend on!
When you do PPC than you generate leads as long as you pay. When you stop your PPC campaign then you will not generate leads anymore! As simple as that!
Nevertheless PPC are still a great vehicle to get the word out but only when they are incorporated within a smart and holistic marketing strategy.
The proven and successful inbound marketing strategy is a great way to generate high quality leads. Therefore inbound marketing is known as the “riskless” marketing strategy because of the activities done which are long lasting and bring an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Why is this inbound marketing such a great way to generate leads?
With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful information on a blog, in social media and forums.
Inbound marketing includes Blogging, Social Media, Lead Conversion, Lead Nurturing and Closed-Loop Analysis.
How can Inbound Marketing help you?
A. It saves you up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Makes you stand out of your competition
C. Helps to generate a massive amount of leads
D. Gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increases your customers and sales
Example: The backbone of successful inbound marketing is the content creation strategy. To create outstanding in a corporate blog improves the trust, visibility and traffic to a business online. Published articles once done are literally online forever, are indexed through search engines and can be found from future customers.
The more articles you publish the more „digital outposts“which you build for your business and you get an increasing stream of future customers to your offers.
Businesses brand them self by creating and publishing original content. Businesses that create and publish remarkable content on the web and in social media:
• Establish thought leadership
• Elevate brand visibility and buzz
• Boosts SEO
Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:
Blogging companies get up to…
1. …55% more Traffic
2. …97% more Inbound Links
3. …434% more indexed pages in search engines
4. …25x times more business leads
A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!
Infographic: The Rise Of Content Marketing
PCC can’t deliver such results!
But you can incorporate Pay per Click Marketing into your Inbound Marketing Strategy.
Some thought how you could use PPC to increase your visibility:
PPC drives you quick results and you can use it to bridge over the time until your content marketing starts to show effect.
To get a better idea of what your audience is looking for before they hit your website and to adjust you’re SEO, you could start a PPC campaign. Look at the initial keyword data in your Google AdWords account and see which keywords have the highest click through rate (CTR). So you get the most popular keywords and custom tailor your content and your next PPC advertising.
You should bid on your own corporate terms, for example your business name or the names of your products. So when a interested person is researching online for your business, products and services the chances are good even if you are not in the top five Google Search result they will find you through your PPC ads.
Especially for local businesses PPC is a great way to get a targeted location based positioning to attract locals to the business front door. Local businesses can do advertising for a very specific location and do bidding on keywords related to this location. So they get laser targeted traffic from people who are maybe living around the corner in the next street.
There is not only Google AdWords where PPC campaigns can be done to reach the buyer persona in a great way.
Businesses can also do PPC ads on Twitter, Facebook and for B2B on LinkedIn.
One more thing to keep in mind when doing paid adverting!
You should direct your traffic to dedicated landing pages to convert those prospects into leads.
Take care to prepare a great offer on your landing page to motivate those prospects to leave their contact to follow up with them later and to get them into the lead nurturing process to convert them to sales.
01/30/13 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
What exactly are infographics?
Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly.
Infographics can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends and this is what made them a powerful marketing tool for businesses.
Infographics are shared on the web, Twitter and Facebook more often than other content online.
Infographics are easy to understand, to consume and to share. On Twitter, LinkedIn und StumbleUpon Infographics get more retweets than other content.
Marketers love Infographics because they offer an easy and powerful viral marketing tool to spread the word about the company’s products and services.
B2C and B2B also love infographics as they explain sophisticated facts in a very easy understandable way.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
The most popular Infographics are about business with about 12.7%, technology with about 10% and social media with about 9%.
As infographics are able to explain sophisticated topics in an easy way they are very popular for technology.
Infographic: The State of Infographics
What are your experiences with infographics? Tell me in the comment box below.
12/05/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation, Online Reputation, Real-Time Marketing and PR | No Comments »
Content and social media have become successful ways to get attention from future buyers.
Content creation, marketing and content distribution in social media are proven ways to make interested people aware of your business.
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
When people want to buy products and services they turn to the web, to search engines like Google, Yahoo, social media and their friends and relatives to get information and recommendations about products and services.
Original content builds you trust, customer loyalty and can position your business as trusted experts in your field. It offers the so called value ad for customers
Content marketing has established as a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.
By publishing interesting and remarkable content other blogs, news sites and content curators will link to you which increases your Page Rank and improves your search engine visibility also!
