A Guide to Marketing Genius:  Content Marketing 

Powered by Demand Metric

This eBook is designed for B2B content marketers who want to use curation as part of their strategy. We will try to be practical, helping you make the best strategic and operational choices.

The post Content Marketing Infographic [Infograph] appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

One company we recently talked with paid a freelancer, overseas, to write a bunch of blog posts and share them. The results were that web traffic went up, but their conversion rate went down. A cursory review, showed a shotgun approach to content and no changes to their conversion practices – in other words, no strategy or niche focus.

Some Key Takeaways:

• 68% of CMOs will increase their budget for content marketing in 2013 [CMO Council].
• 87% of marketers listed social media as their favorite content marketing tool; followed by website articles (83%) and eNewsletters (78%) [CMI].

Others I would Add:

• Content curation marketing is growing and becoming more recognized
• Use Twitter and LinkedIn to increase your web traffic and lead quality
• Strategy and consistency are keys to success

The post The State of B2B Content Marketing [Infograph] appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

From a B2B standpoint, content marketing often concerns itself with generating leads that are sales ready or sales qualified. These leads are then handed off to a sales representative. From a business perspective, content marketing efforts are for naught if trust and credibility is not re-established by the sales representative.

An overly enthusiastic sales representative is one way to quickly diminish the trust.

In the world of B2B sales, we often talk about processes involving the buyer. We talk about the best way to prospect, the sales funnel, forecasting, closing, etc. We talk about Miller Heiman and Sandler, solution selling, spin selling, and many other refined methods, regardless of which ones we choose to employ. Ostensibly, those things are important in terms of our ability to close deals and manage the sales process. Less frequently, however, do we talk about the interpersonal and psychological aspects that go into a sale, especially in the B2B environment. This is why many executives (as well as managers and employees) assume the “sales guy” personality always embodies the girl or guy bubbling over with enthusiasm, who loves to be the center of attention.

I’d be incorrect in somehow suggesting a majority of people who fit the stereotypes above are not successful. Many times, these people are very successful. In the world of B2B sales, however, many of these folks would also be well-served to ask themselves if their enthusiasm is hurting their efforts, especially when engaging with high-level executives.

For the rest of this article, I will operate under some stereotypical truths surrounding the decision makers in B2B deals, and their views of sales consultants. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule (for example, if the salesperson is connected to a prospect through a referral). But nonetheless…

B2B Decision-Maker Stereotypical Views of Salesperson:

• Until you prove to me otherwise, I am inherently distrustful of what you are telling me about your product or company.
• I find your excitement about your product or company to be extremely disingenuous.
• I tend to believe all salespeople sound the same, and in many ways obnoxiously so; they bother me.
• I don’t have time for your shenanigans and/or dog and pony show, and I wish you would just get to the point.

In terms of the salesperson’s role (i.e. not brand or product’s) in winning a B2B sale, I would contend there are two main things he must focus on solely in relationship to his own persona: being trusted and being different. If I’ve established myself as trustworthy AND memorable, I’m well on my way to closing a deal. Note that I didn’t use the word likeable. Most of the time, likability is a natural result. But a B2B prospect is likely to buy from me because I know what I’m talking about and he trusts me to solve his problem – not because I am the life of the party or a really fun person to be around.

So let’s revisit those B2B buyer stereotypes and the effect your enthusiasm and excitement can have on building trust and being memorable:

Until you to prove to me otherwise, I am inherently distrustful of what you are telling me about your product or company.

If a salesperson is overly enthusiastic about his company’s product or solution, as a buyer, I have to ask myself why. Does accounting software really get his motor going? I would tend to doubt it. So if he is really into what an AMAZING job it can do for me or how Company X is the BEST company out there, I already doubt whether or not I can trust him. In fact, I’m inclined to believe he would say that regardless of whom he was working for at the time.

I find your excitement about your product or company to be extremely disingenuous.

See above.

I tend to believe all salespeople sound the same, and in many ways obnoxiously so; they bother me.

Obviously, this comes into play with regards to being memorable, and the pre-defined stereotype of what many people believe a salesperson should be. If the overwhelming majority of salespeople act the same way and possess the same personality types, it’s a great opportunity to be that much more memorable by not fulfilling those stereotypes.

