Online advertising has come a long, long way in recent years.
Retargeted advertising means that you can hone in on precisely the customers you want to talk to, and ensure you don’t waste time and money on scattergunning inappropriate leads. A wealth of analytics tools means you can figure out exactly what works – and scrap what doesn’t. The open nature of social media means that you can weave advertising and marketing into the daily conversations you’re having with your audience, nurturing relationships and building trust instead of aggressively pushing your Geospatial products and services.
But for all its potential, online advertising is still a precise art – and it’s very easy to make mistakes. Before you hand over any cold, hard cash, make sure you can confidently answer these 3 questions.
This is one of the biggest mistakes that newbies and oldies alike make. Online ads tend to be super concise and you may only have a tiny space with a couple of words and an image to put your point across.
If you’re too vague or general, you won’t catch anyone’s attention. This is something I go on and on about….. a lot! And for good reason!
Decide exactly what you’re offering to each type of viewer, craft specific ads around these specific viewers, and try to phrase your ad as a call to action. For example, rather than saying something generic like “Leaders in 3D Laser Scanning”, it’s far more effective to produce a couple of different ads that say something along the lines of “Increase work productivity and safety with the latest ‘game changing’ 3D laser scanner! Find out here!” or “Find out how using our 3D laser scanners will improve your workflow!”.
In short, you should aim to do three things: make the offer 100% relevant to the individual, tell them exactly what to expect if they click, and create a sense of urgency to nudge them into action. You’re trying to take them down the sales pipeline – and snap up a hot sales lead at the other end!
Crafting mega-personalised, nuanced advertising is excellent… if you’re getting those ads to the right eyeballs!
Broadly speaking, there are two things to consider here.
First: are you focusing on the right platforms, websites and channels to reach the people who actually want to buy your stuff?
Second: Are you using the right keywords, filters and other identifiers to match your ads to the right people, too?
BONUS TIP: Because you’ve read this far, I’m going to let you in on a few hot industry secrets…
As a Geospatial company, you can safely say two things:
– Your target audience will be active around 6:30am – 8:30am most mornings (believe me, I tweet out around 6:30am and get replies very quickly!)
– Your potential customers will be in the right headspace to research/buy your products and services when they’re actually at work. And when they’re at work, they’re more likely to be looking at sites like Google, YouTube or industry blogs and websites than, say, Pinterest.
If you’re working in the Geospatial Industry, you are lucky in that you have a clear niche, so this makes it easier to narrow down websites and search terms your target market might use.
It also means that it can be particularly beneficial to place ads with something like Google Adwords, which has the added benefit of coming with highly detailed and comprehensive analytics and tools for keyword research. Focused publications like Geoconnexion, LiDAR News, POB or GIM (to name but a few) online banner adverts are also an ideal option as you can monitor the number of visitors coming to your site.
However, that doesn’t mean that you should leave out social advertising. LinkedIn is the most obvious choice, since it’s so B2B focused, but in reality, everyone dips into Facebook and Twitter during their working day, and if you’re using these channels to talk to your customers, it makes sense to sell to them there, too. Psst! For more on this topic, read: Want to Know If Social Media Really Works for the Geospatial Sector?
[ctt template=”5″ link=”85Rcy” via=”no” ]#Advertising via @LinkedIn or @Facebook gives you an enormous advantage. #Geospatial #Marketing[/ctt]
What’s more, advertising via LinkedIn or Facebook gives you an enormous advantage. These sites collect masses of highly granular data on their users – and they allow you to take advantage of these to target your ads.
For example, you could opt to target a particular ad specifically at people whose profiles say that they both work for GIS Mapping companies and are based in Germany. Or only to people who have ‘liked’ a Facebook page about LiDAR technology / a publication for the Geospatial Industry, and are over the age of 22 (helping you rule out students). Or who are members of a LinkedIn group for professionals in the Remote Sensing Industry.
[ctt template=”5″ link=”ffAcl” via=”no” ].@LinkedIn offers a ton of guidance! Including a breakdown of the different elements you can use to target your #Geospatial audience[/ctt]
LinkedIn actually offers a ton of guidance to help you do this, including a breakdown of the different elements you can use to target your ads to the right person, in the right company or profession, in the right part of the world.
