TEST: If the year is starting, possibly you already have your digital marketing plan clear, if not you have already been executing it, and perhaps you are wondering if what you designed is the right thing to do. Answer these questions to determine if your strategy is leading you to a destination.
Surely you have a clear digital marketing strategy, but do you really have clear goals? For several years we have focused on KPI’s as the indicators that demonstrate our effectiveness in digital strategies: number of visits, likes, shares, community size, etc. But are these really indicators that measure the result? Well no gentlemen, they are not!
These indicators, with which we have all filled our mouths (yes, of course I include myself) are not indicators of impact, they are indicators of EGO. We become obsessed with the number of followers, and although that was valid for a time, it is no longer so.
There is only one indicator (well maybe several) valid to know if what we do works or not, it is called ROI or even simpler, and it is how much income we generate for the company for what we did.
(If what you do is public relations, I recommend you read this article as well:3 ideas to integrate inbound marketing with public relations)
But how do I know if my market plan is close to or focused on meeting the goals? This is the first test that I build and here we go … answer YES or NO to these questions and at the end I will tell you how close you are to achieving the results:
Strategic framework
Did you leave the buyer profile clearly defined and documented (Buyer persona) and made it known to the entire marketing and sales team?
Was a goal set that was specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and with a clear date to reach it? (SMART Goal).
Did you define the conversion funnel? That is, how many visitors, subscribers, marketing leads, sales leads, and sales are generated in each of the steps.
Are you clear about the journey of the user of your buyer profile (Buyer Journey)?
Have you defined and shared with the whole team (marketing and sales) the definitions of prospect, qualified prospect in marketing, qualified prospect in sales and opportunity?
Did you define the positioning model (SEO) for your page and content?
Operational framework
Does your plan include actions for each buyer profile and for each stage of the user’s journey? And most importantly, is it documented and is the whole team aware of it?
You have control in the plan all the different media of your digital ecosystem: web, social networks, email marketing, to mention the most relevant.
Do you have a clear agenda of actions with dates and responsible?
Do you have a follow-up agenda that allows you to measure the progress of the results?
Do you have a continuous improvement plan defined, that is, how are changes made to improve the process?
Closing frame
Do you have your sales team aligned with this plan? The whole team (marketing and sales) clearly understands what a qualified sales prospect is and how to make the first contact?
Does your sales team understand the value of the information that marketing gives them about the prospect and how to use it in the closing process?
Did you design a service level agreement? In other words, when the sales team receives a qualified prospect, they have defined response times to attend to that contact.
Does your sales team have a defined business closing flow (pipeline) that is consistent with the company’s business closing process like blue world city Islamabad?
Does the sales team have a technological platform (CRM) to manage and monitor sales opportunities?
Does the sales team feed the process and the prospect with valuable information at each stage of the close of business?
So, the thing is like this:
Block 1: a strategic framework
If you answered positively less than 3 questions, it is a tree without roots:
Your digital strategy has no foundation, you must return to the meeting room, clearly establish each of those points, document them, share them with the team and review the execution. I recommend you read 10 digital marketing mistakes your brand may be making.
If you have 4 or more positive responses: I congratulate you! The most important part of the plan is the strategy, this gives us light and clarity on the actions to be carried out. It’s easy to change execution, but if the strategy is poorly designed, you’re walking aimlessly.
The missing points: Each answer of “No” you have the opportunity to review it, build it and adjust the plans.
Block 2: an operational framework
If you answered positively less than 3 questions, you have serious problems in the execution. Possibly you will not meet the goals, if there is no clarity in the plan and the tasks, those responsible and the times, you will not have a way to control progress. As the gringos say at this point “Get the stuff done” (do “things”).
If you have 4 or more positive answers: You have a clear plan, you have a program that can be followed, measured and controlled.
Block 3: closing frame
If you have 3 or more positive responses: Great! Your sales team is focused and directed to the result, understands how the strategy works and knows how to close the sale.
I was excited to write this article, so much so that I promise to make an application to do a self-diagnosis. That is, a form that you enter the answers and it gives you a better forecast of the state of your strategy. Click this button and tell me if you would be interested in using that application to evaluate your strategy.
How to improve the user experience in digital products
From learnings from the past Experience, an international event geared towards public innovation came out the debate on various topics related to how people interact with digital products and how it is possible to help them mitigate errors and relearning.
One of the main problems evidenced in the digital environments of Latin American governments is the lack of standards in the interfaces of portals, applications and, in general, in similar elements in digital platforms, these belonging to the same government.
