Author: Grace

4 Keys To Lead-Generation Success

Information from Forrester Research Inc. shows that B2B marketers still spend the lion’s share of their budgets on in-person trade shows and events, closely followed by digital advertising/marketing, with content marketing, websites, and digital marketing tied for third place, followed by a broad range of other expenditures.

Our experience in aviation, aerospace and defense marketing confirms the Forrester findings. We especially see that website updates and development has become a priority for many clients. In some cases, these marketers have realized that the time has come to modernize their current site for content, design and functionality. But, increasingly, the need to update a website is driven by a higher-level strategy to use the site as the hub of a larger marketing effort, often an inbound marketing program designed to generate leads from a pool of self-directed buyers who navigate the sales process without the help of a sales rep. In fact, Forrester reports that today’s B2B buyers are two-thirds to 90 percent of the way through their purchase journey before reaching out to the vendor they have found online.

If your marketing group wants to begin using inbound marketing techniques for lead-generation, start by evaluating these four areas:

  1. How will you get visitors to your website?
  2. How will you reward visitors who visit your site? What will you give them?
  3. How will you collect information from them?
  4. How will you use the information you collect?

How will you get people to your website?

The first step in converting a website visitor into a lead, is to attract and build web traffic. But how can you make sure the right people are finding and visiting your website?

  • Organic SEO — Optimize your website to appear in top-ranking search positions by using targeted keywords and by frequently publishing content, including helpful blogs, that is relevant to your audience.
  • Social media — Engage with a social media audience by posting content that is entertaining, educational, relevant, and timely. Observe patterns, note when your audience is the most active online, and post then. Posting articles and links back to your website will drive traffic.
  • Eblast marketing — Sending out an email is a great way to increase website traffic. Eblasts can include a brief preview of blog posts (this week’s most popular blogs, recently published, etc.) or links to other tools on your website, webinars, and other events.
  • Cross linking — Make sure that your business is listed in all relevant directories, and offer to guest blog on other websites. Reaching out will increase your reach and drive additional audience to your website.

For more information, refer to “What is Inbound Marketing?” the first blog in this Flight Manual series.

How will you reward the people who visit your website? What will you give them?

To generate leads, you need to collect contact information from the people who visit. But once a visitor is on your website, they are not just going to fill out a form for the sake of filing out a form. Make sure your website is full of useful tools, and valuable information or offerings that are so desirable visitors will be motivated to complete a form.

  • Variety — Provide a range of content types (checklists, infographics, tool kits, white papers, educational seminars or webinars, etc.) and subject matter to attract the audience you want and to ensure that visitors find something that is a good fit for them.

To see a related infographic, click here.

How will you collect information from the visitors to your website?

Leverage technologies to gather the contact information you seek in the most efficient, effective ways possible.

  • Forms — Forms are the most common way to collect information from website visitors. Make sure you aren’t asking for more information than you need, though, because lengthy forms may scare leads away.
    • Subscriptions — Encourage people to subscribe to your newsletters or podcasts.
    • Register for an event — Host local events (panel discussions, happy hour mixers) or virtual events (webinars or conferences) and encourage people to register ahead of time online.
    • Download content — Consider gating some of your content (with a form) to gather additional information from website visitors.

SumoMe — Evaluate tools like SumoMe that make it easy to add forms to quick and easy sign ups on your website. Free and paid options are available, depending on your needs.

Landing pages — Research tools like Unbounce to create custom landing pages. For each campaign, there should be a specific landing page that drives the visitor to convert, instead of allowing them to get distracted on your website and venture away from completing a form.

How will you use the information you collect?

Once you have your leads, what happens next? Is there an immediate handoff to sales? Is marketing out of the picture?

This is where lead-nurturing techniques come into play, and where close alignment between marketing and sales is essential.

Next week’s blog will focus on setting expectations and how to nurture and guide prospects through the funnel to a closed sale and satisfied customer.

In the meantime, there are plenty of online resources where you can learn more about best practices in B2B lead generation. These include, but are not limited to, Pardot, Hubspot, and Marketo.

Don’t forget: Digital marketing is key to most lead-generation efforts. Download this useful digital marketing guide to learn more.

14 Types of Content To Engage Your Audience

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Today’s consumers have learned how to shut out traditional marketing tactics. Television commercials can be fast forwarded and online banner ads no longer grab our immediate attention. Marketers need to adapt their strategies to re-engage and once again capture their customer’s attention.

Content marketing is an effective way to attract and retain customers by consistently creating, curating and providing relevant and valuable information. But what exactly is content?

Check out BDN’s newest infographic below, or download “14 Types of Content To Engage Your Audience” here.

