What are best methods to attract target B2B audiences that don't read blogs?
My target industry is industrial B2B -- which has been slow to adopt social media, even slow to climb on the LinkedIn network bus in many cases. Lots of good reasons, mostly due to senior execs who are not SMM oriented, leaving even SEO strategies by the wayside because their last company didn't do any of this stuff (actual statement from a middle market client's new CEO, 53 yr old, as he denied budget for basic SEO activities). Logic doesn't always trump deeply engrained beliefs -- or fears. And if the business leadership is wedded to old processes in sales, marketing and business development, it's a slow go to get new strategies aligned with fully integrated tactics.
As a "trusted" outside consultant, my solution has been to pitch a Beta Project that limits cost, time commitment, and risk. Of course, it may also reduce impact/results. Approving modest budgets for an 8-12 week project has been easier than getting the full web-centric strategy approved.
One big challenge is to attract target audiences to these short term tests -- to prove that they are, in fact, interested and influenced by content/insight acquired through the social network marketing channels. By compressing the "campaign" timeframe for the Beta, it makes it more difficult to get sufficient volume (either readers or conversions in whatever context is offered).
How are others dealing with this....on a budget? And do you find Beta projects work ..... or have you had success with other approaches?
- Katherine
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Blogging for B2B
Mike Volpe 2 years 48 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago
B2B audiences do read blogs. Lots of them. I work at HubSpot and we have 15,000 subscribers to our blog, which is read by marketers and business owners. Indium sells solder, and they have 9 different blogs! http://www.indium.com/blogs/ Plus www.thebridgergroup.com and www.omghub.com are B2B blogs, and there are many others.
If you are asking for how to convince a CEO or Marketing VP to start a blog at their company (or hire you to do it), then I would maybe point you in this direction: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/2921/How-to-Convince-a-CEO-to-Enter-21st-Century-Internet-Marketing.aspx
Teaching B2B decisionmakers new tricks
Katherine Canipelli 2 years 48 weeks 5 days 5 hours ago
Mike, great examples from the industrial sector! Understand that I'm a believer--and a vigorous advocate for the new tools in our marketing arsenal. Not just blogs, but Web-centric marketing that lies at the heart of Inbound Marketing. Technology has changed the game, but some guys just prefer not to learn a whole new set of rules. This extends beyond marketing--from research my firm does for B2B clients, we see many of the same head-in-the-ground behaviors in sales, operations, HR, product development, and IT. Huge suboptimization of effort as a result. There is a changeover coming, however, as newer, younger managers infiltrate senior ranks and demand that the new tools be employed.
Thanks.
What are best methods to attract target B2B audiences that don't
Michael Hartzell 2 years 48 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago
Katherine,I have had some luck with http://www.cartoonlink.com combined with SalesGenie.com. Salesgenie of course allows you to pick an address and create your own list of potential clients based on the criteria you set. Once you have a specifc list, Stu at Cartoonlink is great at creating specifc campaigns that will meet your needs.Also, Justn has a unque approach with his business at SiteFling http://sitefling.com/blog/step-by-step-system-for-getting-seo-clients/He has one the most unique and refreshing approaches I have seen. (as it deals directly with the issue of offline barrier)The world is certainly still divided... it is just as you say. Old school mixed with new school working in the same house.Best of luck.. keep me posted!Mike
Humor tickles B2B
Katherine Canipelli 2 years 48 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago
Mike, good suggestions. Clearly, mixing online and offline tactics works with the industrial B2B, with complex selling situations where big bucks and multiple touches are required to get in early before specs are firmed up and get increasingly specific to convert/close deals. Segmentation is also key here--at the firm level, with refined buyer personas, matched to buying process stage. Inbound Marketing and web-centric content marketing are ideal for managing this, in combo with dimensional direct mail and other media. Sometimes the old guard execs just don't want to deal with what they perceive as "complexity", even though they'd get higher return on investment (and return on influence) by embracing the newer tools. It's not always about $$$. A new client is pushing for a traditional "cold call" lead gen program rather than beta a simple inbound marketing approach that would have cost them less....because the CEO of this SMB industrial tech firm believes that it will work better--based on his experience as a supply chain exec who received such calls. In essence, he's wary of things he's never experienced himself. Thinking out of the box, perhaps the way around this is to target guys like him to give him the taste of what they could have. Aha! This is the campaign I need to create!
Thanks to both Mikes for being the proverbial wall to bounce things off of. Forums are good for finding solutions.
- Katherine