All of which means that, if you’re smart about finding ways to identify your ideal customer on social media, you can use the tools available to target your social advertising with incredible precision.
[ctt template=”5″ link=”afWm2″ via=”no” ]Many people misinterpret success as having a large number of people see or click on your advert. #Geospatial #Marketing[/ctt]
Many people misinterpret success as having a large number of people see or click on your advert. But attracting a crowd or having the loudest megaphone isn’t the point of your campaign. In fact, sometimes it’s a bad thing to have too many of the ‘wrong’ people taking up all your time and energy, because it leaves you with far less time to talk to the really important customers.
The point of your campaign is getting the right people’s attention – and getting them to do the right things.
But what are the right things?
The precise goals of your campaign are for you to decide – but you have to decide them before you ever place your first ad. And, just as importantly, you need your goals to be measurable, and you need to have a reliable system for measuring them.
For example, if the aim is to grow your number of quality leads, you need to make sure that your ad leads to a page (unique url) where you can capture people’s details and contact information, that you have ‘clear criteria’ for what a “quality” lead looks like, and that you have a means of, first, seeing how many people clicked the ad and second, how many of those people then signed up.
Using this information, you can then:
1). Judge how effective the ad was at getting people’s attention overall, e.g. “3000 people clicked through”
2). Judge how successful the campaign was at capturing leads, e.g. “We collected 500 new email addresses”
3). Evaluate how successful you were at attracting the right kinds of leads, e.g. “Of these, 360 are high quality leads – CEOs or purchasing managers at the kind of companies we sell to”
And then, of course, you can start to analyse and refine your campaign for next time. For example, if 2000 people clicked through but only 50 were happy to leave their email address, was this because the text of your ad was misleading/attracted the wrong people, who then realized it wasn’t for them after they clicked? Or was it because the page they clicked through to wasn’t compelling enough to get them to sign up?
[ctt template=”5″ link=”lXuWo” via=”no” ]The beauty of online #advertising is that it is super easy to tweak and experiment with one variable at a time @geoconnexion #Geospatial[/ctt]
The beauty of online advertising is that it is super easy to tweak and experiment with one variable at a time, and judge the results accordingly, without committing a huge budget. You can also run A/B tests, where you put out two versions of the same ad with slightly different copy, titles, pictures or design layouts to see which one gets the most traction.
By keeping an eye on your analytics, you can keep honing your marketing approach – and keep getting the most ROI out of your online ads.
Elaine and her merry team of Geospatial Marketing Whiz kids will be pulling together a mixture of blogs related to branding Geospatial Companies, developing Geospatial sales leads, marketing communications for the Geospatial Sector and content generators.
This is in demand from people asking lots of lovely yummy marketing and sales questions on ‘how-to-do-stuff’ related to this sector… so sit back, relax with a brandy and get those eye balls reading….
Our latest Geospatial Marketing Blogs can be found here
Over and ooot for now!
PS: If you have a juicy question, ping me an email here
Want to Know If Social Media Really Works for the Geospatial Sector? Read This
Can social media marketing genuinely get results for businesses serving the geospatial sector? Well, the short answer is yes. In the next ten minutes, I’m going to show you why.
Back in February, we got a call from a client, a company that sells, leases and services technology for mapping and GIS, as well as equipment for surveying and construction.
Our ‘Secret Client’ (as we will call them) was keen to increase its lead generation and the team had decided to experiment with a new approach. They turned their attention to their social media channels, which include Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
“The company’s biggest untapped marketing asset: their deep well of technical knowledge”
Okay, we said. Let’s make this happen
Over four months, we executed a strategy to attract more fans, increase referral traffic from each platform back to the website and increase the number of users signing up via the website.
How?
By drawing on the company’s biggest untapped marketing asset: their deep well of technical knowledge.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”90ai_” via=”yes” ]Struggling generating content? Draw on ur biggest untapped #marketing asset: ur deep well of tech knowledge #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
First, we created a monthly content plan that would see internal departments contribute ideas and expertise. This content would hone in on specific issues facing customers, offering up expert solutions to their problems.
Each month there would be a different theme, giving the team an anchor to centre their marketing efforts around. Social media activity would use these themes to promote the content and by extension, of course, the products that Secret Company sells and rents out to the geospatial industry.
