• Social Inbox is a tool for everyone in your company who uses social media.
• Social Inbox enables marketers to get highly segmented views of the social media activity of their leads, customers, influencers and interested parties.
• Social Inbox uses the intelligence you gather over time and surfaces it across the entire company and the customer lifecycle.

For example, Twitter is often a baffling social media tool for users. Thanks to Social Inbox you now no longer have to rely on luck to find out who’s tweeting about you.

Brian Halligan, CEO at Hubspot, has published a great blog for CEOs on ‘listening’ to Twitter. This blog has great insight for anyone in your company using social media, not just CEOs.

Can I Measure Social Media ROI?

Social Inbox will let you know if there are key words or phrases relevant to you and your business, and, by tracking, monitoring and analysing these, you can personalise your interactions with leads and customers and communicate in an efficient and timely way. It means you can track social media postings and enter in to conversations with background and context rather than starting from scratch. So, yes, you can measure your social media ROI.

It’s great to know we don’t have to trawl social media channels and dig for relevant, contextual postings. Social Inbox makes it easy to see who is a contact, who is a lead and who isn’t even in your database, but should definitely be there.

Social Inbox is a brand new Hubspot tool available from June. If you want to trial Social Inbox click this link to send us your details and, as Hubspot’s first UK partner, we will set up your free Hubspot trial so you can try out all the great features for yourself.

If you’d like to read Brian Halligan’s blog post you can do so here.

Click Here for Your Hubspot Free Trial

The post What Is Social Inbox and Can I Measure Social Media ROI? appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

There are a few four letter words we could use to express the pressure this can sometimes put on us as individuals, but I think “phew!” will simply do it here (you may come up with others, but think twice before posting them in the comments section below).

Inbound marketing is genuinely great for sales people – seriously, it is. Imagine taking some time to think about who your buyer really is and what it is they really need and how your hardware or software can really make a difference to their business. If it can’t, then that’s a different issue, but if it truly can assist your buyer in their process to achieve their own business goals, then you really do have something of value.

“The other sales person may also have something of equal value,” I can hear you say “so what makes the buyer choose me? “

Good question. I’m glad you asked. First I have some questions for you:

Does the buyer choose you because you get them to close the deal as quickly as possible before they’ve actually had time to think about it? Does your buyer choose you because of your banter, charm and great wit? Is it because you give them free coffee, or shock them by adding a swear word at the end of your sentences (apparently this works for some people), or is it because you’re a great ‘people reader’ and you can get them eating out of your hand no problem?

Maybe not all the best things to be remembered for, and certainly not always reliable! But, hey, maybe you don’t care too much about that, anyway. Maybe you just want to sell stuff, hit your target and get a great bonus. Your choice, but it could be good to think about who you like to buy from when you need a product or service to help you achieve your goals.

For those of you who care about your buyer’s business goals, you should know that by writing blogs on subjects your buyer cares about, getting involved in social media, joining LinkedIN groups where you can interact with buyers and find out about their business challenges and share information with them on subjects and solutions that move them closer to achieving their business goals, this will go a long way to putting you in first position when it comes to questioning who has the authority to recommend products and services for your buyer’s company.

This is called online lead generation and is a little taste of how inbound marketing works for sales people.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to make inbound marketing work for you, then we’d like to share this e-book on online lead generation with you.

You can download it here:

The post How Inbound Marketing Works for IT Services and Software Sales People appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

Developing a group of people online who are interested in you, your company and what you have to say is inbound marketing’s most fundamental ingredient.

Here are 7 things you can do today to kick start your online audience and build your content community:

1. LinkedIn Groups – participate in relevant groups. Ask questions. Share good stuff. 
2. LinkedIn connections and follows – set a goal to get to 500+ connections but make sure you focus on your market and not just anyone.  Follow your competitors, your partners, your customers and your influencers.
3. LinkedIn Ads – you can be extremely focused on target companies, geographies and roles with LinkedIn Ads.  Just make sure that you are offering something your audience really want and also make sure you point the Ad to a landing page so that you can ask the visitor to join your community
4. Twitter influencers – identify the people who are influential in your market and follow and share their stuff
5. Blogs – even if it is just pulling together a digest of what you are reading online, blog at least once a week and then share that blog with your LinkedIn and Twitter followers.
6. SEO – do some research and find out what your target audience is looking for and then make sure that your blogs and website content is optimized for it
7. Google Ads – less focused than LinkedIn but still worth doing if you can find an offer that is cost-effective

Don’ts: Don’t be self-centred and promotional – no one is interested in that.

