Online Business has developed tremendously in recent years.

About Closed Loop marketing

A successful company online is the one which manages its Closed Loop Marketing effectively and strategically. For large companies, inbound marketing experts help to maintain stability over their Closed Loop Marketing strategies and thereby generating Quality Leads for business. But what is this Closed Loop Marketing which helps businesses to develop faster and securely? This article gives a glimpse of Closed Loop Marketing and advantages of using it with the help of marketing experts.

In every business there is competition and company’s invest huge money in generating quality leads. While generating leads is one part of the marketing strategy, the other part is to maintain the marketing budgets by using latest technology and marketing tools.

4 Phases of Closed Loop Marketing

Closed Loop marketing is one of the effective online marketing strategies that help companies to decrease marketing budgets by providing strategic lead generation reports and giving powerful tools for the sales team to increase their lead generation capacity.

One advantage of Closed Loop Marketing is that it increases the Sales of the company as well as giving more freedom for marketing team to generate Quality Leads through proven marketing tools.

There are 4 phases of Closed Loop marketing which in simple words are

• 1. Managing your Visitors and track them
• 2. Check visitor’s requirements and interests
• 3. Generating visitors and leads database using powerful marketing software’s
• 4. Converting leads into customers through a lead nurturing process using powerful Customer Relationship Management software.

Let’s briefly discuss about these four essential steps that helps in a successful inbound marketing strategy.

Step 1: Managing your Visitors

Every company online have lead capture pages and useful content that drives traffic to their website or business online. There are many marketing software’s and tools available online that help you to identify and track the visitors location, source of visitors and give information related to your visitor information.

Marketing experts advise using tracking URL’s for each of these sources so that it is easy to identify the main sources of traffic to your business. This is the first step of closed loop marketing that would be helpful in generating list of visitors who are interested in your business.

Step 2: Identifying visitor’s interests

One of the important parts of closed loop marketing is to identify the difference between the visitor and lead. Many visitors arrive through blogs, social media, pay per click campaigns and other ways of marketing as they are interested in your business.

Once they have a good impression and re-think of visiting your business, they provide their information either subscribing or giving information through lead capture forms.

Step 3: Generating visitors and leads database using powerful marketing software’s

These leads are potential for revenue growth of your business and for increasing customers for your company. By generating separate database for your leads and visitors through powerful marketing software’s, you can concentrate more on sources which have maximized your visitor to lead conversion.

Step 4: Call to action using powerful CRM software

Once you have your lead database, it is up to the CRM software’s and the sales team to put their efforts into action in the final step of Closed Loop Marketing.

Customer Relationship management software’s helps to do lead nurturing and in maintaining synchronization between the sales, marketing and customer support teams which are the critical part of customer’s interaction. There are many CRM software’s that are available in the markets that are recommended by inbound marketing experts according to the business niches.

Infographic: Social CRM Evolution

Start using closed loop marketing for your business by hiring inbound marketing experts who can help you in increasing business revenue and potential leads.

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.

In March 2012, marketing agency Cargo and Inc. Magazine found the majority (52%) of US small-business owners felt companies did not market to them effectively.

Moreover 43% – 45% of the small business owners said companies made little effort to understand their individual needs and their business.

Most of the small business owners do the business important tasks them self, as they do their financials, marketing, sales and services. Their time is full stuffed with work and they do not sit behind a computer a whole day long. As they are mostly working their job and are with their employees and customers they are perfect to be reached by mobile devices as laptops and smart phones.

When B2B marketers want to connect with them they need to be where those small business owners are around and there where they can be reach and where they can reach out to the marketer.

As an increasing number of small business owners places importance on wireless communications and smart phones for their business this is the way to get in touch with them.

Infographic: Local Mobile Search

So what marketers need to do to reach small business owners with their brand massage?

• 1. Make your website mobile friendly. As small business owners love to use mobile devices like smart phones and tables, it makes sense to make it easier for them to consume your content
• 2. Adjust your email marketing, so it becomes and your email massage can be read on the fly. The most email communication is read from mobile devices
• 3. Become active in social media. As all known social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have mobile Apps; you can reach small business owners there through your communication and attract them to your offers
• 4. Start to create and publish buyer persona “small business owners persona” oriented content on the web and in social media. This will increase your visibility and grow your trust
• 5. Respond friendly and professionally to every request, no matter if it comes publicly through social media or by email or support ticket.

Simply copy this text and past it into the comment field, hit the green button and you are done.

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I Nominate http://inblurbs.com/blog/ for the MarketingSherpa Reader’s Choice Awards for these categories:

• Best B2B Marketing Blog

• Best Inbound Marketing Blog

• Best SEO Blog

• Best Marketing Strategy Blog

• Best Social Media Blog

• Best Viral Marketing Blog

• Best Marketing Operations Blog

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Nominate here!

Thank you very much.

Best,

Dragan

P.S. Tell your friends also.

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.

An eMarketer study found out that 79% of US marketing professionals said they plan to increase spending on social media marketing and 24% of them said that social media will be the most-used tactic in the ad industry this year.

As the number of areas and activities increase marketers are confronted with various platforms and various ways to use and measure those platforms. Marketing tools and automation are the most seen challenges.

“In the Marketing Tools Study 2012 from digital marketing technology and services company PointRoll and Kelton Research, US marketing professionals reported using multiple tools in each campaign they execute. More than half of respondents used more than five tools in a single advertising and marketing campaign, with 33% saying they averaged five to six, 15% saying seven to nine and 13% saying they used an average of 10 or more.”

This results show that marketers come closer to paralysis through analysis! The more tools have been used the more time is spend on them.

Instead of to improving their marketing marketers are bound in tools mess!

Marketers should focus one tool which helps them to get found online and in social media by more qualified visitors, helps them to convert more visitors into leads, to close those leads efficiently and which provides analytics to help make smart marketing investments.

Watch this Video!

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.

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.

Businesses which avoid an open and authentic communication in blogs and social media show exactly the opposite. Why should the customer than care about to make any further business with them?

Successful businesses in B2C and B2B have embraced the wide opportunities which blogs and social media offers to them to spread the word and to reach their audience where there are around.

Recent data show that B2B marketers are very satisfied with the benefits of their social media marketing:

• – Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media, compared to 45% of B2C
• – 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts, compared to 50% of B2C
• – 69% of B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts, compared to 60% of B2C
• – But B2C marketers are better when it comes to developing a loyal fan base (63% of B2C vs. 53% of B2B marketers)

Where are Marketers going in 2012?

LinkedIn

• • 76% of B2B marketers will increase their use of LinkedIn
• • 55% of B2C marketers will increase their use of LinkedIn

Blogging

• • 71% of B2B marketers plan to invest more time in blogging
• • 65% of B2C marketers plan to invest more time in blogging

Facebook

• • 68% B2B marketers will increase their use of Facebook
• • 76% B2C companies will increase their use of Facebook

Infographic: How Engaged is Your Brand?