We knew that this consistency was key – great content is one thing, but carefully scheduling valuable content in a way that encourages your audience to look forward to and rely on is the magic ingredient you need to make your content marketing efforts a success.
Secret Company customers already appreciated the help and support that the team offers when they run into trouble, but this would provide a regular, high-value supply of great material and advice that would answer client’s questions before they even had to ask.
This, we thought, wouldn’t just be a huge hassle-saving bonus for users of the technology. Sure, it would aim to strengthen relationships with existing customers, building loyalty to Secret Company, but it would also be a perfect opportunity to start conversations with potential new customers in an informative and non-salesy way. A win-win scenario for everyone!
And we were right.
First, there was a noticeable uptick in social media followers, especially on LinkedIn and Twitter, which saw an increase of 55% and 33% respectively. But the really impressive results were the referral figures.
On LinkedIn, the company saw an increase of 625% in the number of people clicking through to the website from links posted alongside content. On Facebook, the number was even higher – 933% – and on Twitter, it was 2300%.
Yep, you read that right: 23 times more people came to the website via Twitter as a result of the content marketing campaign.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”6de0p” via=”no” ]23 times more people came 2 the website via Twitter due 2 a content #marketing campaign – a client story by @EBTMarketing #geospatial[/ctt]
What’s more, subscriptions to the website shot up too, with 20 new potential customers signing up in the best month and 11 in the worst. For a niche tech company working in the geospatial industry, just one high-quality, engaged new lead a month is like gold dust. Twenty is pretty incredible.
Why did this work so well?
Because the company wasn’t using social media to push their own agenda or aggressively sell their products. Instead, they were focussed on figuring out what customers really wanted and needed – and they offered it up to them for free, with no strings attached.
They showed off their expert knowledge, cementing the brand as an authority in the industry, and they demonstrated just how amazing their customer care would be for any would-be customers wavering over whether to choose them as their next supplier.
These two traits – high levels of techie know-how and excellent post-purchase support – are two things that companies serving the geospatial sector can and absolutely should offer. They’re things that customers in the industry value seriously highly. And they are the perfect elements for showing off through a social media and content marketing campaign.
It’s precisely why social media marketing is the perfect fit for companies in this field. But don’t take it from us: take it from the figures that Secret Company saw for themselves. The proof is all there: ignore it at your peril.
Want to talk to a social media marketing expert about how these channels could help you market your geospatial-related products or services? Get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.
Feel like geospatial doesn’t lend itself to the digital space? Can’t see your clients warming to your attempts to reach out online? These 5 thought-leading bloggers are about to change your mind.
Who is She?
A huge influence on B2B marketing, especially when it comes to LinkedIn networking and “social listening” – where you track what people are saying about you on social media to hone your messaging and products, and build better relationships with customers.
Why is This Relevant to Me?
[ctt template=”5″ link=”9zPjp” via=”yes” ]#B2B tech companies aren’t always the most proactive when it comes to crowdsourcing feedback via #socialmedia @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
Clients are fickler today than at any time in the past and to keep them onside you have to show that you really care what they think of your products and are ready to take their comments on board. Developing better social listening and engagement skills is an absolute must for a geospatial firm that wants to stay ahead of the competition.
Give Me a Taster…
“Social media gives companies the ability to get the kind of quick, voluntary feedback they require to stay agile…they can put social listening to best use by generating prospects, keeping an eye on the competition, identifying thought leaders, rewarding brand advocates, collecting product feedback and much more.
Companies don’t need to analyse a million mentions to get the news they need. It’s only a matter of cultivating a deep understanding of relevant conversations online.”
[ctt template=”5″ link=”eNz3n” via=”yes” ]Companies don’t need 2 analyse a million mentions. It’s a matter of cultivating a deep understanding of relevant conversations @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
Who is He?
As the former head of Social Media and Corporate Communications at LinkedIn, Sexton really knows his stuff. These days, he focusses on “social selling”, which basically means nurturing relationships with potential customers via social media and taking them through the bulk of the sales journey online.
Why Is This Relevant to Me?
Geospatial firms overwhelmingly rely on in-person selling, but while personal relationship building is highly effective, pitching to individuals face-to-face can be a costly exercise, especially when your client base is globally dispersed. Plus, your customers are busy people and scheduling a series of one-to-one meetings won’t always be all that convenient.
