Ideas for campaigns in B2B are often focused around written content delivered by electronic media.  Content strategies are now an essential part of planning your B2B new business development.

If your clients or company do not have an explicit content strategy – it’s time to get your pen out and write one.

Content is a perfect way to engage prospective customers.

If you can demonstrate your organisation’s knowledge and expertise through what you write about, comment on and send out, then you will find it easy to filter prospects into potential buyers, potential referrers  and shortcut your sales qualification process.

Here is a list of ten ways to improve your content strategy

1. Share information – not just about your own business but topics your readers will want to know.  Can you write an unbiassed appraisal of a group of competiting products?  Do it
2. If you have pages that update regularly (e.g. monthly) then say so on that page – make it easy to find and stick to your schedule so you never miss a month.  You will have noticed my new Brands Seeking Agencies articles.  These publish weekly on a Thursday.
3. Contests and competitions are a great way to get free stuff out there and to build goodwill within your customer base.  Check out this post from my client, Rowperfect - the detail all the new books they are selling and at the end offer a contest for Yoga for Rowers.
4. Free books or e-reports are good to get new readers visiting – lots of search engines pick up on these and add them to aggregation promotion sites.  Stimulus writes iPhone apps and they ran a one week free downloads on their iPhone UK Tax app, “Write Tax Tables”.  They got add-on sales after the promotion ended by pass-on recommendation and viral WOM.
5. Extend your PR activities to include article writing.  Not just for the print journal, but also for the online edition.  I wrote an article for B2B Marketing magazine a couple of months back.  They just contacted me to say it’ll be in the September edition.  I will use it in my email newsletter and add the link to my email signature for a month after publication, plus print out copies to give to my top clients and prospects that I meet next month.
6. Once a week check through your key prospects and former clients (your database, LinkedIn, FB wherever you have them stored) and make a keep-in-touch email or call to ten people.  Send them something that made you think of them.  [One of Royal Mail's most powerful campaigns was "I saw this and thought of you..."]
7. “The best bloggers are avid blog readers” says ReadWriteWeb so what are you doing to read content elsewhere that will reflect well in your own content?
8. Search for disaffected customers who are unhappy with their current provider.  Use tools like Tweepsearch, Twitter search or Google alerts.  Chris Brogan blogged that he’d bought a car from a virtual supplier after complaining about a bricks and mortar dealership.  Grumpy customers are waiting to be converted to your products – strike up a conversation.
9. Subscribe to business databases with search so you can find people you don’t already know.  Try LinkedIn, Jigsaw search, ZoomInfo and use them to expand your network into top prospect companies
10. Content tools that help you create original output: Tokbox for personal video messaging, demos and conferencing; Jing for screen grabs, recording video and editing; Kineticast for creating presentations stored online; Zentact allows you to tag keywords onto contacts which display when you are browsing content so you can send links to the contact with that keyword.

Bonus material

Check out the recently published book From Eric Butow and Rebecca Bollwitt, is Blogging to Drive Business: Create and Maintain Valuable Customer Connections which is an overview of the tips and techniques needed to excel at business blogging [affiliate link].

Eloqua’s The_Content_Grid is a nice one page summary of types of content on the axes of centralised/decentralised and awareness/consideration.  May be a useful checklist.

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I found the wonderful document for the Tiffany pitch that we wrote about last month on Scribd.

So I joined up to the service and over the past few weeks 15 people have subscribed to my feed.  I am curious about the service and who uses it.

All these people are known to me and clearly they get alerted to the fact that I’ve subscribed.  Few of them have uploaded any documents and sharing documents seems to be the purpose of the service.

So what do they get out of Scribd?

What are the business development applications of the service?

Answers please

My Scribd subscribers

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So what gave you the idea for the book?

The idea began with a video I did for the Institute of Chartered Accountants called “The 12 Golden Rules of Online Reputation Management”. I realised everyone was beginning to have to come to terms with the fact that their online reputation might affect them. It also seemed like a good way to introduce some of the amazing and easy-to-use tools and services on the web to a wider audience.

What was the tipping point for your realisation that online reputation management was going to be important in the future?

