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Social Networks Are Ripe for Lead Gen

February 17, 2012
By Ray Schultz

B2B marketers have discovered a new lead generation medium.

Social media.

In a survey by Chief Marketer, 68% said they will use the social networks for prospecting in 2012, compared with 48% in 2011.

And they’re not alone. Of all marketers polled, 69% will use social media for lead gen this year. The only channel to top that is email, with 87%.

But hurdles remain. One B2B respondent griped that “the amount of time required to publish new content, establish and foster relationships and convert them to customers is much slower than traditional sales methods,” Chief Marketer reported.

At the same time, 41% of the B2B specialists expect to use pay-per-click and display ads in 2012. That’s up from 31% last year. And 21% will turn to ad retargeting, a jump of 10 percentage points from 2011.

Overall, 80% said that three-fourths of their leads came from “non-broker” sources, meaning sources not reached through mailing list rentals. Hmnn…that doesn’t square with high usage of email and direct mail.

How are companies prospecting this year? Here’s the list:

Email—87%
Social media—69%
Web registrations—66%
Direct mail—61%

And here’s last year’s list:

Email—83%
Direct mail—57%
Web registrations—55%
Social Media—55%
Trade shows/conferences—55%

Chief Marketer surveyed 833 marketers, including B2B and B2C.

Event Planners Get Social

February 15, 2012
By Ray Schultz

Some marketing segments are lagging in social media use. But one isn’t: Event management. And it’s no surprise. What better way is there to get the word out about events?

Of 474 executives surveyed by Constant Contact, 77% said they use social media to market their programs. Another 14% plan to start.

Facebook is the most popular network—it’s used by 89% of those active in the networks. Twitter is next with 66%, and LinkedIn third with 54%. Of this group, 85% have a Facebook fan page.

The main social activity? Promoting events. But in the future, these marketers hope to:

Reach more people—66%
Get feedback from attendees—65%
Obtain new attendees—63%
Stay engaged with past attendees—62%

At the same time, 81% expect to increase their social marketing this year. The sole apparent downside? Only 10% have a “thorough and refined” social media strategy.

As for other channels, 91% said email is an effective tool, 85% cited online event/marketing management is, and 77% mentioned their websites. Finally, 69% said they derive value from print advertising.

Why are some event managers not using social media? Of those who don’t, 54% said they don’t know how. And 39% complained of time constraints.

The main takeaway from this report?

“Event marketing has evolved,” said Chris Litster, vice president and general manager of event marketing for Constant Contact. “It’s no longer just direct mail invitations, phone calls and simply hoping that people will come. Now, it’s social media conversations, real-time communication and online video—true engagement across platforms to create a holistic event experience from start to finish.”

The survey sample includes B2C and B2B marketers, and nonprofits.

The Social Media Donut Hole

February 10, 2012
By Ray Schultz

Did you see the happy news from the Software & Information Industry Association?

Of 106 marketing executives it surveyed, 90 percent use social media, and 75% think it’s has helped their business. Finally, 65% hope to invest more money in it.

But they apparently don’t want to spend time on it—and that’s the hole in this story. Over half devote less than 10 hours per week to social media, and over a third invest only one to five hours on it. Worse, almost 60% said that less than 5% of their deals start in social media.

What’s causing this disconnect?

“Social media has clearly become a widely used tool among B2B marketers and few doubt that it is helping their business,” said Rhianna Collier, Vice President of SIIA’s software division. “But our survey also shows that marketers may not be dedicating the resources necessary to get the results they want from social media marketing.”

Still, they’re trying. Here are a few other factoids:

59% use web traffic to calculate ROI and 53% use qualified leads.

The biggest ethical issue is privacy.

76% do no social media outsourcing.

Collier’s conclusion? “Social media is still a relatively new method for growing a business, but marketers clearly believe it is has value and will require greater investment. And with more marketers now applying traditional ROI metrics-such as qualified leads-to their social media efforts, they are more likely to get a clear sense of what level of investment makes sense.”

