Posts tagged content marketing
8 Big Ideas to Drive B2B Buzz
Apr 29th
A guest post from {grow} community member Joe Chernov:
I’ve been running in word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing circles since, well, since such a circles existed. Yet despite the existence of an active industry association and a cluster of WOM-related innovative companies, we, as an industry, still haven’t produced something elemental — a repeatable, measurable model for B2B word of mouth.
Why? B2B is a unique beast. For one, a company typically buys the product, which reduces an individual’s visceral drive to applaud (or pan) the purchase. Also, our social groups tend to be a patchwork of people from all corners of our lives, not just work associates, creating fewer opportunities to “buzz” professional products than there are for consumer goods.
Yet despite these challenges there are several fundamentals that are sure to generate WOM buzz … even for B2B marketers. Here are eight big ideas:
1. Make promotions sharable. Running a contest isn’t inherently WOM, nor is starting a Facebook page. But creating a contest that inspires participants to pass along the promotion (especially on social channels) is WOM. Group buying (Groupon, LivingSocial) and group messaging (Beluga, GroupMe) are red-hot categories. Why not group referring?
2. Point of service is the new point of sale. In his aptly titled book, Word of Mouth Marketing, author Andy Sernovitz talks about the importance of point-of-sale as a WOM trigger. It’s the moment when the brand/consumer relationship is consummated. Since the buying process in B2B markets is more protracted (what IS the point of sale?), that same intimacy doesn’t necessarily arise when the contract is signed. Instead, it shows up at the point of service – the moment the user’s need is the greatest. Rackspace recognized this opportunity and built a major Web hosting brand on the simple principle that unconventionally fast support yields unconventionally chatty customers.
3. Speed doesn’t slump. Being quick to comment has always been a vital ingredient of public relations. But the social web rewards speed disproportionately. For example, respond first on Quora and your answer is 60% more likely to be talked about than others’ answers, regardless of quality. WOM, guaranteed.
4. Make your content share-worthy. Of course your content should be valuable and timely. But that’s no longer enough to ensure it spreads. Your content has to compel people to share it. Think about any of HubSpot’s “Grader” widgets. It’s impossible to grade your social presence without urging your friends to do the same.
5. Think: Spheres of influence. BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter coined this term after his company ran a WOM marketing program aimed to persuade business travelers to switch to an upstart airline. Balter found that it wasn’t the executives who generated the most buzz, but rather their administrative assistants. Turns out, those who booked the travel reaped the biggest benefits. In other words, don’t forget to consider the messenger when you craft your messaging.
6. Do the unexpected. Rackspace exhibited at this year’s SXSW Interactive event (their booth staff donned fake “sleeve” tattoos to poke fun at themselves for being the big B2B player at the hipster conference). Salesforce.com shocked the B2B world by bookending the Superbowl halftime show with television ads, an unconventional move for an enterprise SaaS company. Doing the same things in the same places ensures the same people will talk about you. New venues yield new conversations.
7. “Consumerize” your enterprise application. Yammer and Chatter make internal communications feel like a Twitter client. 37signals makes project management feel like an iPhone app (come to think of it, the company actually offers a Web app). For our part, Eloqua is trying to make B2B marketing feel creating a PowerPoint deck with our Eloqua10 product. Nobody has ever celebrated doing chores, so the more your products can feel like recreation, not vocation, the more WOM you’ll spur.
8. Own an issue. Tap into something customers care about — an issue. Think of Radian6 and “listening.” The company and the cause are synonymous. Own an issue that you care deeply about, and you’ll unearth more opportunities for WOM than your products ever could.
These are just a few of the can’t-miss ways to increase buzz for your B2B business. If they can be effective techniques for CRM, lead management, and infrastructure companies, then they certainly can work for your organization as well.
This is a difficult topic for B2B but ripe with opportunity. What do you think?
Joe Chernov is the VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua, a revenue performance management company, and the co-chair of the WOMMA ethics panel.
A process to connect social media, content marketing and sales
Apr 20th
By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist
You’ve probably heard the term “content marketing.” You’ve certainly heard of social media. How do these two trends fit together in your sales and marketing plan?
Here’s a method you can use to determine where content and social media fit into your online sales strategy. Let’s start with your good ol’ sales funnel. These vary somewhat by company, but here’s a typical B2B sales funnel showing the steps a customer typically experiences:
Once you’ve documented your sales funnel, look at the customer touchpoints where your website is important. Your website is usually the hub of your online strategy. Determine where the user is likely to interact with your website.
