Sales and marketing tips for the modern buying process

Those of us who use inbound marketing to grow our businesses have learned that our marketing engines require fuel. That fuel is marketing content: blog articles, eBooks, videos, webinars, landing pages, calls-to-action. The beauty of content marketing is that it puts us all on a level playing field. It doesn't matter if you're a multinational corporation or a solo-preneur; if you produce good content, people will find it, read it, watch it and most importantly share it. Google loves good content. If you consistently produce good content that gets shared, Google will reward you with high search engine rankings for your targeted keywords. Here's a summary of organic search visits to my website since I began my content marketing efforts in April 2012:

Many technology companies find email marketing is one of the best lead generation tactics they use. Marketing automation software provider Optify found in their 2012 B2B Benchmarking Report that email marketing had the highest lead conversion rate of any inbound marketing tactic employed. The email marketing lead conversion rate of 2.9% compared with an average inbound conversion rate of 1.6%. Here are some best practices to follow for your technology company email marketing program.

I recently read a great blog post from Guy Kawasaki on how he manages his social media marketing presence. For those of you who don't know Guy Kawasaki, he is Apple's former marketing guru and an accomplished author and social media expert. While Guy's tips were great, I'm not sure they're applicable to the typical SMB company that is establishing a social media presence and using social media to generate leads. This article will share some thoughts on how you can effectively manage your company's social media marketing.

It's tough out there for insurance agencies. Obamacare is changing the way employers provide (or don't provide) health insurance for their employees. In fact, the new legislation is trying to curtail the role of insurance agencies in the insurance procurement process. Persistent slow economic growth has reduced business investement, which adds additional steps and approvals to the insurance buying process. Despite all of these challenges, there are still opportunities for savvy insurance agencies to grow. Business owners and managers turn to Google and social media to try and make sense of the neverending onslaught of insurance regulations. Your best bet as an agency principal is to get found when your prospects look for help on the internet. Here are 5 strategies to increase your odds of being found by qualified buyers.

Are you using Twitter as a revene-generation channel in your social media marketing process? Many SMB companies have adopted LinkedIn and Facebook as cornerstones of their social media marketing process, but overlook Twitter's revenue-generation potential. While we don't dispute the value of metrics like engagement and brand promotion, we're like most SMB companies - we use Twitter primarily for revenue generation. It's all about generating leads and closing business! Here are 9 tips to consider as you build a Twitter revenue generation channel.

Is your business thinking about marketing automation for lead generation? An increasing number of small businesses are exploring marketing automation as a faster, more effective strategy for generating online sales leads. Small business marketing automation is the complete package, managing all aspects of lead generation including scoring, nurturing and location-based targeting. But is marketing automation software the right choice for your business? Read on for answers to the top four small business marketing automation questions.

Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company found that the cost of acquiring a new customer is 6 to 7 times more than the cost of retaining an existing customer. Yet so many companies focus the majority of their time, energy and resources on acquiring new customers at the expense of retaining the customers that they already have. Clearly the maturity stage of your business has an impact on your strategy; if you're a new business, your focus should be on acquiring new customers. However, if you're a more mature business that is focusing your strategy on customer acquisition, beware. You may be creating a problem.

 Inbound marketing brings potential clients from search engines and social media straight to your website. But once they arrive, how can you convert them into paying customers? Converting online sales prospects into clients is one of the biggest challenges facing small businesses. While conversion rate optimization is important, if you spend all your time A/B testing button colors, you’ll miss out on the most critical online selling tactic: relationship building.

Worried about your business’s inbound lead generation? You’re not alone. Last year, 74% of marketers reported that obtaining quality leads is their top marketing challenge, according to Revi Media. With the average conversion rate for online leads hovering at 1.6%, according to Optify’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, how can a small business make online lead generation work?

The Google Zero Moment of Truth study contains some fascinating insights into how consumers and businesses are buying today. Sellers no longer control the process. Buyers tune out the noise they don't want to hear and seek out the information they need to make their buying decisions. Buyers are now in control of the process. To me one of the most telling insights applicable to growing your business today was the answer to the following question: "when you were considering purchasing (PRODUCT), which sources of information did you seek out to help with your decision?"