Content Marketing Funnel – What You Need to Know

Content Marketing Funnel

Content marketing is essential.

  • 70% of people would rather get information about a company or learn something from an article or blog post rather than from a traditional advertisement. (Source)
  • 71% of a B2B buyers review a blog during their buying journey. (Source)
  • 95% of buyers prefer working with a vendor who provides them with sufficient information to help them navigate each stage of the buying process.
  • (Source)
  • Companies with blogs see 67% more leads every month than those which do not have blogs (Source)

But B2B companies are often have several questions about content marketing

  1. What type of content should we create?
  2. How often should we create blogs?
  3. Is social media content essential? 
  4. What can we expect as the outcome?
  5. Who should we create the content for?

It is important to remember B2B companies need to leverage the power of content marketing to support their buyers through all the stages of their buying cycle. For each stage, the type of content different. Here is how your content marketing funnel can look like 

Content Marketing Funnel for B2B technology companies

If you are looking for assistance to create any and all these forms of content – let’s connect. Our team of content specialists can create extremely high-quality content with minimal or no inputs from you! 

Getting Started – B2B Marketing Strategies for Technology Companies In 2021

B2B Marketing Strategies for Technology Companies

In our previous blog, we discussed some actionable trends that mid-sized technology companies could implement in 2021.

The good part about these trends is that companies don’t have to invest heavily in marketing. All that’s required is the right strategy, the right tools, and the right resources to implement it.

In this blog, we will go a step ahead and share some easy-to-implement strategies that technology companies can use to grow their business. 

Getting Started with B2B Marketing Strategies

Content Marketing 

B2B buyers on average read 13 pieces of content before making a purchase decision. Hence, technology companies need to create high-value content that can address their questions. There should be some form of content to guide the customer through the complete buyer’s journey. The tone of the content should appear more educational and less like a sales pitch. Some of the common forms of content include – website content, blogs, eBooks, and whitepapers. 

How to get started?

  • Before developing the content, determine its objective. Is it to create awareness, is it to explain the value proposition of the content, is it to onboard new customers? 
  • Choose a topic. The topic could be an opinion piece on the industry trends or a how-to-article or an article that addresses the common challenges faced by the customer. Ensure that the content is written for humans and not the search engines. Do in-depth research and back the content with examples, quotes, statistics, etc. Provide backlinks to the source wherever necessary. There are debates on the average length of a content piece. For example, some will say that the average word count of a blog should be 2000 words; some will argue that it should be up to 500-600 words. We would recommend not obsessing about the word count and instead focusing on generating informative and easy to grasp.
  • Once the content is developed, do a basic grammar and spell check to avoid glaring errors. Finally, upload and share the content everywhere for people to see.

Social Selling 

According to a report, 93% of companies use Twitter, and 91% use LinkedIn to create brand awareness, generate leads, engage with customers, and do promotions. It is tempting to create accounts on different channels such as Instagram, Facebook, or even TikTok. However, you should select the social channel where your target audience is and not necessarily the channel with the most users. Based on our experience, for B2B technology companies, LinkedIn and Twitter seem to be the most relevant platforms.

How to get started?

  • Create easy-to-remember or easy-to-find accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn. Fill in all the company details, such as company location, offerings, company size, etc. Remember to add the company website’s link in the bio to garner traffic. Twitter, for example, drives third-most referral traffic. 
  • Post frequently and ask employees to share them to increase the impressions. The posts could be a link to a blog, eBook, a landing page, or link to an article of an external publication. It could also be other updates – such as the latest wins of the company, a client testimonial, or an important update relevant to the industry. Use relevant hashtags to get noticed. Creating a social media calendar would help the social media team to streamline the process.
  • Respond to users who take efforts to engage with the content, so they feel encouraged to engage more. Have conversations with the audience, so they feel heard.
  • Look for positive and negative feedback and address customer queries as early as possible. Set SLAs for the team, so they respond to the queries and messages within a stipulated time. 
  • Measure the efforts to understand what kind of content appeals the most to the target audience. That will help in developing future content.

