An Introduction To The Content Marketing Sphere

According to CMI, around 42% of the B2B marketers think content  marketing is an effective way to attract more leads and 69% think content is the best way to direct mailing and PR.  Hence the phrase ‘Content is the king’ flaunts itself in its way. Before diving deep into content marketing and content strategy, let’s know about inbound and outbound marketing.  What is outbound Marketing?  When a company initiates conversation and reaches the audience this type of marketing is known as outbound marketing. This is a conventional method of seeking the customers or say potential leads by randomly shooting the content. What are the examples of Outbound Marketing?  Cold calling  Seminars  Ad flyers Commercials  Media buys  Emails Image Source: WordStream What is Inbound Marketing?  Inbound marketing is when you shoot the content to the interested audience, or to a person who is searching for a similar product or services. Digital marketing has introduced a brand-new face of inbound marketing.  What are the examples of Outbound marketing?  Well Crafted Blogs   Content Marketing Paid search marketing  Email marketing  And I might have missed mentioning more examples.  So, have you pointed out some points which are common in both inbound and outbound marketing? Yes! ‘The tricky play of content’  What is Content Marketing?  Content marketing is the strategic process of absolute planning and distributing relevant, valuable content of reaching a vast audience. Content marketing boosts brand awareness, sales, loyalty, and interactions.  Why Content Marketing is Important? Content marketing can also support your business with the following: Edify your leads and prospects about your products and services.  Enhance conversions rates  Establishes strong relationships between your customers and business.  You can highlight how your products and services will resolve the challenges Content marketing will help you create a sense of brand community. The Story of SAP: – How SAP generated over 1,000 leads and 7X ROI Image Source: Native That was the year of 2011 the co-CEO of that time, Bill McDermott he found that the site is full of product information and the inspiring stories from the SAP’s customers were missing.  Bill realized that SAP is losing customer engagement and yes! Revenue. Soon Bill established a content marketing and Content strategy department, with the challenge of re-sculpting the brand image.  He wanted to change the way SAP (as a brand) speaks to its digital audience and started a journey that focused more on the customer-centric approach instead of the product-centric approach.  To achieve this, SAP launched its first content marketing site- SAP Business Innovation(now it is Digitalist Magazine) , the motto of this site was to engage the first stage or premature period prospects via quality content.  After a deep investigation on the web searches, it came to the notice that there was no content to the topics like ‘Big Data’ or the non-product searches. This was the time when SAP realized that it was failing to capture these potential customers. And here the business case is proven.  And after publishing more than 1000s of blogs and articles it not only saved the budget of advertising but also generated over 1000 leads which were equal to $750,000 in revenue and 7X ROI.  HUBSPOT – THE STRONGEST EXAMPLE OF DOING CONTENT MARKETING RIGHT  Image Source: Devrix HubSpot is the major player in tackling content marketing. It adopted content marketing way before when many companies were not even aware of doing something like this. HubSpot has built a spectacular customer journey that provokes prospect to reach the point of purchase.   The takeaway points from HubSpot, that I was able to figure out was,  Always have a plan to attract or pull the prospects through the content.  Do not let your traffic leave the website without providing the email Id. CTA at the bottom helps a lot. Try implementing plugins and tools that will help to pull the audience.  READ MORE –  Grow Your Business in the Digital Space with Content Marketing Services Summary Content marketing is certainly a very great sphere to generate leads, though it is a long-term process but will provide a great result once picked at a great pace.  Many companies are curbing the budget of advertising and investing a spared budget to content marketing and content strategy building.  Content marketing if done correctly will generate impeccable revenue along with great bunches of leads and can multiply the ROI.  

How To Create Successful Call Sales Pitch To Get Results?

