Posted by JasonB on October 16, 2009
4 times this week alone I’ve spoken with decision makers at businesses who’ve said, “We think we need to get into social media, but have no idea where to start”. We’ll, I’ll go ahead and answer that one:
Step 1: Start with what’s already working…for your competition.
Why reinvent the wheel? If companies in your industry are having success with social media (i.e. getting exposure and traffic), it is probably a good idea to mimic what they’re doing. But how do you know what’s working for them? Search Facebook for competitors. How many Fans do they have on their Facebook page? If they have a lot, what content is being published on that page that is attracting or keeping them as Fans? Next, search on YouTube or other video websites for competitors or industry keywords. Observe what videos have been viewed more than others. What message do they convey? Go to LinkedIn and search for competitors. Observe how many employees have profiles, and if those profiles display recommendations or answered questions. Lastly, search blogs (Google Blog Search works great) for competition. See if (1) your competition publishes a blog and (2) if they are mentioned on other blogs. Observing how many comments or subscribers are displayed on a competitive blog will shed light on how many readers are visiting, so if your competitors blog has traffic, observe the topics and why they seem popular.
The output of Step 1 is to understand what websites (other than their own) AND message your competition is using to attract visitors (or views, or Fans, etc).
Step 2: Identify what websites your target market is using
If your goal in using social media is to generate new leads, then you need to understand where your target market goes online so that you can place a message there. One straight-forward method is to simply ask existing clients what websites they personally visit during their day-to-day activities. Do they use industry-related websites that might attract similar decisions makers at other organizations? Next, search blogs (again, Google Blog Search can help) for keyphrase your target audience may use. Observe which blogs are ranked highest, how frequently they publish posts, how many people comment on each post, and how many subscribers are listed (sometimes published). Blogs with frequent posts and comments will have more traffic, thus a better target for your message. Finally, visit some Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers or LinkedIn Q&A and search for questions pertaining to resource websites….questions like “what websites can provide me with HR-related information on employee improvement”. Very likely, someone will have answered that question with a link to another website used by your target market.
The output of Step 2 should be a list of websites where your organization can either place messaging or participate in discussions.
Step 3: Take an internal gut-check of resources
Let’s now pretend that you’ve identified that you need a Facebook page and to participate on blogs. So who at your company will take the task of communicating with your prospective clients, and what information will/can they provide? The basic qualities of a good social networker are (1) the ability to write well, (2) a good understanding of using the Internet and (3) time to invest in searching for and engaging in conversations.
Something to strongly consider…social media takes time. It is an investment, just like building relationships, because that’s what it is. Realizing ROI will take a while, so in light of that, consider cost of the person you appoint as your social media point person. May I suggest that you don’t have a salesperson do it for a variety of reasons. First, the moment salespeople have a deal to chase, they’ll abandon the tedious and time consuming task of social networking. Second, they’re expensive, and answering questions on LinkedIn probably isn’t the best use of their time.
Instead, consider having a lower-salaried employee invest their time in exploring social networks. They can either engage in low-level conversations with peers and direct them back to your organizations website, or if they stumble upon a true lead, simply email it to the sales department. Either way, your investment is their time.
Let’s now consider what content your organization will spread to your Facebook page and blogs. Your target marketing probably isn’t looking for a sales brochure or case studies on why your company is the best. What they need is USEFUL, RELEVENT information that helps them during their workday. Identify what information your company has in its wheelhouse in the form of research papers, white papers, sales decks, etc and see if you can create some short, helpful blurbs about topics that relate to your target decision maker. If you give them something that they find interesting or useful, your chances of being the top-of-mind brand when they enter the buying cycle dramatically increases.
Conclusion: Following the steps of (1) observing your competitions successful use of social media, (2) finding your target market online and (3) putting a cost-effective resource on the case for your company should get you started in the social media game.
As usual, we hope this post helps. Please subscribe to our blog for future posts on generating leads for your business.
Posted by JasonB on September 22, 2009
I’m a partner in a company that provides B2B lead generation and our program does in fact use the phone as a primary tool in developing potential business opportunities for our clients. As a business owner, with the nature of my business aside, I avoid solicitation calls like the plague. Why? Not because I don’t want to hear about an offer, or a potential solution, but because I’m busy making decisions about operating my business. I’m a decision maker, that’s what we do, and if you catch me with a call you better have a good intro-pitch to keep me listening. But catching me on the phone is a rarity and, generally speaking, other methods of contact are more effective. I know my situation is typical of most decision makers and, for that reason, if your prospecting program does not include a long term strategy to nurture leads, it will fail.
