Lessons from digital marketing webinars (June 2023)

Things continue to move at pace in the world of digital marketing and marketing automation (MarTech). It’s hard to find valuable and reliable sources of information so I wanted to share some insights from some excellent webinars I recently attended. Lessons from digital marketing webinars (June 2023): How to get 100 sales leads in 90 days, Powering up LinkedIn and Making ChatGPT work for you.

Digital marketing update – How to Get 100 Sales Leads in 90 Days

On 20^th April there was an information-rich and insightful webinar by Steve Pailthorpe, the CEO of Iconic Digital who I had the good fortune of meeting through the Worshipful Company of Marketors. His webinar wasn’t targeted at professional services but the content was relevant.

His introduction covered: cost per acquisition, effective digital marketing strategy, generating £3 for every £1 spent, the F-shaped pattern of eye-scanning on web sites, conversion rate optimisation and attribution modelling. He reflected that your web site is your primary digital asset. He commented on the use of no more than three colours – with blue providing the strongest signal for links. He noted the impact of user search intent and voice activated devices and asked whether your content answers questions with the right key words. He went on to outline steps in the marketing chassis. Here are some highlights:

1. Organic search

96% prospects locate your site through Google Search key phrases. The starting point is to consider what people are searching for (use the key word universe report and search metrics). He stressed the importance of back links in enhancing your search results (ideally aim to add around 10 each month). The key words need to appear in top three results – so they should be included in the page title, meta description and content on web site. Adopt a “You ask, we answer” strategy. This could generate up to 10 leads a month.

2. Paid search

He acknowledged that most people avoid listings but 4% of the audience click on links. He reminded us that you only pay where people click so it does also provide free brand awareness. Conversion rates on landing pages vary between 3% and 13% (he advised to remove distractions but show your telephone number). You can create bespoke landing pages from £30 pcm.  In his example, he suggested that you could achieve 10 leads from Google ads, 10 leads from remarketing and 10 from display ads each month.

3. Content hub

Your aim should be to become the primary source of information for your industry. Blog posts should appear at least once a week but ideally 3-4 times a week. Long form (1,000 to 1,500 words) gets more traction. He suggested analysing competitor posts using  Ahrefs – SEO Tools & Resources To Grow Your Search Traffic. He also suggested pre-recorded videos (with transcripts) from which you can create smaller segments with a strong call to action (offer something for free). He also suggested that gated content was a powerful way to generate leads. He advised a 90 day content strategy to define all posts. Another 10 leads per month from this source.

4. Social media

Primarily used on a person-to-person basis to endorse a B2C or B2B brand in front of a wider audience. Facebook is now the preserve of the “grey haired” with younger people using TikTok, Instagram and YouTube with business users primarily on LinkedIn. Brand reinforcement and content amplification were the main benefits.

He mentioned a solicitor in London who was resistant to social media but posted once a week on LinkedIn (Stephen advised 3 – 5 posts a week). Facebook and Instagram were used for a few days for commercial litigation and three enquiries were received.

He observed that LinkedIn had changed fundamentally over the last two years with comments and shares becoming more important than likes (see below). He suggested creating a sharing community – of both posts and stories – where users made more substantial comments.  He recommended a 90-day strategy of awareness with theme days and posts being authoritative, direct, to the point and with a clear next step. Another 10 leads pcm from this source.

5. Meta ecosystem advertising

Facebook and Instagram working with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger provide an advertising environment where 30-90 second videos triumph. The cost per click is generally lower than Google. But there is a cost to play with a minimum spend of £1,000 pcm (£33 a day).

6. Email marketing automation

“The day of the newsletter is finished”. He proposed a carefully crafted plain-text, three paragraph email was most likely to succeed. It must incorporate trust (i.e. from an individual sender), interest (engaging subject line) and action. He said the preview pane was important as 85% read emails on mobile devices which show the first two lines – so include urgency and action there. An email every two weeks was suggested.

He stressed the importance of segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) and mentioned the three licenced list brokers in the UK. GatorLeads (from Spotler) can be used to track the digital footprint of your target audience. He suggested that in an audience of 10,000 there might be 1,000 opens and 100 click throughs – so possibly a further 10 leads pcm.

7. Integration of your digital infrastructure

All elements need to be integrated and businesses need to increase their investment in marketing now.

