It doesn’t work like that.
There certainly are many agencies who sell themselves as inbound or content marketing specialists. And there are just as many brands who say they use Inbound Marketing as part of their promotional mix. Some unscrupulous agencies sell this as the modern web solution and imply that it’s all you need to do to succeed online.
It isn’t.
Inbound marketing Has to be balanced with outbound marketing.
We were listening to Jay Baer on a podcast with Copyblogger and in it he says
“You don’t create demand with inbound marketing, you fulfil demand.”
You are capping your upside
You are reaching out to people who will take the step to find you.
For these people inbound marketing is great, it works.
What about other customers?
But what about all the ones who haven’t yet realised they might need you? For them you need outbound demand generation activity.
Classically this is ‘campaigns’ – executed in many ways, online and offline. Ways to bring your brand to the attention of prospective customers in different marketplaces and with a range of communications.
But there’s more to modern marketing than this. Baer comes back in again with a new catchphrase “YouTility” – this is where you keep your brand front-of-mind in the intervening period between gaining awareness and the point at which the client is ready to purchase.
Blogs and other inbound marketing tools are good at maintaining youtility. And coincidentally these are also good tools for inbound marketing.
See the connection?
Related articles
- Inbound Marketing Attracts Millions from Google, Salesforce and Sequoia (seomoz.org)
- The Ins and Outs of Inbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC] (contently.com)
easy. Today we showcase a client and their challenges and a book and a blog post. Together they give you the one principle you need to write a B2B online brand strategy.
How to get customer community integrated into your marketing
Three things we read and discussed coincided this week:
- Planning with the Silver Fern Farms marketing team
- Reading The B2B Social Media Book
- Commenting on Confused of Calcutta’s blog post – Musings about communities and prices
Start with the blog post - there are three main points: Everyone in the community is a customer; Communities expect a range of prices for each product or service; A connected community converges to act as a single, composite customer.
Take the range of prices – some customers are happy to read free offerings; others will contribute to comments or test purchase items while others are avid fans. The Silver Fern Farms team were discussing how to organise messaging across different geographical marketplaces – not all their range is sold in each country. [They sell lamb and venison in supermarkets.]
Treating all the customers and prospects as a single, composite customer enables us to deliver into separate marketplaces with variable messaging. Yes, we do not use the same message to each group. BUT we know the customer is smart and can read. Being clear about what products are available in which supermarkets matters. It builds awareness of the wider product range and helps customers appreciate the global nature of the Silver Fern Farms business.
Is B2B any different for online?
Slant these ideas into the business to business B2B world. This is where I find clients have the greatest problems “coping” with a singular community. And ironically, this is where the greatest opportunities exist for B2B.
Read this quote from the Book
Most B2B companies live with fear. The fear of giving away too much information, saying something wrong, giving competitors an advantage.
But I know B2B companies have another fear. Integrated messaging.
This is perceived as hard to do. Mainly because of the territoriality of the agencies and staff who service the brand.
Each market, each customer, each group of buyers fits into a hierarchy of customer-types. From the inquirer who wants to read for free but not participate up through to the possible purchaser. Your brand needs to set up its marketing to allow and
enable each customer type to engage at the participation level the customer chooses.
I wrote that in bold because this principle is the key to your strategic marketing plan.
How does engagement work in practice?
Set up a range of marketing activities that allow any customer from the vast pool of possibles to enable customers to get what they need.
Think of it as a staircase, each step has an increasing level of engagement and possibly a higher price.
When planning your online messaging think of your brand’s online presence as if it were a niche magazine. You should aim to be the best ‘trade journal’ magazine you possibly can be. Dominate your niche and the customer will figure out which of your offerings (from free to paid) she wants and where/how to acquire for herself.
What is Byliner?
Byliner is a new digital publishing company who are opening up the doors of opportunity in all directions for published authors, wanna-be writers and fans of short original fiction and non-fiction.