Consider this: if you “spray” (a lot of calls in a short period of time) a group of prospective targets, you will only reach a real decision maker 5-10% of the time. This isn’t due to the quality of the telemarketer but rather, connecting with a real Key Decision Maker (KDM) is a big challenge. They’re simply not taking calls and are too busy making important business decisions to focus on other things. So the question arises: How do you connect with the 90+% targets your telemarketing missed?
- Message Delivery: A successful B2B lead generation program can use the phone, but should also deliver compelling messages while maintaining awareness over a long period of time. Since telemarketing is generally used as a short term campaign, effectiveness of the phone can quickly become insignificant if used as the only source of communication in approaching key decision makers. Once you have identified a prospect, you’ll often notice that they don’t usually respond to calls – so how do you successfully get your information in the KDM’s hands? To increase the chances of your message getting seen, not only should it stand out amongst the clutter of your competitors, but it must be expressed in a variety of formats. Consider a combination of various communication outlets such as email, web video, and direct mail to effectively express your message.
- Timing: You could sit a prospect down in front of an IMAX movie about your service, but in today’s economy, if they’re not in a buying cycle you’re wasting your time and resources. KDMs today are thinking about two things: bottom line and new solutions for increasing company profitability. Because of this, when your target is interested in new opportunities, the company that is top-of-mind stands the best chance of receiving acknowledgment. To remain top-of-mind you must touch a prospect 8-12 times per year. A nurture program is essential to advancing any area of B2B lead generation as it allows for a continuous, and structured, flow of communication. Think of it this way; nurturing is like holding a prospects hand throughout the buying process, a constant reassurance of your company’s presence in the marketplace. However, for a successful nurture program, sending the same message 12 times a year should be avoided. Mix it up with different messages and formats. If you connect with a prospect via the phone, and it doesn’t result in an appointment, the following messages should reflect the information gathered during that conversation. Expressing an understanding of where your prospect is in the buying cycle, and adjusting communication accordingly, will keep your company in the forefront when the KDM is ready to purchase.
- Social Media: Speaking of buying cycles, did you know the KDMs visit social websites MORE than corporate websites to find information about a solution or company? This occurs even more when KDMs are in the early stages of the buying cycle and are searching for information about their particular business needs. By blogging on a social site, or using a web video, you can successfully position your company as a needed informational resource. This allows you the opportunity to not only persuade your prospect to follow your input through a series of compelling messages, but nonchalantly creates an open door for relationship cultivation.
I hope this post gives you some food for thought when considering prospecting and nurturing to generate B2B leads. As usual, let us know if we can help, and please subscribe to our blog for future posts on ways to find new business for your business.
Posted by JasonB on September 2, 2009
Fact: Social Media has changed how decision-makers search for and analyze information prior to making a buying decision. Where once an individual would place calls to or visit vendor websites to begin their service-provider selection process, now potential buyers are discussing solutions and vendor options with peers first in an attempt to receive real, unbiased feedback regarding an issue. To generate B2B leads using social media, your organization must have a presence in these early-stage discussions and deploy the proper social media marketing tools for each phase of the buying cycle.
Observe the chart below:
Problem Identification Stage: Some business issues are glaring, others aren’t thought about until someone brings them to your attention. The latter is happening on social networks by savvy would-be vendors daily. To prompt decision-makers to recognize an issue that their business may solve, thousands of companies are starting discussions on blogs, forums and video sharing websites. These websites create a forum for discussions whereby the participants don’t feel like they are being sold, but instead joining in a peer discussion about a topic related to their business. They promote ideas on issues and solutions.
Companies who start or participate in these discussions in an informative and helpful manner get instant credibility and a foot-in-the-door with decision–makers. However, it is critical in this stage to position your business as a resource, and not try to “close the deal”. Social networks are about peers talking to peers, not businesses selling to prospects. Jump in the discussions, be helpful, and generate early exposure for your business in the buying cycle.
Solution Development Stage: There are often a variety of solutions for every business issue. In one’s personal life, asking a friend for advice on solving an issue is often the easiest and most trusted way to gather feedback. Social networking websites now facilitate the exact same level of peer to peer communication. As I mentioned in a previous post, decision-makers have abandoned visiting corporate websites to investigate solutions, as corporate sites consistently tout that their solutions are the best…regardless if that is actually the case.