Firstly, let’s understand “what a Sales Pitch is”. According to wikipedia definition of Sales Pitch is – In selling technique, a sales presentation or sales pitch is a line of talk that attempts to persuade someone or something, with a planned sales presentation strategy of a product or service designed to initiate and close a sale of the product or service. A sales pitch is essentially designed to be either an introduction of a product or service to an audience who knows nothing about it, or a descriptive expansion of a product or service that an audience has already expressed interest in. Sales professionals prepare and give a sales pitch, which can be either formal or informal, and might be delivered in any number of ways. Now let’s understand –  Why do you need a sales pitch in the first place? For Example – Reading disclaimers, asking for consent/permission where required, Information on privacy policy and GDPR. Must Read: The Art of Telemarketing In B2B Lead Generation There are seven important factors while creating a successful Sales pitch: 1. Be short, precise and to the point Whenever you start with a sales pitch know that your introduction should not be more than 2 minutes. A lengthier introduction will create a perception in prospects eyes that you are more about me, my company and my product. Instead, the conversation should be more about the prospect, their needs and pain points your product/solution can solve. Few examples of kickass yet short introduction:- Eg  1  – Google Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Eg 2 – Only B2B Only B2B’s premium demand generation campaigns proliferate growth, awareness, boost sales pipelines and accelerate deal progressions for Technology companies. Eg 3 – Amazon.com Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. 2. Be sincere “Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite” – Charles Spurgeon Sincerity is something that can be gauged in your voice. When you sound like someone who is trying to push the sale, chances are you will lose the prospect for ever. It is very important to be honest about the values your product has to offer and the problem it solves for the customer. Forceful selling or confusing the customer will lead to dissatisfaction and impairment beyond control. 3. Talk about benefits and business value your product/solution has to offer On average a prospect receives 7-12 sales calls in a day. When someone is swamped by so many sales calls, it is obvious that they won’t entertain every sales call and salesperson. To get your prospects attention it is important you inform them of values your solution has to offer early on the call. If the prospect can resonate with your product as a solution to their problem, you WIN. Most prospects will stick around and listen to what you have to offer, others might ask to schedule a call at a convenient time. Must Read: Selecting The Right B2B Telemarketing Vendor 4. Talk less and listen more Many Salespeople are trained to talk more about their companies, product benefits, owners, awards, etc. giving less time for your prospect to tell their stories. This is one reason why most sales people get early hang ups and uninterested prospects. When you listen, you learn more about your prospects and their needs. This helps in presenting the right solution and information that your prospect is interested in. Good Listening is also the most important skill great leaders possess. Moreover, when you listen to your prospects carefully and attentively, they feel they are heard and you care about what they have to say. This indeed is the start of building great rapport and relationships with your future customers. 5. Story Telling Human mind is programmed to connect with past experiences and make decisions. Storytelling can help trigger that past experience & imagination of your prospect. It also helps in building rapport with your prospect and makes the conversation memorable. Storytelling succors to provide context to the facts you provide in your sales pitch. Must Read: Selecting The Right B2B Telemarketing Vendor 6. Never talk bad about your competitors It’s always a good idea to talk about your competitors and compare product benefits while on a sales call. But sometimes sales reps go far and start talking negatively about the competitors and their products. This not only makes you appear unprofessional in front of prospective customers, but you also look weak. Instead, the Sales rep should focus on their product benefits and problems it can solve for the prospective client. 7. Avoid Fillers Everyone likes to talk to people who sound confident, knowledgeable and prepared. Too many filler words raises multiple doubts in the eyes of your prospect:- You don’t know your product. You are not good with the language. You are anxious and many others. Using too many filler words can kill your sales, and it is always a good idea to work on your language and avoid these fillers at all costs. Below are a few filler words you might be using regularly and can be avoided with practicing. “You know”, “So”, “Cool”, “Kind Off”, “I mean”, etc. Conclusion: – Here are my seven tips for creating a great sales pitch. If you would like to add more to it, please leave your tips in the comments section. Must Read: 5 Effective Ways To Generate Leads Via Telemarketing

How to Build an Email List Fast?

