All articles, commentary, etc. that does not fit under Best Practices, Press Releases, Testimonials, or Documentation goes here.

Lead Liaison

Six Simple Steps for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy

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Six Simple Steps for Creating a Content Marketing StrategyEvery company needs an effective content marketing strategy to stay competitive. The popularity of search engines and social media networking has completely changed the way consumers research their buying decisions. Over 90% of American adults now use the internet to find information and research their purchases.

Since most consumers are searching online for solutions to their problems, businesses must provide them with useful answers to their inquiries. Relevant and informative content is now an essential component for every online marketing strategy. A company must establish themselves as a credible expert in their field to encourage followers and build relationships.

Here are six simple steps for creating a content marketing strategy:

 

1.       Research Target Audience

The first step in any content marketing strategy should be extensive research. Marketing automation software will allow you to track and profile your existing customers and potential leads. This information is necessary for both content development and content marketing.

2.       Find Your Editorial Voice

Online followers will expect an unbiased and articulate editorial voice that offers them real value and consistency. If you are not a talented content writer, it is best to outsource it to one particular person. Try to find someone who has experience writing in your field whenever possible, although most skilled freelance writers can adapt their talent to any industry.

3.       Answer Leads Questions

Use the content as an opportunity to answer the questions that your leads would typically ask. For example, if you sell an herbal weight loss supplement, write several different articles addressing a variety of ways to losing weight. You can mention your herbal supplement as one of the suggested weight loss solutions. Target the message towards solving the lead’s need, not necessarily your particular solution to their problem.

4.       Create a Content Distribution Strategy

There are countless different websites and social networks where you can promote and post your content for free. It is essential that you know which sites your specific target audience is visiting and which content strategies will work best on those sites. A specific article may attract attention on Google+, but it could be completed ignored on Facebook. If you are not social media savvy, you can either research and learn from successful competitor’s social media sites or consult a social media expert for guidance.

5.       Build Relationships in Your Field

It is important to connect and build relationships with as many online authorities in your industry as possible. You can cross-promote each other’s content, which will help both your SEO and content marketing strategies.

6.       Mix Up Content with Images & Videos

Your content marketing strategy should contain more than just informative articles and compelling statuses. It needs something to make people stop in their tracks. A powerful image or an entertaining video are both great ways to get noticed.

All it takes is these six simple steps to success and you can create a content marketing strategy that is guaranteed to generate results. If you are unsure how to get the most from these strategies, please ask the experts at Lead Liaison for help. They will create a comprehensive, customized online marketing strategy geared towards optimal exposure and superior results.

Lead Liaison

5 Tips for More Effective Content Marketing

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5 Tips for More Effective Content MarketingBillions of people use the internet daily to research new products and services. They enter their need or question into a search engine and scan through the top few results to see which one interests them the most. A company’s online content has the ability to boost your website to the top of the rankings and entice new users to click on your link. Effectively marketing that content is critical to your success.

Here are five tips for more effective content marketing:

1.       Create a Content Marketing Strategy

Randomly posting statuses and tweets is not a content marketing strategy. An effective content marketing strategy begins with understanding your leads’ needs, developing content that is catered specifically to their needs, and then the creation of an editorial schedule based on when their target audience is most likely to be listening. Make sure to outline a plan of action and adjust it as you learn more about your potential leads.

2.       Know Your Target Audience

Content is more powerful when it is created specifically towards your average consumer’s needs and interest. There are a lot of different factors to consider when you are creating a content marketing strategy, which is when marketing automation and content marketing software are so necessary for success. Marketing automation specialist will help by streamlining the lead profiling, lead nurturing, and content marketing process. It uses website visitor tracking technology to show you exactly what your lead is doing online.

3.       Promote Content on Social Media Sites

Once you have a comprehensive content marketing strategy, the next step is enticing readers using a strategic variety of social media sites. Social network channels like Facebook and Twitter are great for developing a sincere fan base. Make sure to also include YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn in your content marketing strategy, since these are quickly gaining in popularity.

4.       Cross-Promote Related Content

Businesses can help promote each other’s content by referencing and linking helpful articles that are related to your own business. Look for other companies in your field (not direct competitors) that already have a strong following. Repost their content on your site and then see if they are interested in promoting your content.

5.       Use Software to Monitor Success

It is important to evaluate the success of each content marketing campaign. Content marketing software allows you to track your content’s online responses and conversion rates. Content marketing software is 100% necessary, since there are too many elements to track without it.

