Twitter has not only revolutionized the way people communicate, it’s also changed the way people search for answers to their questions. Instead of calling up a knowledgeable friend or even doing an Internet search, by throwing out a question on Twitter, a user can get all sorts of valuable information and advice. But if you’re not connected to the person on Twitter, you may never know if you have the answer they’re looking for (or vice versa). This could mean you’re missing out on valuable business opportunities or a chance to show your expertise. InboxQ alerts you to Twitter questions related to your business or products to help you make connections that count.
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Small Biz Resource Tip: BIGinsight.com
May 3rd, 2011 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichNeed some insights into what your buyer is thinking, doing, buying right now? Don’t we all? BIGinsight.com is a new resource tool that gives businesses a comprehensive portrayal of today’s consumer, including feelings on the economy, future purchasing plans, retail behavior patterns and more. Gathering data from several sources such as consumer surveys, the Federal Reserve Economic Database and consumer surveys from China, BIGinsight.com presents the material through news blurbs, interactive charts, webcasts and social media updates. You can sign up for a variety of free reports, email updates and newsletters.
Google+How to Repurpose Old Blog Posts and Articles for Fresh Content
April 13th, 2011 :: Monika JansenIf you are super-crunched on time and just need to churn out a blog post, newsletter, or article, don’t despair! In the race against time, simply snag an idea from mainstream magazines: Repurpose old topics and content to create something entirely new. I do this on occasion, and it is a lifesaver.
A friend of mine, Thursday Bram, who also happens to be a fellow writer, wrote a wonderfully thorough guide on doing just this. I have borrowed a couple of her ideas and added my own, leaving you with 5 ways to repurpose content.
1. Reduce, reuse, recycle
This is what I do most often: I’ll edit out information from a blog post to shorten it or add new information to update it and then use the blog post on another blog. I have also seen highly regarded bloggers outright announce at the beginning of a blog post that this blog already appeared elsewhere.
You can also use blog posts and articles in your newsletter, and expand on industry news items from your newsletter for a blog post.
2. Reposition the story
Thursday suggests repurposing content by repositioning it for a new audience. You can refocus a blog post or article so it addresses a specific industry or niche in your target market. You can also rewrite the content so it’s written on a personal level, or a more general level.
3. Write a follow-up
Another great idea from Thursday is to write a follow-up to a story. If you wrote a profile, where is that person or company now? If you published a book, launched a new product or service 3 months ago, or tried out a new business process, write about how it was received. If you wrote about an event, explain what you learned, who you met, and what you are looking forward to next—maybe a new partnership, new funding, their next event, etc.
4. Rewrite a topic to address current events
The most creative content you produce can be the result of repurposing it to address current events. With Charlie Sheen’s recent decent into crazy-world, marketing, public relations and branding experts found a ton of ways to return to their evergreen topics. I read—or saw—lots of bog posts on how his antics were brilliant from a marketing perspective—he had his own online TV station, was producing video blogs and tweeting like crazy, and people were eating it up.
5. Talk to a new expert on the topic
If you like to conduct interviews, Thursday suggests talking to a new expert on the topic for their fresh perspective. You need not write new questions, either, which is one of the best parts. Just edit their answers for length, and you’re good to go!
Image by Flickr user John Morgan (Creative Commons)
Google+3 Lead Generation Case Studies: How Content, SEO, Social Media, and Lead Nurturing Can Increase Sales
March 30th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen
One of the hardest things for most small business owners to do is generate leads. Doing so effectively and efficiently is key, but of course that’s easier said than done. However, if you don’t do something, your sales will growth might plummet, just like it did for the Legos at left. Because it is best to learn from others than to make mistakes that can be avoided, here are three case studies, courtesy of an eBook co-written by HubSpot and Marketing Sherpa, that illustrate B2B lead generation problems and their solutions. The results are outstanding!
What they do: Subscription‐based software that helps organizations perform sales compensation planning.
Problem: The software is a new concept (this task is normally done manually) and their target market is composed of companies with 50 or fewer sales reps. Because prospects don’t know this software exists, they are not actively looking for it; therefore, creating demand and awareness are key to generating leads.