Email ids are not just ids for a business. They are the tools used by businesses to reach out to their prospects. They have the potential of becoming quality leads for a business which can ultimately affect the bottom line. It is therefore of essence for marketers to keep thinking out of the box while simultaneously taking chances with the tried and tested ways on how to build an email list fast. Marketers have more reasons to brainstorm on building a solid email list all the more since according to research email campaigns and marketing have the best Return On Investment (ROI).  Here Are Some of the Best Ways to Build an Email List Fast? Freebies Have you ever heard of anyone turning away from a freebie? Surely not since every one like freebies. So why not apply the same to build an email list fast. Digital marketing experts like Neil Patel also strongly recommend this tactic, taking off from the examples of successful case studies.  The strategy is to give away freebies for valid email ids. This database will in all probabilities a strong stock of genuine email ids. Must Read: Why is Email Marketing Automation Important? Offer Upgraded Content This can be beautifully demonstrated by the way B2B service providers browse. This niche segment of buyers are always looking for: This strategy will work when the B2B buyers’ read an article or a blog on your website and wants to read more or other articles too. This is when a pop up can be shown asking for the visitor’s email id before they may go ahead with their reading. Must Read: How to Build High-Impact Target Account List for B2B Success An Awesome Repository Articles and Blogs Taking off from the above point, it is mandatory to maintain an excellent collection of blogs and articles. The reason being you never know which topic appeals to a reader. A B2B buyer may be from any domain and they might be browsing your website for a look or for educational purposes. Yet the probability of a good article making an impact and that impact spiraling into an off-hand mention in their network can never be ruled out.  Additionally, a sparked interest in the articles, makes it easier to get the email id subscription. Leverage On Social Media Presence Social media reaches one and all. Everyone is on social media today and sharing a great write up or one with relevance to or an interesting blog is popular. Though these platforms can be accessed by everyone who registers, each of the popular social media platform caters to a specific set of target audience with a particular approach and mindset. For instance, LinkedIn is a platform for professionals. The communities and groups in the platforms are formed for a more filtered interest groups and forums. Like you will see forums for human resource, digital marketers, sales, etc. Sharing relevant content in these groups with a pop up for email ids is heard. People do enlist themselves on these platforms, thereby giving you a solid list email ids. This gathered data of prospects will generate B2B leads for you. Leverage on Seller Sites So you have browsed the web for some products to be used in bulk at your office. Since you are looking at bulk purchase, you are obviously looking to buy or rent the utility items either from a whole seller or a B2B product provider. So when you are browsing online for the things you need, and you see a relevant B2B provider offer you the same, are you not likely to click on that pop up? And when you do click and it asls for your email id to proceed further, will you not be happy to give your email id so that you may receive updates and offers from them? Must Read: Boost your Engagement with Email Personalization in Your ABM Strategy By giving away your email you have helped the B2B provider to add one more valid email id to their list who is a solid prospect for them. Guest Posting or Blogging As a B2B service provider you are an expert in your domain. Likewise there are industry experts and bloggers who write specifically on that domain. So how does this help you in tackling you dilemma of “how to build an email list fast?”. The mechanics of the equation here is about mutual benefit. As an expert, when you offer to write a piece and publish it on another blogger’s blog, you will do it for free. The blogger gets an amazing article from a domain expert and it will increase the traffic on his page. On the other hand, as a writer you will have the right to leave a back link to either your website or a relevant article on the website in the write up. When people click on that back link you get leads that a build up fast as you will get the traffic of the blogger as well as new readers when that article gets shared.  Optimize Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Your website is a tool for lead generation, especially when it is search engine optimized. SEO optimization is the proven way to get your website ranked higher, when relevant searches are made on search engines. Google search being one of the most popular search engines, it ranks content on Search Engine optimization. This would mean that when your website is search engine optimized, your website will be seen more prominently and hence you will get more traffic. This would also mean that when the domain specific traffic comes onto the website, they will not hesitate to give away their email ids for subscription.  Must Read: Best Practices and Examples for Call to Action in Cold Emails Conclusion How to build an email list fast is a mantra that every marketer brainstorms on. This the due to the fact that emails are precious for email campaigns, and are

Why is Email Marketing Automation Important?

