Expanding your brand's digital footprint

 The larger your brand's digital footprint is, the easier it will be for your target audience to find you online, especially in today's a digitally connected world.

Let us see how B2B marketing companies can strategically expand their digital footprint -

Website

Your website is one of the most important digital marketing channels and the top source of information about your brand. Focus on having a professional, user-friendly website optimized for SEO and content.

Social presence

It is not enough to merely post content or offers on social media. Actively engage your customers and target audience in meaningful conversations by responding to their comments and participating in relevant group discussions.

Content

Value-driven content is one of the best ways to increase your brand visibility, and attract new customers to your business through inbound marketing.

5 Sure-fire Ways to Get More Inbound Leads for Your Agency

Getting qualified leads – the bread and butter of every business. However, after spending countless hours on different strategies, many companies find that the amount of leads collected and the subsequent conversions is lesser than expected or desired.

Unlike the outbound lead generation tactics that involve actively getting in touch with your target prospects, inbound tactics seek to attract leads through useful content and take some time to work. Let us see how you can fine tune your inbound strategy to generate more leads -

 

Polish your lead generation forms

Often, marketers channel all their efforts into the content and design of a website or landing page, but overlook the final step of the lead generation process – the lead form. Even if they are interested in your content, most prospects are reluctant to give up their contact information. A plain, dull form can quickly turn them away.

 

To prevent this, you need to make your lead forms as interactive as possible. You can even use online tools for this purpose. Also, offering a useful resource such as a whitepaper, ebook or a free trial in exchange for sign up will encourage more subscriptions on your audience's part.

Optimize your email list

Growing your email list will ensure that you are sending emails to those people who have volunteered to hear from you, and are more inclined to have a need of or be interested in your offering. You can use the above mentioned tip to get more subscriptions and opt-ins for your emails. 

Leverage the outreach of webinars

Webinars are a great way to expand your digital outreach and invite just the audience you have in mind. They give you an opportunity to add to your credibility and be known as an industry expert. Provided you add to their knowledge through a valuable topic, you will be able to tap into a large pool of leads through webinars.

Start your own business blog

Blogging is another great way to showcase your industry expertise and establish yourself as a thought leader. Take time to research the type of content consumed by your target audience, and to identify common business challenges faced by them. An SEO-optimized blog that provides valuable content and shows a way to overcome these challenges will help attract more leads.

Post engaging videos on YouTube

With video marketing on the rise, the largest video platform and the second-largest search engine after Google is a great way to increase your online awareness and generate leads. Here are some options of valuable content you could provide through videos -

• Product demos

•  Product tutorials

•   Interviews with industry experts

•   Customer testimonials and case studies

If you need help to boost your inbound marketing efforts, you can engage the services of a digital marketing company.

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

5 Marketing Channels that Can Drive the Best Results for Your Business

Digital marketing is one of the best ways of positioning your brand and your solution in front of a wider target audience. Yet, with so many marketing channels available, marketers are often divided between choosing the right ones that will fetch the ROI they desire.

Let us have a look at the most important marketing channel every business needs to adopt -

Email Marketing

There is a lot of talk about email marketing being outdated, but the truth is far from it. Emails are a great way to make new prospects aware of your solution, and keep existing customers in the loop regarding updates and offers on your products or service.

Short, personalized emails with the appropriate subject lines can yield you a high conversion rate.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC ads allow you to position your brand at the place where you want it to be, on the first page of the search engine. With the choice of right keywords, the increased visibility can bring you increased organic traffic and qualified leads.

Social Media

With majority of your consumers distributed across various social media platforms, it has become an indispensable channel for digital marketing. Social media offers you an opportunity to solidify your brand's online presence. Many users follow businesses and brands they can relate to; thus you can not only focus on putting your solution across the platforms, but also build long-lasting business relationships with your followers and peers.

Content Marketing

Publishing SEO-friendly and helpful content in varied forms, that focus on helping your target audience make an informed business decision can bring you new leads over a long period of time.

