B2B search leads: Quality over quantity

When it comes to most things in life, opting for quality over quantity is typically the best way to go. The same goes for your business to business marketing efforts.

Judging a marketing program by the quantity of leads produced rather than the quality can be a disastrous tactic, according to the latest research from Marketing Sherpa.

Their most recent weekly chart aims to outline the quality and quantity of leads generated by search sources.

B2B search leads: Quality over quantity

Every organization’s lead quality to quantity ratio will differ from one to the other. Too many leads and you’re overwhelmed. Too few and you’re not reaching any goals.

Here’s some of the Sherpas’ advice on finding an ideal equilibrium:

Search has become an ideal solution to balancing lead flow because, in many cases, the spigot can simply be opened or closed to control volume. The more complex challenge is controlling lead quality. This requires a much more strategic approach to optimizing not only web pages for SEO but, in the case of paid search, carefully aligning the context of PPC keywords with ad listings and landing pages.

Marketers who are optimistic about the months ahead and said they will be focused on sales growth resulting from an economic rebound, understand that higher quality leads will convert to more revenue in less time, and are addressing the challenge of generating them now.

Know your content marketing priorities

If you’re a business-to-business marketer, you probably create a variety of content to promote your product through direct mail, email, Twitter and blogs, just to name a few. Sometimes, the trigger behind making a change in content can be motivated by the wrong reason.

MarketingSherpa recently surveyed a group of content marketers to find out what was the typical trigger that sparks a change in content. They compiled the results and created their latest Chart of the Week, titled “You’re a Publisher, Like it or Not.”

Content marketing: You're a publisher, like it or not

If one of your goals is to become a thought leader in your industry, you have to start thinking like a publisher, according to the gurus at MarketingSherpa.

“Above, we see that it’s often the wrong trigger. To be a thought leader is to think like a publisher – to think about the people at the other end of your white paper, Web event, blog or podcast. They’re not necessarily interested in your new product or feature (unless you happen to work for Apple); they’re interested in what’s happening in the industry or economy that’s inspired that product or service.”

The best reasons to update content fall in the middle of their survey results, including news, trends, events and research. Each of these reasons are focused on the reader.

Of course, the Sherpas also advise to take a look at the performance of each form of content to determine if you should make a change.

“Newspapers may be dying, but the need for compelling niche content is growing every day. To fulfill that need and sell your products, remember that you’re asking for the time and interest of your customers, and make it worth their while.”

Mixing social media and B2B, it can be done

Think your B2B products are too technical for social media? Don’t think B2B buyers would participate?

One company is proving that social media and B2B can work together to achieve greatness.

IBM recently found success using social media marketing tools to create buzz around an otherwise “dry” technology product.

The campaign was targeted at a few hundred thousand IT professionals to inform them of their latest product that aids developer collaboration.

They created a character named Mr. Fong, and sent him off into space. Mr. Fong must now try to use every available tool to reconnect with his team.

Users can follow Mr. Fong’s progress via YouTube videos, video email messages, Facebook and MySpace profiles and a Twitter account. The central focus of the campaign is at the website www.connectmrfong.com.

Mixing social media and B2B

In the past, IBM’s marketing team would have used a direct mail campaign to target potential customers. Today, the team is using a variety of online tactics in their marketing mix.

IBM has found the video email introduction to the campaign to be one of the most successful tactics. Email open rates are at 20% with 3.4% click-through rates over the past 11 weeks, according to Adweek.

Visit www.connectmrfong.com for ideas on how to leverage the power of social media to promote a seemingly “dry” product of your own.

Are B2B marketers ready for mobile web marketing?

It’s definitely something they should consider, according to Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners, in a recent post on the topic at B2B Marketing Online.

We’ve been chatting about the power of mobile marketing for some time now, but for many B2C brands and companies, 2008 was really the year to break into mobile marketing, Doug says.

With faster networks, advanced devices with browsing capabilities and flat-rate data plans, mobile web marketing has been gaining tremendous ground.

“It’s not surprising that marketers are excited by all this. There are nearly four billion mobile devices in the world and each one spends all day, every day with its owner. This isn’t just a new medium, it’s a potential juggernaut that could one day dwarf the desktop web.”

He predicts that every B2B company will have a presence on the mobile web with at least one mobile website. Check out his five principles of positive mobile web experiences that have developed from early successes using the medium.

If you’re looking to put your business on the mobile map, you should also read this free eBook: Marketing your small business on the mobile Web. mobiThinking released the eBook last month, explaining how any business can and should get started on the mobile web.

Whether you’re marketing training products or software, mobile marketing is something you should seriously consider and start learning about now before finding out you’re lagging behind the curve.

Marketing your business on the mobile Web

All you need is love. Link love, that is.

Have you found love on the Internet?

No, not the eHarmony, Match.com type of love. We’re talking about a different type of love – link love.

The kind of love that is critical to the performance of your business to business website.

Link love “is a term used in the fields of search engine optimization and blogging to describe the effect that web pages rank better when they have more and higher quality links pointing at them.”

So, why is link love so important? According to Rick Burnes at Hubspot:

• Your business needs to get found.
• Search engines are the place to get found.
• Links get you found in search engines.

To better understand the process, Rick says to pretend search engines are like hiring managers:

“If you’re a job candidate, a hiring manager will interview you and check your resume, the same way a search engine will check a page’s keywords and title.

