Hopefully, your company’s content is read by many types of visitors: RSS subscribers, social followers and first time visitors among others. 

And while they’re all important,  first time visitors are key to your marketing program. They’re fundamental to spreading your brand and reputation to new markets.   

In Inbound Marketing, they’re known as Top of the Funnel Visitors. 

And your goal with top-of-the-funnel visitors should be to demonstrate your knowledge and experience and start to establish trust between you and your new visitor.  

ToFu Visitors Are Looking for an Answer

Top of the funnel (ToFu) visitors find you because they’re seeking an answer to a problem or trying to learn something new.

That’s it. 

So give them what they want. Provide little bites of educational goodness that answer their questions.

Your goal is not to overtly sell them anything.

Instead you simply want to make a small deposit in their emotional piggybank. 

They should leave your site with a feeling of goodwill; a positive lasting impression about your company.   

There are many tools to accomplish this but we’re going to talk about three that are the most effective – your blog, whitepapers and video. 

Use Your Blog to Answer Questions

Blog posts are perfect for answering questions.  You can address a specific issue in bite-sized articles that can be consumed quickly. 

• Answer a question in 600 words or less. 
• Keep your post tightly focused on a single theme
• Address an issue thoroughly but don’t veer off-topic. 
• Provide links to other outside content that’s provides more detail and analysis 
• Keep the tone professional yet light and friendly
• Reference other content that you’ve produced 
• Remember to keyword optimize your posts to get the best chance of being found.

High-Level Whitepapers for the Top of the Funnel

High level whitepapers and e-books can be used very effectively for top-of-the-funnel visitors. While longer form and more detailed than a blog post, this kind of content still serves the same purpose of education and question answering.

Possible topics could include:

• 2102 State of the Industry Report
• Top 5 Problems forand How to Solve Them
• Objective product reviews of you and your competitors
• Opinion piece on a well-known industry issue

Your whitepaper or e-book should be downloadable in PDF form and you should create a landing page around it with keyword-optimized text so that the search engines can easily read and index the content of the PDF document.

Since you’re aiming for top-of-the-funnel visitors, you don’t need to “gate” your content by requiring people to fill out a form. Instead, provide a blindingly obvious Call-to-Action button that links directly to the content. You’re aiming for simple, fast and immediate gratification. 

Video for Top of the Funnel Visitors

The key to using video for top-of-the-funnel visitors is focus and brevity. Limit your videos to no longer than 2-3 minutes and remember the same principals of keeping to a single-topic and focusing on problem solving. You’d be surprised at how much information you can pack into a single 3 minute video. 

Possible Ideas for Top-of-the-funnel Videos could be:

• How to solve a common industry issue
• Interviews with industry leaders
• Whiteboard sessions explaining an industry concept
• An opinion piece about an industry topic

That should be enough to get you started. Now go out and write a blog post. Keep it focused and make sure the reader learns something. 

If this post is not enough for you, check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out one of our latest latest whitepapers – The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing as well.

Like any marketing program worth doing, inbound marketing requires a significant amount of research and preparation before you get started. 

We think it boils down to three simple things you need to know: 

• Who You Customers Are
• What Kind of Content They Consume 
• What You Want Them to Do

 In this post, we’re going to focus on #1, Knowing Who Your Customers Are.

Understanding Your Customers is Underrated

Knowing your customers is one of the most underrated, under-appreciated and under-funded marketing activities out there.

Yet it’s critical to everything you do afterward – keyword research, content production, email nurturing, etc.  

Knowing your B2B customers comes down to understanding what’s important to each of your different target market personas. For example, what may be important for the CFO may not be what’s important to the CIO or the CMO of a company.

To truly connect with each of those different types, you need to address their specific needs individually with content that speaks to them individually.

Ask The Right Questions…Get the Right Answers

When researching and developing your Target Market Personas (TMPs)  it’s important to ask the right questions:

• What is the TMP’s role in the buying process?
• What’s the education level of your TMP?
• What issues keep them up at night?
• How do they measure success? Could you help them achieve success with your product or service?
• How do they learn new things for work? Google?, LinkedIn?, Events? Water Cooler?
• What phrases do they use to describe their problems?
• What kinds of questions does you customer support team consistently get?
• If you have a blog already, just ask you visitors what they would like to learn. There is a great little free widget you can put on your blog from KissInsights that we highly recommend. 

Using Your Target Market Personas

Once you’ve developed your Target Market Personas, please use them in your inbound marketing program.

Keep them in mind when you’re doing the following activities:

• Keyword Research: Is this something my TMP would search on? 
• Social Media: Is this the kind of network or group that my TMP would frequent?
• PPC: Is this the kind of advertisement  that my TMP would click on?
• Landing Page: Does this Landing Page make my TMP want to give up his name and email for a piece of premium content?
• Blogging: Does this blog post make my TMP want to subscribe to my blog? Or share this post with another person?

Stay tuned for our next post where we discuss how to create content for each of your TMPs! 

