Have you ever wondered why some companies are winning the marketing game, even in a tough market
Some companies are consistently getting a stream of good leads from their marketing, from their websites and even from social media too. Their networks are expanding rapidly and delivering warm referrals that are easy to convert. They are doing all this without resorting to cold calling, expensive advertising or blanket bomb email blasts. In fact, clients and customers are calling THEM. To top it off, they say that they enjoy marketing too!
Let’s look at some examples and what they are doing right.
Businesses succeeding with their marketing
- Consultant Mel Lester generates 70% of new consulting business through his marketing activity. Mel shares his knowledge generously with the architecture and engineering community he serves via his valuable website, blog, Twitter feed, monthly newsletter and seminars. www.bizedge.biz
- Law firm Inksters buck their profession’s trend of reticence over online marketing and social media. Their expertise shines through the valuable content they share on Twitter, their niche websites and videos, drawing in 20% of new leads straight from the web and bringing a flood of personal recommendations too. www.inksters.com
- Information risk management firm Ascentor are successfully breaking into the commercial market after years of selling solely to the public sector because of the clarity and quality of the insights and information they provide on their website. Their content is pulling in good leads from the web every month, and helping their sales team to open new doors. Read the Ascentor case study.
- The Payroll Services Centre packed their new website with helpful content, including a resources section, jargon buster, blog, downloads, newsletter and social media feeds. Just two months after they launched their new website their Google ranking soared. Their content-focused marketing strategy now draws in over 60 inbound leads a month. www.payroll-services-centre.co.uk
- Web designer Iain Claridge’s beautiful and inspirational design blog gets 127,500 visitors each month and lands him work all over the world, most notably with NASA. See: www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog
- Marketing strategist Bryony Thomas has generated £800,000 worth of business in three years through sharing valuable marketing tips online for her small business clients. www.bryonythomas.com
- Start up design studio Yoke just six weeks after launch had all the clients they could handle and more waiting in the wings thanks to their stunning, content-rich website, compelling proposition and Twitter relationships. thisisyoke.com
What are these companies doing right?
All these companies are benefiting from a better way to generate business – more effective, more rewarding and far more comfortable than continually pushing at a door marked ‘closed’. They focus on making their marketing valuable to their particular customers and their generosity is getting results.
- Marketing online. They are actively marketing online, opening up their marketing to the generosity of the Internet and they are getting their online strategies right.
- With valuable content. Their marketing and web strategy centres on continuously creating and sharing valuable content, not overt sales messages. Their websites are not just flat online brochures; they are filled with helpful information for their types of customers.
- Clear message. They are crystal clear on what they do and who their customers are. Those that get the best results have a clear understanding of who they do business with and what makes their customers or clients tick. They create relevant content just for them.
- They are generous. They fully understand the old adage that if you give you will get. They freely give away valuable information that is of use to their type of buyers.
- Quality is their watchword. It’s not just any old content they share, just to please the search engines, but genuinely useful, well-produced, creative content that sets them apart from the crowd.
Large corporations are switching their marketing focus for better results too. Intel Corporation creates valuable content for each of its different communities. Their blogs, social media feeds, video and even processor ‘art’ give the company a human face and expand the reach of their messages. See scoop.intel.com.
Even Coca-Cola, long wedded to creative, agency-led advertising announced in 2012 that it was switching its focus to sharing excellent content to grow the business. They announced their new strategy in a creative video posted on YouTube: see Coca Cola Content 2020.
All these companies, large and small have put valuable content at the heart of their marketing. They turn their knowledge, expertise and ideas into information that is useful and meaningful to their types of customers. It is this information that they publish online, promote and widely share. Potential customers get information that they can use, whether or not they buy from that company; the company builds goodwill and the result is more interest, more leads and more sales. They have learned to stop pushing so hard and start helping.
If you want to win with your marketing follow their lead: get online, really get to know your customers and commit to continually creating and sharing great content just for them.
Other content you might like:
- 10 valuable tips for your marketing
- What makes quality content?
- Valuable content award winners getting their marketing right
