May 14, 2017

In the world of B2B, inbound marketing is often thought of as completely separate from your offline marketing. This type of thinking, however, misses opportunities for effective lead generation, especially when it comes to B2B conferences.

This post will explain how to effectively integrate the two to achieve your company’s greater marketing goals when it comes to marketing a conference in your industry.

1. The More Targeted the Event, the Better

At an industry conference, you want your booth and company to really stand out among the others. The larger the conference and broader the topic, the more challenging it will be for your product to grab the attention of potential customers.

One of our customers, Elcam Medical, for instance, started to see fantastic results after attending more targeted events. After undergoing a branding process which sought to position the company as experts in ensuring safety in the hospital environment, they understood that they were marketing not only to their supplier, but also to their end user — ICU nurses.

You can read more about Elcam’s success in integrating online and offline marketing strategies here>>

As a result, instead of attending the usual larger medical conferences and trade shows, they began to attend more targeted professional conferences of nurses, albeit with a smaller booth. Since the subject was so targeted, Elcam Medical was often able to generate awareness of their product by speaking on the lecture panel at the conference.

2. Be Really Clear About Your Inbound Goals

Make sure everyone in your marketing department is working together towards the same goals.
Your inbound marketing activity before, during, and after events can support your greater marketing strategy of lead generation by:

  • Increasing both direct and indirect traffic to your company website
  • Increasing the number of email or blog subscribers
  • Educating potential customers about your specific product or service
  • Increase the number of requests for a product demo

Once you’ve clarified your goals, make sure you have a way to measure them.

3. Identify your Call-to-Action (CTA)

A call-to-action, or CTA, is an action which you want potential customers to take. This is the method by which you achieve your goal, which you’ve properly defined in #2.

Your CTA could be to convince potential customers to register for the event, download your ebook or white paper, sign up for your webinar, take a survey, or just visit your latest product or service page. By convincing potential customers to take this action, you are driving them further along the sales cycle.

Other parts of your company can benefit from trade shows as well, so it is important to sit down and brainstorm with management in different departments to get their input.

One of our clients, Afimilk, decided that in order to promote their new product, the AfiAct II at the World Dairy Expo, they would run a lottery during the event to give away the product to one lucky registrant for free. We integrated a CTA into all of their marketing materials for this event, adding it to the Afimilk website homepage,  and creating landing page dedicated to registrations specifically for the event.

 

afiimilk_afiact_2_campign

4. Create a Dedicated Landing Page to Promote your Event

The best landing pages promote events before and after the event. How? Before the event, they help to schedule appointments with your sales and marketing team, explain exactly what your company will be doing at the event, and promote a particular product or service. After the event, they publish reactions and insights from the event as well as the speaker’s presentations on the landing page.

Another purpose of your dedicated landing page before the event can be to get specific info from potential customers in order for your sales team to qualify them. But in an environment where you are competing with many other companies for the attention of the same people, you’ll need to stand out from the crowd. Why would they want to give you information about themselves? You’ll have to offer them something in return. Think really hard about what your potential customer’s pain point is and how you can help them – for free, in exchange for their contact information.

Here’s an example from one of our customers, Plastopil, where we inspired customers to register to an event by offering them a free iPad mini:

 

Plastopil_landing_page

5. Promote Your Event via Email Marketing

Invite your contacts to the event with an email beforehand, sending them to your dedicated landing page in order to register for the event or schedule appointments, educating them about your services and products, or offering them a free ebook or white paper to show them you understand (and have a solution to) their main pain point.

You may want to send an email promoting the event several times beforehand – perhaps a month, two weeks, and then the week of the event.

 

amiad watec invitaion

Follow up afterwards with either a thank you or a newsletter that recalls the event. If you blogged about the event, include those posts in the newsletter as well.

6. Combining Online and Offline for Maximum Results

A major goal in B2B conferences is to build new business relationships and strengthen old ones, both of which are key in lead generation. This offline approach should not be underestimated. However, you can use inbound marketing to gain the attention of new potential business partners, educate them about your products and services, and have that first meeting be as effective as possible.

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OZ_Blog_Hubspot - content new tools

Is HubSpot’s Content Hub the MVP of Your Content Marketing Team?

By 
Mayrav Galor
, 05/05/2024

Constantly creating high-value content is a neverending story — there’s always a new chapter to write. Having created a piece of content, it needs to be repurposed into different media for different marketing channels

min read

A content marketer’s job is never done

Constantly creating high-value content is a neverending story — there’s always a new chapter to write. Having created a piece of content, it needs to be repurposed into different media for different marketing channels. It also needs to be managed – the performance of every piece of content needs to be tracked, to see how it’s performing, draw informed conclusions, and new content created that delivers even better results.

