Auto-Publish Blogs for 50% more B2B Leads

As an inbound marketer, you're probably in cahoots with tens of thousands of other inbound marketers across the globe in search for an effective method to gain more b2b leads. It is quite safe to say that nowadays you can't survive getting any leads without social media integration. Promoting your products and/or services is one of the most effective and vital processes of inbound b2b lead generation. However, this might not give you just a piece of the pie and not the entire thing.

So what's lacking? A recent entry at the Hubspot blog, entitled 'Companies That Auto-Publish to Social Media Generate 50% More Leads [New Data]' states just that.

The guys at Hubspot has graced us with pertinent data regarding the effectiveness of auto-publishing blog posts to suit one's advertising efforts for generating more leads. The blog post has indicated that within 3,308 B2B and B2C companies, there is a recorded 576 leads generated to those companies that did not use blog auto-publishing whereas 865 leads have been generated with auto-publishing. On the same note, Hubspot has studied that within 8,892 B2B and B2C companies, a recorded 308 leads were generated with the aid of social media scheduling whereas 981 leads were generated with social media scheduling.

At their graphs, it can be clearly seen that there is a near 40% increase in leads generated with blog auto publishing and a whopping 300% increase when social media scheduling is applied.

Nonetheless, there are still a few things to take into consideration before you start any blog auto-publishing or social media scheduling. After all, if you want to generate more leads then you have to do it right.

1. Optimize the title and content of your blog post

   First thing's first, you have to focus on your targeted keywords. However, you have to make it so that you attract the attention of your targeted market. A title that plainly says something like 'commercial cleaning leads'won't really give you that much attention.

2. Provide readers with tweetable content

   Whenever you post something, give your readers something to focus their eyes upon. For example, you can bold a portion or phrase out of your blog post or article to highlight the importance of that to the topic. For instance, you can indicate in your post on how your prospects can get more cleaning leads. This can get their attention immediately and lets them read the entire article for them to find out more about how they can acquire more leads for their cleaning services.

3. Install social media sharing buttons

   Within your website, don't forget to put in a plug-in or two with easy access to social media sharing. This lets your readers easily share your content with a click of a button. The easier that your content gets shared, the more chances that your blog will spread throughout the World Wide Web.

4. Consider a tool the lets you auto-publish your posts and social media activity

   There are many softwares out there that you can download in order to spread the word about your blog at scheduled times and dates. For one, Hootsuite is one great option that allows you to schedule posts and allows you flexibility on where you want to post them. The good thing about this tool is it is only an on-line application; hence, no download is required.

5. Know the best times to publish your content

   Do a bit of research beforehand on the best times to publish your content. Also take into consideration the market that you are planning to target. As of late, a lot of people agree that reading blogs is now the morning newspaper. So, as an example, when you want to target states within the east coast of the United States, make it so that you publish at the times that they're sipping their morning coffee.

Do you still need excuses on why you shouldn't ramp up your blog posting and social media activity? Does auto-publishing posts still need to be questioned further?

This article is an original contribution by Matt Ford.

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4 Things Mobile Marketers Are Doing Wrong

We all know the stats about mobile marketing. It is going to explode. Google says that mobile search will surpass desktop search by the end of 2013. BIA/Kelsey says that mobile marketing will account for a massive increase in phone calls to businesses within the next 18 months. Mobile marketing spend will increase by 15 to 20 times in the next 6 years.

Mobile marketing is still, however, in its infancy and mobile marketers are, therefore, making mistakes. Here are the 4 biggest mistakes:

1. Measuring the wrong things

By now it is old news that mobile marketing produces phone calls. Google says that 61% of local mobile searches result in a phone call. xAd says that 52% of all mobile ads produce phone calls. BIA/Kelsey says the increase in mobile marketing spend will produce a similar increase in call volume to local businesses.

Mobile=calls.

So why do mobile marketers insist upon measuring click-through-rate, abandon rate, web leads and time-on-site?

They should be tracking metrics surrounding phone calls. There is rich, rich data in phone calls that is being unused by marketers.

2. Creating bad mobile landing pages

A mobile landing page should not be like regular landing page. There should not be a ton of form fields or content. Rather, there should be a 'Call Now' button, maybe a map lookup feature and'if you're feeling lucky'one form field to fill out. Mobile landing pages should be simple, simple, simple. Less is better. Less is more. Brevity is king.

3.Don't try it 

SearchEngineWatch says that only 12% of SMBs have a mobile website. The first way you fail at mobile marketing is if you don't attempt to do mobile marketing at all.