Written to be read in a single sitting, these ‘short stories’ range from between 5,000 and 30,00 words and are sold as Kindle Singles at Amazon, Quick Reads at Apple’s iBookstore, and NOOK Snaps at BN.com.
Byliner for Readers
Byliner.com consists of archives of the best, short fiction and non-fiction from some of the world’s most accomplished writers working today. From Margret Atwood to F. Scott Fitzgerald it’s all there for fans of any style of writing. The writer’s works have been organised into a simple system which allows readers to easily find and share both new and classic stories by their favourite authors. The works are categorised into Arts, Science, Politics, Business, Travel, Crime and Sports. And for all those who don’t know what they are looking for there is a ‘just added’, ‘popular’ and ‘current’ suggestions list on shuffle down the side of the page.
We first came across it because Paul Carr is using Byliner for his latest read “Sober is my new Drunk”
Byliner for Writers
But not only does Byliner compile all these classic works by your favourite authors, they have also introduced Byliner Originals. Byliner Originals are commissioned original works of nonfiction and fiction from established and unknown authors. The folk at Byliner also love discovering new talent and the website includes a Writer Submissions page which details how writers can submit their original work they would like published.
Byliner also offers advice for authors on what they can do to use the Byliner.com directory to engage their fans and promote their work.
What I thought of Byliner
Byliner offers an exciting new kind of service which allows authors of this niche style of literature to make their work available to fans in a way that has never before been possible and fans now have an online directory of their favourite short works of nonfiction and fiction at their fingertips for any “I’ll have a quick read” situation.
And we think there will be creative agencies and authors who want to use this “in-between” style of writing which is a very long article or a very shot book. It would have suited ebooks we’ve read recently like
- List Building for bloggers by Phil Hollows
- The Metz Way by Adam Metz
- Paid, Owned, Earned by Nick Burcher
Become a fan of Byliner on Facebook or follow them on Twitter
Here’s some ideas of ways to get over this barrier by appealing to your existing customerbase. They know you, they know your brand and they also know their local area:
1. The English Cut – bespoke Savile Row suits – adding a ready to wear range
English Cut Savile Row suits
I have been on Tom Mahon’s email list for years – not because I buy from him (he only clothes men) but because of his promotional methods using social media and email marketing. In the message I got today he links to a video in which he asks his readers for two things: Recommendations of stores local to their home who might stock his ready to wear range and secondly, introductions to Tailors who might want to make the suits.
The one mistake he made was not specifying ONE SINGLE PLACE for the replies – it came from a noreply email address and the video is both on his site and youtube – so he’ll have to collate answers from a range of sources. I would have chosen to set up an unique email address for replies and mentioned it in the video – printed it on screen.
2. Global Culture wants to expand its retail stockists
The other is an iconic kiwi t-shirt brand who is keen to get new outlets in three cities in New Zealand. Using a trade magazine, we helped them write a short article about the company and its recent growth which included the appeal for new locations.
Global Culture has its target audience in towns where there is a mix of both tourist visitors and locals and so is well-represented in New Zealand towns like Queenstown and Christchurch. It is trying to get introductions to retailers in Gisborne, Napier, Wellington, Tauranga and around the Hawkes Bay region who might be willing to stock their range.
Idealog is the business magazine and website that features innovative businesses and new products or services and so getting the article about Global Culture published there and also included in their daily email news roundup to a recipient list of 5,000 business people was a good start to opening dialogues.
Any of you know of businesses who’ve succeeded in getting expansion plans promoted by customers?
We caught up with Nick Grant the CEO of Killer Infographics – a busy man running a fantastically fast-growing startup.
How did the business start off?
Mid 2010 my business partner, Amy, and I were using inforgraphics as part of our content strategy as part of our startup zippycart.com it was a unique niche at the time as not many people were doing infographics then.
I was tasked with doing the marketing of the infographics – I was frustrated that when I submitted them to sites they weren’t responsive or asking for money or not post correctly and give us credit and link back to us.