It was when I noticed I was ever more frequently giving the kind of PR advice I was used to giving to clients. Even with very experienced digital professionals, I would find myself saying things like “You’re never off the record online,” and “You should think about being the best, first source of information about yourself on Google”.

What is the number one reason for reading the book?

To get a clear idea of how you can manage your personal presence on the web and what it says about you. It is an “everyperson” guide to looking after your reputation on the web, but it has also been very useful for experienced internet users who haven’t necessarily thought about their own web shadow in a methodical way.

What questions does the book answer?

Me and My Web Shadow answers three big questions in three sections:

1. Why is the web changing the way reputation works?
2. How do we go about living with the web and managing our reputations?
3. How do we practically go about managing our online presence and personal reputation?

You have a full time job – how do you find the time to write a book?

Most of the work was done at weekends and in evenings, although towards the end I took a couple of weeks of holiday to finish it. It was only possible because I had a publisher’s deadline looming, otherwise it would have been really hard to do it like that.

If I read the book, will I have the tools to manage my own reputation online?

You should have a good understanding of why and how to manage your reputation on the web. We shouldn’t confuse “manage” with “control” however. No one, from the biggest brands to private individuals is able to control what is said about them on the web. But they can learn how to influence it, have a say in what the web says about them, if you like.

How can I find out what my online reputation is?

The simplest way is to log out of your search engines and social networks and research yourself as if you were an employer or business associate. Look in all the places you would expect to find information about you, ask what it says about you.

Buy a copy of Me and My Web Shadow

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Seems interesting as it details how young people are challenging business models and the status quo.

One of the companies featured is GMX a transatlantic shipper with a compelling new client challenge offer that your product arrives 24 hours quicker than others and cut carbon emissions by up to 30% plus around 20% cheaper.  Further, they’ll not invoice you for the first month if you are in any way dissatisfied by their service.

Now I find that to be a very compelling offer.

• It sets up expectations
• Makes it easier to try switching (which is a manpower consuming management decision)
• And offers a risk-free financial incentive

I introduced the service to a client and sent off an enquiry email on their behalf.

The service failed in two ways

1. The email address to contact for the new client offer was on the website - but it opened a captcha box to “reveal” the address.  Which I did.  This is a bad busines process using embedding because it creates extra clicks for customer contact which aren’t needed as the address was linked on the page.
2. The email bounced.

I regretfully contacted their web help address email forwarding them the error and the original enquiry.

Wonder how many enquiries are being lost in this way?  For how long?

And for a company profiled in a book about new upstarts, this seems a sad moment.

LATE UPDATE

Got a quick reply from Justin the CEO… All well it was just a glitch.

Rebecca,

We are actually in the process of re-designing our web-site as we speak. Our domain name has changed from fgxusa.com to fgx.com. I will have our designer change that right away, thank you for notifying us.

We’re interested in hearing more about your NYC to LHR shipping. What is it that you shipping? what are the average, volumes and weights?

Chevon will follow up directly with you.

Best,

Justin

Justin Brown

CEO

First Global Xpress

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I retweeted a nice Nike video about the world cup last week.  thanks @neville for sending it over to me.

This morning I got a great mail into my in-box from Paddy Power the bookies.  They are following up on links to world cup events (presumably via Google Alerts or similar) and punting out their service in a really easy-to-use way.  A widget, the opportunity for a custom-written article and a news feed (presumably carrying their branding and advertising).

I’ve reproduced their email below.

If you are running an event and can afford the time and manpower to do this form of follow up the keys are

• Make it easy to use (even the non-technical can install a widget)
• Give a clear exchange of value
• Grow your audience by getting publicity off others’ audiences
• Automate the recruitment email process and follow up if possible

If anyone takes up the offer and wants to let us know how it went for their brand and website, please write a guest post.

Thanks

Hi,

We note on creativeagencysecrets.com you are linking to http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/. The exact url is listed below. Paddy Power have some free resources which we hope you may be interested in on the build up to the world cup. They are free to use and can considerably enhance the value of content to your audience if they are interested in the World Cup over the next two months.

