How Effective Is Your Content Marketing?

How effective is your content marketingContent marketing is one of the most important lead generation tools. It’s been commanding a greater share of marketers’ attention and budgets for the past few years, and 2015 doesn’t seem to be any different. Content is crucial for nurturing leads in the business-to-business sector, and it can inform their purchasing decisions. Even though content has been a major trend in marketing for the past several years, some companies still struggle to do it effectively.

In 2014, Forrester Research studied 30 different B2B brands to determine how well their content resonated with their audiences, according to Click Z. Unfortunately, only 4 out of the 30 companies succeeded in this area. Marketers need to focus on creating content that buyers want to read. Otherwise, marketing materials often are reduced to product features and why a particular company has the best offering. B2B marketing is highly complex, but marketers need to provide relevant information for prospects. While each brand and its audience is different, conducting tests can reveal which types of content are the most effective.

Online Marketing Trends for 2015

7 online marketing trends for 20152014 is quickly coming to a close, which means it’s already time to consider marketing plans for 2015. Marketing is consistently getting more personalized and happens across a larger number of channels, and this is expected to continue next year. Here are the top 7 trends marketers and advertising agencies need to be aware of in the next 12 months:

1. Mobile will take precedence over other channels

Mobile has been threatening to overtake desktop Web traffic for the past few years, and marketers will most likely lead with their mobile strategies in 2015, according to Click Z. Because so many consumers interact with marketing materials on the go, it’s crucial to prioritize this channel. Customers need to be able to interact with content from their smartphones and tablets. In addition, apps will create a new opportunity for advertising.

6 Content Marketing Strategies That Convert

6 content marketing strategies that convertMost marketers have heard the expression “content is king” by this point. It isn’t just a rumor: Content is one of the most important components of a lead generation strategy or affiliate marketing programs. However, many companies are still struggling to take full advantage of content marketing. Whether it’s not dedicating enough resources, not having enough time or having difficulty choosing the right tactics, content is not always the easiest strategy to implement.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways marketers can make their content more successful. Here are some tips to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns:

1. Connect content and LinkedIn

Much has been made about the effectiveness of using social media to share content marketing materials. For business-to-business marketing in particular, LinkedIn was rated the best network for linking to blog posts and sharing articles in a Content Marketing Institute study, according to Business 2 Community. You can even use this platform to post original content and participate in group discussions.

B2B Lead Generations for 2015

Planning B2B lead generation for 2015The end of the year is rapidly approaching, which means it’s already time to look ahead to 2015. If certain tactics didn’t deliver results in 2014, it may be time to consider a lead generation refresh. Here are some of the tactics that are expected to be the most important in the next year:

Content Marketing for Lead Generation

The marketing industry has been buzzing about content for the past few years, with good reason. Content is a great source of qualified B2B leads. However, this marketing channel has evolved over time, so it’s important to keep up with new trends.

How Does Mobile Usage Impact In-Store Purchase

Nowadays consumers are using their mobile phones for a variety of activities before, during, and after their in-store shopping experiences. So how does this impact your brick and mortar business? Here are some ways that your potential customers are using mobile which influences their path to purchase and their basket size.

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90% of smartphone shoppers use their phone for pre-shopping and the top 5 things they do are: find location/directions, find hours, make pricing comparisons, find promo offers and find where specific products are sold.

Tip: Make it easy for customers to find your location, directions and hours when they visit your website on mobile.

Affiliate Marketing for Lead Generation – Myths

3 Myths About Affiliate Marketing

3 myths about Affiliate MarketingThere are a number of myths surrounding the affiliate marketing industry. Digital lead generation has grown in popularity and effectiveness, thanks in part to the rise of Web-based outreach campaigns, but a number of myths surround affiliate marketing – some of which cause businesses to avoid affiliate initiatives.

Decision-makers and business owners alike need to understand these myths to make the best choices they can for the growth of their respective companies. Affiliate partners have a lot to gain by implementing some type of digital lead generation campaign. Listed below are three myths about affiliate marketing:

Content Marketing Master Class Conference

Processed with VSCOcam with hb1 preset Content Marketing Institute (CMI) held their Content Marketing Master Class conference at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco on December 4. Prestige’s resident Content Specialist, Echo Quan, was in attendance to hear speaker and Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose talk about Content Marketing in the context of the evolution of marketing.

Prestige’s Takeaways

1) Value over Information A great question that Rose presented was about the value we offer, and the value our customers are looking for. When we look at our homepage content, is what we see informational content or content of value to the customer? Since our site’s homepage is often the target audience’s first interaction with our company, or is their first online reference to us, that we should use it to show that we are of value of them. It is your first and possibly only chance to deliver an excellent experience. You could have featured webinars, videos or educational content. Rather, company homepages often center on information about who, what and why about ourselves rather than the customer, leaving it up to the visitor to draw their own connections. Focus your content to send a message: target upper management, present thought leadership, and remember: “Differentiate means telling a different story, not the same one incrementally better.”

2) Your Real Competition Rose suggests that our real competition is not our direct competition. In fact, he claims that our target audience doesn’t even see our direct competitors as our competition. If what we are competing for is our existing and future customer’s attention, then Rose is arguing that the context of attention isn’t just confined to marketing needs. Whatever people are giving their time and energy to is your competition. Even deeper, what people care about is your competition. Sure, when it comes down to choosing marketing services, of course your customer has to pick between you and other marketing firms. But contemporary consumers have different standards of loyalty and relationship. If you are only a product or service, that in itself is not a hold on your customers because what they care about is not a product or service. The underlying motivation is that they care about the success of their role or company. For example, if your ideal customer is management of medium or larger sized firms, they are looking to get ahead of the competition and CIOs are en route to a career as a CFO. To give specific value, you could create content like an e-book or webinar series such as “The New Voice of the CIO.” This is content that makes you valuable to your target audience and sets you apart.  

Why You Need Universal Analytics by Google

Google-Universal-Analytics

Several years ago, Google took the world by storm announcing that it would be making coveted web analytics data available to website owners free of charge. Of course, Google was not all too altruistic with its intent — gaining behind the scenes data on millions of websites. Website owners were able to use this data, equally, to make informed decisions about how to optimize websites to drive additional sales and revenue. Universal Analytics is the next step down the road to online success. You Need Universal Analytics Right Now because it offers the following value ads: Offline Analytics, Referral Exclusion, Expanded Custom Variables, Dimension Tracking and Anonymous IDs!