Increase Sales Blog

Posts Tagged ‘content marketing’

Yesterday over on my Facebook wall, I posted a comment about business ethics and self promotion specific to LinkedIn and how LinkedIn members post events, jobs or their solutions (products or services) under the discussion tab.  I shared how frustrating this unethical behavior is because it is disrespectful to other members who are actually seeking a for real discussion.

The first several comments in response to my frustration were on target and then the discussion wandered off topic.  A couple of individuals raised the point about self promotion and how self promotion is evident in many interactions.

If marketing is about attracting attention and building relationships, then I agree wholeheartedly that self promotion is evident in every single interaction especially within social media. As business people we are continually seeking new potential customers (prospects), sales leads, strategic partners, centers of influence and maybe even a few new friends. To accomplish these goals requires us to self promote through personal one on one interactions to posting through social media to paying for advertisements. The ultimate desired end result is to make a friend and to be asked back for that coveted first time meeting.

However, when there are rules or policies in place as in the case of LinkedIn requesting that self promotion specific to events, jobs or solutions be placed under the promotions or jobs tabs, then the rules should be followed. By following the rules, demonstrates you are an individual with high business ethics.  Additionally, from my perspective, this includes speaking and even writing articles. Sales Coaching Tip:  The question is not one of “Do they know it?” but rather “Do they want to do it?”

No one wants to be “sold from the stage” as the expression goes. If you provide value through relevant sharing of information based upon your own expertise and experiences, people will come up to you and ask to learn more.

When engaged in content marketing under the education based marketing approach, again providing additional value through past articles you have written via hyper links to other external links from other resources is very common and expected. In this posting I have linked to sites connected to me as well as to sites not connected with me.  The goal is to build a loyal following by what you have to write and how you write.

Maybe upon ongoing reflection my biggest problem with self promotion is that for some it has turned into shameless self promotion and more importantly seems to be a one way street all leading to the interaction of “My Ego and More Dollars.”  These individuals are not interested in establishing any “mutually beneficial relationships” as Lillian Bjorseth of Breakthrough Networking defines networking.

One thing I do believe, social media does require vigilance and imposes some business ethics on us as subscribers, readers and participants.  To ignore blatant violation of the policies is one way for apathy to evolve. Then we potentially become a society where the emperor is naked and it takes a child to say “He doesn’t have any clothes on.”

Content marketing begins with relevant value which emanates from strategic planning as demonstrated through market research.  Potential customers, prospects, centers of influence or strategic partners are seeking new information.  Your goal is to become one of the top resources in this quest for this endless flow of information. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  To engage in content marketing without having a strategic plan has you in the role of Captain Wing It where you spray your efforts all over the place and then pray something will stick.

Of course there is a problem with all you can eat information, there is just too much of it. This is why relevant value is so critical.

Value as Marc Miller writes in his book A Seat at the Table truly comes from the client or prospect’s viewpoint.  In other words, people buy on value unique to them. This is my sales buying rule #3.

Yes, there may be some generic value in specific industries or specific roles, however each organization has a culture of decision making based upon certain usually unknown values. The challenge for those in sales is not to have their perception of value supersede the potential customer’s reality of value.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Miller’s book is probably one of the best books on how to increase sales in today’s market place as well as to how to understand value.

Relevancy specific to value is what is most critical at this point in time and works with the two sales buying criteria of commitment and urgency. For example, if the organization  is looking at compliance costs even though they also believe in building customer loyalty, what is more important to them right now?  For whatever is more relevant will also be where there is greater urgency and a greater commitment to take action.

Writing numerous postings on this sales blog as well as a weekly column for the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana, regular contributor for NBiz Magazine based out of Houston, Texas, not to mention thousands of other articles, I am continually reviewing what the readers are seeking based upon metrics such as reads, retweets, etc. Even though I sincerely believe in strategic planning, leadership, business ethics and consistent goal setting, those articles do not receive as much attention as ones on:

7 Top Tips to Car Salesmen’s or Car Saleswomen’s Success – 52,583 reads published April 25, 2007

7 Tips to Real Estate Agent’s Success – 41,978 reads published May 16, 2006

What is Passion? – 17,630 reads published May 29, 2005

Content Marketing a Competitive B2B Advantage – 307 tweets since January 8, 2012

Uniting See Level with Sea Level to Reinforce an Engaged Workforce of Thinkers and Doers – 31% click through rate since August 1, 2011

Can Your Business Ethics Stand the Newest Wave of Bombardment, Social Media? – 7 reposts through EzineArticles since August 17, 2010

The challenge even though relevant value may work in tandem with two of the 5 sales buying criteria, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee a sale.  Returning to the example of the first two articles about car sales people and real estate, many of these  sales people do not have the allocated dollars to hire a sales coach. However the article still gives provides the opportunity to attract more attention and build more relationships.  Yes I have earned dollars through these articles. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Determine your niche in content marketing.

