Articles in The 'B2B Marketing' Tag

B2B Content Marketing: Creating Content that Connects and Influences

by Lauren Owens

The internet has rejiggered the B2B sales process. Whereas an in-house sales team used to be able to drive the decision-making process, many buyers no longer reach out until they’ve made a purchase decision. But B2B marketers need not leave their sales goals to fate. The answer instead is to create content that connects with users early on in the decision making process.

Luckily, there are a lot of ways to do this.

In this post, we’ll highlight a bevy of B2B content marketing opportunities, including ways to distribute your content once you’ve created it.

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10 Tips for Sharing Business Presentations with SlideShare

by Meredith Corsillo

SlideShare is the world’s largest online presentation sharing community.  With over 60 million unique visitors monthly, and over 16 million registered users, (http://www.slideshare.net/about ) SlideShare is a community where business professionals and individuals can research topics, get inspiration for their presentation or simply check out a sales deck without an annoying sales rep.

SlideShare was launched in 2006 and was acquired in May 2012 by social media powerhouse LinkedIn.  LinkedIn just recently reached the 200 million registered user mark, and is the world’s largest online professional networking community, so the SlideShare acquisition is a perfect fit.  The SlideShare app integrates with your LinkedIn company page so you can showcase all your professional presentations seamlessly, while keeping more real estate for yourself on your LinkedIn profile.

SlideShare is effective for storing, sharing and studying presentations. The ability to embed presentations into a blog or website is also a very handy feature. Businesses, educators and entrepreneurs are all target-users for SlideShare, which makes the demographic very similar to LinkedIn’s.

If your business is new to SlideShare, here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of its community and start sharing your presentations online:

1. Create a main Company profile including a well-branded username that represents your business or your objectives well.  Your company name should be used to build your brand.  For example, www.slideshare.net/yourcompanyname (minimum of 3 characters with a maximum of 25 characters).
2. Fill out your profile information completely.  Profile fields include your location, phone number, About Us, all other social media URL’s such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and a tags field where all your keywords go.  Make sure to include a link to your website.
3. Try to include your company contact details, address and web address url within the first few slides in case people don’t watch the entire presentation, and make sure your company branding is within the footer of each slide.
4. Always include clear links back to your website within your slides to drive users there.
5. Keep presentations visual and eye catching, without being overly wordy.
6. SlideShare adds navigation around your presentations, so make sure to leave enough space around your slides so there is no important information too close to the edge that could get covered.
7. Ensure your title is captivating and contains targeted and unique keywords for search optimization.
8. Cross promote your presentations to all other social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus.  You can even add snapshots of them to Pinterest.
9. The description of your presentation should be compelling and contain relevant keywords. You can also add your website address (unfortunately this will not be clickable) and your full business address and telephone number (ideally exactly as Google has it in your Google Places account).
10. If you find yourself using SlideShare a lot, it may be worth looking into a “Pro” account. They start at $19 per month and will allow you to capture leads, upload larger Hi-Res images, track presentations you share by getting alerts when a user views your shared presentation, and many other features that business users value.

Even short Powerpoint or Keynote presentations take a good amount of time and resources to prepare, so use these tips and let SlideShare help you to maximize your return on investment.

SEO Copywriting for B2B

by Mike Siers

B2B copywriting can be quite challenging. Instead of your regular consumer marketing lingo: “Everything you need, all here, and 20% off today,” B2B copywriting requires your message to be crafty, intuitive, and all the while persuasive. Now, copywriting for SEO in a B2B market can be even tougher. If this is where you find yourself, here are a few tips to help you succeed.

Watch the lingo – Seek to use generic terms on the page. In most cases, B2B searchers are more likely to use generic terms than brand names. Branded names tend to be unusual and unique to your offer, so a user looking for one of your brand names will likely find your site quite easily.

Focus page copy – Search Engines seek to classify a page by its main focus. After you have determined the keyword or phrase for your web page, keep the content focused on that keyword. If you have multiple products or offerings, it is better to create multiple pages to focus on each. You will just spin your wheels if you try targeting multiple keywords on a single page.

Don’t forget long-tail key phrases — If you decide to target a page to multiple, themed keywords, look toward a broad keyword and an exact phrase (i.e. long-tail). While the keyword focus of the page may be “green energy,” your target prospect for that page may also be entering words like “solar panel,” “environmentally friendly,” and “renewable” when searching for their solution. Good B2B SEO copyrighting seamlessly includes these long-tail words.

Detailed copy is good – In the B2B arena, having detailed, on-page content is a good thing. It gives you the opportunity to explain the features and benefits that may distinguish your offering. Also, longer copy is good for the search engines. It gives them a better opportunity to determine the focus of the page, and they really like that.

Keywords in the headers — Search Engines place emphasis on H1 headers. It gives the search-bots the opportunity to get a better idea about the content and focus of the page; thus, when possible, it is a good idea to incorporate your page’s keyword in the header tags. In some cases, the keyword may not work in the header, so incorporating an image underneath the header with your keyword in the ALT tag is a good alternative strategy.

Internal linking and anchor text – Internal linking is a good tactic. It helps bots find other pages on your site, and, in doing so, the anchor text used for text links can help with SEO. Before you start writing, know what pages can fit with the content you are about to write. Then see if you can craft your content to incorporate related keywords of your other pages within the anchor text of the hyperlink. Remember, you want to make it seamless, so ensure that you are not just stuffing in keywords. Good B2B copywriting flows smoothly through the desired anchor text.

Using the above mentioned methods should greatly support your B2B SEO copywriting.   Above all else, make sure you lay out a plan for your on-page content beforehand. When in doubt, defer to your company’s message to communicate with your target audience. A site that reads well should always be the top priority.