Thought Leadership / Educational Webinars

The one thing that became a buzzword in 2020 was Webinar. A webinar is the web version of seminars and live shows. Due to the social distancing norms and the travel bans imposed worldwide, technology companies started conducting webinars to create brand awareness, educate prospects, and generate leads. However, webinars were being used as a part of content marketing strategy even before the pandemic. 73% of B2B marketers admitted that the webinar was the best way to gain high-quality leads.

How to get started?

  • Choose a topic that would interest the prospect and align with the company’s offerings. Get an expert speaker on board.
  • Develop the content for the webinar. Ensure that it is relevant to the prospect and does not look like a sales pitch.
  • Decide on the date, time, the platform that will be used to host the webinar. Choose a day and time when most people have lesser work commitments and can attend the webinar.
  • Promote the webinar on social media and website. Create a landing page so people can sign up for it easily.
  • Create an email workflow, such as sending a confirmation email after sign up, a reminder email before the webinar begins, and a thank you email with contact details and the recording after it runs.
  • Do a dry run with the team a day before the webinar to ensure that the logistics are in place.
  • Follow-up with the leads after the webinar.

Case Studies

B2B customers want to know if the company has the expertise and knowledge before engaging with them. Case studies offer validation and evidence to the customers. They act as social proof for the company.

How to get started?

  • Seek approval from existing or former customers if they would be comfortable with their case study published on the website and social media channels. Some customers may prefer their names to be masked. 
  • Determine the format of the case study. It could be a video testimonial from the customer or a short interview with them or a case study in text format. 
  • Follow the problem-solution-results format for the case study. Be specific about the solutions offered and add the right numbers in the results. Do not exaggerate, make tall claims, or add any content that could mislead a potential customer. Make the case study clear and concise, so the impact is clear to the prospects.
  • Get it reviewed by the customer if required, and publish it on the website and social media. It can also be used in email marketing. 

Landing Pages 

While websites offer general information about the overall company, a landing page is more product-focused or industry-specific. Its purpose is to drive conversions. So, the content has to appear different from -website content. 

How to get started?

  • Determine the purpose of the landing page. Is it to drive conversions or ask the prospect to download a whitepaper or sign up for a webinar? Write the content accordingly.
  • Make the content as concise and clear as possible. It should lead the prospect to take action. Ensure that they don’t have to search for the click on the call-to-action. It should be visible on the page. The navigation, the content, and the design of the landing page must be simple and effective enough to drive conversions.
  • If the audience is different, create different landing pages for different segments to add value. Segment them, so the right email is sent to the right audience.
  • If the landing page is being used for paid ads, ensure that it aligns with the landing page’s message.
  • Add social proof such as reviews and testimonials to add value to the page.
  • Do A/B testing to know which one works better.

Personal Branding of the CXOs

Gone are those days when CXOs were elusive and almost unreachable. Today’s CXOs are more social and approachable. They are active on Twitter and LinkedIn and even respond to people’s comments. Having a personal brand helps CXOs establish themselves as an authority in their industry and build trust among prospective customers. They can also leverage their network to stay connected with ex-customers, the existing ones, and the prospects. 

How to get started?

  • Create a profile on Twitter and/or LinkedIn. Ensure that the profile is completely updated with a bio, recent photograph, professional and education experience, and other necessary details.
  • Post regularly. The posts could be important news related to the company or a personal opinion on the trends that dominate the industry, or links to the blogs or other company content. 
  • Write a guest blog or guest article for third-party websites related to the industry to get established as a thought leader. 
  • Network with peers and engage with prospects to establish a relationship. Ensure that the opinions are aligned with the values of the company. 

