B2B Inbound Marketing

Intelligent IT Lead Generation Tele, Social and Digital Marketing phone 0114 30 30 560 twitter @fluentcom www.fluentcommunication.co.uk

Marketing is changing. Buyers are tuning out traditional, interruption based marketing methods. New advancements in technology mean buyers can connect with your brand in a way that works for them. For example, searching for your company on Google - or liking your Facebook page. Its crucial that your company develops a strategic online presence so that buyers can chose how you market to them (yes - buyers want to be marketed to, as long as its a way thats right for them!) The BEST news about inbound marketing is that its cheaper than traditional advertising or direct mail methods (even if you outsource) and you can be much more analytical with your results and lead cycle management.

Inbound marketing is all about getting people to form an interest in your business, visit your website and engaging them whilst theyre there. This guide will introduce you to: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Your inbound pipeline Knowing your customer and your own brand SEO Social Media Content Marketing Analysing your data, prospecting and nurturing leads.

Your Inbound Pipeline

B2B marketers know that our industry has a long sales cycle. Inbound marketing is not only about filling the top of the pipeline but about keeping leads engaged and interacting with your company until they are ready to close. In a B2B environment this process can take months - or even years. If you are a B2B buyer no doubt you will need to evaluate your budget, meet with decision makers and shop around to see what other products are on offer. Its certainly not an impulsive decision. As a sales or marketing person you need to compel your target customer into signing the dotted line as well as holding hands with them through the entire process.

The Pipeline
Grow brand awareness, mindspace and capture new leads. Nurture leads in the funnel - make them take the next step.

Personalize the leads marketing experience based on their past activities.

Work closely with your sales reps - make sure they know everything you know about the lead. Nurture existing customers. They are in a relationship with your company and like to feel involved with your brand.

First things first... selling to? What have I got to offer?

Youd be surprised how many companies cant keep these answers to one paragraph! Before you go into a deeper marketing strategy you need to have it clear in

Who am I? Who am I

your mind - who youre selling to, what your prospects.

your brand identity is and what you can offer

@
and what you do.

their department? Who do they report to? What country do they live in? You can work these things out from looking at your Google Analytics, your CRM and the best way - talk to your sales team who have face to face and phone conversations with your prospects every day. You will probably need a few bio-profiles. Once you have a clear idea of who your customer is and what they want - you can sell to them. 2. Know your brand. As brands grow they tend to

change into something that may

not fit your original branding - or a lot of

extra things may have been added that dilute

your message and confuse your customer. Define who you are as a company, what you offer, how you are trying to change your industry and what your goals are. Your web content, tone of voice and design all need to be consistent and tell your customers EXACTLY who you are

1. Know who youre marketing to. Create bio profiles of your target customer. How old are they? Whats their seniority? What are their needs and pain points within

SEO
Make sure your customers can find you!
You can achieve this by... Using correct meta-tags on your site. Making sure the keywords in your web content are correct and present. Encouraging social shares. Back-linking Structuring your website and site-maps properly. Regularly updating your website. Registering your website to search engines.

For more in-depth knowledge of SEO you can download our SEO e-book... http://www.fluentcommunication.co.uk/download-ourfree-ebook/

93% of B2B purchases begin with an online search!

Social Media
There is a myth that social media is not relevant for the B2B market. One of the commonest mistakes we see as a B2B marketing agency is customers who have set up social media profiles in the hype and then not maintained them. Having an underused social media account is more harmful to your brand than not having one at all. Another common mistake is expecting an immediate sell from social media. Brands put status after status saying something along the lines of (for a crude example) Need new shoes? We sell shoes, call one of our sale reps TODAY for a FREE quote!!! Social media is about engaging your audience, understanding their pain points, offering helpful content and solutions and building relationships from your prospects.

Your Storefront

In the B2B market we dont have the advantage of having something like a store front to connect with our customers. Imagine working as a tailor, you may have a customer go in your shop who just wants to chat about the weather and see what colours suit him - he may do this several times and still not be ready to buy, but chatting with the tailor on a personal level will encourage the customer to buy from that tailor as soon as he has the need and budget for a suit. Social media helps build brand loyalty. Use your social media profiles as a way of connecting with people. Imagine it as your store front and dont push people into buying as soon as they walk through the door. Nurture relationships and give your company a face.

Aim to make most of your social media posts engagement with other users - the rest should be informative, helpful and entertaining content and only about 20% should be used to promote yourself.
Follow prospects on Twitter and LinkedIn. When you email someone through your company Gmail add them on Google+! Retweet your prospects on Twitter and show interest in their company. Fluent can help your business develop a social media strategy that will generate new leads! Email Katie.watkinson@fluentcommunication.co.uk for a free social media assessment or phone 0114 3030560. Monitor your industry keywords on Google Alerts and Tweet-deck so you can respond to questions or issues as soon as they arise - AND get in there before your competitors! Promote prize draws or offers which lead back to a capture form on your site. Social Prospecting and Network Building!

27% of B2B sales leads are not sales ready when first generated - you need to warm those leads up with social media!

Hosting a webinar or have an interesting E-book? Promote it by posting on an industry relevant Facebook page (not a competitors page... unless youre that way inclined!) Chat on industry relevant forums or LinkedIn groups to get new contacts.

Content
Producing content like white papers, free downloads or E-books will encourage visitors to enter data though capture forms - which are invaluable warm leads!

You know who your customer is through your bio - profiles. Aim to produce helpful content that will compel them to share and engage with your business.

Ideas for content: Blogs Webinars Podcasts Video Tutorials FAQs White Papers E-books

Tips for Blogging

Make blogs that are not promotional but share your knowledge and expertise and position you as a thought leader in your industry. Make your blogs short and sweet! Create topical blog posts React to industry news Dont assume your readers know everything Dont use too much industry jargon!

The more blogs you produce the more traffic youll convert into sales leads!

Companies who blog at least 20x a month generate 5x more traffic than those that blog fewer than 4 times a month. We recommend you post 1x a week minimum.

Analyse Close the Loop!

All this content, social media and promotion would be completely pointless without analytics and data capture.
150 people have been on your website today - now what? Do you know who they are? Make sure you close the loop! Fluent can advise you on ways you can find out whos been viewing your website and what their interest in your company is.

Analytics
Look at your click rates on Google Analytics. Which content is the most popular?

Which social media platform is driving the

most traffic? Why are these going well? How can you improve whats not working? Dont keep doing something repeatedly if its not working. As Einstein said - the definition of madness is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results! An inbound marketer is always experimenting new methods and practices - so will be as familiar with failure as he/she is in successes. Dont be afraid of getting things wrong.

Whats working, what isnt....

If your page views are low - you need to promote your page more through social media or email. If your conversion rates are low you need to create a more compelling call to action on your landing page. If your not converting customers from your lead-pool then this could simply be because your leads need more time and are not scored correctly. Better communication processes and workflows are needed, as well as lead nurturing from the marketing end.

Fluent can help you develop a

questions about how your business

can adopt an

Have some

highly profitable inbound strategy.

Contact us today to chat

about inbound marketing. 0114 30 30 560
katie.watkinson@fluentcommunication.co.uk

inbound strategy?