So when you publish expert content on the web you will be recognized as an expert in your field.
On the web you are what you publish… Think a minute what do you publish on the web and in social media? … Exactly! That’s what you are on the web!
If you miss the opportunity which content marketing offers to you, your business will vanish in the dust.
The best way to start content marketing for business is to start a corporate blog.
Recent and future customers can interact this way with your business. You show expertise and offer valuable information to solve your audience’s problems. This gains trust.
Blogging has great advantages and here are the most important:
- 1. Blogging companies get up to 55% more Traffic
- 2. Blogging companies get up to 97% more Inbound Links
- 3. Blogging companies get up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- 4. Blogging companies get up to 25x times more business leads
A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!
10/12/12 by Heather de Wit | Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, General, Get Found Online, social media marketing | 2 Comments »
What is ‘The Arts’ ?
1. The Arts is a group of disciplines, comprising many genres, endeavours or art forms, all united by their employment of the human creative impulse, to express and communicate through various art forms.
2. New and additional genres are being added daily.
3. Let us put them all in one box for ease of understanding. This may be contentious to some globally, who have different perceptions of The Arts.
4. The many forms of expression create an adequate or enormous income for many players, but for others, sadly it must just be perceived as a pastime, due to lack of funds or infrastructures.
5. The Arts are dying in many countries, which are not getting sufficient financial support from their governments or other and so it is time to seek other means of exposure and marketing platforms.
What do The Arts enable ?
1. Imparting a message
2. Telling a true story
3. Education
4. Imparting own gifts
5. Creating mindset shifts
6. Enabling interactive conversation
7. Enabling enjoyment, laughter, sadness, joy etc
8. Self expression
9. Enabling escape from real life – and so on
Let’s look at some players in ‘The Arts’
- MUSICIANS – all genres from jazz to rap
- ARTISTS – all mediums, including sculptors, potters, etc
- DANCERS – al genres, from ballet to hip hop
- COMEDIANS
- MAGICIANS
- SINGERS - from OPERA to RAP – including producers, choreographers
- FILM/THEATRE – actors, directors, writers, producers, choreographers
- WRITERS/AUTHORS – all genres, including poets, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, etc
Players in ‘The Arts’ need to up their marketing game + would do well, by using the Social networking sites + incorporating VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS into their marketing mix
Adding VIDEO CONFERENCING / WEBINARS into the marketing mix :
More and more of The Arts genres are embracing this powerful technology as an adjunct marketing, training, collaboration, communication and exposure platform. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event/training etc..
- DISTANCE Training/Workshops
- Globally teaching, learning + rehearsing dance routines, orchestral music arrangements + scores, scripts etc in advance before show time
- Creating a global environment for creative research across diverse disciplines, where all players can collaborate, experiment and enjoy artistic exchange and learning, exploring the boundaries of synthesizing art and technology
- In this global environment, students can actively explore their creativity and develop, using their own creative gifts through active engagement, reflection and collaboration
- More and more music teachers world wide are embracing this technology to teach pupils to play various instruments in remote areas
Virtual shows can be created in a global Video Meeting Room, where interested parties can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about their particular genre of Art.
o Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour.
o This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.
o Invite reporters or editors to an online web interview.
o These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites and e-commerce sites.
o Online web interviews enable interviewing all relevant journalists at once, with the promotion of their stories on Movie, TV, Radio, Theatre, Music, Dance, Arts etc.
o Webinars enable you to expose large groups of people at once to interviews with actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc..
o Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world.
o They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery.
o Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker to a Webinar, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.
Adding VMail – The new EMAIL – into the marketing mix
What is a Vmail ?
o Video Email is simple to use, online, browser based technology, which enables you to create your own personal Vmails.
o Most technology platforms allow 20 minutes of talk time, which is more than adequate to impart your message.
o Additional videos may also be uploaded into the Vmail, e.g. a virtual tour of an Artist’s gallery or studio, a Singer or Dancer’s debut or demo, etc..
o No software downloads are necessary.
o Bandwidth is not compromised, as the VMail opens on the Internet.
o Most Vmail purveyors allow full integration into your social networks to share on Youtube or Facebook, etc..
WHY use VMAIL ?
Video Email is the new Email ! It is a perfect adjunct marketing tool to incorporate into your Video Communications suite –
Why ?
