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New era for Entrepreneurship

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The COVID-19 pandemic has turned out to be one of the most significant disruptive events witnessed by this generation. From mainstreaming remote working, cutting global travel to a comprehensive digital shift, the outbreak has changed the way businesses are executed.

One of the most notable elements of this transformation is the way organisations have been forced to embrace digital marketing to be able to survive the crisis and transform the way they attract and engage customers and clients.

As people are forced to stay indoors, there has been a shift to a space where businesses and customers interact less physically and more through the online route. There has been a surge in organisations seeking to create new websites or update existing ones, creating elaborate social media campaigns and launching new e-commerce channels. Intelligent content creation and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are other elements that are receiving fresh focus. Organisations that embrace this transformation quickly and more comprehensively are the ones that are more likely to survive. Here are some phases of entrepreneurship that are adjusting to the “new normal”:

The age of webinars: As live conferences and face-to-face activities take a back seat, organisations are working out new ways to engage with customers. Webinars have emerged as a popular way to achieve digital thought-leadership and getting quality leads. At the same time, customer engagement is also taking place within these digital discussions. That’s why there is a sea of webinars to spread the message. Even when the crisis ebbs, people are likely to continue to conduct part of their thought-leadership events through webinars, as they serve the same purpose at a fraction of the cost. Webinars have filled the gap of traditional conferences and are likely to become a mainstream marketing strategy.

Increased usage of data analytics: As organisations increase their digital presence, the importance of creating useful databases has increased. With people spending more time on social media, their chances of seeing advertisements on such platforms or coming in touch with content marketing blogs are greater. This is why organisations now need to create valuable databases, analyse them and use this information intelligently to reach out to the target audience. Tracking the pattern of consumer behaviour, online traffic patterns, analysing which content retains the customer and getting a break up of which products are enticing what type of customers are essential elements of data analytics that organisations need to use to boost their online sales.

Content is the king: Businesses must focus on expanding their social media presence by creating intelligent and attractive content. With the shift from outbound to inbound marketing, it becomes essential to engage consumers in subjects they might find interesting. However, content distributed on social media should not be only promotional in nature; it must be knowledge and awareness-based as well. It must engage consumers emotionally through human interest stories rather than blatantly promoting the product.

By Narendra Shyamsukha.

Sourced from THE HINDU

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Want Real Content Marketing ROI? Focus on Content for Customer Retention

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Back in 2014 — can you believe it’s been five years already? — the marketing world was having an industry-wide internal debate about inbound versus content marketing, and which practice serves the other.

HubSpot, the company that coined the term “inbound marketing,” publicly claimed content marketing serves inbound. The founder of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) countered by saying inbound is a subset of content marketing.

Here’s what was missing from the 2014 conversation: an awareness of the pressure we marketers felt to prove content marketing ROI in our own departments by year’s end. Many of us had spent precious time, funds, and energy creating content to build awareness and generate leads, handing responsibility off then to the sales and service departments so we could get back to creating more “interest stimulating” stuff to post. Many marketers had largely missed the customer retention power of content marketing.

Today, the conversation has shifted from whether content or inbound marketing is primary to how the two separate but related disciplines can interact and complement each other to generate ROI. To that end, brands are discovering content marketing’s potential as a powerful customer retention tool. Here are just a few of their strategies.

Live and In-Person Events

In sharing his origin story with LinkedIn, Andy Crestodina, co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, says he first “needed to learn search, and later, content marketing,” signifying a fundamental difference between the two.

That got me. In a world full of marketers who still use the two terms interchangeably, Andy had something to say about the broader capacities of content marketing. Had he too seen content retain customers as well as it had served the goals of search? If so, in what way?

I pinged him to ask.

“This might surprise you,” he began, “live events are an awesome content format for retention. If a good chunk of your customers are in your geography, try creating a live event.”

Sounded logical, of course, but did he have any examples of in-person events actually working? Turns out, yes: He was very familiar with this marketing medium.

“We’ve done a monthly event for nine years. It’s called Wine & Web, and it combines teaching and networking,” Crestodina continued. “The results for both sales and retention have been huge for us.”

Want to boost content marketing ROI? Consider the power of content to retain — not just attract — customers.

Image attribution: Kelsey Chance

Online Communities

Many content marketers praise the LEGO brand for its feature films and publications, which are indeed powerful content marketing examples. But what jazzes the kids I know is the company’s online ideas hub called, aptly, LEGO Ideas. Here, young innovators can submit their own ideas for LEGO sets and vote on the submissions of others, in the hope of someday seeing their own idea on toy-store shelves. The collaboration combined with competition makes for an emotional hook every parent can confirm.

Communities-as-content isn’t a new idea, but targeting those buyers whose hands are already all over your product is a brilliant way to increase content marketing ROI without chasing another new lead gen tactic.

