Marketers agree that social media should play a part in shaping their company’s image. Yet, many struggle to see how they can leverage social media to generate qualified leads and ultimately boost revenues.

Social media isn’t just another tool to round out your marketing strategy. It has become the most cost-efficient method of driving sales. It boasts a user base of billions in one compacted medium that makes it easier than ever to pinpoint your most probable buyers — and to do so without leaving your desk.

While simply generating user activity can help, it isn’t the same as generating leads. Companies need to realize that likes, shares, comments and followers aren’t guaranteed to transition into sales, but they will if nurtured correctly. There are five ways a business can improve its lead generation efforts by utilizing social media.

1. Know Your Customer

If you don’t know who you’re selling to, it won’t be easy to appeal to them. People use a variety of social media networks for very different purposes. Many B2B clients may be accustomed to buying and selling via LinkedIn. In contrast, consumer brands see the most gains by Instagram and Pinterest users reposting product pictures.

The key is to know which social media platforms your customers use and why. Many use a multitude of different websites daily. Your goal is to learn which services provide you with the most opportunities to reach customers and then adapt effectively to speak their language.

2. Share Engaging Content

Anyone with a social media presence knows they must distribute a steady stream of content to be seen and heard, yet an astounding number of them fail to realize their content should be interesting to their target audience. Surveys show that social media users are deterred by excessive promotion updates with empty messaging.

Instead of getting lost in the clutter of their news feeds, offer users something that will spark their enthusiasm. This will not only retain existing followers so that they’re still around when you do share an occasional promotion, but also attract new followers who wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to your marketing.

3. Follow A Timetable

Be strategic when deciding the timing and frequency of social media posts. Don’t lose sight of your long-term goals — identify when and why you want to create buzz, and use those conclusions to form a schedule. It’s ineffective to carelessly post material at random intervals. Keep your company’s calendar in mind as well as the times your audience is most active online. You want to maximize positive exposure and, more importantly, convert that exposure into sales. For example, it might be a good idea to make a daily post for several days leading up to a product announcement.

4. Listen Closely

Consider yourself lucky if your competitors aren’t already taking advantage of social media marketing. If you’re in such a fortuitous position, don’t waste any time in establishing a lead. But if they have indeed made inroads into your customer base, it’s easier than ever to catch up. While social media makes a company more visible to customers, the same characteristics make it just as visible to competitors. Keep an eye on their actions in order to improve your own.

5. Improvise When Necessary

As time passes, the strengths and weaknesses of your strategy will become evident. Make sure to critique both the good and bad to improve your efforts as you move forward. If people stop giving as much feedback to your posts, maybe it’s time to revise your outreach. Repeat your successes and treat your setbacks as learning experiences. New forms of social media are sure to emerge and the popularity of existing websites is bound to shift. Adjust your actions accordingly.

Applying these principles to your efforts will help your business take advantage of one of marketing’s most valuable tools. More generated leads mean more sales and referrals for your team. When the buying process is made more enjoyable for customers, you have built priceless relationships that will pay off long into the future.

Frank Paterno is VP of Marketing at IntelliConnection, a lead generation and marketing automation service. Prior to IntelliConnection, Frank worked at both MCI and Arthur Andersen. He received a degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo. He is currently the VP of the Greater Alpharetta Technology Network.

Liquid, a cross-channel advertising solutions company, has acquired Command IQ, a predictive CRM solutions provider, for an undisclosed fee. The deal intends to bring CommandIQ's marketing automation and retargeting capabilities into the Liquid platform—positioning users to manage advertising initiatives across multiple touch points based on the buyer's behavior.

The acquisition also positions users to leverage their CRM data to target and measure marketing media initiatives. As part of the deal, CommandIQ CEO Noah Jessop will also join Liquid as the company's Head Of Data.

"Our acquisition of CommandIQ supports our overall evolution as a platform and shows our true commitment to offering the best ad products possible to our clients," said Steve Bagdasarian, General Manager for Liquid.

Magento, an eBay Enterprise company and E-commerce platform provider, unveiled its B2B program designed to bring a more consumer-like approach to the B2B buying process.

The Magento Enterprise Edition positions users to engage prospective buyers throughout their buying journey. Users can increase customer loyalty by offering personalized messaging to buyers based on their demographic profile and past buying history.

The company has also launched a B2B Partner Initiative intended to promote the program's growth. Some of the early partners include Alpine Consulting, eWave, Gorilla Group and Perficient.