- It’s Different
- More powerful
- More Personal
- More Effective
- Is Creative
- Seeing is Believing
- Has more Impact
- Grabs the customer’s Attention
- Enables you to literally look into your contact’s eyes and develop a relationship with that person, engaging them on a level that is simply not possible with a static text email
- Enables your voice to resonate on a subliminal level
- Static text emails, are easy to ignore, and at their best, give a customer only the vaguest notion of what your business or craft really values
Facts :
- - Google loves Video !
- - Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video over the next 5 years
- - Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
- - People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
- - Video is the single, most effective form of communication
- - Additional creative marketing platforms are constantly being sought
- - ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective
Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR. She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.
Get in touch with heather :
09/11/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Creation Strategy, Get Found Online, Real-Time Marketing and PR, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
Increasingly consumers shift from traditional to the digital media. They research about products on search engines, forums, and blogs and in social media to get the best products for their money!
To get found online when future customers are looking for products is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
A recent research from media and marketing services firm Valassis shows that 12% of the surveyed grocery retail executives go from usage of 12% social media in 2012 to a 65% usage in the next five years. They also plan to increasing investments in online marketing in general. The have understood the advantages of facebook for business and other networks to build customer loyalty.
An increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge to attract buyers to their offers.
This problem can be solved with Content marketing which has established as a powerful way to engage customers in social media.
Also an increasing number of B2C marketers are faced with the challenge produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers on the web and in social media to their products.
The most popular channel to share content is social media, the advantages of facebook for business and to win customer loyalty are known. About 76% of marketers say they used a social network as the main channel for content distribution.
Successful companies use every possible communication channel to get in touch with their target audience. They are interested in what their recent and future customers are thinking and communicating about them.
Infographic: How Brands Listen in the Digital Age
This communication ability helps them to better understand and to serve their audience, which sets them apart from their competition and gives them wide advantages in their business field.
Businesses which are willing to communicate with their audience in blogs and social media show that they care about the people who spend their money with them.
Read also:
How to Generate Business through Content Marketing
How to Increase Backlinks and Customer Loyalty through Content Marketing
08/21/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Advanced Content, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing, Lead Generation | No Comments »
We live in a customer centric time powered through social media and the rules of marketing and PR has dramatically changed.
The customer chooses by himself through research on search engines like Google, with the help of friends, relatives and his social networks which product to buy and which not.
Then it counts what and if he can find your business on the web.
Marketers need to understand that most people do not go online to buy something. The primarily go online to research for products and services. This is valid for B2C and B2B!
Businesses who publish and share content on the web do not only increase the number of “digital outpost” but moreover increase their visibility and build trust with the future customers. Trust is the main motivation to buy. When your audience trusts you, then you they are willing to do business with you.
Trust can only be build with a long term approach, because what you publish reflects what and who you are.
With great content you position your business and the people of your business who create the content as trusted experts in your field. Content Marketing is great to build your online reputation.
Here are some marketing tips you can use right away.
Give away free content
Give away free content in form of a corporate blog where you write about topics your audience is most interested in. You can get great ideas for blog articles when you go through email and support requests. This will give you a ton of possible blog article topics.
You can also take a camera and explain a task, for example how to use one of your machines and what to take care of. Or you can use photos and testimonials of satisfied customers and publish them too.
You need to invest time/ money to produce content
To find the time to produce remarkable content is the most common problem business face. But as you need to spend time for your business you also need to understand that marketing and content creation is an important part of your lead generation. Therefore you need to set time free to produce remarkable content which will attract new customers to your business.
No matter if you do it by your own or you hire an Inbound Marketing Agency, content marketing is not free. You have the choice, do you want to invest your time or do you want to set a marketing budget and hire a professional Inbound Marketing Agency.
Give away GREAT content
Great content is valuable. It is worth reading and sharing it. Therefore you need to be specific with information which should benefit your future customers. Don’t be afraid to give away “secrets” because this kind of content attracts the most people. And be the end you are the professionals and the future customer will turn to you when he is ready to buy.
Infographic: The Rise of Content Marketing
Six great reasons to consider content marketing to generate more business
Companies who operate a corporate blog on frequent base get …
…up to 55% more Traffic than companies who do not blog
…up to 97% more Inbound Links than companies who do not blog
…up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines than companies who do not blog
…up to 25x times more business leads than companies who do not blog
Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.
