Put your LinkedIn Account to Work
According to Marketing Profs, LinkedIn is the favored social media tool for B2B marketers. If you're in B2B marketing or sales, you can do so much more with your LinkedIn account than simply look up your B2B marketing contacts. Use LinkedIn to help sell product, expand your networks, grow your business and gain free publicity.
Here's some simple tips to help you engage fully with LinkedIn:
- Fill out your profile completely to earn trust and credibility.
- Use apps and widgets to integrate other tools, such as importing your blog entries or Twitter stream into your profile.
- Do market research and gain knowledge with Polls.
- Share survey and poll results with your contacts.
- Answer questions in Questions and Answers: show expertise without a hint of self-promotion.
- Ask questions in Questions and Answers to get a feel for what customers and prospects want or think.
- Publish your LinkedIn URL on all your marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects learn more about you.
- Grow your network by joining industry and alumni groups related to your business.
Update your status with examples of recent work and accomplishments.- Link your status updates with your other social media accounts.
- Combine your social media approach: when someone asks a question in Twitter, respond in detail on LinkedIn and link to it from Twitter.
- Use the search feature to find people by company, industry and city.
- Start and manage a group or fan page for your product, brand or business.
- Research your prospects before meeting or contacting them.
- Share useful articles and resources that will be of interest to customers and prospects.
- Don’t turn off your contacts: avoid hard-sell tactics.
- Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts.
- Request LinkedIn recommendation from happy customers willing to provide testimonials.
- Post your presentations on your profile using a presentation application.
- Check connections’ locations before traveling so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
- Ask your first-level contacts for introductions to their first-level contacts.
- Interact with LinkedIn on a regular basis to reach those who may not see you on other social media sites.
- Set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so you can respond right away.
- Link to articles and content posted elsewhere, with a summary of why it’s valuable to add to your credibility.
- List your newsletter subscription information and archives.
If you haven't already, it's time to create or refresh your LinkedIn profile and begin increasing your B2B marketing contacts, and activity on this most useful site.
/mh
Related posts: LinkedIn-The Ultimate B2B Hookup
Martine Hunter
is the creative director of inbound marketing with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification and serves the Atlanta chapter of the Business Marketing Association as a member of the board of directors.
eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
By Ardath Albee
Ardath Albee has written a solid reference text of logical strategies that validate the value of intelligent content. Through six different sections, Albee breaks down the concept of eMarketing and its strategic rewards for business-to-business (B2B) marketers. Content strategy is based in the premise that B2B buyers begin their decision-making process with online searches for prospective vendors. Marketing's job is to assist sales by guiding prospects further along the buying process by producing more qualified buyers.
Albee makes a case for B2B marketers to shift their thinking to becoming publishers of a variety content channels to broaden prospect reach. Because the buying process has evolved from sales rep visits and calls to reviewing online resources, B2B companies should address and increase their website content. When prospects show up bearing questions, it is essential to have the answers. A B2B business must be recognized as a source of information. Relevant, contagious content not only pulls prospects into the pipeline, it creates a sense of trust and loyalty that allows sales to enter the conversation.
Albee challenges B2B marketers learn about their customers through the use of buyer personas. "A persona is a composite sketch representative of a type of customer you serve." They extend beyond generic demographics and seek to bring the persona to life with job-situation details, responsibilities and influences on buying decisions. Knowing personas will transform the way you think and talk with your prospects and customers, Albee says. Content development will become more relevant and personalized because you are joining a conversation with a familiar contact, not a stranger. Albee suggests personalizing content based on personas using marketing automation systems that drip nurtured messages along the decision cycle.
