by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 12, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Integrate digital and social media practices into trade show routines to increase leads to drive profitable customer action.
The world became enchanted by the Koh-i-Noor diamond in 1851 when Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. This first of its kind exhibition, sometimes called the world’s fair, served as a platform for countries around the globe to display their innovations and achievements. Throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries, these exhibitions routinely drew millions of people and connected the world in a way that hadn’t been done before.
While exhibitions continue into the present day, some critics argue that they are becoming irrelevant as a result of globalization and increasing interconnectedness. Proponents, however, are actively working to ensure modern day exhibitions reflect the changing nature in the way humans communicate and connect with one another.
In a similar way, modern trade shows serve the purpose of connecting industries and showcasing the best of a company’s product or service offerings. Indeed, trade shows remain a staple of many marketing budgets and practices. Offering unparalleled access to leads and face to face communication with prospects and customers, trade shows prove to be a successful marketing strategy for many companies. But is your company making the most of trade shows? Companies that integrate modern digital communication practices into tired trade show routines are likely to increase lead to customer conversion rates while shortening lead and sales cycles.
Promote enhanced and continued engagement with trade show contacts by formulating your trade show social media strategy using the following approaches.
In the weeks leading up to the trade show your company is scheduled to attend, publish Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts promoting your attendance and providing pertinent information to attendees. Set up a landing page with an accompanying call to action on your website where visitors can download a brochure or RSVP to speak with you at the show. Review the list of trade show attendees and perform prospect research using social media. In the days before the event, draft relevant and timely marketing and lead nurturing email templates to be sent during and after the show. Connect with high value prospect attendees on LinkedIn to arrange a time to meet up at the event. Use the trade show’s Twitter hashtag to tease display materials and connect with other attendees.
During the show, use social media to keep the conversation going with customers and prospects. Continue your use of the show’s hashtag to monitor conversions on social media and see what’s being said about your company. Connect with LinkedIn users you meet. Post pictures of your booth on Facebook and Twitter and videos of product demonstrations or customer testimonials on Youtube. Schedule and send the lead nurturing email templates you prepared weeks ago. Make note of recurring questions from attendees and industry trends being discussed.
Following the show, prepare your company’s blog editorial calendar for the next few months using your notes on customer questions and industry trends as a guide for developing post topics. Make event presentation or speaking materials part of your lead nurturing activities by sharing them with prospects using Slideshare and automated emails. Segment contacts for enhanced communication. Continue engagement with leads through Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Much like the way world exhibitions are being pressured to evolve in order to provide continued value to citizens of the world, trade shows should be viewed by companies as opportunities to leverage new technologies to grow prospecting opportunities and build alternative lead nurturing channels. Continuing engagement with customers and prospects through digital and social media enhances the nature of prospect follow up and customer communication, extending the value of the trade show far beyond location-specific activities.
by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 10, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage; social media means business.
In a 2013 article in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gerald C. Kane, Associate Professor at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, wrote: “When asked to define social media, most people probably rely on something similar to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of obscenity: ‘I know it when I see it.’” Unfortunately this approach to defining social media tends to perpetuate stereotypes and does not accurately reflect what social media is and how it can be utilized by business. What, then, is social media? Social media is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” These websites and applications are inclusive of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Social media is part of a larger framework called social technologies. The McKinsey Global Institute defines social technologies as: “IT products and services that enable the formation and operation of online communities, where participants have distributed access to content and distributed rights to create, add, and/or modify content. Social technologies are inclusive of Yammer, Jive, Moxie, and Supply Chain Operating Networks such as Descartes, GT Nexus, Elemica, E2open, LeanLogistics, and One Network. Also included in social technologies are network-based business intelligence and analytics.
Social media is business
Clara Shih, CEO and Founder of Hearsay Social, and Lisa Shalett, Managing Director and Head of Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy at Goldman Sachs, call attention to the fact that when you get right down to it, social media encompasses “a set of new and innovative ways for businesses and customers to do what they have always done: build relationships, exchange information, read and write reviews, and leverage trusted networks of friends and experts.” Furthermore, engaging in social media and utilizing social technologies provides business with the tools to manage status, social networks, and established relationships—all drivers of firm performance. Social media and social networking also enable companies to be able to better manage risk, create demand, define their reputation, innovate, and enhance business intelligence.
