How to Generate Business through Content Marketing

content marketing, corporate blogging, whitepaper creation, ebook creation, social media content marketingWe 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

content marketing, corporate blogging, whitepaper creation, ebook creation, social media 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.

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The Keys to An Effective Content Strategy – an Interview with Joe Chernov

content marketing, corporate blogging, whitepaper creation, ebook creation, social media content marketingWe are marketing in an age where content is king. As a result, more and more companies and marketing teams are increasing their content marketing efforts. But, not all content was created equal. How can you discover which content is going to convert the best? And what steps should you take to develop an effective content marketing strategy.

In this video, CRMSoftware.TV‘s Lauren Carlson sits down with content marketing guru Joe Chernov of Eloqua to discuss where some marketers are falling short when it comes to content.

They also highlight several tips for marketers who want to up their content game by creating a powerful and effective strategy.

 

Check out their discussion in the video below.

 

Lauren joined Software Advice in 2010 as the CRM Market Manager. Currently, she is the Producer and Content Manager for CRMSoftware.TV, a new site designed to be like Hulu for CRM Software. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, and often reports live from major industry events. She has particular interest in marketing automation and social CRM, and her work has been featured in Forbes and The New York Times. When she isn’t covering the software industry, you can find her running at Town Lake with her dog, Sophie, and singing at local Austin venues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

Get in touch with Lauren:

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Customers Demand Brands to Prove Themselves Trustworthy

brand advocates, content creation service, Smart Inbound Marketing, social media lead generation, Win Customer LoyaltyTrust is a major factor when it comes to get new customers acquired.

Companies need to understand that they need be there before they ask for a sale. They need to establish themselves as an authority and trusted source in their industry.

 

About.com conducted a survey where they find out that 84% of said that brands must prove themselves trustworthy before they buy or interact in any other way!

how to overcome competitors in business,customer loyalty,benefits of facebook for businessReviews (customer generated content) are a way how brands can gain trust with future customers said 41% of the surveyed people.

This brings us to the most effective way how to gain customer trust before you ask for the sale.

Content marketing is a proven way to engage customers.

A seriously executed content marketing strategy can be responsible for 25x times more business leads and boosts your revenue by up to 40%!

One of the most popular channels to share content is social media. About 76% of marketers use a social network as the main channel for content distribution.

To share content in social media is not enough. Content creation and content marketing must be executed as a holistic strategy and have to be performed on regular basis to gain profitable results on the long term.

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

How to start content marketing?

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

 

All of this above builds trust and increases brand visibility. As a result this brings more interested people to the offers and can increase revenue in the long term.

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Is there NO Difference between B2B and B2C Communication?

b2b viral marketing,marketing tips for new business,small business b2b marketingOften I get asked how to communicate with B2B or B2C and where the differences are by attracting the right people.

There is a simple answer: There is no difference in communication.

But you should understand your audience and communicate in that way that your communication is worth for them to get noticed.

You should know who you want to attract to your offers. And when you know who your audience, your buyer personas are than you can create interesting and remarkable information for those people.

How to know what your “buyer personas” are interested in? Just ask them what they are interested in. You can do this in social media on Facebook LinkedIn and Twitter. You can also take a closer look to your email archive and the requests there. You should be able to put together an interesting catalogue of topics your “buyer personas” are interested in.

Now you are able to give valuable answers to these questions. An effective way to get the attention of your audience is to write this down as blog articles and to publish this content on the web and in social media. This should attract the right buyer personas to these articles and in the next steps lead them to dedicated landing pages and to your products and services.

 

Infographic: The Inbound Marketing Multiplier

Marketo-Inbound-Marketing-Multiplier

 

As you can see there is no difference in the doings to attract the right buyer personas. If you offer something of value you will attract a steady stream of fresh leads. You decide which they should be, B2B or B2C.

 

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5 Jobs for Tomorrow’s Marketing Team

marketing employment, marketing predictions, future of marketingIf you want to see the future of marketing, just take a look at recent job postings. Recruiters increasingly request such new generation skills as SEO, analytics, mobile, social media and content in lieu of mass media and direct mail acumen, for example.

At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects marketing payrolls to swell by at least 13 percent between 2010 and 2020. So what does this shift in desired skills mean for the industry? What new positions to experts expect will be created during that time period? This week, I asked more than 30 marketing and recruiting specialists what they see in the industry’s employment future.