When it’s done well, social selling solves these problems by retaining that personal touch and fostering trust over time, while increasing your reach and flexibility. It means you can be much more efficient about how you communicate without making clients feel like they’re on a conveyor belt. It’s a fine art, but if anyone can give you invaluable pointers, it’s Koka Sexton.
Give Me a Taster…
“A social selling methodology with LinkedIn is bigger than just sales prospecting. Leveraging social media as a sales professional should continue after the opportunity is created and even after a deal is closed. Social selling is more than just finding new buyers, it’s about keeping the customers you already have.”
[ctt template=”5″ link=”aB0V8″ via=”yes” ]“A social selling methodology with LinkedIn is bigger than just sales prospecting” #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
Who Is She?
Dyer helps brands to build, manage and measure their outreach efforts on social networks including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, and is an expert on developing effective content marketing initiatives. She frequently features on lists of the world’s most important social media minds, including Forbes’ Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers.
Why is This Relevant to Me?
Geospatial tech like LiDAR and 3D Imaging might seem dry to an outsider, but to people in your field it’s genuinely fascinating. With so many awesome innovations and experiments happening in the field, what better way to engage your audience than by talking about these cool developments, showing that you’re passionate about what you do and share in their enthusiasm?
Learning from someone like Dyer how to really nurture a community around your product is invaluable. Plus, content marketing is a seriously under explored avenue in geospatial – and that’s kind of crazy when you think about it. What industry is better placed to serve up genuinely interesting and useful tech advice, how-to guides, case studies and industry news? You have a wealth of content at your fingertips, so figure out how to use it to your advantage.
Give Me a Taster…
“If your social media accounts contain an endless stream of only your content, it is off-putting for the most part. Sure, you’re trying to promote your products and services, but you also need to share content that is relevant to your niche but not authored by you. A good place to start is with the 5-3-2 Model for Social Sharing, which will keep your fans engaged and help you build a larger following. So if you publish 10 social media posts per week:
Who Is He?
Patel is the founder of the successful Social Media Analytics companies Crazy Egg and Hello Bar, and advises everyone from HP to Amazon on growing revenue from social media. He’s on just about every “Top Ten” list you can imagine in the social media world, including Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, and writes for HuffPo and Inc. More importantly, he’s one of the sharpest and most sought after minds in digital marketing… yet still finds the time to blog every couple of days.
Why Is This Relevant to Me?
When you’re working in the B2B tech space there can be a tendency to dismiss social media – and marketing generally – as something fluffy that, you know, you can do later. When you get a few minutes spare between all the ‘real’ work of R&D and testing and manufacture and so on.
But here’s the thing: if you don’t market effectively, if you don’t find smart, clever, engaging ways to sell the awesome things you make, all the other work you do will be futile. Social media marketing is just as real and important as all the other work you do – and it’s what will make you a success.
Patel is a living, breathing, massive-income-earning example of what happens when you take a geeky tech brain and apply it seriously to the problem of how to grow your client base through social media. Believe me, you’ll want to learn a few lessons from this guy.
Give Me a Taster…
“Before jumping into your online marketing strategy, have a conversation with your existing customers.
How did they find out about your product or service? What was the process that transformed them from interested prospects into paying customers? What do your customers value or care about?
Chances are that the answers to these questions have little to do with whether your customers found your company online or in-person. What you’ll likely hear and find most compelling are stories about how your business solved some of your customers’ most pressing problems.
Marketing is about human-to-human relationships and can happen through any online or offline medium. At the end of the day, your customers probably won’t remember whether they found your company through a click on a Facebook ad or through a referral from a friend.”
[ctt template=”5″ link=”5h8ct” via=”yes” ]“Before jumping into your online marketing strategy, have a conversation with your existing customers” #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
Who Is She?
Smith is one of the world’s leading experts in B2B Facebook marketing.
Why Is This Relevant to Me?
All too often, B2B companies, especially those working in niche tech fields like geospatial, give Facebook a wide berth. This is usually because they don’t see it as a ‘professional’ social networking channel, and feel they either aren’t confident that they know how to exploit it or don’t think that their customers will see it as appropriate.
