Customer Development Articles

Buyer Experience: Key to B2B Kingdom

Via The Social Customer on No Responses

Toss traditional selling strategies for innovative experience management.

Image provided by: Kinder Deluxxe

Social media, and digital marketing technology have changed the face of B2B marketing forever, according to a recent article by Tony Zambito, Founder and Principal of Goal Centric. Zambito suggests that CEO’s must make, “Buyer Experience Innovation a top priority to succeed in the rapidly changing B2B marketplace.” Zambito defines Buyer Experience Innovation as, “Creating in totality an ideal buying experience and innovative interactions that engages as well as enables buyers to enter into a transactional and loyal relationship with the organization.”  He…

How to Get Started with Facebook

By No Responses

Should your B2B Company have a Presence on Facebook? According to the company’s press page, there are more than 500 million users on Facebook today. So it’s no surprise that nearly every marketer has created or considered creating a business Facebook page to tap in to that potential. If your company’s target segments are involved with the social networking site, building a Facebook fan page can be an effective piece of your influence marketing strategy. As marketers, it gives us a direct line to our customers, allowing us to communicate a clear message or build brand awareness without the large…

How to Find Excellent Freelance Writers

By No Responses

This is a part of a series that was created to help you create case studies for your company. This series will walk through the process, necessary roles, in addition to guides for each role to help your company get started quickly. If you don’t have internal resources available (and most expansion stage companies do not), the best way to find content creators is through referrals from people in your network. How can you get the word out that you are looking for a content creation freelancer? Try posting a description of the freelance role on: LinkedIn (status update, discussion…

Your Customers Really “Like” You!

Via Drew\'s Marketing Minute on No Responses

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Getting tons of Facebook “likes” is a great way to build relationships in the social media world—and it’s not as hard as you’d think. Corona Light launched a campaign to garner “likes” by offering its Facebook fans the opportunity to have their photos splashed on a Times Square billboard. Within a matter of days, Corona’s page had over 60,000 “likes”—and is now pushing 140,000. Of course, your SMB usually doesn’t have the kind of dough to rent 150-foot digital billboards. But that shouldn’t keep you from hitting other avenues, and Drew McLellan…

Measure Metrics—with Love

Via Get Satisfaction on No Responses

Measuring the level of your customers’ engagement takes many forms, as Sam Boonin points out on Get Satisfaction. There’s the esoteric mathematical analysis that pretty much shreds all semblance of humanity.

Image provided by: Pink Sherbert Photography

There’s the sentimental approach, wherein any and all company feedback is taken to heart, and even treated too seriously. Then there’s the social media hounds on Twitter who believe that “community health is directly proportional to the number of times your hashtag was used in the last fifteen minutes.” Boonin argues, “You should love your community metrics the same…

Hulu comes to their Senses with new Price Cut

Via Forrester on No Responses

As a service, Hulu has gone through some growing pains.

Image provided by: Craig Murphy

And it’s certainly not out of the shark-infested water quite yet. Currently, a move has been made to put the service in more customer homes. The price has been cut down to $4.95-per-month for Hulu’s “Plus” service, in hopes of improving their product positioning. The move makes a lot of sense on a number of levels. First, because of the company’s sub-standard content, this works. With the move, the company is certainly increasing the value customers are getting out of their…

Generating Leads by Leveraging the Web

Via Eyes on Sales on No Responses

When looking to generate opportunities on the web, it’s imperative to follow the law.

Image provided by: Terry Wha

This may seem like a generalization, but there are indeed operational dictators when it comes to generating leads online. Violating them is counterproductive and will cost you leads. Many companies subliminally follow some of these steps. Others seem to ignore them, despite the obvious competitive advantage involved in abiding by them. Here are some of the prescribed laws: Find a pain point and harp on it. Do not, under any circumstances, relent. If you’re able to push…

Boss Behavior = Service Barometer

Via Duct Tape Marketing on No Responses

Are your actions fostering shoddy customer service?

Image provided by: Claudio Cicali

Your employees treat customers the way you treat them, according to a recent Duct Tape Marketing article titled, “Customer Service Is Everyone’s Job.” In fact, the companies that deliver the best customer service treat employees like target customers. It’s no surprise that happy employees are better at serving customers. For employees to make the necessary emotional connection with customers, managers must make the connection with them. Hiring and training for the future growth of your start-up should begin today. Here are a few article…

Melding Social Media with PR

Via HubSpot on No Responses

Use social media sites to enhance public relations.

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The lines between social media and public relations are becoming blurred, according to a free HubSpot ebook titled, “How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success.” In fact, some experts say that social media may replace PR efforts in the future. While the book, does not predict the imminent death of PR, it does present some excellent tips for incorporating social media and inbound marketing to enhance your company’s PR efforts. Some of the key topics covered in this thoughtful text include:…