123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: You Have an Idea. Now What?

An idea for a business, product or service can fuel your business success or result in an expensive and ego-deflating mistake. How can you ensure that your idea at least gets a fair shake?

Small business strategist Peter Gasca writes on Entrepreneur.com that there are five ways to quickly validate an idea:

1. See if your idea already exists. A few quick Internet searches will reveal if someone else has already gotten into the market. Even if they have, Gasca writes, "do not give up on your inspiration too hastily. Perhaps there are ways to improve on the existing product? Can you offer value to the business already producing it? Could the market be satisfied better?"
2. Solicit feedback. Get honest input from people you respect -- and listen to it. If no one else thinks your idea has merit, reconsider.
3. Build a "Minimum Viable Product." Gasca suggests you build a working prototype to determine if the product can really be used. It's easier than ever to build a prototype with emerging technologies such as 3D printing. Use it, test it, and have others test it.
4. Build your brand early. Positive feedback and a working prototype are a great beginning, so now's the time to develop a brand. "In today's fast moving and innovating business environment," writes Gasca, "an idea that is validated today may be knocked off or even obsolete tomorrow, so do not linger."
5. Create a plan to acquire customers. "You may have the best business plan in the world, but without customers, your business is nothing," writes Gasca. How will you acquire your first customer -- and subsequent customers? As Gasca says, "Just remember, it is much easier to build a business around a demand than to build a demand around a business."

For more information about making your idea successful, check out the 123 eGuide, Product Launch 123: Launch a Product or Service in 3 Proven Steps. Purchase Product Launch 123 for just $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store, in any eBook format at Smashwords.com, or wherever eBooks are sold. 

1 Minute Advice: Video Marketing on the Rise

Video is becoming increasingly important as a form of content marketing. A new study conducted by marketing research firm Demand Metric for Vidyard, a video marketing platform vendor, indicates that marketing professionals feel video is "far more important" (63%) or "somewhat important" (32%) as a content marketing medium.

Video also produces results: Over 70% of respondents report that video performs better than other content for producng conversions. While 86% say they are using some form of measurement to determine the effectiveness of videos, most of that measurement is basic, such as analyzing views or shares. Measuring the ROI of videos from a marketing perspective (i.e., to what extent each video generates qualified leads) is still elusive.

Over 30% of the large companies responding said they produce in excess of 100 marketing videos annually, vs. 4% of small companies and 5% of medium companies. Of the companies surveyed, 69% indicate they indicate to "significantly increase" (16%) or "slightly increase" (53%) their video content budget.

Content marketing is a key component of today's B2B media mix. Read more about the use of such media in the new 123 eGuide, B2B Marketing 123. It presents a 3 step approach for marketing to businesses that is grounded in timeless principles but recognizes and takes advantage of the brand new marketing world we live in. 

Purchase B2B Marketing 123 today for just $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store or in any eBook format, including PDF, at Smashwords.com. This title will also be available wherever eBooks are sold. 

 

1 Minute Advice: Content Marketing Captures B2B Attention

A new report from Starfleet Media indicates that 63% of B2B marketers are enamored of content marketing. They all plan to increase their content marketing budgets in the next twelve months. In fact, 23% of respondents will likely double their content marketing budgets.

The most popular forms of content marketing with B2B marketers are case studies or client success stories, company-branded white papers, company-branded webinars and videos, and company-branded eBooks. These marketers keep about 80 percent of their content marketing "gated," which means they typically require the individual requesting the information to complete a registration form of some sort.

As for measuring the effectiveness of content marketing, 84% track and measure the number of leads generated by content marketing, 78% measure sales conversions, and 66% measure lead quality.

The surveyed companies were all B2B marketers ranging in size from very large to very small, with about 70% of respondents from North America.

Content marketing is a key component of today's B2B media mix. Read more about the use of such media in the new 123 eGuide, B2B Marketing 123. It presents a 3 step approach for marketing to businesses that is grounded in timeless principles but recognizes and takes advantage of the brand new marketing world we live in. 

