How do I use B2B content marketing to get 100 appointments with enterprise-level marketing directors, VPs or CMOs?

Pop-ups are generally pretty obtrusive to the user experience and may actually have a negative impact on your conversion rates. I'd recommend refining and testing your calls-to-action (including offer, copy, image, & placement) to make sure those are as optimized as possible. I'd also recommend setting up your calls-to-action as "smart content" -- in other words, show different CTAs to your subscribers, leads, and customers so you're asking each visitor to take the next step that's most appropriate for them. Happy to discuss leveraging smart content in more detail if you're interested -- it's helped us tremendously in increasing our blog conversion rates.

I've been working with funded startups for a couple years as a content marketing consultant and my business has grown significantly year over year. Relationships are the king of generating new business in this space. It's important to become a key part of the startup community in your area and attend events whenever possible. Meet people, grab coffees, provide value through follow up emails and speak on the value of content creation as often as conference managers and planners will allow. The second approach that truly has helped me grow my business is the creation of content that helps startups do these things on their own. For example, I've written a Content Marketing Guide for Entrepreneurs (Standoutguide.com) along with a series of blog posts & Slideshows highlighting how content marketing works for startups. Last year, I wrote a blog post specifically about B2B Startups and how content marketing can help them and then emailed it to a handful of marketing executives at a couple startups. I ended up getting meetings with each of them and working with 4/5 of them. Finally, you need to develop a trustworthy brand. I couldn't count on my fingers how many times I've heard of marketers lose opportunities because they didn't manage their own accounts appropriately. Whether it's the language they use on their website or the way they carry themselves on social media - It's the little details that differentiate the best from the rest. If you have any other questions - Feel free to give me a ring! Always happy to help fellow entrepreneurs achieve success.

I've worked with several companies marketing products ranging from $10 ebooks to $1,000+ products, and they've all had success using a relatively simple formula: 1. MAKE PEOPLE'S LIVES BETTER. Everyone gets too much email, so if you're going to put another message in someone's inbox, it had better be for a good reason. Create content that will improve their current existence. What kind of person will buy your product? What challenges are they facing that your product will solve? Can you give them starter steps right now that will get them on the path to improving their lives? Do that. 2. GIVE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT People who engage with your emails should receive follow-ups relevant to their interests. Did they open your emails about Subject A, but ignore the emails about Subjects B and C? Then only send them Subject A emails — that will give them the (totally true) impression that you're tailoring the emails to their interests. (This can be automated. It's not as complex as it might sound.) 3. DON'T PESTER If someone doesn't open your first email, send a follow-up. If they don't open the follow-up, you can try a reactivation campaign. If they still don't open anything, stop worrying about them. You can send the product announcement (it never hurts to try), but if they're ignoring your marketing emails, sending more will just piss them off and contribute to a lower open/clickthrough rate. Focus on the customers who want to be engaged; don't let those who aren't interested distract you. 4. TREAT EVERYONE'S INBOX LIKE YOUR OWN Before you send an email, think about whether you'd send it to people in your contact list that know you personally. Is it genuinely helpful and useful? --- Using this strategy, we were able to create high engagement that carried through into the product launches. We were able to sell out on the biggest launch (a list of over 500k) and put up pretty respectable numbers for clients with smaller lists. If you'd like to discuss the finer points of an email strategy like the ones I've helped put together, or if you'd like to discuss the specifics of a strategy for your specific product, I'm happy to help out on a quick call. Just let me know. Good luck!

Having a smart call to action at the end of each blog post is generally a good practice. Make it stand out, and make sure to add value to the visitor by signing up. I strongly recommend A/B testing (also called split-testing) your sign up call to action. That's the only way for you to improve the results of the signup rate. In regards to the conversion rate it's extremely difficult to predict. Depends on your value proposition, quality of content, your industry and so much more. Best advice is just to get started and be smart about the a/b testing. If you are running Wordpress I can strongly recommend OptinMonster to manage your call to actions. Unlike other solutions you won't have to pay a fortune, and it's very good. I'd also like to throw some flame to the fire on the ever ongoing discussions about popups. They receive a lot of flak, but are extremely effective. You can expect up to 200% more signups by using exit intent popups. Again - make sure to offer value to the visitor.

If there are any general similarities or common ground between the two target markets you can accomplish this goal with a single blog using target market-specific keywords and category names. I have a client who is in the home improvement industry, installing replacement roofs, siding, windows, doors, etc. People who need a new roof for example, more often search with keywords and phrases focused on their specific need rather than something general like home improvement contractor. We use recently completed projects as the fodder for content-based marketing. Blog posts include the town and/or neighborhood, county and state where the work was performed for geo-targeted keywords. We then include a generous sprinkling of "roof," "new roof," etc. along with product-specific words like the type and brand of shingles installed. We also include a description of the initial problem the homeowner was experiencing that caused them to contact us initially, such as "leaking" or "leaky roof." We do the same thing with all of his other product areas and get a great deal of traffic. One last trick is to use many of these same keywords as blog categories. I have seen great success with this tactic. If what I've described makes sense to you and you'd like to learn more, please click "Call Frank" below so we can discuss further. To your success, Frank