Small Business Marketing & Business Acceleration | FrontlineMarketingSystems.com

Holistic Optimization Across the Sales Cycle: Optimize Speaking Events May & June

Posted on 10. May, 2012 by Lee Odden in Blog, conferences, content marketing optimization, Marketing PR Conferences, Presentations, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

When you have a business that relies on attracting new business online the sheer volume of options can be confusing. Should offline advertising efforts transfer to online? Maybe email marketing? What about SEO or the hot topic, social media? So much focus is placed on tactics and channels, that a lot of misplaced digital marketing budget gets wasted or spent inefficiently.

To bring some clarity to the myriad online marketing options available, I think it’s worth marketers taking a holistic approach that starts with an essential understanding of goals and customers. Who are your best customers? Who are your worst? What do your best customers care about? What are their pain points and goals? While you’re answering those key questions, think about how your solutions meet the needs of your target audience and what stories you can tell to bring align those interests to a common goal.

To be an effective online marketer in today’s fast changing environment, it’s important to understand the customer journey though the sales cycle. That empathy helps internet marketers adapt to any changes in consumer behaviors. Curiosity about technology and trends will help marketers become smarter regardless of what changes occur in the industry, with specific channels or applications.

If you want to learn more about how a more customer centric and content focused internet marketing approach could work for your business, please give us a call or come to one of the events listed below. Over the next month or so, I will be speaking at a number of events drilling down into the strategy and mechanics of such an approach. Of course, a great complement to these events would be the book that Joe Pulizzi says will, “help take your online and content marketing to the next level”.

May 16, 1:00 pm Central
Webinar:  Optimize & Socialize for Better Content Marketing
Online Marketing Institute: Register Here (free)

The answer to better content marketing isn’t simply adding more content. Designing content that’s meaningful vs. mechanical for customers that inspires engagement and business outcomes enables brands to reach more people ready to buy, refer or share. This webinar will provide a framework for an Optimize and Socialize approach to content marketing that attracts, engages and inspires community and sales.

Key Takeaways:

• 3 Key consumer trends that spell opportunity for Social SEO
• A Framework for an optimized and socialized content marketing program
• How to plan search and social content across the sales cycle
• Essential KPIs and business outcomes for Social SEO and content marketing

May 23rd, 4:45 pm Pacific
Solo Presentation: Sales Cycle Optimization With Content, SEO & Social Media
Marketo Users Conference (Client), San Francisco: Register Here

While Google.com handles over 11 billion queries a month, competition for attention on the search and social web is at an all time high. There are over 65,743,590 blog posts published each month and more video is uploaded to YouTube in that time than the 3 major US networks created in 60 years. Content flows in every direction throughout a variety of platforms, formats and devices. The mass adoption of the social and mobile web has facilitated a revolution of information access, sharing and publishing.

Guiding customers on their journey through the sales cycle in that environment requires an integrated approach to content, optimization and social media marketing. Optimizing the sales funnel is essential to attract, engage and inspiring customers to buy and this presentation will provide attendees with a framework and tactics to develop their own Optimize and Socialize approach to sales cycle optimization.

June 1st, 8:00 am Central
Presentation: Optimize – How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing
Social Media Club, Redwood Falls MN: Register Here (free copy of Optimize for all attendees!)

How can small businesses approach their online marketing to achieve better visibility where customers are looking and socializing online? This presentation on Optimize will provide attendees a framework for organizing their content marketing that leverages both search and social media to attract more customers, shorten sales cycles and retain existing customers. Some of the key presentation topics to be covered:

• Major shifts in consumer search and social trends
• Key opportunities to improve online marketing strategy and performance
• How to integrate customer-centric SEO with social media and content marketing
• Using this knowledge to attract, engage, and inspire more sales online

June 7th, 9:00 am Eastern
Track Keynote: Optimize and Socialize for Better Content Marketing
BlogWorld New Media & Expo, New York: Register Here

Search, social media and content marketing are converging, and consumers are using numerous ways to discover, consume and act on content. In this session, you’ll learn how to use content marketing best practices to design information that inspires audiences to share, buy and recommend your brand.

