Forrester recommends that technology marketers concentrate on the sources that yield the most influence and use social media to expand their reach, with the understanding that time spent on social media efforts probably will not yield great value in the short term.

1. Use QR codes on printed pieces:  “Quick Response Codes” do just what they say. A user views the QR code on an ad, poster, or the back of your business card using a smartphone app and the smart phone’s browser takes them quickly to a page on the web. Provide a relevant, meaningful, beneficial experience when a mobile user gets to your landing page through a QR code:

• Direct the viewer to a mobile-optimized version of your website.
• Show a digital business card including a photo and bio.
• Let the user RSVP to an event.
• Show a video or play audio.
• Show a case study or portfolio.
• Give an instant discount.
• Let the visitor sign up for a loyalty club.

Whatever you present should be a worthwhile and robust experience. Too many QR codes lead to a home page on a website with no special “bonus” for the QR viewer. And, track results by using custom QR codes for different programs to easily analyze the effectiveness of your QR codes.

2. Personalize it: Including a personalized URL (PURL) on a printed direct mail piece (or email) is a great way to get users to visit a site optimized just for them. Make sure when recipients take the time to type in the PURLs, that you have personalized their landing page. If you’re asking them to sign up for something, pre-populate the fields with their information and tailor images and your offer to their needs. This type of direct mail is highly trackable, and using PURLs can double your response rate on direct mail.

3. Do one-on-one social media marketing: With the cost of short-run digital printing falling, it’s possible to create highly personalized, hyper-targeted pieces to interact with your fans/followers on your social media sites in the real world. Consider asking for addresses from your loyal fans, and mail something valuable with a request for a follow-up. An example of a successful piece by Jeff Becker of ClientsFirst.com was a box customized with a PURL and personalized graphics containing iPod headphones and offering an iPod if the recipient would sign up for a one-on-one meeting with a company representative. The piece drew a 22% response rate and the business generated more than paid for the cost of the program.  In a Baylor study, marketers got a 75% increase in response rate by mailing something that was bulky or in a box.

Although print is not as big a marketing tactic anymore, make the most of printed pieces to integrate your offline and online marketing. Creating a campaign that incorporates both print and digital design can improve response rates and offer engaging online user experiences.

Consumers research online before shopping

In the Online Shopper Intelligence Study, compete.com found that 60% of consumers research their purchases online first.

Also interesting to note, however, is that there is variability in search behavior across different industries. For example, only 12% of apparel shoppers use search, relying more on emails, websites, mailing, and ads from retailers.

And 59% of electronics shoppers rely more on websites than on search.

One of the most interesting statistics in an ongoing consumer tracking study conducted by BIA/Kelsey is that 97% of consumers use online media to search for local businesses and products. Among those surveyed, 90% use search engines, 48% use internet yellow pages and directories, 24% use vertical sites, and 42% use comparison shopping sites.

In-store shoppers use search before and during shopping

Consumers also search online before doing in-store shopping. According to a survey of consumer retail spending and trends from Deloitte, 75% of consumers look online for store, price, or product information before or during in-store shopping. More than half use social networking sites to research and interact with retailers, find out about promotions, and read reviews, with half of consumers saying that an online product review has influenced their decision on whether to buy a product.

Users search for local stores and products

According to Google, 20% of Google searches are related to local and 30% of mobile searches are local. Google Place pages appear before organic search results on results pages and visitors use this information to find out more about your company, map your location, and learn about your products or services. Listings in online directories and online yellow pages can also help your business appear in higher rankings.

How do you take advantage of these stats?

• Optimize your website for search
• Make sure your free Google Places page is correct and complete
• List your business in local online directories
• Optimize your site for mobile devices or have a mobile website
• Keep information on your Facebook page up to date
• Know your audience so you can focus on the online resources your customers use most

The Google “Grow Your Business Online” events are being held in locations around the world and are a great source of the latest information about online search. I highly recommend attending if one comes to a city near you!

