How to Create an Inbound Marketing Strategy to Capture More Leads and Ultimately Sales.

How to Create an Inbound Marketing Strategy to Capture More Leads and Ultimately Sales.

by | Sep 29, 2017 | Business Development, Communications, Marketing

inbound marketing strategy

Hubspot defines an Inbound Marketing Strategy as an approach focused on attracting customers through content that is relevant and helpful — not interruptive. With inbound marketing, potential customers find you through online channels like blogs, search engines, and social media.

Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing does not need to fight for potential customers attention. By creating content designed to address the problems and needs of your ideal customers, you attract qualified prospects and build trust and credibility for your business.

To establish a successful inbound marketing strategy Marketo recommends the following steps be taken:

  • Identify your target audience and learn all you can about them. Your content must be specifically targeted at their needs.

Your audience will be the prospects that will benefit most from your solution or product. Try to put yourself in their shoes and think why would your solution be a good fit (or not as the case may be) for your targeted audience. Will it solve a problem, reduce time and resources currently required by your target base?

  • Determine your unique, compelling story. Why should your audience listen to you?

This is where your content marketing should shine. Content marketing has been defined by the Content Marketing Institute as a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract a clearly defined audience.

  • Choose your delivery platforms. Will you Blog? Tweet? Use Facebook? LinkedIn or a combination?

Social media platforms are a wonderful way to deliver your content and create a loyal community following. Like most things in life, social media platforms differ greatly and play to different market audiences. For example, if you are a B2B marketer and wish to get a serious, somewhat technical message across you may find Blogs and LinkedIn Articles and User Groups work best. If you are B2C marketer with a young targeted audience you may find Pinterest and Snap Chat work best, whereas Twitter can be great for new announcements and highlights of specific events or shows.

  • Create and execute your Inbound Marketing Strategy calendar.

It is important to create a schedule that will consistently turn out fresh and relevant content that continues to engage your audience. Remember that all content should be targeted at solving a particular need of your customer and not a hard sell of your product or solution.

Having a well-oiled inbound marketing strategy should see audience participation and leads grow significantly over time (a recent Hubspot survey found that organizations who adopted an inbound marketing strategy reported an increase in leads of almost 84% within the first 7 months). Once these leads are harvested and qualified they can be forwarded to the sales team for conversion to new paying customers.

If you would like help with creating an Inbound Marketing Strategy for your organization contact RML Marketing & Business Development Solutions today.

10 Steps to Help Kill your Trade Show ROI

10 Steps to Help Kill your Trade Show ROI

by | Sep 21, 2017 | Business Development, Marketing

The humble Trade Show offers organizations a wonderful opportunity to promote products and/or services, gather leads, develop fruitful partnerships, entertain clients and increase branding/exposure. All this sounds wonderful, however, Trade Shows usually come at a high cost (booth rental, staff, travel, accommodation, materials, giveaways, entertainment….) and must be planned and executed properly to maximize ROI.
To get the most out of your next trade show, here are ten steps that will help your organization achieve maximum results:

10 Trade Show Steps to  Help Kill ROI

 

Trade Show Booth Selection & Design

Try to pick a booth that will have maximum exposure – close to entrance, main stage, beside coffee dock, lunch area etc. Make sure you get a copy of and study the booth floor plan carefully, avoiding large pillars and obstacles that may hinder your visibility where possible.

At a busy show you have about 5 to 10 seconds to grab the attention of passing traffic. Make sure your booth walls have your logo, main keywords and products listed. Also, some visual aids and video demonstrations can be very effective in attracting the attention of potential prospects and partners.

Accommodation

If the Trade Show is taking place in a hotel try to book accommodation in that same hotel. They may have preferential room rates for show attendees and you will be able to network afterhours in the hotel’s bars and restaurants. If the Trade Show takes place in a stand alone convention centre, try to book the closest possible hotel, this will likely become an after show focal point. It also allows staff time to return to their rooms to take calls in private if necessary.