The sales cycle of B2B marketing is longer than B2C. A single deal could take as much as 9 months to get closed. An average of 7 people is involved in making buying decisions. It can be particularly difficult for technology companies as they have no tangible evidence of their offerings. So, companies should not expect overnight or quick results from B2B marketing. Patience, consistent marketing efforts, and continuous measurement of its effectiveness are necessary. Companies must use a combination of the above strategies and wait for some months to see results. However, merely implementing all the above strategies without a concrete plan will be a futile exercise. Here are the next steps to get a positive outcome:

  • Set goals – it could be creating awareness or converting leads into customers. Set SMART goals, i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, so it’s easy to implement them.
  • Set the budget and seek permission from the management– This will help plan the strategies accordingly. 
  • Understand the customers – Understand their business challenge, decision-making process, the solution they seek, and accordingly plan the strategy. Be where the customer is! 
  • Test and measure the outcome – Test different forms of content and different channels. Measure the results and decide what works best for the business.
  • Align sales with marketing – Working in collaboration will help in closing deals faster. 

Need help in planning and implementing the B2B strategy for 2021? We can help.

Actionable B2B Marketing Trends 2021 for Mid-sized Technology Companies

B2B Marketing Trends 2021

2020 may have been a rough year for all of us, but technology companies did a great job at continuing the business even through the peak of the pandemic. 

2020 was the year when technology companies looked beyond networking at events or getting recommendations from someone and embraced B2B marketing willingly. According to a LinkedIn report, 76% of marketers were compelled to change their key objectives to align with the current situation. 

As an agency that has supported B2B-focused mid-sized technology companies in establishing themselves as thought leaders of their industry for the last ten years, we believe that now is the right time to invest time and efforts into B2B marketing.

When it comes to B2B marketing, let’s take a look at some of the unique challenges of mid-sized technology companies, especially those which are just starting with their marketing efforts.

  • Don’t have big budgets for ads: It is natural to do paid ads to get more leads. While it might work for B2C, it might not necessarily work well for B2B companies. A mid-sized company may have a limited budget, while a single ad campaign could cost the company $1000-$2000 per month for ads. The returns are low too, with the CTR being as low as 3.10%. Even those clicks may not necessarily convert as the sales cycle in B2B is longer than B2C. That apart, unless the company has first established a strong online presence, spending on ads would not lead to any benefits. Hence, they need to think of alternatives to get more leads.
  • Creating multiple content formats is not always possible: It is tempting to create various content formats to gain diversified traffic. However, companies must remember creating multiple formats such as videos and podcasts can be time-consuming, expensive, and require people with specific skillsets. Companies that are just starting with their online marketing efforts need to prioritize where they want to spend their energies.  
  • They need focused marketing efforts: Mid-sized companies need to start with specific marketing goals, so that they can focus their marketing efforts on achieving them instead of trying everything and seeing no results in the end.
  • Marketing needs to support sales efforts: Marketing and sales can no longer work in silos – especially for B2B companies. They have to help each other to drive business and revenue growth. 57% of companies believe that collaboration between marketing and sales will advance marketing’s contribution to sales success and generate more ROI. 
  • CXO’s personal network plays a critical role: A CXO of a mid-sized technology company would have a strong network with other C-level executives of other companies. They can tap on this gold mine by posting their views and news on social media and interacting with other peers actively. Building a personal brand is imperative for creating a positive impact.
  • Marketing needs to be a self-running effort: With limited bandwidth, time, and budget, mid-sized technology companies may face challenges in running campaigns and achieving marketing goals. They need to, therefore, focus on creating a self-sustainable marketing plan that can run with minimal effort and resources. 

Now that we have set the ground rules, let’s look at the actionable trends that mid-sized technology companies can implement easily.

B2B Marketing Trends in 2021 For Mid-sized Technology Companies

High-value content

80% of decision-makers prefer to get information from an article instead of an ad. 

Hence, technology companies must focus on developing high-value content such as whitepapers, eBooks, and blogs. Cover topics such as the latest trends and industry news with unique take from experts, solution-specific content that addresses the company’s pain points, principal content such as prominent use cases or latest product updates, etc.  Whitepapers are also a great way to launch email campaigns. 

While creating high-value, evidence-based, and research-backed content is important, it is also equally important to create content regularly. Developing a content calendar and planning content distribution is the best way to ensure that content is published periodically. Publishing regularly will help the company to create brand awareness and also increase organic traffic to the website over a period. Ensure that there is content available at every stage of the customer journey such as attraction, consideration, and conversion, so the decision-makers are guided through the process.

