Business News – The Internet presents challenges and opportunities

THUNDER BAY – Business News – The Internet presents challenges and opportunities for business. For the business user, the Internet offers the ability to reach lots of people in what seems easy. However making the transition from a view to an engagement for business can be difficult. A great deal of the issue is in determining the goal, and being able to document accurate results.

According to new research from Marketing Profs and the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of B2C marketers in North America are using content marketing, employing 12 individual tactics on average. But B2C content marketers are struggling with the effectiveness of their content marketing, according to the report.

Northwestern Ontario for the most part is not at the cutting edge in terms of adopting the newest technology. Often parts of the region will lag behind major centres. Moving effectively into the future means adopting new ideas faster, and thinking outside of past often self-set parameters.

It can be as simple as a restaurant offering wireless for customers. Recent trips to several local restaurants which attract a business lunch crowd witnessed no WiFi hotspot. At one restaurant the wait staff member commented that ‘the owner doesn’t trust us’ and that is why there isn’t wifi. Imagine the message that sends to staff and customers alike?

Fearing new technology is not a path to embracing new sales, and market opportunities.

Moving into the future, adopting new ideas, smarter tactics and strategies, and letting the technology do more of the ‘heavy lifting’ is going to be key to success in the region, and in the cities and towns in our part of the province.

That must include the online strategy for businesses. Simply having a website that is not updated frequently, or having a Facebook page but not actively keeping it up is likely worse than not having one at all. With many of the open source software for creating website, including WordPress, Joomla and others, making an Search Engine Optimized web site is far easier than in the past.

Highlights of the “B2C Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America” study include:

• B2B marketers use social media more often than their B2C counterparts. However, B2C marketers consider it more effective
• On average, B2C marketers use four social media platforms, compared with the five used by B2B marketers.
• On average, 28% of B2C marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing, and 55% of consumer marketers plan to increase their content marketing spend

In general, the larger the B2C company, the more tactics used. Companies with 10,000 or more employees use an average of 16 tactics, whereas the smallest companies use an average of 10. Compared with their B2B counterparts, B2C marketers use more mobile content, mobile apps, print magazines, and print newsletters; however, B2C marketers use far fewer case studies, whitepapers, webinars/webcasts, and research reports.

In Northwestern Ontario there are not a lot of companies with 10,000 employees or more.However there are tools, strategies and tactics that business owners can use for their online strategies.

Lack of budget is the challenge most cited by B2C content marketers: 52% (vs. 39% of B2B content marketers). Nearly an equal proportion cite producing enough content (51%) and producing the kind of content that engages (49%) as challenges they face.

The Top 3 biggest challenges cited by B2C Marketers are:

• B2C marketers said lack of budget is their biggest challenge (vs. 14% of B2B marketers).
• 15% said producing enough content is their biggest challenge (vs. 15% of B2B marketers).
• 15% said producing the kind of content that engages is their biggest challenge (vs. 18% of B2B marketers).

What must be considered in online marketing is targeting the audience. Facebook is a major source of potential readers for your site. There are over 70,000 accounts registered on the social media site listing Thunder Bay as their home. Considering that it is likely, but not easily documentable, that many of those accounts are either inactive or duplicate accounts, spending massive money advertising on Facebook is something to do with a serious strategy.

There are many businesses in Thunder Bay with over 1000 ‘fans’ or ‘friends’ on Facebook. What is common on the social media giant is for people to sign up for an event, but never show up to it. What a lot of that activity likely demonstrates is a degree of support.

B2C marketers and B2B marketers both agree on the primacy of in-person events as a content marketing tactic: 62% of B2c marketers say it’s an effective tactic, as do 67% of B2B marketers. More B2C marketers than B2B marketers rank social media as “effective” or “very effective”: 57% of B2C marketers vs. 49% of B2B marketers.

More B2C marketers than B2B marketers rank print materials (magazines as well as newsletters) as “effective” or “very effective”: 51% of B2C marketers vs. 34% of B2B marketers for print magazines, and 42% of B2C marketers vs. 28% of B2B marketers for print newsletters.

One possible strategy is online advertorials published in popular online news sites. While print sounds great, there is a cost and there is a very definite timeline to a print ad. Consider this, what was the top news story published a week ago? Can’t remember? You are not alone. A print ad published in a physical publication will be something that the advertiser will notice. The consumer who is not going to be actively looking for it, is likely to see the ad.

That is not to downplay the power of print advertising. It is however to point out that a broader strategy is needed.

The average share of marketing budget spent on B2C content marketing is 28% (on average, B2B marketers allocate a bit more: 33%). 55% of B2C marketers say they will increase their content marketing spend over the next 12 months.

B2C marketers use an average of four social media sites to distribute content, whereas B2B marketers use an average of five. B2C marketers most often use Facebook, whereas B2B marketers most often use LinkedIn.

Concluding, the report says the most effective B2C content marketers:

• Spend a higher percentage of their marketing budget on content marketing
• Use more tactics and distribute content on more social networks
• Tailor content to specific profiles/personas more frequently
• Are far less challenged in terms of producing engaging content
• Are less challenged with lack of buy-in/vision from higher-ups

What is working well for major companies is likely worthy of examination by small companies. In Thunder Bay the small business sector faces many challenges. Cross border shopping, high costs of doing business, and long hours for the small independent business owner all make it harder to keep up. However figuring out new and better ways to share a message, build ‘mindshare’ and grow your company are possible.

This eBook will cover the four types of metrics that help marketers like you understand how your content impacts your business: