Inbound Marketing: Defining How it Can Work in the B2B Industry
At one time, the B2B industry seemed to treat inbound marketing almost like it was a foreign concept that only applied to B2C. While it is partly true, it doesn't discount the possibilities of using this technique with those selling to other businesses.
There is abundant evidence that inbound marketing works for both the B2B and B2C industries. Marketing to businesses is no different from marketing to a consumer.
In both instances, marketing supports the sales of a solution or commodity that can address a market problem or demand. Even if the resolution or the end product varies, pain points are the same.
With a well-crafted inbound marketing plan, clients will come to you rather than you to them.
Creating Valuable Marketing Content
Statistics show that B2B businesses that blog bring in 67% more leads than those who don't. But the blog won't matter if you don't target the content to the right demographic. Create personas first, to get an idea of what the customers may want to read, see, or hear.
The more compelling your content is to help solve pain points, the more apt businesses are going to find you when searching for information. Using proper SEO to aid you in Google placement, it is worth remembering quality content never gets ignored.
Even if you curate some blog content, make sure it's up to industry standards.
Using Email to Reach Customer Leads
Even with marketing automation becoming more and more popular, far too many B2B companies don't use it enough. Sending automated marketing emails to leads is a perfect way to combine reaching out to people while still attracting them with the content you provide.
The key is to entice them first so they'll visit your website to see more. Using video in your marketing emails with some element of storytelling helps considerably. Try to wrap a narrative around a problem and how your business products bring solutions.
Using Social Media to Attract Businesses
Using hashtags on social media as you post content works well to attract more business on a daily basis. Try to find out what keywords the industry use. Incorporate those regularly and apply as hashtags on Twitter.
One way to do quick research is looking for those keywords on Twitter or Facebook to see what conversations are taking place. Starting conversations on social media to prove your expertise is a technique you can use.
Contact us to learn more about how inbound marketing can work to make your B2B company grow.
Is it Time to Add Video to Your Marketing Strategy?
You don’t have to look very hard these days to find marketing professionals and researchers puzzling over the millennial consumer market. According to Outside magazine, outdoor retailers are especially struggling to get a foothold on the millennial money mountain. As that article and most current literature suggest, inbound and video marketing are the way to go when it comes to reaching prospective outdoor recreation customers under the age of 35.
One way to take your video marketing strategy to the next level is to incorporate GoPro cameras or drones with cameras into your business model. That content can quickly be distributed to your audience through your website and will generate new leads and sales.
Video drones, GoPros, and smartphones have taken tech, recreation, social media, and video marketing worlds by storm. If you want to start attracting that next generation of outdoor adventurers and nature enthusiasts, you should find a way to bring new components into your strategy. You can set up your own YouTube, Roku, or Apple TV channels for your business. The channel can include streaming photos, videos, and other information related to your particular niche.
You can also get the cameras in the hands of your clients. Encourage them to host their outdoor adventures on your site. You can edit the video, as necessary, for time, quality and content. Remember: Most people do not have the attention span for irrelevant, slow, and low-quality videos.
Implementing new marketing solutions can do the following:
- Add value to your product or service
- Create new and exciting viral content
- Generate new sales leads through social media
If investing in a GoPro or video drone isn't in the budget, there is always the option of renting.
However you want to generate GoPro-, smartphone-, or drone-captured content for your video marketing, make sure to obtain releases.
If any of this sounds complex, remember that there are online resources you can tap into or video marketing experts you can hire.
HARNESS Consulting can help assess the video marketing needs of your brand. Contact us now!
How to Use Video to Better Your Social Media Marketing
Engaging videos are highly sought after on social media. Viewers share, engage, and discuss videos that speak to them. So, give the people what they want - more video! Here are five different ways to incorporate video into your social media marketing and create better experiences for your followers.
According to Social Media Today, video posts on Facebook have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. Videos yield crazy engagement on social platforms… and there’s no slowing down. People are consuming videos from their mobile devices at rapidly increasing rates. It is key you position your brand to capitalize on this movement.
Adding video to your social media marketing offers huge benefits such as increased brand exposure, better follower engagement, and more opportunities to drive traffic to your webpages.
Your audience will appreciate the variety you bring to their newsfeeds while giving an alternate approach to engaging in your content.
Five Ways to Create Video That Engages Consumers on Social Media
1. Your Story is Important…Share it!
Storytelling is a time-tested tactic that works great at pulling your audience into your brand message. People connect with you through your story. It helps you establish common ground with your followers, making you relatable and real. Stories also separate you from other brands which give you that competitive edge in the industry.
Humanize your brand by communicating its story on video. Delve into the “why.” Who do you desire to inspire and what problems are you solving through your products? What charitable contributions do you make to your community? Share what motivates your team to get up and go every morning. Sharing your story will add greater meaning and purpose when people do business with you.
2. Offer Short Instructional Videos for Your Followers
An excellent move to promote your brand with social video is to create short, instructional videos demonstrating how your products can be used to solve a problem for the viewer. How-to videos are extremely effective because you’re showing people how to achieve a specific result. As a result, you’ll keep viewers engaged while strategically placing your brand in front of your social following.
Reduce your video to the most basic steps of the process then speed up your video in production (editing), so it only lasts for about 30 seconds. These social video snippet can be product-related or simply something relevant to your niche. The beauty is they quickly solve a pain point for users.
3. Answer Your Viewers' Questions
Consider the FAQs that often hit your inboxes or are typically prompted by your prospects. These are excellent content pieces for your blog, email campaign, social media posts, and of course, videos. You see, you’re giving the people exactly what they want because these inquiries derived from your audience. By addressing their questions, you’ll boost thought-leadership and be viewed as an expert in the industry. Plus, it gives you endless content to share across your marketing platforms.
Enhance your credibility by posting videos that highlight one question then offers an in-depth response.
Since many social users are leveraging search as a way to connect and discover new brands, be sure to include keywords or hashtags that your audience is actively searching for. Hashtags reign on networks like Instagram and Twitter, but keywords perform better on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
4. Go Live!
Live-streaming platforms such as Facebook Live, Periscope, and Instagram Stories are driving tons of engagement on social media. There’s something special about connecting with someone in real-time. People get to see and experience the real you! Live videos quickly build trust and can accelerate your brand’s presence fast on social media.
Use these tools to your full advantage. Invite followers into your world by taking them behind-the-scenes at the office, in the field, or company event to share a taste of your brand’s culture. Host live Q&A sessions where you give your audience a chance to ask you anything industry or product related to getting on-the-spot responses. Report breaking news and share your insight and opinion. This gives your followers a chance to do the same to foster conversations.
Commit to making live-streaming a regular content strategy in your social media marketing. With consistency, you’ll experience a significant boost in engagement and followership.
5. Highlight Fan or Influencer Content
Did you know that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation? Positive testimonials and reviews are killer ways to foster trust with your audience especially those who haven’t heard of you before. Prospects want to see if your products or services actually bring results. Sharing others' experiences with your brand is a great way to show it! Content featuring influencers and brand ambassadors has a similar effect.
With that said, use your fan’s content as a form of an online review. User-generated content can be creatively compiled into one video as a promotional tool or multiple videos to build up your content vault. Give influencers credit by mentioning them in the post. Growing this strategy can prove to be a valuable tactic in your inbound marketing as you highlight your customers and give social proof that you’re making a difference.
Ready to amplify your social media marketing with video? We know how to create compelling video marketing campaigns that humanize your brand and gives you the slight edge. Reach out to us today and let’s chat!