Having your thoughts (as a peer, not a company) on specific solutions published online will communicate that your organization is willing and able to help. To dispense industry advice, you can either publish a blog, or join in discussions on other blogs. To ensure your ideas get seen, search engine optimize your blog, and posts, to ensure major search engines can see your message and attribute it to your organization.
Resource Search Stage: During this phase decision-makers are looking for the best organization to provide a specific solution. Your strategy should be to (1) get seen and (2) stand out amongst the competition.
Search engine optimization and Pay-Per-Click will ensure your business gets found for certain keywords and phrases. Please note: Conversations, and the phrases used within, change constantly. Monitoring blogs and forums to derive what keywords are actually being used is critical to targeted search engine marketing.
Standing out from the clutter requires a quick, impactful delivery of your message. Web video has become the #1 tool used in social media. Video can clearly and concisely deliver your message in a memorable fashion.
Vendor Evaluation Stage: Three very good reasons for choosing a vendor are:
- Their breadth of knowledge on a subject
- Their success with other businesses like yours
- They were recommended by a trusted peer
Clearly communicating your ideas in a video or on a blog will make an impression on key-decision-makers. For example, a blog that discusses an issue from “soup to nuts” proves your company knows its’ stuff. Providing visibility to your answers on issues leaves much of the unwanted “guess work” out of the buying process for a decision-maker.
Providing a case study, preferably in digital format (so it can be forwarded to others), is another impactful way to communicate your success in solving certain issues. Case studies can be discussed within a blog, or portrayed in a web video. Leaving a prospect with the feeling that your company has already successfully solved the same issue for another firm can be the deciding factor in making a buying decision.
A personal recommendation by a peer speaks volumes. LinkedIn, for example, displays personal recommendations made by others who have worked with an individual. It is wise to have your company’s employees attempt to get recommendations from clients they’ve helped. LinkedIn users really do look at those recommendations. If they see your competitors have been recommended, and your business has not, they will notice.
So, some food for thought. I hope this post helps your business decide what social media tools to use for attracting decision-makers. As usual, please let us know if we can help. Please subscribe to this blog for future posts on generating new business for your business.
Posted by JasonB on August 28, 2009
Good B2B lead generation relies on a dedicated resource to contact, qualify and verify key decision makers. During prospecting, this dedicated resource focuses on unknown targets (cold leads) in the hopes of uncovering new opportunities for the sales department. The sales department in turn can focus their time/effort on qualified leads and closing business. This division of duties (sales & prospecting) makes each more efficient and effective at what they do. What about using this same principle for cross-selling to existing clients?
The process used to generate new leads can be applied to selling current customers new goods and services. Any sale begins with a customer’s awareness of your product or service. But don’t assume that your current customers are aware of the breadth of products or services that your company has to offer. It may not be that your sales resources are dropping the ball, but they might not be aware of the diversity of needs each customer has.
A structured series of communications (just like when contacting new prospects, but now designed to keep current customers aware of everything your company has to offer) ensures that your entire portfolio of products or services is top of mind with your customer base. Remember, just as you never know where new prospects look for information, you don’t know where your current clients look for information for their day-to-day needs. Consequently, you must communicate in a variety of methods such as email, direct mail, blogs, video and even phone calls.
Social media is used in B2B lead generation to attract prospects that are looking for useful, peer-to-peer information that they can use daily. Prospects that are not currently in a buying cycle frequent social websites to receive industry information and peer input, thus the reason for your company to have a presence on websites like YouTube and Facebook. Similarly, your client may not be in the buying cycle for your other services. However, by providing your client with a steady stream of useful information (example: blog posts), they become more receptive to your messages. Once receptive, it’s only a matter of time before they (1) enter a buying cycle and (2) gain exposure to your additional offerings.
The result – your customers can self select the products or services they need to meet a specific need when they need it.
Again, I’m not implying your sales force is not capable of cross-selling. But by nature, the sales department is geared toward finding and closing new business. They simply don’t have visibility into every functional area or department within a customer’s organization to determine where each opportunity lies. A well mapped out communications plan using a dedicated resource to cross-sell existing clients can help broaden the coverage of your existing sales resources and provide a higher rate of return on your investment in them.
I hope this post sheds some light on useful methods to cross-sell. As usual, if you need any help, we’ll be standing by. Please subscribe to our blog for future posts on generating new business for your business.
