This article stems from a current national discussion and I believe this discussion is culturally and economically crucial. In fact, I encourage you to discuss this topic with your colleagues and get to the heart of the matter for your business.

We’re shifting our own “social media marketing” over to real professional networking on LinkedIn and within our chosen organizations. And by the way, email marketing still rocks!

We’re leaving the noisy social chatter and joining the focused, productive discussions both online and in real meetings. Care to join the movement?

Facebook Folly

Consider this analogy. Let’s say you commit a significant budget for radio advertising. Would you pay a radio group that only played your ads if they felt like it, or only according to a secret broadcast schedule, and then refused to give you independently verified data about audience reach, demographics and ratings stats? Welcome to Facebook! They’ll gladly take your money and then quite possibly hassle you about your ad content. If they let you run the campaign, they generate analytics reports that show “engagements” which are also called “vanity metrics” for a good reason. You might even hear from a tire kicker or two, perhaps a couple of trolls… and gain little or no new business.

This is the typical experience that I and numerous B2B colleagues have had advertising on Facebook.

Targeted demographics or advertising sales scam?

The top social media company says they know who your customers are (or would be) because they have the data, and they have it in spades, but not on everyone.

Supposedly, they pinpoint and distribute your ads to the right people; whatever they say their algorithm does, not what an independent auditor can analyze and measure, and you have no possible way of confirming or validating the analytics they provide. It’s whatever they say it is, not what you actually experience in results. I find it amazing that advertisers still widely accept this dubious scheme.

Where it Works

Social media does work for certain kinds of businesses, namely socially-driven businesses such as design, retail, fashion, beauty, health & fitness, coaching and lifestyle brands. That makes perfect sense.

What if you’re none of the above and sell things like heavy equipment, engineering services, contract manufacturing, commercial construction, IT services, application software and other B2B products & services? In these industries, Facebook is a time drain in a creepy crapshoot.

On the other hand, LinkedIn will connect you with dedicated career people in your chosen fields. The free LinkedIn personal profile provides the best functionality and user experience of any “social media” platform, and all in a business-driven environment!

Look at Reality!

• Will a clever Facebook ad resonate like a conversation between an engineer and their client CEO?
• Would a manufacturing company CEO be more likely to click an ad and request an appointment on Facebook or return a subject-relevant email from a potential supplier of critical components?
• What carries more weight, a pertinent direct message from a LinkedIn Connection or a message notification from a salesperson on your company Facebook page?
• How about a Facebook ad versus a product demo invitation from a company referred to you by someone in your network?
• How about seeing a mask-clad visitor dropping off a colorful brochure with large photos and bullet points that speak to your need? Compare that to the slight chance you will see a boosted Facebook video from that company sandwiched between an insane political meme complete with rant and your buddy’s latest vacation bragging.

B2B decision makers respond to messages that directly speak to their needs and they don’t use Facebook to look for those solutions! If you’re the odd CEO or Operations Manager who goes to Facebook to find crucial information to run your business, my advice is don’t be too distracted by the ugliness, and good luck finding any solutions that meet your needs.

Marketing Efforts Better Prioritized

When it comes to your B2B social media strategy, I offer this soothing advice. Relax!

The real social media value for most B2B marketing is having another nice looking brand presence online. That takes only minimal effort while it maintains some additional brand visibility.

If you’ve been struggling to make social media work for your company, pause and reconsider your entire marketing mix. Place social media where it belongs – as an ancillary extension of your primary online presence. Your website is far and away your higher priority!

Go Direct!

Yes, of course you can use technology to reach more customers! PPC search marketing delivers validated and proven results, especially when your landing pages resonate with effective calls to action.

So first off, channel more creative energy into the only place on the internet over which you have total control – your website! Work hard on those campaign landing pages!

And remember, direct marketing and personal selling have always worked and still work wonders for small business.

If we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, please feel free to reach out and connect with me: linkedin.com/in/chucksink.  Perhaps my network can help you and your network.

The post Why Your B2B Social Media Fails to Produce appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

There are countless ways to grow your business! And it probably takes more than two of them to succeed, so what could we be talking about here?

Growing a B2B business starts with a net new client premise. If you own the business, you’re probably thinking a lot about how to grow it and maintain steady growth. I bet you have a few key prospects in mind and are thinking about when you might call them. When one of them calls you, you’re giddy!

Don’t worry, this isn’t about cold calling vs inbound marketing.

During a recent meeting, my colleague Matt Barden from Industrial Marketing distilled business development down to its essence and I may be paraphrasing. “New business comes in two ways; making calls or getting calls. You call or you get the call.” In both cases, the sale is up to you. Simple maybe, and simple is what works! I can’t count how many cold calls I’ve received from marketing automation companies in the last year but it was at least 5 or 6 and they all tell me they do it because it works. Ironically, their services promise more warm leads with fewer cold calls.