Content that encompasses relevancy, expertise and authoritativeness is one of the best digital marketing channels for your business.

Websites

Yes, your own website is an important marketing channel. It is your virtual calling card and the top source of information about your brand for the client. With the right content and user-friendly design, your website is a great tool to convey your brand's messaging to your site visitors and convert them into revenue generating leads.

Thus, there are a multitude of channels available for digital marketing, each with their own set of advantages. It is impossible to pick one marketing channel that will yield the highest ROI; you need a seamless cohesion of the right channels to fetch the results you desire.

 

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

4 critical components of an optimized marketing email

As a way of engaging with customers to strengthen relationships, apprise them of new products and even generate new leads, emails are among the favorite tools of most B2B marketing companies. But, creating emails that your audience opens and follows through to clicking on your CTAs is not that easy.

Let us see the critical components which make up every successful email -

Subject Line

Without a relevant and attention-catching headline, your audience might forego even opening the email. Craft a subject line that addresses your audience's concern, but make sure that you do not inadvertently clickbait them.

Personalization

Once again, relevance is the key. Making your audience feel like you are serious about helping them solve their unique business problems will naturally encourage more engagement on their part.

Visuals

Along with a great body copy, including appealing visuals will not only help engage user attention, but also help them process information more easily.

Mobile-optimization

As the number of people accessing emails through mobile devices are rapidly increasing, you need to optimize emails for mobile or risk a higher bounce rate.

How to Generate High-Quality Leads For Your Brand

Lead generation is one of the top priorities of B2B marketers. New leads bring the possibility of revenue growth. Naturally, it is very easy to become hopeful when any person demonstrates the slightest interest in your product and consider them as a lead, while overlooking their quality. However, for truly successful revenue growth, you need to fill your pipeline with the leads who have a genuine interest and need for the product or service you are providing. Let us see how you can ensure this -

Have your marketing and sales team confer together

Often, marketing and sales team have radically different ideas for the qualification criteria of your leads. As a lead, majority of the sales qualified leads sent over by the marketing team are rejected by sales, leading to a poor conversion rate. Therefore, it is crucial that both these teams reach a common ground in their definition of a "qualified lead".

Establish a lead scoring process

Classify your leads on the amount of interest or enthusiasm they have displayed towards your brand. This will give you an idea of who is more likely to purchase from you.

Another way to evaluate lead quality is to use the BANT criteria -

• Budget – Does the prospect have enough budget to invest in your solution?

• Authority – Does the prospect have the authority to make a purchase decision?

• Need – Does the prospect have a pressing need for your solution?

• Timeline – Does the prospect plan to make the purchase within a reasonable timeframe?

The answers to these questions will help you weed out the leads who are unlikely or unable to purchase from you.

Have an efficient lead nurturing strategy in place

Even if a lead is promising, lack of nurturing can make them fall out of your pipeline. They are likely to have a lot of questions and considerations to go through, before they are ready to make a purchase decision. Make sure that you follow-up on these leads regularly, either through phone, emails and even social media. Let them know that you are always available and ready to resolve their queries and help them make the right decision to overcome their business challenge. This will help you drive them to the bottom of the sales funnel in a shorter amount of time.

Quality leads are essential to save a huge amount of your time, efforts, and shorten the sales-cycle to enable revenues. If you need help with lead generation, a digital marketing company can help you acquire quality leads from the desired pool of your target audience.

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

How to Create an Effective Editorial Calendar For Your Content Marketing Strategy

Why do you need an editorial calendar?

Content marketing involves a lot more than haphazardly scribbling a blog whenever you have the time. You also need to think about the objective you want to accomplish with every single piece of content you create, along with planning the distribution of content on relevant digital platforms.

                                          

Creating an editorial calendar would greatly help you streamline and organize this entire process. It will leave you plenty of time to properly strategize and create content before the actual publishing. Thus, an editorial calendar will not only help you save time and efforts, but will also improve the overall quality of your content.