For this reason, I consider it important to mention below the standards proposed by Nielsen, which should be preserved by websites to improve user experience and help them meet conversion goals:
- The logo should be in the upper left corner.
- There must be a search engine on the home page.
- There should be no welcome pages unless it is a strategic element for the fulfillment of the objective.
- Breadcrumbs should be listed horizontally when used.
- It is recommended to use the sitemap tag for sitemap.
- Change the color in the different states of the links.
- Show related content.
- Locate navigation aids in the most complex elements.
The application of standards helps users in various ways: knowing what features to expect , what these features look like, where to find them, what is the goal of each one, not having doubts about the functionality or purpose of each design element, to not miss out on important features by overlooking a design element and avoid frustrations when something doesn’t work as expected.
The integration of these elements to digital tools improves the user experience and empowers the user, increasing the ability to do the activities we want them to do, corresponding to the objectives of each of the pages. Although not everything can be standardized, we always find elements that users perceive as common to all sites.
4 Inbound Marketing tips to generate qualified leads
It is clear that generating leads is the main objective of most Inbound Marketing campaigns. But are all leads created in the same way?
The answer to this question is no”. After all, lead generation is not the end goal. The ultimate goal is to take the leads that have been generated and convert them into customers. Who wouldn’t prefer having ten qualified sales leads to a hundred contacts that they don’t know anything about?
This is why Inbound Marketing professionals (Do you remember what inbound marketing is?) should focus their efforts on generating qualified leads. And to make it easier to do so, here are 4 common sense tips to help you capture sales-ready leads:
1. Use long-tail keywords:
First, we are going to define what a long-tail keyword is. It is a descriptive term that defines an industry, product or service in broad and general terms. It is very difficult for a short keyword to rank in Google, and the intention of the search engine is not very clear.
An example of a short keyword is Inbound Marketing.
On the other hand, a long keyword is a descriptive term that includes a short keyword but expands on it to be much more specific. These keywords are easier to rank on Google and it is much easier to understand the intent of the search engine.
An example of a long keyword is 4 Inbound Marketing Tips to generate qualified leads.
If you came to this blog through a Google search, there is a good chance that you have an interest in Inbound Marketing and that you also want to learn how to generate qualified leads.
The first step in generating qualified leads is creating content around long-tail keywords that relate to your target market segment (see also: Inbound marketing tactics to convert visitors into leads).
2. Create content focused on your ideal customer
One of the best ways to create content focused on your ideal client is to answer the questions that your team receives from clients. If they are asking questions, other users like them are almost certainly asking the same questions.
You can also answer those questions that your sales team hears throughout the sales process. Use the language your clients use and your SEO results will naturally follow.
The questions your sales and customer service team hear are the same questions potential customers are typing in search engines. Creating content that answers these questions will attract qualified leads.
3. Use contact forms to rate your potential customers
In the lead acquisition process, a website visitor fills out a form to access a content offering:
To generate the most leads, you should ask for the least amount of information possible. Many B2C companies only ask for a name and an email. But remember, our goal is to attract qualified leads. So let’s ask for a little more information.
Look at the data we request in the landing page form at the end of this post (take the opportunity to download the e-book, if you want to know about inbound marketing there you will find all the information you need!). We ask five questions that help us qualify leads:
- Name
- Surname
- Business
- Role
These five questions help us identify if the contact meets the profile in which we can be more effective in delivering results. We have structured the last question so that it can be answered quickly by choosing from a limited set of options from a drop-down menu.
As well as helping to identify potential customers in our home zone, this approach also enables us to segment potential customers by demographic factors and tailor the content we deliver to them based on their needs and interests.
Finally, we must ask ourselves: if someone is not willing to share this information, is he really a qualified lead?
4. Post your content in the right places
Distribution is a key element in the content marketing process. If the content is not distributed properly, the audience will be limited.
To generate qualified leads, you must promote your content on those channels where your ideal customers are. You have to fish where the fish are. If you’re writing about professional services, LinkedIn is a good place to post your content.
If you are a cybersecurity company, there are LinkedIn groups and tech posts that are good audiences for your content.
If you are paying for content promotion, on most social media platforms you can micro-segment based on your ideal customer profile. Tajarat properties target your advertising based on industry, seniority level, and other demographic factors.
Finally: it is no longer enough to capture qualified leads. You need to attract high-quality leads who have a great chance of becoming profitable for your Inbound Marketing strategy to be successful. Try these four tactics and focus on quality, not quantity.
