As discussed previously, reaching your prospects and customers with your message is today the single greatest ‘cost of doing business’.
If you are a small business, selling to other businesses (B2B) or a professional services firm and even when selling directly to your customers and clients (B2C), then here are our top 11 ways of getting your message to them most cost effectively.
In my past life, when working as a media planner buyer for one of the largest advertising agencies in the country, I quickly realized that when it comes to a media budget – there is never enough money! And I am talking about big national and international brands, with tens of millions of dollars who had to quickly make choices about media channels, geographical markets, length and intensity of their campaigns.
Yet the sad truth is that most small businesses do not plan their promotional budgets with anywhere the same level of professionalism. Even more importantly, the smaller your budget the more creative you have to be with your communication as you don’t have the luxury of being able to drum in your message through the sheer weight of your media budget. And you have to be more vigilant with capturing and analyzing data to understand what works and what doesn’t.
You will notice that Social Media, the most talked about development in the marketing arena and consumer lifestyle is ‘missing in action’ as a separate point in this list. The reason is simple. Social Media Marketing is so important and so pervasive in attracting customers, that aspects of what is now deemed social media marketing should be present in each of the 11 points below!
1. REFERRALS
Existing customers
Influencers (who are not customers)
This of course implies that you have both a strategy and an offer / incentive to get these 2 audiences to refer business to you.
The media you use to get the message and offer to them may be made up of one or combination of the following:
Face to Face Conversation (Personal Sales)
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Email
Telephone
Direct Mail
Promotional Products
2. NETWORKING
Physical – Dedicated Networking Groups, Industry Associations, Expos, etc
If you are a retailer or supplier then getting this right is paramount
Window displays and merchandising in general are still under utilized by most SME’s
11. OUTDOOR Strategically placed traditional out of home and ambient media can be very effective. Consider the following for inspiration:
Large Traditional Super site Billboards on Freeways purchased at distress rates
Gyms, Medical Rooms, Lifts, Cafes, Restrooms, etc anywhere where there is a ‘captive audience’
Business Signage (outside and inside your premises)
Make sure the medium ‘drives the message’. This means craft your message creatively to address the medium it is in. E.g.: If you have a sticker on the mirrors of all the local hairdressers advertising your Personal Training Services Business then you should be connecting the message and offer to the mirror, or to the experience of getting a haircut, e.g.: “Do you like what you see? Get your Free Fitness Assessment at XYZ Personal Training and get on the road to looking and feeling good – inside and out”
Social Media is all the rage, it is generating buzz online and in traditional media and every man and his canine is either a self-proclaimed “guru” or is ready to hand over their hard earned dollars to someone that claims to be one!
It wasn’t too long ago that we went through the same experience with websites and everyone who was able to “get you on the first page of Google” – oh wait that is still happening today! Sarcasm aside here are some facts and recommendations that will assist you in making sense of what to do next!
DISCOVER THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA
There is a lot to be excited about, and most small business owners, and professional services firms are getting in on the action; setting up Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter profiles and forming connections on LinkedIn.
Much of the excitement however is based on the fallacy that Social Media is free and easy, neither of which is true. However there is much to get excited about. Marketers who have been using Social Media have achieved some great results* for their brands:
Increased Exposure – 85%
Increased Traffic – 63%
Qualified Leads – 52%
Closing Business – 48%
*Ref: 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report – www.socialexaminer.com
Here are some more statistics that should make you excited if you are an SME business owner or a marketer working in the SME space…THE OPPORTUNITY is greater than your wildest dreams:
1. Between 40-65% of Australian SME’s still do not have a website.
The stats vary drastically depending on which research you subscribe to, however one can safely say that at least 50% still don’t have a web presence. An out of the 50% that are now online at least 90% have a website that is:
Doesn’t provide the visitor with a substantial and explicit reason of why the prospective visitor / client should choose their product/solution/service!
Does not have a call to action
Is not correctly promoted or regularly maintained and updated.
So just by having a professionally designed website that does the above you will be in the top 5% of your industry segment!
Unfortunately in 95% of cases engaging with a “professional web design agency” will not solve many of the challenges above – for this you will need to work with a marketing specialist that assist you in answering these questions. Start by downloading qubePartners Check and you will see what we mean!
2. Almost 25% of Australia’s full-time workforce now has a LinkedIn profile and almost 11% of this 2 million-membership figure, reached this week, are small business owners.
