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Sales and marketing are different sides of the same coin. While marketing team’s job is to generate qualified, purchase-ready leads for the sales team, it is the sales team’s job to turn those leads into sales. Although it may seem that both departments have different objectives, in the end, the goal remains the same: marketing to drive sales and generate revenue.

According to research by Marketo and ReachForce, half of sales’ time is spent on unproductive prospecting, with sales ignoring as much as 80% of marketing leads. It’s important to empower the sales team with the right information by the marketing team, and that both teams know exactly when to handover the qualified leads from marketing to sales. Marketers have to prepare the sales team with necessary information and content to add value to existing relationships with leads.

Marketing and sales alignment basically means the process of getting the two teams to work together toward a common goal efficiently.

The Situation:

The sales and marketing departments are different bodies, which causes differences in the following ways:

• No Common Objectives
• Misunderstood Goals

Set Common Objectives

Marketing and sales teams work toward the same goals: converting new leads to revenue closure. However, because of the perceived handoff from marketing to sales, this process can seem like two separate stages.

Marketing goals are mostly long-term – which is generating potential sales leads by building a foundation with strong branding and content. It focuses more on scoring and nurturing leads for the long term.

Sales goals, on the other hand, are short term – it’s mostly monthly or quarterly targets to achieve.

Incorporating marketing into sales activities and working closely with the sales team allows marketers to see how they contribute towards the success of the sales team. Marketers can get a better understanding of the impact of lead quality, and sales teams can understand the need to follow up quickly.

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Research shows that rejection or mistrust of websites is 94% design related¹. Good design is the difference between organizations that know what they’re talking about and ones that don’t. UI/UX can play a major role in establishing just how well. There are a few sure-shot ways to make a great impression on your customers – and having a well thought of and well-developed website is one of them. UI/UX is primarily focused on making highly engaging interfaces. It’s no surprise then that companies having an excellent user experience (UX) generate higher revenues.

Every marketer out there knows the importance of good content. It is the most crucial element in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which in turn, is critical for your business. But, how do you pique your customers’ interest to read through everything? You guessed it, UI/UX. It enables better customer service, more conversions, brand loyalty, higher retention, and positive recommendations.

A peek into User Experience (UX)

It’s the tiny details that make the big picture look flawless. UX development puts an emphasis on carefully crafting an experience for the target market. Making sure all aspects of a website from the homepage to the checkout page, from site architecture to the sign-up button are intuitive, relevant and straightforward.

Where does User Interface (UI) fit in?

Simply put, user interface (UI) in the presentation and appearance. A good UI is all about perfectly balancing the science of functionality with the art of compelling design, creating visual cues for ease of use. When you want to give your potential consumers something to remember you by, give them a great UI design. It is the biggest takeaway of a website and has the final say on the number of conversions. Now that’s what you call real value.

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75% of content marketers release new content every month, and 16.52% put content out daily. There are 2.5 million blog posts created every day.

Content marketing is said to be one of the most important trends in the digital world of marketing. Good content is essential to connect the customer to the brand. By regularly updating the content and ensuring its relevance with current marketing trends, a successful marketing strategy can be maintained.

Content Serves Two Very Important Purposes:

• Inspires your readers and influences them to engage with your brand.
• Educates your audience about your brand which in turn results in sales.

In this era of information overload, it is crucial that each piece of content you produce is engaging to the audience and serves a purpose for your company or website. There are few essential elements which make your content stand apart from your competition and gets consumer engagement.

Elements are:

• Educative information
• Human element
• Clear, specific and familiar language
• Intriguing content
• Credibility

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When it comes down to it, everything that happens in digital marketing has one simple aim – drive sales.

Converting ad click throughs, website and Landing Page visitors, Social media likes, shares into purchases is why businesses spend so much on their online presence. Successful companies are differentiated from the average ones, by their ability to maximize conversions while optimizing efforts and spends.

And, that is why more than half of companies now use Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) as part of their digital strategy. CRO is any one of a whole range of strategies for improving the performance of a website or other online platform using analytics and user feedback. Given the exponential growth of mobile medium, marketers now are focusing on mobile optimization and have started including it as part of their marketing plans.

Mobile Optimization

Mobile is becoming the number one means people use to access the internet. According to Google, most searches are now conducted using mobile devices.

The importance of mobile should alert businesses to two objectives. First, it is now virtually essential that businesses optimize their web pages for mobile devices. If more people are viewing your pages on mobile than desktop, not having the correct layout and functionality could be costing you leads.

Once your site is optimized for mobile, then you can focus on optimizing conversions from mobile. With almost a third of all commerce transactions in 2016 originating from a mobile device, getting the best from your mobile presence means opening up huge potential revenue streams.

