Search Results for “customer research”

Why Contractors Need to Embrace Review Sites

March 5, 2017Content Marketing4 Comments

Word of mouth has always been important for local businesses. But today, word of mouth advertising happens over review sites and social networks. It’s not just restaurants and doctors that need to worry about the damage caused by negative reviews, but contractors too. Businesses who try to avoid reviews do so at their own risk.

A 2016 study from BrightLocal revealed that 84% of consumers trusted online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Eighteen percent said they had read reviews for tradesmen – up 7% from 2014. Through research conducted over several years Bright Local believes that consumers have more grown accustomed to reading reviews, and have expanded their search for reviews beyond restaurants (60%), to medical/healthcare (31%), and other types of businesses.

The number of places consumers can find reviews have grown considerably. Included are search engines and social media sites such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and Facebook; general review sites such Yelp and Better Business Bureau and TrustPilot, as well as dedicated home services websites such as Angie’s List, HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack.

What’s the ideal number of reviews? A 2015 Northwestern/PowerReviews Research study found it depends on the length of the reviews themselves. When reviews are shorter, more reviews matter. When reviews are longer,the number of reviews has a less significant impact.

The Northwestern study also found when the star rating surpasses 3, so does likelihood of purchase. Similarly, only 14% of respondents in the BrightLocal study would consider using a business with a one or two-star rating.

Don’t expect reviews to flow in on their own. You need a strategy. You also need to be sure you know the rules when it comes to soliciting reviews. While Google encourages businesses to request reviews, Yelp strictly forbids it. And don’t be surprised if overly positive reviews are excluded by Yelp. It is at their discretion to exclude them.

Start by claiming your business page on sites such as Google+local, Yelp, and other sites where it is free to be listed. Other sites such as Home Advisor and Thumbtack while free to consumers, are lead generation sites for their contractor members. Businesses have no control over getting on Angie’s List and Consumer Checkbook. A contractor would need to be rated by a subscriber before a company is placed on Angie’s List. Consumers Checkbook requires a minimum number of subscribers who rate the business.

Let customers know the importance of reviews to your business. It will increase the chances of a customer providing a review. Make it as easy as possible for the customer to leave a review. Include a card with your final invoice that indicates all the places where customers can leave a review. You can also provide links from a page on your website and direct people there. Timing is key to getting a good quality review. Right after the job is complete, customers will be able to provide the most detailed reviews, as everything will be fresh in their memory.

Monitoring reviews should be a part of your overall strategy. Encourage customers to leave detailed reviews. Potential buyers read the reviews for a number of factors including the scope of the work, accuracy of the quote and if you maintained a clean job site.

Business owners need to think about reviews as an opportunity, not a liability. With reviews for your business online, word of mouth can spread faster, and to more people than ever before. By taking care of your customers and following the review policies for each site, we think the good outweighs the bad.

Why B2B Publishers Can Be Effective Content Marketing Partners

April 26, 2016Content Marketing, Food Service, PublishingLeave a comment

Annual Idaho Potato Chef’s Calendar distributed through Plate magazine

Before going on your own to develop and distribute custom content you may want to explore a partnership with industry publishers. B2B publishers are in a unique position of knowing the audience you want to reach. They know what interests them, what their concerns are, and how to engage them.

Current topics, issues and trends are something publishers cover every day. You can use their arsenal of talented writers, designers and project managers to take your content to the next level. Get access to the markets you want to reach. Enhance your position in business-to-business markets and distribute your content efficiently.

Custom content can take many forms including branded or unbranded articles that are identified as advertorials, calendars, or supplements to name a few. A publisher who knows your audience and business objectives can offer insight on the type of content that will best engage readers.

Understand the publisher’s brand and mission

Custom content that appears in an industry website or publication places your business within a context of trust and knowledge. But first, you need to understand the publisher’s brand and its mission. It’s likely you are already familiar with publications serving your industry, but if you are new to the market, you can search online, or via SRDS to learn more.

Review the publisher’s magazine, website, and blogs. Read a few feature articles and look at the various sections. Online you can learn a lot about their mission by reading the About page. Contact the publisher and ask for a media kit to learn about their audience and reach. Review the editorial calendar to find topics they will be covering and when.

Identify your objectives for the custom content

Know what you want your content to do and how it will serve the intended audience. Here are several common objectives for custom content projects.

Position your product as on trend

Sunkist ran a series of advertorial articles in Plate magazine highlighting lemon-inspired desserts and cocktails. The articles ran opposite their advertisement. It provided additional editorial coverage for the Sunkist brand while describing creative uses of their product for Plate’s audience, professional chefs.

