Why Advocate Marketing Should Be Part of Your Lead Generation Strategy – Part I of 2
As sales prospects rely more on word of mouth, they’re quickly shifting the way business buying decisions are made. And smart B2B marketers are leveraging this customer influence to the max to drive and nurture leads. How are they doing this? With advocate marketing. If you’ve heard about it but aren’t sure how it works, […]
B2B Webinar: Why Customer Retention Matters More Than Acquisition
Until recently, B2B marketing has been all about the leads. Finding them. Qualifying them. Shipping them to sales (and hopefully converting them). Wash, rinse, repeat. Today, things have changed. To be sure, customer acquisition is still important. But just as important – arguably more important – is how customers are treated once they become … […]
Lead Lizard Breaks Down the Buyer Persona for More Effective Lead Nurturing
Learn how to map your nurturing process by tracking buyer personas to the stages of the buyer’s journey.
5 Ways to Promote Your Webinar
When you were a little kid, did you and your friends ever put on a show? Figure out a routine to perform or joke to tell or song to sing? Then build a stage and make some costumes – all for the thrill of performing in front of an audience? Did anybody come other than […]
Nurturing Relationships In A Long Sales Cycle
Here is the shortest sales cycle I can think of: You’re driving along a country road. You come to a small town. You park outside the antique shop you came to see, and browse its wares. When you walk outside you smell something delicious, and realize you’re hungry. You step next door into Red’s Pizza […]
Instagram for Marketing: Examples We Like
While it’s safe to say that Instagram isn’t for all businesses – and best practices say that you shouldn’t clog up your website with a dozen widgets leading to all sorts of social media sites – Instagram does have a place in marketing for certain types of companies. Plenty of big-name B2C and B2B companies […]
Best Ways to Thank (& Galvanize) Your Brand Advocates
As Thanksgiving approaches and a new year looms large upon the horizon, it’s only natural to take a bit of time to think back on the changes past months have brought, and to show your loved ones the appreciation they’re due. And just as you thank friends and family for their continuing care and support, […]
Is Your Social Media Strategy Dynamic?
Social media, once the province of teenagers and the PR people who work for celebrities, crossed the chasm some time back and has become so mainstream that your grandmother probably has a Twitter handle. What’s even more interesting is that virtually all your buyers – whether you’re B2C or B2B – are using it as […]
How to Make Hummingbird Your Ally with Long Tail Keywords
Editor’s note: Savannah Marie is an online marketing enthusiast with particular interest in all things social. She’s taken a close look at how to make Google’s recent changes work in favor of your content, and shares the results with us: Hummingbird is a major infrastructure change that incorporates Penguin and Panda, among a flock of […]
Social Media & Halloween: Connect the Dots
Holidays can be trying, what with arrangements to be made, food to be prepared, gifts to be given, and so on. Halloween specifically – which may lack the flair of its more imposing sisters (Thanksgiving and Christmas), but which demands the same creativity and agility – requires forethought, since it’s the one time when you’re […]
Plan the Perfect Webinar
Webinars are dynamite lead generation machines. People who sign up and show up are motivated to solve a problem or fill a need, and they already trust you to some degree. You want to make sure that the webinar you produce meets their expectations – while maximizing your opportunities for conversion. Producing a webinar provides […]
A Flock of Hummingbird SEO Comments
A lot has been said already about Google’s recent Hummingbird SEO update, more than any one person could be expected to process. So, to make it easier to get up to speed, we’ve rounded up relevant articles from industry experts and we’re sharing them here, allowing you to learn what you need to about Hummingbird […]
Analyze This: Learn Marketing Analytics in a Week
Trend analysis. Conjoint analysis. Regression analysis. Factor analysis. Know what they are? Know when to use them? (No peeking at Google.) Many of your colleagues don’t either. But they (and you) may soon be expected to. Here’s why: By 2015, companies are expected to increase their marketing analytics budgets by 60% over 2012 spending, from […]
Maximize Inbound ROI: Clicks, Content and Conversion
If you’re thinking about return on your marketing investments, you should know that Jim Lenskold, President of Lenskold Group, wrote the book – literally. His “Marketing ROI” book was rated one of the top five books on marketing in 2004. He’s applied those core principles to inbound marketing in this webinar: “Maximizing the ROI of […]
B2B Social Marketing: ALL Decision-Makers Use Social for Work
According to Forrester Research’s B2B Social Technographics® numbers, fully 100 percent of business decision-makers use social media for work purposes. 98% of business decision-makers are Spectators (they read blogs, watch videos, or listen to podcasts) 79% are Joiners (they maintain a profile on social networking sites) 75% are Critics (they comment on blogs and post […]
“Why” is the Marketer’s Secret Sauce: 5 Buyer Persona Insights
Do you know why buyers choose your products, solutions and services? Or why they don’t? If your answers resemble this: “Meh.” “Ummm, kinda. I hope.’ “Yeah, I think so. Maybe.” … it’s a good bet that your marketing content is missing the bull’s-eye and you’re leaving money on the table. Is it possible to deliver […]
New California Do Not Track Law Affects Online Marketers
California’s Governor Jerry Brown has approved “Cal AB 370,” the world’s first legislation to directly address the “do not track” (DNT) issue. The first thing for marketers to know is that this is a disclosure law, not a law creating new consumer rights or imposing substantive requirements on companies. But AB 370 does amend California’s […]
What to Do With Mid-Funnel Prospects?
Okay, your demand generation campaign delivered a lead, and the demographic data checks out: Good industry? Check. Right title? Check. Big budget? Check again. Now what? If you pass it to sales and it doesn’t close, it’s a “bad” lead. But 80% of “bad leads” go on to buy (from somebody) within 24 months. Want […]
Learn How to Optimize Local Search: Webinar
If you market for a brick-and-mortar business you probably know “local search” is a growing opportunity, especially if your demographic is smart phone users: 20 percent of desktop queries have a local intent, while 50 percent of mobile ones do. Local searchers are often people with money to spend, looking for the closest outlet for […]