Solution: Makana transformed their website into an online destination for sales compensation planning best practices and practical advice. To do so, they added educational content, such as sample plans and webinars, they optimized their website for search using high-value keywords, and they used paid search to generate additional leads. They also added all Web leads to a customer relationship management program for follow-up.
Result: After three months, website traffic increased 200 percent, lead generation rates tripled, and lead conversion rates doubled.
What they do: Provide cyber-security solutions
Problem: They are a startup with limited funds and a target audience of security and quality assurance professionals in R&D laboratories who hate marketing.
Solution: A social media strategy that would create strong relationships with hard‐to‐find prospects and turn them into leads. BreakingPoint took a multi-pronged approach that included:
- Starting a blog
- Scanning social media for relevant conversations to follow
- Using Twitter to share info, post fun stuff and conduct informal polls
- Creating a LinkedIn group that focused on the industry, not the company
- Tweaking their press releases by adding links to their website and distributing them via Qeb-based services more frequently
- Promoting their social media channels on their website and in e-signatures
- Measuring everything
Result: After six months, leads from the Web shot up to 55 percent of all leads.
What they do: Business intelligence software
Problem: Longer sales cycles and buying committees composed of more people were making traditional tactics less effective at driving sales. Email marketing, for instance, saw click-through rates (CTR) plummet.
Solution: IBM Cognos put lead nurturing processes in place that positioned the company as a thought leader, generated demand, and supported the sales team. To read these goals, they overhauled their website to provide useful content, such as white papers and demos, and they organized all the content and information by product line and industry. They also created a lead‐nurturing program based on the prospect’s profile, and they analyzed and tested the program to ensure they were getting results.
Result: Open rates increased from 13.2 percent to 33.3 percent, CTR increased from 0.09 percent to 15.5 percent, response rate increased from 0.05 percent to 17.5 percent, and costs‐per‐lead decreased by 30 percent to 40 percent. Better alignment between sales and marketing goals allowed the marketing team to generate 30 percent of all leads per quarter.
Image by Flickr user Mark Anderson (Creative Commons)
Google+How to Use White Papers to Market Your Small Business
February 28th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
Does your business sell services or expertise? Maybe you’re an accountant, consultant or IT expert. If you’re looking for a way to gain exposure as an industry expert while also educating clients and potential clients about what your business can do, consider marketing your business with white papers.
A white paper might sound like something that you’d only find in a college course, but in reality, it’s not that academic. A white paper is an informational report, typically 4 to 10 pages in length, that is provided to users for free and focuses on one specific aspect of a problem. They may spotlight research, interesting data or the results of a survey.
For instance, if you own a marketing company that helps businesses improve their social media profiles, you might do a white paper on how using Facebook can help businesses increase awareness of their brand, customers and sales. If you have a website design company, you could write a white paper about how to convert website browsers to buyers and focus on some tactics that you use in design.
White papers have a twofold purpose: to educate readers, but also to promote your business. So be sure your topic ties in to the areas your business specializes in and promotes you as an authority. In addition, the white paper must provide some reason why people need what you sell. (For instance, the marketing company in the prior example would want to show that companies that hire a marketing service get better results from Facebook.) For that reason, make sure you include plenty of ways to contact your business (email, address, phone, website) at the end of the white paper.
You’ll also need to determine who would benefit from your white paper and how to distribute it. For sure, you’ll want to put it on your business website and Facebook page. Then let people know about it by promoting it wherever you can—in your email signature, using social media, in your email newsletters, and in any descriptions or bios of you that appear online.
As you develop more white papers, you’ll find more uses for them—such as putting them into print booklet form as a giveaway in situations where downloading isn’t practical, or gathering several into an ebook. Use it right and you’ll discover that a white paper can be one of your simplest and most effective marketing tools.