Part IV is packed with explanations and applicable steps to creating contagious content and competitive differentiation. Marketers tend to use "gobbledygook," or jargon and terminology that may mask the message to the buyer. Just like it sounds, contagious content gains the attention of prospects and prompts them to spread the message to others. It differentiates your company because it is clearly focused on your prospects' priorities. You company advances as having recognized value, which is shared.
eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale encourages B2B marketers to develop buyer relevant, education focused, convenient, compelling, story-based content. Content development should be viewed not as an overwhelming and expensive task, but a required effort to propel marketing and sales results. With actionable suggestion, Albee emphasizes that a well-planned, integrated-content marketing strategy can result in more content with less effort.
I highly recommend this book for B2B marketing pros who need to understand how to engage powerful eMarketing solutions in today's Web 2.0 space.
Martine Hunter
is the creative director of inbound marketing with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification and serves the Atlanta chapter of the Business Marketing Association as a member of the board of directors.
At networking events nowadays, you hear a new vocabulary:
“You're LinkedIn? Invite me to your network.”
“Are you connected to So&So’s network? Can I get an intro?"
“Friend me and I'll hook up with you on your wall.”
Social networking has changed the way we communicate to prospects and industry peers. If you're connected and they know your name, they can look you up. And even better, you can look up others.
Having missed the MySpace craze, the first profile I created on a social networking site was LinkedIn just two years ago when a former colleague asked for a recommendation. I didn't respond right away to the newfangled communication, but intrigued, I built my own profile. Since then, I have watched my friend's network increase to almost an incredible 500 connections and mine has grown to a respectible 180 solid business connections.
LinkedIn is best for business networking and is a boon for B2B marketers. Profile information is geared towards jobs, organizations, skills, etc. I always find it helpful and interesting to look at my connections' connections. It's great for stealth business research too. You can always ask to be "introduced" to someone else's connection. I've added my company's Web site and blog on my profile, a way of marketing my company and measuring marketing effectiveness.
It's also amazing to see your own network statistics. Although I have about 180 connections, my second degree connections (my connections' connections) amount to more than 57,000 — and the third degree amounts to over a four million!
Link to me!
I also have a Facebook profile and check it sporadically, unlike like some of my friends, who must check theirs several times a day. I use Facebook's social networking site only to keep in touch with old friends, current friends and new friends — very few business contacts. I tire easily of the "what are you doing" function. Some people update this regularly, often with banal entries like "I have a headache," or "I need to sharpen my pencil." I don't have patience to chronicle those activities, but it cracks me up to read what my pals are up to.
So, do all social networking sites serve the same purpose? Yes and no. I use all these sites to network. But the specific type of networking is different.
If you haven't already, you must create a profile on a social networking site that fits your needs. Increase your contacts, business and keep in touch... all at your fingertips!
Take a look at this video that explains how Linkedin works.
/mh
Martine Hunter
is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification.
Though MLT Creative is a B2B marketing agency, we also have a passion for advertising in general, and an endless fascination with the industry’s history. That’s why our offices are home to hundreds of classic advertising characters, in figurines of plastic, porcelain, metal and clay. Some of these brand mascots are relics of a bygone era, while some endure to this day, but each of them has a story. And every week, I’ll take a closer look at one.
So be sure to check out our collection, and if there’s one you’re curious about (many are rare — some even bizarre), don’t hesitate to mention it in the comments or an email, and I’ll feature it another week.
This Week's Character Study: The Jolly Green Giant
Santa Claus isn't the only figure who's famous for bellowing "Ho, Ho, Ho" — though your kids might not be as thrilled to get gifts from this vegetable-pushing pitchman.
Created by Leo Burnett in 1928, The Jolly Green Giant has 
remained the symbol of the Green Giant food company ever since. He maintains a friendly demeanor despite his monsterous size, and is always decked out in his trademark duds: a leafy, jumbo-sized tunic, wreath and boots that match his emerald hue. He was voiced in his earliest stop-motion incarnation by jazz singer Len Dresslar, and later portrayed in live action form by Olympic athlete Keith R. Wegeman.
Over the decades, he's been name-dropped by everyone from Johnny Carson to the Ghostbusters, and has become such a beloved character that the town of Blue Earth, Minnesota erected a 55-foot-tall statue of him, which towers over the highway to this day.
