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Companies are made of people: The importance of personalization in the B2B inbound marketing tactics

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Sourced from doxee.

In a previous series of posts, we have taken an extensive look at the characteristics of Inbound marketing, distinguishing it from Outbound, recounting its history, and identifying the latest developments. The goal was to describe the evolution of a concept, from theory to practice.

In this post, we will look at inbound marketing from the point of view of B2B, looking at why it’s effective, and focusing on the features that make it stand out: the production, management, and strategic distribution of high quality content (content marketing).

What is B2B marketing?

“Business-to-business marketing refers to the marketing of products or services to other businesses and organizations. It holds several key distinctions from B2C marketing, which is oriented toward consumers.” This definition is taken from the Marketing Solutions Blog from, LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking site with over 550 million members.

In a broad sense, B2B marketing content tends to be more informative and direct than B2C content. This is because the purchasing decisions of businesses, compared to those of consumers, are based on the impact on profits. The return on investment (ROI) is rarely a consideration of the average consumer, at least in the sense of a purely “material” investment (the ratio between expenditure and immediate economically quantifiable benefit), but it is an absolutely primary objective for business decision-makers.

B2B marketers find themselves managing a complex sales process, where they are called upon to identify the real decision-makers and the main stakeholders of the target company within a corporate landscape that is unique and characterized by specific organizational charts and decision-making flows. It becomes absolutely necessary to acquire a solid and precise knowledge of the company so as to be able to map the people really involved in the decisions by reaching them with relevant and personalized information.

Who is B2B marketing aimed at?

B2B marketing campaigns are aimed at any individual who has the ability to influence purchasing decisions. This can include a wide variety of professional titles, up to the C-level.

B2B marketing in context 

To start getting an idea of the context, let’s take a look at the Sagefrog Marketing Group’s 2020 Marketing Mix Report B2B (download here), which contains data on B2B marketing strategies, competitive trends and emerging tactics:

  • Between 2017 and 2018, at least 40% of B2B companies invested a tenth of their budget in marketing. Since then, that number has risen to almost 50%
  • The total expenditure is distributed across the following: 56% on Digital Marketing, 52% on Website Development and 36% on tradeshows and events
  • Content Marketing (27%) is an area in constant growth

In the 2018 B2B Content Marketing report focusing on Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends by CMI and MarketingProfs, 91% of companies employ Inbound Marketing  as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Of the remaining 9%, 54% said they plan to invest in content marketing within 12 months; 43% have no immediate plans to use content marketing; and 4% have used content marketing in the past.

Quality content: a strong return on investment

The Sagefrog Report highlights that quality content can offer a strong ROI when properly optimised for search engines so that it can be easily found and shared over and over again.  This means that quality content combined with clear and graphically pleasing landing pages and contact forms can help provide qualified leads. To achieve this goal, each piece of content must be designed in such a way that it is informative, relevant, searchable, shareable, not overly promotional, and above all, distinctive from that proposed by competitors.

Where the objectives of marketing and sales meet

Among marketers’ main objectives for 2020, in the first place is the need to convert leads into customers, followed by increasing sales, growth in brand awareness, the creation of “Thought Leadership,” and finally, increased website traffic.

What’s important to point out here is that the two main objectives are in fact priorities that marketing and sales teams share, which suggests the need to harmonize operations between the two departments.

Sales and marketing leads get personal

Referrals are the main source of qualified marketing and sales leads (63%). This is by no means surprising: B2B draws useful knowledge and contacts from the interpersonal networks of professionals, who are more likely to invest their time and money working with a company if they can rely on an existing connection.

In any case, if referrals are the main source of sales and marketing leads, inbound marketing is also gaining traction (33%). In both cases, we can read the strong signal of increasing attention to the personalization of communications.

In fact, the marketing experts interviewed by Sagefrog say that in 2020 they will explore personalization strategies (47%) through Account-based marketing (42%), video marketing, (41%) and inbound marketing (39%), AI and automation (36%), conversational marketing in the form of chatbots (33%) and influencer marketing (27%).

How do I create a B2B marketing strategy? The best B2B inbound marketing tactics

The competition to win the attention of customers gets tougher every day. Building a B2B strategy that delivers results requires considered planning, execution, and management. In the aforementioned LinkedIn article, the steps for planning a B2B marketing strategy are outlined. The steps for getting there, as the aforementioned LinkedIn article describes, are part of any inbound plan because they incorporate two fundamental assumptions:

  • Personalized, useful, and relevant content that authentically conveys the brand’s vision and value system through relevant channels
  • Continuous listening to the feedback of the reference target, previously profiled
  1. Develop a global vision and select specific and measurable business objectives
  2. Define the market, never forgetting that you’re talking to a person. While B2C goods often have a wider and more general audience, B2B products and services are marketed to a set of customers with specific needs related to their sector, department, and the business function. However, potential customers are also individuals with precise demographic data, urgencies, and priorities.
  3. Identify B2B inbound marketing tactics and channels. Once solid information about the target audience has been defined, determine how and where to reach them. The knowledge gained through the previous step should help. In any case, it is good practice to prepare a list of questions to establish time and place, both physical and virtual, in which to try to intercept those who will be the recipients of targeted marketing actions.
  4. Create content, distribute it and organize campaigns. After deciding which channels to use, plan and implement best practices for each one. Each action should, in any case, be built around some critical elements: a message, expressively translated with a creative approach, a series of useful insights, the most accurate targeting possible and some understandable, transparent and persuasive call to action.
  5. Measure and improve. Consult analysis and metrics reports in order to activate review and fine-tuning processes in real time: even with a well-studied basis, the creation of content and campaigns is intrinsically based on hypotheses and forecasts and must be optimized until you have substantial involvement and conversion data to rely on. Observe the channels, topics and media that resonate the most and then enhance them.