To determine relevant value begins by listening to what your customers are saying; by listening to what others are saying; by listening to what is happening within your market place, your community and even the world. Also engaging in keyword research supports relevant value in content marketing.  Keyword research can be your secret weapon to Be the Red Jacket, to stand out in the crowd with your blog postings to articles to even keynote speeches.

In today’s very crowded market place, does demand that you do stand out if you wish to increase sales. Content marketing based upon relevant value just may help you stand out a little quicker, may increase sales and may expand your market influence.

Content marketing is not just about writing articles or blog posts nor it is just sharing links or quotes, but now has evolved to being a content curator who is truly a relationship connector. These individuals by their actions add value by:

• Connecting to their target audience
• Building relationships and influence within their communities
• Supporting their efforts to stand out in the crowd, to Be the Red jacket

So just what is a content curator? As in any term, there are many definitions.

A curator is defined according to Webster as someone who as the care and superintendence of something.  This word comes from the word curate which in Latin means care or in French cure of souls.

Content means to contain or hold in. In today’s business world, content is about containing or holding in information that may be of value to the intended recipient be it an ideal customer or a larger target market.

So a content curator is some who cares about the content being distributed.  This individual just doesn’t post anything to earn a few more social media followers be them on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.  But rather he or she is generally looking to add value because he or she cares. From this perspective, they are able to increase sales.

A question to consider:

Is what you are sharing truly nourishing the souls

of your intended audience?

My sense is there is a strong connection between one’s soul (not necessarily in the religious sense) and what one values.

In other words, a content curator is truly a relationship builder and connector. By the sharing of resources, a content curator continues to bring value to those within his or her business orbit or sphere of influence.  This individual is not engaged in self promotion by read this blog (which is a sales letter in disguise) or get hundreds of dollars of free stuff (provided you buy one item at $49.95) or attend this free conference in which I will hard sell you why you need to hire me.

When I wrote Be the Red Jacket, the goal was to truly support those engaged in selling.  Today’s marketplace is very crowded. To get notice, requires standing out away from all those other gray suits, to truly Be the Red Jacket.

Becoming a content curator may be a viable marketing strategy to attract attention, to build relationships, to increase sales, to be the Red Jacket.  Of course, this may require some additional research as to what your target audience or ideal customer is seeking. Yet, if you wish to take your small business to that next level, understanding content marketing and more importantly the role of being a content curator may be how you increase sales.

Over six years ago I faced the challenge shared by many small business owners of business to business (B2B) marketing where my efforts would engage the emotions and create value for potential buyers (think prospects) so that could realize a tiny portion of market share. This challenge is still there, however I am becoming better at meeting this never ending B2B marketing challenge.

Credit www.sxc.hu

After working with clients and through my own experience, marketing is the number one challenge of small businesses and especially for those who engage in B2B environment. For unless people know about you, your solutions and your company, you will remain pocket poor (think no market share). Sales Coaching Training Tip:  The establishment of centers of influence and referrals allows you to get a jump start in your B2B marketing efforts as well as increase sales.

When I recognized I knew very little about marketing in today’s global business world, I changed my entire marketing approach. This resulted in the creation of an integrated education based marketing plan that united inbound sales leads (Internet) with the outbound sales leads (traditional marketing). This change demanded I invest one hour per day in reading and learning about marketing. The result of this learning was the adoption of one key marketing strategy and tactic that being  content marketing through article distribution, social media and blogs. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Learning about effective marketing is never ending.

Content marketing according to a recent report released by the Content Marketing Institute and the MarketingProfs continues to be the primary B2B marketing strategy.  With nine out of ten business to business (B2B) firms employing this action through a variety of marketing vehicles including the top three of:

• Article postings – 79%
• Social Media not including blogs – 74%
• Blogs – 65%

Regardless of the distribution of the content, the challenge remains the same as it did over 6 years ago to attract attention and to build the relationship or relationships.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  The purpose of marketing is to attract attention and build the relationship with a two-fold goal:

1. To make a friend
2. To set an appointment

Content marketing for it to be successful must engage the emotions of potential customers (buyers or prospects) while simultaneously creating value unique to them.  This value creation may be described as hitting “pain points” based upon the research within your strategic action plan.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Keyword research is essential in understanding pain points or what might be identified as wants and needs.

Additionally when employing content marketing, you as the writer will need to be personal or human. This is not the time to be esoteric or purely knowledge driven. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  People buy from people they know and trust.

Good quality information needs to be present, but delivered in a way that has you speaking to your audience as a friend instead of a highly educated instructor.  This is truly a balance of knowledge, writing style and your own personality because when someone does call you, that person must feel your authenticity. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  When marketing is executed well, you have greatly reduced the five common sales objections.