If this post is not enough for you, check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out one of our latest latest whitepapers – The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing as well.

Some key highlight are:

• 54% of businesses increased their inbound marketing budgets in 2011
• 54% of businesses said they were increasing their budgets because of past success with inbound marketing
• 15% of businesses said they were increasing their budgets because of the bad economy (hint: inbound marketing is cheaper than traditional marketing)
• The businesses surveyed said their Average Cost Per Lead with inbound marketing was $143 vs. $373 for traditional marketing. More than double!  

If this infographic in not enough for you, check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out one of our latest latest whitepapers – The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing as well.

When people find your business on the internet, they begin a process of discovery, trust building and risk assessment with your company.

And they use your content to work their way through this process. They read your blog, download your whitepapers, watch your videos and attend your webinars. As they do this, they move farther down the sales funnel toward establishing a business relationship with your company.

Effectively using Inbound Marketing to respond to a B2B Buying Cycle is not about hitting home runs. It’s about the daily grind of hitting singles and doubles. It’s a war of attrition. 

This, in a nutshell, is how you can use inbound marketing along your prospect’s B2B buying cycle.

The Stages of a B2B Buyer

While every potential customer is different, we’ve identified seven stages that many prospects will go through if your inbound marketing efforts are successful:

1. Visitors
2. Followers
3. Engaged
4. Prospects
5. Leads
6. Opportunities
7. Customers

As a marketer, it’s your responsibility to move them through these stages. Over time, you will create a nurtured relationship of trust that forms the foundation of a business relationship.

A New Series – Inbound Marketing to the B2B Buying Cycle

Over the next couple weeks, Spark will explore this topic in a new blog series entitled – The Inbound Marketing to the B2B Buying Cycle.

We’ll explain each stage in detail and go over what type of content you should publish in each stage and what kind of behavior you’d should encourage your prospects to exhibit.  

And of course, we’d like to hear your comments and start a dialogue that gets into the details. Should be loads of fun! Come back early and often!

By the way, don’t forget to check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

While you’re at it, take a look at our latest latest whitepapers – The Essential Guide to Internet Marketing as well.

Coca Cola’s Jonathan Mildenhall, VP Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence, announced this week:

“All advertisers need a lot more content so that they can keep the engagement with consumers fresh and relevant, because of the 24/7 connectivity. If you’re going to be successful around the world, you have to have fat and fertile ideas at the core.”

In these two videos, Jonathan goes on to explain in great detail about their new brainchild for marketing: Content 2020. By the way, we just love these RSA Animate style videos. Enjoy!

Microsoft announced yesterday that next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will be its last as both a keynote speaker and as an exhibitor.

Frank Shaw, head of Microsoft’s corporate communications said the following, 

“Microsoft decided to downsize its role at CES because the company is looking at all of the new ways we tell our consumer stories“. 

Shaw went on to cite their website, their social media presence on Facebook and Twitter and their new retail stores as being the marketing avenues they wish to pursue more aggressively. 

Wow! Let’s just let that sink in for a moment.

One of the biggest technology companies in the world is quitting one of the biggest technology tradeshows in the world.

Microsoft is basically admitting that inbound marketing is the new tradeshow. 

And it’s not just Microsoft. You’ll remember Apple  pulled out of the Macworld Conference & Expo in 2009.  At the time,  Apple’s head of marketing Philip Schiller said,  

“Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before” and “trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers”. 

Tradeshows’ Decline

Tradeshows have always been questionable investments for many companies.

But as the web has become the dominant means of connecting with potential customers, trade shows are losing their appeal. 

A recent study cited by Exhibit News, a UK  publication,  cited a 2011 study conducted by Vivid Interface that found tradeshow attendance in the UK has fallen an average of 13% every year since 2005. 

Source: Exhibition News (http://bit.ly/uvGR2m)

Inbound Marketing Gaining Steam

Inbound marketing on the web is a lot like a being at an online tradeshow.

And just as you would create an appealing backdrop, provide educational content and engage in conversations at a trade show, this is exactly what you have to do to attract and convert prospects on the web.

As more companies recognize that traditional outbound marketing just isn’t delivering the kind of results they’re used to, inbound marketing is gaining steam.

Learn more about inbound marketing by downloading the Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing.

Plus, check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

The Content Grid v2 makes clear the connection between content type and distribution channel, while tying in the perspective of the buyer, a multi-stage purchase funnel and clear performance indicators.

Here it is:

Many savvy business people have this process down pat. And they spend a ton of money making those trade shows a big success. But then, moseying on over to their website you may find a completely different story. You’ll find a website that lacks quality design, compelling content, engaging offers, and mechanisms to generate leads. You’ll find a process that fails to connect the dots between visits, leads, and sales.

You’ll find missed opportunities aplenty.

The tradeshow marketing process is one that many companies invest in. Unfortunately, it’s also one that many are abandoning due to high cost and diminishing ROI. That’s because the world’s largest international trade show is actually taking place 24x7x365 on the web. Rather than a one-time shot, this tradeshow is happening around the clock. And companies have figured out that participating in ‘the show’ is the way to compete in today’s online business world. These companies are succeeding at a far better rate.