Effective content marketing involves creating a strategy, understanding your audience, promoting content on social media sites, cross-promoting related content, and using software to monitor your success. These five tips will ensure your valuable content is being read. If you want to learn more about content marketing, please check out Forbes article on The Top 7 Content Marketing Trends that will Dominate 2014.

Lead Liaison

How Important is SEO Blogging?

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SEO Blogging for B2B MarketersIf you’re not serious about SEO blogging, you could be losing a prime opportunity to compete in your vertical. Google made two significant changes to their algorithm just within the past six months, so it’s definitely time for businesses to check into their own SEO strategy and see how it’s stacking up against those changes. If it’s not stacking up at all, it might be time to rethink things and start developing a strategy.

Taking the Right Steps

SEO blogging is an important way to build keyword leverage, but that won’t do your company any good if you don’t know what keywords you’d like to market with. To find out what keywords are best for your business, consider first putting emphasis on what customers type in to find you. If you don’t know this information, Lead Liaison offers a suite of products that can help you identify those search queries. If you know customers are typing in a certain keyword to get to you, it makes sense to try to best your competitors on those keywords until you have top positioning.

You could also use tools like Google Trends (trends.google.com) and the Google Keyword Planner (attached to your Adwords account, if you have one). These tools will give you an idea of how you’re being found and can serve as a basis for your SEO blogging content.

Once you’ve determined the proper keywords for your business, make sure to put them into your social media profiles as well as any content you’re writing. It’s important to make sure you get as much visibility on those keywords as possible.

SEO Blogging for Your Business

The number one problem many business owners have with content creation is lack of time. If you’re busy running a business, managing a sales team and looking for ways to improve your business, sitting down to write a blog of any length is going to be difficult. This is why it’s beneficial to have an SEO blogging team that can help you.

You should be blogging 1-2 times a week minimum, with relevant blog topics that revolve around your chosen keywords. Keyword frequency without overstuffing, keyword placement and compelling content are important. Many business owners find this placement strategy and even the ability to create content are something they’re not good at. If you’re in this boat, why not get help from a qualified pro?

Lead Liaison is happy to announce the inclusion of content writers who can help with SEO blogging of any length or topic. Our SEO blogging staff members are seasoned pros who can provide quick and easy content of your topical choice right in your Lead Liaison dashboard. Sound too good to be true? Take the Lead Liaison team’s content portal for a spin and save a ton of time and money hiring expensive copywriters or doing your SEO blogging yourself.

Lead Liaison

Is Press Release Marketing Worth the Investment?

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Is Press Release Marketing Worth the Investment?Press release marketing isn’t something that many companies are doing consistently, but it can lead to qualified traffic for your website. If you experience major shifts in your company – from adding a new team lead to releasing a new product –  these are valuable opportunities for content you could use to run any kind of content marketing for your business.

Companies like PR Newswire make press release marketing easy, right? Well, not necessarily. If you don’t have the tools in place to create a great press release, you could actually damage your company’s reputation. Anything piece of content you put out there with your company’s name on it is a reflection of your professionalism and your message. You wouldn’t want that to be compromised due to bad writing or an unclear marketing message.

Is Press Release Marketing Necessary?

There are ample ways to create content that links back to your site. Press release marketing requires the creation of one piece of content, then release on a wire. Paying a wire service to release your content can be relatively inexpensive and easy to do. You’ll also find your press release was posted to a variety of different sites, creating valuable SEO backlinks that can increase your positioning in Google rankings.

It’s likely your release could end up on Google News due to its placement on certain sites. This can bring you more traffic and, again, create a valuable backlink for your company’s website, increasing your SEO positioning.

Should I Do My Own Press Release Marketing?

Creating a press release isn’t always something a company pro should try to take on personally. Press release writing isn’t like creating and submitting an article out in the blogosphere. Press releases require a certain formatting, verbiage that reflects your piece of news is as important as any other news story as well as the use of well-placed, quality keywords and marketing messaging.

It’s important to create a press release that will preserve your professionalism as well as get new users engaged. A press release professional knows how to contract content, subject lines and press release bylines that make your news story seem more compelling – leading to more click through on your article.

If you’re interested in how press release marketing can attract traffic to your website, why not try hiring a pro to write a press release for you? Better yet, take a look at Lead Liaison’s press release marketing services. Content creation services are built right into our marketing automation dashboard, giving you access to over 2000 qualified writers who can place an original, quality press release right in your dashboard. Visit us to find out more today!