Position your company as a leader in the industry

To be viable, a sponsored article that addresses a new trend should include research data and quotes from respected industry leaders. In the food service industry clean label is something operators are just beginning to be impacted by. We recently gathered data, interviewed sources and wrote an article for a food service client on this topic to be published in an industry magazine.

Demonstrate product versatility

How are your customers using your product? Share their stories to show its versatility. That’s what the Idaho® Potato Commission does with its annual Foodservice Chef’s calendar. Each month highlights a chef’ along with their potato dish and recipe as well as industry events. It is distributed with the Nov/Dec issue of Plate magazine.

Affirm subject expertise

Share deep knowledge on a topic with custom supplements or whitepapers. These long-form content projects may be inserted and mailed with the B2B publisher magazine or featured online. As a pullout section in a print magazine, they provide readers with a unique reference and in-depth coverage of a topic.

Drive traffic to your website

B2B publishers may offer distribution of a custom e-newsletter directed toward your target audience. The same compelling content you find in print can be adapted for a custom e-newsletter, offering additional opportunities to measure results with special offers, downloads and increased web traffic.

Custom Content Continues to Work Long after the Published Date

Custom content has the advantage of being owned by you. This means you can share your custom publishing content with customers and prospects online and off. Its impact can go well beyond what appears in the publication. Use it in an eblast, for social media and as a blog topic. Extend its reach by distributing print content at trade shows and meetings or send a special mailing to your best customers.

Content for Biz is pleased to have media partners in the food service and construction industries who rely on us to develop custom content. We encourage you to take advantage of the unique role industry publishers have with their audience to make the most of your custom content.

Publishing

May 5, 2014No CategoryComments Off

Grow Your B2B Publication Brand

You know what needs to be done to grow your publication, but doing it with existing staff in a competitive market can be a challenge. Content For Biz allows you to tap into the resources you need, when you need them, without adding costly overhead expenses. We manage special projects that bring you closer to your readers and advertisers.

Reach Out to Agencies and Advertisers

Educating customers on your market is one of the best ways to introduce your publication to advertising agencies and marketers. Instead of calling a sales rep, many marketers today prefer to do their research online. Content For Biz can position your brand as a leading source of market knowledge through informational blogs, enewsletters, well-researched whitepapers and data driven media kits. Turn your research into effective lead generation and sales tools.

Market Special Issues

After the editorial calendar is written for your publication, remind busy ad managers why they need to be advertising in a particular issue. Issue promotion creates awareness of your publication’s niche, editorial approach and value-added offerings. Content For Biz helps publishers promote special issues, buyers guide, reference guides, and special supplements. We write the copy, manage production and work with you to deliver a strong message to advertisers.

Promote Events

Events bring readers and advertisers face-to-face, and provide an additional revenue stream to your publication. Yet, events can be time-intensive to manage and promote using existing staff. Content for Biz helps fill the event planning gap with content strategy, content creation, social media and on-site services to fill the seats and satisfy sponsor goals.

Be Social

Most publishers say that one of the items on their “wish lists” is to expand social media to have a stronger presence online. Content For Biz will help you develop a strategy around shareable content that connects you with potential customers and industry influencers. We will work with your team or independently to help you capitalize on the benefits of social media.

Gain Publicity

Is one of your goals to be the most quoted publisher in the mainstream media? Content for Biz can help you develop a comprehensive PR plan to ensure your editors are the leading sources for your industry.

Create Custom Content

Expand your custom content services and revenue without adding overhead. Content For Biz will work with your advertisers to develop engaging print and online content targeted to your publication’s audience. With more than 20 years of experience in custom content development and project management you can trust us to meet the needs of your best or most challenging customer. We’ll support your team to provide whatever services you need: content development, project management, writing and design.

Get the expertise you need to grow your business in today’s competitive market.

3 Ways to Personalize Your B2B Content Marketing

April 15, 2014Content MarketingLeave a comment

Recent research completed by CEB Marketing in partnership with Google and Motista reveals that B2B buyers are more likely to purchase from companies that provide personal value over business value. Why? The risk lies with the buyer, that person who most likely wants to retain his job, make good decisions, get promoted, and be held in high esteem for what he knows and what he’s achieved for the company. That’s the person who reads your content. How do you reach him or her?

Getting personal is not about manipulating people. It’s a way of offering a good customer experience. Something we all appreciate. Here are three ways you can personalize your B2B content marketing.