Do’s: Be generous and sharing.  Follow, like and share others’ content and they will do the same back.

When you take these 7 steps you will start to build an audience online.  When you convince everyone in your company to do the same you will build a valuable content community that will become a vital source of leads and sales.

Download this e-guide on how to build an online audience and generate more leads online:

The post 7 Things Technology Companies Can Do Today to Build an Online Audience appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

The post The Secret to the Inbound Website appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

The post Why You Should Blog and Tips on KICKASS Blogging appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

If you want to be the ‘go to’ blog in your target market, then first you must speak to your customers’ and prospects’ issues. You do this by identifying the issues correctly and pointing your reader to other resources that they will find helpful.

A well-structured blog is also important for you in terms of generating inbound links and converting your reads to leads.

The content within your blog does not always need to be  striking, but it should be useful and should speak in language that helps the reader want to read beyond the blog.

Consider painting a picture, telling a story. Think about speaking to a particular customer directly. We need  not all be a master of metaphor, but take some time to consider how you can work some narrative style in to your blogging, then you may find you tell a good story that engages your readers.

‘If a picture is worth a thousand words, a metaphor is worth a thousand pictures’ Dan Pink

If you think about people you meet, business meetings you have, you may remember more clearly the ones where the person told a good story. You can share this through blogging.

Metaphor is one of our most powerful communication tools. It can open doors to other realms through simple stories. It excites and engages us at a level which can harnesses our energy, beliefs and commitment. It holds the attentions of vast numbers of people across the world that affiliate to many different and varied lifestyles. It’s actually under investigation by the US Intelligence Agency to determine underlying beliefs and worldviews. Metaphor can induce revelations through every day innocent encounters, through the arts and religion, to the often murkier waters of power, politics, and business.

If you want to learn more about generating online leads you can pick up a free copy of our guide to online lead generation.

Happy blogging!

Click here to download this guide to online lead generation

The post How to Create Your Own Blogging Style appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

Traditionally, software company websites are product-focused, but, with numerous other companies now selling similar products, how does your software company stand out?

Picture this scene:

You are a potential customer with a serious business issue that software could solve. You and your decision-making team gather a list of all the software companies that offer this particular software. You begin to compare all twenty four companies and find out what’s on offer is reasonably similar. How do you choose the best solution? 

You are concerned, and under immense pressure. There is a danger you could make the wrong decision and this will have a major impact on your business, and your reputation.

You decide to go online to search the internet to find out how other companies like you have solved this particular issue. During your research you Google your issue and come across a software company that talks about your exact issue on its website. You are surprised! This company actually knows what you’re dealing with. This company is also on your list. Which company do you choose?

If you become more customer-focused on your website and show customers you are a company that listens to them and can help them solve their particular issues, then you will stand out from the crowd, as a software company that understands your customer’s issues rather than a software company that simply wants to offload more product and sell more licenses.

If you’re considering refreshing an existing website, then you may want to consider solution-focused as an effective way of attracting  customers and an alternative to focusing on product features. Here’s is a useful and free guide on this:

attract customers to your website

The post Software Companies Worst at Focusing on Customer Issues appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

Your sales people have committed years to honing their sharp striker skills that have enabled them to go out, push forward, and close business, and a significant proportion of their leads have traditionally come from outbound methods using cold-calling via telemarketing or face-to-face meetings.

Have you noticed recently that it’s getting harder to hit the same targets even though you are furnishing your sales people with inbound leads?