Every businesses which ignores these facts will vanish in the dust of today’s networked and quick economy and that’s good.
08/11/12 by Heather de Wit | blogging, General, Get Found Online, Mobile Marketing, social media marketing | No Comments »
This technology can change the world !
Facts :
· Google loves Video !
· Cisco predict there will be a 10 fold increase in the use of Video Conferencing/Webinars over the next 5 years
· Internet Video traffic is now 40% of consumer internet
· People retain 10% of what they hear, but 50% of what they see
· Video is the single, most effective form of communication
· Companies continue to look for additional creative marketing platforms
· ‘Old school’ marketing is no longer effective
What is a Video Conference / Webinar ?
Called by many names a Video Conference, a Video Meeting or a Webinar – all meaning the same thing. It is an highly effective, browser based, simple to use virtual Video Meeting Room, where, at the click of a button with a link, you are able to host large or small online meetings with people locally or globally, to connect, communicate and collaborate.
Access to online meetings is now available on most ‘smart phones’.
Some are saying it is the ‘new’ business card.
Many have not yet fully embraced or grasped the power of this technology, perhaps for fear of losing ‘the personal’ touch or the ‘face to face’ meeting scenario. However, we cannot stop progress and this is where things are headed if you want to see it.
‘Going green’ is what the world is advocating and what better way to save on time, energy, airfares, hotel accommodation, increase productivity and ultimately save money, than by hosting meetings, trainings, launches etc online.
This could be perceived as an adjunct marketing platform, or an additional marketing tool to what you already have in place.
The marketplace has become global and this technology enables you to go global with ease.
General features –
· Attract and drive more people to your business
· Share Powerpoint presentations
· Share ideas
· Share Videos
· Show websites
· Share photos
· Review contracts or documents in a safe and secure environment
· Share your desktop
· Use the white boarding feature, with interactive tools, like drawing and highlighting, to make it simpler for your attendees to collaborate with you.
Creative Uses :
· WEBINAR SERIES
Develop a series of Webinars over a number of weeks, with content relevant to your clients or prospects. In this space, you can educate and demonstrate the value of your products or services. Guest specialist speakers always add value.
· ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEW PRODUCTS or CAMPAIGNS
Invite your media contacts, industry analysts, clients and prospects. Elevate the level of conversation by inviting specialists in your audience to answer questions and provide input.
· GUEST SPEAKERS
People perceive you differently when they know where you are coming from – eg, reducing your carbon footprint. Attract people ‘through the back door’ by hosting a Video Conference, selecting a relevant and current ’green’ subject matter, with the added attraction of a guest speaker, who should be a well-known expert or specialist in that particular field. Your guest speaker will, in their own right, easily attract a large audience – Everyone benefits.
· BOOK LAUNCHES
A book tour can be very costly. Authors can save a fortune by hosting a virtual book tour. This can be co-marketed with e-commerce book companies, online communities and off-line bookstores, that want to drive traffic to their stores and sites.
· The ARTS
For Movie/TV/Radio/Theatre/Music/Dance Promotions, use Webinars to reach large groups of people to interview actors, singers, dancers, poets, playwrights, producers, choreographers, directors etc. These web events can be conducted with the media, through relevant websites, e-commerce sites, TV, newspaper or magazine, radio web sites.
· ART EXHIBITIONS
Artists across all art form mediums, can use Video Conferencing to go global, communicate and show their art to the world. They could even stream a pre-recorded video on a virtual tour of their art from their own studio or gallery. Inviting a well known art expert as a guest speaker, who in their own rights, will attract numbers to the web event, would be an added bonus.
· MEDIA INTERVIEWS
To better assist journalists with their stories, invite reporters or editors to an online web interview to discuss issues, show products, present information and data.
· MARKET RESEARCH
Focus groups can view and research products through audio, chat or text-based questions. Polls and online surveys are also a popular feature in these focus groups and are available features with this technology.
· SPECIAL EVENTS/TRADE SHOWS/EXHIBITIONS
Create a virtual show in a Video Meeting Room, where different companies can participate in interactive sessions, with people interested in learning more about your company’s products and services. Due to budget and time constraints, people cannot always travel far distances to attend an event. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.
• CUSTOMER SERVICE
Give E-Commerce customers live assistance when choosing products. Invite them to a product knowledge session. The Video Meeting Room can feature a live individual or be a pre-recorded session.