The problem with this outlook is that, these days, everyone’s on Facebook. People use it to stay in touch with people, including calling those they don’t have phone numbers for. People get their news from it. They scroll it when they have a few minutes free. Increasingly, they don’t see anything wrong with “adding” people they met at corporate functions or through work.
This is where they live, and if you aren’t finding clever ways to talk to them there, you’re missing a trick – whether that’s live video streaming events or Q&As, trying out paid advertising via boosted posts, or using your page to engage customers in lively discussion about R&D or fieldwork methods.
Give Me a Taster…
“If you’ve spent any time on Facebook within the last year, you know that video is everywhere. This is no coincidence; Facebook has made a big push to prioritize video in News Feed. By giving more weight to natively uploaded videos and Facebook Live video broadcasts, the company is encouraging you not only to spend more time watching video on Facebook, but also to go behind the camera.
And, it’s working! Over 100 million hours of video are being watched on Facebook every day.
Why the big push toward video? Well, TV viewership is down in practically every age group, but digital video consumption continues to grow.”
Does someone in your company need a little nudge online? Share this blog post with your networks using the sharing buttons below and above.
Joe Pulizzi, founder of Content Marketing Institute & Elaine Ball
Okay, in the next ten minutes I’m going to give you some amazing tips for producing content that your audience really, really want… and how to market that content without turning them off in the process. But just before I do that, I’m going to tell you a little bit about what I learned this week. Because this week has been awesome.
Why? Because I’ve just got back from Content Marketing World 2016, over in Cleveland, Ohio. And I know what you’re thinking: here we go: geek alert! And you’d be right, I am indeed a marketing geek. But if you’d been at this event, I’m pretty sure you’d be just as excitably geeking out about the power of content marketing, too.
Cleveland was hot, hot, hot – and the marketing topics we were covering were even hotter. The hottest topic of them all? How to use content in the most effective way to attract and retain visitors, keeping them right in front of your brand and converting those visitors into sales. Lovely, beautiful sales.
Now, I happen to know that this issue is top of mind for just about all of my clients in the geospatial sector.
And the good news is, this is all totally achievable… but it’s certainly not easy. You have to be ready to put in the time and the effort to make it work.
Or, as marketing guru Joe Pulizzi (@joepulizzi) says:
[ctt template=”4″ link=”37cM_” via=”yes” ]“If you’re not “all in” with your #contentmarketing program, you should stop” @joepulizzi #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
So, without further ado, here are my 6 top tips for attracting visitors to your catalogue of solutions… without going all salesy and putting them off along the way.
1). Go All In. The number one thing I tell my clients in the geospatial world is this: it’s better not to bother than to do it half-heartedly. Posting sparse, mediocre content will turn off your visitors and damage your brand in the long run! Doing it properly will do wonders for your brand, but the internet is a busy place and if you’re not willing to be a serious contender, you’re in a worse position than if you simply stayed out of the game, because your lacklustre efforts are out there for all to see. In fact, top brains all across the marketing sphere agree on this one. If you can’t commit, stop. Be in it fully or not at all!
2). Focus On Substance. You’re in an amazing position: you create something your customers really want and need, and you have the expertise to back it up! So don’t go giving our mediocre *&%^$ . This is guaranteed to put your customers off. Think about it. If you read something that doesn’t give you any substance, you will switch off – and probably will never go back there for your information again. Giving out great content will build relationships, but putting out stuff you know isn’t up to scratch will reduce the number of visitors coming to your website! So, make sure you’re always offering value. What do your visitors really want to learn, know and read?
3). Don’t Wreck Your Google Rankings. Google will penalise you if visitors “pogo-stick”. What’s that, I hear you cry? Pogo-sticking is when something like this happens: a visitor searches “what are the best methods for surveying land?” but the page they click on doesn’t answer their query, so they click straight back off and search again. When this occurs, Google will kick your butt and push you down the rankings! In other words: don’t stuff your page with keywords, make sure that you really do answer the questions or fulfill the search goal you aim to fill!
4). Be Smart About Design. This sounds basic, but many Geospatial’ers never give it a second thought. Old, clunky-looking sites, poor content and non-mobile-friendly pages put people off in an instant and send them pogo-sticking away on instinct. So do yourself a favour and sort out your design. Make it easy for visitors to find you, navigate to what they want… and they’ll stay on your site long enough to decide whether to buy.