BDN-Content-inforgraphic-20160105

Sources

“75% of business executives watch work-related videos weekly” – Hubspot

“40% of people respond better to visual information than plain text” – Web Marketing Group[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

How to Make Inbound Marketing Work for Your Aviation Business

Inbound Marketing can attract customers to aerospace businessesAerospace and aviation companies looking for every competitive advantage should be taking a closer look at inbound marketing. Inbound delivers a range of important benefits, including:

  • Reaching and engaging closely targeted prospects
  • Generating quantifiable leads
  • Elevating and building credibility for your brand
  • Becoming a thought leader in your market
  • Increasing your website traffic and search engine ranking (SEO)

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a philosophy that challenges traditional, interruptive techniques for an all-new approach based on attraction. It’s designed to complement today’s B2B buying behavior, and it works.

It’s called inbound because it draws potential customers in to you, eliminating the need to reach out with a cold call or email. Just imagine – the customers come to you!

Inbound marketing works when you help your audience find you (via your website) and give them answers to burning questions, hard-to-find information they need or want, help with their most difficult challenges or even authentic inspiration or motivation. In a word, content. We’ll talk more about that in next week’s chapter.

As HubSpot, an inbound marketing authority says, “by publishing the right content in the right place at the right time, your marketing becomes relevant and helpful to your customers, not interruptive.”

The most important thing to remember is this — everyone is looking for help — but no one is looking to be sold.

Why Should You Care?

If you want a more relevant, efficient and effective marketing program, you should care about inbound marketing. Inbound generates more qualified and receptive leads, at less cost with a higher conversion rate, than traditional outbound marketing.

Traditional Marketing Examples

Depending on the plan and frequency, these items can add up fast, potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  • Advertising
  • Direct Mailers
  • Purchasing Lists

Inbound Examples

Depending on your internal resources, many inbound tactics have little or no cost.

  • Blogging
  • Content
  • Subscriber List

If you have something to say, or something to sell, inbound marketing creates an environment by which someone who needs your product can easily find you. And that’s something any marketer can get behind.

What Should I Do to Get Started?

Here are 7 phased steps to jump-start your effort.

Phase 1

  1. Create and maintain a modern, up-to-date website that is mobile- and search-engine friendly. This is the hub of your inbound program. Be sure to include an area for viewers to subscribe to your content.
  2. Hold a brainstorm meeting to gather content ideas. Ask yourself “what questions do customers or prospects most frequently ask? What are current hot topics or needs in the market?”
  3. Create a content and tactical monthly calendar – this should be the foundation for all your marketing-related activities.
  4. Create and distribute your content through channels like email, social media, website and blogging.

Phase 2

  1. You should see a spike in website traffic as a result of your content and promotion strategy. Begin converting traffic into leads by using landing pages, savvy calls to action and substantial content and offers.
  2. Use lead nurturing techniques to convert leads into sales, integrating with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
  3. Convert customers into brand ambassadors.

How Can it Work for Aviation, Aerospace and Defense Businesses?

BDN began using inbound techniques for our own business in July 2015, and the results have been more than encouraging. In fact, this blog is one important element of a multi-dimensional strategy that is delivering real results.

A wide variety of B2B businesses in an array of industries are making inbound work for them, and you can, too. Hubspot did a helpful piece about “16 Companies in Boring Industries Creating Remarkable Content,” and if boring industries can do it, imagine the potential for aerospace. Our work and products are exciting, but we default to presenting them in expected, non-interesting ways.

GE — well known within the aviation sector — is breaking away from the norm and is widely recognized for having a best-in-class inbound program that is refreshingly modern and unexpectedly unique and creative. Examples include Pinterest boards entitled “Mind=Blown” and “Badass Machines,” and a humorous take on the Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” meme featuring Thomas Edison. Other examples include entertaining science-related YouTube videos and Txchnologist, a magazine designed to highlight “the great challenges of our era through industry, technology and ingenuity.”

In addition to BDN’s Inbound Marketing case study and Hubspot, here are some other relevant resources to expand your knowledge and understanding of inbound marketing:

  • Learn how to cultivate subscribers and why they are better than leads here.
  • Marketo is an alternative to Hubspot.
  • Jay Baer is a renowned social media and content marketing consultant and his Convince and Convert blog is a great, worthwhile read.

Don’t forget: Digital marketing is key to most lead-generation efforts. Download this useful digital marketing guide to learn more.

2016 Trade Show Directory

shutterstock_258257249According to Forrester Research, B2B marketers are spending more on trade shows, conferences and events than on any other marketing tactic, and events are essential to most aerospace marketers.

Year after year, this handy directory of more than 250 aerospace, defense and aviation events is our most popular download.  It’s the ultimate industry event reference — get yours today.

Download 2016 Trade Show Directory

15 Cool and Clever Gift Ideas For Aviation Marketers To Give

shutterstock_118428598It’s December, and for marketers, ‘tis the season to be creative and clever in our professional gift giving.