Staff Selection

Make sure that the staff you send to represent your organization are not alone highly versed in your solutions, but are also highly personable and approachable by the public. There is nothing worse than seeing a booth person constantly looking down at their shoes or trying not to engage with potential customers. Make sure that staff wear branded clothing at all times showing off your organization’s logo and key message.

Preshow Plan

Meet with your show staff and marketing team 6-8 weeks prior to the show start date. Make sure show staff are aware of the exhibition hours and logistics. Agree on promotional materials, swag and giveaways to bring. Study other exhibitors attending and try to arrange meetings with organizations that may be of benefit to your product or solution. If you have a speaking or presentation slot make sure that your slide deck is prepared according to the rules and regulations of the show organizers. Devise a promotional campaign announcing your organizations attendance through press release, email, blogs and social media, making sure that you use the show’s hashtag where possible.

Trade Show Start & Exhibition Hours

Try to arrive the day before the show officially opens to make sure your booth is well presented and all power points, lead capture and audio-visual equipment works. Make sure to have staff present for all exhibition floor opening hours. There is nothing worse than seeing an empty booth during a show, not to mention the wasted opportunity and cost to the organization.

Lead Capture

Use or hire lead capture scanners if offered by show organizers. This scanning equipment is very effective for a busy show and it is usually very easy to import the lead capture data into your backend system at the end of show. If you do not have a lead scanner always give a prospect your business card and ask for theirs in return. If the prospect states that they do not have any cards with them, ask them to write their contact details on the back of one of your cards. Attract prospects to your booth with swag or giveaway raffles that they must submit their business cards or details to enter the draw.

Walk Floor

Walk the floor during slow times (key note presentations, early mornings, class times….) to meet other exhibitors and see what the competition is offering. However, never leave your booth fully unattended and always have at least one staff member present.

Keynote Address

Make sure some staff attend the keynote address to learn what is new in your industry and what future opportunities your organization may be able to benefit from.

After show hours

Once the exhibition hall is closed for the evening make sure to attend the after show party or the hotel bar. These represent wonderful opportunities for networking and expanding your prospect and contact base, you can also use after show hours to bring important clients, prospects and partners to dinner.

Follow Up

Follow up, follow up, follow up……….and then follow up. When the show is over and you are back in the office make sure that you contact each and every lead that was captured during the event. Allow attendees a couple of days to get back and caught up on their own pressing needs, then make sure to reach out with emails and calls to further on the conversation from the show. You can also schedule a webinar, inviting all leads to a demonstration of your product or solution. Make sure all leads are entered into your database or CRM system and tag them to the show for future reference and ability to measure ROI.

For help on how to get the most return on your Trade Show investment contact RML Marketing and Business Development Solutions today.

Benefits of adding a Channel Partner Program to your Organization’s Sales Structure

Benefits of adding a Channel Partner Program to your Organization’s Sales Structure

by | Sep 18, 2017 | Marketing

A channel partner can be defined as a company that partners with a manufacturer or vendor to market and sell the manufacturer’s/vendor’s products, services, or technologies. This is usually done through a co-branding relationship. Channel partners may be distributors, vendors, retailers, consultants, systems integrators (SI), technology deployment consultancies, and value-added resellers (VARs) and other such organizations.

The channel partner is part of the vendor’s indirect sales force, meaning that they sell the products and services on behalf of the vendor but they are an independent company. They may also sell products and services produced by other vendors as well as items they develop themselves.

Benefits of a Channel Partner Program

Increase Revenue

Without question, partner programs create significant growth in sales and distribution of a product or service. The best part about partnership programs is that both sides benefit from the increased revenue. For the vendor each new partnership not only generates revenue for your company, but it also grows your sales footprint. At the same time, the vendors’ partners can also grow revenue for their businesses.

Drive International Growth Through Localized Channel Partners

As well as driving sales, international Channel Partners can help decrease time to market and provide access to new competitive markets. Partners local to the region can help with language barriers, local customs and international business law and taxation

Reduce Cost of Sales

For all manufactures, reducing the cost of sales is important but it is especially important for start-ups and small businesses. Establishing an indirect sales channel rather than employing an in-house sales team can save on employee salaries and benefits as well as travel costs to visit prospects and the time wasted on unqualified leads which never convert to sales.