Get live World Cup news and odds embedded directly into your website in 10 minutes flat

We keep up to the minute odds on all of the world cup games and will be writing and creating news every day on the build and during the World Cup. To make it even easier for you to use this completely royalty free on your site, we have created a widget which – with just a few click, you can adapt to the look and feel of your site. make it look the way you want on our screen, then cut and paste the code onto your web page.

To see just how easy it is and to generate tailored news for your site, go to http://widgets.paddypower.com/world-cup/ now and you can enjoy this content of your site within minutes.

Have football professional journalists working for you for free

Paddy Power has engaged the services of The Independent’s Nick Parkhouse to write professional news articles on the World Cup on the run up to the World Cup. Would you like us to write a professional article especially for your audience? Simply reply to us requesting that Nick writes an article for you, which you will have every chance to vet before publication. Such expertise comes at no cost to you. All we require is that we can get appropriate attribution links at the end of the article. Nick may not have time to write for everyone, so please get your request in early.

Within minutes you could have secured live content or a professional journalist for creativeagencysecrets.com – for free. Please let us know as soon as possible if you take up either of these propositions.

Carole Paul
Paddy Power

URL with link – http://creativeagencysecrets.com

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Thank you for asking me to comment on how I could help your company improve its business development, incoming leads pipeline and sales pipeline.

The following comments apply not just to you, but to a large nubmer of corporates whose websites have never been updated since launch.  Please don’t take it personally.

Website – this was a perfectly acceptable website for three or five years ago. Static, full of information, but never-changing and not seeking to engage in discussion with a visitor.

Although much of the content can be re-used, the marketing plan needs to be redesigned around moving the whole marketing communications from monologue to dialogue. Your current website talks AT the customer.  The new marketing mode is all about having a chat, a conversation and through that demonstrating your product, your expertise and your solution for their problem.

This theme of moving from monologue to dialogue runs through all the suggestions I would make for you.

So a short list of things to consider:

• Newsletter
• Blog
• Customer reviews
• Surveys / polls
• Forum
• Linked In page
• Podcast interviews
• Participation in groups relevant to your industry sectors – Ning, LinkedIn
• Participation in writing answers to questions relevant to your subject matter expertise – Linked In Answers, Yahoo Answers, Wikio

Take a look at this client website [insert here]. I spent some time working with them on their social media marketing and generating incoming leads for the sales team.

It is a simple site, but there are up to date news and events information, reviews, links to articles in other magazines. It could be improved – but there’s new content, dated and visible.  That helps with Google rankings, search engine optimisation for natural search and creating the impression that there are real people working at your company.

All of which, together, help to make your company visible on other peoples websites, indexed regularly by Google (makes your SEO findable) and participating or leading conversations that are pertinent to your niche area of expertise. You ‘hang out’ in places online where conversations start and where you can speak to show off your knowledge and product range.

B2B marketing hasn’t changed. It is still about being known, demonstrating expertise and connecting with the right people. What has changed is the way in which this is done online and how that integrates with your offline sales and marketing work.

I hope I haven’t frightened you off irretrievably, but please let’s talk.  But if we don’t, you can be sure I’ll be spending my time with an organisation that is so frightened of losing its market that it is prepared for a radical marketing and sales overhaul.

Lots of love

Becky

P.S. I meant it when I said not to take it personally.  You aren’t alone.  You arent’ even late to this party.  I suspect you aren’t even in the last 50% of organisations to make this change.  There is still time to be a winner.

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Tom Ball is a good friend of CAS and we’ve just had his latest update about his vision of a “mobile boardroom” on a bus.

After two years hard work my bus was on BBC1 last week!
I got frustrated at how much time gets wasted sat travelling – so had the idea of a bus where eight people could enjoy working whilst travelling – leaving more time for having fun.  At the front is a solid walnut bar with a fireplace in the middle and flock wallpaper all round.  Obviously.  I’ve called it “All A Boardroom” – a bar and a boardroom on a bus.

I am having a launch competition to have it as your travelling boardroom for the day – just add your email on the home page. I would love as many entries as possible – from you, from companies/charities you know, from anyone who travels around the UK a lot or organises events, or from anyone who lives/works in Manchester – trains cost a fortune.