Key Points
1. Learn the framework for an optimize and socialize approach to content marketing
2. Understand the framework for optimizing across the customer lifecycle
3. Know the difference between KPIs and business outcomes for web and social measurement

June 8th, 9:00 am Eastern
Keynote: Attract & Engage More Customers With An Optimized State of Mind
Vocus Users Conference (Client), Baltimore: Register Here

The worlds of Marketing and Public Relations are converging and now, more than ever, communications professionals need to accelerate their internet marketing skill sets to create a competitive advantage. This presentation provides an integrated approach to using content for optimizing awareness, engagement and action.

June 11, 10:30 am & 3:30 pm
Enterprise SEO
Content Marketing Optimization
SES Toronto: Register Here

Enterprise SEO: This session will also include a proven model of organization for your enterprise-level SEO campaign as well as a summary of key metrics that you should be measuring to drive ongoing SEO strategy.

Content Marketing Optimization: Pandas and Penguins and Zebras Oh My!  If your SEO is all about chasing tricks and shortcuts with content and links, then this session isn’t for you. If you are interested in building a competitive advantage focusing on customer centric content marketing that works with or without search engines, then make sure you have a front row seat.

It will be a busy 30 days but there’s been so much interest in a more integrated approach and with Optimize, that it’s been a real pleasure meeting and exchanging ideas with marketers looking for a more holistic perspective to marketing on the web. I hope to see you at one of these events.  To get a tase of these types of presentations, take a look at this deck from the Fusion Marketing Experience conference that I presented last week in Antwerp. It’s currently featured on the home page of Slideshare.

For anyone that liveblogs these events, please be sure to email me the link to your post and I’ll send you a copy of Optimize. If you have one, I’ll send you one to give away to your readers.  lee at toprank dot org

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2012. |
Holistic Optimization Across the Sales Cycle: Optimize Speaking Events May & June | http://www.toprankblog.com

The Expanding Potential of Digital Books

Posted on 20. Apr, 2012 by John Jantsch in Blog, Duct Tape Marketing, Nancy Duarte, Podcast, Presentations, Resonate, slide:ology, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

I’ve seen the future of interactive business books and it is Nancy Duarte’s Resonate for the iPad.

I’m a big fan of the presentation work of Nancy Duarte and I’ve had Duarte on my podcast to talk about her books Slide:ology and Resonate.

This week Duarte’s team launched Resonate as a Multi-Touch book built in Apple’s iBooks Author tool. Calling it a book in the traditional sense doesn’t do it justice. It’s more like attending a workshop rich in images, stories, video, lectures, and even quizzes, all perfectly displayed on the iPad’s stunning screen.

The book is available through the iTunes store and may be the best teaching tool on the subject of creating presentations that resonate ever created. (I guess you can tell I kind of like it.)

The Expanding Potential of Digital Books is a post from: Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

17 Ways to Integrate Facebook and Email Marketing

Posted on 13. Nov, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, email, Email Marketing, facebook, Presentations, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media integration

I won’t write out the entire presentation for you in blog post form – that’s what Slideshare is for – but here are the high points of this presentation on Killer Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing, where I offer 17 specific ways to tie these two important programs together.

2 Sides of the Same Coin

The notion that Facebook is a tool to create new customers is massively flawed. Research from DDB shows that 84% of fans of company Facebook pages are current customers. Of course they are. Think about how you use Facebook. You don’t randomly surf around, clicking the “Like” button for companies of which you’ve never, ever heard. Why would you want their info in your news feed?

Consequently, Facebook is primarily a tool for keeping your brand top-of-mind among customers who have given you permission to do so. Through this messaging, you hope to solicit repeat business and customer advocacy. And email marketing sets out to do the exact same thing.

Thus, the people in charge of Facebook and the people in charge of email marketing in your company should be the SAME PEOPLE.

3 Types of Integration

There are three main areas where Facebook and email marketing can and should be integrated:

• Strategic Integration
• Channel and Audience Integration
• Message Integration

Strategic Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

There are several areas of overlap here, but perhaps the most illustrative is the fact that the metrics used to measure both tactics are mathematically quite similar, even if we call them different names:

• Email subscribes = Facebook “Likes”
• Email unsubscribes = Facebook “UnLikes”
• Email opens = Facebook impressions
• Email clicks = Facebook feedback
• Email forwards = Facebook shares

You can even derive the value of your overall Facebook marketing effort by examining it through the prism of your existing email marketing investment. I wrote a post about this new way to calculate what Facebook is worth to your business a while ago. It includes a link to a free Facebook valuation worksheet.

Channel and Audience Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

The goal is not to get an email opt-in or a Facebook “Like”. The goal is to get both. Consequently, whenever you are asking for you, you should be asking for the other, as well.

