My answer was simple. Although this seems like the most efficient process, I’ve found that linking different sites actually stunts your social media growth because it also links your timing. Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the numbers of posts, status updates or tweets per hour and should be scheduled accordingly. Posting on your sites at the same time, every time is not in your best interest.

For example, Twitter is more effective the more you use it. The more you tweet, the more followers you gain. The exception to this rule? The average click through rate per hour decreases after 2 links – meaning, if you want someone to click through to your valuable thought leadership, that should be your only tweet for an hour. If you’re syndicating general information that you don’t necessarily own, tweet as often as you like.

Facebook is different. To get your posts liked on Facebook, only post once every other day. Unlike Twitter, which by nature is a constant stream of updates, Facebook users are more easily bombarded by information and less likely to like your information if you send it too frequently.

Each social media tool has a different best practice in terms of the time of day that posts, status updates and tweets are most effective. For Twitter, late in the day and later in the week are the most retweetable times. But for Facebook, weekends are the best time for sharing.

So what’s the best solution? Focus your content.

Start by publishing a blog and post it on Facebook once every other day. Re-purpose that post for Twitter and tweet throughout the day with additional information about the same topic – even repost the same blog with different lead-ins multiple times. Then, mix in other timely stories and post as often as possible. If it helps, make an editorial calendar with the number of posts per day for each social media tool.

If you’re farther a long with your social media following, try an integration solution like Hootsuite. This tool is more than a simple social media tool that sends one post to multiple sites at the same time. It allows the user to send updates to multiple places at various times and also allows for scheduled postings in advance.

What schedule works best for you?

B2B marketing can and should be clever, but it ultimately needs to be more direct than B2C marketing. Your favorite soda company probably isn’t going to run an ad that simply tells you to “go buy the soda now,” but a trusted business consultant,  service provider or component manufacturer might benefit from that kind of directness. Even viral B2B marketing has to do more than just get people talking; it has to motivate people to respond. And you can’t do that with hints or mere cleverness. You have to do it with clear calls to action.

Studies show that a B2B call to action online or in an email, that uses the phrase “click here” gets a higher response rate than one using the word “submit,” “download” or “register.” These last three words imply that more work is involved, but really the only work you want your viewer to do — at least for starters — is click. That’s something everyone can do without thinking, so they’re more likely to do it.

Clear calls to action are especially important in social media, where your viewer is inundated with messages from numerous sources. It’s easy for a subtle or indirect call to action to get lost in the flood, so it’s best to use plain language to tell your viewer what to do. For example, research shows that if you want someone to comment on your blog post, just ask them in those exact words. If you want someone to retweet, say, “please retweet.” In fact, using the full phrase instead of the “please RT” abbreviation increases retweets by up to four times.

In marketing, we’re sometimes tempted to make things more complicated than they need to be. But we should take our cue from the research. Beating around the bush just doesn’t work. Simple, clear calls to action do. And hey, that should make our job easier.

So, with all that in mind… please comment on this post!

Every company brought into the fold has the potential to add both. Your decisions — to keep an old logo, to merge two names into something totally new, to add qualifiers like “a division of _______,” and so on — should maximize equity and minimize confusion.

For instance, the decision to keep a new acquisition logo on your site “because we did it with the last three acquisitions and we should be consistent” is wrong. Keeping a new logo on your site “because it’s a positive and highly recognizable identity in a new region for us” is the right decision.

Also, remember that a brand is not simply conveyed by the presence of a logo. The best way to leverage each new acquisition for the most equity and least confusion needs to be defined by a comprehensive plan for each acquisition — not by a series of small decisions made out of context of each other.

What questions do you have about branding during an acquisition?

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.

These websites have other benefits, as well:

Tracking. Bitly has an information page that reveals all of the analytics from your link. After you make a link, copy it and a “+” into a browser. You’ll find a new page that breaks down all the traffic your link has gotten – number of clicks, referring sites, times and dates.

Consolidation. Forgot the short link you created a week ago? Plug in your extended link and bitly will find your old link and group the tracking together. This helps you see different referring traffic, test different mediums, times of the day, days of the week, etc.

QR Code Generation. Each time you create a short URL using bitly, it automatically generates a QR code for your link on the info page. Use a mixture of the shortened URL and the QR code to measure all of your traffic to the same link.