Essential elements of B2B inbound marketing tactics  

Truly effective B2B marketing is conversational, focused, and contextually relevant, and a B2B marketing strategy must include a variety of content, most of which is typically inbound: blogs, white papers, social media, email, videos.

Blogs: Regularly updated blogs provide organic visibility and direct inbound traffic to the website, whether institutional or product based. The blog can contain different types of content: copy, infographics, videos, case studies and much more.

Search: SEO best practices must be updated in conjunction with Google’s algorithm, which is changing more and more often, making it difficult to keep up. Lately, the focus has shifted from keywords and metadata to the interpretation of the user’s signals of intent.

Social media: Both organic and paid traffic should always be part of the mix. Social networks allow you to reach and attract potential customers where they are active. B2B customers increasingly use these channels to search for potential suppliers and to inform their purchasing decisions.

White papers and ebooks: Resources containing valuable information can be gated (requiring users to provide contact information or perform another action to download the content) or freely available. Often used as B2B lead generation tools.

Email: Although its effectiveness in recent years has been impacted by the proliferation of spam filters, email is still widely used today.

Video: Content that can be used within many of areas listed above (blogs, social media, e-mail) is becoming increasingly important for B2B strategies

In conclusion: Be human

When it comes to B2B marketing, the biggest mistake we could make is thinking that you are addressing an abstract and impersonal entity. In fact, as it should be clear by now, any marketing action will be aimed at recipients who are first and foremost real people who are driven by emotional and cognitive motivations. Although corporate decisions tend to be more rational and logical in nature, this does not mean that the content communicated must be formal or “robotic” in tone.

For the same reason, campaigns that are too broad will not be able to connect with (or influence) the audience in the same way that those aimed at specific segments can. Defining and segmenting the audience is an absolutely fundamental preliminary step in creating a message that speaks directly to individuals driven by a real need.

Personalization and relevance are essential: “speaking the language” of customers is a valid precondition because it allows us to cross an initial barrier, that of understanding. But it’s not enough: it’s necessary to publish content and ads that thematically adapt to the place where they are displayed. For example, shorter videos with simpler and more immediate narrative hooks work better on social media feeds, while a longer video is probably better suited to YouTube. Put yourself in the end user’s shoes and humanize your relationship with him or her right away. As in any Inbound strategy, even in the case of B2B marketing the starting point—each person’s needs and desires—is unique.

Sourced from doxee

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Marketers: Shake up your strategies in 2020

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By Jude McColgan.

30-second summary:

  • Remarketing is your friend: The common myth is that remarketing is a form of stalking consumers who previously interacted with your brand, but when done correctly, it can be very beneficial and 90% of marketers would agree.
  • Going beyond personalization: By adjusting efforts like the timing of push notifications, the mediums being used to deliver those ads and incorporating more creative copy, companies can provide experiences that make the consumer fall even more in love with the brand, fostering stronger brand loyalty.
  • Breaking a brand’s mold in 2020: A new decade is the perfect time for brands to be edgier and more creative. Companies should try shaking up their strategies and highlight ways that differentiate themselves from their competitors and offer consumers a unique experience.

Consumers have been bombarded with ad content since well before Black Friday, many of which were completely irrelevant to their shopping experience – meaning they are over being marketed to 24/7. So, how can brands try to combat ad fatigue this year? It’s all centered around shaking up marketing strategies, while putting the consumer first.

Their journey begins by choosing when and where they engage with a brand; it’s up to marketers to use that data and digital intelligence to understand their audience on a personal level, and better inform their personalization and customer engagement strategies.

As you kick off your marketing campaigns in 2020, keeping the following tips in mind can help you start to build loyalty and trust with your customers:

Remember, remarketing is your friend

The common myth is that remarketing is a form of stalking consumers who previously interacted with your brand, but when done correctly, it can be very beneficial – and 90% of marketers would agree.

Remarketing gives brands another way to reach users outside of its physical store, website, or mobile app, while simultaneously increasing the chance of conversion. The problem is, few brands are implementing remarketing correctly, which results in users receiving ads that either don’t apply to them, or that they aren’t interested in.

As we enter a new decade, marketers should do an assessment of where their inbound traffic was coming from in 2019 and create new demographic segments to leverage in retargeting efforts this year.

Consumers don’t have to hate your ads, so take advantage of the tools you already have to provide them with a better experience.

Go beyond traditional personalization

Today’s consumers can spot a halfhearted sales pitch a mile away. It’s not enough to simply insert a naming macros into an email template and call it personalization.

We can, and should, do better. Instead, brands must tailor content effectively, but how?

By adjusting efforts like the timing of your push notifications, the mediums you’re using to deliver those ads – mobile, web, social, SMS, email, and in-store – and incorporating more creative copy, companies can provide experiences that make the consumer fall even more in love with the brand, fostering stronger brand loyalty.

At Localytics, we call this moving beyond traditional personalization to delivering the next best action for your customers – letting them choose what, when and where they want to engage.

Brands will find higher engagement with their messages and less churn by contextualizing the content they send consumers and ensuring it meets their interests and preferences.

Only by throwing out the way they currently think about personalization efforts can brands in fact move beyond it – ultimately delivering communication that’s truly aimed at an individual. Those who do so will avoid adding to the holiday ad hangover.

Break your brand’s mold in 2020

If your brand has been offering the same marketing message and value proposition to consumers for the past few months, it might be time to change up your tactics in the new year.