· DEMONSTRATING PRODUCTS
Web conferencing is a great way to demonstrate the uses of products.
· EDITING on the fly
Edit on the fly in a safe and secure environment, with people from different geographic regions. Everyone can view the same document simultaneously, so edits can be made quickly and efficiently, without costly delays.
· Editing WEB SITES
This is a highly efficient way to review web pages with a group of people.
· SKILLING, TRAINING
Webinars are becoming increasingly popular and convenient as a training tool.
· RECRUITMENT
Companies can easily go global and hire the best from anywhere in the world, using Video Conferencing as an interviewing tool, inviting prospective employees to interact and collaborate. Here they can upload their resumes and review same with them, together with others, who are part of the hiring process, but are located in other regions.
· CONTACT US
Video Meeting Rooms can be used as a ‘Contact Us’ feature. People can request an instant meeting to talk with you and learn more about what you do.
· INVESTOR RELATIONS
Invite analysts, media and shareholders to a Web Conference for quarterly reviews, announcements and appointments.
· COMMUNITY
A great tool for Community forums and groups to connect, collaborate and communicate on :
o Community issues, problems
o Neighbourhood watches can have a better handle on crime and policing
· COMPANY STAFF, COMMITTEE, SALES or BOARD MEETINGS
More and more businesses are seeing the value of using this technology to communicate and collaborate with employees and management nationally or globally on a more regular basis, saving time, energy, travel, communication bills, accommodation bills, etc, increasing productivity and ultimately saving money.
· DISTANCE EDUCATION
More and more institutions are embracing this technology for :
o Distance learning
o Extra mural classes moderated by Teachers
o Students can ‘study together’ without ‘being together’
o School board meetings
o Teacher training
o Academic contests e.g. debates, with other institutions
· CHURCHES, NGO’s (Charities), CLUBS
Institutions using Webinars can :
o Interact with members and constituents
o Conduct remote study with exchange groups
o Conduct Church meetings
o Conduct Board or Committee meetings
o Host Fundraising campaigns
o Host Planning sessions
o Host Remote counselling
Infographic: Video Conferencing
Heather de Wit considers herself to be an ‘out of the box’ thinker and is happy to share her knowledge on the merits of utilising Video Email and Conferencing/Webinars. Her experience as a sole Entrepreneur for over 20 years spans marketing, advertising and PR. She enjoys creative writing, singing at functions and is a self-taught artist.
Get in touch with heather :
08/07/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, Lead Generation, Online Reputation | No Comments »
To get found online when future customers are looking for products and services is one of the major challenges businesses are facing today.
Millions of businesses competing for paying customers and it have become a difficult task for most of them to stand out of the crowd and to make future customers aware about their offers.
Businesses need to understand that future customers B2B and B2C primarily do not go online to buy something. First they go online for research. They research for products and services and if they found something of interest they research about information about the company. They ask friends, family and their social networks for recommendations and if they know the company the have recently found.
Did you asked yourself what future customers will find when they research your industry for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?
How many people hit your site and how many business leads do generate daily?
Targeted traffic is a result of many tasks which need to be done before you even get the chance to get found by future customers through Google, Yahoo of Bing search.
Actually the best way to increase visibility is content marketing. With content marketing businesses demonstrate thought leadership; prove themselves Trustworthy and Boosts SEO by increase Backlinks to their website.
Remarkable and helpful content is also a great to build customer loyalty. It offers the so called value ad for customers.
The great success of content marketing is the result of giving away valuable information – remarkable content for free to attract people to your business like a magnet.
Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report an up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.
This marketing system works 100% for any business!
Content marketing can also work for you to attract new customers to your business like a magnet.
To empower your content marketing start with a corporate blog!
Blogging companies get…
- …up to 55% more Traffic
- …up to 97% more Inbound Links
- …up to 434% more indexed pages in search engines
- …up to 25x times more business leads
The next steps of content creation are to craft further buyer persona oriented content like:
- - Press releases
- - Pictures
- - Whitepapers
- - How-to’s
- - EBooks
- - Video
Include a call to action in each of your content pieces. This ensures that the user exactly discovers what to do next.
Each of your content pieces is an outpost of your businesses which increases your visibility and improves trust and directs more future customers to your business.