I don’t have time for your shenanigans and/or dog and pony show, and I wish you would just get to the point.

This can be a double-whammy in terms of building trust and being memorable. If a salesperson is primarily focused on his PowerPoint slides, demo script, or endless list of features and benefits, I find it hard to trust he is concerned about solving my problem more than selling his product. Worse yet, he sounds like the majority of other guys/gals who walk in here and do the same.

So what does this mean when it comes to selling in a real-life B2B environment? After all, you’ve got to be you, right? You can’t script “being memorable” or “being trusted.” Fair enough. And true as well. There is not one specific sales style for success. Each person is going to have his or her own unique delivery and interaction, based on who they are and how he feels comfortable presenting himself. That being said, here are some real-life suggestions to consider as a way to avoid falling into the stereotypes mentioned above.

Ask Questions – Arguably the granddaddy of them all, I presume you are doing this already. Nothing builds trust and shows you care about solving the buyer’s problems more than asking questions. That being said, ask more. Questions like “what are you trying to accomplish?”, “why are you trying to solve it this way?”, “how can I make this conversation/demo the most valuable for you?” Get away from questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no” and incorporate “tell me more about….” And after you get the answers? More questions. All the way through to close, there is not one statement/next step I can’t make into a question or a problem we are solving together, as opposed to a directive. Many salespeople ask questions but stop the conversation well short of truly understanding the situation at hand — and the real issues behind the answers. Remember that people don’t believe what you say; they believe what they say. Ask enough questions in the right order over a period of time, prospects will begin to close themselves.

Calm Down

Again, why are you so excited? Probably because the prospect mentioned a need he is trying to fulfill, your product fills the need perfectly, and you see dollar signs. Relax. Let the person get his statement fully out (see Miller Heiman: Golden Silence), digest it, breath, and then state how you believe you can solve the problem. And when you’re done explaining, ask whether or not he would agree it solves the potential issue (see above). In fact, before even answering, I’d suggest repeating back his concern to make sure you understand correctly (“so what I hear you saying is……is that right?)

Lower Your Voice

If you and a friend were trying to solve the problem of where to meet for dinner at night, would the conversation be animated? Would you instantly “perk up” and change the inflection of your voice as soon as he contacted you? Perhaps on some level. But most likely not in an extended manner. If you want to truly be seen as a trusted consultant, the goal is to break down the “sales” barrier between you and the prospect. Lowering your voice to assume the same conversational tone the prospect is using is a great way to do this.

Sit Back

Similar to lowering your voice, adjusting posture to build a non-threatening environment can go a long way to making the prospect feel comfortable speaking freely and openly talking through his problems. If you are perched up at a table, ready to jump on the next word or words that come out of the prospect’s mouth, it can easily cause him to clam up. When the time’s right, consider sitting back in your chair and taking a professional, but less assuming position.

Mention Some Bad Things

Okay, I use the term “bad” loosely. The point is, you can’t be great at everything. And each company, regardless of size, has things it does well and things it could probably do better. Your prospect knows it. So do you want to guide the conversation on what those things are as a way to build trust? Or lose credibility and let the prospect figure it out for him or herself? Be transparent. Marcus Sheridan writes a great article on what he calls the Law of Disarmament . It works wonders. Do it.

Be Fallible

Consider the politician who has a perfectly scripted response to every question. Does it sound flawless? Yes. Is it believable? Less likely. If you want to establish trust with the prospect you are working with (and share his thoughts on the true issues/barriers/objections), be genuine in your interactions. A lot of prospects are expecting a “yes, we can do that, no problem!” In the case of many B2B companies and product solutions, however, it’s impossible to be crisp and authoritative in response to every inquiry. Pausing and asking for clarification (sometimes repeatedly) goes a long way in establishing yourself as genuine, thoughtful, and trustworthy. Note: I’m not suggesting being unprofessional, unprepared, or inept – only interacting in the way a normal human being would.

In Conclusion

As a sales representative, both you and your company would do well to continue the educational approach started with by content marketing.  Solving problems while being genuine in your interactions (and demeanor) is a great way to keep the ball rolling.

I’d enjoy hearing from you. Feel free to leave your comments below and/or email me at andy@b2bcontentengine.com.