There can be a learning curve with this process, but it’s important for each brand to experiment with different strategies to find what works best. A new decade is the perfect time for brands to be edgier and more creative, and to experiment with delivering ads in new formats that consumers might be adopting quickly.

If your target audience is of a younger demographic, consider advertising to them on TikTok, and if you see notable engagement on your mobile app, integrating a chatbot for better product recommendations may be a good idea.

Companies in the retail space could pilot new promotions based on a multitude of audience factors to see if that boosts stagnant engagement rates, while companies in other industries could cut out promotions and sales speak altogether in favor of a more purpose-driven narrative instead.

The marketing industry has been preaching the importance of personalization for years, yet many consumers today still feel that brands are missing the mark. Now more than ever, it’s time to put the consumer first and put them at the heart of your strategies.

We’re armed with the technology advancements to paint a more colorful picture of the consumer using not just Profile Data, but also Behavioral Data. Effectively engage consumers at the right time, on the right channel and with the right message to offer the next best action.

By Jude McColgan

Jude McColgan is CEO of Localytics, a customer engagement platform that gives brands the digital intelligence they need to deliver a meaningful, personal customer experience. The Localytics platform is used in more than 37,000 apps with more than 100 million notifications per day.

Sourced from ClickZ

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How does a sales funnel work?

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By Jason Hassett.

In a recent post we discussed a product we really love, GetResponse, and how you can use it for creating landing pages, email automation and lead funnels. This became a very post on our blog and we decided that we should probably elaborate on the key area of the post, by which I of course mean, sales funnels.

What is hope marketing and why should you replace it with a sales funnel?

Hope marketing essentials means “hoping” for the best when it comes to marketing a business; it means copying other companies’ marketing tactics and hoping they will also work for you. Essentially, imagine just hoping your customer’s refer you to other businesses or that by mentioning your business to people online you will get customers. This used to work and it still does in small numbers, or completely just by accident. However to build a strong consistent business, you need a consistent sales strategy. This is where sales funnels come in.

What is a sales funnel?

If you’re wondering what a sales funnel is, simply imagine a real-world funnel. At the top of that funnel, some substance is poured in, which filters down towards one finite destination. In sales, something similar occurs. At the top, lots of visitors arrive who may enter your funnel. However, unlike the real-world funnel, not all who enter the sales funnel will re-emerge out from the other end.

In marketing automation, Ryan Deiss, co-founder of Digital Marketer, often describes the sales funnel as a multi-step, multi-modality process that moves prospective browsers into buyers. It’s multi-stepped because lots must occur between the time that a prospect is aware enough to enter your funnel, to the time when they take action and successfully complete a purchase.

You’ve probably heard about this concept from somewhere, likely heading the phrase click funnel which is solely a term popularised by the service clickfunnels.com. This single core concept can take a business from virtually non-existent and unknown to multi-million-dollar marketing machine with mass saturation, seemingly overnight

How does a sales funnel work?

A sales funnel works in various stages where they engage the potential customer by bringing them through a series of steps into sales. Unlike a real funnel, these stages work to re-engage the potential customer over and over again until they leave the funnel either in terms of a sale (which technically means they will be re-engaged again) or by forcing themselves out, for example unsubscribing. Sales funnels aren’t only digital, they happen even in brick and mortar businesses, however for the purposes of this post. Let’s keep in terms of a digital sales funnel.

Stages of a Sales Funnel

The following are the key 5 stages of your sales funnel, you might see them with different names and so on, however these are essentially how it works.

Stage 1: Exposure

It’s obvious that you cannot build a sales pipeline….wait….funnel, without first having customers aware of your brand and thus, stage one is getting your brand in front of the customer. This is done digitally using the following methods generally.

  1. SEO (search engine marketing) to get found in organic search
  2. Content marketing – to create content worthy of sharing
  3. Building a community – Getting social with your content and building an audience. Another option is helping others out and getting traction back through groups etc.

Add in a little traditional digital advertising through banners and PPC and you’ve got the beginnings of a great funnel.

Obviously, analyzing your success across these tasks is important for your ultimate success and KPIs (key performance indicators) act as metrics to monitor your programs.

To optimise all of the above, definitely check out Semrush, an amazing piece of SaaS software that we use. We’re a partner of theirs so use our link HERE for a free trial or HERE for $45 off your first month.

Stage 2: Discovery

Once prospects find your site, the trick is to keep them there and keep them coming back. Recommendation agents are particularly good at helping visitors discover suitable products. Amazon is probably the granddaddy at this with their simple recommendation agent that recommends other books viewed by folks who bought the book you’re viewing. Netflix has a more sophisticated recommendation agent that finds movies based on your rating of movies you’ve already watched.

If your website is on Site123 or one of the other website builders that are listed in our Resources section, this will be easy to set up. If you need some advice or a free consultation with us on how to implement this on your website, email [email protected] and one of our experts will happily schedule this in.

Enticing visitors to sign up for you email newsletter provides additional opportunities to reach them once they’ve left your site. There are many tools to do this, such as AutopilotHQ, Mailchimp and of course our favourite, GetResponse.

Stage 3: Consideration

Salesforce.com estimates that consumers are 75% of the way to making their decision to buy your brand BEFORE they ever visit your website, store or see a sales rep. Thus, it’s critical to address all their issues on your website and use influence strategies effectively throughout the site. This will help ensure that by the time contact is made or a sale is initiated, this customer is fully committed. Makes sense? Right?

Stage 4: Conversion

Make the sale. Take as many clicks out of the selling process as possible and only ask for information critical for completing the transaction. Remember, this is a close. And, once someone is ready to buy — consummate the deal. You can get more information if you’d like AFTER they’ve closed.