Inbound marketing is a process designed to help companies compete in today’s online world.

The process involves these key steps:

1. Drive traffic to your website by helping you get found

2. Turn traffic into revenue by converting prospects to leads and leads to sales

3. Measure your results by tracking website traffic, leads, and customers

As more companies recognize that traditional outbound marketing just isn’t delivering the kind of results they’re used to, inbound marketing is gaining steam.

Inbound marketing on the web is a lot like a being at a humongous online tradeshow. And just as you would create an appealing backdrop, provide live demos, engage in conversations, provide relevant collateral material, create compelling offers and devise other interesting ways of attracting and engaging your audience, this is exactly the kind of effort you must put into attracting and converting prospects on the web.

Sound like an approach your business could benefit from? Learn more about inbound marketing by downloading the Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing.

Plus, check out our latest inbound marketing infographic to find out why you should work with an inbound marketing agency.

Do you have good writers on your staff ready to produce quality blog posts and whitepapers on a regular basis?

Do you have an SEO expert that knows how to get your website found by the search engines?

Do you have a Community Manager dedicated to the care and feeding of your social networks?

Do you have the time, resources, and expertise to do it all yourself?

For most companies, the answer to these questions is no.

That’s why an inbound marketing agency can come in very handy.  Inbound Marketing agencies have the skills and experience to get your Inbound Marketing program off the ground quickly without going through a painful learning curve.  

Check out our awesome new infograpahic, created by our fab designer Stephanie – Why You Need an Inbound Marketing Agency - that helps explain what we’re talking about!

Inbound marketing is the process of attracting people to your website who actually care about what you have to say. It’s about creating content that people are interested in consuming. It’s about admitting that the old way of marketing – interruptive advertising – just doesn’t work anymore.

It’s marketing and selling your products with authenticity and transparency.

It’s what people want. 

You may have heard Inbound Marketing referred to by different names. Some people call it Content Marketing or SEO or Social Media. The truth is Inbound Marketing is all of these things and more. 

Inbound Marketing is a Puzzle

Inbound marketing is like a puzzle – but not because it’s confusing. It’s a puzzle in the sense that it’s made up of many pieces. Pieces that should not stand on their own, but when put together, make total sense. To truly succeed online, business need to have a comprehensive strategy inclusive of all the pieces in the puzzle. Assembling the pieces together into one, cohesive strategy is the key to marketing success.

Four Core Pillars of Inbound Marketing

In order for your Inbound Marketing program to be successful, it needs to deliver in four key areas:

Traffic Generation

Generating more traffic for a website is like a recipe: you will need the proper mix of ingredients but there’s no one single formula for success. Rather, it’s a set of strategies and supporting tools working together. Those strategies are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Customer-Oriented Blogging and Social Media sharing. All three working together will ensure an adequate supply of targeted traffic to your site. 

Lead Generation

So you’ve optimized your content, your’re blogging regularly and you’re getting some content shared on social media. Great start. But just because you have traffic coming in, doesn’t mean you’re getting any leads.

This is where premium content, landing pages and great calls-to-action come into play.  

Lead generation is a tacit quid pro quo between the marketer and customer. You have to convince your potential customer that what they’re getting (information) is worth more than what they’re giving up (their name and email address). Giving away useful customer-focused, problem solving content in exchange for information is one of the best ways to do this.  The amount of information you ask of them is directly related to how valuable the content you’re giving away. The more valuable the info, the more information you can ask of them.  

Once you have their name and email address, you can begin the process of nurturing leads toward sales. 

Sales Conversion

Would you consider someone who Likes you on Facebook a lead? Would you consider someone who downloads your whitepaper a lead?

The truth is that not all “leads” are created equal. 

That’s why managing your leads realistically while taking the long term view is a key part of converting leads to sales. Lead nurturing and segmented email campaigns are your primary tools for converting your leads into sales over time. 

Analysis & Measurement

One of the great advantages of internet marketing is access to data. With the proper tools such as Hubspot or Google Analytics 5.0, you can track almost everything about your site visitors.

The reports you generate should tie directly back to the goals you’ve set for the business. Is your goal to increase site traffic? Is your goal to improve traffic from social networks? Is your goal to increase conversion of your existing site visitors? All of these can be reported on analyzed. 

Remember, data doesn’t lie. It doesn’t matter what your boss wants to do or what some article says you should do. If the data shows that you’re not meeting your goals, change tactics and try again. Your inbound marketing program should be a continuous process of testing, measuring and tweaking. 

Making the Leap to Inbound Marketing

If your business is looking to consistently and affordably generate leads over time without annoying your customers, Inbound Marketing is something you should look into.

Spark Inbound Marketing is a full service inbound marketing agency that can help you make the leap to Inbound Marketing. We don’t promise overnight success but we do promise a system that delivers results over time.

Drop us a line, we love to talk about this stuff!