Content Trumps Automation

February 6, 2012
By Ray Schultz

That’s the way it looks in an informal survey by NuSpark CEO Paul Mosensen. Of 172 B2B professionals polled on LinkedIn, 64 cited content as the top lead generation priority.

Another 33 said it’s optimizing their pipeline conversion rates, and the same number hope to increase their social media engagement. And 23% mentioned better search engine optimization.

Automation was cited by only 19. How does Mosensen explain the disparity between content and automation?

“Marketing automation doesn’t work properly without a well-thought out lead nurturing strategy and content map,” he writes. “Search engine optimization is all about content; and content written in buyer’s language.

Right. Content and automation have to work together.

Mosensen adds that great B2B content:

Keeps visitors on sites and gets them to engage.
Solves business problems.
Fuels social media messaging, sharing and engagement.
Generates leads.

For this survey, Mosensen asked the respondents to specify the “#1 priority for a B2B firm for 2012 lead generation.”

Is Blogging Dead?

February 2, 2012
By Ray Schultz

Why do I bother? That is, why do I sit here writing blog posts when “blogging may have peaked as a primary social media tool in the U.S. business world?”

That’s the gist of a new report by the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Blogging, it concluded, is as a “mature tool.”

Of 170 companies interviewed, 37% used blogs in 2011, down from 50% in 2010. And blogging adoption grew by only 37% among Inc 500 companies, compared with 50% from the prior year. That’s the first decline since 2007, according to the authors, Nora Ganim Barnes and Ava M. Lescault.

Worse, there were no-shows among those that planned to start. “When the non-bloggers were asked if they intended to adopt blogging in 2011, most said they did. Clearly, that did not come to fruition,” the authors note.

Only two other social activities fared worse than blogging in terms of usage: message bulletin boards (15%) and podcasting (6%).

You can guess what businesses are doing instead: Facebook usage jumped to 74% (up from 71% in 2010) and Twitter to 64%. And these networks seem to work. “When asked if the use of social media has been successful for their business, the overwhelming response for almost every tool is that it has been,” the authors continue.

But here’s one of those contradictions you often see in surveys. Of those polled, 92% said that blogging is successful for them. But only 82% said the same about Facebook. And 96% indicated that message/bulletin boards worked. Huh?

Back to blogs. Why do I write them—other than sheer compulsion? It’s the business I’m in. People in the advertising/marketing and media fields are “the most likely to blog, while companies in government services and construction make very little use of this tool,” the authors report.

How Staffing Agencies Drive Leads

February 1, 2012
By Ray Schultz

Their execution isn’t perfect. But staffing agencies are pursuing what pundits now call inbound marketing, according to a white paper from Grass Roots Marketing Inc. (GRM).

What’s inbound marketing? GRM defines it as “transitioning a company’s website from a ‘static brochure’ to an online sales tool where businesses provide valuable content designed to answer questions and offer solutions.”

The purpose? “A website with useful information educates and engages visitors, converting them into leads,” GRM writes.

To get a reading on this, GRM studied the sites of two groups: The 25 top agencies, as ranked by SIA Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), and 233 members of the American Staffing Association (ASA).

Over half of those in the top 25 received an excellent grade. But less than a forth of the ASA members were rated that way, and a fifth had poor web sites.

That said, both groups are building a “stronger online presence” in social media, GRM writes.

All of the top 25 are on LinkedIn, and 82% of the ASA members. These percentages “validate LinkedIn’s importance as a strong marketing tool for the staffing industry,” GRM writes.

What’s more, 68% of the top firms are on Facebook. “Frequent posting on a Facebook page allows fans to be instantly updated on business and industry news,” Grass Roots writes. “This establishes the credibility of the staffing agency and nurtures the followers along the sales cycle.”

In contrast, few agencies blog—only 8% of the top agencies do, and 18% of the ASA members. And GRM deplores this.

“Blogging helps staffing agencies position themselves as subject matter experts,” it writes. “Additionally, blogging creates more indexed pages and opportunities for SEO.”

For this study, a grade from 1 to 100 was assigned to staffing company websites using grader software from HubSpot.