And, like any good salesperson, don’t leave without getting referrals. Ask that they share their purchase with their social networks to gain tacit endorsements among their social graph. For instance, Groupon offers to refund your purchase if you get 3 friends to buy it. That’s a great incentive to share.

Stage 5: Customer Relationship

Relationships rely on each party getting value. If your customer isn’t getting value, then it isn’t a relationship they want. You obviously want to retain existing customers since it’s 5x more expensive to replace a customer who leaves your digital marketing funnel.  Again, provide value and customers will likely stay. Annoy them with constant irrelevant emails and spam their newsfeeds and they’ll leave.

A concept you may hear of: The leaky funnel

If a sales opportunity does not move down the funnel, the sale will not happen and the opportunity should be removed, hence the “leaky” funnel. A leaky funnel is not necessarily bad; as a salesperson, you want to focus on opportunities that are likely to yield results. It is the nature of sales to have to remove an opportunity from your funnel. It does not mean that you will not sell to that account (a positive action by the customer can put them back into the funnel), but for the time being, you should centre your attention on opportunities that remain in the funnel.

By Jason Hassett.

Sourced from PUGBUTLER.COM

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Digital Marketing Tips For Your Small Business

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Managing the marketing needs of a business is a full-time job.  The need to be seen never ends, no matter the industry in which your business operates.  Digital marketing is the most effective way to market your business to today’s consumers.

It’s important to know that digital marketing is about far more than just throwing out a bulk of content.  Take some time to explore those elements, and read through a brief explanation of a few digital marketing tips for your small business now.

Focus on Mobile Optimization

Mobile access to the internet is a way of life, and your business will do well to acknowledge the influx of mobile devices online today.  No matter the purpose of your digital content, it should be designed to please mobile web users.

Responsive design will help your content be more relevant to users’ needs.  Build content that can adjust to various display sizes and is easy to manipulate.

Learn to incorporate SEO

Search engine optimization should be a normal part of your vocabulary when you’re working to create a digital presence for your small business.  SEO is a term used to describe all the things you can do while designing your content to make it more appealing to Google search algorithms.

When your content please the algorithms, you’ll rank higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages).  Using tactical terms to gain the attention of your target audience will help show clarity to Google.  Content that ranks in the top few listings of the SERPs gets much more attention than everything else.

Disburse Quality Content

It’s true that a lot of content is a good idea, but you can’t just throw anything out there on the internet.  Your digital content should be enriching and helpful to whoever comes across it online.

Build a business blog for your operation, and upload new posts regularly.  Disburse content that is relevant to your operation, and teach readers interesting things about the industry.

Utilize Social Media

Social media is an extraordinary outlet for any small business.  Work diligently to spread the word on various social media platforms, and watch the popularity of your business rise.

Add social media sharing icons to your business website, your blog, and other digital content your business creates.  Grant users the chance to share your organization with others, and you’ll reap the benefits of some free marketing.

Reach Out Through Email

Email connections are valuable to businesses of all shapes and sizes.  Gather useful email connections through your business website and other digital mediums.

Use your email rolodex for sending out regular newsletters, important information, sales confirmation, and more.  Email correspondence builds consumer rapport.

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Sourced from NoPa$$iveIncome

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Take Fewer Meetings, Write Fewer Proposals-And Still Grow Your Business. Here’s How

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By Amy George.

It’s about growing as a business owner and saving your mental energy for the clients you already have.

Run your business; don’t let your business run you. You know the adage, but do you follow it?

Truthfully, in recent months it’s been a struggle for me. There have been times when I’ve felt burnout creeping in with every new proposal to write, every new meeting request. I love the work — the actual public relations and communications — that I do. But the distractions and noise are too much sometimes. And I don’t want to work all the time. I want time to read a book, hang out with my kids, or cook something new for dinner.

Anyhow, I signed on for some group coaching at the end of last year, and it has helped a lot. It’s helping me be more mindful that I’m in a different place than I was four years ago when I was about to launch my PR business. Growing my business doesn’t mean what it used to. I don’t have to say “yes” to everything. I need to protect my time. Take fewer meetings. Write fewer proposals.

If this strikes a chord with you, and you also want to do less meeting and proposing, here are four tips.

1. Ask qualifying questions.

Determine if a meeting is worth taking or a proposal worth making by asking some qualifying questions before you jump in and invest your precious time and energy. You want to find out if a prospect is qualified to do business with you. Here are some good questions my business coach and I came up with for me and my business.

  • What is the scope of work and timeframe to get started?
  • How do you envision us working together?
  • What is your anticipated budget range?

If the prospect can’t answer all or most of those questions, I’m not going to hop to it. I can’t tell you how many proposals I’ve written over the past four years that I had no business writing because the prospect said they didn’t know what their budget is or I didn’t ask.

2. Ask good follow-up questions to their objections.

Say the prospect isn’t giving you anything to go on budget wise, and they want the work to start immediately, because of course they do. They suggest you write a couple proposals covering various levels of service — like a Kia version, a Mercedes and a Tesla.

Don’t do it– unless you want to grow your busy work three fold. Consider the fact that this prospect could be using you to do their footwork. They might not know about PR, communications, marketing, SEO or whatever you specialize in. They don’t know what to ask, so they’re going to use your proposal to shop around.

Or, say the prospect objects to providing a budget range or objects to the price you put on your proposal. Here are some excellent follow up questions:

  • What’s more important to you — time or price?
  • Do you need things to start happening now? Or do you need to watch costs?
  • What were you trying to achieve when you reached out today?

3. Put a time limit on proposals.

When you do write a proposal, put a time limit on it, meaning the work and fees quoted are good for two weeks (or however long you prefer). I’m bad at remembering to do this. But it keeps the other party accountable and sends a message as to how you will work together — if that other party is lucky enough to hire you. You are not a doormat, waiting around for them. You are busy and important.