Next, look at where content can provide a good touchpoint. Remember that content can be distributed allowing the customer to discover it in their own online contexts. Assuming you can reach customers at the various points in the sales funnel, where can content add value?
In this case, content could be valuable in the early stages of the sales funnel, to make customers aware that there are solutions to their business problem. It can also be useful when customers are trying to get buy-in for a purchase, doing detailed research, and during the demo or trial process.
Now, let’s see where social media/social interaction can play a role in the sales process.
Online social contact, not surprisingly, can be helpful at all stages of the sales funnel.
Now you know where the different elements can contribute to the sales process. Let’s look at how they can contribute–keeping in mind the basics:
Compared with content and websites, social engagement is obviously the most personal type of online contact with a customer. It often takes the form of a conversation. Your website, on the other hand, is the least personal form of contact.
At the same time, social media tends to be the least self-promotional. It’s generally frowned upon when companies promote themselves strongly on social media. It’s perfectly acceptable to promote your business and your products on your website, however. It’s both expected and accepted.
Given these caveats, here’s how you might try to leverage content and social engagement in your sales process:
Awareness. At the top of the funnel, you can be present in communities where customers are talking about their business problems, and use social media and content to make them aware that products and services exist. Of course, that means walking the line of self-promotion. You need to be a little more hands-off and neutral when informing customers through social media and content.
Early research. At these early stages, you can try to move the customer to your website through both social communications and content. You use both social contact and content to give basic information about your products and services, the kind of information a customer at this stage of awareness can best benefit from.
Buy-in and short-listing. When the customer is getting buy-in to make a purchase, you can provide support and information. You can develop content that provides data, arguments, case studies, or executive summaries the customer can share with decision-makers. The idea is to specifically target the decision-maker and provide content developed for that person, who may not be the same as the person who discovered the content. On the social side, you can be present and responsive, answering questions that arise.
Likewise, at the short-list stage, you can be available to answer questions, direct the user to appropriate information, and otherwise assist in that decision.
Research and demo. Obviously, the research stage is one that can benefit from a rich set of content and strong social connections. One goal may be to encourage the customer to try the product. If the user demos or downloads a trial version, you can be available to answer questions, provide support, and address any problems. You might want to develop supporting demo content or data sets for specific verticals or roles.
Purchase. Of course, you want to be available before and during the purchase process to make sure it goes smoothly.
That’s how you can use the sales funnel as a way to evaluate the role of content and social media in your sales process.
Of course, there are other tools to use as well, and lots of work to do after this. You’ll need to research your audience and segment them, in order to develop targeted content and social offers. You’ll need to update the website to support these touchpoints, at a minimum creating landing pages to support your content and social strategy. Ads and email may be added to the mix. Etc. However, identifying these customer touchpoints and the methods you’ll use to integrate content and social media can provide a solid start to your planning and form the basis for your work.
P.S. If you prefer to consume your content via video, here’s a video tutorial of this post:
Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or on Twitter where she is @neicolec.
Are Content Curators the power behind social media influence?
Mar 24th
By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist
Are you overlooking some of the most powerful influencers on the social web? Let’s find out.
Traditionally, there has been a 1-9-90 rule when it come to creating and consuming content:
There’s a new element in this equation, though: Content Curators — people who make a practice of finding content relevant to their friends and followers, and then sharing links to that content. I am making a distinction between a curator and an aggregator who pulls content from around the web, usually related to a specific topic, to display on websites generally to enhance search engine optimization.
Of course, we’re all curators to some extent, consuming content and, on occasion, sharing what we find interesting or entertaining. However, there is an elite subset of people who proactively seek out and share content. I know, because I’m one of them. I comb through blogs and articles on an almost daily basis, and share what I consider to be the best and most relevant mobile, social media, and online marketing news to my followers on Twitter.
ExactTarget calls these people “megaphones” and says:
“Megaphones want to connect, educate, and share resources and information online with others. These consumers clearly fall into the ‘influencer’ category—meaning they can impact a brand’s bottom line—but Megaphones represent an especially elite group that takes their online interactions very seriously.“
ExactTarget’s research shows that only 7% of online users are megaphones. It’s unclear where exactly these Curators are drawn from in the traditional triangle, but according to ExactTarget, 65% percent of them are creators. I expect the remainder span some part of the commenters.
Why are these folks important? Because they are influencers. There has been tremendous focus lately on defining, identifying, and connecting with social media “influencers.” It’s a natural pursuit for marketers trying to get their message out. I’ve yet to see a robust approach to this objective, but doesn’t it make sense that an elite group of people who loves to share great content would be natural and important influencers?