Email marketing might be an old marketing method but it still continues to be one of the most effective channels for promoting your business today. Email marketing automation is simply an evolution of email marketing that has proven to make email campaigns a huge success in the past. While stand-alone campaigns and newsletters will continue to have their place in your email marketing strategies, the smarter companies are beginning to set up automated email campaigns that trigger off based on a user’s actions. The reason? Well, it’s simple. Automatic emails are personalized, relevant as well as hyper-relevant to your target readers. As a result, these emails are being clicked and opened more frequently thereby driving visits and revenue to your business. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well then keep reading. We are going to dive in deeper and explaining to you, in this article, the importance of email marketing automation and why you should use this in your own business for growing your revenue. Email Marketing Automation An automatic email campaign is set up just once, as opposed to one-off campaigns and newsletters that you create and send out to a list of people at once. This automatically sends emails to an individual when that particular person meets specific criteria. Must Read: 5 Common Demand Generation Plan Problems to Avoid For example, imagine that you work for Facebook and you need to send an email to someone who signs up for an account. This will be a welcome email from Facebook that will show them how to start adding friends, uploading pictures, updating status, etc. in order to get them to become a regular user. If you decide to manually create and send each and every email campaign to every person signing up on Facebook, it will be a huge waste of time. To get rid of this, you can set up an automated welcome email that will be sent to the person who signs up for Facebook. This is the beauty of email automation, you can set up an email just once and the email will be sent to the people who continue to meet the trigger that you have defined. You don’t even have to lift a finger to send these emails. It automates your marketing essentially for you. Grows Your Business Since automated emails are sent out on a basic action and trigger system, it limits the number of actions that you can do by your business and creativity needs. But if you plan out the campaign well, it can benefit you and can result in the growth of your business. You need to make slight alterations as and when required. Welcome New Subscribers As per a study, around 96% of the visitors on your website aren’t ready to buy, yet. But, these people have shown some interest in what you have to offer. They become perfect candidates for you to continuing conversing with them to try to get them to buy from you in the future. One of the best ways to do this is to urge them to subscribe to your email list. Since subscription to your email list requires a small conversion action than handing out the actual money to purchase from you. Therefore, such people are much likely to subscribe. Once they subscribe, you can use these automated email campaigns to welcome them to your email list and offer a special offer for all the subscribers which can compel them to make the purchase. Such kind of automatic welcome emails are easy to set up and can be done just in a few minutes. All you need to do is add an email subscription box to your website that adds the people to a list in the email marketing tool that you have chosen and then set up an email to be sent whenever a new persons join that particular list. Must Read: Quick Guide: Retain Customers with Demand Generation Strategies Increase Usage of Product A lot of online applications use some or the other kind of free trial period for getting on-board some potential customers to try your product and then ultimately become a customer that pays. However, before people think of transiting into a paying customer they are required to know the value of your product during the free trial period else they will not be willing to pay for it. Therefore to encourage people to progress through these conversion steps and realize the true value of your product, you need to use a series of automated emails that goes out to people who create an account. Nurture Your Leads According to a study, at least 50% of the leads that are generated by the companies are qualified (Marketing qualified or Sales qualified) but aren’t ready to make the purchase. The main challenge with this is the process of helping the leads to move ahead and purchase the product without wasting a lot of time on them. The solution? Using automatic lead nurturing emails can be of great help. If you are using a CRM software to manage your sales as well as leads, you can tag particular leads that require nurturing and then use tools like Zapier for integrating such quality leads with your email marketing automation system. From here you can send across a series of email marketing automation messages over the time that will educate your audience regarding the benefits of your products and how they can benefit from them. You are likely to have more and more things that are competing for your time and resources, which are already limited, as a marketer. However, of all the opportunities that are present with you for growing your business. Email marketing automation still remains as the most impactful strategy. Setting up automated emails can help you drive results without wasting a major chunk of your valuable time and resources over and over again. We, therefore, recommend that you take some time out and implement email marketing automation in your