Customization. Although you need to sign in, Bitly allows you to create custom short URLs which are beneficial for any marketing project. Use keywords or core concepts to your campaign to make the URL as easy as possible for your visitors. And remember, the best URLs are under 10 characters because they are easiest to remember.

The best thing about these tools? They’re generally free! They’re also well-used and work well within all of the social media outlets so you shouldn’t have any issues between sites.

Have you used a URL shortener? Which site do you like best?

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. 

A recent BlueGlass blog post offers some great examples of ways to repurpose Twitter testimonials on your website and in print ads. Imagine a page — on screen or on paper — full of positive product reviews from your clients. Or a widget right on your home page featuring a tweet from a satisfied user. Ask your customers to provide these testimonials as part of every sale or service call. You’ll generate plenty of new promotional content in no time.

Testimonials are a great marketing tool for several reasons. Not only do they bolster your credibility, but they give your clients added exposure. A smattering of testimonials across industry segments can also highlight the variety of your product and service applications. You can follow up on short testimonials and develop them into in-depth case studies. Ultimately, a collection of testimonials and case studies will help persuade prospects to buy — and to then offer a testimonial about it, of course!

Got an example of a socialmonial that worked (or didn’t)? We’d like to hear about it!

First, it’s helpful to understand how these two approaches differ.

The Marketing Approach…

…is owned by a person or people in the marketing or communications department.

…is often available primarily on the corporate website, the company’s LinkedIn or Facebook pages, and / or on a designated YouTube channel.

…is relevant to the audience but subtly promotes the sponsoring company or their product

…tends to still be a one-way conversation between the organization and the audience.

The Journalist Approach…

…can be owned by anyone within the company or even a freelance journalist.

…provides content that improves peoples’ understanding of their industry and helps them do their jobs better.

…acknowledges that audiences have grown tired of content that is really marketing material in disguise.

…provides content that may or may not have anything to do with your company, products or services.

So which approach is better? There’s a raging debate about that right now among thought leaders. Many insist that it’s time to move beyond content marketing and into a more journalistic approach, with the main goal to improve readers’ lives. They hold the belief that this will result in improved SEO and loyalty anyway, so you should do well by doing good. For now, a combination of both approaches seems to make the most sense. These tips can help you refine your thought leadership and social media strategies:

• Consider taking social media out of marketing and opening it up to customers and other employees. This type of “citizen journalism” can result in relevant, authentic content that really taps into what your customers want and need.
• Make sure someone within your organization is commenting on, and adding more content to, the other primary social media space that people in your industry follow.
• Think about working with a professional writer who could interview industry leaders and write articles that don’t, even subtly, tie back to your offering. This builds credibility and trust with your audience who will appreciate the information and the fact that they aren’t being sold to at the same time.
• Keep up with more traditional social media activities, such as maintaining a LinkedIn presence, offering product tutorials on your YouTube channel, authoring white papers, offering special promotions and more. All of these things are as important now as they’ve ever been.

In the end, we’re still marketers. We still need to sell our products and services. Social media changed how we do that. And we adapted, but now things are changing again. Audiences are savvier and demand more value for their attention. If you don’t have something new, important and engaging to share, you won’t hold that attention for very long. So the time is right to up your social media game and include a more objective, journalistic approach that will position you as an industry leader. You’ll have interested eyeballs coming back to read your content week after week.

How do you develop your online content? Share your strategies and tips in the comments.