The post Is Your Enthusiasm Killing Your B2B Sale? appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Last week, when we published findings from our study, B2B Small Business Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budget, and Trends — North America (sponsored by Outbrain), reader Andy Detweiler posed a great question in our comments section:

“Any insight on how small B2B companies plan on solving the problems listed? Would be curious to understand what they see as potential solutions versus a larger enterprise.”

Andy’s question inspired us to take a closer look at some of the content marketing challenges faced by North American B2B marketers who work at small businesses (companies with 10 — 99 employees), as compared to their peers at enterprise organizations (companies with more than 1,000 employees). We’ll also share some insights on ways content marketers can address these issues — regardless of the size of the organization they work for. 

1. Engagement

In general, both groups are similarly challenged with producing the kind of content that engages — and it is the top challenge for enterprise companies. In a way, I think it’s encouraging to see this as a top challenge, as it shows that marketers are focusing on the value of quality over quantity. And, there is good reason why engaging content matters: Customers and prospects who engage with content are more likely to reach out or initiate a relationship with your organization.

Ideas: Engaging content means different things to different people, so you’ll need to start out by determining your organization’s definition of “engagement” — and what metric(s) you can use to measure it. For instance, as Joe Pulizzi discussed in his recent post on the building blocks of content marketing strategy, we at CMI know our email subscribers are more likely than our other readers to sign up for our events, so “email subscriptions” is an engagement metric we focus on.

(For more on how to define, produce, and measure engaging content, check out our eBook, “Your Kick-Start Guide to Engaging Content.”)

2. Quantity

While small businesses cite producing enough content as their top challenge, it’s an issue that concerns the majority of content marketers across all business types that we’ve researched.

Idea: One solution is to simply realize that more is not better. This applies to small and large businesses, alike. That said, if you really do need to produce more content, here are three ideas our CMI consultants suggested in a video roundtable on challenges facing B2B marketers:

• Reuse content at the beginning and end of the sales funnel: This suggestion applies to any businesses that have a long sales cycle.
• Curate content: Instead of producing new content, share existing content — created by your organization or by others in your industry.

• Really understand — and be able to articulate — the value of content marketing.
• Do a pilot program and report on key metrics, such as immediate gains (e.g. social followers), soci

6. Variety

While a good portion of both small and enterprise marketers are challenged with producing a variety of content, not many consider this to be their biggest challenge. I personally consider this to be a good sign, as marketers should be focusing more of their efforts on producing content that engages, and on achieving measurable results, than on the formats their content is delivered on.

Ideas: That said, producing original content takes time, so there is no reason not to create efficiencies by repurposing the content you already have. Check out 5 Great Starting Points for a Content Recycling Program and 23 Ways to Leverage a Blog Post for Content Marketing Success to get more specific ideas on how to reimagine your content across a variety of formats.

[ by Michele Linn ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Content Marketing Institute ]

[ Read original: B2B Marketing: 9 Ideas for Solving Your Biggest Content Challenges ]

The post B2B Marketing: 9 Ideas for Solving Your Biggest Content Challenges appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Why Salespeople Don’t Follow Up on Good Leads

45% of leads end up buying

Here’s a statistic that would surprise reps like these — and might surprise some marketers as well: about 45% of business-to-business leads, that is people who’ve inquired about a product or service, will end up buying. (Business-to-consumer leads tend to close at an even higher percentage: typically, 55 to 60%.)

So where’s the disconnect?

Well, let’s go back to our salesperson and see. Out of those first 100 leads, assume that 45 will eventually buy. Not all of them will buy from our salesperson, of course — let’s say her closing ratio is about 33%. So out of those 100 leads, she’ll have 45 sales opportunities, and can expect to close about 15.

But here’s the problem: Reps often underestimate how long it takes for those leads to turn into sales.

Most reps would tell you that if 45 purchases are eventually made, the buying behavior would look something like this. After all, leads become stale, right?

In fact, the behavior looks more like the purple line in the second chart. About four will buy in the first month; about the same the second month, and so on:

It makes sense if you think about it. A buyer could be anywhere in the buying cycle when the rep calls. Some are ready to make a final decision. Others are just beginning to explore their options.  In other words, out of those 45 opportunities, only about 4 will be ripe. The rest are too green to pick.