5). Make Sure it Loads Fast.. This is VITAL. If your pages take an age to load, whether due to overly high resolution images or pages that aren’t optimised for mobile, your visitors won’t stick around. It doesn’t matter if they’re surveyors, architects, construction dudes or civil engineers, not one has that kind of patience! Test, test and test again to check they’re never waiting more than a few seconds.
6). Prioritise ‘Why’ Over ‘What’! Remember this: your ‘what’ may change, but your ‘why’ never does. People often make the mistake of asking themselves, “What am I doing?” “I’m adding a blog”. But this really isn’t the important thing. The important thing is “Why am I adding a blog?” to which the answer is something like, “To grow an audience, because I want to increase my followers, which will increase my exposure, which will increase my sales leads”. If you know why you are doing something, you can change your methods to best suit your audience. If you’re fixated on the modus operandi all the time, you’re just blindly following trends!
Final Thoughts:
At CMW, I was captivated by a keynote called @michaeljrcomedy. He’s a smart, witty comedian, and he told a story that stuck with me.
Michael Jr asked a musical teacher at a conference to sing ‘Amazing Grace’. The dude sang a really nice song and was applauded by the audience. But Michael then asked the dude to sing it again, but this time, pretend he was an adult who had been shot in the back as a kid and whose uncle just got out of jail. The powerful rendition elicited applause resulting in a standing ovation. The man put his heart and soul into it because he knew the ‘why’ he was singing, not just ‘what’. The message? Let’s hear it from Michael:
[ctt template=”4″ link=”ah471″ via=”yes” ]“The key isn’t to know your what. The key to success is to know your why” @Michaeljrcomedy #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
So that’s the most important thing I can teach you about great content: know why you’re giving it to visitors, and make sure they understand why it will help them. Don’t just tell them what something is and leave it there. Make sure they really, really get it – and they’ll lap it up. I promise.
Got any more super hot tips on how to keep your visitors intrigued? Let us know here.
We LOVE free stock photo sites to jazz up our survey content!
Ooohh just check these little monkey’s out! Looking for free stock photo’s to jazz up your survey content? Look no further, we have a list for you:
[ctt template=”4″ link=”UrVc9″ via=”yes” ]”Articles with images receive 94% more views than articles without images” @jeffbullas #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
So, check it out folks!
Ever get that sense of dread before a party? The sinking feeling that no one will actually turn up?
Sure, you scattergunned all your Facebook friends. You’ve been texting the most popular people for the past week. But all you’ve had back is a handful of non-committal noises about dropping by before they go to that “other thing”. And, now, here you are in the kitchen with a glass of wine and a bowl of chips, worrying that this is going to be the worst party of all time.
Today you have more access to the “right” invitees than ever before, thanks to sites like LinkedIn that allow you to track down your ideal customer with a few smart searches. But just because you’re able to inundate them with requests doesn’t mean they’re actually going to pay attention. In fact, it means you have to work extra hard to get their attention, because every other marketer in your space is inundating them, too. Their time is squeezed more and more.
This is the problem that my client, Equipment Tools for Surveyors (ET4S), was facing. ET4S sells Geographic Information Systems (used to store, check and identify features on maps) to local governments, and for years they’d found the best way to win over the people with the purse strings was inviting them to in-person seminars, where they could explain their products, face-to-face.
Not anymore.
There was two issues; attracting people on the database and attracting new potential clients who ET4S didn’t know about.
ET4S were still selling great products – in fact, they had a brand new platform they were super excited to unveil. Trouble was, they were finding it harder and harder to persuade key players to turn up at all and attract a new market
At one seminar, they’d hoped to talk to more than 90 people. Just 13 showed. Guests often had last minute, high pressure projects land in their laps, or were simply too snowed under with work and other commitments to attend. Meanwhile, ET4S were spending a lot of money for very little return.
It was time to try something new.
It’s easy enough to say: go digital! But it’s not enough to simply put information online and hope for the best. You need a strategy that engages prospects with what you offer just as effectively as you would face-to-face.
So here’s what we did.
We started with an in-depth blog post explaining how we could solve the target audience’s problems, including how to use smartphone technologies that they could use for field data collection. This made sure they were focussing on the real needs of the chosen market segment. Then we emailed a link to this post to over 8000 carefully chosen leads, and shared it through social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn to help with SEO and reaching out to a wider audience (potential markets we didn’t know about).