This means that 89% do not have a profile. As someone that looks at hundreds of LinkedIn profiles every day and runs both free and paid “The Art & Science of LinkedIn” workshops on LinkedIn, the 11% who are on LinkedIn do not have profiles that are optimised to “doing business” online! To see how you can use LinkedIn to find, attract and retain customers, register for our Free 1 Hour Workshop
3. This week The Age Small Business ran another article “Social Media for Small Business: Where to Start – what was amazing about it was the Comments by the readers and the result of the Survey, which highlight that many of the readers (professional white collar professionals and small business owners) still don’t understand how Social Media fits into their Marketing landscape and hence do not see the benefits! Another massive opportunity for those that gain this understanding now – ahead of their peers and competitors!
Here is an excellent article written by www.windmillnetworking.com which examines 3 fantastic examples of B2B blogging .
3 Winning Examples of B2B Blogs Done Right
Over the last few years blogging has become a recognized marketing tool as a component of a social media strategy. While businesses used to scratch their head as to why they should be fiddling with something that was originally created for individuals, B2B marketing professionals should now realize that a blog can and should play a central role in their content marketing efforts as well as provide the foundation for their social media engagement.
B2B blogs are not only showing up within the websites of more companies, they are providing real and measurable success for those that are doing it well. When done right, B2B blogs offer high value for a relatively low investment compared to other types of marketing activities like traditional advertising.
What are the common factors in a successful B2B blog? A look at these three B2B Blog Marketing Case Studies will show that these companies all have the following two characteristics in common:
Take a Strategic Approach to Blogs – A social media strategy begins with research to understand how and where your target customers use social media and consume information. You can’t just start a blog and expect results. A long-term perspective on social media strategy combined with the proper research created a blueprint which allowed these companies to plan out an effective blogging strategy customized for their audience and brand.
Become an Industry Resource – Blogging shouldn’t be about you – it’s about them, your target customers! Become the industry magnet by blogging about topics that would interest them. As more decision makers search for information on the Internet, your blog posts can now be discoverable on a much greater and even global scale. Over time you will become their trusted resource for information, which will naturally lead to more business.
There Case Studies of B2B Blogs (click “The Bottom Line” link for the full original stories)
This is the example that I always talk about when I speak on social media. If an old-school 19th century distributor of mesh and fencing can find something to blog about and generate business, so can your niche B2B business!
What is exciting about mesh and fencing? Nothing. But businesses need it for a variety of reasons and look for tips and advice on the subject just like any given person looks for information on topics that are important to them. What better way to give relevant information out to target customers than through a blog which then lands them on your website?
Louis E. Page was able to deliver content that their target user was looking for and slowly built up a loyal following of potential customers who they were able to build a relationship of trust with. They started seeing amazing statistics: A whitepaper on how to use woven-wire fencing to build a horse paddock received more than 1,500 downloads!
The Bottom Line: Louis E. Page saw a 850% increase in sales leads since launching their blog.
How does a supply chain management company engage in social media through their blog? By following the formula laid out above. Kinaxis first did its homework by hiring Forrester Research to better understand the audience that they were trying to reach in creating their social media strategy. While Kinaxis had already been blogging, and didn’t know if they had been wasting their time or not, the research indicated that they should continue blogging as an important part of their social media strategy. They now saw blogging as something that should be real and sensitive to their readers without being self-promotional.
Even though Kinaxis has already seen tangible results from their blogging efforts, they saw value at further increasing their blogging activities by allowing outside bloggers to post next to internal employees. Now, in addition to articles from 18 Kinaxis employees are posts from 5 leading industry experts, further helping to drive site traffic and strengthen the positioning of Kinaxis as leaders in their industry.
The Bottom Line: Kinaxis reported 2.7 times increase in website traffic, 3.2 times increase in conversion, and 5.3 times increase in blog traffic in 2009 when compared to 2008 numbers.
Hinda Incentives manages corporate incentive programs for a number of clients around the world. Having done its homework, Hinda knew the name of the game in social media is “conversation,” so they looked for where decision makers who might use their service were hanging out. What they found surprised them: there really wasn’t much chatter in social media about incentive programs.
Instead of seeing this as a hindrance, Hinda saw an opportunity. The company took some time to build relationships and launched a blog that has all but created the conversations about their industry, with Hinda at the center, from the ground up.
The Bottom Line: Hinda’s blog traffic has increased steadily in a short time to over 1,000 visits a month and a 15% increase in traffic to their web site with subscribers from more than 30 different customers. More importantly, they have already seen several hundred thousand dollars of sales opportunities from their efforts.
Do you see any other common aspects of what makes a successful B2B blog from these case studies? Want to share more examples with us or explain how your B2B business leverages a blog as part of their marketing efforts? Please chime in and share your blog marketing case studies with us!
Most projects require Gene’s generalist and creative skills at least at the beginning of the engagement with qubePartners so as to deliver you the greatest possible return on your marketing investment.
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