The 2012 topics of interest for Marketers are:

Marketer B2B and B2C are mostly interested to learn more about ways on how to use Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter for Business.

Marketers are also interested on how to measure the effectiveness of social media, how to converting activities to sales and to learn the best social media tactics.

Do you have position your business for an open and authentic communication with your audience in blogs and social media yet?

We all know them they request information or better a quote for products and services, you invest time and enthusiasm to help them and they do not come to the point or even to a deal!

When you have this kind of situation than a special sort of criminal is approaching your business, times thieve!

But don’t panic and remain calm.

Sure he is not a real criminal in the sense of law, but he steals your valuable time, and time is money, so on the end of the day he steals you the opportunity to talk to a really interested future customer, right?

You protect your home from thieves but do you protect your time?

Here are some tips how you can protect your valuable time from time thieves:

• Ask them to register on a landing page to get more info. So you sort out the most of them and save time on lead qualification.
• If you need more info and other than you can ask on the landing page, sent them a questionnaire to complete and to return to you. If they do not do it, they are not serious and would never do business with you. You safe your time on evaluating his stuff.
• When they send you the questionnaire back, but not complete try to get the missing info from them and ask by email. If they are serious, they will reply, if not you safe time again and have not to try to convince them of anything, because they are not serious and will never buy from you.
• Ok, now all questions are answered from the lead, but the leads brings up new excuse- doubt, when the last was cleared from you through facts, so you get the feeling “time thieve” than he is probably one.
• At this point the time has come to say him good by. You can say to him “Your ideas are interesting, I will keep them in mind” that is how to end a conversation with a time thief.

Infographic: Lead Generation

How are your experiences with time thieves? I am looking forward to your comment.

Further valuabel sources:

• 8 secrets to generating leads at trade shows
• Creating an Effective Lead Generation Program
• How to Multiply Marketing results the Smart Way? Combine In and Outbound
• How B2B Marketers Can do Social Media Lead Generation the Smart Way

For a restaurant to get new guests the audience needs to know that you exist and what you have to offer. So you need to get found!

When you operate or just start a restaurant it can make sense to use Groupon for the first six months to help boost your reach so more people learn about your restaurant. But when the first six month are over you need to have a holistic strategy prepared to attract new guests to your restaurant and keep the actual coming back.

But what if you do not have the time and the experience in house to do so? And which strategy should you use, which one brings the big bang for your marketing buck?

Inbound marketing has been the most successful Internet marketing strategies in recent years.

Many businesses from different industries are using inbound marketing since about ten years as it is highly productive for their business. This article will give you a few examples why restaurant businesses should outsource their marketing and advantages in doing so.

Inbound marketing has been the successful and cheapest marketing trends in online world now. Inbound marketing generated leads have a proven 62% lesser Cost per Lead (CPL) and an up to 55% higher conversion rate! It simply outperforms any other way of marketing like TV, Radio, Print Media, Mass mail, Trade shows, Pay per click, Cold calling, etc.

All major brands and thousands of small and mid size businesses have switched to these powerful marketing strategies. Inbound marketing needs expertise, dedication and commitment and companies can benefit by hiring a professional inbound marketing agency. It is beneficial for companies to outsource their marketing in order to concentrate more on their business and leave their marketing strategies for the experts in the field.

Infographic: Dining and Restaurant Reservation Trends

Advantages of Outsourcing Marketing for Restaurant

Restaurant business is popular though its wide opprotunites it offers. Hundreds of success stories show and prove how money can be made by operating a good restaurant. Chains like Burger Kind, KFC prove this. Also celebrities have discovered the restaurant business as a profitable way to make extra revenue.

With increasing competition, regular restaurants have also started their business online and taking reservations and orders. With many competitors creeping up, it is very much important for the restaurant owners to get themselves updated with the latest marketing trends online to stay out of the crowd.

1. Get found online through inbound marketing

Main requirement of restaurant industry is the word of mouth marketing and getting new customers. So it is important for the businesses in restaurant industry to concentrate on their competence and outsource the marketing it for the inbound marketing experts to lead new guests to their restaurant.

Main advantage of inbound marketing is to get found online at the start to the customers. By hiring marketing experts who use the latest social media marketing and analytical tools for analysis, companies need not worry about the fast changing marketing trends and strategies.

2. Marketing Experts help you in Social Media and Content Marketing

Social Media and content marketing through blogging have increased in popularity as consumers are increasingly looking online for reputable sources to spend their money. Content marketing is increasingly used by companies to get new customers to their business.

If we take an example, companies that blog get 55% more visitors to their business website. So it is very much important to use these types of marketing strategies to gain new customers for your restaurant as well.

Another important strategy that has been successful is the social media branding for  business and being active in social media. It is very much important to update your social media profiles regularly as search engines have started indexing your business social media content. This brings more prominence for your business in search engine marketing.

Not only search engines, your customers are also very much interested with the latest news, promotions and deals that are updated in your blog and social media.

To get potential leads and increase their prominence in market place, it is therefore useful to hire the marketing experts to do this job for restaurant industry.

3. Less Marketing Budgets and risk free business marketing strategy

Inbound marketing is the cheapest marketing strategy in the long term. It is easy to outsource your marketing by hiring an inbound marketing agency and build prominence on the web for your restaurant business.

By using various effective and creative marketing, inbound marketing agencies help to stay ahead of your competitors and get found online easily to potential customers.

Not only do the inbound marketing agencies help to do your marketing, they also help you to minimize your budgets on the long term.

Summary of what you get by executing a professional marketing strategy?

A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget
B. Stand out of your competition
C. Generate a massive amount of leads
D. Get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
E. Increase your customers and sales

These are some of examples on how you can benefit by outsourcing your restaurants marketing to a professional inbound marketing agency. Start your inbound marketing today and stay ahead of your competitors

Read also:

• 15 Ways to SMART Mobile Inbound Marketing for Restaurants
• How to use Inbound Marketing for your Coffee Bar
• How Inbound Marketing outperforms PPC the smart way
• Is Inbound Marketing to expensive for YOU too?

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When you feel you need help to execute this combined marketing strategy just let us know. Request a free custom quote today!

When it comes to led generation than “nothing beats the inbound marketing strategy”!

Inbound marketing builds you trust before the sale. Means your audience learn about your business and your products before they are looking to buy from you and without pushing them.

This increases your chance they select your company when they are ready to purchase.

Studies from the past five years revealed that a seriously executed inbound marketing strategy results in up to 62% lower cost per lead an in an up to 55% higher lead conversion rate.