Other features include:

• Account management capabilities;
• Self-service capabilities for buyers to make bulk orders;
• Mobile responsive design; and
• Inventory tracking tools.

"About 40% of Perficient's Magento implementations have been for B2B companies," said Kaushal Shah, Magento ecommerce practice leader at Perficient. "The customers we work with, including Gemaire and BSN Sports, value Magento for its state of the art commerce capabilities to create the consumer-like experiences B2B buyers expect."

Evergage, a real-time personalization solutions provider, launched a new recommendations tool designed to suggest relevant content and products based on a prospect's behavior on the company website.

Available through the company's personalization platform, Evergage Recommend positions users to provide prospects with a relevant buying experience to help accelerate the buying process and boost conversion rates. The tool analyzes behavioral data to identify a website visitor's expressed or implied preferences. The solution can also compare prospects to recently closed business to identify the types of content that resonates within similar target audiences.

Other features include:

• A view of Evergage's behavioral algorithms to enable users to identify the implications of their product or content recommendation strategies, allowing users to adapt their strategies in real-time;
• The ability to use individual visitor behavioral data, including time spent and overall engagement, instead of product popularity data based on clicks or purchases; and
• The capability to A/B test different strategies, as well as use CRM, segment, survey and social affinity data.

"This is an exciting new offering for our customers, and we’re thrilled to provide a tightly integrated platform for making relevant recommendations that are uniquely tailored to each individual’s experience," said Karl Wirth, co-founder and CEO, Evergage.

Walker is a customer intelligence technology and consulting firm offering solutions designed to help B2B marketers achieve their business objectives through predictive analytics, surveys and consultation.

FEATURES/FUNCTIONS

The company’s CX platform positions marketers to identify, address and improve customer experiences to:

• Achieve higher growth rates;

• Attain higher levels of customer retention;

• Differentiate their offering; and

• Boost employee engagement.

COMPATIBILITY

Walker is compatible with Salesforce.

PRICING

Click here to contact Walker for a consultation request.

COMPETITIVE POSITIONING

Walker intends to provide insight to help marketers have a better understanding of their current market position and develop more effective strategies going forward.

The solution positions users to grow a customer base that is loyal and more profitable.

Walker offers solutions aimed at increasing customer retention, improving growth rates, pinpointing key process improvements and managing strategic accounts.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Walker Headquarters
301 Pennsylvania Parkway
Indianapolis, IN 46280
317-843-3939
Solutions@walkerinfo.com

Unmetric, a social media analytics startup, launched a competitive intelligence mobile application designed to provide B2B marketers with real-time insights into competitors’ social media activities.

The promise of B2B data is unbridled. Thanks to first- and third-party data sources, marketing teams know more about their prospects and leads than ever before. Predictive analytics tools introduce even more data capabilities for today’s marketing leaders. With the right tools, marketers can discover untapped market opportunities, target audiences with greater precision and predict which prospects will become the best customers.

Marketers have embraced the opportunity, with nearly two-thirds (64%) of business decision-makers implementing or upgrading predictive analytics solutions today or planning to do so in the next 12 months, according to a new report from Forrester’s Laura Ramos. While predictive models offer capabilities to transform insight into action, Forrester cautions CMOs against overly complex solutions.

“Selecting the right solution means you must weigh the relative sophistication of your automation processes and team experience against the level of big data capability you are ready to absorb,” writes Ramos, lead Forrester analyst and author of the report.

As a deluge of new solutions, with varying levels of data capabilities and resource requirements, are now making their way into CMOs’ inboxes, it can be challenging for non-technical marketers to pinpoint the tools and technologies that are best for their organizations. Here are three simple rules to guide the exploration of solutions that exist, regardless of familiarity with data science or statistical expertise.

Rule #1: Don’t Let Complexity Become A Deterrent

For marketers without advanced statistics backgrounds, data science will always be complex and perhaps daunting. While predictive solutions provide the answers to many big data woes, machine learning algorithms come with many complexities and moving parts. To predict real world scenarios, models often incorporate hundreds of variables, a multitude of algorithms, and dozens of first- and third-party data sources.

Given the complexity inherent in big data solutions and required resources to generate usable outputs, how does one exert positive influence over such advanced deep learning and processing? With unlimited computing possibilities, what objectives and capabilities should be executed on first? And most immediate to the topic at hand: what tools should marketers select to enable the outcomes they need?