And unfortunately, a “green” lead can look like a bad lead. These prospects aren’t really focused yet. They don’t want to set up an appointment or talk about next steps. It’s easy to assume they’re not really serious buyers. But they will be — once they ripen.

[ by Dayna Rothman ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Marketo B2B Marketing and Sales Blogs ]

[ Read original: Why Salespeople Don’t Follow Up on Good Leads ]

The post “45% of Leads End up Buying” appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Our experiences are similar to Rajiv Kapoor, as he talks about below…

Change of focus

Once clients of mine get their marketing automation platform in place their entire focus changes. Up to this point, their lives were dominated by focusing on what the new technology is and how can they get it up and running.

Now, let’s say you are the client. You are capable (obviously) and have setup key processes including lifecycle, scoring, marketing activities, and analytics. It is all working, the leads are coming in and moving through the lifecycle and you have visibility.

At the same time you are getting pressure from above to produce more results.

So you turn to me (your friendly Marketo Consultant) and ask what additional functionality does marketing automation offer to help me create more revenue/profit?

This is the exact moment where your approach needs to change!

You need to move past “what the platform can offer you” and start asking yourself “what are the critical variables that drive revenue?”

So what are the variables?

What I like to do at this point is encourage my clients to think of their revenue mathematically.  I usually think of the revenue cycle like a factory line. Raw materials come in (“names”). They are processed (“revenue cycle stages”). And then the product comes out (“revenue”). If you think of it that way there are clear variables that will impact the product being produced.

The key revenue variables are the following:

• Number of names in Engaged status = A
• Number of names added to Engaged status = B
• Quantity of Engagement = C
• Quality of Engagement = D
• Product quality = E

If you want more revenue you will need to significantly increase some combination of these variables.

[ by Rajiv Kapoor ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Marketo Marketing Blog ]

[ Read original: The Mathematics of Revenue Cycle Strategy ]

There has been a lot of talk in the “blogosphere” lately about sales & marketing alignment. A recent Hubspot report even went as far as to try to quantify the value of alignment – $195.84 per customer. While this is an average across many enterprise verticals and I question the accuracy of respondends who gave actual numbers, etc.. — thus I take it with a grain of salt. I suspect there is MUCH more value there, then is quantified in that number. But in event I want to take a moment to plug our new eBook of the same topic… Download our eBook. “That’s Not A Lead.”

The post The Mathematics of Revenue Cycle Strategy appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Content marketing is a great way to smooth the sales process for both the company and customer. When properly executed, content marketing educates prospects early and often, as businesses build trust before the first official contact occurs. This method also allows for extended engagement to take place at the right time. As much as B2B sales and marketing professionals champion this process, however, similar efficiencies often become lost during the sales process itself.

As the B2B world begins to increasingly embrace the likes of marketing automation tools, content curation tools, social media, CRM, and other methods of automating/tracking interaction with its customers, I thought I would take a moment to explore one of the most underutilized tools on the market today: the meeting invite. Of course, the best part about the meeting invite (through Outlook, Google, etc.) is that it’s an inherent part of our daily interactions – and it’s free.

How is the meeting invite underutilized, you say? Seems pretty simple. When I have a meeting scheduled, I send an invite. My prospect accepts, and it’s on our calendars. Right? True enough. But how many salespeople can relate to the following dialogue conducted by email, or started over the phone:

Paul Prospect:   “Hi Sam, I’d like to see a demo of your product.”

Sam Salesman: “Hi Paul, I’d be happy to provide that. What day works for you?”

Paul Prospect:   “I’m open most of next week”

Sam Salesman: “Would Tuesday work?”

Paul Prospect: (4 hours later): “No, Tuesday is no good for me. Thursday is better.”

Sam Salesman: (2 hours later): “Sorry. I’m booked on Thursday, Paul. How about Friday?

Sam Salesman: (24 hours later): “Hi Paul, I’m following up to see if next Friday works for you as a time for our demo.”

Paul Prospect (another 24 hours later): Yes. I can do Friday afternoon.

Sam Salesman: Sounds good. I can do 3pm. Does that work?

