Here are some typical B2B myths that just aren’t true.

Branding is not important as it is for B2C

While this may seem true, branding for B2B business is actually more important than it is for B2C.
B2C purchases are motivated primarily by emotion and need. Someone might purchase something because it makes them feel a certain way. B2B purchases are almost entirely motivated by logic and reason. These decisions are based on facts and numbers. B2B purchases are hardly ever made at a moment’s notice and often times, companies shop around. It’s important that you leave a lasting impression and that you remain easily recognizable.

B2C purchases are motivated primarily by emotion and need. Someone might purchase something because it makes them feel a certain way. B2B purchases are almost entirely motivated by logic and reason. These decisions are based on facts and numbers. B2B purchases are hardly ever made at a moment’s notice and often times, companies shop around. It’s important that you leave a lasting impression and that you remain easily recognizable.
A strong brand provides a sense of trust, confidence, and security. If customers see that a brand is well established and thought out, they are more likely to trust that company. Reputation is important as it makes the purchase decision seem much safer and easier.

A strong brand provides a sense of trust, confidence, and security. If customers see that a brand is well established and thought out, they are more likely to trust that company. Reputation is important as it makes the purchase decision seem much safer and easier.

Social Media Is Useless for B2B Marketing, my customers aren’t there.

Trust me, your customers are on social media. Everyone is on social media these days for personal use but more and more businesses are using social media for their marketing and sales initiatives, even B2B businesses.

While B2C companies have the benefit of targeting their customers directly on social media, B2B customers are people too and they are without a doubt, on social media. Most people, including yourself, likely check up on their Facebook and Twitter feeds throughout the day. If you keep your social media updated with entertaining and helpful content, those who follow you are more likely to be exposed to your brand or product. For example, GoToMeeting’s Instagram account has almost no promotional material on their feed. It consists entirely of entertaining, informative, and easy to consume content that any person in the business world would like to consume. Not just someone who is specifically looking for virtual meeting software.

Check out this post on how to get the most out of your B2B social media strategy for some great tips.

Currently, the best and easiest platform to connect with B2B customers is on LinkedIn due to the nature of its intended use. It has over 500 million users so there is more than enough opportunity to connect.

There is no room for silly creativity in B2B marketing

There is also no room for bad attitudes toward silly creativity.

Marketing is quickly becoming more and more difficult due to the fast growth of the industry. Standing out among your competitors is much harder than it used to be.

Since B2B marketing is targeting business people in a business environment, many marketers feel that they have to present content in a formal, unexciting way. Typically, B2B marketing can be pretty boring. But In reality, it’s only as boring as the marketing team behind it.

The best way to stand out among the crowds is by getting creative and finding new and interesting ways to connect with people.

Creativity doesn’t necessarily have to include jumping out of a jet from the stratosphere. Maybe it would work, but it’s not really necessary for B2B needs. Try making a video, creating an infographic, or sharing a helpful social media post instead of brochures and long PowerPoint presentations. Do something out of the norm.

You can be entertaining while still providing valuable information; you’re actually more likely to keep them interested and engaged. Take a look at your competition and see how you can get more creative and draw (good) attention to your business.

B2B marketing is about reaching businesses, not people

While the acronym itself literally means business to business, it’s important to remember that there are actual people behind these businesses. These individuals are the ones that are seeking your products and services.

While you are often targeting businesses as a whole, there are key decision makers who are making the decision to buy your product or service. It is important to find out who these decision makers are and tailor your marketing content to these people as best as you can to get the best return on investment.

Conclusion

Don’t listen to the myths you hear about B2B Marketing. Use the tactics you believe will be the most effective in achieving your marketing goals. Knowing the best ways to reach your audience and the ways they are searching for your products is the best way to understand your marketing strategy. Remember to market to people, not businesses. The more you know about your potential customers, the better.

The post 4 Common B2B Marketing Misconceptions – Debunked! appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

For those of you who might already have it, here’s a guide from LinkedIn on how to access the feature.

What does this mean for B2B marketers?

In a previous post, we talked about how video will dominate the marketing landscape in 2017, and it seems to be holding true. Besides contributing to higher retention rates, higher engagement, better SEO, and increased conversions, video content currently makes up about 74% of all internet traffic and Cisco, the worldwide leader in IT and Networking, projects that video will make up about 80% of internet traffic by 2019. As we know, LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals in a single location. This makes it easy to connect with others and build relationships in order to provide valuable information and support.

The introduction of video will help make this a much easier and entertaining experience. Users will be able to snap video on their phone while on the go, at trade shows, in meetings, etc. and post in an instant.

These videos can last up to 10 minutes, though LinkedIn recommends a shorter length ranging between 30 seconds and five minutes. As with LinkedIn’s pre-existing in-feed videos, user-uploaded clips will play automatically with sound off. Like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn counts a video view after three seconds of play time. This will help to weed out those who aren’t as interested and give you a better idea of your demographic and whether you’re reaching the audience you are targeting. This will also help to understand if your videos are resonating with those who are watching. If the majority of your viewers stop watching within the first 3 seconds, you may have to reevaluate your strategy, whether it be the quality of your video or content, or if you are targeting the wrong audience.