1. Profile your existing customers to understand exactly what a good customer is. This sounds simple, but many companies haven’t taken the time to do this. Your customer profile should include business demographics (or “workographics” as MarketSense calls them).  SIC code, NAICs code, revenue, employee size, branches, decision maker and influencer titles, association memberships, trade show attendance and relevant publications are just some of the many data points that can help you understand your market segments. Create the foundation of your marketing database by mapping every lead against this profile.
2. Every lead, from every source, should go into your marketing database. Storing all your leads in a central location allows you to truly segment and analyze opportunities. Don’t fall into the trap of having some leads go directly to the sales team, some to marketing and some to inside sales. Soon, you’ll lose track of how many leads you’ve gotten, where they went and what happened to them.
3. Qualify every lead that comes in.  Not all leads are created equal, and understanding what is “sales-ready” versus long-term can keep the sales team focused on good opportunities instead of chasing every prospect that raises a hand. Qualification comes from having great landing pages where prospects answer several quick questions about their application, need and even budget. It can also come from a follow-up email, or a call after an inquiry to gather additional information.
4. Have a clearly defined fulfillment process for each lead source. Don’t let leads sit. Determine whether e-fullfillment or print fulfillment is needed. What sales collateral should be included? Personalize it with the prospect’s name, reference their inquiry and provide the contact information for their local sales rep. And most importantly, define the time frame.
5. Have a process to gather sales feedback on all leads. Work with your sales management team to set expectations for feedback on ALL leads. Determine what information is needed, when it’s expected and how. Mapping this out with your sales management team up front will ensure you can do a full ROI analysis on lead-generation campaigns, and focus your time and efforts on the most effective lead sources.
6. Keep your marketing database clean. This is extremely important, as old and bad data can be costly for an organization.  Make sure the current information has been “cleaned” (standardized, deduped, etc.) and checked against a current NCOA (National Change of Address) database. Any email bounces from email contacts should also be noted in the database. Not only can you waste time and money sending communications to out-of-date contacts, but the data can skew your analysis of opportunities.
7. Implement a nurturing program for long-term leads. Statistically, 45% of leads will purchase something within the next 12 to 18 months. Your sales team is rarely going to be able to make contact for that long (whether they mean to, should or are even required to). Use a combination of email, direct mail and telemarketing tactics to create ongoing touch points with prospects to make sure that when they are ready to purchase, your organization will be the one they turn to.

These 7 tips are focused on tactical efforts that need to happen in your marketing program. The eighth tip is a strategic one:  Every marketing  meeting your team has should include a  report on the state of the database. As you create your marketing goals and budgets, consider what needs to be done to develop the marketing database. When you regularly meet to develop ongoing tactics, talk about how to integrate this with the database. And as you review metrics and revise your efforts,  discuss the impact on the database:  leads added, sources, “sales-ready vs. long-term,” a review of fulfillment packets, a review of nurturing efforts and most important — a review of closed deals and the marketing tactics that contributed to them.

Implementing these database process elements into your marketing program will provide  benefits far beyond the initial effort put into developing them. Insights into new opportunities, reduced sales cycle times,  increase close ratios and more effective use of marketing dollars are all long-term benefits of a well-utilized marketing database.

Last week, while working on a business letter here at MarketSense, we took a step back and asked ourselves if the old letter-writing rules still apply. Sure, a strong headline always adds value, but what about that pesky postscript? Traditionally, business letters mention the call to action three times, including once in the postscript, in hopes that the reader will notice at least one of them. But today, in the interest of brevity, is it better to mention your call to action in the body copy and be done with it?

The answer: It depends.

In “The 12 Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes … And How to Avoid Them,” copywriting guru Robert W. Bly reminds us that the sales letter is an effective medium because it “creates the illusion of personal communication. We are trained to view letters as ‘real’ mail, brochures as ‘advertising.’” Because traditional, personal letters commonly feature postscripts, it makes sense to use them in business letters. And if you can get someone to open such a letter, she will likely glance at the P.S. because it’s set off from the rest of the copy. Bly wrote this article in 1998, but his points still resonate with many marketing experts today.

That said, hasn’t the postscript been overused? Direct marketing expert Herschell Gordon Lewis warns that people recognize the postscript as a sales gimmick. Especially if there’s also a P.P.S. If the postscript(s) seems too salesy, it will counteract your attempt to make a personal connection. Communicator Peter Boston adds, “If the letter reads like it is from some nondescript entity like the marketing department, then a P.S. will likely fall flat. There is nothing personal about a marketing department.”

To sum up, your audience expects to see a postscript on a letter — which can be a good thing (it automatically draws the eye) or a bad thing (it’s seen as a ploy). Most marketing experts seem to say the postscript is still a winner, as long as it’s written well. If you decide to use a postscript, Boston suggests two ways to write a good one:

• Reinforce the satisfaction of the “dominant buying emotion” in a personal way. In other words, use the recipient’s name in the postscript, if possible, and repeat the emotional benefit of what you want him or her to do.
• Mention an extra benefit in the postscript, such as an incentive to respond quickly.