It also means you won’t waste time and energy stewing over the fact that you have been ghosted on a proposal that you took the time to write. I have a proposal out there right now, and the recipient has barely acknowledged it. She is someone I see on a regular basis. I don’t need the work, and now I really wish I’d put a time limit on the proposal for the sake of my mental energy.

4. Say ‘no’ quicker.

If something doesn’t feel right to you for any reason, politely say “no thanks” and move on. Or maybe you say “no thanks, but here’s a referral to someone else,” if you trust this prospect is worth referring within your network. No proposal needed.

As a final piece of advice as you navigate where you spend your time and energy, know that nobody else has it figured out either. Think about the sheer volume of business self-help books and podcasts. In my business coaching group, there are brand new business owners, established business owners and those like me somewhere in the middle. We are all still growing our businesses and growing as business owners.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Amy George

Owner, By George Communications @amybgeorge

Sourced from Inc.

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Text Marketing as an Affordable Lead Generation Channel: Everything You Need to Know

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By Saten Aghajanyan.

No matter what industry you are in, lead generation is an important part of every business venture. It is the main source of revenue in addition to being an avenue for new business opportunities.

Amidst all the technological development, a lot of new channels have emerged for businesses to use to generate new leads. Among all, SMS Marketing has proven to be one of the more efficient ones (learn more here). Not to mention, it is the most affordable lead generation channel out there that

can provide the most bang for your buck.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing (which stands for short message service marketing) is implementing the text messaging channel to communicate both promotional and transactional to customers/people on mobile devices. It is an ideal channel to raise brand awareness, increase customer loyalty and drive up business revenues.

SMS Marketing Benefits

You will be hard-pressed to find any large business or corporation globally that does not engage in text message marketing in one way or another. And there is a solid reason for that. SMS marketing provides a lot of benefits that are unmatched by other marketing channels. It is the reason why since the inception of SMS itself to up until now SMS marketing has managed to retain one of the top spots as a marketing channel.

Now you may be asking yourself – what makes SMS marketing so lucrative and what kinds of benefits it has that appeals to most businesses? The answer is neither short nor simple. In reality, it is a combination of factors that makes SMS marketing as appealing and as useful as it is. It also helps that it is the most preferred channel of communication among consumers, ahead of email, direct mail and app notifications.

The following is a comprehensive list of all the benefits SMS marketing offers to businesses, regardless of size and location.

  • SMS marketing is just about the most affordable marketing and communication channel to reach the masses. As far as spreading information to the largest number of people is concerned, no other form of marketing is comparable in terms of pricing. Of course, prices mostly depend on what country you choose to conduct your marketing in but generally, most of them lean on the cheaper side.
  • Accessibility and Worldwide Reach. Most traditional forms of marketing, or even digital ones for that matter, tend to miss out on one important thing—they are neither completely accessible nor do they reach everyone. SMS marketing, on the other hand, ticks both boxes. Over half of the world population owns a mobile device, making them readily accessible at any time and anywhere in the world. Since SMS also is not limited by any geographic boundaries, those people can be reached even from the other side of the world.
  • High Open and Conversion Rates. Businesses investing money in marketing have one real concern—results. Most channels of communication, while wildly prominent, are counter-intuitively ineffective. Most ordinary people would comfortably put email ahead of SMS in terms of an effective marketing channel. However, it is more than three times less effective statistically. SMS offers the highest open rate with a staggering 98% and conversion rates in the 25-35% range. Moreover, SMS messages are opened within 3 minutes of being received. That is absolutely not the case with emails that can go months being neglected.
  • Increased Customer Engagement. SMS marketing is also known to increase customer engagement which, in turn, also serves to marginally increase customer loyalty. SMS marketing is not limited to receiving offers and reminders. The right text message at the right time can engage customers better than social media or email. Not to mention that businesses set up chatbots and use the SMS channel to communicate with customers: either to resolve issues or collect feedback.

These are some of the key benefits of SMS marketing but the list does not end there. SMS marketing also offers benefits like immediacy, personalization, reliability and great return on investment. Having said all of this, it is pretty easy to understand why SMS marketing has been a dominant marketing channel for so long and why it is here for the long haul.

SMS Marketing for Lead Generation

So how is SMS marketing relevant to lead generation? The answer lies within the facts and statistics regarding SMS in general. Here are a few key ones to take into consideration.

  • Nielsen survey shows that consumers spend 14.1% of their mobile time texting, compared to just 5.3% for email.
  • 90% of customers prefer texts to phone calls.
  • 44% of customers prefer to get promotions through SMS.
  • The click-through rate on SMS averages around 17%, which is 5 times higher than that of email.

If you want to reach potential customers and generate new leads, you have got to do it on a channel they spend most of their time on, thus are more accessible.

SMS marketing is very flexible by its essence, therefore not limited to any one particular industry. Businesses across all industries can find a use for SMS marketing in their lead generation pursuits. So let’s count down some examples of industries that can benefit from using text messages to connect with potential clients.

  • Real Estate. You can frequently contact potential buys using the SMS channel, letting them know what properties are available in the form of reminders.
  • Ad agencies. Advertising can benefit from SMS marketing the most since it is the easiest way to connect with customers and collect information about them. Running a promotion? Let people know about it through an SMS message and see how easy it is to attract new customers.
  • Event Management. Regardless of what kind of event you are organizing, it makes sense to promote it to as many people as you can. SMS can be used to promote the event and drive up ticket sales, thus increasing both event awareness and attendance.