Image Courtesy: Karen Axelton
Google+Blogs, Videos, and Websites: More Online Marketing Success Stories
February 14th, 2011 :: Monika JansenIn my last blog post, I wrote about a recent ebook from HubSpot called 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success. It was written by David Meerman Scott, who is a wonderful source of useful information, and this ebook is definitely useful. My favorite thing about it is the companies that are featured. While most of them are in very blah industries, their success stories are exciting and inspiring.
Here is what I learned from a manufacturer that used an optimized blog, a medical billing and EMR provider that used a viral video, and an author that used an audience-centric website to energize their online marketing efforts
:
Search Rankings and Sales Improve With an Optimized Blog
Agilent Technologies, a company that manufactures and sells life sciences and chemical analysis tools and electronic tests and measurement tools (I know, super exciting stuff), was having a problem ranking for a specific keyword, signal integrity, even though they are in a very niche industry.
To fix this, their head of marketing decided to start blogging in a very thoughtful and targeted way. He didn’t create a company blog; instead, he created an industry blog based on signal integrity that was fully optimized for search: The blog domain is consistent with Web page titles and the content in each blog post. (Check yours to see if that’s true for your blog posts! In the top navigation bar, the name of your blog plus the title of the blog post should appear.)
Because they are publishing useful, relevant content and optimizing the blog with keywords for search, the blog is yielding great results. Agilent ranks high in search engines because of the blog, and the blog ranks on the first page of Google for signal integrity and is generating qualified leads. Just as awesome is the fact that journalists at industry publications are reading the blog and back-linking to it, which search engines reward.
The Power of One Viral Video
Producing just one video that is fun, creative, and engaging can have far-reaching results, as Nuesoft Technologies learned this past fall. Again, this is a company in a very un-sexy industry: they provide medical billing solutions and electronic medical records (EMR). Yawn.
But check out what they did: Their IT department produced and distributed a really funny parody video of Lady Gaga’s song Poker Face called Interface. Watch it! When I viewed it, they were just short of 8,000 views.
Their goal with the video was simple: increase online visibility within the industry. They got that, and a whole lot more: 3 of the most important industry blogs wrote about the video, and it was shared virally on Facebook, generating a lot of comments and likes. In an industry of 400 competitors, they are one of the very few who have taken video marketing to the next level. As a result, they now stand out in a very crowded marketplace.
Complete Website Overhaul Leads to Inbound Marketing Success
If your website is a static, brochure site that is not optimized for search and lacks engaging, useful content, keep reading! Victor Conshin wrote the number one book on gout (yes, gout) called Beating Gout: A Sufferer’s Guide to Living Pain Free. (I didn’t even know what gout was until I read this success story.) His original website was a huge failure, and not because the design was horrible (it was fine), but it was not ranked, very hard to find, and contained no interesting content. It was just a boring, product-focused brochure.
He completely redid his website to make it audience-focused. It is now optimized for search, answers gout FAQs, and provides the latest news in the food and drug industry. Traffic has doubled, and his bounce rate has gone down significantly, which means people are exploring his site beyond the home page. As a result, book sales have increased and the site now ranks on the first page of a Google search.
Image courtesy Flickr user Claudio Matsuoka (Creative Commons)
Google+Contests, Content and Keywords: 3 Online Marketing Success Stories
February 9th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen
HubSpot recently released an eBook written by David Meerman Scott called 11 Examples of Online Marketing Success. Because I love to learn from other companies and apply their successes to my own business, I couldn’t wait to read it.
Here is what I learned from a museum that used a contest, an e-commerce site that used content, and an industrial manufacturer that used keywords to energize their online marketing efforts (more success stories to come in future blog posts!):
1. Use Contests to Generate PR and Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing
This is a rather extraordinary example, but it is worth including because it is so darn clever!
Last summer, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago decided to hold a very creative contest. They wanted a Web-savvy person to live and sleep in their museum for a month, explore it and share their experiences via a blog and social media. A 24-year-old Chicagoan, Kate McGroarty, won the contest, which included the 30-day museum-living experiment, $10,000 in cash, an array of tech gadgets and lifetime membership.