Through that frustration we thought we should create a gallery and use it for our own and showcase others and use as a critique about what they could improve upon. What happened was those critiques led to people asking of us to design the infographics!
What was interesting was that we thought this was a small side project while bootstrapping our other venture.
So how much did the business grow?
We did 8-10 in month 1 Q4 2010 and we hit 100 per month in Jan 2012. So that is pretty significant.
Of course, nothing happens overnight. This growth took a year but every couple of months we’d hone our process and fix quirks so we could scale up a bit.
We are now at stable capacity… we are doing far more than any one company out there in the infographic space.
How would you advise a biz dev person whether infographics would help them
A focused infographic that is based on your niche and is hosted on your blog may be useful. Thinking about new business in the traditional way – just adding in an infographic ….. you may not get instant measurable results.
But some ideas for biz dev people
- The ‘guest infographic‘ guest blogging is very popular and widely used by sites….it gets face time with a product who may not know about the product or service. Do the same – approach a site that has your prospects on it – talk to them and work with them to partner and ‘can we sponsor an inforgraphic for your site’. Linking back to your site. We did it for geek wire.com a popular Seattle local geek event site…. the image was called “Seattle geek versus Silicon valley geek”….
- Use the infographic in unusual places – Geek Wire used it on the back of the agenda for the summit they had (conference) and everyone saw it with our branding right there. That really gave good response, networking and i’m getting emails and meetings just from that one.
- Trade shows where I can see an info graphic as a great take away. e.g. a company that’s new and doing trade shows to showcase their unique value proposition – you only have small interactions for people at your booth. So having a nice printed infographic showcasing the overview of your products that they can take away and read later… and not have a 20 page pdf that is over-complex and won’t get read or get lost.
- We have thought of doing it as a business card – statistics about the industry for example.
- We have also done them for companies needing to get angel or VC funding – this is catching on in west coast – give as a take away… at a pitch it’s hard to keep someone engaged and listening all the time. Present your stuff and give a cool pretty sexy infographic that showcases everything about the business; the passion of the founders, where the product is at and the type of funding that they need to take it to the next level. An Infographic is very similar to a VC pitch – what the problem is; how you’re going to attack it, what your secret sauce is….why your product is the next best thing.We had a client that is a news blog competing with Reuters – they try to find these “20 something” media planners and ensure their website is on their radar… and that their audience is differentiated so they can be part of these ad buys… they are not the best known player in the space. They are going to use as a print mailer and use to cold call … “I’m following up on the info graphic I sent you….” Which I think is a really good biz dev application for an infographic.
How to brief in an infographic
Work out the concept or topic – Think about it like a college essay. State the problem or overview – what the reader will learn by getting into this, then lead into the main bits of information and close with the take-away
ideally you want them to learn one thing that they will share, learn or resonate enough to want to share it.
Make sure there’s a hook in the title and also in the content [niche based on survey/ results / cutting edge - new and fresh - something that hasn't had an infographic created about it before.]
What’s your process?
Up front we need to know
- The aesthetic reference. What the site looks like and what type of content the site would be receptive to. e.g. Australia and UK have a different aesthetic that they like which is different from US/Cananda.
- Understanding if there is any print application or is it web based only,
- Learning if there’s any limitations any restrictions and size – depends on where it’s going to live e.g. the guest post site may be narrow or they may want Landscape not portrait.
- For high profile sites – do you need to consider their brand guidelines or color palette or fonts. Deliver a piece they will like and want to use. If you miss the mark they may not use it.
- The design process – chime in at the wireframe stage – ensure that everyone is on the same page. Do the wireframe first (common). Data and direction and research locked down and the aesthetic direction. Do it timely and get back to brief fast
So what are you waiting for? Go find yourself a topic and get an infographic about your client’s business.
Take a look at my Pinterest board “Creative Agency Infographics” for some ideas.
Talent.me
A Facebook app that sets out to connect you to business partners.