Additionally, using SMS marketing you can provide your potential leads with a customized and personalized experience by facilitating two-way communication with them. Using SMS autoresponders, in this case, can help you automate this task.

SMS autoresponders can be used to contact leads, provide them with necessary information about your business (products and services) and send additional information and resources that they can use.

Of course, do not forget to collect as much information from your potential leads as possible. This will help you to qualify and categorize them accordingly so that later you can divide them into segments for a more targeted marketing campaign.

Feature Image Credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/SYTO3xs06fU

By Saten Aghajanyan

Saten Aghajanyan has been working at Dexatel OU as a sales manager for over a year and is now a part of the newly-formed marketing team representing their recently-launched product SendSMS, which provides wholesale SMS services. Currently, she works as a digital marketer helping develop the brand name while simultaneously giving people full information about mobile marketing, especially SMS marketing. Before working at Dexatel, she volunteered for different organizations and large events.

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Content Marketing Trends for 2020: Are we ready?

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By Chaaya Baradhwaaj.

With every click on the keyboard, there is content being added to this virtual infinite universe that is being created, trillions of pieces of content get created every day

There are over 4.4 billion Internet users worldwide. If you look at them collectively as a country, it would indeed be the largest in the world. With every click on the keyboard, there is content being added to this virtual infinite universe that is being created, trillions of pieces of content get created every day. It is being created in terms of updates, likes, comments, and of course the larger pieces—websites, videos and blogs, among others.

This is a borderless country, so this content is actually accessible to anyone online, and we are no longer competing with ‘India-specific’ content. Consumers are also easily shopping across borders today. No wonder there is a switch to the digital content piece as you can swipe across this vast network and choose what you want to.

Today, digital content is an integral part of the consumer’s journey, regardless of whether she’s looking for entertainment, information or exchange (EIE). As marketers, the amount of mindspace we are able to occupy is what matters to us. And the best way to do so is through creating different forms of content, such as:

User Generated Content

It is no secret that consumers trust genuine reviews by real users when making a decision to shop for a product or service. They want to know what influencers or experts have to say about the product. Additionally, they care to know what others like them are saying about the product. Let’s face it, the consumer is also smart enough to know what is influenced and what is genuine content. There is a big leap that marketers need to take in capturing this genuine feedback and presenting it at the right places in the omnichannel consumer journey where digital touch points have become integral at almost every step.

Video format

Storytelling or insight-led messaging? Are we touching the hearts of the consumer? And are we answering the key questions they have? There is and will be an increasing need to address search-optimized video content that addresses the consumer in whatever stage of the consumer journey they are in, when they need to see it the most. Brands that are addressing this are creating not just DVCs (the new age TVC that can say more, can be long format), but are also getting their products reviewed, creating explainer videos and making their brand visible in content that is relevant to the viewer, making the product play a key role in the story as opposed to building content around the product.

Marketers need to do a complete 360 degree shift in the way they plan their marketing spends. A TVC-led campaign with a multi-crore marketing spend will not give return on investment considering the changing dynamics of the audience. A digital content plan with a similar budget would do a lot more for the brand by driving organic reach, increasing brand love, and loyalty, while sparking a two-way conversation between the consumer and the brand.

Data Driven Content

Considering the omnichannel digital play, the ‘what, when and where’ is becoming increasingly important. Starting with something as simple as ‘find a store near me’ when the consumer is browsing from just about anywhere to ‘price of the product’ or ‘is this a good product’ right in front of the shelves at a store. Data on when your consumer is most likely to be looking for you and what at that time do they want to know can and will shape the future of how much and where you invest in content.

Voice-content

Let’s face it—we would rather Google than stop for directions. Digitally mooted abbreviations such as ‘LOL’ have now become part of our vocabulary. And yes, now we just tell Siri or Google to dial a number for us. And thanks to Alexa and voice-enabled Google, we can manage our music playlists, find online recipes, exercise routines or listen to the latest news. Creating content that Gen Z can consume is the big game changer, thanks to the rapidly growing adoption of digital technologies and option for the easiest and laziest way to get things done.

So are we ready? Maybe not. But it’s time to make the big shift in thinking digital, content-first and omnichannel all through the way.

Feature Image Credit: Shutterstock

By Chaaya Baradhwaaj

Founder, BC Web Wise

Sourced from Entrepreneur India

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Like that house! Facebook’s growing power in property market revealed

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By Sheila Manchester.

Zoopla claims its research shows the social media platform is fast becoming an essential tool for both house hunters and estate agents.

A report into the UK housing market has revealed that two thirds of estate agents plan to use social media this year to promote their listings, and that the percentage of house hunters using Facebook to find their next home has doubled to 12% compared to the same time last year.

The data is contained within Zoopla’s annual data-fest which interviews 6,000 house hunters and 650 agents to feel the pulse of the housing market and reveal its emerging trends.

It also reveals that just over 53% of agents intend to spend more on marketing their listings through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Zoopla is keen to point out that property portals remain the key marketing tool for 59% of agents, a surprisingly low figure given that 77% of house hunters use portals to conduct their property search. Zoopla also says that agents told it that 65% of their leads come from their portal listings.

A fifth of consumers have a property app installed on their smartphones, whether active in the market or not. Consumers are using apps on average 4.8 times per week.

“The industry is adapting to changes in consumer behaviour and looking to capitalise on the amount of time that prospective buyers and vendors spend in the digital environment,” says Andy Marshall, Chief Commercial Officer at Zoopla (left).

“This is nowhere more apparent than in the research stages of buying, selling or renting a new home; agents know this, which is why more of them are embracing digital marketing than ever before.”

Read more about social media and estate agency marketing.

Read the State of the Nation report for 2020.