So, just in time for the holidays, the BDN elves are here to help with a list of 15 unexpected and inspired ideas for that hard-to-buy for guy or gal. Everything on the list was hand-picked by our resourceful team members for a range of budgets and personalities — there really is something for everyone.

So what are you waiting for? Let the shopping begin.

Make it personal

1. Marketers spend endless hours fine-tuning projects to make sure every detail is just right. Turning one of those projects in to a piece of art can be a great gift. BDN has had great success with this in the past. One client loved their framed ad enough to order more prints as facility artwork. Another proudly displays it in her office.

2. Why not create a basket of favorites? Have members of your team select items that represent them well. Consider gifts such as books, food, tea or coffee — really anything that can fit in your customized gift basket.

3. An old school journal is a great way to jot down good ideas when you aren’t connected. Make it special with a handwritten note on the first page.

Make it practical

4. Road warriors may enjoy a multi-purpose, travel-friendly TSA-approved tool like this.

5. Create a convenient, hands-free stand anywhere with a gooseneck tablet holder. Clamp it to the edge of a desk, airplane tray or favorite easy chair and adjust. Available for phones, too.

6. Coffee lovers who travel don’t always have the luxury of an in-room coffee maker, and that means waiting in line at the nearest Starbucks. A packable coffee maker (with tote bag) is the ideal alternative.

7. Send your customer a collection of small gift cards that they can share throughout the office. Buy someone a cup of coffee from Starbucks with a gift card, a burrito from Chipotle for a quick lunch, or even a gift card for happy hour to celebrate a hard day’s work. Keep the amounts small to provide a wide variety and a fun little pick-me-up that can be shared around the office.

Make it unique

8. Etsy is an online marketplace where people make, sell and buy unique goods. We did a quick search using the term “jet aircraft” and found everything from beautiful aircraft models to one-of-a-kind photography, unique vintage memorabilia and hand-crafted jewelry.

9. Chances are, your giftee does not already have a bubble wrap calendar. What an unexpected and fun idea. Perfect for the office gift exchange.

10. Find some gifts that are seasonal but relate just to your industry. Your business could send this aviation nutcracker or some themed ornaments.

Make it cool

11. You’d be hard-pressed to find an aviation geek who wouldn’t get excited by a camera drone. There are plenty of products for a range of budgets. Here’s one option.

12. Cordless, 3D printing pen? Yes, please!

13. Selfie sticks are all the rage and make it easy to shoot people and places (with an aircraft in the background, of course) with just your phone.

Pay it forward

14. Support other local (small) businesses and send the client some love from your main location. For BDN, we could send Arizona favorites like from the Queen Creek Olive Mill, sweet treats from FluffIt Marshmallows or other community favorites.

15. In lieu of a traditional gift, make a donation to the recipient’s favorite local charity.  Not sure if they have a corporate social responsibility platform?  Plant a tree in their honor. Places likes the Arbor Day Foundation are ready to help. Be the first to pay it forward and show good will with the spirit of giving.

Give your Aviation Marketing a Lift!

2016 is just around the corner. Make it a resolution to take your marketing to the next level. The experts at BDN Aerospace Marketing have pulled together this infographic on 12 Secrets to Marketing Success.

Need resources to help you accomplish these tasks? Check out our free Marketing Tool Kit.

You can also download the full graphic here.

BDN_Inofgraphic_12secrets_final-2

 

Sources

  1. 85% of aerospace marketers report having a plan (Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association)
  2. 36% of aerospace marketers don’t set goals at all; only 18% measure (Columbia Business School’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association)
  3. 80% of B2B decision makers prefer to get information from articles vs. advertising (Roper Public Affairs)
  4. B2B orgs with aligned sales/marketing orgs have 38% higher sales win rates (CMO Council)
  5. 67% of online consumers want clear detailed photos more than product information (Wishpond)
  6. Spending on sales enablement technology has increased 69% in past 2 years (Business 2 Community)
  7. 61% of global Internet users research products online (Interconnected World: Shopping and Personal Finance)
  8. 78% of CMOs think custom content is the future of marketing (The Drum)
  9. 95% of buyers choose provider offering best content help (DemandGen Report)
  10. 50% of B2B campaigns fail because the message was not matched with the correct audience. (Frantz Group)

Tradeshow Evaluation Checklist

shutterstock_201256211Trade shows, events and conferences are important opportunities for aerospace industry marketers. Before you commit to a schedule for the year, carefully consider and evaluate what you’ll get for your investment. This checklist will help.

And don’t forget to download this comprehensive list of more than 300 A&D industry trade shows. It’s invaluable for planning and is our most popular resource.