How to Generate More Demands in 4 Easy Steps

What takes for a customer to choose one product/service over the other? Loyalty to any particular product is not a mental act, its an emotional one. In addition to that customers are more likely to buy the product they previously used and they might continue to ignore the one they previously did (Study by Journal of Consumer Research). I would like to discuss with you one more scenario. A few marketers invest in demand generation when the market hasn’t gained least maturity required and hence their efforts results into nothing much. If you don’t want to do that, you need to assess the following things before you start your demand generation activities.   As listed by MartechAdvisor, Have decided on your marketing category or you are jumping between 2 different categories? How much have influencers and analysts have covered your market? Is it future-talk, something nonexistent? Or have they come up with best practices? Do you already have customers who actively participate in a press release, social media (LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook), videos, etc? Have you already tailored your content for trigger moments after which your customers decide to choose your products? Do you care to do the analysis first before you jump on the decision to invest in demand generation? If yes, you are doing right and if yes, what Demand Generation ideas will work for you best so that your prospects choose you over others?   Make them choose you. We are listing below 4 easy steps to demand generation. 1. Produce stellar content Whether its an Ebook, whitepapers, or blogs your content is going have greater impact as it addresses customers pain points. If you are posting blog posts regularly then think of making them more educational and valuable. Make sure to incorporate your research data into it rather than just the same things as others do. You also need to have a social media calendar, otherwise, you will randomly create articles. As we said earlier, sharing quality content is important. Social media calendars allow you to plan and schedule posts for months together. You can make out which posts resonates and then also decide about the frequency of your posts.   Below I am sharing guideline on the frequency of the posts per week    Facebook: 3-10 times Twitter: at least 5 times a day LinkedIn: 2-5 times Google+: 3-10 times Pinterest: 5-10 times a day Always create original content and make your headlines strong because 80% of visitors only read your headlines and rest others only will read the content. In the end, whatever content you are providing, make sure that you are answering your prospects questions which they ask through search engines. If you are able to do this, it will generate more demand for you. Must Read: Quick Guide: Retain Customers with Demand Generation Strategies 2. Feature testimonials Trust is crucial to your customers and you can gain the trust of your customers through testimonials. Yes, trust cannot be brought but has to be earned. Your customer was once a potential buyer and was deciding which product to choose, comparing prices, etc and finally he becomes your customer. Now, the testimonials of such ones help the others to choose your product/services as they deepen their trust in you. Thus, it is very crucial for businesses to site testimonials on their websites.   You can use testimonials even in your AdWords and other places like landing pages, product and pricing pages, and marketing campaigns. How can you make your own testimonial pages?   You can use various types of testimonials.   One of them is social media interaction which is also very organic, giving a natural feel. These testimonials are captured by social media or reproduced as they are without any formatting or editing.   Industry Insider Testimonial  These testimonials are opinions from Industry thought leaders and they are ideal for any B2B company.   3. Offer a Free Report At first, giving away your stuff for free sounds counterproductive but in reality that is the key to creating more demand. It would be great if you could create a tool that creates reports as this will make the users want to see for themselves how to run all these reports. You can offer them a free social media report. So people will visit your page, fill the contact information, grant access to their Twitter page and this way you can generate a report. This was just an example for those in the B2B marketing industry. If you create any report and the visitors are downloading them, then they are considered to be qualified leads ( Sales qualified or Marketing qualified ). This is the way you can increase your leads using demand generation by creating free reports. 4. Make webinars part of your demand generation strategy According to InsideSales.com, nearly 50% of marketers find it challenging to generate quality leads and next to that it is difficult to convert these leads into customers. One way you can generate more leads is to help prospects with webinars so that they come to the decision of buying. According to the Benchmark Email sales manager, with webinars, you can achieve more than a 50% conversion rate. Everyone might not get the same results but 70% of the sales & marketing leaders find it effective in generating more leads. So, why not think of webinars as they can be produced at a low cost?   Must Read: MQL to SQL conversion rate If you are going to make webinars as a part of your demand generation strategies, then you have to pair with your industry superstars. Doing so will increase your reputation in the society. In the beginning, though, you might not be able to do it with the speaker you want but slowly over time you will have your relationship established and when you get the chance do your best to give away best tips, strategies during the webinars themselves.   Webinars can go for 30-60 minutes and that’s all you have time for building rapport and during this

Why do Guest Blogging for Content Syndication?

