Rene's presentation to CIM Cheshire on 14 October 2013 which took the group on a whirlwind tour of the key elements required in the modern marketing toolkit. Starting with setting a digital strategy and objectives, your business website, SEO, inbound content, social media, conversion and evaluation. The presentation is a summary of Rene's ebook Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing (co-authored with Dave Chaffey) available from Amazon and also through www.smartinsights.com to Expert Members only.
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7 Steps to Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing CIM Cheshire 14 Oct 2013
1. Updated content for autumn 2013
7 steps to brilliant b2b
digital marketing
Gearing up to deliver brilliant b2b digital
marketing campaigns that achieve ROI
objectives
with
René Power
Digital & Business Development Director
BDB
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
2. About me
18 years in B2B marketing across a variety of sectors
Accomplished international (digital) marketer and business developer
www.bdb.co.uk
Respected blogger www.marketingassassin.co.uk and
www.smartinsights.com and published author
In demand b2b and digital marketing
speaker
Passionate b2b marketer and advisor
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
3. About you
Who has a documented digital marketing plan with SMART objectives
assigned?
Who runs a website?
[Is it designed around what customers want or what you want to tell them? ]
Who has a focused approach to search engine optimisation?
Who has access to analytics? Who uses analytics to improve what they
do?
Who is using
content to drive engagement, data capture and interest?
Are you using social media to drive brand engagement further?
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
4. Running before you
can walk?
Not cool.
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
5. Being seduced by
the dark side of
technology?
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
7. 61% of respondents to Dave
Chaffey’s 2013 Smart Insights survey
said they didn’t have a digital marketing
strategy written down.
8. Why do b2b companies fail online?
Why do so many companies fail?
• They make assumptions
– Audiences haven’t evolved
– Haven’t moved online for information needs
– Don’t have confidence with digital tools and technology
• Haven’t learnt how to listen and ask the right
questions
• Don’t engage, advise, help, inform, entertain,
develop
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
10. No 1. Don’t dip your toe;
set a strategy
• Why?
– Information is the primary
driver in B2B specification
– Why? Professional buyers
seeking assurance
– Browser mentality: supplier
research is predominantly
conducted online
– You can’t measure
effectiveness without goals
or a benchmark
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
Doing things right or
Doing things right or
doing the right things?
doing the right things?
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
11. Making a case for digital
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Focuses activity
Sets tangible goals
Helps secure buy in at all levels
Assists financial & resource investment
Identifies / prioritises target audience
Understand channels / how they are used
Encourages use of channels
=> By design, likely to lead to more successful
digital marketing
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
12. SOSTAC – a framework for digital
marketing planning
http://www.smartinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SOSTAC.jpg
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
13. What goes into a B2B digital strategy
• Digital SWOT
• Online value
proposition
• Return on investment
measured by
–
–
–
–
Sales
Savings
Attribution
Customer satisfaction
@renepower
The organisation
Strengths - S
1. Existing brand
2. Existing customer base
3. Existing distribution
Weaknesses - W
1. Brand perception
2. Intermediary use
3. Technology skills
4. X-channel support
Opportunities - O
1. Cross selling
2. New markets
3. New services
4. Alliance/co-branding
SO strategies
Leverage strengths to
maximise opportunities
(Attacking strategy)
WO strategies
Counter weaknesses through
exploiting opportunities
(Build strengths for attacking
strategy)
Threats - T
1. Customer choice
2. New entrants
3. New competitor processes
4.Channel conflicts
ST strategies
Leverage opportunities to
minimise threats
(Defensive strategy)
WT strategies
Counter weaknesses and threats
(Build strengths and defensive
strategy)
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
14. Know your audience
• Who they are
• Where they go
• What’s being asked or
discussed
• What’s missing
• Who’s helping
• Who needs help
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
15. Know preferred channels and how
they are used
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
19. Step 2: Establishing home base
• Why?
• Your website is most likely
the first port of call
– 36% of B2B buyers look at
supplier sites during problem
resolution
– 49% of B2B buyers look at
supplier sites to shortlist
– 18% of B2B buyers look at
supplier sites to make final
supplier selection*
With over 10m .co.uk sites
With over 10m .co.uk sites
registered and 644m live sites
registered and 644m live sites
worldwide ––how do you
worldwide how do you
stand out?
stand out?
