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January 13, 2023December 28, 2018 by Jennifer Esty

Silhouette of man holding up numbers 2019

Your Digital Marketing New Year’s Resolution

By Jennifer Esty | December 28, 2018

Do these 7 things before January 31.

The good news about these seven B2B digital marketing best practices is that they do not involve diets, giving up wine, or loads of investment.

1. Make sure your site is https

In July 2018, Google started displaying a “not secure” warning in its Chrome browser for any site not using https. Over 70% of desktop users and over 50% of mobile users are on Chrome, so well over half of your visitors will see a “not secure” warning on every page of your site. Although a security warning isn’t the end of the world, it is distracting for web visitors and is an ongoing blot on your website’s user experience which will result in lost conversions and drip-drip damage to your brand.

2. Buy your own brand name on Google Ads

I know what you’re thinking: but I’m already P1 one for my brand name, why should I pay for it? First, are you sure? It’s worth checking that a competitor or business with a similar name hasn’t moved into P1 either through a paid or organic listing. Second, it won’t cost much. Third, it allows you to own more of the real estate on your search engine results page. Fourth, it enables you to control the messages that your prospects and customers see (I’ll bet your careers page appears as one of your site links, is that really relevant for prospective customers?).

3. Claim your Google Knowledge Panel

Google has two types of Knowledge Panels, local and branded panels. They’re really important for displaying key business information such as contact details and opening hours, plus they increase the amount of real estate you own on the search engine results page for your brand. Both types of panels can be claimed through the listing that appears on the right hand side of a desktop search results page, but if you don’t see one appear, you can open a Google My Business account and verify your business information. This will increase the chances of a local panel appearing; sadly there isn’t a way (currently) to do the same for the branded panels. Check out this excellent article from Yoast for a more detailed explanation.

4. Check that your Google Map isn’t broken

Google changed the Maps API and we’ve spotted loads of broken Maps, just have a quick look across your website and landing pages to make sure yours is still displaying correctly.

5. Put your phone number at the top of your site

Most B2B products and services are relatively complex and will ultimately require person-to-person selling. The best outcome of your digital marketing campaign is almost always inspiring a prospect enough to call you. So make phone numbers prominent on your website, ideally in the header(and as click-to-call on mobile).

6. Set up remarketing on the Google Display network

B2B products and services usually have a long consideration cycle: use remarketing as a way of staying in touch with your prospects throughout their decision-making process. A couple of pro tips: set the frequency caps at something reasonable, you want gentle reminders not exhausting in your face selling; and make sure you change the creative and messaging every few months to keep things fresh and interesting.

7. Use the LinkedIn Insight Tag

Love it or hate it, LinkedIn remains one the most important platforms available to B2B marketers (and yes, recruitment agents). The LinkedIn Insight tag enables you to collect data on your website visitors and match them with LinkedIn’s formidable database of over 500 million users. You’ll need a Campaign Manager account to generate a tag and then you’ll need to add it to all of your digital properties (website and landing pages), plus set up some Matched Audiences. For more detailed help, check out our previous blog article on these features.

And of course if you need any help, give us a call. We offer a free 30 minute consultation to qualifying businesses. But please don’t ask for diet tips or help with dry January!

January 13, 2023June 22, 2018 by Jennifer Esty

Prepare for Summer

By Jennifer Esty | June 22, 2018

The special offers on Pimms and invites to school sports days can only mean one thing: summer holidays are around the corner.

Whether you’re going abroad or spending the summer watching the World Cup, make sure your digital lead generation campaigns keep working even when you’re not.

AdWords Campaigns

If you have Google AdWords campaigns running, download the Google AdWords app (not AdWords Express). This handy app gives you top-line campaign information including:

Stats
Bids and budgets
Real-time alerts and notifications

Also, to ensure you don’t overspend on your media budgets, use AdWords’ handy budgeting tools. You can set daily and monthly budgets and if your business is seasonal, have a look at last year’s summer stats to make sure set appropriate levels of budget so your competition doesn’t get the edge while you’re away.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a great way to stay in touch with your already engaged prospects (and stakeholders) while you’re away. Google, Facebook and LinkedIn all provide opportunities for staying in touch with B2B prospects using display remarketing.