Content consumption

Historic demographics is not the best way to understand your audience. Look at their content consumption habits for better insight. It is a signal of interest. From there you can measure what they share, how many leads are generated and ultimately who purchases. Content consumption is incremental and doesn’t stop at an initial response, page view or click through. Sourcing leads and tracking conversions will familiarize you with how prospects and customers behave online. What are their brand preferences? Interests? What online channels are they on and what are they sharing on social media? Knowing this you can personalize your approach by adding context when introducing new products or services. You can also make recommendations based on their known preferences and past purchases.

Email marketing

Most people subscribe to an email list to get deals, information and values. Behind every email address is a person who has shown interest in your company and its products. Segmenting your email audience by industry, title or whatever category is relevant is the first action to take. This guards against buyers of construction equipment receiving your promotion for automotive widgets.

You can personalize the subject line with your subscriber’s name or company name by inserting a [first name] dynamic tag. You can use tags in the body of your text as well. Use any field in your marketing database. For example, include the brand name of a product that the recipient recently purchased (John Deere), their industry (construction) or reference the town in which they live (Bloomington). Refer to your Google analytics behavior stats or CRM system to reference an action they took. Service providers such as MailChimp, Office Autopilot and InfusionSoft can automate triggered emails based on a subscriber’s activity on your website.

Direct interaction

Ask people to rate your products. Include polls and surveys on your website, blog, social sites or newsletter. This can help you get into your audience’s mindset. In this way you can make a unique product offering. Think of Amazon’s one-to-one target marketing or Netflix. They make offers and recommendations based on visitor interaction.

Are you willing to customize your product or at least personalize your content marketing approach? Put your customer knowledge into practice. Hold onto what is known about them so you can indeed deliver a good customer experience.

Why Ask Questions in Your Content Writing?

November 26, 2013Content StrategyLeave a comment

Some times it is not the solution you give but the question you ask that engages readers of your content. This is especially true in niche markets. A question can be a good indicator that your content is customer-centric rather than product-centric. Asking a question you are genuinely curious about lets readers know you are a thinker, not just a seller. Voltaire judged a man by his questions and Carl Sagan believed: “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions…” On a practical level, questions provide focus and frame your content. They give the reader a path to what lies ahead. Content that goes deeper than surface level yes-no thought is being rewarded by Google too, so give it a try.

Questions are powerful tools

If you want to create a positive mindset, ask a question. If you want to influence behavior, ask a question. That’s according to Professor Delores Albarracin Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in attitudes and persuasion. Her research shows that when you pose a question the brain begins a search for positive answers and recalls past incidents of success.

Here are several ways to cultivate the art of asking good questions in your content.

Be specific. A specific question helps you avoid the “we are for everyone” content syndrome. It hones your thoughts and those of your readers to one aspect of the subject. For example, “Why did we change the handle design of our most popular product?” Is better than “Why does design matter?”

Anticipate. Write about a subject of interest to you and your audience. Anticipate what question they will ask and pose it for them. In this way questions are a great way to share your expertise. Writing about maintaining advanced machine electronics readers may be wondering: “Will jumpstarting batteries ruin my machine electronics?” The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no (depending on the age and type of the equipment). Explain.

Stay open. Open-ended how and why questions will take your reader deeper into the subject. Do not ask about what’s already known. “Why do families eat out?” can be turned into “How many times a week does the average family eat out?”

Be clear. Keep yourself and your audience intrigued with clear, concise questions. Questions must not ambiguous. Identify which product or service you are writing about and under what conditions or applications.

Don’t assume. Leave assumptions out of your questions. “If everyone is using brand X why add another model?” Rest assured your reader knows that not “everyone” is using that brand.

Add complexity. A good question should have some complexity to it. A simple question such as “Will transportation companies respond to new legislation?” can be replaced with: “What are the common challenges transportation companies will face and how can this new legislation reduce the cost of transporting goods?”

Don’t overdo it. One or two targeted questions are usually adequate. You don’t want to sound as if you are drilling your reader.

A question strategy

Begin by finding a good content topic. Ask yourself an initial targeted question. Then sprinkle one or two questions strategically where you want to create a positive mindset or influence your reader. Of course, you should answer the questions you pose in your content. Credible third party sources, personal expertise, and data can be used effectively. Do your research.

Questions will help you limit your topic and the amount of research required to find adequate answers. If you can’t come up with good questions ask your top sales people. For example, when writing about how a company identifies decision makers avoid the yes-no answer. Here’s one from Rick Tiemann, president at The Executive Group: replace “Are you the decision maker?” with “Whose budget does this come from?”

English writer, director and broadcaster Antony Jay said: “The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.” Go ahead and share favorite right or wrong questions that you’ve seen posed in content in the comments box below.

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