• Email thank you messages.
• Email unsubscribe preference centers.
• Facebook landing tabs.
• Social log-ins using software like JanRain.

Message Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

Tons of options here for using (and re-using) your Facebook and email content.

• Use email subject line testing to optimize Facebook ad headlines. And vice-versa.
• Test image effectiveness via email, incorporate into status updates or Facebook ads. And vice-versa.
• Just like Sponsored Stories, incorporate fan expressions of advocacy into your email content.
• Incorporate most popular email content into status updates. And vice-versa.
• Tease upcoming emails via status update.

Do Not Eat This Entire Sandwich

The presentation has 17 ways to tie Facebook and email together. Do not try to tackle all of those at once. Pick the two to four that make the most sense for your company, and try them. Them, add two more. And two more. Until you’ve integrated your programs in many ways. Remember, however, that your Facebook and email marketing will NEVER be optimally integrated if different groups (or even different agencies) are handling them.

You know how you can tell social media is a truly big deal? It’s become too important to stand on its own.

This is a presentation I originally put together for the Facebook Success Summit. Many thanks to two geniuses and good guys Christopher S. Penn and Chad White for their help and inspiration.

17 Ways to Integrate Facebook and Email Marketing

Posted on 13. Nov, 2011 by Jay Baer in Blog, email, Email Marketing, facebook, Presentations, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media integration

I won’t write out the entire presentation for you in blog post form – that’s what Slideshare is for – but here are the high points of this presentation on Killer Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing, where I offer 17 specific ways to tie these two important programs together.

2 Sides of the Same Coin

The notion that Facebook is a tool to create new customers is massively flawed. Research from DDB shows that 84% of fans of company Facebook pages are current customers. Of course they are. Think about how you use Facebook. You don’t randomly surf around, clicking the “Like” button for companies of which you’ve never, ever heard. Why would you want their info in your news feed?

Consequently, Facebook is primarily a tool for keeping your brand top-of-mind among customers who have given you permission to do so. Through this messaging, you hope to solicit repeat business and customer advocacy. And email marketing sets out to do the exact same thing.

Thus, the people in charge of Facebook and the people in charge of email marketing in your company should be the SAME PEOPLE.

3 Types of Integration

There are three main areas where Facebook and email marketing can and should be integrated:

• Strategic Integration
• Channel and Audience Integration
• Message Integration

Strategic Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

There are several areas of overlap here, but perhaps the most illustrative is the fact that the metrics used to measure both tactics are mathematically quite similar, even if we call them different names:

• Email subscribes = Facebook “Likes”
• Email unsubscribes = Facebook “UnLikes”
• Email opens = Facebook impressions
• Email clicks = Facebook feedback
• Email forwards = Facebook shares

You can even derive the value of your overall Facebook marketing effort by examining it through the prism of your existing email marketing investment. I wrote a post about this new way to calculate what Facebook is worth to your business a while ago. It includes a link to a free Facebook valuation worksheet.

Channel and Audience Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

The goal is not to get an email opt-in or a Facebook “Like”. The goal is to get both. Consequently, whenever you are asking for you, you should be asking for the other, as well.

• Email thank you messages.
• Email unsubscribe preference centers.
• Facebook landing tabs.
• Social log-ins using software like JanRain.

Message Integration of Facebook and Email Marketing

Tons of options here for using (and re-using) your Facebook and email content.

• Use email subject line testing to optimize Facebook ad headlines. And vice-versa.
• Test image effectiveness via email, incorporate into status updates or Facebook ads. And vice-versa.
• Just like Sponsored Stories, incorporate fan expressions of advocacy into your email content.
• Incorporate most popular email content into status updates. And vice-versa.
• Tease upcoming emails via status update.

Do Not Eat This Entire Sandwich

The presentation has 17 ways to tie Facebook and email together. Do not try to tackle all of those at once. Pick the two to four that make the most sense for your company, and try them. Them, add two more. And two more. Until you’ve integrated your programs in many ways. Remember, however, that your Facebook and email marketing will NEVER be optimally integrated if different groups (or even different agencies) are handling them.

You know how you can tell social media is a truly big deal? It’s become too important to stand on its own.

This is a presentation I originally put together for the Facebook Success Summit. Many thanks to two geniuses and good guys Christopher S. Penn and Chad White for their help and inspiration.