There are so many blogs today that it is difficult for a new one to make a place for itself. Not only this, but it is also difficult for your potential customers to find you easily on the search engines owing to the tough competition you have. But, there is a simple way out and that is – guest blogging for content syndication. For those of you who are unaware of guest blogging for content syndication, it is the process of publishing content on third party websites or blogs (for example, the Huffington Post, Entrepreneur etc) for exposure. As you may have already guessed, guest blogging has several enticing benefits and we are going to discuss some today in this post. So, lets begin –  1. Build authority and credibility in the market Statistics from Social Marketing Writing found that 62.96% of people perceive blogs with multiple authors to be more credible.   Hence, there are many popular blogs and websites that accept a guest post from multiple authors. Moreover, there are so many brands, businesses, and blogs online today that readers are careful who to trust. That is why recognizing names and building authority is important!   When your prospective customers start seeing your name on popular websites or blogs, they will start to recognize you and see you as an authority. They will also associate you with the value that was provided in that blog. And, then, when they know about your blog or website, they already have a mental association of value and credibility. Must Read: Everything you need to know about content syndication 2. Boost visibility and traffic to your business website If you are a new business ready to launch a blog or a fairly established business thinking of establishing an online presence, we can guarantee you one thing –   How much ever awesome content you write on your blog, not a lot of people will end up reading it ONLY because they will not EVER find your blog.   The one and the only way you can change it QUICKLY is to guest post on popular websites and blogs. They have an established audience (sometimes in hundreds and thousands of visitors) and when they read your article, they might end up going to your website looking for more information. While the probability of clicking seems low at first, but even a small conversion of 5% of 100000 visitors will leave you with 5000 new leads. Get it? *winks*   Pro tip: Target websites in your niche or blogs that have an audience similar to yours. If you guest post on websites that have an audience interested in what you have to offer, the conversion rate will be higher than just 5%.    If you want to get the ball rolling faster, you can embed highly shareable content into your blog post. According to Search Engine Journal, infographics, for example, can help you get 3x more engagement in social media than any other type of content. THE EVOLUTION OF CONTENT SYNDICATION Must Read: 10 Content Syndication Platforms You Should Know 3. Search engine optimization and link juice benefits Guest blogging for content syndication has many benefits, but our favorite is the benefit of the link juice on page rankings.   As we discussed before, it is important to get traffic and new audience (especially, potential buyers) to your website.   And, the best and the most stable way of doing it is to rank higher on search engines. When you guest post for content syndication on a popular website, you get to link back to your website or a specific blog post. Search Engines, especially Google, consider that as an indication that your website is authoritative and hosts quality content.   What happens next? It starts to rank your page higher for certain keywords and you attract tonnes of organic traffic. The more links you have from popular websites or blogs pointing back to your website, the chances of your ranking in the first 10 results (page 1) is higher. 4. Boost demand generation Guest blogging for content syndication is a known tool for demand generation.   Not only do you gain a new audience and subscribers, but you will also get credibility and authority as a brand. These are essential items to generate more demand in the market and boost lead generation. 5. Connect with influencers easily There was a time connecting with influencers was really difficult. But, not anymore!   Guest blogging for content syndication is an excellent way to connect with the right people. Its advantage of connecting with editors, writers, and bloggers cannot be denied by anyone who knows the internet world.   It not only offers you the benefits we have discussed till now, but it also allows you to connect with influencers, explore opportunities to collaborate and take your business ahead in the game.   Besides this, if influencers share your website or blog with their followers, it will have a huge impact on your traffic, subscribers as well as social media following.   There you go.   Most bloggers and business owners with a strong online presence will agree to these points. Guest blogging for content syndication is, without a doubt, a crucial online marketing tool for success.   For better results, do not forget to optimize your blog post with keywords, links, and other relevant elements that boost conversion.   If you don’t believe in any of these points stated above, comment below and let us know why do you think otherwise? We would love to hear from you!