Inbound marketing consists of content creation, content distribution, content marketing, Social Media communication, Lead generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Conversion, and Closed-Loop Analysis to refine and improve the activities.

Companies who execute an inbound marketing seriously build trust, their brand and are recognized as a reputable source on the web. They get found on the web when future customers are looking, instead of pushing them with dump old fashioned sales pitches.

Infographic: The Inbound Marketing Multiplier

What do you get by executing a professional marketing strategy?

A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget.
B. Stand out of your competition.
C. Generate a massive amount of leads.
D. Get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates.
E. Increase your customers and sales.

When you feel that you need help to execute this combined marketing strategy just let us know. Request a free custom quote today!

BRANDfog found out that consumers and employees regard company leaders who engage on social media platforms positively.

Social media is a great way to showcase a C level executive’s personality and to offer a more personal insight view. C level executives have great opportunities to show personality to attract the right buyer persona and to get in touch with the right new future customer when this one is looking out for products and services.

Five reasons for C level executive’s to engage:

• 1. CEO participation in social media leads to improved brand image
• 2. CEO participation in social media leads to better communication
• 3. CEO activity on social networks influences employees’ faith in their company
• 4. Employees trust a company more when the CEO and leadership team communicate via social media
• 5. Buyers are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media

Financial services firm ING Direct Canada is known for its tweeting CEO, Peter Aceto.

Aceto says that using social media helps him gauge how employees and consumers view the company and its products:

“We saw it as a competitive advantage for us,” Aceto said. “There was no science. There was no ROI. We just needed to get going, start to build a community and learn about how we can use it.”

C level executives have the great opportunity to become real “Trust Agents of their Brand” with very less effort and the rewards can be huge!

If C level executives are not willing to listen and to communicate in social media their audience will turn to their competition which is willing, for sure. When brands are not willing to listen and to learn it simply shows that they do not care about their buyers. And why should their buyers than care to spend their money with them?

Infographic: How Executives Are Using Social Media

Click the graphic to enlarge

Marketing takeaway for C level executives:

Start in social media with a Twitter account and begin your communication. It is not time consuming as a blog and video and can be managed from your blackberry on the fly. As simple as that!

Further resources:

• CEOs Who Tweet Held in High Regard

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/why-ceos-and-cmos-should-join-the-socialsphere/feed/ 1 http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-decrease-ad-spending-increase-lead-count-and-conversion/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-decrease-ad-spending-increase-lead-count-and-conversion/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:56:51 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=5069 Read more →]]> Social media has become the most popular distribution channel, this is no secret. But still the most marketers rely on paid advertising nevertheless they can reach their audience in social media with no paid ads for a faction of the costs.

Advertising industry research firm Advertiser Perceptions found out that:

More than half (59%) of US marketers and agencies planned to increase their social media display ad spending on sites like Facebook in the next 12 months.

The good news is that 62% of marketers say that social media is important to critical for their business. And the bad news is that 59% of them want to buy customer attention instead of earning it by a simultaneously decrease of cost per lead up to 62%.

It is a good approach to be visible where your audience is around. But the way how you are visible is more important than a big ad budget.

Moreover a big ad budget does not mean you will be successful with your lead generation campaign.

The most profitable method to gain customer attention in the long term is to offer something of value for the audience. Information which is remarkable and share worthy.

Smart content marketing has proven to be a great way to create brand awareness and to e most effective to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers. The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video.

A good way to start a smart dialogue is to ask open questions. To ask the audience about their opinion about the published content will open discussions where a brand get the opportunity to respond in a professional, authentic and human way.

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report n up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

Publish buyer persona oriented remarkable content. This can be achieved with a corporate blog very quick.

How can your business profit from this?

• 1. Start a social media presence. Complete your profile there.
• 2. Research for industry related B2B groups and people. Become a member and invite those people to your network.
• 3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening.
• 4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your B2B audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in social media and ask for feedback for your publication.
• 5. Build landing pages and offer exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related B2B leads.
• 6. Measure your activities.
• 7. Improve your activities and repeat.

This can lower your cost per lead up to 62%, increase your lead conversion up to 55% and boost your revenue the smart way.

Further resources:

• Video Top Asset Created for Content Marketing
• Marketers Accelerate Social Display Ad Spending

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Any B2B business can use social media as a source of unfiltered information and as powerful business intelligence tool to predict trends, for support and product development. Social media has proved in the past years that it can bring positive ROI when done right.

A recent study from Sagefrog Marketing Group shows how companies have learned to leverage social media.

Leveraging social media for branding and building awareness helps B2B companies.

4 Ways how companies can leverage social media:

• • Increase brand awareness
• • Humanize B2B companies
• • Establish as thought leader
• • Connecting with customers and prospects

An increasing number of companies like Intuit, Sysco, Cisco, GE Healthcare and AT&T are using social media for effective business lead generation.

What sites, tactics and strategies are B2B marketers including in their social media outreach?

To do their social media outreach B2B marketers include professional networking sites like LinkedIn which have proven to be an effective way to generate business leads. Furthermore they utilize social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also which are helping them to reach customers in new ways.

Some numbers about Social Media Lead Generation

“67% of B2C and 47% of B2B companies report to have acquired new customers through Facebook.” “47% of companies who use Twitter report to have acquired new customer through it.”

Online Marketing strategies like banner ads have been replaced through proven buyer persona oriented content creation which also brings better ROI than pay per click marketing (PPC).

A corporate blog has become the number one content marketing tool for companies. The importance of blogging is growing and people are adding nearly 3 million blogs per month. [Technorati 2011 State of the Blogosphere Report]

Studies show that companies who operate and update a corporate blog frequently have 55% more website visitors. From those companies 57% which operate a corporate blog report to have acquired new customers through their blog.

There is no question content marketing, corporate blogging connected with social media distribution is definitely a revenue driver for B2B companies.

Infographic: B2B Social Media on the Rise

Further resources:

• B2B Marketers Optimistic About Social Media for Lead Generation
• Get up to 25 times more business leads with Content Marketing
• How to save 62 percent of your budget with inbound marketing

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Tweet this on Twitter!

Free Report: Get found and get leads the smart way.

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Social Media has proven to be a source of targeted high quality leads for B2C and B2B. An increasing number of marketers see lead generation as their greatest online marketing challenge.

Marketers which experienced the business value of social media marketing know that social media is one of their most successful and cost effective marketing channels.

Studies show that companies which relying on online lead generation are two times more profitable than those who do not. Those companies achieve an up to 62% lower costs per lead.

In social media B2B marketers are focusing mostly on LinkedIn which is the most successful channel for B2B lead generation followed by corporate blogging.

A study from Wildfire Interactive shows that social media helps grow brand awareness, increase sales and partnerships and helped to reduce marketing costs.