Purchase B2B Marketing 123 today for just $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store or in any eBook format, including PDF, at Smashwords.com. This title will also be available wherever eBooks are sold. 

New eGuide! B2B Marketing 123

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new eGuide, B2B Marketing 123. It presents a 3 step approach for marketing to businesses that is grounded in timeless principles but recognizes and takes advantage of the brand new marketing world we live in. This eGuide focuses on:

 1. Understanding audience: Step 1 discusses the special nature of B2B audiences, the B2B purchasing environment, identifying audience hot buttons, audience segmentation, the new audience dynamic, and how to match products to audiences.

2. Leveraging the media of today and tomorrow: Step 2 presents an overview of all B2B media and covers general media trends, developing an audience-driven media strategy, basics of B2B online marketing, B2B use of social media, how to evaluate media ROI, and inbound vs. outbound marketing.

3. Creating a customer-centric culture: Step 3 addresses the need for a customer-centric culture. It discusses customer-centric strategies, developing a customer-centric marketing plan and budgetary planning.

Written by Barry Silverstein, a B2B marketing expert with over 35 years of branding and marketing experience, this eGuide is essential reading for every B2B marketer. A wealth of additional resources are included.

Purchase B2B Marketing 123 today for just $2.99 at the Amazon Kindle store or in any eBook format, including PDF, at Smashwords.com. This title will also be available wherever eBooks are sold.

1 Minute Advice: Don't "X" Out Gen X

In marketing circles these days, a lot of attention is being paid to Millennials (about 68 million 18 to 33 year olds) and Boomers (about 75 million 49 to 67 year olds). Together, these two groups make up over 60% of the U.S. population.

That makes it easy to "x" out Gen X (34 to 48 years old) -- but that would be a mistake. Gen Xers make up about 25% of the U.S. population, over 60 million strong. What's more Gen Xers, especially affluent ones, are generally more optimistic about the U.S. economy than their younger and older counterparts, according to a recent Shulman Pulse study. 

Affluent Gen Xers should not be overlooked by marketers because they are planning significant expenditures, according to the study. Paying for their children's college expenses is a primary concern for half of Gen Xers; retirement planning is also high on the list of concerns. Pleasure travel and purchasing luxury items are two of the leading expenditures planned by affluent Gen Xers.

Affluent Gen Xers have an average household income that is close to three times that of adults in the general population. The study indicates that, on a per-adult basis, Gen Xers are actually ranked above other generations based on total net worth dollars and total income dollars.

1 Minute Advice: Use Branded Content Because Consumers Trust It

One of the more significant online marketing trends is branded content -- and the good news is that branded content is not just well received, but trusted by consumers.

New research by native advertising company Vibrant Media into the value consumers place on digital content shows that just two percent more consumers trust content from publications (35 percent) than from brands (33 percent). However, the data also found that there are more consumers who distrust content from publications (18 percent) than there are who distrust content from brands (15.5 percent).

When Vibrant Media’s researchers focused their assessment on media titles and brands with which consumers were familiar, they exposed a greater disparity in levels of distrust between brands and media titles: the number of consumers that distrust content from media titles they know (12 percent) is double the number who distrust content from brands that they know (6 percent). 

Craig Gooding, Executive Chairman & Founder of Vibrant Media, said, “The very fact that consumers’ level of trust in branded content is even on par with editorial is very surprising. Moreover, the higher levels of distrust in publishers’ content than branded content shows far less cynicism about branded content than we expected. The findings have reassured us that publishers who offer branded content, or are considering doing so, are not compromising their relationship with consumers – as long as they do so responsibly.” 

Vibrant Media’s researchers also found that when consumers want more information about a brand or product after seeing an ad, one in three (33 percent) said the most useful source of information was the advertiser’s own website. This was five times the number of consumers who stated that articles written by journalists about the brand or product are the most useful source of information (6 percent).

Images ranked highest in Vibrant Media’s poll of consumers’ receptivity to branded content formats – 64 percent stating that they were receptive to brands’ images and just 12 percent saying they were not receptive to images. Video content followed, with 57 percent stating they were receptive and 20 percent unreceptive to such branded content.