GDPR Compliance Checklist 2018: GDPR Checklist For B2B Marketing

EU GDPR Compliance checklist: What You Need to Know We hope you know what it is! I won’t be surprised if you don’t. According to Hubspot survey, just 36% of marketers have heard of GDPR, while 15% of companies have done nothing, and are at risk of non-compliance. That’s plain sad. But, we are here to help you out GDPR will affect how the marketing companies store, obtain, manage and process personal data of EU citizens (whether or not you are based in EU is immaterial). Did you know that the potential fine for non-compliance can go upto‚¬20 million or 4% of their global annual revenue (whichever is greater)? I think GDPR has all your attention now. Of course, you cannot afford to ignore this! The EU GDPR Compliance Checklist for B2B Marketing Here is a GDPR checklist you need to do follow in 2018 #1: Data Mapping And Accountability: Not only do you need to conform to GDPR, you also need to demonstrate that. So, what can you do to embed this culture in your organization? A. Start with an extensive data audit to understand your obligations under GDPR. It is simple, ask yourself What data do you hold? Why do you need that data? What do you do with it? Where is it held/stored? and How do you process it? Who is it held by? What tools do you use? Do not forget to consider the information store in any marketing tool like Marketo or Hubspot. Check the agreements you have with these providers because they are processing personal data on your behalf. In case the data is across platforms or locations, you should consolidate it at a central location. B. Provide extensive training and awareness to your employees and staff C. You are also required to ensure the security of the data against any unauthorized use, disclosure or alteration using appropriate technical and organizational security measures. These could be – Security measures like encryption and pseudonymization, and data minimisation (you are allowed to collect data which is limited for the intended purpose of collection Must Read: How to Convert Marketing Qualified Leads to Sales Qualified Leads #2: Transparency  Wasn’t that obvious? A. Transparency is the heartbeat of GDPR and you need to know all the Why’s we discussed above. This requirement revolves around one important question Do you really NEED to hold this data? Remember, your risks increase with more personal data. B. It is important to review and update the privacy terms and conditions that are shared with customers to record any changes you have made. C. You also need to have a data retention policy. Under GDPR, you are allowed to store data to fulfill the intended purpose only. If the purpose is over or the relationship is terminated, you should have a clear policy of how long will you be holding the data and the justification behind it. #3: Consent You cannot be sneaky with subscriptions or sending marketing emails. GDPR has changed the opt-out practice to opt-in which means that users can receive marketing emails ONLY IF they consent to receive it. Consent should be freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous and provided by clear affirmative action’. So, Pre-ticked boxes are no longer valid. Consent cannot be presumed You need to ensure that the person who is consenting is who they claim to be. For this purpose, you can send a follow-up email asking for confirmation. You need to carry out a re-permission campaign. The consent you obtained before GDPR came into the picture (even though legally) will not be considered. So, review consents. For the purposes of lead generation, we all develop content. When the users part away with their information, we tend to use it to send them other material. This cannot be done any longer with EU citizens. If you want to do this, you can add a simple checkbox (for consenting to receive marketing materials) to each lead magnet page/form. Your opt-ins should have this clearly stated along with the above: What they will be receiving How will they receive it What is the frequency of this Who will have the access to data (including any third party) and details if the user wants to contact them. #4: Data Subject Rights: Users have the right to control their data under GDPR. This has created a buzz in the marketing arena You know why, right? Users have a €œright to be forgotten€ i.e. you may see an influx of requests to delete data from your database. Users can withdraw their consent at any time as well as restrict the use of personal data for only prescribed purposes. It doesn’t end there! You also need to ensure that users know about this right of theirs. Work toward putting a mechanism to comply with this. These are a few important changes you need to comply with before May 2018. Yes, GDPR is a step toward gaining control of your personal data. You need to remember that the data is not yours, it is of that individual. Comment below and let us know if this was helpful. Must Read: California-Consumer-Privacy-Act 2020