How can you profit from this trend?

• 1. Start a social media presence. Complete your profile there
• 2. Research for industry related B2B groups and people. Become a member and invite those people to your network
• 3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening
• 4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your B2B audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in social media and ask for feedback for your publication
• 5. Build landing pages and offer exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related B2B leads
• 6. Measure your activities
• 7. Improve your activities and repeat

Read this article also: Get social to get found from your future customers

Infographic: Digital Marketing Budgets

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In the past marketers have been dependent on static inflexible campaigns and surveys which took days, weeks or months before companies get an understanding of how consumers are responding to their brand messaging.

To keep up with the today digital pace is a challenge which every marketer is facing by doing brand messaging.

Also it is not necessary anymore to wait for days, weeks or months to get an idea how brand messaging work and if the recent results are going into the right direction.

By taking the advantages of social media into account marketers have the opportunity to get unfiltered real time feedback from their audience about the impact of their brand messaging. Also they have the opportunity to refine their brand messaging in real time by carefully listening to their audience and offer buyer persona tailored information to make their brand outstanding.

This messaging can be improved online in real time and on daily base to lead the messaging towards the company goals.

Brand marketers need to move beyond campaign mode and post campaign measurement and take advantage of real time feedback and metrics on brand messaging performance.

The first question which marketers face to answer is: How far is the reach of my brand messaging?

To get an idea you need to know some metrics about social media and sharing.

• LinkedIn
• Each LinkedIn user has an average of 60 connection and messages there are shared on average 0.3 times.
• Facebook
• Each Facebook user has an average of 130 friends and messages there are shared on average 0.65 times.
• Twitter
• Each Twitter user has an average of 300 followers and messages there are shared on average 1.5 times.

Calculation example “Facebook”

When your company Facebook page has 1000 likes, it means your messages are visible on these 1000 peoples wall as well in the moment when they are published on yours.

We have learned that an average Facebook user has 130 friends.

Your potential brand message reach: 1000 (Likes) x 130 (each one of them) = 130,000 – 1000 (Likes) = 129,000 (possible additional people to see your brand message)

We have also learned that an average Facebook user shares a message on average about 0.65 times. This could increase your visibility to additionally 83,850 people. Your estimated brand messaging reach could be 212,850 people.

Infographic: How Engaged is Your Brand?

You can’t buy a good branding anymore you need to earn it day by day.

To earn reputation and a trustworthy brand to reach an increasing amount of people you need to offer valuable information – content there where your audience is around on the web and in social media. Remarkable and valuable content can be shared from people in the networks and travel on light speed around the globe.

On the web you are what you publish. What are you?

—David Meerman Scott

To take advantage of the real time opportunities the web and social media offer, you need to transform your marketing from static campaign mode to real time mode and make use of daily news, events and the social vibe your audience gives you as a feedback.

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Facebook has about 830 million users worldwide which means it reaches one fifth of the global population.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicted there will be 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, 63.2% of internet users will visit a social network at least once a month, rising to 67.6% in 2013 and 70.7% in 2014.

The top ten largest countries are:

• 1. United States 155,886,800
• 2. India 45,018,540
• 3. Indonesia 43,521,320
• 4. Brazil 42,199,700
• 5. Mexico 33,599,040
• 6. Turkey 31,526,380
• 7. United Kingdom 30,484,380
• 8. Philippines 27,718,720
• 9. France 24,100,240
• 10. Germany 23,251,880

The search volume on Facebook has overtaken Google. And there are not only consumers who research there. B2B is also using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks to research for products, services, industry related information and new business partners.

Social media is a great way to showcase a business and to offer a more personal insight view. A company has great opportunities to show personality to attract the right buyer persona and to get in touch with the right new future customer when this one is looking out for products and services.

Social media has proved in the past years that it can bring positive ROI when it’s done right.

Some successful business examples are Intrepid Travel, Easy Lunch Boxes, and SnapRetail just only to name some of them.

As businesses understand that social media is no short term sprint than more something like a marathon they engage with more diligence to plan their steps to reach a long term ROI.

A study from Wildfire Interactive shows that social media helps grow brand awareness, increase sales and partnerships and helped to reduce marketing costs.

Infographic: Small Business + Social Media Use

Engaging in dialogue with customers via social media has become an important part of successful companies.

Smart marketers measure the value of social media channels as well. They want to know which one has the best results for their business. One of the most popular channels is Facebook. About 44% of surveyed marketers say that “Facebook is valuable because they help with new customer recruitment”.

A proven working strategy is to add lead capture pages to your in social published articles and to track the traffic, leads, lead to customer rate and revenue per generated lead. So you get a good picture of your cost per lead and adjust activities to increase your profits.

Studies show that companies which relying on online lead generation is two times more profitable than those who do not. Those companies achieve up to 62% lower costs per lead.

Get active and establish your outpost in social media today!

Seven steps to establish your brands social media outpost:

• 1. Start a social media presence. Complete your profile there.
•  2. Research for industry related B2B groups and people. Become a member and invite those people to your network.
• 3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening.
• 4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your B2B audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in social media and ask for feedback for your publication.
• 5. Build landing pages and offer exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related B2B leads.
• 6. Measure your activities.
• 7. Improve your activities and repeat.

What do you think? How do you use social media?

Further Resources:

Facebook Helps Get One in Five People Worldwide Socializing on Online Networks

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Free EBook: 9 Easy Steps to Facebook Success

download here…

]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/an-easy-way-to-reach-one-fifth-of-the-world-with-your-brand-message/feed/ 2 http://inblurbs.com/blog/get-up-to-40-revenue-boost-through-content-marketing/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/get-up-to-40-revenue-boost-through-content-marketing/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:33:08 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=5014 Read more →]]> Strategic content marketing has proven as one of the best ways to create brand awareness. Content marketing has proven to be the best and most cost effective way to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers.

Companies utilizing content marketing strategy report n up to 2,000% lift in blog traffic and 40% boost in revenue.

The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video.

Publish buyer persona oriented remarkable content. This can be achieved with a corporate blog very quick.

Here are some facts about the power of blogging:

• 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

In the next stages you should craft buyer persona oriented…

• Press releases
• Pictures
• Whitepapers
• EBooks
• Video

These pieces of content you can distribute on sites like Prweb.com, Flickr.com, Pinterest.com, Slideshare.net and YouTube.com.

Infographic: The Rise Of Content Marketing

Case Study: Overall Content Marketing Strategy Leads to 2,000% Lift in Blog Traffic, 40% Boost in Revenue

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Today on eMarketer an article captured my attention:

An analysis of AdParlor and SocialBakers found out that industry such as electronics, travel and entertainment are more social marketing friendly than others.