Here are five of the most common new roles they envision.

“The industry needs to emulate, then stimulate, consumers’ nonlinear, multi-screen, in-control purchase behavior,” Protagonist Partner Tom Cotton said.

1. Cotton and others I interviewed see companies recruiting a Marketing Integration Planner in the future, or someone that would identify ways to deliver a single marketing message, campaign or branding effort across multiple digital channels. For example, using a pay-per-click advertising campaign to promote a viral video, or using SEO keyword analysis to help craft a press release.

Marketing consultant Jocelyn Saurini said “people don’t call directly in from an infomercial or click a banner and immediately buy items.” Instead, they search for reviews, interact with brands on social media and pay attention to trending topics in the industry. So marketing teams need to make sure they utilize every channel at once with a unified message.

2. Other experts I interviewed introduced this idea of a Crowdsourcing Specialist. This plays into the idea that companies can no longer dictate their brand identity to the customer. They need someone–in this case the Crowdsourcer–to monitor conversations happening on the Web about the brand and develop messaging that responds to customers’ voiced expectations.

That person would also use the crowd to promote and send out calls to action, such as inviting customers to compete to create the best video about the brand, and perhaps tying the theme to something trending on Twitter.

3. Marketing automation, browser history, on-demand advertising, Google analytics and other data gathering tools have armed marketers with more return on investment resources than ever before. For this reason, companies will look to one expert, a Vice President of Marketing Data Analytics possibly, to decide when, why and how marketing data should be tracked. Their goals would be to improve marketing performance and predictive modeling, and continually refine the company’s definition of the ideal customer.

This information would be shared with brand and campaign strategists who design promotions.

4. Also as a result of new data, companies have increasingly moved their marketing budget strategy from quarterly allotments for print, direct mail and media advertising to constantly-shifting spending from one channel to another. This could develop into a ROI and Marketing Budget Officer position, experts said. This person would constantly track ROI from all promotion channels and adjust spending based on those results.

5. “The idea is to get marketing tactics out there quickly, track results, then continue with ones that work and dump ones that don’t,” says crowdSPRING co-founder Mike Samson. “The idea is to try a bunch of things and learn through constant trial and error.”

6. Finally, content creation is likely one of the fasted growing skills in marketing teams today. Every expert I interviewed mentioned companies wanting to hone their content strategy. Eventually, this might be led by one Content Marketing Manager or Officer that would plan websites, blog, video, infographic, webinars, social media and other content vehicle development. The individual would decide how that content would be promoted and cross-promoted, then track its performance.

Three Ships Media CEO and founder Zach Clayton described it this way: “the people who are able to create a lot of value in the marketing organization of the future think in terms of content, not channels, and in terms of insight, not data.”

Research for this article as provided by softwareadvice.com/crm.

Photo courtesy of Victor1558.

About the author:

marketing employment, marketing predictions, future of marketingAshley Furness is a Market Analyst for research firm Software Advice. Her professional experience spans journalism, sales, advertising and SEO marketing. She’s a seasoned writer having produced copy for business journals, a sports magazine, daily deals advertising and industry blogs. She can be contacted at Ashleyfurness[@]softwareadvice.com, or by calling 512-582-2314512-582-2314. LinkedInTwitterGoogle +

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How to Build a Brand through Inbound Marketing

attract more customers, blogging, facebook social media, Flickr, FREE Traffic, Get found in social media, inbound marketing, internet marketing, lead generation social media, linkedin, social media marketing, social networks, twitter for marketingBusinesses are always interested to increase the reach of their brand to get in front of future customers.

Brand building can be a though thing if not done the right way. To build a brand a huge budget is not necessary but more the right strategy.

The past and the present (still for some) of marketing:

There are a lot of ways to inform future clients of a brand, like advertising, TV and radio spots, newspaper ads, snail mail, pay per click marketing, trade shows, etc. But the hook with most of those marketing ways is they are expensive, mostly not measurable and not long lasting. As soon you stop this paid advertising than your visibility decreases again.

There is a strategy which delivers guaranteed, long lasting and measurable results for a fraction of the costs of old school advertising.

The marketing strategy:

Inbound marketing offers you a smart strategic approach to be and most important to stay steps ahead of your competition.