As a potential reseller, I’m a good target for their calls so I expect and welcome them.

This is not about cold calling nor is it about getting back to basics.  Rather, you need to start thinking about having the data/intelligence to make really effective outbound calls and get well-qualified inbound calls as well. Then your firing on all marketing cylinders!

Create and Use Intelligence!

You can have realtime market intelligence coming from individuals at known companies that tell you when to call the prospect and what they’re interested in. At the same time, you’ll be receiving inbound calls and leads based on your strategic online campaign that’s bringing intelligent content to your target audience.

Hopefully, you’ll close more deals when that happens.

The Digital-Human Nexus

Here’s the crux of it all. Boatloads of people are online right now either searching for products and services related to your business or they’re passively educating themselves on personal and work-related topics. They really want to find that ideal solution online and when they find it, they want you, a human being to help them get exactly what they want.

Small companies that decide to step it up with integrated search and content marketing campaigns tend to up-level their businesses faster than they expect.

When you discover the abundance of the realtime, electronically-connected marketplace, you can’t wait to get your message circulating in it. You want to personally connect with all those business prospects who are online. You can actually witness the digital-human nexus and experience it with a voice conversation once your communications jump from the screen to the phone or a meeting place.

Moving Out of the Desert

If you want to move your brand from nowhere land to the bustling bazaar of daily commerce, you’ll need to make a modest to perhaps moderate investment in a couple of digital platforms that will support your organic website – the hub of your brand. Costs for these services have settled at reasonable rates and the tools work better than ever! The best thing? Everything is fully transparent, measurable and accountable. You’ll be in the know!

You can see your investment working (or not) without any smoke and mirrors.  In other words, your marketing team won’t be using dubious analytics and vague forecasts. They’ll be giving you qualified sales leads and you’ll be measuring new business results from your campaigns. You’ll know the real bottom line.

Double your Sales Pleasure!

Do you want to grow? Call or be called. Better yet, make great calls and get great calls too. When your campaign is set up and integrated, all you really need to do is have the conversations that close new business.

If you have questions about how this program can help you grow your business, feel free to call us at 603-345-7223.

The post The Two Ways to Grow Your Business appeared first on Chuck Sink Link.

Stop demanding leads!

Every business owner and salesperson wants qualified new business leads that they can close, add to the client list and so build their business empire. If they could reduce their time spent prospecting and just focus on closing more deals, business would be sooooo much better! But is that realistic? Probably not.

There are all kinds of lead generation programs out there that vary in firepower and sophistication. Most of them utilize a combination of digital platforms that, when integrated, allow you to target demographic and interest-specific audiences, and follow them around on the web and with emails. They include various levels of personalization, even to the point of feeling creepy and intrusive.

The B2B Marketing Reality

You can definitely increase your website traffic and generate inbound “leads” with a well-programmed campaign. Up to a point. There’s a point at which message saturation occurs and no amount of great marketing will deliver new customers when there aren’t a bevy of needy prospects in your market during your campaign. This is the reality of most B2B marketing!

You hit up the same finite universe of potential buyers with a drip campaign hoping some will just peel away from their current business relationships, open an account and place an order with you. But the real qualified leads are few and far between, so what can you do?

The Crux of Business Growth

Unless your messages are relevant to their thinking and well-timed to their needs, prospective business customers couldn’t care less about your drips and drabs following them around in browsers and delivered in emails. But when they’re ready for change, you need to have readied them to think of your brand first. So the question becomes, how do you maximize your current market share and position your company as the category leader when the market expands?

You build trusted relationships based on an authentic brand. And these relationships can begin with simple awareness and grow from there. Yes, it’s about branding again!

What do you do better than most if not all of your competition? Figure out how to make that fact resonate in every company message. Make it the foundation of your sales, marketing and PR. Don’t stray!

As your prospects notice the consistency in your value proposition and hear about your work in media or word of mouth, they might actually become excited about the chance to do business with you when the time comes. You may be unaware of any relationship brewing with your prospects as they are mindfully starting to develop a relationship with you. Then your phone rings and it’s them!

The B2B Marketing Bonus

Each new relationship offers additional marketing and sales momentum!

While B2B marketing may seem a bit humdrum compared with consumer or lifestyle campaigns, business clients tend to be much higher stakes customers who depend heavily on your services. The relationship is important because they are trusting some part of their business to your care, and as they grow to enjoy working with you and your team, your best form of advertising comes free; a testimonial, a kind word… a referral and another new client.

When you’ve been at this game a while, you realize that without a brand name – one that people in your market have reasons to talk about – your sales will remain flat. But if your company works hard on consistent brand awareness, sales growth becomes less of a challenge and more of a fulfillment – an answer to your market’s call.

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