You can see pictures, a quick video tour, the BBC clip supporting Sport Relief and the competition at www.allaboardroom.com (New website – any/all feedback gratefully received!)

This could be a great marketing promotion for your business – visit your clients en masse!
Anyone who is a business blogger, there’re a limited number of press passes available.  Get in touch if you’d like to visit.

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The Football World Cup will be the first big test of mass mobile marketing for brands.  Going mobile is a hot topic of conversation within marketing circles.  But it takes a big event for a lot of large brands to start using the medium and to inspire others to jump in and try it out.

Last month, a conference about mobile marketing for Football – including the World Cup – was hosted by Camerjam.

They have kindly published the keynote speaker, Tomi Ahonen‘s speech and slide deck online as well as several other presentations.

Learn what others have done with mobile marketing, how brands can use mobile to reach out to sports fans and where the biggest opportunities for mobile marketing campaigns to connect to consumers.

Here are four great free resources for you to read.

• Case study of Turkcell and GarantiBank football sponsorship
• Tomi Ahonen keynote on mobile marketing for sports around the world [a long slideshow but worth it]
• Jonathan MacDonald who presents the rationale for mobile marketing charmingly [send a copy to your boss]
• O2 Litmus model for co-creation [Litmus only works in the UK]

Related articles

• M-Football (qootia.com)
• The Year of the Mobile? 4imprint’s Latest Blue Paper and Podcast Explores Mobile Marketing (eon.businesswire.com)

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• more people use email marketing – with success
• budgets are rising from 14 to 17% of total spend
• ROI is poorly understood and not measured in 39% of cases

Encouragingly, for agencies, this report tells us key areas where clients may be able to be migrated into new services they haven’t previously bought from you.  The main areas where change is occurring is:

• using email to promote social media sharing
• improved database creation and cleaning to raise opt in levels for both acquisition and retention campaigns
• increased use of measurement and analytics
• increased personalisation
• only 58% of companies do regular list cleaning
• Only a minority of companies send out triggered emails and most of these are following website sign up or visit
• 9% of companies send out abandoned basket emails
• multivariate testing is planned to be introduced by 26% of repondents

So plenty of new services for you to offer to your current clients.

Here’s what we recommend you do with this information: Farm the client list of current clients using this information.   Here’s how.

Quick actions

1. Run a check list against the services / tools above and find which of your clients currently buy them from you
2. Analyse the gaps and speak to client service teams about how to sell these services into client brands (if appropriate)
3. Plan a quick campaign using the report as a lever to suggest new services to clients.
4. Consider a special price offer for new services to encourage buying for a limited time.

This is a ‘for sale’ report from eConsultancy.  If you want to get a free copy, sign up or get a client to sign up to participate in the survey next year.  All survey participants get a free copy of the results.

Related articles

• Companies Spend More on Email Than PPC; 39% Have No Clue of ROI (thecustomercollective.com)
• Find your best email marketing campaign (murrion.ie)
• Tips For Solving Your Email Marketing Problems (adamzaius.net)
• How to get the attention of inactive subscribers (b2bemailmarketing.com)

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Building closed spaces where you can pay a bit to get  into the ‘inner circle’ and learn new stuff early on thus taking advantage ahead of the crowd.

There is a nice logic to this.  We’ve done it, let us show you how.

The Third Tribe Story

I got an email last week inviting me (and you) to join a new private online space  Third Tribe Marketing. I know where they got my name, I’m signed up to ProBlogger, Copyblogger, Chris Brogan and Lateral Action.  All high volume readership sites that talk about online marketing.

Getting them together to co-launch a members-only site for super-cool-new-stuff is a very neat idea.  The copy on the site is in a frame so I can’t send you separate URLs but the Story, the People and what’s Inside are very well-written pages with compelling reasons why you should spend $27 a month to join the inner crowd.

Join it if you want – or just read the copy and see what a lovely warm feeling it gives you when you see such a great proposition combining and re-working content from a range of great sites into one place.

Congratulations, guys.  It looks like a super money-maker and I hope it works well.

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