4. Take Google's word for it

Google charges mobile click-to-call advertisers for every click their ads generate. The problem is this: not all of those clicks from a mobile device result in phone calls AND not all of those phone calls are real calls. Some are junk calls. Some are accidental clicks. Some are not qualified leads. Our research shows that only about 50% of the calls that Google says are calls are actually calls. (You got that)? And less than 15% are good, qualified leads.

The bottom line: if you are conducting a mobile click-to-call campaign (and you should) don't rely on Google to tell you how well it is working. You're going to need a tool that can decipher good calls from bad calls for you.

Call Tracking for Mobile Marketing

FREE 30 Day Trial of LogMyCalls

Privacy in the Office of the Future is Surprisingly Inviting

Over the past week I noticed a lot of comments regarding my article on whether or not a deskless office like GlaxoSmithKlein's made sense. Regardless of your opinion, the fact of the matter is that companies are struggling to cope with the changing ways employees now accomplish their work. It's only because today's employee's need to collaborate more to be productive (82% of employees surveyed by a 2008 Business Week Survey said they needed to collaborated at least once a day), but also they are incorporating new technologies to help them at a very rapid pace. Today's businesses are facing the challenge of learning how to harness this shift and help their employees create efficient work.

British design firm PearsonLloyd is tackling the evolving work place problem by developing furniture that is 'designed to provide a range of individual 'Me Places.'' Their goal is to create places where 'workers can remove themselves from the background noise and distraction associated with the general office when they require a space for total concentration.' These aren't your father's cubes. Say goodbye to the plastic, or aluminum, or whatever it is that most cubes are made out of and say hello to the semi-enclosed, upholstered workspace of tomorrow. Throw a bunch of these in the office and working in a sea of cubicles won't make you want to gouge your eyeballs out'hopefully.

What if you were to Facetime your boss right now, totally out of the blue? We have the technology. How would they react? Video conferencing has now becoming commonplace in the workplace. However to most of us, it's still not the same as human interaction. Why? Office furniture company, Steelcase, believes it boils down to the environment where most chats are conducted. The majority of today's video conferences are made using Cisco TelePresense systems that are designed to duplicate corporate boardrooms.

In a recent FastCo Design article Christine Congdon, director of research and communications at Steelcase, states 'You sit side-by-side looking at a big screen, and the space shapes our behaviors so we become very stiff and formal'Those spaces are fine for informative collaboration, but you'd never find yourself getting into a creative flow with colleagues at a distance.' Steelcase's solution? Time to reinvent the video chat. Their goal is to make video conferencing easy and unintimidating, believing the philosophy: 'If it's easier, and not intimidating to users, it will be used more often.' They purpose creating 'spaces reminiscent of photo booths crossed with living room furniture, where someone can relax, but the production approaches studio quality.' This makes the experience casual, while making a high quality, professional looking video. By having a relaxed space it should nurture the kind of spontaneous conversation that can lead to new ideas.

The workforce is in a state of change. The way employees accomplish their work is shifting. For corporations, being able to overcome these challenges will mean the difference is failure or success.

What are your thoughts? Think any of these suggestions will help employees be more efficient at the office?

Image Source: www.iStockphoto.com Image Source:http://pearsonlloyd.com Image Source:http://newsroom.cisco.com Image Source:www.fastcodesign.com

30 Years of Business Change in One Blog Post

It all started with something like this.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of starting my first job in corporate America. I know. I don't look that old. Thanks for humoring me.

So I have been a bit nostalgic about my career (so far) and the changes I've seen. I rarely spend time on this blog looking BACK, but if you'll oblige me this once, I'd like to make a few observations about the changing nature of work that may surprise you:

Technology

Of course this is the most obvious difference ' and I'm not the type of person to re-state the obvious! But to set the stage, there was no:

• Internet
• Email
• Voicemail
• Mobile devices
• Personal computers

My first corporate job was to be in the office by 6:30 a.m. every morning to create a global executive summary of economic, industry, competitor, and customer news. I read paper magazines and newspapers, cut out the important articles with scissors and taped them to paper for photocopying. I typed summaries of the articles on a new-fangled device called a 'word processor' which then printed the document so it could be faxed to corporate offices around the world. The advent of personal computers and the Internet has been so profound that I could not possibly even cover it if I wrote for a month. When email was introduced, my boss fought it tooth and nail. You see, some things never change.

