A New Generation Marketer

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the CRM Acceleration event at the Hilton Woburn, sponsored by BrainSell and SugarCRM. Speakers included Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Mitch Lieberman of SugarCRM, Umberto Milletti of InsideView, Martin Schneider of Sugar CRM, and Chip Meyers of Insource, followed by a panel discussion.

I always like to take opportunities such as this one to act as a sponge by absorbing as much of the information, atmosphere, and contacts as I can. The speakers provided great information that is crucial for businesses to understand today, whether they are implementing or considering any inbound marketing techniques or not, as it is becoming ever so important in the business world.

Below are the great takeaways from the event:

Get Found Using Inbound Marketing:

First, know that Google LOVES blogs, so naturally the searchability of your company’s blog will not be hard to obtain. If you update the information on your blog on a consistent basis, Google rewards you by listing your blog even higher for particular search queries since it is able to crawl your site more often. If you update once a year, Google deems it less important, thus does not crawl as often, and searchability can dramatically decrease.

If your company does not have the bandwith to keep up with a blog on a consistent basis, Dharmesh suggested to at least write two blogs: one on why you are in business and what differentiates you from all the other fish in the sea. The second should cover a great customer success story to demonstrate physical benefits of your service to a real client. Even if this is all your company has time to write about, it can be a great platform for potential clients (leads) to read what you are about and how you help businesses succeed.

While blogging, remember to talk in ‘human’ talk as Dharmesh stated. Don’t write in that marketing gobbledygook that people try to write in to sound fancy and smart. Although it does look nice, people go to blogs for a simple, straightforward read that does not further confuse them, so save your gobbledygook for your direct mail pieces.

Now, some may say, “Well I work in a boring industry, why would people want to read a blog about this industry?”.

The answer to that is simple: If people are willing to buy in your industry, they will be willing and ready to read your blogs. Don’t ever assume that people will not do something, because you are in fact in business due to your customers and they care about what they can get from your company. If you can provide something extra to them even in a boring industry, you have begun to differentiate yourself.

If your company does have the bandwidth to blog on a more consistent basis (at least once weekly, preferably), read on…

When blogging, talk about the industry’s problems, not your solution. You may wonder why you can’t sell your product in your blogs since the CEO or CFO wants to see some ROI on your marketing efforts. I am not saying you cannot sell your product, you just shouldn’t do it right away. You must first build up credibility in your blog by not talking about yourself, but by talking about issues that your customers/prospects care about. Once that is strongly established, then you can begin talking about your solutions to those issues. People can see through the purpose of your blogs if you put a call to action on your early blogs.

Make sure that in your blog content, you stand for something. This means that you choose one side of the fence or another on a particular issue, and not somewhere in the middle. The reasoning behind this is that people will either love you or hate you for this, but those that love you will REALLY love you. It also shows that you have the capability to take a firm stance and back it up, demonstrating expertise and credibility in a particular industry or topic.

Next, make it very, very easy to share your content. Have easily accessible links to share on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, etc. on each blog post.

What is a ‘Social Business’?

A social business is involved with building mutually beneficial relationships with customers. Social CRM is essentially the company’s response to the customer’s control of a situation. In this new business ecosystem, customers produce the content, and businesses must decide whether to get involved with the conversations.

In a social business…

1. People are the platform

2. Information is co-created. This means that information flows from the outside in, instead of the inside out. The customer defines the product or service and the value it will provide, and the business must respond. (Think of how Apple operates).

3. Power is distributed physically and virtually.

4. You must be transparent with information, people involved, and expected goals.

5. You must be interdependent; trust is crucial!

Who is the ‘Social Customer’?

1. They are demanding because they now have a voice.

2. They are mobile. Don’t discard mobile, as it can be a viable communication platform because mobile usage and mobile Internet has increased dramatically (a simple Google search will show this).

3. They trust their peers. For B2B, 59% engaged with their peers who helped address their challenge to find a solution.

4. They are knowledgeable. For B2B, 78% started with an informal information gathering process, such as a Google search. This demonstrates how critical being visible through search engines is to helping a customer begin their purchase decision with you.

5. They are resourceful: 41% of customers follow online discussions to find out information, and 37% post questions about topics to get results from peers.

The new era of sales:

1. Sell your brand in the way that your customers want to buy.

2. Create buyers, don’t sell your product.

3. Recognize that prospects want to receive information that is relevant to their current initiatives or business challenges, they don’t care about you or your product right away.

4. Discover key events to create the perfect sales opening; prospects will be more receptive.

5. Listen to the social buzz to learn what is not necessarily in the news but is important to prospects.

6. Focus on synchronizing the buying and selling cycles. Fact: Only 20% of sales reps are prepared for sales calls. Give reps the tools and technology to be prepared for the selling pitch when they deem the prospect is ready to receive it.

In summary, social CRM involves engagement, being adaptive, listening, being open, building different communities around your product, and enabling others to share and promote your brand.

Social business with social customers involves using technology to solve a problem for the customer. You as a business must make the lead feel comfortable, valued and enabled in order for them to trust you and feel motivated to learn more from you.

Always keep in mind that your customers just may know more about your products/services than you do, but embrace that! Make those people your brand experts and evangelists and recognize them in your brand community(ies).