Robust social media presence

According to the Harvard Business Review, 90% of C-level executives ignore cold outreach. So, those cold sales calls and emails will no longer help in generating leads. 

Instead, marketers and the sales team must focus on social selling. 84% of C-level and VP-level customers use social media to make purchase decisions. Posting on social media regularly will help technology companies to create brand awareness, network with prospects in an organic manner, and humanize the brand. Some types of posts that work well on social media include – posts from C-level executives, trends and challenges related to the industry or target customers, regular product principal content updates, new releases or wins, etc. 

Plan your blogging and social media posts using a social media calendar and regular schedule to strengthen its presence. Monitor its outcome regularly to know what works and what doesn’t and use those insights to create a solid social media strategy.

Webinars or live events on social media

Typically, technology companies leverage trade shows and industry conferences to network and get leads for their company. However, last year, it took a beating with most trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences getting canceled due to the pandemic. 

Companies can now conduct webinars and live events on social media to create awareness of their offering and generate leads. 46.5% of companies confirmed an increase in webinar hosting during the pandemic. Webinars are cost-effective, remove geographical barriers, and it’s easy to get the best speakers to speak to prospects across the world. Most importantly, webinars are generally attended by prospects who are in the consideration stage. So, the chances of conversions are high after the webinar is completed. 

Focus on personal branding

We cannot stress enough about the importance of personal branding. 

82% of people are more likely to trust a company whose leadership is active on social media. 

Encourage the C-level executives to actively post on social media platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. It will not just give a face to the company, but it will also help gain the attention of customers and investors. The best part is the leaders do not have to do anything elaborate to build their personal brand. Even small efforts such as sharing a personal opinion on the trends taking place in the industry, sharing personal or professional anecdotes and lessons learned from it, and writing an authoritative piece of article can help the leader establish their reputation as a thought leader.

Read more about personal branding in our previous blog here 

Build credibility with social proof

According to Edelman’s 2020 Trust Barometer Survey, 70% of respondents said that trust is more important for them when dealing with brands. To gain the trust of prospects, technology companies will have to show social proof to back themselves as experts in the industry. These social proofs could be in the form of client testimonials, case studies, or industry-recognized certifications. These will enable companies to demonstrate their expertise and impact on prospects. Ensure that the feedback and ratings are collected from customers regularly and publish them on the website and social media to show value and build trust. 

2021 – The Road Ahead 

There are so many things that companies can do to build their brand and get more leads. But with limited time, bandwidth, and budget, mid-sized technology companies must focus on getting their foundation strategy right before experimenting with other trending tactics. We would recommend beginning with these three actionable tactics:

  • Write high-value content regularly
  • Establish a strong presence on social media
  • Empower the C-level executives to share their opinion on social media and leverage their network

We have created a post-pandemic marketing plan – it outlines a rescue recipe for all kinds of mid-sized technology companies. Read it here

These tactics will take time to show results. But our experience of working with some of the best mid-sized technology companies has demonstrated that with consistency and quality content, companies can even supersede their goals and build a long-term relationship with their customers at a fraction of costs and efforts. 

Now that you have survived 2020, it’s time to grow in 2021

Post Pandemic Marketing Strategy

2020 changed everything – especially sales and marketing.

The old strategies, tactics, and tricks won’t work now – no matter how hard you try. So, what should you do instead to catch the eye of your target audience?

This “Post-Pandemic Marketing Plan” resource is for you if you are

  • A partner of global product companies like SAP, IBM, ServiceNow, Atlassian, Oracle, etc.
  • A company with a specialized set of service offerings in niche areas like IoT, AI, Blockchain, etc.
  • A company with a ready-to-launch product
  • In a highly competitive space like s/w development and testing, app development, cloud etc.

This resource may highlight what exactly has changed and what could be the “rescue recipe” for you.

http://i-midastouch.com/post-pandemic-marketing-plan/

The Immense Value of CEO’s Personal Branding on Social Media

Personal Branding

In a previous article, we had talked about how the CEOs of B2B companies can leverage the power of social media to widen their reach by effectively using channels like LinkedIn and Twitter. 