If you’re still unsure about whether or not to use a postscript at all, look to Bly for another bit of advice: Put it to the test! Send one letter with a postscript and one without, and see how people respond. That’s the only sure way to know what will work best for your audience.

Do you include postscripts in your business letters? We’d like to hear from you!

So why is it so hard to create quality content on a consistent basis? It usually comes down to one simple word — bandwidth. Marketers simply don’t have the time. There’s too much on their plates already. This was the situation when blogs first emerged as an important tactic (several years ago) and it hasn’t changed much in the age of social media. The only thing that’s changed is volume of opportunity you miss without a content development plan in place.

The Two Great Content Creation Stumbling Blocks
So why is it so difficult for marketers to hire new staff or reassign current resources to focus on content development and distribution?

For the most part it comes down to two essential issues:

The Payoff Isn’t Obvious
Most marketing tactics have a readily visible set of objectives and a fairly easily measurable return on investment (assuming you’re accurately tracking all your marketing initiatives — which you are, of course).

Assigning ROI to content creation can be difficult. Content creation and dissemination provide benefits in many ways — search engine optimization, brand awareness, prospect nurturing, conversion maximization, etc. — so the impact is spread over multiple channels and over a wide time horizon.

Addressing this issue can seem complex. After all, multi-channel attribution is still an emerging area in marketing. However, there are less complicated ways to develop an ROI model for content development. They start with a few simple questions such as: Based on your current site conversion rate, how many more visits would it take to get a new customer? What is one new customer worth?

For many companies, getting one deal a year they wouldn’t have gotten without an aggressive content program will more than pay for costs of a full-time content staff.

Content Creation Requires Time from Critical Senior Resources
You can hire a marketing coordinator to manage your email communications, and you can outsource your search marketing, but addressing content creation isn’t usually so easy.

Thought leadership comes from thought leaders. For most companies, those are senior people, most of whom don’t have a whole lot of time available in their day to publish blog posts, tweet, write white papers, etc. This hurdle may seem a bit haunting. Who wants to ask the senior vice president of product development to drop everything and write a blog post?

The important thing is to get the momentum started — identify your potential thought leaders. What would it take to get their input into content? How much of a time commitment is really needed from them? Can you reduce that commitment by assigning a writer to work with them? Are there ways to incentivize a larger group of employees to participate in content generation? Are there ways to free up their time by shifting some of the current responsibilities?

Of course, you can also go out and develop relationships with outside experts. Many successful B2B marketers use outside experts, whether it’s for simple white paper creation or ongoing consulting. Ultimately though, you’ll want to cultivate thought leadership within your organization. After all, it’s your expertise you’re selling — not your ability to hire it.

The first instinct in most companies is to assume it’s a waste of money to shift a senior resource from a “real task” to content development or to hire an experienced consultant, but if you’ve done your ROI calculations, you’ll know which expenses are justified and which aren’t.

In future posts, I’ll go into more detail about how to build some simple ROI models to justify assigning resources to content development and how to help unlock the thought leadership potential in your organization.

Check out Microsoft Tag’s infographic for more reasons why mobile marketing matters in the B2B world. One projection sums up the importance: By 2014, more people will access the Internet from mobile devices than desktops. In other words, mobile marketing isn’t just for B2C anymore — the platform is changing how we all communicate about everything.

Most B2B organizations get that. The bigger issue is how to do it.

In The Mobile Revolution & B2B, CK outlines the five new imperatives for mobile marketing:

1. Think INSIDE the Box. Optimize your user experience for mobile devices.
2. Better. Faster. Easier. Remember this mantra when marketing to a B2B audience.
3. Get Creative (Not Constrained) in the Mobile Mix. Make use of mobile tools in your marketing programs.
4. Reign as King of Mobile Content. Deliver information and data, not just snappy ad copy.
5. Extend Core Value into the Anytime-Anywhere World. Use mobile technologies to enhance your offerings and advance your business.

CK gives a success story for each imperative. It’s worth checking out. Maybe read it on your smartphone over lunch.

How have you used mobile marketing at your B2B organization?