Are You Doing Webinars for Lead Gen? You Should Be.

As a marketer, I’m always looking for new ways to engage prospects and drive leads for my sales team. And in the past 6 months, I’ve added a new tactic to my program: webinars.

We had been talking about doing a webinar program at PGi for some time but just hadn’t taken the necessary steps to get it moving. I understand why many companies might be hesitant about doing webinars. It’s not easy.

For every webinar you produce, you have to find speakers, create content, promote the event, track registrants, and much more. You also have to manage the technology and deal with all the technical issues you may encounter during the webinar. That can be a pretty daunting task.

For many marketers, webinars may not be worth the trouble. After all, it’s much easier to write blogs, eBooks, and whitepapers. You can create a high volume of written content quickly, and you don’t have to deal with the technical challenges of a webinar.

But here’s the problem. All that written content requires people to do something they really don’t want to do: READ. Now, I’m an avid reader and writer, and it pains me to admit this, but most people don’t like to read. For example, research shows that visitors to a website are 80% more likely to watch a video, while only 20% will read web copy (source: Digital Sherpa). We’ve actually done A/B tests on PGi.com, and we’ve seen that web pages with videos convert 450% better than pages without video.

That’s why webinars become interesting as a lead generation tactic. You’re able to engage your prospects with your brand/products/message for an extended period of time. You’re able to mash up audio, video, slides, and more to keep the attention of your audience. That’s why you see webinars rated as one of the top lead-gen tactics today (source: Placester).

So, we developed a webinar program and launched our first webinar in November. The title was “Evolve or Die: Surviving the Changing Sales Landscape.” It was high-level thought leadership designed to drive top-of-funnel awareness and interest in PGi. You can watch the on-demand video replay here.

The results from our first webinar were pretty good. Over 100 registrants and 50 people attended the webinar live. An additional 25 people watched the webinar on demand after the event. We generated 23 marketing qualified leads for our sales team to start working right away.

Based on that success, we kickstarted our program doing at least one webinar each month. Overall, we’ve been really impressed with the results. Unlike other forms of advertising, the number of people we reach with our webinars isn’t that big, but the engagement we get is really impressive. With all of the distractions and media fragmentation, there’s huge value in getting people to spend 45 minutes with your brand.

And we’ve seen, the attendees from our webinars convert to warm leads very quickly. Feedback from the sales team is that these prospects are high quality and very interested in learning more about PGi.

So, if you’re thinking about starting a webinar program, here are some lessons we’ve learned along the way.

1. Promote early and often: If you build it, they will come—but only if you promote it. We use every possible channel we can—email campaigns, social, paid advertising, content syndication, website, etc. Also, make sure your sales people are sending invitations to their prospects and customers. The harder you work to promote your webinar, the more attendees you’ll get
2. Use the webcam: Webinars can be a highly engaging experience for the viewer. But if you’re just flipping through PowerPoint slides and adding a voiceover, you’re missing an opportunity to truly connect with your audience. Think of it like giving a live presentation. You want the audience to focus on you and what you’re saying. The slides should just support the key points you’re making.
3. Ask the audience: Polling the audience is a great way to drive up your engagement and keep their attention. In our webinars, we use polls to break up the presentation. We share the live poll results with the audience, so they can see what other people on the webinar think.
4. Design slides specifically for a webinar: Don’t overload your slides with text, because a webinar is often viewed on a small computer screen. Use large visuals and short headlines to drive your message home. If you’re showing data, make sure to visualize it in a good-looking chart or graph. Remember, with presentation slides, less is more.
5. Follow up to drive additional viewers: Once the live webinar is over, you still have the opportunity to drive additional viewers to watch it on demand. And as long as the presentation is current, it can live on in your content library and continue driving leads into the funnel.

So, if you’re looking for a new way to drive leads, give webinars a try. I think you’ll find that it’s a great way engage your prospects and create more opportunity for your sales team.

http://www.business2community.com/b2b-marketing/webinars-lead-gen-01193005

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What is Digital Marketing ?