The more content you publish on the web the more online outposts you get in exchange and your chances to get found increase. Other sites will find your content valuable and link back to it. People will share and comment on your content, which also will increase reach and visibility. You increase Backlinks and customer loyalty through content marketing. As simple as that.
07/06/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Get Found Online, Online Reputation, Real-Time Brand Massaging | 1 Comment »
A recent study of Marketo brought out that a wrong chosen color for your business and logo can cost you the success in the long run.
The color of a business is the first impression a future customer will discover when he hits your offer. The study found out that the right product color can influence your target audience purchasing decisions by up to 80%. The right color can make or break a business!
To choose the right color is a process where you have to ask yourself how you want your business to be perceived out there?
You can go the quick and dirty way to choose a brand color but this can cost your business the success in the long run. Or you sit down and use the recent information (for example this below in the infographic) to choose your brand colors wisely.
Infographic: True Colors
Further important resources:
06/01/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Content Marketing, Get Found Online, Lead Generation, social media marketing | No Comments »
Social Media Marketing has been one of the successful marketing strategies for marketers and companies online in recent years.
There are some major social media communities and emerging social media communities that can help business to improve their marketing strategies online. These social media networks help in providing b2b marketing solutions and generate quality marketing tips for new business online.
This article discusses about using 6 top social media communities for b2b marketing best practices and an eye of b2b marketing data giving a glimpse of the power of these social media communities.
Top 6 social networks for B2B marketing solutions
Social Networks have changed the marketing strategies for businesses online with wide range of advantages and quality leads for their business. There are quite a few social networks that help in providing b2b marketing solutions. This article focuses on top 6 social networks that had a major impact on small business b2b marketing.
- Facebook
- Google+
- Pinterest
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Youtube
Infographic: Social Media B2B
Given below are some of the key points on using these social networks for b2b sales strategies.
Using Facebook for b2b Viral Marketing
Social Media is viral and if your business is successfully promoted in social media, you are very much successful in generating quality leads for your business online.
One of the major social media networks that have a huge impact on b2b marketing solutions is facebook. Given below are some of the b2b marketing best practices with facebook
Build your brand presence in facebook
If your brand presence in facebook is successful, you are likely to generate quality leads through facebook. Some of the best ways to generate b2b marketing leads through facebook is by bringing more visibility for your facebook page and generate quality leads using latest facebook apps.
Use Latest features of facebook for optimized lead generation
With the new facebook timeline, you can now share the latest updates regarding your business thus bringing more engagement for your facebook fans. Use the latest features such as pins and stars to bring more visibility for your lead generation pages.
Use the popular features such as open graph to know your visitors approach which is one of the key points for your b2b sales strategies.
Build your business community
It is important to build your own business community to stay ahead of your competitors. For this it is very much necessary to brand your facebook page and update it with the latest happenings. Use your page to provide useful information for your community.
Using Google+ for B2B Lead generation
Google+ is one of the popular social communities which are just started receiving popularity with Google indexing and prioritizing it in search results. Millions of users have already started using Google+
There is huge potential for B2b marketers to generate leads through Google+. Some of the best ways to use Google+ for business are
- - Use the feature of Hangout to create live stream of your business hangout. The latest feature allows up to nine people to hangout using the video function of Google+
- - Use Circles to share your content. It is very important to generate business specific content that is interested by users in your Google+. The best information that can be shared through your circles are virtual conferences, events, interviews and webinars which are very much useful for B2b marketers
- - More is your content in Google+, more is the visibility of your content is search engines especially Google+.
Using twitter for B2b Marketing
Twitter is another top social media community that helps in B2b Viral marketing. Given below are some of the ways b2b marketers can use twitter
- - Use B2b Marketing with your blogs and share your blog content in twitter. This increases visibility of your business in twitter.
- - Increase reach of your business in twitter by increasing your followers. As your business reach increases, more people know about your business which is one of the key B2b viral marketing strategy.
- - Another way of increasing reach and visibility is by asking your employees to tweet your business content. Sharing buttons for your B2b Marketing blogs and allowing your employees to share your business content brings more visibility for your business.
Using LinkedIn for B2b Marketing solutions
LinkedIn is one of the powerful social networks for b2b marketing solutions. As it is professional network, you have major chances for generating b2b marketing leads with LinkedIn.