The contest was covered by mainstream media channels. Once she was living in the museum, Kate blogged at least once a day, generating a steady flow of comments. She created videos and uploaded them to YouTube. She tweeted and created a Facebook page, which has nearly 4,000 likes and is still up (even though the contest ended at the end of November 2010). Her page invited people to visit MSI’s own Facebook page, which now has over 17,000 likes.
Lesson: Use a creative contest to generate publicity, reach your target audience and expand your presence on social media.
2. Create Unique Content to Attract and Convert Leads
Creating unique, valuable content can really ignite lead generation, as e-commerce site Suitcase.com learned. Last year, they launched a survey via an e-mail invitation that queried customers on luggage usage, travel habits and other luggage-related questions. They packaged the answers into the Consumer Luggage Report and placed the report on a Web page on their site where visitors could download it. That page generated a 20 percent conversion rate, and the report was even picked up by Reader’s Digest. As a result of sharing their knowledge, Suitcase.com has become a thought leader within the rather crowded online luggage e-tailer space.
Lesson: Repurpose content to create buzz, position your company as an industry leader and attract and convert leads.
3. Leverage Keywords to Improve Quality of Leads
I love this example, because it shows how a company in a very unsexy industry can greatly improve lead generation with a very basic online marketing tool: keywords.
SRS Crisafulli sells dredging and pumping products worldwide. In order to effectively reach their numerous target markets, they decided to do some competitive keyword analysis. They began using highly searched keywords to determine what products were most in demand, and they created content based on that information to educate potential customers. By doing so, SRS Crisafulli has been able to generate more high-quality leads that are sales-ready.
Lesson: By understanding your potential customers’ search behavior and needs, you can create the educational content that turns a website visitor into a strong lead.
Have you held a contest, turned a survey into a report, or used keyword research to supercharge your online marketing efforts? We’d love to hear about your successes!
Image by Flickr user Ca Ribiero (Creative Commons)
Google+9 Ways to Increase Your Facebook Page’s Fan Base
January 24th, 2011 :: Monika Jansen
I have become absolutely obsessed with using social media properly this year. Instead of just pushing out information, I am going to do what I am supposed to do: engage on social media. After all, social media begins with the word “social.” If you’re not chatting it up on Twitter or Facebook, why bother? You’re just being anti-social. And I am definitely not anti-social in real life.
My biggest stumbling block, personally, is increasing the number of fans on my company’s Facebook page. So my interns and I have been researching it. As we have found, there’s lots of information out there on using Facebook, but not a lot on increasing your fan base. (Mari Smith has been a great source.) The following is what we found. Some suggestions are simple, some require a little more effort, but all seem to be worth doing:
- Let’s start with the obvious. If you haven’t already, suggest your fan page to your friends on Facebook.
- Another obvious: In your e-mail signature, add a link to your Facebook page (and your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, too!).
- Offer incentives to new Facebook fans, like a special discount or e-book. A recent survey conducted by Co-Tweet and Exact Target found that 40 percent of people like a brand on Facebook to receive discounts. Incentivized like pages have a 200-300 percent higher click-to-fan conversion rates than regular landing pages.
- Record and upload a short video for your Facebook landing page (I’d like to put this on my Welcome tab), explaining what your fan page is about and who it’s for.
- On your personal Facebook profile, add a link to your fan page. Here’s how Mari Smith said it can be done: “Change your employer to be your actual fan page (recommended!). This part can be tricky! If the dropdown menu does not display your fan page to select from, the easiest way is to type in the full URL of your fan page. Or, if that doesn’t work, here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this. See also this helpful thread and screenshot.”
- Find your customers on Facebook with Flowtown, a popular social media tool that helps you learn what your customers are doing and saying on specific social platforms (like Facebook). If they use Facebook a lot, Flowtown will connect you to them. [Update: On January 26, we learned that Flowtown is not accepting new customers for a few weeks. Read more here.]
- Create a fan box for your website and blog. Here’s how: Click “Edit Page Link” on the top left side of your page. Then click “Get Your Badge.” Customize your badge and place it on your blog or website for additional exposure to your fan page.
- Ask Internet marketers in your industry or niche to share your page with their friends since you will most likely have the same types of readers (then do the same for them).