Character Study is an ongoing series featuring background trivia on the classic advertising characters from the private collection of MLT Creative.
Chase Mitchell is a copywriter at MLT Creative, an Atlanta-based advertising agency specializing in business-to-business marketing.
More is written on the subject of successful selling technique than any other in the field of marketing. Everyone wants to know how to close the sale. In the traditional selling process, the relationship between prospect and seller has always had the hint of an adversarial relationship.
Often the buyer questions the salesperson's motives, and the salesperson assumes that the buyer will automatically resist the pitch. The initial contact can be a pushy, in-your-face approach or a warm, "let me help you" proposition. Either way, the salesperson is viewed as the aggressor.
In my experience with our B2B marketing firm in Atlanta, business-to-business selling should be less of a game of wits and finesse more a valuable business encounter. When marketers establish the need for the product, communicate the message, stimulate buyer interest, salespeople should take heed not to lose the sale because of competitive gamesmanship.
Advocates of value-added selling and its offshoots, consultative selling, needs-based selling, have always understood the importance of showing the customer how their product or service can provide a benefit solution and better a solution for their customers. It's a common-sense approach for B2B sales and marketing pros.
The ultimate collaboration is the seller and buyer working together to take the buyer's products or services to the buyer's customers. When everyone in the chain is focused on the final end-user, solutions are revealed, problems solved. And usually sales are closed.
This type of strategic alliance with your customer goes beyond the basic order-taking mentality. It moves to the rainmaking mindset and insists that sales and marketing:
- Examine your customer, as well as your customer's customer.
- Be prepared to show understanding of their needs.
- Come with solutions to meet their challenges to be viewed as a trusted expert.
- Go past the simple transaction and look for new market opportunities for their products and services.
- Make an effort to become an integral part of their business, not just another vendor.
The salesperson who addresses challenges and solves problems gives the buyer much food for thought for nourishing an underwhelmed marketing plan. What buyer can resist the temptation?
/mh
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
Remember when everyone started saying Web 2.0? I remembered thinking, "What does that mean? Why is everyone saying it? It seems self-explanatory — why do I need to watch a webinar on it?" Well, I found myself in the same situation recently when I started hearing about Inbound Marketing, only this time it didn’t seem as self-explanatory.
What is it?
Inbound marketing is when you focus on getting found by customers versus finding customers. It’s effective in B2B marketing because it focuses on advertising to people who are interested in your industry or service or product, instead of interrupting prospects through e-mails, cold calls, etc. In addition, technology is making it harder and harder for you to use the aforementioned methods because of spam blockers, inability to find phone numbers on websites, etc.
What are the fundamentals?
- Your Website – SEO is critical to inbound marketing, and your website has to be the hub for everything you do. Blog on your website using your own company’s keywords, publish links on your site and keep it maintained and updated with new information and useful content.
- Content – You can’t write about what you ate for lunch. You have to develop meaningful content that people will find useful and informative so they keep coming back for more. Of course, it’s always nice to throw in a little humor, too. But above all it has to be useful to your public.
- You Guessed It: Twitter! – I don’t mean JUST use Twitter, but that’s another thing we all keep hearing about, so I figured I’d try and get an eye roll out of you. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and all other forms of social media act as significant channels to get your message out there. They increase your visibility while establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.
Why do it?
It’s significantly cheaper! But don’t be fooled — though it’s monetarily cheaper, it does not cost less in terms of time. Developing meaningful content, finding groups to publish in, responding to people’s posts, responding to people’s responses to your own posts, searching topics, etc all take time. But it’s worth it, because it’s directly targeting those who are searching you out because they're interested in your industry, product or service — and that’s a darn good lead for just blogging about what you know off-hand anyway.
How do I start?
- Begin by making your website the center of all your marketing efforts. Pump it full of meaningful content and refresh it constantly so people keep coming back for more.
