The big kids have established brands. It’s easy for them to engage, they have a million dollar marketing budget 1000’s of employees.

ReadWriteWeb just wrote on article on The Correlation Between Social Media and Financial Success.  Many of the highly engaged brands, including Dell and Starbucks received increased annual sales by as much as 18%!

maven: an expert or connoisseur

How’s that for not having enough time Mr. Social Media!  The study based its results on the amount of engagement across many social platforms i.e, Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Youtube etc…Rating the most engaged (Starbucks) as a “Maven” and the least engaged (let’s not be rude) as a “Wallflower”.

Value Value Value: This is all great and dandy for the big players but what about the small-midsizer’s hu? We tested it out on FYIndOut and were dubbed as “Mavens”.  Try testing your own company out; it may give you an idea of where you are and what you need to do more of.  With so much information on the web, especially for small brands, it’s more important than ever to direct high valued content to a niche market. You don’t want to stretch yourself too thin.  Figure out what platforms your customers are on and engage! If you create a strategy that targets you’re customers and not the entire web, chances of success will be much higher. Take a few minutes and rank yourself:  How’d ya do?

Tweet Tip 1:5 Twitter is #1 for us.  We’ve found that it’s the best way to connect, learn and share from fellow B2B marketers and social media enthusiasts.  Our Twetiquette (Twitter etiquette) focuses on re-tweeting, listening and engaging more than promoting our own work.  Think of it as a 1:5 ratio, for every one message you tweet about yourself, re-tweet, answer, question, share five with others. Of course, don’t just do it to hit the numbers, it’s all about value!  Will your readers find this intriguing? Inspiring? Helpful?

We would love to hear tips/ideas on what other small-midsize companies are doing to engage customers using social media! Here is the study if you are interested.

(Photo from Engagement db)

We are very happy to let you know that FYIndOut blog posts are now on the B2B Marketing Zone. Tom Pick and Tony Karrer’s newest topic hub for B2B marketing features the best information in B2B marketing from all over the web in one place. It’s a great resource, and we’re honored to be a part of it.

Check out FYIndOut with numerous other top ranked information blogs for your reading pleasure on the B2B Marketing Zone. Then let Pick and Karrer know about the B2B blogs you love, and help the wealth of B2B knowledge on the B2B Marketing Zone keep growing.

Anyone selling to businesses knows that the hardest part is getting on the short list.  Once you’re on that list, you can normally find out who you’re up against and position your team and solution appropriately to win the business.

But if you’re a small to mid-size business, how do you earn your way on to that short list when you’re competing with the larger players with the big brands and bigger marketing budgets?  Here are some budget-agnostic tips that can help you get there.

1. Be out there.

No matter how good your product or service is, if you’re not out there, nobody will know about you.  It’s up to you to be found and not up to your prospects to find you.  Taking the following steps can really make a difference in getting noticed:

• Optimize your site for search engines with the appropriate keywords that will bring you the most relevant traffic.
• Join the appropriate social networks and groups that your customers participate in.
• Attend relevant events, both online and offline.
• Add your site and blog to any and all relevant directories. (Almost all are free to do so.)
• Advertise where the ROI is worth it.

You’ll notice the key word in most of these tasks is “relevant”.  Surprisingly, many businesses hear about using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and just blindly join and start using it without a real plan.  There are millions of people on these platforms and it’s important to know where your prospects are and how they interact on each platform.  Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

2. Consistently post to your blog.

A prospect always wants to know that their vendors are experts and know what they are talking about.  One of the best ways to do this is through your company blog.  In addition to posting helpful content, the other key factor to a successful blog is posting on a consistent basis.  It’s much better to post twice a week consistently on a Tuesday and Thursday then have five posts one week and one post the next.  Your customers can also mistakenly assume that since you haven’t posted anything in a month, business must not be doing so well.  Find the frequency that works for you and stick with it.

3. Help more, sell less.

The key to using social media, or any other form of social interaction for that matter, is to help more and sell less.  Everyone remembers someone that offers to help them.  How many remember (or want to remember) somebody that just sells to them?  The nice part about social media is that by adding a helpful comment or sharing advice or experience on your blog, you have the opportunity to help thousands instead of just one or two people.

4. Connect with the trendsetters and experts.

Your prospects will always find the trendsetters in an industry and always look to the experts whether they’re analysts, industry journal writers, or the power bloggers for that industry.  Do everyone a favor and try to connect with them as soon as possible and build a relationship.  The worst thing that can happen is that these people offer you tips on how to make your application or service better in order to compete with others.  The best case is that they love your solution and promote it in their writings and on their sites.  In regards to trendsetters, finding another company in your area but that offers a different/complimentary service is the optimal situation.  Not only can you learn from one another but you can also promote one another without fear of competing.