Here are 3 Reasons Not to Give Inbound Leads to a Software Sales Person:

1. Your software sales person may operate on the assumptive and try to close the sale immediately. This will result in your lead withdrawing immediately and being  more cautious in the future when dealing with you, if, indeed, they choose to engage with you online, at all. The trust your lead had in your company’s ability to help them has quickly diminished.
2. Your software sales person may try to push the lead in to a meeting when the lead is only at a marketing qualified stage. At this stage the lead needs to be assessed for what will benefit them and they should be nurtured until they become a sales lead. Again, belief in your company’s ability to deliver what they need will be greatly diminished.
3. Your software sales person may pitch your inbound lead straight away. Your lead may not want to be pitched to. They do want you to help them and have already established this fact by engaging with you at the beginning. It’s good to remember: an inbound lead came to you first. If you pitch your inbound lead straight away and do not focus on what your lead is actually in need of, then, once again, your lead will assess your software sales person, and your company, as simply being interested in offloading stock or selling as many licenses as possible. That may be your goal, but your inbound lead has their own goal and it’s not helping you sell more licenses.

There is no point in giving your best striker an inbound lead until you are sure your sales person understands how to nurture this inbound lead. In some cases, it could be good to have a two-tiered approach with your sales team and have your relationship-builders liaise directly with inbound leads until these leads are 100% sales ready leads and ready for a more traditional software sales striker approach.

It’s unfair to blame only sales people for missing the target. The reality is, the way businesses buy is changing. Buying begins online. Help your sales person hit their target, so they can turn their people skills and business acumen to the benefit of your leads and your business.

Feel free to share this free and highly informative guide with your sales department. It has tips on online lead generation, lead grading, nurturing and actually converting your inbound leads to sales:

Click here to download this guide to online lead generation

The post 3 Reasons Not to Give Inbound Leads to a Software Sales Person appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

You already have the group in common. If you both share interest in each other’s posts, then it’s likely there is value in you both engaging on a more regular basis. Certain LinkedIn members will stand out from the crowd and, if they look like they could be a good contact or a lead, then you should consider linking-in with each other to keep up-to-date with each other’s posts, both on an individual and company basis.

If you find you already have connections in common, then ask for an introduction from your existing connections to your new contact – it is possible you may feel slightly self-conscious about doing this, particularly if your existing contact is only a very distant connection in terms of the number of times you interact, but don’t let this deter you from expanding your network.

If your existing contact doesn’t introduce you, what have you lost? It’s highly likely, that your existing contact also wants to extend their network within a relevant sphere and they will understand the value in introducing you (if they don’t get it, then you’ve got to wonder why they are on a business social networking site in the first place).

Finally, if you’re looking for others to be interested in you, then get interested in them. Go ahead and find and share a relevant industry blog with them and like and share content they have posted. By doing this you are helping to extend their reach and network and this will be appreciated and is more likely to lead to new connections. If you haven’t read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, then maybe you should have a quick read of that. It’s a well known classic for those who are interested in making and keeping good business contacts. You are simply transferring these networking skills to a LinkedIn group rather than a face-to-face group. You can always set up a group that meets face-to-face, once you establish you all have enough in common and are valuable contacts for each other.

Try posting something five days a week for a month and have a look at the impact it has on your LinkedIn reach.

We’d love to hear about your LinkedIn experiences. Feel free to post your outcomes here.

If you’d like to investigate further generating contacts and leads online you can download this free guide to online lead generation here:

Click here to download this guide to online lead generation

The post How to Make New Connections in LinkedIn Groups appeared first on Brightfire Blog.

If you’re on a growth track, within a few years, you will reach a point where the challenge in churn management becomes the growing loss of revenue, as both your churn and revenue start to increase. For example, a churn of 1% of £45K turnover looks and feels a lot different from a 5% of £63K. Your revenue may have increased by 40% but your loss via churn has rocketed from £450 to £3150 and growing. A 600% increase in lost revenue is a major concern.

If churn management is a concern, then this is one area where marketing automation can provide value, as it allows you to track and analyse how your customers engage with your services. This insight in to your customer user behavior, needs and requirements will allow you to keep on track of who is at risk of churning. This gives you the opportunity to engage with your customers directly, fully informed as to what their pain points may be and with a clear understanding as to how you can provide the solution based on transparent metrics and an understanding of patterns of activity. This allows you to increase customer satisfaction and manage your churn rate.

If you’d like to look further in to marketing automation you can get a free copy of the B2B Guide to marketing Automation here:

Free Guide to B2B Marketing Automation

The post Concerned About Churn Management in Cloud Services Startup? appeared first on Brightfire Blog.