Jeff Bullas's Killer Tips to get your article go viral on LinkedIn

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/6-Ways-to-Create-and-Publish-a-Killer-Article-on-LinkedIn.jpg.jpg

In February last year, LinkedIn gave every member in the U.S. the ability to publish posts on LinkedIn – and the response was swift and enthusiastic. In fact just recently, LinkedIn reached more than one million posts.

Now since LinkedIn wants each one of more than 330 million members to be able to share their insights with other professionals across the globe, they’ve taken another big step toward that goal as they expand the ability to publish on LinkedIn to all members in English-speaking countries.

That’s 230 million users around the globe who can now tell their stories, show their expertise, and express their ideas on LinkedIn.

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/linkedin-notifications.png-300x288.png

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Becoming a publisher on LinkedIn can be a powerful way to reach your target market and generate new leads. The new platform promises to match the blog’s topic with users who share an interest in that particular vertical.

It also gives you greater exposure to your current network given every blog you post is distributed to their news feed and displayed within their notification settings located at the very top of their LinkedIn profile.

If your contacts like the article and decide to share that on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, this will not only create greater exposure but those who aren’t connected with you; may like your work that much that they end up “FOLLOWING” you to receive future posts helping you create a following of raving fans for years to come!!

My blog post results so far:

• Appeared on the homepage of LinkedIn four times now
• Reached over 128,000 blog views and 1000 comments
• Shared more than 20,193 times
• Generated over 430 leads
• Increased my following by an extra 2,300

Here’s a screenshot of a few articles I’ve written:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/linkedin-posts.png.png

How to know if you’ve been approved to publish

To know whether or not you’ve been approved to start publishing content, simply go into your LinkedIn account. If you’ve been approved there will be a grey pencil icon on the status box at the top of your home page as illustrated within the image to your right.

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/approved-publishing-on-linkedin.png.png

If this pencil icon is not displayed, it means that they have not rolled out the publishing feature to your account. Not to worry, simply email their customer service team and request an upgrade to your profile so you can start publishing on LinkedIn.

Publishing your blog is real easy

Simply go to the home page of your account, hover over the pencil icon I showed you earlier. When you do this it will reveal the text “create a post.”

Once you’ve clicked on the link, it will then direct you to a page where you will see a blank blog post ready for you to populate with your headline and main copy.

Start by thinking about your headline! Make sure it’s short, sharp and compelling. Once you have your headline figured out, go ahead and write your copy. I find generally anywhere between 500-700 words is a good length.

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/publishing-platform.png.png

Given that any content you publish on LinkedIn is going to be associated with your profile (and be visible to your network), you will want to ensure that the content you publish on LinkedIn is of the highest quality. Your LinkedIn profile, after all, is your professional online identity. That means your reputation is at stake. Don’t publish anything that could jeopardize or harm your reputation.

Plus the better the content and the more compelling your headline, LinkedIn may end up featuring your article on one of the categories within the “Pulse” network or better yet feature it on the home page giving you visibility to over 300 million members worldwide.

Six tips to implement before publishing

Here are the top tips to create and publish a killer article on LinkedIn.

1. Best dates and times: Generally I have found Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning between 8 a.m.-9 a.m. is the best times to post. I should note that these times are based on EST, you may want to test out your own time zone to see what works well for you.

2. Importance of quality content: I touched on this briefly before but the better and more valuable your content the greater impact you will make on your existing and new followers.

3. Preview your content: Before publishing your post always make sure to preview your work. This will allow you to see whether or not your text are aligned with any pictures or videos you have inserted, if heading are properly spaced out, and if your article is properly laid out, etc.

4. Include videos & images: Break up your text with images and videos so that people don’t get information overwhelm when they first visit your blog. Always make it a habit of listing a few tips or provide a how to guide within a section of the blog. Most people will skim through your article, so this is a great way to provide quick rich content.

