If you're a B2B marketer who wants to get better results from your marketing communications, then my blog can help. Today's B2B marcom mix contains more ways to reach your target audience. This blog discusses how tools including conventional direct mail, advertising and white papers integrated with online marketing tools such as webinars, SEO, social media and more can boost your marcom results.
What's the right mix?... Here we share what's working and what's not. Enjoy!
At a very high level, SEO is comprised of linking, on page/meta data content and other website mechanics (e.g. redirects, trusted URL, etc.). This post speaks to the page content element that B2B copywriters need to know.
Start by examining your keywords...
Many B2B companies underestimate the importance of this exercise. From a marketing standpoint, nailing your keywords and phrases is the foundation for your online marketing communications and content strategy. If you need to coach your marcom team on how to develop effective keywords, here's a link to one of my newsletters on keyword selection where you can download a worksheet to help you decide on the most effective keywords. Make sure you vet your keywords and phrases through a keyword tool such as Google or Wordtracker.
On-page SEO copywriting...
Optimize your website pages for the keywords and phrases—and not all on one page. Group your keywords and phrases so that any given page is optimized for 3-5 keywords. Make sure that your meta title tags and description include the 3-5 keywords/phrases for which you’re optimizing a given page. For more about on-page SEO copywriting, see my article on boosting natural page rank.
Natural SEO copywriting works for blogs too…
Apply these same rules to your B2B blog and watch page visits increase. Include keywords in your blog titles for two reasons… one, it’s good for on-page SEO; and two, the keywords in the title usually become part of the URL (especially if the keywords come at the beginning of the title). That means another boost for natural search.
Then, make sure the keywords in the title are also in the body of the blog. And if your blog post is lengthier (500+ words) break it up with H2 or H3 header tags that include a keyword if possible. But remember, keep it natural. Don’t force keywords in at the expense of good copywriting flow and tone. Start with good content and then see if you can work in a few keywords while keeping the tone and flow natural.
Connect with SEO experts...
Follow them on Twitter and subscribe to their blog posts. I’ve started a Twitter list of SEO folks so go to @copywriter4u/B2B-SEO-pros to follow the list (it's not comprehensive by any means, but gives you a good start). The following websites have SEO news and information to which you can subscribe:
Again, there are many more resources on SEO. I culled the list above as I was learning SEO copywriting and thought you might find it helpful for starters. If you have other resources feel free to add them here. Thanks!
What’s the ROI of a brochure? Too granular, right? Doesn’t the same hold true for social media in B2B marketing? It's the aggregate affect of the B2B marcom mix on sales and not the component level affect. Socialnomics author, Erik Qualman puts it into perspective in his 4-minute video. What do you think?
For B2B's greenest marketers, green marketing is not simply another initiative. Green has been integrated into the way they do business... it's part of their corporate culture. Newsweek's innaugural Green Ranking lists America's largest 500 companies and ranks them based on their environmental sustainability efforts.
Many of the B2B companies on the list have extensive environmental sustainability programs that encompass a broad range of sustainability and energy conservation practices from re-lamping with compact fluorescent lamps and retrofitting facilities with geothermal and other more sustainable heat sources to influencing the supply chain and indirect emissions sources.
Do you think corporate energy and sustainabiltiy programs give B2B marketers a competitive advantage? Answer a 2-second LinkedIn poll here.
Now that Twitter announced its deal with Linked in to allow status updates on Linked in to appear on Twitter and vice Versa,(see announcement video here ) there’s a lot of talk about whether or not this is a good thing—connecting networks. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Everyone’s connections and goals are different. It’s important to remember the first rule of content… make it relevant to your audience.
To connect or not depends on your audience and the relevance of your content to the audience. If your tweets aren’t relevant to your LinkedIn connections, then either don’t connect them or set up a different Twitter account for tweets relevant to your LinkedIn connections.
Let’s say your day job is a marcom manager for an aerospace firm. You’re using LinkedIn for professional connections within your industry. However, in your personal life, you’re a master gardener, and you’ve decided to use twitter to tweet out gardening tips. In this case, it’s probably best not to connect your Twitter and LinkedIn. Instead, you may want to consider connecting your Facebook personal profile and Twitter. There are a few cases where mixing business with personal has worked, but that’s another blog post. If you think Twitter is a good fit with your marcom mix in your day job as an aerospace marcom manager, then set up a separate Twitter and connect it with your LinkedIn status update.
