January 2014

Retargeting: 5 Tactics from Drip Email to Lead Generation

January 29, 2014/2 Comments/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

The sad truth in inbound lead generation is, only 20% of the visitors to your website are converting. But if you want the remaining 80% to revisit your website in order to get a chance to present your offer again, then you should consider retargeting.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting or remarketing, as referred by Google, helps build awareness for your brand, drive clicks to your website and convert visitors into prospects. For example, 5% of window shoppers were converted on their first visit to your website. Retargeting will keep track and bring back the remaining 95% of these visitors by displaying your retargeting ads when they search online and visit other sites.

(Image credit: Retargeter)

Retargeting can be done in multiple channels such as email, online advertising, and paid search.

Here are 5 retargeting tactics from drip email to lead generation according to David Kirkpatrick, Senior Reporter at MarketingSherpa.com

#1 Lead nurturing and drip email campaigns are retargeting

In order to nurture your leads and convert them into sales, you need to have a content with relevant information that your prospects are looking for. You can create a retargeting flow that matches with your lead nurturing campaign. For example, a lead nurturing campaign that is based on a specific trigger event that encourages your prospects to engage with your content or email campaign.

With this tactics, prospects were able to provide their email addresses – ebook subscription or daily subscription to your content.

#2 Generate “soft” leads through retargeting

This retargeting tactic is used to reach out to prospects who failed to provide for their email address because they didn’t sign up for our ebook or newsletter that haven’t even provided an email address.

This tactic allows you to retarget these prospects by placing a tracking cookie or a tag on a web page with banner ads on other sites or paid search.

#3 Tie your retargeting program to the sales funnel

Retargeting is focused on the behavior of your prospects. The banner ads where you lead your visitors to different pages in your conversion funnel should have relevant message that your prospects want based on where they are right now in their buying cycle.

#4 Tie retargeting ads and email to specific actions

This tactic is focused on retargeting website visitors based on the actions they take on your retargeting message that has links to a video or the service page of your website.

#5 Organize your ad retargeting campaigns with a spreadsheet

The only issue with retargeting ad campaigns is that your prospects can see your ads on multiple sites they are and will visit. Having a spreadsheet to keep track of your ad retargeting campaign will help you make sure your prospects won’t feel they are being stalked by your ads.

If you are getting high traffic to your site but not converting much, then you should consider having a retargeting campaign. With these 5 tactics, you’ll start running a campaign with results that are looking good.

3 Questions to Ask before pulling the Plug on Social Media Marketing

January 14, 2014/in Social Media Marketing /by Dara Lin

In B2B lead generation, marketers are used to receiving immediate responses from prospects via email, telephone calls and events. But when it comes to social media, if there isn’t an instant and significant response then it’s considered a waste of time. While that is a logical response, a marketer should also understand that social media works differently. Considering that its potential to reach millions of people is unprecedented, it’s a shame to pull the plug on something that could help your business, just because of things you didn’t understand about it. Before you take a leap of judgment, evaluate your lead generation campaign using the following three basic criteria of effective social media marketing:

1. How useful was your content?

Unless your content is really useful, it could get lost amidst the flood of blogs, emails, videos, articles, tweets, and commentary, and it won’t get read—much less shared. So how do you create useful content? Think of value. Think of yourself as a business owner looking for information to help you decide whether you would like to outsource certain parts of your IT infrastructure. Of course, you would want to learn about the pros and cons, how much you need to prepare financially, and how much control you can retain after farming out.

2. Does your content encourage engagement?

A piece of content is most effective when it compels the reader to join in. It could be something that ‘challenges’ the status quo, like presenting an idea that’s entirely new or unique. Or it could be something that raises curiosity, like posing an industry-related question that can really stir their brains. Or it could be a comparison of 2 things, which could spark a debate among commenters. These are the types of content that people watch out for and have no problems with sharing to others.

3. Did you set realistic metrics?

Marketers often think that social media is so powerful that it has a life of its own and generate overflowing publicity (and revenue) for the business. Again, it simply doesn’t work that way. Social media is more about exposure and engagement, as well as understanding the target market. To truly appreciate the influence of social media, you may want to measure engagement and responses from people. It may not equate directly to leads (at least in the short run), but it can show you how your content and brand image are circulating in people’s awareness. After that is established, make a move on how to take advantage of that exposure, and that’s when the real stuff happens.

Expanding your B2B Email Marketing List? Try these 3 Creative Ways

January 9, 2014/in Email Marketing /by admin

The most important component of any sustainable email-based B2B lead generation campaign is email list expansion. That’s because no matter how superb your content is or irresistible your subject line sounds, none of it would matter if your list is not optimal in quality and quantity.

And since most email lists shrink by an average of 30% every year, expanding your email should not be a one-time effort, but an ongoing one. Sometimes, the most effective ways to generate a list are those which are the easiest. You have to learn to turn every opportunity into something productive.

Here are 3 creative ways to grow your email list:

1. Mobile apps. A lot of people rely on their smartphones and tablets to instantly retrieve information they want: directions, weather updates, recipes, trivia or any other stuff that’s readily available and won’t have to require them to boot a laptop or PC.

As a business you can also leverage mobile apps to cater to the needs of people. What’s important is for you to know what information they need, so you could have them opt-in for a subscription, thus expanding your list for newsletters, promotions and other marketing content.

2. QR codes. Some restaurants and bars offer free drinks when people sign up to their e-newsletter by scanning a QR code posted on the wall, sometimes even inside restrooms. While usage rates for QR codes are relatively slow, it’s still being used as a means for customers to opt in even in the physical world.

Online, QR codes of course facilitate the lead generation process by doing prospects away with filling out lengthy forms. It’s the thing of the future, and sooner or later it’s going to be a huge part of the commercial industry.

3. Online contests. Believe it or not, there are people who find it hard to resist joining contests. So whenever you would host one, there will be participants for sure. On top of that, offer a really interesting and business-valuable prize so that even those who are not much of contest fans would also be swayed to take a crack at it.

When people are interested in getting the prize or the concept of the contest itself, it should be easy for you to have them disclose their email addresses to join.