- If you don’t belong to groups on LinkedIn (at all, or that are active), look for industry-specific groups on Facebook, some of which could have thousands of fans. If you become active in a group (and build thought leadership), other members will get to know you and hopefully they will become a fan of your page.
Let me know if any of these ideas work for you. And if you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them!
Image by Flickr user Garry Wilmore (Creative Commons)
Google+How to Market Your Business With Public Speaking
January 10th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
Does the idea of speaking in front of a group fill you with fear? You’re not alone. Most people get nervous at the thought of giving a speech. I’ve spoken in front of hundreds of groups over the years, and I still get butterflies every time. But if you’re a small business owner, you need to get over your nerves. Why? Because there are so many rewards public speaking can bring to your business.
- Builds awareness of you and your company in the community
- Builds trust among potential customers and clients
- Establishes you as an expert in your field
- Helps you generate leads and sell products and services
- Introduces you to new networks and partners
If doing all that and more for free sounds tempting to you, start by developing a strategy. What type of customer or client do you want to target? What types of organizations or groups are the best ways to reach them? What topics can you speak about that will interest these groups and also relate to your business? What are your goals for each speaking engagement?
If you own a Web design company, for instance, and your target customers are small businesses, you might want to speak in front of business groups like the chamber of commerce. You could talk about the importance of a website for small businesses, how to protect your online image or how to do SEO.
Start small by speaking in front of local groups and gradually build your confidence until you’re ready for bigger venues. To perfect your speaking style, practice in front of trusted friends or family, or videotape yourself and get people’s honest input on what you need to improve.
Your speech should offer value to listeners and not be a hard sell about your business. However, handouts, business cards or brochures distributed at the event are great ways to leave something behind for interested prospects to contact you later. It’s also a good idea to ask for names, addresses and e-mail addresses of the audience members (but make sure you get their permission to send them e-mail).
You can also build your expertise and reputation in your industry by speaking at industry events such as conferences and panel discussions. Online webinars and podcasts can be a great way to “break into” public speaking; since no one can see you, they’re a little less nerve-wracking than standing up at a podium.
When it comes to public speaking, there’s no substitute for practice. Yes, you’ll be nervous, but keep doing it and you’ll get better (I promise). What’s more, when you see the benefits public speaking can bring to your business, you’ll be willing to overlook those butterflies in your stomach.
Image by Flickr user visual dichotomy (Creative Commons)
Google+Attention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue
January 7th, 2011 :: Rieva LesonskyBy Rieva Lesonsky
These days, getting attention online is the key to success—and most small business owners are striving to get some. But as Jim F. Kukral points out in Attention! This Book Will Make You Money, too few of you think about what you’ll do with the attention once you get it. And unfortunately, attention means nothing if you don’t have a way to monetize it.
Kukral, a Web-entrepreneur and consultant who’s helped launch online companies and websites for clients ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 firms, sets out to show readers how they can attain both attention and revenue. Aiming at both startups and existing or expanding companies, Kukral proves his attention-getting ability from the get-go with chapter titles like “Porn and Pancakes at Church” that have you turning the pages to see what on earth he’s going to talk about.
Attention! covers topics including building your brand, finding memorable names for your business and website, and creating a sales funnel for people who find you online. You’ll learn why simple always works better when it comes to the Web, how to package your knowledge for maximum profit, how to generate recurring revenues and more.
Marketing writers’ books often suffer from a common weakness: too much rah-rah and not enough how-to. While Kukral at times treads that thin line, he escapes the fluff trap by offering detailed, specific steps on how to accomplish the goals he describes. His case studies—such as how he set out one morning to get interviewed on television that day, created a website to that end and appeared on the news within 8 hours—are both entertaining and informative. The book also benefits from plenty of examples of how real-life entrepreneurs generate attention—and profits—online.
Kukral is an energetic writer whose book will energize and inspire you. You’ll come away from Attention! with plenty of ideas you can use, and the enthusiasm to come up with lots of new ones yourself.
Image Courtesy: Jim Kukral
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