Inbound Marketing for B2B and B2C Companies

Inbound Marketing

For B2B and B2C
Barbara M Fowler, bfowler@chiefoutsiders.com

Chief Outsiders
We Provide Fractional and Part-time Marketing Executives to Mid-Size Businesses

We are a group of 30 experienced CMOs who have worked at
companies such as Radio Shack, Prudential, Verizon, WebMD,
Williams Sonoma and now work on a fractional basis or part-time with
mid-size companies developing and implementing marketing strategies.

Our Clients include:
• Family-owned businesses
• Businesses that want someone to take a "second look" at their
strategies
• Businesses that do not have a marketing executive currently and
need some part-time or interim help

2

Marketing Has Changed

Have your
Marketing
Programs
changed too??

The good old days in marketing

The best creative folks came up with a
great message for a mass market Newspaper
We tested it against focus groups
We pushed it out there—over and over again
We hoped they’d buy, but weren’t sure they would

Magazine
TV and
Radio
4

The good new days in Web
marketing
You can target even the smallest group
You can measure the results of
everything you do
You must change your message in
response to what your customers:
Say (comments, blogs, product ratings)
Do (search, purchases, page views)

6

The Web rewards pull over push
• You don’t target prospects with a message the same
way on the web
• More often, they have to find you
• 60-80% of the buying decision is already made before
the salesperson gets involved.
• No Cold Calling
• Opt-in e-mail
• Subscribe and learn about in blogs
• Follow on Twitter
• But even tiny markets can be reached

6

Inbound marketing is one of our
areas of expertise.
Isn’t in-bound marketing simple?
It’s dizzying
And it keeps changing
Faster and faster
How do you cope?

The strategies are the it’s still marketing
Remember, same as before

You need to target your market
Understand what they care about
And connect with your message

If you do:
You improve your image

And you drive sales

Think, Think, Think .....Before Acting?
The difference is how you do it

You’re stuck because you don’t know what works

What to try?
How do you keep score?
When do you quit?
What to try next?

Group was not exported
from SlideRocket

You need to focus on revenue:
You need to focus on one thing—sales

1. Where does your website rank
on Google for the top key (most
important key) words?
2. How many visitors did your
website have last month?
3. What was the conversion rate?
4. Where did they come from??

Robert Kneschke/shutterstock.com

To do that, you need to learn inbound marketing!

Imagine a catalog marketer who said to the boss…

I completed the catalogue,
on time and under budget
Customers like it
And it looks beautiful
Wanna see it?

But that’s all we say about our Web sites—where are the
metrics?

Follow The Metrics:
VTCS:
Visibility
Traffic
Conversion
Sales

Which metrics matter?
Visibility: Did they see it?
Traffic: How many?E-mail opened? Ad displayed?
Document shown? Blog entry read?
Conversions: Did they choose it? Click throughs? Mouse
over?
Sales: Did they buy it? Download?

Trailing 12 Months Billing
Jun 10
Jul 10
Aug 10
Sep 10
Oct 10
Nov 10
Dec 10
Case Study: Chief Outsiders

Jan 11
Feb 11
Mar 11
Apr 11
May 11
Jun 11
Jul 11
Aug 11
Sep 11
Oct 11
Nov 11
Dec 11
Jan 12
Ramping

Feb 12
Mar 12
Apr 12
May 12
Business Growth

Jun 12
Jul 12
Aug 12
Sep 12
Oct 12
Nov 12
Dec 12
Doubled Revenues in 2012

Jan 13


Customer Sourcing
Online is NOT our leading source of business,
but we’re investing significantly for several strategic reasons…

Online
Web Lead
32%
Networking
51%

Vistage
17%

Offline


Why Online is Strategic?
• Role of Presence Online Offline
– Attracts (organic or paid) 
– Informs  
– Engages  
– Offers  
– Encourages  
– Supports  
Website ALWAYS working, whether or
not origin of opportunity is online


Our Investments for Online
Hubspot
• Marketing Automation 6% Higrise
– (Hubspot) 1%
• Sales Automation/CRM SEO
– (Highrise)
PR
8% 16% Adwords
• Paid Search
– (Google Adwords) 22%
• Targeted PPC
– (LinkedIn, Facebook) Adroll
• Remarketing 11% LinkedIn
– (Adroll, OneSpot) 27%
• Search Optimization-SEO
– (RefreshWeb)
• Web-based PR Facebook
– (Digital Talent Agents) OneSpot
4%
• Blogs, eBooks, Case Studies 5%
– (our CMOs)


Web Traffic Building Like Crazy
From 2,500 to 15,000 in past year
5X increase


“Direct Traffic” Converting Most…

(includes some search)


SEO Progress
Google Search Ranking Improvement
Keyword Phrase January 2012 January 2013
cmo outsourcing 5 1
market consolidation strategy 13 1
outsourced cmo 9 1
part time marketing executive 2 1
marketing strategy consulting firms (no ranking) 2
strategic marketing consultants (no ranking) 4
marketing strategy implementation 50 5
market expansion strategy (no ranking) 5
marketing consulting firms 19 6
market positioning strategy 20 10


Adwords and SEO Example
Searched for…

Paid Search (Adword

Organic Result (from SEO)


Remarketingare cookied, so
Visitors to our website
Example
Adroll knows when to serve up ads on
Served up
other sites
from Adroll