Take the opportunity to refresh your ad copy and creative before you leave; think about directing them to some evergreen content or a post-summer event. Also, consider the frequency of your remarketing ads (no one wants to be stalked by your ads all summer).

And finally, remember that brand search ads in conjunction with remarketing make for a positive experience for prospects ready to reengage with you.

Schedule Your Content

Not all of your potential customers will be on holiday, so don’t let your content go stale while you are away. You can schedule content for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. There are loads of tools you can use, including HootSuite, Sprout Social and TweetDeck.

Also, make sure you’re promoting an appropriate CTA—don’t encourage people to call you if the phone lines won’t be properly staffed or offer a free trial if your presales team are all wearing their cagoules on a beach in Cornwall.

Using Facebook

With Facebook Pages Manager you can view and respond to comments and private messages from your phone (as well as see Page Insights), and Facebook Adverts Manager allows you to edit your ads and budgets, get notifications of when ads are finishing and keep an eye on your spending.

(LinkedIn if you’re listening, we’re still waiting for an app version of the Campaign Manager!)

Still Send Emails

Now that you’ve cleaned your email lists following the Great GDPR Scare of 2018, don’t forget to keep your customers and prospects engaged over the summer.

Most email platforms will allow you to send emails scheduled for a specific time. Marketing automation platforms also allow you set up automatic email sends based on user behaviour.

Take the time to put a content plan in place that aligned with your social posts and remarketing campaigns and with a little luck no one will ever know you were away!

Think About Your Website

As with email, most content management systems (CMS) have an option to schedule content. Nothing screams ‘I’ve gone on holiday and don’t care about you right now’ like outdated seasonal content on your site.

If your website CMS doesn’t have a schedule function, consider putting your best performing content on the homepage whilst you’re away, or at least don’t leave up information about an out-of-date event during your break.

Analytics

Google has a Google Analytics app which is reasonably good for basic monitoring and will allow you to at least get a high-level view of your activity, especially useful for answering ‘quick’ questions from your MD whilst you’re away.

Again, keep in mind seasonality and remember many sensible people like you will also be on holiday so volume (though hopefully not performance) may dip.

Finally… Check with Your Sales Team

Make sure there is a plan in place to deal with inbound leads. If you have a small sales team who are also on holiday, make sure someone will be monitoring the group email address and the phone won’t go unanswered.

If unfortunate scheduling means there will be days when no one can manage calls from prospects, or customers for that matter, consider enlisting the help of a call handling agency to get you through the holiday season.

January 13, 2023June 15, 2018 by Jennifer Esty

A phone and laptop displaying a webpage about a new coworking space

5 Lessons from over 250 landing pages

By Jennifer Esty | June 15, 2018

At Sharp Ahead we specialise in creating conversion optimised landing pages for B2B clients with complex products and services.

Our clients’ websites are almost universally complicated, with numerous calls to actions and menu items which need to serve multiple stakeholders and customer personas.

Landing pages are a way to ensure that paid media spend directs lead traffic to pages designed to meet a prospect’s specific need.

But just because landing pages are less complex than websites, designing them is no less of a science.

After creating hundreds of landing pages for diverse clients in diverse sectors, we have some key best practice tips to make sure your landing pages generate high quality leads and ROI on your paid media spend.

Lesson 1: the 5 second rule

In person you generally have 7 seconds to make a good first impression. Online, you have even less time. Make sure your landing pages (and indeed all of your digital communications) pass this simple test.
The 5 Second Rule: in 5 seconds or less, can a prospect clearly understand who you are and what you are offering them?