MadMen

I count myself lucky to have witnessed the tail-end of the 'MadMen' period of business culture. When I started my career in 1982, it was a white-skinned, starched-collar, chain-smoking, Ivy League, martini-swilling group of guys running corporate America. I was taken to many business lunches to drink at the all-men, all-white private business clubs that were in every major American city. I am proud to say that when the chairman of my company, Charles Parry, took his rotation as the president of the private club in Pittsburgh, he walked through the front door with our company's treasurer, an African-American, and smashed that rule forever. I was so proud of that! Today, business is for everyone. But it was not that long ago that business was an elitist, blue-blooded sport.

Speed

The reaction time in business has accelerated mightily. Back in the early 80s you had more time to think and gather your response because you could duck and hide behind the slow communication network. If people wanted information from you, they basically had to call you on the phone. The OFFICE phone. So there was no ubiquitous availability like we have now. If a reporter needed information for a controversial story, there were endless ways to delay and turn the situation around in your favor. It was an important skill! Because of the relatively slow communications, there was a lot more downtime built into the decision-making processes.

Globalization

The political world was radically different then. Russia (USSR) and Eastern Europe were closed markets. There was little trade with China and certainly no China supply chain strategy other then British-controlled Hong Kong. Other than Europe, America still had a very U.S.-focused market and supply chain. We still made stuff here. The lack of real-time communication options was a big hurdle to global trade.

Flexibility

Company life back then was pretty rigid. I wore a suit and tie to work every day until around 1992 when 'casual Fridays' started to loosen things up. It was a 9-5 world. There was no working from Starbucks ' I think you could make an argument that mobile devices created Starbucks. As a young employee, my first office had a leather couch and a globe. Yes, I'll admit ' that was cool. But there was a big trade-off. All this rigidity and lack of technology made for a real lack in '

Personal Opportunity

Here are the number of friends I had who started their own company in the 1980s ' zero. To start a company then, you generally had to MAKE something. That meant investing in manufacturing assets ' which also meant securing a bank loan, physical work space, employees, and a support infrastructure. To start something new, you had to have experience, money, and connections.

Compare this to my recent profile of Xavier Damman, the founder of Storify. He does not have a college degree and never worked for a company. Xavier wrote computer code in his apartment in Belgium, teaching himself how to create a start-up company by searching the Internet. After 18 months he had the foundation of his company in place to the point where he got $3 million in venture capital funding so he could move to San Francisco and build his company. Now that is cool.

Accountability

I think a major shift in work life is represented by the growing emphasis on personal accountability.

When you joined a company, you embarked on a 'career path' that relied on building a personal network and gathering enough company-sponsored training programs to propel you to the next level. Companies viewed employees as long-term strategic investments. Honestly, this created a lot of dead weight in the company structure.

Today, corporate cultures are built on flexibility and viewing employees as interchangable parts. Employees are responsible for their own training and career path. If you don't remain relevant, you will be jettisoned and replaced.

The bottom line

Other than being able to strategically hide from my boss through elaborate games of telephone tag, there is really only one thing I miss from 'the old days.' Today we maintain business relationships through email, text messages, maybe even Facebook or an enterprise social media utility like Yammer. I have customers who I have never met. Back then 'team building' was a physical activity like golf, fishing, or dinner at a nice restaurant. Nobody has time for physical events any more and I miss that. It was a lot of fun and it created life-long friendships. You really could have relationship-based selling. I think those days are gone, for the most part.

Well, I have written nearly 1,000 blog posts and this is the first one about 'the old days' and it may be the last. Obviously this could have been a VERY long article, but I kept it to a minimum and hope you found it mildly interesting. What are some other major changes that you've observed in how business works today?

Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer.

Directing a Corporate Video

With businesses needing to become more creative with the types of content that they are creating it is becoming ever more important to have a range of skills that can be applied to specific styles of content, or to at least have a basic understanding of them.

The post will take you through the basics of directing a corporate video so that if your business ends up hiring a production company you will be in a stronger position to understand how the process works and how you may be able to contribute or even take part.

The role of the Director and Producer

In feature films and documentaries, the Director is the creative leader of the project. They hold the ultimate vision as to what the final product will look like and it is their responsibility to steer the crew in that direction. The Producer's role is practical. They hold the purse strings and ensure that the production process runs efficiently.

When talking about corporate videos, it will often be the case that the same person takes on the directing and producing roles. If this is you, we have put together some guidance around the various responsibilities that you will be taking on.