The company CEOs’ active presence and engagement on the social platforms help amplify the marketing message and enhance branding because the people are more interested in buying from ‘people’ and not just some ‘brand’.  

Did you know? Over 90% of customers trust recommendations from someone they know (Nielson). 82% of people are more likely to trust a company whose leadership team engages with social media.

Why should you consider being a ‘social’ CEO?

Many CEOs argue that they have a lot to take care of than spending time on social media. But something that they don’t realize is, being active on social media platforms is a part of their work, as personal branding will help them build trust in the minds of their target audience. You can take a look at a report by CNBC about the 10 most ‘active’ CEOs on social media to understand why you need to be there too. 

Being a ‘social’ CEO doesn’t really mean that you have to engage in personal interactions with your customer/clients on social media. It just makes you a real ‘face’ of your company, which, till now, was just represented by a graphic logo. As a CEO with a strong personal brand, you can help amplify the company’s message and augment the marketing campaigns. It can also help you express your unique ideas and insights on social media handles. Chances are, if your followers like you, your ideals, values, and gain sufficient information from your insights, they are going to opt for your products/services too. 

Let’s give you a detailed idea about the immense value of personal branding for the CEOs on social media. Scroll on!

It builds trust

Personal branding helps you create a reliable presence on social media. It gives your business the human touch that it desperately needs to attract more people towards it. As the CEO is one of the most influential ambassadors of the brand, their presence has a strong impact on the target audience. Creating a personal profile on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter can improve your branding efforts as much as the business profiles of your products/services. The importance of the CEO’s reputation can propel the business by helping the customers/clients connect with the brand on a human level. 

It helps you attract talent

The millennials are more attracted to companies with an impressive and authentic personal brand than those with nothing apart from logos. If you can establish yourself as a leader and motivator on social media, you’ll attract numerous young minds, who align with your mission, vision, and values. However, it’s important that you actually live those values that you claim on, as authenticity sparks reliability, failing which, it may even put your integrity in question. For example, if you claim to provide an open ground for sharing ideas for business growth, you should provide a platform for the same, so that the youth can come and discuss their unique ideas with you without any hesitance. That way, you can not only find the right people to take your business to the next level but also make them promote your brand through word-of-mouth. Who doesn’t like to share an idea that they have been an active part of? We guess you got the cue!

It helps you get in front of the investors

When you share your beliefs and ideas on a social media platform, potential investors may also take an interest in your business. As the investors seek confidence in the core team before they invest their money in a business, personal branding can help you achieve that. With your presence on social media, you’re in the public eye, which enhances reliability on your company’s behalf. When you share your story, mission, vision, expertise, and ideas on a public platform, you easily get on the radar of potential investors and create a seamless communication channel for them to approach you. 

Being at the forefront of your business gives you certain responsibilities to fulfill, and you can do that through personal branding on social media. Promote your ideas and brand, publicize your opinions and expertise, and be the most important advocate of your business by staying active on the social media channels. In today’s digitized world, such small efforts can go a long way to enhance your brand visibility. 

Double-Down on Content – Types of Content B2B Companies Can Create Now

B2B Content Marketing

“The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered”. – Michael Brenner 

Buying can be out of the question at this moment, but providing value was, is, and will always be the priority. 

The last few months have been a roller-coaster ride for many businesses. With all the plans and strategies of the year gone for a toss, business owners are left with nothing but assumptions of what will serve best for the business right now. Many companies have been hit directly by the pandemic, bringing sales down, but this is not the time to sit idle and let the storm pass. 

Instead, forward-thinking businesses have started concentrating on gaining the trust of their customers by helping them overcome the crisis and enhancing brand visibility. And what another way to do that than developing a robust content marketing strategy? 

A report by Siege Media revealed that 92% of marketers consider content as a significant business asset, and 56% of companies want to increase their content creation budget. 

With the pandemic, it may seem that everything has become blurry and indefinite, and businesses might be feeling clueless about how to go ahead with their marketing plans. 