Posted by JasonB on August 21, 2009
Positioning your organization as a “Thought Leader” in your industry is instrumental in generating B2B leads via the internet. Today, the web allows companies to dispense large amounts of information across vast networks. How do you appear as a leader amongst the clutter, and how does this translate to generating B2B leads? Let’s take a look:
Defining a “Thought Leader”:
A “Thought Leader” is someone who creates, promotes and discusses innovative ideas within an industry. They are passionate experts who dispense their knowledge asking little in return. Often, they announce their ideas with confidence, as almost “self-endorsed, ready-to-use problem-solving solutions”. As time passes, and Thought Leaders build their reputation, their audience grows.
Steps to Becoming a Thought Leader:
1. Follow Before You Lead
To become a leader, you have to identify how high the bar is already set. To accomplish this, you must implement social media monitoring…a critical step in beginning any social media campaign.
By “listening” to social networks, you will observe what messages and media formats are attracting visitors. You will also glean what your competition is using successfully by the number of viewers reading (or following) their messaging. In other words, if a company has placed a video on YouTube discussing reducing costs in your industry, and the video has been viewed hundreds of times, then it would follow that the “cost savings” message is popular among industry participants.
The data gathered during your monitoring process should provide the framework for your Thought Leadership strategy.
2. Plan Your Delivery
Thought leadership relies on consistent, innovative and exciting communication. To achieve this, you must design a content distribution plan that outlines how often your company can publish content, and where that content will be distributed.
Viewers are more inclined to view or follow your organizations’ message if they have the promise of more information in the future. Creating a schedule that publishes a “series” of ideas or thoughts should prompt readers to stay tuned to your message.
Be generous with your gray-matter. The goal of being a thought leader is to gain a reputation. With a good reputation comes an audience. From an audience come B2B leads.
3. Become Visible
One of the primary concepts behind social media is getting your organizations’ message off of your website and in front of decision makers on social sites they are visiting. As mentioned in early posts, decision makers are now using social network sites MORE than corporate web sites to gather vendor information prior to a buying decision. This means that you must have a presence on these sites to have a chance at getting exposure during this sensitive buying cycle phase (that of gathering vendor information).
To cast your net wide and become visible to prospects, move your message off of your corporate site and onto sites like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. These sites get hundreds of thousands of visits daily by people looking for information. For example, Google now displays video results for searches, and because video has become the #1 tool in social media, many companies are placing their message on YouTube.
People expect a true Thought Leader to be seen AND followed on the World Wide Web…being visible within social networks will promote your ideas to peers and begin generating attention.
4. Set Up Easy Ways for People to Follow (a bread crumb trail back to your company)
A Thought Leader must be easily accessible to develop an audience. Below are some simple, straight forward tactics for increasing your accessibility to prospects:
-Your Blog: Ensure your blog allows visitors to subscribe to posts or comments in a variety of ways (email, RSS, etc). Also provide visitors with the ability to “share” your blog post using “sharing tools” like Digg, Delicious and Twitter.
-YouTube: Create a YouTube channel for your organization. This provides your company with a high-traffic venue to host videos, and allows visitors to subscribe for future video posts.
-Facebook: A corporate Facebook page allows visitors to become a “fan” of your organization. This means they will receive future messages from your company. Even better, their Facebook “friends” will receive messages from your company.
-LinkedIn: LinkedIn not only provides contact information, it hosts forums for discussions and a Question & Answer area. Join these discussions and share your ideas. If visitors find your input useful, they should visit your LinkedIn page or corporate site.
Converting Conversations into New Business
Sales 101 teaches to “ask for the sale”. However, applying this concept to social media, or Thought Leadership, is a bit tricky. Social media, by nature, takes a more conversational peer-to-peer approach to communicating with prospects. That being said, if you never “ask for the business”, you probably won’t get it.
We suggest posting a call-to-action on most of your social media content. This can be as simple as a link saying “click here for more information”. Your call-to-action should, however, take a distant second place in visibility to your primary Thought Leadership message. An aggressive sales message such as “Contact Us Now To Receive X% Off” will quickly detract from your primary message and suggest to viewers that you are NOT a Thought Leader, but instead an organization trying to use a good idea to sell something. Visitors will enthusiastically follow (and perhaps eventually contact) a true Thought Leader, as by their nature they dispense good advice at no charge.
I hope the information in this post will help your company consider its ability to become a Thought Leader. As usual (here’s our call-to-action!), let us know if we can help in any way.
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