Let’s look at the dynamics that make content curators so powerful. Based on some of ExactTarget’s social profiles, a brand might connect with individual consumers through several paths:
It may be difficult to connect through all the possible user-types, but one user “channel” stands out – the Curator or megaphone. Look at ExactTarget’s chart showing social consumption and social contribution (creating, commenting, sharing, and posting):
Graphic from ExactTarget (http://www.exacttarget.com/uploadedfiles/resources/SFF_SocialProfile_singles.pdf). Red circle added.
The Curators are the greatest consumers of content AND the greatest contributors—including sharing. That makes Curators a hub and the easiest users for marketers to reach. Curators, like me, are actively looking for information to share with others, and actively spreading the word. Content Curators are the best online friend a marketer could have!
This means there are significant changes ahead in the social media information ecosystems. Before there was search, there was a world of information available on the web, and a world of people who were interested in it.
The problem was that people couldn’t easily find the websites they wanted. Enter Google, which connected people with the websites (and businesses) they wanted, via keywords. Happily for Google, they were able to use the same method to let advertisers reach consumers with ads, piggybacking on the keywords to target specific types of users.
Within social media, there is no well-established Search. That connection with websites is made through individuals, usually via shared content. What’s clear is that Content Curators are the equivalent of Google in the social world. Curators are the individuals doing the searching and sharing:
Of course, there are a lot of Curators, versus one Google. So, each Curator is the equivalent of a Google who is focused on specific keywords.
If the Curator is the new Google, we can expect businesses to optimize for the Curator just as they optimized for Search on the web. In this new world, Curators become a commodity and they have value that will be sought after. Marketers will seek curators in specific topic areas and with specific traits. Marketers will want to know:
- The topics this person curates. Curators specialize.
- The networks and communities he/she curates to. Curators who are plugged into niche communities and forums may be even more valuable.
- The number of connections on those networks. The volume or following always counts.
- The types of connections the curator has. What’s the quantity of different types of social users following this curator: gamers, social butterflies, shoppers, deal seekers?
- Reshare value. How many of this curator’s followers reshare the content, and how wide a net do they cast?
- The click-through-rate for this curator’s content. How often do people open the items this curator shares?
- The conversion rate resulting from this curator’s content. How often does a recommendation from this person generate sales? How often does a click through on a piece of content from this curator result in a sale?
That’s right. I said marketers will want to know CTRs and conversion rates for Curators, similar to the data they want on ads and publishers.
As this kind of information becomes more readily available through tools, the question is what happens when marketers seek and court Curators? Do Curators find a way to monetize their services, as Google did? Would that lessen thier impact? How do Curators change what they do as they become a valuable and sought-after resource? What kind of markets, businesses, and products revolve around the new commodity of Curators?
This is a new view of influence on the social web — what do you think? Make sense?
Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or on Twitter where she is @neicolec.
Content Marketing is not Journalism
Mar 20th
Last week I attended an explosive panel discussion at SXSW. With the mild-mannered title of “Debating Brands’ Role as Publisher” sparks flew as Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and Lora Kolodny, a contributor to the New York Times and Money, sparred with the aggressive moderation of Tom Ashbrook , the host of NPR’s On Point, egging them on.
While there was actually five on the panel, the explosions between Pulizzi, Kolodny and Ashbrook made the highlight reels.
Pulizzi earnestly defended the growing corporate commitment to content as a viable marketing device — even filling the vacuum left by the declining traditional media. He said consumers don’t have three seconds for a brand but will have 30 minutes for a story. Kolodny lamented the trend and sneered at the idea of companies providing anything in an altruistic manner. Ashbrook stopped Pulizzi in his tracks when he asked him if companies would tell a story about killing babies with Bisphenol A
At various times both sides garnered applause but in the end the viewpoints remained far apart.
It didn’t have to be that way. I think marketing professionals simply need to state the obvious: We’re not journalists, and we can’t try to be. Similarly, Lora could probably admit that the plentiful corporate coffers are funding some useful and entertaining content.
As individuals and as a nation, we need fiercely independent journalists, It is essential to democracy. And that role can never be served by public corporations and content marketing efforts. I think that is all marketing professionals have to say to take the emotion out of the conversation. There is no reason these disciplines can’t happily co-exist by simply acknowledging the limits and opportunities on both sides.
What do you think? Are there threats presented when corporations try to fill the gap left by the decline of traditional media?
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