Ramos encourages marketers to take a step back and master the basics. First focus on solutions that can enhance core, repeatable growth strategies before introducing new, far-stretched capabilities that have the potential to drain resources. She cautions that “despite growing enthusiasm for predictive analytics, technological advancements are outpacing the business' ability to put it to work.” The important thing is not to get overwhelmed or overreach and instead to remain focused on the greater plan and business goals.

Recommendation: Seek out partners who have productized and developed superior front-end processes for what marketers are doing already: customer analytics, market segmentation, campaign planning and sales enablement. Solutions should amplify current marketing efforts and enable the goals that marketers have already established for their organizations.

Rule #2: Think Beyond Lead Optimizations

As Ramos points out, marketers are looking for an edge that can return big results. However, existing solutions — even if combined with vast data sources and other tools — can't deliver the speed and insight required by marketers to achieve explosive growth. The report shows that many other predictive analytics use cases are often only focused on optimizing lead conversions. Often inward or backward looking, these solutions deliver incremental growth at best, and are most susceptible to campaign inertia.

Unfettered by the confines of existing solutions, predictive models better support decision-making and have the potential to vastly improve on both cost and revenue. Even subtle adjustments can multiply reach and profits. Radius, for example, enables companies to discover new customers and markets with predictable and actionable success — insights that enable vastly greater outcomes than simply reiterating on past marketing efforts.

Recommendation: Keep high level goals front of mind when assessing solutions for next-stage growth. Framing the analysis solely in the context of current solutions or marginal upgrades limits the outcomes that can be achieved. Ramos calls this mindset “short-sighted,” saying, “The real value of predictive marketing occurs when marketers apply it across the entire customer life cycle.” The biggest business impact will happen when marketers learn how to use data analytics to simultaneously target markets efficiently, streamline pipeline conversion, retain customers, grow lifetime account value and turn loyal customers into advocates.

Rule #3: Always Outsmart The Algorithm

Predictive analytics are a means to an end — mechanisms to help grow the business and achieve marketing goals. For that reason, marketers need to first assess what success looks like for marketing initiatives in order to programmatically bring about the desired outcomes.

While it isn’t necessary to have full-fledged hypotheses for exploratory campaigns, marketers should have a clear understanding of the questions they’re trying to answer and why they’re relevant to the businesses. They should start with overall company objectives and then get granular.

On this point, Ramos is pretty clear about what not to do: don’t follow business technology’s big data lead. Don’t expect data or data technologies to answer the business challenges that have yet to be defined. And don’t expect technology partners to make sense of pools of data that may have been indiscriminately collected, even under the best or most earnest of intentions.

Recommendation: For usable insights, lead the effort in defining desired data outputs, and then working with internal and external partners for help in designing solutions. It is the proverbial “you reap what you sow” put into action — that the insights from the efforts will only be as good as the structure that is initially put into place.

Final Thoughts

Remember that today’s predictive analytics market is still in the very early stage. Marketers who are struggling to identify the "right" vendor and tools are not alone. The key to success with predictive analytics is knowing what your marketing organization needs. Often, you won’t know unless you try software for yourself — before making the decision to deploy a solution at a larger scale. It’s important to remain laser focused on major goals and test before you buy.

As SVP of Marketing at Radius, Angela Zener brings 15-plus years of experience in marketing. She has led teams responsible for launching global product lines across cloud, social and mobile for companies such as SAP, LexisNexis, and Findly.

As more B2B buyers break free from their desktops when researching purchases, marketers need to make sure their websites are mobile-friendly. This infographic from Vertical Leap, a digital marketing agency, offers six steps to optimizing content for smartphones and tablets.

[Click To Expand]

Source: Vertical Leap

SurveyMonkey, an online survey and data insights platform provider, has acquired TechValidate, a marketing content automation solution, for an undisclosed fee. The acquisition positions SurveyMonkey to expand its B2B offerings by enabling users to create content from the data gathered through the company's survey collection and analysis services.

TechValidate is designed to help users turn customer experience data into content that can be leveraged across all marketing and sales channels. Along with delivering market research and customer insights, the platform can also offer content in multiple formats, including:

• Case studies;
• ROI analyses;
• Customer testimonials; and
• Reviews.

“TechValidate’s automated content-generation platform helps customers get more from their survey results,” said Bill Veghte, CEO of SurveyMonkey. “They’ve taken data analytics one step further and moved into easily and effortlessly producing verified marketing content.”