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This month’s TPM Take focuses on marketing best practices and trends you need to follow to grow your MSP business in 2018.
In the first article, we look at how artificial intelligence is changing B2B marketing, and how businesses will engage with their customers in the future.
The second Take is all about prospecting and increasing your conversions on social media platforms.
Finally, in the last article, we look at seven best practices for developing a digital marketing strategy in 2018.
Applications Of Artificial Intelligence In B2B Marketing
The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has become popular in B2B marketing in recent years. Throughout 2018, we’ll see AI taking center stage in predictive analysis, personalization, propensity modeling, the blockchain, and lead scoring.
- Blockchain: Blockchain for B2B networks provides decentralized, auditable and secure records of information exchanged between multiple partiers. It allows for better coordination and collaboration on digital marketing campaigns while addressing issues related to data privacy compliance, data ownership, data security, and attribution.
- Personalization: AI gives B2B businesses the ability to tailor their marketing efforts on a case-by-case basis rather than to a specific sector or demographic. This allows for greater service personalization and higher conversion rates. It also creates a better customer experience because prospects receive messages that appeal directly to their needs and wants.
- Lead Scoring: Machine learning algorithms enable marketers to identify leads that have the greatest chance of converting into customers. This is very useful for account-based B2B marketing because it allows service providers to pinpoint the hot prospects and prioritize sales activities to the most promising accounts only.
- Propensity Modeling: Propensity modeling leverages machine learning algorithms to create accurate predictions of contact information and lead elements based on previous historical data. This allows for greater automation of manual tasks like lead scoring and personalizations.
- Predictive Analysis: Propensity modeling can be applied to predict behavioural patterns of existing and potential customers. This is known as predictive analytics. With predictive analytics, businesses gain a better insight into the probability of achieving a particular outcome. For example, they can find out which customers are more likely to return to a website and what price will lead to more conversions.
TPM’s Take
Using marketing automation is the best way to take advantage of AI in your B2B marketing campaigns. Most platforms have lead scoring, personalization, and predictive analytics features built-in to make things easier to manage. Just don’t forget to be authentic in your marketing.
5 Prospecting Tips for MSPs: How Social Media Fits In
https://www.channele2e.com/influencers/5-prospecting-tips-msps/
Social media can be a useful tool for generating qualified leads. The following five tips will help you make the most out of your social prospecting.
- Set it & DON’T forget it! — The key to a successful social media campaign is to keep everything up-to-date with a regular posting schedule. Having an out-of-date social media profile will make your company look out-of-date, which may deter prospects from engaging with your brand. You should always post several times per week on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
- Personalize your message — Before posting anything, you need to take time to think about who you’re trying to attract. Maybe you may want to target a specific location, demographic or industry. Depending on your choice, you’ll need to provide valuable information to keep your audience engaged. A good way of doing this is to use the 80/20 rule — 80% of your posts should be educational posts, while 20% of your posts should be a direct promotion of your business.
- Balance scheduling with real-time posting — Tools like HootSuite, Buffer, and Sprout make scheduling easy, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post in real-time. Your followers will pay more attention to your real-time posts, which will allow them the quickly see the value of becoming a follower — and a client.
- Treat social as a two-way communication channel — Social media is all about encouraging two-way communication. You need to take time to respond to all questions and comments promptly and look for ways to promote conversations among your followers. You can accomplish this by asking your followers a question or starting a poll.
- Get your staff involved on social media — Encouraging your staff to post updates on your social media profiles can help you increase your reach on social media. B2B social networks like LinkedIn are especially useful for connecting with customers and leads increasing the visibility of your staff and brand. Customers and prospects will always prefer to interact with people rather than a business. So make sure you take the time to personalize your brand by adding relevant team members to your social media updates.
TPM’s Take
In addition to the tips mentioned here, you can also apply these 5 Important Hacks for Effective Social Media Marketing. These hacks will help you stay relevant, and increase your conversions on social media.
7 Essentials for Any 2018 Digital Marketing Strategy
https://www.inc.com/jeremy-goldman/7-essentials-for-any-digital-marketing-strategy.html
In today’s tech landscape, it’s almost impossible to survive without a robust digital marketing strategy to reach your customers online. If you want to take your digital marketing strategy a step further this year, there are seven essentials you must follow.
- Prioritize customer needs over bells and whistles.
- Audit and update your SEO more frequently.
- Prioritize blogging as a lead generation tool.
- Host high-quality webinars and live events.
- Expand and refine your email distribution efforts.
- Don’t give social media short shrift.
- Make your marketing mobile.
TPM’s Take
Executing a full-scale digital marketing campaign may seem daunting when you’re a small company with a limited budget. The good news is that you can still get excellent results if you are spending your money in the right places. In our article, 7 Simple Marketing Strategies for Tech Companies on a Budget we explain everything you need to know about creating a successful digital marketing strategy on a budget.
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