Maximization Webinars and Tools

Personal finance brand YNAB (You Need a Budget) invests heavily in motivating customers to get the most out of their product. Every day, they host small, live, personal online classes that allow attendees to interact in real time with the YNAB rep and fellow budgeters.

Want to boost content marketing ROI? Consider the power of content to retain — not just attract — customers.

Image attribution: Wes Hicks

The webinars are short, so you can squeeze a class into your morning commute or workout. They’re also recorded, which means customers who get interrupted mid-class can catch up later. While the brand may be tempted to route funds to more traffic-generating content, focusing on their customers’ financial success more than pays off (pun intended).

Another prime example of a customer retention marketing strategy is the hyper-relevant information mirrored back to all drivers who use the Snapshot device from Progressive Insurance. It’s a program customers appreciate, as safe behavior tracked through this app is rewarded with sizeable discounts on insurance premiums. This technology also helps to inform marketing efforts through its key insights on customer’s driving habits.

Through Snapshot, the brand enjoys:

  • Permission to collect and analyze gobs of data
  • Potential reciprocity of having given a substantial gift ($700 million in discounts to date)
  • Motivated customers — drivers who have another reason to behave safely behind the wheel
  • A creative new revenue center. McKinsey consultants recently observed that marketing tech like this can be monetized into its own business unit to (strategically, of course) serve other insurers.

So yes, content can and does achieve the goals of inbound marketing. But content can do so much more to engage, wow, and eventually multiply the people your funnel brings in.

User-Generated Contributions

Customer loyalty programs (think birthday discounts, referral perks, and gamified spending motivators) are great. But how can content play a role in a customer retention marketing strategy? By turning buyers into co-creators, of course!

Tarte Rewards by Tarte, a cosmetics and skincare brand, incentivizes customers to earn online store credit not just by spending more, but by leveraging selfies and social engagement that feature the products they’ve purchased.

Much like how beauty brands utilize influencers, Tarte has empowered its own customers to act as advocates and provide authentic user-generated content. This content is powerful, in that it:

  • Promotes a product and builds brand awareness when users share their experiences
  • Builds brand confidence when products are shown on real consumers
  • Boosts social engagement, as consumers get competitive and creative in showing how they’re using the products
  • Provides marketing content that’s original, authentic, and visual—often even video-based—which showcases products in the most compelling way
  • Displays brand loyalty, since buyers are unlikely to invest their own time, energy, and creativity into promoting a product on social unless it’s that good

Keep in mind that the smaller, more intimate following each shopper brings can, when combined, be much more powerful than a disengaged or artificial audience.

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Awards for Customer Retention

Competition as content? You bet. Brand-hosted annual awards are one of the most creative, effective content marketing tactics.

One of the best B2B examples of this is the Life Science Industry Awards, originally initiated by industry publication The Scientist and now hosted by BioInformatics Inc.

The sponsor and its divisions provide research and advisory services to support the life science, analytical instrument, and diagnostics industries. But the firm regularly stops to take the pulse of its voting insiders (all scientists) by polling them to celebrate the “rock stars” of life science product manufacturers and suppliers. A top determinant of ranking in the awards? Customer loyalty and satisfaction. Awards become a means of taking already-engaged customers and making them even more invested in the brand.

The Heart of Content Marketing

Content marketing has evolved far beyond a play to increase brand awareness. Today, we coordinate annual industry awards, conduct live interactive webinars, host forums, personalize mobile apps, invite clients over for wine once a month, and even leverage buyers’ selfies. These are all ways content marketing can serve customers from attraction through to loyalty, and even into advocacy.

Robert Rose of Content Marketing World says getting content to spur customer retention is about more than just focusing at the top of the funnel. It’s about meeting consumer needs—not alienating them once you’ve caught their attention.

“The basis of our content marketing strategy once was how much can we create in order to ‘get found.’ But that’s where many businesses sort of stopped. They didn’t really explore any more deeply what content marketing could provide by the way of marketing insight into those personas or into those customers once they get deeper into the funnel,” he explains. “We know a lot of companies that are amazing at inbound marketing, or the top of the funnel stuff, and they are absolutely horrible at customer retention, and they are churning through customers like nobody’s business.”

Today, many marketers still consider the terms “inbound” and “content marketing” interchangeable. But content marketing achieves dozens of business goals, and inbound traffic is only one of them.

“SEO is a subset of content marketing,” Crestodina stressed in our interview. “Organic search is one of the three big promotion channels for content. The other two are social and email.

“The content marketer does three things (to focus on) all day long: create, promote, and measure,” he says. “Not all content strategies have an SEO component, but most do. Why? Because it’s a very durable source of qualified visitors.”