Engaging the emotions to create value is not easy. However when done well through practice, ongoing learning and more practice, you can meet this B2B marketing challenge head on and in that process increase sales.

P.S. The more you write the better you think, the better you think the more you write.

Today is the first day of 2012. Happy New Year!

For many it is a day of reflection specific to personal success and business success along with the successes not achieved (think failures).  This morning I completed the metrics for the current year and realized the achievement of these goals.

I set goals using my own 8 spoke Life Wheel and this is infused into a one page personal action plan.

• Purpose goal was achieved
• Ethics/Beliefs (Spiritual) goals were achieved
• Mental development goals were achieved
• Personal health goal was achieved and one was not achieved
• Family goals, one was achieved; two were not
• Social goals all achieved, but one
• Financial goal was achieved
• Career goals was achieved

Looking to my overall sales goals, I was  for the most part on target.  Additionally when reviewing the goals for my business, I was very pleased to see the growth in my marketing efforts and how that supported the revenue increase.  As I have engaged in education based marketing since 2005 through article writing along with the adoption of this blog in February 2010, traffic to my website has greatly increased through the distribution of quality content.  A study by the Marketing Profs reaffirmed this approach of content marketing is now being further adopted by B2B businesses.

For example, my Alexa ranking started the year at 309,224, ended at 163,227 and reached 148,525 in mid November of 2011. This is a trending tool and is one way I can determine overall Internet market penetration.

Another benchmark I use is my name.  Each month I conduct Google searches using my name through these 4 key phrases:

1. Leanne Hoagland-Smith
2. “Leanne Hoagland-Smith”
3. Leanne Hoagland-Smith + articles
4. “Leanne Hoagland-Smith” + articles

The use of these metrics have shown continued Internet presence. As in mid December, I had 588,000 hits to my name and 149,000 hits to my name plus articles.  This is a far cry from 6 years ago where I had under 100 hits to my name and no hits to my name plus articles.

Unique visitors to my website totaled 86,438 an increase of 37,566 visitors over 2010. What is interesting to note in 2005 I had only 3,378 total unique visitors for the year.  Today I am averaging 8,000 unique visitors each month.

From my strategic action plans, I have already set new personal goals and business goals.  Goals that were not achieved and been revisited, reworked and are on my 2012 action plans. What is so surprising is once you get in the habit of setting goals, monitoring them, establishing new goals takes far less time than in the past.  Part of the reason for this is through data analysis and repetition.  Practice does make more perfect.

So from my sharing, where are your next levels of personal and business success?

• Have you invested time to review what you accomplished and what you still need to achieve? 

• What do you want to achieve in 2012?

• How will you measure your progress?

• What are you key performance indicators, your dashboard?

Time does fly by. Each day we are allotted 86,400 seconds that fade almost as quickly as they come into view. Each one of us has far more control over our personal and business success than we have been led or conditioned to believe. The choice to make 2012 the best year ever is really up to you.
And this choice begins by writing down your goals and reviewing them weekly.  You will indeed be surprised by the results.

P.S. If you wish to consider some easy strategic action plans, then Triage Business Planning teleconference may support you in those efforts.

Websites today are the richest prospecting vein for B2B sales leads generation according to a report released by Demandbase and Focus. This research also suggests that corporate websites are seven times more effective than social media in B2B sales leads generation.

Credit: www.flickr.com

One of the key issues facing executives in using websites for B2B is a lack of understanding how to optimize the website as well as analyze the visitor’s behavior on the site.  The old adage built it and they will come failed to address what happens when they do come.

Social media is still a baby when it comes to B2B sales leads generation. And with many social media marketing activities, visitors, friends, followers, whatever you call them are directed back to the primary website. The website is still part of the selling cycle and why it is so critical to meet the wants and needs of the visitor to potential customer.

For businesses engaged in education based marketing or what some now call content marketing, websites allow potential customers to conduct their own research without the assistance of a salesperson. Again, the challenge is what performance indicators to measure such as quality of sales leads to unique visitors to page views to ultimately increase sales.

What I have observed is that many websites are not even to be found on the world wide web even though businesses have paid big bucks for search engine optimization.  Blogs have helped some websites gain more traffic and yet the challenge of actual engagement otherwise known as sales leads generation is still very illusive.

Today’s website is more than just a billboard on the information highway.  Also contrary to many web designers, the website must be search engine friendly and should demonstrate how its existence actually increase sales.  This means a quick download, no flashy dance programing.  Finally, remember quality content still reigns as King and how you handle those inbound B2B sales leads (customer service) will keep you from checkmate where you lose your Queen (think increase sales).

P.S. My business column for the Post-Tribune today discusses prospecting from another viewpoint.