Everything You Need for 2016 Planning

shutterstock_252807547Thanksgiving will be here in the blink of an eye. Christmas is just around the corner. If you have not already started to write next year’s marketing plan, it’s time to get started now.

If you plan to go it alone, and write the plan yourself, this guide will be invaluable. If it’s time to hire an outside firm, we have a resource for that, too.

Here, all of the helpful tools and information we’ve been sharing in 2015 have been consolidated into a master guide for 2016 planning. We hope it’s useful and welcome your feedback and ideas for improvement.

Let’s get started and take it step by step.

Step 1. Information & Understanding

It’s important to build on a foundation of solid knowledge, so you’ll want to do a complete situation analysis. Start by ensuring that you know everything there is to know about your organization’s products, services, channels, markets, and plans for the year ahead. Will there be new products or certifications? Improvements to existing products? New channels to market? Assess your competition and do an honest SWOT analysis. Interview key personnel in other relevant organizations. Conduct market research if appropriate.

Step 2. Establish Goals

Talk to management. Talk to sales. Take the time to uncover what matters to them. What do they expect marketing to contribute in 2016? What do they want marketing to contribute? Specifically, what are the sales goals and priorities for the year ahead? How can marketing create an environment conducive to generating leads and closing sales? Ensuring that marketing and sales work in partnership (using a CRM system for tracking) is more important than ever. It will benefit both organizations and your company as a whole.

Use what you learn to document 3-5 clear, specific, measurable goals. Here is a highly simplified example to kick off the process.

Goal: Grow legacy product sales by 5% to $100 million.

Market 1: Fixed-wing commercial, Domestic, $10M International, $30M

Market 2: Rotorcraft, military, DoD, $25M, International, $35M

Goal: Grow new product sales by 10% to $50 million.

Market 1: Military fixed wing products, $30M, International only

Market 2: Commercial fixed-wing products, $20M, Domestic, $15M, International, $5M

Goal: Launch a new certified product in Q3. Achieve first 10 sales by year-end.

Market: Commercial rotorcraft

Of course, your plan will delve deeper into each identified market, listing specific countries, sub-markets, and customer opportunities. You will also want to develop customer personas and ensure understanding of their pain points and your relevant solutions.

The steps that follow will then support each of these goals.

Step 3. Strategy & Messaging

This is where your experience, expertise and creativity fuse to ignite a strategy that will drive success.

Will you structure a traditional integrated marketing campaign? Will you make the leap to an inbound marketing program using marketing automation? Perhaps you will launch a dealer outreach program, or include a higher-level branding campaign to reposition your company in the hearts and minds of customers.

The possibilities are endless, and your strategy should be driven by your goals, markets and, in some cases, budget realities.

The right messaging and creative approach are critically important. You’ll want to develop compelling value propositions, supporting messaging and, if appropriate, a brand promise and “elevator speech.”

Your value proposition is the heart and soul of your marketing program, so spend time to get it right. When people read your value proposition they should have an “aha” moment and intuitively understand exactly who you are, what you do, and why they should care.

All of this, and more, is covered in the BDN Marketing Planner.

Step 4: Tactics & Tools

From social media and advertising to white papers and infographics, there are more marketing tactics and tools than ever before. Choose your tactics based on what you want to accomplish. For example, the tactics used to build awareness are different than those used to establish domain expertise. BDN has developed tools and kits designed to help you master the use of specific tactics, including: Digital, Public Relations, and Trade Shows.

Step 5: Budget & Measurement

A recent study by Forrester Research showed that on average, 2015 b-to-b marketing budgets make up 7% of revenue, up from 4% in 2014. In our experience, aerospace and aviation companies tend to spend less. We strongly encourage you to build your budget based on accepted b-to-b benchmarks, and show management how you will deliver a return on its investment. Ask for what you need to be successful instead of trying (often in vain) to get by with a budget built in a vacuum. This white paper & checklist should help.

Linking marketing investment to measurable results is imperative, so make sure you are known for outcomes versus outputs. Always develop metrics and a control process to justify the requested budget to management, and monitor performance of the plan. Marketing communications plans call for specific timeframes and specific performance standards — these are the metrics of your plan. Be sure to check out BDN’s Marketing Planner — there is a section devoted to measurement, with helpful tools and resources.

It’s no fun starting the New Year already feeling behind. So start planning now. You’ll be finished before the holidays and can start 2016 feeling in charge and in control.

Exhibiting At A Trade Show

MRL_tradeshowIs your company ready to commit to taking a new approach to trade shows? If so, this document is a simple guide to help you get started. Adopting these principles and applying them at your company is the first step toward a more effective process and improved, measurable results. Consider this your manifesto for turning the tyranny of trade shows into a key component of business success.

Click here to read the full white paper. And don’t forget to download our comprehensive guide to more than 300+ A&D industry shows. It’s free!