By Sheila Manchester

Sourced from The Negotiator

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6 skills designers need to get ahead in 2020

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The expertise designers should develop to boost their careers in the new decade.

We know the design industry is always evolving. Changing technologies and trends mean that the skill set sought by potential employers is always in flux. Staying ahead of the game requires keeping up with trends, but also keeping up with the skills that are going to be most in demand.

The beginning of the year is the perfect time to think about how your skills fit the direction that the industry is heading. As we enter a new decade, here we look at 6 skills that could help you stay ahead of the game in 2020, from technical expertise to add to your CV and design portfolio to the soft skills that will make clients want to work with you.

01. Illustration

Image 1 of 2

Icon illustrations for Butterlust by Chelsea Carlson

Icon illustrations for Butterlust by Chelsea Carlson (Image credit: Chelsea Carlson)

Blinguage landing page by Cuberto

Blinguage landing page by Cuberto (Image credit: Cuberto)

Assuming you haven’t had your eyes closed over the past year, you’ll probably have noticed that illustration has become rather popular. Brands big and small are favouring illustration to add personality to web and UI design. This includes line drawings and other hand-drawn elements that feature natural imperfections, almost as a rebellious turn against perfection in digital design.

Brands are seeking illustration for everything from attention-grabbing main images on landing pages to personalised icons that reflect the brand’s character and custom hand-lettering to create unique type that can blend with imagery.

Cuberto’s concept landing page for a Japanese language school uses illustration where in the past photographic imagery may have been the obvious choice. Colorado-based designer Chelsea Carlson’s unique, stylised hand-drawn icons for cookery site Butterlust follow the rough brush edge style of the brand’s logo to create an emotional and human feel. Drawing doesn’t come naturally to everyone but the skill can be developed by practising on drawing from life, and focusing on the process rather than on aiming for realism in the results.

02. Motion design

Design skills for 2020

Brands are looking for movement for everything from social media to email campaigns (Image credit: LOFT)

The year 2020 is all about movement. Brands have realised that adding motion can captivate and engage customers. And in a digital world with faster internet connections and device performance, it can be applied almost everywhere. This means that animation and motion design are no longer niche skills practised by a small group of specialists, but something all designers should at least have an awareness of, and upskilling in this area is an immediate way to stand out in the talent pool.

From GIFs to CSS animation and full-blown video, it can be an intimidating world to enter if you’re getting started, but there is plenty of good software for the job. Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Cinema 4D are the major tools. A knowledge of colour grading for video will also get you ahead.

There are no end of applications that brands are looking for, including email marketing campaigns such as the campaign for women’s clothing company LOFT above, animated logos, video tutorials, product walk-throughs and social media content. It’s predicted that 80% of internet traffic will be video by 2021, but even offline there’s demand for motion design in advertising for digital billboards and in-store digital ordering screens. It’s no wonder it’s the skill that most designers want to learn in the coming years.

03. Image editing

Design skills for 2020

Image editing skills remain a must for designers in 2020 (Image credit: Getty Images)

The growing demand for illustration and motion does not mean that designers can forget about photography and image editing. Photographic images remain the main medium of visual communication in social media and the majority of websites. A growing trend to combine text and illustration with realistic photography to create collages means that image editing skills are still in high demand and that editing needs to be as precise as ever.

Graphic designers at all levels will want to make sure they are at least sufficiently skilled up in the basics of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to be able to make the little tweaks that can make an image usable. This can include tasks as small as cleaning up dust or flare on an image, or adjusting colour to fit a composition, but the more you know about image enhancement and manipulation the better, the more you can do yourself without having to go to someone else.

Courses will get you so far, but image editing is often best mastered by rolling up your sleeves and getting in there. Many designers who don’t find they need to edit images in their usual work develop side projects in order to work on the skills.

04. Coding and UI design

Design skills for 2020

 A designer who can code will find their skills in demand (Image credit: Getty Images)

Drag and drop tools for web and UI design mean that most designers don’t need to know the finer details of code, but a working knowledge can set you way ahead of the competition. With web design and UI evolving from flat pages to become more immersive, designers who can code and design user experiences are in high demand and are often rewarded with higher pay. Even basic coding skills will allow you to avoid being limited to what your software is capable of and allow you to offer something that little bit more personalised than what competitors can deliver.

Most designers will want to start with HTML/XHTML, and PHP if you’re going to be working with WordPress, then CSS to be able to add code to a theme to change the look of a site. JavaScript, which allows the creation of interactive elements like images that change in size or colour when a user interacts with it, is more complex and a steep learning curve, but an understanding can help designers work with functionality in mind, and allow better communication with coders on a project.

05. Communication

Design skills for 2020

Designers at all levels increasingly need to know how to communicate their ideas (Image credit: Getty Images)

That brings us to communication itself. This is a soft skill that is becoming just as essential as many technical skills in the designer’s toolbox and a vital part of getting ahead in design. Potential employers now look for designers who are able to communicate their ideas and processes well. For freelancers, a great portfolio can make an impression, but it’s your ability to explain your work and your approach that will earn the trust of potential clients.

Every day communication skills during a project include reminding people of the project goals, what the plan is, when they can expect delivery, what the fallback plan is, and following up after delivery. Explaining where you are and what you are working on helps others to trust you. Larger corporate work will often demand formal presentations to decision makers. Designers need to know not only how to make a visual presentation, but also how to talk an audience through it in an engaging way.

06. Collaboration

Design skills for 2020

Designers need to collaborate with people across many other disciplines (Image credit: Getty Images)

Another essential soft skill for designers in the new decade is collaboration. Designers no longer work in a vacuum generating fantastic ideas. They increasingly have to work with complex teams. Not only with other designers, but also with programmers, copywriters, engineers, sales and marketing teams, manufacturing, and management. This means a lot of discussion, and a lot of compromise.