Empowering your customers to support your brand on social is a home run marketing strategy. But by taking the time to meet with them, either in person or through a live web event, and listening to their needs, customer retention gets a whole lot easier because consumers are always more keen to support a brand that gets them and goes the extra mile.

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Bethany Johnson is a multiple award-winning content marketing writer and speaker. Her work empowers marketers to ditch interrupt advertising in favor of original content that converts passive readers into active followers. Thriving brands like Tom’s of Maine, MasterCard, ADP, Fidelity and the Content Marketing Institute currently rely on Bethany’s fresh style to connect with audiences daily. As a consultant, she combines simple change management principles with her insider knowledge of freelancing to show traditional marketing teams how to flourish in today’s gig economy. For more, visit bethanyjohnson.com.

Sourced from Skyword

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4 simple (yet brilliant) ways to nurture leads without being ‘pushy’

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By Nathan Resnick

Nurturing leads along the buyer’s journey and turning them into paying customers is a vital part of successful entrepreneurship — but it’s often easier said than done…

Go too long without following up with a prospective client, and they may forget about you altogether. But follow up too often, and your pushiness might just push them away and cause you to lose a big sales opportunity.

Needless to say, marketers need to find the right balance when it comes to nurturing leads. Despite your best efforts, not every lead will become a lifelong customer. But when you use these surprisingly simple tactics, you’ll be far more likely to close the sale and increase your marketing return on investment.

1) Leverage the power of scarcity

I’ve written previously on the power of scarcity in marketing, and this idea of creating a sense of urgency among prospective buyers can be just as applicable when trying to nurture a sales lead.

After all, there’s a big difference between sending an email that says “Your offer is still waiting” and one that says “Your offer expires in 24 hours!” Essentially, tapping into the fear of missing out can prove more persuasive than merely trying to convince someone of the benefits of buying your product.

Be mindful of the expense and commitment purchasing your product or service would entail. Though scarcity can be powerful, be careful to not overemphasize it to the point that you miss out on customers who might want a slightly longer period to make their decision.

This is especially likely when customers would be signing up for a year-long subscription or paying several thousand dollars for your service. Scarcity tactics are typically most effective with lower-cost items, but they can still increase sales of more expensive services when balanced with the right type of offer.

2) Unleash content marketing

When deliberating over a buying decision, prospective customers have a tendency to want to gather as much information as possible. Chances are, they don’t want to hear a bland sales pitch. They want direct answers to their questions. They want to know just how your product or service works, and how it addresses their specific needs.

While testimonials and online reviews will certainly help your customers make a decision, you will go a long way in building trust if you provide helpful information through your own content marketing efforts. Conversational and relevant content, such as case studies or how-to’s, will give your leads confidence in your product or service.

Of course, you can’t just post a few blog articles to your own site. Delivering this content through as many channels as possible is crucial for leads to find and benefit from it.

Management software tools can simplify this process by allowing you to schedule out blog and social media posts in advance. This scheduling will then make it easier for your sales team to send email updates when content relevant to a particular lead has gone live.

3) Connect through webinars

While you might be able to answer some of your leads’ questions through your content marketing materials, you shouldn’t count on everyone finding your company blog.

Webinars are a great alternative form of delivering content to your leads that can help you answer questions or even demo your product in an engaging, interactive setting. This long-form content can be highly effective — according to ClickMeeting’s “State of Webinars” report, an incredible 76 percent of B2B buyers use webinars to research a company purchase.

During these live video streams, you can also discuss key pain points your product or service addresses to help leads more strongly consider making a purchase. You can also use Q&A sessions to alleviate customer concerns or even get future content ideas.

I’ve learned that reliable webinar tools can make all the difference for your success in using this content delivery channel. Look for tools that will let you set up a customized webinar with only a few clicks while also offering a reliable video stream and useful statistics. This way, you can focus more of your time and energy on providing great content through the event, rather than worrying about setting up the video stream.

4) Offer a limited free trial

You can share testimonials and in-depth articles, but for many leads, the best way to make a decision is to experience your product or service first-hand.

Case studies have found that as many as 40 to 60 percent of free trial users for SaaS products eventually become paying customers. A free trial gives potential customers the chance to fully experience what it would be like using the service so they can make a more informed decision and have confidence when they buy.

When someone signs up for a free trial of your service, they immediately signal themselves as a highly qualified lead. This instantly indicates to your sales team that someone is more interested in your product, and as a result, customized followup messages are less likely to come across as pushy.

Better still, free trials can help you collect customer feedback to further improve your services.

Nurturing toward success

With the right messaging and the right mix of communication tools, you can become far more effective at closing leads than if you simply bombarded them with emails day after day.

By using these lead nurturing tactics to guide qualified leads through the buying process, you’ll achieve higher sales rates and avoid coming across as pushy or obnoxious.

This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author’s own and not necessarily shared by TNW.

By Nathan Resnick

Sourced from TNW

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