Working with a video production company

If you decide to hire a production company, your role could be quite different. Production companies will come armed with experience, skills, the crew and the equipment. You have the option of providing them with a thorough brief and a budget and letting them do their thing. However, you may still want to direct the video. It is essential that you are clear about the role you want to take at the beginning so that they know what they are working with. Otherwise, you can end up with situations where people annoy each other, creating a resentment which will only impact negatively on the production.

The importance of a good brief

Whether you are working with a production company or freelancers you need to write a good brief. Your brief needs to be strong enough for everyone understand what you are trying to achieve with your video and how you are planning to do it. A good brief will include the aim of the video, who your audience is, the content it will include, the style of the video and how it will be narrated. It should also include practical information like a budget and the beginnings of a production schedule, especially a deadline.

The importance of a budget

Your budget should be a line by line statement of your expected expenditure on the project. It will be difficult to know exactly how long various elements will take, especially if this is your first video production, so be sure to ask the video production company for realistic timescales. Your budget should include costs for pre-production and post-production elements ' as well as just the production process. Knowing how much you can spend from the outset will mean that you can plan within those parameters.

Your creative responsibilities in directing a corporate video

As Director, it is your role to translate the creative vision of the project into reality. Preparation is the key to ensuring you are ready to turn that creative vision into an actual video. Creative preparation should include scripts and storyboards.

Scripts

A script will describe what should be happening on the screen at any one time. It is good practice to write the corporate video script in two columns; the first column can be used to describe the visuals (what we will see on screen at each point; the second column should describe the audio (what sound will accompany the visuals. Scripting also includes writing any dialogue that has been decided in advance of production.

Storyboards
The storyboard is the blueprint for your video production. It is a shot by shot visual description of what will be in your video and is a document that will ensure you and the team are focused and working together ' because you all have the same idea about what you are trying to create. The process of creating a storyboard is particularly useful because it allows you to experiment with different potential structures and story lines. Storyboards don't have to be Turner Prize winning pieces of art. They are worth investing the effort because they will save you time in the long run.

Top tip: If you are new to making videos, one of the most important things you can do is to educate yourself. Watch lots of other corporate videos. See how other people are doing things and get ideas about what to do and what not to do.

Your practical responsibilities

Directing a corporate video team

Production crew
If you have made the choice to hire in freelance camera operators and other crew, it is your responsibility to ensure that they are briefed on all aspects of the job. It is your role to steer their work and also to look after them. Make sure you plan breaks into your production schedule. Ensure that these are communicated to them so that their expectations match what you deliver to them whilst they are working for you. You are also responsible for paying them ' make sure you do it when you said you will do it!

Actors and presenters
If you are hiring in talent such as actors to be in your video, you are also responsible for making sure they are briefed and taken care of. They should know in advance of the shoot what you want them to wear and whether or not they need to learn a script or if they will be using an autocue. You also need to let them know what you want from their performance. This means that you need to decide how much creative control you want over their performance e.g. do you want them to improvise with a script or do you know exactly what you want them to say?

We wrote a short piece on choosing the right web presenter that may be worth a look.

Non-professional talent
It may be that you have non-professional participants lined up to be in your video, e.g. staff, customers or business partners. Non-professionals won't always be accustomed to being in front of big camera, under lights and having to speak in front of an unfamiliar audience. It is your role to make sure they have been briefed in advance and to make them feel as comfortable as possible throughout the process.

Post-production staff
An editor needs to be given the production brief, scripts and storyboards so that they know what the goals of the project are. As director, you are still responsible for directing the edit. However, you need to strike the right balance with your editor. You may be a hindrance to progress by watching over the editors shoulder the entire time. Another major aspect of your role in relation to the edit is ensuring that the editing team work to the schedule and therefore the budget.

Top tip: Don't withhold praise from any of your teams. If someone is doing a good job, keep the vibe positive and let them know. Praise enhances performance ' throw it around generously!

Summary of key points

The preparation for the project is your responsibility and if you do this well, you will make the production process a lot easier and less expensive

You are the keeper of the creative vision and it is your responsibility to communicate it to the team

You are the holder of the purse strings and you need to keep a handle on the budget

It is your responsibility to manage the production and ensure the process runs efficiently

You need to be clear about the boundaries of your own role so that you don't annoy other creative production staff.

Reduce Time To Resolution with Customer Service Training

Millions of dollars are lost every year in the technical support industry due to unnecessary repeat calls caused by engineer error. Below are the most common errors that lead to low time-to-resolution scores ' and all can be corrected with customer service training.