It found out also that Merchant / Banking services, Health/ Fitness and Tourism have higher CPC rates than for example Promotions and Beauty/ Cosmetics. See graphic below.

What does it mean, when an industry needs to pay more than another to get attention and does not get the click trough rates on the end of the day too?

Infographic: Small Business Social Media

Social media is about conversation and about trust. Companies who handle social media authentically and communicate this way with their audience get the most social media juice out and are also well recognized when they do paid campaigns on places like facebook.

Every business who engages in social media needs to understand that trust can’t be bought there. They need to earn it step by step, day by day and year by year.

How can a business earn trust and decrease their ad spending in social media?

• 1. Listen to your audience and contribute to the conversation if you have something valuable to say.
• 2. Develop buyer persona oriented and remarkable content and publish it online and share it in social media. Ask your audience for their opinion about the published content and listen carefully.
• 3. Us the unfiltered social media feedback to improve your service, support your product and your communication.
• 4. Develop your products and services tailored for your audience.
• 5. Measure all what you do and improve your doings.

These above points can earn you trust reputation and respect from your audience. Moreover it can improve your revenue significantly.

Let me know what you think. Do you have similar experiences?

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Like market leading airlines, private air charter is in a very competitive business.

Private air charter companies need to be in front of their audience when they are looking if they want to increase business and revenue.

Private air charter companies need their audience to talk about them to spread the word about their brand.

As long their recent and future clients are talking about them, they have realistic chances to get seen, visited and to increase their business.

The challenge:

When a Google search is carried out for the search term “Private air charter” there is about 2,740,000 results.

Under these circumstances it is difficult for a private air charter company to get seen and noticed from their future customer amid of this massive amount of search results.

The solution is that a private air charter company has to stand out of their competition to attract clients like a magnet.

With the proven inbound marketing strategy a private air charter company can place them self in an unrivaled position against their competition!

When interested audience is looking for private air charter services and they go on the internet to Google, Yahoo and Bing for research. Customers also rely on recommendations from friends and business partners when they choose private air charter services. Customers go to their favorite social networks as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to do their research there as well.

Three important questions you should ask yourself:

• • Can your private air charter business be found on Google from potential customer when they are looking?
• • Do you know what’s been talked about you or your competition online?
• • Why should a customer fly with your private air charter company?
• • Is your private air charter website an asset or a liability?

Marketing has changed and Private air charter business’ need to be where their audience is on the internet. The market leading airlines are!

Private air charter business’ need to utilize the Inbound Marketing strategy for their business to get found, to get leads and to increase their customers and revenue!

Inbound marketing strategy that focuses on getting found by customers when they research online for products and services a business offers.

With inbound marketing businesses earn their way to the customer, by publishing helpful and remarkable information on a blog, in social media and forums.

Inbound marketing includes Content Creation like Blogging, Social Media Communication, Lead Generation, Nurturing, Conversion and Closed-Loop Analysis.

Content creation

Content marketing has become a significant part of online marketing strategy. Content marketing has proven to be the best and most cost effective way to drive traffic to a company website and convert this traffic to leads and customers.

The most popular ways of content marketing are blogging, social media and video. Studies show that 57% of companies which operate a corporate blog get customers through their blogging effort.

We suggest to publish buyer persona oriented remarkable content. This can be achieved with a corporate blog.

• • Studies show that companies who blog receives up to 55% more target traffic than companies who do not blog.
• • Studies also show, the higher the volume of published blog posts the more the traffic increases.

Social Media Marketing

A company should also be active in social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and hand picked niche networks Social media marketing has become a powerful tool to spread remarkable content to reach a wide audience.

For companies who engage in social media and show presence in these channels get in the position to open wide opportunities to get in touch with their audience. This leads to an increase of credibility and unfiltered feedback of the target audience and can lead to an improvement of products and services.

New studies show that up to 65 percent of today’s customers expect a brand to listen and to respond on questions, comments and complaints in social media. Studies also show that companies which use social media actively to communicate with their audience are more successful than companies who do not.

Infographic: How Airlines Have Taken Flight With Social Media

Lead Generation

Inbound marketing has a 62% lower cost per lead than traditional marketing strategies. Inbound marketing way generated leads have a 55% higher lead conversion rate than lead generated through traditional marketing strategies.

• • Studies show that companies with 17+ landing pages increase their lead count disproportionately.

Lead Nurturing – Lead Conversion

Effective lead nurturing increases lead conversion by up to 55%. Which does not mean that lead nurturing consist of sales pitches. Moreover effective lead nurturing is also a communication process with the future customer in which the lead receives helpful and valuable information too.

This grows the trust and increases the chances that a customer flies with your private air charter when he is ready to do so, because he knows the source as a trusted and reputable one.

Closed-Loop Analysis

All marketing tasks need to be measured to ensure you are walking the right way. During this closed loop analysis you increase successful tasks measure, improve and repeat. This ensures a step by step quality increase and a gradually decrease of marketing costs up to 62%.

In a nutshell, inbound marketing:

• A. saves your business up to 62% of the marketing budget
• B. makes your private air charter business stand out of the competition
• C. increase brand value and recognition
• D. generate a massive amount of leads
• E. gets you up to 55% higher lead conversion rates
• F. increase customers and sales

Let me know what you think, did I miss anything?

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I wonder because everybody knows that communication in social media can’t be done as a campaign when it should be done successful. It should be authentic and ongoing to bring positive results.

But sadly for some people out there social media is still seen as some kind of marketing message blasting machine and not as a valuable source of connection and communication with recent and future customers.

Old fashioned marketing and PR agencies have jumped on the social media bandwagon and try to replicate their business from yesteryear to social media. This does not work. Why? The answer is very simple: They need to focus on what is important for the target audience and not what’s important for them (to sell more)!

Business which do not move forward, mentally and technologically have their enormous share on this invaluable marketing spam. They still think if they bother their target market long enough with old school marketing blasts than the target audience will buy some day. They also do not care about what their audience thinks what they like or dislike.

To get the attention from their target audience brands have to be interested what their audience is interested in. To learn what this might be needs brands to get connected and to communicate with them in social media “without try to sell anything”.

Do you know the old saying: Listen and learn!?

If brands are not willing to listen in social media their audience will turn to their competition which is willing to listen for sure. When brands are not willing to listen and to learn it simply shows that they do not care about their buyers. And why should their buyers than care to spend their money with them?

Infographic: Small Businesses Using Social Media

Recent studies show: People b2c and b2b expect brands to be actively listen and engage in social media, in real-time!

Brands should not trade a campaign against a holistic marketing strategy which also includes an authentic social media real-time communication. The “Campaign-Only Mode”does not work in real-time!

