Frontline Perspectives

Have you ever told someone about a funny TV commercial but couldn’t remember what product it was advertising? Some ad gurus might say it doesn’t matter whether or not you remember the brand, as long as the commercial sticks with you. Others say you really do remember — on a subconscious level — even if you think you don’t. But pretty much every marketing expert would agree that subtlety doesn’t work for B2B. Read more »

B2B social media marketers know that short URLs are a necessity. You’re constantly limited with how many characters you have for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. But the power of a long URL, with tracking and a targeted destination, is often the reality.

The answer? URL shorteners. These online tools, such as Bitly or Tiny URL, will let you paste your long url into a field on their site and instantly give you a shorter URL (about 8 to 12 characters) to the same destination – hiding your tracking, code or anything else that happens to be there. Read more »

With the world buzzing about social media, it’s easy to overlook the traditional case study or testimonial as a marketing tool and to focus instead on adding followers through Facebook and Twitter. But you don’t have to choose one or the other. In fact, testimonials might be the key to growing your social fanbase — and your fans might be your best source for new testimonials.

In a MarketingSherpa survey of B2B marketers, seeking out testimonials and case studies ranked as the #2 most effective tactic for developing marketing content — second only to repurposing information that already exists (see below). That means testimonials and case studies are the top source for new content. And once you’ve got a good one, you can share it through social and other media.  Read more »

Most marketers know that having a database is important to their organization’s marketing efforts. But creating one, maintaining it and using it effectively are much easier said than done. To ensure you’re getting the most sales from your lead generation efforts, here are seven tactical things every marketer should do right now with their marketing database…followed by one piece of advice on strategy. Read more »

By now, most B2B marketers know that creating content and establishing thought leadership — through blogs, white papers, etc. — is a critical component of marketing success. The value of nurturing prospects and driving search engine traffic has been hammered home consistently over the past decade. Each step in the evolution of the web has emphasized the importance of communication with customers and prospects via a high-quality content portfolio — from corporate website content to blogs and now social media. Read more »

If you’re still wondering about the value of using mobile platforms for business-to-business marketing, check out this new story in BtoB. According to B2B marketing expert Christina “CK” Kerley, mobile platforms deliver “the holy grail of one-to-one marketing.” She says, “what more personal media do business audiences have than their mobile devices? Further, all activity on our mobile devices is viewed as a priority. For example, SMS alerts (“texts”) are read 90% of the time and typically within three minutes of delivery. Can we say the same for any other kind of marketing?” Read more »

Unlike other content on your website, most of the information in videos cannot be read by Google or other search engines. Although it can index some of your video content, like a title and a description, anything within the video itself cannot be read and therefore won’t help your video rank well in organic search.

However, there are some steps you can take to optimize the information around your videos and maximize their visibility in search. Read more »

On March 30, 2001, Salesforce.com, the leading cloud-based sales and CRM solution, announced it would acquire Radian6, a popular social media monitoring service.  “What’s this mean to me,” you might say. We’ll tell you. But first a little refresher. Read more »

The new rules of social media series.

While on vacation this past week, I had the chance to finish Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and more) that Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business. As a long-time fan of Anne Handley of Marketing Profs, I was looking forward to hearing what she had to say about  maximizing your online presence. Read more »

+1 Basics
A couple of weeks ago, Google officially announced its long-rumored “+1” program. Comparable to the Facebook “like” button, it allows searchers with Google profiles to recommend specific search results. Other Google members will be able to see how many pluses a listing received and who among their Google contacts (from Gmail, Buzz, etc.) have recommended it. Those without Google accounts will be able to see aggregated plus information. Read more »