Lead Liaison

10 Answers to Why Your Marketing Campaigns Aren’t Effective

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10 Answers to Why Your Marketing Campaigns Aren't EffectiveToday’s B2B companies compete at hyper-speed for market attention. Many struggle with creating and maintaining effective automated marketing campaigns. Here are 10 reasons you may among those who are struggling:

  1. Not creating the right messaging. Automated marketing platforms, though effective in many ways, cannot produce content by themselves (although we have a great way to integrate content into campaigns!) so messaging must still be created in-house or contracted out. Make sure to distribute segmented messaging and be sure to conduct A/B testing as frequently as possible.
  2. Message delivery is scheduled too frequently/too infrequently. Hey, you don’t want to bug them but you don’t want to lose them. Finding the “sweet spot” for message delivery is key to hitting your metrics.
  3. Not segmenting your database effectively. Database segmentation doesn’t mean grouping contacts by industry alone. Examine buyer traits, preferences, and behaviors for grouping opportunities outside the norm.
  4. Nonexistent/inappropriate attribution to revenue. Once leads have been moved through the marketing funnel, which ones produce revenue? What messaging or marketing assets were influential in converting? Many companies still lack the ability or determination to uncover conversion attributes but knowing what drove a sale is key to practicing effective marketing automation.
  5. Promotionless content. You’re investing in content to generate sales, right? Deploy content that has a call to action or offer attached to it. Don’t be afraid to inject an “ask” in a blog post* but don’t overdo it. Keep your CTAs to a minimum and make the content persuasive.
  6. Not getting personal enough with your markets. Providing effective content is more than simply distributing helpful content, it’s knowing who your customers are. Take the time to research closely each market segment. Connect marketing and sales to create a customer persona.
  7. Don’t just blog. While blogging remains a key component to building trust and getting found by search engines, content marketing extends to video, case studies, webinars, and more.
  8. Blend channels effectively. If you’ve got social, Web, search, email, deploy them in a cohesive way. Integrate messaging through multiple channels so, when prospects find you, they can connect in multiple ways easily.
  9.  Be consistent. B2B buyers expect consistency from their vendors. This is true when it comes to content delivery. If buyers have signed up for a newsletter or email updates, make sure to deliver them using a rigid schedule.
  10. Know your SEO. Search engine algorithms change frequently. Tactics that have worked historically are becoming less relevant. Stay on top of the latest updates and adapt your search marketing practices to match how SERPs are now calculated.

*For a look at a highly effective MA platform, schedule a demo!

Lead Liaison

Can You Get Content Creation and Marketing Automation Together? Yes!

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Get Content Creation and Marketing Automation TogetherIt has long been the cry of B2B marketers (well, “long” is relative in the digital age): “We’ve automated our marketing – but we need CONTENT!” We’ve got your content creation and marketing automation together in one!

Recent statistics support the need for third-party content creation:

  • 71% of Marketers use content marketing for lead generation
  • 82% of B2B Marketers are increasing content production in the next 12 months
  • 93% of B2B Marketers create content from scratch
  • 56% of B2B content is created by corporate marketing
  • 47% of B2B content is created by product marketing
  • 55% of B2B Marketers say their biggest challenge is having the time or bandwidth to create content

Now, consider this:

  • 37% of B2B Marketers use marketing automation for lead generation
  • 36% of B2B Marketers use marketing automation for lead nurturing
  • 39% of B2B Marketers don’t use marketing automation at all

Do those numbers look like there might be a need for marketing automation and content creation combined? Content and automation both drive traffic, conversions, and sales. When combined, they form a potent marketing strategy. Until now there has been no integrated answer for combining content with marketing automation.

We’ve got the answer.

With a few clicks you can order audience-centric content such as blog posts, white papers, press releases, website pages, social posts, and more. Once approved, content can be entered into your automated campaigns easily.

Once you have combined marketing automation and content creation, your corporate and product marketers will have bandwidth to devote to campaign development and execution, among other tasks. Learn more about our groundbreaking new feature.

A disturbing fact: Only 25% of B2B Marketers use content marketing for customer retention. This is unfortunate as it distinguishes a customer from a prospect. Keep in mind: a customer was once a prospect. In today’s multimedia environment, can a company afford to withdraw a customer from its content stream?

