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Optify, a B2B digital marketing software company, recently released their 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark report. The report shows how small business-to-business companies are getting their leads, spending their marketing dollars and getting website traffic.

You can download the report here.

Here are some key findings:

• Google is the single most important referring domain to B2B websites, responsible for over 36% of all visits.
• Social Media is still a small fraction of traffic and leads to B2B websites, contributing on average less than 5% of all traffic and leads.
• Email shows high engagement rates as well as strong conversion rates with an average 2.9% lead conversion rate.
• Paid search usage showed a constant decline among B2B marketers in 2012. Over 10% of companies in the report discontinued their paid search campaigns during 2012.
• Twitter is the strongest social media channel for generating leads, outperforming Facebook and LinkedIn 9-to-1 with 82% of social media leads coming from Twitter.

What is the takeaway for consultants and small business professionals?

1. Marketing is cross platform. So, if you are not engaging in website interaction, blogging, Email marketing, and social media currently, you are falling behind. Each channel affects the other so make sure you are creating a comprehensive marketing strategy..not just poking at different channels inconsistently.

2. Tracking is key. Many owners and consultants use their own personal Internet practices as the model for how clients will interact and find out about your business. However, tracking usually reveals another story. Find out how how your clients are finding you and the best sources for leads.

3. Pay attention to landing pages and conversion rates. Many consultants and small business owners still view their website as an online brochure instead of realizing that each marketing channel should be tied into a landing page with a special offer.

Marcy Mitchell is the Owner of MTECH, a digital shepherd for small business owners and consultants. Marcy provides web development/design services, search engine optimization, marketing training and web reports for clients. If you are interested in growing your business, please contact us at 970-903-3605.

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So, how does a small business owner compete? First of all, you need a niche and easy to navigate website. The website should be inviting and identify your key advantages. If you are trying to market a product that is not niche, meaning it is something that directly competes with a large retailer such as a name-brand product, then it is very difficult. You need to find another way to distinguish yourself. Product will not do it, so it needs to be a unique customer service process or have a following for another reason. Otherwise, you are going to struggle since it is easy to jump off a site and go with another company due to price, convenience, or better name-recognition. One of my clients connects with their customers through a niche product and common values. They also provide a phone number and the owner herself answers the phone. She creates relationships…not just takes orders. This goes a long way today to distinguish yourself compared to large retailers.

Secondly, you need to have an easy check out process and website navigation. Branding, photos and uncluttered design will cause your site to stand out against large retailers. Work on loyalty programs and make sure you are competitive with shipping and payment processes. If it takes more than a few minutes, people will jump off. Most importantly, make sure your website combines social media, search engine optimization, and Email marketing so you can make the most out of your marketing.

Here is an article from Practical Ecommerce with some other points:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3961-10-Ways-to-Compete-Against-Large-Ecommerce-Companies

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One such client, Centennial CMC Owner Tris Coffin, recently hired Marcy Mitchell of MTECH to design a website, blog and start training him on social media. With websites, social media, search engine optimization and customer service intersecting, it was important to start with the creation of an interactive website and blog:

Tris can now start becoming a thought leader in his business through informative blog articles as well as begin reaching out through social media channels. Check out his new site!

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Here are a few of my top tips/tools for better efficiency:

1. Reminders on my Smartphone- Whether you have an iPhone or Android, you can install a Reminders APP to sync with your computer task list. While drinking coffee in the morning, I check my reminders and start prioritizing what has to get done each day. I also spend Monday morning allocating certain tasks to specific days of the week. Learn how many tasks you can do in a day while saving time for unexpected interruptions and projects. I also give myself a few days leeway in case I have to bump a task off to the next day. This is also helpful while traveling so you can keep an eye on what is due when you get back into the office.

2. Hootsuite - Hootsuite.com is a tool that lets you post the same social media message across Twitter, Facebook and Linked-In at the same time. You can post on the spot or you can schedule posts in advance. It helps to only open one tool instead of three when trying to post something.

3. Project Status Sheet – Reminders are good, but I also need to keep an eye on the projects and their status as well as possible jobs. I keep a digital and printed copy of my projects in house and make sure to review them weekly.

4. Respond to Emails/Texts/Phone Calls the Same Day – The old adage “Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today” is still applicable today. If you push off returning phone calls or Emails a few days, it is amazing how quickly they can pile up and one can be forgotten. No only is it good customer service, it also helps reduce stress to take care of things in an efficient manner.

Linked-In also had a good article on how to avoid wasting time. Read more…

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Check it out at coloradoregions.org:

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If someone asked you a simple question about marketing on Facebook, would you be able to answer correctly? Okay, let’s see. On a scale of one to ten, how important is it to build relationships with your fans?

If you answered anything in the lower region, then perhaps marketing via Facebook isn’t for you. There are many other types of advertising campaigns that may suit you better. But for Facebook specifically, catering to the fan and engaging with your audience is paramount.

Fans come and go in an instant. It takes incredibly limited effort for a person viewing your page or your material to give it a thumbs up and to technically become one of your fans. But subscribing to your page and returning to view your material and actually engaging with your brand is what a real fan does, and this takes a lot of time and effort on your part to make happen. You have to build the relationships. They won’t simply just happen.