I joined, it connected me to all my contacts (I know them already) and then set about asking me to endorse people…
It suggested I endorse someone – Alan Moore. So I clicked and because he hasn’t listed any ‘talent’s I can’t endorse him…. well that isn’t great – what If I want to endorse you about a talent (friendliness, humour) that you haven’t listed?
I tried again, Chris Lenton, It even suggested a sentence I could use (doesn’t that negate the value of the endorsement if it isn’t my own words?).
MeetingAngels.com
Try this one – an opportunity to get meetings or set up meetings as an intermediary with targets. I want to meet people working at the commercial ports of Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch here in New Zealand. So I listed that …. now every working day I get an identical email from Omri Horowitz. Adding no value, explaining nothing and definitely putting me off the site. Here’s what he says
Daily email from Meeting Angels
Is ‘social business’ really happening?
Haydn Shaughnessy writes in Forbes that he fears Social Business will fail. But that’s because it isn’t replacing capitalist enterprise, it’s trying to become something different. He sets out a case of a wider definition than just connecting with other members of staff.
Social business on this limited definition is an adaptation of your Intranet. It might be a great, big, wonderful Intranet, but it serves the same objectives and it will look and function like an Intranet.
That will not create new business opportunities, nor allow a company to transform itself without leadership forging a movement for change that impinges on employees, customers, and partners, bringing additional value to them all. That, on the other hand, is a social business.
Doing ‘good’ and enabling connections are, in my opinion subsdiary to the profit motive and will remain so for a long time. Rawn Shah defines social business as
“how to use the power of network relationships, and online social interactivity to empower the processes of any business”
Writing in the comments of Haydn’s article, I added
I fear for the ‘bandwagon’ effect on the combined words ‘social’ and ‘business’.
This week I’ve been exposed to two new apps: Talent.me and Meetingangels.com
Both purport to be ‘social business apps’ and both are failing to deliver. The first seems to link to my network but not offer any subsequent steps, the latter just sends me spammy emails confirming that I’ve asked for an introduction to an organisation.
I’ve also spoken to another organisation, conenza.com who use alumni networks to leverage new business development. This seems better-conceived and I’m investigating further.
I like the idea of social business on a B2B level, it is not yet even at the starting blocks of delivering value.
Wouldn’t you love to be able to use networks of networks to get the connections you need to drive new business for your firm? Have you tried out these apps? Do they work for you? Please send us your examples.
Related articles
- Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up? (darmano.typepad.com)
- Musing about shared value (confusedofcalcutta.com)
- 2012 the year of social business and shared value (delphineremyboutang.wordpress.com)
Creative Agency Secrets was asked to prove its salt by giving some free consulting to a new organisation, DirtyMan.co.nz Perversely, it is all about keeping men clean!
Avoiding costly product launches
The team is a start-up and was looking to gain profile without too much hard cost. Our suggestions included:
- Painting up an old caravan to take to events
- Asking supermarkets about promotions based not in-store ($$$) but in the car park
- Setting up google alerts for three phrases aligned to the 3 personae of their ‘ideal customer’ profiles
- Set up a press or media page on the website to host high resolution pack images, past coverage and background information
- Print A5 leaflets on light card single sided and then use the back for several different purposes: a Postcard; letterbox maildrops; product information – just overprint in black when you need them
Prioritising your time and money
We time showing DirtyMan how to prioritise their decisions with regard to which promotions to spend money on and how to pick the ones that would give the best return. They were considering a radio show sponsorship, leaflet drops to households and joint promotions with other non-competing brands.
For a startup, we think the best promotions are those that
- Bring a customer face to face with the brand
- Drive awareness to a new audience based on someone else’s data list
We recommended assessing any joint promotion based on the size and quality of the database of the other company. And so a sports team sponsorship that has a supporting newsletter (especially an electronic one) and a Facebook fan group is probably worth more than a radio show with no mailing list.
What were the outcomes?
Here’s what Tracey Orange, the owner had to say after the briefing with Creative Agency Secrets:
Yes I did find my meeting with Rebecca useful, we have been busy talking to lots of people over the last week or so and I guess I am taking bits from everyone I speak to, and then formulating our plan from here.
