1. TABLE OF CONTENTSPart One: Introduction to Lead GenerationChapter One: What is Lead Generation and Why is it Important?Chapter Two: How Has Lead Generation Evolved?Chapter Three: Defining a LeadPart Two: Lead Generation TacticsChapter Four: Content Marketing and BloggingChapter Five: Website and SEOChapter Six: Landing PagesChapter Seven: Social Media and Lead GenerationChapter Eight: Email MarketingChapter Nine: Paid ProgramsChapter Ten: Telephone-Based Lead GenerationChapter Eleven: Middle-of-Funnel Lead GenerationPart Three: Optimize and Measure Your Lead GenerationChapter Twelve: Testing and OptimizationChapter Thirteen: MetricsChapter Fourteen: Lead Generation TechnologyConclusion: Lead the Way!Appendix: References0304071119203156628394114119132133140151156157

2. PART ONE:INTRODUCTION TO LEAD GENERATION 3. CHAPTER ONE:WHAT IS LEAD GENERATION ANDWHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 4. CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS LEAD GENERATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?LEAD GENERATION DEFINEDLead generation describes the marketing process of stimulating and capturing interest in a product orservice for the purpose of developing sales pipeline.5In todays complex marketingclimate, lead generation hasbecome a popular strategy tohelp create demand and get yourmarketing messages heardacross multiple channels. Leadgeneration helps your companyincrease brand awareness, buildrelationships, generate qualifiedleads, and ultimately close deals.Through the various lead generationtactics mentioned in this guide, acompany can collect the contactinformation of potential targets inorder to nurture them to eventuallybecome customers. Lead generationis useful for all types of businesses,both small and large, and in bothB2B and B2C companiessuch asfinancial services, healthcare, andautomotive organizations.Lead generation strategies that arediscussed in this guide include: Content marketing and blogging Website and SEO Social media Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising Content syndication Direct mail Telesales Email marketing Lead nurturing and lead scoring Testing and optimization Lead generation metrics 5. CHAPTER ONE: WHAT IS LEAD GENERATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?WHY IS LEAD GENERATION IMPORTANT?If you can generate quality leads for sales, you make their job easierand more of your leads will beturned into revenue faster.Just because someonedownloaded a whitepaperdoesnt mean he or she wants totalk to a sales rep. You dontwant your sales teams wastingtime cold calling from a list ofunqualified leads. Simply put,cold calling doesnt work intodays world of informationabundance. You want your salesteam closing deals and spendingtime actively selling, instead ofwasting time callingdown a list of cold leads.Lead generation can help your salesteams spend more time selling andless time with administrative tasksand prospecting, because you aregiving them warm, well qualifiedleads. In fact, according to a recentbenchmark study by Marketo,companies with mature leadgeneration practices achieve bettersales productivity and higherrevenue growth.Mature companies achieve 133%greater revenue versus their planthan average companies, and 174%more than the least maturecompanies. Additionally, sales repsat mature companies spend 73% oftheir time selling (rather than onadministrative tasks, training, etc.).At companies without mature leadgeneration strategies, sales repsspend only 57% of their time selling.If you can generate more leads for yoursales team, not only are you helpingyour company grow, but you are alsohelping marketings credibility. You areno longer seen as a cost center, but asa viable part of the revenue team. 6. CHAPTER TWO:HOW HAS LEADGENERATION EVOLVED? 7. CHAPTER TWO: HOW HAS LEAD GENERATION EVOLVED?TRANSFORMATION OFLEAD GENERATIONTraditional lead generation has undergone substantial changes in recent years, thanks to new online and socialmarketing techniques. In particular, the abundance of information readily available online has led to the rise of theself-directed buyer and the emergence of new ways to develop and qualify potential leads before passing them to sales.THEN NOW8In the age of the self-directedbuyer, marketers need to findnew ways to reach their potentialcustomers and get heard throughthe noise.Instead of finding customers throughmass advertising and email blasts,marketers must now focus on beingfound, and learn to build enduringrelationships with buyers. Thismassive shift has sparked a hugetransformation in marketing.Represent the companyMass advertisingPoint in time blasts3rd party data (Nielsen)Representing customer1:1 TargetingContinuous relationshipsOwned, big dataFinding customersDemographicFew/isolated channelsIntuitive decision makingBeing foundBehavioralExploding/integrated channelsFact-based decision makingMissionCustomer IntelligenceMechanics & TacticsMeasurementMarketings mission, intelligence, tactics, and metrics have drastically changed. 8. 9CHAPTER TWO: HOW HAS LEAD GENERATION EVOLVED?TRANSFORMATION OFLEAD GENERATIONInformation Abundanceand Attention EconomicsWith the rise of the internet, weveleft the world of information scarcitybehind, and entered one ofinformation abundance.In fact, according to Googlechairman Eric Schmidt, five exabytes(or five billion gigabytes) of informationwere created between the dawn ofcivilization and 2003, but that muchinformation is now created everytwo days, and the pace israpidly increasing.The problem is that informationabundance equals attention scarcity.This is known as attentioneconomics. Social scientist HerbertSimon was the first person to discussthis concept, writing that in aninformation-rich world, the wealth ofinformation means a dearth ofsomething else: a scarcity of whateverit is that information consumes.What information consumes is ratherobvious: it consumes the attentionof its recipients.This has transformed the buyingprocessand therefore the leadgeneration process. Buyers areoverwhelmed by all of the noise, sothey are learning to ignore themessages they dont want to hear,and to independently research whatthey do want to know.The attention economy is not growing, which means we have tograb the attention that someone else has today. Brent Leary, Co-Founder, CRM EssentialsUnprecedented Changes in BuyingTHEN NOWThe shift from information scarcity to information abundancehas changed buying behavior and shifted power to marketing. 9. 10CHAPTER TWO: HOW HAS LEAD GENERATION EVOLVED?TRANSFORMATION OFLEAD GENERATIONThe New Buying ProcessIn the old world of information scarcity,lead generation meant that marketingfound the names of potential buyersearly on in their buying journey, andthen passed those names directly tosales. Buyers expected to be educatedby the sales team, and sales expectedto speak to uneducated, early-stagebuyers who werent always qualified.Today, a variety of educationalresources are easily found throughsearch engines, social media, andother online channels. Through contentproduced and distributed byorganizations, todays buyer can learna great deal about a product or servicebefore even speaking to a salesperson.This makes your digital presence moreimportant than ever. Both decisionmakers and influencers are now mostlikely to find youbefore you find them.100%90%80%70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%Did the Customer Find the Product Vendor, or Vice-Versa?We found them80%They found us20%We found them75%They found us25%Decision MakersContributorsToday, customers are more likely to find product vendors than vice-versa.Source: Business Products Buyers Survey, March 2007Methodology: Fielded in March 2007 to SSIs Business to Business Panel. N=478According to Forrester, buyers might beanywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the waythrough their buying journey before they contactthe vendor, making it difficult for sales to influencethe buyers decisions. Buyers can now delaytalking to sales until they are experts themselves.Luckily, a solid lead generation strategy will helpyou build trust and capture the interest of yourbuyers during the self-education process, andbefore theyre ready to contact sales.In this guide we will cover: How to define a lead and his or herbuying journey How to build a robust lead generationstrategy through marketing automation How content marketing, social media, yourwebsite, search engine optimization, andpaid programs contribute to lead generation How to use Middle-of-Funnel(MOFU) marketing to build enduringcustomer relationships How to test, optimize, and measureyour lead generation campaigns 10. CHAPTER THREE:DEFINING A LEAD 11. 12CHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADWHAT IS A LEAD?To build out your lead generation strategy, you need to start with the basics. Every organization will have their owndefinition of a good lead. If you dont know yours, lead generation 101 is where you need to begin.There are many definitions of alead, and there are even moredefinitions of a good lead.According to Marketo, in our ownrevenue cycle, a lead is a qualifiedprospect that is starting to exhibitbuying behavior.Craig Rosenberg, sales and marketingexpert and author of the Funnelholicblog, states that there are twoelements to a leaddemographic andpsychographic. When it comes to thepsychographic element, your definitionof a lead will depend on your company,where youre selling, and who youreselling to.Easy enough. But a companysdefinition of a lead is not often agreedon by both sales and marketing. Howdo you come to an agreement? Simplyput, the two teams need to meet andhave a discussion until they canagreethe success of your leadgeneration efforts depends on it.Sales and MarketingLead Alignment ChecklistHeres how sales and marketing cancreate a universal lead definition thatis agreed upon by both teams:1. Schedule some time to meet.Get all of your key stakeholders in aroom and pick each others brains.2. Ask the hard questions.For marketing, what does yourtarget market look like? Who doyou have in your system, and whatare they engaging with? For sales,what prospects are you speakingto? What types of buyersare closing?3. Decide how good isgood enough.Set a base level. What doesmarketing consider a good enoughlead to get passed to sales?Conversely, what does sales thinkis a lead worth following up on?4. Get the flip side of the story.What does marketing consider abad lead? And what does salesconsider a lead not worth their time?5. Agree on a definition andwrite it down. Now that you haveyour definition, write it down andabide by it. Add it to your marketingautomation system, post it up onwallsdo whatever is necessary tokeep both teams on point.6. Iterate your definition over time.Meet regularly to review thisdefinition. You should be iteratingand changing your definition as yourcompany grows and priorities shift. 12. CHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADWHAT IS A LEAD?DemographicsWhen profiling your leads, youneed to look at demographicsquantifiable identifiers whichcharacterize your lead population.Typical demographic attributes forboth B2C and B2B can consist ofthe following: Gender Title Company Years of experience Personal email vs.corporate email Education (B2C) Age (B2C) Income (B2C)FirmograhicsFirmogaphics, which are used ascriteria by B2B companies, areorganizational characteristics whichhelp you find your ideal customerorganization, e.g.: Name of company Company size Company location Revenue Number of divisions Number of products/services sold Geographic markets served Industry Products already ownedBANTYou can also often determine aprospects place in the buyingprocess by analyzing his or her BANT(Budget, Authority, Need, andTimeline) attributes. BANT is a moreadvanced lead qualification practicethan demographic and firmographicanalysis alone. Budget: Can this lead afford yourproduct or service? Authority: Does your lead havethe authority to purchase yourproduct? Is he or she the decisionmaker? Need: Your lead has to need yourproduct or service. Is there a painthat your product or service cansolve? Time: What is your leadspurchasing timeframe? And doesthat align with your sales cycle? 13. 14CHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADWHAT IS A LEAD?Lead HandoffJust as sales and marketing mustagree on the definition of a lead, theymust also agree on lead handoffwhen that lead gets sent to sales.This ensures a seamless transitionfrom marketing to sales, andimmediate follow-up on hot leads.Lead Stage DefinitionTo agree on lead handoffqualifications, your sales andmarketing teams must definetogether the two main categories oflead stages: Marketing QualifiedLeads (MQLs) and Sales QualifiedLeads (SQLs). Marketing Qualified Leads(MQLs): These prospects areconsidered viable marketingleads, taking implicit scoringcriteria, explicit scoring criteria,and (if available) BANT (Budget,Authority, Need, and Timeline)into consideration.Sales NotificationsOnce a lead hits a certain scorethreshold in your marketingautomation tool, your lead becomesan MQL and your inside sales leadqualification team should be notifiedto make contact. Because marketingautomation tools sync with manycustomer relationships managementtools (CRMs), this data can betransferred directly into the leadrecord in a CRM.CRM-compatible tools like MarketosSales Insight offer a tightly integratedway to notify sales about lead activity.The Sales Insight dashboard highlightsthe best leads and opportunities forsales to focus on, has icons to indicateurgency and key activities, and tracksinteresting behavior that indicateshand-raising.Also consider using Act Now scores,which elevate leads to Act Nowstatus when they engage in activitiesthat indicate buying intent. At Marketo,these include: Filling out a free trial form Filling out a Contact Us form Downloading key late-stagecontent Viewing a weekly live demo Viewing a deep dive demoMarketos Sales Insight dashboard,showing lead activity and score. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs):These leads are sales-ready,which often must be determinedthrough direct contact with sales.Once sales has tested todetermine the qualifications of anSQL, marketing can use that datato improve MQL quality. 14. 15DAY 7DAY 8DAY 9If stale, reminderIf stale, reminder cc bossIf stale, alert executivesDAY 0DAY 1DAY 2DAY 3NotificationIf untouched, reminderIf untouched, reminder cc bossIf untouched, alert executivesCHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADWHAT IS A LEAD?Service LevelAgreements (SLAs)Once youve agreed upon the leadlifecycle and handoff process, howcan you ensure that sales followsthrough on your hot leads? AtMarketo, we have implementedService Level Agreements (SLAs)between sales and marketing toensure proper follow-up.SLAs are written agreementsbetween sales and marketing,ensuring closed loop lead processingby indicating specific timeframes forfollow-ups. If a lead is not followed upon within the indicated timeframe, analert is sent to a sales reps boss, andultimately to the executive team.A critical element to note:SLAs only work when sales isheavily involved in the process andchampions the SLAs internally.Take a look at an example of how wehave implemented SLAs:Notifications and alerts ensure follow-up from sales on promising leads. 15. ASK THE EXPERTS: WHAT IS A LEAD?Q&A WITH TRISH BERTUZZI,PRESIDENT & CHIEF STRATEGIST, THE BRIDGE GROUPMKTO: What are your top tips forsales and marketing alignment?TB: To truly get serious about salesand marketing alignment, you haveto measure the leaders of bothteams on the same goalrevenue.Not all personnel on the marketingteam need be 100% revenue-focused,but whomever is largeand in charge should have thesame compensation plan as the VPof Sales. Live and die by the revenuesword, baby!On the flip side, sales leaders needto belly up to the bar. Assume thatonly 50% of your pipeline (atmaximum) will ever come frommarketing efforts. Whats yourstrategy for making up the rest ofthat pipeline? Figure it out, get yourreps executing against the strategy,and stop pointing fingersat marketing!MKTO: How should salesand marketing agree uponlead definitions?TB: This will never happen, but it ismy dream scenario: first, sales andmarketing executives should gettogether and create lead definitions.Next, they should each grab a list of100 companies and put themthrough the qualificationprocessIm not talking about thereps, here, but the execs themselves.Then, based on the real world outputthey have created, they sit back downto re-examine their lead definitions.How awesome would that be?16 16. 17CHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADMAPPING LEAD GENERATIONSTRATEGIES TO YOUR FUNNELThe next step is to understand your leads buying journey. Revenue funnels may vary between companies, but well useMarketos funnel to show how buyer intent and campaigns can be mapped to different stages.At Marketo, we break our funnel up intothree parts: Top-of-Funnel, Middle-of-Funnel, and Bottom-of-Funnel. (Note thata lead only enters our database after theycross the red dotted line.)Top-of-Funnel (TOFU)A person in this buying phase is atthe beginning of your sales andmarketing funnel, and is aware ofyour product or service but is notready to buy. Individuals in the TOFUstage should be primarily offerededucational materials.We break the TOFU stage down intothree sub-stages: Name: This indicates anindividual whose name hasofficially entered our databasebut names are just names, notleads. Names are not yetengaged with our companyjust because they dropped theirbusiness cards in a fishbowl atan event doesnt make themactual leads. Engaged: We dont move namesinto the next stage until they havehad a meaningful interaction withus. Engaged individuals know theyare in our system, and they expectus to email and communicate withthem over time. Target: Once an individual hasengaged, we use our lead scoringto find out whether they are aqualified potential buyerwhichmeans they fit our demographicand behavioral criteria. 17. CHAPTER THREE: DEFINING A LEADMAPPING LEAD GENERATIONSTRATEGIES TO YOUR FUNNELMiddle-of-Funnel (MOFU)This buying phase occurs in the middleof your sales and marketing funnel. Aperson arrives here after he or she hasdisplayed buying behavior, engagedwith your content, and is potentially asales lead. Your offers for MOFU leadsare still educational, but they will bemore geared towards your product orservicein Marketos case, buyingguides or ROI calculators.We break the MOFU stage downinto two sub-stages: Lead: This stage is where a targetactually becomes a lead. AtMarketo, we score our targetsusing Marketos lead scoringcapabilities. When our scoringsuggests that its time to reach out,we connect with them personally.Once an SDR (Sales DevelopmentRep) has a conversation withthem, we convert them into anofficial sales lead. And if they arenot yet ready to buy, we canrecycle them back to the targetstage for more nurturing.Note: the majority of leads arenot sales ready. This doesntmean the SDRs conversationwas a waste of timehumaninteraction is an important part ofdeveloping (or nurturing)the relationship. Sales Lead: If leads are qualifiedbuyers, the SDR then passesthem to an AE (AccountExecutive). That sales rep hasseven days to either turn the saleslead into an opportunity and havea sales interaction, or to send thatlead back to marketing formore nurturing.Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU)This buying phase occurs at the bottomof your funnel, and indicates that yourlead is close to becoming a customer.Your offers for BOFU leads are veryspecific to your product or servicethinkdatasheets andpricing guides.We break the BOFU stage down into twosub-stages: Opportunity: At Marketo, only salesreps can create opportunities. Leadsin this stage are sales accepted andare actively being worked by sales. Infact, opportunities are how both ourmarketing department and SDRs getpaid. We actually maintain anopportunity quota to make sureenough opportunities are createdeach period. Note: if people are paidbased on opportunity creation,opportunities require a very solid,agreed-upon definition. They can notbe subjective. Customer: Lastly, we have thecustomer stage! These are closed-wondeals. 18. PART TWO:LEAD GENERATION TACTICS 19. CHAPTER FOUR:CONTENT MARKETING 20. 21CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGWHY IS CONTENTMARKETING IMPORTANT?Content is the foundation of your lead generation efforts. The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing asthe marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage aclearly defined and understood target audiencewith the objective of driving profitable customer action.Think of content as the fuel for all ofyour marketing campaignsfromemail to social to event collateral.Marketers have come to rely oncontent to engage prospects andcustomers in todays new buyerlandscape. You must create contentthat educates, inspires, and begs to beshared. It should help leads overcomechallenges and achieve theiraspirations. If you are able to do that,leads will flock to you, and youll gaintheir trust. Trust is ultimately whatcreates customers out of leads.Customers are now smarter, moreconnected, more informed, more influencedand influential socially, and less likely torespond to campaign-bait. Marketing has tocreate content people actually want. Tim Barker, Chief Product Officer, DataSiftWhat Form Can My Content Take?Content is more than just ebooks. It can come in manyforms, so think outside of the box! Articles Blog posts Case studies Cheat sheets Checklists Ebooks Email Infographics Kits Large definitiveguides Podcasts Referenceguides Slideshares Surveys Templates Videos Visual content Webinars Whitepapers Workbooks 21. CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGWHY IS CONTENTMARKETING IMPORTANT?When used effectively, contentmarketing can: Shape a brand preference andinfluence future purchases Generate social media shares andinbound links Put customers in the drivers seat Help fuel search engineoptimization (SEO) efforts Increase brand awareness Generate quality leads for lessmoney (when compared to moretraditional marketing)Ask the Experts:What is the biggest mistake marketersmake in their content marketing strategy?A lack of formal businessstrategy around content. Rightnow, most marketers arefilling content buckets, andlack a true business objective (such asrevenue, cost savings, or customer loyalty)behind their content initiatives.Secondly: patience. Most brands still callcontent marketing a campaign, whichimplies there is a stop date. Contentmarketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Weneed to take a longer-term view of how wecommunicate with our customers. Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing InstituteThe biggest mistake is tocreate content that your boss orclient loves, but your customerdoesnt. If your customer lovesyour content, that means its meeting theneeds of the people you are trying to reach,which your boss or client will love by default.But the inverse isnt true. If your boss/clientloves it, but the customer hates it...well, whocares? Ask yourself: What would your contentlook like if your customer signed yourpaycheck? Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, Marketing Profs 22. CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGTHOUGHT LEADERSHIP VS.PROMOTIONAL CONTENTAt the outset of your content planning, its important to make a distinction between promotional content and thoughtleadership. Thought leadership demonstrates a deep understanding of your prospects and customers pain points, andguides them toward solutions.Any vendor can publish feature-focusedbrochures and otherproduct-related content. But thetrusted vendorsthe ones thatrise above the noiseare thosefocused on helping their targetaudience. Buyers naturallygravitate toward these vendors.At Marketo, we create content thatis simply meant to help peoplebecome better marketers. We alsotry to create assets that educate ouraudience about marketingautomation as a platform, and howit can help marketers be moreeffective at their jobs. Instead ofconstantly pushing sales messagesto our leads, we want to teachpeople the benefits of investing inmarketing automation.So while we are talking about ourcore competencymarketingautomationwe are educating ouraudience with thought leadership,rather than pushing our solution.Content Marketing CTAsThat said, even educational contentshould have a strong, clear, call-to-action(or CTA). What is a CTA? Itsthe part of your marketing messagethat should persuade people to act.Your standard CTA might ask thereader to subscribe to your blog,download another ebook, or to signup for a demo.Regardless of what your ask is, yourCTA must: Stand out Clearly define what you wantthe lead to do Create urgency Be positioned in a prominent area 23. ASK THE EXPERTS: CONTENT MARKETINGWHAT DOES THE FUTURE OFCONTENT MARKETING HOLD?Marketing departments willcontinue their transformation intomini-publishers. Analytics and datawill be critical, but knowing moreabout our customers consumption habits will createa more complex need for useful content. Themajority of journalists will be hired by non-mediacompanies. We will start to see non-mediacompanies buy up smaller, niche content titles inboth digital and print form. Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Content Marketing InstituteI think itll look less like aseparate thingcontentmarketingand more like, well,marketing! The future of allmarketing is in programs that are useful, honestlyempathetic, inspired, and based on data orcreative insights. To quote my friend TomFishburne: The best marketing doesnt feel likemarketing. And thats the place where I think allorganizations will eventually end up. Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, Marketing Profs 24. CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGTHE CONTENT PLANNING PROCESSLike any element of your marketing, you shouldnt dive into content marketing without a strategy. Content marketing isntabout creating content for its own sakeits about engaging prospective buyers. To do that effectively, you need a planthat reflects your goals, an understanding of your target audiences top concerns, content ideas that align to theseconcerns, and a calendar for developing content on an ongoing basis.Creating Your PersonasThe first step is to create your buyerpersonasmost brands will needmore than one. A buyer persona canbe defined as a representation of yourideal customer. Personas aredeveloped based on customerdemographics and behavior, alongwith your own understanding of theirmotivations and challenges.Buyer personas help you: Determine what kind of contentyou need Set the tone, style, and deliverystrategies for your content Target the topics you should bewriting about Understand where buyers get theirinformation and how they want toconsume itConducting Interviewsand ResearchTo create your buyer personas, youshould conduct interviews withcustomers, prospects, and membersof your sales and customer serviceteams. You can also send outsurveys and do your own research.Focus on the following topics whencreating each persona: Background: Basic detailsabout your ideal customer andhis or her company Job details: Key jobresponsibilities, likes and dislikesabout job Main sources of information:Where your persona does his orher research Goals: Personas primary andsecondary goals Challenges/pain points: Yourpersonas challenges, and theemotions which accompanythose challenges Preferred content medium:How your persona likes toabsorb content Quotes: Bring your personas tolife with actual quotes gatheredduring interviews Objections: The objections youanticipate from your personaduring the sales process Role in purchase process:Personas influence in thedecision making process Marketing message: Themessaging that speaks directlyto this persona 25. 26CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGTHE CONTENT PLANNING PROCESSMapping Your Buying StagesNow that youve defined yourpersonas, you need to create abuying journey that will convert thesepersonas into customers. A buyingjourney maps a buyers decisionmaking process during a purchase.Mapping this allows you to: Understand the process yourbuyers go through whenconsidering your productor service Develop a content strategy thatspeaks directly to buyers,regardless of their stage in thebuying journeyHeres a great example of a buyerjourney template, created by SalesBenchmark Index:BUYING PROCESS MAPNOT IN THEMARKETBUYINGPHASEKEY BUYERACTIONSObserve MarketTrendsTrack CompetitiveActivityEvent OccursProblem SurfacesProblem StudiedConsequences ofProblem IdentifiedIs it worth solvingCan it be solvedWhat Options areAvailablePROBLEMDEFINITION OPTIONS EVALUATION FINAL PREFERRED APPROVAL IMPLEMENTATIONIndentify andinvolvestakeholdersResearch possibleoptionsEstablishfunctionalrequirementsDraft ROIExplore promisingoptionsNarrow down thelist of optionsReconfirmfunctionalrequirementsRefine thebusiness caseConduct detailedevaluation of shortlisted optionsSecurestakeholderconsensus aboutpreferred optionFinalize thebusiness caseFinalizecontractual andcommercial termsCheck referencesReconfirmdecisionFinalize internalrequest topurchaseImplement chosensolutionAchieve expectedbenefitsValidate decisionto buySubmit finalproposal to formalapproval processRECOMMENDATION STIMULATEDSales Benchmark Index Buying Process Map 26. 27CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGTHE CONTENT PLANNING PROCESSTo map your own persona buyingjourneys, create a spreadsheet with aseparate tab for each buying phase,and fill in the following items:Questions for each buying phase of a personas buying journeyBuying PhaseActions &Questions Buyer Action Buyer Doing(Y/N)? Questions Buyer AsksKey Buyer ActionsEvent OccursEvent #1Event #2Event #3Problem SurfacesProblem #1Problem #2Problem #3Consequences of ProblemIdentifiedConsider Alternatives for Solvingthe ProblemPhase Exit Criteria 27. 28CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGVISUAL CONTENTAs content marketing is more widely used, readers are becoming inundated with text. Thats why visualcontent is such an important way to engage. At Marketo, weve found that good visual design can makeeven copy-pasta content stand out.Make Every Piece VisualWhenever possible, take yourcontent to the next level with a visualelement. You dont have to createcustom illustrations for every ebookjust think about creating visualinterest, whether its with a customcover or interior graphics.Take a look at an example from aMarketo ebook on budgeting. Ourtopiccommon marketing budgetpitfallscould have potentially beendry, but we jazzed it up with acompelling (and fun) design. Withover 20,000 views, this content piecehas done particularly well.Marketos Marketing Budget Pitfalls ebook 28. 29CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGVISUAL CONTENTRepurposing Contentto Make it VisualFor a quick win, repurpose contentyou already have into something morevisual. For instance, use content froman ebook to create an infographic or aslide deck. You might find that thevisual asset is more shareable andeasier to consume.We took content from one of ourebooks, Amplify Your Impact: How toMultiply the Efforts of Your InboundMarketing Program, and created avisual slide deck to promoteon SlideShare.As you can see, while the ebookgot 13,000 views, the slide deckgot a whopping 339,000 viewson SlideShare!13,000EBOOK VIEWS339,000SLIDESHARE VIEWSVS.Standard collateral vs. visual content 29. 30CHAPTER FOUR: CONTENT MARKETINGCOMPANY BLOGYour blog is a great resource for generating leads. Just remember that someone reading your blog may not wantto immediately sign up for a demothey may not even know what your product isso aim for less ambitiouscalls-to-action (CTAs). Ask your readers to subscribe to your blog, or to follow you on social channels.By opening the door to furtherconversation, you are taking thefirst step towards generating aquality lead. A well-executed blogwill keep your readers interested,encourage them to come back formore, and eventually spark theircuriosity about your company.The Top 3 Dosfor Starting a Great BlogBrian Clark, Founder and CEO, CopybloggerDont focus on having agreat blog. Focus onproducing a blog thatsgreat for your readers. Brian ClarkFounder and CEO, Copyblogger1. Do understand who youretrying to reach. Start by thinkingin terms of audience archetypes.This keeps you focused onquality content, which begins thesales cycle but doesnt make thecustomer feel sold to.2. Do uniquely position yourcontent. Think media first, notmarketing. Youre basically creatinga digital magazine, but youre usinga different business model thanother media companiesyoureselling your own products andservices, not advertising.3. Do create an initial contentstrategy and editorial calendar.Youll naturally adapt and reviseboth based on the real-timefeedback you get, but you needa best guess approach basedon your research. And dontforget youll have to hustle to getattention until youve built anaudience that will spread theword for you. 30. CHAPTER FIVE:WEBSITE AND SEO 31. 32CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE FORMSWhen it comes to converting leads and making lasting impressions, your website is where the magic happens.KISSmetrics, an analytics andtesting company, puts it best ontheir blog: Your leads are only asgood as the website thatproduces them.They also provided these twocompelling stats: You have 0-8 seconds topersuade your audience withyour headline and landing page. Approximately 96% of visitorsthat come to your website are notready to buy (but they may bewilling to provide contactinformation in exchange forvaluable content).So how can you optimize your site forlead generation? Lets take a look.Using Website FormsYou cant convert leads unless theyfill out a form. A good lead captureform might ask for only first name,last name, email address, company,and job function. You can add moreor fewer fields depending on yourneeds, but always err on the shortersidewith forms, less is more.Why Short Forms Perform BetterWhen it comes to conversion rates,short forms outperform long forms.Its common sensepeople dontwant to waste time filling ininformation. But to prove our point,Marketo decided to perform an A/Btest of short forms vs. long forms.We tested three form lengthsonewith five fields, one with seven, andone with nine. The shortest formasked for name, work email, jobfunction, and company.The medium-sized form also asked fornumber of employees and industry; thelongest form also asked for a workphone number, and which CRMsystem they used.The results? As youll see, the shortestform performed significantly betterthan the longer forms:First Name:Last Name:Work Email:Company:Job Function:First Name:Last Name:Work Email:Company:Job Function:# Employees:Industry:First Name:Last Name:Work Email:Work Phone:Company:Job Function:# Employees:CRM System:Industry:*******************Choose One SelectSelect SelectSelectSelectAdvertisingAdvertisingShort (5 Fields)Conversion: 13.4%Cost per: $31.24Medium (7 Fields)Conversion: 12%Cost per: $34.94Long (9 Fields)Conversion: 10%Cost per: $41.90Marketos A/B test on conversion rates for short forms vs. long forms 32. 33CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE FORMSAlthough you may want a long form tofeed your CRM, youll be sacrificingleads in exchange for more data. And,as explained on the following page,you can still get additional data usingother methods.Another factor to keep in mind: themore information you ask for, the lesslikely people are to tell the truth.Take a look at this graph fromMarketingSherpa, which highlightsproblems with self-submitted data.The more detailed information a leadfills out, the more likely he or sheis to lie.Do Tech Buyers Provide Accurate Information During Registration?Source: MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm. Connecting Through Content Phase III.August 2007. Methodology: N=2,700PhoneCompany SizeCustomJob TitleCompanyIndustryEmailNameNever Rarely Sometimes Always12%11%10%23%18%22%11%10%8%7%5%27%31%39%32%31%30%24%22%38%40%29%53%55%59%68%72% 33. 34CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE FORMSFilling in the BlanksShort forms may get you more(and more truthful) responses, butthey might not provide the data youneed to effectively segment leads inyour marketing automation tool. Apotential solution is to use progressiveprofiling. Progressive profilingwhichis often supported by your marketingautomation platformallows you tocollect information and buildqualification over time. Each time aperson fills out a form on your site,the progressive form asks formore information.If you dont have the ability to useprogressive profiling, carefullydetermine what you need on a form,as opposed to what you wantagain,keep it short and sweet.Another solution is to use dataaugmentation services, MarketosReal-Time Personalization Platform,powered by Insightera, which canhelp you clean and augment yourdata. You may only have five fields onyour form, but these services can fill inthe blanks.Extra-Intelligent FormsThe majority of Marketos contentassets are ungated, meaning thereis no form fill-out required. Onoccasion, however, we createPremium contentthis is contentwe use to directly gather lead data.Typically, this is Middle-of-Funnelcontent, like an analyst report,buyers guide, or one of our flagshipDefinitive Guides. These are alwaysmarked by a lock iconconsistency is key.That said, we dont need to put aform in front of visitors who arealready in our database. To avoidrepeat fill-outs, our intelligent formsconsult the Marketo API,determining whether we alreadyhave contact information for a visitor.If we dont, they need to fill out aform before downloading a premiumasset; if we do have contactinformation, we simply greet them,and allow them to download theasset with a single click.Marketos intelligent forms distinguish known from unknown visitors. 34. 35CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE FORMSSocial and Landing Page FormsConsider adding social sharingbuttons to your web page forms. Thisincreases the chance that a lead willengage with your content by sharingyour landing page, and can exposeyour content to a wider audience.Many marketing automation platformsoffer built-in functionality to add socialsharing capabilities tolanding pages.Place your social share buttons in aprominent location and choose thesocial channels you include wiselyforsimplicitys sake, consider includingonly the most popular ones.Social Share ButtonsFPO 35. 36CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAS)The bread and butter of your website lead generation campaign is the call-to-action (CTA).Your website can be a powerful lead generation toolget creative, and start converting.Collecting Website LeadsWeve already described the qualitiesof a call-to-action (CTA) in our sectionon content marketing, but heres howthey should function on your website.On the Marketo website, our mostimportant CTAs are our free trial, ourfour minute demo, and our invitation toContact Us. Notice that the buttoncolors stand out, and the CTAs arevery clear. The viewer knows exactlywhat to do. We also pin our mostimportant CTAs to the screen, so nomatter where a viewer scrolls, theCTAs follow.Marketos pinned CTAs 36. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAS)Contact UsIf a lead wants to contact yourcompany directly, make it as easyas possible. There is nothing morefrustrating than failing to find acompanys contact information orcontact form. At Marketo, wedisplay our phone number in ourheader, embed a Contact Salesform in our product pages, anddisplay a Contact Us button(which links to a landing page) onevery page of our site.Our Contact Sales embeddedform ask leads for their first names,last names, work emails, phonenumbers, companies, and thenumber of employees at theircompanies. We also leave a field forcomments and questions.Marketos Contact Salesembedded formMarketos Contact Us landing page.If you click on a Contact Us buttonanywhere else on our site, you get sentto a landing page. We actually uselonger forms there, because we wantthese leads to be qualifiedmeaningthey really want to contact us.This landing page collects leadinformation, includes a customerquote, and has a few additional CTAs,in case the lead is interested inwatching a pre-recorded demo,signing up for a live demo, or visitingthe resource library. 37. 38CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAS)Asset DownloadAnother common way to generateleads on your website is through yourcontent asset downloads. If yourcontent marketing strategy is alignedwith your lead generation efforts, youshould already have assets that willinterest your website visitors. And thatmeans you can ask for leadinformation in exchange!There are many theories aboutputting a form in front of contentassets (known as gating). You cangate all of your assets, only gate yourMiddle-of-Funnel or premium assets,or you can ask a lead to fill out oneform to access your entire library.There is no right or wrong way to dothis, but at Marketo, we only gate ourMiddle-of-Funnel or premium assets(like third-party research reports, orour Definitive Guides).Marketo Live ChatChat lead capture formChatConsider using a chat service tocollect leads on your site. Like aContact Us CTA, chats are great forleads who have a question, but dontwant to pick up the phone. Chatservices (like LivePerson) enable alead to enter his or her contactinformation and chat with aneducated representative.We use a chat feature on our productand pricing pages. On both pages thechat only pops up after a viewer hasspent a certain number of minuteson the page.The initial chat pop-up asks if theviewer has any questions. Once avisitor clicks on the CTA, indicatingthey want to chat, they are brought toa lead capture form asking for his orher first name, last name, and emailaddress. He or she is then routed to arepresentative who can answerany questions. 38. 39CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAS)Free Benchmark,Grader, or SurveyDepending on your product orservice offering, you might consideroffering your website visitors avalue-add in the form of abenchmark, grader, or survey tool.For our Definitive Guide to EngagingEmail, we teamed up with SnapAppto create a widget, which asked ourvisitors a series of questions aboutemail marketing engagement.We scored each survey taker, andincluded a CTA to Learn More. TheCTA routed each respondent to alanding page where they could inputtheir lead information.If you are offering a value-add thathelps visitors gauge their owneffectiveness, you are more apt tocollect quality lead information.Marketos email survey, accompanying The Definitive Guide to Engaging EmailMarketos email survey results and CTA 39. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE CALLS-TO-ACTION (CTAS)SubscriptionsAnother way to generate leads onyour website is to offer a subscriptionto your blog, email program, orresource center. In exchange for aleads email address, you will sendyour blog digest, newest assets, orother valuable offers.Weve placed a subscription requestform in our resources section, whereit gets prime real estate at the top ofthe page. The form offers free toolsand best practices for visitors inexchange for their email addresses.We also let our visitors know that werespect their privacy, and make itclear that if they fill out the form, wewill send them updates.Marketos subscription request formContestA contest is another way to generatelead information. Host a contest onyour homepage to entice visitors toshare their information. Everyone lovesa chance to win something! Contestscan also promote social sharingjustmake sure you include social sharingbuttons.One note: before running a contest,consult your attorney to make sureit follows legal guidelines. 40. 41CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOBLOG OPT-INSYour blog is one of the best places on your website to generate leads. While your blogs primary purpose is asa source of thought leadership and expertise for your target audience, your blog can also help you achievemeasurable goalsespecially when it comes to lead generation.You can do this by using blogopt-ins, or subscriptions, asconversion points on yourwebsite. When your audiencesubscribes to your blog, they caneither receive an email digest oran RSS feed of posts. In return,you can add their information toyour lead database.Marketo sidebar opt-inThe LightboxPop-ups can be irritating, but theycan also be very effectivetheyrecertainly worth testing. Lightboxopt-ins can appear after a certainamount of time has been spent on thepage, or you can present one tovisitors as they navigate your site. OnMarketos blog, we decided to presenta lightbox opt-in to non-subscribersonce every six months. After that, oursubscriber numbers skyrocketed.Lightbox opt-in offer on Marketos blogSidebarAn opt-in form in a sidebar can be veryeffective. If you pin itanchor theopt-in on users screens as they scrolldown the pageits never out of sight(or out of mind). At Marketo, we use asidebar opt-in for our blog.Header or FooterIf someone wants to sign up for yourblog, the header is often the first placethey look. Your footer is also a logicalplace to put an opt-in form. In fact,even if you have an opt-in elsewhereon your blog, you might also includeone in your footer.Within Your ContentIf your blog is popular, consider addingyour opt-in form at the end of eachblog post or article. If a visitor hastaken the time to read a post, youalready have a certain level of buy-in,so its an appropriate time and place toask for more! 41. 42CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE USABILITYIt doesnt matter how many CTAs, amazing content pieces, or contests you runif a prospect isconfused by your websites layout, theres a good chance he or she will bounce (leave your website)instead of converting.A heat mapping screenshot, provided by Crazy EggHelp your readers understandwhat you do and where theycan find the information theyneed. Here are the factors thatmake your website effortlessto navigate:Website ScannabilityStructure your homepage and eachinterior page to be easily skimmed.Most visitors will not read all of yourcontent, so make the most importantitems stand out. Your most essentialcontent should be at the top of yourpage, followed by any additionaldetails, and the bottom shouldcontain related information. Bulletedlists and bolded headings can alsodraw your leads to the mostimportant information.You can implement a heat mappingtool, such as Crazy Egg, to get abetter visualization of where peopleclick, how they scroll, and how theyinteract with your site. This simplifieslater decisions about where to putyour copy and CTAs.Heres an example from the Marketowebsite (the lighter areas indicate moreclicks and hovers): 42. Content is a critical part of leadgeneration, so your website should berich with awesome assets. That said, weknow that not everyone has a wealth ofcontent resources at their fingertips. Tryto offer a few well-placed pieces that suitthe interests of your prospects.As Manya Chylinski wrote on the ContentMarketing Institutes blog, a solidresource center helps your customersand company because:43Clear Conversion PathsTo create intuitive conversion paths,you need to get into the head of yourtarget personas. Who are they? Whatresonates with them? As they searchfor the right information, what paths willthey want to take?Resource Center It enables customers andprospects to easily find theinformation they seek. It encourages serendipitousdiscovery of content. It increases the stickiness ofyour website.Marketos homepage, with ourfour main navigation menusCHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOWEBSITE USABILITYOn Marketos homepage, our mainnavigation options are Products andSolutions (product information andMarketo offerings), CustomerSuccess (customer testimonials andstories), Resources (content assetsand thought leadership), and About(all about our business). Its clear whichoption leads to information about ourproduct suite, and which leads todownloads of our ebooks. 43. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOCHECKLIST: USING YOUR WEBSITEFOR LEAD GENERATIONHomepageHighlight the latest/hottestcontentUse eye-catching visualsWrite catchy copyInclude ways for peopleto opt-in to contentWebsite ContentUse attention-grabbingheadlinesTie customer needs tosolution benefitsMake calls-to-action clearand prominentUse consistent voiceWrite clear and concise copyCopy edit for typos andgrammatical mistakesKeep paragraphs shortUse easy-to-read fontMake content scannableUse compelling imagery(little or no stock imagery)Landing PagesInclude your logoWrite a great headlineFocus on a singlecall-to-actionEntice readers torespond to your offerUse plenty of bullet pointsFeature relevant visual(s)Include a short form tocapture leadsDisplay a Thank Youpage pointing to arelated offerProduct/Service PagesUse strong calls-to-action oneach product pageMake contact informationclear on the pageList pricing information(if applicable)Address customer pain pointsResources PageOrganize yourcontent logicallyMake your content easilyaccessible, with one clickInclude visual thumbnailsof each assetMake sure each page isoptimized for SEO 44. 45CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOSEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)Your prospects are searching for what you sellbut will they find you? Search marketing is about getting found byprospects through search results and converting them into opportunities. The higher you rank in organic searches,the more people will find you.So how do you achieve goodrankings? In June 2013, inboundmarketing company Moz surveyed128 SEO professionals to determinethe impact of broad algorithmicelements in Google search. As youcan see from this pie chart, Googleconsiders many elements of awebpage when determining rank.Results of Mozs June 2013 survey of SEO professionalsThe Google CrawlerYour sites rank in Google search resultsdepends on all of the factors displayedon Mozs pie chart, but also onGooglebot, which crawls the web and(according to Google) discovers newand updated pages to be added to theGoogle index. Googlebot uses asophisticated algorithm to determinewhich sites to crawl, how often, and howmany pages to index from each site. Andwhat does Googlebot look for? A sitewith lots of great content and well-formattedmedia. 45. 46CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOSEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)The Top 3 Tactics for Quality SEO TrafficBy Rand Fishkin, CEO, MozAll marketers need a cogent,nimble, long-term strategy fortheir marketing as a whole,and knowing how SEO fits in isthe key. Lots of individualtactics work temporarilysometimes for years, evenbut the engines continues toevolve, new results typesemerge, and users changetheir behavior. Organizationspossessing clear strategy canshift their tactical approachesand continue to reach theaudience they need with themessage that converts best.1. Be the exception.If everyone in your field (or yoursearch results) is earning theirrankings, links, and attentionone way, try to find a new path.Imitation is the best way to stayone step behind. Innovation isthe way to leap ahead.2. Better content > more content.Dont be fooled into thinking thatyou need to produce somethingevery day or every week.Sometimes, long projects thatproduce immensely valuable,hard to imitate materials are muchmore valuable.3. Your snippets are asimportant as your rankings.Dont get more obsessed withmoving up the rankings thanyou are with crafting the bestmessage in the search results.Your titles, meta descriptions,URLs, publication dates, andmore all influence how likely youare to earn a click. Often,winning the click-through battlewill earn you higher spots in therankings over time. 46. 47CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOAUTHENTIC CONTENTGoogle is constantly optimizing to focus on quality content, as is evident in their recent release of Hummingbird.Named for its precision and speed, Hummingbird represents a big change in Googles approach to search.In previous updates, Googlefocused on improving theirindexing; next theyconcentrated on identifyingspam. With Hummingbird,Google is trying to improve theother side of the search.Theyre trying to get better atlisteningat finding out whatusers want to know.This shift shouldnt come as asurprise to marketers. Google hasannounced a string of updates inthe last few years, each onealtering the best practices for SEO.So how should marketers respond toHummingbird? By focusing on relevant,high-quality content. Smart contentmarketing is one of the best ways tonurture relationships with your prospectsand customers, but it requires a wholemix of techniques. Optimization is vital tothat mix, but so is the constant creation ofvaluable materials. You need to drivetraffic to your site, but you also need tokeep your audience on the page.If youre continuously creating the kind ofcontent your audience is looking for, thenew algorithm will help them find you.Thats why Hummingbird is a win for yourcustomers, and ultimately a win for you.Ask the Experts:What types of contentworks best for convertingSEO traffic to leads?Just because you get SEO traffic doesnt mean its good traffic! Be sure thatyour content appeals specifically to your target audienceavoid thetemptation to write too much thin content in order to go viral. Instead, providemeaningful resources for buyers in each stage of your sales funnel. Nate Dame, CEO and Founder, SEOperksIf youre targeting keywordsthat are conversion-likely (theyhave true purchase/signup/action intent), it pays to havepages that are both worthy of being sharedand contain enough information to drive theconversion. Talk to your customers and to yourevangelists (those who help your messagespread), discover what makes both tick, thenattempt to combine them. Rand Fishkin, CEO, Moz 47. 48CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOAUTHENTIC CONTENTPower ContentAt Marketo, we create powercontent to rank highly for certainterms, with the goal of making ourresource pages a premiereeducational source. Powercontent can be lengthy, but itsalways educational, catering tocustomer needs and Googlesranking preferences.For example, we wanted to rankfor the phrase marketingautomation, so we added powercontent to our marketingautomation resources page.Notice the Pull to read moretabthis allows us to includelengthy copy, while keeping ourresources above the fold.Since launching our marketingautomation power copy inFebruary of 2013, we have seen a114% total increase in organic sitetraffic to our resources page.Power Copy ChecklistAccording to Nate Dame from SEOperks,your power copy should include thefollowing:A definition of your main keyword,and the reason youre referring to itThe reason the keyword is importantto your sites visitorsBetween three and five additionalheadings with applicable contentData and statistics (if available)A quote from one or two expertson the topicYour companys relationship tothe keywordA conclusion, with a call-to-actionExternal resources and suggestionsfor further readingMarketing automation power copy on Marketos website keeps our ranking high. 48. 49CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOKEYWORDSWhen creating your SEO strategy, first determine your keywordsi.e. what you want to rank highlyforand then optimize for those terms.This means that when someonesearches for that term, youllcome up in the first results.Keywords should be chosenbased on: Relevant business goals Traffic opportunity CompetitionKeyword ResearchTry Google Adwords KeywordPlanner to find new search terms.Before you implement your newkeywords, research click-through-rate(CTR) estimates in KeywordPlanner, so that you can determineconversion success over time. Toolslike Google Webmaster can help youmeasure your results.When researching keywords,ask yourself: How relevant is this keyword tomy website, my products andservices, and my content? If someone searches for thiskeyword, will he or she find myofferings useful? Do we have content to offer forthis keyword or will we have tocreate content? Will traffic for this keyword deliverleads to our sales team?Consider scheduling a keywordbrain-storming session with yourteam. You want to have a solid list ofkeywordsyou could have 10, 50, orhundreds of words, depending onyour business and goals.Because your keywords will also beused in Pay-Per-Click and other onlinead campaigns, think about thedistinction between early and latestage keywords. You want your offersand copy to resonate with buyers atthe right place in their buyer journeys.Once you determine what keywordswill resonate, check to see whichwebsites already rank for that keyword.Next, look at the ads that yourcompetitors are serving up. The moreads, the higher the value of yourkeywordsand the harder it will be torise above the noise. Search volumecan tell you how popular yourkeywords are. Make sure peopleactually search for your keywords, butthe higher the keyword search volume,the more money your keywords willcost. 