B2B Monday Myth: My Brand Doesn’t Have a Story to Tell
by MGB2B
The Myth: My Brand Doesn’t Have a Story To Tell.
The Truth: There’s More Than One Way to Tell (or Spin) a Story.
As the Internet becomes more crowded with B2B content, it is increasingly difficult for brands to stand out. One way to do so is by telling more compelling stories than your competitors. While you may already be aware of this, perhaps you don’t consider your brand’s story intriguing enough to get the job done. Well, here’s some good news. Even if your company’s story isn’t worthy of a Hollywood film adaptation, there may be an angle or two you haven’t looked at yet.
Do your clients have compelling stories that you have contributed to and are allowed to discuss publicly? For instance, a company that manufactures plastic parts may seem uninteresting. But if that company manufacturers a part that helps a scientist make a medical breakthrough, that’s a storytelling opportunity. Even if you don’t have that kind of story, you may be able to, as an industry expert, provide insights on relevant stories in the news. Many manufacturers already use these approaches for storytelling.
Here are a few examples of creative B2B brand storytelling:
GE – GE has an entire separate website devoted to content. It not only showcases their own case studies, but also highlights other stories. There are articles that don’t even contain “GE” anywhere in the copy. Instead, they represent the innovation with which GE has made itself synonymous.
Cisco – Cisco is a master at content marketing and another example of a B2B brand that has its own website just for content. They also have a gigantic content team to keep it running. Cisco has established itself as the authority in digital networking, which means they can easily discuss topics like smart cities. And their words carry significant weight with their prospects.
Betatronix – Even if you aren’t a highly visible B2B brand like GE or Cisco, you can still try this approach. Betatronix, a company that manufacturers potentiometers and other components, may seem uninteresting at first. But not when you find out who they work with – NASA. Just one of many clients with major news stories that Betatronix can either contribute to directly or provide expert commentary on.
If you think your brand doesn’t have a story to tell, take a step back and look at the big picture. By analyzing your impact on your more well-known client’s projects or looking at what’s going on in the industries surround your brand – you’ll be able to find plenty of stories to tell. You don’t need a 100-person content team to make it happen. You can simply use your blog to distribute your stories as often as you can. Doing so will establish a more personal connection with your consumers and prospects. It’s a strategy that will feed your lead-generation engine well into the future.
Continue ReadingB2B Monday Myth: I Don’t Need to Test My Emails
by MGB2B
The Myth: I Don’t Need To Test My Emails
The Truth: A/B Testing Can Help You Turn Your Email Program Into a Lead-Converting Machine
You are likely among the 93% of B2B marketers who distribute content via email. But are you doing it right? If you’re not using A/B testing, there is likely room for improvement. A/B testing is one of the best ways to gain insights about your audiences, fine-tune your efforts over time, and increase open, click-through, and conversion rates.
It’s important to remember that when testing B2B emails, you can only test one thing at a time. If you do it all at once, you won’t know what caused your email to succeed. Or tank. And then you’ve lost a truly helpful tool.
Here are 5 different elements you should test to fine-tune your email program:
- Subject Line. This is the big one. This is what gets people to open your emails. Does a question perform better than a statement? Does your core target audience appreciate humor? Or do they prefer you to get right to the point? Subject line tests can help answer those questions and increase your open rates.
- Day of the Week/Time of Day. When you test this, do it when you’re not testing subject lines. Or any other elements. Send the exact same subject line, message, and layout to one half of your audience on Wednesday at 6am and the other half on Thursday at 6am (for example) to test day of the week. Then with an entirely different email, test Wednesday at 6am and Wednesday at noon, to determine time of day. This is something you’ll want to log and perfect over time. It’s not something you can determine with only one email blast.
- Message. You’ve already tested subject lines, but what about the message once people open your emails? Which headlines perform the best? Which calls to action are people clicking on? Each individual copy element can be tested. But again, only one element at a time. Testing too many copy elements at once won’t tell you what you need to know.
- Layout/Design. What happens when you change the order of your articles? The color of your calls to action? Each variant can change the outcome. Test each one until you find what works. Before you even begin testing, make sure that you are using responsive design. If your audience(s) can’t read your emails easily on their mobile phones, this will negatively affect your results, and your reporting on other testing elements will be skewed.
- Type of Content. If you have a newsletter-style email promoting many different types of content, what performs the best? Do you have a higher CTR when you drive the audience to an infographic? A white paper? A blog post? Determine which kind of content your audience craves most — you might find it varies by segment.
Testing B2B emails takes time and patience. But in the long run it will help you give your audience what they want and take your leads further down the sales funnel. Email is one of the most important tools in the B2B toolkit. Get it right, and you’ll be miles ahead of your competitors.
Continue ReadingB2B Monday Myth: Creating Content Is All You Need To Do
by MGB2B
The Myth: All I need to do is create good content, and people will find it.
The Truth: Content found organically is wonderful, but you’ll need to distribute it in other ways to get more quality leads.
In the last few years, the role of content marketing has grown exponentially. Many businesses, large and small, have poured a hefty share of their marketing budgets into content creation and have increased conversion because of it. But is creating quality content with great SEO all you need to reach your target? Accomplished content marketer and author of The Content Formula, Michael Brenner, puts it this way: “Even great content needs a push.” So what are the best ways to push your content?
How to Distribute B2B Content:
Paid Search
Paid Search, also referred to as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), is one of the best ways to reach prospects with your content. That’s because you are reaching people who are actively searching for what you have to offer. Plus, when done correctly, it can help you secure a spot on Google above organic listings. Although it can be a bit costly, the benefits are well worth the investment.
One of the main benefits is that you can make real-time changes to your messaging. Arguably the best feature of Paid Search is that you can target your messaging, and then easily change it up at a moment’s notice. You can run several different ads to see which copy drives the most prospects to your content, then cut out the ads that aren’t performing and sink that money into the high-performing ad to drive more quality leads.
You can also geo-target your ads, so that you are reaching people only within the markets you want to pursue. If you have a limited Paid Search budget, this feature can be very useful.
Paid Social
A close relative of Paid Search is paid social. The major difference is that instead of advertising on search engines, Paid Social allows you to advertise on social media. Paid Social allows you to reach beyond just your followers. Facebook in particular, really enables you to narrow your target. You can actually have a Custom Audience made up of your database of prospects. If you have over 100 people on your list and they are on Facebook, you can serve up ads directly to them. You can also retarget people who have visited your website to capture those who have shown interest in your product or service, but maybe weren’t ready to convert yet.
You can also target your ads in order to add new people to your prospects list. You can target by demographics and location, but also by categories like Employer and Job Title, so your content is getting directly into the hands of people who will find it useful.
Trade Publication Programs
While the consumer magazine industry may be dying, the trade pub industry is alive and well. And a good relationship with your industry trade pubs can be a great tool to have in your arsenal. Getting access to their lists is one of the best ways to grow your list of qualified leads. These are people who are already in your world, looking for content that is relevant to them. Some publications already have elaborate content distribution programs in place. All you have to do is give them your white papers and infographics, and they’ll circulate it to the right people in their database for you.
Creating compelling and relevant content is only the half the battle. Paid media strategies greatly improve the chances of your content being seen by the right people at the right time. And that translates into highly qualified leads for your sales team. It’s an effort that is easy to fine-tune and well worth the money.
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