Other considerations outside of relevance are recency and frequency. If you’re a power user on Twitter—more than 8-10 tweets per day, then think about your connections on LinkedIn, especially those who may not use Twitter or aren’t familiar with the ticker-type activity on Twitter. They may become annoyed by the constant updates.
Right now, it’s anybody’s guess as to how much is too much when it comes to LinkedIn status updates. I’m taking a conservative “one- or two-a-day” approach. So I manually manage what tweets will appear on LinkedIn by using the “#in” hashtag on the tweets that I want to appear on my LinkedIn status.
If you do decide to allow all your tweets to automatically update your LinkedIn status, remember, your Twitter @replies will also be posted to your LinkedIn status. @replies tend to look awkward on a LinkedIn status update e.g., “@so-and-so That’s hilarious! LOL.” They’re out of context and don’t make sense on a LinkedIn status. The same holds true for retweets (RTs). If your LinkedIn audience isn’t familiar with RTs and other Twitter lingo, having your RTs appear on your LinkedIn status may be confusing and annoying.
Bottom line… know the social media mores in the group to which you belong and then connect accordingly.
David Meerman Scott addressed the Business Marketing Association at their annual meeting in June 2009. One of his key messages was that B2B marketers need to overcome the fear of losing control over their marketing. Thanks to social media, B2B marketers aren't in control anymore, and trying to control social media often backfires. David cites numerous examples of marketers who've tried to control social media and instead, found themselves in a PR mess. As David puts it, offline tactics--namesly buying, beggin or bugging for attention--do not work online.
If you can spare 53 minutes, it's time well spent.
I received a message from a fellow group member in an online community the other day. It read like this (note: names/titles have been changed):
"My new white paper on XYZ - available to group members Feel free to download - don't worry - no sales pitches!"
Call me crazy, but when someone says, “don’t worry, no sales pitch,” it’s usually a sales pitch, especially when it comes from a sales rep.
So I clicked on the link and it took me to a form which began with, “Dear Group Member,” and I was asked to complete 12 fields (yes... 12!) in order to download the white paper.
This “non sales pitch” broke just about every rule in B2B social media and direct response marketing.
Social media is personal, and if you’re a member of the group, then address members by name. If it’s not possible, then it’s better to say nothing than “Dear Group Member.” Plus, if you held a webinar, then wouldn’t you have contact information from the registration?
The “non sales pitch” put the writer first and not the reader. It opened with, “Here’s my xyz white paper.” Where’s the WIIFM (What’s in it for me)? Why should I download your whitepaper?
Then the writer proceeded to tell me that he or she thought I would find the white paper relevant. Dude, you don’t even know my name, and yet you know that I would find the paper relevant? Hmmmmm.... the value of the white paper from my perspective is not clear, and therefore not relevant. Tell me it will get me a promotion, more business or save me time, and then, maybe I’ll find it relevant.
Finally, if you’re a member of a group, then just give out the whitepaper as you promised at the webinar. No one should have to complete 12 fields unless you’re giving out something extraordinary, like cash. Plus, these are your fellow group members, and you met with them over a webinar. It should be more personal.
Bottom line: this was most definitely a sales pitch, and it didn’t need to be one.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing your white paper. But the approach wasn’t social media-friendly.
What should the writer have done?
The solicitation headline should have read: “Learn how to improve your close rate and free up more time for sales calls. New white paper free for abc group members. (disclosure: from my recent webinar)”
The landing page should have said: "Thanks for attending the yada yada webinar. If you couldn’t attend, here’s a copy of the white paper explaining how you can improve your close rate and free up more time for sales calls. Download now.
For more information call (123) 333-2222 or tell us your name, company and email. Thanks again for attending, Social media-friendly sales rep.
PS If you're interested in following trends on xyz, subscribe to our RSS feed here."
Unfortunately, I think that as more B2B marketers integrate social media into their marcom mix, we're bound to see more missteps like the one just described. The best advice I was given upon entering the social media sphere was: Listen first and put the community before your own needs. Social media is not a broadcast channel it's a place to find and cultivate mutually beneficial relationships. And that takes time.