The inbound marketing strategy 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 for example on a corporate 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.

Summary what you can expect from inbound marketing:

  • A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget in the long term
  • B. Make you stand out of your competition
  • C. Generate a massive amount of qualified and hot business leads
  • D. Improve your lead conversion rate by up to 55%
  • E. Increase your loyal customers and sales

 

Brain vs. Budget = Inbound Marketing

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Time frame for inbound marketing brand building?

As every doing in business inbound marketing also depends on what you put in. The more you do the better results you will get and expand your brand reach faster.

To establish a brand takes about 2-3 years, depending on product, service market and customer demand.

But the difference is, with inbound marketing you have an up to 62% lesser cost per lead and an up to 55% higher lead conversion rate. Which is a much lesser marketing investment than old fashioned advertising, and your doings are long lasting.

For example: Created content which you have published stays online as long you want it to be, attracts people which research online for products and services you also have to offer and still delivers qualified visitors to your lead capture – landing pages.

You do tasks like publishing a blog article–– one time and they deliver traffic to your lead capture – landing pages where you convert them to leads and later to paying customers.

By executing a serious inbound marketing strategy for your business you can set you apart from your competition, reach more future customers, improve your brands reach and visibility and become trusted industry source.

How much is inbound marketing?

Again, as every doing in business inbound marketing also depends on what you put in. The more you do the better results you will get, expand your brand reach and get more customers faster.

As inbound marketing is the most powerful marketing strategy in the marketing actually, it is also difficult to execute through its complexity without any professional help.

Moreover about 70% of businesses which try to execute an inbound marketing strategy without professional help fail within the first three months, remain 30% of business fail thereafter.

To start with inbound marketing for your business you should calculate $2,000 – $3,000 per month or maybe more. The size of your inbound marketing investment also depends on your goals and the pace you want to achieve results.

As we discussed brand building earlier you should take into account a minimum time frame of 18 months or more for your brand building, and this also depends on several factors like the market and competitive situation, your products and services only to name some of them.

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How to Win Customer Loyalty in Social Media with Smart Inbound Marketing

brand advocates, content creation service, Smart Inbound Marketing, social media lead generation, Win Customer LoyaltyMany marketers out there still think that a Facebook “like” is a proof of customer loyalty. Or when the do promotions and give coupons and freebies this will help to tie customers to their brand. But the “like” button is mostly clicked by expecting a reward to do so.

An increasing number of people who like a brand page are looking for valuable and helpful content.

COLLOQUY find out that promotions in the long run do not have an impact to customer experience!

Customer loyalty can be won and kept by encouraging them to spread the word about the brand they are satisfied with and help those customers to become brand advocates.

The today customer depends on his friends, family and social network when he is researching for new products and services on the web. Furthermore the today customer wants to be entertained and informed from brands and not overwhelmed with sales pitches.

Customers want brands to listen and to respond to their needs, wishes and complaint because this is what makes them feel understand.

The top five most popular things customers expects from a brand are:

  • 1. Providing a great 24/7 customer service
  • 2. Rewarding them for purchases, their feedback and referrals they bring in
  • 3. Sending them exclusive and relevant offers and specials
  • 4. Provide them with personalized products and services
  • 5. To know them when they visit or call a brand

 

How can you utilize those above information to set your business apart from your competition and to fulfill your customer’s needs?

Ask yourself, what will future customers find about me when they research for products and services on the web which I have to offer also?

When the above described customers ask friends and family for recommendations on products and services, will they recommend you or your competition?

As people go online to research, and customers want to be informed and entertained, what do you do to inform and/ or to entertain your existing and future customers.

In simple words, how do you separate your brand from the competition?

To separate your brand from your competition you need to understand that those above stated five points are your business advantage when used wisely. When you are able to improve these points than you will be always several steps ahead of your competition, but only as long as you do not stop improving what you do!

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.

Infographic: Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing Rising, Inbound Marketing agency, Inbound Marketing services, Inbound Marketing software

Inbound marketing can help you to:

  • A. Save up to 62% of your marketing budget in the long term
  • B. Make you stand out of your competition
  • C. Generate a massive amount of qualified and hot business leads
  • D. Improve your lead conversion rate by up to 55%
  • E. Increase your loyal customers and sales

 

What do you think are you willing to take the effort by doing the above?