49. 50CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOKEYWORDSKeyword DocumentOnce youve created a spreadsheetor document of keywords you want torank for, grade their priority and listtheir target URL, making it easy foryour whole team to use thosekeywords. At Marketo, we use akeyword document for our blog, sowe know what to link to. Remember,Google doesnt like exact-matchkeywords, so look for phrases thatrelate to your target term. Just makesure that your keywords are usednaturallyno keyword stuffing!To avoid using exact keywords(which Google penalizes), try creatingphrases that include your keywords.For example, instead of revenuemarketing, we use the phrase howto tie marketing effort to revenue. 50. 51CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOON-PAGE SEOIn the past, on-page SEO consisted of meta tags, alt tags, encoding, title tags, canonical URLs, keywordstuffing, and more. But, as weve explained, SEO has changed with Googles updated algorithms.Page TitleTry to use one primary keyword ineach page title tag. Page titles affecthow Google ranks your page, butthey can also make your site lookmore appealing in search results. Acompelling page title that statesexactly what a page is about canentice a user to click. A goodpractice is to put your primarykeyword close to the beginning ofthe title, as opposed to the end.HeadlineYour headlines should support thekeyword focus for the page. If avisitor clicks on your page title andexpects a certain outcome, your H1(or header) should deliver! Theressome industry-wide debate aboutwhether titles and H1s shouldmatch exactly, but make surethey are similar.Using keywords in page titles boosts your search rankings 51. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOON-PAGE SEOContentMake sure your content is educationaland relevant to your readers. Keywordstuffing (or overloading a page withkeywords specifically to improve SEO)is a big no-no, and Google has gottenwise to the practice. Moz suggests atest to ensure your keywordplacement reads naturally: have anon-marketing friend read the page,and then ask if he or she thinks a termis suspiciously prominent. If he or shesays yes, you should revise.In blog posts, a good rule of thumb isto use your keyword two or threetimes per short post, or between fourand six times for long ones.URLsThe structure of your URL is stillimportant. URLs should be concise,but should also include your keywords.Your URLs should mimic the site pagestructurefor example,marketo.com/content-marketingis clearly a page about contentmarketing on the Marketo website.Load Time AveragesSlow load times hurt your Googlerankings, even if you have greatcontent. Why does Google care? Theywant to give their users easy-to-accessinformationnot content that takesforever to load.ImagesUsing images on your page canactually help you in rankings, becausetraffic can come from image-basedsearch engines like Google Images.For high rankings, Moz suggests thatyour images have a title, filename,surrounding text, and alt attribute.Filename: My_Paris_Trip_1.jpgTitle: My Paris Trip 52. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOON-PAGE SEOAuthority and AuthorRankGoogle Authority and AuthorRanktake social signals and contentauthority into account, so thatsearch engines can give smarter,more relevant results. Claimownership of your content by linkingit to your Google+ page.Heres how to create aGoogle+ author tag:1. Sign into your personalGoogle+ profile2. From your profile page, hit theAbout tab on the top menu. Byediting the Links section, you canlet Google know you are a contentauthor for websites or blogs.3. From the page you want to showauthorship of, you can link yourGoogle+ profile by addingrel=author to the pages HTMLanchor tags.Once you have created your authortag, you can show up in search resultsas the author of a particular page.Google+ Author Tag 53. CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOTHE PERFECTLY OPTIMIZED PAGECHOCOLATE DONUTS ACCORDING TO MOZ 54. Establishing link-based authority on one of the major search engines requires a mix of on-page SEO and link building efforts.55CHAPTER FIVE: WEBSITE AND SEOLINKSThe exact mix is hard to pindown, but authority isestablished though a trusted linkprofileand a good amount ofthought leadership content.On-Page LinksTo show Google that a page isrelevant to people searching for yourkeyword, you need to create links tothat page, using variants of thatkeyword as anchor text. Forinstance, we want our eventmarketing resource page to rankhighly for the term event marketing,so whenever we use the phraseevent marketing on another page,we link it back to the resource page.External LinksAccording to Mozs survey (see p.43),link authority factors (such as thequantity and quality of links to yourdomain and specific pages) are thebiggest factor in your rankings. Thismeans you need other sites to link toyour domain and the pages for whichyou want to rank.For good reason, external links improveyour ranking authority more than yourown on-page linksmore so if theexternal sites are relevant to yourbusiness. Also, the higher the externalsites authority, the more credit Googlewill give you for the link.Here are some easy tips to get startedwith link building: Make sure your content is relevant,educational, fun, and link-worthy. Make sure the sites that link toyou are reputable and havegood content. Ideally, the anchor text in the linkfrom the external site should use avariant of your keyword phrase.The Relationship Between SocialMedia and SEOAs SEO and social have becomeincreasingly intertwined, Google nowuses social signals to determine howyour company ranks in search results.Engagement from your followers onsocial can actually boost your SEO.Fostering social engagement requiresvaluable content: the more useful peoplefind your content, the more theyllengage and share. 55. CHAPTER SIX:LANDING PAGES 56. CHAPTER SIX: LANDING PAGESLANDING PAGES FOR LEAD GENERATIONLanding pages are customized pages that your leads are directed to from a social media page, an email send,an event invitation, a paid ad, or a search engine result.57No matter how much time or moneyyou spend on a campaign, if yourlanding page doesnt resonate withyour audience, they will bouncepotentially never to return. The goalof your landing page is to keep apotential customer interestedenough to keep readingideally,they will fill out your form andbecome a lead.Most leads take only a few seconds todecide whether theyll read a page orbounce. Does the page make senseimmediately, or is it hard tounderstand? Is it relevant to the linkyour lead clicked on, or does it seemout of place? 57. CHAPTER SIX: LANDING PAGESLANDING PAGES FOR LEAD GENERATIONBe Campaign SpecificYour landing pages should bespecific to your campaign.Although creating a new landingpage for every campaign isnteasy, its a critical part ofconversion and optimization.As an example of what we mean,heres a PPC ad placed byMarketo, targeting the phrasemarketing automation.Marketo PPC adMarketo landing page for a marketing automation adNext, check out the landing pageon the right that this ad links to. Thelanding page copy (and the offer) isconsistent with the ad. 58. 59CHAPTER SIX: LANDING PAGESLANDING PAGE DESIGNErr on the side of simplicity with your landing page design. Use your design layout carefullythe wrongdesign for your audience can immediately detract from the offer and ultimately the conversion. Simply put:design can have a polarizing effect.Consider including the followingdesign elements in your landingpages: Company logo A banner image or heading A hero shota mock-up ofyour ebook or offer, or a photoof your webinar speaker Social sharing buttonsBasically, you want to follow theK.I.S.S (Keep It Simple, Silly) rule witha logical, well-designed landingpageyour lead shouldnt have towade through clutter.Removing NavigationIt may be tempting to include yourmain navigation links on your landingpages (If they dont like this offer,theyll be able to find somethingelse!), but these can distract yourleads from your CTA. In eye trackingstudies, its been found thatnavigation panels draw attentionaway from your offer and conversion.Remember that your main goal isnt avisit to your websiteits leadconversion for a particular campaign.After they convert, feel free to sendyour leads additional informationjust dont muddy the waters at yourinitial interaction.A simple, streamlined landing pagefor a Marketo webinar 59. 60CHAPTER SIX: LANDING PAGESLANDING PAGE COPYYour landing page copy and CTAs should be clear and direct, and should give your prospects agood reason to provide their information.As you write your landing pagecopy, use these four steps as aguide:1. Set up the problem2. Talk about the solution3. Point out the WIIFM(Whats In It For Me)4. Deliver the goods(such as an ebook, video,or webinar registration)Landing page offering The Definitive Guide to Marketing AutomationScannable ContentPeople simply dont read full landingpagesthey scan. Studies haveshown that, at most, people readthree pieces of your landing page:1. The headline2. Bullet points3. Bio (if applicable)Keep it short and sweet with a boldheadline, one or two shortparagraphs of explanatory copy, andbullet points to show your leads whythey should click through. To engageleads without overwhelming thepage, consider using interactiveelements such as an audio clip or ashort video.The landing page to the left offersour Definitive Guide to MarketingAutomation. It includes a boldheadline, bullet points, a fun video,and instructions. There is nosuperfluous copyit is simpleand concise.Your landing page doesnt need tosell your product and company, but itdoes need to have a very clear offer.Focus your landing page around asingle CTA, which must be relevant tothe ad, email, or link that your leadoriginally clicked on. Avoid additionaloffers, or additional information aboutyour company.Reassure Your LeadYour leads are risking their privacy (or more)by filling out your form. Reassure them withprivacy statements, customer testimonials,and guarantees. You want your leads to feelsafe giving their information to a reputablecompanyadd copy or imagery toreinforce that trust. 60. 