Iconic Digital – Award-winning Digital Marketing Agency in London

Learning Centre – Iconic Digital

Shortly after the webinar, I received a copy of the book “The Digital Revolution – The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Effective Digital Marketing” by Steve Pailthorpe which covers the webinar contents in more detail. It’s available on Amazon for around £14.

Powering up LinkedIn

Through the Profile Property Marketing Network Home – Profile (profile-network.com) I attended a webinar on 3^rd May 2023 presented by Adam Jones of Nurture – Professional Services Marketing (nurturepsm.com) (for the built environment). Some of his key points:

1. Act before and after posting – Before posting, engage with other people’s posts and view their profiles. Review your notifications and follow these up. Once you’ve posted, engage with those who respond with comments in the first few hours. Add your own comments although don’t be the first to comment.

2. Post frequently – The frequency and timing of your posts has an impact. You don’t need to post daily but find a rhythm and avoid two posts close together as they will cannibalise exposure. The first few hours after posting should achieve the most engagement so time this to gain maximum exposure – The best times are Monday to Thursday morning. More personal posts perform better at weekends.

3. Consider how to present text – Provide space between paragraphs which should contain only one to two sentences. Use a minimum of four lines and deploy emojis and different fonts. Up to 1,600 characters ideally. Consider layouts for both desktop (first line is 140 characters) and mobile (first line 96 characters).

4. Use different formats – Carousels, polls and text posts perform well – whereas external links are less good (so include an abbreviated form of articles in posts). Video (moving from landscape to portrait) affects metrics differently – views are counted after three seconds.

5. Take care with hashtags – Whilst they extend reach beyond your network there’s limited research on effectiveness. Don’t use more than five hashtags. Tagging people helps if they engage but it’s a negative impact if they don’t.

6. Comment more – Commenting on others’ posts has more impact than reposting – unless you add a comment with an insight when reposting.

7. Use company posts – Aim for 2 – 5 posts a week. Encourage members of the firm to repost with a comment for amplification. Follow other companies and clients.

8. Encourage your teams to engage more – Support amplification by having team members comment on and share each others’ content.

9. Update profiles – Review regularly so that there are up-to-date headshots and suitable headlines. Convey personality through posts and comments.

Simon P MARSHALL | LinkedIn This legal marketing expert is a great source of information and demonstrates fabulous LinkedIn practice on a daily basis.

Paul Sams | LinkedIn This property lawyer at Dutton Gregory solicitors demonstrates great use of LinkedIn and has earned a significant following (20,000+) as a result.

Making ChatGPT work for you

Another impressive webinar was provided by Ben Lee of Bidwells through Property Marketing Network Home – Profile (profile-network.com) towards the end of May.

He explained how they had spent a lot of hours investigating how AI tools could assist the M&BD team. He took us on their journey investigating the use and value of ChatGPT – prompting (engineering your requests), priming (providing full context) and personas (understanding the audience).

He commented on what went badly:  researching, on-brand editing, one-shot content, consistent results, original ideas and connecting abstract concepts. What went well was: summarising long form content, organising creative thoughts, turning ideas into plans, writing project briefs, helping decide where to begin and first drafts.

He demonstrated how they have increased efficiency in producing case studies through the following steps:

1. Collect ideas and thoughts (e.g. provide a master case study)
2. Tell it what you want (e.g. explain what you want and how you will provide information)
3. Show it what good looks like
4. Give it the facts (and receive the first draft)
5. Refine (indicate how you would like it to change)
6. Get coaching from the system (receive final AI draft)
7. Human edit

They have reduced the time of producing a case study from 3.2 hours to around an hour.

He also talked through an example of writing up discussions at an event. His conclusion: It’s a super-powered personal assistant but you need to train AI as you would a person.

He summarised his presentation – using some of the AI tools – in this post Making ChatGPT work for you | LinkedIn

Other digital marketing courses

Please remember that the PM Forum provides a series of digital marketing training courses in conjunction with Ciaran Rogers and Daniel Rowles of Online Digital Marketing Courses | Training | Certification | Elearning | Target Internet  (who produce the excellent Digital Marketing Podcast which has 130,000 listeners per month). Topics include:

• Hands on guide to search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Email marketing and marketing automation
• Social media best practice, planning and strategy
• Planning digital campaigns and content strategy
• Getting more from display and social advertising
• Analytics & Measurement for digital marketing – including GA4
• Creating effective digital content – video and podcasts

You may also find this useful Marketing in the Metaverse – An opportunity for professional services? (kimtasso.com)