- Take that meaningful content and send it out on through social media channels to increase your visibility.
- Start poking around on Twitter and LinkedIn. Search for topics and see what people are saying. Respond. Once you get started, you’ll see that it’s actually really easy, because all you’re doing is writing about what you know anyway.
- We (MLT Creative) recently wrote a guide on blogging that can help you get started: B-to-B Blogging Guide. Hubspot.com has some great information about inbound marketing as well.
So go ahead and try it! Sometimes people will even comment on your posts and tell you you’re smart. And it’s always nice to hear that from someone other than just your mother…
Vann Morris is an Account Executive with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
From BtoB Magazine - Hands On Search (HOS)
Story posted: July 15, 2009 - 2:27 pm EDT
Chris Dawkins is founder and CEO of search engine optimization company Trace Media Marketing. Hands-On: Search recently asked Dawkins about best practices in blending organic search with pay-per-click search campaigns.
HOS: You specialize in SEO, or “natural” search marketing. How can SEO be combined with paid, pay-per-click (PPC) search ads?
Dawkins: As a general rule, marketers should dedicate half their budgets to SEO, or natural search, and the other half to their paid campaigns. For the short term, a paid search program has the benefit of delivering traffic almost 
right away, whereas SEO will likely take several months to deliver traffic.
[Also] testing various keywords and phrases with paid search can be beneficial to your SEO efforts. For example, you can figure out quickly which keywords convert to leads or sales. As your SEO campaign starts delivering traffic, you can back off a little from your paid campaign and focus more on SEO.
HOS: PPC campaigns can become expensive, especially in a competitive market or industry, right?
Dawkins: Yes, but you may not always want to bid on the most popular—and thus most expensive—keywords. You may want to take more of a long-tail approach and bid on niche or second-tier words. These aren’t quite as expensive as the top 10 terms, but can be effective for a lot of small companies.
You can compare keywords and their potential cost by using SEO keyword research tools from Wordtracker or Google AdWords’ keyword tool. The Google AdWords tool will give you an estimate of what it would cost to be on the first page of Google, as well as how much competition is out there for each keyword.
HOS: But with second-tier words, wouldn’t you get fewer click-throughs?
Dawkins: You will get fewer hits, true. But the theory is that the hits you get will be of higher quality because their narrowness will attract the people who really are looking for what you have to sell.
So you should narrow your use of keywords, focusing on just the product you sell or your geographical location. You may just get more sales from 10 clicks off these keywords than from 100 clicks from more generic, and expensive, terms.
HOS: How do landing pages fit into the equation?
Dawkins: You can use landing pages very effectively with paid search because you control exactly where the visitor lands. You can also have several different landing pages, so you can match the keywords that customers use with a highly relevant landing page. Landing pages can be very powerful tools when combined with paid search and can easily be changed or replaced if needed, so they are great for A-B testing.
As far as the information included on landing pages, the theory is that the bigger commitment you’re asking for, the more landing-page information you should offer. So, if your conversion goal is something simple, like trying to get people to download a white paper or sign up for a newsletter, you don’t need a lot of supporting information. But if you’re trying to get them to make a bigger commitment, like sign up for a year’s worth of services, you probably want to include more information such as case studies or testimonials.
HOS: What about the role of SEO vs. PPC when it comes to landing pages?
Dawkins: With paid search, the more focused the landing page is, the better. For example, a keyword-oriented landing page will typically perform better if it doesn’t have any internal navigation. And ideally you should not link that landing page to the rest of the Web site, where people can look around for 10 minutes and lose impetus. Once they start clicking around, they might just click off the site entirely.
I recommend that, once a visitor takes the desired action, such as contacting you or downloading a white paper, then you can forward him to the full Web site to see testimonials and your other clients, and to be reassured that his initial decision was a good one.
HOS: Are the rules different with SEO?
Dawkins: With SEO, you don’t have the same control over where users enter the Web site and, of course, you need to offer links to the rest of the site. This is where more advance techniques come into play. Building “silos” into your site, for example, involves using the internal link structure to create themed sections. When done properly, silos help improve ranking in search engines and help visitors navigate and make sense of your site.
Each silo has a main page and supporting pages. The supporting pages link to the main page of the silo, but do not link to supporting pages of other silos. In effect, you are telling search engines which pages of your site are most important and should be considered appropriate landing pages. This way, you can gain some control over where prospects initially land.
/mh
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
Who’s talking about you?
How to monitor your B2B company's online presence
It is extremely important to stay abreast of web chatter by monitoring the online presence of your B2B business. Staying aware of discussions about your company or industry, and being there for timely responses, is essential. And with a simple daily routine, reviewing a few sites won’t have to be a bother.
Perform these three quick steps daily to know and push what's being said about your company:
Scan Google Alerts: Check Google Alerts for your company name, products, key executives or brand terms. To set this up, enter your search terms and select to receive updates as they happen, or once daily. When activity hits the web about your company, an alert will be sent to your Gmail inbox.
Check Twitter for tweets about your company: Use tools like TweetDeck or Twitter Search to monitor conversations about your company in real time. You can also set up an RSS feed for a specific Twitter Search to go straight to your Google Reader. Repond or retweet as necessary.
Answer industry-related questions on LinkedIn: Search for questions on LinkedIn that you or members of your company can answer. Also respond to any relevant discussions in your LinkedIn groups.
For a broader view of your industry, it might be wise to monitor your key accounts, prospects and competitors as well.
/mh
Martine Hunter is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
Here's a list of my favorite B2B blogs on marketing, SEO, WOM and lead generation:
- A PR Guy's Musings– Stuart Bruce writes about the science of public relations.
- Achieve Market Leadership – Insights on opportunity analysis; strategy and planning; and operations and execution, by the Crimson Consulting Group.
- Anything Goes Marketing – Chad Horenfeldt shares tips and tricks to improve your online marketing skills.
- B2B Insight - Ephraim Cohen writes about corporate communications and PR from a B2B perspective.
- B2B Knowledge Sharing – Scott Gillum of MarketBridge blogs about the constantly changing world of B2B Sales and Marketing.
- B2B Lead Generation Blog - Brian Carroll's blog focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads and marketing for the complex sale.
- B2B Marketing Communications 2.0 – Pete Jakob writes that as B2B customers turn to the internet to support all stages of their buying process, B2B marketing needs to change its game — and fast!
- B2B Marketing Confidential - Andy Hasselwander provides news and insights from across the B2B marketing landscape.
- B2B Marketing ROI – Making B2B marketing as sexy as B2C, from Adam Blitzer at Pardot.
- B2B Sales Solutions – Dale Underwood writes about B2B sales topics.
- B2B SEO - Galen De Young blogs about business-to-business Search Engine Optimization.
- B2B Web Strategy – eMagine's blog about driving traffic, engaging visitors, conversion, measurement and Internet marketing.
- B2Blog – Dave J uses his perspective as a marketer in the trenches to write about the dramatic changes affecting industrial marketing / B2B marketing.
- Bad Marketing – Todd Ebert tells the good, the bad and the ugly of B2B marketing, and gives ideas for on improving it.
- Better Closer Blog– Bill Rice's blog gives tips and techniques that will have you turning more prospects into customers.
- Branding and Marketing – Chris Brown writes for business professionals with an interest in branding and marketing, with a focus on building awareness.
- Building a Sales Machine – Aaron Ross writes about accelerating growth, reducing uncertainty and creating a predictable sales machine in the on-demand era.
- Business of Marketing and Branding – David Koopmans writes about marketing and branding in the Information Age.
- Freaking Marketing – Robert Rosenthal shares all types of marketing tips, including B2B marketing and lead generation categories.