What brands also can do to improve their reputation is to care lesser about what they want and care more about what their buyers want, because this is the crucial point. This works only in real-time!

What do you think, did i miss something?

Further important sources:

• Brilliant Newsjacking alert – The Artistifier

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The revenue spending on social networks are increasing this is a fact. More and more businesses discover that social networks are a great communication tool to get in touch with their audience.

B2C and B2B have realized that the business decision makes are active in the social web and try to reach them by paid advertising.

It is a good approach to be visible where your audience is around. But the way how you are visible is more important than a big ad budget.

Moreover a big ad budget does not mean you will be successful with your lead generation campaign. The opposite is more likely the result.

Smart marketers use PPC only for short campaigns, and not as a substitute of a holistic strategy.

Why? Because PPC has no log term value for marketing, when you stop your PPC your lead flow also stops. Another point is that you do not earn any trust in the market with PPC. Anybody can bid for the highest keywords. You can’t buy trust and reputation by bidding the highest price per click!

When it comes to led generation than “nothing beats the inbound marketing strategy”!

Studies from the past five years revealed that a seriously executed inbound marketing strategy results in up to 62% lower cost per lead an in an up to 55% higher lead conversion rate.

Inbound marketing consists of content creation, content distribution, content marketing, Social Media communication, Lead generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Conversion, and Closed-Loop Analysis to refine and improve the activities.

Furthermore companies who execute an inbound marketing seriously build trust, their brand and are recognized as a reputable source on the web. They get found on the web when future customers are looking, instead of pushing them with dump old fashioned sales pitches.

Infographic: Inbound Marketing on the rise

Companies who utilize inbound marketing simply leave their competition behind them in the dust. Inbound marketing is brain versus budget, and in the long term the brain always wins!

What do you think? Did I miss anything?

Further resources:

• Is Inbound Marketing to expensive for YOU too?
• How to use Social Media for Customer Acquisition

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-inbound-marketing-outperforms-ppc-the-smart-way/feed/ 2 http://inblurbs.com/blog/why-to-attract-generation-y-who-increasingly-spending-more-money-online/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/why-to-attract-generation-y-who-increasingly-spending-more-money-online/#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:32:03 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=4952 Read more →]]> Generation Y, young, digital-savvy consumers, are the 18- to 34-year-old age group which has grown up with internet and social media. They communicate about product and services with their friends on social networks. They read and write online reviews and are more likely to recommend products.

They have higher wages and are more likely to spend their money on luxury goods as well.

A survey done by American Express Business Insights find out that Generation Y increased their spending 31% in 2011 over 2010.

Famous brands have discovered this trend and are more active their where Generation Y is around on the web. This is about B2C.

But how about B2B and what can they use this information for?

As Gen. Y goes older they will get more influential jobs and positions in companies and this is what makes them interesting for a B2B approach.

For you if you are in B2B, you should follow the examples of the big consumer and luxury brands and establish your outposts on the web and in social media.

As those Gen. Y users actually do not have influential positions they are an interesting community for you and your human resources to get new talent for now. This also gives you the opportunity to play

You should build a strong network all over the coming years, establish your business as a trusted and reputable source and grow awareness for your B2B activities.

This will let you enough time to learn their interests and to learn their way life, so you can speak their language when it comes to do business with them. This knowledge and the existing connections will make you business much easier within the next twenty years.

Your today’s activities will be your investment in your businesses future. In the first step you improve your human resources and get in touch with talent where they are around on the web and in social media. And for second you learn a lot about their interests and what they appreciate and what they do not like.

Infographic: WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?

Marketing takeaway tip: Improve you online presence by become active in social media. Start publishing valuable target content through a blog, video, eBooks, and whitepapers. Improve your website and make it a great marketing hub to communicate with your audience and to attract Gen. Y job seekers for your business.

Further important resources:

• On Facebook, Millennials Friend an Average of 16 Co-Workers …
• The Paperless Office?
• ‎Millenials / Generation Y Infographic – eLearning Blog Dont Waste …
• INFOGRAPHIC: Generation Y, Employment And Facebook
• Gen Y Speeds Up Luxury Goods Spending
• INFOGRAPHIC: Guess Who Employs The Most Gen-Y People In …

‎

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/why-to-attract-generation-y-who-increasingly-spending-more-money-online/feed/ 3 http://inblurbs.com/blog/get-your-share-of-the-123-growth-in-mobile-purchasing/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/get-your-share-of-the-123-growth-in-mobile-purchasing/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:43:50 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=4936 Read more →]]> Or How Mobile Devices will Make 90% of Your SEO Efforts Obsolete in the Future

In the past it has been important for a business to have good SEO in place to get found on the search engines through their target audience. Businesses optimized their websites and published content with keywords on a frequent basis.

In the last years content marketing has emerged and a new era began on how to manage it to get found from customers who research on search engines and than in social media. At this time buyer persona content creation is a must for businesses to increase their chances to get found on the web.

Companies need to spend enough diligence to identify their buyer personas because of to reach their lead generation goals. Smart content marketing is a critical factor to attract the right buyer personas to a company website and convert them to leads and during a lead nurturing process to revenue!

But a new way of search has emerged where some of these tactics above does not fit anymore. 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.

When people are on their mobile device they do not go to the web browser to research for a restaurant or retail store.

They rely on their mobile apps from Foursquare, Yelp, Gowalla, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other which give them information instantly and also location based information where how to hit a great location. Also in the B2B sector more CEOs are researching for products and services on their IPads, IPhone; Blackberry and Android. This trend is increasingly growing.

Search traffic will decrease and companies who are active on location based services will get an increase of traffic as people use them preferable.

Consumer Trend in Mobile Purchases

2009-2010, % of consumers making 1 or more m-purchase

Source: Oracle / ATG

What does it mean for businesses?

For a business this means to get engaged on those social networks and services which already are very popular and have mobile apps active. This is the way to get and most important to stay in front of the future customers.

Infographic: Mobile Warming

Marketing takeaway to profit from this increasing mobile trend:

• 1. Optimize your website to be accessible from mobile devices
• 2. Sart to collect mobile phone numbers to enable your mobile marketing through personalized SMS
• 3. Adjust your email marketing and the email messages to be easy readable from mobile devices
• 4. Build your digital outposts and get engaged in social media, in location based services and rating sites
• 5. Develop your own mobile app to stay in touch with your audience directly

With this above activities you can significantly improve your visibility on mobile devices and attract more future customers to your business.

What do you think? Are you actually active to reach your target audience on their mobile devices?

More important resources on mobile marketing:

• 5 Ways to get Customers Inbound in 2012 through Mobile Marketing
• 8 Key Mobile Marketing Trends

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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, 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.

Most business has not the resources and the knowledge to execute a powerful and result driven inbound marketing strategy.

