"And, lo, the buyer moved online and every marketer scrambled to reach him but they needed these 6 things to get there."
-Anonymous B2B Marketer
Talking about your buyers moving online has become such a cliché that it is no longer mentioned. The Internet has become a veritable marketplace where rapid searching and tabbed browsing allows buyers to easily research diverse topics and skilfully navigate the overflow of information. Through the constant hum of company blogs, videos, tweets and Facebook updates you must somehow make a meaningful connection with your future buyers.
This blog details 6 things you need to make that connection with your buyers, and generate leads online.
1. Automation
The bizarre irony of automation processes is that by using impersonal digital automation software you can reach your buyer’s in a more personal way. Automatic workflows allow you to create a marketing plan for every stage of the buyer’s cycle. With an automated system that delivers an action based personalised response, your customers get the information they need for their buying decisions, when they need it. Current trends in website design are allowing companies to customise their site content to different categories of visitors. A marketing automation system is essentially a 24/7 employee that delivers content to buyers on demand.
2. Content
You have probably heard about Content Marketing and its new throne, indeed its supremacy is currently being stressed by most marketing firms across Australia and abroad.
You think, “Isn’t everything content?” Technically yes it is. Every piece of visual and audio material is content. The term ‘content marketing’ has in some ways simply given a name to a process that has been around for a long time. However, the meaning of ‘content’ in content marketing is different to its original one - it refers to the concept of buyer-focused material.
Marketers will tell you content needs to tell a story, be intelligent, informative, and relevant, it must educate, entertain and even be beautiful. Everyone has their own view of what it should be but the general agreement is that ‘content’, in the marketing sense, should be focused on the user experience. It somewhat plays the influencer role online for your buyers. And because of this, content marketing strategy is a vital part of the greater marketing plan.
3. Social Media Strategy
There is a single statistic that you should consider when thinking of your social media strategy.
92% of people trust friends and family over all other forms of marketing.
Social media is the channel where your buyers share what they think, what they’ve done, what their interests are and even what they need. Through these channels, you can identify their peers and more importantly, influencers.
Not only should you listen to your buyers and engage with them, you should actively put forward content that engages with the influencers. The greatest success you can achieve in social media is to have your social media channels filled with your brand advocates.
4. SEO Strategy
This field continues to become more difficult and technical but that is not a reason to give up or not try at all. Rather it should encourage you to strive forward and stay in front of your struggling competitors.You can also take heart in a recent interview with Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert Jonathan Gebauer who recently stated that, “Good SEO is natural SEO.” Forget keyword stuffing or link buying, the best SEO strategy is one that is naturally a part of your strategy - content that is relevant to your buyers' needs.
Google echoes this and stresses the importance of natural SEO. Their latest updates seem to be taking Google towards more of a knowledge engine that answers visitors questions and attempts to assess the quality of content rather than simply listing search results. The recent success of long-tail keyword combinations shows a focus on more detailed and accurate results and possibly groundwork for the future of voice-activated search.
5. Knowledge About the Buyer’s Journey
This should underpin your efforts in all the other areas. You have to know what your buyer wants and needs to be able to meet their demands. The more you know about your buyer the more you will be equipped to create content they find interesting, optimise your site for search terms, create a successful social media channel and an automation process that meets your buyer on every step of the buyer’s journey.
6. Time
The final element that completes your online lead generation process is time. All of the above processes can be put in place reasonably quickly, but they take time to produce lasting results and constant dedication to keep them coming.
We find with a lot of our clients that time is one of the most difficult things to negotiate. Campaigns can easily stall waiting for approval from a busy business leader. If you are planning on setting up a successful online lead generation process then you need to be prepared to create a blueprint that allows you to meet all the time demands it involves and makes everyone involved aware of the requirements on them.
Those are six key points every online lead generation process should address. If you would like to read more about lead generation and inbound marketing please download our free eBook by clicking on the link below.