Here's the second in a series of "How To's" to help you add social media to your integrated marketing communications program. Integrated Marcom Minute interviewed Katherine Watkins, Marketing Communications Manager, Eastman Chemical Company, to learn how she and her marcom team integrated social media into their marcom mix. Research took them down an unexpected path... less B2B and more B2B2C.
IMM: How did you begin integrating social media into your marcom mix?
KW: We wanted to be part of the conversations that were occurring on the internet relative to our products, so we started simply by listening. We searched blogs, tweets and Google alerts for our brand terms and product categories. What we found was that many of the conversations weren't originating from our direct customers, but through consumers who use the products containing Eastman resins. This is where we saw the greatest potential to add value to the conversation. IMM: Based on your findings, what step did you take next to integrate social media into your marcom plan?
KW: We started to participate in the conversation by showcasing our customers' work where it added value to the consumers' conversations. For example there's concern over the use of a chemical bisphenol-a (BPA) in children's beverage containers. Our Tritan(TM) copolyester is a BPA-free resin, so we commented on related blogs, not about our Tritan, but about our customers who've used Tritan to create BPA-free food and beverage containers for children and adults. Our intent was less about promoting our products and more about just being helpful within the context of the conversations already going on in the social sphere.
IMM: Have you shifted or changed your Marcom mix to allow for social media, and if so, how?
KW: We've integrated more video into our mix because video lends itself well to social media. We produced several videos, of which one went viral and was viewed more than 7,000 times. Again, we featured our customers in the video and the value their products and ours added to addressing the needs of consumers. For example, Y Water was a new concept in a children's beverages made possible by an Eastman product. In the video, the designer shares the trials and tribulations of seeing his innovative idea come to fruition, despite being told that his idea was impossible to achieve.
IMM: How did you budget for social media?
KW: We had a small budget this year to experiment with social media for clerical help. However, the cost of participating in social media is really the time and resources, both of which are limited, so we're careful about putting our resources on the most effective social media marketing techniques. IMM: How have you allocated resources for social media?
KW: We've integrated social media into our marketing communications culture both internally and externally with our agency partners. We've basically taken the content that's already being produced and asked our agencies to provide another 100 words suitable for Facebook and Twitter. Internally, we've divided up the social media sphere and assigned someone to monitor and participate in each. We use our internal people for monitoring and writing comments, and in parallel, a consultant works on the administrative end of social media, such as researching influential bloggers and relevant blogs, obtaining truncated URLs, etc. Collectively, we spend about eight hours per day on social media. IMM: How are you monitoring your success with social media?
KW: At a macro level, we monitor the social sphere to understand trends, and we're currently evaluating monitoring software. Then we take a look at the effectiveness of each of the components such as the videos, and monitor how many views we received and the number of hits to our website. As our program matures, we're working on metrics that will help us understand the influence of social media on business, brand and target audience. IMM: Finally, B2B marketers often avoid social media due to fear of legal risks. How have you addressed this at Eastman?
KW: We've been fortunate to have involved legal, HR and IT in our social media program from its inception. They've been helpful in understanding the risk and advising us on ways we can participate while mitigating risk. In many areas, we've taken baby steps such as setting a specific timeframe for review and adjust. While this isn't the optimum approach for social media, it is a way for conservative B2B companies to move forward while keeping everyone comfortable. As social media becomes a more prominent part of our communication strategy and we determine the best areas for Eastman to engage, we'll need to develop a more defined corporate marketing policy. Special thanks to Katherine Watkins and her team for sharing their time and talent.
Joan is an independent copywriter and marcom consultant
with 15+ years’ experience in integrated
marketing communications for high tech and industrial companies in information technologies,
electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Her work has appeared in trade journals here
and abroad. She is the author of How to Be a
Permanent Temp and a contributing author to
The Marketing Manager’s Handbook (by R.W. Bly). Her most recent white paper, Podcasting Demystified helps businesses successfully integrate podcasting and RSS into their marketing campaigns.
Joan has
presented copywriting and integrated online marketing
seminars to numerous groups including
the American Writers and Artists Institute, PRSA, BMA and
has taught marketing
communications and copywriting courses at colleges and universities including New York University. She’s written web pages, direct
mailers, articles, brochures, presentations, newsletters
and other marketing materials to generate
sales leads and sell products and services to
businesses.
