Is social media a useful business tool or a waste of time?

Presented by Marie WieseIDI Conference

January 23, 2015

Your buyers’ behavior has changed…

What are you doing about it?

70%

Your buyer will be 70% of the way through their buying process before you ever hear from them

11.2

Potential customers will use 11.2 pieces of online data in the decision making process

99%

Of prospects will consult a website before they decide to buy anything

100%

Will go to your website before making the final decision to buy from you

Your website and digital dialogue is the new first sales call.

Your website and digital dialogue has replaced the top of the sales funnel.

1898

The funnel today

60% of the sales funnel is taking place in the digital space…

How good is your digital dialogue?

Have your sales people ever said…

• We don’t hear from customers until after they have made a decision to buy something else

• We are struggling to add value• We have become order takers• We are caught in the bottom of the sales funnel

Digital Dialogue

Unless your organization can survive in a commoditized procurement state, you must create a digital dialogue with your customers so you can engage them at the top of the sales funnel

Well planned, customer centric content… Is not intrusiveAdds value Invites you to engage

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Today’s Reality

1. Customers are not targets; they are people who are interested in solving their own problem.

2. People don’t buy from companies; they buy from people.

3. Marketers worry about their ability to build persuasive copy but persuasion is not authentic. Clarity is persuasion.

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Communicating versus Marketing

• When you communicate, there is no action required on the part of the recipient - they are passively receive the information

• Marketing means you are eliciting a response or follow through on a call to action

• When you start a digital dialogue, you are looking for a physical and measurable response

Challenges to creating a digital dialogue that starts the buying process

1. Overcoming product bias2. Thinking good content is easy to produce3. Dealing with CEOs that are afraid to share4. Unwilling to test

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Should I use social media in my business?

Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be shared to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.

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Should I use pay-per-click in my business?

Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be shared to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.

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Should I use SEO in my business?

Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be shared to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.

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Should I use email marketing in my business?

Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be shared to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.

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Getting the buyer to raise their hand

• Customer-centric business problems in blog topics and social media

• Email campaigns with good headlines• Headlines create links in social media• Paid media tests headlines• They download stuff and give you contact

information

The Content Marketing Success Loop

The six most important things your Content Marketing strategy must address…

1. Why are we doing this?2. Who buys from us and why?3. Who is going to do the work?4. What content are we offering at each stage of the

buyer journey?5. Where does our target audience want to consume

content?6. How do we know if it’s working?

Building a Content Marketing Plan

1. Agree on why you need content marketing2. Define your audience3. Articulate your differentiation4. Execute your plan5. Publish your content 6. Help your audience find your content7. Define success

1. Agree on why you need content marketing

• As a business you need to understand the importance of content marketing in the sales process

• 99% of people searching for a product or service start their search online

• Decide if your companies current content is facilitating your buyer’s decision to choose you

Remember: Good content = Sales

2. Define your audience

• Most companies do not have a description of an ideal customer

• If you don’t know who your customer is, how are you going to determine if your content will help them in the buyer journey?

Customer Scorecard and Buyer Persona templates can be found at marketingcopilot.com/resources

3. Articulate your differentiation

• What is your value proposition? • What do you offer that is different from your

competitor/alternative in every way? • Can you articulate in one sentence why your

customers buy from you?

This is the most important exercise!

4. Execute your plan

• Creating a plan is great, but without the support from your executive team it will be difficult to execute

• Be realistic about timelines and who will roll up their sleeves and write

• Editorial calendars keep people on track and focused

Everyone thinks producing content is easy, but it’s not!

Editorial Plan

• Where• When• What• Who• Why

5. Creating good content

• What problems do your customers have? • Ask your salespeople about the top 10 questions• Your content should to be proactive

Create an editorial mission statement – what is the purpose of your content?

6. Help your audience find your content

• Where do your customers consume content? • What are your customers searching online to find

solutions their problems? • Creating content is meaningless without repetitive

distribution on channels where your customers will engage with it

If you don’t build it, they won’t come!

7. Define success

• How do you know if your content marketing is working?

• After you publish your content, go back and see how it worked

• For everything you produce you need to be able to explain…

How conversion rate = Moving the buyer journey to a closed sale

A true story…

Company: Grantek.com

Background: North American B2B systems integration company

Objective: Lead nurturing

Buyer interaction tested: Who cares more about safety automation: Senior managers or safety engineers

One topic: Two audiences

Conversion Point

Results

Example

Example• Gate value-add content

LinkedIn Posts Examples

Results of good content…

Guide achieved 75 downloads in the first 3 months• 43.5% conversion on download via email campaign• 65.5% conversion on download via published press release• Email campaigns had a 100% higher click through rates vs.

previous email campaigns to the same email lists.• Email campaigns targeted at both customers and prospects

resulted in a conversion rate on the download page ranging from 37.5% to 46.7%.

• Grew followers on LinkedIn company page from 50 to 1500• Track-able links embedded into guides driving downloads on

site resulted in a 59.3% conversion rate.

QUESTIONS?

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