7 Ways to Build Facebook Relationships

1: Centralize Your Data

This is a tip that’s very pertinent to Facebook but it’s also important for brands using social media in general. You want to centralize your data in order to properly keep track of all your fans, your signups, your leads, and other members of your base. You have to maintain this information and enable easy access to it. You’ll have to monitor fan activities consistently in a campaign, and having sporadic bits of data strewn about is an easy way to fail.

2: Focus on Quality Engagements

Part of marketing on Facebook is directing your fans to certain actions. These are engagements, and prioritizing your engagements, as in which actions are more important to take, is how you will help to drive real relationships while allowing unimportant fans to evaporate. Focus on your most important actions and drive your fans in that direction.

3: Always Add Value

What’s in it for your fan to take an action you’re suggesting? If a fan has to click here, signup there, and visit location X, there has to be something in it for them. Why else would a person waste their time with your brand? They could just as soon go play Angry Birds. So add the value for your fans. Give them something worth acting for.

4: Categorize Your Fans

Launching the best Facebook ads you possibly can will help to narrow down your fans, as in the ones more serious, but you still need more to categorize fans in order of importance. It might sound harsh, but you can’t spend time fostering relationships with fans that aren’t really interested in your brand.

5: Create a Loyalty Plan

Offering some type of rewards system is one of the final steps in transforming the average fan into a loyal member of your base. This subsequently gives you a fan worth investing the time in to build a relationship. Whether you’re offering points, coupons, free products, or some other goodies, create a loyalty plan to benefit the serious fans you have.

6: Push the Value

Once you have a loyalty plan created, you need to push the value of it. Say, for example, that you’re offering different points per action taken. What are these points going to earn for your base? Push the value of your particular loyalty program if you want more people to find out about it.

7: Track Your Results

What you’re investing in order to build these relationships has to pay off with a higher ROI. So focus beyond what you’re making overall and narrow things down to find out the specific correlation between the fans you’re targeting and the money you’re making—or even the overall impact you’re having—with your specific Facebook campaign. Your loyalty program and your relationship-building tactics might be paying off, but it might also be costing you too much. Stay on top of the numbers.

From first attracting your initial fans to ultimately categorizing them and focusing on the ones more likely to become customers, it’s all about the value you’re adding and the lengths you’re willing to go to in order to build relationships.

Author’s bio:

Eric Taylor is a social media enthusiast who loves to share his insights regarding facebook and social media marketing. He works as a freelance writer and business developer for Qwaya, a Facebook ad manager tool. The site also provides high quality information and up-to-date news about social media trends and strategies.

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According to Digital Depot Marketing, “Most landing pages convert only 2-10% of total visitors. While phone call conversion rates can approach 80%. Sixty-three percent of people complete their purchase offline following their search activity. 46% of people who conducted local online searches resulted in a phone call to a business.”

Therefore, not only should you have a landing page strategy for all web marketing, but call tracking should be integrated into all marketing efforts.  It is a critical component of campaign management.

So, how do you do it? You first purchase unique local or 1-800 numbers that forward to your main phone line for each specific marketing channel. There are companies that provide these unique numbers and then send you reports each month on the number of people who called that specific number. If you combine this effort with landing pages, then you have a much better idea of the cost per lead for each advertising vehicle and ultimately the cost per sale.

So, where could you use unique phone numbers? Anywhere you are spending time/money on marketing! These would include:

1. Chamber/Membership Directories
2. Online PPC Ads
3. Print Ads – unique number for each ad
4. Email Newsletter
5. Business Cards
6. Brochures/Mailings/Flyers
7. Coupons
8. Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In)

One company that provides these local or 1-800#s is WWW.HOSTEDNUMBERS.COM. You need to weigh the costs of the numbers with how much you would save and/or make by diverting your marketing dollars to channels that are the most effective for your business.

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We recently produced two new sites:

1. Duttoncreek.com

Pagosa Springs real estate firm wanted a fresh look that appealed to their higher-end ranch and residential clients.  Their previous site was in HTML and Flash and they did not have the software to make changes to the site.  MTECH provided a custom WordPress site that allowed them to add properties, blog posts and pages at will without any software.  In addition, we helped integrate a custom IDX slideshow on the home page as well as other featured property slideshows within the site.

2. Durangopartyrental.com

The second project was a collaborative website with a fantastic Durango graphic design firm – Athena Communications. MTECH was able to take Athena’s creative design and put it into a custom WordPress site with blog and a full catalog of rental products for weddings and events. MTECH provided web development, hosting and training.

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Hubspot said that Facebook users are uploading about 300 million photos per day, which is up 20% compared to last year. Instagram, which Facebook purchased in April 2012, increased 1,179% in six months.

So, it means that businesses should include photos and videos as part of their overall content strategy in social media.

The top industries that receive the most engagement are the auto industry followed by fashion.

Marketers who are using interesting images to their advantage can increase traffic to their websites with an included link, says the report.

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