BroadVision Marketing Blog

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You have decided to add a blog as a marketing method. You’ve looked at questions that help you focus what you want to say. But throughout all the studying you have done, you are not really sure what you are using blogging to accomplish.

Many companies use social media to “connect” with their customer by talking about what their company has been doing lately, information about their products and service and awards they have received.  These companies have missed the boat.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Customer, Company, information, Web content, blog, inbound marketing, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Blogging

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Now that you have decided to write a blog for your business, you go on line and ask Google to do a general search on your product. What’s this? There are millions of blogs on the internet and it looks like millions about your product. One look at the competition and you are tempted to head for the hills.

But don’t do that. You can compete if you spend the time to create informative blog posts. This is not just a business whim, but a strategic point of your marketing campaign. If you want to be successful, you have only to take the time and effort to write content about your product. Before you start you might want to spend time answering some questions that will help you develop your strategy and actually help you write.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Google, Google Search, Customer, readers, social media strategy, product, informative posts, brand awareness, blog, clients, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business, Branding, Blogging

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When you are writing content for your business blog, do you know the basic rules for encouraging people to read and believe what you say?

In a recent Orange Soda blog by Erika Potter, as discussed in the July 25, 2011 MarketingProfs  article “Three Tips for Creating Credible Online Content”, Potter says that content matters because it creates credibility. “Without credibility, your chance of converting viewers into customers goes downhill fast. It’s vital that visitors to your site see your online business as a trusted resource,” she said.

Topics: Social Media, Marketing Principles

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Not sure about the importance of blogging for your business? Let's look at some information that might help.

What is blogging? There are blogs and there are blogs. In the beginning blogging was more like a web diary (the word “blog” is a combination of “ web log”, which meant a log you kept of your life on the web). Now blogs have exploded out of that narrow definition as people write and read blogs for all sorts of reasons. Small businesses have discovered the value of blogging.

Topics: Social Media, Marketing Principles

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Lead nurturing is a concept that is easily confused with sending out brochures or marketing copy focused on product information or company announcements. This is not the same thing as nurturing a lead.

To nurture means:  foster, help develop or help grow;  the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; training; that which nourishes; food; diet; sustenance; the environmental influences the contribute to the development of an individual. Sending out information about you or your company is not the same thing as “feeding” your leads. When you talk about yourself, you are not focused on what the leads need or your relationship with them.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, lead, Company, Sales, Salesforce.com, Sales lead, nurturing leads, Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles, Business Owner

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What is the ultimate purpose of social media? You want to get good solid leads that will convert into customers. Basically, social media tells you how your customers are getting interested in you and your company.

You use social media as a business process, which means that you develop a process in writing that you follow and test regularly to hone it. The sales department and the marketing department, as two very different entities, need to sit down together and discuss what criteria a lead must meet before being passed from marketing to sales. Furthermore, marketing needs to follow-up after the lead is passed on in order to find out if the sale occurred. Also in order to keep the customer for life, the marketing department needs to stay in touch with the client for future sales.

Topics: marketing, Using Different Media, Marketing and Advertising, Email lists, Sales, leads, Marketing Plan, Facebook, Social Media, Marketing Principles, LinkedIn, Business Owner, Business, Twitter

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How often should you contact your leads in order to stay in touch with them? You don't want to either suffocate them with too much information or have them forget about you between long periods where you don’t even cross their minds.

In order to successfully ‘Stay in Touch’ with your leads you have to get the timing of your communications right. This is going to be different depending on your company, but as a general rule, you shouldn’t contact your leads more than once a week and less than once a month.

Topics: Marketing Plan, Social Media, Marketing Principles

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Nurturing plays a crucial role in building your brand. To nurture your leads means to build a relationship with qualified prospects that may not be ready to buy yet, with your goal to be earning their business when they are ready. Most non-sales-ready clients will eventually be ready and you want to be the company they turn to when that time comes.

How do you nurture those prospects who are not yet ready to engage with sales?  After you have respectfully gotten their permission to contact them and you have begun engaging them in conversation through your ‘Incoming Lead Processing’ campaign, it’s time for you to begin your ‘Stay in Touch’ campaign.

Topics: Marketing Plan, Marketing Principles

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Lead nurturing is no different from building any long –term relationship. You need to foster respect and trust, be a good listener and keep things interesting.

Nurturing your leads will increase your sales. Just how is that done effectively?

Topics: marketing, Company, Advertising and Marketing, Opt in e-mail, Email lists, Advertising mail, Permission marketing, Marketing Plan, internet marketing, Marketing Principles, Business, Branding

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Social media marketing has demonstrated that the way to find and keep your leads is to nurture them. This is done through building relationships with them whether they are ready to buy or not. Your intention should be to earn their business when they are ready. Building a relationship with your leads is the same as building any kind of relationship. You can’t force someone to make a commitment whether it’s to purchase or go out with you. However, you don’t want to lose those individuals just because their willingness to buy doesn’t match your readiness to sell.

Topics: Social Media, Marketing Principles