In his last Design in Tech report, John Maeda argued that designers sometimes alienate other disciplines and can be guilty of trying to force their own tastes on clients. There can also be conflicts when designers work with their own portfolio in mind. Clients with complex projects are wary of this and now look for designers who show they can collaborate with other disciplines.

A good way to improve skills in collaboration is to think more broadly and to develop a greater awareness of other disciplines, from business models to marketing and sales techniques, and manufacturing processes. It can also help to share unfinished work more often and to ask more questions. There’s a general trend in many different industries towards a ‘blurring of swim lanes’ with people in different roles expected to have a greater awareness of the overall goal and every stage of a project.

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Sourced from Creative Bloq

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8 Best Digital Marketing Strategies Small Businesses Should Implement

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By Aashirvad Kumar. 

In the last decade, things went from offline to online. People are now searching for clothes on e-commerce websites instead of looking for some stores. Businesses are taking their online presence seriously. Moreover, people are creating millions of dollars through different online services. Here are the eight best digital marketing strategies small businesses should implement.

Running a business or starting your new business?

These days most startups fail because of their narrow visions about marketing. There are hundreds of articles written by various digital marketing experts about different marketing techniques that will help you grow your business.

You’ll need to know about basic digital marketing strategies that will help you grow when you have entered into the internet.

There are basically eight digital marketing strategies for small businesses that should be implemented in order to mark your online presence. But, you’ll want to have a clear vision of your marketing strategies for your new business. Begin here.

Email Marketing

My personal favorite and a great tool to grow your business quickly. Email Marketing is a strategy that has an ROI of 21$ per dollar. Emails are considered dead in the marketing field, but still, email marketing has the potential to give the best results in comparison to other marketing strategies.

You have to very selective while shooting emails to your customers. You can’t attract your customers with a particular mail. You have to run several experiments to find your audiences taste it. Thus, Email Marketing will take time, but once implemented correctly; it will worth every penny.

You can attract your audience through some attractive offers or via some informative pieces of content. But make sure your email good enough to grab your customer’s attention. Avoid using big paragraphs; keep your email content crisp and short.

Social Media Marketing

Another marketing technique that offers you guaranteed results. But the majority of small businesses ignore it as their business is either not related to social media or the want to target user’s available offline.

If you are into the same category, then let me tell you that social media marketing will work as a mouth marketing asset. Thus, if you aren’t the response of offline users, social media can help you grab our customer’s attention indirectly.

Along with this, having good social media handles creates a brand value in the market that will again help you grow your business.

It will give your business some exposure and customers. Social Media Marketing will help you in search engine rankings.

Paid Promotions

It includes PPC (Pay Per Click) Marketing. In paid promotions, you basically pay to get a feature. It could be on social media websites, search engines. But for a new business, it is a tough job to get maximum results at a limited investment, and sadly there isn’t any trick or hack to do so.  You need to practice different promotions so that you can get an idea about which one is giving you the desired results.

If you aren’t good at experiments or don’t have the budget for testing, then you can hire some digital marketing experts. Paid marketers will handle all the paid promotions for you, and they will extract maximum profit from every penny spent.

Search Engine Optimization

If you are running a business that has a website and it can get sales to you then, this is the most import strategy that costs you very less but gives long term results. Since you are not the only one running the business, there would be hundreds and thousands of other people working in your niche.

Through Search Engine Optimization, you can outrank them and can hold the first position on various search engines.

But SEO optimization needs proper skill sets and technical knowledge so that you can compete with others. If you don’t have a good grip about the technical aspects of SEO optimization, then you can hire some SEO experts like Optimise for SEO. These are the experts that will help you rank on the top of search engines.

Content Marketing

It is the most trending marketing strategy that will give your business a quick yet reliable boost. Content Marketing is a strategy in which you are creating useful content for a particular audience and putting it on a platform. Content Marketing increases your business visibility over the internet. It boosts your SEO.  It builds credibility, authority f your business. Thus, content marketing is one of the best digital marketing strategies.

Attend Events 

Attending events is not a typical digital marketing technique, but it can help you increase your digital business. All you need to do is to attend the events that are relevant to your field. This way, you will meet with people with a common interest, and it will help you in the next digital marketing technique.

Outreach Like-Minded People

I am assuming that you have contact details like email, phone number, etc. for people that are related to your field. Now, you have to convey a message to then and need to have a conversation describing your products. If the guy found it interesting, then they will surely talk about it on their social media handles or blog.

Reaching out to like-minded people works similarly to paid promotions.

But hey — reaching out is completely free, and it helps you learn from other business ideas. But in this strategy, you need to be very formal and professional while reaching out to people so that you can leave an impression on them.

Offer Freebies

It is a strategy that was implemented by some big brands of the present time, and it worked like charm. In this digital marketing technique, you need to offer something valuable to your users. Offering something useful will get persons or businesses attracted to your business, and as a result, they’ll come to you — as a regular reader and returning customer.

You can check Optimise for SEO as they are offering free SEO audit for a website and in return, they need your mail address so that they can implement the email marketing strategy on you.

Conclusion

These were the best digital marketing strategies that you must try to get the desired results. Though there are hundreds of strategies that work well these 8 are the best among all and yet most efficient.

By Aashirvad Kumar

Aashirvad Kumar is Founder of Tele Trick Mania and SEO Executive at Builds Worth Digital Marketing Agency Pvt. Ltd. He has been blogging since 2016 in the technology niche. He has experience of more than 2.5+ years in Digital Marketing.

Sourced from readwrite

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