LinkedIn – Growing in Importance
• Targeting Flexibility
– Industry, size, geography, role, seniority
• Inexpensive & Simple
– Text ads, like Adwords
– Pay per click (not on impressions)
– Easy to manage, ad ads or campaigns
• Streamlined Engagement
– Customer does not have to fill out your form
– LinkedIn offers “ask vendor to contact me” button
– This feature appears to be accelerating our inquiries

LinkedIn – In Case You Missed It

Q4 Results
EPS of $0.35 on whopping revenue growth of 81% -- mark
the seventh consecutive quarter in which it has blown out
expectations. LinkedIn's user base jumped 39% to 202
million users, while visitors viewed 67% more pages than
the previous year
I bought here

Beyond A/B testing: multivariate testing

• Yes, it’s free

• Create different versions

• Google tests them with live visitors and reports back on
which variations did the best

Then you permanently change the page to the best version

Respond to your customers

• Change your products
• Change your content
• Change your prices
• Change your policies
• Change your experience
• Then, change them again

Which changes increase
your conversions?

Speed sometimes runs into a roadblock

―The IT budget doesn’t have funding for
that.‖
―You’ll need to create a requirement
document first.‖
―You’ll need executive approval to
prioritize that above what we are
currently doing.‖

Baking or making soup? Which is harder? Riskier?

The old way is like baking
Know what you want up front
Precise measurements and preparation
Nothing is done until the end

Agile is like making soup.
You can experiment as you go
You can eat it at any time, but it is best at the end

What’s different about agile?

The system is
always working
All you need to
Daily Stand Up Meeting
know is what’s next

Monthly
Planning
Meeting

IBM Confidential

Do it wrong quickly and then fix it

Instead of killing ourselves to plan exactly the
right thing that we can execute in every
country for the next two years…
…Do it wrong quickly, and then fix it
Let the market tell you
what works and what doesn’t
And then quickly do it better

Listen, learn, and adjust

Successful Inbound Strategies

Reduce Costs or Increase Customer's
Willingness to Pay

ByHelping People Establish or
Strengthen Relationships

If They Do "Free Work" on a Company's
Behalf

Now, Inbound Marketing
is...

Paid, Earned and Owned
• Paid
– PPC, Remarketing, Mobile, Sponsored, Internet
Advertising
• Earned
– Blogs, WOM (Word of Mouth), User Forums, PR,
News Articles, Twitter,
• Owned
– Websites, Brand, …

One message before Social Media...

One message after Social Media...

Examine

Google
Website
Facebook
Linkedin
Twitter
Pinterest
Which to choose and why?

Google

Google Search
People research where to go and who to trust
87% never go off the first page
66% don't look at the paid spots

Question: What are the challenges and
opportunities for your business in getting to
the top spot or first page?

Double-click to enter title
Double-click to enter text

How Do You Find Out What
People Are Saying About You?
Set Up Google Alerts: Your name, your company's name

Go To SocialMention.com: Best for monitoring social
media like Facebook and Twitter

MyReputation.com Best for Monitoring blogs, forums and
review sites ($99 a year and up)

Question
What would you do if someone wrote a bad review about
your business?

What suggestions do you have for a B2B and/or a B2C
business? Would your answer be different, depending on
business?

Why or why not?

Reviews
Yelp
City Search
Google

You need to generate an average
of at least 4/5 to be considered
good!

If not it is a problem !

Why do Businesses Get Bad
Reviews?
Competitors are targeting them and giving false reviews

Customers are dissatisfied and upset

Employees are angry

Where does B&B have Control?
Influence? No Control?

Some Nasty Customer Reviews
This Business is very emotional: Tatoos/Skin
Care/makeup are Special.
You can't solve all issues
Benchmark against competitors
Respond Rapidly--within minutes, not hours: Solution isn't
as important as Communication
Use Google Alerts
Solve all real problems
Get Employees Involved
Many Customer Complaints Start
with Disengaged Employees

How to Engage Employees
Do they feel their work
has significance?
Do they feel valued?
Do they feel they have
autonomy?

Communicate,
Communicate,
Communicate!

What
makes a
good
What are the website?
differences? Addition of Social
Video

Media
Ability to Quickly
Make Changes
Customer Service
Call

How do you
get the right
people to
your

Website?

And how can you
get these people to
want to help you for...
Free??

Three Steps:

Establish Goals
Listen
Connect....

Build a Fan Base!

A Net Promoter is a Super Fan

"On a 1-10 scale, how likely are you to
recommend Company to
friends, relatives and colleagues?"

Who is needed?

Super Fans

With Good Klout Scores

What about CLTV?

Ask them to be Brand
Ambassadors
Identify through Survey

Connection on Social Media

Make Them Feel Important

Nurture and Support

Ideas???

1,000,000,000+
2,000,000 Fan
Pages
Active Worldwide
Users

156,000,000+
registered users,
8,000,000/month
recommendations

Most Searched: Google #1, YouTube #2

Where Are You?
Grade your company on each of the following 6 dimensions (1-10)

INSIGHT
We clearly understand what our customers and clients want and need ___
We have a keen knowledge of our competitors and why they win ___

PURPOSE
Our company communicates compelling and unique value propositions to our market ___
Our plan for growth is specific, feasible and includes potential new offerings or markets ___

PRECISION
We have tactical marketing methods identified to achieve our growth objectives ___
We have an aligned measurement and feedback system that allows management to see progress and adjust plans ___

86

Inbound Marketing for B2B and B2C Companies

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