Paul Prospect: Yes, that works.

Sam Salesman: I forgot to ask. I meant 3pm my time. So 2pm your time, because you’re on CST, right?

Sam Salesman (another 24 hours later): “Paul, are we set for 3pm EST next Friday, 2 CST?

Paul Prospect: Yes, next Friday at 2CST.

….Fast-forward to next Friday at 2:58 pm EST…

Paul Prospect: “Do we have a call coming up? Are you sending me instructions or a call-in number?”

Sam Salesman: “Yes, I sent you the meeting instructions.”

Paul Prospect: “I don’t have them. Can you send them again?”

Sam Salesman: “Yes. Just resent.”

…3:03EST…

Paul Prospect: “Calling in now.”

…3:05EST…on the phone

Paul Prospect: “Sorry I’m late. I’m just gathering a few more people on my end. I’m also downloading the meeting application. Looks like it’s going to take another 30 minutes based on our dial-up-esque internet speed. Also, is there a way my VP in Georgia can join in?”

Sam Salesman: (forced small talk)

…3:15EST…meeting finally starts

Is this an over-exaggeration? Perhaps. But it proves the point.

In the world of B2B sales, especially with larger organizations, decision-makers and executives are bombarded with endless meetings. Taking a look at my product or engaging in a conversation with me is probably not number one on their list of priorities, and I can easily get put off. The best way to curb wasted time (theirs and yours), then, is to aggressively utilize the meeting invite as a way to eliminate unnecessary requests for communication and prevent the loss of valuable meeting time.

Suppose Sam is on the phone with a prospect for the first time, he’s wrapping up the conversation, and it’s agreed that the next step is a product demo. Here’s how that conversation might look…

Sam Salesman: “Happy to provide a demo, Paul. Is there a particular day and time that works best for you?”

Paul Prospect: “No, I don’t have my calendar in front of me, so I’m not sure. I’d like to invite my Vice President as well. Let me get back to you.”

Sam Salesman: “Completely understood, Paul. I’d like to get this on my calendar, though, so how about this? I’m going to send off a meeting invite for the end of next week. If it winds up working, great. If not, no problem. Just decline and suggest whatever time works best for you.”

Paul Prospect: “Sounds good.”

In all of my years of selling, there has not been a single time (literally, not one time), someone has objected to this. Which makes sense. Because in essence, you are giving Paul one less thing he has to worry about for the moment. Now it’s time to send my invite. Here’s how that might look….

Subject: B2B Content Engine Demonstration for Paul Prospect

Location: (Web Meeting) – Instructions Inside

Body of Invite:

“Hi Paul,

As discussed, if this is not a good time to connect for our demo, please suggest another.

Andy”

Note how I’ve constructed my meeting invite to provide all of the information Paul needs, at-a-glance. All he has to do is accept the invite or suggest another time. Even if he doesn’t give it another thought until two minutes before the meeting, he knows exactly who he’s talking to, what the meeting is about, and how we’re going to get in touch with other.

In this scenario, I used the example of a product demonstration. However, in the case of dealing with busy executives, I highly recommend using this same technique for every interaction. Suppose I do the demo, Paul likes what he sees, and asks me to “follow up in two weeks to see where I’m at.” Then the next invite I’ll send right after my meeting (and which could just be for a 10-minute block of time) might look like this….

Subject:               Andy D (B2B Content Engine)/Paul P (Prospect Company) Call

Location:            Phone (Andy to Call Paul)

Body:  Brief call to garner feedback from Paul and lay out next steps. Paul, if this is not a good time, please suggest another.

Utilizing meeting invites in this manner has multiple benefits:

• It makes Paul’s life a whole lot easier.
• It ensures I always have a next step in place.
• It builds my value as a salesperson, because it shows I understand how to drive the sales process and conduct business in an efficient manner.
• It prevents me from having to send Paul multiple emails asking “what’s the status of things?” or “can we find a time to reconnect,” to the point Paul finds me annoying or pathetic and disregards all of my communications (thus, leaving me to wonder if he is still a viable opportunity/lead).
• It helps me qualify. If Paul accepts my invite (which usually will happen if I’m managing the process right), I know he’s ready for the next step. If he doesn’t (which again, very rarely ever happens), I know I’m most likely not in alignment with his buying process and have to figure out why.