Well, we have a solution to that. 

While content is still the most important avenue to increase your reach and engage with your potential customers, you need to improvise your content marketing strategies to increase their relevance in the current situation. 

Let’s give you an idea about the types of content you can create at this time to enhance your visibility without sounding like a salesman. 

User stories – Something more than testimonials and less than case studies 

Create relevant stories from the perspective of your target audience, and the less you make it about your brand, the better. These stories shouldn’t be all about something that you did, but what your users were experiencing and how ‘they’ managed to resolve it with little help from you. ‘You’ should be the secondary factor in these stories, aiming to provide confidence and motivation to your target audience. Make the reader feel connected with the user in the story. Thus, the content should focus more on how you helped the users achieve their objectives without undermining their contribution or fight against the problems. This will provide you with the validation and appreciation of being the ‘people’s company. 

Entertainment – Something to make them happier about their lives

Everyone is going through a tough phase, and this is not the right time to hard-sell your products/services. While it’s always important to create content relevant to your business, you can improvise the same to incorporate some humor and entertainment for your users to enjoy the essence of it while also connecting with your brand.  

Of course, it’s not that every B2B business can possibly produce content on how to go on a date during the lockdown or how amazing your pets can be, you can always think out-of-the-box to improve the entertainment quotient in your blogs, videos or infographics. Providing valuable information on a lighter note is the key to achieving the results you seek. 

Some of the ways to do this could be to use expressive images that evoke emotion, use funny videos, use puns in writing, and whenever possible, adapt informal writing style.

Informative content – Something to help them overcome their current problems

In the #NewNormal, businesses have been facing new challenges that they were not prepared to deal with. If your company offers solutions to help them address such ‘new’ challenges, you can develop content that focuses on these and how to deal with them. You can make sure to let your target audience know that you are sensitive to their problems, and are there to help, in case they need any. 

Keep in mind two things while developing informative content around the ‘new’ problems that your target audience are facing. One is, the content should resonate with your business, and secondly, it shouldn’t necessarily exude fear. It should alert the users about something that they may need to be prepared for in the coming days. There’s a difference. If you try to feed on their fears, they will get repulsed by you. On the contrary, if you can make them believe that they can rely on your services for solving those issues, you’ll get the engagement you’re looking for. 

For example, when, worldwide, people started working remotely, Zoom, the well-known video conferencing tool, created an in-depth COVID-19 resource to help people across various use cases such as remote working, online teaching, etc. The resource contains useful material for various such user segments and helps them with the ‘new’ challenges. 

Useful content – Something to help them get answers to their questions 

B2B events and conferences used to the occasions for sellers to connect their potential buyers and present their solutions. For the buyers as well, events were useful for knowing about the latest offerings, find solutions to their problems, and connect with new people. Obviously, with events getting canceled, this opportunity is no longer available. Social distancing is also making sales meetings impossible. 

However, it does not mean that companies no longer have business problems to solve. Your B2B buyers have now turned online looking for solutions to their problems. They are searching for answers to their questions. If you help them with those answers, propose solutions, and appear as experts, it is very likely that they will consider you as a knowledge partner rather than just another vendor. 

It is obvious that this is not the time to sell. This is time to nurture. Conversions will help you garner the visibility that your brand needs in the cut-throat competition of tomorrow. If you’re on the list of your target audience, they will seek you out when the first phase of the crisis gets over. So, develop content that they can relate to and not the ones that you need to push down their throats to sell your services/products. 

4 Places To Find The Cash For Your Upcoming (But Necessary) Marketing Campaigns

Even during a worldwide crisis, your business must grow. You have your priorities right, and the need is immediate.

But even as the importance of increasing your visibility on digital platforms grows more obvious by the day, you may wonder, ‘How will I fund a meaningful marketing strategy?’

Let’s look at where you can find the cash to fund your necessary marketing endeavours. 