Top 8 Engineer Errors That Increase Time-To-Resolution (TTR)

In these common errors, engineers:

1. Transfer the call incorrectly

2. Needlessly tell the customer to call back

3. Don't listen and/or understand customer's request/issue

4. Supply customer inaccurate information

5. Decline to set expectations sufficiently

6. Fail to inform customer about self-service options (web-site, IVR, support forum)

7. Don't follow through on commitments/procedure

8. Communicate poorly causing customer to be apprehensive about solution

Streamline Processes with Customer Service Training

Smart companies know that providing world-class internal customer service is just as important as providing top-notch support for customers. Investing in customer service training for support engineers does much more than improve communication skills to benefit external customers. Customer service training also improves internal communications. Improving internal communication skills increases employee satisfaction and productivity which aids in reducing TTR.

When employees have great communication skills, use a common service language, and adhere to predetermined issue resolution processes, reducing TTR becomes an attainable goal. Gathering all employees together for classroom training provides an ideal opportunity for open discussion and for employees from different departments to constructively discuss process issues.

To further maximize the benefits of customer service training, it is a good idea if all support supervisors and managers also participate in training. Taking part in training alongside your support team shows that you are not only a strong advocate for training, but that continuous improvement is important for employees of all management levels.

Reduce TTR with Employee Training

Investing in customer service training for technical support engineers will provide them with the necessary skills to competently and efficiently resolve customer issues. When customers interact with a confident engineer who expertly guides them through the call, provides accurate information and appropriately sets expectations, they are likely to be satisfied at the end of the call and have no reason to call back. When the opposite occurs, customers may call for support again to ask additional questions and/or seek resolution validation from a different engineer.

Customer service training will reduce the occurrence of the top eight engineer errors and increase the performance of your center. To learn more about the benefits of customer service training please call 800'545-9003 or check out www.impactlearning.com.

You Should Mix Your Personal and Professional Lives

It's an important and frequent question: should I put personal information on my professional networks? Should I put professional information on my personal networks?

Yes.

I like blurring the lines between the personal and professional halves of my life. For one thing, it's part of my brand. I'm a humor writer and fiction writer in my off-time, and I don't mind sharing that with my professional network. So I'll occasionally post something funny to Twitter and LinkedIn. And I'm a small business owner, author, and speaker, so I'll share work-related items on Twitter and Facebook. In fact, Twitter is the place where I will absolutely blur the lines. Followers on Twitter get Erik the Dad as well as Erik the Business Owner.

There are a very few instances you don't want to do this: you're a spy, or in the witness protection program. Or you work for an idiot of a boss who thinks that you should never, ever reveal to the outside world that you have an identity outside of work, let alone a family, home, and hobbies. (Stop working for this guy.)

But other than that, mix away! Mix your personal and professional lives. Brag to your professional network about the fish you caught over the weekend at the lake. Tell your personal friends about the speech in England you've been invited to give.

We are, supposedly, well-adjusted people who lead full and rich lives. We seek to find that balance between work and personal. There is no one in this world, except maybe your idiot boss, who lives and breathes their work life to the exclusion of everything else.

So why do people try to hide the fact that they have a personal life from their professional network, or never discuss their work lives with their personal friends?

While I'm not advocating completely mixing of the two halves of your life, I am suggesting that you let some information about each trickle over to the other.

Things NOT to Share

There are a few things you cannot and should not share with your other network.

• Don't share proprietary company news with your personal network. (Don't share it with your professional network either.)
• Don't violate HIPAA or other privacy rules.
• Don't share 'intimate' details with your professional network. (Don't share it with your personal network either, especially if they're icky.)
• Don't gossip about people at work on your personal networks. You might have accidentally friended them a long time ago on Facebook. Or might have some mutual friends you didn't know about.
• Don't share your political ideology to your professional network. While it may be fine for talk around the office, it may not be appropriate to your professional contacts online.
• Don't share the same overly-sappy, happy, puppies-and-rainbows inspirational quotes on LinkedIn that you do on Facebook. Also, keep them off Twitter (there's nothing actually wrong with doing it, I just hate them).
• If you tend to be more of the vicious shark in the business world, try not to let that part of your personality spill over into your personal world.
• Similarly, if you happen to be a right-brained, artsy-fartsy type at home, that may not fly at work, especially if you work for a bank or an accounting firm.

Things TO Share

Everything else.

Author:

Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing. He is also a humor writer and satirist, which hopefully you figured out before you got this far into this blog post.