The quest for great content

The new hero in the marketer’s quest to create and manage memorable content is Content Hub. It’s the all-in-one AI-powered content marketing software in HubSpot that will help you devise and deliver content to fuel the entire customer journey. As a content specialist, you may already be cringing. Are you about to be made obsolete? Absolutely not! While Content Hub is an exceptionally powerful platform, it’s there to empower you. It requires savvy marketers to make it work to its full capabilities – which ultimately will make your life a lot simpler and help you focus on being creative. Before you roll your eyes, we highly recommend you give it a test run. Trust us, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

What can Content Hub do for you?

In a nutshell, it can help you gear up your marketing strategy and put it into action. You can run and monitor every aspect of your marketing campaigns — creating everything from blog posts, emails, social posts, and more. Let’s dive in and take a look at the key feat
  • AI blog post generator-  based on your description of what your blog is about and keywords, it creates a list of editable titles, together with monthly search volume (MSV), difficulty to rank, and keyword intents. Once you’ve selected the title you want, it provides a blog post outline. You have complete flexibility to add paragraph headings, remove those you don’t want, and add talking points. From there, it generates an entire blog ready for you to edit. Here’s when you put your mark on the copy, ensuring it’s on message and speaks your brand’s language. HubSpot is way ahead of you, providing a tool that allows you to define your brand voice using past writing samples. Once you’ve edited the blog to your satisfaction, you can preview it before publishing it. But wait, you need an image!
  • AI image generator- simply describe the image you want (e.g. a steaming cup of hot coffee sitting on an office desk with a pair of spectacles beside it), decide on a style, and hit generate. Now, you can crop and edit your royalty-free image in the correct ratio for your blog posts, landing pages, marketing emails, and social posts.
  • Blog post narration- with this handy feature, you can easily create audio from your blog content, customizing the tone and human voice before adding it to your blog or using it for different channels.
  • AI language translation- translate your blog into multiple languages with a click. Voilà! Votre traduction est prête.

Drum roll, please! Killer feature coming up

Probably the most exciting tool in the Content Hub toolbox is Content Remix, which allows you to repurpose your content for multiple channels and formats in just a few clicks. Blink and it’s done. Here too, your sharp eye, copywriting chops, and editing muscles will come into play as you tweak the content until it’s just right.

But that’s not all…

Much like the shopping channel, there really is more! You can also create podcasts, smart content, landing pages and forms, CTAs, chatbots, and live chat. With HubSpot’s App Marketplace, you can create video content, engaging web experiences, and compelling design assets.

What happens the day after you unleash your content to the world?

You can easily track the performance of every piece of content you create, so you can leverage what’s working and drop what’s not.

MVP or VIP?

That brings us back to our original question: Is HubSpot's Content Hub the most valuable player of your content marketing team? Our experience shows that it can be a very important player greasing your content wheels —with you in the driver’s seat to define the strategy and goals, refine the messaging, customize it to your brand, and add those crucial finishing touches. It’s a valuable addition to the HubSpot platform that can simplify and streamline both the creation and management of your company’s content. Ready to give it a try? Ask our HubSpot expert for a demo.
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OZ Blog Unlock SEO Automated Success Blogimages 2024 v1

Unlock SEO Automated Success: Top 7 SEO Strategies You Can Automate with Make (Integromat)

By 
Orly Gilad
, 07/03/2024

Are you overwhelmed by the relentless pace of digital marketing and the constant need for SEO optimization? Imagine if you could put some of those tasks on autopilot. That's where Make (formerly Integromat) comes into play, offering a way to supercharge your SEO strategies with automation. Let's delve into seven automation strategies that can not only save you precious time but also improve your website's standing in search engine results.

min read
Are you overwhelmed by the relentless pace of digital marketing and the constant need for SEO optimization? Imagine if you could put some of those tasks on autopilot. That's where Make (formerly Integromat) comes into play, offering a way to supercharge your SEO strategies with automation. Let's delve into seven automation strategies that can not only save you precious time but also improve your website's standing in search engine results.

1. Competitor Analysis Automation

Imagine having a secret window into your competitors' strategies, giving you the upper hand. By automating the tracking of their blog updates, keyword usage, and SEO maneuvers, you're essentially doing just that. It's like playing a strategic game where you're always one move ahead, nimbly navigating through the ever-changing landscape of digital competition. For Example: Automatically tracking a competitor’s blog updates and keyword changes.

How-to:

  1. Set Up Triggers: Use RSS feeds or webhooks to monitor competitor blogs or websites.
  2. Extract Key Data: Use Make scenarios to automatically extract new content details such as titles, keywords, and descriptions.
  3. Analyze Changes: Use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to analyze any new keywords or strategies they're employing.
  4. Send Reports: Configure Make to send periodic reports with this data to your email or Slack.