- Guerrilla Consulting – Michael McLaughlin helps consultants market themselves with breakthrough tactics for winning profitable clients.
- Idea Sellers – Daniel Sitter writes about better tips for selling.
- Marcom Writer Blog – Dianna Huff delivers news, riffs, and commentary on all things relating to B2B marketing communications.
- marketfusions – Shivonne Byrne's thoughts on strategy, business, marketing, content and creativity.
- Marketing Fishbowl – Gary David comments on all things marketing, from the elementary to the profound.
- Marketing Interactions - Ardath Albee writes thought-provoking posts about marketing and sales integration, shortening sales cycles and improving sales tools.
- Marketing MO – Marketing tips from the trenches for B to B marketers, executives, entrepreneurs and consultants.
- Modern B2B Marketing - Jon Miller shares Marketo's latest thinking about B2B marketing, from best practices in search engine marketing to lead nurturing to marketing accountability.
- PR2.0 – Brian Solis' blog fuses public relations, social media, and new media marketing.
- Sales Tools and Sales 2.0 - Fresh ideas and motivation to help sales professionals and managers sell more.
- RefreshWeblog – John Rasco blogs about B2B web marketing and SEO news.
- Revenue Journal - Kristin Zhivago's writes about revenue-increasing insights, strategies and techniques for CEOs and entrepreneurs.
- Sales Itch – Ed McLean writes about the changing world of Sales, with occasional posts about sales-marketing alignment (inactive).
- Sales Lead Insights - Mac McIntosh blogs about ways to boost your business with B2B marketing and B2B sales lead generation.
- Savvy Internet Marketing – Pam Swingley discusses internet marketing for technology and B2B firms.
- Selling to Big Companies – Jill Konrath's step-by-step guide for sellers who want to get their foot in the door of large corporations.
- SEO-Space – Organic search engine marketing thoughts and insights with a B2B twist.
- Seth Godin’s Blog – The prolific author provides profound and hilarious insights on marketing.
- ShopTalk – John Caddell gives a daily look at business-to-business marketing, highlighting trends, focusing on what works and what doesn't.
- Simplenomics – Mike Sigers blogs about sales, marketing and customer service the Simplenomics Way.
- Startup-Marketing – Working with startup CEOs and marketers to explore the keys to startup marketing success, by Sean Ellis.
- Stupid Marketing – Kevin Epstein promotes great marketing and shines a spotlight on the spectacularly stupid things that are sometimes done in the name of marketing.
- Stu's Blog: Success Stories to Grow Your Business – Marketing frameworks, best practices and smart tactics for Demand Generation, Sales Optimization and Customer Success.
- SynaxisSpeaks – Applications of philosophy to marketing and branding.
- The B2B Lead– Real world, practical B2B sales and marketing tips from ReachForce.
- The Scrappy Software Marketer – Andrew Kordek shares thoughts, expressions and general tidbits of being a scrappy software marketer.
- The Social Media Marketing Blog – Scott Monty's perspectives on B2B implications of social media — the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web — for marketers, agencies and companies.
- WebInkNow – David Meerman Scott provides online thought leadership and viral marketing strategies using blogs, news releases, ebooks and online media.
- WebMama's Look at the Web – WebMama, aka Barb Coll, focuses on search engine marketing for B2B companies.
- WebMarketCentral Blog –Tom Pick has been a B2B marketer since 1992, with an emphasis on research, writing, leadership and online marketing.
- Writing Whitepaper's Blog – Michael A. Stelzner shares the latest trends in writing and marketing whitepapers.
/mh
Martine Hunter is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
When I saw this video at a recent American Marketing Association meeting, it was evident that the relationship between the marketer and the consumer has changed and continues to change at an exceedingly marked rate.
- Is it time to reassess your relationship with your customer?
- Are you listening? Do you go to the places your customer goes?
- Are you providing what your customer really needs?
Answer these questions or your customer may leave you at the table.
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.