Take Advantage of Additional Expertise and Resources

Channel partners can give smaller vendors the resources they need to succeed. Vendors can use their partner’s team of IT professionals to deliver technical support and training to customers as well as their marketing team and budget to develop campaigns.

Provide Information

Companies utilizing partners for selling their products depend on distributors to provide information that can help improve the product. High-level intermediaries may offer their suppliers real-time access to sales data including information showing how products are selling by such characteristics as geographic location, type of customer, and product location (e.g., where located within a store, where found on a website).

 

For help on implementing a Channel Partner Program to your organizations sales structure please contact RML Marketing & Business Development Solutions today.

What does Social Media bring to the B2B Marketers Table?

What does Social Media bring to the B2B Marketers Table?

by | Sep 14, 2017 | Business Development, Marketing

With 93% of B2B Marketers stating that Social Media is their number 1 tool for content creation and distribution, we take a look at what it offers the astute B2B Marketer. Here is a list of some of the benefits that we believe Social Media platforms bring to B2B Marketing:

Content Distribution

Platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, etc., are wonderful tools to highlight and promote your organizations products and services through case studies, customer success stories, webinars, white papers, upcoming shows and events.

Engage with Customers and Prospects

You can use tools such as Twitter to engage with customers and prospects and even offer customer support. Setting up User Groups on LinkedIn is another great way to grow an active, loyal following for your brand. It is essential that these accounts are constantly monitored and responded to in a timely manner.

Social Media can Improve your Website’s SEO

According to Kissimetrics social media profiles will influence the content of your search results and, in fact, social media profiles are often amongst the top results in search listings for brand names.

Use Video as a Lead Generation Tool

Developing product overview and customer testimonial videos can help drive leads and enquiries to your organization.

Keep an eye on the Marketplace and your Competitors

Hootsuite suggests that you can use Social Media very effectively to keep an eye on your competitors. Known as social listening, your organization can see what your competitors are offering, what is being said about them and any big industry news that may just have been announced.

Drive Traffic to your Website

Make sure to list your homepage URL on all your social sites, this can drive traffic back to your full site from the social media platform that your organization has been found on.

Tradeshows and Events

Using the recognized Tradeshow and Event hashtag (#show2017) can help highlight your organizations participation and drive traffic to your booth or speaking engagement.

If you would like help with planning a Social Media Campaign to help your organizations B2B Marketing activities please contact us today.

5 DIY Tips to Help Improve your Website’s SEO

5 DIY Tips to Help Improve your Website’s SEO

by | Sep 11, 2017 | Business Development, Marketing

As you are probably aware, the minefield that is known as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), can bamboozle even the most tech astute digital marketer. According to Searchengineland.com SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.  All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads. (What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?, n.d.)

To get your website listed highly for relevant search words or terms on a search engine is a very daunting task, with many, many permutations and combinations. It is a task that I would seriously recommend outsourcing to an expert, however, here are five quick website SEO improvement tips that you can implement on your own today:

5 DIY SEO Improvement Tips

  1. Submit Your Website to Search Engines: You can improve your business visibility by submitting your website pages to search engines such as Yahoo, Bing and Google. Get your free business listing on Google by clicking on www.google.com/business and filling in the form.
  2. Create Social Media Sites to Help Boost SEO: Create your organization’s own social media pages on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, etc. to get more organic search traffic.
  3. Optimize Images and Use Alt Text for Keyword Optimization: Use image optimizer sites such as www.imageoptimizer.net to improve the quality of your images. Also, add Alt Text where possible. Alt Text (alternative text) is a word or phrase that can be inserted to tell website viewers the content.
  4. Hyphenate: When setting URL page titles and tags use hyphens (-) between words to improve readability. Do not use underscore (_).
  5. Update Website Content Frequently: Updating your website’s content on a frequent basis attracts search engine spiders to index your website pages more frequently.

For help with improving your website’s SEO, layout and user experience please visit www.rml-marketing.com or contact us today.

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