Let us see how you can create an effective editorial calendar

Select an editorial template

Often, the main reason content marketers hesitate to create a calendar is that they have no idea where to start, or think that the task will take up too much time. You can use one of the many online calendar tools available and use readymade templates to make the process easier.

Establish your content objectives

If you haven't already, now is a great time to determine your content marketing objectives. They could include -

• Increasing your brand awareness

• Improving your SEO efforts

• Portraying yourself as an industry thought leader

• Driving more traffic towards your website

•  Generate leads for a product or service

Make sure that your calendar prioritizes and reflects and all these objectives.

Research and come up with content ideas

Conduct an in-depth research to get an idea of what kind of content is performing well in your niche, and the kind of content (and formats) that is preferred by your target audience. Based on this research, you can start coming up with different ideas for topics and headlines.

Perform a thorough keyword research

Before you start creating content on these topics, conduct a thorough keyword research and include the high-ranking keywords in your content so that it will easily show up in search results. As far as possible, try to categorize your keywords according to user intent (navigational, transactional or informational), so that it will have better chances of ranking for the relevant searches.

Analyze your results periodically

Regularly monitoring the performance of your content will allow you to optimize your strategy for better results.

A digital marketing company can help you create a detailed editorial calendar, as well as create content that is mapped to your marketing objectives.

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

Why Should You Incorporate Videos in Your Digital Strategy in 2020

Humans have been visual creatures right from the primitive ages. Long before the alphabet came into existence, our ancestors used visuals to communicate with each other.

                    

Thus, our brains are naturally inclined to respond and process visuals faster than plain text content. In the age of information overload, marketers have been quick to realize this fact and act upon it. From images and info-graphics to charts and presentations, engaging visual content is widely used along with textual content so that the target audience can easily consume the information. 

Among all these, videos are, and will continue to remain for the foreseeable future, the favorite visual medium of marketers. Today, any B2B digital marketing strategy is incomplete without some form of video content. In fact, according to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing Survey, 85% of businesses use video in their marketing strategy, and 99% of current video marketers plan to continue using videos in 2020.

Let us see the reason for this popularity, and why you should seriously consider incorporating videos in your digital strategy in the near future -

Encourages audience engagement

Business executives are pressed for time. Serving them text-heavy documents warrants a cursory glance at best. A short, engaging video will work better to catch and hold their attention completely.

The interactive nature of videos will give your audience the sense of 'speaking' directly to you. This not only adds a personality to your business and brand, but also targets both the analytical and emotional mind of your potential clients, enabling them to form a better connection with you.

A format favored by social media

A solid social media presence is necessary for every brand to increase their digital outreach and strengthen relationships with their customers. Videos are much more likely to be shared and viewed on the social media platforms than huge blocks of textual content, giving way to increased visibility and engagement rate.

Improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engines favor websites with videos, as they are a marker for quality content. A good quality video, along with proper SEO-optimized meta description and title can increase your chances of ranking higher.

Boosts your conversion rate

90% of consumers believe that a video can help them make a purchase decision. Including an explainer video or product demo video on your website and landing page can potentially increase your conversion rate.

If you are held back by the thought that video creation or editing is a tedious and time-consuming task, there are plenty of online tools which can make your task easier. So, start planning for including videos in your B2B marketing strategy to take it to the next level!

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

Single Opt-in vs Double Opt-in: Which is the best for your email list?

When you are making efforts to grow your email list, you will have to make a choice between using either single or double opt-in for getting subscriber permission to send emails. If you cannot decide, let us have a look at what exactly both the terms mean and weigh their merits against each other.

With the single opt-in, a person will only have to subscribe once through your sign-up form to start receiving your emails. On the other hand, double opt-in requires the person to re-confirm his subscription through a confirmation email.