B2B Marketing Tactic Increases/Decreases

According to a Fusion b2b survey of business-to-business (B2B) marketers, 66 percent of marketers are planning to increase marketing activities and budgets this year, with 5.5 percent planning to decrease marketing activities or budgets and 28.5 percent planning to maintain marketing activities and budgets.

Most respondents plan to increase Internet, social media, PR, and promotions, while 70 percent of respondents plan to decrease advertising and 65 percent plan to reduce trade show expenditures. For more information, see the Business-to-Business Marketing 2011 Outlook Survey Results.

The effectiveness of website design, management, and optimization tactics

Since a website is the main hub of marketing and conversion for companies, marketers should make their websites as effective as possible. Marketing Sherpa interviewed nearly 1,000 B2B marketers to find out which website optimization tactics were the most effective. Marketers put website landing pages, website design, website SEO, and microsites at the top of the list for most effective ways to optimize their Internet presence. Adding video, social media, live chat, click-to-call, and personalization were considered less effective. You can read more in Best website design, management and optimization tactics for 2011.

A well-implemented marketing strategy includes ways to make it easier for customers to find your solutions online and be converted into customers. Although there are countless pressures during difficult economic times, marketers who keep their eye on their priorities will emerge even stronger from the downturn than their competition.

It is even more important than ever that your marketing strategy produces both immediate and long-lasting positive results. The key to successful development and implementation of a marketing strategy is to focus on a set of priorities and then ensure that all your marketing tactics directly support your priorities.

What’s the big deal about online marketing?

• 90%+ of people search online before making decisions, big and small
• Search engines find content, categorize it, and connect people with what they need
• To get found, you need online content that’s relevant and fresh
• Some of the steps in building your online presence are “do-it-yourself” and some are “do-not-try-this-at-home” so don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it

Building blocks of an online marketing strategy

• Build a foundation of a robust website
• Add the three pillars of search marketing, e-mail marketing, and web analytics
• Cap it off with a social media strategy.

More info

Building blocks:  Your website

Top 5 reasons your website is the foundation of your plan

• 60% of prospects will visit your website
• Search engines direct visitors to your site
• First introduction might be online
• Prospects use traditional websites
• You control the information

More info

3 important things to consider

• Usability – architecture, navigation, and analytics
• Content – clear, simple, easy to contact you
• Design – stand out but be appropriate, use only graphics that support your messaging

More info

6 main sections your site should have

• Home page
• Products or Services
• About Us
• Contact Us
• Custom Information
• Dynamic Content

More info

Building blocks:  Search

A search strategy is the first pillar of your plan

• Create content that targets your customers’ needs
• Use words customers search for, including negatives
• Long-tail keywords improve results and target your audiences
• Update content often
• Create compelling, link-worthy content

More info

SEO: Getting links to your site

• Link to your site from social networks
• Comment on blogs and online communities
• Add yourself to online directories
• Use social bookmarking
• Submit online press releases
• Answer questions online
• Ask for customer reviews
• Ask for links from influencers

More info

SEO: Technical recommendations

• Find keywords relevant to your business, include keywords in the page content, write naturally
• Properly name pages, 
meta data, headlines, 
URLs, and links
• Make clean, organized 
coding a priority
• Give it time

More info

Building blocks:  E-mail

• E-mail is the second pillar of your plan
• Users overwhelmingly prefer e-mail as a contact
• E-mail keeps customers informed about new products and solutions, or industry news.
• E-mail offers a great return on your investment

E-mail best practices

• Build your list with customers, colleagues, people you meet, and online signups
• Create a master calendar and send a combination of newsletters, promotions, announcements
• Get results with well-designed, straightforward, compelling, brief e-mails
• Use analytics, testing, and segmenting to target e-mails

More info

Other online marketing tactics to consider

• Online ads – banner ads, PPC, sponsored content
• Video and podcasts
• Flash demos
• SMS text advertising
• Branded apps

