When I went into marketing/communications in the 80’s, things were simpler. I spoke 5 languages, which pushed me into this field. What else could I do, be a translator? Not on your life. Not when I could be creative, come up with quantitative studies and research why / how people buy.
It seemed simple, right? You have a product and you have to figure out a way to sell said product. You had magazine ad space, TV commercials, newspapers… every day, everywhere you looked, you’d see some form of advertisement. Eventually, we became desensitized to print and TV marketing – the traditional ways.
The Internet wasn’t used as it is today (although it still had some traction). The World Wide Web was the Wild Wild West. It was a “small” little marketplace, with a minor audience for client product promotion.
And Then Internet Entered the Scene… Fast Forward in Time
Advertising is more sophisticated now… but then, so are consumers. Way back when, we could survey the consumer, create charts, crunch numbers… it was all about data. Anymore, however, you have to understand consumer psychology.
Marketing has gone holistic. Yes, quantitative and qualitative data is still important, but we’re not looking at real numbers anymore. We’re looking at the consumers themselves.
What makes buyers buy? Is it the way a site looks? Does having the sidebar on the left gain a greater response than having the sidebar on the right? Are blue links more “clickable” then, say, green ones? Is “buy” more active than “act”?
What Are the Click Triggers?
With all the Google changes lately, you really have to pay more attention to your site. Of course, if you’re a regular reader, you know I push site attention anyway, no matter what Google’s doing. However, with all the vertical marketing possibilities, you want to make sure you get all the bang for your buck you can from any top listing you get.
So you study the click triggers – those beautiful little differences that cause people to click through: through to your website, through to your buy page, through to your “thank you”. It’s a step-by-step process, and you have to guide them every step of the way.
Ask yourself:
- Is my content sticky? Does it have good information worth reading?
- Are my headlines well written? Do they grab readers’ attentions?
- Do I let others (those who will tell me the truth) read my content before I put it up? Do they like it? Do I listen when they offer suggestions?
- Is it easy to navigate through my site? Does my site create a pleasant user experience?
Are You Ignoring the Individual?
This is the most serious question, and you need to really give it some thought. If your content completely targets consumers (i.e. all product/service focused) rather than having helpful bits of information, you could be losing out.
You can’t appeal to everyone; not everyone is your target market. You don’t want to get so busy trying to reach everyone that you miss those who might convert. Build your site, images, writing, etc within the context of your specific target, and then experiment.
Experiment….?
Yes, experiment. Human behavior and relevance is a beautiful thing. Being able to associate one with the other will have half your online battle won. However, you can’t just pull knowledge out of the air. You have to be willing to experiment – to test. Plenty of tools are readily available for just this purpose, such as…
Google Website Optimizer
A/B testing is in; guessing is out. If you think you might know why a page isn’t converting, that’s all well and good. However, there’s a difference between thinking you know, and really knowing. With a little A/B testing, you can find out what areas really are the problem and fix them.
Usabilla
Take a screen shot of your page and put it up on Usabilla. Let people know what questions you want them to answer and then send out the link. This little goodie can give you some very valuable insights in terms of layout and design.
4QSurvey
Very nice, very short survey. You can find out why people came to your site, whether they found what they wanted (giving you visitor satisfaction ratings) and get suggestions from them, all in the same program. Again, this is a very useful goodie.
The three above are just a few. There are, literally, tons of usability testing tools out there. Many are free; some cost, but are worth it.
You’re not going to get through today’s marketing world by guessing. You’re not going to make it with traditional marketing tools. You have to be willing to use everything at your disposal; you have to be willing to expand.
What changes have you made to keep up with online marketing and technology?
Post image via BDoughertyAmSchool
Over the holidays, I had some time to really dive into the LinkedIn B2B LeadGen Roundtable discussions. One started by Ann Thornley-Brown, President & CEO, Executive Oasis International, Toronto, caught my attention. She started the discussion in August, yet members continue to provide feedback.
Ann wanted to know how happy the group was with the lead generation results of their social media campaigns. “Are your efforts on LinkedIn and Twitter paying off?” she queried. “How many leads have you generated? How many specific pieces of business have you picked up? I know a lot of bright people who are really active on these sites and very few are seeing results. How about you?”
Her question, and too many of her 30-plus responses, illustrated the disconnection between the expectations of marketers who are out on the frontlines every day and marketing gurus proclaiming the wonders of social media. After all, if you Google ”Top 10 B2B Trends in 2011” you’ll see social media listed on every one of them.
Then why, if Ann’s discussion is any indication, are so many marketers dissatisfied with the results they’re getting from it?
I took this question to Sergio Balegno, Director of Research for company of InTouch. He authors MarketingSherpa’s Social Media & PR Benchmark Guides, is considered a foremost authority on social media strategy, is quoted by the media extensively and presents at institutions likeHarvard.
He’s also been in marketing for more than three decades, well before the internet was even on the scene. This gives him some not-so-typical long-term perspective in a world that demands instant gratification.
If anyone could provide insight to why this is going on, it’s Sergio. Here’s his take:
“I had a B2B communications firm from the mid-80s to 2000. When we got into the ‘90s we started hearing about the World Wide Web. I brought the concept to our customers: some adopted it very quickly the other half shrugged it off as a passing fad.
“Of course, today, the web is considered traditional media and social media is now that new ‘fad.’ The same thing is happening all over again, except at a much faster pace.
“You see, you have to look at the history of social media, it’s really short. Our first benchmark guide was published in 2009, which analyzed the use of social media in 2008. It was at the ‘all-hype’ stage then: there were no clear objectives or best practices beyond the soft objectives of building customer awareness. There weren’t the hard-and-fast lead generation and sales conversations that will be featured in our 2011 report, which I’m working on right now.
“What does surprise me is that of the 2,300 marketers we surveyed at the end of 2010, six percent - 138 - already felt they were producing measurable ROI. In just a couple of years, social media has rocketed to a place that took the internet a good decade to arrive at.
“A big part of the 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark Report will look at the monetization of social media. A solid quarter of marketers are at the mature, strategic stage of social media marketing. They have clear objectives and practices. Now they’re trying to go back to the budgeting committee to prove that it’s producing revenue.
“That’s where they’re stuck.They can’t get a grasp on how many leads social media is generating.
“A big section of the study is going to be about software and tools that can track someone from when they become a member of a social network to when they download a whitepaper and become a part of a standard CRM system.
“Essentially, we’re at critical mass: marketers need to prove social media’s value, and there is a need for CRM tools that can track that. Mzinga is one company leading the way with its OmniSocial platform, the study will review more.”
Considering Sergio’s response, marketers are expecting way too much too soon. Paradoxically, this in itself demonstrates the remarkable speed at which social media is being integrated into marketing initiatives.
We can’t yet calculate with the most exacting precision how many leads are generated from social media, but considering how quickly technology is evolving, the ability to do so will be here in no time. I expect if Ann poses her question again at the end of 2012, her responses will be far different.
What do you think?
Finally, Sergio gave me some penetrating insight at the end of our conversation: “After 30 years in marketing, I thought I had seen all of the changes that could possibly take place, and then social media changed everything again. Our brand is no longer what we say it is, it’s what our customers say it is.”
If you want to hear more from Sergio, be sure to sign up for MarketingSherpa's brand new Inbound Marketing Newsletter, which will announce when the 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark guide is released. The newsletter is published bi-weekly and explores the power of new marketing tools, including social media, to attract customers without advertising. Click here to see the inaugural edition. Click here to subscribe.
Originally published on the B2B Lead Generation Blog
Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/
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