The advantage of single opt-ins is the reduced number of steps on the part of the user, contributing to a simplified user experience. It will also enable you to build your list in a shorter amount of time.

However, the additional step of double opt-in reinforces that the user is serious about receiving your emails, and you can be sure that the email id is valid for maximum inbox deliver-ability. Thus double opt-ins can enable you to build a cleaner mailing list and act as the founding stone of a greater conversion rate.

Both of these options have their own merits. Your choice will depend on your overall campaign goals and priorities. You can contact a digital marketing company if you need help in strategizing and executing effective email marketing campaigns.

Are you creating too much content?

Is such a thing even possible? Content marketers seem to be under the impression that the more content you create, the better. No doubt, content is important to get your brand noticed, and the fear of being left behind has spurred marketers to keep churning out a large number of blogs, case studies and whitepapers without any proper strategy or resources.

However, if you are not providing any value through all this content, it will not help you drive traffic, generate leads or meet any other objective you have in mind. You will only be adding to the noise on the Web and overwhelm your target audience.

Thus, rather than quantity, you need to focus on the quality of your published content. 

Always keep the following points in mind while creating your next content piece -

•  Is the topic relatable to your target audience?

•  Will it provide value or add anything to their knowledge?

• Is your target audience reading about or searching for it?

A digital marketing company can help you strategize and create content that is relevant and will strike the right chord with your target audience.

Different ways you can use consumer data

So, you have started collecting and analyzing your customer data. Now, the real question is how can you use it effectively to grow your business. 

Let us see some of the most effective ways in which B2Bmarketing companies use their consumer data -

Identify consumer pain points

This helps companies adjust their marketing strategy to address the main problems and make sure that the customers get exactly what they want.

Improve customer experience

Analyzing their behavior, feedback's and reviews helps companies better understand their needs and meet them accordingly.

Increase sales

A study of customer behavior and preferences will enables smarter business decisions that increase conversions and revenues.

How can white papers help your content marketing strategy?

A white paper is a comprehensive, detailed and authoritative document that serves the purpose of educating the readers. B2B marketers have long used them to shed light on a particular business problem and convey how their product or service can got it.

If you still haven't gotten around to using white papers in your B2B digital marketing strategy, here is why you should start doing so -

• Increases quality lead generation by providing educational and useful information on a highly specific challenge or objective

• Original content helps you increase credibility and build brand awareness

• Helps you increase your subscription list by acting as a compelling lead magnet at the time of sign up

• Helps you establish yourself as in industry thought leader

How Can You Effectively Track and Improve Your Email Marketing Campaigns

The importance of a sound email marketing campaign cannot be stressed enough. Reports have shown that emails can generate an ROI as high as 3800%. However, to get this promsing ROI, you need to keep an eagle eye on the performance of your campaigns and adjust your strategy wherever it might be found lacking. You can do this by tracking the right metrics.

                             

Let us have a look at what these metrics are, what they indicate, and how you can turn them into useful insights -

Open rate

This metric indicates the percentage of subscribers who have opened your email, out of your total subscribers.

If your open rate is low, this is a strong indication that the subject lines of your emails need your attention. A relevant, attention-catching subject line will ensure that your emails get opened. Of course, the problem might be that you are sending emails at a time when your prospects are too occupied or busy to look through them.

To improve your open rate, test out different subject lines and research the best times to send out emails based on the behavior of your target audience.

Click-through rate

This metric indicates the percentage of subscribers who have clicked on a link you have placed inside your email. This is a vital metric as it represents how inclined your subscribers are to take further action (such as subscription or direct purchase) through your emails.

If it is low, you will want to examine whether the anchor text you have used for the link is compelling enough for them to click, and whether it is placed in a position where it is easily visible to the reader.

Bounce rate

This is the percentage of the total emails sent which were unable to successfully reach the intended recipient.

In some cases, the email can bounce to due a server or other technical problem at the receiver end; however, it could also bounce due to an invalid or non-existent email. Thus, you need to carefully validate your subscriber list before sending out emails to prevent a high bounce rate.