Some of the best B2b marketing practices of using LinkedIn are
- - Index your B2b marketing blog in LinkedIn and share your latest contest in LinkedIn. This brings more approach for your business in LinkedIn.
- - Use Applications like Slideshare to share your business presentations in LinkedIn.
- - Create your own company page and share business updates through your status updates and group updates. You can also promote your business products through the products tab in LinkedIn. Show your creativity in generating impressive business promotion strategies through LinkedIn.
- - Another important feature of LinkedIn is email marketing, one of the important B2b Viral marketing strategies. Mail your LinkedIn members with email marketing feature of LinkedIn.
Using Pinterest for B2b marketing solutions
Pinterest is another powerful social network for generating B2b marketing leads for new business. Given below are some of the best ways to leverage your b2b marketing solution with Pinterest
- - One of the best ways to promote b2b marketing through Pinterest in developing quality boards and creating pins in suitable boards. This gives members flexibility to find useful information through boards.
- - New product offerings, services can be pinned through suitable boards which increase interest in readers to visit the boards and thereby generating leads.
- - Use Pin info graphics, data and charts to know more about your business reach and thereby optimizing your marketing strategies in Pinterest.
- - Share useful E-books and content information through your pins.
Using YouTube for B2b Marketing solutions
YouTube is one of the popular social media networks which can be used for quality B2b lead generation. Some of the ways of using YouTube for your b2b marketing are given below
- - Share your top level management and interviews in YouTube.
- - Share informative videos related to your business products, new launches and reviews of your business products in Youtube.
- - How to videos, product tours and optimized YouTube search are some of the ways to generate b2b marketing leads with YouTube.
These are some of the best examples of using social networks for b2b lead generation. Consult the inbound marketing experts in optimizing marketing strategies in these social networks thereby increasing profits.
05/30/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Get Found Online, Lead Generation, Mobile Marketing | No Comments »
New studies of Google and Compete found out that that 28% of US B2B C-level executives used mobile devices to research business purchases.
By the growing use and demand of mobile apps companies also become more dependent of them. Popular services like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp, Foursquare, Groupon and other are using apps to stay in touch with their audience.
A new way of search has emerged where B2B executives to look out to find future business partners the more efficient way. Mobile devices have spread around the world and statistics show that about 260 million devices are in use actually and this number will grow by 2014 to more than one billion.
The peace of mobile use among B2B executives is much higher compared to consumers, as they are always looking for ways to do their purchasing process easier and cost efficient.
When B2B executives are on their mobile device they do not go to the web browser to research for products and services your business also as to offer!
According to research data from Oracle and Endeca, from November 2011 one-quarter of B2B ecommerce professionals worldwide agreed that mobile is one of the most influential to get in touch with their customers.
By taking into account the complete penetration of mobile devices among B2B marketers, it is logic they use these devices for their purchase decision making process. They use these mobile devices during their purchasing process to save time.
The trend shows that search engine search traffic will decrease and companies who are active on mobile devices, social media and location based services will get an increase of traffic as B2B executives use them preferable.
Here is a great opportunity for businesses to get in touch with these B2B executives to establish a relationship which can help to make business together. Companies should establishing a mobile web presence and optimizing their communication to reach those B2B executives.
Infographic: Mobile Marketing
If you are not active in mobile marketing than you miss a large opportunity to make B2B executives aware of your company. Take action before your competitor does.
What can you do to get in touch with B2B executives the mobile way?
1st Register with all important location based services like Yelp, Foursquare, Neer, Loopt and SCVNGR. Engage here with your audience, build and customize these digital outposts.
2nd Be active in social media sites like Facebook, Linked, Twitter and others important to your audience.
3rd Jump start your mobile marketing the smart way. Collect the mobile phone numbers from your customers. Establish a database where you store all important information about them to later have the ability to custom tailor personalized messages to reach them the right and human way. Look out for a two SMS marketing software which enables you to do and to control your messages.
4th Optimize your website be reachable in mobile devices and give those interested B2B executives the opportunity to get with in touch quick.
05/11/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | Get Found Online, Lead Generation, social media marketing | 1 Comment »
Social Media marketing has influenced the marketing strategies of business organizations online in recent years.
Almost all of the niches are now using social media marketing for their business promotion online. There is heavy competition in these social media sites as well on grabbing advertisers to market through these sites.