Building blocks:  Analysis

Analysis is the third pillar of your plan

• Set up tools to get the most accurate analytics
• Web analytics
• SEO analytics
• E-mail analytics
• Monitor your online presence, mentions, links, activity, competitors, industry
• Test and refine

Use analytics to refine your site, SEO, and e-mails

• Fine tune your website and SEO
• Dashboard, Visitors Overview, Traffic Sources Overview, Keywords, Top Content
• Improve your e-mail campaigns
• How many were sent, received, and bounced
• How many people opened, clicked, forwarded, opted out, signed up
• What was clicked
• Compare to past campaigns
• Test and refine

More info

Monitoring your online presence for free

• Setup an RSS reader to watch keywords, companies, people, Twitter #hashtags, LinkedIn answers
• Check LinkedIn and Facebook pages and groups
• Search for terms on Addict-o-matic
• Use grader.com to rank yourself
• Use Tweetdeck for real time info
• Respond to issues before they’re problems, find new customers, build your reputation

More info

Building blocks:  Social Media

Social media is the capstone of your plan

• Social media enhances all of your other efforts.
• Engaged customers are more likely to buy
• Social media influences search results
• Links drive traffic to your website
• Conversations about you are already going on online

More info

Top social media tools

• LinkedIn – Profiles, Companies, Groups, Answers
• Facebook  Profiles, Pages, Groups
• Twitter       Profiles, Companies
• Blogs    RSS reader
• Local search – Google Places, Yahoo!, bing, getlisted. org
• Review sites – Yelp, TripAdvisor, industry sites
• Social bookmarking – StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit
• Other – forums, wikis, industry or interest group websites, local websites, local organizations

More info

5 Quick steps to get online

• Sign up for membership on targeted sites
• Fill out the basic information (you can add more later)
• Find groups of peers and/or customers
• Listen and get a feel for discussion etiquette
• Add value to conversations

More info

Maintaining your online brand

Branding 101

• Keep your design and content consistent
• Maintain a unified design on your website, e-mails, social media sites, and presentations
• Make sure you develop guidelines, image and copy assets, instructions, 
written strategy
• Provide feedback on all marketing pieces anddon’t allow anything off-brand.

More info

Branding and messaging across multiple media

• When you develop online sites, pages, and profiles, be sure to use consistent graphics and messaging.
• Develop a set of images you can use for each platform that are optimized for each use
• Develop a set of copy blocks you can use in a variety of lengths
• Keep a list of sites to update when you make a change in messaging or imagery, when you launch a new product, or when you have news to share.
• Keep things consistent everywhere!

Download the presentation

“Building an Online Marketing Plan” is available in a variety of formats:

• PowerPoint Show (ZIP 15.6 MB)
• Keynote Presentation, with notes and links (ZIP 12.8 MB)
• PDF file, with links (ZIP 12.6 MB)
• Slideshare Presentation, with links (Slideshare)

There are some great free tools to monitor your online presence. Most of these require a few minutes to set up and then a few minutes per day to monitor. There are some that you can use once a month to track how your online brand is over time.

Setup an RSS reader

An RSS reader aggregates web content such as news, blogs, and online searches in a single location for easy viewing. A reader helps you view new information from all the sites and searches you choose on one page. Google Reader is very easy to set up and use.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts let you monitor the web for new content. Just enter the search terms you’re interested in following and how often you want updates and you can monitor any word or phrase. You should set up Google Alerts on your company, your brands, keywords, your competitors’ companies, your key employees, and influencers in your industry. You can get updates via e-mail or add the RSS feed of your Google Alerts to your RSS reader.

Twitter Searches

Twitter searches are feeds of search results of keywords, brands, companies, people, and #hashtags on Twitter. Be sure to search for @mentions of your company Twitter accounts. The results are almost instantaneous and allow for time-critical monitoring.

LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn Answers lets you ask and answer industry-specific questions. You can subscribe in an RSS reader to all the questions in a category relevant to your company and your customers. You can keep track of the kinds of problems your customers have, answer questions to show your expertise, and follow discussions in your industry.

Check your social media pages

LinkedIn

Visit your LinkedIn home page to see who has visited your profile, read status updates from your connections, and answer any messages you’ve received. Visit groups you’ve joined to see what kinds of discussions are going on.

Facebook

Look at your company’s Facebook page stats and activity using the View Insights link on the pages you manage. Scan your fans and page views count. Visit your Facebook company page (or personal profile if you use it for business) and answer any questions or address comments that visitors have made on your page. If you are a member of a group, check to see if any interesting new discussions are going on.

The ongoing buzz about your company

Sites such as Social Mention and  Addict-o-matic show you the buzz on your company across a wide selection of social networks. Topsy lets you search terms on Twitter over the past 6 months (Twitter’s search only goes back about a week).

Assess the quality of your online presence

There are a range of free tools that can analyze the quality of your online brand. Use Twitter Grader, Facebook Grader, and Website Grader to get a free analysis of how your pages rank compared to others. You can run these analyses once a month to see how changes you make to your site, pages, and online conversations improve your ranking.

Monitor in real time

Use software such as TweetDeck to monitor online conversations in real time. Set up custom columns that monitor @mentions of your accounts, searches on keywords and names, and activity by your Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections.

Use the information you find

Keeping track of your company online can give you the ability to spot issues before they become problems, find opportunities in your marketplace to grow your business, and build a reputation as an expert in your industry. Responding to people that mention you or your competition can help you win new customers and build relationships in your industry.

Six Revisions has a comprehensive list of monitoring options in ”12 Social Media Monitoring Tools Reviewed.”

Bright ideas
Before you get started online, you should develop objectives, goals, and strategies for your marketing efforts.

Good hearing
Don’t make a move until you listen and monitor what’s happening online in your market, including following all mentions of your company or brand, your competition, and industry keywords.

Big heart
You should plan on sharing your passions and company culture as part of your online outreach. And be as helpful as possible by sharing your expertise and knowledge with others.

Fast hands
Be prepared to put your writing skills to the test by creating plenty of valuable online content.

Funny bone
Make sure what you share is interesting and funny—and be prepared to take a ribbing for your ideas once you join in online conversations.

Stamina
Any social media marketing program takes a long time to bear fruit, so be prepared to keep the energy up in the long run.

For more information on planning a social media program, check out “5 steps in a social media marketing plan” and read how to get started with Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Special Delivery: Create your own holiday-themed web pages

Design and share your own one-of-a-kind holiday pages in minutes with Special Delivery. You can make a holiday page, send birthday wishes, invite friends to a party, or create a page just for fun. Upload your own photos, include music, select from beautiful backgrounds and borders, add animations, and write messages. It’s a free, easy, green alternative to traditional cards! Create your holiday greetings.

Snowbash: Can you stop the snowmen?

See how many snowmen your gingerbread man can get without harming the innocent pink bunnies in the award-winning Snowbash game, Best-of-Show at last year’s Silicon Valley ADDY awards. Play Snowbash.

Snowflake Designer: Design your own beautiful flakes

Select the number of branches, the shape of the crystals and their complexity, and watch as your snowflake grows right outside your window! Make some snowflakes.

Virtual Fireplace: May your days be merry and bright

Just because you’re stuck at your computer doesn’t mean you can’t gaze into the hypnotic flames of a crackling fireplace. Have fun decorating the mantle for the holidays, or just kick back and imagine the warmth! Curl up by the fireplace.

Happy Holidays!

We hope you have a lot of fun and hope you share your Special Delivery online greetings, as well as the games, with friends and family.

All our wishes for a wonderful holiday season!