Specifically, above the fold you need:

A clear statement of your value proposition. Don’t be clever with this statement. Now’s not the time for puns or beautifully crafted brand statements. Think Ronseal. In as few words as possible state exactly what you offer
A single call to action. Make it visually strong. Ensure it’s succinct and written from the point of view of the prospect
Social proof. Social proof can take the form of client logos, imagery, or peer testimonials. Social proof reassures prospects that other companies like their company work with you—and therefore so should they

Remember, if in 5 seconds the prospect doesn’t feel reassured that they’ve come to the right place, the back button will quickly and easily show them an entire search engine results page of alternative options.

Lesson 2: Encourage web-to-phone

Yes, that’s right, here’s a digital marketing agency telling you to get your prospects on the phone.

Although much of a prospect’s research will take place online, for most B2B companies, particularly those with complex, very high-value propositions, the actual sales process needs to take place human-to-human.

Landing pages should not only be designed to capture lead data via forms but even more importantly they should be designed to offer prospects the opportunity to get in touch via phone.

Including a phone number signals a number of things to a prospect:

The company is real, not just online
The company is open for business
There are real live humans that want to talk to you
The company takes customer service seriously

And here are top tips on how to use phone numbers effectively on landing pages:

Make the phone number visible, ideally in the header of your landing page
Repeat the phone number, particularly at the bottom of the page so a prospect that has scrolled down doesn’t have to think about scrolling back up to find it again
Include your hours of operation so a prospect knows when you’re open and when filling out a form is a better idea
On mobile, make the phone number click to call

Lesson 3: Skimmable Content

We all know that most of the time, consumers of digital content are not properly reading, they’re skimming to find the relevant piece of information that will either reassure them they are looking at the right thing- or send them back to a search engine results page to find something else.

Our tips:

Make sure your content is written and structured in a way that makes skimming through it easy whilst still giving them the information they need
Use blocks of content that stand out. Designing with different blocks of colour, for example, gives a visual clue and helps key information stand out
Include social proof throughout your landing page, mix it up with short quotes, logos, and imagery
Don’t be afraid to repeat content. A user skimming content is likely to have missed something, so don’t be afraid to repeat key messages throughout the page
The same goes for your CTA. Don’t make a user ready to engage with you look for the button that will bring up a form. Repeat it throughout: always above the fold and at the bottom of the page

Lesson 4: Separate Design for Mobile

While statistics vary on how many people are using phones versus desktop for B2B research, you can safely assume that at least half of your prospects are engaging with your landing pages on a mobile device.

Landing pages need to be not just responsive but designed separately for desktop and mobile to ensure they are conversion optimised for both experiences.

There are a few key differences between the two:

Phone numbers on mobile pages can be click-to-call
The experience of filling out a form is very different; make sure you’ve designed—and tested—your forms on both desktop and mobile
Mobile users can scroll down quickly with a swipe of their finger so longer pages are fine but make sure key messages are still standing out
Load times, a landing page that is slow to load on mobile is even less likely to get viewed than on desktop. Make sure images are optimised and always test the mobile experience as thoroughly as you would the desktop version

Lesson 5: The Attention Ratio

Attention Ratio refers to the number of things a prospect is being asked to do or think about in a page.

Going back to the beginning, the reason landing pages are so important for paid traffic is that websites are just too distracting.

A website might have a dozen or even more calls to action: think about not just your conversion features but your menu items, social icons, in-page content, contextual links, etc.

For your landing pages, you want to strive for an attention ration of 1. This means have one, very clear call to action on the page whenever possible. (Two if you count the phone number).

Sometimes there are very good reasons for having more than one call to action, but in those cases make it clear what the difference is and prioritise visually the one you would prefer a prospect pay attention to.

Lead generation using paid media campaigns are a great way to grow your business, so remember to optimise your ROI by optimising your landing pages first.

Want this article in a handy, shareable pdf? Download it here.

January 13, 2023May 18, 2018 by Jennifer Esty

6 simple things B2B digital marketing gets wrong

By Jennifer Esty | May 18, 2018

At Sharp Ahead we often get asked to do audits of our clients’ (and prospects’) digital footprints, which is a great way to start to understand how to make immediate improvements to your digital marketing.

Here are six things that come up time and time again.