Newly emerged social media sites Google+ and Pinterest have been the major social media sites to watch in recent days. Many say Google+ is ideal for business where as there are experts describing Pinterest as one of the major social media competitors for business online. This article gives a glimpse of using these two social media marketing sites for business.
Identifying the right Social Media Sites for business
Everyone in the marketing world online knows about the advantages of social media marketing and how it can cut your marketing budgets if identified correctly. Previously there were very few promising social media sites such as facebook and twitter which are used by businesses for social media promotion.
But as days went by, top Internet organizations such as Google came up with Google+ with wide range of features for business organizations. Companies are now trying to cap their market share from these fast emerging social media statistics. Inbound marketing experts are now planning to use these social media sites for business lead generation.
Not only recent statistics suggest that Pinterest has also been used largely by organizations for their business promotions. All these social media marketing promotions for lead generations are only started after indepth analysis by marketing experts online. But what are these analytics which led to these decisions? Well an overview of the next paragraph will let you know why Google+ and Pinterest are valuable for business online.
Generating business leads with Google+ and Pinterest
Google+ has brought interest of millions of people online with the type of launch that they have made. Google has taken some of the best steps to create interest in users while launching Google+. Likely within the first 3 weeks of the launch 20 million users started using Google+.
Moreover Google+ profiles and stats have been remarkable and Google started indexing Google+ content. Another interesting stat is that 63% of Google+ users are male and sites that use Google+ started getting 3.5 times more traffic than the sites that haven’t used Google+ for their sites.
Google+ has been prominently used by software developers and college students which brings into the fact that Google+ has a wide range of influence on students and working software professionals.
One important stat that is very much useful for businesses is that 40% of marketers suggest Google+ as prominent tool to promote their business as it is expected to reach 400 million users by the end of this year.
Another prominent social media site Pinterest also managed to gather 10.5 million users as on February 2012. This made businesses eye on Pinterest to promote their business.
Not only for the number of users, Pinterest has prominence for re-use as 80% of pins which are done in Pinterest are re-pins. This means if you are successful in bringing interest to a small group of people using Pinterest , your business many go viral.
Also Pinterest has the power of retaining users similar to facebook and twitter which can be observed from the stat that users have increased by 145% from the month of January.
Another stat that is surprising is that 80% of Pinterest users are female and this is one of the successful social media sites that have brought female interest. If your business is a trending topic, then your business is likely to generate quality leads.
Another important stat that will generate interest in advertisers for business lead generation is lead conversion rate. Lead generation conversation rate in Pinterest is 15% compared to 9% from Google+.
Infographic: Pinterest
Infographic: Google Plus
So putting altogether you should be strategic and take expert opinion while promoting your business through Google+ and Pinterest. Take the expert opinion while make social media promotion through these social media sites. Generate quality business leads from these emerging social media sites and stay ahead of your competitors.
05/03/12 by Dragan Mestrovic | blogging, Content Creation Strategy, Content Marketing, Get Found Online, inbound marketing | 6 Comments »
A MarketingSherpa research found out that creating content is one of the most effective tactics for improving a website’s SEO.
User-Generated Content encountered for Organic search up to 10%, and lead conversion up 125%.
Companies who create content, operate a corporate blog and update it frequently have 55% more website visitors.
57% of companies which operate a corporate blog report to have acquired new customers through their blog.
Corporate Blogging
Blogging gets companies 55% more Traffic and up to 97% more Inbound Links. Companies who blog get 434% more indexed pages in search engines and up to 25x times more business leads.
Video Content Creation
Business who utilize video content creation, encounter up to 300% more monthly unique visitors, and 100% longer average time-on-site per visitor. The average time spent on pages with videos is 3-minutes. Generating video content increases search engine traffic by 157% and page views by 63% unique visitors by 100%.
User generated reviews on ecommerce sites
Content marketing ways like product ratings and reviews are proven to increase conversion rates on product pages.
Visitors of ecommerce pages should be able to include pictures and videos with their reviews. The way like sited as eBay and Amazon do to provide an overall rating are additional ways to increase website interaction.
The value of reviews increases as they are moderated within a short time period of about 24 hrs.
Also sharing these reviews to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other is a great way to distribute this user generated content.
Infographic: The Rise Of Conten Marketing
All above activities are visible to search engines and can lead to a massive growth in traffic.
Creating content takes time, money and expertise. When you need inspiration on which content your audience is interested in, just ask them and they will tell you.
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