61CHAPTER SIX: LANDING PAGESCONFIRMATION ANDTHANK YOU PAGESAfter a customer converts, take time to thank them with an email, or send them to a confirmation page.Confirmation and thank youpages are an important way totrack conversion.These also give you the opportunityto deepen the relationship bymaking another offer, promotingyour blog, asking for feedback or asocial share, or running a poll. In fact,over 40% of prospects are willing toshare additional information afterthey convert.Take a look at the landing page tothe right for Marketo webinarregistrants. The page asks you toregister for more events, and givesyou a list of resources that relate tothe webinar content.A Marketo Thank You page 61. CHAPTER SEVEN:SOCIAL MEDIAAND LEAD GENERATION 62. CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONOPTIMIZING SOCIAL MEDIAFOR LEAD GENERATIONUsing social media to brand your business isnt groundbreaking anymore. Been there, done that?But although social is still important for branding and generating buzz, its increasingly used for lead generation.At Marketo, weve found thattapping into social media channelscan transform your lead generationefforts from blah to wow.For successful lead generation onsocial, equip your buyer for success. Bepersonable, connect with yourprospects challenges, and give them anext step to move forward. Chris BroganCEO and Founder, Human Business WorksSocial for Lead GenerationPower Tips1. Dont take yourself too seriously2. Organic isnt enough on its own;dont be afraid to pay to boostyour presence3. Focus on valuable content andsolid offers4. Create strong calls-to-action(CTAs)5. Always add value6. Never forget that social is atwo-way street 63. USEU*64Social marketing is shifting away from company-to-buyer marketing, and toward peer-to-peer influence marketing.Need proof? A recent Forrestersurvey found that only 20% of buyersbelieve what a brand says aboutitself, because people view anybrand-to-buyer communication as anadvertisement. Conversely, 70% ofbuyers trust the recommendations oftheir friends and family.When people learn about your brandthrough social, it gives you theopportunity to turn those Likes intoleads. By adding elements of social toyour campaigns, you empowercustomers, prospects, and fans tobecome brand advocates.Leveraging the power of peer-to-peercommunication delivers no- or low-costbrand lift and increased brandauthenticity. Because your audiencespeers have nothing to gain byrecommending a product, peer-to-peerword of mouth is one of the most credibleforms of advertising.Brand or product recommendations fromfriends and familyProfessionally written online reviews (e.g.,CNET, consumer reports)Consumer-written online reviews(e.g., Amazon)Natural search engine results(e.g., Google, Bing)Self-seleceddigital pull content33%38%Digitalpush contentInformation on websites ofcompanies or brandsSponsored search engine results(e.g., Google, Bing)Emails from companiesor brandsPosts by companies or brands on socialnetworking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)Base: 57,499 US online adults (age 18+)*Base: 15,654 EU-7 online adults (age 18+)Source: North American Technographics* OnlineBenchmark Survey (Part 1), Q2 2012 (US, Canada)* Source: European Technographics* OnlineBenchmark Survey, Q3 2012Information on mobile applicationsfrom companies or brandsAds on websites(e.g., banners)Text messages fromcompanies or brands70%55%46%43%32%24% 27%11% 18%15%12%10%9%10%10%8%8%23%37%61%Europeans trust all advertisingcommunications lessthan AmericansCHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONPEER-TO-PEER INFLUENCE MARKETINGTo what extent do you trust each of the following types of advertising/promotion?(4 or 5 on a scale of 1 [do not trust at all] to 5 [trust completely])A Forrester Research survey on consumer trust in advertisements 64. 65CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONSOCIAL SHARINGSocial sharing amplifies your message and your lead generation efforts, but getting people to share isnt easy.People are motivated to share by:1. Reputation enhancement2. Access to something exclusive3. Opportunities forco-creation/authorship4. Competitions5. AltruismSocial Sharing OffersKeep these motivations in mind, andtry to align them to your social offers.Consider adding some extra oomph toyour social campaigns and messagingby employing one of these tactics: Refer-a-friend: Create acompelling offer for both thereferrers and referees. This tapsinto the same power as peer-to-peerrecommendationspeopleare far more likely to trust theirfriends. Of course, this is also afantastic way to collectlead information. Sweepstakes: Create a contestand get your entrants to spread theword on your behalf. Everyoneloves winning, and contests arehighly shareable on socialchannels. You can also gainimportant lead data throughentry forms.Utilizing the 80/20 Rule for socialSo what kind of content should you poston social channels? Social media hasmany different functions, including leadgeneration, brand awareness, andrelationship building. To be effective, youneed a good balance of promotionalcontent and thought leadership. Weadvise marketers to use the 80/20rule80% of your content should beinformational/educational, and 20%should be self-promotional.When it comes to sharing on social,pick the channel where you can besttell your story. If youre better invideo, use YouTube. If youre briefand quippy, use Twitter. Pick whatyou like. Chris Brogan, CEO and Founder,Human Business Works Polls and voting: Everyonehas an opinion, and mostpeople are happy to share.Build relationships withcampaigns that engage youraudience and compel them toshare their opinions. You canalso gain valuable informationabout your leads likes anddislikes, which can help youplan future campaigns. Flash deals: Create a sense ofurgency with a strong CTA anda time limitthese cause leadsto act quickly. Flash deals canquickly increase brandawareness and bring innew customers. 65. 66CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONFACEBOOKFacebook boasts the largest user base of any social network, so its essential that you have a presence there. Formerlydismissed by marketers as too personal for business correspondence, its become an increasingly common way todeliver messaging. With more than 1.1 billion users, and many opportunities for paid advertisements, Facebook is acritical element of any lead generation campaign.Contagious ContentSo what works on Facebook for leadgeneration? The key is to strike abalance between offering contentthat is valuable for brand positioning,and offering content that is fun andshareable on social channels. If youcan show value to your followers,your lead generation efforts can havea true network effect.At Marketo, we are alwaysexperimenting with different types ofads, new content, and eye catchingvisuals. We also track our successusing Marketo and Facebook Insights.Weve found that to successfullygenerate leads on Facebook,you need:1. Compelling messages2. Eye catching visuals3. Mass audience appealand shareability4. A clear CTA5. Personality!Facebook is great because it allows you to humanizeyour brandcompanies often forget that peoplearent all business when it comes to social media.They want to have fun, not engage with robots. Carra Manahan, Marketing Programs Specialist, Marketo 66. 67CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONFACEBOOKFacebook News FeedFacebooks News Feed uses analgorithm to determine whether yourposts get displayed on a users NewsFeed, which is critical for leadgeneration. So how do you get yourposts to appear? This algorithm hasgone through numerous iterations, and(like Google) will continue to changeover time, but it always responds tocontent engagementif users andtheir networks interact with yourcontent, it will show up in the feed. Ifnot, it will be dropped.Here are some other factors that thealgorithm considers: Affinity:How close is the relationshipbetween the user and content? Weight:What type of action was taken onthe content? Decay:How current is the content? Post Types:What types of posts does a usertypically interact with? Hide Post/Spam:What types of posts does a userusually hide or mark as spam? Clicking on Ads:Do users interact with the ad? Device Considerations:Can multiple devices handleyour content? Story Bumping:A post may be older, but is it stillbeing interacted with?Promoted PostsAmplify your lead generation andengage your followers (and yourfollowers networks) by putting paidefforts behind some of your top posts.Remember, when using promotedposts for lead generation purposes,there should always be a strongCTAask followers to download anasset, attend a webinar, or learn abouta new product. You want people tohave something to click on.How do promoted posts work? Youcan promote a post (including statusupdates, videos, blog posts, andoffers) directly from your News Feed.Any post you promote willautomatically appear higher in theNews Feed, so more people will see it.You can also determine a specificbudget for each promoted post. Yourbudget will depend on your personalbusiness objectives, but Facebookprices promotions based on your fancount and budgetthey can rangefrom $10 to $1000.At Marketo, we promote assets anddaily blog posts with strong FacebookCTAs, and weve seen a big uptick invisibility since we started doing so.Recently, we created a Facebookpromoted post for our Definitive Guideto Engaging Email, which led to 9,923clicks; 6,765 actions (likes andcomments); a 3.976% click-through-rate;and cost us $0.70 per click.Promoted Facebook post from Marketo 67. 68CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONFACEBOOKFacebook AdsFacebook ads provide highlytargeted opportunities to reachyour audience. They appear on theright side of a users screen, andare similar to traditional Pay-Per-Click (PPC) adsyou place a bid onhow much you want to pay perclick, or you can pay per thousandpeople who will see your ad. Andmuch like a typical PPC ad, the costdepends on the popularity of yourkeyword terms.You can choose to link Facebookads to pages on your website, or toyour Facebook page to get moreLikes. You can also targetFacebook ads based on a variety ofdemographic criteria includinglocation, job title, age, industry,gender, and more.Custom AudiencesIf youre using Sponsored Stories orpaid ads, you can target a specificset of users, or custom audiences,with whom youve alreadyestablished a relationshipeitheron or off of Facebook. Theseaudiences can be defined by thefollowing attributes: Email address Facebook user ID Phone number Facebook App user ID Apple IDFA Location Age Gender Education Interests Connections 68. 69CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONFACEBOOKTracking and ResultsFacebooks Page Insights applicationprovides fantastic analytics, trackinga variety of engagement and adperformance metrics. Leveraging thisdata internally can help you begin theconversation about your programROI on social.Page Insights lets you see: Page Likes Post reach Engagement Organic/paid reach per post Post clicks Post Likes Comments SharesFacebooks Page Insights analytics 69. CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONTWITTERThink of Twitter as a virtual water cooler for marketing professionals: its a vibrant community where businesses cangenerate leads, and thought leaders can discuss relevant industry topics. With 218 million users, Twitter cant be ignored.70At Marketo, Twitter helps usfoster continuous, real-timeengagement with our customersand prospects. We use Twitterto spread the word aboutspecific product offerings, andas a forum for potentialcustomers to learn more aboutus and our products. And likeFacebook, Twitter offers manyopportunities for marketers tocollect and generate leads.Promoted TweetsWeve had great success withPromoted Tweets, a form of paid adsthat appear in a users feed, targetedto followers and users who fit ourcriteria. Our Promoted Tweets containtimely and engaging offers, likecontests for free trips to industryevents, or links to relevant thoughtleadership. We use Promoted Tweetsto create demand for new contentassets, upcoming events, or demos.Every Promoted Tweet that we runleads to a form, which improves ourchances of gaining user data. LikeFacebook ads and Google Adwords,Promoted Tweets use a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) pricing model.Twitter enables you to target tweetsbased on the following criteria: Interests Keywords in timeline Gender Geography Device Similarity to existing followersMarketo also uses Promoted Tweets inTwitter searches. These tweets targetusers based on particular keyword andhashtag searches.Heres how Promoted Tweets appearin a users timeline:For tweets promoted in search results,we run two offers every two weeks,with three different tweets focusing on15 keywords and five countries. Fresh,relevant content offers with the rightmessaging yield click-through rates ofup to 17%, with a cost-per-prospect ataround $14. This, of course, will varybased on your offer and the relevancyof your content.We always see significant spikes inrelevant tweets during industry events,so we decided to capitalize on that,using Promoted Tweets in searchresults during key conferences such asDreamforce. This allows us to be partof relevant conversations while theconversations are still hot. By targetingevent-specific hashtags and relevantkeywords like lead management, wecan tap into prime lead-generatingmoments. Being a part of real-timeconversations means pouncing onreal-time opportunities.Promoted tweet in timeline 70. CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONTWITTERPromoted Accountsand TrendsTwitter also offers two additionalpromoted ad optionsPromotedAccounts and Promoted Trends. WithPromoted Account ads, businessescan make their Twitter accounts showup under the Who to follow list onyour Twitter page. This can be targetedbased on who a user typically follows,whether its a similar advertiser or anindustry thought leader.Promoted accounts can also beplaced in search results whensomeone searches for a particulartopic or hashtag.A Promoted Account ad from Pulsar, placed amongorganic Who to follow suggestionsIn this Trends list, GoPro Cameras promotedhashtag tops the list.Promoted Trends enable a businessor an individual to promote aparticular trend or hashtag, whichappears on the left-hand side of ausers screen, under Trends. Notethat promoted trends carry a heftyprice tagaccording to Mashable,placement costs about $200,000. 71. 72CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONTWITTERTwitter Lead Generation CardsTwitter Lead Generation Cards permitbusinesses to collect lead informationdirectly from Twitter. How do thesework? When individuals expand yourtweet, they see a form, a descriptionof your compelling offer, and a CTA.Twitter handles, names, and emailaddresses are already filled in, so all alead has to do is click the CTA.Twitter Lead Generation Cards canalso sync to your marketingautomation tool, but note that LeadGeneration Cards only have a fullname fieldmost marketingautomation tools collect names in afirst and last name field. Also, TwitterLead Generation Cards do notcapture company data. Because ofthis, you cant (yet) push the leadinformation to most CRM tools.A Twitter LeadGeneration Cardfrom MarketoTwitter Words of CautionA little self-promotion is good for business,but if your entire tweet history is about youand your company, youre doing it wrong.Use the 80/20 rule: 80% of your contentshould be helpful or entertaining, 20%should be promotionalTracking and ResultsWhen people choose to follow youon Twitter, youll be notified and canreview their conversations indedicated streams. This helps youidentify opportunities to engage.Weve seen immediate results fromour efforts on Twitter: our averagelead-conversion rate from emails andonline campaigns is between 2-3%,but some of our Twitter campaignshave yielded conversion rates ashigh as 14%. 72. 73CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONLINKEDINLinkedIn goes beyond personal profiles and status updates; its a great resource for networking, influencerrelationship building, and lead generation opportunities through paid programs. Because users visit the site forpurely work-related purposes, LinkedIn lends itself to making business connections.Company PageBuilding out your company page is thefirst step to optimizing LinkedIn for leadgeneration. Your company page tellsusers who you are, what you do, and whythey should follow you.Follow these key best practices whenbuilding out your LinkedIn company page: Optimize your company page forkeywordspeople frequently runsearches on LinkedIn, so make sureyou show up in results. Add tabs to your company pagethese are usually Careers,Products, and Insights. YourProducts tab should be optimizedfor search. Post on LinkedIn at least once dailyto establish your presence. Consider adding videos and othermedia to your product pages tofurther engage users.Marketos LinkedIn page 73. CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONLINKEDINLinkedIn Sponsored UpdatesTo get into the lead generationgame, LinkedIn began offeringSponsored Updates, allowingcompanies to put paid promotionsbehind status updates. Thesepromoted updates are seen by yourfollowers and targeted usersoutside of your follower network.Like all other social ads, LinkedInupdates should include a visual,and then link to a gated asset.A Sponsored Update from Marketo on LinkedInSponsored Updates allow you totarget usersyou can choose toinclude or exclude users based onthe following criteria: Location Company name Job title Skills School name LinkedIn Group associations Gender AgeLinkedIn AdsLinkedIn ads give companies thechance to target their audience inpowerful, unique ways. How? Theinformation found on a usersLinkedIn profile is different thanother social networks, and itsparticularly helpful for businesses.This data maps well to the leaddata you want from userssuch asjob title, company, industry,geographic location, and otherdemographic targeting.LinkedIn allows you to customizeyour adsyou can opt for text-onlyads, images, or video ads.However, according to LinkedIn,adding an image to your ad canbring you 20% more clicks. 74. 75CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONGOOGLE+Google+ is quickly becoming an essential part of any businesss social media strategy, but its also a must for leadgeneration. Already boasting 90 million users, Google is making Google+ accounts mandatory for all Gmail usersand those who want to post comments on YouTube. Google+ also now plays a major role in SEO.About Us PageUse the About Us page on Google+to give audiences a quick overview ofyour business. From there, you canlink to specific pages and services,directing potential customers to themost important pages on yourwebsite. Make sure your copy is SEOfriendly, butas alwaysavoidkeyword stuffing.On Marketos Google+ About Uspage, note that we include our tagline,keywords, and links that directviewers to our highest ranking pages.Marketos Google+ About Us page 75. CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONGOOGLE+Claiming Ownershipof Your ContentWeve already discussed GoogleAuthorRank in our chapter aboutSEO, but its worth noting thatGoogle search results greatly favorthose who engage with Google+.Google Authorship is how Googleauthenticates authors, and how itbegins to trust you as a qualitysource of content.Jazz up your virtual meetings or panels with fun effects in Google+ HangoutsGoogle+ HangoutsGoogle+ Hangouts are a great wayto generate buzz, sharing, and brandawareness. Gather thought leadersin your industry for a panel or atopical chat. Send out invites to yourcustomer and prospect base, andmake sure you promote heavilyon social. 76. 77CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONSLIDESHAREReaders are inundated with text, which means marketing professionals cant rely solely on whitepapers and blogposts to reach prospects and customers. Its now vital to include visual elements in all of your marketing campaigns.SlideShare is a service that hostsyour slide decks and presentationsonline, but its also much moreits an essential part of anysuccessful content marketingstrategy, and a powerful socialcommunity with a reported 60million monthly visitors.Creative Topics and VisualsContent marketing through SlideSharecan help you establish yourself as anexpert in your field, using highlyconsumable visual elements. When itcomes to lead generation, SlideSharecan help you attract audiences whomight ordinarily skim past yourcontent. Some people might want toread a 10-page ebook, while otherswant to consume their informationquickly and visually.Optimizing for SEOCreating slide presentations that rankfor certain keywords can be mucheasier than ranking a post on yourblog. To give your presentations afighting chance in the world of searchengines (as well as in SlideSharesown search results) include keyword-richtitles, descriptions, and tags.Write your titles and descriptions withSEO in mind.SlideShare presentations are easilyembedded into other sites, which willalso drive SEO results. Each timesomeone embeds your presentation,it serves as an inbound link toyour content. 77. 78CHAPTER SEVEN: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GENERATIONSLIDESHARESlideShare FormsWhen it comes to lead generation,forms are where SlideShare reallyshines. With SlideShare, you canembed a lead generation form directlyinto your presentation, which pops upafter some or all of your presentation iscomplete. Users can enter theirinformation to download the slidesand learn more about your company.If you are using a marketingautomation platform, you can syncyour leads directly into your databaseand add them to a nurture program.Use SlideShare forms to generate leads. 78. ASK THE EXPERTS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GEN ROUNDTABLEWHAT SOCIAL CHANNEL WORKSBEST FOR LEAD GENERATION?Although many thinkthat Facebook is a terrificplatform to build a strongcommunity of fans, itseven more powerful when you turn yourraving fans into quality leads that youcan communicate with and build arelationship with outside of Facebook. Amy PorterfieldSocial Media StrategistThere are threechannels that are greatfor lead generation.Facebooks ad interfaceand their targeting capabilities areimpressiveyou can get very granularand ensure youre reaching the rightaudience. LinkedIn has generally givenus the best leads, because you cantarget by job titles, companies,company size, or industry. Lastly, wevehad success with lead generation formson SlideShare, where we host all of ourslide decks, from webinar decks toshortened versions of our ebooks. Carra ManahanMarketing Program Specialist, MarketoAt Social MediaExaminer, weve foundthat LinkedIn has thehighest conversion rate,but Facebook delivers a higher quantityof leads for us. We have a much largerfan base on Facebook (192,000+)compared to LinkedIn (11,000+), andhave multiple dedicated staff manningour Facebook account. Michael StelznerCEO and Founder, Social Media Examiner 79. ASK THE EXPERTS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND LEAD GEN ROUNDTABLEWHAT IS THE FUTURE OF