And suppose it’s the morning of the next meeting, Paul sees it on his calendar in the morning, and realizes he can’t make it. Not a problem. All he has to do is decline the invite (most folks will say why they’re declining) and suggest a new time. Thus, eliminating going through a process like the aforementioned debacle all over again.

Content marketing and marketing automation tools do a great job of helping companies talk to prospects at the right time. Once a prospect is engaged, continue making the sales process efficient as possible by utilizing the meeting invite in the most meaningful manner possible. Think of the meeting invite as salesman’s call-to-action (CTA).

What have been your experiences overcoming the logistical issues surrounding meetings? Feel free to email me or send me a meeting invite at andy@b2bcontentengine.com. I’d enjoy hearing from you.

The post Using the Meeting Invite as your Sales “Call-to-Action” appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

A “Content Marketing Strategy” is not just targeted content. It is not brand journalism or storytelling. Strategy is a plan and corresponding tactics to identify and engage a target audience (influencers and future customers), convert prospects into leads, and obtain customers by sharing common interests, answering questions, and solving problems.

Now, here is my curated content from Heidi Cohen’s post…

How to Extend Your Content Creation Resources

…

What’s a marketer with limited budget and resources to do to ensure that there’s always a sufficient supply of fresh, effective content to satisfy your marketing needs?

The answer is to employ a mix of the following five content marketing strategies….

1. Create evergreen content. This is the core of your content marketing offering.
2. Leverage “Just-In-Time” content. This is content crafted to take advantage of trending topics.
3. Repurpose content. This content is information that you’ve used elsewhere and are refining for other platforms and needs.
4. Curate content. This content is developed by third parties outside of your organization.
5. Co-create content. This content is developed with input from your community through the help of influencers and customers

By using a combination of these five content marketing strategies, you’ll be able to maximize your content creation budget in a way that provides variety for your target audience and fills your editorial calendar with engaging information.

[ by Heidi Cohen ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Heidi Cohen ]

[ Read original: 5 Content Marketing Strategies to Fill Your Editorial Calendar ]

The post 5 Content Creation Tactics (not Marketing Strategies) to Fill Your Editorial Calendar appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

After the recent publishing of our new eBook, “

Marketo has good and simple definitions:

Marketing Lead – A lead generated by marketing which has not yet been qualified as a sales prospect

Sales Ready Lead – A lead that has been qualified by marketing based upon criteria agreed upon by both sales and marketing

While they are simple, they are not defined where they can be used by any marketing or sales department – it would cause no end of problems for their alignment (read the eBook). Here is the range of things that I am seeing in the SME (small-media-enterprise) B2B space, which we serve. Do you see the same?

It is a content marketing truism that you should never just sales engage until the lead is ready. You are wasting your time, money and often leaving a bad brand feeling in the prospects mouth. The big one here is the Lead Scoring, which requires sales and marketing to be on the same page and agree when the X is met and how to qualify them into sales — often a personal email or call.

Here is what I believe that organizations that use content marketing should do – and many do.

The key to any content marketing initiative is strategy to drive traffic, an engagement and conversion plan, quality content, and a system in place to manage it all.

It may be that the marketing-to-sales cross over is that the prospect calls — and for many small businesses that is appropriate. But, if you have the resources with a robust marketing automation system and sales team it is very good practice to use the former so as not to waste the time of the sales team. Ultimately, content marketing is about education and engagement and thus smoothing the sales process for BOTH prospects and your company.

What are you seeing?

The post What is a Lead for a Content Marketer? appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Finishing up our look at the latest RSW/US survey report, 2012 New Business Report: Client & Agency Perspective On Topics Related To Agency New Business , the final word is a plea, warning-whatever you’d like to call it, to agencies.

While agencies can (and should) take a fair amount of optimism from our latest survey report in regard to future new business opportunities, agencies continue to fall short in one area.

From our report, “79%+ of Marketers say it is “very important” to come to an initial meeting with thoughts about their business and/or smart questions to show they have interest. ” 

Simple, right?

And yet: “Only a little over 12% of Marketers say that Agencies “always” come to the table prepared in a way that isn’t about the Agency.”

