If you are a living, breathing B2B marketer, you know that Facebook, Youtube, and especially Twitter, have become legitimate forums for facilitating business. For many companies, a social media strategy is as important as a website. And, social media is not likely to go away anytime soon:
While social media lets you observe how people perceive your brand, listening can only take you so far. Many B2B organizations are wallflowers that aren’t ready to engage customers and prospects with a compelling story about their brand. Social media experts agree that businesses need to find one thing defining and interesting about their brand to build a social media strategy around.
Sounds easy, right? Many B2B marketers mistakenly avoid honing in on “one thing” in favor of saying many things in order to appeal to as many customers as possible. The result is communication that is so diluted that it doesn’t appeal to anybody.
So, before you jump Tweets first into social media, challenge yourself to find the one thing that differentiates your company’s offer—that makes customers buy from you over someone else. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, what reason do people have to become a friend, follower or fan?
Does your company have a compelling differentiator that appeals to your audience? Tell us what it is and we’ll put it to the test.
My grandpa turned 92 yesterday. Over his birthday lunch, grandpa told stories about the Ploiesti Air Raids in WWII. Sixty-six years ago to the day (on his 26th birthday), grandpa was flying practice runs from Libya for this bombing mission that targeted oil refineries in Romania (a significant source of oil for Nazi Germany).
I’ve heard lots about Ploiesti over the years. Today, I Googled Ploiesti for the first time. It took multiple search attempts:
“Plueste mission” = 4 results in Spanish
“Pluheste low-level flying mission” = 0 results
“Plueste, Romania” (yes, I tried the wrong spelling again) = “did you mean Ploiesti, Romania?”
Why yes, I did. With the correct spelling, I tackled Google again.
“Ploiesti mission” = JACKPOT! Wikipedia delivers the top listing
So, what does this have to do with B2B marketing?
Your potential customers can’t spell your “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” solution or product name!
And, they certainly aren’t going to find you online when your SEO strategy is based on optimizing it—your efforts will be fruitless.
B2B marketers need to focus on how users search. Users search for keyword phrases that describe a problem in order to find a solution; they don’t know your solution exists and, if they do, perhaps they can’t spell it.
There are free tools to help you research and logically deduct what keyword phrases will drive quality traffic to your site. Try WordTracker or Google Adwords to start. You may even consider a misspelled keyword as one of your keywords.
Are your SEO efforts centered on your product name? Can using a misspelled keyword pay off? Did you already know how to spell Ploiesti?
How many times have you heard the phase “Customer service is dead?” I’m always surprised that people actually believe this jaded sentiment. No matter what your profession—whether it’s dog walker, doctor or accountant—you provide some form of customer service. So, why not provide the highest level of service imaginable?
Giving your clients excellent service is more important now than ever. There are a multitude of companies out there, just like yours, waiting for you to slip up so your customer can take their business elsewhere. The better service you offer, the harder it will be for your competitors to get that chance.
Want to zap your customer service efforts back to life? Here are some tips:
Listen: Take the time to get to know your customers—both professionally and personally. You’ll be amazed how many bonus points you score when you remember that your client’s son’s name is Matt, that they like to collect ceramic figurines or their favorite country is Italy.
Stay in front of your customers: Everyone wants to feel like they are the most important customer. The more you communicate with them, the more they will appreciate you. Today’s technology makes this easy because you can talk to your customers through phone or e-mail, or use newer methods like Twitter or text messaging.
Solutionize: Always push yourself to provide your clients with solutions to difficult challenges. Any time you can make their lives easier, you demonstrate your value.
Admit fault: You are bound to make mistakes at some point. Admitting fault and, more importantly, making things right is always better than downplaying a negative situation or making excuses.
And don’t forget, people are more likely to remember negative experiences than positive ones, and it’s the negative ones that they share with others. We find this all the time with the Net Promoter Score research projects we manage for our clients.
For more food for thought, check out the top 25 ranked U.S. companies in customer service. What are your experiences with these companies? What aspects of your company parallel these organizations?
I love typefaces (also known as fonts for those of you who aren’t designers)! One of our designers, Renata, found this image of the Periodic Table of Typefaces. The piece displays the most popular and nicely designed typefaces and the designers who created them.
But wait, it gets even better! You can purchase prints, T-shirts (drooling at this point), download wallpaper for your computer, a book cover and even decals for your walls! Great job these guys did on putting this together. It’s a creative way of showing the history and design of typefaces.
So at this point you’re probably thinking, “So what! What’s the big deal about all these fonts? PowerPoint and Word have a great selection of fonts that come with them—like Comic Sans and Papyrus.” So, as I shake my head I say this, selecting the right typeface is so important. Not only are typefaces a work of art, but they also set the tone of a piece and help tell your brand story. Using Comic Sans may not be the kind of typeface you want to use as a professional business (unless you’re a comic book company).
If you’re not sure what typefaces are good to use, then that’s where the periodic table of typefaces comes in. If you’re still not sure, then call Canyon and we’d love to help you select a typeface and talk brand strategy!
Take a closer look at it, all my favorites are on here—Helvetica, Gotham, Avenir, Trade Gothic, Clarendon…etc.
I’d also like to hear what your favorite typeface is (and notice there’s no Comic Sans or Papyrus, so they don’t count).