1. Phone numbers: most B2B products and services are relatively complex and will ultimately require person-to-person selling. The best outcome of your digital marketing campaign is almost always inspiring a prospect enough to call you. So make phone numbers prominent on your website, ideally in the header of your landing pages and website.

A few other phone number rules:
– don’t make your prospects choose from multiple phone numbers, more often than not they’ll just choose to phone someone else. And when they do call, don’t give them 6 different options to choose from.
– don’t charge your B2B prospects for phoning you
– and most importantly, during business hours, make sure the phone is answered by a trained member of staff. Every. Single. Time.

2. Don’t hide your best content. Content marketing is not a treasure hunt. If you hide your best content, no one is going to come looking for it. Social proof like case studies, testimonials, and client logos needs to be featured prominently on key entrance and landing pages.

3. The Ronseal Principle: tell visitors to your site exactly what you do in plain language. Taglines, mission statements, and post-branding workshop catch phrases are all well and good, but don’t assume your prospects know you already or that you naturally have enough credibility to be on their short list.

4. Most prospects don’t even want to visit your website. Google has taught us to expect its search engine results pages (SERPs) to answer our questions without visiting actual websites. Make sure the SERPs for key terms, like your brand and contact information, are as carefully curated as your homepage. Google gives you lots of good tools for doing this, including free ones like Google My Business.

5. Prices: do not be afraid of talking about price. At some point, the cost of your products or services is going to be very, very relevant to your prospects. You can save a lot of everyone’s time by giving at least an indication of price during the lead generation process. The hard work of establishing your price points and your place in the market should have been done already; be confident in your decision making and honest with your prospects.

6. Landing pages. Use landing pages for your lead generation campaigns. Make sure they are optimised for conversion, which includes paying attention to every detail from page load speeds to the wording and colour of your CTA to which fields you put on the form. Do not send your hard won and paid for traffic to a page on your website.

And last but not least, if you have any questions or need help with any of the above, please get in touch.

January 12, 2023March 24, 2016 by Jennifer Esty

Preparing for the Easter holiday: quick tips for B2B marketers

By Jennifer Esty | March 24, 2016

Easter weekend is nearly here, and you’re probably looking forward to a few days of hot cross buns and chocolate eggs, but who is looking after your marketing while you’re away?

If you have an agency helping you out, you might not be too worried. However if you’re looking after it on your own or with a small team, some of whom are also on holiday, there are a few things you can do to make sure all the hard work of the past few months isn’t compromised by a week away.

Using AdWords?

If you have Google AdWords campaigns running, download the Google AdWords app (not AdWords Express).

This handy app gives you top line campaign information including:

Stats
Bids and budgets
Real-time alerts and notifications
Call a Google expert
Act on suggestions to improve your campaigns

Schedule content

Using Facebook?

With Facebook Pages Manager you can view and respond to comments and private messages from your phone (as well as see Page Insights) and the Facebook Adverts Manager allows you to edit your ads and budgets, get notifications of when ads are finishing and keep an eye on your spending.

Still send emails

Most email platforms will allow you to send emails scheduled for a specific time. Marketing automation platforms also allow you set up automatic email sends based on user behaviour. So you don’t need to stop your lead nurturing over the holidays or let potential leads go cold while you figure out what to do with all that leftover lamb (incidentally, the BBC do a nice list of recipes).

Think about your website

As with email most content management systems have an option to schedule content, so you don’t have to leave your Happy Easter message on your website until the 11^th of April. Nothing screams ‘I’ve gone on holiday and don’t care about you right now’ like outdated seasonal content. If your website CMS doesn’t have a schedule function, consider putting your best performing content on the homepage while you’re away, or at least don’t leave up information about an out of date event (or a picture of an Easter egg) during your break.

Check with your Sales team

Finally, just before you leave, make sure there is a plan in place to deal with inbound leads. If you have a small sales team who are also on holiday, make sure someone will be monitoring the group email address and you have an answer service in place so the phone doesn’t go unanswered.