 

Where’s the disconnect?

First, it would seem self-evident that as an agency, you would always do some homework prior to that initial meeting.

And we often find agencies do, but just as often, agencies fall into talking about themselves, to a fault.

And to be fair, you’ll get into those meetings where the marketer will say something to the effect of, “That’s great, but we want to hear more about your agency.”

You can’t win, right?  

[ by Lee McKnight Jr ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Agency New Business ]

[ Read more: Agency New Business: The Area Where Marketers Think You’re Still Falling Down ]

The post Agency New Business: The Area Where Marketers Think You’re Still Falling Down appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

This is a great question from Keith Ecker at the PR20/20 blog. My personal thinking is that there still is room, in general — but it is getting smaller and smaller for B2B marketers. This is obviously because B2B marketing is often niche marketing and traditional publications are getting fewer and fewer in many niches. I am not considering blogger or social media influencer outreach as part of traditional PR.

However, if you do consider blogger and influencer outreach there will be room for quite some time I think — these are different and often evolving channels. But, the tactics and result will be very different. Keith touches upon some of these.

Following is a guest blog post by Keith Ecker (@Keith_JaffePR) vice president of public reputation services at Jaffe PR, a public reputation agency that provides services to the legal marketplace, including law firms, legal technology vendors and legal associations.

The buzzword on every marketer’s lips this year is content marketing–and with good reason. Never before have brands been able to so easily transform themselves into de facto content creators through the use of affordable publishing and distribution tools, such as blogging platforms, Twitter and LinkedIn. Meanwhile, the definition of what constitutes a traditional media outlet continues to be flipped on its head as websites, blogs and social media sites become go-to reads for consumers and key decision-makers.

So, what does this shift in the way information is produced and consumed mean for the world of public relations? If audiences are more prone to read a Twitter feed over the New York Times, is it time for all us publicists to hang up our hats and call it a day?

While it’s no longer business as usual for the PR industry, I’d argue that this is one of the most exciting times to be a publicist. Rather than fight the inevitable changes, I recommend embracing these changes as an opportunity to redefine the profession. Content marketing isn’t making PR obsolete; it’s forcing it to adapt to make itself more effective than ever.

The following are just some of the ways in which publicists can retain their relevancy in this age of content marketing. 

…

[ from PR 20/20 Blog ]

[ Read original: Is There Room in PR for Content Marketing? ]

The post Is There Room in PR for Content Marketing? appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

Successful B2B sales associates recognize the most important aspect of the entire sales process is trust. No doubt, countless numbers of sales managers across the country encouraged their staff to become “trusted consultants” as they headed out in the field this week. Too often, however, companies fail to recognize (or perhaps just acknowledge) an ugly truth: the inherent conflict of interest a salesperson faces in doing his or her job and being the “trusted consultant.” Namely, we all know a salesperson must sell – or he/she won’t be a salesperson for very long.

I can hear the screams already from salespeople near and far: “I love my clients,” “I’d never do what isn’t best for them,” “it has to be a win-win or I don’t want the business.” I couldn’t agree more. And I shared those same principles throughout my sales career. So let me make a presumably much needed clarification at this point: I’m not suggesting a salesperson cannot or should not be a trusted consultant. Again, I’m suggesting there is always going to be an inherent conflict of interest present. Conflicts of interest, of course, do not always dictate that the person involved is going to act unethically.

So what’s the point? The point is that if companies want to support the idea of their salespeople being trusted consultants, they should be utilizing content marketing – and not just because it’s a way to generate leads. Rather, it’s a way to lay the groundwork of trust before a salesperson ever enters the picture. Merely sending out self-serving mass emails or conducting company-centric “educational” webinars while asking your salespeople to be trusted consultants sends a message that can be incredibly difficult for a consultative salesperson to reconcile. It screams contradiction. After all, what’s the point of being a “trusted consultant” for a company that won’t expand the effort to be seen as trustworthy?

The post Content Marketing – A Salesman’s Perspective appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

A great piece from Hiedi Cohen about the power of content curation martketing.

Content Curation: 3 Critical Facts [Research]

While content marketing quickly went from “what’s that” to “must have” in 2012, the biggest challenges marketers face are producing enough of the right type of content and having resources, both budget and staff, for creating content.