 

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9 Easy Steps How to Generate Business Leads on Google+

google girlThere’s major buzz in the marketing space regarding Google’s addition to the social media madness, “Google Plus (+)”.

“If Facebook and Twitter had a baby, they’d call it Google+” – Olaf Wempe

Some believe Google Plus will quickly replace Twitter, as it provides an easier way to manage and communicate with friends.

Others believe that Google Plus will be a valuable addition to their personal connections, and for marketers, it offers a whole new way of reaching out and networking with other entrepreneurs in your niche market.

In just a few weeks of beta launch, Google+ has amassed more than 12 million users, with over a billion pieces of content being posted throughout Google+ every single day.

While Google+ has rolled out its services to focus on the average user and individual, they have created extensions within Google+ primarily for businesses.

Still, thousands of Internet Marketers and entrepreneurs have already started using Google+ to further their outreach, connect with their target audience and develop relationships with new partners and networking opportunities.

Since November 2011 brands are able to create company pages on Google+.

Recent numbers show that brand engagement on Google+ is increasing but is still far away behind players like Facebook and Twitter.

A recent report from Simply Measured which was released on May and shows results of Top 100 companies of which 64 of them have verified Google+ pages.

An increasing number of consumers are adding these companies to their Circles. At least 5,000 people had added 35% of these Top 100 brands to their Circles until May. This is a 21% increase from February. About 22% of brands Google+ pages had been added to Circles by more than 100,000 Google+ users. This is an increase from of 13% in February to May.

The 15 best performing industries on Google+ are:

1. Automotive
2. Electronics
3. Luxury
4. Internet Services
5. Beverages
6. Apparel
7. Restaurants
8. Sporting Goods
9. Business Services
10. Computer Software
11. Media
12. FMCG
13. Financial Services
14. Diversified
15. Transportation

Infographic: Who Is Usig Google+

Google+ Infographic, Google+ marketing, Google+ lead generation

 

How can you profit from Google+?

1. If do not have a Google account, go an register one
2. Go to Google+ and complete all necessary information for a personal profile
3. Create a Google+ Page and complete the businesses profile regarding your business, like a logo, address, phone number, address, link to your website and blog, etc.
4. Search for business partners on Google+ and add them to your circles for your Google+ Page
5. Link from your website to your Google+ Page
6. Start the interaction by +1 posts of your circles and by republishing your blog articles or other content on your Google+ Page
7. Listen and learn what your audience is interested in
8. Craft a how to on base of the information you have collected on Google+ and offer it for download on a landing page
9. Setup landing pages which specially are dedicated to Google+ so you will know for sure that these leads are from your Google+ Page

 

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4 Steps How Closed-Loop Marketing Can Help you Grow your Revenue

Closed Loop MarketingOnline Business has developed tremendously in recent years. To promote business online, there are many important marketing strategies adopted by companies to generate revenue for their business. Closed loop marketing is one efficient marketing strategy that is key point in generating quality business leads and revenue for organizations.

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

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.

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What is the most effective SEO Tactic? Creating Content!

Content marketing social media copywritingA 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

Content-Marketing-Infographic

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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Video and Social Media on the Rise Say 79% of US Marketing Professionals

Clicky, facebook social media, Google analytics, Lead Capture Pages, lead generation social media, linkedin, marketing analytics, twitter for marketing, WoopraAn 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.

 

 

ad marketing spending in 2012

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.”

marketing tools used by marketers

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!

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3 Reasons why to outsource Social Media and Inbound marketing for your Restaurant

mobile restaurant marketing, sms marketing, local marketingAll successful businesses have one thing in common, they have great marketing and they care about their customers and restaurants are no exemption.

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

local marketing for restaurantsAdvantages 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:

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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!

How to Multiply Marketing results the Smart Way? Combine In and Outbound

inbound.marketing componentsWhen 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

Marketo-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!

 

 

How to Decrease Ad Spending, Increase Lead Count and Conversion

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.

top ten sites to share content

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.

types of online content created

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.

online content distribution

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.

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How B2B Marketers Can do Social Media Lead Generation the Smart Way

social media marketing roiAny 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.”

Content marketing social media copywritingOnline 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

b2b-social-media-marketing-infographic

Further resources:

 

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Get found online by more qualified visitors

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