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Combines Marketing Automation With Content Creation

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Allen, TX (PRWEB) October 22, 2013 – Lead Liaison broke new ground last week when it became the first marketing automation SaaS company to provide Web content creation within an automated marketing platform. The new feature provides access to over 2,000 content developers, allowing marketers to request content then seamlessly deploy that content through the automated marketing platform.

Recent studies have found that, while 91% of B2B marketers are deploying content marketing, 93% create content from scratch. Lead Liaison developed the integration of content and marketing automation to alleviate marketers of having to create content in-house.

Content is ordered through a portal that offers blog posts, newsletters, social posts, white papers, press releases, video scripts, articles, and landing pages. Users can manage current content requests with an expandable view of relevant information about each content type. The interactive system allows users to post comments and revision requests before final acceptance of the content.

The company’s flagship Lead Management Automation™ (LMA) application has expanded over the past 12 months to offer landing page creation, traceable URLs, social posting, and now content development. VP of Corporate Communications Alex Brown explained the company’s commitment to the evolution of its products during a recent conference call with investors.

“We need to compete on innovation. We believe adding content creation capabilities is yet another innovation we’ve developed that will generate revenue. We’ve found that our clients need additional tools to optimize their marketing practices beyond automating tasks so we’ve invested considerably to deliver those tools.”

When requesting content through the system users can designate specific topics, industries, keywords, and references that should be included in each piece. In addition to content requests, LMA users can provide content feedback along and select content authors for future assignments. Users can track progress of content requests using multiple filters as well.

To learn more about this first-to-market innovation, request a 10-minute demonstration of Lead Liaison’s Content Creation solution.

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Lead Liaison is a software company that provides cloud-based marketing and sales automation solutions. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. It’s innovative and robust software combines lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing, content creation, social media engagement and ROI reporting into a single platform.

For More Information:

Alex Brown
VP, Corporate Communications
abrown(at)leadliaison(dot)com
888.895.3237 (888 89 LEADS)

Lead Liaison

Marketing Automation and the 3 Pillars of Lead Management

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Marketing Automation and the 3 Pillars of Lead ManagementManaging your B2B marketing leads is a process that runs through three phases: generation, qualification, and nurturing. Back in the day, marketers generated leads that the sales team had to qualify and nurture. Now the three pillars of lead management can be optimized by using a marketing automation platform (MAP). The introduction of the MAP in the B2B community saves time, improves sales productivity, and helps manage leads until they are ready for your sales team.

Lead Generation

Lead gen is best practiced when you deploy outbound and inbound marketing assets. A marketing automation platform fits with both asset types. You’re able to track a lead’s behavior – which assets did he engage with, what time did he visit your site? Marketing automation allows you to “batch” lead gen activities over extended periods in very little time. For example, creating and scheduling three integrated email delivery and social posting campaigns can be accomplished by a single marketer in as little as a few hours.

Lead Qualification

Once leads have been captured, automated marketing engagements provide consistent opportunities to gather lead intelligence. Capturing data is a strength of marketing automation because it allows marketers to present consistent message delivery, which engenders trust from potential buyers. Marketing automation users gather lead intelligence more easily than using traditional methods through the automated delivery of multiple messages through multiple channels (scheduled at one time) – all exhibiting a consistent brand that leads can be comfortable sharing information with.

Lead Nurturing

Perhaps the most important stage of the lead management process is lead nurturing. Lead nurturing for most companies is best accomplished through a well-planned campaign of escalating messaging and increasingly engaging activities. You may start with an email campaign that offers a free download then extend an invitation to a webinar then provide a ten-minute product demonstration. For most companies earning over $2 million annually, there are likely multiple campaigns running at the same time. A marketing automation platform runs each campaign simultaneously, moving leads through the pipeline without extensive personnel resources.

With marketing automation you can execute and monitor all three phases of lead management from one user interface. These days, buyers are faced with countless distractions and it may take months or years to convert a prospect. Generating revenue requires a commitment to consistency that is easily maintained through a marketing automation platform.

Using a marketing automation platform like our Lead Management Automation™ application can ensure that the three pillars of lead management remain strong for your company.

Lead Liaison

Effective B2B Content Marketing Tactics

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Effective B2B Content Marketing TacticsBest practices for B2B marketing have changed drastically in the last few years. The introduction of the internet, ecommerce, and social media networking has created brand new marketing needs. Consumers also now have an endless supply of choices, which has create a desire for real engagement between online retailers and potential customers. That is why there is now a greater emphasis on B2B content marketing.