At the end of the post, we invited readers to click a link to join a webinar, instead of dozens of individual seminars, in which they would learn more about the product. By now, anyone clicking the link would have had time to read through the information at their leisure. If they chose to join the webinar, we (and they) knew that this product had potential value to them. Which meant far less risk of timewasting on either side – and more chance they’d sign in.
Alongside this, ET4S still ran a handful of in-person seminars, but these were stripped back affairs catered to people who had already shown in an interest. They weren’t the main focus. They were no longer putting all their marketing eggs in one basket.
The result?
A simple move, right? But with massive returns. And all because they recognised that the way they were marketing their seminars didn’t match up to the modern buyer’s hectic schedule. Because they were willing to do that bit of extra legwork to pique their target customer’s interest and demonstrate the value of their product in advance. Solving the client’s problem vs selling them a product.
That’s where online campaigns really shine. When you stop thinking about how you can invite the most people to your party, and instead start really thinking about why they’d show up – how you can make it as easy, rewarding and attractive as possible to attend.
Do you have questions about translating your offline campaign to the digital space? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Today, Elaine shows you some examples on how to develop sales leads and highlights how some companies are doing it right!
Continuing from the previous video and how market segments are important to help focus your content. Get your content right and it will attract more people. People with that particular problem. The more focused it is, the higher the hit rate.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”JaNaS” via=”yes” ]Use Unique URL’s; which direct the visitor to a unique landing page. This helps you ‘measure’ the advert. #geospatial #marketing @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
Short video from Elaine on how to improve sales leads. Selling total stations? Visualisation software? Survey service? Laser Scanners? Stuff for the Geospatial Industry? Watch this series by our founder and CEO Elaine Ball on how to improve sales.
[ctt template=”4″ link=”S63qr” via=”yes” ]To improve sales leads; 1st focus on market segments + understand needs of group; then communicate 2 that group #geospatial @EBTMarketing[/ctt]
The count down begins…………. we will be hosting a LIVE Twitter Chat for all exhibitors exhibiting at Geobusiness 2016 (officially by us)
When: Wednesday 18th May 4pm GMT
Where: Hosted by EBTM via Twitter (of course 😉 Click here to go to Twitter
Why take part?
You have invested a lot of money to exhibit at Geobusiness as well as all the hard work getting your equipment, software, services ready to promote.
Not an exhibitor but attending? Get involved! Find out what the exhibitors are promoting and how they can help you be safer, more profitable, more efficient etc!
To build your business, get more clients and have more money and feel satisfied!
Setting up shop at a show on its own is like opening a shop on the high street without telling anyone about you, hoping for traffic to pass your door. Ludicrous don’t you think?!
There are several means of communicating your presence, as well as the excellent job the Geobusiness team deliver, you also have to be communicating months in advance on what you will be showcasing at Geobusiness. Why? To inform your potential clients base (and clients) why your company and your products will save them time on the job, money and improve overall safety to name but a few common needs.
I’m thrilled to see so many of the exhibitors now on Social Media! This great news!!
So, we want to hear what you have to say. We will be posting three questions on EBTMarketing Twitter Page at 4pm GMT on Wednesday 18th May. Literally one week prior to the show opening.
If you want to follow other Geobusiness Exhibitors, we have also created a list of them all. Click here to follow! This helps filter through the jargon online.
So, what next?
At 4pm GMT on Wednesday 18th May, we will post 3 questions: The questions are and will be submitted in order as follows: So no jumping the gun!
Questions will look like this (Note we use Q1, Q2, Q3 to make it easier for you to answer the right questions and keep track! It can get messy)
To answer the question, it will look something like this:
Remember; to answer a particular question; use A1, A2 or A3.
RULES
Find out what happened last year, click here!
Love to hear from you!Finally, I would love to hear what it has done for you, pre and post Geobusiness.
Beth and I will be at Geobusiness, you will see us in our outfits. Make sure you come and receive your free gift!
If you met us in 2015, you may have received the muppet show or star wars socks, this year we have something a little different to give you.
Happy Tweeting everyone!! Exited to see what you have to showcase!
Finally, why are we doing this?