• Your website provides that
crucial first impression
*2012 Buyersphere survey
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
24. Pentair Safety Systems UK b2b
website
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
25. Step 3: Getting and staying found
• Why?
– Search is everything
– Customers browse on their
terms
– You have a great site = don’t
leave it as a great art in a dark,
concealed room
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
Search optimised sites
Search optimised sites
can make or break
can make or break
businesses…and careers
businesses…and careers
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
26. On page SEO checklist
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use Google Adword tool for keyword analysis
Set primary keyword/s per page
Assess competition
Meta data - First 70 and 200 words and density
Meta description
Page titles, h1 tags and alt tags
Anchor text
Calls to action
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
27. Atlas Copco optimised for search
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
28. BOC optimised for search
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
31. Step 4: Driving inbound interest
• Why?
• Use content to attract
customers
• Demonstrates authority
• Builds reputation
• Creates trust which leads to
transaction
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
Deliver useful and relevant
Deliver useful and relevant
information to customers
information to customers
when they most need it
when they most need it
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
32. Inbound marketing checklist
• Agree what success looks like
• Assign responsibility incl. senior level
sponsor
• Audit what you have
• Visit watering holes
• Curate
• Create
• Repackage and repurpose
• Create a calendar
• Walk before you can run
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
38. Step 5: Going social
Source: Being Your Brand Social Media Report 2012
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
39. Do you (or can you) CARE?
How do we want to be
perceived?
Who do we want to be
associated with?
What are important issues to
our audience?
Can we measure if / how our
content matters?
What are we going to say,
share, comment on?
Who do we want to
influence?
How can we help, advise,
add value?
How are we going to
measure if audiences care?
How are we going to do it?
Who do we want to engage?
Can we do this frequently?
How are we going to
measure our relevance?
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
40. ‘Sticky’ social media checklist
Keep it simple
Feedback
dialogue not
monologue
@renepower
Do something
different...like
help
Be persuasive
and credible
Be
personable...
care
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
Engage...tell a
story
14/10/13
41. How social affects search
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
42. Ingersoll Rand on Facebook
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
43. PWC engagement on Facebook
PWC
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
44. Step 6: Turning traffic into leads
•
•
•
•
Why?
Businesses can’t just help
They need to turn a profit
Finesse landing pages
Always have aanext
Always have next
step or action that
step or action that
the customer is
the customer is
inspired to take
inspired to take
– Tease and tantalise
– Provide sign posts to action
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
46. Part III: The analysis and
Pt III: The analysis & improvement
improvement
47. Step 7: Make analytics your friend
• Why? …Really!?
– Set up goals/funnels and assign value
– Use forward and reverse path analysis
to indicate most popular/effective
content
– Use event tracking to monitor calls to
action
– Use content experiments to
test/increase performance on key
pages
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
48. You can’t track what you can’t
measure – but look at all this!
buazz by time of day
Buzz by no of posts
buzz
asset popularity
uploads
channel
buzz by customer type mainstream media
favourites likes comments ratings
%of buzz with links
recommends
embeds
virtual gifts tags popularity
clickthroughs
shift in buzz
mainstream media mentions installs downloads
growth rate of fans follows
increase in searches
views
competitive buzz category/topic buzz
buzz by impressions
buzz by stage in DM process
mentions
alongs
seasonal buzz
friends contacts
no of pass
no of views/interactions polls
bookmarks
contest entries
subscriptions
leads generated
page
changes in search ranking type reach channel
products sampled
store visits trials
geography volume of posts impressions time spent clicks
customer acquisition & retention
complaint handling
contributions by bloggers chatrooms wikis online sales offline sales
savings
cost per click
satisfaction feedback
change in share AEV
bounce rate
open rate by time / region
@renepower
dwell time on site
event response
email
cost per customer
event attendance
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
49. Summary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Consider the impact of action / no action
Consider customer journey and experience
Set a strategy
Invest in your website
Improve your search visibility
Become useful and relevant
Go social with purpose
Work hard on conversion
Monitor and use analytics
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
50. And remember above all else
@renepower
www.marketingassassin.co.uk
www.bdb.co.uk
14/10/13
51. Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing
All content taken from “Brilliant B2B Digital Marketing” book (PDF)
Request a free review copy by email / Twitter DM
This and 100’s of other guides and resources
are available to Smart Insights Expert members.
rene@bdb.co.uk
http www.bdb.co.uk
@renepower
blog http://marketingassassin.co.uk - sign up for new blog post alerts!