In fact, for new initiatives it makes sense to have a Mobile First approach, where a website or any online presence is built keeping the mobile audience in mind.

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Three quarters of the people who do a ‘near me’ search on their phones visit the store within a day.

Google introduced Location Extension in 2009 to help advertisers drive more footfalls into their stores. This year Google is testing a new beta ad extension called ‘Affiliate Location Extension’ (officially announced on Google+ on Oct 20, 2016) for some AdWords accounts.

What is an Affiliate Location Extension?

The purpose of launching this ad extension is to help manufacturers drive traffic to third-party US retail locations that sell their products. For example, if you are a TV manufacturer, you can use this extension to help someone searching for a TV to find the nearest retail chain where he or she can buy the product.

Some AdWords accounts have been enabled with Affiliate Location Extension, in the coming weeks this will be rolled out to other accounts.

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Over the years one of the major aspects of businesses – small or big, has been understanding who their customers are and how to appeal to their target audiences. Today, every successful business model has various ways of tapping customers – new and existing. We see a paradigm shift with most organizations leveraging similar strategies to identify the right persona, and address their needs with relevant messaging.

Which brings us to the question, what is persona? Persona is the representation of your ideal potential customers based on the existing data and research of your current customers.

Your next question would be, why is identifying personas important for your business? To drive content creation, product development, sales and everything else in-between that relates to successful customer acquisition campaigns.

Here’s how to identify personas:

• Start with identifying the demographics to which your product/ service is relevant
• Understand your prospects’ needs, pain points, and buying process. Based on that, you can easily address their requirements and engage with them through each step of the purchase funnel
• Segment the demographics based on the aspects of the product they are most likely interested in
• Focus on persona targeting as it works for any of the marketing goals: Brand Awareness, Engagement, Customer Acquisition

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According to businessdictionary.com, brand is defined as “Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer’s mind. Thus, brands help harried consumers in crowded and complex marketplace, by standing for certain benefits and value.”

Having a good brand is at the heart of having a successful business. So, how do you create and protect your brand? Here are four steps to help you do that.

1. Have a Recognizable, Compelling Look and Feel

For the last 30 or so years, when you see a swirl, you know Nike is nearby. When you read the words “Just Do It,” you also know Nike is involved. Nike has one of the most recognizable, compelling brands around. While they’ve changed some of their messaging to align with changing times, they’ve stayed true to their singular look and feel.

Beyond the look and feel, key messaging should be honored in a similar fashion. For example, if you want your storage solution to be known for “working equally well in data centers and branch offices,” you always need to say those exact words.

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After a decade of astonishing growth, social media advertising can now safely claim to be part of the marketing mainstream. And yet in a mature industry which continues to see annual revenues soar, many marketing professionals are still left scratching their head trying define the benefits of social in clear, quantifiable terms.

According to eMarketer, global spend on social advertising will reach $32.97 billion in 2016. The annual increase of 33.4 per cent is gigantic compared to the projected 5-6 per cent growth in overall advertising outlay, demonstrating just how hot social is. By 2018, social could account for a fifth of the global advertising market, and 45 per cent of display advertising.

Blurred Benefits

What is curious is the willingness of marketers to invest in social without the benefits being clearly defined. Almost two thirds of decision makers report that they struggle to quantify ROI on social advertising spend. A third say it is difficult to integrate social with wider business goals. And yet the money keep being spent, driven perhaps by a desire not to be left behind the latest tech trends.

Another potential pitfall for social advertising is the dominance of a single platform. Facebook accounts for three quarters of the global market, and is streets ahead in terms of trust in ROI. Yet over-reliance on one channel will hamper growth as advertising opportunities on Facebook will reach saturation point a lot quicker than the social media market as a whole.

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LinkedIn conversion tracking, long a privilege for the chosen few, was rolled out to advertisers this August. Pixel-based conversion tracking has been the staple for AdWords, Facebook, Twitter and other third party analytics apps. LinkedIn has been late catching up to this. Now, with the roll out of the conversion tracking for all advertisers, LinkedIn is letting users/advertisers understand the full impact of their campaigns right from the dashboard.

What can you do with LinkedIn conversion tracking?

• See how many leads you’re getting from your campaigns
• Understand your advertising ROI
• Optimize for the results that matter

With the implementation of the LinkedIn Insight tag, you can record website conversions tied to your Sponsored Content or Text Ads campaigns, including content downloads, sign-ups, purchases, and more. You can track how many times members converted after clicking (post-click) or viewing (post-view) your ads. You can also measure the true value you’re getting from your LinkedIn advertising on desktop and mobile, including return on ad spend, cost per conversion, and conversion rate — all using analytics from LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

LinkedIn utilizes a “last touch” attribution model with a 30-day look back period. It credits one unique conversion per individual (the earliest one) within the window and only credits a campaign or ad if that conversion is associated with the campaign.