Streamlined Local SEO Management

2. Streamlined Local SEO Management

Streamlining your local SEO tasks, like keeping Google My Business listings up to date and monitoring reviews, can make a big difference in how you rank locally. Automation takes the heavy lifting out of the equation, making sure your local presence is both accurate and compelling without constant manual oversight. For Example: Updating and monitoring Google My Business listings for multiple locations.

How-to:

  1. Connect to Local SEO Tools: Integrate with tools like Moz Local or Yext.
  2. Automate Updates: Set up processes to automatically update listings with new hours, photos, or responses to reviews.
  3. Monitor Reviews: Get alerts for new reviews to respond quickly.
  4. Reporting: Generate regular reports on listing performance and local search rankings.

Image Optimization on Auto-Pilot

3. Image Optimization on Auto-Pilot

Automating the optimization of images on your website can significantly boost page performance. Faster loading times not only enhance the user experience—a key SEO factor—but also free up your time to focus on other aspects of your website. For example: Automatically optimizing images uploaded to your CMS. What can I do?
  1. Monitor New Uploads: Set up a trigger for when new images are uploaded to your CMS.
  2. Connect to an Image Optimization Tool: Use services like TinyPNG or Kraken.io within Make.
  3. Optimize and Replace: Automatically optimize the images and replace the originals with the optimized versions on your site.

Efficient Content Research

4. Efficient Content Research - Capitalize on Trending Topics

Automating your content research can keep you ahead of the curve. By pulling in trending topics from social media and news outlets, you can craft content that truly speaks to your audience and attracts more visitors, all while saving time on manual research. For Example: Gathering trending topics from social media and news feeds. What can I do?
  1. Set Up Social Media Triggers: Monitor keywords and hashtags on platforms like Twitter or Reddit.
  2. Integrate with News Aggregators: Use tools like Feedly to pull in trending topics.
  3. Collect and Analyze Data: Aggregate this data for analysis to identify popular subjects.
  4. Generate Content Ideas: Use this data to inform your content creation strategy.

5. Automated SERP Analysis - Monitor Your Keyword Success

Automated SERP analysis allows you to monitor your keyword rankings effortlessly. This ongoing oversight offers crucial insights, enabling you to tweak and enhance your SEO strategies for better results, without the need for constant manual checks. For Example - Monitoring search engine result pages for selected keywords.

What can I do?

  1. Use SEO Tools: Integrate with tools like Moz or Ahrefs.
  2. Set Keyword Triggers: Monitor specific keywords and get updates on their SERP rankings.
  3. Analyze Data: Collect data on rankings, featured snippets, and other SERP features.
  4. Adjust Your Strategy: Use these insights to refine your SEO strategy.

Proactive Broken Link Management - Maintain a Healthy Website

6. Proactive Broken Link Management - Maintain a Healthy Website

By automatically detecting and fixing broken links, you're ensuring your website remains navigable and SEO-friendly. This kind of proactive management keeps your site in top shape, enhancing both the user experience, and your SEO profile with minimal effort on your part. For Example: Regularly scanning your website for broken links.

What can I do?

  1. Schedule Regular Scans: Use tools like Screaming Frog or Broken Link Checker.
  2. Integrate with Your Website: Connect these tools to your CMS.
  3. Automate Notifications: Set up alerts for when broken links are found.
  4. Quick Repair: Use these alerts to promptly fix or replace broken links.

7. Social Media Engagement Tracking - Understand Your Audience Better

Automatically tracking your social media engagement gives you a clearer picture of what resonates with your audience. This insight allows you to adjust your content and SEO strategies to better align with audience preferences, streamlining your efforts for more effective engagement. Example: Analyzing engagement on your social media posts.

How-to:

  1. Connect to Social Platforms: Integrate with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
  2. Gather Engagement Data: Collect likes, shares, comments, and other engagement metrics.
  3. Analyze Trends: Use this data to understand what content resonates with your audience.
  4. Report and Refine: Generate reports for your team to review and refine your social media strategy.
--- Incorporating these automation techniques with Make (Integromat) while combining them with other platforms as shown above can significantly elevate your SEO and digital marketing game. Not only do they save time, but they also offer strategic insights, helping you stay ahead in the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing. Start automating today and witness the transformative impact on your SEO efforts.  
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AI & Designers

Will AI Replace Designers or Serve as Their Creative Allies?