After meeting Rebecca we are going to use some of her suggestions, one was to get out and meet our customers face to face and we now are looking for a cheap promo vehicle brand up and use for onsite promos and events, (if you know of any old land rovers for sale please let Mike know), she also gave me some good things to be talking to organisations we want to align with and not to be just giving stuff away but to leverage product for contacts database names and she also suggested getting hooked up with a clothing brand or similar and then the next day we spoke to someone who is going to see about hooking us up with a menswear clothing brand so fingers crossed.
Would you like access to our ideas? Think about how to apply these to your own brand.
Get in touch and ask for a FREE 20 minute chat on the phone or Skype.
Here are our top 5 tips
- Write a blog
- When you write this blog make the title H1 header something people will search for in google in future. This makes it really good SEO for your brand. ”Seeking new sports equipment for our retail enterprise” or “Looking for document management software applications” or “Researching new web design agencies”
- When you physically visit or arrive at the event. Find the hashtag#, tweet that you arrived and are free to meet anyone. Check in on other social apps if you use them.
- While browsing the trade show and you are there in front of each stand, take 2 minutes to tweet that you’re with XYZ co looking at their product ABC at the #showhashtag.
- Ask folks on the trade stands what their twitter id is so you can personally follow and mention them as well.
in advance to say that you’re going and what you’re looking for e.g. researching new suppliers or getting price quotes to buy new equipment
In this way you’ll get traction from anyone else at the show who sees you using the show hashtag, the brands themselves wil pick up on your mention, and probably the show organizers too. Many will RT your work and show off your twitter ID in association with their own. And hopefully your advance mention will bring in some messages from businesses who want to trade with you or supply to you or use your company to supply them as well.
Go forth and conquer trade show twitter promotion.
Check out our other blog posts about Profile Raising for new business development.
Doug Ray's "Social Media Explained" infographic
Update 09/02/12: Here’s the blog post behind the meme ThreeShipsMedia did it for an inside joke, Doug snapped an instagram picture of it, it went viral – they didn’t plan any of it…. sometimes good fortune favours the brave. Well done to the whole team.
A Comment Aside
Why ThreeShipsMedia doesn’t allow comments on their blog is beyond me. I’d see this wonderful viral incident as a perfect customer acquisition tool for their own business. Since they apparently specialise in customer acquisition, are they missing a trick on their own watch?
What a great message. Seemed like a good new business tool for a creative agency.
The copy invites readers to download the app from the Itunes store and ‘point your iPhone at this cover”. So I did.
Sad failure
The app instructs you to point your iPhone at the black marker on our business card (or the magazine cover).
What is a ‘marker’?
I think they mean the black frame around their name with the apple picture. A further description says that a globe is supposed to appear and you can point at any one of the offices and see a video about them and get in touch.
I pointed, I waited, I moved my finger across the screen. It went pink for a bit and then back to showing the photo it was pointed at.
What a shame.
Why the campaign doesn’t work
There are several reasons why this is a failed campaign. You need to know where your dollars are being spent and how successfully they are returning enquring prospects to your agency. And this campaign fails on several levels:
- The “lowest common denominator” factor was not considered. I used to call this the “David Baker Test” [ask me why]. What about the prospect who either can’t or won’t take the action you request? How to deal with her.
- Consider the customer who doesn’t own Apple products – can she see your message?
- Alternative browsing methods weren’t offered – iPad, iPod, web page, pdf document. All possible alternatives.
- Android and BlackBerry versions not offered – an insult to those businesses who didn’t choose Apple phones for their staff
- Wait and see….. I downloaded it but is there any follow-up or tracking to see if I also visit their site?
So although it’s a great idea to use the tools of expertise you have to sell to clients in your own creative agency promotion, consider your audience and offer a solution that any person with a web browser can use to get to your company information.
You try it… Apple App Store search for Gravity Global World