Unsubscribe rate

This is the percentage of your subscribers who have opted out of receiving any further email communication for you.

A high unsubscription rate is definitely undesirable. There can be many factors responsible for unsubscription such as irrelevant/low-quality content, too high frequency of sending emails, and so on. You can simply send out a short survey to the unsubcribers to find and remedy the root cause, in order to reduce this occurence.

Of course, it can be quite difficult to execute a campaign and manually track these metrics. Using an email automation software will help you improve your campaign efficacy and get detailed, periodic analysis so that you can have more time to focus on your business strategy. You can also engage the services of a digital marketing company to strategize and execute creative email marketing campaigns on your behalf.

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

Common B2B marketing mistakes to avoid

Done right, B2B marketing can bring a sustained stream of quality leads that turn into revenue generating customers; however, there are a few common mistakes that hinder you from achieving your goal. Let us see what they are and how B2B marketing companies can avoid them.

Having no clear plan in place

Posting on social media one day and sending an email the other day will confuse your target audience, and they will cease to take you seriously. Develop a clear plan for every stage of the buyer's journey and how you will progress your prospects throughout it.

Not taking the customer-centric approach

Talking only about your brand or product/service will get you nowhere. Exert yourself to understand your audience's pain points and convey that you are ready to help them find the right solution for their business.

Not paying enough attention to your website

Even with all the emails you send them and the posts you publish on social media, your audience will still want to visit your website to learn more about your solution and brand. An outdated website can make them turn away from you. From content and design to mobile-friendliness, your website must be optimized for new leads.

Why is SEO the Most Important Factor for Digital Marketing

You have a newly minted digital business, are faithfully publishing blogs and social media posts, and are confident that your product or service ranks among the best in the industry. However, you find out that you are not getting the expected amount of traffic and leads. 

This situation is the result of forgetting or ignoring the most important ingredient in your digital marketing mix – Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

All your content, website design and user experience will come to naught if you are not visible in search engine results. As most of the buyers prefer to search for the products or services they need by themselves, it is of paramount importance to practice ethical SEO techniques to be visible in the right place at the right time.

Here are all the ways SEO helps a digital business -

Increases your traffic

Being displayed among the top search results is a seal of approval from Google in terms of the credibility and quality of your website, as well as brand. This naturally increases your click-through rates, and can translate to greater conversion rates.

Increases brand awareness

As you start ranking higher, your website and brand will be exposed to a greater number of users. You will see an increase in the number of page impressions and views.

Proves to be cost-effective

SEO costs significantly less than the traditional methods of marketing. In fact, practices such as publishing SEO-optimized content, guest blogging, improving the user experience of your website will not even cost you anything.

TSL Consulting Pvt Ltd is an integrated marketing company based in India. We offer customized outbound marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing and data profiling services to a wide spectrum of small and mid-sized organizations.

Tips and tricks for social media advertising

Advertising on social media is an integral part of any B2B digital marketing strategy. It helps you to reach or target a large base of target audience in a short amount of time. 

Let us have a look at some important tips to optimize your social media advertising campaigns -

• Set an objective for each type of social media ad you create, so that you choose the right advertising platform and come up with better content

• Set your budget based on the objective more important to you – impressions or engagement

• Create a customized landing page to match the intent of every type of ad, so that your audience can directly access the information they want without the confusion of going through your entire website

• Use short, engaging video ads in your advertising strategy for better engagement and conversion

• Use advanced features like Facebook lookalike audience to enhance your targeting

• Regularly monitor the performance of your ads to adjust your strategy and budget based on the results

Combine paid and organic ads for optimum results.

Effective ways to improve your email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is reputed for fetching one of the highest conversion rates amongst all the digital marketing channels. Yet, many marketers are faced by low open rates, click-through rates and a growing list of unsubscribes. 