Companies who don’t use social media are at a disadvantage
Companies who are not participating in social media and using social technologies are at a disadvantage. One of the primary reasons is that customers (current and future), employees, and competitors are participating. Kane points out that “competitors are innovating and experimenting with social media to conduct their own business faster, at a greater scope, and with broader reach than is possible without these tools. If competitors can figure out how to use social media for their advantage (and they will), then the manager and his or her business will lose out—unless he or she can keep up. After all, there is no such thing as social business—there is only business.” Similarly, Shih and Shalett note that “[s]ocial media offers a variety of opportunities for brands to understand and participate in those conversations. While participating in social media is not without risk, not participating might prove to be the greater risk—especially to reputations.” By the same token, Freek Vermeulen an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School puts forth: “Status, social networks, and prior relationships are the forgotten drivers of firm performance. Underestimate them at your peril. How you manage them should be as much part of your strategizing as analyses of differentiation, value propositions, and customer segments.”
Kane also points out that social media enables customers to share information about their experiences globally, and allows employees to collaborate so as to improve customer service.
The benefits outweigh the risks
In 2012 The McKinsey Global Institute reported that 72% of companies surveyed use social technologies in their business and that 90% of those companies reported seeing benefits. “The benefits of social technologies will likely outweigh the risks for most companies. Organizations that fail to invest in understanding social technologies will be at greater risk of having their business models disrupted by social technologies.”
A 2014 survey found that companies within the logistics and supply chain industries are using social media and realizing benefits. The survey found that the three most popular social networks for companies in the logistics and supply chain are Twitter, (95%), LinkedIn (86%), and Facebook (77%). Specific benefits realized from social media include: increased engagement with customers (86%), increased market intelligence (80%), and increased business intelligence (73%). Other benefits include:
- Increased customer retention;
- Increased demand for products and services;
- Increased leads;
- Shortened sales cycles.
Social media means business.
by Elizabeth Hines | Mar 3, 2015 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Social listening creates opportunities.
Social listening is the process of monitoring social media to identify and assess what is being said about a company, individual, brand, product, or service. Through social listening you can gain market intelligence and intelligence about how your brand is perceived, and you can drive innovation. Moreover, as Daniel Newman points out, social listening has become an integral part of the entire customer lifestyle.
Reaping the benefits of social listening
To reap the benefits of social listening it is essential that you use the information and intelligence gathered. Tracx offers up a great example of how social listening can guide a merchandisers’ supply chain management. Specifically, how a company can transform social media management by guiding inventory allocation and velocity.
The Aberdeen Group offers additional examples of how social listening has been and can be used: “companies can use the voice of the customer to make critical adjustments and find issues related to inventory allocation, order management, returns management, cost, overall service satisfaction and beyond.”
Tools for social listening
Brad Neathery, founder of Social Media Today, put together a great list of social listening tools that give businesses the right data they need to align their social marketing strategy with business goals. His list includes:
1. Social Mention
2. SocialRest
3. TweetReach
4. ViralHeat
5 Datasift
6 Simply Measured
7 Sysomos
8 Zoomph
The opportunities the supply chain and logistics industries can realize through social listening are great. Not participating in social listening results in missed opportunities including increased revenue.
by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 25, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Answering the invariable question: “How often should I blog?”
“How often should I blog?” is a question we often get asked. The simple answer is: as often as possible so long as each post is valuable and as long as the quality doesn’t slip. Most people don’t like this response and push for something more tangible.
Research shows that blogging more frequently gets results
Research conducted by HubSpot found that companies with 51-100 pages on their website generate 48% more traffic than those with 1-50 pages. If you blog regularly your business could reach that 51 page threshold in less than one year.
HubSpot also found that companies who publish at least 15 blog posts per month get 5 times more traffic than those companies who don’t blog. Think this stat applies to big businesses? HubSpot found that small businesses with between 1 and 10 employees see the largest gains by posting more often.
Another reason to publish more often than less often: companies nearly double their sales leads by increasing blogging frequency from 3-5 times per month to 6-8 times per month.