Online content is a company’s best opportunity to communicate directly with potential leads. Millions of people use the internet every day in search of solutions to their biggest problems. A company’s tutorials, newsletters, articles, webpages, and blogs are all valuable reference sources that can turn potential leads into consumers. If you are still not convinced you need content marketing, you can read my earlier blog; Five Reasons Why Content Marketing is Not a Waste of Time before proceeding with this article on how to actually use it to your advantage.

B2B Content Marketing Tactics

Creating relevant and informative content is necessary for success, but it has to be effectively marketed or it will never be read. Social media is the most popular content marketing tactic because of its vast reach and frequency of use. Over 80% of B2B marketers use social media to promote their content.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the most commonly used social sites for content marketing, although YouTube and Google+ are also used by a high percentage of B2B marketers.

Content Marketing worth Sharing

Crafty B2B content marketers will develop articles and content that social media users actually want to share. The information must be compelling, informative, or humorous to insight a strong reaction. B2B marketers will also use contests and giveaways as an incentive for reposting or sharing particular content.

Content Marketing SEO Strategies

Search engine optimization is another powerful content marketing strategy. Most people start their product research using a search engine. If your articles and website are not appearing in the first few pages of the search results, they won’t be seen. Strategically-placed keywords and meta-tags, along with genuine link-building are needed to drive your content to the top of the rankings.

Market Content on Forums and Discussion Boards

Another B2B marketing tactic is spreading word of your article all over the internet by posting snippets of it on forums and discussion boards. Make sure to use boards that are related to your industry or target market. You also need to include your website and authorship, so readers and web crawlers can reference it back to your original blog.

Content Marketing with Marketing Automation

There are countless ways to gain exposure for your content and most of which will be enhance when it is incorporated with a marketing automation strategy. Marketing automation software streamlines the process without distracting from the customer engagement. It profiles your typical website audience and then develops content that taps into their needs and interests.

Always keep in mind that your content has to be as strong as your B2B content marketing tactics, otherwise readers will be disappointed and less likely to follow you in the future. Business buyers are savvy consumers and it is important to create and promote content they truly want to read.

Lead Liaison

Email Open Rate: What Are Your Clients Seeing?

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Email Open RatesIf you’re familiar with email marketing, you know the average email open rate for any standard campaign is between 12-20%. This rate varies by industry – a real estate company newsletter may not do as well as a coupon retailer, for instance. It’s important to have a firm grasp on how your client base uses your content and continually provide them with what they want to see.

How do you find out what your users want? First, try asking them. As simple as it sounds, engaging your users via social media and incentive-based surveys can get them talking to you. Once you’ve shown that you’re interested and you’re paying attention, people have a tendency to start talking. It is in this engagement that you’ll be able to ask for feedback and opinions, and tailor your marketing efforts to best suit your audience.

Email Open Rate – What About Mobile?

Over the past year or so, smartphone email opens boosted at about 80%. This means it’s especially important to ensure that your emails and other content can be viewed by your readers in the format they prefer.  You might be amazed at how many small businesses don’t take the time to discover how their readers would like to receive content.

The best way to get an idea of how delivery can affect your email open rate is to view your email on different devices. Try to make it a point to open the emails you’re sending on a PC, tablet and a smartphone as well as using different email programs. Most email service providers give you a preview of what different email messages look like in different formats.

Make Sure You’re Looking

Don’t just open your emails in several different places- use email metrics tracking to get an idea of how your clients are opening them. Even if your emails are beautiful, you’re still wasting time if your emails go to a smartphone where your click through links aren’t visible on different browsers. This can cause your email open rate to plummet – once a potential client knows he or she can’t open an email from you a smartphone, they’re probably not going to give you the benefit of waiting to get in front of a computer to open your content. They’ll most likely delete your email.

It’s important to determine how your users are translating your content into something that supplements their lives – even if it’s only during the minute or two they take to open and read your email. To determine how clients are using your email marketing based on all your other marketing efforts, it’s a good idea to look into marketing automation and determine the value of your campaigns per client. The Lead Liaison team can help you do this. Contact us today for an assessment of your advertising assets so we can determine how to help you!

We also recommend Search Engine Land’s Free SEO Primer. And remember: Email open rate is important, but understanding how your users access and read your content can make all the difference!