B2B Marketing

Get Cheaper Leads From Facebook With This Free Lead Gen Chatbot [Tutorial]

By Bhaskar Sarma 2 Comments

Lately there has been a lot of chatter about Facebook Messenger bots.

That hype is backed by a solid number too: there are an estimated 1.2 billion Facebook Messenger users as of Q1 2017, and the platform is adding thousands of new users every day.

Regardless of what you are selling, you can bet that your ideal customers, clients or users are on Messenger.

With more and more people using mobile devices over desktops and laptops to go online, it’s critical that your lead gen systems keep up with changing behavior patterns.

This is why you should pay attention to messaging apps, because it’s much more natural to text something in a chat than fill out a form on a small smartphone, like those forms on landing pages that Facebook ads send traffic to. [Read more…] about Get Cheaper Leads From Facebook With This Free Lead Gen Chatbot [Tutorial]

How to write a whitepaper without getting Force choked by a Sith Lord

By Bhaskar Sarma 2 Comments

On a gloomy day in Coruscant, Darth Vader sat in his office block, breathing more deeply than usual.

The Empire was building a second Death Star and the Emperor wanted him to monitor every phase of the construction.

He was particularly interested in the shield generator for the Death Star which was to be built on the forest moon of Endor.

It was the Death Star’s first line of defence and Darth Vader’s responsibility to make sure that it would do the job.

Knowing the reader

When the news got out about the shield generator trade federations all over the galaxy were excited. The talk went something like this-

Alien #1(manager) – A lot of Imperial credits are riding on this project. Can we bag the contract, team?
Alien #2 (engineering head)- Yes. We have the technology to build this generator and we can whip up the prototype in no time. We are the perfect vendor.
Alien #3 (salesman)- Then get me in touch with the Sith Lord’s office. I am bagging this one. I need to buy that artificial asteroid for my wife.
Alien #1- Brilliant. Prepare a holographic presentation and list out the specs. I will send it to Coruscant.

Are Asian marketers mastering digital?

By Bhaskar Sarma Leave a Comment

This is one of the more interesting titbits contained in Econsultancy’s report titled State of Digital Marketing in Asia

And the answer is- yes and no. There is a mismatch between digital skills and business knowledge. Senior management is not as enthusiastic about digital while most are overwhelmed by the fast pace of changes and can’t keep up.

In other words, much like Asia, the answer is complicated and has several facets.

Marketing has changed in Asia Pacific

The Asia Pacific region is in the middle of an economic churn. Led by China and India, populations the size of mid sized European countries every month are bridging the digital divide.

And because of this, digital marketing is no longer getting the leftover treatment.

Budgets are actually being allocated to digital instead of it having to do with whatever scraps fall off the table. Companies outsource social media campaigns and hire SEO experts to get to the top of the search results.

And I am bombarded by spam SMSes that promise to teach me English, book a cheap flight or find me a girlfriend if I reply back with a code. *bangs head on desk*

Have a look at these stats from the report

Are your B2B videos unwatched? Maybe these tips from YouTube will help

By Bhaskar Sarma 3 Comments

Video is the new bright, shiny thing in B2B marketing.

Do a Google search and you will be hit with reports, blog posts and articles about the ubiquity of videos and its impact as a marketing medium.

But when you roll up your sleeves and start getting your hands dirty, you face questions that have no ready answers.

What metrics should you focus on while reviewing analytics?

Should you avoid flashy effects, or can they work sometimes?

What’s the best way to optimize the video for SEO?

B2B marketers,want blockbuster sales? Just don’t push a Bismarck

By Bhaskar Sarma Leave a Comment

If you are making a business decision to invest a boatload of time and money into a product or a service that is feature rich, stop. You might end up looking like the Kriegsmarine after the Bismarck disaster.

In the WW2 Nazi Germany deployed a fearsome naval ship- the battleship Bismarck. This 52,000 ton floating armoured behemoth was the biggest, baddest and meanest ship of its time.

It was the Death Star of the seas.

It was designed to destroy Allied commercial shipping in the Atlantic Ocean and tip the balance of the war in favour of the Axis powers.

Instead Bismarck sank during its very first naval mission in 1941. [Read more…] about B2B marketers,want blockbuster sales? Just don’t push a Bismarck

How to Fukushima proof your business

By Bhaskar Sarma 1 Comment

If you have been following the news you would know that Japan has been slammed by a triple whammy of mega disasters- it’s strongest ever earthquake, a fearsome tsunami and an industrial accident at the No. 1 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that exceeds the Three Mile Island disaster in it’s severity.

But all disasters have a silver lining in that they have the potential to impart life changing lessons.

The catastrophe at Fukushima won’t be instructive only for architects, disaster management experts and nuclear engineers. As business owners or entrepreneurs if we look deep enough we can also take away important lessons from this tragedy. [Read more…] about How to Fukushima proof your business

5 things Mubarak and Egypt can teach marketers

By Bhaskar Sarma 3 Comments

We are living in historic times. People power has overthrown a 30 year old repressive government in the Arab world’s most populous country.The events that unfolded in Tahrir Square in Cairo over 18 days, starting Jan 25, could be this decade’s equivalent of the fall of Berlin Wall.

As Egypt settles down and starts to limp back to normalcy there is going to be plenty of analysis and reporting in the media. However unless you have some kind of personal or professional stake in the situation in Egypt all these pixels and newspaper columns are probably going to be of little interest.

But why pass up the chance to learn something useful from an important event in history?After all, an ancient Chinese treatise on war is recommended reading for many execs and there is no reason a pizzeria or an ad agency can't find anything useful out of Tahrir.

Presenting below, in no particular order, five lessons businesses and entrepreneurs better take to heart if they don’t want to end up like Mubarak(figuratively). [Read more…] about 5 things Mubarak and Egypt can teach marketers