Please check with Rene Power before using any images contained in this
Notas del editor
Understanding, interpreting and delivering on customer needs has been the foundation of marketing for over one hundred years.
Businesses have been buying and selling products to one another for hundreds of years. But, don’t let anyone tell you that B2B marketing isn’t different from marketing products to consumers. It is.
We know B2B marketing often involves communicating with hard to reach and hard to engage B2B decision-makers through a complex purchase cycle from unaware to purchase.
(Why bullets?)
A digital marketing strategy that provides a structured process to create a long-term plan to integrate digital media and technologies to support business goals must be the best way to cut through this and stand out.
Focuses activity around audience and business goals. Do you want to make money, save money, improve service, raise awareness, build data? Only you will know. Document it.
Focus strategy helps secure buy in, resource and investment at all levels across the business.
Focus strategy helps establish who, what, where, why and how for all digital decisions you need to make such as channel selection, timing, ratio of investment and more.
The SOSTAC model have been voted as one of the most popular marketing models and is created by PR Smith. It is a planing model that can be used for your digital marketing planning and it stands for:Situation – where are we now?Objectives – where do we want to be?Strategy – how do we get there?Tactics – how exactly do we get there?Action – what is our plan?Control – did we get there?The model offers a logical order for tackling your plan and you can use it to critically assess your processes. I guess the reason for its popularity is that is simple and easy to understand and use. I personally use it a lot and I think it offers a really good approach.
You will have completed a SWOT for your traditional marketing planning over time, but have you applied that thinking to your online environment? It needs to be digital-specific.
This SWOT activity will certainly help establish opportunities, weaknesses from a resource perspective and strengths from a brand perspective, which could be translated into a compelling OVP.
A clearly defined OVP will help you differentiate your online service encouraging prospects and existing customers to engage initially and stay loyal.
We recommend using a TOWS matrix for SWOT in this format since this helps integrate your analysis with your strategy rather than the analysis being placed on the shelf and forgotten.
Identify and prioritise target audiences. As with traditional marketing, targeting the right audiences is key. Digital media enable you to target broad groups, but also micro-target. LinkedIn, the preferred business online networking tool of over 200 million around the world, is a fantastic resource for customer and influencer research. Get a sense of the issues your audiences have, as suggested by their individual and company profiles. Also review the questions and discussions placed in LinkedIn Groups. This can help you both in developing content to engage them, but also shows you questions you must answer to convert them.
Understand the channel and how it is used. Your strategy should be informed by customers’ online behaviour and preferences. You need to understand how they use online tools and specifically look at the offering of competitors as well as intermediary sites. How do these sites influence source, selection and purchase and how do customers switch between the channels? What unmet needs provide opportunities for your business?
Encourage use of the digital channel. It might be the case that your target audience isn’t online yet or the group isn’t sufficiently engaged. So being the first mover sets you apart. Communicating the wider benefits of using the digital environment will have a positive impact and enhance your brand.
Create propositions to emphasise your differences. In broad terms this means using each digital tool in the right way, at the right time to convey the right message to the right people. Brand awareness, lead generation, customer acquisition and customer retention all require modified approaches. This also applies to offline as well as online channels.
But support integration between channels. Although it is correct to segment your marketing by audience, message and their position and influence in the buying, that doesn’t mean the digital channel shouldn’t be integrated. Customer journeys should be seamlessly integrated and there should be clear linkage between any advertising, landing pages, direct and other communications for their benefit but also to help your own attribution of marketing success – difficult in multi-touch convergence marketing.