Content curation supplements original content for both broadly and narrowly focused topics. Through the editorial process, it adds original content and provides an opportunity to showcase relevant gems.

Content curation as part of content marketing strategy — 3 Facts

Almost 60% of content marketers use some form of content curation according to Curata’s 2012 B2B Marketing Trends Report. Doing curation well can give you a competitive advantage because it’s a low cost way to expand your content marketing offering.

Over half of respondents have been curating content less than one year. This shows that content curation is still a relatively new content marketing tool. Further adoption is taking time. This is attributable to the fact that content curation still requires additional resources for most marketers in the form of editors who select the content and augment it with useful insights. For others, it may also involve other forms of services to aggregate the information.

Over 40% of marketers don’t track the performance of their content curation program. As with any marketing program, in order to measure success, you need to have well defined, specific goals and related metrics. Further, it’s important to incorporate a call-to-action and tracking code to help assess your results.

[ by Heidi Cohen ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Heidi Cohen ]

[ Read original: 9 Amazing Content Curation Resources ]

The post 9 Amazing Content Curation Resources appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

A good summary from g2m solutions. Often, as content marketers, we do not spend enough time distributing our content … or do not know how.

We, at the B2B Content Engine have had great success with LinkedIn and Twitter. This is where most of our audience hangs out. Google+ seems to help search results … which is the best traffic.

In the world of B2B marketing, creating content is only half the battle. There’s little use in spending hours creating high quality content if nobody ever finds it. For this reason, it’s crucial to have a content distribution plan.

To give you a head start, we’ve put together a list of effective B2B content distribution channels plus tips on how to get the most out of each channel.

Social MediaLinkedIn

LinkedIn is arguably the most powerful content distribution channel for B2B marketers. This is due to the highly targeted nature of the professional networks it enables users to build as well as the extended content lifespan resulting from group discussions (your posts can often remain visible for weeks).

Best practicess:

• Share content on your profile
• Join relevant groups and post content in discussions (don’t be spammy — ensure your content is relevant and promotes discussion
• Consider using LinkedIn ads to reach highly targeted audiences.

Twitter

The lifetime of a tweet is shorter than that of a mayfly. However this doesn’t necessarily mean that people won’t view and re-tweet your content.

Best practices:

• Use rotating scheduled tweets to extend the lifespan of your content (spread out your tweets to avoid being labeled as a spammer)
• Use the search function within Twitter to find users who are tweeting about your area of expertise.  When relevant (e.g. your content answers a question someone is asking), reply with a tweet that includes a link to your content.

Google+

If you’re targeting Google employees or internet marketers, Google+ is the right platform for the job. All jokes aside, Google+ …

[ by James Chatman ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Top Tips, News and Views for B2B Marketers ]

[ Read original: The Ultimate B2B Marketing Guide to Content Distribution ]

The post The Ultimate B2B Marketing Guide to Content Distribution appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.

As someone who is up to his ears in the content segment, I love a good dose of research to keep me up to speed on what’s going on in the market — and, most importantly, where the market is headed.

I enjoyed the data that came out of the most recent 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research, put together by none other than the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs. There was also a very interesting line of information around outsourcing of content production, and some of the main challenges facing these marketeers today. 

So here’s what’s confusing me:

• 54 percent of marketers plan to increase their spend. (I love this because it works, and also because I own a content marketing agency!)
• 56 percent of those surveyed produce content in-house only, and that’s up from 38 percent the year before. (Slightly worrying for a content marketing agency, especially when you factor in the move from 4 percent to 1 percent of those brands that only outsource. So right now I’m thinking I might need a new job soon!)

But before I have to jump on the employment pages, I see a slide that tells me about the biggest challenges B2B marketers face today in content marketing, and I feel like we might be saved:

• 64 percent say their biggest challenge is “producing enough content.”
• 52 percent then say they “want to produce the type of content that engages.”
• 45 percent  say they have a challenge of “producing a variety of content.”

[ by Craig Hodges ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠfrom Content Marketing Institute ]

[ Read original: 7 Tips for Choosing a Content Marketing Agency ]

The post 7 Tips for Choosing a Content Marketing Agency appeared first on Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services.