Evidence shows that blogging more frequently gets results
At Fronetics we have seen these results first hand. To improve ranking, drive traffic, and increase leads we suggested that a client increase the number of blog posts published each week. The client was skeptical that increasing the blogging frequency would make a difference, especially to a company within the supply chain industry; however, they decided to give it a try. Within one month traffic increased by 23%, sales leads doubled, and the client landed a new customer.
Try increasing your blogging frequency for one month. Track your KPIs and assess whether increasing the blogging frequency is right for your business.
No matter how often you publish blog content make sure that your content retains these three elements:
- Consistent
- Quality
- Valuable
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a management consulting firm focused on inbound marketing and strategy. We create and execute results-oriented programs for growth and value creation. Unlike other firms, our approach is data driven. We know ROI is important, so we track and measure results to drive success.
by Elizabeth Hines | Feb 23, 2015 | Blog, Content Marketing, Data/Analytics, Marketing, Strategy
Measuring blogging ROI is crucial to your overall marketing success.
Just as with outbound marketing activities, your company’s inbound marketing efforts should be given the same attention when it comes to Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. In fact, companies who measure inbound marketing ROI are more than 12 times more likely to generate better year-over-year returns. And with blogging being reported as the number one method for increasing website traffic, it should stand to reason that calculating ROI for your blogging efforts is crucial to your overall inbound marketing success.
Calculating ROI for blogging activities isn’t as straightforward as say, ROI from click-to-conversion, but its achievements can be measured in other ways. Consider employing a blend of these four categories to measure the effectiveness of your blogging efforts.
Audience and Content Reach
According to a 2013 HubSpot report, 85% of marketers reported increased web traffic within seven months of beginning inbound marketing activities. While it’s true that building a successful blog can take some time, there are things you can do (and measure) to speed its maturity. Encourage engagement and reach by crafting relevant and interesting content for your audience. This increases the likelihood your content is shared and commented on by your readers.
Track this: Beyond noting any increases in web traffic, track both your average cost per view and the number of comments and social shares your blog content receives.
Lead Generation
Tying revenue directly to publishing and distributing blog content can be difficult. Thinking about blogging activities within the context of your entire sales funnel can make it easier to determine effectiveness. As blog content is typically used to attract leads, encourage readers to subscribe to your blog or submit contact info to get higher-value content. Continued engagement nurtures leads and moves them further down the sales funnel.
Track this: The cost to get a lead. You can then determine the percentage of leads that move on to become qualified leads, the percentage of qualified leads that then become opportunities, and the percentage of opportunities that are ultimately won. At the end of the day, you’ll be able to calculate the revenue generated from leads that entered the funnel from blog content.
Intangibles
What are you gaining from networking with industry peers? Has your blog played a role in developing and nurturing professional relationships? Could you consider your blogging activities as part of your professional development? Blogging provides benefits outside of traditional marketing ROI measurements. Time spent researching, networking, writing, and engaging with others in your industry should certainly be considered when determining overall usefulness of blogging.
Track this: Sales cycle times. Staying current with industry trends and building a reputation as the go-to industry expert can be reflected in the type of customers and clients you are attracting. Are you attracting more high-quality leads and closing more ideal customers? Thank your blogging activity.
Cost of Customer Acquisition (CoCA)
By understanding how much it costs your business to acquire a new customer, you gain valuable insight into how much your business should be investing on blogging activities.
Track this: Calculate your (CoCA) by dividing your cost to blog by the number of visits the blog. For example, let’s say your company spent $500 on writing a blog post and 100 people visited your site. Your Cost of Visitor Acquisition will be $5 ($500 divided by 100). If 5% of those blog visitors convert into a lead then your Cost of Lead Acquisition (CoA) is $100 ($500 divided by 5 customers). If 10% of those leads actually buy something from you, your final Cost of Customer Acquisition is $50. Investing in one blog post will yield one new customer for every $50 you invest.
While it can feel a little unwieldy to measure ROI from blogging activities, keeping a strong focus on blogging goals and objectives will help to lend weight to metrics that will ultimately matter the most to you and your business. What measures does your company use to measure ROI for blogging?