By 
Yoav Sondak
, 21/02/2024

Will AI replace designers, or will it become their indispensable assistant? Can anyone become a designer with AI's help? Discover Yoav's insights after extensive experimentation with AI tools, and learn what AI itself has to say about the matter

min read
As designers, AI is having a significant impact on the way we work. Designers have been using AI tools available in widely used design software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for some time. In OZ’s design department, we’ve also experimented with a variety of dedicated AI image generators, such as Midjourney, DALL·E 2, and eluna.ai. New applications are popping up all the time, so it’s worth trying them out and comparing them, to see what works best. Since this article is about AI, let’s get some input from ChatGPT about the benefits of integrating AI capabilities into software design tools: “It’s not only enhanced the capabilities of designers but has also redefined the creative process, ushering in a new era of efficiency and innovation.” So far, so good. While there are lots of advantages to using AI in design work, here are some key features:
  • Automated image editing features — analyzes images to intelligently suggest enhancements and automatically makes adjustments such as color neutralizers and detail enhancers. This speeds up the editing process and is a valuable resource if you’re looking for inspiration or need to make quick refinements.
  • Content-aware fill and object removal tools — by understanding the content of the image, it enables you to easily remove unwanted objects or fill in gaps within a scene. This allows greater flexibility and streamlines the editing workflow.
  • Accelerates the ideation and iteration phases — lets you explore diverse concepts efficiently.
  • Intelligent recommendations — makes suggestions for shapes, layouts, and color schemes based on the context of their project. This makes the conceptualization phase faster and may even help you overcome a creative block.
  • Organization and management of design assets — automated tagging and content categorization make asset management easier and help you quickly navigate vast libraries of resources. It’s able to analyze vast datasets and identify patterns that we might miss.
  • Rapid prototyping — enables quick experimentation with lots of variations.

Traditional graphic tools have also made huge strides

In recent years, existing software and applications we’ve been using for years have incorporated a variety of tools that shorten processes and streamline design work. Because designers can give online feedback, the tools' capabilities keep getting better. During image processing, design tools can complete missing details, increase resolution, carry out color corrections, and produce more controlled and accurate results. There are also lots of options for image manipulations and variations. These advances have meant that the time between planning and the finished product is much shorter, and have saved me and many others from a tiring technical struggle with traditional design tools. However, AI has added new superpowers which can create impressive artwork at warp speed. If AI can do all that, why do we need humans?

If AI can do all that, why do we need humans?

While AI provides a broad range of design options and there is a wealth of tools to choose from, the act of selection and focus during the design process has become more challenging. The need to differentiate the customer’s brand, memorably present their messages, and tell their unique story means that every designer needs a clear understanding of what they want to create using the tools. Formulating the design prompt and selecting results, when every result seems to be ‘beautiful and impressive’, means that designers need to carefully examine what is ‘right and appropriate’ — and ask themselves what will yield the desired results. It’s the same question that we’ve been asking for years when approaching a design task, long before AI tools entered our lives.

The human touch

The human touch

“While AI excels at generating designs based on existing patterns, it lacks the intrinsic understanding of cultural nuances, emotional subtleties, and context that human designers bring to the table,” responds ChatGPT, adding that design is not only about aesthetics but also about storytelling, conveying emotions, and understanding the audience – elements that are deeply embedded in human experience. It goes on to point out that the human mind possesses the ability to empathize, interpret abstract concepts, and infuse designs with cultural relevance. Designers are adept at translating complex ideas into visual narratives that resonate with people on a profound level. “The intangible aspects of creativity, intuition, and emotional intelligence are quintessentially human and crucial to the design process,” it notes. Don’t fire your designers!

Don’t fire your designers!

Bearing these unique human attributes in mind, ChatGPT’s conclusion is almost inevitable: While AI image generators are valuable tools, amplifying designers’ creative capacities and streamlining workflows, they are best seen as collaborators rather than replacements. The future of design lies in a harmonious collaboration between human designers and AI, where each contributes its strengths. While AI enhances the design process by offering efficiency and inspiration, according to ChatGPT, “the unique qualities of human creativity, ingenuity, and understanding will continue to be an indispensable force in the world of design.” As with any AI application, there are ethical considerations. Designers must “be mindful of potential biases in AI algorithms and exercise discretion in their application. Striking a balance between automation and human intuition remains crucial to preserving the authenticity and creative vision of the designer.” ChatGPT predicts that “As technology continues to advance, the symbiotic relationship between AI and design is poised to reshape the industry, unlocking new realms of creative possibilities.” On a personal level, I use AI design tools daily to carry out various tasks and to fuel my creative process. I also find that ChatGPT is useful in helping to formulate prompts and finding the right wording for the industry or application. The more accurate the prompt, the better the results. However, personal experience has shown AI can’t replace the invaluable interactions between our design team and our clients. We’re able to dig deep into their story and translate that into unique and powerful visuals that communicate their brand promise. It’s the ‘secret sauce’ that makes the difference. In short, AI will become our creative allies, but they’re not going to replace us any time soon.  
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