But the hiring manager doesn’t stop there. They want to make sure all the information on the resume is correct, and they want an impartial third-party opinion on your potential, so they check references. A search engine does the same thing by checking links. For search engines, links from big, trusted sites are a signal of quality.

Quality inbound links, just like recommendations, are hard to get, but critical to your success.”

Wondering how to get started on spreading the link love? I recently came across the “world’s greatest list of posts dedicated to the fine art of Link Love” in a post at Problogger. The post may be slightly dated, but the advice is still just as good.

New (and free) social media marketing e-book

Brink: A Social Media Guide from the Edge

I came across a great e-book recently that I had to pass along, Brink: A Social Media Guide from the Edge.

It covers the past five years of “best thinking” and explains how “we are poised on the “brink” of amazing change.” Social media has made its mark on marketing and is here to stay.

Whether you’re a traditional marketer exploring opportunities in social media for your company or a “Social Media Smarty-pants,” you’re going to get something valuable out of reading this e-book.

It’s short (under 40 pages), full of some great ideas, endorsed by a couple of big players in the social media scene and it’s free.

The author: Todd Defren, blogger and principal at SHIFT Communications PR agency. He’s credited with “inventing” the Social Media News Release and the Social Media Newsroom. Basically, he knows his stuff.

You can read more at PR Squared or download the e-book now.

Is your web site a lazy slacker?

Is your company web site lazy? Would it rather slack off and snack on pizza instead of getting some real work done?

I found this video over at the B2B Marketing Blog and thought it would be an entertaining little clip to watch on this fine Friday afternoon.

Have a laugh, but ask yourself if your company’s web site resembles the lazy Baywatch fan in the video. If so, you’ve got some work to do.

We’re all in the media business now

Whether you realize it or not, your company is a media company.

There’s a new media landscape emerging and no matter what industry you’re in, you’re a part of it. Slowly, but surely, more “businesses are becoming media companies,” according to Rick Burnes at Mashable.

While “most business blogs are still boring monologues about products,” many are changing with the tides and producing content that is less focused on the product and more about topics that interest their customers.

For example, the Whole Foods supermarket chain isn’t only providing their customers with the latest information on the food they carry. They’re also creating added value for the customer on their website by sharing recipes and cooking videos.

“Media production is simply becoming a skill that separates mediocre businesses from great ones. Companies that have the creative skills to attract an audience with quality, independent content are excelling.”

Businesses that take the traditional route (i.e. buying newspaper ads) are spending a lot of money on short-term exposure. By creating your own content, housed at your own site, is like putting money down on a long-term investment.

When you first create a blog, the lack of exposure you get at first may not seem like it’s worth the investment, but in time it will pay off. Produce articles, grow your content and keep working on adding more content and watch how your search traffic grows with it.

Content is king. If you provide added value for your customer, in more than just a product description, it will pay off in loyalty.

Read the full article here.

Monday marketing links: Feeling overwhelmed, website check-ups and the fear of reviews

My list of blog topic ideas is growing faster than I can write, so I’ve put them all in one post. Here’s some of the latest and greatest information covering topics from business to business marketing to social media, all wrapped up in one convenient little package:

Does your website have a clean bill of health? Improve your search engine traffic and give your website an SEO health check. PluginHQ’s list of 16 things to look for in a website health check is a great place to start.

Finding time to fit blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the 10 other social media sites you visit into your day can be tough. There’s no reason to feel overwhelmed, according to Adam Singer at The Future Buzz, because you have complete control.

Think about your favorite restaurant – delicious food, warm atmosphere, good company. Now ask yourself: “Is your website as good as your favorite bistro?” Read MarketingProfs’ post-holiday recipe for online success, developed with a few lessons from the restaurant industry.

Though text wears the online crown, video has its place and will continue to grow as a valuable medium, according to Darren Rowse at ProBlogger. Read why he thinks video is worth experimenting with on your blog.

Not everything written online about your company will be positive and how you deal with negative feedback can make or break your online reputation. But, what if that negative feedback is coming from members of your own staff? Read what Jacob Morgan thinks you should do when your staff turns against you with social media.

On a similar note, you shouldn’t be afraid of what customers have to say about your company online. The opportunities social media provides heavily outweigh the perceived harm that it could cause. Read this recent tip from BusinessWeek and don’t fear online customer reviews.

B2B websites top choice among business decision makers

Business websites are “a highly valued and indispensable source of information” in the eyes of business decision makers, according to a survey released late last year by the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) in the UK.

Their research showed that 97% of business decision makers choose B2B websites as the media most used for work.

Other key findings include:

• 51% of business decision makers choose business websites as their preferred source of business information.
• 60% ranked business websites as an “essential” source of information in their work.
• 60% consider business websites as sources of information that they couldn’t get anywhere else.
• 56% visit B2B websites first when researching/informing business decisions
• 55% visit B2B websites first when researching/informing purchase decisions

The survey also revealed that 82% of all business decision makers use at least one business to business digital delivery mechanism for work, rising to 91% among regular B2B websites users. Email alerts/newsletters are the most popular (51%) form of delivery.

When it comes to advertising, 43% of business professionals are more likely to respond to ads on a business website than advertising in other media.

Of those surveyed, 70% reported that business to business websites offer more engaging content and advertising than other business information sources and considered them to:

• Offer instant access to information (79%)
• Save time (77%)
• Offer innovative ways to access information (74%)
• Allow business decision makers to interact with peers more efficiently (69%)

Visit AOP UK for additional details from the report.