How To Syndicate Content That Drives 7x Results

In the last few months, we have discussed many ways to syndicate content and how it can drive huge results for your business.   For those of you who are still unaware of this strategy, content syndication is a process of re-publishing content (this is termed as a process to syndicate content) on third party websites that have a reach higher than yours. So, you are basically aiming at websites like TechCrunch, TNW, Huffington Post etc but in your niche.    One question we almost always get after explaining this is – why would you give away your best content to someone else?   Well, in short –   There are endless benefits to syndicating content, like, extensive reach, increased targeting of leads at all levels of the buyer’s cycle, and higher return on investment.      Relevant reads: Why is content syndication called the new SEO, How to find places to syndicate content And, yes, there is absolutely no doubt that we are fans of this marketing tactic. We have driven impressive and tangible results for our clients. But, how do we syndicate content so as to get 7X results? In this post, we will discuss exactly what – things to keep in mind before you start to syndicate content for your business or brand.    After all, knowing to syndicate content and being aware of its benefits is only half the battle won.   Without further ado, lets start   1. Know your target audience Just like every (literally!) other marketing strategies, if you are looking to syndicate content, you have to target the right audience.    You cannot be a B2B SaaS business trying to syndicate content on a relationship or dating website or the other way round. It wont yield the desired results. In simpler terms, your audience will not be able to find you. So, before you jump into the race to syndicate content, employing effective B2B content syndication strategies is crucial. These strategies involve identifying the websites and publications frequented by your target audience within your industry. This ensures your content reaches the right people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. a. Build a buyer profile Good news is that you dont have to work without data or guess anymore. Analytics software, like Google Analytics and the like, offers you information on demographics, the technology they use, gender, countries etc.    Besides this, you can gather a lot of relevant information from marketing, sales and customer support teams of your business. They interact with potential buyers at different levels and know exactly who your ideal customer is. So you will know   Put all the information together and create an avatar, i.e., the person you will be targeting when you begin to syndicate content. This will also help you in knowing where your audience hangs out and selecting the best platforms to syndicate content accordingly. Additionally, there are various content syndication tools available that can help you identify relevant websites and platforms based on your target audience demographics and interests. These tools can save you time and effort in the research process. Must Read: 14 Expert Tips to Boost Your Blog Traffic with Content Syndication  b. Align it with buyers journey Once you have built an ideal customer profile, you can brainstorm content ideas that your avatar would like to read.   Align these with buyer journey. Read more about it here.    Most of the times, if you are republishing content on third party websites, it will be to secure the top of the funnel qualified leads (Sales qualified or Marketing qualified). So, think about topics that highlight the problem your product/service solves. For example, if you have a learning app, write about how gamification of learning is beneficial or how technology and games are being merged together to develop the interest in students etc.  Consider creating video content as well, as it can be a powerful tool for top-of-the-funnel lead generation. Video content syndication can be highly effective on platforms like YouTube and social media, allowing you to reach a wider audience and engage them in a more interactive way. 2. Build credibility Before you start to syndicate content, you need to remember the bigger goal you are trying to achieve. Focus on –    a. Established places Decide places to syndicate content carefully. Focus on established places that can actually drive results and provide you a positive ROI.    b. Invest in paid CS If you are looking to achieve results at a faster pace, you should invest in paid content syndication. You ca get in touch with us (Only B2B).  All things kept aside, you need to understand the pain points of your buyer and demonstrate how your solution can alleviate those problems. It is worth noting that the best content is well researched, actionable, and provokes innovative thinking.    Relevant reads: Beginners guide to free content syndication 3. Right partner to syndicate content It is difficult to handle content syndication by yourself. So, it is best to outsource the work to an agency. Not only does it save you time, it also saves you money and resources.    The best agency is always on the top of content marketing and content syndication trends. They also know how to get your content in front of your relevant audience and get maximum ROI.   When hiring a partner, these questions can help you   4. Measure and track progress Look, there is no cookie cutter approach to content syndication. If it were, all businesses would have seen equal amounts of ROI.  But, the process to syndicate content evolves. You need to put in trial and error to understand what works for your business (and, what doesnt) Because of this, it is imperative to measure the effectiveness at regular intervals. Measure traffic from these sources, MQL to SQL and SQL to SAL ratio, % of revenue in pipeline etc. This article lists out metrics that you can use to measure the efforts.    A/B testing is another effective tactic to measure success. Keep testing different types of content styles, topics, websites and see what resonates with your audience.   By implementing a

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