5. Build your word-of-mouth.

You have a great product or service and your customers love it.  Are you letting anyone else know?  When you have a great solution and customers that love it the first thing you should do is put that word-of-mouth into as many different forms as possible.  Ask them to enter ratings and reviews on relevant review sites and directories.  Make a case study that explains how your customer benefited from using your product.  Add referrals from key customers to your site.  Prospects may only give your company and site one look.  It’s important to have this information where as many people can see it as soon as possible.

I hope you find these tips helpful.  If you have any of your own to add, please feel free to comment.

Photo: “Picking Team” by jenandjon on Flickr

Lead nurturing is the process of keeping your company’s service, product or solution in the mind of a potential customer from start to sale. Using lead nurturing tactics while pursuing customers is a rewarding process with the potential to substantially up your sales. Think about it – if during a customers search for their perfect solution you are the company that continually stays on their mind, it’s like having an advertisement for your company on a competitor’s web page. And, always a plus, the majority of sales lead tactics cost little to nothing.

The key is tracking your potential customer, or lead, on every communication venue they use: phone, email, online, social media and sometimes in person. It’s a simple process and it’s adaptable to any company.

1. Get the Lead :
   A lead typically finds you by being directed to a landing page from a search engine or outside link. Once thy hit that landing page a form for submission should be the first thing they see. All aspects of that landing page should lead the customer to look at that form and then want to submit it. Never direct someone to a home page, landing pages are strategically designed to gain customers, home pages are for looks.
   If leads aren’t finding you, go out and find them. Look for people via blogs, searches, and social media that you think may have a need for what you offer and then contact them yourself.
2. Do They Qualify for Nurturing? :
   Once they fill out and submit that form you should have all the information you need to figure out if the customer qualifies as a lead, and to track that lead. Qualifications differ depending on your company and service. Normally, information like company size and revenue are important to recognizing leads. Make sure whatever information you need to see for qualification is in that originally submitted form.
3. Give the People What They Want! :
   Once you’ve determined if they qualify you send them an email response thanking them for their submission, requesting further information if necessary, and offering them some extra information such as a white paper, e-book, link to more information, webinars, blogs, etc.
4. Keep in Contact :
   Once you’ve found your lead, research them. Get to know your lead and their company. Find out who you should talk to and what you should know before contacting them. Then start nurturing. A lead should never have to do extraneous searching to find information about your company or service. Call them, email them, twitter them, keep in contact and give them easy access to everything they need and more. But make sure you keep track of what you’re doing. There is such a thing as over nurturing. Keep an excel sheet of each time you make contact with a lead so you know how often you are contacting, on what medium and what you have discussed each time.
5. It’s All About the Tickets :
   I grew up around advertising and whenever people asked me what my Dad did I told them “It’s all about the giveaways, the tickets.” What started as one my Dads favorite jokes has grown into something of a business motto. Nurturing leads isn’t that different. Schmooze. You’re company offers what their company needs, so you must know them pretty well. Make sure they know that. Figure out what you can do for them and offer it.
6. Make the Sale :
   When the time is right, you know what to do.

You’ll know if you’re nurturing is successful based on how many leads you find accepting your nurturing and how many leads become sales. You can’t sit back and wait for life to happen as much as you can’t sit back and wait for a sale. People enjoy being wanted and like to be swooned over. So start swooning.

(Photo MCR Tickets by Just Juls)

Recently, BtoB and the Association of National Advertisers updated a study they originally did in 2007 regarding the use of social media by b-to-b and b-to-c marketers.

57% of b-to-b marketers are now using social media as a marketing tactic compared to 15% in 2007.

When it comes to using current social platforms, here’s where they stand with b-to-b marketers:

• 81% say they currently use LinkedIn
• 70% say they use Twitter (compared to only 46% for b-to-c marketers)
• 60% use Facebook

It’s also interesting to note that the main objective for their company website and social media has shifted from “brand building” to “demand generation” with 47% now listing that as their main objective as opposed to the 39% in 2007.

The top concerns for both b-to-b and b-to-c marketers when considering newer media platforms is the inability to prove ROI (44% b-to-b, 56% b-to-c) and having metrics to properly allocate the mix of traditional and digital media (42% b-to-b, 49% b-to-c).

The full survey finding will be presented on the opening day of B-to-B Marketing in the New World, on Aug. 4-5 in Chicago.