The expenses of flagship events

You may have planned your event calendar at the beginning of the year and allocated substantial funds there. Be it becoming sponsors of the mega-events of your product principals or arranging for your own events, exhibitions, and launches, none of these stand much chance of coming around for the next 12-18 months. Of course, you’re not alone in this. Many industry biggies like, Apple, Dell World, Atlassian, DrupalCon, NVidia, Oracle, Microsoft, and others have been forced to cancel their flagship events because of the pandemic. These companies are moving online as a way to reach their audience and maintain visibility. 

So, what will happen to all those funds that you had allocated for your event plans? Use them online. Add bandwidth to create content, liven up your social media presence, and build an impactful personal brand for your CxOs. Use the online medium to establish your brand identity and reach a relevant audience. When the time is ripe, this enhanced visibility will drive an inevitable increase in your customer base. 

Savings from canceled business trips

Have you depended on a chain of business trips to meet your clients, or your international partners each year? If so, there’s little chance of that happening for a while now. Even when lockdowns are lifted, the costs of travel will increase by leaps and bounds and remain so for quite some time. Mandatory quarantine, more expensive flights, and more reluctance in accepting invites for face to face meetings are here to stay. They will increase the cost of travel and reduce its impact. This is not a wise way to spend your cash any longer. 

You can easily use your travel budget on your structured marketing efforts to reach out to more people and enhance your visibility. Of course, reduced travel also adds time to the credit column! Beside developing blogs, newsletters, infographics, and research papers, you can also create interactive videos, podcasts, and customer success stories online to help people know your value proposition better. These strategies won’t cost you a fortune but pay huge dividends without you or your employees having to risk their lives by travelling. 

Expenses for client/customer entertainment

According to a survey by Cvent in 2018 with about 3000 corporate event planners, 52% said that their event budgets keep increasing every year. Another report by the event manager blog revealed that big corporate meetings spend about $1,294 per participant on average. Further, international visitors (potential clients or stakeholders), who are invited to these events generate about 21.8% of the spending in travel expenses, 24.6% in shopping and recreation, and 26.5% in entertainment. 

So, you see how much you spend on holding those parties, corporate gatherings, and for entertaining your visitors, who may or may not turn into potential clients? As you can imagine, no travel cuts both ways. Just like you’re likely to cut travel back, your customers and prospects are also likely to cut back on travel to visit you. While you focus on creating meaningful connections with these people in other ways, remember that you can now use these funds effectively and enhance your marketing strategies, a smart move to establish your brand presence online. It’s the smart thing to do. 

Office infrastructural development 

Did you think about redoing the interiors of your office or of shifting to a new office this year? Well, as most of your employees are working from home, what chance of that happening? Large IT companies like TCS and Tech Mahindra have announced that they intend for overwhelming numbers of their employees to work from home. When the employees are happy (no travel, more work-life balance) and they are uber-productive from home, why get them back into an office at all?

Save on that swanky office. Invest the resources that you had kept aside for the same in your marketing efforts to help your business survive and thrive. 

There is no longer any doubt that digital channels like content marketing, social media, and personal branding of the CxOs are the only way to become and stay visible in the eye-line of your target audience. Until now. if your key objection was the budget, then that should no longer be the case. 

We are in the news!

Disruptive Agency of the Year

We recently won the Gold award in the “Disruptive Agency of the Year” category at the Indian Agency Awards and Summit.

AgencyCon, an initiative by Social Samosa, was dedicated to the unsung heroes of the marketing & advertising world. An eminent jury of veterans of the Ad and Digital Marketing world selected the winners through a rigorous selection process.

The news is widely covered through various publications –

ANI – https://www.aninews.in/news/business/midas-touch-wins-disruptive-agency-of-the-year-award-at-agencycon20190503121407/

Business Standard – https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/midas-touch-wins-disruptive-agency-of-the-year-award-at-agencycon-119050300335_1.html

PTI – http://www.ptinews.com/pressrelease/34938_press-subMidas-Touch-Wins–Disruptive-Agency-of-the-Year–Award-at-AgencyCon-Indian-Agency-Awards-and-Summit

UNI India – http://www.uniindia.com/-midas-touch-wins-disruptive-agency-of-the-year-award-at-agencycon-indian-agency-awards-and-summit/newsvoir/news/1584597.html

