B2B Lead Generation Blog

VIDEO: Growing without a Business Plan

Here's a video of Entrepreneur Magazine's Emerging Entrepreneur of 2011 Adam Nelson, about growth strategies that helped his startup succeed. The founder and inventor of the Good Nite Lite never wrote a long-term business plan when he first created his product.



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INFOGRAPHIC: B2B Marketing on LinkedIn and Facebook

From BOP Design, here's an infographic that compares the effectiveness of marketing on LinkedIn and Facebook.



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INFOGRAPHIC: The Future of Marketing Analytics

From Imagine Technology Group, here's an infographic about how tools like mass customization and integrated marketing communications have caused more companies to focus on marketing analytics.



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Using Social Media for Instant Feedback

Social media gives inbound marketers quick feedback that can be turned around to further business objectives. From Hubspot, here are seven ways to leverage your social networks to meet marketing and business goals.

Collect Product Feedback
New product introduction results in a lot of feedback, some of it pointing out legitimate user experience and design issues. You can also solicit feedback from trusted sources prior to launch. Social media networks typically include current customers, prospects, target customers, and industry influencers.

Host a Focus Group
Social media is effective at segmenting focus groups. Google+ circles can segment by industry or location.

Conduct Surveys and Polls
Request that members of your social network share their opinions via surveys or polls. Link participation to a reward.

Ask Industry Experts
Social media is used by many to expand and strengthen their networks. Take advantage of that be getting answers from the best in your networks.

Source Blog Content
Develop topic ideas be soliciting your network for common challenges that they face.

Develop Personas
Developing personas is a crucial part of a successful inbound marketing strategy. Question your social networks to narrow down your audience and create a persona.

Monitor Brand Mentions
Monitor both your brand and the competition. Offer customer support and feedback, regardless of whether they contacted you.

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INFOGRAPHIC: SEO Audit Checklist

From Search Engine Journal, here's an infographic about how to optimize a website for search engines, in no more than 20 minutes.



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Marketing Trends of 2012

What will the year ahead hold for marketing professionals? From Jeff Bullas, here are his predictions for the top ten marketing trends of 2012.

Brand Presence Across Channels
Businesses will begin to coherently connect their marketing approach across the web, social media and other channels.

User-generated Content
Content that comes direct from the potential or existing customer is likely to grow in value.

Mobile Marketing
Companies will develop targeted, mobile-ready content and a willingness to adapt internal marketing processes.

Brands and Social Media Gap Closes
Social media is being taken seriously as a professional marketing tool and as a customer interaction tool.

The Value of Analytics
Businesses will look to clarify and streamline their marketing data and adapt their content according to live viewer response.

Marketing Personalized
Tailored content will be customized to the interests of a specific market.

Content Diversification
Along with personalized marketing, companies will present content focused on telling stories about their business.

Customer Recommendations
Smart businesses will integrate customer feedback and response into their marketing approach, as social media word-of-mouth continues to grow.

Influence Factor
The use of social media to influence users in the real world will gain momentum.

Video
Video will be part of fresher and more user-focused forms of viral marketing.

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INFOGRAPHIC: Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet

From Flowtown, here's an infographic that explains the basics of social media and provides some tips to help small businesses start participating.



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INFOGRAPHIC: Social Content Marketing

From the ODM Group, here's an infographic that explains how content marketing can improve your search rankings and help you engage with customers.



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Internet Marketing Statistics for 2012

Hubspot has published a list of 25 marketing statistics that emphasis the need for inbound marketing in 2012.

Here are ten of those stats:

1. Internet users in the U.S. will expand to 239 million, representing 75.6% of the total population.
2. Mobile Internet users will reach 113.9 million in 2012, up 17.1% from 97.3 million in 2011.
3. Smartphone users will reach 106.7 million in 2012, up 18.4% from 2011.
4. Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2012.
5. About 2/3 of web users will use social networks in 2012.
6. More than 90% of social network users will be on Facebook in 2012.
7. 53.5% of the population and 70.8% of Internet users will watch online video in 2012.
8. Smartphone video viewers will reach 51.2 million in 2012.
9. 88.1% of US Internet users ages 14+ will browse or research products online in 2012.
10. 83.9% of Internet researchers will make at least one purchase via the web during 2012

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INFOGRAPHIC: The Social Media Lifecycle

From uberVu, here's an infographic based on their four pillars of social media success: monitoring, analytics, engagement and reporting.



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