Let us have a look at some of the most effective ways with which you can improve the performance of your email marketing campaigns -

• Segment your email list according to a specific criteria such as interest level, job title, geographical location, etc., to increase relevancy of the email

• Write precise, straightforward and compelling subject lines to improve your open rates

• Leverage customer data to send personalized emails to improve click-through and conversion rates

• Make sure that your emails are optimized for mobile devices

• Have clearly defined Call-to-Actions in a prominent place to improve click-through rates

• Test different types of subject lines, content and layouts to find out which of them are best preferred by your audience

• Ask your subscribers for their feedback on what kind of emails and content they would like to receive from you

Applying the SMART methodology to your content marketing goals

The SMART methodology is widely used while setting personal, professional or academic goals. 

Let us how it can be applied to your content marketing goals, and ensure greater success from every piece of content you create -

                           

Specific -

Set a highly specific goal for your content strategy (Example – I will publish five long-form articles every month)

Measurable -

Setting measurable goals will help you assess your progress (Example – I want to increase my social media followers by 25% from last month)

Attainable -

It is good to be ambitious, but you have to make sure your goal can actually be accomplished (Example - Wanting to increase your organic LinkedIn followers by 100 to 200 in a month is attainable, but going for 1000 new followers is not)

Relatable -

The goals should be relevant your overall marketing or business strategy (If your goal is to increase revenue, consider whether investing time and efforts into social media advertising will help you accomplish it)

Time-bound -

Of course, any goal has to be bound by a time frame to make sure you achieve it and do not fall off the wagon (Example – I will publish 3 social media posts by the end of this week)

If you need help with creating content, a digital marketing company can strategize and create value-added content that aligns to your marketing goals.

Improving customer experience during the Covid-19 period

Customer experience has always been prioritized by B2B marketing companies, but it has become more important than ever in these uncertain times. 

Here are some tips on how you can improve your customer experience and service to reassure your customers -

                     

• Keep them periodically informed on how you plan to help them ensure business continuity

• Keep your tone empathetic and compassionate

• Do not try to push for a sale, focus on providing them what they need the most at the moment

• Engage in open-ended communication to figure out their changing business needs

Use online channels such as emails and social media to the fullest for more prompt digital customer service

Brand voice and tone – Why does it matter?

On the surface, the concept of brand voice and tone seems like a notion that only matters to big-shot enterprises. However, it has become essential for every business, no matter how large or small, to have their own distinct personality while communicating with potential customers.

                                      

With so much crowd in the digital world, it is easy for brands to get overlooked. Having your own brand voice, or your own distinct words and language, will help your target audience remember you more easily.

A consistent voice will also help to inculcate a sense of familiarity, which ultimately promotes trust in the minds of target audience.

Some tips for helping B2B marketing companies identify their brand voice and tone are -

•  Your brand voice should reflect your company's mission

• Analyze your target audience to identify the language that will resonate the most with them.

•Remember that while brand voice remains consistent, tone can change from situation to situation (excitement for announcing a new product, empathy while addressing a pain point, etc.)

Importance of conversational marketing in B2B

In general, the B2B buying process is too cold. In a bid to get potential customers to fill out lead forms and drive them through the sales funnel, very little meaningful conversation takes place. 

As customers wait for email responses after filling out forms, or a call back from your sales team in response to a query, the conversation gap leads to very few prospects actually getting converted.

                                              

This is where conversational marketing comes into picture. It aims at removing the obstacles in communication, and facilitate faster journey through the funnel to conversion through meaningful conversation.

Implementing conversational marketing can be as simple as using chatbots on your website. When a visitor is looking through your solutions, the chatbot can offer instant assistance for any of the queries. This removes the extra time of filling out lead forms and waiting for a response on your part. The chatbot can also put the visitor directly in touch with your sales team rep, where he can get further information.

Thus, conversational marketing can greatly help B2B marketing companies make the buying process more friendly, for faster results and greater ROI.