They have not good writers on their staff to produce buyer persona oriented remarkable content like blog articles, whitepapers, how-to’s and eBooks on a regular basis.

Also they do not have in-house SEO experts to help them to choose the most relevant keywords to better get found in the search engines.

Moreover the knowledge about social media communication and an effective community management is not in place as well.

But the most important fact is the time to get all the required things done.

Studies show that business who try to do inbound marketing without professional help fail within three months.

What did they win when the do not hire a professional inbound marketing agency? Simply nothing! They waste time resources and money for no revenue results.

If you want to profit from inbound marketing than you should think about to hire professionals who can do the job.

What do you get by executing a professional inbound marketing strategy?

• A. S ave up to 62% of your marketing budget.
• B. Stand out of your competition.
• C. Generate a massive amount of leads.
• D. Get up to 55% higher lead conversion rates.
• E. Increase your customers and sales.

How much does it cost to hire a professional inbound marketing agency?

This is a god question. The same one like how much is a car? What kind of car do you want? Do you want an old car or a brand new Ferrari?

Inbound marketing hourly rates start with $100 per hour, depends what to do.

You can calculate to spend between $2,000/m – $3,000/m for about minimum of six months, depending on the services delivered. Because any serious inbound marketing agency will need this time frame to set your marketing on the right track to help you to reach your revenue goals.

On the end of the day is inbound marketing the most efficient and the most cost effective marketing you can get for your buck.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below.

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Social media is a great way to step into two way conversation with recent and future customers.

In these times it seems that everybody wants to step into social media.

In my opinion social Media is not for everybody! Why you will ask? And I will tell you from my point of view:

Social media marketing for small businesses can increase their brand awareness and reach massively. Everywhere in the net small businesses are trying to get a piece of the social media marketing pie and acting nervously to not get left behind.

My experiences are that most of them should better look to have a clear and good in time working email response first. Yep. I know that’s not nice of me.

But this is the simple painful truth. Most of them who are looking to step into social media conversation simply do not have their email conversation under control.

So how can they think to be successful in social media where they are required to answer in real time to profit from it, when they are not able to answer email requests within business hours?

Most online shops I have contacted need more than three hours to respond, some much longer and some do not answer anyway. But most of them are in social media. What a waste of time!

Imagine this, there is a future customer who has a question about a product he wants to buy, but he does not get any response in the worst case!

Social media success lives of real time communication, like in the real world. When you are on cocktail party and somebody asks you a question, than you can’t wait until tomorrow to answer. The same with social media!

Businesses which do not have their email communication under control and are not able to respond very quick, or better in real time, do not need to think about social media marketing yet. They better improve their email communication and when this is working well, in real time, than they can step into social media.

If you feel you have what it takes to step into social media marketing than here are several question for you to clear before you start:

• - Ensure that your email communication is working and you do not produce angry prospects
• - Is your email response time under one hour or better, than you can step into social media
• - Who is responsible for email communication and social media conversation? You should have a minimum one person in charge of each one
• - Do you have social media policy in place?
• - What kind of content does your business publishes on regular basis on the web?
• - Do you have goals set for lead generation through social media?
• - What will be your activities to generate leads, do you have landing pages in place and how about a lead nurturing process to make paying customers out of your leads?
• - Do you have set revenue goals for your social media marketing? If it does not bring in dollars than it makes no sense!

Alterian Annual Survey Infographic

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The influence of user generated content on purchase decisions is increasingly growing.

User generated on-site content created by internet users includes reviews, comments, stories and questions.

A Study from Bazaarvoice shows that today up to 51% of internet users purchase decision is influenced by user generated content. It is influenced by their social network, family and friends.

Today people research on the internet and in social media about a brand, products and services to get the best deal for their buck.

It is crucial for any brand to know what these future clients will find about them on the web. What kind of ratings on rating sites, product reviews in their network, the brands communication from a blog, video, social media, press, etc.

What will these future customers find when they research about your business. Can this information they find about your company influence them positively to buy your products? Or will they influence them to buy the products from your competitor?

On the web you are what you publish, what are you? — David Meerman Scott —

Brands need to follow the general principles of authenticity and transparency and they need to understand there is a huge group of consumers right now who just do not trust them. They need to be open and give their audience the opportunity to talk about their brand. This will become the standard to the long term.

What brands can do to step into brand talk:

• - Be where your target audience is around
• - Listen to the conversation
• - Respond to the conversation
• - Publish and share buyer persona relevant and remarkable content on the web and in social media
• - Ask for opinion about your products and your business
• - Ask for any suggestions for product and services improvement
• - Be authentic, be honest and be helpful
• - Keep the conversation on run

The most important point: START IMMEDIATELY before your competitor does! A later uphill battle will cost you much more and it is doubtful that you can overtake them.

All of the points above increases trust, credibility and reputation of your brand. This is the currency on the web! When you are smart and build your currency the right way than you can gain a massive competitive edge.

What are you actually doing to get seen and found on the web when your target audience is looking for products or services you also have to offer?

Do you utilize one or all of the above suggestions to improve your chances on the market? If not you should start right away! It’s a mouse click economy; your competitor is only a mouse-click away.

Infographic: Bazaarvoice Millennials

Further important resources:

• Reputation Management: How Dairy Queen handles customer service using social media
• Millennials Look to Digital Word-of-Mouth to Drive Purchase Process

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-word-of-mouse-can-drive-revenue-for-your-business/feed/ 0 http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-use-social-media-for-customer-acquisition/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-use-social-media-for-customer-acquisition/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:50:43 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=4874 Read more →]]> Social media has become a significant part of serious marketers lead generation strategy.

Companies who engage in social media increase their reach massively. And there is no matter if they are B2C or B2B.

Social media is public communications channel where companies can get great unfiltered feedback.

Companies need to understand that social media is not for “pushing your messages out “.

To be successful and to reach a positive ROI with social media, companies need to communicate and to listen to their audience.

It is simply untrue when someone claims that his customers are not active in social media. They are active in B2C and B2B and they research online for products and services.

The only question is: What will they find when they research for products and services you also have to offer, will they find you or your competitor?

Studies prove that B2C and B2B profit likewise from social media engagement.

A study from Wildfire Interactive shows that social media helps grow brand awareness, increase sales and partnerships and helped to reduce marketing costs.

Engaging in dialogue with customers via social media has become an important part of successful companies.

Smart marketers measure the value of social media channels as well. They want to know which one has the best results for their business. One of the most popular channels is Facebook. About 44% of surveyed marketers say that “Facebook is valuable because they help with new customer recruitment”.

Moreover they have stated that Facebook fans have higher conversion rates and they make more frequent purchases.

How can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?