The Week – https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/business/2019/05/03/pwr6–midas%20touch%20consultants.html

Business Today – https://www.businesstoday.in/pti-feed/midas-touch-wins-%93disruptive-agency-of-the-year%94-award-at-agencycon-indian-agency-awards-and-summit/story/342841.html

Dalal Street Investment Journal – https://www.dsij.in/NewsDetails/FileName/newsvoir_press_release_11776

B2B companies – Here’s how to go about creating a Digital Impact

B2B Social Media ROI

Unless you’re living under a rock, you have a digital presence. B2B companies today too have fallen for the wide universe that the internet has opened up. Social Media is no longer a tool just for shiny and bright B2C companies. As we move deeper into an information-hungry age, the B2B sales landscape becomes even more complex. With new and disruptive technologies changing the way businesses operate and make business decisions, B2B marketers today have to give their marketing strategies a bump to survive in this digital age.

Having realized the changing landscape of B2B sales, most companies are taking their digital initiatives seriously and are making a social presence. 89% of marketers are using content marketing as a strategy. With the rise of the millennials, almost 71% of B2B researches are starting with generic Google searches. Forrester states that 82% of customers view five or more pieces of content from a winning vendor. Clearly having a digital strategy is essential to navigate today’s challenging B2B landscape. However, it is even more essential to think about digital impact.

A digital marketing strategy is more than a Twitter and Facebook presence. It is more than publishing two blogs and one whitepaper a month. It is more than Google AdWords and PPC campaigns. You can have a digital marketing strategy with all this but will it be a good strategy…one that will create your voice in the cold world of the internet? But what does “creating a digital impact” mean?

  • More people from your target customers will know about you, your skills
  • You will be perceived as experts or thought-leaders
  • Your target customers will respond more warmly to your sales outreach efforts

So, if creating a digital impact is a valid business goal -then how do you go about achieving that goal?

Value v/s Entropy

Organizations who jump on the digital bandwagon without preparation are often the ones who do not realize the ‘value’ in these initiatives. This is primarily because digital marketing just becomes one of the tick boxes on your checklist, something you do just because others are doing it. Submerged in entropy, B2B organizations end up imitating what competition is doing and as a result, have to be content with average outcomes.

What is your purpose?

Today’s constantly evolving market demands context. Unless you are contextual you cannot be relevant. Organizations thus have to identify the purpose behind their digital initiatives. What is the objective of their social presence? What do you stand to establish? What do you stand to achieve? Are your objectives relevant to your target audience? Have you assessed what the audience wants? Asking these questions become imperative to create a strong digital strategy as this helps in setting the right narrative to your digital journey.

What are you talking about?

Organizations often complain that they do not see enough engagement on their social channels. This often occurs because creating a strong digital presence is also about understanding that it is not always about talking about your products and services but to establish your expertise. This can only be done by understanding the problems that your audience experiences and then being generous with information that can help them address their problem.

Content is kind, but context remains God

When it comes to curating content, the objective is not to just curate content that is great to read. It is about creating content that is contextual, readable, relatable and understandable. The purpose of content marketing is not to boast, “see, my blog is so great”, but to create content that is helpful, organic and in line with what the user needs to read. Why create a complicated whitepaper when that same information will be disseminated better in a blog series? That being said, understanding the nuances of content types becomes essential here. There are some topics that have to be covered as whitepapers because the purpose behind creating them is different.

Measure – The right engagement metrics matter

Engaging with the community on the right social channels is also essential for creating a digital impact. Understanding how to leverage social channels to talk to the target audience, paying a close attention to what concerns are affecting this demographic, the kind issues they need resolutions for, etc. are great starting points to start a conversation. Don’t hoard your knowledge, share it…because only when you become generous with sharing knowledge will you be perceived as knowledge experts and thought leaders. Your content and social strategy has to consider all these points and then some, in order to create blogs and other associated collaterals that will create engagement.

If this blog has answered some of your questions, watch this space for more to learn how you can create a digital impact.