Set objectives for future channel contribution.This means looking at how the digital environment available to your customers might develop in the future – perhaps considering areas like trade media and how they are migrating out of expensive print magazine to content rich websites with exclusive subscriber content and regular eshots, newsletters and social media updates. All give opportunities to reach your audience online.
Whichever business sector you are in, it is still crucial to consider your digital marketing as a holistic process created around your website. While some consumer brands may find that their Facebook page is their main touch point for online customers there aren’t many where this is yet true for B2B marketing. The website is still at the heart of your digital marketing.
We know that business buyers are looking for reassurance and credibility, so a company needs their website to be as credible as possible.
(bullets)
So, don’t spend money on banner advertising, pay-per-click (PPC), email campaigns or effort in setting up elaborate and ‘hard to feed’ social media platforms until your website is right. Why? Because if it doesn’t offer the right user experience, provide the appropriate and relevant content and channel them to a tangible next action, you are wasting your time and your money.
1. Information is easy to verify on your website. Shows a company is trustworthy and stable.
2. There is a real organisation behind your website. Evidence that the organisation exists takes this further by providing clear guidance on locations, people, products.
3. Highlight expert content and services offered. As we move from being a broadcast to targeted inbound marketing economy, companies that produce focused content relevant to the needs of customers will stand out.
4. Demonstrate honesty and integrity on your website. These qualities may be seen as subjective but you can set a tone throughout your website as pages such as About Us, Our Philosophy and FAQs allude to your honesty and integrity.
5. Make it easy to contact you. Post contact details on every page throughout the website and not just on a ‘Contact Us’ page.
6. Your website should reflect your business. And, it should reflect the experience that customers enjoy offline, face-to-face, in stores, on stands and anywhere else.
7. Your website should be accessible and easy to navigate. Western websites have navigation bars either running horizontally across the top and bottom or vertically to the left-hand side of the website for a reason.
8. Use frequently updated relevant and useful content. Content is the biggest part of your digital strategy as it governs your selection of keywords, what you say, how and when you say it. It helps rank your site with search engine bots and entice real human visitors too.
9. Avoid errors of all kinds. Sounds obvious but spelling mistakes, grammar and punctuation slip ups, 404 messages and any other error on a website disrupts the user experience and risks harming your credibility.
10. Your website isn’t just available online or available in one form. Consider responsive design so it displays specifically for different devices. Think about future compatibility and consider other languages, domains, ecommerce, social. These will guide design and hosting solutions.
Remember to treat every page as a potential landing page so narrative, call to action and signposting are all key. More on this later.
Given the overt commercial nature of B2B marketing, and the prevalence of search as a professional buyer’s primary research, short-listing and selection tool, SEO is one of the most fundamental and biggest impact areas you can focus on.
A good understanding of the technical basics of SEO is essential and will help to set you and your business apart from your competition. Understanding which keywords are going to position your business to your customers and then systematically taking all ethical steps to include them in your search marketing plan, will reap rewards over time.
But it is when the key elements of SEO are applied to great content that is both relevant to the needs of your audience, and proves your credibility, that the tangible impact of good SEO is seen.
Search engine optimisation or SEO is the practice of making your business visible to human (and search engine) visitors when they go looking for suppliers like you.There are a number of ways of securing profile, both natural and illicit.
This slide is a takeaway. It’s more fun to look at some real B2B companies doing it though…
What is being shown
Effective use of keywords on the site in descriptions, in meta data and content –all in relation to predicted customer search
Taking it a little further on the BOC site, how meta descriptions are written in order to be displayed on Google Search and also how keywords are adopted into URLs, page titles, h tags and more
Given the time, we’re not actively exploring the area of link building, article outreach and indexing today. These are important and are covered in some detail in the ebook.
Technology has facilitated a significant shift in how people in business interact with the companies they buy from.
Until the early 2000s, businesses supplying other businesses could still (just about) get away with broadcast marketing, using relatively untargeted, unsophisticated advertising to promote important product or service features.
Not anymore! Just as the procurement function became more professional, your customers got smarter. They now rely on the Internet to research, shortlist and select suppliers. And as Generation Y – 20- and 30-something digital natives enter the workplace – it will be the companies that use the Internet to project beyond their own website to draw Generation Y buyers to them that will win online.