Users will have access to the typical analytic information provided by social platforms plus the addition of some extra perks that B2B marketers could have only dreamed of before. For a selection of top viewers, you will be provided with where they work, their job title and the top markets where the video was viewed. Not bad, eh? No other social media platform currently provides this degree of information. This makes it easier to align your goals and gather information.

Having these unique analytics available will be a huge benefit to networking opportunities and generating sales leads. You could post a video highlighting a new product or a demo video and information will be collected without much effort on the viewers part. No popups, landing pages, or gated content interrupting them to fill out information. This data can then be used to build up a list of prospects.

When paired with video, LinkedIn will be a B2B marketers delight.

To see how you can prepare and get the most out of this great new feature by LinkedIn, check out:

Why you should invest in video and 5 tips on producing quality videos

6 steps to creating contagious content.

Conclusion

With video on the rise, LinkedIn’s better-late-than-never strategy is poised to be a hit within the B2B community. This new feature will provide businesses with the opportunity to take advantage of the rising demand for video content, on the ideal platform for B2B companies, to assist in telling their story and building credibility among followers.

The post LinkedIn Has Started Offering Video and You Should Be Very Excited! appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What is a high-quality Lead?

A good, high-quality lead is one that aligns well with your buyer persona and one that has a clear intent to make a purchase. This is where your marketing and sales team should come together and create a shared definition of what a high-quality lead looks like. This way, the marketing team can feed the sales team leads that align well with both departments to get the highest conversion of leads to sales opportunities.

How can you attract high-quality leads?

Are you putting out the right traps? Consult and revise your buyer persona and ensure you are attracting those who not only align well with it, but are in your target market, and most importantly, those who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Finally, once you start getting good leads, nurture them like a newborn baby! After all, Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads (The Annuitas Group).

Here are some tips on getting higher quality leads:

Try Account Based Marketing (ABM)

Account based marketing takes a bit more effort but works well because you essentially go out and find those leads yourself. Let’s say someone from a company shows an interest in your product. You would use the valuable information from that lead to find and target decision makers in the company. By using this method, you can tailor specific messaging to those in that ‘account’ and increase the chances of turning over a sale. While it takes more time and effort it has a bigger payoff as you essentially get to choose who is a lead, and who isn’t.

Check out this post we wrote on the benefits of account-based marketing, and how it can help you earn better leads.

Gated Content

Offer free content for some information in return. By giving away something like a free e-book, whitepaper, or a webinar you can ask for information such as their title, email, company size, industry, etc. You can use this information to build up a profile and qualify them. Once you have their email address you are free to contact/harass them or even send them promotional materials in order to peak their interest and provide solutions.

Tap into Q&A and review websites and social media

This won’t provide any quick wins, but will help you achieve your overall goal of sending high quality leads to your website. Participate in Q&A’s and forums such as Quora, and social media discussions such as LinkedIn Groups. You will not only be providing people with valuable information and building your credibility, but you will be able to approach those who need help and offer your services. These people qualify as a high-quality lead because they have expressed interest, at this point its time to take this lead to the next step and nurture it.

Additionally, consider listing your product on a website such as Capterra. If people are actively seeking guidance on which products are best, and what customers say about those products, then they are clearly seeking a solution to a pain and that makes them a very qualified lead.

Optimize your pages for lead generation

Offer visitors something that might be useful to them. The average person will spend 30 seconds on your webpage before deciding to stay or leave. If, after 30 seconds they decide they are interested and choose to stay, seize the opportunity to convert them into a lead. Make use of an automated service such as Instapage, Unbounce, LeadPages, Thrive Leads, etc. to offer them something free such as an e-book or whitepaper. With some services, you can also set this to pop up after a set amount of time so you can target only those who stick around. This will help filter the not-so-great-but-still-good leads from the high-quality leads. You can also do the opposite, target users when they decide to leave, maybe you can change their minds and convince them to stay.

Generate leads from existing customers

Chances are, existing customers have like-minded colleagues, peers, and friends who might be interested in what you have to offer. Consider setting up a referral program to encourage your existing customers to go out and get you more customers.

By providing some sort of incentive, customers will refer friends, family, and colleagues who are interested in order to get rewards. While this may involve a small investment, it pays off. Consider Dropbox. For each person you refer, you receive an extra 500MB of storage for free. While this is costing Dropbox 500MB of storage for each new person, the payoff is that they are getting new customers for a fraction of the price they would have spent on advertising. Mr. Referral is happy because he now has 16GB of cloud storage for free and Dropbox now has 32 new customers, some of which may have purchased a premium plan. Mr. Referral does all of the hard work for the price of 16GB, which costs Dropbox next to nothing. This will result in higher quality leads, as each new customer who signs up is essentially pre-qualified. Those who pass on the opportunity are obviously not the lead you are looking for.

