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B-to-B Firms Need Content Marketing

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Not everyone using device for notes! #converge...

Not everyone using device for notes! #convergesouth via soulati

You’re a business-to-business firm; perhaps a mid-sized business with no marketing team. You know you need marketing; however, beyond setting up a basic one-dimensional website you’re unsure what comes next.

Sound familiar?

It should and does, most likely. There are many organizations, firms, companies and business units scrambling to piece blended marketing together in order to communicate and sell to business audiences.

While there’s research everywhere saying B-to-B marketing is blending and blurring with B-to-C marketing, there are still firms that will never market to mass audiences of consumers. There are still businesses that will remain steadfast with its services offering and sell to other businesses and never to consumers.

It’s this type of business, often with an entrepreneurial approach I’m thinking about in this article today.

In order to elevate the firm’s brand and earn exposure, there are a variety of program elements to recommend. There’s one approach, however, that is the strongest recommendation and that’s content marketing.

Power Up The Blog

The first best recommendation is to launch a firm blog. The blog is owned media; you control the message and frequency of the writing. It can become the traffic hub for all types of content creation, including:

• Educational information
• Q&A with a guest
• What Is…Series
• Themes explored and explained
• Guest profiles/features
• Breaking news
• Events announcement
• Recap of a presentation + SlideShare deck
• New product launches

Share on Google+ and LinkedIn

Every B-to-B firm should claim its brand identity on Google+ business page and LinkedIn company page. The owners of the firm need to develop personal profiles on each and begin building their networks on these social channels.
All the blog content being written should get shared on these channels alongside industry articles relevant to the firm’s services and interest.

Blend Digital With Content Marketing

When we suggest digital marketing, it means developing content to generate leads. This content can be free downloadable material like an e-book, white paper or research. It can also be a thought piece on a related issue or perhaps a tip sheet or news bulletin.

There are landing pages developed to encourage people to submit an email for the content, and your firm starts creating a list with which to engage in the future.

It’s not as simple as it sounds; however, when you imagine the vast number of users combing the web for information, your content marketing has to be highly useful. Instead of giving it away free, add an email capture form and consider how you’ll keep people interested with your informational content.

Consider a Message Map

When you’re unsure of how to present the firm to external audiences, there is a nifty tool called a Message Map that helps provide answers to all the 5Ws of the firm. A Message Map is helpful in extrapolating answers from executives and getting approval from leadership on how best to position a company going forward.

This book provides a step-by-step approach on how to Message Map. You can consider its purchase right here https://MessageMapping.co.

Message-Mapping-Book.jpg

https://messagemapping.co

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Chief Marketer Social Marketing 2012 Survey Results

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Chief Marketer is one of my faves for reading about topics oriented to B-to-B social media marketing (what I do) and tips and tricks of the trade. A survey of brand marketers was just released, and I was invited to share feedback about responses by B-t0-B marketers and B-to-C marketers…we should all be saying B-to-P by now, eh?

The Chief Marketer 2012 Social Marketing Survey showed a number of interesting findings, and I detail a few in this quickie video of Soulati Media On The Street (taken with the iPhone 4S, holding the camera flipped my way and standing in my bright yellow and red kitchen — that was all for Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia who just went smartphone on us!).

What I don’t detail is the following:

56% of brand marketers surveyed said social media is “complex to measure.” 

Why is that? My question in response you’ll need to hear in the video, actually. (Heh.)

By a factor of 3, brand marketers said they would reduce engagement on Facebook next year (I sorta garbled that in the video, so I explain it better here).

This is fascinating, and I can leave it up to the Facebook marketers and trainers to determine a really smart answer, but here’s my deduction:

Facebook has made its own life complex and thus ours.

With 1 billion registered users (1/3 of the world’s population), the little U.S. company struggling on the stock market, is still trying to ace mobile. Along the way, it bought Instagram and then launched Camera (what’s the difference?), introduced Timelines and now Collections, has privacy issues and advertising data malarkey — no wonder the medium is complex for brand marketers still stuck measuring with likes and shares (that’s old).

LinkedIn remains a favorite for B-to-B marketers at 85% adoption while B-to-C marketers are only engaging there 39% (of respondents polled).

Google+ is a critical channel for local visibility and organic search, yet most of the marketers surveyed yawned at this medium. I encourage everyone to claim their brand identity!

If you want to see the really long version of my video (12 minutes), you can click here. Otherwise, take a peek with me right now:

 

Any thoughts, Friends?

This has been the 11th installment of Soulati Media On  The Street! Thanks for watching!

What Is Owned Media And Why Publish?

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Credit: Juicy Agency blog

Everywhere the terms owned media, earned media and paid media are popping up. If you’re not familiar with these as a b-to-b marketer, it’s time to understand why these types of media are a necessary part of your strategy.

Earned Media

As a public relations practitioner with media relations expertise, we get coverage or stories for businesses in media. This is called earned media. For business-to-business marketing, PR is a critical strategy for campaign results. If you’d like to learn why, please ask in comments.

Paid Media

This is the coverage and ink you buy, like advertising. Everyone knows the value this brings, especially when larger budgets are available.

Owned Media

When you create and publish your own content, you own it. It’s called owned media. Think of the blog you write for your company, client or yourself. The words are yours, and you publish them on a self-hosted website (hopefully). The ideation to create these inspiring words is yours, too.

Ownership of your words; it sounds so pizzazzy and smart.

In the chaotic world that is social business and social marketing today, there is one pathway tried and true – owned media. No one says it’s easy street to publish content, but it’s a surefire way to garner attention for your smart words.

And, with a consistent publishing schedule, you can develop a rich archive of owned media – stories you’ve written with your byline.

 For Small-to-Medium Business

Owned media for small business is a way to level the playing field. You have a chance to differentiate your products and services in a nimble and expedient way. You can take an industry issue and get out front with counsel to clients and peers. You can become a thought leader with refreshed content that can only boost your presence, brand and positioning.

Level of difficulty? For sure, you need to know what you’re doing before you launch. Blogging, publishing regular newsletters and becoming a thought leader is not for the faint of heart – being consistent with content marketing is critical to success.

Larger Business

There are a variety of social marketing channels to engage with customers; as a larger business, you’re likely aware and already engaging.

If you’re not already owning content and pushing it on a blog or news center on your site, then you’re missing an opportunity to be an authority. There are many, many blog posts written “proving” blogs are dead. Heck, everything dies and comes back to life with inspiration and creativity. Look at bell bottom jeans, for goodness sake!

Marketing departments are often hard pressed to publish consistently; yet, when it happens, brands benefit. This type of strategic approach to owned media and content marketing is exactly what the doctor orders.

Your business-to-business marketing strategy is incomplete without it. Ask me why.