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Social Media Content Marketing (SMCM) is the intersection where content marketing and social media converge. Social media has dramatically changed the relationship between brands and consumers, it has put the consumer in the driving seat. This connected world has empowered consumers to influence the branding and marketing strategies of multi-billion dollar companies. A connected consumer base is a blessing for those who realize its importance and a curse for those who don’t. Consumers are now aware of the impact they can have on large corporations by simply writing reviews and feedback. Similarly, organizations have also realized the impact that a single tweet or comment can have on their brand image. Consumer feedback and reviews have become major contributing factors while planning a marketing strategy, thanks to social media.

Source: crazyegg.com

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Digital marketing has spent much of the past decade looking to social media for the latest trends in cool content. So, it should come as no surprise that the popularity of live video streaming has grabbed the attention and imagination of marketers worldwide.Live video streaming or livestreaming involves broadcasting video content on the internet in real time. The idea of streaming video on the web for promotional purposes is not entirely new; businesses have been using webcasting to share key events with wider audiences online for a number of years.

Reaching Millions

But the game changer has been the recent explosion in dedicated live streaming app such as Facebook Live, Youtube Live, Periscope, Meerkat, Younow, Twitch and many more are giving millions of users worldwide opportunity to broadcast live to the world at the touch of a button. And millions are watching.

It is this level of popularity which has grabbed the attention of the marketing industry, speeding up the on-going shift in advertising spend away from television towards digital video. A recent poll of US marketers found 41% are keen to trial live video streaming as a content platform. One-fifth of US media decision-makers have already allocated budget to advertise around livestream content in the next 6 months.

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‘Change is the name of the game’ and who can advocate this more than Google? They have played a major role in the rapidly evolving world of online marketing and advertising with their regular innovations and strategic thought leadership.

Google has earned the majority of the global market share [72.48%] by constantly updating and innovating their solutions and services.

As a continuation of this process of constant evolution, Google rolled out new AdWords updates that are likely to impact your advertising ROI in a positive manner:

1. Expanded Ad Format
2. Bidding Metrics – Conversions and Converted Clicks

1. Expanded Ad Format

This next generation text ad is devised to help advertisers reach out to the current mobile-savvy users in an efficient and effective manner. Two times bigger than the standard ad, this new format provides advertisers with a bigger headline and longer description, giving them an opportunity to improve their ad performance and presence across devices.

The best part of this new format is that these ads will wrap automatically based on the device size. Additionally, the expanded text ads are available on Google Search Network as well as Google Display Network.

This is one of the biggest changes in the ad format since AdWords was launched. Here are some of the significant features:

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Often, smaller businesses are wary of competing with a reputed brand, assuming that the bigger enterprises are more resourceful with an added advantage of an established brand value and reputation in the market. However, that’s not always how it works in the ‘www’ world. In fact, as a local business, you know more about your customers and their requirements than a bigger brand. So, you should always leverage this knowledge to become a local expert on the industry. This brings me to the concept of glocalization, the practice of conducting business according to both local and global considerations.

Glocalization is the adaptation of globally marketed products and services to local markets. “Think globally, act locally,” is one of the most effective “mantras” for small and medium-sized business who are ‘all set’ to compete with a big brand in your domain.

With the current digital-growth explosion, where people are connected online 24×7, you can thrive in the market with a well optimized website and an effective content marketing strategy. In fact, “content” is a key buzzword in the online space. According to WordStream, while the catchphrase “content is king” has been used plenty in the past couple of years, we shouldn’t expect it to go away any time soon. “Content is key, having a content strategy is essential, you need quality content if you want to succeed in today’s digital marketing landscape.”

In addition to having strong content, we recommend following these simple glocalization steps:

• Get listed on Google Places to gain visibility in the local market. People tend to trust someone from their own area, so this is a great opportunity to build on that trust factor.
• Add images, videos, and customer testimonials on your website to make your business appear more genuine and trustworthy to potential customers.

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Let’s start with similarities between the B2B and B2C content marketing strategy:

1. Principles that apply to most digital marketing channels apply for content marketing too, namely- appeal, precision, look, relevance and revenue.
2. Both B2B and B2C businesses need a robust client retention management program to be on top of their customer’s mind.

Interestingly this is where the similarities between B2B and B2C content marketing end.

Expectations from Content Marketing:

In a typical B2B environment leads (form fills, e-mails submissions etc.) define success. It is expected that these leads will close and generate revenue down the road.

For a marketer in B2C success is typically about the “buzz” a piece of content generates. So we get to hear words like – brand awareness, likes, retweets, YouTube views and so on.

Given the different expectations, it only makes sense that the content marketing strategy is also different for B2B and B2C firms.

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