Run through examples discussing the difference between Stelzner’s primary and nuclear fuel (from the book Launch!)
Primary fuel (lifespan = 3 days) incl How to guides, Expert interviews, Reviews, News stories, Case studies
Nuclear fuel (lifespan = months) incl Survey reports, White papers, Top 10 contests, Micro events (webinars, video, podcasts)
And that really helps when it comes to social media.
Social media and business are two phrases that have sat uncomfortably for several years; for good reason. When you think about the very nature of social media and how the major platforms developed business applications do appear to have been shoehorned in as an afterthought.
You can see where social media fits, with content marketing in place, you have the fuel needed to power effective social media campaigns that inform, educate, entertain, persuade, engage and endure. Remember, though, that social media marketing isn’t just about broadcast.
B2B marketers need to be ruthless about how, where and when they deploy social media. Without the stellar consumer budgets or mass market audiences the pressures on return on investment are heightened.
Social Media Examiner 4th annual survey of 4000 marketers
Establish audience/s
Reach audience/s
Influence audience/s
Audience defined loosely as existing & potential customers, internal customers (staff), external customers (business partners)
Development of content requires the following considerations..
Thinking about our multi-disciplinary B2B audience we need to ask ourselves...
When it comes to relevance, think about marketing to the niche...
Evaluation – analytics can cover it all
Customers are more likely to stick to you if you follow a robust repeatable approach to delivering against their needs.
What does CARE mean in action?
Some examples...
Google’s most recent algorithm update gave social mentions on Google+ and other social sites more ranking so we’re now seeing the benefits of this in search.
Social interaction can be integrated all over the web (from within your website – Knauf), to a Facebook page.
Google’s most recent algorithm update gave social mentions on Google+ and other social sites more ranking so we’re now seeing the benefits of this in search.
Facebook example of PWC using market data as a hook to drive traffic and engagement online
The goal of most businesses is to provide a rewarding return for their owners or shareholder investment. This is our focus in the last two sections where we move on to assess how a B2B marketer sets about delivering quality leads to the sales team and uses a variety of tools and techniques to drive more, and better quality leads which can be nurtured through to transaction.
Claremont – itsinsidethatcounts.co.uk
The example on the left is a landing page for workplace interior design firm Claremont showing how content can be arranged to showcase the business in the possible light to a specific audience – in this case the legal sector.
In this example the page includes a number of the critical elements that should be included in a landing page:
A headline and (optional) sub-headline.
A supporting image (or slider including multiple images).
A brief description of the offer/call to action.
Supporting elements such as testimonials, affiliations, accreditations or security badges (for transaction B2B sites).
Interactive content to bring the landing page call to action to life – in this case video testimonial.
A form to capture information – duplicated twice at the top and bottom of the page.
Separate email sign, get in touch and social media profiles.
Downloadable material in the form of interactive brochures.
Anglian
Again focused around conversion to action. Make contact or fill the form in. Could it be any blunter?
Adobe
Show lots of primary and nuclear content to get people to take action from webinars to blogs to datasheets etc
The point is – you spend all your time, effort and money getting them there. Make it easy for them to do business.
Last few slides. And we’re into analytics. This should be a no-brainer as it links back to strategy, goals and objectives and helps tell you what is working and what isn’t.
Much evaluation of marketing activity falls into monitoring and measuring brand, key message delivery and resonance, size of, engagement with and sentiment of audience. These measures are important, but the majority of the metrics that companies build their digital marketing evaluation on often fall into the ‘vanity’ bracket. Focus on those that deliver tangible return.
When it comes to measurement, the boffins say steer clear of vanity measures like fans, likes, follows as these are meaningless when it comes to real ROI. I think there is some truth in this and there is much to be said about a niche but highly active following being more valuable. However, people are swayed by large numbers. For b2b, match vanity metrics with those that help display some tangible return – signups, downloads, inquiries, appointments and chart them through your funnel. These are much more likely to lead to stepchange improvement in what you’re doing as you make yourself even more relevant to your customers.