5. Ask questions: Doing this demonstrates your genuine interest in feedback. It also makes it an interactive opportunity that encourages participation. Simple questions like “do you agree?” or “how have you seen this done?” are a call to action that can start the ball rolling.

6. Check the analytics: LinkedIn gives you great analytics to show you the success of your articles. This gives you a great opportunity to pay attention to which types of articles are getting the most views, comments, and social shares.

Following the same suggestions listed above, below is a screenshot of a blog I wrote on LinkedIn. Within 1 hour, it was featured on the home page and stayed as the top story within the “Entrepreneurship & Small Business” category of LinkedIn’s Pulse network for an entire day helping me reach over 9,000 views and over 100 comments.

Now that you know what steps are required to start blogging on LinkedIn, hopefully its inspired you to get your next article out there for the whole world to read.

You never know, you’re post may start that conversation with your next investor or business partner; it may get you noticed by others in your company or industry and help enhance your reputation as a thought leader. But most of all, it may simply help others.

Whether you’ve just written your first post or have a few under your belt. I’d be interested to know what strategies you’ve implemented on LinkedIn to grow your following and engagement with that audience.

http://www.business2community.com/linkedin/6-tips-create-publish-killer-article-linkedin-01153304

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Social Selling Strategies

Are you getting all the sales you want from social media?

Do you wish your followers showed more interest in your products or services?

Social selling is not an exact formula for sales, but instead an end result from strong interactions with your business or brand’s community. As word-of-mouth becomes the new norm online, it’s important to know how to reach your prospects and customers in a way that will get their attention and meet their needs. That’s the strategy that will create more sales.

The Problem and the Benefit

In the midst of powerful social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, and YouTube the consumer has the edge on promoting a company or not. Public response is very quick, which can directly impact your business sales – up or down. Just take a look at this recent example from Best Buy, which prompted a public apology on Twitter after referencing a popular murder podcast called, Serial. The negative public response was overwhelming:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/BestBuy_Tweet.png.png

It’s important to be relatable and non-controversial while maintaining open communication with your connections. Content should be at the top of your marketing strategy list along with a few other steps that will help your business or brand attract more leads and sales:

Create a sales page

Take advantage of services like LeadPages, or create your own landing page on your website where your social media fans and followers can learn more about what your company has to offer. Use these links in between other content that you share to avoid “selling” directly to your community.

Post a steady stream of quality content

Utilize your resources and target market research to feed your followers with information they will love. This can include articles that have previously been covered, or be updated information with a new twist. You can also repurpose your posts through infographics, presentations, and videos to create a variety in your mix. Visual content is especially popular on social media, and can generate a great deal of visibility like this example from a recent SlideShare presentation I published:

image: http://cdn.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/susan-slideshare.png.png

These types of images and videos are great to share on other popular networks like Pinterest, YouTube, and Google Plus, and short snippets can even be condensed to be featured on places like Vine and Instagram.

Actively participate in conversations

Be on alert for buzz around your tweets and posts on social media or join in on a conversation that could help your community. This can be done through social services like Hootsuite and Rignite, which make it easy to track your social feeds. Try to respond in a timely manner, especially when it comes to customer service issues.

Post helpful information and tips

Instead of making a sales pitch or asking your community to go to your website or join your network, draw them in with something of value instead. This can include contests, free reports, a coupon, asking their opinions, and so on. Not only will they appreciate the chance to win or participate, but will also be more inclined to share your content.

Social selling is not about the sale, but rather building trust with your fans and followers on social media who will in return reward your brand or business with word-of-mouth advertising online. People no longer respond to sales presentations until they know your company is one worth engaging with.

It’s good practice to use the available analytics on places like Twitter and Facebook to track your progress and learn where your conversions are coming from. Thankfully most social networks have this capability built-in for free, and provides great insight into how your content and conversations are performing. Just remember that social media is all about people, and the sales will follow!

http://www.business2community.com/social-selling/become-social-selling-success-4-tips-01116980

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