• • At first you can do this by increase of your revenue
• • As a second way you can measure are “Likes”
• • You can measure social media mentions of your brand

A great way is to add lead capture pages to your in social published articles and to track the traffic, leads, lead to customer rate and revenue per generated lead. So you get a good picture of your cost per lead and adjust activities to increase your profits.

Studies show that companies which relying on online lead generation are two times more profitable than those who do not. Those companies achieve an up to 62% lower cost per lead.

Infographic: Brand Messaging

Further resources:

• Studies prove Social Media Marketing lasts longer
• Marketers Value Social Media for Both Branding and Customer Acquisition
• Companies Relying on Online Lead Generation Are 2X More Profitable [Data]

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/how-to-use-social-media-for-customer-acquisition/feed/ 1 http://inblurbs.com/blog/let-linkedin-do-free-marketing-for-your-business/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/let-linkedin-do-free-marketing-for-your-business/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:01:21 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=4885 Read more →]]> LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions.

LinkedIn is now permitted to use your name and picture in any of their advertisements. So they can use this throughout their whole network for their marketing purposes!

How scary, or maybe not…?

See ch. 2 of their privacy policy: http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=privacy_policy&trk=hb_ft_priv

Ok, here are two ways you can deal with this:

First - You can forbid it by change your privacy settings this way:

• 1. Place the cursor on your name at the top right corner of the screen. From the small
• pull down menu that appears, select “settings”
• 2. Then click “Account” on the left/bottom
• 3. In the column next to Account, select the option “Manage Social Advertising”
• 4. Finally un-tick the box “LinkedIn may use my name and photo in social advertising”
• 5. and Save

Or, the Second possibility – You can use this as an opportunity to let market LinkedIn your business throughout their whole network for FREE! Simply let them do the branding job for your business and paying not a dime for this!

How does this sound for you?

Here is how it works:

You simply change your photo to a branding tool! Use your photo by inserting your brand LOGO how I have done here with my LinkedIn photo. That’s it.

Now LinkedIn is very welcome to use my photo throughout their whole network as long as they want.

I only can say THANK YOU LINKEDIN for this tremendous FREE marketing opportunity and God bless you!

By the way, you can do this on Twitter, Facebook and other networks as well.

— Let me know what you think and how your results are.

Further resources:

• How to keep your face out of LinkedIn ads
• LinkedIn Tip: How to Opt-Out of Social Advertising
• LinkedIn “alert” shows users still on edge about privacy

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FREE LinkedIn Marketing Report download here!

Before social media people went mainly to search engines to research and to find products and services. Today in times of social media the products and services find them through discussions, content sharing and recommendations from friends and followers. And even on the road these information are accessible through mobile devices.

This evolution of information technology also arrived to the B2B companies.

The search volume on Facebook has overtaken Google. And there are not only consumers who research there. B2B is also using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks to research for products, services, industry related information and new business partners.

Nobody says that a product or service with a volume of hundreds of thousands of dollars has to be sold on Facebook. But the first contact can be made there and the further discussions and negotiations can be took offline to close the deal.

Social media is a great way to showcase a business and to offer a more personal insight view. A company has great opportunities to show personality to attract the right buyer persona and to get in touch with the right new future customer when this one is looking out for products and services.

All social media sites also have mobile apps; their reach also spreads wider and is working 24/7. Not only teenagers are surfing on social networks through their mobile devices. B2B decision makes do this as well and their number is increasing!

“Research from ad agency TricomB2B and University of Dayton School of Business Administration showed an even higher concentration of B2B influencers researching purchases on mobile devices.”

How can you and a B2B firm leverage this information above for your business?

• 1. Start a social media presence. Complete your profile there.
• 2. Research for industry related B2B groups and people. Become a member and invite those people to your network.
• 3. Listen to their discussions. If you have something valuable to contribute than do it, otherwise go on listening.
• 4. Start a corporate blog. Write about topics your B2B audience is interested in. Share your blog articles in social media and ask for feedback for your publication.
• 5. Build landing pages and offer exclusive and valuable content for download. So you generate laser target high quality industry related B2B leads.
• 6. Measure your activities.
• 7. Improve your activities and repeat.

What do you think? How are your experiences?

Further important resorces:

• B2B Decision-Makers Diversify Digital Research
• Studies prove Social Media Marketing lasts longer

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]]> http://inblurbs.com/blog/b2b-decision-makers-are-increasingly-researching-in-social-media/feed/ 3 http://inblurbs.com/blog/studies-prove-social-media-marketing-lasts-longer/ http://inblurbs.com/blog/studies-prove-social-media-marketing-lasts-longer/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:58:46 +0000 Dragan Mestrovic http://inblurbs.com/?p=4856 Read more →]]> The Social Media marketing return on investment is a major factor why businesses choose to step into social media marketing and the two communications here.

Social media has proved in the past years that it can bring positive ROI when done right. Some successful examples are Intrepid Travel, Easy Lunch Boxes, SnapRetail just only to name some of them.

As businesses understand that social media is no short term sprint than more something like a marathon they engage with more diligence to plan their steps to reach a long term ROI.

Successful brands look at social media engagement as a plant which needs to be cultivated over the time to grow to an unlimited range.

BzzAgent has discovered that about 61% of brand advocates would buy products up to one year after social media campaign has expired. This proves that social media marketing and two way communication lasts longer than ordinary one marketing blasts from yesteryear.

This does not mean that social media has become a “push the button cash machine”. Not every campaign will be successful. But like everything on the planet the volume of activities and their step by step improvement ensures a growing success.

This does not mean that brands should fire one campaign behind another. This means that a brand should carefully listen to its audience. When they listen carefully their audience will tell them which campaign could be appreciated to become a possible success story.

In the mean time a human and authentic communication should be the priority.

A good way to start a smart dialogue is to ask open questions. To ask the audience about their opinion about services and products will open discussions where a brand get the opportunity to respond in a professional, authentic and human way.

No matter if there are critics or praise. Every feedback is a chance to showcase the brands standpoint and get in touch with the recent or future customer.

Brands that listen to their audience and improve products and services to fit their audience’s needs are one step from that to be the long term winners. The growing trend for custom products proves this. The one size fits all strategy does not work anymore this is for sure!

Any business can use social media as a source of unfiltered information and as powerful business intelligence tool to predict trends, for support and product development.

The others who do not will be left behind, and they deserve to vanish because they do not care a shi* about their audience and never have. Social media also points this out and separates the good from the bad once.

In this new world the customer B2C and B2B wins and the brands who care. And that’s good!

Infographic: B2B Social Media Marketing

Further important resource:

• How Social Media Really Works for Small Business
• 5 Surprising Social Media Business Success Stories
• Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages: 2011 Winners!
• Social Campaigns Give Long-Term Boost to Brand Metrics

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