Ask your customers what they want

Sometimes the best thing to do is to just ask your customers what they want from you. Ask existing customers to complete a quick survey and offer an e-book as an incentive to gain some insight on what it is your next potential leads might come looking for. You can use the data collected to better target your efforts and identify leads that have a higher chance of conversion.

Contact info and live chat

By providing a quick and easy way for potential leads to contact you, you can easily filter out the people who are genuinely interested from those who are “just browsing”. Provide very clear options on how to contact your company for more information. Include a contact form, a phone number for those who prefer to speak to a live person, and even an instant message box on your website for a quick response. Those who take the time to contact you and ask specific questions are likely very interested and most likely qualify as a high-quality lead.

Check out these 10 myths about lead quality.

Conclusion

While this may take some time, it is a worthwhile investment. By Revising your goals and changing up your strategy a little bit at a time, you can start to analyze each method and which ones work best for your company and attract the most high-quality leads. Once learning which methods work best, you can then focus your efforts on those strategies and perfect them to get the best possible results.

The post 7 Tips to Earn Higher Quality Leads. appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

Last year we saw the importance of visual content, such as video, emphasized by the changes that took place across almost every major social network such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Most notable were the launch of Facebook and Instagram’s live feature, Facebook’s pre-roll video ads, and Instagram stories. We have all experienced it by now. It’s obvious that videos have become powerful tools for brands looking to communicate efficiently with their target audience. With more than 60% of marketers and small business owners saying that they plan to increase investment in video marketing in 2017, you’re going to have to keep up. If you’re not including video marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you’re likely missing out on some serious leads.

Here are some key reasons to include video in your marketing strategies:

Higher Retention Rates

By creating quality videos you can increase overall viewer retention. According to Animoto, 1 in 4 consumers actually loses interest in a company if it doesn’t have video content. That means a quarter of all possible leads will be lost, simply because you don’t have a video. Furthermore,  BrainShark suggests that the information retained in one minute of online video is equal to about 1.8 million written words. That’s a lot of information relayed in a small amount of time considering the average human can only read about 300 words per minute, It’s important to take advantage of that opportunity.

Higher Engagement

Animoto says that four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. And according to Syndacast 74% of all internet traffic in 2017 will be video. We must give them what they want. We must give them video.

Google Loves Video

SEO is an important factor when trying to stand out among your competitors. Adding a video to your website can increase the chance of a front page Google result by 53 times. Of course, that’s when you do it right. Check out these tips from Moz CEO Rand Fishkin to learn more about how to properly optimize your videos for search. You’ll notice that he has a video at the top of the page.

Increased conversions

Video converts more customers than traditional methods. Four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it, and 85% of customers are more likely to make a purchase after watching a product video.

Hopefully, you have been convinced to use more video to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Here are some tips on how to get the best possible quality with what you’ve got:

1. Use a good quality camera

With displays becoming higher and higher in resolution It’s important to shoot at the highest possible quality so your video looks crisp and clear on any screen. A video camera works best but high-quality smartphone cameras will do the trick it used properly.

2. Shoot in landscape

In order to get the best shot and help maintain your viewer’s attention, make sure you shoot your videos in landscape orientation. By shooting in portrait orientation (or upright) you are not only missing out on the background of the subject which can help provide context but you are losing out on valuable real estate which can be used to display supporting content such as text, pictures, and other information. Shooting in portrait orientation will also make video appear small on wide screens such as computers and TV’s, and leave the viewer looking at large, distracting black bars on the sides of the video and contribute to a very amateur feel.

3. Good lighting

There are a lot of cameras that do well in low light, and there’s some that don’t do so well. Try to locate a light source to light up your subject and make sure your subject isn’t backlit or lit so much that they are forced to squint. Wistia has an excellent guide on how to create a great, low-cost lighting kit.

4. Keep them short

According to Hyperfine Media, 5% of viewers will stop watching after 1 minute and 60% will stop watching after 2 minutes. Keep you videos short and to the point to ensure you are getting any important information across before your viewer loses interest.

5. Include text or subtitles

When 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound (Digiday), you’re going to want to ensure viewers are taking in information while watching your video. By including the option for subtitles or adding engaging text, you not only are lending a hand to those who are hard of hearing but you are getting your information to those who either, choose not to listen to your video, or are in the middle of class scrolling through their Facebook feed with the sound off. It’s not your responsibility to know if someone is on Facebook in class, however, it is your responsibility to make sure they are receiving that information.

Conclusion

You can’t escape the year of the video, so embrace it. There’s still plenty of time left in the year to get in on the video marketing game. But remember, poor production quality may have the reverse effect on a consumer and actually drive away prospective business. However, with these tips, you should be you on your way to creating great videos, whether it’s an interview, or a how-to video to share with your readers. You just have to get started.

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