Last night’s SVAMA panel explored how marketers can use social media for business-to-business lead generation. The answer in a nutshell: create remarkable online content and lead prospects to that content through Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Panelists included Brian Halligan, CEO HubSpot, and author of Inbound Marketing; Mike Linton, formerly the CMO at eBay and at Best Buy, now writing for Forbes.com; and Zack Urlocker, from MySQL, now part of Sun Microsystems/Oracle. The panel was moderated by Lilia Shirman, author of 42 Rules for Growing Enterprise Revenue, and MD of The Shirman Group.

Brian kicked off the discussion by contending that a winning marketing professional today is half marketer and half content creator. A marketer today should create content, optimize it for search and social media, promote the content on social networks, and analyze the results to concentrate on what generates the best results. His caveat is that the content needs to be “remarkable” so that it gets spread from the original recipients to others, extending your reach to new prospects.

Zach was able to get a huge increase in leads in his group at Sun through a series of refinements, including the creation of informational content (white papers, case studies, etc.) and an optional registration form for each piece of content. His team optimizes everything they do around lead generation, noting that each page on a website or blog should have a call to action—otherwise, why have that page?

Mike‘s experience with the B2C market has given him some different insights on the creation of content. Sometimes, the best content you can create is an online dialogue and relationship with your potential and current customers. And, sometimes the customers make the most valuable content. In some markets, the best way to do lead generation is just to keep the conversations going in your community.

All three panelists agreed that you should find out where your customers are and then make sure you interact with them there. Brian suggested that instead of hunting through the jungle of the internet, find the watering holes and hunt for leads there. The watering holes could be forums, wikis, Facebook Fan pages, LinkedIn Groups, blogs, and Twitter.

Once you find your targets, lure them to the remarkable content you’ve created on your website and blog, and capture their contact info for your sales team.

Here’s a quick rundown of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of using social networks to help kick-start your social media plan.

Who

You should use social media if you have a business and want to do any of the following:

• Reach new customers
• Build relationships with existing customers
• Create awareness of your products or services through PR and marketing
• Decrease customer support costs
• Drive traffic to your website
• Find new employees
• Improve teamwork at your company

What

Social networks are now used by millions of people every day:

• Social networks are web-based, online communities of people with shared interests who communicate with one another and share information.
• Social networks allow you to connect with friends, family, colleagues, and customers online.
• Social media marketing is the use of social networks to promote your company’s products or services.

Where

You should create a presence on the following websites:

• LinkedIn: Set up profiles for key employees. See “Getting Started with LinkedIn.”
• Facebook: Create a Facebook Fan Page for your business. See “Getting Started with Facebook.”
• Twitter: Set up a Twitter profile for your company or brand. See “Getting Started with Twitter.”
• Local Search: Set up listings for your business on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Best of the Web Local, and Bing Local Listing Center, by visiting GetListed.org.
• Reviews: Set up a listing for your business on Yelp.

When

• Today: Set up profiles on the major sites. It takes about a day.
• Every day: Keep up with what’s happening in your industry or marketplace.
• Every week: Spend a few hours participating in conversations with people in your networks.
• As needed: Post news about your company.
  

Why

There are five main reasons companies should do social media marketing:

• It is now considered a best practice.
• It drives traffic to your website.
• It improves your search engine rankings.
• It lets you join the conversation.
• It amplifies your marketing messages.

For details, see “5 reasons companies should do social media marketing.”

How

It’s easy to get started with social media:

• Sign up for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, local search engines, and Yelp.
• Fill out the basic information (you can add more later).
• Join groups of peers and/or customers.
• Listen and get a feel for discussion etiquette.
• Get social by joining into conversations with your peers and customers. See “Connecting with customers through LinkedIn,” “Connecting with customers through Facebook,” and “Connecting with customers through Twitter.“

More information

• For more in-depth information about using social media marketing, take a look at “5 Steps in a Social Media Marketing Plan“  and “Promote your business using social media.”
• For an overview of the components in an online marketing strategy, check out the Marketing Treasure Map video.
• For details on the most popular social networking websites, check out the slideshare presentation called “Free Online Tools to Create Conversations.”